Order of the Quetzal

Kuo-cheng also warned that China could be able to invade Taiwan in 2025. Earlier, China sent a "record number" of fighter jets into Taiwanese airspace, for the fourth day in a row.

Ever since the United States became an empire after the Spanish-American War in 1898, US companies and US citizens have been acquiring property and interests in foreign countries, particularly in Central and South America. Nationalist and socialist governments gradually took power in these countries.

Tens of thousands of Cubans held up portraits of Fidel Castro and waved flags as they marched to the revolutionary leader's tomb on Dec. 4 to mark a year since his funeral.

Cuban President Raul Castro has pledged to uphold his brother Fidel's socialist revolution at a massive rally in honor of the communist icon before his burial.

Tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters recited the oath on Nov. 3 with Raul Castro at the Revolution Plaza of Santiago de Cuba, the cradle of Fidel's guerrilla struggle.

In the wake of my previous piece in this column, "Why the Turkish left hates Erdoğan but loves Castro," the Cuban Ambassador to Turkey, Mr. González Casals, wrote an open letter to me and various other journalists.  It was quite critical, I must say, if not even furious.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras did his bit in Havana. It is no small thing to speak at an event commemorating the life of a figure who is a symbol, albeit of an obsolete world, of an ideology that survives only in a handful of corners of the Earth (terrible for their populations), a utopia that was defeated by reality even inside Fidel Castro's Cuba.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Tuesday signed a book of condolences opened at the Cuban embassy in the wake of the passing of Fidel Castro.

"Great leaders, such as the leader of the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro, never die. His spirit will live forever in freedom-loving nations and countries across the planet," Vucic wrote.

A delegation from Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) will travel to Cuba to attend the funeral of Cuba's iconic late leader Fidel Castro on Dec. 4. 

The will be headed by CHP Deputy Chair Veli Ağbaba, Istanbul deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu and Kocaeli deputy Tahsin Tarhan, the party announced on Nov. 29. 

A nine-story portrait of a young Fidel Castro has joined the towering images of fallen guerrillas overlooking Havana's Plaza of the Revolution, the massive square where Cuba began Nov. 28 to bid farewell to the man who ruled the island for nearly half a century.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic signed at the Cuban embassy in Belgrade on Monday a book of condolences for Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban revolution.

"It is important that the ideas with which Castro liberated and led Cuba live on in the Cuban nation and leaders," Nikolic wrote in the message, according to Tanjug.