This is likely a response to the reporter claiming he was a dictator . . . .

"Let us suppose that the people might not agree with the revolution. Would there be hundreds of thousands, millions of people ready to carry out whatever internationalist mission, however difficult it may be, to go anywhere in the world? Would there be 100,000 teachers willing to go to Nicaragua? No, no. Facts are important, not words. How could we have resisted, how could we have millions of persons organized to defend out country, how could we have an armed people? Tell the South Africans, your South African friends, to give arms to the blacks in South Africa. Tell your friends Pinochet to give weapons to the people of Chile. Tell your friends in Paraguay or in Haiti to give weapons to the masses, to the people. Tell many of your friends to do this, you who speak of democracy. The first and most important form of democracy is for the citizen to feel he is part of the power and part of the state. How can we show this? We have an armed people, men and women, millions of persons. If they were not in agreement with the government, they could settle matters quickly. We would not last 24 minutes here in power. Do you want any more proof?" Interview with Fidel Castro by Robert MacNiel in 1985