Díaz-Canel evokes Cuba's great friend Nelson Mandela

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 18 (ACN) On the occasion of Nelson Mandela International Day, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel evoked today the South African anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist fighter and highlighted his great bond of friendship with Fidel Castro, to whom he was grateful for Cuba’s support to put an end to apartheid.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (July 18, 1918 - December 5, 2013), the first president of South Africa (from 1994 to 1999) elected in a fully democratic election, played a key role in the struggle against the policy of racial segregation (apartheid) in his country, which earned him 27 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the government.

Released in 1990, he was the main voice in the negotiations to establish democracy in South Africa, a process successfully accomplished in 1994.

In four decades he received more than 250 international awards and recognitions, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

After a long struggle with a lung infection that he caught in prison, Mandela passed away in 2013, at the age of 95.

In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly established his birth date, July 18, as Nelson Mandela International Day, in recognition of the former South African president's contribution to a culture of peace and freedom.