Panama City, Panama.- Commander Fidel (Castro), as one of these Latin American students who have had the opportunity to study in Cuba, infinitely thank you for the opportunity you gave us, the Nicaraguan engineer German Van de Velde wrote in an open letter.

‘We hold your ideas in our hearts, and thanks to our experiences and learning you made possible’, said the civil engineer who graduated from the Jose Antonio Echeverria Higher Polytechnic Institute in Havana.

With his letter, entitled Thanks Fidel for Giving Us the Opportunity to Study in Cuba, he honored the Cuban leader whom he familiarly calls by his name only, in the Cuban way, on the second anniversary of his death. Att the same time, he called his death a ‘step to immortality’ and considered that remembering his principles and values is the best tribute.

German, who currently works in Panama and is a solidarity activist with the causes of his nation, Venezuela and Cuba, among others, did justice when he recognized that despite the situation in Cuba, ‘solidarity as a revolutionary commitment is admirable.

Fidel has grown, fostered and developed these values among his people’ , he wrote, ‘which has been expressed at the highest levels of solidarity and genuine cooperation from the Cuban people to the world’.

He made an extensive report of the aid given by Cuba to natural disasters, health and education during the almost six decades of the Cuban Revolution, and highlighted the 9,898,587 people who were taught to write and read in some 30 nations under the Cuban method Yo si puedo (‘Yes, I Can’).

‘From my personal experience, I am among 3,310 top-level graduates. I remember that in 2002, my family and I were thinking about the possibility of going to Cuba to study a university degree’, recalled German, who succeeded in reaching a Cuban university through the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the regional students organization.

‘I feel lucky to have had this opportunity to study and I can’t find the words of appreciation to the Cuban people, the government and Commander Fidel for all the generosity they have towards the world beyond all expectations from humanity’, he said.

As a conclusion to the tribute letter to the Cuban leader, German noted, ‘As one of those Latin American students who have had the opportunity to study in Cuba, infinite thanks for the opportunity you gave us.