KINGSTON, Jamaica — Former Prime Minister P J Patterson has urged the nations of the Global South to abandon “national separatism and division” and unite in defence of a fairer global order, in a message submitted to the First International Colloquium “Fidel: Legacy and Future”, convened in Havana to mark the centenary of the birth of Fidel Castro Ruz.

The Colloquium, organised by the Fidel Castro Ruz Centre together with Cuban academic and cultural institutions, opened at the Havana Convention Centre on Monday and concludes on Thursday, 13 August 2026 — one hundred years to the day since Castro’s birth. It has drawn more than 1,500 delegates from some 60 countries.

Patterson advised organisers that a convergence of circumstances had made it impossible for him to attend in person, expressing “considerable regret” at his absence. His disappointment, he noted, was the greater for his standing as “the sole surviving participant” in the historic summit held in Port of Spain in December 1972, at which the leaders of the four then-independent Caribbean states resolved to establish full diplomatic relations with Cuba and so end its isolation in this 80s hemisphere.