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Aristotle, like Plato, was opposed to granting citizenship to merchants. [17] It is therefore necessary to guard against exaggerating the importance of the industrial and commercial development of Greece. In fact, Greek expansion was primarily agricultural and military. It did, however, go hand in hand with an industrial and commercial development of considerable importance for its time. [18] The Greeks never became a commercial people like the Phoenicians and the Jews; but we do find a very important commercial and industrial development in the Greek colonies and later in the Hellenic kingdoms. And, of course, the Greek states, while not really mercantile, supported commerce and industry with all their might as financial sources of the utmost importance. It is not solely to the economic development of Greece and its colonies that we must attribute the decline of Phoenician commerce; there was still another important cause: the growing antagonism between Persia and Greece. Paralleling the extension of Hellenic civilization was the victorious march of the Persians across Asia. The Persian empire reached its apogee in the fifth century B.C. It extended over a part of Asia and over Egypt. The parallel development of Greek and Persian civilization necessarily dealt a mortal blow to Phoenician commerce. Trade between Asia and Europe was certainly rendered very difficult by the division of the Mediterranean world between two mutually hostile societies. The Persian and Greek worlds each created its own commercial trade. With the decline of Phoenicia and the development of Asiatic trade after the period of the Persian conquests, we can assume that Palestine, previously completely supplanted by Phoenicia again began to play an important commercial role. The passageway between Egypt and Babylonia recovered all its value. Whereas Phoenician trade lost more and more of its ancient importance up to the point where, in the time of Lucian, salted products were the main cargo, the Jews played a leading role in the Persian empire. [19] Certain historians attribute an important role to the Babylonian exile in the transformation of the Jews into a commercial people. In Babylonia, “the Jews became transformed into a commercial people, such as we know them in the economic history of the world. They found highly developed economic relations among the Babylonians. Recently uncovered cuneiform texts show that the exiled Jews participated actively in commercial life. They were involved in credit business, highly developed among the Babylonians; they were also big traders.” [20] But the dispersion of the Jews is certainly prior to the Babylonian exile. “There are serious reasons for conceding the existence of a pre-exile Diaspora.” [21] The scope of the Jewish exile under Nebuchadnezzar is very greatly exaggerated. Only a part of the ruling classes was hit by the measures of the Babylonian king. The majority of the Jews established in Palestine continued to live there. Consequently, if during the Persian epoch the Jews were to be found spread over all parts of that enormous empire (and the Book of Esther is very eloquent on this subject), it would be childish to view this fact as a consequence of the Babylonian exile, an exile which lasted altogether some fifty years. It is equally puerile to believe that the Jewish people returned to Palestine in the period of Ezra and Nehemiah. Their work was primarily of a religious character. It was a matter of rebuilding the temple and of reconstructing a religious metropolis for dispersed Judaism. “Most historians have considerably exaggerated the role of Palestinian Judaism in the Persian epoch. They reason as if Jerusalem, once restored, all the history of Israel became concentrated around the holy mountain; as if all the people had really returned from exile and had lived on a land measuring some few hundred square kilometers in Tekoa, Mitspa, and Jericho. In reality, in this epoch, the Jews of Judea represented only a part, and the smallest, of Judaism. And undoubtedly it was the least vital part.” [22] The Edict of Cyrus is addressed to the Jews of the Diaspora in the following words: “And whosoever is left, in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help [those who are going to Palestine] with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, besides the freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem” (Book of Ezra 1: 4). “And all they that were round about them,” continues the Book of Ezra (1: 6), “strengthened their hands [the 42,000 Jews who were returning to Palestine] with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts.” It is obvious that we are not dealing here with a mass return of the Jews to Palestine but primarily with the reconstruction of the temple. During the Persian epoch the principal colonies of the Diaspora were situated in Mesopotamia, in Chaldea, and in Egypt. The documents which have been found at Elephantine in Egypt, dating from the fifth century before Christ, throw an interesting light on the condition of the Jewish colonies of the Diaspora in this epoch. According to the archives belonging to a Jewish family, it appears that the “Jews engaged in trade, bought and sold houses and land, loaned money, acted as depositories, and were well versed in matters of law.” It is very interesting to note that even the songs and chronicles are in Aramaic, which shows that as early as the fifth century B.C. Hebrew was no longer a customary language for the Jews. [23] Aramaic was the great Asiatic language of the period, the commercial language. The religion of the Jews of Elephantine was not as developed as the official religion codified during the Ezra-Nehemiah era. In a petition to the Persian governor, they asked for authorization to rebuild their temple. But the reform of Ezra-Nehemiah was aimed precisely at concentrating all the Jews of the Diaspora around the single temple of Jerusalem. And it was in fact to Jerusalem that the gifts of the Jews dispersed throughout the world continued to flow up to the year 70. It was this wealth of the temple of Jerusalem that was probably the principal reason for the offensive of Antiochus against the Jews.

“Simon advised him that the public treasury at Jerusalem was full of large sums and that there were enormous public riches.” (Second Book of the Maccabees, 111: 6). Later, on the little island of Cos, Mithridates confiscated eight hundred talents that were destined for the temple of Jerusalem. In the Roman era, Cicero complained in his speeches of the immense sums which were flowing into Jerusalem. The Hellenistic period constitutes the epoch of the economic apogee of antiquity. The conquests of Alexander destroyed the barriers between the Hellenic world and Asia and Egypt. Cities sprang up like mushrooms in all parts of the Hellenic empire. The “greatest founders of cities, not alone of this epoch but even in all history, were Seleucos I and his son Antiochus I.” [24] The Hellenistic kings created new urban centers destined to supplant the old Phoenician and Persian cities. “On the coast of Syria, the port of Antioch causes the old cities of Tyre and Sidon to be forgotten.” [25] Seleucos creates Seleucia on the banks of the Tigris in order to rob Babylonia of its central role in world commerce. [26] This goal was completely attained. Whereas Babylonia fell into decline, Hellenic Seleucia probably became the greatest city of this epoch. According to Pliny, it had six hundred thousand inhabitants. Alongside of Seleucia, Alexandria and Antioch became the centers of the Hellenistic world. All of these cities experienced an unchallenged prosperity during the Hellenistic period. The situation of the Jews appears to have been further strengthened after the conquests of Alexander. “It appears that they were able to secure special privileges equally well, both from the Seleucidae and from the Lagidae. At Alexandria, to which they had been attracted by Ptolemy I and where they abounded, they formed a separate community which governed itself and was not subject to the jurisdiction of the Greek courts.” [27] “The Jews enjoyed a certain autonomy and a privileged position in Antioch, the capital of Syria. This was also true at Cyrene.” [28] The privileged position and the specific economic roles of the Jews had already become the source of serious conflicts with the population of the cities which they inhabited. Struggles broke out continuously in Alexandria, Seleucia, Cyrene, and Cyprus, as well as in the Palestinian cities. [29] These conflicts had nothing in common with present-day national antagonisms. On the contrary the Hellenistic empires witnessed a tremendous assimilation of their component peoples. The name Greek ceased after a while to be applied to the members of a particular nation but was assigned to the ruling and cultured sections of the population. Alexander ordered everybody, an ancient writer tells us, to consider the world as his fatherland, the well-to-do as his kin, and evildoers as foreigners. The increased importance of Judaism in the commercial life of the Hellenistic world must also be attributed to the displacement of economic life toward the East. The prosperity of Alexandria, Antioch, and Seleucia offers a striking contrast to the poverty and decay into which Greece has fallen in the same period. Polybius repeatedly stresses the decline of Greek cities. Somewhat later, in the second century, “visitors could hardly believe that this city, where water was scarce, the streets badly laid out, the houses uncomfortable, was the famous Athens.” [30] Athens was shorn of its role as center of the civilized world. What contributed to the ruin of Greece, together with her economic decline, was the ceaseless class struggles [31], which by virtue of the backward mode of production, could bring about no important changes. The victory of the plebeian was ephemeral, the redistribution of wealth could only wind up in new social inequalities, breeding centers of new social conflicts. Thus the triumph of Greece, after the conquests of Alexander, proved illusory. The displacement of the economic center of the world toward the East, which followed the conquests, brought about the rapid decline of Greece. [32] The propertied and aristocratic classes, powerless before the plebeian revolts, had to seek support from Rome [33], but the latter could only answer by dealing the final blow to Greece as well as to Hellenism. The Romans threw themselves on the Hellenistic world as on a convenient prey to be pillaged and conquered. “Between 211 and 208, according to the assuredly very incomplete information which has come down to us, five ‘old cities of the Hellenes’ ... were sacked.” [34] Corinth, the rich commercial city was destroyed. “I was there,” recounts Polybius. “I saw pictures trampled under foot, and soldiers sitting on them while throwing dice.” Rome also dealt very harsh blows to Hellenism in Asia. [35] Under the combined blows of the Romans and the Parthians, the magnificent structure of Greece was destroyed. * * * B. Roman imperialism and its decline In contrast to modern imperialism which is based essentially on the development of the productive forces, ancient imperialism was founded on the looting of conquered countries. For ancient imperialism it was not a question of opening new roads for its products and its capital; its objective was exclusively the despoiling of conquered countries. The backward state of production in antiquity could sustain the possessing classes of the conquering countries in luxury only by means of the more or less rapid ruination of the conquered peoples. Exhaustion of the conquered countries, growing difficulties in making new conquests, the gradual softening of the conquerors, all these sooner or later brought about the decline of ancient imperialisms. Rome provides the classic example of ancient imperialism. There have been great exaggerations concerning the commercial and industrial development of Rome. Its trade always showed a deficit. [36] Rome drew exports from the provinces without giving anything back in return. [37] The Roman ruling classes heartily despised every kind of trade. The Claudian law forbade Senators, their sons, and the entire aristocracy of Rome to own ships drawing more than 300 amphoras, which corresponds to less than 225 bushels of grain or vegetables.

This was equivalent to forbidding them to engage in trade. Caesar renewed this ban. Roman policy was never determined by its so-called commercial interests. The best proof of this is that Rome, after the defeat of Hannibal, still allowed the Carthaginians to bar entry into their sea. [38] “In general, it must be said that the Roman economic problems were unusually simple. The gradual conquest of Italy and the provinces more than occupied the surplusage of capital and population so that there was no crying need for industry and commerce,” states Tenney Frank. [39] The traders at Rome were as a rule foreigners and it is that moreover which explains the continuous growth in the Jewish colony at Rome from Caesar’s epoch on. Roman businessmen were not traders but usurers who looted the provinces. [40] The development of trade in the Roman empire must above all be ascribed to the growing luxury requirements of the ruling classes of Rome. Strabo explains the development of the great market of Delos in this fashion: “Hence arose a proverbial saying ‘Merchant come into port, discharge your freight—everything is sold.’ The Romans, having acquired wealth after the destruction of Carthage and Corinth, employed great numbers of domestic slaves.” [41] The same was true of industry. Roman industry depended primarily on the luxury requirements of the aristocracy. “Tenney Frank, after observing that no appreciable progress was made in the domain of industry in the fourth century B.C., adds: ‘In the two succeeding centuries we do not find evidence of any marked change in the nature of production at Rome. Doubtless the amount of ordinary ware produced at home increased with the growth of the city ... but of goods worthy of export we do not hear. The only difference now is that work previously performed by free labor began in the second century to fall into the hands of slaves.’ ” [42] Even those authors who consider that Italy had been a producer country in the republican epoch admit that it ceased to be one in the imperial period. “Italy becomes less and less a producer country .... Several industries which were prosperous at the end of the republican period are now in decline .... Thus trade between Italy and the Orient now takes place only in one direction, and it also becomes lodged more and more in the hands of Asiatics, of Alexandrians and Syrians.” [43] Thus Italy now lived only on the exploitation of the provinces. Small property, the foundation of Roman strength, was progressively supplanted by vast domains serving the luxury needs of the Roman aristocrats and on which slave labor predominated. [44] Pliny’s conclusion is known to all: “Latfundia perdidere Italiam.” The slave became more and more an item of luxury rather than a factor in production. [45] Horace, in one of his Satires, states that a minimum of ten slaves was the indispensable prerequisite of a gentleman. Thousands of slaves did in fact work in the vast latifundia. “In the domains of Tusculum and Tibur, on the shores of Terracina and Baiae—where the old Latin and Italian farmers had sown and reaped—there now rose in barren splendor the villas of the Roman nobles, some of which covered the space of a moderate-sized town with their appurtenances of garden grounds and aqueducts, fresh and salt water ponds for the preservation and breeding of river and marine fishes, nurseries of snails and slugs, game preserves for keeping hares, rabbits, stags, roes and wild boars, and aviaries in which even cranes and peacocks were kept.” [46] At the same time that free labor was being eliminated by slave labor, Italy became an immense center of squandering the wealth drained from the entire empire. Crushing taxes ruined the provinces; “the frequent and costly naval armaments and coast defenses in order to check piracy; the task of supplying works of art, wild beasts, or other demands of the insane Roman luxury in circus, theater and the chase ... were just as frequent as they were oppressive and incalculable. A single instance may show how far things were carried. During the three years’ administration of Sicily by Gaius Verres, the number of farmers in Leontini fell from 84 to 32, in Motya from 187 to 86, in Herbita from 252 to 120, in Agyrium from 250 to 80, so that in four of the most fertile districts of Sicily, 59 percent of the landholders preferred to let their fields lie fallow rather than to cultivate them under this regime .... In the client states the forms of taxation were somewhat different, but the burdens themselves were if possible still worse, since in addition to the exactions of the Romans there came those of the native courts.” [47] Roman capitalism, to the extent that the term capitalism is applicable here, was essentially speculative and bore no relationship whatever to the development of the productive forces. [48] Roman trade and banking resembled organized brigandage. “But still worse if possible and still less subject to any control, was the havoc committed by the Italian men of business among the unhappy provincials. The most lucrative portions of the landed property and the whole commercial and monetary business in the provinces were concentrated in their hands .... Usury flourished as it had never flourished before .... ‘All the communities’ it is said in a treatise published in 684/70, ‘are ruined’; the same truth is specially attested as regards Spain and Narbonese Gaul, the very provinces which, comparatively speaking, were still in the most tolerable economic position. In Asia Minor, even towns like Samos and Halicarnassus stood almost empty; legal slavery seemed here a haven of rest compared with the torments to which the free provincials succumbed and even the patient Asiatic had become, according to the descriptions of Roman statesmen themselves, weary of life .... Even the statesmen of Rome herself publicly and frankly conceded that the Roman name was unutterably odious through all Greece and Asia.” [49] Clearly this system of parasitism and brigandage could not last indefinitely.

The source of wealth from which Rome drew dried up. Long before the fall of Rome we witness a steady slowing up of trade. The arena for pillage contracted in the measure that Rome emptied the conquered countries of their substance. The fact that the production of grain, especially wheat, diminished, while the vine and olive tree conquered vast domains in the east and west, constituted an ominous token of the state of things. Luxury products displaced products which are indispensable for production and for reproduction of the labor force. “The spread of the culture of vines and olive trees ... not only meant economic ruin for Italy but might also result in a corn famine throughout the empire.” [50] Trajan vainly tried to ward off this danger by compelling Senators to buy land in Italy. His successors achieved as little. Luxury killed off production. “Soon superb buildings will leave no more land for the plough of the toiler,” Horace cried out. By the third century, the decline in trade was complete. Relations with distant countries were cut off. “Practically no Roman coins of the third century have been found in India,” which proves a breakdown of exchange between Rome and India. [51] The decline of Egyptian agriculture became so pronounced in the third century that it was necessary to forego a part of the deliveries of grain from this formerly wealthy province. These Egyptian deliveries had to be replaced by grain supplies from the province of Africa (the Algeria and Tunisia of today). [52] Commodius found it necessary to establish a flotilla for transporting the grain grown in the province of Africa. We have seen that trade in the Roman empire was primarily based on supplying the wealthy classes of Rome. Is there any wonder then that exhaustion of the provinces was followed by a decline in trade? More and more, Roman emperors were compelled to resort to requisitions in kind, which only resulted, however, in aggravating the lot of the suffering provinces. “The system of requisitions was rampant: corn, hides, wood for spears, and draught animals had to be delivered, and payment for them was irregular and indeed problematic” [53] A purely natural economy, producing exclusively use values, slowly displaced the exchange of products. “Whereas the Roman peace had formerly brought about a regular exchange of goods and the equalizing of living conditions between the different regions of the empire, in the anarchy of the third century each country was often condemned to live upon itself, painfully and poorly.” [54] An attempt has been made to explain the gradual displacement of slavery by the coloni system either as a result of the lack of energy on the part of landed proprietors or by a shortage of slaves caused by the termination of foreign wars. The gradual ruin of the colonies, the halt in the flow of their products, was probably the main reason. The great proprietors, more and more reduced to living on the products of their own lands, were interested in replacing slave labor, relatively low in productivity, by the coloni system, which resembles the system of serfdom that flourished in the Middle Ages. “The colonus owes his master everything that the serf will have to give his lord.” [55] The power of the landed proprietors, who often possess enormous areas of land, kept growing continuously. In Egypt, in the fifth century the peasants will be completely subject to them. State administration passed entirely into their hands. [56] It is therefore quite inaccurate to view the natural economy which flourished in the Carolingian epoch as an outgrowth of the fall of the Roman empire and the destruction of Mediterranean economic unity. [57] Undoubtedly the barbarian invasions played a very important role in the decline of ancient trade and in the rise of feudal economy. But the economic decline of the Roman empire began long before the fall of Rome and several centuries before the Moslem invasion. Another very important indication of the evolution toward a natural economy was the monetary change which had already begun under the reign of Nero. [58] Copper increasingly replaced gold and silver. In the second century, there was an almost complete dearth of gold. [59] The development of a natural economy, of an economy primarily producing use values, was consequently far from being an “abnormal phenomenon” as Pirenne claims. The Roman empire was ruined economically before it was ruined politically. The political blow to the Roman empire was rendered possible only by its economic decline. The political anarchy of the third century, like the barbarian invasion, can be explained accurately and exclusively by the economic decline of the Roman empire. To the extent that the provinces were ruined, an intensive exchange of goods ceased, and a return took place to a natural economy, to that same extent the very existence of the empire became a matter of indifference to the possessing classes. Each country, each province withdrew into its shell. The empire, with its immense administrative apparatus and its extremely costly army, became a cancer, a parasitic organism whose unbearable weight pressed down on all classes. Taxes devoured the substance of the peoples. Under Marcus Aurelius, when the soldiers after their great victories against the Marcomanni, demanded an increase in pay, the emperor made this significant reply: “Everything you would receive above your usual pay would first have to be drained from the blood of your relations.” The Treasury was exhausted. In order to maintain the administrative apparatus and the army, it was necessary to confiscate individual fortunes. While the lower classes were in ceaseless revolt, the possessing classes were turning away from the empire, which was ruining them. After the economic ruin of the empire by the aristocracy, the aristocracy was in its turn mined by the empire. “Daily people could be seen who only yesterday were still among the wealthiest and today have to take up the beggar’s staff,” said Herodian. The soldiers grew more and more bestial. It was not greed alone which forced them to despoil the inhabitants; impoverishment of the provinces and the wretched state of transportation, which created difficulties in provisioning the armies, forced the soldiers to use violence in order to find their means of subsistence.

Caracalla, in granting Roman citizenship to all Roman inhabitants, sought only to increase the taxable population. Irony of history: The whole world became Roman when Rome was no longer anything! The exactions of the Roman administration and the excesses of the soldiery incited all the inhabitants of the empire to hope for its destruction. “The quartering of soldiers was a real disaster: the population of Syria regarded an occupation by the Parthians as a relief in comparison with a prolonged stay of Roman troops.” [60] “The Roman government appeared every day ... more odious and oppressive to its subjects .... The severe inquisition, which confiscated their goods and tortured their persons, compelled the subjects of Valentinian to prefer the more simple tyranny of the Barbarians ... They abjured and abhorred the name of Roman citizen, which had formerly excited the ambitions of mankind.” [61] The Christian writer Salvian stated in De Gubernatione Dei: “Hence all the Romans in that region [Gaul and Spain] have but one desire, that they may never have to return to the Roman jurisdiction. Yet we are surprised that the Goths are not conquered by our resistance, when the Romans would rather live among them than at home ... I could find occasion to wonder why all the poor and needy taxpayers do not follow their example, except for one factor that hinders them, namely, that they cannot transfer their poor possessions and homes and their households.” [62] Far from being an “abnormal” phenomenon, the barbarian invasion was the normal consequence of the economic and political decline of the empire. Even without the invasions, the empire would probably have been dismembered. “In Asia Minor, as well as in Syria, one of the leading features of life was the gradual reversion to the feudal system .... The so-called revolt of the Isaurians in Asia Minor is another symptom of the same tendency towards the formation of almost independent states within the empire.” [63] Similarly, the attempt to create an independent Gallo-Roman empire, the attempts at secession, prove how weak had become the bond of empire. The barbarians only gave the coup de grâce to the shaking edifice of the Roman state. The fundamental cause for the decline of the Roman empire must be sought in the contradiction between the growing luxuriousness of the possessing classes, between the incessant growth of surplus value, and the static character of the mode of production. During the entire Roman epoch, very little progress was registered in the sphere of production. The tools of the cultivator retained their primitive form. “Plough, spade, hoe, mattock, pick, fork, scythe, sickle and pruning knife, were, as the surviving specimens show, just as they had been handed down from generation to generation.” [64] The growing luxury of the Roman aristocracy and the expenses of imperial administration were covered by a furious exploitation of the provinces, which had as its consequence economic ruin, depopulation, exhaustion of the soil. [65] Unlike the capitalist world, which must perish from the (relative) superabundance of means of production, the Roman world perished from their scarcity. The reforms of Diocletian and of Constantine constituted an attempt to set the Roman empire on the foundations of a natural economy. “The State had now to be based on the country and the peasants.” [66] The peasant was now chained to his bit of land. Each landed proprietor became responsible for his domain and for the number of coloni who were established on it; the new tax was assessed on this basis. “The reform of taxation by Diocletian and the edicts of later emperors made the colonus a serf, bound to his domicile and to his master ....” [67] The same was true of the other layers of the population; small proprietors, artisans, merchants, all were chained to their living place and to their profession. The epoch of Constantine is the epoch of the unlimited rule of the great landed proprietors, undisputed masters of vast princely domains. The aristocracy more and more abandons the cities which fall into decay and flees to sumptuous country villas where it lives surrounded by its clients and its serfs. The reforms of Diocletian and Constantine constituted attempts to adapt the empire to a natural economy. But we have seen that the empire had, on this basis, no reason for existence. Its various parts could be held together longer only by tyranny. Thus, if from the economic and social point of view, Constantine ushers in a new historical era, symbolized by the adoption of Christianity, from the political point of view, he opens the last act in the history of the Roman empire. Continuation * * * Notes 1. “In the ordinary language of European science, ancient life is that which developed chiefly round the Mediterranean basin.” J.E Toutain, The Economic Life of the Ancient World (New York 1930), p. 1. 2. It was probably the commercial prosperity of Palestine which made it appear to the Israelites as a land of “milk and honey.” It is also probable that the Israelite invasion dealt a serious blow to Palestinian commerce. But with time the Israelites in their turn renewed the profitable relations with the countries of the Nile and the Euphrates. 3. Thus, from the very beginning, it was a specific geographic and historic situation which determined the commercial character of the Phoenicians and the Jews. It is obvious that only the proximity to centers of civilization equipped with a relatively important industry, only the closeness to countries already producing in part for exchange, could permit the development of such specifically commercial peoples as the Phoenicians and the Jews. It was alongside the first great centers of civilization that the first great commercial peoples developed. 4. F.K. Movers, Die Phönizier (Berlin 1856), vol. 2, p. 18. 5. “Even before the advent of the Israelites in Canaan, commerce was highly developed there. In the Tell-el-Amarna letters (fifteenth century B.C.) reference is made to caravans crossing the country under protective escort.” F.

Bühl, Die Sozialen Verhältnisse der Israeliten (Berlin 1899), p. 76. 6. Movers, up. cit., vol. :2, pp. 19–20. 7. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 18. 8. “By their indefatigable commercial enthusiasm and their entrepreneur spirit, the Phoenicians acquired a name as a commercial people far exceeding that of any other people of antiquity. It was only later, during the Middle Ages, that this name, with all the invidious connotations attached to it, passed to their neighbors and commercial heirs, the Jews of the Diaspora.” Ibid., vol. 2, p. 26. 9. Toutain, op. cit., pp. 19–20. 10. These “Greek mariners” appear to have been mainly “metics,” foreigners who had established themselves in Greece. The commercial role of the Phoenicians had been tied up with the development of Egyptian and Assyrian civilizations; the rise of Hellenic civilization brought as a consequence the commercial prosperity of the metics. 11. Toutain, op. cit., p. 31. 12. Ibid., p. 53. 13. Johannes Hasebroek, Staat und Handel im Alten Griechenland (Tübingen l928), p. 112 14. Hasebroek, op. cit., p. 78. The production of use values remains the foundation of the economy. All that can be conceded is that production for exchange took on in Greece the maximum dimensions possible for the ancient mode of production. 15. Pierre Roussel, La Grèce et l’Orient (Paris 1928), p. 301. See also Michel Clerc, La Métèques Athéniens (Paris 1893), p. 397: “Maritime commerce was in effect largely in the hands of metics”; and Henri Francotte, L’industrie dans la Grèce Ancienne (Brussels 1900–1901), vol. l, p. 192: “This commerce [at Athens] appears to have been mainly in the hands of foreigners.” 16. Hasebroek, op. cit., p. 27. In the period of its prosperity; Athens contained 400,000 slaves; 20,000 citizens; and 30,000 metics. 17. “It is no more permissible to speak of the commercialization of the world than of its industrialization. The agrarian character of economy is predominant even in the fourth century B.C.” Hasebroek, op. cit., p. 101. 18. “Any analogy between the ports of ancient Greece and modern Genoa or Marseilles will provoke only skepticism or a smile. Nevertheless, the spectacle afforded by all this exchange, shipping, and coming and going of goods was then a new thing in the Mediterranean. It was quite different in intensity and in nature from that previously afforded by Phoenician trade, which had been mere sea-peddling rather than real business.” Toutain, op. cit., p. 65. 19.

19. Charles Autran, Les Phéniciens (Paris 1920), p. 51. 20. Lujo Brentano, Das Wirtschaftsleben der Antiken Welt (Jena 1929), p. 80. 21. Antonin Causse, Les Dispersés d’Isräel (Paris 1929), p. 7. 22. Ibid., pp. 54–55. 23. Jüdisches Lexicon (Berlin 1927–30), vol. 2. Article on Elephantine, pp. 345–46. 24. Eduard Meyer, Blüte und Niedergang des Hellenismus in Asien (Berlin 1925), p. 20. 25. Roussel, op. cit., p. 486. 26. Meyer, op. cit., p. 22. 27. Roussel, op. cit., pp. 480–81. 28. Brentano, Das Wirtschaftsleben der Antiken Welt, op. cit., p. 78. 29. Meyer, op. cit., p. 61. 30. André Piganiol, La Conquête Romaine (Paris 1927), p. 205. 31. These class struggles were limited strictly to the free population of the Greek cities. “Some degree of equality in the possession of property appeared necessary to the maintenance of this political democracy. Therein lies the source of the bloody wars between the rich and the poor, the end-product of Hellenic demagogy. But the slaves, serfs, and metics took no part in these struggles ....” Claude Jannet, Les Grandes Époques de l’Histoire Économique (Paris 1896), p. 8. 32. “The Greek peninsula [in the Hellenistic period] thus increasingly lost its leading position and the economic center of the world was displaced toward the East.” K.J. Beloch, Griechische Geschichte (Berlin 1914–27), vol. 1, pp. 279–80. 33. See N.D. Fustel de Coulanges, The Ancient City (Boston 1874), p. 498. 34. Maurice Holleaux, Rome, la Grèce et les Monarchies Hellénistiques (Paris l921), p. 231. 35. Piganiol, op. cit., p. 232. 36.

36. See Heinrich Cunow, Allgemeine Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Berlin 1926–31), vol. 2, p. 61. 37. Pirenne, A History of Europe, op. cit., p. 40. “Products flowed to the center without there being any compensating current backward.” Gustave Legaret, Histoire du Développement du Commerce (Paris 1927), p. 13. 38. Tenney Frank, An Economic History of Rome to the End of the Republic (Baltimore 1920), p. 116. 39. Ibid., p. 126. 40. Ibid., p. 283. 41. Strabo, Geography (London 1854 57), vol. 3, p. 51. 42. Toutain, op. cit., pp. 234–35. Toutain does not subscribe to this opinion. 43. Jean Hatzfeld, Les Trafiquants Italiens dans l’Orient Hellénistique (Paris 1919), pp. 190–91. 44. “The subject of the disappearance of the peasants was a common topic of discussion among the leading men of the Augustan period.” M. Rostovtzev, The Social and Economic History of the Roman empire (Oxford 1926), p. 65. 45. Karl Kautsky, Foundations of Christianity (New York 1925), p. 66. 46. Mommsen, The History of Rome, vol. 4, p. 478. 47. Ibid., vol. 4, p. 501. 48. Giuseppe Salvioli, Der Kapitalismus im Altertum (Stuttgart 1922), p. 206. 49. Mommsen, History of Rome, op. cit., vol. 4, pp. 502–4. 50. Rostovtzev, op. cit., p. 188. 51. Ibid., p. 421. 52. Wilhelm Schubart, Aegypten von Alexander dem Grossen bis auf Mohammed (Berlin 1922), p. 67. 53. Rostovtzev, op.

Rostovtzev, op. cit., p. 374. 54. Eugene Albertini, L’empire Romain (Paris 1929), p. 306. 55. Ernest Lavisse, Histoire Générale du IVe Siècle à Nos Jours (Paris 1893), vol. 1, p. 16. 56. Schubart, op. cit., p. 29. Very significant also is the gradual disappearance of the class of knights, the class of Roman “capitalists.” 57. “The demesnial organization, as it appeared from the ninth century on, is therefore the result of alien circumstances; nothing can be observed there in the nature of an organic transformation. This is equivalent to saying that it was an abnormal phenomenon.” Henri Pirenne, Les Villes au Moyen Age (Brussels 1927), p. 46. “The French empire was destined to lay the foundations of the Europe of the Middle Ages. But the mission which it fiilfilled had as an essential precondition the overthrow of the traditional world order; there would have been no summons to this task if historical evolution had not been turned aside from its normal course, if it had not been, so to speak, thrown off its axis by the Moslem invasion. Without Islam, the Frankish empire undoubtedly could never have existed and Charlemagne would be inconceivable without Mohammed.” Ibid., pp. 27–28. For Pirenne, feudal economy is therefore a result of the destruction of Mediterranean unity; produced primarily by the Mohammedan invasion. 58. Rostovtzev, op. cit., p. 171. 59. Salvioli, op. cit., p. 245. 60. Rostovtzev, op. cit., p. 375. 61. Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman empire (New York: Heritage Press 1946), vol. 2, p. 1103. 62. Salvian, On the Government of God (New York 1930), p. 146. 63. Rostovtzev, op. cit., p. 425. 64. Toutain, op. cit., p. 282. 65. Certain authors see depopulation and exhaustion of the soil as the essential causes for the decline of the empire. 66. Rostovtzev, op. cit., p. 453. 67. Ibid., p. 472. Contents | Jews and Marxism Subject Page Last updated: 17 July 2020

Castro Internet Archive Cuba's achievments and America's Wars Spoken: Delivered at the May Day rally held in Revolution Square. Havana, May 1, 2003 Source: Discursos e Intervenciones del Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz (cuba.cu) Markup: Christian Liebl Online Version: Castro Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2003 Distinguished guests; Dear fellow Cubans: Our heroic people have struggled for 44 years from this small Caribbean island just a few miles away from the most formidable imperial power ever known by mankind. In so doing, they have written an unprecedented chapter in history. Never has the world witnessed such an unequal fight. Some may have believed that the rise of the empire to the status of the sole superpower, with a military and technological might with no balancing pole anywhere in the world, would frighten or dishearten the Cuban people. Yet, today they have no choice but to watch in amazement the enhanced courage of this valiant people. On a day like today, this glorious international workers’ day, which commemorates the death of the five martyrs of Chicago, I declare, on behalf of the one million Cubans gathered here, that we will face up to any threats, we will not yield to any pressures, and that we are prepared to defend our homeland and our Revolution with ideas and with weapons to our last drop of blood. What is Cuba’s sin? What honest person has any reason to attack her? With their own blood and the weapons seized from the enemy, the Cuban people overthrew a cruel tyranny with 80,000 men under arms, imposed by the U.S. government. Cuba was the first territory free from imperialist domination in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the only country in the hemisphere, throughout post-colonial history, where the torturers, murderers and war criminals that took the lives of tens of thousands of people were exemplarily punished. All of the country’s land was recovered and turned over to the peasants and agricultural workers. The natural resources, industries and basic services were placed in the hands of their only true owner: the Cuban nation. In less than 72 hours, fighting ceaselessly, day and night, Cuba crushed the Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion organized by a U.S. administration, thereby preventing a direct military intervention by this country and a war of incalculable consequences. The Revolution already had the Rebel Army, over 400,000 weapons and hundreds of thousands of militia members. In 1962, Cuba confronted with honor, and without a single concession, the risk of being attacked with dozens of nuclear weapons. It defeated the dirty war that spread throughout the entire country, at a cost in human lives even greater than that of the war of liberation. It stoically endured thousands of acts of sabotage and terrorist attacks organized by the U.S. government. It thwarted hundreds of assassination plots against the leaders of the Revolution. While under a rigorous blockade and economic warfare that have lasted for almost half a century, Cuba was able to eradicate in just one year the illiteracy that has still not been overcome in the course of more than four decades by the rest of the countries of Latin America, or the United States itself. It has brought free education to 100% of the country’s children. It has the highest school retention rate –over 99% between kindergarten and ninth grade– of all of the nations in the hemisphere. Its elementary school students rank first worldwide in the knowledge of their mother language and mathematics. The country also ranks first worldwide with the highest number of teachers per capita and the lowest number of students per classroom. All children with physical or mental challenges are enrolled in special schools. Computer education and the use of audiovisual methods now extend to all of the country’s children, adolescents and youth, in both the cities and the countryside. For the first time in the world, all young people between the ages of 17 and 30, who were previously neither in school nor employed, have been given the opportunity to resume their studies while receiving an allowance. All citizens have the possibility of undertaking studies that will take them from kindergarten to a doctoral degree without spending a penny. Today, the country has 30 university graduates, intellectuals and professional artists for every one there was before the Revolution. The average Cuban citizen today has at the very least a ninth-grade level of education. Not even functional illiteracy exists in Cuba. There are schools for the training of artists and art instructors throughout all of the country’s provinces, where over 20,000 young people are currently studying and developing their talent and vocation. Tens of thousands more are doing the same at vocational schools, and many of these then go on to undertake professional studies. University campuses are progressively spreading to all of the country’s municipalities. Never in any other part of the world has such a colossal educational and cultural revolution taken place as this that will turn Cuba, by far, into the country with the highest degree of knowledge and culture in the world, faithful to Martí’s profound conviction that "no freedom is possible without culture." Infant mortality has been reduced from 60 per 1000 live births to a rate that fluctuates between 6 and 6.5, which is the lowest in the hemisphere, from the United States to Patagonia. Life expectancy has increased by 15 years. Infectious and contagious diseases like polio, malaria, neonatal tetanus, diphtheria, measles, rubella, mumps, whooping cough and dengue have been eradicated;

Infectious and contagious diseases like polio, malaria, neonatal tetanus, diphtheria, measles, rubella, mumps, whooping cough and dengue have been eradicated; others like tetanus, meningococcal meningitis, hepatitis B, leprosy, hemophilus meningitis and tuberculosis are fully controlled. Today, in our country, people die of the same causes as in the most highly developed countries: cardiovascular diseases, cancer, accidents, and others, but with a much lower incidence. A profound revolution is underway to bring medical services closer to the population, in order to facilitate access to health care centers, save lives and alleviate suffering. In-depth research is being carried out to break the chain, mitigate or reduce to a minimum the problems that result from genetic, prenatal or childbirth-related causes. Cuba is today the country with the highest number of doctors per capita in the world, with almost twice as many as those that follow closer. Our scientific centers are working relentlessly to find preventive or therapeutic solutions for the most serious diseases. Cubans will have the best healthcare system in the world, and will continue to receive all services absolutely free of charge. Social security covers 100% of the country’s citizens. In Cuba, 85% of the people own their homes and they pay no property taxes on them whatsoever. The remaining 15% pay a wholly symbolic rent, which is only 10% of their salary. Illegal drug use involves a negligible percentage of the population, and is being resolutely combated. Lottery and other forms of gambling have been banned since the first years of the Revolution to ensure that no one pins their hopes of progress on luck. There is no commercial advertising on Cuban television and radio or in our printed publications. Instead, these feature public service announcements concerning health, education, culture, physical education, sports, recreation, environmental protection, and the fight against drugs, accidents and other social problems. Our media educate, they do not poison or alienate. They do not worship or exalt the values of decadent consumer societies. Discrimination against women was eradicated, and today women make up 64% of the country’s technical and scientific workforce. From the earliest months of the Revolution, not a single one of the forms of racial discrimination copied from the south of the United States was left intact. In recent years, the Revolution has been particularly striving to eliminate any lingering traces of the poverty and lack of access to education that afflicted the descendants of those who were enslaved for centuries, creating objective differences that tended to be perpetuated. Soon, not even a shadow of the consequences of that terrible injustice will remain. There is no cult of personality around any living revolutionary, in the form of statues, official photographs, or the names of streets or institutions. The leaders of this country are human beings, not gods. In our country there are no paramilitary forces or death squads, nor has violence ever been used against the people. There are no executions without due process and no torture. The people have always massively supported the activities of the Revolution. This rally today is proof of that. Light years separate our society from what has prevailed until today in the rest of the world. We cultivate brotherhood and solidarity among individuals and peoples both in the country and abroad. The new generations and the entire people are being educated about the need to protect the environment. The media are used to build environmental awareness. Our country steadfastly defends its cultural identity, assimilating the best of other cultures while resolutely combating everything that distorts, alienates and degrades. The development of wholesome, non-professional sports has raised our people to the highest ranks worldwide in medals and honors. Scientific research, at the service of our people and all humanity, has increased several-hundredfold. As a result of these efforts, important medications are saving lives in Cuba and other countries. Cuba has never undertaken research or development of a single biological weapon, because this would be in total contradiction with the principles and philosophy underlying the education of our scientific personnel, past and present. In no other people has the spirit of international solidarity become so deeply rooted. Our country supported the Algerian patriots in their struggle against French colonialism, at the cost of damaging political and economic relations with such an important European country as France. We sent weapons and troops to defend Algeria from Moroccan expansionism, when the king of this country sought to take control of the iron mines of Gara Djebilet, near the city of Tindouf, in southwest Algeria. At the request of the Arab nation of Syria, a full tank brigade stood guard between 1973 and 1975 alongside the Golan Heights, when this territory was unjustly seized from that country. The leader of the Republic of Congo when it first achieved independence, Patrice Lumumba, who was harassed from abroad, received our political support.

The leader of the Republic of Congo when it first achieved independence, Patrice Lumumba, who was harassed from abroad, received our political support. When he was assassinated by the colonial powers in January of 1961, we lent assistance to his followers. Four years later, in 1965, Cuban blood was shed in the western region of Lake Tanganyika, where Che Guevara and more than 100 Cuban instructors supported the Congolese rebels who were fighting against white mercenaries in the service of the man supported by the West, that is, Mobutu whose 40 billion dollars, the same that he stole, nobody knows what European banks they are kept in, or in whose power. The blood of Cuban instructors was shed while training and supporting the combatants of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, who fought under the command of Amilcar Cabral for the liberation of these former Portuguese colonies. The same was true during the ten years that Cuba supported Agostinho Neto’s MPLA in the struggle for the independence of Angola. After independence was achieved, and over the course of 15 years, hundreds of thousands of Cuban volunteers participated in defending Angola from the attacks of racist South African troops that in complicity with the United States, and using dirty war tactics, planted millions of mines, wiped out entire villages, and murdered more than half a million Angolan men, women and children. In Cuito Cuanavale and on the Namibian border, to the southwest of Angola, Angolan and Namibian forces together with 40,000 Cuban troops dealt the final blow to the South African troops. This resulted in the immediate liberation of Namibia and speeded up the end of apartheid by perhaps 20 to 25 years. At the time, the South Africans had seven nuclear warheads that Israel had supplied to them or helped them to produce, with the full knowledge and complicity of the U.S. government. Throughout the course of almost 15 years, Cuba had a place of honor in its solidarity with the heroic people of Viet Nam, caught up in a barbaric and brutal war with the United States. That war killed four million Vietnamese, in addition to all those left wounded and mutilated, not to mention the fact that the country was inundated with chemical compounds that continue to cause incalculable damage. The pretext: Viet Nam, a poor and underdeveloped country located 20,000 kilometers away, constituted a threat to the national security of the United States. Cuban blood was shed together with that of citizens of numerous Latin American countries, and together with the Cuban and Latin American blood of Che Guevara, murdered on instructions from U.S. agents in Bolivia, when he was wounded and being held prisoner after his weapon had been rendered useless by a shot received in battle. The blood of Cuban construction workers, that were nearing completion of an international airport vital for the economy of a tiny island fully dependent on tourism, was shed fighting in defense of Grenada, invaded by the United States under cynical pretexts. Cuban blood was shed in Nicaragua, when instructors from our Armed Forces were training the brave Nicaraguan soldiers confronting the dirty war organized and armed by the United States against the Sandinista revolution. And there are even more examples. Over 2000 heroic Cuban internationalist combatants gave their lives fulfilling the sacred duty of supporting the liberation struggles for the independence of other sister nations. However, there is not one single Cuban property in any of those countries. No other country in our era has exhibited such sincere and selfless solidarity. Cuba has always preached by example. It has never given in. It has never sold out the cause of another people. It has never made concessions. It has never betrayed its principles. There must be some reason why, just 48 hours ago, it was reelected by acclamation in the United Nations Economic and Social Council to another three years in the Commission on Human Rights, of which it has now been a member for 15 straight years. More than half a million Cubans have carried out internationalist missions as combatants, as teachers, as technicians or as doctors and health care workers. Tens of thousands of the latter have provided their services and saved millions of lives over the course of more than 40 years. There are currently 3000 specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine and other healthcare personnel working in the most isolated regions of 18 Third World countries. Through preventive and therapeutic methods they save hundreds of thousands of lives every year, and maintain or restore the health of millions of people, without charging a penny for their services. Without the Cuban doctors offered to the United Nations in the event that the necessary funds are obtained –without which entire nations and even whole regions of sub-Saharan Africa face the risk of perishing– the crucial programs urgently needed to fight AIDS would be impossible to carry out. The developed capitalist world has created abundant financial capital, but it has not in any way created the human capital that the Third World desperately needs. Cuba has developed techniques to teach reading and writing by radio, with accompanying texts now available in five languages –Haitian Creole, Portuguese, French, English and Spanish– that are already being used in numerous countries. It is nearing completion of a similar program in Spanish, of exceptionally high quality, to teach literacy by television. These are programs that were developed in Cuba and are genuinely Cuban. We are not interested in patents and exclusive copyrights. We are willing to offer them to all of the countries of the Third World, where most of the world’s illiterates are concentrated, without charging a penny. In five years, the 800 million illiterate people in the world could be reduced by 80%, at a minimal cost. After the demise of the USSR and the socialist bloc, nobody would have bet a dime on the survival of the Cuban Revolution. The United States tightened the blockade.

The United States tightened the blockade. The Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts were adopted, both extraterritorial in nature. We abruptly lost our main markets and supplies sources. The population’s average calorie and protein consumption was reduced by almost half. But our country withstood the pressures and even advanced considerably in the social field. Today, it has largely recovered with regard to nutritional requirements and is rapidly progressing in other fields. Even in these conditions, the work undertaken and the consciousness built throughout the years succeeded in working miracles. Why have we endured? Because the Revolution has always had, as it still does and always will to an ever-greater degree, the support of the people, an intelligent people, increasingly united, educated and combative. Cuba was the first country to extend its solidarity to the people of the United States on September 11, 2001. It was also the first to warn of the neo-fascist nature of the policy that the extreme right in the United States, which fraudulently came to power in November of 2000, was planning to impose on the rest of the world. This policy did not emerge as a response to the atrocious terrorist attack perpetrated against the people of the United States by members of a fanatical organization that had served other U.S. administrations in the past. It was coldly and carefully conceived and developed, which explains the country’s military build-up and enormous spending on weapons at a time when the Cold War was already over, and long before September 11, 2001. The fateful events of that day served as an ideal pretext for the implementation of such policy. On September 20 of that year, President Bush openly expressed this before a Congress shaken by the tragic events of nine days earlier. Using bizarre terminology, he spoke of "infinite justice" as the goal of a war that would apparently be infinite as well. "Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen." "We will use every necessary weapon of war." "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." "I've called the Armed Forces to alert, and there is a reason. The hour is coming when America will act." "This is civilization's fight." "…the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time --now depends on us." "The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain … and we know that God is not neutral." Did a statesman or an unbridled fanatic speak these words? Two days later, on September 22, Cuba denounced this speech as the blueprint for the idea of a global military dictatorship imposed through brute force, without international laws or institutions of any kind. "The United Nations Organization, simply ignored in the present crisis, would fail to have any authority or prerogative whatsoever. There would be only one boss, only one judge, and only one law." Several months later, on the 200th anniversary of West Point Military Academy, at the graduation exercise for 958 cadets on June 3, 2002, President Bush further elaborated on this line of thinking in a fiery harangue to the young soldiers graduating that day, in which he put forward his fundamental fixed ideas: "Our security will require transforming the military you will lead -- a military that must be ready to strike at a moment's notice in any dark corner of the world. And our security will require all Americans to be forward-looking and resolute, to be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives." "We must uncover terror cells in 60 or more countries…" "…we will send you, our soldiers, where you're needed." "We will not leave the safety of America and the peace of the planet at the mercy of a few mad terrorists and tyrants. We will lift this dark threat from our country and from the world." "Some worry that it is somehow undiplomatic or impolite to speak the language of right and wrong. I disagree. … We are in a conflict between good and evil, and America will call evil by its name. By confronting evil and lawless regimes, we do not create a problem, we reveal a problem. And we will lead the world in opposing it." In the speech I delivered at a rally held in General Antonio Maceo Square in Santiago de Cuba, on June 8, 2002, before half a million people of Santiago, I said: "As you can see, he doesn’t mention once in his speech (at West Point) the United Nations Organization. Nor is there a phrase about every people’s right to safety and peace, or about the need for a world ruled by principles and norms." "Hardly two thirds of a century has passed since humanity went through the bitter experience of Nazism. Fear was Hitler’s inseparable ally against his adversaries… Later, his fearful military force [led to] the outbreak of a war that would inflame the whole world. The lack of vision and the cowardice of the statesmen in the strongest European powers of the time opened the way to a great tragedy. "I don’t think that a fascist regime can be established in the United States. Serious mistakes have been made and injustices committed in the framework of its political system --many of them still persist-- but the American people still have a number of institutions and traditions, as well as educational, cultural and ethical values that would hardly allow that to happen. The risk exists in the international arena. The power and prerogatives of that country’s president are so extensive, and the economic, technological and military power network in that nation is so pervasive that due to circumstances that fully escape the will of the American people, the world is coming under the rule of Nazi concepts and methods." "The miserable insects that live in 60 or more countries of the world chosen by him and his closest assistants --and in the case of Cuba by his Miami friends-- are completely irrelevant. They are the ‘dark corners of the world’ that may become the targets of their unannounced and ‘preemptive’ attacks. Not only is Cuba one of those countries, but it has also been included among those that sponsor terror." I mentioned the idea of a world tyranny for the first time exactly one year, three months and 19 days before the attack on Iraq.

In the days prior to the beginning of the war, President Bush repeated once again that the United States would use, if necessary, any means within its arsenal, in other words, nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biological weapons. The attack on and occupation of Afghanistan had already taken place. Today the so-called "dissidents", actually mercenaries on the payroll of the Bush’s Hitler-like government, are betraying not only their homeland, but all of humanity as well. In the face of the sinister plans against our country on the part of the neo-fascist extreme right and its allies in the Miami terrorist mob that ensured its victory through electoral fraud, I wonder how many of those individuals with supposedly leftist and humanistic stances who have attacked our people over the legal measures we were forced to adopt as a legitimate defense against the aggressive plans of the superpower, located just a few miles off our coasts and with a military base on our own territory, have been able to read these words. We wonder how many have recognized, denounced and condemned the policy announced in the speeches by Mr. Bush that I have quoted, which reveal a sinister Nazi-fascist international policy on the part of the leader of the country with the most powerful military force ever imagined, whose weapons could destroy the defenseless humanity ten times over. The entire world has been mobilized by the terrifying images of cities destroyed and burned by brutal bombing, images of maimed children and the shattered corpses of innocent people. Leaving aside the blatantly opportunistic, demagogic and petty political groups we know all too well, I am now going to refer fundamentally to those who were friends of Cuba and respected fighters in the struggle. We would not want those who have, in our opinion, attacked Cuba unjustly, due to disinformation or a lack of careful and profound analysis, to have to suffer the infinite sorrow they will feel if one day our cities are destroyed and our children and mothers, women and men, young and old, are torn apart by the bombs of Nazi-fascism, and they realize that their declarations were shamelessly manipulated by the aggressors to justify a military attack on Cuba. Solely the numbers of children murdered and mutilated cannot be the measure of the human damage but also the millions of children and mothers, women and men, young and old, who remain traumatized for the rest of their lives. We fully respect the opinions of those who oppose capital punishment for religious, philosophical and humanitarian reasons. We Cuban revolutionaries also abhor capital punishment, for much more profound reasons than those addressed by the social sciences with regard to crime, currently under study in our country. The day will come when we can accede to the wishes, so nobly expressed here in his brilliant speech by our beloved brother Reverend Lucius Walker, to abolish such penalty. The special concern over this issue is easily understood when you know that the majority of the people executed in the United States are African American and Hispanic, and not infrequently they are innocent, especially in Texas, the champion of death penalties, where President Bush was formerly the governor, and not a single life has ever been pardoned. The Cuban Revolution was placed in the dilemma of either protecting the lives of millions of Cubans by using the legally established death penalty to punish the three main hijackers of a passenger ferry or sitting back and doing nothing. The U.S. government, which incites common criminals to assault boats or airplanes with passengers on board, encourages these people gravely endangering the lives of innocents and creating the ideal conditions for an attack on Cuba. A wave of hijackings had been unleashed and was already in full development; it had to be stopped. We cannot ever hesitate when it is a question of protecting the lives of the sons and daughters of a people determined to fight until the end, arresting the mercenaries who serve the aggressors and applying the most severe sanctions, no matter how unpleasant it is for us, against terrorists who hijack passenger boats or planes or commit similarly serious acts, who will be punished by the courts in accordance with the laws in force. Not even Jesus Christ, who drove the traders out of the temple with a whip, would fail to opt for the defense of the people. I feel sincere and profound respect for His Holiness Pope John Paul II. I understand and admire his noble struggle for life and peace. Nobody opposed the war in Iraq as much and as tenaciously as he did. I am absolutely certain that he would have never counseled the Shiites and Sunni Muslims to let them be killed without defending themselves. He would not counsel the Cubans to do such a thing, either. He knows perfectly well that this is not a problem between Cubans. This is a problem between the people of Cuba and the government of the United States. The policy of the U.S. government is so brazenly provocative that on April 25, Mr. Kevin Whitaker, chief of the Cuban Bureau at the State Department, informed the head of our Interests Section in Washington that the National Security Council’s Department of Homeland Security considered the continued hijackings from Cuba a serious threat to the national security of the United States, and requested that the Cuban government adopt all of the necessary measures to prevent such acts. He said this as if they were not the ones who provoke and encourage these hijackings, and as if we were not the ones who adopt drastic measures to prevent them, in order to protect the lives and safety of passengers, and being fully aware for some time now of the criminal plans of the fascist extreme right against Cuba. When news of this contact on the 25 was leaked, it stirred up the Miami terrorist mob. They still do not understand that their direct or indirect threats against Cuba do not frighten anyone in this country. The hypocrisy of Western politicians and a large group of mediocre leaders is so huge that it would not fit in the Atlantic Ocean. Any measure that Cuba adopts for the purposes of its legitimate defense is reported among the top stories in almost all of the media. On the other hand, when we pointed out that during the term in office of a Spanish head of government, dozens of ETA members were executed without trial, without anyone protesting or denouncing it before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, or that another Spanish head of government, at a difficult moment in the war in Kosovo, advised the U.S.

president to step up the war, increase the bombing and attack civilian targets, thus causing the deaths of hundreds of innocent people and tremendous suffering for millions of people, the headlines merely stated, "Castro attacks Felipe and Aznar". Not a word was said about the real content. In Miami and Washington they are now discussing where, how and when Cuba will be attacked or the problem of the Revolution will be solved. For the moment, there is talk of economic measures that will further intensify the brutal blockade, but they still do not know which to choose, who they will resign themselves to alienating, and how effective these measures may be. There are very few left for them to choose from. They have already used up almost all of them. A shameless scoundrel with the poorly chosen first name Lincoln, and the last name Díaz-Balart, an intimate friend and advisor of President Bush, has made this enigmatic statement to a Miami TV station: "I can’t go into details, but we’re trying to break this vicious cycle." What methods are they considering to deal with this vicious cycle? Physically eliminating me with the sophisticated modern means they have developed, as Mr. Bush promised them in Texas before the elections? Or attacking Cuba the way they attacked Iraq? If it were the former, it does not worry me in the least. The ideas for which I have fought all my life will not die, and they will live on for a long time. If the solution were to attack Cuba like Iraq, I would suffer greatly because of the cost in lives and the enormous destruction it would bring on Cuba. But, it might turn out to be the last of this Administration’s fascist attacks, because the struggle would last a very long time. The aggressors would not merely be facing an army, but rather thousands of armies that would constantly reproduce themselves and make the enemy pay such a high cost in casualties that it would far exceed the cost in lives of its sons and daughters that the American people would be willing to pay for the adventures and ideas of President Bush. Today, he enjoys majority support, but it is dropping, and tomorrow it could be reduced to zero. The American people, the millions of highly cultivated individuals who reason and think, their basic ethical principles, the tens of millions of computers with which to communicate, hundreds of times more than at the end of the Viet Nam war, will show that you cannot fool all of the people, and perhaps not even part of the people, all of the time. One day they will put a straightjacket on those who need it before they manage to annihilate life on the planet. On behalf of the one million people gathered here this May Day, I want to convey a message to the world and the American people: We do not want the blood of Cubans and Americans to be shed in a war. We do not want a countless number of lives of people who could be friends to be lost in an armed conflict. But never has a people had such sacred things to defend, or such profound convictions to fight for, to such a degree that they would rather be obliterated from the face of the Earth than abandon the noble and generous work for which so many generations of Cubans have paid the high cost of the lives of many of their finest sons and daughters. We are sustained by the deepest conviction that ideas are worth more than weapons, no matter how sophisticated and powerful those weapons may be. Let us say like Che Guevara when he bid us farewell: Ever onward to victory! Castro Internet Archive

Home Contents Subscribe Write us! [email protected] July/August 2003 • Vol 3, No. 7 • A Message to the Venezuelan President On Literacy By Fidel Castro Dear President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Hugo Chávez Frías: I have viewed with contempt and repugnance, the dirty campaign against your noble proposition to eradicate illiteracy in Venezuela. The most employed pretext is the modest cooperation in this effort on the part of Cuba, which is being unmercifully attacked and slandered. Such cooperation is based fundamentally on details of a technical nature linked to the use of audiovisual methods in education, whose results are amazing. Cuba was the first country in the hemispheres to eradicate illiteracy. It did so through the mass mobilization of hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and other citizens with a certain education level. It took one year. The cost in terms of economics and human energy was high. Although its efficiency was satisfactory, it cannot compare with what you (the Venezuelan people) will achieve in just three months. It is worthwhile recalling that Cuba’s literacy campaign was carried out when our countryside and mountains, where 30% of totally illiterate citizens lived, were being subjected to a dirty war unleashed on Cuba from abroad. Bandit groups killed teachers and literacy workers. In April of that same year, 1961, Playa Girón was invaded by a mercenary contingent brought to our country from Central America, and supported by U.S. aircraft, ready to intervene. After repelling that attack, the first decision taken was not to halt the literacy campaign. Despite actions against the Bolivarian Revolution that the whole world is aware of, I envy the peace and order that Venezuela is now enjoying after the events of April 11, 2002, and the serious and dangerous attempt to stop the process of change in December and January, and that will enable it to speedily promote the fast-track literacy program. Nothing could be more strategic. Throughout history, ignorance has been the inseparable and essential ally of exploiters and oppressors. Martí’s phrase; “To be educated is the only way to be free,” is more relevant than ever in our era, when deception and lies are the chosen weapons of those who pillage and enslave the peoples. Cuba would never have been able to resist more than 40 years of blockade, aggression and death threats without education. This constitutes our invincible weapon. After the literacy campaign came the follow-up courses, similar to those that you are proposing. Today we can proudly affirm that there is not one single illiterate person in Cuba, one single child without a school, anybody who cannot continue schooling up to ninth grade, and nobody in need of special education is unable to enroll in the pertinent institutions. Perhaps the most outstanding aspect is that today, university education is occurring all over the country in 169 municipalities, something that we could not even dream of when we began to make changes in our homeland. How can we speak of freedom and democracy when millions of people are total or functional illiterates? What criteria and elements of judgment can we employ to analyze political programs and adopt decisions on vital questions whose essence and content are completely unknown? The privileged persons and masters of the world vehemently wish for masses of illiterate and semi-illiterate people. Those affirming that teaching reading and writing is to Cubanize Venezuelans are not offending Cuba; on the contrary, they are honoring it; as is the case with those who label as indoctrinators our selfless doctors battling to bring health care and life to many parts of the world, or our sports trainers. This is the equivalent of saying that to save a life or contribute to a young person obtaining a gold medal for his or her homeland is to Cubanize the Venezuelan people. We should thank those stupid people for such a great honor. I tell you, Hugo, with my hand on my heart, that Cubans are willing to give their lives for Venezuela, the Venezuela of Bolívar, Sucre and Simón Rodríguez. I especially congratulate you, on a day like today, for the immense wisdom and courage to initiate the fight to bring million of men and women out of the darkness. In 10 or 15 years, Venezuela can reach what has taken Cuba 44 years to achieve. Your effort and its results will have an impact on the hemisphere and the world. Many other countries will imitate Venezuela’s example. It will be the best favor that you and Bolívar’s homeland can do to help the world. As you like to do, recalling a giant of our America, I bid you farewell with a ¡Hasta la Victoria Siempre! Fidel Castro —Granma, June 23, 2003 Top Contents Home Subscribe Write us [email protected]

Fidel Castro Internet Archive Address by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz at Céspedes Park in Santiago de Cuba, on the 1st of January of 1959 Delivered: January 1, 1959 Source: http://www.fidelcastro.cu/en from a short hand version. Versiones Taquigráficas - Consejo de Estado Markup: David Walters, 2019 Online Version: http://www.fidelcastro.cu/en Compatriots of Cuba, all: We have finally reached Santiago. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) The road has been long and tough, but we have arrived. (APPLAUSE) It was being said that today at 2 o’clock in the afternoon we were being expected in the capital of the Republic and I was the first person to be amazed (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) because I was one of the first people to have been surprised by that traitorous and confabulated coup this morning in the capital of the Republic. Furthermore, I was going to be in the capital of the Republic, I mean in the new capital of the Republic (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE), because Santiago de Cuba will be the capital, according to the wishes of the provisional president, according to the wishes of the Rebel Army and according to the wishes of the people of Santiago de Cuba who so highly deserve it. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) Santiago de Cuba will be the provisional capital of the Republic! (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) Perhaps the measure is a surprise for some; it is a new measure, but for that reason the Revolution must be precisely characterized for doing things that have never been done before. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) When we make Santiago de Cuba the provisional capital of the Republic, we know why we are doing it. It isn’t a matter of flattering a certain town in demagogic fashion; it’s simply a matter of the fact that Santiago has been the most steadfast bastion of the Revolution. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) The Revolution begins here and now. The Revolution won’t be an easy task. The Revolution will be a tough undertaking and full of dangers, especially during this initial period. What better place to establish the government of the Republic than in this fortress of the Revolution, (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) so that it may be known that this is going to be a government which is firmly backed by the people in the Heroic City and in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra, because Santiago is in the Sierra Maestra. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) In Santiago de Cuba and in the Sierra Maestra, the Revolution will have its two greatest strengths. (APPLAUSE) But there are others as well… (INTERRUPTION)…Naturally we have never… (INTERRUPTION) …refused any collaboration… (INTERRUPTION)… “Are you promising me that you won’t?” And he says: “I promise I won’t.” I say: “Do you swear you won’t?” And he told me: I swear I won’t” (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) I believe that the first thing a soldier should have is honor; the first thing a soldier must do is keep his word, and that man has not only demonstrated a lack of honor and a lack of keeping his word, he also lacks brains, because a movement could have been done right from the start, with the complete support of the people and with triumph assured right from the start, but what it did instead was to somersault into a vacuum. He thought it would be much too easy to fool the people and to fool the Revolution. He knew something. He knew that when it was said that Batista had grabbed the plane, the people would throng into the streets, crazy with happiness, and they thought that the people were not mature enough to see the difference between Batista’s flight and the Revolution. Because if Batista leaves and Cantillos’ friends take possession of the tanks, it might very well happen that Dr. Urrutia would also have to leave within three months; because whatever betrays us now, will betray us later on, and the great truth is that Mr. Cantillo betrayed us before the Revolution. He demonstrated it very well and I am going to show it. An agreement was struck with General Cantillo that the uprising would take place on the 31st at 3 in the afternoon. It was made clear that the armed forces would give their unconditional backing to the Revolutionary movement, the President who appointed the revolutionary leaders and the positions that were assigned to the military by the revolutionary leaders; what was offered, meant unconditional backing. The plan was agreed to in all its details: on the 31st, at 3 pm, the Santiago de Cuba Garrison would revolt. Immediately, several rebel columns would penetrate the city and the people would immediately fraternize with the soldiers and the rebels and a revolutionary proclamation would be launched in the country to invite all honorable soldiers to join the movement. It was agreed that the tanks in the city would be placed at our disposition and I personally offered to move towards the capital with an armored column preceded by the tanks. The tanks would be handed over to me at 3 pm, not because it was believed that we would have to fight, but to be forewarned in case the movement would fail in Havana and we would have to position our vanguard as close as possible to the capital. Besides, it was also to foresee that no excessive events would be taking place in Havana. It was logical that with all the hatred aroused there with the public force, because of the indescribable horrors committed by Ventura and Pilar Garcia, Batista’s fall was going to produce disorganization among the citizenry and that, moreover, those police were going to feel like they had no moral force to contain the people; and effectively that’s just how it took place. A series of excessive occurrences took place in the capital such as looting, shooting and fires. All the responsibility for that falls on the shoulders of Gen. Cantillo since he had betrayed his word and because he hadn’t followed the plan that had been agreed. He thought that he could solve the problem by appointing police captains and chiefs, many of whom had already left by the time he appointed them, proof of the fact that their consciences were not so clear.

Of course how different it all was in Santiago de Cuba. What great order and civic mindedness! What great discipline the people demonstrated! Not one single case of looting, not one single case of personal vengeance, not one single man dragged through the streets, not one single fire was set. Santiago de Cuba’s behavior has been admirable and exemplary, in spite of two things. In spite of the fact that this has been a city that had suffered the most and had seen the most terror, thereby having more right to feeling outraged, (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) and also in spite of our declarations this morning saying that we were not agreeing to the coup. Santiago de Cuba’s behavior was very exemplary and I think that this is a reason for which the people of Santiago de Cuba, the revolutionaries and the military in the Plaza de Santiago de Cuba can feel very proud. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) And it cannot be said that the Revolution is anarchical and disorganized; that happened in Havana, due to a treacherous act, but it didn’t happen in Santiago de Cuba and we can set it up as a model whenever they try to accuse the Revolution of being anarchy and disorder. (APPLAUSE) It’s a good idea for the people to know about the communications between Gen. Cantillo and myself, if the people are not too tired, (SHOUTING AND CRIES OF “No!”) I can read the letter. After the agreements made, when we had already suspended our operations on Santiago de Cuba, because on the 28th our troops were by then very close to the city and we had carried out all the preparations for the attack on the Plaza in accordance with the interview we had had, we had to undergo a series of changes, to abandon the operations on Santiago de Cuba and to direct our troops towards other locations where we presumed that the movement had not been assured right from the very start. When all our movements had been made and the columns were prepared to march on the capital, I got this note from General Cantillo, a few hours before; it stated verbatim: “Circumstances have changed considerably in a sense that is favorable for a national solution”… in the sense that he wanted for Cuba. It was odd because after analyzing the factors we had on hand, the circumstances couldn’t have been more favorable. Triumph was assured and so it was odd that he would say: Circumstances have produced very favorable changes.” They were the circumstances agreed to by Batista and Tabernilla, circumstances ensuring the coup. “I recommend that you do nothing right now and wait for events during the next few weeks, prior to the 6th.” Of course, it was the indefinitely prolonged truce, while they were getting all the conditions ready in Havana. My immediate answer was: “The contents of the note are completely different from the agreements made; it is ambiguous and we cannot understand it and it has made me lose my confidence in the seriousness of the agreements. Hostilities cease as of 3 pm tomorrow, that being the day and the time agreed by the Movement.” And then a very strange thing occurred. Besides that very brief note, I also sent a message to the chief at Plaza de Santiago de Cuba via the same messenger, saying that if hostilities were ceasing because the agreement terms were not being fulfilled and we were being forced to attack Plaza de Santiago de Cuba, then there would be no other solution other than for the Plaza to surrender, that we would demand that the Plaza surrenders if hostilities ceased and the attack was initiated by us. But as it happened, the messenger did not correctly interpret my words and he told Col. Rego Rubido that I had said that I was demanding the surrender of the Plaza as a condition for any agreement. He didn’t say what I had declared to him about the attack being initiated, but not that I had presented Gen. Cantillo with the condition that the Plaza should surrender. As a result of the message, the Colonel in Chief of the Plaza de Santiago de Cuba sent me a very conceptual and honorable letter which I will also read. Naturally he was offended by that proposal that had been presented to him erroneously and he said: “The solution found is not a coup d’état or military junta and, nevertheless, we think that is the best thing for Dr. Fidel Castro in accordance with his ideas and it would put the fate of the nation into his hands in 48 hours. It is not a local solution but a national one and any advance indiscretion could compromise it or destroy it and create chaos. We would like you to trust our dealings and you will have the solution before the 6th.” “As for Santiago, because of the note and the messenger’s words, we have to change the plan and not enter; those words have caused ill will amongst the staff…and we shall never hand over the weapons without a fight. Weapons are not surrendered to an ally and they are not handed over without honor”… lovely phrasing from the chief of the Plaza de Santiago de Cuba. “If you do not trust us or if you attack Santiago, the agreements will be considered as broken and the dealings for the offered solution will be paralyzed; we shall formally relinquish all commitments. Due to the time needed to act in one way or another, we hope the answer arrives in time so that it can be sent to Havana in the afternoon.” I responded to that note written by Colonel José Rego Rubido as follows: "Free Territory of Cuba, 31 December 1958 "Sir: "An unfortunate error has occurred in the transmission of my words to you, perhaps due to the haste with which I answered your note and the hurried nature of the conversation I had with the messenger. I did not tell him that the condition we proposed in the agreements made was the surrender of Plaza de Santiago de Cuba to our forces; that would have been a discourtesy to our visitor and an unworthy and offensive proposal for the soldiers who have approached us in such a fraternal manner. “The matter is quite something else. An agreement had been reached and a plan was adopted between the leader of the military movement and ourselves; it was to start being effective on the 31st at 3 pm. Even the details were agreed after carefully analyzing the problems that had to be dealt with; we would start with the removal of the Santiago de Cuba Garrison, I persuaded the general…of the advantages of starting in Oriente and not at Columbia, in order to largely spare the people from any coup at the barracks in the capital of the Republic and how difficult it was going to be in that case to associate the citizenry with the Movement.

He fully went along with my points of view, he was only concerned about order in the capital and we agreed to measures that would avert danger. The measure was precisely the advance of our column on Santiago de Cuba. It was a matter of a united action between the military, the people and us, a type of revolutionary movement that from the very beginning would have the trust of the entire nation. “Immediately, and in accordance with what we had put together, we suspended the operations that were being undertaken and we took on the task of carrying out new movements of forces towards other points such as Holguín where the presence of well-known henchmen was making resistance to the revolutionary military movement an almost sure thing. “When all our preparations were ready, I received the note yesterday, where I was informed that the agreed action would not be carried out. It seemed there were different plans but I was not informed what they were or why. Indeed the matter was now not our business, we simply had to wait. Everything changed unilaterally and our forces were placed at risk; according to what had been assured, they would have been sent to undertake difficult operations; we were subjected to threats, to all kinds of imponderable elements… (INTERRUPTION) …any risk of the general…in his frequent trips to Havana would militarily become a disaster for us. You can recognize that right now everything is very confusing and that Batista is a skillful and crafty individual who knows how to manoeuver. Any risk… (INTERRUPTION) …How could they ask us to forego all the advantages obtained in the last few weeks of operations, to have us wait patiently for events to happen? “I clearly stated that it couldn’t be an action with just the military, for that reason we really didn’t have to await the horrors of two years of warfare. To have our hands tied at a decisive moment is not something we can be asked to do, we who have not rested in our fight against oppression for the last seven years. “Even though you intend to hand over power to the revolutionaries, it is not power per se that interests us; what interests us is that the Revolution fulfills its destiny. I am even concerned that the military, because of an unjustified excess of scruples, would facilitate the flight of the important guilty parties who would go abroad with their great fortunes to make all kinds of trouble for our homeland from over there. “I can personally add that power holds no interest for me, nor do I intend to occupy it; I shall only be vigilant that the sacrifices of so many compatriots are not wasted, whatever my subsequent fate may be. I hope that these honorable reasons which I explain to you, with all respect for your dignity as a soldier, are understood. You may rest assured that you are dealing with neither an ambitious nor an insolent man…” Stop the tanks for me over there, please. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) ANNOUNCER- Please keep those tanks quiet. Please; it is an order of the Commander in Chief that you silence the tanks and stop them right there so that the people can go on listening to the words of the supreme leader of the Cuban Revolution, Dr. Fidel Castro. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) DR. FIDEL CASTRO- When we finish our declarations and the proclamation of the provisional president, the tanks will render honors to the Civil Power of the Republic, parading in front of our balconies. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) He continued to read the letter of the 31st, written by the Colonel in Chief of the Plaza de Santiago de Cuba. "I can personally add that power holds no interest for me, nor do I intend to occupy it. I shall only be vigilant that the sacrifices of so many compatriots are not wasted, whatever my subsequent fate may be. I hope that these honorable reasons which I explain to you, with all respect for your dignity as a soldier, are understood. You may rest assured that you are dealing with neither an ambitious nor an insolent man… "I have always acted with loyalty and frankness in everything I do; one can never call something that has been achieved with deceitfulness and deception a triumph; the language of honor, which you understand, is the only language I know how to speak. "The word “surrender” was never mentioned at the meeting with the general; what I said yesterday and what I reiterate today is that as of 3:00 pm of the 31st, the date and time we agreed upon, we could not prolong the truce in regards to Santiago de Cuba because it would be extraordinarily detrimental to our union… (INTERRUPTION)…Never a conspiracy…Last night the rumor reached us here that the general…had been arrested in Havana, that several youths had turned up murdered in the Santiago de Cuba Cemetery. I had the feeling that we had miserably wasted our time, even though fortunately today it appears to be proven that the general…can be found at his post; what need do we have to run such risks? “What I told the messenger in terms of surrender, which was not transmitted literally and seemed to motivate the words of his note today, was as follows: ‘if hostilities were broken because of noncompliance with the agreed terms, we would see ourselves forced to attack Plaza de Santiago de Cuba, something that is inevitable given the manner in which we have directed our efforts in the last few months, in which case, once the operation was initiated, we would demand the surrender of the forces defending it’. This does not mean that we think they will surrender without a fight because I know, even without a reason to fight, Cuban soldiers defend their positions with stubbornness and it has cost us many lives. I only wanted to say that after the blood of our men has been spilt to conquer an objective, any other solution could not be acceptable, since even though it is a steep price for us to pay, given the current conditions of the forces defending the regime which were unable to provide backing for that city, the city would inexorably fall into our hands. That has been the basic objective of all of our operations during the past few months and a plan of this magnitude cannot be suspended for some weeks without serious consequences, in the case that the military movement is thwarted, losing, moreover, the opportune moment, which is this one, when the dictatorship is suffering huge setbacks in the Oriente and La Villas provinces.

“We are placed in the dilemma of giving up the advantages of our victory or attacking, a sure triumph in exchange for a probable triumph. Do you think that with yesterday’s note, so ambiguous and laconic a note, containing a unilateral decision, I could incur in the responsibility of keeping the plans suspended? As a military man, you can surely recognize that we are being asked the impossible. You have not for one moment stopped digging trenches; those trenches can be used against us by Pedraza, Pilar García, or Cañizares, if the general…is relieved of his command and along with him his trusted men. We cannot be asked to stand idly by; see how… (INTERRUPTION)…even though they bravely defend their weapons, we are left with no other option than to attack, because we also have very sacred obligations to fulfill. “More than allies, I wish that we and your honorable soldiers could be comrades in one single cause, the cause of Cuba. Above all else I wish that you and your comrades don’t get the erroneous idea that my attitude and my feelings, that (INTERRUPTION)… they are mistaken for…(INTERRUPTION)… I respect the tacit ceasefire in the zone of Santiago de Cuba, to avoid any doubts, I ratify that even though at any minute before combat starts we can take up operations again; as of today, it should be taken under consideration that the attack is going to happen at any time and for no reason whatsoever shall we suspend our plans again, since our … (INTERRUPTION) …may sow the seeds of confusion among the people and harm the morale of our combatants. “Sincerely, "Fidel Castro Ruz" (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) Col. Rego answered me with an honorable letter which is also worthy of honor and it sreads as follows: "Sir: "I received your kind letter dated today and please believe me when I say that I deeply thank you for the clarification on the previous note, even though I should tell you that I always thought that it was a matter of poor interpretation since over time I have observed your style of behavior and I am convinced that you are a man of principle. “I didn’t know about the details of the original plan since I was only informed about the part that affected me, nor do I know anything about some of the small details of the current plan. I would guess that in part you are right when you analyze the original plan; but I think that we still need a few days to see its consummation and we would never be able to avoid that many of the guilty individuals, the big, medium and small guilty individuals, would escape. “I am one of those who think that it is absolutely necessary to provide an example in Cuba for those who, taking advantage of their positions of power, commit all kinds of punishable acts. But unfortunately history is infested with similar cases and very rarely the guilty parties have been placed at the disposition of the competent authorities, because very rarely do revolutions do what has to be done… (INTERRUPTION)… I perfectly comprehend your concerns in this case, although I, bearing less of the historical responsibility, rather accept it. “As for the unilateral actions of which you speak, I repeat to you that…in both cases I was only informed of the part affecting me, considering that what happened was that the general…rendered the idea of what you wanted according to his norms and principles, thereby acting accordingly. "I have no reason to suppose that anybody is trying to abet the flight of the guilty person and, personally, I am opposed to such a thing,” said Col.Rego Rubido (APPLAUSE) — "but in case this should happen, the historic responsibility for such occurrences would fall on the shoulders of those making it possible and never on the others. "I sincerely believe that everything should take place in harmony with your ideas and that, in general, it is…inspired by the best wishes for Cuba’s welfare and that of the Revolution you are starting. "I learned about a young dead student found in the cemetery and just today I made sure that exhaustive investigations would be carried out in order to determine who was the killer and under what circumstances it occurred, just as in days past I placed the suspected persons responsible for the event at the disposition of the corresponding judicial authorities. "Finally I must inform you that I sent a dispatch to the general about a plane to send him your letter full of ideas, and don’t get impatient; maybe before the date set as the maximum limit, you will be in Havana. "When the general left, I asked him to leave me the helicopter with the pilot if it should occur to you to take a trip on Sunday afternoon over Santiago. (APPLAUSE) "Well, Doctor, please receive assurances of my highest consideration and my fervent wish for a happy New Year. "Signed: Colonel Rego Rubido" (APPLAUSE) Talks were at this stage when the chief of Plaza Santiago de Cuba, Colonel Rego, and I were surprised by the coup at Columbia which was completely out of the range of the agreements. And the first thing that was done, the most criminal thing that was done, was to let Batista get away, along with Tabernilla and the major guilty parties. (APPLAUSE) They were allowed to escape with their millions of pesos; they were allowed to escape with the 300 or 400 million pesos that they had stolen. It’s going to cost us a lot, because now from Santo Domingo and other countries they are going to be creating propaganda against the Revolution, cooking up everything they can to hurt our cause; and we are going to have them there, threatening our people, putting us into a constant state of alertness because they are going to be paying for and cooking up conspiracies against us. (SHOUTING) As soon as we heard about the coup, what did we do? As soon as we learned about it on Radio Progresso. And even at that time, guessing what they were cooking up, I was making some declarations when I found out that Batista had fled to Santo Domingo. And I thought: could this be a mistake? And I sent someone to find out about it when I hear that, effectively, Mr. Batista and his posse have escaped, and the loveliest thing about it was that Gen. Cantillo was saying that the movement had happened thanks to Batista’s patriotic proposals.

Batista’s patriotic proposals! That he resigned in order to avoid a bloodbath. What do you think about that? (SHOUTING) And there is still more. For you to have some idea about the kind of coup that was prepared; it’s enough to say that they had appointed Pedraza as a member of the Junta and he left. (SHOUTING) I don’t think we need to add anything else to see what intentions the perpetrators of the coup had. And they didn’t appoint President Urrutia, the man proclaimed as the president by the Movement and by all the revolutionary organizations. (APPLAUSE) They called up a man who is nothing but the oldest man among all the Supreme Court judges, and they are all quite old, especially a man who has been Presiding Judge, until today, of the Supreme Court, where there was no justice whatsoever. What was the result of all that going to be? A half-baked revolution, a shady deal, the caricature of a revolution. That Mr. Perico de los Palotes, it’s the same whatever you call him, whatever you call this Mr. Piedra who, by now, if he hasn’t resigned should be preparing himself for us to make him resign when we get to Havana. (APPLAUSE) I don’t think he’s going to last 24 hours. He’ll break a record. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) Appointing this man, really nice: Cantillo, a national hero, the champion of Cuban liberties, the lord and master of Cuba, and that Mr. Piedra over there. Quite simply we would have overthrown one dictator and installed another one. By all accounts, the Columbia Movement was a counter-revolutionary movement; by all accounts it was far from the peoples’ proposal; by all accounts it was suspicious and immediately Mr. Piedra said he was going to convoke the rebels and a peace commission. And we would calmly dispose of our weapons, leaving everything and we would go there to show respect to Mr. Piedra and Mr. Cantillo. It was clear that both Cantillo and Piedra were living on another planet. They were somewhere on the moon because I think that the Cuban people have learned a lot and we, the rebels have learned something. That was the state of affairs this morning; it isn’t the same situation as it was during the night because a lot has changed. (APPLAUSE) Faced with this event, faced with this treachery, we ordered all rebel commanders to continue with their military operations and to continue marching to their objectives; consequently we immediately ordered all the columns destined for the Santiago de Cuba operation to advance to the city. I want you all to know that our forces had very seriously decided to take Santiago de Cuba by storm. That would have been very unfortunate because it would have cost a lot of blood and tonight would not have been such a night of joy as it is, nor would there have been peace like we have now, nor would there have been such a spirit of fraternity as we have now. (APPLAUSE) I must confess that if no bloody battle was waged in Santiago de Cuba this is due to a great degree to the patriotic attitude of Army Colonel José Rego Rubido (APPLAUSE); to the commanders of the frigates "Máximo Gómez" and "Maceo", to the chief of the Santiago de Cuba Naval District (APPLAUSE) and to the officer who was in charge of police headquarters (APPLAUSE). All of them, and that’s exactly what we are acknowledging and grateful for here, contributed in avoiding a bloody battle and they turned the counterrevolutionary movement that morning into a revolutionary movement this afternoon. We were left with no other alternative than to attack because we couldn’t allow the Columbia coup to consolidate and so we had to attack without delay. And when the troops were already moving out towards their objectives, Col. Rego went out in the helicopter to find me; the frigate commanders got in touch with us and unconditionally followed the orders of the Revolution. (APPLAUSE) By that time, counting on the support of the two frigates which have great fire power, with the support of the naval district and with the support of the police, I called for a meeting of all army officers at Plaza Santiago de Cuba, over 100 of them. When I invited them to meet with me, I told those soldiers that I didn’t have the slightest concern about talking with them because I knew I was right; because I knew they would understand my arguments and that an agreement would come out of this meeting. In fact, by nightfall, early that night, we met at El Escandel, almost all the army officers in Santiago de Cuba, many of them young men who look like they are eager to fight for the good of their country. I assembled those soldiers and I told them about our revolutionary feeling;

I assembled those soldiers and I told them about our revolutionary feeling; I talked to them about the aim for our country; I talked to them about what we wanted for the country, what our conduct with the military had always been, about all the harm the tyranny had done to the army and about how it wasn’t fair they should think of themselves as being the same as all soldiers, that the criminals were only an insignificant minority and that there were many honorable soldiers in the army, and that I know how they hate crime, abuses and injustice. It wasn’t easy for the soldiers to develop a determinate type of action; it was logical since the higher ranks in the army were in Tabernilla’s hands, in the hands of Pilar García, in the hands of Batista’s family and his unconditional followers, and that the army was overrun with a great sense of terror. Once couldn’t expect any isolated officer to shoulder the responsibility. There were two types of soldiers, and we know about them very well: soldiers like Sosa Blanco, Cañizares, Sánchez Mosquera, Chaviano (SHOUTING), who are characterized by crime and the point blank murders of unfortunate peasants. But there were soldiers who were very honorable in their campaign; there were soldiers who never killed anyone or burned down any houses, such as Major Quevedo who was our prisoner after putting up heroic resistance at the battle of El Jigüe, and who today is still a major in the army (APPLAUSE). There was Major Sierra, and many other soldiers who never burned down any houses. Those soldiers were never promoted. It was the criminals who were promoted because Batista always made sure he rewarded crime. For example we have the case of Col. Rego Rubido who doesn’t owe any of his stripes to the dictatorship; he was already a colonel when the events of the 10th of March occurred. (APPLAUSE) It is quite true that I asked for the support of the army officers at Santiago de Cuba and that the army officers of Santiago de Cuba gave their unconditional support to the Cuban Revolution. (APPLAUSE) Bringing together the officers of the navy, the police and the army, we were able to bring down the coup rigged up in Columbia and to support the legal government of the republic, because it had the majority of our people, which is Dr. Manuel Urrutia Lleó. Thanks to such an attitude we were able to avoid a lot of bloodshed; thanks to that attitude we have given birth to the truth, on this afternoon today, to a true revolutionary military movement. I understand that among the people there are many justified passions; I understand our people’s yearning for justice and we must have justice. (APPLAUSE) But I would like to ask our people here…we are at a time when we must consolidate power, first and foremost. And nobody would be against that! Because the army and the armed forces are among those who most want to see that the guilt of a few is not paid by the entire corps, and that it shouldn’t be shameful to wear a uniform; that the guilty should be punished so that the innocent do not have to bear the load of disrepute. (APPLAUSE) Trust us! That’s what we are asking of the people because we know how to do our duty. (APPLAUSE) In those circumstances, this afternoon a true revolutionary movement of the people took place, a revolutionary movement of the military and of the rebels, in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The enthusiasm of the military is indescribable! And here are all the army officers! There are the tanks at the beck and call of the Revolution! There is all the artillery at the beck and call of the Revolution! There are the frigates at the beck and call of the Revolution! (APPLAUSE) I am not going to say that the Revolution has people; that cannot be said because everyone knows it. I was saying that people, who had shotguns before, now have artillery, tanks and frigates and there are many trained technicians in the army who are going to help us handle them. (APPLAUSE) Now it is really the people who are armed! I can assure you that when we only numbered 12 men, all on our own, we didn’t lose hope; now that we have 12 tanks over there, how are we going to lose hope? I would like to clear up that today, tonight, during the dawn hours, because it is almost morning, that illustrious magistrate Dr. Manuel Urrutia Lleó shall take possession of the Presidency of the Republic. (APPLAUSE) Does Dr.Urrutia have the support of the people or not? (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTING) Because I mean that the President of the Republic, the legal president, that is what counts for the people and that man is Dr. Manuel Urrutia Lleó. Who wants Mr.

Who wants Mr. Piedra to be the president? (BOOING) If nobody wants Mr. Piedra as president, why are we going to be saddled with Mr. Piedra? (BOOING) If that is the command of the people of Santiago de Cuba, which is the sentiment of all the people of Cuba, as soon as this function ends I will be marching with the veteran troops from the Sierra Maestra, the tanks and the artillery, towards the capital, so that the will of the people is fulfilled. (APPLAUSE) Here we stand, very simply, at the command of the people. What is legal at this moment is the mandate of the people; the president is elected by the people and not by a coterie at Columbia at 4 o’clock in the morning (APPLAUSE). None of the positions, none of the ranks that have been awarded by the Military Junta during the small hours of this morning have any validity whatsoever; all the appointments for army positions are null and void; I refer to all those appointments made this morning. Whoever accepts a position designated by the Junta will be a traitor this morning, they will be assuming a counterrevolutionary stand, call it what you will, and consequently they will be outlaws. I am completely sure that all the military positions in the Republic will have accepted the provisions of the President of the Republic. (APPLAUSE) The President will immediately proceed to appoint the chiefs of the army, navy and police. For his excellent service afforded at this time to the Revolution and for having places thousands of his men at the disposition of the Revolution, we recommend Col. Rego Rubido as the Chief of the aArmy; he is a man…(APPLAUSE) Likewise, as Chief of the Navy we will appoint one of the two commanders of the frigate that was the first one to join the Revolution (APPLAUSE) and I have recommended to the President of the Republic that he designate Major Efigenio Ameijeiras as the head of the National Police Force; he has lost two brothers, he was one of the members of the Granma expeditionary force and he is one of the most capable men in the revolutionary army. (APPLAUSE) Ameijeiras is conducting operations in Guantánamo but he will soon be with us here. (APPLAUSE) I only ask for time for us and for the Civil Power of the Republic in order to carry out things as the people ask, but little by little. (SOMEONE IN THE AUDIENCE SAYS SOMETHING) I am just asking one thing of the people, and that is to be calm (FROM THE AUDIENCE SOMEONE SAYS: “Oriente federal, Oriente capital!”) No, no! The republic must be united above all else. What you have to ask for is justice for Oriente. (APPLAUSE) In short, time is an important factor. The Revolution cannot…rest assured that the revolution will do it; rest assured that for the very first time the Republic will be entirely free, and the people will have…(APPLAUSE) Power has not been the result of politics; it has been the result of the sacrifice of hundreds and thousands of our comrades. There is no other commitment with the people and with the Cuban nation. A man has come to power who has no commitments with anybody, only with the people, exclusively. (APPLAUSE) Che Guevara received orders to advance on the non-provisional capital of the Republic and Major Camilo Cienfuegos, Chief of the Antonio Maceo Column 2 has received orders to march on greater Havana and to assume the command of the military headquarters of Columbia. Simply, the orders of the President of the Republic and the mandate of the Revolution will be followed. (APPLAUSE) Don’t blame us for the excesses that were committed in Havana; we were not in Havana. Blame Gen. Cantillos for the disturbances occurring in Havana and the individuals who put together the dawn coup; they thought they were going to dominate the situation over there. (APPLAUSE) In Santiago de Cuba, where a true revolution occurred, there has been complete law and order; in Santiago de Cuba the people have united, the military and the revolutionaries are together, and that is indestructible. The head of the government, the head of the army and the head of the navy will be in Santiago de Cuba; their orders must be fulfilled by all the command posts in the Republic. We would hope that all honorable soldiers bide by these provisions because soldiers, above all else, are at the service of the law and of authority, not constituted authority, because often this is a poorly constituted authority, but authority which has been legally constituted. No honorable soldier has anything to fear from the Revolution. Here in this struggle there are no vanquished persons, because only the people have been the victors. (APPLAUSE) Some have fallen on one side and some on the other side, but we have all come together to give the nation its victory. We have given the fraternal embrace, the good soldiers and the revolutionaries.

We have given the fraternal embrace, the good soldiers and the revolutionaries. (APPLAUSE) Now there will be no more blood spilt; I hope that no nucleus will put up any resistance because besides being useless resistance, it would be resistance that would be crushed in a few moments, it would be resistance against the law and against the Republic, and against all the sentiment of the Cuban nation. (APPLAUSE) It has been necessary to organize today’s Movement so that no other war will take place in the next six months. What happened during the machadato? Well, one of Machado’s generals staged a coup and removed Machado and a president was installed that lasted for 15 days; the sergeants arrived and said that those officers were responsible for the Machado dictatorship and that they didn’t respect them, revolutionary effervescence grew and they kicked out the officers. Now that couldn’t happen in this way; now these officers are backed by the people, and they have the backing of the troops and they have the prestige which is given them after they have joined the true revolutionary movement. (APPLAUSE) These soldiers will be respected and well-regarded by the people and we won’t have to use force and we won’t have to go on the streets armed with guns, inspiring fear in everyone; because true law and order is that which is based on freedom, on respect for justice, and not on force. From now on the people shall be completely free and the people will know how to behave correctly, just as they have demonstrated today. (APPLAUSE) The peace our country needs has been achieved; Santiago de Cuba has moved on to freedom, without having to spill any blood. That’s why there is so much joy and that’s why the soldiers who disregarded and disapproved of the coup at Columbia so that they could unconditionally join the Revolution deserve our recognition, our gratitude and our respect. (APPLAUSE) The armed institutions of the Republic will be model institutions in the future, due to their capacity, their education and the way they identify with the cause of the people because from now on, rifles will only be at the service of the people. There will be no more coups d’état, no more wars because we have looked after that so that the same thing that happened with Machado happens here and now. Those gentlemen who would like to have the occurrence at dawn resemble the Machado case… that time they installed Carlos Manuel and now they have installed another Carlos Manuel. (BOOS) What we won’t have this time is a Batista, because we don’t need another 4th of September that destroyed the discipline of the armed forces, because what happened with Batista was that he installed indiscipline here in the army, because his policy consisted of praising the parties in order to diminish the authority of the officers. Officers will have authority; there will be discipline in the army, there will be a military criminal code where the crimes against human rights and against honor will be duly punished and there will be an obligatory sense of morals for every soldier. (APPLAUSE) There will be no privileges for anyone; soldiers with capacity and merit will be promoted, not the relatives or friends, something that went on until today when the ladder of ascension had not been respected. All of those mandatory obligations will cease for soldiers and for all workers; for workers union dues will cease (APPLAUSE) and for soldiers it’s the “peso for the First Lady” that will disappear; two pesos here and two pesos there, and so the entire salary disappears. Naturally the people have everything to expect from us, and they shall receive it. But I have talked to the military so that they also know they will receive everything from the Revolution, all the improvements they never had because when the state budget is not being pilfered the military will be much better off than they are today. Soldiers won’t have to serve as police; soldiers will be at their training sessions, in their barracks and they won’t have to act as a police force. (APPLAUSE) (SOMEONE IN THE AUDIENCE SAYS SOMETHING) Nothing about microwaves, although I’d like to clarify that at this moment the rebels have microwaves, because we need them, but the microwaves now do not come with the henchmen, none of that, no murderers, no more screeching brakes in front of your homes and no more midnight knocks at the door. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) I am sure that just as soon as the President of the Republic takes office he will decree the reestablishing of guarantees, and the absolute freedom of the press and all individual rights in the country (APPLAUSE), all labor union rights and all the rights and demands of our peasants and our people. We shall not forget our peasants in the Sierra Maestra and in Santiago de Cuba. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) We won’t go to live in Havana and forget about all of you; where I want to live is in the Sierra Maestra. At least, in the part that belongs to me, because of my very deep feelings of gratitude; I shall not forget those peasants and as soon as I have some free time I will go to see where we will put up the first school-city that can hold 20,000 children. (APPLAUSE) and we will set it up with the help of the people; the rebels are going to work there and we are going to ask every citizen for a bag of cement and one steel rod and I know we will get the help of our citizens. We shall never forget any sector of our country (SOMEONE IN THE AUDIENCE SAYS: Viva Crescencio Pérez!) Long live Crescencio Pérez who lost a child in the days after the war! The country’s economy will be immediately reestablished. This year we will be the ones to look after the sugar cane so that it doesn’t burn, so that this year the sugar tax won’t serve to buy murdering weapons and bombs, and the planes to bomb our people. (APPLAUSE) We will look after communications and now, from Jiguaní to Palma Soriano, telephone lines have been reestablished and the rail lines have been reestablished. There will be a sugar cane harvest throughout the country and there will be good salaries because I know that that is the goal of the President of the Republic.

And there will be good prices because, precisely, the fears of there not being a sugar harvest raised the prices in the world market; and the peasants can get their coffee out and the ranchers can sell their fat cows in Havana because fortunately the triumph has arrived in good time so that there won’t be any sort of disaster. It is not my place to speak of these things. You all know we are men who keep our word and that we fulfill our promises and we like to promise less than we can deliver, not more, but less than what we are going to deliver and to do more of what we offer to the people of Cuba. (APPLAUSE) We don’t think that all the problems are going to get solved easily; we know that the road is strewn with obstacles, but we are men of faith and that we always face great difficulties. (APPALUSE); the people maybe sure of one thing and that is that we may make mistakes over and over, but the only thing they can never say about us is that we steal, that we betray, that we are involved in dirty business. And I know the people will forgive the mistakes but won’t forgive the scoundrels. And those individuals we have had up to now have been scoundrels. Upon taking office as president, as of that moment, when he takes the presidential oath before the people, Dr. Manuel Urrutia Lleó will be the supreme authority in our country. (APPLAUSE) Nobody thinks that I would like to take on powers here that go above the authority of the President of the Republic; I would be the first man to abide by the orders of the Civil Power of the Republic and the first man to provide an example (APPLAUSE); we shall simply follow his orders and, within the powers he grants us, we shall try to do as much as we can for our people, without any personal ambitions, because fortunately we are immune to ambition and vanity! What greater glory can there be than the love of our people! What greater prize is there that those millions of arms waving, full of hope, faith and love for us! (APPLAUSE) Never will we allow ourselves to be dragged down by vanity and ambition because as our Apostle once said: “All the glory of the world fits into a single kernel of corn”, and there is no satisfaction or prize greater than fulfilling one’s duty, as we have been doing until today and as we shall always do. And I do not speak of this on my behalf; I speak on behalf of the thousands and thousands of combatants who have made victory for the people possible. (APPLAUSE) I speak of the profound feeling of respect and devotion for our dead who shall not be forgotten. The fallen shall have in us their most faithful comrades. This time it won’t be possible to say as at other times that the memory of the dead has been betrayed, because the dead will continue to command. Physically Frank País and Josué País are no longer with us, nor are the others; but morally they are here with us, they are here spiritually, and only the satisfaction of knowing that the sacrifice has not been in vain compensates for the immense emptiness they left along the way. (APPLAUSE) Their graves will go on having fresh flowers! Their sons will not be forgotten because the relatives of the fallen will be helped! (APPLAUSE) We, the rebels, will not get paid a salary for the years we fought and we are proud that we aren’t getting a salary for the services we have provided for the Revolution. But it is possible that we will continue fulfilling our obligations without being paid any salaries because if there is no money, it doesn’t matter, what we have is the will, and we will do whatever is necessary. (APPLAUSE) But I also want to repeat here what I said in “History Will Absolve Me”: we will be making sure that the means of support, the assistance, the education of the children of the soldiers fallen fighting against us will not be lacking, because they are not to blame for the horrors of the war. (APPLAUSE) We will be generous with everyone because, I repeat, there are no vanquished here, only victors. Only the war criminals will be punished because that is the inevitable duty we have with justice, and the people can be sure that we are going to perform that duty. (APPLAUSE) And when justice is meted out, there will be no vengeance. We must have justice today so that in future days there will be no attacks on anyone. Since there will be justice, there will be no vengeance. There will be no hatred. We have eliminated hatred from the Republic, like a damned shadow left to us by ambition and …. It is sad that the most guilty parties have escaped; there were thousands of men ready to look for them, but we have to respect the laws of other countries. It would have been easy for us, because we have more than enough volunteers ready to risk their lives to go looking for those criminals; but we don’t want to seem to be a people which violate the laws of others. We shall respect them while they respect ours, but it is certain that in Santo Domingo they are getting ready to conspire against us…(INTERRUPTION) I had thought, at one time, that Trujillo would have harmed us by selling arms to Batista, and the damage he occasioned was not because he sold the arms but because he sold such bad arms so that when they fell into our hands they were good for nothing. (LAUGHTER) Nevertheless he sold bombs and with these bombs many peasants were killed. We don’t even have any wish to return the carbines because they are no good, but we should return something better… Yes; it’s logical in the first instance that the politically persecuted of Santo Domingo will have here their better home and their better asylum and the politically persecuted of every dictatorship will have here their best home and the best understanding because we ourselves have been politically persecuted. If Santo Domingo becomes an arsenal for counterrevolution, if Santo Domingo becomes a base for conspiracies against the Cuban Revolution, if those gentlemen dedicate themselves to engage in conspiracies from there, they’d be better off leaving Santo Domingo soon because they won’t be safe there either.

If Santo Domingo becomes an arsenal for counterrevolution, if Santo Domingo becomes a base for conspiracies against the Cuban Revolution, if those gentlemen dedicate themselves to engage in conspiracies from there, they’d be better off leaving Santo Domingo soon because they won’t be safe there either. (APPLAUSE) And it won’t be us, because we have no business getting mixed up in Santo Domingo’s problems; it’s just that the Dominicans have learned from Cuba’s example and things are going to get very serious over there. The Dominicans have learned that it is possible to fight against tyranny and defeat it, and this example is what the dictators fear most; a heartening example for the Americas has just taken place in our country. (APPLAUSE) The Americas must look after the course and the future of this Revolution; the Americas are looking at us, the Americas accompany us with their best wishes for triumph, the Americas will support us in our difficult moments, and just as we have rejoiced when some dictator falls in Latin America, the Americas too will be glad for the Cubans. I must conclude, even though the load of feelings and ideas that with the disorder, hubbub and emotions of today bring to mind is great. I was saying, and I still haven’t finished that idea, that there will be justice and that it was unfortunate that the guiltiest parties have escaped, the fault of people we know because the people realize who is to blame for their escape. And that they left behind, I won’t say the most unfortunate but yes, the most dim-witted persons, those who didn’t have the money, the men in the rank and file who obeyed the orders of the guiltiest parties; they let the guiltiest parties escape so that the people could satisfy their anger and indignation with those who held less responsibility. It is right for them to be punished this time, so that they learn (APPLAUSE). The same thing always happens; the people warn them that the big fish are getting away and they stay. But the same thing always happens; the big fish leave and the little ones stay behind; well, they should also be punished. (APPALAUSE) The big ones leave, and they too will be punished; it’s tough, very tough having to live far away from your homeland for the rest of your life, at the least they will be condemned to ostracism for their entire lives, all those criminals and thieves who have suddenly fled. If only we could spy on Mr. Batista right now! That punk, that arrogant man who made speeches only to call upon cowards, scoundrels, bandits and the like! Here nobody has called anybody a bandit; here hatred does not reign; we do not breathe in the hatred, arrogance or disdain which filled the dictatorship’s speeches. They say that man had a bullet in his pistol when he entered Columbia and he left early in the dawn in a plane with one bullet in his pistol. It was demonstrated how dictators are neither so feared nor so suicidal, and that when all is lost, they flee like cowards. What is really unfortunate is that he escaped when he could have been taken prisoner, and if we had imprisoned Batista we would have taken away the 200 million pesos he stole. We would reclaim the money, no matter where he had stashed it, because those kinds of men are not political criminals. They are common criminals! And we shall see who shows up in the embassies, and we shall see if Mr. Cantillo has given them their safe-conducts. We will differentiate between political criminals and common criminals; asylum for political criminals and nothing for common criminals. They will have to show up at court and show that they are political criminals and if it is proven that they are common criminals they will be handed over to the authorities. And Mujal, in spite of the fact that he is big and fat…we don’t know where he is right now. (SHOUTING) See how they run away! (SOMEONE SAYS SOMETHING FROM THE AUDIENCE) I don’t understand how you all still remember these wretches! The people have finally gotten rid of all those bastards. Now anyone who wants to can speak, for good or for bad, but anyone can speak. It’s not like it used to be here when only those people talked and they spoke badly; there will be freedom…because of that…freedom so that they can criticize and attack us; it will always be a pleasure to speak when they fight us with the freedom we have helped everyone to attain. (APPLAUSE) We will never offend them; we will always defend ourselves and we will follow only one rule, the rule of respect for the law and respect for how other people think. This names that have been mentioned here, those people who are in who knows which embassy, on which beach, on which ship, wherever they have ended up…(UNINTELLIGIBLE)…we have gotten rid of them, and if they have some little home, some little estate or some little cows somewhere, we will simply have to confiscate them.

This names that have been mentioned here, those people who are in who knows which embassy, on which beach, on which ship, wherever they have ended up…(UNINTELLIGIBLE)…we have gotten rid of them, and if they have some little home, some little estate or some little cows somewhere, we will simply have to confiscate them. But I have to point out that the tyranny’s officials, the representatives, the senators, those who haven’t especially been stealing, but those who have been paid their salaries, they will have to return every last cent they have been paid in these last four years because they have been paid illegally and they will have to reimburse the Republic for the money those senators and representatives earned. And if they don’t return it, we will confiscate the assets they have. (SHOUTING) That, besides what they stole, because those men who stole have nothing left that is a product of the theft, because that is the first law of the Revolution. It isn’t fair to send a man to prison for stealing a chicken or a turkey and then those men who stole millions of pesos are set for life somewhere over there. (APPLAUSE) And they should be careful! The thieves of today and yesterday should be careful; they should be careful because revolutionary laws can come down over all the guilty persons of all times, because the Revolution arrives at its triumph without any commitments to anyone at all. There only commitment is with the people because the people are the only ones to whom they owe their victory. (APPLAUSE) I shall finish now, (SHOUTING OF: “No!”) I shall finish for today. Don’t forget that I have to immediately march out, this is my obligation, and you have been on your feet for many hours. (SHOUTING) I see so many red and black flags pinned to the dresses of our female comrades and so it is really tough to leave this podium where we have experienced, all of us here today, the greatest emotions of our lives. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) We cannot help but remember Santiago de Cuba with overwhelming love. The times we have met here, a meeting over there in the Alameda, a meeting over here in an avenue, Trocha, where one day I said that if they took away our rights by force, we would make a change…and take up guns. (APPLAUSE) And they blamed Luis Orlando for those statements, I kept my mouth closed, in the newspaper they wrote that it was Luis Orlando who had said that. I was the one who had said that but I wasn’t sure if the statements were well made because in those days there weren’t… (LAUGHTER) and it turned out we had to exchange everything, the students, their books and pencils, for guns; the peasants would exchange their work implements for guns and we would all have to exchange everything for guns. For the time being the gun matter has ceased. Guns will be kept where they can be accessed by men who have the duty to defend our sovereignty and our rights. But when our people are threatened, it won’t be just the 30,000 or 40,000 members of the Armed Forces who will fight; instead it will be 300,000 or 400,000 or 500,000 Cubans who will be fighting, men and women here who are able to fight. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) We will have the necessary weapons to arm everyone who wants to fight when the time comes to defend our sovereignty. (APPLAUSE) Because it has been demonstrated that it isn’t just the men who fight, but the women also fight in Cuba, (APPLAUSE) and the best proof of this is the Mariana Grajales Battalion which distinguished itself so highly in a number of battles. (APPLAUSE) And the women soldiers are as excellent as our best male soldiers. I wanted to show how women could be such good soldiers. At first I had to get over my problems with the idea because there were many prejudices and there were men who would wonder how a gun could be given to some woman when there was a man with a rifle around. But why not? I wanted to show how women could be such good soldiers, and that there were many prejudices…about women, and that the female sector of our country also needs to be remedied, because women are victims of discrimination in jobs and in many other aspects of life. We organized female units, and they demonstrated that women can fight. And when men and women fight in a country, that country becomes invincible. We shall keep the militias or the female reserve troops organized and we shall keep all the women volunteers trained. (APPLAUSE) And all these young women I see here today wearing the red and black dresses, the colors of the July 26th Movement, I hope they too will learn how to handle weapons. (SHOUTING AND APPLAUSE) And this Revolution, my compatriots, that has been accomplished with so much sacrifice, our Revolution, the Revolution of the people, is now a beautiful and indestructible reality! What a reason for well-founded pride, what a reason for sincere joy and for the hopes of all our people! I know it’s not just here in Santiago de Cuba; it goes from Point Maisi to the Cape of San Antonio. I fervently hope to see the people all along the route to the capital because I know that it is the same hope, the same faith of all the people who have risen up, that have patiently withstood all the sacrifice, who haven’t complained about the hunger; that when we gave permission, three days for setting up communications again, so that they wouldn’t be hungry, everyone protested (APPLAUSE) because what they wanted was to achieve victory, whatever the cost. And our people really deserve a better future, they really deserve to have the happiness that they haven’t achieved in their 50 years of Republic; they really deserve to become one of the top-ranking countries in the world, because of their intelligence, their courage and their spirit (APPALAUSE). Nobody can think that I speak like a demagogue. Nobody can think that I want to bamboozle the people. I have demonstrated my faith in the people enough because when I arrived with 82 men on the beaches of Cuba and people were saying that we were crazy and they were asking us why we thought we were going to win the war, I told them” “Because we have the people.” (APPLAUSE) And when we suffered our first defeat, and only a handful of men remained and we kept on fighting, we knew that this would become reality, because we believed in the people.

When they broke us up five times in 45 days and we got together again and took up the battle again, it was because we had faith in the people. And today we have the most tangible demonstration that the faith had a firm basis (APPLAUSE). I have the satisfaction of having profoundly believed in the people of Cuba and that I have instilled that faith in my comrades; that faith which, more than faith, is the complete security in our men. And that same faith we have in all of you is the faith we want you to have in us, always (APPLAUSE). The Republic wasn’t free in 1995 and the hopes and dreams of the Mambises were thwarted at the last moment. The Revolution didn’t take place in 1933 and it was thwarted by its enemies. This time the Revolution has all the people; it has all the revolutionaries, it has the honorable militants. Its strength is so great and so irrepressible that this time triumph is assured! We can jubilantly say that in the four centuries since our nation was founded, for the first time we will be completely free and the work of the Mambises will be fulfilled (APPALUSE). Just a few short days ago, on the 24th of February, I couldn’t resist the temptation to visit my mother. I hadn’t seen her for several years. When I was returning along the road crossing the Mangos of Baraguá, during the dark hours of night, a feeling of deep devotion made us stop there. Those of us travelling by car stopped there at that spot where they have erected a monument commemorating the Protest of Baraguá and the start of the invasion. At that time, in the presence of those sites, thinking about the exploits of our wars of independence, the idea that those men had fought for 30 years and never saw their dreams made reality because the Republic had been thwarted, and the foreboding that very soon the Revolution they dreamed of, the homeland they dreamed of, would become real. It made us feel the most exciting sensations that could ever be imagined. I saw those men with their sacrifices come to life again, those same sacrifices we have also come to know at first hand; I was thinking of their hopes and dreams, the same as our hopes and dreams, and I thought about how this generation of Cubans has to pay and how they have now paid the most fervent tribute of acknowledgement and loyalty to the heroes of our independence. The men who have fallen in our three wars of independence today join forces with the men who have fallen in this war. And we can say to all those who have fallen in our struggles for freedom that at last the time has come for their dreams to be fulfilled. The time has come for all of you, finally, our people, our good and noble people which are total enthusiasm and faith, our people which freely love and freely trust, that fears men with affection above and beyond what they offer, they will have everything they need (APPLAUSE). I only have to say to them here, modestly, sincerely, with profound emotion, that they will always have us, their revolutionary combatants as their loyal servants; they will only have to serve them in return (APPLAUSE). Today, upon assuming the presidency of the Republic, Dr. Manuel Urrutia Lleó, the judge who said that the Revolution was just… (INTERRUPTION) ... liberated territory now takes up the entire country; I shall simply take on the functions he assigns me, all the authority of the Republic is in his hands. (APPLAUSE) Our arms bow down respectfully to the Civilian Power in the civilian Republic of Cuba. (APPLAUSE) I don’t have to tell you that we are hoping he will fulfill his duty, because we are simply sure that he knows how to fulfill it. The provisional president of the Republic of Cuba…and the authority, and I give him the podium so that he may address the people. (OVATION) SHORTHAND VERSIONS – COUNCIL OF STATE VERSIONES TAQUIGRAFICAS - CONSEJO DE ESTADO Fidel Castro Internet Archive

Home Contents Subscribe Write us! [email protected] June 2002 • Vol 2, No. 6 • Once Again: Before and After Jan. 1, 1959 By Fidel Castro Dear compatriots from Holguin, Granma, Las Tunas and from all of Cuba: On May 20, the day of the shameful show in Miami, it was ironic to listen to Mr. W. Bush claim strongly for independence and freedom, not for Puerto Rico but for Cuba, and to talk much about democracy, not for Florida but for Cuba. Mr. W. made a special point of defending private property, as if it did not exist in Cuba. I then realized that years pass. The days are really far now when a man spoke from his wheelchair with a soft voice and a persuasive accent. He spoke as a president of the United States of America and he inspired respect. It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He did not speak like a showoff or a thug, nor was the United States the hegemonic hyperpower it is today. At that time, Ethiopia had been occupied. The bloody Spanish Civil War had begun. China was being invaded and Nazi-fascism was a threat to the world. Roosevelt, who I think was a real statesman, was striving to steer his country away from a dangerous isolationism. Fidel Castro participating in discussion in a workshop at the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) held in Durban, South Africa, August 31 through September 7, 2001. I was then a sixth or seventh grader. I was 12 or 13 years old. I had been born deep in the countryside, where there was no electricity. Sometimes the only way to get there was riding a horse through very muddy dirt roads. Back then, I spent most of the year in a rigid and segregationist boarding school in Santiago—that is, in sexual apartheid, where the boys were kept at great distance from the girls, in schools that were light-years away from each other—with several interspersed holidays and a longer vacation in summer time when I came to Biran. Those of us who were privileged could have shoes, clothes and be well fed; however, a sea of poverty surrounded us. I don’t know how large is Mr. W.’s Texas ranch. I do remember that my father had over 24,700 acres of farmland. Of course, that meant hardly anything as extensive areas, between 272,710 and 284,245 acres, surrounded the family land owned by the West Indies Sugar Company and the United Fruit Company. I remember that when it was announced that the president of the United States would speak it was tantamount to saying that God would speak. And it was only natural, since everything came from there: the beautiful, the good and the useful things, from a razor blade to a locomotive; from a postcard of the Statue of Liberty to one of those Western films, which fascinated both children and adults. Fidel Castro about 1959 Moreover, “it was from there that our freedom and independence had come.” That was what the dozens of thousands of farm laborers and farmers with no land of their own were told in those areas where they could only work part of the year cleaning or cutting sugar cane. They went hungry and barefoot, dressed in rags and lived in terror of the “rural guard”—a special force created by the administrators of the country and armed with Springfield rifles and long and thin machetes that became famous. They also used to wear big hats and ride seven-foot-Texas horses that, with their imposing sizes, scared our undernourished workers ruthlessly suppressed by those guards if they as much as threatened to revolt or go on strike. In those immensely extensive fields, where there were huts, thatched-roof shacks, impoverished villages and sugar mills, it was hard to find a single very poor classroom for the 200 or 300 children who lived in the area; there were no books, very few school materials and sometimes not even a teacher. It was only in the hamlets that sprang up around the big sugar mills that there were one or two physicians who basically cared for the families of the foreign sugar companies’ local managers and senior operatives. On the other hand, a rather strange character could be easily found everywhere. He had no more than a third or a fourth grade of grammar school, but that meant being practically a wise man as compared to the masses of illiterates. He was often a godfather of somebody’s child and an occasional visitor to the families living in the countryside. He was in charge of things related to elections. He obtained the peoples’ ID cards and the promise of their votes he was the politician’s crony. The people in the countryside did not intend to sell their votes, but rather help “their friend.” With few exceptions, the candidates with most money in their chests, who could hire more political cronies, won the races either for national legislative office or for other county or provincial elective positions. If any of those elections was intended to change the President—never the political or social system, which was unthinkable—and if there was any conflict of interests, it was the rural guard that decided who the new leaders would be. Most of our people were either illiterate or semi-illiterate and they depended on a miserable job arbitrarily handed them by an employer or an elected official. The people had no choice, as they even lacked the minimum indispensable knowledge to decide on the increasingly complex issues of this world. As for the history of our homeland, they only knew the legend passed down by the grandparents and the parents about past heroic struggles fought in the colonial days; eventually, it was fortunate that it was that way. As for the traditional political parties, where the oligarchies that served the empire prevailed, how could our people understand them? Who could teach them? Where could they read about it? With what alphabet? How could that information be passed on? The brilliant and heroic effort of the leftist intellectuals of the time, who made remarkable progress under those circumstances, clashed with the insurmountable walls of a new imperial system and the centuries-old experience of the ruling classes to keep the peoples oppressed, exploited, confused and divided.

The only property right known by most Cubans before 1959 was the right of the big foreign companies and their allies of the national oligarchy to own enormous amounts of farmland in our country, as well as the country’s natural resources and biggest factories, the crucial public services, the banks, the storage facilities, the ports, the hospitals and the private schools that served with excellence a negligible minority of the privileged population. As fate would have it, I was honored to be born precisely in the territory of this province, in a place that is 33.5 miles in a straight line from this Plaza, but which is very close to my memory, hardly ten millimeters or ten seconds from my mind. In those enormous sugar cane fields, I could only see dozens of thousands of farmers with no land to till or sharecroppers paying huge rents but without any contracts to back the arrangement, and constantly threatened and evicted by those riders of Texan horses. In the cities, very few owned their dwellings for which they had to pay very high rents. I never saw hospitals or schools for ordinary people and their children; I did not see brigades of doctors and teachers. I only saw extreme poverty, injustice and hopelessness everywhere. The Cuban people had been confiscated and stripped of any property. It was imperative to resume the struggle. The chains had to be broken. A deep revolution was indispensable. We had to be willing to either win or die for it. And we decided to fight. The socialist revolution has created in Cuba more property owners than all those created by capitalism throughout centuries. Today, hundreds of thousands of peasant families own their land, for which they do not even pay taxes. Others have it in usufruct, free of charge, and they exploit it either individually or in cooperatives; they are the owners of the machinery, the workshops, the livestock and other goods. But, most important of all is that the Revolution gave the people the property of their own country. What the Revolution eradicated was the property of the basic means of production, of the financial institutions and of other crucial services which were in the hands of those who plundered and exploited the people and made fortunes on the workers’ sweat—or that only served the rich and the privileged, leaving the poor and the Black people out. The nostalgia over their property that the leader of an imperial government might feel could be overcome by seeing that, in addition to the farmers, millions of families in the cities presently own their dwellings, for which they do not even pay taxes. Out of a historical necessity to leave behind a legacy of underdevelopment, Cuba shares with foreign companies those productions that it would not have access to with its own technologies and funds, but no international financial institution or foreign private capital can determine our destiny. Nor does a single penny end up in Castro’s pockets or those of his followers. No senior Cuban revolutionary leader has a dollar in a bank, or a personal bank account in hard currency in Cuba or anywhere else. None of them can be bribed. The hundreds of foreign companies doing business in Cuba today know that very well. None of our leaders is a millionaire like the president of the United States, whose monthly wage is almost twice that of all the members of the State Council and the Council of Ministers in a year. None can be included in the long list of Mr. W.’s neoliberal friends in Latin America who are Olympic champions of misappropriation and theft since the few who do not steal from the public coffers and state taxes steal from the poor and the hungry the surplus value of their work, while killing hundreds of thousands of Latin American children every year whose lives could be saved. That is the system that Mr. W. longs to impose on Cuba as a model. His insults are unwarranted, thus, he should not complain from our tough responses. The end of the exploitation of human beings and true equality and justice is, and will be, the objective of a Revolution that will never cease to be what it is. The work of the Revolution has been remarkable all over the country, and hugest in the dear and heroic eastern region, which was the poorest and most backward. Of the five eastern provinces, the three—Holguin, Granma and Las Tunas—that have sent more than 400,000 combative and enthusiastic people to this rally, have attained in a few years social and human achievements unparalleled in the world. Some data of what they had before and what they have after the triumph of the Revolution: Infant mortality rate: before, over 100 per one thousand live births; today, 5.9, well below the United States. Life expectancy at birth: before, 57 years; today, 76. Number of doctors: before, 344; today, 10, 334. Health units: before, 46; today, 4,006. Hospital beds: before, 1,470; today, over 12,000. Schoolteachers: before, 1,682; today, 77,479. Universities: before, 0; today, 12. Illiteracy rate: before, 40.3 percent; today, 0.2 percent. Grammar school graduates: before, 10 percent of only 34 percent of children in school age who attended public school; today, one hundred percent of children attend grammar school and 99.9 percent graduate. TV sets for audiovisual education: before, 0; today, 13,394. PCs for computer science education from kindergarten to sixth grade: 5,563 that benefit 237,510 children. Over 27,000 youths between the ages of 17 and 29, who had no jobs, are studying middle and higher education in recently established Schools for the Comprehensive Education of the Youth, for which they receive remuneration. These three provinces have 62 museums, 62 cultural centers, 21 art galleries and 72 libraries. Every child in Cuba, regardless of his parents’ income and the color of his skin, has high quality health care services ensured from his birth until the end of his life.

Every child in Cuba, regardless of his parents’ income and the color of his skin, has high quality health care services ensured from his birth until the end of his life. The same applies to education, from kindergarten up until graduation as a PhD, and that absolutely free of charge. No other country in Latin America gets even remotely close to Cuba in any of these indicators. In Cuba, there is not one single child begging in the streets or working to make a living instead of attending school. Nor are there narcotics that poison and destroy teenagers and young people. This is not a tyranny, as Mr. W. has claimed. It is justice, it is true equality among human beings, it is general learning and culture without which there is not, there cannot be, nor will there ever be true independence, freedom and democracy anywhere on Earth. Mr. W. should be ashamed to call those societies where corruption, inequality and injustice prevail, and which are being destroyed by the neoliberal model, examples of independence, freedom and democracy! For Mr. W. democracy only exists where money solves everything and where those who can afford a $25,000 a plate dinner—an insult to the billions of people living in the poor, hungry and underdeveloped world—are the ones called to solve the problems of society and the world, the same [people] that will determine the fate of a great nation like the United States, and the rest of the planet. Don’t you be a fool, Mr. W.; show some respect for the minds of people who are capable of thinking. Read some of the 100 thousand letters sent to you by our children. Do not insult Jose Marti. Do not invoke his sacred name in vain. Stop using his phrases out of context in your speeches. Show some respect for others and for yourself. The criminal blockade he has promised to tighten will only multiply the honor and glory of our people against which their wicked plans will smash, I assure you. Compatriots: In the face of dangers and threats, long live today, more than ever, the Socialist Revolution! Homeland or Death! We shall overcome! —Information Office Cuban Interests Section, June 1, 2002 Top Contents Home Subscribe Write us [email protected]

Castro Internet Archive When the people rule Cuba is a nation which rules itself and does not take orders from anyone Spoken: January 21, 1959 in Havana in front of a million Cuban workers and peasants Source: FBIS Markup: Brian Baggins Online Version: Castro Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2000 Mr. President, gentlemen of the diplomatic corps, reporters of the entire continent, fellow citizens: I am going to ask the people to do something for me, and that is to help me. There are a million persons here and the loudspeakers cannot be heard. Absolute silence is necessary. It is very difficult to speak when [one cannot be heard] perfectly well, and today I should like to tell the people what I feel; I would like to tell the reporters what the people of Cuba feel, I want to tell the diplomatic representatives of the entire world the way our people think. To hear us, it is not enough to have been here; to have attended is not enough alone. It is necessary to be silent. It is necessary to show the people's discipline by being quiet. Let us see if a million people can be silent. (He waits to let the crowd calm down--Ed.) Fellow citizens, it is possible that our fighters trembled more today before this crowd then they ever did before enemy bullets. For us, who have extraordinary faith in our people, this assembly has exceeded all estimates. It is said that with those who have just arrived the crowd extends from the Malecon to the Park of Fraternity. We can say one thing here today, and that is that there is no place in Havana to bring together all the people who support the revolution. (Applause) Before a small park was enough and there was room left. This time all the parks together around the presidential palace are insufficient. I am going to tell you an anecdote so that you can understand the full moral value of this meeting for us. One of our comrades attached to the Havana municipality told me that this morning the employees gathered and asked him where they were meeting to go to the assembly, and our friend replied: "No, those who want to can go and those who do not can go home." This is not the kind of meeting organized before! (Applause) How different it is when the people feel free! How different it is when the people rule! People have come from Matanzas and Pinar del Rio on foot. Thousands of our fellow citizens have come on foot because there were not enough vehicles. We spoke of a half million, of getting together half a million Cubans, but the people said no, not half a million, but one million; and it turned out to be one and a half million. I went through some of the city's streets before arriving, and Havana was deserted. Not a soul was to be seen for blocks on end in the districts of Havana. All Havana had come, the whole city, all the surroundings, and thousands and tens of thousands of Cubans from the provinces nearest to Havana. I am sure that if it had been physically possible 6 million Cubans [the total population of the country] would have gathered here today. I realize that the best speech for this afternoon is your presence. I realize that nothing can speak so eloquently to the diplomatic crops and the 380 newsmen who have come from all the hemisphere as your presence. Many Cubans here present cannot even here me. I asked the men who organized the affair and they told me all the loudspeakers in Havana were set up here; and yet many tell me they cannot hear me. It hurts me to think that you are making the sacrifice of standing since hours ago and not even being able to hear what we are saying, but at least you can have the satisfaction of knowing that your presence has not been in vain and that this gathering today, this gathering here today, is the finest battle the people of Cuba have fought in this revolution. It is a victory by force of arms; not a shot has been fired. It is a much finer victory. It is a victory of right; it is a victory of justice; it is a victory for morality. Those who thought we were just ordinary guerrillas, those who thought we knew nothing but the use of firearms, those who thought that after our military victories they would crush us in the field of information, and crush us in the field of public opinion, have found that the Cuban revolution also knows how to fight and win (battles) in that field. Those who thought that monopoly over international cables, those who thought that spreading lies and slander right and left, would let them weaken our revolution and discredit our people, so that they could then leap upon it when it was weak, were mistaken, for the revolution today is more solid and stronger. Instead of weakening it they have strengthened it. The revolution is not intimidated by attacks. The revolution is not weakened by attacks. On the contrary, it waxes and gains strength, for this is the revolution of a valiant, fighting people. With another people, another people lacking the virtues of the Cuban people, it would not even be worthwhile having started this struggle, but when one has a people like this to count on, one not only begins but achieves and goes on to total victory. To the people of Cuba everything is clear. The Cuban revolution was an exemplary revolution. There was no coup here. If we had been a group of army officers who, without the help of the people, had ousted the President and installed another in his place and had at once bowed to all the vested interests; if this had not been a revolution, we would not have enemies; they would not have attacked us; they would not slandered us. While this palace housed a dictatorship that sold out the nation's interests; while this palace housed a dictatorship that made the most onerous concessions to foreigners; while this palace housed a dictatorship that betrayed the people, nobody attacked it; these press campaigns were not waged against it abroad; [U.S.] Congressmen did not speak out to censure it. While it housed a miserable traitor, a criminal who murdered 20,000 of our fellow citizens, these campaigns were not waged against Cuba, or against him. While it housed someone who stole 300 million pesos;

while the republic was governed by a band of thieves who stole more than a billion pesos, these campaigns were not waged against them abroad. While dozens of Cubans were being killed here every night; while young men were being found murdered with a bullet in the temple; while barracks yards were heaped with corpses; when our women were violated; when children were murdered; when police entered embassies to murder 10 refugees in a few minutes, these campaigns were not waged against Cuba, nor did the [U.S.] Congressmen over there, with rare exceptions, speak out to condemn the dictatorship. But there is no need to go further. There you have Trujillo with his dictatorship 27 years old; there you have the 10,000 Haitians murdered by the Dominican dictator; there you have the tens of thousands of men murdered inside and outside of Santo Domingo by the henchmen of the criminal dictator. And there you have Somoza. Somoza is of the dynasty that for more than 25 years has been oppressing his country, with his full jails, his press censorship, his thousands of crimes. And no campaigns are organized against them. A campaign against the Cuban people, yes, because they want to be free. A campaign against the Cuban people, yes-- a campaign against the Cuban people, yes, because they want to be free not just politically, but economically as well. A campaign against the people of Cuba, because they have become a dangerous example for all America. A campaign against the people of Cuba because they know we are going to call for cancellation of the onerous concessions that have been made to foreign monopolies, because they know electric rates are going to be lowered here, because they know that all the onerous concessions made by the dictatorship are going to be reviewed and canceled. There, fellow citizens, you have the chief cause of this campaign. The explanation of this must be sought, the explanation of this campaign must be sought--if you let me talk I am going to explain; I would like to explain this thoroughly, so the people and the foreign press can understand it. We have not obtained the crowd's full cooperation in maintaining absolute silence. (Sentence indistinct) The explanation for this campaign must be sought somewhere. Why has this campaign been launched against Cuba? The vilest, most criminal, and most unjust that has been launched against any people. Why, when barely four or five days had passed since the victory, did international cable services and certain U.S. Congressmen loose a barrage of defamation against the Cuban people? The purpose is clear. Our revolution was able to present itself to the world as a model of revolutions. The rebel army's generosity toward the enemy was without precedent in the history of revolutions and wars. Thousand of prisoners fell in our hands. Hundreds of wounded were cared for by our doctors. (Words indistinct) Not one prisoner was struck. (Much crowd noise--Ed.) Fellow citizens,next time I am going to ask 2,000 Cubans to come instead of a million. That is a lot, and there is not room. The crowd is being pressed together. (Possibly one or two sentences indistinct, as if volume had been turned down --Unreadable text-- loudspeaker--Ed.) I am going to sum up ideas. We invited the people of Cuba. We had nothing to say to them, because the people of Cuba know the truth very well. We do not have to convince the people of Cuba of anything, because the people of Cuba are more than convinced. It is necessary to convince the world public, and we are going to convince it through the newsmen who have come here. Tomorrow we are going to meet with the newsmen who have come from all over the hemisphere. At the meeting I will submit to interrogation, as one can who has done his duty. I am going to submit to interrogation by America, as can be done by a man with a clear conscience. I do not have to give an account to any U.S. Congressman. I do not have to give an account to any foreign government. I will give an account to the peoples. In the first place I give an account to my people, to the Cubans. In the second place, to all the peoples of America. I give an account to the people of Mexico, to the people of the United States, of Costa Rica, of Venezuela, and of the whole world. [Castro would do just this two days later begining January 23, 1959, to spread his ideas throughout Latin America.] For that reason I called in the newsmen, to come and see the truth with their own eyes. Where there is justice there is no crime, and where there is crime there is no freedom of the press. Where there is crime, people hide their actions. Here things have been done in the open. We came here so they could see that there is justice. And so we invited all newsmen of the world, for here in Cuba there is a freedom of the press (word or two indistinct) that is not found anywhere else in the world. In Cuba there is a respect for human rights not found anywhere else in the world. The Cuban people are not a savage people, or a criminal people. This is the noblest and most feeling people in the world. If an injustice were committed here, all the people would be against it. Our intellectuals are not unfeeling; our newsmen are not unfeeling;

our newsmen are not unfeeling; our workers are not unfeeling; our peasants are not unfeeling; our priests are not unfeeling, and when everybody [agrees to] the punishment, it is because the punishment is a just one, it is because the punishment is deserved. The allied powers punished the war criminals after the second world war, and they have less right to do so than we have, because they meted out punishment under the ex post facto legislation, while we are punishing the war criminals under legislation passed before the crime, in public trials, in courts made up of honest men. To avoid mistakes we are trying only the most notorious criminals, those who have 5, 10, 15, or 20 murders against them, those known to all the people. But is it not possible to expatriate, and I am going to meet with newsmen from the whole hemisphere. We have also invited the President of Cuba to attend the interview, and we are going to invite the cabinet. And we are going to explain fully to the newsmen everything they want us to explain. We must not expatriate; there is just one thing more. Reporters of the entire continent, diplomatic representatives accredited to Cuba, imagine an immense jury, imagine a jury consisting of a million men and women belonging to all social classes, of all religious beliefs, of all political ideas. I am going to ask this jury something. I am going to ask the people something: Those who agree with the justice that is being carried out, those who agree that the henchmen should be shot, raise your hands. (Applause of about 2 minutes) Gentlemen of the diplomatic corps, reporters of the entire continent: The jury of a million Cubans representing all views and social classes has voted. To those who are democrats, or those who call themselves democrats I say: This is democracy, this is respecting the will of the people. Those who are democrats, or those who call themselves democrats, must respect the will of the people. Before concluding I should like to say something I consider important: It is that the people of Cuba are worried about our security. Thousands upon thousands of our fellow citizens have asked us to take care of ourselves. They fear that we will be attacked by enemies of the revolution. The people fear that the death of one of their leaders would be failure for the revolution. What I am about to tell the people of Cuba today is that this is not true. What I am going to tell the people of Cuba is that the revolution cannot depend upon one man. The fate of a nation cannot depend upon one man, that the fate of (justice?) cannot depend upon one man. Moreover, the leaders cannot be placed in a glass case. I am firmly determined to continue doing things as I have been doing. I am firmly determined to challenge calmly all dangers, come what may. I am doing this for one reason. It is because I am very aware that nothing and no one can stop the revolution. And I also have something to say to my enemies: Behind me are others more radical than I. In the same way, by attacking our revolutionary justice, they have done nothing but reinforce the revolution. By killing me they will only strengthen the revolution. In order to take the proper precautionary measures so as to be protected against all eventualities, I am going to propose to the board of the July 26 Movement that it appoint comrade Raul Castro second in command of the July 26 Movement. (Vigorous applause) I am doing it not because he is my brother, (words indistinct) but because I truly consider him sufficiently capable to substitute for me should I have to die. Moreover, he is a comrade with very firm revolutionary convictions and he has shown his ability in this struggle. He was one of the leaders of the attack on the Moncada garrison; he spent two years in prison; he has carried out so many (word indistinct) for the country; he has shown his ability as an organizer and a leader. I wish that this did not concern a brother. I wish that he had been another in order to remove the slightest suspicion that I am favoring a relative. I must say right here that no one is being favored because for us the country means suffering and duty, not pleasure or vanity, or pleasures of a personal nature. For us this work is the work of a slave (who knows his people are lost?) For us leadership means sacrifice. For us leadership is not aspiring to power. Everyone knows that I gave up power a long time ago. Everyone knows with what disinterestedness I fought, and that I am of the opinion that no man is indispensable, and that any honorable Cuban can be a good President of the Republic. (Applause) Everyone knows that not only did I refuse to be President of the Republic, but I gave my full support to the President. Everyone knows my respect for the civil institutions of the republic. Everyone knows that I have neither interfered nor will interfere in matters pertaining to the presidency. Everyone knows that I have been able to maintain unlimited (word indistinct) and if I have replied to thousands of questions it is because they were asked and because I was authorized (several words indistinct) if the President will not allow me to hold a single press conference, and the President will not allow me to make another statement while I am commander in chief of all the forces of the republic I will obey this order unconditionally. What I have done is to defend the revolution from slander. What I have done is to defend the good name of my country when others were seeking to represent us as a country of criminals and savages. What I have done is to defend the prestige of this revolution which has cost so much find and freely shed blood. I say this because to be a leader is really not a pleasure trip or a bed of roses, but a sacrifice, the extent of which perhaps very few can understand. This is all the more so when one feels the responsibility of so great a faith as the faith our people have placed in us. By stating here the necessity that the people be alert and be prepared for any attack on its leaders or on one of its leaders, by presenting here this necessity, I do so with the honest conviction of a man who is not only concerned with the present but also the future of the country, of a man who is thinking about the country, not only while he is alive, but after his death.

By stating here that I consider Comrade Raul Castro could replace me if necessary, I am not making the decision alone. Rather I want to consult with the people to see whether they agree. My enemies know how that they can attack because everything has been taken care of. Moreover, should they attack Raul, behind him another would rise and behind that one another, and so forth. In the struggle the people of Cuba will not be lacking in leaders, because everything will have been taken care of. We who were able to win the war in the face of all odds will also be able to win the revolution against all the enemies who plan to attack it. Thus, the people of Cuba (words indistinct) each day we will be stronger in our defense of the interests of the country and the interests of the people. Finally, the people have attained their goal; the complete freedom and sovereignty which it never had. It is a nation which rules itself and does not take orders from anyone. We have a just question to ask here. We will take advantage of this opportunity to ask the U.S. Government to return the war criminals who have taken refuge there. (Applause) The people of Cuba demand of the people of the United States not give asylum to the Masferras, the Venturas, and the other criminals. The people of the United States must demand of the U.S. Government the return of the war criminals because they are war criminals. After the world war the people of the United States would not have agreed for Goering, Himmler, and Hitler to take refuge here [although unknown at the time, many Nazi scientists and officers were in fact brought into the U.S. government, though entirely without the knowledge of the U.S. workers, to scale up production and technology against the Soviets.]. Well, our Himmler is Ventura. Our Goerings are the Tabernillas, the Pinar Garcias, the Tavianos, the (Laurens?). Our Hitler is Batista. If the United States wants to be just, if the United States wants to respect the feelings of the people of Cuba, it must consent to extradite the war criminals because they are not political criminals. Those who violated women cannot be considered political criminals because the violation of woman has nothing to do with politics. Those who tore out eyes cannot be considered political criminals, because pulling out human eyes has nothing to do with politics, those who assassinated children and old women, those who tortured thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens without pity cannot be considered political criminals because torture has nothing to do with politics. They cannot be sheltered as political criminals because they are common law criminals. The millions of pesos which they stole to place in American banks must be returned to us. Filling one's pockets with the people's money in order to take it abroad has nothing to do with politics, because the theft of the republic's money to spend it on luxuries has nothing to do with politics, and they are thieves here and anywhere in the world. Therefore, the people of Cuba have the right to demand the return of the assassins, torturers, and also the return of the money taken from all the peoples. We are not going to waste our time asking Trujillo to return the thieves to (word indistinct) and we are not going to ask for the return of the air force planes which the refugees took with them. We are not asking Trujillo to return them because the people of the Dominican Republic will return them and because we do not want any kind of relations with Trujillo. Of course, Trujillo is not a dictator; just talk with those Congressmen who are attacking us and you will see that Trujillo is a saint. If was disgusting; there were some papers, some Mexican papers, for example, with a cartoon showing Cuba dressed in white in a bath of blood, in a puddle, and us there with beards and rifles like common executioners, of course. Why? Ah! Because the international cable agencies are there, the same agencies that (few words indistinct). They could not kill me and now they are trying to kill the revolution's prestige, and of course very subtly. Anybody with a minimum of understanding need only read the international dispatches to see how this campaign was organized. The sad part is that they have confused some American peoples. (Few words indistinct) The Mexican people, a country that had a great territory wrested from it, a country that has been so humiliated and mistreated; to this country came the agencies that represent monopolistic, exploiting interests, to deceive the Mexicans and make them believe that we are something worse Trujillo, worse than Somoza, worse than (few words indistinct) the world has seen. Our name has been presented as that of a murderer among the peoples of America. Here, or in any country in America, I can stand with my head high, with the satisfaction of having a clear conscience and my hands free of blood [Of all the prisoners of war captured by Castro during their revolutionary struggle, not one was executed, not one was harmed. In fact, the Cuban revolutionaries gained world renown and even U.S. funding because of their exeplaray treatment of prisoners in time of a guerrilla war -- using their own medical supplies to heal prisoners]. I can stand before any nation to tell it the truth. I am only sorry that the peoples of America should let themselves be deceived so abominably. I am only sorry to think what the fate of America would be if this revolution is crushed, because this revolution, which is not a coup, which is not the uprising of a group of military caudillos, but a revolution of the people, authentically of the people, should represent a hope for the peoples of America. And why? Ah! Because we have hit America's sore spot. The history of America for more than a century is plain; America is the victim of ambitious men, military caudillos, military castes. How much America and the peoples of our hemisphere need a revolution like the one that has taken place in Cuba. How much America needs an example like this in all its nations. How much it needs for the millionaires who have become rich by stealing the people's money to lose everything they have stolen. How much America needs for the war criminals in the countries of our hemisphere all to be shot.

Had these things been, maybe our continent would not be what it is today: Groups of nations divided, set apart despite their identical feelings, needs, interests, race, and culture; it would not be the group of divided, weak nations, victims of the customary tyranny and military castes. How much America needed Cuba's example. We Cubans can feel proud of a revolution that came with no ambition for dominion, with no goal of exploitation or domination over other countries; it came as an example, as aspiration for justice, broad justice, (word indistinct), within the most extraordinary system of respect for human freedoms the world has ever known. The Cuban revolution can be summed up as an aspiration for social justice, within the fullest freedom and absolute respect for the people's rights. Our revolution must be defended as a patrimony of Cuba, if not of America. The honest men of America, the honest newsmen of the continent, the peoples who are our friends--we must ask them to defend our revolution, not allow it to be slandered in an attempt to destroy it to the detriment of not just Cuba, but America. There are some who want to keep the Cuban revolution from raising its head, so that no country in America can raise its head. We had seven years of tyranny. Seven years, and nobody came to give us freedom; we had to win it with our sacrifices. Governments did not help us--we were helped by the peoples. The peoples of all America sympathized with us; the peoples of all America were our friends. And now they are trying to take away the only friends we had; they are trying to take away the peoples, trying to alienate peoples from us by telling them that we are carrying out mass executions, without trials, of Batista supporters. The dispatches do not say that they are the tyrant's henchmen; the dispatches do not say that they are murderers; the dispatches do not say that each of the men executed has 10, 12, or even 100 killings against his name. No, the dispatches say that they are mass executions, without trial, of "Batista supporters." And since the peoples of America have seen the horrors of dictatorship, since the peoples of America are accustomed to hearing about mass executions of political opponents without a trial, an effort is made to make them believe this is such a case. The dispatches do not talk about the conduct of the rebel army; they have not stressed that this has been the only revolution where not a single man was mobbed to death; they do not stress that no other people in the world have conducted themselves in such a civilized way as the Cubans have done; that not a single henchman of the dictator has been tortured; that not a single enemy has been beaten; that this is the only revolution in the world where the people, instead of taking vengeance into their own hands, placed the criminals at the disposal of the revolutionary courts. Ah! They do not say these things. The men we are sentencing now are the ones that the people usually kill the first three days after a revolution. We are executing the ones the people would have mobbed to death had we not asked them to have faith in justice. We have been more than generous. Informers have not been shot. The thing to do with informers is not shoot them, but send them to work, sentence them to forced labor, since they wanted to make their living by betrayal and informing, let them work for the people, let them work. But the hired killers must be shot, for even the Bible says "he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword." They must be shot, because those who today ask that they not be shot will in three years be asking us to turn them loose. It is clear; there cannot be peace without justice; there cannot be democracy without justice. In the name of peace real crimes have been committed. And I can ask the Congressmen who attacked me, I can ask them: What did the United States do--I can ask the Congressmen who have attacked us: What was done at Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Ah! In the name of peace, two cities and (500,000?) human beings were bombed. We have not executed any child. We have not executed any woman. We have not executed any old man. Yet at Hiroshima and Nagasaki 300,000 human beings died (words indistinct) And in the name of what? Well, they said it was to obtain peace. They also said it was to prevent the death of many North Americans in battle. All right; I tell those Congressmen that, aside from the fact that they have nothing to do with Cuban affairs, we are executing the tyrant's henchmen to obtain peace, and we are executing the (butcher?) so that they cannot murder our children again tomorrow. Besides, the number of henchmen we are going to execute will not be more than 400. That is about one for every 1,000 men, women, and children murdered at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If it is a question of telling the truth, why did they not come here to talk? When we told them to come and see what the people want, why did they not come? Two Representatives who have defended the Cuban cause came. Representative Porter and Representative Powell came to testify to our being right. But the ones who attacked us, whom we invited to come and talk, face to face, to learn what the people (words indistinct). Since they call themselves democrats let them see what democracy is. Since they talk about the will of the people, let them see what the will of the people is. We did not invite (words indistinct) but so they could see the truth. There is one thing I want to explain so the people will be clear on that point. The U.S. Government has not directly attacked us.

Government has not directly attacked us. The entire U.S. press has not attacked us. Part of the press, including Herbert Matthews, has defended us. And it is clear: At present the U.S. Government (has not assumed a hostile attitude?) toward us, but we know what the mechanics are in the United States. A certain campaign is begun; the interests that fear the revolution organize a campaign against the revolution; they shape public opinion, and then ask the U.S. Government to take action. Not yet, not yet, because they have not waged the campaign yet (words indistinct). If it is necessary, we extend a permanent invitation to the newsmen; here we have nothing to hide. And since we have so much faith in the people, so much faith in their political maturity, we know that nobody will be able to bamboozle the people or swerve them (words indistinct). A beginning was made with the slander campaign, but we countered it in time. Of course I want to make it clear that the people of Cuba are not animated by any feeling of hostility toward the people of the United States. On the contrary; we are also talking to public opinion in the United States, so that it may support us against those interests, which are the enemies of both Cuba and the United States. We have not carried out an aggression against anybody. The Cuban revolution has not attacked any nation. On the contrary it is the Cuban people, for the mere fact of having freed themselves from tyranny at the cost of many sacrifices, who have been made the target of the most criminal, base, and cowardly campaign. But, fellow citizens, I assure you that this battle is won; it has been won with the help of everybody, with the help of men of all different ideas, (religions?), and (few words indistinct). This is a battle that belongs to everybody. The people have united admirably in defense of their justice, sovereignty, and prestige. Our gratitude and admiration are well deserved by a people that have been able to unite as one man in this struggle. Nobody can defeat such a people. We must prevent any split; we must remain united to defend the interests of the fatherland. (Few words indistinct) not just against the criminals, but also social justice. A nation like this, which despite its hundreds of thousands of unemployed has given an incomparable example of order; a capital like this, where despite hundreds of thousands of unemployed there are no policemen, where there is not a single (word indistinct), certainly deserves (few words indistinct). A people that will not steal even though hungry deserve anything. One example we can point to with pride is that despite the hunger and unemployment that exist, police are not needed in Havana, and the Boy Scouts are practically insuring order. In what country is there such extraordinary order and absolute peace that children are put in charge of keeping order in the capital after a revolution? That is what we want the newsmen of the American hemisphere to tell their own people. Fellow citizens, my (warmest?) congratulations, my gratitude (passage indistinct). Today, after this extraordinary demonstration; today, after the satisfaction we feel at seeing this support from the people; today, as we feel such pride at being Cuban and belonging to this people, one of the world's finest peoples; today, on behalf of all and in the name of the revolutionary government and the fighters of the rebel army, I want to say thank you to my people. Thank you very much. Castro Internet Archive

Castro Internet Archive Facing U.S. Aggressions Spoken: July 9, 1960 First Published: July 11, 1960 Source: Castro Speech Database Markup: Brian Baggins Online Version: Castro Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2000 (Editor's note--E) The Cuban FIEL radio network on July 9 at 0200 GMT began an interview with Prime Minister Fidel Castro by reporters Mario Cuchilan and Luis Baez. Replying to the first question of Mario Cuchilan on what measures are to be adopted by the revolutionary government in the present economic situation Castro said in brief: The first measure is not to lose patience. I think we must not lose our patience, calm, or good humor. We must take this struggle to victory, forcing our reason to prevail and knowing how to do this. We are acting with reason and right on our side. They are acting against reason, right, and history. We are certain we will emerge victorious in this struggle. We are absolutely certain we will win the economic battle. We should act in a manner that would be of no benefit to them. They always expect certain reactions from the revolutionary government. They are always mistaken. These mistakes are characteristic of U.S. foreign policy. They have done all they can to remove the revolutionary government. From the first there have been campaigns, aggressions, lies, aerial incursions. Note how they have used all these weapons at different times. Before the harvests they permitted the planes to fly over. Now that the harvest is done the planes have stopped--as if by order. Now they have reached the stage of direct economic aggression. They have been using the policy of provocation, defamation, and aggression but they will not budget Cuba from its path. They tell the tourists to stay away yet we, on the other hand, treat the tourists well. We always try to act in the correct manner, with sincerity and clarity. We have never lied. All we have done is defend ourselves from aggression. Until they began their campaign of aggressions what did we do? We did not eject the UNITED PRESS or ASSOCIATED PRESS. They are still here. We brought newsmen from all over to see the truth about Cuba. When they began the air attacks we mobilized the people. We expressed the people's protest. It was proved that the planes were coming from Florida even after the U.S. Government declared they did not come from U.S. territory. We have never been guilty of any act of aggression. We have only been doing the revolutionary thing in defending ourselves. The result was that President Dorticos was received everywhere with sympathy and Latin American solidarity was seen all over. Eisenhower went to Latin America first and his tour took place amid turmoil and tear gas. Our President went and the result was a triumphant tour. We have been winning all the battles. We won the battle against slander. We also now have plenty of arms; just how much I would not like to reveal here. I would like to tell the militiamen not to be discouraged about weapons. Every militiamen will have an automatic weapon. That much I can say. (The audience cheers enthusiastically.) We have taken the necessary measures. Each militiaman will have a weapon and the country can count on the security it offers. The maneuver in Latin America is another tactic against us. The result of this was that we won again and the Cuban President won the Latin American people over. Then came the oil battle. They conceived the plot of leaving us without fuel. They had great hopes in this maneuver. They were convinced that the oil matter would defeat the revolution. The result of this is that we have taken over the refineries and we have not been left without oil. There are 19 Soviet ships on the way to Cuba with oil. By the middle of the month the supply will be completely normal. This does not include the effort the government will make to obtain Venezuelan oil. We will ask them to sell us oil which will strengthen our security in fuel supply. The Soviet ships to arrive are: On July 7, a ship with 70,000 barrels; July 12, another ship with (79,300?) barrels; July 12, another with 76,500 barrels; July 14, another, the Peking, with 170,000 barrels; July 15, a ship with 78,000 barrels; July 16, one with 79,700 barrels; July 19, another ship with 78,000 barrels; July 20, another ship with 78,000 barrels; July 21, another with 78,000; July 22, another ship with 130,000 barrels; July 25, another with 78,000; July 28, another ship with 140,000 barrels; July 31, another ship with 42,000 barrels and 40,000 barrels of another type of fuel; and July 31, another ship with 70,000 barrels; plus three ships, another three ships loaded with fuel, which are on the way. They thought to reduce the nation seriously. They must, by now, have lost this hope. They calculated incorrectly once again. The result is that we have kept our promise to the people that gasoline would not be lacking. We have been facing all these aggressions, adopting always the correct policy needed to win battles now and in the future. We have taken measures to grant the power to nationalize U.S. firms when the interests of the country demanded it. In reply to aggression we have adopted a law that will protect the interests of the nation. All U.S. firms have been here without suffering infringement. The laws we have passed have been aimed at those interests that exploited our country. The fact that American interests still are here proves that the aggression is not on our part.

We have been the object of subversive plots and aggressions. These aggressions have been the policy of the U.S. Government. I want to clear this up for they still say they are acting against the government and not the people. No people is cruel. Those who are cruel are the oligarchs who support powerful interests. Using military interests and political strength, they rule the peoples. The Japanese people could not be held responsible for the oligarchial attack on Pearl Harbor. The people can understand that the people are not responsible for actions of oligarchies during various periods of history. We cannot accuse Romans of the barbarities of Roman senators. The plebians were below the patricians. Below the plebians were the slaves who worked for patricians. One cannot accuse the North American worker, among whom there are intelligent, generous persons, of the deeds committed by his nation. One cannot accuse the southern Negroes, for they are victims of injustice. We want our people to understand these matters of history. We are not going to contribute to errors. We have been the victims of a series of attacks. A Cuban plane is being held. The Cuban Sugar kings (baseball team) have lost their (franchise?). Our relations with the United States have previously been excellent in matters of support. Today, this spirit has been violated. We have continued to be victims of a series of aggressions. We shall continue to be victims of this series of aggressions but our weapon is reason. We shall show the world that this unjustified attack is being carried out against a small country by a powerful country. The Latin American nations will see that the U.S. Government does not want people to develop. It does not want hunger to end; does not want the peasants to have land; does not want illiterates to have schools; does not want nations to have culture or high living standards; does not want them to enjoy their work and their land. The U.S. policy toward Trujillo is to make him a soldier at their orders. They helped him for 30 years as they helped Somoza, Perez, and Batista, and for 30 years they were indifferent to the poverty-stricken state of the Dominicans, indifferent to the assassinations at night and during the day, and to the sufferings of the students. The Latin Americans can compare their attitude toward the Dominican Republic and toward a nation in which the people want to improve themselves. The attitude of the government and the people of Mexico (audience applauds and there are shouts of "viva Mexico") can be seen. They have written a heroic page. The people had to suffer from attacks, the reduction of territory, the loss of their best sons. Courageously the people of Mexico, through their congress and the bicameral commission, and Lazaro Cardenas, have expressed their solidarity with the Cuban people in the face of aggression. This is the reason for our eternal gratitude to the people and government of Mexico. (Applause) The President of Uruguay and labor unions of Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, and Brazil have expressed their solidarity with Cuba. Marti said that one must do whatever must be done at all times. We must mobilize the entire nation so the world may see how Cuba mobilizes against aggression and protests aggression. This is to be an appeal to the public opinion of the world. The world is to see how this aggression will fail in the face of the worthiness of our people. This is a chance for all Cubans to act at an important time in the struggle of nations to be free and to progress. We must remember that we are a small nation, that we are right, that we have many virtues, that we have a long tradition and that we are intelligent. We shall be victorious in our struggle. We are certain we shall face all difficulties and the people too shall face them. We will not withdraw a single step. We shall not be conquered should they commit the ultimate mistake of attacking us. (A second question is posed asking Castro to explain the basis for the new budget.) Castro: The budget is the result of great efforts by the government in the realm of economy. Technicians and accountants are working out the final details. Previously there had been a complete lack of control. There was theft and there were improper investments. We shall see the ideal of complete compatibility of state expenditures. All unnecessary expenditures will be cut. It took time to solve these problems. With the aid of the people we were able to eliminate the negative forces. Cutting down expenses goes hand in hand with another thing--overstaffing. There were a great number of persons in excess. Offices had been invented to place relatives. Nepotism caused expenditures to skyrocket. We tried not to put anyone out into the street. That could not be our solution. Our plan is to continue paying the personnel and to train them to aid the country where their services will be most useful. Interviewer: A cable from London has said China would buy a considerable quantity of our sugar. Would you comment on this. Castro: I heard this report also. Cepero Bonilla knows more than I do about this matter. I can say that with regard to the general sugar situation we should understand better the lack of good faith with which our enemies have acted toward Cuba. You will recall that when we spoke of agricultural reform the first thing said was that production would diminish. The truth of the matter is that just the opposite has happened. This agrarian reform in our country was organized. All was done as planned and in an orderly manner. In Cuba we have been able to peform the miracle of increasing production from the outset. Events proved that all dire predictions were uncalled for. We have also been finding markets for our production. This year we are on the road to setting a record for sales. Our reserves have reached 205 million dollars. Not only have we reduced imports, produced more and increased employment but this increase is being absorbed by our new plans. We are planning to produce sheep which will sell cheaper than beef. In the winter months we have excellent areas for raising beans. As for sugar, we are on the way to selling six and one-half million tons. The revolution showed it could march ahead and has taken a correct line.

They took some of our sugar quota. That was done so the savings of the people would be lost and all the people's sacrifices wiped out. But the production of sugar did not diminish. Cubans are producing more than ever. We are selling more sugar than ever before in history. Our country was losing its market year by year and the production of sugar was falling. Cuba has attained the dream of the people, that is to sell its sugar. Why is all this being done against us? Because the revolution has won. Because the revolution has been pointing out the truth. Had the reform failed and if we had failed to sell our sugar this would not have happened. Had the revolution failed these attacks would not have been necessary. Our successes have been their disappointment. The Cuban revolution has shown that it can go ahead; that an economy can be developed despite the fact that not a cent comes from abroad. We are destroying the lie upon which the policy of oligarchy in Latin America was based. It is necessary to improve industry, education, living standards. Everything must be done to produce more. Everything must be done to improve consumption without investments from the United States. Everyone can contribute and produce. How much can be saved is difficult to estimate. It is expected that a billion dollars can be saved for the country. The production of fats is a problem. Therefore we should not use such fats. The problem of producing fats to avoid imports must be solved. We shall produce vegetable fats. We will product meats and the people can help in the battle against economic blockade. We must all make sacrifices, down to the last citizen. We must make every effort to carry this out. All agricultural cooperatives may be asked to sow grain for a common fund. (Applause) Actually this is not necessary yet but it may become necessary. This is an example of the ability of a nation to resist. In the event of an emergency the food fund could be used to resist aggression. One thousand teachers in the Sierra Maestra have gone as volunteers. Many were there enduring the rains of last month. They have gone where there never were schools before. Now they are there teaching. The people try harder when the path becomes more difficult. The more obstacles in their way, the more sacrifices they make. They have great reserves of creative ability. One should see what the militiamen have done. They are being trained. They will be the pride of the nation. They have exhibited considerable discipline. Their uniforms will be a matter of pride to the wearer. The recent economic victories, the victory in education, the labor victory despite attacks by powerful interests show what reserves are in the people of Cuba. We have be satisfied with what we have done. We live in a period of moral and patriotic satisfaction. We are developing our creative and positive faculties. (Applause) Now the people have another chance to fight for the revolution. We are in the second stage of the revolution. Those who regretted not helping us in the first stage will have an opportunity to participate in the second stage. Those who fought in the first stage will now be joined by the others and together they will win the second stage. (A question is asked, apparently about the recent ammunition dump explosion.) Castro: Up to this moment we have found no evidence that the explosion was sabotage. You know we always tell what we find out. Of course, the circumstances were different than in the case of the Le Coubre but nothing has been found. All the old ammunition, grenades, and old weapons were being collected to be destroyed. It was not impossible that one of the many types of arms in there exploded. The army was very careful and the place was well guarded. We can inform the people, however, that it was probably an accidental explosion. (Another unintelligible question is asked.) Castro: The basis should always be equal treatment, respect for our sovereignty. That is where they must begin. They must respect our economic interests, our sovereignty. They must prove that they respect our sacred rights. They have increased the Dominican quota but Trujillo is the owner there. While they are working against Cuba they are giving Trujillo 10,000 tons of sugar. Now the United States does not know where it will buy sugar. We shall continue to sell sugar. We shall pursue a wise policy. We will supply groups other than the usual ones. Question: Would you like to tell us about July 26 preparations? Castro: The young congress is most active. The success of the congress is assured. Transportation is to be provided. It will depend largely upon the spontaneous effort of the people. There is no need for concern about gasoline. (Applause) A promise has been made to visit the farmers this year. It is a human and good decision. Fidel is not with us because his illness demands that he rest. Now let us all shout: "Cuba yes, Yankees no." (Crowd shouts.) Castro Internet Archive

Fidel Castro Internet Archive Fidel Castro’s Press Conference on Grenada Delivered: October 26, 1983 Source: Havana Television Service, obtained from Latin American Network Information Center Transcribed: David Adams Markup: Zdravko Saveski, 2021 We want to clear up all events and circumstances with respect to the topic to which I will be referring. I do not know how the coordination of the translation into in English has been organized. Maybe I can speak in Spanish while the translator speaks in English. We do not want to make it lengthy. Declaration of the Cuban Party and Government on the Imperialist Intervention in Grenada: The painful internal events in Grenada that resulted in the death of Comrade Bishop and other Grenadian leaders are known by all the people. In the 20 October declaration, the Government of Cuba explained in detail the evolution of events and expressed the fear and worthy principled position of our country with respect to the events, and warned that imperialism would try to obtain the maximum benefit possible from the tragedy that had occurred. But above all, Cuba's strict policy to fully abstain in every way from interfering in the internal affairs of the party, government, and people of Grenada was specifically stressed. The merits of that principled policy can be appreciated now more than ever as it becomes obvious that the Cuban personnel in Grenada had the fighting capability with which they could have attempted to influence the course of the domestic events. The weapons in the hands of the Cuban construction workers and collaborations in Grenada had been assigned to them by Bishop and the leadership of the party and Government of Grenada so that they could defend themselves in case of external aggression against Grenada, as has unfortunately been the case. They were mainly light infantry weapons. Those weapons were under the custody of our own personnel in the area of residence. They were not supposed to be used in any internal conflict, and they were neither used nor would they ever be used for it. No fortifications were built because it was not logical to do so in times of peace in an area of an airport, one exclusively of a civilian nature. Something else, when the invasion of Grenada took place, the weapons in the hands of the Cubans only had less than one magazine of ammunition per rifle. After Bishop's death and Cuba's declaration, relations between our party and the new Grenadian leadership were extremely cold and in a certain way tense. But, we were not willing, under any circumstances, to play the game of imperialism and abandon the people of Grenada by suspending the cooperation and work of our construction workers, physicians, teachers, and other specialists. Actually, we did not even suspend the services of the military security advisers. Future relations with the new leadership would be determined by the behavior of the new leaders, and their domestic and foreign policies, in the hope that the revolutionary process could be saved, even though it seemed possible only through a miracle of wisdom and serenity on the part of the Grenadian people themselves and the international progressive movement. Relations with the new government had to be decided. But aside from the aforementioned reasons concerning our cooperation with the Grenadian people, at the very moment when it was announced that powerful U.S. naval forces were advancing toward Grenada, it was morally impossible to consider the evacuation of the Cuban personnel from Grenada. On the other hand, the new Grenadian leadership, because of the imminent danger it was facing, in the name of the security of the fatherland was requesting our cooperation, to which it was not easy to accede after the events that had taken place in the country. Many messages were exchanged on these matters between Cuba and our representative in Grenada, who was in turn expressing the Grenadian request. Now a very important matter. In the face of an imminent aggression, on 22 October, Saturday, in the afternoon, Comrade Fidel sent the following message to the Cuban representative in Grenada: I feel that organizing our personnel's immediate evacuation at a time when U.S. forces were approaching would be highly demoralizing and dishonorable for our country in the eyes of world public opinion. A large-scale Yankee aggression against us could take place at any time in Grenada against our collaborators, in Nicaragua against our physicians, teachers, technicians, builders, and others, in Angola against our troops and civilian personnel, or right here in Cuba. We must always be ready and keep our morale high in the face of that painful possibility. I can well understand how difficult it is for you, as well as for us here, to risk compatriots in Grenada after the gross mistakes made on the Grenadian side and the tragic developments that followed. But our position has been unequivocally and honorably clarified, so much so that it has been received with great respect everywhere. It is not of the new Government of Grenada we must think now, but of Cuba, its honor, its people, its fighting morale. I believe that in the face of this new situation we must strengthen our defenses, keeping in mind the possibility of a surprise attack by the Yankees. This danger that has been created fully justifies our doing so. If the United States intervenes, we must vigorously defend ourselves as if we were in Cuba, in our campsites, in our closest workplaces, [but] only if we are directly attacked. I repeat, only if we are directly attacked. Thus we would just be defending ourselves, not the government or its leaders. If the Yankees land on the runway areas, near the university, or in the surrounding areas to evacuate their citizens, fully refrain from interfering. Advisors from the Army and the Ministry of the Interior are to. stay at their posts awaiting new orders, so as to receive information and try to exert as much positive influence as possible on the behavior of the Army and the security forces toward the people. The Vietnam Heroico vessel is to be kept there by all means. An effort should be made to put children and people who are not essential to indispensable services and work there on the first plane that lands on the island. To inform Grenadian leaders Austin and Layne verbally of the following answers to their statements: That our force which is mainly made up of civilian collaborators is too small to be taken as a factor of military importance in the face of a large-scale invasion. That sending of reinforcements is impossible and unthinkable.

That the political situation created inside the country due to conflicts with the people, due to events, the death of Bishop and that of other leaders, external isolation, and so forth, considerably weaken the defensive capacity of the country, a logical consequence of the grave errors committed by the Grenadian revolutionaries. That because of this situation, the present military and political conditions are the worst to organize a solid and efficient resistance against the invaders which, without the participation of the people, is practically impossible. That they must think of some way of achieving a reconciliation with the people, maybe one of these could be clarifying Bishop's death and that of other leaders, clearly identifying those responsible. That the Grenadian Government may try to avoid pretexts for intervention, offering and reiterating publicly basic guarantees and total facilities for evacuation of personnel from the United States, from England, and so forth. That nevertheless, should the invasion take place anyway, their duty is to die fighting, no matter how difficult and disadvantageous the conditions may be. That Cuban personnel have instructions to remain in their camps and continue the work on the airport. That they shall adopt defensive measures and shall fortify the place as much as possible in order to defend themselves effectively from a surprise attack from abroad. That you are in constant communication with the leaders of our party and that if an imperialist attack takes place you will receive immediate instructions concerning what you should do [as heard]. That they must maintain maximum calmness and nerve under these circumstances if they wish to preserve the possibility of survival for the Grenadian revolutionary process. That Cuba shall try to launch, together with other progressive countries, a strong campaign against the threats of the United States against Grenada. Something that is also very important: At 9 pm, on that very same Saturday, October 22, through the Interests Section, we sent the following message to the Government of the United States: That the U.S. side is aware of the developments in Grenada, that it is also aware of our position on these developments and of our determination of not interfering in the internal affairs of that country. That we are aware of their concern for the many U.S. residents there. We are also concerned about the hundreds of Cuban collaborators who are working on various projects and about the reports that U.S. naval forces are approaching Grenada. According to our reports, no U.S. or foreign citizen has run into any problem, nor has our personnel met with problems. It is convenient that we maintain contacts regarding this matter in order to cooperate if any type of difficulty arises and so that any measure regarding the security of these persons can be resolved favorably, without violence and without any type of interference in the country. This was the message that was sent to the U.S. Government at 2100 on Saturday 22 October. As soon as the agreement of a group of Yankee satellite [countries] in the Caribbean region to send troops to Grenada was learned of, the new leadership of that country reiterated its request that Cuba send reinforcements. Comrade Fidel on Sunday night, 23 October, sent the following message to Cuba's embassy in Grenada: Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Barbados do not have sufficient forces to invade Grenada. If this occurs, it is just a simple pretext of the Yankees so that they can interfere immediately afterward. In this case, you must strictly obey the instructions that you received yesterday. You must verbally transmit the following answer to the Grenadian leadership: That Jamaica, St Lucia, and Barbados do not have sufficient forces to invade Grenada. If this occurs, they can defeat them with their own forces, without major difficulty. That, if this takes place, then it could be a pretext for the Yankees to act directly. If this is the case, then the Grenadian revolutionaries must try to win over the people in order to defend the country, they must be ready to fight to the last man, and they must create the conditions for a lengthy resistance against foreign invasion and occupation. That, Cuba cannot send reinforcements, not only because it is materially impossible in face of the overwhelming superiority of U.S. air and naval forces in the region, but also because, politically, if it is a question of a struggle among Caribbeans, then it must not send reinforcements so as not to justify a U.S. intervention. That, on the other hand, the unfortunate events that have occurred in Grenada make it morally impossible before our people and the world the useless sacrifice of sending such reinforcements to fight against the United States. That, in view of our country's honor, morality, and dignity, we are keeping Cuban personnel there at a time when powerful Yankee naval forces are approaching Grenada. That, if Grenada is invaded by the United States, Cuban personnel will defend its positions within its camps and work areas with all the energy and courage of which it is capable. That, due to the fact that it is a limited force, no other type of mission can be assigned to it. That, the Grenadian revolutionaries have the exclusive responsibility for having created this difficult and unfavorable political and military situation for the revolutionary process in the political and military fields. That, the Cuban personnel in Grenada, within the difficult conditions that have arisen, will know how to honorably obey the task that our revolution has assigned them under these circumstance. That, regarding the question of military advice, due to this situation, all possible cooperation will begiven the personnel in view of this situation. That, it is necessary to continue with the adequate political and diplomatic efforts on their part to prevent intervention without the concession of principles on our part. That, we ourselves will make every possible effort in this respect. After this message, the Grenadians continued to insist on plans that in our judgment were, in some aspects, unreal and not politically feasible. They also wanted to sign a formal agreement regarding what each involved party had to carry out in the military field and they also wanted to subordinate the Cuban construction workers and collaborators to the Grenadian Army. During the course of the afternoon of 24 October the following essential points were transmitted to the Grenadian leadership: That, Cuban personnel will defend the positions in which they currently find themselves. In other words, the runway up to the fill-in of (Harvey) Bay and the area between Salines Point and Mount Rose if there is a largescale U.S.

invasion. That our personnel have neither the means nor the strength to fulfill any other mission; nor the moral and international justification under present circumstances to do so in any other location which is not their area of work. That, it is clear to us that if it is a case of just the evacuation of foreign personnel, we would not be facing an invasion and, under those circumstances, we suppose they would find the solution with those involved. That because of that, the American University and the surrounding area should be under the custody of Grenadians themselves, if they feel it is necessary and convenient. The American University is located near one of the ends of the runway the Cubans are building. Perhaps it would be better if that area were free of military personnel so it would not be regarded as a war zone, thereby justifying armed actions by imperialism under the pretext of evacuating its citizens. That, there is no need for informal agreement between us. That, the orders regarding what the Cuban personnel can do in case of war can only be given by the Government of Cuba. This message, which should have been delivered by 0800, 25 October, Tuesday, did not even reach the addresses. U.S. intervention in Grenada took place in early dawn. The Cuban representative and personnel strictly abided by the orders of the party and Government of Cuba, which was to fight if they were attacked at their camp and working area. In the early hours of the day, while the U.S. troops were landing with helicopters in the area of the university, there was no combat with the Cubans who had taken a defensive position in the area referred to previously. Around 0800, Grenadian time, 0700 Cuban time, U.S. troops started to advance from different directions toward the Cuban positions, and the combat started. At 0830, Cuban time, 25 October, the U.S. Government responded to the Cuban message sent on the evening of Saturday, 22 October -- that is, nearly 3 days later. The note read: "The United States of America Interest Section of the Embassy of Switzerland presents its compliments to the minister of foreign relations of the Republic of Cuba and has the honor to inform the minister that the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, acting out of great concern of its members for the anarchy, bloodshed, and callous disregard for human life of the island of Grenada, has asked the United States Government to assist the armed forces of its member states to restore security in Grenada. In response to this request, and taking into consideration the need to safeguard the lives of hundreds of U.S. citizens now in Grenada, the U.S. Government has agreed to the request. "Consequently, armed forces from the member states of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, supported by those of the United States, Barbados, and Jamaica, have entered Grenada for the purpose of restoring order and public safety. The U.S. Government is aware that military and civilian personnel of the Republic of Cuba are present in Grenada. It has taken into full account the message on this subject which was delivered on the night of 22 October from the Ministry of Foreign Relations to the acting chief of U.S. Interest Section in Havana. "It wishes to assure the Government of the Republic of Cuba that all efforts are being and will continue to be made to ensure the safety of each person while order is being restored. This personnel will be granted safe passage from Grenada as soon as conditions permit. The Government of the United States accepts the Cuban proposal of 22 October to maintain due respect concerning the safety of the personnel of each side. "The appropriate civilian representative with the United States Armed Forces present in Grenada has been instructed to be in contact with the Cuban ambassador in Grenada to ensure that every consideration is given to the safety of Cuban personnel on the island and to facilitate the necessary steps with Grenadian authorities for their prompt evacuation. "The U.S. Armed Forces will be prepared to assure this evacuation at the earliest possible moment on ships of third countries. "On the other hand, should there be a vessel of the Cuban Merchant Marine, not a warship, in Grenadian waters at this time, that vessel may be authorized to conduct the evacuation of Cuban personnel. In addition, any Cuban views communicated to the U.S. Department of State through the Cuban Interests Section in Washington or through the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, will be given immediate attention. "The Government of the United States calls upon the Government of the Republic of Cuba, in the interests of the personal safety of all concerned, to advise its citizens and forces in Grenada to remain calm and to cooperate fully with forces of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and with those of the United States, Jamaica, and Barbados. It asks that they be instructed to avoid any steps which might exacerbate the delicate situation in Grenada. "Above all, the Government of the United States cautions the Government of the Republic of Cuba to refrain from sending any new military units or personnel to Grenada. The United States of America Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Cuba the assurances of its highest and most distinguished considerations." When this note from the Government of the United States reached us, 1 and 1/2 hours had passed since U.S. troops had attacked Cuban personnel and 3 hours had passed since the landings had begun. Throughout today, Tuesday, 25 October, the people of Cuba have been kept informed as thoroughly as possible on the details of the fighting and of the resolute and heroic resistance put up by the Cuban construction workers and collaborators who had had practically no time to even dig trenches or fortify their positions on rocky terrain in the face of a naval, air, and ground attack from U.S. elite troops. The people know of the message exchanged between the commander in chief and Colonel Tortolo, the man in charge of Cuban personnel. This man, who had barely been in the country 24 hours on a working visit, with deeds and words has written in our modern history page worthy of Antonio Maceo. At 5 PM, while intense fighting prevailed, the Government of the United States, through Mr. Ferch, head of the U.S.

Interests Section, sent the following message to Cuba: "Cuban personnel stationed in Grenada are not the target of U.S. troop action there. The United States is ready to cooperate with Cuban authorities in evacuation of its personnel to Cuba. The United States is aware that the armed Cuban personnel have neither the armament nor the ammunition reserves required for a protracted action. Therefore, to maintain a belligerent position would only provoke a senseless loss of human life. The United States does not want to portray the withdrawal Cuban armed personnel as a surrender. Finally, it regrets the armed clashes between armed men from both countries and considers that they have occurred due confusion and accidents brought about by the fact that the Cubans were near the operational sites of the multinational troops." At 8:30 pm, the following response to the Government of the United States was turned over to Mr. Ferch: 1. That we did everything possible to prevent the intervention. That in our note on Saturday we explained that no U.S. citizen or foreign national, according to our reports, was in any danger while at the same time expressed our willingness to cooperate in order to resolve problems without recourse to violence or intervention. 2. That the intervention is absolutely unjustifiable. That we had absolutely refrained from meddling in the country's internal affairs despite our friendship with and sympathy for Bishop. 3. That the response to our constructive note, delivered Saturday, 22 October at 9 pm, arrived on Tuesday, 25 October at 8:30 am, at the time when our personnel and installations at the airport had already been under attack by U.S. troops for 1 and 1/2 hours. 4. That we had no soldiers in Grenada but construction workers and civilian advisers, with the exception of a few tens of military advisers who were working with the Army security forces prior to Bishop's death. Our men had been instructed to fight back only if attacked, and they were not the first to fire. Furthermore, they had been given instructions not to obstruct any action aimed at the evacuation of U.S. citizens in the area of the runway near the U.S. University. It was clear that if any attempt to occupy Cuban installations was made clashes would occur. 5. That our personnel have suffered an as yet undetermined number of dead and wounded in today's fighting. 6. That the attack by U.S. troops cane as a surprise and there was no type of prior warning. 7. That although the Cuban personnel that are still in a position to resist are at a numerical, technical, and military disadvantage, their moral remains high and they are firmly prepared to continue to defend themselves if the attacks continue. 8. That, if there is a real intention to forestall further bloodshed, attacks against Grenadian and Cuban personnel who are still fighting should stop and an honorable way should be sought to put an end to a battle which far from honors the United States, a battle against small forces which, although unable to resist the overwhelming military superiority of U.S. forces -- even when losing the battle and sacrificing themselves – could still inflict a costly moral defeat on the United States, the most powerful country in the world engaged in a war against one of the smallest nations on earth. 9. That the Cuban commander in Grenada has instructions to receive anyone who approaches to parley, listen to his views and transmit those views to Cuba. 10. It must be taken into account that some Grenadian units are fighting and they must receive the same treatment that the Cubans receive. This was the answer that we addressed to the United States today. The Cuban constructors and collaborators were still entrenched in several of their positions this evening in an unequal and difficult fight, but their morale and strength is at a very high level. Very few reports were being received this evening from Grenada and communication was very difficult. The courageous and heroic Cuban constructors and collaborators have written an indelible page in the history of international solidarity. They have also undertaken the battle in Grenada in the name of the world's small nations and in the name of all the nations of the Third World in the face of the brutal aggression of imperialism. They have also fought for America and for their own fatherland as though they were defending the first trench for the sovereignty and integrity of Cuba there in Grenada. For the Yankee imperialists, Grenada can become in Latin America and the Caribbean what the Moncada was for the Batista tyranny in Cuba. Eternal glory for the fallen Cubans and for those who have fought and continue to fight, defending their honor, principles, their tasks for internationalism, the fatherland, and their own personal integrity threatened by the unjustified, treacherous, and criminal imperialist attack. Fatherland or death, we shall win. [At this point the announcer indicates that the question and answer session begins] Question -- in English: What is the estimate of Cuban dead and wounded, and do you know whether prisoners have been taken? Answer: We still do not have sufficient information to be able to determine the number of dead, because the Cubans were defending themselves from several positions. We did not have direct communication with the individual positions. We were in communication with the embassy, and the diplomats at times were in communication with the command post, but it was not possible to obtain information about each isolated position due to the intensive fighting that went on during the day. Regarding prisoners, we know, as I have already explained, that Cuban personnel had light infantry weapons. Regrettably, no one believed that this would happen. Apparently there was a situation of peace. No one had expected these events, first the domestic events, and then the external events. The rifles had ammunition quantities of 0.9 canisters [modulos]. Supposedly, three canisters are necessary for combat, in addition to several reserves. The Cubans had less than one canister; in other words, they had less than 300 rounds per rifle. After many hours of combat, they began to run out of ammunition. There might be a number of prisoners, but we are not certain; we don't know if there were 100 to 150.

we don't know if there were 100 to 150. There were also women, non-military personnel, and almost the entire staff of the Cuban Embassy in Grenada. We don't have the exact figures at this time. [Unidentified reporter] It is a follow-up question about a report. I believe it was AP, that there were Soviet advisers, and that some of them had been (captured?)? Answer: I have no knowledge, not even the slightest knowledge, about the presence of Soviet military advisers or Soviet technical advisers. I really have no knowledge about this. I believe that there were no Soviet advisers; I know that there were no military advisers. As for civilians, I think that there was a Soviet diplomatic representation, a small group of Soviet diplomats, but it is not true that there were Soviet advisers there; at least I don't have such information. [Unidentified reporter] Has the U.S. Government replied to the response given by Cuba yesterday, or does the Cuban Government expect it for January? Answer: Well, a period of time always elapses between the arrival of a note, its translation into Spanish, and the preparation of a reply and its delivery. We received the note at approximately 1800. It was quickly translated, and we promptly sent our reply, which was delivered to the U.S. Government at 2030. I imagine that there was enough time to deliver it to the U.S. Government. It was very clear, concrete, and precise, and they have had enough time to analyze it. Now, what will they decide? Will they try to find a solution; will they stop fighting and attacking; will they try to arrive at an honorable solution there; will they try to eliminate all those who are resisting? This we don't know, but we have received news that they are mobilizing the 82nd Airborne Division, to launch it against Grenada tomorrow. What will their final decision be? We don't know, but the U.S. Government has had time to receive our reply. It will decide whether the fighting will continue tomorrow, or whether it will try to obtain a military victory, which would be a Pyrrhic victory and a disastrous defeat in terms of morale. Gus Monroe of TIME magazine: You said that you had indirect communication with the Cuban workers in Grenada. When did you lost direct communication with the Cuban workers today? Answer: A very strange thing happened. We had telephone communication with our representatives almost all the time at the embassy. At certain times, we also had communication with the command of the military personnel. However, when the fighting increased, they destroyed the means of communication, and we then had to use other methods of communication --with the embassy, with the Cuban cargo ship that is currently in Grenada, and through other methods, in order to maintain conventional means of communication. Sometimes the embassy could communicate with the personnel command. This is how we received various reports. It was in this way, for example, that we learned from the head of the Cuban personnel there that the U.S. troops had, after many hours of fighting, sent a construction worker who had been arrested to explain that they didn't want any problems with the Cubans. That coincided with the official message that we received afterward. Also, it was reported at the same time that a group of hostages, that is, the personnel that had run out of ammunition, had been sent in front of jeeps armed with cannon and machineguns toward our positions. We thought that perhaps they were trying to parley, to establish communication. The Cuban military commander, responding to the sentiment of all his comrades, stated that they would not surrender under any circumstances. The emissary had said they were to propose surrender, but the commander had his instructions. He was ordered not to surrender under any... [changes thought] first, he was congratulated, and then he was ordered, if the adversary sent an emissary, to listen to that emissary and report the information immediately to Cuba. I believe their reply was very courageous and responsible. They replied that they had received their instructions, and would never surrender, under any circumstances. That is what the commander of the Cuban military personnel reported. Afterward, military actions continued. The Air Force and helicopters were used. They have used a lot of sophisticated military equipment. By nightfall, the combat had become intense. There is relative calm now. Airplanes fly overhead, helicopters fly overhead, shots are heard, but the latest news is that no intense fighting is going on. [Unidentified reporter] Exactly how many Cubans are in Grenada? How many personnel and military advisers are there? Answer: Look, I can tell you this -- there is no secret about it. I am sorry I do not have here the exact figures, but there are more than 700 Cubans. A vast majority -- more than 550 -- are construction workers. There is a large group of doctors, as well as some teachers, agricultural technicians, and some 40 military advisers.

There is a large group of doctors, as well as some teachers, agricultural technicians, and some 40 military advisers. I did not reveal this information earlier because the statement would have been too lengthy. There is absolutely no secret about this. Besides, it is easy to prove that these are not military personnel, that they are actually civilian workers. Of course, all the Cuban workers receive military training. Evidence of the fact that they are workers and construction personnel can be seen in the excellent landing strip that they have built in such a short time; dozens of U.S. airplanes have been able to land on the air strip even though the airport is unfinished. We were planning to finish it in March. This is absolute proof that they are construction workers. Besides, the U.S. news media can talk freely with the prisoners or with the hostages who were used as a front. They will be able to ascertain if they are professional soldiers or construction workers -- that is, if the evidence of the airport is not enough. [Unidentified reporter] When do you expect the Cuban personnel to return? Answer: It is impossible to know what will happen because it does not depend on us alone. The ship, which was unarmed, was ordered to leave the bay. I understand that it is standing off by at least 12 miles. The ship has approximately a dozen crewmembers. The airplanes have been flying low over it all night -- perhaps this is psychological warfare. However, right now I could not attest to what will happen. [Unidentified reporter] Have you considered the possibility [passage indistinct] an honorable solution to the dilemma? What would your solution be? Answer: Well, as I explained in my message to the Grenadians, it was impossible to send reinforcements before the combat; besides, it was unthinkable. It was impossible because the U.S. squadrons and aircraft carriers were moving, and we had no means of transportation to send reinforcements. At any rate, no matter how many reinforcements we sent, they could not compare to the naval and air forces deployed by the United States. Thus, in practice this was impossible. But we also said that it was politically impossible, because, after the events which had taken place in Grenada and the mistakes committed by the revolutionaries themselves, there as no moral justification for sacrificing reinforcements that would never even have been able to reach their destination. For us, it would have, in essence, been a symbolic action, as it was absolutely impossible to send them from the practical point of view. From the political point of view, we did not consider it justifiable. While there exists an honorable solution, I would say that, first of all, the attacks on our forces must cease. I believe that the attacks on the Grenadian forces should also cease. Then we would be able to discuss some solution. However, while they are under fire, the only reply will be defense against attack if there is no other alternative. I have not pondered this, but there must be some kind of solution; the combat -- that is, the attacks -- must cease. Our forces have simply been defending themselves. [Unidentified reporter] Is there a possibility that you will sacrifice the Cubans? Answer: Well, it would not be us, but the United States who would be sacrificing the Cubans. They initiated the attack; they have maintained the attack. We, because of an elementary principle of honor and the legitimate right to self-defense, have been defending ourselves from these attacks. If our comrades must die under attack, they will be dying in an act of absolute and legitimate defense. What we cannot tell is to stop defending themselves if they are attacked. [Unidentified reporter] What can you tell us about the present government in Grenada and the participation of Grenadian troops in the fighting? Answer: Well, our opinion about the government... [changes thought] not really the government, because we have not wanted to pass judgment on the government. We have no right to pass judgment on the government. We based ourselves on the fact that there was a division within the revolution. It was painful and unpleasant. We foresaw that great damage would be done to the country because of this division. We even addressed the Grenadian leaders, the central committee, and asked them to try to solve these problems peacefully, without violence. We said that violence would greatly damage Grenada's image. However, a popular uprising occurred in favor of Bishop. Passions flared and it ended in Bishop's dramatic death under circumstances about which we still have no exact knowledge. Sooner or later they will be known. However, we were strongly opposed to this division, we were aware of the damage it was causing, and we were deeply moved by Bishop's physical elimination. What was the other question? [Unidentified journalist] [Question indistinct] Answer: As far as we know, by late afternoon, the Grenada Government was still in office, the capital had not yet been taken, and the Grenadian people were resisting attacks at various points, although we had no information about what was happening with the Grenadian units. [(Robert Hager), NBC] If the American motivation for this action was not its citizens, what do you believe the American motive was? Answer: Well, that is difficult to understand.

Answer: Well, that is difficult to understand. I will tell you why. First, neither U.S. citizens nor those of any other country were in any danger, because the Grenadian people took special measures to give them guarantees for the very purpose of avoiding any pretexts for intervention. For instance, there is a group of 500 or 600 U.S. medical students, and the director of the university spoke with the government, with the authorities. They gave him every guarantee. They were completely calm. Only some 14 or 15 actually wanted to leave. It is my understanding, according to the public media, that the director or rector of the university was strongly opposed to and had strongly criticized the intervention. There was no reason for it. On the other hand, the situation affecting the Grenadian revolutionary process itself was very difficult. Domestic events caused isolation internationally and brought great economic difficulties. It was not easy for the new Grenadian Government to maintain itself. Why, therefore? It can be clearly seen that the United States wanted to eliminate a process that already could scarcely survive and that had great problems. I believe that it wanted to undertake a show of force, to implement a philosophy of force, an opportunistic policy, to take advantage of all of those difficulties in order to smash a symbol, because Grenada is definitely a very small country. It cannot be said, from any point of view, that it has any strategic importance. Nor could it possibly represent the slightest danger for the United States. Therefore, what reason could there have been except a show of force? It seems even stranger because it coincides with the events in Lebanon, where more than 200 North Americans were just killed. What sense, what logic was there in diverting forces that were headed for Lebanon and sending them to Grenada instead? It seems absurd. I really feel that this was an enormous political error which will not benefit the United States in any way whatever. The events of the Malvinas, which caused a commotion throughout Latin America, and in which the United States sided with England, are still fresh. It forgot the OAS and all of its agreements. Nevertheless, it has now invoked the agreements of a supposed group of Caribbean countries in order to intervene in Grenada. I feel that this deeply wounds the sensibilities of and causes considerable unrest in the countries of Latin America. I consider it an enormous, unnecessary, and unjustifiable error by the United States. [Unidentified journalist] The United States has suggested that the Cubans now move out of Grenada. If the attacks cease, would the Cubans agree to leave Grenada? Answer: But the Grenadian Government has not asked us to leave. On the contrary, it has asked us for more help. There is not even a new government in Grenada. I don't believe that the United States is the government of Grenada with the right to ask the Cubans to leave. We are there at the request of the government? It is not that we are interested in remaining there. We are even prepared to complete this airport independent of the domestic U.S. problems. Who is going to ask us to leave? It is unquestionable that we cannot remain in an invaded and occupied country. There is no need for anyone to ask us to leave an occupied and invaded country. We would have no need or reason to be there. [Unidentified journalist] What is your opinion of the reaction voiced throughout the day by different countries and, particularly, by the European countries? Answer: I have not had the opportunity to examine all of this in detail. However, I have noted that the British Government criticized the intervention in Grenada. I believe that this is a very significant fact which should be taken into consideration. The world's public will firmly and vigorously oppose the facts. It is my understanding that the majority of the Latin American countries have vigorously opposed the intervention because it involves an action by the world's most powerful country against one of the world's smallest countries. No one could sympathize with this. [Unidentified reporter] If there are wounded Cubans on the island, what do you plan to do? Answer: Well, there were Cuban doctors there. We have taken care of as many wounded as possible. We also have news that there were wounded prisoners. I believe that in response to a fundamental sense of humanity, the U.S. Government itself will be giving medical attention to those wounded. In truth, according to the news we have -- and I must be quite honest -- the wounded we not being mistreated by the troops. In fact, I have even been informed by the Cubans of their impression that no one was being mistreated. They have had some contacts with a Cuban prisoner, who was allowed to talk with them. I have no reason to lie or to hide the trust. Besides, it would be illogical for the troops to turn against those wounded prisoners. We hope that they are taken care of properly, just as we would take care of any wounded U.S.

We hope that they are taken care of properly, just as we would take care of any wounded U.S. soldier who might fall into our hands. [Unidentified reporter] The voice of America reported that Cuba and the Soviet Union were behind Coard in Grenada. What do you say to that? Answer: I don't think it is even worthwhile to reply to that. I believe that Cuba's attitude was clear in its relations with Bishop. In truth, Bishop was so decent and respectful that when he passed through Cuba he did not say a single word about his problems. Cuba's position afterward was made well known through its public statements. His death seemed meaningless, because it seemed that Bishop was an adequate leader for that country and had great international prestige. He was an intelligent person, and he was not an extremist; he was a revolutionary. Bishop understood the situation in his country very well and it seems to us that he was governing the country very well. He had brought about great achievements for Grenada, he was receiving great international collaboration. Grenada's GNP was growing and he seemed to be an exceptional person, the right one for Grenada's process. Besides, everything we said in our messages, the warnings we issued, proved that the division was tragic. Thus, there is absolutely no logic in the idea that his friendship with us could later he considered the reason for this absurd change. [Unidentified reporter] Mr President, a while ago you were talking about strange coincidences in the events taking place in Grenada. It is even being said that all of this is part of a great provocation in Central America and the Caribbean. What would you say to this? Answer: A great provocation in the area? I would say that it is the application of a philosophy and policy of force and gendarme in the area. It is an attempt to establish a precedent, but it is so absurd that I see no logic in it. A small country had a government that was experiencing problems, its survival. What was the point in interfering with it? Not a single U.S. citizen was wounded, their lives were not endangered, and there was no significant economic interest. It seems to me that this was an application of a philosophy and policy of force, and that attempts are being made to extend it to the entire world. However, this is absurd, and a great mistake. Instead, it looks like a provocation. We could not be provoked, because we have no means of going anywhere. We have no naval or air means of getting there. So, if this is a provocation aimed at us, what can it achieve if we do not intervene in the island's internal affairs? We scrupulously respected the decisions of the Grenada party and government. Even though we had combat capability and could have interfered, we upheld the principle of nonintervention. There was no pretext for attacking us. We were in our places of work. What will the United States gain internationally by attacking the Cuban workers who were there to help a small country, a Third World country? What would it gain by this? It can only turn a small country into a martyr, indeed, it can turn that small nation, and the Cuban workers there, into martyrs of the liberty and defense of Third World countries. Our attitude has been above reproach and beyond question. The message is there. I could not invent the message that, as I said here, was sent by the United States, because they also have it there. I could not invent the U.S. reply. I could not invent the efforts carried out on 22 October to warn them that it was not necessary to stage an act of intervention, that they should not commit this grave mistake, that we were willing to cooperate in any way to safeguard the citizens' security, without resorting to violence or intervention. We might add that this was a most unusual action on our part, to directly address the United States about a real situation. I believe that we were doing the United States a service. We were trying to make then understand that this action was unnecessary, because we had information with which we were willing to cooperate in the search for a nonviolent solution, without resorting to intervention, thus guaranteeing the safety of the U.S. citizens in Grenada. So, I could not invent all of this, because it is fully documented. We are not in the habit of talking about messages; we are discreet. However, the United States said today that it sent us a message, warning us. And the secretary of state practically said that he had warned us about the events. The attack took place at 0630 Grenada time, 0530 Cuba time; and we received the U.S. reply at 0830 Cuba time, 0930 Grenada time. They had been fighting our personnel for 1 and ½ hours. In other words, there are unquestionable documents that prove this; I have not used arguments or adjectives or epithets. I have spoken with evidence that proves everything I have said. Absolutely no one can question my statements.

Absolutely no one can question my statements. [Unidentified reporter] What has been the reply to Cuba's last message [words indistinct]? Answer: Well, I really don't know. I hope that this message will have some influence. I have hopes that attacks will cease tomorrow, because the alternative would be trying to exterminate all those who are still resisting. Of course, I would not like this to happen, but if they demand our surrender, we will certainly resist, and they will have to exterminate us. Perhaps they will be tempted to use the 82nd Airborne Division. It would be a shame if they did, but no one knows what will happen, because we have seen so many mistakes; who knows what could happen tomorrow. I wonder if there are many questions left. For my part, I have worked extensively today, but I am willing to continue. Two or three more – the moderators here can set a limit. [Unidentified reporter] Commander, would you give your opinion on the Central American crisis. For example, if Nicaragua were invaded, to what extent would Cuba support Nicaragua? Answer: We would try to do whatever we could for Nicaragua, but we would be facing the same problem as with Grenada. We have no naval or air means of sending direct aid to Grenada. We do not have an option here. However, this does not worry me. The Nicaraguan situation is quite different from that of Grenada. Grenada was 120,000 inhabitants; Nicaragua has 3.5 million inhabitants. Nicaragua has extensive fighting experience; it has tens of thousands of fighters. That is, the United States would have to face an armed people there. It would be an impossible struggle in which neither 1 nor 10 airborne divisions would be sufficient. This is a reality. People should not be underestimated. Nicaragua should not be underestimated. I believe that it would be an error multiplied a hundred times to attempt invading Nicaragua, because the Nicaraguan people are courageous and combative. I believe that all the aggression sustained by Nicaragua has strengthened, rather than weakened, the revolution. It has given them experience. I believe that Nicaragua is a country that could not be occupied and could not be ruled by the United States. There is no technology or sophisticated weaponry that can solve the problems posed by an entire nation in arms. This was not the situation in Grenada because, as a result of the domestic problems, the Army itself collected the weapons from the militias and could not muster an armed people for the resistance. This is not the case in Nicaragua. Let us hope that this great mistake will be helpful in preventing greater mistakes in Nicaragua. [Unidentified reporter from L'HUMANlTE] I merely want an explanation about point 10 of the last message that was sent. Answer: But which message? There were many. [Unidentified reporter from L'HUMANITE] A message to the Cubans that the treatment should be the same for the Cuban workers who are fighting there as for the Grenadian people who are fighting. Answer: I cannot answer for the Grenadian people. That is their concern. However, as a point of honor, we cannot accept a solution for the Cuban personnel unless it is also a solution for the Grenadian fighters. We do not want to be treated differently from the Grenadian people because, despite our differences we had as a result of the events in Grenada, the joint struggle in these past hours has made us brothers. We cannot aspire to a different solution and treatment for us. I believe that any treatment we are given, regardless of the solution, will be honorable and will have to be discussed. This would also have to be applied to the Grenadian fighters. It is presumed that this battle will not be won against the North Americans, but it is a battle that is being won morally. If the United States does not want any more useless bloodshed, it should find a solution). If the people are forced to surrender, there will be more useless bloodshed caused by the United States. It will not be caused by those who are defending their lives and honor. Fidel Castro Internet Archive | Grenadian Revolution Archive

[email protected] Home Current Issue Archives Arsenal of Marxism Subscribe Links Search Who We Are Donate Contact us Jan/Feb 2010 • Vol 10, No. 1 Click Here to Return to the Index Search the Site: Enter term and click Go! The Annexation of Colombia By Fidel Castro Ruz Anyone with some information can immediately see that the sweetened “Complementation Agreement for Defense and Security Cooperation and Technical Assistance between the Governments of Colombia and the United States” signed on October 30, and made public in the evening of November 2, amounts to the annexation of Colombia to the United States. The agreement puts theoreticians and politicians in a predicament. It wouldn’t be honest to keep silent now and speak later on sovereignty, democracy, human rights, freedom of opinion and other delights, when a country is being devoured by the empire as easy as lizards catch flies. This is the Colombian people—a self-sacrificing, industrious and combative people. I looked up in the hefty document for a digestible justification and I found none whatsoever. Of 48 pages with 21 lines each, five are used to philosophize on the background of the shameful absorption that turns Colombia into an overseas territory. They are all based on the agreements signed with the United States after the murder of the distinguished progressive leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan on April 9, 1948, and the establishment, on April 30, 1948, of the Organization of American States debated by the foreign ministers of the hemisphere meeting in Bogota, with the U.S. as the boss, during the dramatic days when the Colombian oligarchy cut short the life of that leader thus paving the way to the onset of the armed struggle in that country. The Agreement on Military Assistance between the Republic of Colombia and the United States of April 1952; the one related to Army, Naval and Air Missions from the U.S. Forces, signed on October 7, 1974; the 1988 UN Convention against the Illegal Trafficking of Drugs and Psychotropic Substances; the 2000 UN Convention against Organized Transnational Delinquency; the 2001 Security Council Resolution 1373 and the Inter-American Democratic Charter; the Democratic Security and Defense Policy resolution and others referred to in the abovementioned document, none of them can justify turning a 713,592.5 square mile country located in the heart of South America into a U.S. military base. Colombia’s territory is 1.6 times that of Texas, the second largest state of the Union taken away from Mexico and later used as a base to conquer with great violence more than half of that country. On the other hand, over 59 years have passed since Colombian soldiers were sent to distant Asia, in October 1950, to fight alongside the Yankee troops against Chinese and Korean combatants. Now, the empire intends to send them to fight against their brothers in Venezuela, Ecuador and other Bolivarian and ALBA countries, to crush the Venezuelan Revolution as they tried to do with the Cuban Revolution in April 1961. For more than one-and-a-half years before the invasion of Cuba, the Yankee administration fostered, armed and used counterrevolutionary bandits in the Escambray the same way it is now using the Colombian paramilitary forces against Venezuela. At the time of the Giron [Bay of Pigs] attack, the Yankee B-26 aircrafts piloted by mercenaries operated from Nicaragua. Their fighter planes were brought to the theater of operations in an aircraft carrier and the invaders of Cuban descent who landed in our territory were escorted by U.S. warships and by the American marines. This time their war equipment and troops will be in Colombia posing a threat not only to Venezuela but to every country in Central and South America. It is really cynical to claim that the infamous agreement is necessary to fight drug-trafficking and international terrorism. Cuba has shown that there is no need of foreign troops to prevent the cultivation and trafficking of drugs and to preserve domestic order, even though the United States—the mightiest power on Earth—has promoted, financed and armed the terrorists who for decades have attacked the Cuban Revolution. The preservation of domestic peace is a basic prerogative of every government and the presence of Yankee troops in any Latin American country to do it on their behalf constitutes a blatant foreign interference in their internal affairs that will inevitably elicit the peoples’ rejection. A simple reading of the document shows that not only the Colombian airbases will be in the Yankees’ hands but also the civilian airports and ultimately any facility that may be useful to their armed forces. The radio space is also available to that country with a different culture and other interests that have nothing in common with those of the Colombian people. The U.S. Armed Forces will have exceptional prerogatives. The occupants can commit any crime anywhere in Colombia against Colombian families, property and laws and still be unaccountable to the country’s authorities. Actually, they have taken diseases and scandalous behavior to many places like the Palmerola military base in Honduras. In Cuba, when they came to visit the neo-colony, they sat astride the neck of Jose Marti’s statue, in the capital’s Central Park. The limit set with regards to the total number of soldiers can be modified as requested by the United States, and with no restriction whatsoever. The aircraft carriers and warships visiting the naval bases given to them can take as large a crew as they choose, and this can be thousands in only one of their large aircraft carriers. The Agreement, which will remain in force for successive 10-year periods, can’t be modified until the end of every period, with a one-year prior notice. What will the United States do if an administration as that of Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr. or Bush Jr., and others like them, is asked to leave Colombia? The Yankees have ousted scores of governments in our hemisphere. How long would a government last in Colombia if it announced such intentions?

Now, the politicians in Latin America are faced with a sensitive issue: the fundamental duty of explaining their viewpoints on the annexation document. I am aware that what is happening in Honduras at this decisive moment draws the attention of the media and the foreign ministers of this hemisphere, but the Latin American governments cannot overlook the extremely serious and transcendental events taking place in Colombia. I have no doubts about the reaction of the peoples; they will be sensitive to the dagger being shoved deep inside them, especially in Colombia: They will oppose! They will never cave in to such ignominy! Today, the world is facing serious and pressing problems. The entire humanity is threatened by climate change. European leaders are almost begging on their knees for some kind of agreement in Copenhagen that will prevent the catastrophe. They practically concede that the Summit will fail to meet the objective of reaching an agreement that can drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and promise to continue struggling to attain it before 2012; however, there is a true risk that an agreement cannot be reached until it is too late. The Third World countries are rightly claiming from the richest and most developed nations hundreds of billion dollars a year to pay for the climate battle. Does it make sense for the United States government to invest time and money in building military bases in Colombia to impose on our peoples their hateful tyranny? Along that path, if a disaster is already threatening the world, a greater and faster disaster is threatening the empire and it would all be the consequence of the same exploiting and plundering system of the planet. — periodico26.cu, November 6, 2009 Home Current Archives Arsenal of Marxism Subscribe Links Search About Us Donate Contact 2001-2010. Socialist Viewpoint Publishing

[email protected] Home Current Issue Archives Arsenal of Marxism Subscribe Links Search Who We Are Donate Contact us May/Jun 2008 • Vol 8, No. 4 Click Here to Return to the Index Search the Site: Enter term and click Go! The United States’ Hemispheric Response: A Fourth Intervention Fleet By Fidel Castro Ruz It had come into being in 1943 as a means of combating Nazi submarines and protecting navigation routes during the Second World War. It was decommissioned in 1950, when it became superfluous. The South Command was designed to meet the United States’ hegemonic needs in our region at the time. After 48 years, however, it has recently been resurrected, and its interventionist aims need not be proved: U.S. military chiefs themselves divulge these in their declarations in a natural, spontaneous, at times discrete fashion. Overwhelmed by problems with food prices, energy, unequal trade, the economic recession, which affects the most important market their products have; inflation, climate change and the investments required to satisfy their consumer dreams, they mismanage the time and energy of leaders and subordinates alike. Truth is the decision to reassemble the Fourth Fleet was announced the first week of April, almost a month after the Ecuadorian territory was attacked with U.S. bombs and technology and when, owing to U.S. pressures, citizens of different countries were killed or wounded. This was vigorously condemned by Latin American leaders at the Rio Group meeting held in the Dominican Republic’s capital. But worst still is that this is taking place at a time when the dismemberment of Bolivia encouraged by the United States meets with nearly unanimous condemnation. U.S. military chiefs themselves have explained they will be responsible for over 30 countries and for covering 15.6 million square miles of neighboring waters in both Central and South America, the Caribbean Sea and its 12 islands, Mexico and the European territories this side of the Atlantic. The United States has 10 Nimitz aircraft carriers whose parameters, more or less similar, are the following: maximum load capacity of between 101 and 104 thousand tons; 999-feet-long and 230.4-feet-wide deck; 2 nuclear reactors; maximum speed of 35 miles/hour; capacity for 90 war planes. The last to be commissioned bears the name of George H.W. Bush, the current president’s father. It has already been baptized with a bottle of champagne by the progenitor himself and should be ready to join the other vessels in coming months. No other country in the world can boast of a vessel like these, equipped with sophisticated nuclear weapons, able to get within a few miles of any of our countries. The next aircraft carrier to be commissioned, the USS Gerald Ford, will be a new type of vessel, which employs stealth technologies that cannot be detected by radars and electromagnetic weapons. The main manufacturer of the two types of vessels is Northrop Grumman, whose current president is also a member of the board of directors of the U.S. oil company Chevron-Texaco. The last Nimitz cost six million dollars. This did not include the cost of the planes, projectiles or operations, which can reach figures in the billions. It sounds like a science fiction story. With that money, the lives of millions of children could have been saved. What is the declared objective of the 4th Fleet? “To combat terrorism and illegal activities such as drug trafficking”, not to mention sending a message to Venezuela and the rest of the region. It has been announced that it will begin operations next July 1. Head of the South Command U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavrides has stated that the United States needs to work harder in “the market of ideas, to win over the hearts and minds” of the people in the region. The United States has already deployed the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh fleets in the Western Atlantic, Eastern Pacific, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Eastern Atlantic and Western Pacific Oceans. The Fourth Fleet was needed to patrol all the seas worldwide. The United States has a total of nine Nimitz aircraft carriers, active or nearly ready for combat, such as the George H.W. Bush. It has sufficient reserves to triple or quadruple the power of any of its fleets in a given theater of operations. The aircraft carriers and nuclear bombs our countries are threatened with serve to spread terror and death, but not to combat terrorism and illegal activities. They should also serve to fill the empire’s lackeys with shame and strengthen solidarity among the peoples. —Granma, May 4, 2008 Home Current Archives Arsenal of Marxism Subscribe Links Search About Us Donate Contact 2001-2008. Socialist Viewpoint Publishing

Home Contents Subscribe Write us! [email protected] June 2002 • Vol 2, No. 6 • An Appeal to Americans By Fidel Castro Fidel Castro made this speech in the course of greeting former-President Jimmy Carter upon his arrival in Cuba on May 12, 2002. In a highly provocative manner a week before, Undersecretary of State John Bolton said he believed Cuba had developed a limited capacity to make biological weapons and had shared biotechnology with “rogue” states. Needing no further prompting, the U.S. media made much of this. A month later, on June 5, Assistant Secretary of State Carl Ford admitted, “We never suggested that we had proof positive they had a program.” Dear compatriots: I will use just a few minutes to greet you and to say a few words, this time basically addressed to the American people. Our struggle is not, and will never be, aimed against the American people. Perhaps, no other country receives Americans with the respect and hospitality displayed by Cuba. We are men and women of ideas and not a community of bigots. In Cuba we have never cultivated hatred against the American people or blamed them for the aggressions perpetrated by the governments of that country. That would have run contrary to our political doctrines and our internationalist conscience, both well proven throughout many years, and increasingly rooted in our ideas. If “Humanity is Homeland,” as Marti said, we are citizens of the world and brothers and sisters of all peoples on Earth; their children, their youth, their elders, their men and women are also ours, regardless of everyone’s economic, political, religious and cultural beliefs. Relations between the Cuban people and the American people, although very much influenced for decades by a barrage of distorted and manipulated propaganda, have been improving every day, particularly after 80 percent of Americans supported the return of the kidnapped child to his family and homeland. I have always felt, based on my reflection on the most recent history of that country, that the American people can support a bad cause—as it has done on not a few occasions—but only when it has been misled. Albeit in the case of the Vietnam war, the painful daily images of the dead American youths that were brought home highly contributed to build an awareness about how useless, unfair and absurd that war was, the situation with the child was different. However, when the American people learned, through its own media, of the cruel injustice being committed against that little child, it did not hesitate and took sides with justice. That, Cuba will never forget! It hurts deeply to see the efforts made to mislead that essentially noble people with the diabolical fabrication that the laboratories where our dedicated scientists create, develop and produce new medicines and therapy treatments, that prevent or cure diseases, spare suffering and save countless lives, are developing bio-weapons research and production programs. At times, there is also talk about Cuba’s capacity to produce them. All throughout history, any scientific or technical development has served for good or evil. In our country, however, no one has ever thought of producing such weapons. Our scientists have been educated for the sacred mission of protecting life and not for destroying it. Cuba has twice as many doctors per capita as all of the highest developed nations. No country has given, or is giving, more support to other peoples’ health care services, free of charge, than Cuba and no other has saved more lives. Thus, our people do not have, nor could it have, any inclination to become a bio-weapons producer. Sentiments are more important than knowledge, and above all, truth should be sacred. Two weeks after the infamous slander, Cuba was arbitrarily included in a list of state sponsors of terrorism. Rather than [being] concerned over the moral or political damage that could derive from such an evil accusation, we are hurt to think that any American could be misled into believing that any damage to himself, his family or his people could come from Cuba. Neither a single drop of blood has been shed in the United States, nor has an atom of wealth been lost there in the 43 years of the Cuban Revolution, due to a terrorist action originating in Cuba. The opposite is true, since thousands of lives have been lost as well as huge amounts of money due to material damages caused by actions against our homeland originated in the U.S. territory. The American people deserve to be informed about this, instead of being saturated with lies and slanders. A Cuban doctor treats a superficial wound. The only truth is that the American people could receive from Cuba vaccines, medications and medical procedures that could surely save numerous lives, or help them recover their well being and health, once the absurd ban on trade is lifted. If this modest cooperation is possible, it is due to the fact that Cuba got rid of illiteracy a long time ago and it has attained a high educational level. Cuba is increasingly becoming a country with not only great intellectual and artistic talents but also with many educators, scientists and hundreds of thousands of people capable of producing wealth with their learned minds. This is but a proof of what can be done despite the inherited underdevelopment and the longest economic and financial blockade that any people have ever endured! We also hurt to see the American people suffering in a climate of terror that disrupts its life, limits its creative capacity, interferes with its normal life and impinges on its economy. I do not wish to use this moment to make any criticism on what could have been done, but was not, to prevent the horrendous crime of September 11; I do not know the facts well enough. Still, as a leader in a country that has had to defend itself, for more than four decades from thousands of terrorist actions I can assure you that the constant stirring up of panic is not the right way to proceed since it can psychologically affect the people and turn life in that immense country into an unbearable nightmare. The risks of grave terrorist actions have existed and still exist in the United States as they do anywhere in the world, before or after September 11. Alienated persons overexcited by the prevailing climate of tension could even realize them. The leaders of nations should not be dragged into making mistakes for fear of facing reality. At the present time, many and very diverse realities threaten human society. Of all the preventive measures that can be adopted against terrorism, some are basic such as: educating the people by keeping them informed of such realities and the dangers they bring; carrying to them a message of serenity and confidence; and, providing them with the necessary knowledge to obtain their maximum and most effective cooperation in this struggle. The Cubans, who are used to waging battles together as a people, do not conceive of any victory without the people’s participation and support. It is the primary duty of the overburdened leaders of our complex world—among many other obligations and without forgetting hunger, poverty, underdevelopment, the diseases that decimate entire regions, the climate changes and other calamities—to meditate and reflect on the causes and the sources of the dangerous pandemic of terrorism and to apply really effective methods to fight it. Under the present difficulties and in the struggle against the scourge of terrorism, the American people can count on this friendly, fraternal and generous people. Long live the political and economic system that has turned Cuba into an example of justice, full sovereignty, true freedom, dignity and heroism! Long live the patriotic, united and learned people that no power on Earth will ever break! We shall overcome! —Information Office, Cuban Interests Section, May 25, 2002 Top Contents Home Subscribe Write us [email protected]

Home Contents Subscribe Write us! [email protected] June 2002 • Vol 2, No. 6 • Response to President Carter’s Speech By Fidel Castro Distinguished former president of the United States, James Carter, Mrs. Carter and other members of his delegation; Greetings, also, to the other guests, and to the dear students of the Latin American Medical School: I was not sure if I should speak or not. Among other things, I did not want to endanger all of you here with a speech that might go on a bit longer than it should. But there was a complete hush and so I felt obliged, really I did, to come up to this podium for a few minutes. I saw a program that read, “Finally, the keynote speech is introduced.” That is what they usually say in these public ceremonies, the open forums and so on. But I would say that in any case, if I were to say something, it would be the closing remarks, since the keynote speech was given by President Carter. Just to explain this thing about a former president and president, it is a matter of courtesy. In the United States, in friendly and informal settings, anyone who has been a president, even if he no longer is, continues to be called president, and that is the friendly manner in which we are speaking to him today. I was thinking to myself, what is it really that we are doing here? Is this a medical school, or is it something else? One thinks in terms of numbers, percentages and so on. I was also calculating, for example, how many doctors we had at the time of the triumph of the Revolution, and it turns out that the number of students at this school today is greater than the number of doctors in Cuba at that time. And two or three year’s later only half of those doctors stayed in our country. Only 40 percent of our professors of medicine stayed too. The results that I could present here today, and I do not say show because we do not show anything off, we present things that have been achieved with a tremendous effort, a 43 years effort. With the doctors who stayed in our country, we were able to create what we have today, and what we have today is a little over 22 doctors for every doctor they left us. And the number of students enrolled in medical studies in our universities today is two and a half times the number of doctors who stayed in our country. Yes, we faced a situation that posed a tremendous challenge. We either remained without doctors, or we would make the effort required to have all the doctors we needed. Among our greatest hopes, when we thought about the future, when we dreamed of the future, was the hope that our country would have a good medical system. I will never forget that when I was a grammar school student in grade five or six, and I went home to the farming estate where I lived, I would sometimes find that a third of the children had died. Nobody heard anything about it; it was not published in the newspapers. And what did they die of? Acidosis. And to this you would have to add, of course, all those who regularly died of tetanus, or any of the many other diseases that regularly afflicted the people in the countryside here. We also dreamed of schools, because we observed the world around us, and realized that almost all of the young people and adults were illiterate. I remember that some of the few who could read and write made a living by writing letters for others who wanted to write to a girlfriend or a girl they wanted to court. But they did not dictate these letters, they had to ask from the letter writers to produce the content of the letter as well. They would ask them to say in the letter what they thought they would have to say to win over the girl, because in those days, it was the boys who courted the girls, there was not as much equality as today. Those were two pillars we fought for, but they were not the two fundamental pillars. The fundamental pillar was something else: justice, equality of opportunities, true brotherhood among human beings. And what is a society without justice? What is a society of illiterates? What is a society where a small few have everything, and the rest have nothing? What freedom can be born of inequality and ignorance? What democracy? What human rights? There are very profound things that our people hold dear. We are firmly convinced that there are many words and many concepts that must be redefined, if we truly want to advance towards a worthy future. The past cannot be the future, and to conceive of a future society genuinely requires rethinking many concepts that are prehistoric.

The past cannot be the future, and to conceive of a future society genuinely requires rethinking many concepts that are prehistoric. We all know, or many of us know, that the word democracy first originated in Greece. When we were young we were told, “There was a model of democracy, the citizens ran the government gathered in a public square,” which must have been quite small. In those days, Athens, for example, had about 20,000 free citizens—there must have been a bit fewer, because if they met in a square, and there were not even microphones back then, they all had to fit in what was actually a small park. Without these microphones, I could not be heard at the back of this group of people gathered here. And in addition to the 15,000 or 20,000 free citizens there were 50,000 or 60,000 people who had no rights whatsoever and around 80,000 human beings who were slaves. When we look around the world today and we see that there are billions of human beings who live in conditions of inconceivable poverty, billions and billions of human beings who live in that Third World, we might ask ourselves what kind of world we are living in. When we see that there are countries where 90 percent of the people are illiterate and have no schools, and that their numbers grow larger every day; when we hear reports of the number of children who could be saved yet who die before the age of one, and we compare the countries where these deaths account for 5, 6, 7 or 8 children out of every 1000 born alive, while that figure is over 150 in other countries, we ask ourselves what kind of world we are living in. March 21, 2002 Fidel Castro representing Cuba at the International Conference on Financing for Development held at Monterrey, Mexico, under United Nations auspices. The U.S. threatened to boycott the meeting unless Castro left Mexico before President Bush arrived! We often ask ourselves, in what century, in what millennium shall we be able to say that all human beings born into this world are truly born into it with an equality of opportunities in life? We have made tremendous efforts to ensure that at least on this island, there can be an equality of opportunities for all human beings, and we still have not completely achieved this goal. You can imagine how difficult it is, and how much more difficult still when you are starting out from a situation of poverty, which is how our own country had to start out, and how over 140 countries are starting out today, to a greater or lesser extent. And if there is any satisfaction, as a reward for the efforts of so many compatriots who struggled, and many who fell in the battle or devoted all of their lives’ energies to an ideal of justice, to a noble dream, it is the fact that our country is moving ever closer to a society where all human beings have an equality of opportunities, but not just in theory, because only in theory can we speak about equality in the world today. Only in theory, when you know, for example, that a country like Mozambique has a per capita gross domestic product of 80 dollars a year, while others have an annual GDP of 45,000 dollars. And I am not referring only to the difference between nations, but rather to the differences between individuals within the same nation, and our Latin American countries are Olympic champions in this regard. We Latin Americans come from the region with the widest gap between the rich and the poor. We know that in many of them, the richest 10 percent of the population possesses 50 percent of the wealth and goods produced in these nations, while the poorest 10 percent have access to only 4 percent or 5 percent, or sometimes even less, of the gross domestic product. When you walk through the streets you see them full of children cleaning windshields, shining shoes or working for a pittance in order to help support their families. You see children who do not go to school, because there are no schools, or children who do not even make it past fifth grade, because if I remember correctly, only 52 percent reach fifth grade, much less sixth grade or ninth grade. And we could ask ourselves why, and what degree of justice there is, what the future holds for some and what it holds for others. And that is why, while many recognize the tremendous advances that our country has made in health care, education and sports, as if these were the only objectives, or the final objectives of our struggles or our lives, we would have to add: We are striving for something much more noble, we are striving for justice for all. How can there be justice when people do not know how to read and write? How can there be freedom without justice or equality? How can there be a democracy like the democracy in Athens we mentioned earlier? How can we speak of human rights, and what kind of world are we living in, when the very country that in this era and in the face of unimaginable difficulties is moving closer, and at an ever faster rate, to this level, this dream of justice, true freedom, true democracy and true human rights, is condemned in Geneva as a violator of those rights? I should not address such a thorny subject at a gathering like this, where I was not planning on speaking, but now that I have been obliged to speak .… When someone speaks, it should be to say something. I will add that today this is perhaps the most united country in the world, and the one with the deepest political conscience. Today this is perhaps the country that is most excited and full of hope for the future. You all know that just a few days ago a million residents of Havana gathered together in Revolution Square. Yes, just a few days after that condemnation, they gathered infuriated by that colossal offense. And the most incredible thing of all is that those who condemned us can show no other image but that of hell, because those countries—and I am referring specifically to the countries of Latin America—are the complete antithesis of the rights we were talking about. Therefore, there is no reason to be upset. There will be a judge whose verdict cannot be appealed, and that judge will be history. That is why I was saying that as I looked at all of you here, I asked myself, is this only a medical school?

And what good would it do if you all went back to your countries to become part of institutions where, sadly, financial concerns, commercialism and selfishness prevail? What good would it do if no one were willing to go to work in the mountains, the plains, the remote corners of the countryside or marginal neighborhoods of the cities to practice the noble profession of medicine? More than a medical school, our most fervent hope is that this will be a school of solidarity, brotherhood and justice. I am firmly convinced that it will be so, that it is not in vain that all of the ethnic groups and all of the most humble sectors of your countries are represented in the students of this school and the others, a total of 66 ethnic groups, as we have been told. What a beautiful sight! Students from all of Latin America and the United States gathered here together, studying side by side. What great pleasure and satisfaction it gave us to listen to the young girl who spoke here, and the other young girl who sang. Just think of the hopes for friendship and brotherhood that could be realized if we all join together under the ideals of justice and equality expressed here by President Carter. The examples he cited were impressive, as when he said that one pill, just one pill, or maybe two, could contribute to eradicating terrible diseases. A noble effort, aimed at alleviating some of the tragedies afflicting human beings in this world, could succeed through the use of the simplest procedures. And the question that came to my mind was, how much did all of this cost? And it is obvious that the resources invested are minimal. I was thinking of the billions of people on the planet with these same problems, or in danger of being afflicted by them. He did not mention malaria, for example, the tens of millions of people who contract malaria and the millions of people who die of malaria, or typhoid. It was not possible since he was referring specifically to efforts made in the field of medicine, although he mentioned other areas in which the Carter Foundation is working. Dread was not mentioned; the evening was too lovely to speak of the dread and the dread is called AIDS. When we hear Africa mentioned, it is impossible not to think of the 26 or 28 million people infected with the AIDS virus, the 13 or 14 million children orphaned, the millions of children born HIV positive, which their mothers passed on to them. It is one of the worst tragedies in the history of humankind, and it threatens to exterminate entire nations, and even entire regions. To any of these figures we would have to add the millions of illiterates, their growing number in the world; the millions of unemployed; the 60 percent or 70 percent of Latin Americans who work in the informal sector, with no security, no social protection whatsoever and no rights, because they have wiped out not only the workers movement and trade unions, but also the most basic rights of workers. How many calamities could be added up! President Carter told us about the noble efforts of his wife in the study, research and coping with the problems of mental retardation, and that is a major issue. We know, because we are collecting precise data on all of the people who suffer from some sort of disability due to mental retardation. In the capital alone there are over 13,000 cases and each and every one must be studied. We are studying them, as well as training geneticists and equipping laboratories at an accelerated pace, especially since we have learned—and we are not only studying cases of mental retardation, but cases of disabilities due to any other cause—that there are a total of 48,000 people in the capital with some kind of disability. Based on the information that over 80 different diseases are genetic in origin, we are undertaking a genetic study of all of the cases of mental retardation and of a number of other genetic disorders that children are not born with, but which can afflict them later, resulting from hypothyroidism or polio, another disease that has fortunately been eradicated for some time now, in this and other countries. But there are many cases of disability resulting from either genetic or environmental or accidental causes. When you begin to look into these things and learn the figures involved, you get a better idea of the many tragedies suffered by human society, and often these people suffer alone, because many are not even aware that this is happening. This is yet another source of satisfaction from this visit today, when we see the efforts they are making to prevent these disorders, in the first place, and to do as much as possible to help those who suffer from them. I do not want to say too much more on this matter, however, because it is something we could talk about until dawn. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, visiting a special facility for handicapped people during his visit to Cuba in the mid-May, 2002. What I still need to address are the reasons for which we have welcomed, with respect, warm hospitality and great pleasure, former president Jimmy Carter, his wife, and the delegation accompanying him. It is not a large delegation. The largest delegation visiting the country with him is the delegation of reporters and journalists, something entirely logical, of course. Yesterday at the airport we spoke of his efforts to improve relations between the United States and Cuba, in the midst of seemingly insurmountable difficulties. Due to those difficulties, which I will not enumerate here, it was not possible to advance any further at that time. But we felt that acknowledging this fact was a matter of basic historical justice, in addition to acknowledging his courage in visiting our country. He was courageous to try to improve relations; let no one think that this was an easy thing to do. He has been brave to visit Cuba despite the fact that there would always be those who opposed such a visit, and that he was exposing himself to criticism and slander. We did not choose a program for his visit, he did it himself.

We did not choose a program for his visit, he did it himself. He was primarily interested in the field of education; this was practically his number one interest. He was especially interested in this Latin American School of Medical Sciences, which is perfectly in keeping with what he told us about the efforts they are making in so many countries to promote health, to the extent that their resources allow. They must have acquired a great deal of experience on these matters. I must say here, and not out of any pretense to personal flattery, that one thing that is clearly obvious is former president Carter’s remarkable intelligence. This is joined, to an even greater degree, by his personal and family ethics. This was truly one of the first things we perceived back during his first speeches as a candidate for president. These are two factors that have been closely linked to his entire history and his personality. And this explains his interest in visiting this school, and also the school for social workers, and other institutions devoted to special education, as well as gathering information on the efforts that our country has been making in the field of health, education, culture and medical research. While he described the things he has done, I was thinking he has done them with very few resources, because he is an austere man. At the airport, I was expecting him to arrive on one of those big Boeings, and suddenly I saw a little twin-engine plane approach the runway, turn, land and draw up to us. That was why I said to him, and I think it was picked up by the microphones, I did not know there were so many microphones there, “I thought you were going to arrive in one of those big new Boeings.” He came on a modest plane with a small number of people. As he explained all those programs that I was so glad to hear about and which you have been able to hear about as well as our people, I was thinking to myself that if it is possible to do so much good in the world with just a few dollars, or even a few cents, just think of how much more could be done with the hundreds of billions, or with the trillions of dollars spent around the world to produce weapons, or to produce and consume narcotics, or to produce luxury goods, perhaps one of the most terrible legacies they have passed down to humankind, and I hope they will not last forever, these so-called consumer societies. A world like he dreams of when fighting diseases, a world like we dream of, a world like all of you dream of, is possible! Yes, it is entirely possible, when people have the knowledge, the education and the conscience needed to live and act with a true spirit of brotherhood, with a true spirit of justice. And I would not consider it to have been in vain, nor would I suffer from the enormous embarrassment I feel at this moment for having talked for a bit longer than I had promised myself, imposing on the patience of our visitors, if these words I have spoken with all my heart, with the greatest sincerity, and even, we could say, with passion, are remembered by you from time to time. Thank you very much. —Information Office, Cuban Interests Section, May 13, 2002 Top Contents Home Subscribe Write us [email protected]

Castro Internet Archive At the Closing of the Congress of Women of the Americans Spoken: January 16, 1963 (0451 GMT) Source: Castro Speech Database Markup: Brian Baggins Online Version: Castro Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2000 Castro arrived "a little late", after attending and speaking for good length at anoter meeting of the Congress... Women of America, fraternal delegates — be patient — fraternal delegates — can you hear? — of the countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa who are visiting us. In the first place, I want to make clear — as I have already told some of the lady comrades of the congress — that if this function began a little late, it was not my fault. (Laughter) Because this year is the year of organization (laughter), I was in the theater at 2057 (laughter), and we intend during this year of organization to be punctual. What happened was that the comrades, the comrades of the congress talked a lot. I think they were speaking till eight or nine more or less, until eight and then some (laughter), and that is why this function began a little late. I only want to make it clear that it was not my fault. (Laughter) It has been a very great honor for us, for our country, that Cuba is the site of this congress. We understand that it has been a very positive event, a serious event. We have tried to keep ourselves informed, to read the material of the various reports presented to the congress, and our impression is really that all of them have great value because of their seriousness, the correct focusing of the problems, the enormous amount of data they contribute about the realities of our continent. Naturally, the topics of the congress were restricted to those sections that relate to the interests of women, but what, really, does not interest woman in modern society? What does not interest the Latin American woman, the American woman regarding our social problems? When discussions are held about the rights of women, of their aspirations, we see that there cannot be rights of women in our America or rights of children, mothers, or wives if there is no revolution. (Applause) The fact is that in the world in which the American woman lives, the woman must necessarily be revolutionary. (Applause) Why must she be revolutionary? Because woman, who constitutes an essential part of every people, is, in the first place, exploited as a worker and discriminated against as a woman. And who are the revolutionaries in the society of man? Who were they throughout history? In simple terms, the exploited and the discriminated. Because woman is not only exploited as a worker when she works for an exploiting monopoly, for a society of exploiting classes, but even as a worker she is the most exploited worker, with the lowest salaries, the worst conditions, with a series of contradictions among her social functions — her condition as a woman and the exploitation to which she is subjected. Thus, logically, women are revolutionary, and on a continent like this, they must be revolutionary. That is why in our country women are revolutionary. (Applause) In our country many women were exploited. They were exploited as workers who worked to enrich a class, and were also discriminated against as workers. Many women did not even have access to work, to the opportunity to work. In Comrade Vilma's report, there appears a report on the activities of the Cuban woman within the revolution and the benefits the Cuban woman has received through the revolution. The report was long, but even so it is possible that the report has some omissions, because the revolution has done even more for woman. It does not believe it has done it all, not in the least, but it intends to continue to work for the woman. And, in our country, the woman, like the Negro, is no longer discriminated against. In reality, the revolution has meant much to the Cuban woman. Within the revolution, the revolutionary leadership makes efforts to make available more and more opportunities to the woman. As an example we can cite the fact that when the medium and large shoe, clothing, and hardware sales instructed to select women as administrators of those firms. (Applause) Some 4,000 administrators — (Castro now corrects himself — Ed.) that is, administrators for some 4,000 centers — 90 percent or more are presently administered by women. There is another statistic, for example, that did not appear in the report of the comrade president of the federation — and it is very illustrative — about the increase of the participation of the woman in activities that were practically closed to her: It is the fact that, for example, in some professions, such as the medical profession, the number of women who entered that university school was, possibly, less than 10 percent. At this time, in the institute of basic medical sciences, that is to say the first year of medical schools, about 50 percent are women. (Applause) Those facts of evidence of how, in four years of revolution, the woman has been incorporated into social life, the life of her country, the life of the circle in which she lives and develops. For example, women also paraded along with our soldiers on 2 January in contingents of women's military battalions. In our army thee are a series of functions in which women work and perform services. The bourgeois concept of womanhood is disappearing in our country. The concepts of stigma, concepts of discrimination, have really been disappearing in our country, and the masses of women have realized this. Prejudice is being replaced by a new concept in which the qualities of the woman are valued for a series of social activities, in some of which they demonstrate exceptional virtues. A broad field of action has been opened to them. If you compare the report of the Cuban delegation with the reports of the delegations of Latin America, you will be able to see the great differences. The problems here now are, for example, how to free the woman from domestic slavery, how to create conditions that would permit her to participate as much as possible in production, from which the woman and the revolution both profit. Within a society like the capitalist society — one of unemployment, millions of men without work — it is logical that women are many times relegated to restricted economic activities.

Within a society like ours, in which, because of the complete development of all the resources of the nation and our planned economy, more and more labor is needed for production, it is logical that the revolution concern itself with creating those conditions. And so today the revolution is concerned with the establishment of the largest possible number of children's centers, student dining halls, and with the creation of those circumstances that will enable the women not to be a slave of the kitchen; and with the establishment of laundries. It is clear that the increase of certain of those institutions, such as children's centers, is restricted by the resources we may have under certain circumstances. This year emphasis is being placed on the establishment of workers' dining halls in the principal factories of the country, and next year the accent will be placed on the establishment of students' dining halls. The development of those institutions will enable the woman to participate more in work, production, and the life of her country — not only economic activities, but political and social activities as well. (Applause) Today those are our concerns, because the women in our country are able to be concerned with these solutions. The Cuban delegation has also spoken of the gigantic effort made by the revolution on the education front. There is hardly any need to speak; it is sufficient to see it. This movement can be seen. It is a movement that is forging a great future for this country; it is a movement that demonstrates the objectives of the revolution projected, above all, toward the future. It has permitted the duplication of the number of children in the schools, the duplication of the number of students in secondary and superior schools, the eradication of illiteracy, and it can enable this country to march forward in forging a magnificent youth destined to inherit the conditions the revolution is creating for that youth. Our problem now is not how to win the right to do that, but how to do it as perfectly as possible. There is a difference between the situation of the women of America represented in this congress and the representation of the Cuban women: Cuban women have the opportunity to do all that, and the American women need that opportunity. Our problems are different in the sense that it now is how we will do it and how best we can do it. For us it is no longer a matter of the chance to have, let us say, nearly 100,000 youths studying under state scholarships, but rather how to organize them, now to see to it that the schools where they study are more efficient, how to train cadres of teachers, and how to do that task well. That does not mean that we do not have much work. On the contrary, there is more and more work all the time in the revolution. But the revolution is creating resources and more resources along the march. An example of how those resources are created is that fact that it recently was necessary to receive in our capital nearly 10,000 young peasant girls from Oriente Province. (Applause) Whom to give that task to? The federation of women had been in charge of that work, but the federation of women had the work of attending to all the boarding houses of the scholarship students. It did not have enough cadres, but there was a teachers' school that was organized by a group of brigadist girls who participated in 1961 in the great literacy campaign, a school of 1,100 young girls who were studying to be teachers. It is a good school. The comrade who is in charge of that school, and who is a great pedagogue because she knows how to each, Comrade Elena Gil, had begun with a group of 300 revolutionary instructors — that is, 300 female teachers formed from groups of youths who volunteered to teach in the mountains. She began by training 300 revolutionary instructors for the night schools for girls who work in domestic service. This was the first school. First there were 300. With those 300 girls, the night schools were organized. Then there were another 300, and their number reached 600. With the help of these girls, the Macarense pedagogic institute was organized. that trained 1,100 of whom 300 were selected for special courses, with those 300 the rest of the girls, the schools for the 10,000 peasant girls who arrived were organized. (Applause) We already had cadres — girls from the literacy campaign, girls who had already studied one year, girls who already have discipline, a sense of responsibility. It is really impressive to cross one of these avenues where millionaries once lived and find groups of girls in uniforms, peasant girls going from one place to another-possibly to eat or to class. With them, in her scholarship student uniform, a girl who was in some cases younger than the peasant girls themselves, but they were (as heard) the leaders. They were in charge of the group: they were in charge of the house in which they live and were, in addition, their teachers. They work and study. Consider how those girls are being trained, already receiving that responsibility, already getting serious tasks, fulfilling them. They have a system, and they combine study with work. This indicates that the number of persons trained will be greater all the time. Now we must organize another teachers' school. The revolution changed the method of selecting teachers, because teachers used to be selected exclusively from persons from the city. The revolution changed that procedure. It established a system of selection and opportunity for all girls and boys who want to become teachers, and the system begins in the mountains. (Applause) That is why we now have 5,000 youths in the mountains who are entering their first year of studies for the teaching profession. Later they will go to school for two more years. Then they will go to a higher institute where they will stay for another two years. Many of those female teachers will be of peasant extraction, girls familiar with the mountains, with the rural areas. At the same time, we are organizing pre-university courses for peasant girls who are in the fourth and fifth grades and want to begin studying to be teachers. From those same 10,000 peasant girls we will select those with the greatest vocational (aptitudes — Ed.) and prepare them to enter those schools. Within a period of time we will have our higher institute for teachers with 6,000 students, whom we can mobilize so that they in turn can teach, combining studies, with work.

This is being carried out with the great effort of a certain number of persons who work on that front. Are there many persons who are perfectly competent for that task? No, unfortunately, there are not many. But when there is a competent person in charge of any of those activities, he creates what we can call a school; that is, a system of work. We do not have many Elesas now, but in the future we will have hundreds of Elesas, because they will be the girls she trained. Every day there will be more schools, superior schools, and we need many cadres in education to organize and take charge of those schools. Thus advances the revolution with its youth. It can do it. We have won the opportunity to begin to do all that. The comrades of Latin America present a realistic picture of the situation of the continent. It is really frightening. We believe that all those reports should be published in a pamphlet to be distributed here and outside (applause) in Latin America. Those figures are really depressing — the statistics about the number of children without schools or teachers; undernourished; the shameful figures of the percentage of children who reach the sixth grade, the percentage of those who can undertake secondary studies, and the percentage of those who can undertake university studies; the figures on infant mortality, the consequence of the unhealthy conditions in which they live, the undernourishment, the lack of medical programs. Today, this is not our situation. Today, we can say that not a single child is crippled by poliomyelitis; we can say that tens of thousands of children are saved as a result of medial assistance. More and more national public health programs continue to develop. The number of beds in our hospitals has practically tripled. The resources assigned to public health have been qunitupled. Today those are not our problems, but they are the problem of an entire continent. Our problem is how to create everything we need to satisfy so many needs, to overcome the poverty which imperialist exploitation left us. That is our problem. Our job is big, hard, difficult. And it is not easy to have to carry out that task with the threatening claws of imperialism hanging over us, with the ceaseless hostility of he most powerful and aggressive imperialist nation of the world. How to carry out that work is our problem. How to defend the revolution and the sovereignty of this country while at the same time advancing, that is our problem. But that, American women, is not your problem. Your problem, and that off the peoples your represent, is how to win the opportunity to do this, which we are doing. (Applause) We are certain we will advance — in some years more, in some years less. We are certain that we will overcome our difficulties at times with more sacrifices than at others. We are certain that imperialism will not be able to defeat us (applause), because there will never be any conquered in this country. (Applause) There may be fallen, dead, but no defeated. (Chanting, applause) If the Yankee imperialists one day, using all their might and resources, were to decide to destroy this country, the most they could ever say would be "we have destroyed it," not "we have defeated it." (Applause) And we know that that danger hangs over us, but we also know that there remains an entire continent and an entire world. We are not just Cubans; we are Latin Americans. (Applause, cheering) We are even more because we are not only Latin Americans, we are human being who live on the planet Earth. (Applause) The important thing is the victory of mankind. We know that in resisting the imperialists, being firm against the Yankee imperialists, we are defending the rights of mankind. That is how we Cubans think. I repeat, the problem for us today is to work and fight. Your problem is to fight in order to work later. The figures are there, those cold, terrible figures which, when UNESCO or FAO or any other U.N. organization complies statistics, say so many millions of so much and so many millions of so much more, so many millions of deaths from hunger or curable disease, or so many millions of children without schools, or so many millions without homes, or so many millions undernourished; life expectancy is so much, which is half of the average life span in the highly industrialized and exploiting countries. The figures are there, including the figures of the dead, which are higher than those of any revolution. The number of deaths per year in Latin America, those who die of hunger and illness without assistance, is greater than those who would die in the liberation of the peoples of Latin America. (Applause) Here, the struggle cost 20,000 lives, but many times 20,000 lives have already been saved. We can wait, and the figures will continue to pile up, as will the millions of unfortunates, exploited, dying. The figures are there, the results of the feudal, imperialist exploitation. The problem of the figures must not be restricted to writing them down in a graph or a pamphlet. We must think about how to change that situation. (Applause) There are persons who are experts on figures, but what is needed are experts on changing the situation, experts on leading peoples on revolutions. That is the art of the revolutionaries, the art that must be learned and developed.

That is the art of the revolutionaries, the art that must be learned and developed. How to bring the masses to the struggle? It is the masses who make history, but for them to make history, the masses must be taken to the battle. That is the duty of the leaders and the revolutionary organizations: to make the masses march, to launch the masses into battle. (Applause) That is what they did in Algeria. (Applause) And that is what the patriots are doing in South Vietnam. (Applause) They have sent the masses into battle with correct methods, correct tactics, and they have brought the greatest amount of the masses into the battle. That is what we did. The four, five, six, or seven of us who one day were separated did not conquer power. It was the movement of the masses that the struggle against the tyranny unleashed, which culminated in the victory of the people. With regard to this there is something we want to clear up, because there have been some harebrained theoreticians who have declared that in Cuba there was a peaceful change from capitalism to socialism. That is like denying that thousands and thousands of militants feel in this country. It is like denying that an army from the bosom of the people in this country defeated a modern army, armed and instructed by Yankee imperialism. (Applause) That is like denying that explosive, incendiary bombs have fallen on our peasants, cities, and towns, bearing the legend: Made in USA. That is like denying the formidable struggle of our people. It is like denying Playa Giron and those who fell there. It was not a peaceful transition; it was a combat transition, without which there would not have been any transition in our country. Without that heroic battle, that armed battle of the Cuban people we would perhaps still have Senor Batista here, made in USA. Those are the historic truths. And we believe that we at least have the right to speak about our historic truths without some long-distance theoreticians telling us what happened here without having ever come here. One does not have to whisper about these things, nor must one say them in low tones. They must be said in a loud voice so that they will be heard, really heard. (Applause) And let the peoples hear them, because those false interpretations of history tend to create that conformism that also suits imperialism; it tends to create that resignation and reformism and that policy of waiting for the Greek calends to make revolutions. Those false interpretations of history do not conform with the situation of the majority of the Latin American countries, where objective conditions exist — and the imperialists have clearly seen that objective conditions do exist — but where subjective conditions are missing. Those subjective conditions must be created, and they are created by historic truth, not by falsification of history. (Applause) Those subjective conditions are not created by saying that there was a peaceful transition in Cuba. (One of the delegates shouts something about cowards — Ed.) It is not a matter of cowards, but of confused, of mistaken views. We do not deny the possibility of peaceful transition, but we are still awaiting the first case. But we do not deny it, because we are not dogmatists, and we understand the ceaseless change of historic conditions and circumstances. We do not deny it but we do say that there was no peaceful transition; and we do protect against an attempt to use the case of Cuba to confuse the revolutionaries of other countries where the objective conditions for the revolution exist and where they can do the same thing Cuba did. It is logical that imperialist theoreticians try to prevent revolutions, the imperialists slander the Cuban revolution, sow lies, say the worst horrors, create fear of revolutions among the people. But let no one from a revolutionary position attempt to create conformism or fear of revolutions. That is absurd. Let the imperialists theoreticians preach conformism. Let the revolutionary theoreticians preach revolution without fear. (Applause) That is what we think. That was what we said in the declaration of Havana, which, in some fraternal countries, received from some revolutionary organizations the honors of a desk drawer when it should have received the just publicity it deserved. It would be like locking up everything you have discussed here. Of course, if we do not want the masses to learn about it, we must put it in a drawer. But if we tell the masses what the situation is, they must also be told what the road is. We must bring them to the struggle, because that road is much easier in many Latin American countries than it was in Cuba. I want to make it clear, so that the theoreticians will not get angry, that we are not making an irresponsible generalization. I want to make it clear that we know that each country has its specific conditions, and that is why we do not generalize. But we say the majority. We know there are exceptions. We know there are countries in which those objective conditions do not exist. But they exist in the majority of the Latin American countries. That is our opinion. To say it here is a duty, because we hope that in 40 years we will not meet as today — the granddaughters of our federated women with your granddaughters — to discuss the same problems. (Applause) Our country is facing difficult circumstances, great risks. There is no reason to stick our heads into a hole like the ostrich. Things must be seen realistically. Our country is experiencing a period of risks, of great dangers. On one side we have Yankee imperialism, imperialism's most aggressive and most powerful nation, which has set as its basic aim the destruction of this revolution, and on the other, we have circumstances that are adverse to the world revolutionary movement.

On one side we have Yankee imperialism, imperialism's most aggressive and most powerful nation, which has set as its basic aim the destruction of this revolution, and on the other, we have circumstances that are adverse to the world revolutionary movement. First, I want to say that for us the crisis of the Caribbean is not resolved. (Applause) I want to say that in our opinion, in the opinion of the revolutionary leadership of our country, a war was avoided but peace was not won. That is not the same thing. Do all the circumstances that forced us to take the measures we took, the steps we took, not still exist? Does the declared policy of hostility and aggression against our country of the Yankee imperialists not still persist? We do not believe in the words of Kennedy; but, moreover, Kennedy has not given any word. And if he gave it, he has already retracted it. That is why we said that for us there was no satisfactory guarantee without the five points we proposed as a result of that crisis. (Applause) We must be very clear on these controversial and subtle questions. We must be clear on them. If it is said that we are here, that is, that we have not been destroyed because of the solidarity of the socialist camp, it is the truth. But if it said that we are here because of Kennedy's word, that is not the truth. We have resisted for four years thanks to that solidarity. Very well, what is peace to us? What peace is there for us? Since Kennedy spoke in the Orange Bowl, the agents of imperialism have committed four murders. They killed a peasant scholarship student on vacation in Trinidad. They killed, by burning him alive, a worker in Las Villas Province, a worker who worked in the reforestation service. They murdered an 11-year old in San Antonio de Las Vegas. They murdered two CDR comrades in the province of Matanzas. Yankee agents with Yankee weapons, following Yankee orders! The policy of subversion declared by the imperialists. What did we say? How could there be a solution if the imperialists assumed the right of trying to strangle our country with hunger, of trying to isolate our country and pressure all shipping lines and airlines in order to deprive us of essential raw materials and create hunger in this country. (How could there be a solution — Ed.) if the imperialists assumed the right to maintain that blockade policy against us and to create every imaginable obstacle outside international law, outside the principles that regulate the United Nations; if the imperialists assumed the right to subvert social order, introduce weapons, saboteurs, train them, organize mercenaries; if the imperialists assumed the right to violate our sea and air space; if the imperialists assumed the right to organize pirate bands; if the imperialists assumed the right to retain a piece of our territory, which points at the heart of our country? what right can the imperialists have to demand the withdrawal of friendly weapons while they maintain enemy weapons on Cuban territory? What right have the imperialists to do that? In three statements, in the one Mr. Kennedy made after the crisis, (as heard) he used threatening language, maintaining his policy of using economic, political, and other kinds of pressure and guaranteeing that he would not invade if we did not promote subversion. But for Kennedy, this is subversion. You can't win! (Estamos fritos.) That is a congress of women, who speak of hunger, the frightening poverty of Latin America; that is subversion. When he spoke to the mercenaries at the Orange Bowl, he said that he would deliver the mercenary flag in Havana. Recently, Mr. Rusk, the Yankee secretary of state, said that the United States was not committed to refrain from invading Cuba and that if it had committed itself, it had done so with regard to the immediate situation, independent of its commitments with the other Latin American countries. That is what they have said. Where is the commitment not to invade Cuba? It is insolent for the Yankee secretary of state to say that they have not committed themselves not to invade Cuba, as if international law, the U.N. Charter, and all the norms that regulate relations between nations did not commit them to not invade our country since, of course, they have no right o invade Cuba. By speaking in that way, instead of promising not to invade, they shirk the obligation they have under international law not to invade Cuba. Moreover, they show that the Yankee leaders have the souls of gangsters and pirates. (Applause) I believe that many arguments are not necessary. The words and the deeds are there. That is why we say that a war has been avoided, good; but peace has not been won. This is bad. That is the situation. The imperialists are somewhat optimistic. This is reflected in their words. I do not think that optimism has any reason to exist other than the underestimation of the realities of the world and the underestimation of the strength of the peoples.

I do not think that optimism has any reason to exist other than the underestimation of the realities of the world and the underestimation of the strength of the peoples. It is clear that they do not want a finger moved in Latin America. They do not want the peoples to fight. For instance, the example of the heroic Venezuelan people (applause) is, for them, a horrible nightmare. They want to be calmly permitted to establish the bases of a long-lasting empire based on even more inhuman exploitation. All those programs are always based on an alleged austerity which means more privation for the workers, more sacrifice for the masses. Let no one doubt it — the Alliance for Progress will not prosper because it is simply a policy of domination, exploitation, and retreat. The partners of that alliance are puppets like Stroessner, Guido, Romulo Betancourt, the Somozas, the Peruvian gorilla junta. Those are the progressivists. The alliance is with those progressivists — the most reactionary, backward, and prehistoric people in Latin America. It (the Alliance for Progress — Ed.) will not advance. It is doomed to failure. It is a desperate imperialist attempt to deceive and confuse. In one of those speeches, Mr. Kennedy said that we will compare Cuba with the Alliance for Progress. If we make this comparison, Mr. Kennedy is lost, because here, despite all the imperialist propaganda, there is the reality that every child is guaranteed a quart of milk daily. We have had to ration because employment increased extraordinarily. Some half million people began to work, to have an income. The peasants no longer had to pay rent. Rents were reduced 50 percent. All education became free. Hospital service was qunitupled. The people had incomparably more resources. It was logical that under these circumstances we should have had to take measures which would guarantee all families the articles they needed at a just price, because there still remained here a sufficient number of wealthy people to establish all kinds of speculation, if there were any question of prices, as is the situation in the capitalist countries where they set prices. A liter of mill goes up to two pesos and there is enough for those who have the two pesos. A pound of rice goes up to three pesos and then it suffices for those who have five pesos. There is no rationing; there is something much worse: he who has gets everything and he who has less gets nothing. But they try to cause confusion with all these things. Let it be admitted that our country faces a difficult situation, resulting from the circumstances that it is, first of all, the basic, immediate target of Yankee imperialism, and secondly, because of the divisions, or disagreement, or however one may wish to call them, more or less optimistically, within the socialist camp. We have stated our position. We are not going to throw fuel on the fire of these disagreements. I believe that anyone who throws fuel on the fire of these disagreements is harming the interests of the world revolutionary movement. (Mild applause) Against imperialism this reality is bitter, harsh. We have stated our position, what — as we understand it — is our duty. It is not to throw fuel on the fire of this disagreement, within its principles, unity within its principles (Castro repeats himself — Ed.), and to fight for this with Marxist-Leninist methods. (Louder applause) Marxism-Leninism is sufficiently rich in ideological resources and in experience to find adequate ways to overcome this difficultly, to overcome this obstacle. It is a matter of resolving to do so, and I believe we must fight for this. We must fight for this unity, and this we propose to do, with our own criterion: Chauvinism, no, rather Marxism-Leninism. Because imperialism, imperialism, exists and is there, dangerous and aggressive. The underdeveloped world exists and is there. The liberating movement of the peoples subject to colonialism and imperialism is there, fighting, in Angola, in Vietnam, in Latin America, in every part of the world, and this fight demands the united efforts of the socialist camp. It is deplorable, most deplorable, that these differences should have arisen, and we must fight against them, because the first thing is to unite, and what Marx said was: "Proletariats of all nations, unite!" (Much applause) Marx and Engels fought tirelessly, indefatigably for this unity throughout their lives, and this is what we say, our political leadership, our party, and our people, "Proletarians of all nations, let us unite!" Let us be united against our class enemies, against the imperialist enemies, against the aggressors, against the warmongers. This is the position of our party and our people. This is the judgment of our national directorate and our people, who have gone forward united in difficult times, in difficult circumstance,s because our people endured difficult tests in recent days, tests of courage in the face of Kennedy's threat, in the face of his threat to turn us into an atomic target, with the certainty that the nerves of this people were less affected than the nerves of the generals of the Yankee Pentagon. There were some isolated voices of criticism. As was logical, there were some who, confused in good faith or confused in bad faith, criticized the national directorate of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations on the matter of Cuba's attitude, immediately after the crisis, on the matter of inspection and the pirate flights. For them, apparently, we should allow ourselves to be inspected (shouts of 'no' — Ed.), as if to hallow the right of the imperialists to say what arms we may or may not have and to bring this country back to the times of the Platt Amendment, when the U.S. Government decided for us. To accept inspection would have been to accept, to agree to having to give an account to the Yankee imperialists of what arms we might have or not have within our territory. (Castro's voice now rising in indignation) This implied for us a matter of principle. It would amount to a renunciation of our sovereignty. It would amount to consenting to having our country made inferior among all the other states of the world;

we did not consent to this, nor shall we consent to this. (Applause) Those who think that this is acceptable would also consider acceptable a landing without the firing of a shot (thunderous applause), because this is what this would lead to. It was not by this road that the revolution rose to power. It was not in this way that the revolution was defended at Playa Giron. It was by taking other ways, of firmness and determination to fight against the imperialists. Apparently these individuals thought that we should allow ourselves to be blown up, that we should allow Yankee planes to dive down over our antiaircraft batteries without giving orders to fire. This can never be expected of us either because the enemy always must expect, every time he attacks us, that there will be a fight and no backing down. (Loud prolonged applause) There will be some who may say, who may try to insinuate that we were against a policy of peace. The answer is the same; we want peace with right, with sovereignty, and with dignity. (Applause) We want peace without giving up being revolutionaries, without giving up the revolution. When we fought the invaders at Playa Giron, when we fought those who bombed us, who attacked us, no one will doubt that we were defending peace. When this people organized and decided to fight to the last man or woman against the imperialists if they attacked us, no one can deny that we are defending peace, because to resist aggressors is to fight for peace; to surrender to the aggressors is the way to war or the enslavement of peoples. By defending our sovereignty and our rights, we are defending peace. When we speak to the Latin Americans and tell them that the objective conditions exist for revolution, we are defending peace, because the weaker imperialism is, the less dangerous it will be. The weaker imperialism is, the less aggressive it will be, and the liberation, the liberation movement of the peoples, weakens the imperialists and makes them less aggressive, less dangerous. The fight of the peoples for their sovereignty and their independence is the fight for peace. We indeed consider peace the fundamental objective of humanity. Let us fight for it, following the paths of national sovereignty, of liberation from the exploiters and the imperialists. By fighting against imperialist exploitation we are fighting for peace. We are enemies of war; it is the imperialists who impose wars on humanity, and the stronger they feel, the more dangerous they will be. Therefore each nation which fights for its sovereignty and its independence is defending peace. this is what we believe, we closely united Cuban revolutionaries. Those who believe that they are going to fish in troubled waters are mistaken. Those who believe that in the face of this desire for unity, of the firmness and dignity of our people, they can opportunistically try to create confusion, to cast doubt on the rectitude of the Cuban revolutionary directorate, they are lamentably mistaken. It would show that they do not know this people, that they do not know the virtues of our people. Those who, taking advantage of the difficult circumstances which our country has had to face and must continue to face, foment division are committing a deplorable offense of treason against the revolution, and the masses will oppose them. They will oppose the intriguers, the divisionists, and they will follow the line of our party and the line outlined for them by the revolutionary directorate, because they will say: "This is our line; this is the line of our leaders, and we have faith in it." (Applause) This will be conduct of our people, the conduct of our revolutionary militants, who do not become discouraged, who do not fear to fight, who do not fear difficult circumstances, whatever they may be. Here there will be no division. Here there will be unity because we need it, because we have the imperialist enemy in front of us who wants to destroy us, and we need unity to resist. We need unity to win. We need unity more than ever to go forward, and with out unity, our firmness, and our line we shall continue to go forward facing the difficulties, facing the inconveniences, whatever they may be. We shall exercise our right to think for ourselves, and we shall be consistent with our revolutionary belief, and this belief has one motto above all: To resist the imperialist enemy, to fight the imperialist enemy, to go forward, without a single backward step in the history of our country, without any vacillation in the revolutionary ranks (applause), to continue forward against the imperialists. These are and will always be our enemies. They are and will continue to be the enemies of America. We shall continue to go forward on the road of the revolution, on the road of socialism, on the road of Marxism-Leninism. Homeland or death! We shall win! (Applause) Castro Internet Archive

Castro Internet Archive We must defend our country Denouncing U.S. Bay of Pigs Agression Written: April 23, 1961 First Published: April 24, 1961 Source: Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 1830 GMT ( Markup: Brian Baggins Online Version: Castro Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2000 The people know a great deal about the events which have taken place as a result of our special reports, the newspaper accounts and the interrogation of prisoners. The people know about the invasion, the details of its organization, and the way in which it was crushed. We can give you some general ideas about how their plans developed and how ours were developed in the zone of operation. In the first place, we had known for some time that a force was being formed to attack our country. Since the revolution, we have been living amid a series of threats—all of them from abroad. But there were differences in our enemies—that is, imperialism was the only one strong enough to attack. The aggression was indirect only in regard to the personnel. It was direct aggression in that it came from camps of the North Americans, that North American equipment was used, and that it included a convoy by the U.S. Navy and the participation of the U.S. Air Force. It was a combined thing: they used mercenaries amply supported by the navy and air force. We were awaiting an indirect attack. But one type of indirect attack is the type of attack made against the Arbenz government in Guatemala; it is known that U.S. aircraft were used against him. We also thought of an indirect attack utilizing the OAS to launch some type of collective action. And we also were expecting a direct attack. The United States has always advocated all three types of action. It began to prepare immediately for direct action. But it was not able to gather enough support in Latin America for collective action. The Mexican Government has been very firm against intervention in Cuba. So have Quadros and Colombia. So the United States has encountered powerful resistance among the governments and people of Latin America in seeking to further its desire for collective action in the OAS. On whom could it count? Only on the most corrupt Latin American governments. First the United States tried to work with Trujillo, and most of the Cuban aggression came from the Dominican Republic. Then it tried to enlist the so-called democratic governments, under the guise of democracy, when they broke with Trujillo because, they said, he was a dictator. While the United States was taking action against Trujillo, it was strengthening its ties with Somoza and Ydigoras, who are typically corrupt, despotic, and reactionary. Those are the instruments on which the United States can count. It cannot count on Brazil, Mexico, or any other decent Latin American country. Its partners in this venture have been the most reactionary and corrupt governments in Latin America, the governments of Nicaragua and Guatemala. We have always been in danger of direct aggression. We have been warning about this in the United Nations: that they would find a pretext, that they would organize some act of aggression so that they could intervene. That is why we have followed a cautious policy in regard to Guantanamo Base. We wish to avoid giving them a pretext for intervention. We made this known in the United Nations. We said that we would never want to obtain the base by force, only through international law, so that we would not provide a pretext for direct aggression. Danger of World War Our position is that we will fight to the last man, but we do not want direct aggression. We do not wish to suffer the destruction that aggression would bring. If the aggression comes, it will meet the total resistance of our people. The danger of direct aggression could again gain momentum following this failure. We have said that imperialism will disappear. We do not wish it to commit suicide; we want it to die a natural death. If it dies the world will live in peace. But it will die violently if it begins a world war. If imperialism acts with a maximum of responsibility it will bring about a war which it could survive only a relatively short time. As an economic way of life, it will have to disappear through historical laws. (Applause) We do not wish it to commit suicide by attacking us. If they attack us, we would resist in an unbelievable manner. (Applause) They are the ones who are bringing the world to the brink of war through their warlike spirit, their own contradictions, and their economic problems which cause them to provoke a series of crises in order to maintain their war economy. Their factories run only when they are building war material. Their regime is marching toward a crisis. It is not like our economy, which is perfectly planned. The economy of our country is based on an increase of 10 percent a year, while in the United States the figure is only two percent. The U.S. economy is managed in the interest of only a few groups; it is divorced from the interests of the people. In war they have a cure for their crises. They have the capacity to do all sorts of things for the benefit of their people. But their system demands production for war, not peace. As a result, there is extensive wasting of natural resources. Look at their military budget. What they could do with this money for schools, industry, homes! What good it could mean for the world! And that is only part of the story. Some of their factories are working on a part-time basis. How different from the Soviet Union, where everyone works! If someone wants to build a factory in the United States, he does so whether it is needed or not. This is the result of an unplanned economy. In the United States, war militarizes the economy. They plan for that. The government does not permit any monopoly to produce what they want— they have to produce war materials. Then the government plans and controls production—they produce fantastically. In time of war they plan, then all the people work. They are not capable of solving the problem of unemployment in producing for peace. Only in time of war can they resolve their economic crisis. That is why there are groups who wish to go on a war footing, if possible, with local wars.

This has been the American policy after World War II. With respect to our country, they have been holding these ideas of aggression. We have been and are now facing that threat. Concerning the type of aggression against us: How could they organize a mercenary force against the united people, against our army and militia? They did not think about that type of war. They thought of a frontal attack with mercenaries and of taking over our country. First Step: Economic Aggression The first step was economic aggression—to weaken the revolution—that is to say, they attacked on the economic front: they took away our sugar quota. Our economy was based on one product—the export of sugar— with one market: the United States. When Guatemala tried to take over the United Fruit land, intervention took place immediately. Since the days of Roosevelt, direct aggression has no longer been used. Instead a puppet is sent. In Guatemala there is hunger and oppression and a gentleman who dedicates himself to harboring mercenaries to attack our country. In our country, when reforms were initiated, a clash resulted with the imperialists of the United States. Here they had no army directed by their diplomats to turn against the people. Here the old army had been destroyed and their weapons left in the hands of the people. The U.S. military mission which had been here until the fall of Batista—when our troops arrived in Camp Libertad were still there to see if perhaps they could teach us, too. We told them to go home. (Laughter) I well recall I told one of them "You taught Batista and we beat him. We don't wish to be taught by you." (Laughter and applause). Here they had no military organization to direct, and they found that the interests of the government were directly opposed to the military proposals. The Revolutionary Government has an army of the people. They then began their economic aggression and their harrassment. They said: Cuba depends on us economically. It is underdeveloped. Any government from which we take the sugar quota will surely fall. We were truly underdeveloped and our imports all came from the United States. Our imports exceeded our exports. We then began a program of economy but not for the poorer classes. They were not the ones who took trips abroad and consumed luxuries—I understand that the import of cars alone was 30 million dollars—agricultural machinery was only 5 million. Much land was not being used. Many lived only during the few months of the harvest, the rest of the time they piled up debts. We began a program of lowering rents, giving land to cooperatives, investing in programs which would give work to people. The country was saving money, contrary to what the imperialists believed. They have a policy of exploitation of the people. We established a policy of austerity which affected only the social strata which lived in luxury. For their trips abroad we only allowed them a few dollars. This austerity campaign did not afflict the people but only the privileged ones. The revolution imposed a program of austerity for the luxury- using class and not the people. When they heard of the appointment of Che to the national banks they waited for the country to fail. This did not come about. Then, they took another step of aggression, and tried to leave us without oil. Thanks to our agreement with the USSR, we agreed to sell the USSR sugar in return for oil. Before that, we had had to pay for oil with dollars. So then they decided not to refine Soviet oil. That was because they had control of refining and exploitation of oil in other countries; it was a real monopoly. When they learned that some oil for Cuba would come from other sources, they refused to refine it. They thought if we had anything against them we would be left without oil. But the refineries were taken over, and the USSR made great efforts to give us all the oil we needed. We got through that [U.S.] aggression thanks to the USSR. We get the oil much more cheaply than from the U.S. monopolies, and we pay for it in sugar, not dollars. Faced with the revolution's success in regard to oil, they took another step—cutting us off entirely from the U.S. market. Aggression like that can be resisted only by a Revolutionary Government supported by the people. When Cuba sold sugar to the U.S. market, most of the sugarmills and cane- growing land belonged to North Americans. The Cuban workers received miserable pay and had employment only part of the year. There was no profit for our country; the profit was for the monopolies. When the agarian reform went through and cooperatives were formed and year-around employment was provided, then our people began to get profits from our economy. So then the U.S. market was cut off in an effort to make our people yield. The people responded with determination. The Soviet Union again, and other socialist countries—even though they had plenty of sugar production of thier own, made a great effort and agreed to buy four million tons of sugar from us so the revolution could withstand the blow. The OAS, the American system, this hemispheric system the United States talks about so much, had a clause forbidding economic aggression. That clause said no country could use economic pressure or aggression to gain its objectives or influence affairs inside another country. Economic aggression was banned expressly, and yet our country was brutally attacked economically. Representatives of Latin American countries met at Costa Rica, and did not condemn the aggressor; but there was a declaration against the victim. The powerful country had violated the law against economic aggression; but when the time came to condemn the shark, the sardines met and condemned the other sardine. But this sardine was no longer a sardine. And some people ask why we distrust the OAS. How could we not distrust the OAS? The other sardines were afraid. We got no protection from the inter-American system. But, thanks to the USSR, China, and the other socialist countries, we had the sale of millions of tons of sugar assured. Our revolution could keep going. Then they forbade the export of raw materials and parts to us.

Almost all equipment for transportation, construction, and our industries came from the United States. So we were to be left without raw materials or parts to keep our machinery in operation. Not content with that, they blocked export of our molasses. Some U.S. companies had already agreed to buy our molasses, but by using pressure, they deprived us of millions of dollars we would have received from that. It was not easy to sell molasses elsewhere. It was one step after another designed to blockade us, to drive us in a situation in which we would face shortages. The purpose was to defeat the Revolutionary Government, which was working for the people, and return to the old system of corruption, a system under which the monopolies got all types of concessions and controlled the Cuban economy. U.S. imperialism also used pressure in other countries to get them to blockade us. In the midst of all this, the revolution was carrying out education, reforestation, public beach programs, and so forth. Second Step: Terrorism Then they turned to backing terrorists and saboteurs. A campaign to destroy our stores and factories began. Now that the people own the installations, sabotage comes. When the wealthy owned them, there was no sabotage. But now that people own the establishments, the CIA goes into action. There is a sabotage campaign. They organize sabotage against our wealth, they burn cane. They began to send planes over to burn it, but there was so much scandal that they changed tactics. They began to stir up counterrevolutionary groups, using formed soldiers, the worst elements. The worst were those who directed the second Escambray front. They sent them all kinds of arms. You have seen the display of weapons in the Civil Plaza. These worms, in a few weeks, got a thousand weapons, while we, in our battles, had to acquire arms one by one. They sent arms by air, by sea. And we are [Unreadable text] seizing these arms. Aggression began economically, with maneuvers in sugar and an economic blockade; then came sabotage and counterrevolutionary guerrillas. The United States has no right to meddle in our domestic affairs. We do not speak English and we do not chew gum. We have a different tradition, a different culture, our own way of thinking. Our national characteristics are different. We have no borders with anybody. Our frontiers are the sea, very clearly defined. Only because it is a big country did the United States take the right to commit that series of brutalities against Cuba. How can the crooked politicians and the exploiters have more rights than the people? What right does a rich country have to impose its yoke on our people? Only because they have might and no scruples; they do not respect international rules. They should have been ashamed to be engaged in this battle of Goliath against David—and to lose it besides. What did we have against their might? First, we had a sense of dignity and courage. We were not afraid. That is a big thing. Then, we were determined to resist. No matter what they throw against us, we will fight. Our men know how to die, and they have shown it during the past few days. Next Step: Direct Aggression So far they have gone from aggression to aggression without stopping to think. Only direct aggression is left. Are we going to be afraid? No! (Applause) Imperialism's soldiers are blood and flesh too, and bullets go through them. Let them know they will meet with serious resistance. That may be enough to make them reflect a little. Our people—men, women, and children—must maintain that spirit. If they have no weapons they can take the place of somebody who falls. Have no fear; be calm! After all, the result of aggression against Cuba will be the start of a conflagration of incalculable consequences, and they will be affected too. It will no longer be a matter of them having a feast with us. They will get as much as they give. To resist is to meet the enemy and fight him with whatever is at hand. To resist is to prepare our spirit, our minds for what comes, for the bombs they drop, because in such a case they would have superiority in the air. We would have to dig many trenches to defend ourselves. They would not have a bomb for each man in a hole. We would most strongly defend our capital from house to house, as we have said before, from position to position—above all, without retreat. We would mine the fields. We would kill whatever parachutists fell in our zone of control. If they think they can take our territory by surprise, they are mistaken. They would encounter firm resistance here and would awaken an unprecedented feeling of solidarity with us throughout the world. The attack by the mercenaries had demonstrated this. I am certain that such aggression would be suicide for them. Of that I am completely sure! I am sure that we would resist in the same spirit as the men who have fallen up to today. In the fight in the Sierra Maestra and in the fight with the mercenaries, many of our friends have fallen. They paid their final tribute. They did their part. We all have the same obligation to act with that spirit of duty, with that feeling of loyalty. None of us has the right to save his life. That is to say, that our decision is firm. To resist regardless of cost, in all ways. That is what we have to do under the circumstances imposed on us through no fault of ours. We feel proud of our position. We used to be the last card in the deck, now we are among the first.

We used to be the last card in the deck, now we are among the first. Throughout the whole world there are demonstrations in support of us and against the United States. They are surprised because in less than 72 hours we have destroyed the invasion which was prepared by the brains of the Pentagon with all the tactics and preparations of a war. The leaders of the invasion had great faith in the plans on which the United States placed its prestige, and out of which they came without prestige. Their plans were defeated. This they cannot accept. They fell into this ridiculous situation through their own fault. They cannot stand that consequence, so now they threaten with direct intervention, because they could not win. Well, who doubts that if they were capable of making such a mistake, they may not make a greater mistake? Who doubts that if they were capable of making this mistake, they will not make another great mistake? We think that they are capable of making even a greater mistake which will cost them not only their prestige, but will cost them their very existence as well; and no one knows what it may cost the world. The fact is that it is they who are threatening the entire world. They are the gangsters who are threatening the world peace, threatening the world with a war, threatening Cuba with intervention, and threatening Latin America. What can Latin America say to these threats? What they want is to bring back the right of intervention. Our duty as a soldier in the trenches is to defend our country. All our spirit, all our thoughts, all our energy should be concentrated on this history-making period. We must defend our country. We defend the peace of the entire world, because our defense of our country may perhaps make these gentlemen stop and reflect. If they believe that we will run, they are wrong—nobody ran. Our firm decision is that before they subdue us, they will have to erase us from the map. Resistance will be strong in all sectors, in the fields if they take the cities. Let's see how they take Havana for example. We must look at all these things objectively because of our experience—we cannot go to sleep and rest on our laurels, because imperialism has received a rude blow and it is like an infuriated beast. Let us see if they reconsider, this gentleman we have there now, let us see how he acts. Kennedy Intensifies U.S. Aggression We awaited his inauguration to see if he would do something different. We did not believe that he would continue with the errors of the previous administration. He himself said: "Let us begin anew." He did not begin anew; he began as of old. He not only followed the policy of Eisenhower, but he was even more aggressive against us. This gentleman has brought this problem on himself, through his lack of commonsense. He has earned this discredit all by himself. While we waited for him to show what policy he was going to follow, he increased the attacks against us. He increased in intensity the aggression against our country. "Now he must do what he has to do: to recognize his mistake. What he has to do is to fire Mr. Allen Dulles. Because after a government has been placed before the world in such a ridiculous position, as the Yankee intelligence service has placed the U.S. Government, it is the least he can do now. What he has to do is to fire the chief of the intelligence service. You know why he should fire him? Well, because he `shipped' him too." (porque tambien lo embarco—Sp.) (Laughter) What was one of the most ridiculous things that ever happened in the history of the United States, and they brought it on themselves. All we did was defend ourselves. It is clear that to please Mr. Kennedy and Allen Dulles we could not let ourselves be beaten by mercenaries. What did we do? We threw them into the ocean. (Laughter) This invasion organized by the United States was a species of Normandy which did not end in a Dunkirk because they did not get off the beaches. Return to Trenches That is what happened and that is why they are now furious and threatening. What are we going to do before the threats of Mr. Kennedy? Be frightened? No, we smile, because there are many thousands of men in the trenches with weapons in their hands. Once again we must take to the trenches. We have no other alternative—once more we must wait to see what happens in this crisis. The defense of our country is what I wish to speak of first today. The expedition should strive to warn us that these people make many mistakes and that they are capable of committing the greatest imbecilities. As far as we are concerned, we cannot stop them from meddling. We do all we can to prevent it by arming ourselves and preparing for defense so that they may reconsider. But if they make a mistake, we cannot stop them from making it. Our duty is to maintain our firm position and be ready to defend ourselves without alarm, without panic, just as our many comrades went to fight and die. Nobody has the right to preserve his life. We all have the same obligations. We must keep this thought ever-present, especially right now when we have just finished a bloody battle where a great number of friends and brothers of the people have fallen. Of that we want to speak first. The lackeys that took part in this Yankee-planned invasion evidently had confidence that the plan would not fail. They were so confident that they even sent their sons. Now they are seeking for clemency for the prisoners. Let them have clemency of the victims of their bombing. Let them cease sending arms to Cuba; arms to murder and kill, and the send of explosives and incendiaries. Let all this cease if they wish clemency. Instead of defending the mercenaries, and there are some who do, they should be defending the victims of aggression. That is the situation. Invasion Analyzed Let us now analyze the plan of attack by imperialism against Cuba, and why they landed where they did, and why they did not land on the other side. In the first place they exaggerated the number of mercenaries. Instead of four or five thousand they did not have anywhere near that number. What they landed here was the group they had in Guatemala.

They have another in Caimanera, but it is smaller and not armed as well. The group that had the most arms, were better trained, and had air cover, was the Guatemala group. At first it appeared that the intentions were to take the Isle of Pines, to take it and free the war criminals imprisoned there and add them to their ranks and to take a piece of national territory and then give us the problem of dislodging them. They were to direct their efforts toward gaining a piece of territory to establish there a provisional government from which to operate. The establishment of a base on our territory would have given them a base to bomb our country and would have created a difficult situation for us. We had to stop this at all costs. The Isle of Pines was ideal for the establishment of a base on our territory which would open the road for aid on territory of Cuba and make unnecessary to use of other countries to launch aggressions. But here is what we did. We filled the Isle of Pines with tens of batallions of cannon and tanks, we posted a force in the Isle of Pines that make the Isle of Pines invulnerable. A huge army would have been needed to attack it. They could not count on Escambray after it had been cleaned out. Would imperialism land mercenaries with just one combat force, or would it split its force into several groups, that was the problem if faced. Would it try to introduce groups and send them arms from the air, to establish many counterrevolutionary networks. We took measures to counter multiple landings, concentrating on logical points, in case they divided force into many groups. We concentrated especially on places giving access to the mountains. A few days before the aggression, many U.S. papers carried the report that imperialism had decided on splitting up the force and opening different fronts in Cuba. That could be true. It could also be true that the rumors were intended to throw us off the track. Events later showed that they had decided to send the whole force together and seize a point of our territory. Among the rumors in the U.S. press, it was said that it was risky to send all forces against one point and expose them to a crushing defeat and strengthening the revolution. If they had split up their forces in many landings, they could have used it for much propaganda. A defeat in that case would have been diluted. I believe they could have chosen either tactic. We trusted that we would defeat them wherever, they came. For us it would be best if they all came against the same point but we did not think they would do this. They chose something that offered more but also was much more risky for morale and prestige. They should have been worried about the blow to the morale of imperialism and counterrevolution. For us it was better for them to come in one force, but we thought they would avoid that mistake. But we were still ready with adequate force if they all came together. Preparations for Invasion A series of facts showed that the time was near: statements; formation of council of worms in exile; the famous White Book from Kennedy. A whole series of political facts and statements plus the indications in the U.S. press, including discrepancies about possible tactics. We heard that the last shipments of arms and men had gone to Guatemala. We increased our vigilance. On 15 April, because of a report from Oriente, we had not gone to bed. Everything indicated the attack might come at any minute; we got news from Oriente that many groups of ships were off Baracoa. Our forces were put on the alert. It was necessary to be very careful because American ships often came close to the coast trying to cause trouble. One American ship without any flag was very close to the coast. It was detained by our craft. Then U.S. planes came, apparently to provoke an incident, so our vessel was ordered to let the ship proceed to avoid an incident. In connection with the mercenary landing, Americans carried out some ship movements to throw us off the track. The Baracoa battalion was waiting for a landing so there could be no doubt as to what kind of a ship it was. But in the end there was no landing at Baracoa. We still did not know what group of ships that was. It may have been mercenaries who never landed, it may have been U.S. ships; anyway, nothing happened. We heard bombs and ack-ack. We saw it was a bombing raid in Ciudad Libertad. We decided it was definite that the aggression was beginning. We tried to get in touch with San Antonio to get our planes up and found that a simultaneous attack was going on there; and Santiago was attacked too. We had taken measures at the air base. We have few planes and even fewer pilots. We were taking care of those planes. We wanted to be sure they would not be destroyed. So our planes were kept scattered. At San Antonio they managed to destroy one transport plane and one fighter; that was not much. At (Santiago?) they destroyed one fighter and several civilian planes. They had hoped to destroy our air force. Imperialist aggressions are characterized by an attack on aviation to immobilize it. Our force is small, but we expect to make good use of those few planes and pilots. At San Antonio the ack-ack reaction was formidable. Planes were driven off and our planes took off in pursuit of the enemy till he was on way to Miami. The first step of aggression—to destroy our planes on the ground—had failed. We reinforced our ack-ack but they did not come back. They had attacked with six planes. Some did not get back, others were riddled. Our air force was intact and ready. And our pilots wanted revenge. That was Saturday. All forces were alerted. Sunday the funeral services were held, our own planes kept guard. An ammo truck has been set afire by the attack but the people kept calm. They drove the other trucks away while the ammo on the first one was exploding. (Applause) Of course no trucks with ammo should have been there but those things do happen.

(Applause) Of course no trucks with ammo should have been there but those things do happen. We were alert all day Sunday. We slept in the afternoon and not at night. We figured that the air raid was not just harrassment but had a military objective, to destroy our air force. Therefore we figured the aggression would come soon. We reinforced our measures after the air attack. Invasion Comes Why was this attack made two days early? Tactically speaking it was an error because we had a chance to take some measures. We mobilized all combat units. On Sunday nothing happened. On Monday morning at 3:15 I was informed that fighting was going on at Playa Giron and Playa Larga. We confirmed this. Then came the report that an invading force was bombing heavily with bazookas and cannons at the two beaches. There was no doubt of a landing attempt at that point—one supported by heavy equipment. Resistance began. Results of the attacks came. The microwave system was cut off. Communications were then cut off. This was the situation. Here is Cochino Bay and here is Cienfugeos. There was a Cienfugeos battalion at the Central Australia. These were the first to meet the aggression. Here is Playa Larga and here Playa Giron. Here is Zapata Peninsula. This piece of impassible swamp land was the sole communication available to peasants. This area bothered the revolution most. (Editor's Note: At this point Castro discusses for approximately six minutes the Zapata swamp area and tells what the revolution has done for it and its people, the building of schools, roads, and medical facilities. He then spends about five minutes giving in some detail a list of the weapons captured in this area, apparently reading from a report. Then during a period of bad reception of approximately 10 minutes, he discusses the invader miscalculations of the Castro air force and, in some detail, the battle plans and the tactical situation during the early stages of the invasion. During much of the time Castro seems to be referring to maps.) That was the plan. They put two battalions here, and five further back; here were four and six, that was very early in the morning. Then planes were to drop paratroops. They began landing very well. But at Playa Larga and Playa Giron they met resistance. They began losing time. They got two battalions ashore. Paratroops began operating. As they dropped paratroops at these spots, our troops were caught between the main force and the paratroops. Our first measures were to alert all commands and the air force. Orders were given to disperse planes and have ack-ack ready if an attack was made on the airstrip. We had planes ready for defense against air attack. The battalion at the Australia central was ordered to Playa Larga to fight. It was an infantry battalion recently formed. At the same time an order given to mobilize Matanzas militia battalion and advance to here. Orders were given to other forces. We had two battalions in Las Villas. The problem first of all was to keep a beachhead here. The main thing was to keep a bit of Playa Larga here, on this side. The Cienfuegos battalion got there before dawn and began fighting. But then came time another group of our forces was fighting at Cayo Ramona. The air force was ordered to take before dawn and attack all ships off Giron and Playa Larga. Our battalion prevented battalion five from getting ashore. Our planes began attacking the ships and doing much damage. Meanwhile our battalion was facing strong fire, and was taken from the rear. It fell back fighting the paratroops. A battalion was sent from Matanzas to reinforce it. Enemy planes were painted with revolutionary armed forces insignia. They attacked our advancing troops. We were most interested in keeping this bit of territory. When we saw paratroops dropped we realized that the attack would come against a single point and any other move would be for diversion. Mobilization of two combat columns of the army was ordered; also of a company of tanks and anti-tank batteries and mortars. Since they controlled the air, the first day our forces had to wait till night to advance. Our planes could not shift from attacking the ships. Our planes continued to attack the ships. They did wonderful work. Besides attacking the ships, they fought with enemy planes. But they kept hammering the ships until not much was left of their fleet. We lost two planes the first morning. Five enemy planes were downed. Four ships were sunk. That was the first day. They had an unexpected surprise. They had thought our air force was knocked out, and so the first day ended. They lost more than half of their ships. Our pilots acted with special courage. What they did was incredible. The militia attacked the Playa Larga position. The battalion had only a narrow road to attack from. On the first day they deployed forces. They were attacking with planes here, and here. We tried to approach the enemy as close as possible under B-26 fire. The battle was accompanied by tanks.

The battle was accompanied by tanks. So we attacked them all day without respite, fighting constantly. An early morning tank attack came from the same beach with antiair fire support. One of our tanks was damaged. An antitank battery hit us and also another entrenched tank. The goal was to take Playa Larga beach. U.S. Sabre Jets Involved They then began to flee. Here a tank surrendered. At dawn on 19 April the planes bombed the Australia central. On the 19th we had antiaircraft in position. This column, when in movement, was attached by American Sabre planes. They (the invaders—Ed.) had B-26's, not jets. Then, this column of ours, when it advanced between Playa Larga and Playa Giron during the afternoon, suffered many casualties under attack of American Sabres. Those planes were at high altitudes, and on that day when it was already dusk on the 18th, they attacked our column, with Sabres, with jet planes, and they caused many casualties in the column. That was one of the cases in which American planes participated directly. They attacked the column coming from Playa Larga to Giron. At dawn on 19 April a plane attacked the Australia central and was downed and then two more planes. Our planes downed more B-26's. We downed 10 planes during the entire fighting. On the 19th none of their planes returned and we did not see the enemy anymore. List of Casualties On 19 April there were losses, as they were well entrenched. Our people had to fight facing heavy mortar fire and anti-tank guns. There were 87 dead on our side and 250 wounded. That means that our combat units paid a high price in lives while they were on the offensive and that was due to the fact that we were on the offensive constantly until the last position was taken. It is possible that the dead on our side will amount to 100. That indicates the heroism of our troops. They fought constantly without relief against an enemy with relief and more planes than we had. (Castro confers with one of his aides on figures—Ed.) An exact figure cannot yet be given on losses because many of those who came in ships were drowned. According to date here 88. One cannot count those lost in bombing and sunken ships. This will be possible only after identification and a check of personnel lost from each unit. There are some 450 prisoners. We cannot study all data of units and determine how many men were in ships which were sunk. One cannot give an exact figure on that. As I said, one of the basic principles of battle was the courage with which our men fought. It is one thing to defend a position and another to attack without protection under heavy fire. Of course, under such circumstances the losses increase. In the future, we shall be able to have more officers, Battalion chiefs are learning more. The training of units and officers will be better. All kinds of personnel—mortar, shell, cannon—will be specialized. The fact have shown us the necessity of using our knowledge to defend the revolution. The units have acquired considerable experience. Decorations and Pensions The government plans to create a decoration—to decorate as "Hero of the Revolution" those who were outstanding for valor; and another type of decoration to reward acts of valor in battle. Meanwhile the government will pass a pension law to give a pension to kin of militia and soldiers who fell in this fighting. The least the revolution can do for those who fell is to protect their families who depended on them. This will be done as soon as the cabinet meets. If our troops had had more experience, we could have had fewer casualties. When imperialism found what had happened, it had no army left here. The enemy is still dumbfounded. Counterrevolutionary Suspects Rounded Up The committees for defense of the revolution acted too. There was a needed to arrest anybody who for one reason or another might help the counterrevolution. That kind of measure always entails some injustice, but that is inevitable. The country faced aggression and had to take any measure for defense. Those persons will be released unless there are charges against them other than that they were considered suspect. Those who have counterrevolutionary activity proven against them or are well known will continue to be held. Since yesterday, those arrested as a precaution have started being released. This does not mean that the danger is past. We think the danger is great, especially of direct aggression from the United States. At Mesa, Arizona, Senator Goldwater said he had recommended direct intervention if all else failed. That is the idea of right that this ultra has. What respect for sovereignty of other countries and international law! How calmly they speak of direct military intervention. They respect nothing. And they talk as if it were so easy. They do not learn. They should think of the sorrow military aggression causes—and all to restore privileges here. What need was there to bring this bloodshed to our country? What need to threaten us with intervention? They are so irresponsible that after causing bloodshed here, they threaten with more intervention. The reply is our determination to resist; and if they attack, it will be the end of imperialism. Better to die than live under the yoke of those gentlemen. First Imperialist Defeat in America Glorious death fighting to defeat imperialism deserves a monument. There should be a big monument in Zapata swamps with the names of the fallen on it, to tell the world that on that day Zapata imperialism sustained its first great defeat in America. Precious lives were given in this battle. The militia performed countless feats of prowess. The people defended their land, honor, rights. They have earned the admiration of the world and prestige. They waged a battle for peace. Just think, during these past days the literacy campaign was not halted; the lifestock fair is opening; the Conrado Benitez literacy brigade is about to set forth.

the Conrado Benitez literacy brigade is about to set forth. This work did not stop in the midst of tension. This shows the stuff the revolution is made of. The comrades who fell saved tens of thousands of lives. Their service to the nation is incalculable. The pilots who fought so steadily and eagerly have created the air force. I am sure no air force ever did before what they have done. We believe 17 April should be made Cuban revolutionary air force day. Mansfield said the Cuban crisis is very grave. The Vermont senator said Cuba is a permanent threat to the hemisphere. If that means they will invade Cuba, nobody here is frightened at all. We will give them a great reception. The might of an empire cannot go as far as the dignity of the people. It will collapse when it runs into the will of the people. Latin American War It is regrettable that U.S. leaders make so many mistakes, such as this one. Why did the U.S. Government need to make itself so ridiculous? It calculated a lot but it calculated badly. In Latin America, there will be war by all who support our revolution. Latin American forces would have a hard time to protect U.S. ambassadors. They should reflect on that. It is too bad they are playing with the idea of attacking us. Such a mistake—nobody knows where it would end. It is too bad the world has to be exposed to the mistakes of those men who know nothing about politics. Kennedy's speeches and his threats are similar to Hitler's. Hitler threatened the small neighboring countries, and Kennedy is threatening Cuba and is saying that he will intervene. He says that his patience is coming to an end. Well, what about our patience, with all the things we have had to endure? In attacking Cuba, they shall unmask themselves more and arouse more revolutionary spirit in Latin America and they will only increase their own future worries. We want them to leave us alone. We want to live in peace with our revolution without losing any more sons. They should stop supplying the counterrevolutionaries with weapons. We will simply have to use a heavy hand. (Applause) The imperialist powers use the method of surprise attacks, the same method of Hitler and Mussolini. We wish they would reconsider things, take a cold or a hot shower, anything. Let humanity, let history, end a system which is outdated now. Imperialism must pass just as feudalism did, just as slavery did. The wars of 1914 and 1940's were bad. Nazism didn't save itself. The forces in the world in favor of peace are great. They know history is with them. They need not fight against history to preserve their system and privileges. It will be a sorry day for the world if those gentlemen are not able to reconsider. This is the question we must consider quietly. Cuba is part of the world today and there can be no discussion with Cuba that do not effect the world. (Applause) We shall keep all the revolutionary forces mobilized and we shall plan for the May Day celebrations and we shall work for the victory of the revolution. We shall prepare ourselves to make the necessary sacrifices. The people have tasted victory. Victory is based upon sacrifices, on the basis of the 87 who died to guarantee the future of the country. They sacrificed themselves for the rest, for the independence and sovereignty of the nation and to obtain a better nation. This joy of today we owe it to those who fell and we hope that the future generations will enjoy their lives for today's sacrifices. The first prisoner, (Anzon Bayon?) said he was in training for two months in Guatemala under American instructors and then went to Nicaragua but was there only one day. He said that the situation in Cuba was pictured as intolerable. The second prisoner, whose name was not heard, said he was trained at the Helvetia Ranch in Guatemala, that he saw the Guatemalan minister of war at the Retalhuleu base in November and that President Ydigoras visited the camp in December. When asked if he had joined or enlisted in Miami, he replied, "In Mexico." Questioned about the nationality of two destroyers which the prisoner said served as an escort, he replied; "They came in the area of the straits between Caiman Grande and Jamaica. I could see in the distance that two destroyers escorted us. I could see the number on one of them that came more to the North. The number was 507." Question: "Did you understand what I asked about the destroyer?" Answer: "It was of North American nationality. The destroyer accompanied us from Caiman strait and Jamaica up to very near the Playa Giron." Question: "What idea did you and those who were with you have about the Cuban situation?" Answer: "Our ideas were principally from information media we had from (here?). We had bulletin board notices at the brigade headquarters, a series of notes headed News about Cuba: That the militia was discontented; that there was friction between the army and the militia, very great friction—I do not have to tell you that that was not true; that the people were discontented with the government, with the economic measures—the propaganda was constant. They emphasized that the investigation services of the government were... Castro Internet Archive

Home Contents Subscribe Write us! [email protected] January 2004 • Vol 4, No. 1 • From the Aresenal of Marxism A Better World Is Not a Utopian Dream By Fidel Castro Speech given by Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz, president of the Republic of Cuba, at the Karl Marx Theater on January 3, 2004, for the 45th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Dear fellow Cubans; Distinguished guests: Many of us who had the privilege of witnessing that exciting day are still alive; many others are deceased. On January 1, 1959 the overwhelming majority of those here tonight were less than 10 years old or had not been born or there were still many years to go before they would be born. It was never our purpose to attain individual or collective glory, honors or recognition. However, those of us who today have a legitimate right to call ourselves Cuban revolutionaries found ourselves obliged to write what has turned out to be an unprecedented page in the annals of history. Unhappy with the social and political situation in our country, we simply resolved to change it. This was not something new in Cuba; it had happened many times for almost a century. We believed in the rights of the peoples, including the right to independence and to rise up against tyranny. It was from the exercise of such rights in this hemisphere, conquered by European powers by fire and the sword, mass slaughter of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of millions of Africans, that a group of independent nations emerged, one of which was the United States of America. When, on July 26 1953, the Cuban Revolution fought its first battle against an illegal, corrupt and bloody regime, eight years had not yet gone by since the end of World War II unleashed by fascism in 1939, which took the lives of more than 50 million people and brought about the destruction of the economies of all the then industrialized countries, with the exception of the United States, which was out of reach of enemy bombs and guns. The fascist ideas that were the cause of that colossal conflict were in total contradiction with the principles proclaimed by the 13 former British colonies in America on July 4, 1776 in their Declaration of Independence, which literally read: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” The French Declaration of the Rights of Man, which resulted from the 1789 French Revolution, carried this point even further when it proclaimed: “When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people and for each portion of the people the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.” The fascist ideas also clashed head on with the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter after the gigantic battle that was World War II. Among the principles the Charter proclaimed to be essential prerequisites of a world political order are respect for the rights of the people to sovereignty and independence. Actually, the rights of the peoples have never been respected throughout humanity’s brief known history, so full of wars of conquest, empires and an infinite variety of forms of plunder and of ways for human beings to exploit other human beings. Nevertheless, at that historic point in time and despite the reality that the victorious powers imposed a world political order with privileges for a minuscule group of the most powerful states that became ever more irritating, many nations, institutions and people were hopeful that a new and promising stage for humanity was beginning. More than 100 nations or groups of nations, including human groups that still lacked a national identity, were formally recognized as independent States. It was a time that greatly favored illusions and deception. The overwhelming majority of countries that formally received the status of independent states were made up of former colonies, dominions, protectorates and other forms of oppressing and controlling countries that the most powerful nations have used for centuries. Their dependence on the former colonial powers was almost total; their struggle to attain greater sovereignty and act on it has been difficult and often heroic. The dreadful harassment to which they are submitted in Geneva to get them to support the U.S. resolutions or, as a last resort, to abstain from voting against them is proof of this. The way these states behave in the United Nations General Assembly is admirable. An expression of this is the growing and almost unanimous support for Cuba against the blockade. The worst of all is that a considerable number of those countries that were supposedly independent before that conflict was unaware of just how little independence they really had, and Cuba was one of them. Almost all of the Latin American countries were on that sorry list, as would become blatantly clear. As soon as our heroic people achieved real and full independence, almost all of their governing elites joined with the United States to destroy the Revolution and prevent the social and political accomplishments we were rapidly achieving. The aggression began as early as 1959 with the use of all possible economic and political measures, including violence, terrorism and the threat of the massive use of U.S. military might. What happened to Cuba would help show all of the illusion and deception contained in those elegant texts about principles and rights proclaimed by the United Nations Organization. Might and not rights would continue to be the basic fact of human life, as has been the case through the millennia. All that has happened up until the present, since the first known historical facts were registered, is the result of the natural and spontaneous, torpid and disorderly evolution of human society. Nobody can be blamed for the various economic and social systems that have followed one another over the course of five thousand years. The different civilizations which arose in the most distant regions of the world: China, India, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Central and South America obviously were, to a greater or lesser extent, ignorant of the others’ existence, were independent, although many things attest to the extraordinary range of their knowledge.

Some are amazing like, for example, the Greek civilization with its art, philosophy, literature, its knowledge of history, physics, mathematics, astronomy and other subjects. Our knowledge of Mayan and other pre-Incan civilizations is growing, and this knowledge shows that human beings, even when separated by tens of thousands of years in time and tens of thousands of kilometers in space were already creators and capable of extraordinary works. Yet, in all the civilizations that preceded us and even today, empires, wars of conquest, different kinds of slavery and feudalism, rich and poor, privileged, ruling social classes and exploited, marginalized and excluded classes have existed in one form or another. To ignore this fact would require enormous ignorance. I must admit that Marx was right when he sketched out the idea that only when a truly rational, just and equitable social regime exists on this earth, will humankind have left prehistory behind. If the whole development of human society has inevitably been chaotic, disorderly, unpredictable, extremely cruel and unjust, the struggle to create a different and truly rational world, worthy of our species’ intelligence is, at this moment in its history, which bears no resemblance to any of humanity’s previous stages, something that was not possible or even imaginable in other circumstances: an attempt by human beings to plan their own destiny for the first time. Dreaming of impossible things is called utopia; struggling for goals that cannot only be reached but which are essential if the species is to survive, is called realism. It would be wrong to assume that such an aim would be motivated by ideology alone. We are talking about something that goes beyond the noble and completely justifiable wishes for justice, beyond the deep desire that all human beings can live a free and decent life: we are talking about the survival of the species. The big difference between the age of the Greeks and our age lies not in the intellectual capacity of our species but in the exponential and seemingly infinite development of science and technology that has taken place in the last 150 years, and which completely eclipses the negligible and ridiculous political capacity we have shown for facing up to the risk of perishing as a species, a risk which really is threatening humanity. Less than 60 years ago, when the first nuclear device equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT exploded over Hiroshima, it became clear that technology had created a tool which, if developed, could bring about the obliteration of human life on this planet. From that day on, the development of such new weapons and weapons systems, hundreds of times more powerful, varied and accurate has not ceased, not for one day. Today, there are tens of thousands of them. Actually, very few have been destroyed under deceptive and limited covenants. A small group of countries that have a monopoly over such weapons have taken upon themselves the exclusive right to produce and improve them. Meanwhile the contradictions and interests of its members change and humanity develops under a web of nuclear weapons that threaten its very existence. Someone could say something similar to what that Persian emperor said as he and his huge army closed in on the 300 Spartans defending the pass at Thermopiles: “Our nuclear weapons shall hide the sun.” The lives of the billions of human beings who inhabit this planet depend on what a few think, believe and decide. The worst of it all is that those who wield such great power do not have psychiatrists to look after them. We cannot just accept this. We have the right to denounce it, to exercise pressure and demand changes and an end to such an absurd, unheard of situation, which makes hostages of us all. No one should ever have such powers or else no one on this earth will be able to talk of civilization again. There is another lethal problem as well: nearly 40 years ago some people began to voice their concerns over what has come to be called the environment, because a barbarous civilization was destroying the natural conditions for life. This extremely sensitive issue was then put on the table for the first time. Quite a few people thought it was just some alarmists exaggerating, a kind of neo-Malthusianism, like in previous centuries. They were, in fact, well-informed and intelligent people who took to building a public awareness on this issue, at times worried sick that it was too late to take useful measures. Regrettably, those who do to their great political responsibilities should have shown greater concern, showed only ignorance and disregard. More than ten years have passed since the UN-convened Rio de Janeiro Summit and despite the usual proliferation of speeches, pledges and promises, very little has been done. Nevertheless, there is a growing awareness of the mortal danger. And the struggle must grow and will grow. There is no option. Recently, a conference was held in Havana on desertification and climate change, which was also convened by the UN. It was an important effort to inform, raise awareness and call people to join the struggle. In Rio de Janeiro, I was a witness to the deep concerns and fear of representatives from small islands in the Pacific and from other countries threatened by the risk of being either partially or totally submerged by the seas because of climate change. This is sad. The first to suffer the consequences of environmental damage are the poor. They do not have cars, or air conditioners; it is possible they do not even have furniture, if they have houses, that is. The effects of huge emissions of carbon dioxide causing atmospheric warming and the destructive effect of the ultra violet rays that pass through the damaged ozone layer filter have a greater impact on them. When they fall ill, it is common knowledge that there are no hospitals, doctors or medicines for them or their relatives. A third problem: according to the most conservative estimates possible, world population took no less than 50,000 years to reach one billion. This happened around 1800, just as the 19th century was beginning. It reached two billion 130 years later, in 1930. It reached 3 billion in 1960, thirty years later;

It reached 3 billion in 1960, thirty years later; 4 billion in 1974, fourteen years later; 5 billion in 1987, thirteen years later; 6 billion in 1999 only 12 years later. Today, it stands at 6.3 billion. It is really amazing that in just 204 years world population increased by 6.4 times from the figure of one billion reached in 1800, after no less than 50 thousand years, calculated in a relatively arbitrary and conservative way so as to have a point of reference, but that should be further analyzed. It could have taken many more years, if we limit ourselves only to the time it took to reach its current capacity. At what rate is it growing now? 1999: population 6,002 millions; growth 77 millions. 2000: population, 6,079 millions; growth 75 millions. 2001: population, 6,154 millions; growth 74 millions. 2002: population, 6,228 millions; growth 72 millions. 2003: population, 6,300 millions; growth 74 millions. 2004: estimated population, 6,374 millions; growth 74 millions. What will the world population be in the year 2050? The lowest estimates say it will be 7,409 millions; the highest say 10,633 millions. According to many experts, there will be around 9 billion inhabitants. The enormous alarm generated by this colossal demographic explosion plus the accelerated degradation of the natural conditions needed for our species’ survival have caused people to react with true dismay in many countries, since almost one hundred per cent of the growth I mentioned will take place in Third World countries. Aware of the growing deterioration and reduction of land and water resources, of the famines in many countries, of the indifference and wastage in consumer societies and the educational and health problems facing the world population, one could imagine that if all of these problems are not solved our human society might become one where its members devour each other. It would be a good idea to ask the Olympic champions of human rights in the West if they have ever used a single minute to reflect on these realities, which to a very large degree are the result of the current economic and social system. It would be worth asking them how they feel about a system that, instead of educating the masses as a fundamental element for making progress in the search for urgently needed, viable solutions, with the support of science, technology and culture, spends one trillion dollars every year on alienating consumerist advertising. With the money spent in just one of those years to spread this peculiar poison, all the illiterate and semi-illiterate people in the world could be taught to read and write and even reach ninth grade in less than ten years and no poor child would have to go without schooling. Without education and other social services, crime and drug abuse can never be reduced or eradicated. This we proclaim from Cuba, a country blockaded for 45 years, accused and condemned more than a few times in Geneva by the United States and their closest allies but which is about to provide health, education and cultural development services the like of which the developed and rich West has never even dreamed of and, what is more, these are absolutely free for all citizens, with no exceptions whatsoever. The neoliberal globalization imposed on the world, designed to facilitate greater looting of the planet’s natural resources, has, in the wake of the fateful “Washington Consensus” led most of the countries in the Third World, and especially those in Latin America, into a desperate and unsustainable situation. The first fruit of this disastrous policy was the “lost decades of the 80s during which economic growth in the region only reached 1 percent; it rose to 2.7 percent between 1990 and 1998, much lower than false hopes and pressing needs, to drop again to 1 percent between 1998 and 2004. The foreign debt, which in 1985, the year of that treacherous “Consensus” was $300 billion, today stands at more than $750 billion. Privatizations wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars worth of national assets that took many years to create but which evaporated with the speed at which capital fled from those countries to Europe and the United States. Unemployment reached record heights. Of every 100 new jobs created, 82 are in the so-called “informal sector” which includes a long list of those who earn their living any way they can without any kind of social or legal protection. Poverty has grown alarmingly, especially extreme poverty; it has grown by 12.8 percent involving 44 percent of the population. Development is stagnant and social services are deteriorating by the day. Neoliberal globalization, as was to be expected, caused a veritable disaster in these services, first and foremost health and education. If old and new forms of looting, such as unequal terms of trade, the unceasing, forced flight of capital, the brain drain, protectionism, subsidies and the WTO’s edicts are added to this, then no one should be surprised by the crises and other developments in South America. Latin America is the world region where neoliberal globalization was applied most rigorously and exactingly.

Latin America is the world region where neoliberal globalization was applied most rigorously and exactingly. Now it is facing the challenge of the FTAA which will sweep away national industries and turn the MERCOSUR and the Andean Pact into appendages of the U.S. economy: it is a last assault on the economic development, the unity and the independence of the Latin American peoples. But, even if this attempt at annexation is successful, this economic order will still be unsustainable, both for the Latin American peoples and for the people in the United States whose jobs are threatened by plentiful cheap labor recruited by the maquilas from among those who were prevented by the existing poverty, educational disaster and unemployment from getting properly trained. Cheap, unskilled labor is something that the Latin American oligarchies can offer on a grand scale. A summary of all that I have said shows my profound conviction that our species, and with it each one of our peoples, are at a turning point in their history: the course of events must change or else our species shall not survive. There is no other planet we can move to. There is no atmosphere, no air and no water on Mars, neither is there any transportation for us to emigrate there en masse. Either we save this what we have, or many millions of years will have to go by before another intelligent species arises that can start all over again the adventure we have gone through. Pope John Paul II has already explained that the theory of evolution is not irreconcilable with the creation doctrine. I must draw my talk to a close. There is much work awaiting us in 2004. I want to congratulate our people for everything it has done over all these years, for its heroism, its patriotism, its fighting spirit, its loyalty and its revolutionary fervor. I want to offer special congratulations on this 45th anniversary to those who took part in glorious internationalist missions, today epitomized by the exemplary behavior of the five heroes imprisoned by the Empire who, with impressive dignity, have withstood the unjust, vengeful, cruel actions of the enemies of their homeland and their people; epitomized too by the 15,000 doctors who, making great sacrifices, taking risks and dangers carry out their internationalist duties anywhere in more than 64 countries, a human feat that the United States and Europe could never accomplish as they lack the human capital to demonstrate which human rights they are really defending. Nobody can prevent with threats or aggressions that our doctors, teachers, sports instructors or any other collaborator show their solidarity; nobody can hold back the bravery of our sons and daughters because many are ready for the honor of taking the place of those who might fall victims of terrorist actions encouraged and promoted by extremist officials in the U.S. government. I congratulate all those who struggle, those who never give up in the face of adversity; those who believe in humanity’s capacity to create, sow and cultivate values and ideas; those who bet on humanity; all of those who share the beautiful tenet that a better world is possible! We shall fight hand in hand with them and we shall overcome! Top Contents Home Subscribe Write us [email protected]

Home Contents Subscribe Write us! [email protected] December 2001 • Vol 1, No. 7 • The War and the Global Economic Crisis by Fidel Castro The following is the transcript of the televised presentation by Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, on the present international situation, the economic and world crisis, and its impact on Cuba. The presentation was made in Havana, Cuba, on November 2, 2001. The official translation comes from the Cuban Mission to the United Nations, New York, NY, Nov. 2, 2001. My fellow countrymen: At the opening of the Social Workers Training School in Santiago de Cuba on October 24, I said that in the coming days I would speak about the international economic situation and how it could affect our country, which was carrying out an unprecedented social development program as it gradually recovered from the special period. I do not want to put that discussion off any longer. To characterize the current situation, one could say, by way of a very brief summary, that in the mid-1990s, when globalization was extending around the planet, the United States, as the absolute master of the international financial institutions and through its immense political, military and technological strength, achieved the most spectacular accumulation of wealth and power ever seen in history. But the world and capitalist society were entering into an entirely new phase. Only an insignificant part of economic operations were related to world production and trade. Every day three trillion dollars were involved in speculative operations including currencies and stocks. Stock prices on U.S. exchanges were rising like foam, often with no relation whatsoever to the actual profits and revenues of companies. A number of myths were created: there would never be another crisis; the system could regulate itself, because it had created the mechanisms needed to advance and grow unimpeded. The creation of purely imaginary wealth reached such an extent that there were cases of stocks whose value increased 800 times in a period of only eight years, with an initial investment of 1000 dollars. It was like an enormous balloon that could inflate to infinity. As this virtual wealth was created it was invested, spent and wasted. Historical experience was completely ignored. The world’s population had quadrupled in only 100 years. There were billions of human beings who neither participated in nor enjoyed this wealth in any way whatsoever. They supplied raw materials and cheap labor, but did not consume and could not be consumers. They did not constitute a market, nor the almost infinite sea fed by the immense river of products that flowed, in the midst of fierce competition, from factories that were ever more productive and created ever fewer jobs, based in a privileged and highly limited group of industrialized countries. An elementary analysis was sufficient to comprehend that this situation was unsustainable. Nobody seemed to realize that any apparently insignificant occurrence in the economy of one region of the world could shake the entire structure of the world economy. The architects, specialists and administrators of the new international economic order, economists and politicians, look on as their fantasy falls to pieces, yet they barely understand that they have lost control of events. Other forces are in control now: on the one hand, those of the large and increasingly powerful and independent transnationals and, on the other, the stubborn realities waiting for the world to truly change. In July of 1997, the first major crisis of the globalized, neoliberal world erupts. The tigers fall to pieces. Japan has still not managed to recover, and the world continues to suffer the consequences. In August of 1998 comes the so-called Russian crisis. Despite this country’s insignificant contribution to the worldwide gross domestic product, barely 2%, the stock markets of the United States were badly shaken, dropping by hundreds of points in a matter of hours. In January of 1999, only five months later, the Brazilian crisis breaks out. An all-out joint effort by the G-7, IMF and World Bank was needed to prevent the crisis from spreading throughout South America and dealing a devastating blow to the U. S. stock markets. This time, the inevitable has happened: the crisis began in the United States, almost imperceptibly at first. Beginning in mid-2000, the first symptoms began to be observed, with a sustained decrease in the rate of industrial production. In March of that year, the so-called high-tech NASDAQ index had already begun to drop. At the same time, the trade deficit showed an enormous growth, from 264.9 billion dollars in 1999 to 368.4 billion in 2000.

At the same time, the trade deficit showed an enormous growth, from 264.9 billion dollars in 1999 to 368.4 billion in 2000. In the second quarter of the year 2000, the gross domestic product registered growth of 5.7%; in the third quarter, it grew by only 1.3%. Industrial sector production began to fall in October of 2000. Nevertheless, at the end of the year 2000, opinions on the prospects and forecasts for the world economy were still rather optimistic. But reality soon reared its ugly head. Since the beginning of 2001, the IMF, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission, along with private institutions, have been obliged to downwardly adjust their growth predictions in the various regions of the world for 2001. In May, the IMF forecast 3.2% worldwide growth in 2001. For the United States in particular, projected growth was 1.5%, and 2.4% for the eurozone. Japan was facing its fourth recession in 10 years, leading to a prediction of 0.5% negative growth for the same year. IMF Managing Director Horst Kohler, during a speech to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in Geneva, on July 16, 2001, stated, “Growth is slowing throughout the world. This may be uncomfortable for the advanced economies (the developed and wealthy countries), but it will be a further source of hardship for many emerging markets and developing countries (the poor and underdeveloped countries), and a real setback in the fight against world poverty.” Production has dropped in the majority of the Southeast Asian countries, with the exception of China, and in Latin America, too. According to the World Bank, growth in Southeast Asia, which had begun to recover after its dramatic fall in 1997, would decline from 7.6% in 2000 to 4.5% this year, while Latin America’s growth would be around 2%, one half of the growth registered in 2000. Other institutions also made predictions. The Economist magazine estimated in April that world growth in 2001 would be only 2.7%, in contrast to the 4.6% growth registered in the year 2000, while world trade would grow by 3.5%, compared to the 13.4% growth in 2000. With regard to the eurozone, the OECD, in its quarterly report issued in early May of 2001, estimated that the European Union would experience growth of 2.6%, a figure 0.5% lower than its initial projection. On September 10, just one day before the events in New York and Washington, the IMF analyzed the evolution of growth predictions for the world economy and for the economies of the United States, Europe and Japan. Its findings were as follows: World Economy percentage growth: Autumn 2000 4.2 March 2001 3.4 Spring 2001 3.2 September 2001 2.7 A progressive fall from 4.2 to 2.7 in less than a year. The United States percentage growth Autumn 2000 3.2 March 2001 1.7 Spring 2001 1.5 September 2001 1.5 More of the same, from 3.2 to 1.5 over the same time period. Japan Autumn 2000 1.8 March 2001 1.0 Spring 2001 0.6 September 2001 0.2 The numbers speak for themselves. The Eurozone: Autumn 2000 3.4 March 2001 2.7 Spring 2001 2.4 September 2001 1.9 Without exception, the three major centers of the world economy saw their growth rates fall simultaneously, dropping to less than half of initial figures over the course of less than a year. In the case of Japan in particular, growth dropped to almost zero. The employment situation: At the end of the year 2000, the unemployment rate in the United States was only 3.9%. What happened in the year 2001? Unemployment rate (percentage): February 4.2 March 4.3 April 4.5 May 4.4 June 4.5 July 4.5 August 4.9 Although official statistics are not yet available, it is estimated that unemployment has now reached 5.1%, a rate that had not been registered in the United States for many years. Today, November 2, after this material had been drafted, the official figure was released: it is 5.4%. In just one month, 415 thousand jobs were lost. The increase of the unemployment rate is irrefutable evidence of the deterioration that the U.S. economy had been suffering prior to the terrorist attacks. It should be kept in mind, as an important precedent, that over the last 50 years, when the unemployment rate has reached 5.1%, this has coincided with the beginning of a recession. Percentage of industrial capacity used in the United States in the year 2001: February 79.2 March 78.7 April 78.4 May 78.0 June 77.1 July 77.0 August 76.4 In August, industrial production fell by 0.6% as compared to July. Over the previous 12 months, industrial production had shrunk by around 5%. August was the 11th consecutive month of economic contraction. The figure registered in August is very close to the lowest level reached since 1983. Also registered in the month of August of 2001 was a budget deficit of 80 billion dollars. That same month, Democratic members of Congress were already pointing that predictions indicated that the government would have to use Social Security money to finance current expenditures. During the second quarter of 2001, U.S. imports shrank by 13.9 billion dollars, while the low level of trade activity in the rest of the world led to a 9.1 billion-dollar reduction in exports.

Stock values on the main indexes have suffered the following decreases in 2001: Dow Jones 18.06% NASDAQ 66.42% Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 28.48% This means the loss of trillions of dollars in less than a year. The Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates nine times in 2001. The goal in doing so is to lower the cost of money, boost consumer confidence and thus promote economic activity. This frantic frequency clearly reflects desperation. Europe: Industrial production in the European region experienced a sustained decline in the first quarter of the year 2001 that obliged companies to reduce staff, and this, in turn, reduced consumption, thus creating a vicious downward circle. Investment and consumption are depressed, aggravating the trend towards recession. The European Commissioner for Monetary Affairs has stated that the European economy will grow by only 1.5% this year. Meanwhile, the six most prestigious economic research institutes in Germany have predicted that their country’s economy will grow by 0.7% this year and 1.3% next year, and announced that the German economy is on the verge of a recession. This will have a strong negative impact on the rest of Europe, given that Germany is considered the region’s “economic motor.” Japan: Japan’s real gross domestic product in the first quarter of the year 2001 dropped more dramatically than expected, with a decrease of 0.2% as compared to predictions of 0.1%, followed by an additional 0.8% drop in the second quarter. The decrease in industrial production that began in March reached 11.7% by August. This phenomenon of six consecutive months of decline in industrial production has not been witnessed in the Japanese economy since the period from December of 1991 to May of 1992, and it places industrial production at the lowest level of the last seven years. This means an even worse crisis than the financial crisis of 1997-1998, according to Japanese analysts. Japan’s trade surplus decreased 48% in July of this year. As a defensive measure, companies are cutting staff, leading to a rise in the unemployment rate, which reached an all-time high of 5% in August of this year, something never before seen in Japan. Latin America: In August, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) reported that the region’s economy would grow by only 2% in 2001, a mere half of the growth registered the previous year (4%). In so doing, it retracted its prior prediction, made in May, forecasting a GDP growth of between 2.7% and 3%. According to ECLAC, this is the result of the worldwide economic weakening and instability in a number of the region’s key countries: Peru and Uruguay will experience no growth; Brazil has been affected by a scarcity of fuel supplies, which has hit its productive activity, and by an almost 40% devaluation of its currency this year; and Chile’s economic reactivation has come to a halt. In the case of Mexico, a feeble economic growth of 0.13% is predicted for this year, and 1.74% for 2002. The government had originally forecast 4.5% growth in the gross domestic product for 2001, but it has downscaled that figure a number of times due to the slowdown in the world economy, and particularly that of the United States. ECLAC estimates that unemployment in the region will reach at least 8.5%. There are people who calmly speak today about the “world economic crisis caused by the terrorist attacks that took place in the United States on September 11 and by the war against Afghanistan initiated on October 7.” Such statements are completely baseless. What I have just outlined irrefutably proves this. The crisis was already breaking out, uncontrollably. Every week I receive a bulletin with the most important economic news gathered from the most prestigious and reliable public sources of information, or statements made by specialists and political leaders. I remember in particular the bulletin I received on September 8, 2001, exactly three days before the terrible tragedy in New York. It had been many years since I had read so much bad news about the prospects for the international economy in just one bulletin. Curiosity led me to look it over once again. I have chosen a number of reports from it, which read as follows: “Hitachi Ltd., Japan’s biggest manufacturer of electronic products, announced that it will cut 14,700 jobs this year, or 4% of its staff, while preparing for a loss of over a billion dollars caused by the collapse of the high-tech sector.” “Rival Japanese conglomerates Toshiba Corp., NEC Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd. have also announced that they plan to cut thousands of jobs.” (CNN, 31/08/2001) “The president of the United States Federal Reserve said that the rise in housing prices, at the same time that the stock market has collapsed, is making it difficult for the central bank to diagnose the state of the country’s economy. This divergence ‘could have significant implications for the country’s economic growth,’ he declared.” (The Wall Street Journal, 31/08/2001) “The U.S. Federal Reserve has warned in its latest report to the country’s banking institutions that they have not reinforced their risk management systems to the extent demanded by the economic slowdown facing the international economy.” (Spanish newspaper Cinco Días, 31/08/2001) “The European Commission admitted yesterday that the prediction for economic growth in the eurozone this year will be less than 2.5%. The monetary affairs commissioner, Pedro Solbes, who even noted that Brussels has ‘some doubts’ about this figure, acknowledged this. The drop in rates by a quarter of a point, announced last week by the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), was accompanied by an explicit acknowledgement of an error in calculation. ‘What we have underestimated is how long and severe the slowdown has turned out to be in the United States,’Duisenberg said.

‘If I may say so, we, and also the United States authorities, have tended to be too optimistic regarding the duration and depth of the slowdown,’ he said, recalling the opinions of Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill. “The ECB’s orientation difficulties are contained in this brief analysis, which comes a bit late after the gradual reduction from the 3.2% growth in the eurozone predicted in January to the 2% estimated in recent days.” (Spanish newspaper Cinco Días, 31/08/2001) “The president of the United States acknowledged his concern over the persistent decline in U.S. economic activity and its repercussions on the labor market. ‘I am aware of the problems being faced today by the families of workers affected by the economic crisis, but I am convinced that the economy will get back on its feet,’ he declared before a meeting of trade union groups. “With the economy on the brink of a recession, the president tried to convince U.S. workers that he was aware of their situation and that he is doing something to remedy it. The matter is complicated, given that the weakening of consumer confidence, the decline in financial markets and the lukewarm growth of the major world power have placed economic affairs at the top of the president’s agenda.”(Spanish newspaper Expansión, 04/09/2001) Note that President Bush, who is not very partial to these subjects, made these declarations one week before September 11. Next Top Contents Home Subscribe Write us! [email protected]

Home Contents Subscribe Write us! [email protected] December 2002 • Vol 2, No. 11 • To An Ecuadorian Artist and Humanitarian By Fidel Castro Honorable Mr. President: Authorities from Ecuador and from Quito: Dearest family: Distinguished guests: I remember that at the very beginning of the Cuban Revolution, in the midst of all the turmoil, a man with indigenous features and a determined and inquisitive look, who was already famous and admired by many of our intellectuals, proposed to paint my portrait. For the first time in my life, I was submitted to a tormenting experience. I should stand still. I did not know if this would last an hour or a century. I had never seen anyone move with such speed, squeezing out the paints contained in aluminum tubes, like toothpaste, mixing them with liquids while staring at me with persistent hawk eyes. There he was, stroking the canvas with his paintbrush from left to right, like flashes of lightning, and turning his eyes again and again to the astonished living object of his feverish activity, breathing heavily like a track and field athlete. Finally, I could see the result of all that. It wasn’t me, it was what he wanted me to be, how he saw me: a combination of Don Quixote with features of famous personalities from Bolivar’s wars for Independence. But aware of the painter’s fame, I did not dare say a word. Maybe I eventually told him that the painting was “excellent”. I was embarrassed by my ignorance of the fine arts, as I was no less than in the presence of a great master painter and an extraordinary person, whom I later grew to know with increasing admiration and deep affection: Oswaldo Guayasamín. He was then about 42 years old. Guayasamín was perhaps the most noble, transparent and humane person I have ever met Three times I lived through the same memorable experience, throughout more than 35 years, and the last time we had several working sessions. He continued painting with the same passion, even when his eyesight began to experience severe limitations, which was particularly cruel for such an indefatigable painter. The last portrait showed a face more or less similar to the others, but with long bony hands that enhanced the image of the Knight of the Doleful Countenance that he still saw in me almost to the end of his life. Guayasamín was perhaps the most noble, transparent and humane person I have ever met. He painted with the speed of light and his dimension, as a human being, was boundless. I learned much from our talks, which enriched my conscience about the terrible drama of the conquest, colonization and genocide of the indigenous peoples in this hemisphere; a lacerating pain that he felt deep in his heart. He was an authority in the history of those terrible events. One day, while we were in the studio at his residence here in Quito, I asked him how many indigenous lives he thought had been lost to the conquest and colonization. He was quick to respond without hesitation: “70 million.” His thirst for justice and vindication for those who survived that holocaust was the major drive of his life. However, he felt it was necessary to struggle not only for these indigenous peoples but also for the peoples of North, Central and South America. He thought about the formerly Ibero American colonies that emerged from a crucible of martyrdom and from the mixing of victims and victimizers, who together with the descendents of enslaved Africans, as well as European and Asian immigrants, formed the Latin American societies of today. There, where ruthless exploitation, plundering and the imposition of an unsustainable, destructive and genocidal world order kills every 10 years —from hunger, poverty and disease— as many people as those 70 millions that according to Guayasamin died throughout centuries. I avoid mentioning the English colonies because in that case, there was no crucible or mixing, only extermination. The social data on Latin America certified by authorized international organizations are terrifying. Suffice to mention those related to child labor and to the sexual exploitation of children. Actually, 20 million children under 15 years of age must work for a living; most of them are girls, which contributes to the sexual exploitation that many girls and boys are subjected to. In a large number of countries almost half of the girls, usually very poor, have been victims of sexual abuse or violence in their own homes and become active in commercial sex between the ages of 9 and 13, while approximately 50% to 80% [of these] use drugs. Hundreds of boys and girls live in the streets and many are also victims of sexual exploitation. In some cities 40% of the women working as prostitutes are not yet 16 years old. This is a small sample, among the dozens of shameful statistical figures of what it means to be the region of the world with the worst distribution of national income. None of this escaped the profound thought, warmth and sense of human dignity of Oswaldo Guayasamín. He devoted his art to building an awareness, to denounce, fight, struggle and overcome these evils. “I have been painting for three to five thousand years, more or less,” he told me one day with impressive conviction. “I paint,” he confessed, “to hurt, to tear and to strike at the hearts of people, to show what man is doing against man.” “Painting is for me a form of prayer as much as it is a cry and the loftiest consequence of love and solitude,” he sentenced.

“I paint,” he confessed, “to hurt, to tear and to strike at the hearts of people, to show what man is doing against man.” “Painting is for me a form of prayer as much as it is a cry and the loftiest consequence of love and solitude,” he sentenced. Guayasamín wanted to leave an endurable work as a legacy to his indigenous ethnicity and to his mestizo and multiracial people. Today, we inaugurate the first stage of one of his most cherished dreams: La Capilla del Hombre (The Chapel of Humankind) a majestic representation of truth, history and the destiny of our peoples from pre-Columbian times to date, which is an extraordinary feat of universal resonance. The social data on Latin America certified by authorized international organizations are terrifying This son of Ecuador born in Quito 83 years ago, whose father was an indigenous and his mother a mestizo was the first of the 10 children of a poor family that lived in La Tola. There, he learned from this legendary city, surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, until finally becoming a genius in fine arts, a gladiator of human dignity and a prophet of days to come. He placed his patrimony at the disposal of Ecuador, the Americas and the World. How many geniuses like him may have been lost for culture and universal sciences among the millions of indigenous and mestizos who during the last two centuries never learned how to read and write! I had the great privilege of being his friend and today I have the privilege to be here when, thanks to the endeavors of many, his most cherished dream has become a tangible reality. I can bear witness to his courage, which stirred the anger of the empire and to his social commitment as a man of the vanguard, intimately bounded with the humble of the world. And since dying is a way to continue our journeys, in 1988, in this very treasured place, when I said a few words of greetings and humorously referred to death, he immediately reacted by saying: “We no longer die, we no longer die.” Thus, with the inauguration of the Capilla del Hombre, to which he devoted the last of his physical energies before departing, we can confirm that what he said in a moment of euphoria and fraternal joy was true for the author of that prophetic prediction. Today, we can clearly see that both he and his work will endure in the conscience and hearts of present and future generations. Thank you, my dearest brother Oswaldo Guayasamín, for your legacy to the world! Thank you. Speech given by dr. Fidel Castro Ruz, president of the Republic of Cuba, in Quito, Republic of Ecuador, at the inauguration ceremony of the Chapel of Humankind, November 29, 2002. —Granma, December 2, 2002 Top Contents Home Subscribe Write us [email protected]

[email protected] Home Current Issue Archives Arsenal of Marxism Subscribe Links Search Who We Are Donate Contact us Sep/Oct 2007 • Vol 7, No. 5 Click Here to Return to the Index Search the Site: Enter term and click Go! Politics and Sports By Fidel Castro Ruz I am writing this quickly and a little late. I should do this because of the strong emphasis I have placed in the analysis of this matter. Besides, the news is not disheartening. The wire services announced that the two boxers who had defected in Rio de Janeiro had been found and arrested by the authorities on a beach close to that city. Remember that they had been given up for missing. They were there without any documents. They were not sent to prison. They remained in the same hotel where they were staying, under the surveillance of the Federal Police. The boxers told the police that they had made a mistake and regretted it. They refused to see a German citizen who very promptly took interest in them, following instructions from a mafia company. We learned about this later. The authorities asked us for their documents, and the Cuban consular representatives, following our Ambassador’s instructions, proceeded up to complete all relevant arrangements. The news stating that the boxers were in Turkey while immigration matters were being looked after had obviously been released by the mafia as a smoke screen. There was even a German Member of Parliament who attempted to hit a home run with a fake ball. The company that had invested more than two million dollars in this grotesque business was talking about the “human rights” of the athletes’ families. What will the United Nations say about this unfair competition? This is where sports and politics get together in the search for concrete and principled solutions, over and above fondness and bitterness. Those citizens will not be submitted to any sort of arrest, much less the kinds of methods being used by the United States Government in Abu Ghraib and Guant�namo, which we have never used in this country. They will be temporarily transferred to a guesthouse and allowed family visits. The press will also be able to contact them if they so wish. They will be offered decent jobs for the benefit of sports, given their knowledge and experience. The Brazilian authorities should not be worried in the face of the inevitable campaigns being launched by our adversaries. Cuba’s behavior will rise to the occasion. I, for one, shall have a good sleep. —Granma (Cuba), August 4 2007 Home Current Archives Arsenal of Marxism Subscribe Links Search About Us Donate Contact 2001-2007. Socialist Viewpoint Publishing

Home Contents Subscribe Write us! [email protected] Oct 2001 • Vol 1, No. 5 • Castro’s Response to Bush’s War We print below the speech of Fidel Castro which he made September 22, 2001, in response to the address to a joint session of the United States Congress by President George Bush. The translation is from the Permanent Mission of The Republic of Cuba to the United Nations in New York City. Fellow countrymen: No one can deny that terrorism is today a dangerous and ethically indefensible phenomenon, which should be eradicated regardless of its deep origins, the economic and political factors that brought it to life and those responsible for it. The unanimous irritation caused by the human and psychological damage brought on the American people by the unexpected and shocking death of thousands of innocent people whose images have shaken the world is perfectly understandable. But who have profited? The extreme right, the most backward and right-wing forces, those in favor of crushing the growing world rebellion and sweeping away everything progressive that is still left on the planet. It was an enormous error, a huge injustice and a great crime, whomever they are who organized or are responsible for such action. However, the tragedy should not be used to recklessly start a war that could actually unleash an endless carnage of innocent people and all of this on behalf of justice and under the peculiar and bizarre name of “Infinite Justice.” In the last few days we have seen the hasty establishment of the basis, the concept, the true purposes, the spirit and the conditions for such a war. No one would be able to affirm that it was not something thought out well in advance, something that was just waiting for its chance to materialize. Those who after the so-called end of the cold war continued a military build-up and the development of the most sophisticated means to kill and exterminate human beings were aware that the large military investments would give them the privilege to impose an absolute and complete dominance over the other peoples of the world. The ideologists of the imperialist system knew very well what they were doing and why they were doing it. After the shock and sincere sorrow felt by every people on Earth for the atrocious and insane terrorist attack that targeted the American people, the most extremist ideologists and the most belligerent hawks, already set in privileged power positions, have taken command of the most powerful country in the world whose military and technological capabilities would seem infinite. Actually, its capacity to destroy and kill is enormous while its inclination towards equanimity, serenity, thoughtfulness and restrain is minimal. The combination of elements—including complicity and the common enjoyment of privileges—the prevailing opportunism, confusion and panic make it almost impossible to avoid a bloody and unpredictable outcome. The first victims of whatever military actions are undertaken will be the billions of people living in the poor and underdeveloped world with their unbelievable economic and social problems, their unpayable debts and the ruinous prices of their basic commodities; their growing natural and ecological catastrophes, their hunger and misery, the massive undernourishment of their children, teenagers and adults; their terrible AIDS epidemic, their malaria, their tuberculosis and their infectious diseases that threaten whole nations with extermination. The grave economic world crisis was already a real and irrefutable fact affecting absolutely every one of the big economic power centers. Such crisis will inevitably grow deeper under the new circumstances, and when it becomes unbearable for the overwhelming majority of the peoples, it will bring chaos, rebellion and the impossibility to govern. But the price will also be un-payable for the rich countries. For years to come it would be impossible to speak strongly enough about the environment and the ecology, or about ideas and research done and tested, or about projects for the protection of Nature because that space and possibility would be taken by military actions, war and crimes as infinite as “Infinite Justice,” that is, the name given to the war operation to be unleashed. Can there be any hope left after having listened, hardly 36 hours ago, to the speech made by the President before the U.S. Congress? I will avoid the use of adjectives, qualifiers or offensive words towards the author of that speech. They would be absolutely unnecessary and untimely when the tensions and seriousness of the moment advise thoughtfulness and equanimity. I will limit myself to underline some short phrases that say it all: We will use every necessary weapon of war. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. I’ve called the armed forces to alert and there is a reason. The hour is coming when America will act and you will make us proud. This is the world’s fight, this is civilization’s fight. I ask for your patience [...] in what will be a long struggle. The great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depend on us. The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. [...] And we know that God is not neutral. I ask our fellow countrymen to meditate deeply and calmly on the ideas contained in several of the above-mentioned phrases: “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” No nation of the world has been left out of the dilemma, not even the big and powerful states; none has escaped the threat of war or attacks. “We will use any weapon.” No procedure has been excluded, regardless of its ethics, or any threat, however fatal—either nuclear, chemical, biological or any other. “It will not be short combat but a lengthy war, lasting many years, unparalleled in history.” “It is the world’s fight; it is civilization’s fight.” “The achievements of our times and the hope of every time, now depend on us.” Finally, an unheard of confession in a political speech on the eve of a war, and no less than in times of apocalyptic risks: “The course of this conflict is not known;

yet its outcome is certain. And we know that God is not neutral.” This is an amazing assertion. When I think about the real or imagined parties involved in that bizarre holy war that is about to begin, I find it difficult to make a distinction about where fanaticism is stronger. On Thursday, before the United States Congress, the idea was designed of a world military dictatorship under the exclusive rule of force, irrespective of any international laws or institutions. The United Nations Organization, simply ignored in the present crisis, would fail to have any authority or prerogative whatsoever. There would be only one boss, only one judge, and only one law. We have all been ordered to ally either with the United States government or with terrorism. Cuba, the country that has suffered the most and the longest from terrorist actions, the one whose people are not afraid of anything because there is no threat or power in the world that can intimidate it, with a high morale, Cuba claims that it is opposed to terrorism and opposed to war. Although the possibilities are now remote, Cuba reaffirms the need to avert a war of unpredictable consequences whose very authors have admitted not to have the least idea of how the events will unfold. Likewise, Cuba reiterates its willingness to cooperate with every country in the total eradication of terrorism. An objective and calm friend should advise the United States government against throwing the young American soldiers into an uncertain war in remote, isolated and inaccessible places, like a fight against ghosts, not knowing where they are or even if they exist or not, or whether the people they kill are or not responsible for the death of their innocent fellow countrymen killed in the United States. Cuba will never declare itself an enemy of the American people that is today subjected to an unprecedented campaign to sow hatred and a vengeful spirit, so much so that even the music that sings to peace has been banned. On the contrary, Cuba will make that music its own, and even our children will sing their songs to peace while the announced bloody war lasts. Whatever happens, the territory of Cuba will never be used for terrorist actions against the American people and we will do everything within our reach to prevent such actions against that people. Today we are expressing our solidarity while urging to peace and calmness. One day they will admit we were right. Our independence, our principles and our social achievements we will defend with honor to the last drop of blood, if we are attacked! It will not be easy to fabricate pretexts to do it. They are already talking about a war using all the necessary weapons but it will be good to recall that not even that would be a new experience. Almost four decades ago, hundreds of strategic and tactical nuclear weapons were aimed at Cuba and nobody remembers anyone of our countrymen sleepless over that. We are the same sons and daughters of that heroic people, with a patriotic and revolutionary conscience that is higher than ever. It is time for serenity and courage. The world will grow aware of this and will raise its voice in the face of the terrible threatening drama that it is about to suffer. As for Cubans, this is the right time to proclaim more proudly and resolutely than ever:Socialism or death! Homeland or death! We shall overcome! Top Contents Home Subscribe Write us! [email protected]

Fidel Castro Internet Archive History Will Absolve Me Spoken: 1953 Publisher: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, La Habana, Cuba. 1975 Translated: Pedro Álvarez Tabío & Andrew Paul Booth (who rechecked the translation with the Spanish La historia me absolverá, same publisher, in 1981) Transcription/Markup: Andrew Paul Booth/Brian Baggins Online Version: 1997, Castro Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2001 HONORABLE JUDGES: Never has a lawyer had to practice his profession under such difficult conditions; never has such a number of overwhelming irregularities been committed against an accused man. In this case, counsel and defendant are one and the same. As attorney he has not even been able to take a look at the indictment. As accused, for the past seventy-six days he has been locked away in solitary confinement, held totally and absolutely incommunicado, in violation of every human and legal right. He who speaks to you hates vanity with all his being, nor are his temperament or frame of mind inclined towards courtroom poses or sensationalism of any kind. If I have had to assume my own defense before this Court it is for two reasons. First: because I have been denied legal aid almost entirely, and second: only one who has been so deeply wounded, who has seen his country so forsaken and its justice trampled so, can speak at a moment like this with words that spring from the blood of his heart and the truth of his very gut. There was no lack of generous comrades who wished to defend me, and the Havana Bar Association appointed a courageous and competent jurist, Dr. Jorge Pagliery, Dean of the Bar in this city, to represent me in this case. However, he was not permitted to carry out his task. As often as he tried to see me, the prison gates were closed before him. Only after a month and a half, and through the intervention of the Court, was he finally granted a ten minute interview with me in the presence of a sergeant from the Military Intelligence Agency (SIM). One supposes that a lawyer has a right to speak with his defendant in private, and this right is respected throughout the world, except in the case of a Cuban prisoner of war in the hands of an implacable tyranny that abides by no code of law, be it legal or humane. Neither Dr. Pagliery nor I were willing to tolerate such dirty spying upon our means of defense for the oral trial. Did they want to know, perhaps, beforehand, the methods we would use in order to reduce to dust the incredible fabric of lies they had woven around the Moncada Barracks events? How were we going to expose the terrible truth they would go to such great lengths to conceal? It was then that we decided that, taking advantage of my professional rights as a lawyer, I would assume my own defense. This decision, overheard by the sergeant and reported by him to his superior, provoked a real panic. It looked like some mocking little imp was telling them that I was going to ruin all their plans. You know very well, Honorable Judges, how much pressure has been brought to bear on me in order to strip me as well of this right that is ratified by long Cuban tradition. The Court could not give in to such machination, for that would have left the accused in a state of total indefensiveness. The accused, who is now exercising this right to plead his own case, will under no circumstances refrain from saying what he must say. I consider it essential that I explain, at the onset, the reason for the terrible isolation in which I have been kept; what was the purpose of keeping me silent; what was behind the plots to kill me, plots which the Court is familiar with; what grave events are being hidden from the people; and the truth behind all the strange things which have taken place during this trial. I propose to do all this with utmost clarity. You have publicly called this case the most significant in the history of the Republic. If you sincerely believed this, you should not have allowed your authority to be stained and degraded. The first court session was September 21st. Among one hundred machine guns and bayonets, scandalously invading the hall of justice, more than a hundred people were seated in the prisoner's dock. The great majority had nothing to do with what had happened. They had been under preventive arrest for many days, suffering all kinds of insults and abuses in the chambers of the repressive units. But the rest of the accused, the minority, were brave and determined, ready to proudly confirm their part in the battle for freedom, ready to offer an example of unprecedented self-sacrifice and to wrench from the jail's claws those who in deliberate bad faith had been included in the trial. Those who had met in combat confronted one another again. Once again, with the cause of justice on our side, we would wage the terrible battle of truth against infamy! Surely the regime was not prepared for the moral catastrophe in store for it! How to maintain all its false accusations? How to keep secret what had really happened, when so many young men were willing to risk everything - prison, torture and death, if necessary - in order that the truth be told before this Court? I was called as a witness at that first session. For two hours I was questioned by the Prosecutor as well as by twenty defense attorneys. I was able to prove with exact facts and figures the sums of money that had been spent, the way this money was collected and the arms we had been able to round up. I had nothing to hide, for the truth was: all this was accomplished through sacrifices without precedent in the history of our Republic. I spoke of the goals that inspired us in our struggle and of the humane and generous treatment that we had at all times accorded our adversaries.

I spoke of the goals that inspired us in our struggle and of the humane and generous treatment that we had at all times accorded our adversaries. If I accomplished my purpose of demonstrating that those who were falsely implicated in this trial were neither directly nor indirectly involved, I owe it to the complete support and backing of my heroic comrades. For, as I said, the consequences they might be forced to suffer at no time caused them to repent of their condition as revolutionaries and patriots, I was never once allowed to speak with these comrades of mine during the time we were in prison, and yet we planned to do exactly the same. The fact is, when men carry the same ideals in their hearts, nothing can isolate them - neither prison walls nor the sod of cemeteries. For a single memory, a single spirit, a single idea, a single conscience, a single dignity will sustain them all. From that moment on, the structure of lies the regime had erected about the events at Moncada Barracks began to collapse like a house of cards. As a result, the Prosecutor realized that keeping all those persons named as instigators in prison was completely absurd, and he requested their provisional release. At the close of my testimony in that first session, I asked the Court to allow me to leave the dock and sit among the counsel for the defense. This permission was granted. At that point what I consider my most important mission in this trial began: to totally discredit the cowardly, miserable and treacherous lies which the regime had hurled against our fighters; to reveal with irrefutable evidence the horrible, repulsive crimes they had practiced on the prisoners; and to show the nation and the world the infinite misfortune of the Cuban people who are suffering the cruelest, the most inhuman oppression of their history. The second session convened on Tuesday, September 22nd. By that time only ten witnesses had testified, and they had already cleared up the murders in the Manzanillo area, specifically establishing and placing on record the direct responsibility of the captain commanding that post. There were three hundred more witnesses to testify. What would happen if, with a staggering mass of facts and evidence, I should proceed to cross-examine the very Army men who were directly responsible for those crimes? Could the regime permit me to go ahead before the large audience attending the trial? Before journalists and jurists from all over the island? And before the party leaders of the opposition, who they had stupidly seated right in the prisoner's dock where they could hear so well all that might be brought out here? They would rather have blown up the court house, with all its judges, than allow that! And so they devised a plan by which they could eliminate me from the trial and they proceeded to do just that, manu militari. On Friday night, September 25th, on the eve of the third session of the trial, two prison doctors visited me in my cell. They were visibly embarrassed. 'We have come to examine you,' they said. I asked them, 'Who is so worried about my health?' Actually, from the moment I saw them I realized what they had come for. They could not have treated me with greater respect, and they explained their predicament to me. That afternoon Colonel Chaviano had appeared at the prison and told them I 'was doing the Government terrible damage with this trial.' He had told them they must sign a certificate declaring that I was ill and was, therefore, unable to appear in court. The doctors told me that for their part they were prepared to resign from their posts and risk persecution. They put the matter in my hands, for me to decide. I found it hard to ask those men to unhesitatingly destroy themselves. But neither could I, under any circumstances, consent that those orders be carried out. Leaving the matter to their own consciences, I told them only: 'You must know your duty; I certainly know mine.' After leaving the cell they signed the certificate. I know they did so believing in good faith that this was the only way they could save my life, which they considered to be in grave danger. I was not obliged to keep our conversation secret, for I am bound only by the truth. Telling the truth in this instance may jeopardize those good doctors in their material interests, but I am removing all doubt about their honor, which is worth much more. That same night, I wrote the Court a letter denouncing the plot; requesting that two Court physicians be sent to certify my excellent state of health, and to inform you that if to save my life I must take part in such deception, I would a thousand times prefer to lose it. To show my determination to fight alone against this whole degenerate frame-up, I added to my own words one of the Master's lines: 'A just cause even from the depths of a cave can do more than an army.' As the Court knows, this was the letter Dr. Melba Hernández submitted at the third session of the trial on September 26th. I managed to get it to her in spite of the heavy guard I was under. That letter, of course, provoked immediate reprisals. Dr. Hernández was subjected to solitary confinement, and I - since I was already incommunicado - was sent to the most inaccessible reaches of the prison. From that moment on, all the accused were thoroughly searched from head to foot before they were brought into the courtroom. Two Court physicians certified on September 27th that I was, in fact, in perfect health. Yet, in spite of the repeated orders from the Court, I was never again brought to the hearings. What's more, anonymous persons daily circulated hundreds of apocryphal pamphlets which announced my rescue from jail.

What's more, anonymous persons daily circulated hundreds of apocryphal pamphlets which announced my rescue from jail. This stupid alibi was invented so they could physically eliminate me and pretend I had tried to escape. Since the scheme failed as a result of timely exposure by ever alert friends, and after the first affidavit was shown to be false, the regime could only keep me away from the trial by open and shameless contempt of Court. This was an incredible situation, Honorable Judges: Here was a regime literally afraid to bring an accused man to Court; a regime of blood and terror that shrank in fear of the moral conviction of a defenseless man - unarmed, slandered and isolated. And so, after depriving me of everything else, they finally deprived me even of the trial in which I was the main accused. Remember that this was during a period in which individual rights were suspended and the Public Order Act as well as censorship of radio and press were in full force. What unbelievable crimes this regime must have committed to so fear the voice of one accused man! I must dwell upon the insolence and disrespect which the Army leaders have at all times shown towards you. As often as this Court has ordered an end to the inhuman isolation in which I was held; as often as it has ordered my most elementary rights to be respected; as often as it has demanded that I be brought before it, this Court has never been obeyed! Worse yet: in the very presence of the Court, during the first and second hearings, a praetorian guard was stationed beside me to totally prevent me from speaking to anyone, even among the brief recesses. In other words, not only in prison, but also in the courtroom and in your presence, they ignored your decrees. I had intended to mention this matter in the following session, as a question of elementary respect for the Court, but - I was never brought back. And if, in exchange for so much disrespect, they bring us before you to be jailed in the name of a legality which they and they alone have been violating since March 10th, sad indeed is the role they would force on you. The Latin maxim Cedant arma togae has certainly not been fulfilled on a single occasion during this trial. I beg you to keep that circumstance well in mind. What is more, these devices were in any case quite useless; my brave comrades, with unprecedented patriotism, did their duty to the utmost. 'Yes, we set out to fight for Cuba's freedom and we are not ashamed of having done so,' they declared, one by one, on the witness stand. Then, addressing the Court with impressive courage, they denounced the hideous crimes committed upon the bodies of our brothers. Although absent from Court, I was able, in my prison cell, to follow the trial in all its details. And I have the convicts at Boniato Prison to thank for this. In spite of all threats, these men found ingenious means of getting newspaper clippings and all kinds of information to me. In this way they avenged the abuses and immoralities perpetrated against them both by Taboada, the warden, and the supervisor, Lieutenant Rozabal, who drove them from sun up to sun down building private mansions and starved them by embezzling the prison food budget. As the trial went on, the roles were reversed: those who came to accuse found themselves accused, and the accused became the accusers! It was not the revolutionaries who were judged there; judged once and forever was a man named Batista - monstruum horrendum! - and it matters little that these valiant and worthy young men have been condemned, if tomorrow the people will condemn the Dictator and his henchmen! Our men were consigned to the Isle of Pines Prison, in whose circular galleries Castells' ghost still lingers and where the cries of countless victims still echo; there our young men have been sent to expiate their love of liberty, in bitter confinement, banished from society, torn from their homes and exiled from their country. Is it not clear to you, as I have said before, that in such circumstances it is difficult and disagreeable for this lawyer to fulfill his duty? As a result of so many turbid and illegal machinations, due to the will of those who govern and the weakness of those who judge, I find myself here in this little room at the Civilian Hospital, where I have been brought to be tried in secret, so that I may not be heard and my voice may be stifled, and so that no one may learn of the things I am going to say. Why, then, do we need that imposing Palace of Justice which the Honorable Judges would without doubt find much more comfortable? I must warn you: it is unwise to administer justice from a hospital room, surrounded by sentinels with fixed bayonets; the citizens might suppose that our justice is sick - and that it is captive. Let me remind you, your laws of procedure provide that trials shall be 'public hearings;' however, the people have been barred altogether from this session of Court. The only civilians admitted here have been two attorneys and six reporters, in whose newspapers the censorship of the press will prevent printing a word I say. I see, as my sole audience in this chamber and in the corridors, nearly a hundred soldiers and officers. I am grateful for the polite and serious attention they give me. I only wish I could have the whole Army before me! I know, one day, this Army will seethe with rage to wash away the terrible, the shameful bloodstains splattered across the military uniform by the present ruthless clique in its lust for power. On that day, oh what a fall awaits those mounted in arrogance on their noble steeds! - provided that the people have not dismounted them long before that! Finally, I should like to add that no treatise on penal law was allowed me in my cell. I have at my disposal only this tiny code of law lent to me by my learned counsel, Dr. Baudillo Castellanos, the courageous defender of my comrades.

Baudillo Castellanos, the courageous defender of my comrades. In the same way they prevented me from receiving the books of Martí; it seems the prison censorship considered them too subversive. Or is it because I said Martí was the inspirer of the 26th of July? Reference books on any other subject were also denied me during this trial. But it makes no difference! I carry the teachings of the Master in my heart, and in my mind the noble ideas of all men who have defended people's freedom everywhere! I am going to make only one request of this court; I trust it will be granted as a compensation for the many abuses and outrages the accused has had to tolerate without protection of the law. I ask that my right to express myself be respected without restraint. Otherwise, even the merest semblance of justice cannot be maintained, and the final episode of this trial would be, more than all the others, one of ignominy and cowardice. I must admit that I am somewhat disappointed. I had expected that the Honorable Prosecutor would come forward with a grave accusation. I thought he would be ready to justify to the limit his contention, and his reasons why I should be condemned in the name of Law and Justice - what law and what justice? - to 26 years in prison. But no. He has limited himself to reading Article 148 of the Social Defense Code. On the basis of this, plus aggravating circumstances, he requests that I be imprisoned for the lengthy term of 26 years! Two minutes seems a very short time in which to demand and justify that a man be put behind bars for more than a quarter of a century. Can it be that the Honorable Prosecutor is, perhaps, annoyed with the Court? Because as I see it, his laconic attitude in this case clashes with the solemnity with which the Honorable Judges declared, rather proudly, that this was a trial of the greatest importance! I have heard prosecutors speak ten times longer in a simple narcotics case asking for a sentence of just six months. The Honorable Prosecutor has supplied not a word in support of his petition. I am a just man. I realize that for a prosecuting attorney under oath of loyalty to the Constitution of the Republic, it is difficult to come here in the name of an unconstitutional, statutory, de facto government, lacking any legal much less moral basis, to ask that a young Cuban, a lawyer like himself - perhaps as honorable as he, be sent to jail for 26 years. But the Honorable Prosecutor is a gifted man and I have seen much less talented persons write lengthy diatribes in defense of this regime. How then can I suppose that he lacks reason with which to defend it, at least for fifteen minutes, however contemptible that might be to any decent person? It is clear that there is a great conspiracy behind all this. Honorable Judges: Why such interest in silencing me? Why is every type of argument foregone in order to avoid presenting any target whatsoever against which I might direct my own brief? Is it that they lack any legal, moral or political basis on which to put forth a serious formulation of the question? Are they that afraid of the truth? Do they hope that I, too, will speak for only two minutes and that I will not touch upon the points which have caused certain people sleepless nights since July 26th? Since the prosecutor's petition was restricted to the mere reading of five lines of an article of the Social Defense Code, might they suppose that I too would limit myself to those same lines and circle round them like some slave turning a millstone? I shall by no means accept such a gag, for in this trial there is much more than the freedom of a single individual at stake. Fundamental matters of principle are being debated here, the right of men to be free is on trial, the very foundations of our existence as a civilized and democratic nation are in the balance. When this trial is over, I do not want to have to reproach myself for any principle left undefended, for any truth left unsaid, for any crime not denounced. The Honorable Prosecutor's famous little article hardly deserves a minute of my time. I shall limit myself for the moment to a brief legal skirmish against it, because I want to clear the field for an assault against all the endless lies and deceits, the hypocrisy, conventionalism and moral cowardice that have set the stage for the crude comedy which since the 10th of March - and even before then - has been called Justice in Cuba. It is a fundamental principle of criminal law that an imputed offense must correspond exactly to the type of crime described by law. If no law applies exactly to the point in question, then there is no offense. The article in question reads textually: 'A penalty of imprisonment of from three to ten years shall be imposed upon the perpetrator of any act aimed at bringing about an armed uprising against the Constitutional Powers of the State. The penalty shall be imprisonment for from five to twenty years, in the event that insurrection actually be carried into effect.' In what country is the Honorable Prosecutor living? Who has told him that we have sought to bring about an uprising against the Constitutional Powers of the State? Two things are self-evident. First of all, the dictatorship that oppresses the nation is not a constitutional power, but an unconstitutional one: it was established against the Constitution, over the head of the Constitution, violating the legitimate Constitution of the Republic. The legitimate Constitution is that which emanates directly from a sovereign people. I shall demonstrate this point fully later on, notwithstanding all the subterfuges contrived by cowards and traitors to justify the unjustifiable.

I shall demonstrate this point fully later on, notwithstanding all the subterfuges contrived by cowards and traitors to justify the unjustifiable. Secondly, the article refers to Powers, in the plural, as in the case of a republic governed by a Legislative Power, an Executive Power, and a Judicial Power which balance and counterbalance one another. We have fomented a rebellion against one single power, an illegal one, which has usurped and merged into a single whole both the Legislative and Executive Powers of the nation, and so has destroyed the entire system that was specifically safeguarded by the Code now under our analysis. As to the independence of the Judiciary after the 10th of March, I shall not allude to that for I am in no mood for joking ... No matter how Article 148 may be stretched, shrunk or amended, not a single comma applies to the events of July 26th. Let us leave this statute alone and await the opportunity to apply it to those who really did foment an uprising against the Constitutional Powers of the State. Later I shall come back to the Code to refresh the Honorable Prosecutor's memory about certain circumstances he has unfortunately overlooked. I warn you, I am just beginning! If there is in your hearts a vestige of love for your country, love for humanity, love for justice, listen carefully. I know that I will be silenced for many years; I know that the regime will try to suppress the truth by all possible means; I know that there will be a conspiracy to bury me in oblivion. But my voice will not be stifled - it will rise from my breast even when I feel most alone, and my heart will give it all the fire that callous cowards deny it. From a shack in the mountains on Monday, July 27th, I listened to the dictator's voice on the air while there were still 18 of our men in arms against the government. Those who have never experienced similar moments will never know that kind of bitterness and indignation. While the long-cherished hopes of freeing our people lay in ruins about us we heard those crushed hopes gloated over by a tyrant more vicious, more arrogant than ever. The endless stream of lies and slanders, poured forth in his crude, odious, repulsive language, may only be compared to the endless stream of clean young blood which had flowed since the previous night - with his knowledge, consent, complicity and approval - being spilled by the most inhuman gang of assassins it is possible to imagine. To have believed him for a single moment would have sufficed to fill a man of conscience with remorse and shame for the rest of his life. At that time I could not even hope to brand his miserable forehead with the mark of truth which condemns him for the rest of his days and for all time to come. Already a circle of more than a thousand men, armed with weapons more powerful than ours and with peremptory orders to bring in our bodies, was closing in around us. Now that the truth is coming out, now that speaking before you I am carrying out the mission I set for myself, I may die peacefully and content. So I shall not mince my words about those savage murderers. I must pause to consider the facts for a moment. The government itself said the attack showed such precision and perfection that it must have been planned by military strategists. Nothing could have been farther from the truth! The plan was drawn up by a group of young men, none of whom had any military experience at all. I will reveal their names, omitting two who are neither dead nor in prison: Abel Santamaría, José Luis Tasende, Renato Guitart Rosell, Pedro Miret, Jesús Montané and myself. Half of them are dead, and in tribute to their memory I can say that although they were not military experts they had enough patriotism to have given, had we not been at such a great disadvantage, a good beating to that entire lot of generals together, those generals of the 10th of March who are neither soldiers nor patriots. Much more difficult than the planning of the attack was our organizing, training, mobilizing and arming men under this repressive regime with its millions of dollars spent on espionage, bribery and information services. Nevertheless, all this was carried out by those men and many others like them with incredible seriousness, discretion and discipline. Still more praiseworthy is the fact that they gave this task everything they had; ultimately, their very lives. The final mobilization of men who came to this province from the most remote towns of the entire island was accomplished with admirable precision and in absolute secrecy. It is equally true that the attack was carried out with magnificent coordination. It began simultaneously at 5:15 a.m. in both Bayamo and Santiago de Cuba; and one by one, with an exactitude of minutes and seconds prepared in advance, the buildings surrounding the barracks fell to our forces. Nevertheless, in the interest of truth and even though it may detract from our merit, I am also going to reveal for the first time a fact that was fatal: due to a most unfortunate error, half of our forces, and the better armed half at that, went astray at the entrance to the city and were not on hand to help us at the decisive moment. Abel Santamaría, with 21 men, had occupied the Civilian Hospital; with him went a doctor and two of our women comrades to attend to the wounded. Raúl Castro, with ten men, occupied the Palace of Justice, and it was my responsibility to attack the barracks with the rest, 95 men. Preceded by an advance group of eight who had forced Gate Three, I arrived with the first group of 45 men. It was precisely here that the battle began, when my car ran into an outside patrol armed with machine guns. The reserve group which had almost all the heavy weapons (the light arms were with the advance group), turned up the wrong street and lost its way in an unfamiliar city. I must clarify the fact that I do not for a moment doubt the courage of those men; they experienced great anguish and desperation when they realized they were lost. Because of the type of action it was and because the contending forces were wearing identically colored uniforms, it was not easy for these men to re-establish contact with us.

Many of them, captured later on, met death with true heroism. Everyone had instructions, first of all, to be humane in the struggle. Never was a group of armed men more generous to the adversary. From the beginning we took numerous prisoners - nearly twenty - and there was one moment when three of our men - Ramiro Valdés, José Suárez and Jesús Montané - managed to enter a barrack and hold nearly fifty soldiers prisoners for a short time. Those soldiers testified before the Court, and without exception they all acknowledged that we treated them with absolute respect, that we didn't even subject them to one scoffing remark. In line with this, I want to give my heartfelt thanks to the Prosecutor for one thing in the trial of my comrades: when he made his report he was fair enough to acknowledge as an incontestable fact that we maintained a high spirit of chivalry throughout the struggle. Discipline among the soldiers was very poor. They finally defeated us because of their superior numbers - fifteen to one - and because of the protection afforded them by the defenses of the fortress. Our men were much better marksmen, as our enemies themselves conceded. There was a high degree of courage on both sides. In analyzing the reasons for our tactical failure, apart from the regrettable error already mentioned, I believe we made a mistake by dividing the commando unit we had so carefully trained. Of our best trained men and boldest leaders, there were 27 in Bayamo, 21 at the Civilian Hospital and 10 at the Palace of Justice. If our forces had been distributed differently the outcome of the battle might have been different. The clash with the patrol (purely accidental, since the unit might have been at that point twenty seconds earlier or twenty seconds later) alerted the camp, and gave it time to mobilize. Otherwise it would have fallen into our hands without a shot fired, since we already controlled the guard post. On the other hand, except for the .22 caliber rifles, for which there were plenty of bullets, our side was very short of ammunition. Had we had hand grenades, the Army would not have been able to resist us for fifteen minutes. When I became convinced that all efforts to take the barracks were now useless, I began to withdraw our men in groups of eight and ten. Our retreat was covered by six expert marksmen under the command of Pedro Miret and Fidel Labrador; heroically they held off the Army's advance. Our losses in the battle had been insignificant; 95% of our casualties came from the Army's inhumanity after the struggle. The group at the Civilian Hospital only had one casualty; the rest of that group was trapped when the troops blocked the only exit; but our youths did not lay down their arms until their very last bullet was gone. With them was Abel Santamaría, the most generous, beloved and intrepid of our young men, whose glorious resistance immortalizes him in Cuban history. We shall see the fate they met and how Batista sought to punish the heroism of our youth. We planned to continue the struggle in the mountains in case the attack on the regiment failed. In Siboney I was able to gather a third of our forces; but many of these men were now discouraged. About twenty of them decided to surrender; later we shall see what became of them. The rest, 18 men, with what arms and ammunition were left, followed me into the mountains. The terrain was completely unknown to us. For a week we held the heights of the Gran Piedra range and the Army occupied the foothills. We could not come down; they didn't risk coming up. It was not force of arms, but hunger and thirst that ultimately overcame our resistance. I had to divide the men into smaller groups. Some of them managed to slip through the Army lines; others were surrendered by Monsignor Pérez Serantes. Finally only two comrades remained with me - José Suárez and Oscar Alcalde. While the three of us were totally exhausted, a force led by Lieutenant Sarría surprised us in our sleep at dawn. This was Saturday, August 1st. By that time the slaughter of prisoners had ceased as a result of the people's protest. This officer, a man of honor, saved us from being murdered on the spot with our hands tied behind us. I need not deny here the stupid statements by Ugalde Carrillo and company, who tried to stain my name in an effort to mask their own cowardice, incompetence, and criminality. The facts are clear enough.

The facts are clear enough. My purpose is not to bore the court with epic narratives. All that I have said is essential for a more precise understanding of what is yet to come. Let me mention two important facts that facilitate an objective judgement of our attitude. First: we could have taken over the regiment simply by seizing all the high ranking officers in their homes. This possibility was rejected for the very humane reason that we wished to avoid scenes of tragedy and struggle in the presence of their families. Second: we decided not to take any radio station over until the Army camp was in our power. This attitude, unusually magnanimous and considerate, spared the citizens a great deal of bloodshed. With only ten men I could have seized a radio station and called the people to revolt. There is no questioning the people's will to fight. I had a recording of Eduardo Chibás' last message over the CMQ radio network, and patriotic poems and battle hymns capable of moving the least sensitive, especially with the sounds of live battle in their ears. But I did not want to use them although our situation was desperate. The regime has emphatically repeated that our Movement did not have popular support. I have never heard an assertion so naive, and at the same time so full of bad faith. The regime seeks to show submission and cowardice on the part of the people. They all but claim that the people support the dictatorship; they do not know how offensive this is to the brave Orientales. Santiago thought our attack was only a local disturbance between two factions of soldiers; not until many hours later did they realize what had really happened. Who can doubt the valor, civic pride and limitless courage of the rebel and patriotic people of Santiago de Cuba? If Moncada had fallen into our hands, even the women of Santiago de Cuba would have risen in arms. Many were the rifles loaded for our fighters by the nurses at the Civilian Hospital. They fought alongside us. That is something we will never forget. It was never our intention to engage the soldiers of the regiment in combat. We wanted to seize control of them and their weapons in a surprise attack, arouse the people and call the soldiers to abandon the odious flag of the tyranny and to embrace the banner of freedom; to defend the supreme interests of the nation and not the petty interests of a small clique; to turn their guns around and fire on the people's enemies and not on the people, among whom are their own sons and fathers; to unite with the people as the brothers that they are instead of opposing the people as the enemies the government tries to make of them; to march behind the only beautiful ideal worthy of sacrificing one's life - the greatness and happiness of one's country. To those who doubt that many soldiers would have followed us, I ask: What Cuban does not cherish glory? What heart is not set aflame by the promise of freedom? The Navy did not fight against us, and it would undoubtedly have come over to our side later on. It is well known that that branch of the Armed Forces is the least dominated by the Dictatorship and that there is a very intense civic conscience among its members. But, as to the rest of the national armed forces, would they have fought against a people in revolt? I declare that they would not! A soldier is made of flesh and blood; he thinks, observes, feels. He is susceptible to the opinions, beliefs, sympathies and antipathies of the people. If you ask his opinion, he may tell you he cannot express it; but that does not mean he has no opinion. He is affected by exactly the same problems that affect other citizens - subsistence, rent, the education of his children, their future, etc. Everything of this kind is an inevitable point of contact between him and the people and everything of this kind relates him to the present and future situation of the society in which he lives. It is foolish to imagine that the salary a soldier receives from the State - a modest enough salary at that - should resolve the vital problems imposed on him by his needs, duties and feelings as a member of his community. This brief explanation has been necessary because it is basic to a consideration to which few people, until now, have paid any attention - soldiers have a deep respect for the feelings of the majority of the people! During the Machado regime, in the same proportion as popular antipathy increased, the loyalty of the Army visibly decreased. This was so true that a group of women almost succeeded in subverting Camp Columbia. But this is proven even more clearly by a recent development.

But this is proven even more clearly by a recent development. While Grau San Martín's regime was able to preserve its maximum popularity among the people, unscrupulous ex-officers and power-hungry civilians attempted innumerable conspiracies in the Army, although none of them found a following in the rank and file. The March 10th coup took place at the moment when the civil government's prestige had dwindled to its lowest ebb, a circumstance of which Batista and his clique took advantage. Why did they not strike their blow after the first of June? Simply because, had they waited for the majority of the nation to express its will at the polls, the troops would not have responded to the conspiracy! Consequently, a second assertion can be made: the Army has never revolted against a regime with a popular majority behind it. These are historic truths, and if Batista insists on remaining in power at all costs against the will of the majority of Cubans, his end will be more tragic than that of Gerardo Machado. I have a right to express an opinion about the Armed Forces because I defended them when everyone else was silent. And I did this neither as a conspirator, nor from any kind of personal interest - for we then enjoyed full constitutional prerogatives. I was prompted only by humane instincts and civic duty. In those days, the newspaper Alerta was one of the most widely read because of its position on national political matters. In its pages I campaigned against the forced labor to which the soldiers were subjected on the private estates of high civil personages and military officers. On March 3rd, 1952 I supplied the Courts with data, photographs, films and other proof denouncing this state of affairs. I also pointed out in those articles that it was elementary decency to increase army salaries. I should like to know who else raised his voice on that occasion to protest against all this injustice done to the soldiers. Certainly not Batista and company, living well-protected on their luxurious estates, surrounded by all kinds of security measures, while I ran a thousand risks with neither bodyguards nor arms. Just as I defended the soldiers then, now - when all others are once more silent - I tell them that they allowed themselves to be miserably deceived; and to the deception and shame of March 10th they have added the disgrace, the thousand times greater disgrace, of the fearful and unjustifiable crimes of Santiago de Cuba. From that time since, the uniform of the Army is splattered with blood. And as last year I told the people and cried out before the Courts that soldiers were working as slaves on private estates, today I make the bitter charge that there are soldiers stained from head to toe with the blood of the Cuban youths they have tortured and slain. And I say as well that if the Army serves the Republic, defends the nation, respects the people and protects the citizenry then it is only fair that the soldier should earn at least a hundred pesos a month. But if the soldiers slay and oppress the people, betray the nation and defend only the interests of one small group, then the Army deserves not a cent of the Republic's money and Camp Columbia should be converted into a school with ten thousand orphans living there instead of soldiers. I want to be just above all else, so I can't blame all the soldiers for the shameful crimes that stain a few evil and treacherous Army men. But every honorable and upstanding soldier who loves his career and his uniform is dutybound to demand and to fight for the cleansing of this guilt, to avenge this betrayal and to see the guilty punished. Otherwise the soldier's uniform will forever be a mark of infamy instead of a source of pride. Of course the March 10th regime had no choice but to remove the soldiers from the private estates. But it did so only to put them to work as doormen, chauffeurs, servants and bodyguards for the whole rabble of petty politicians who make up the party of the Dictatorship. Every fourth or fifth rank official considers himself entitled to the services of a soldier to drive his car and to watch over him as if he were constantly afraid of receiving the kick in the pants he so justly deserves. If they had been at all interested in promoting real reforms, why did the regime not confiscate the estates and the millions of men like Genovevo Pérez Dámera, who acquired their fortunes by exploiting soldiers, driving them like slaves and misappropriating the funds of the Armed Forces? But no: Genovevo Pérez and others like him no doubt still have soldiers protecting them on their estates because the March 10th generals, deep in their hearts, aspire to the same future and can't allow that kind of precedent to be set. The 10th of March was a miserable deception, yes ... After Batista and his band of corrupt and disreputable politicians had failed in their electoral plan, they took advantage of the Army's discontent and used it to climb to power on the backs of the soldiers. And I know there are many Army men who are disgusted because they have been disappointed. At first their pay was raised, but later, through deductions and reductions of every kind, it was lowered again. Many of the old elements, who had drifted away from the Armed Forces, returned to the ranks and blocked the way of young, capable and valuable men who might otherwise have advanced. Good soldiers have been neglected while the most scandalous nepotism prevails. Many decent military men are now asking themselves what need that Armed Forces had to assume the tremendous historical responsibility of destroying our Constitution merely to put a group of immoral men in power, men of bad reputation, corrupt, politically degenerate beyond redemption, who could never again have occupied a political post had it not been at bayonet-point; and they weren't even the ones with the bayonets in their hands ... On the other hand, the soldiers endure a worse tyranny than the civilians. They are under constant surveillance and not one of them enjoys the slightest security in his job. Any unjustified suspicion, any gossip, any intrigue, or denunciation, is sufficient to bring transfer, dishonorable discharge or imprisonment.

Did not Tabernilla, in a memorandum, forbid them to talk with anyone opposed to the government, that is to say, with ninety-nine percent of the people? ... What a lack of confidence! ... Not even the vestal virgins of Rome had to abide by such a rule! As for the much publicized little houses for enlisted men, there aren't 300 on the whole Island; yet with what has been spent on tanks, guns and other weaponry every soldier might have a place to live. Batista isn't concerned with taking care of the Army, but that the Army take care of him! He increases the Army's power of oppression and killing but does not improve living conditions for the soldiers. Triple guard duty, constant confinement to barracks, continuous anxiety, the enmity of the people, uncertainty about the future - this is what has been given to the soldier. In other words: 'Die for the regime, soldier, give it your sweat and blood. We shall dedicate a speech to you and award you a posthumous promotion (when it no longer matters) and afterwards ... we shall go on living luxuriously, making ourselves rich. Kill, abuse, oppress the people. When the people get tired and all this comes to an end, you can pay for our crimes while we go abroad and live like kings. And if one day we return, don't you or your children knock on the doors of our mansions, for we shall be millionaires and millionaires do not mingle with the poor. Kill, soldier, oppress the people, die for the regime, give your sweat and blood ...' But if blind to this sad truth, a minority of soldiers had decided to fight the people, the people who were going to liberate them from tyranny, victory still would have gone to the people. The Honorable Prosecutor was very interested in knowing our chances for success. These chances were based on considerations of technical, military and social order. They have tried to establish the myth that modern arms render the people helpless in overthrowing tyrants. Military parades and the pompous display of machines of war are used to perpetuate this myth and to create a complex of absolute impotence in the people. But no weaponry, no violence can vanquish the people once they are determined to win back their rights. Both past and present are full of examples. The most recent is the revolt in Bolivia, where miners with dynamite sticks smashed and defeated regular army regiments. Fortunately, we Cubans need not look for examples abroad. No example is as inspiring as that of our own land. During the war of 1895 there were nearly half a million armed Spanish soldiers in Cuba, many more than the Dictator counts upon today to hold back a population five times greater. The arms of the Spaniards were, incomparably, both more up to date and more powerful than those of our mambises. Often the Spaniards were equipped with field artillery and the infantry used breechloaders similar to those still in use by the infantry of today. The Cubans were usually armed with no more than their machetes, for their cartridge belts were almost always empty. There is an unforgettable passage in the history of our War of Independence, narrated by General Miró Argenter, Chief of Antonio Maceo's General Staff. I managed to bring it copied on this scrap of paper so I wouldn't have to depend upon my memory: 'Untrained men under the command of Pedro Delgado, most of them equipped only with machetes, were virtually annihilated as they threw themselves on the solid rank of Spaniards. It is not an exaggeration to assert that of every fifty men, 25 were killed. Some even attacked the Spaniards with their bare fists, without machetes, without even knives. Searching through the reeds by the Hondo River, we found fifteen more dead from the Cuban party, and it was not immediately clear what group they belonged to, They did not appear to have shouldered arms, their clothes were intact and only tin drinking cups hung from their waists; a few steps further on lay the dead horse, all its equipment in order. We reconstructed the climax of the tragedy. These men, following their daring chief, Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Delgado, had earned heroes' laurels: they had thrown themselves against bayonets with bare hands, the clash of metal which was heard around them was the sound of their drinking cups banging against the saddlehorn. Maceo was deeply moved. This man so used to seeing death in all its forms murmured this praise: "I had never seen anything like this, untrained and unarmed men attacking the Spaniards with only drinking cups for weapons. And I called it impedimenta!"' This is how peoples fight when they want to win their freedom; they throw stones at airplanes and overturn tanks! As soon as Santiago de Cuba was in our hands we would immediately have readied the people of Oriente for war. Bayamo was attacked precisely to locate our advance forces along the Cauto River. Never forget that this province, which has a million and a half inhabitants today, is the most rebellious and patriotic in Cuba. It was this province that sparked the fight for independence for thirty years and paid the highest price in blood, sacrifice and heroism. In Oriente you can still breathe the air of that glorious epic. At dawn, when the cocks crow as if they were bugles calling soldiers to reveille, and when the sun rises radiant over the rugged mountains, it seems that once again we will live the days of Yara or Baire!

At dawn, when the cocks crow as if they were bugles calling soldiers to reveille, and when the sun rises radiant over the rugged mountains, it seems that once again we will live the days of Yara or Baire! I stated that the second consideration on which we based our chances for success was one of social order. Why were we sure of the people's support? When we speak of the people we are not talking about those who live in comfort, the conservative elements of the nation, who welcome any repressive regime, any dictatorship, any despotism, prostrating themselves before the masters of the moment until they grind their foreheads into the ground. When we speak of struggle and we mention the people we mean the vast unredeemed masses, those to whom everyone makes promises and who are deceived by all; we mean the people who yearn for a better, more dignified and more just nation; who are moved by ancestral aspirations to justice, for they have suffered injustice and mockery generation after generation; those who long for great and wise changes in all aspects of their life; people who, to attain those changes, are ready to give even the very last breath they have when they believe in something or in someone, especially when they believe in themselves. The first condition of sincerity and good faith in any endeavor is to do precisely what nobody else ever does, that is, to speak with absolute clarity, without fear. The demagogues and professional politicians who manage to perform the miracle of being right about everything and of pleasing everyone are, necessarily, deceiving everyone about everything. The revolutionaries must proclaim their ideas courageously, define their principles and express their intentions so that no one is deceived, neither friend nor foe. In terms of struggle, when we talk about people we're talking about the six hundred thousand Cubans without work, who want to earn their daily bread honestly without having to emigrate from their homeland in search of a livelihood; the five hundred thousand farm laborers who live in miserable shacks, who work four months of the year and starve the rest, sharing their misery with their children, who don't have an inch of land to till and whose existence would move any heart not made of stone; the four hundred thousand industrial workers and laborers whose retirement funds have been embezzled, whose benefits are being taken away, whose homes are wretched quarters, whose salaries pass from the hands of the boss to those of the moneylender, whose future is a pay reduction and dismissal, whose life is endless work and whose only rest is the tomb; the one hundred thousand small farmers who live and die working land that is not theirs, looking at it with the sadness of Moses gazing at the promised land, to die without ever owning it, who like feudal serfs have to pay for the use of their parcel of land by giving up a portion of its produce, who cannot love it, improve it, beautify it nor plant a cedar or an orange tree on it because they never know when a sheriff will come with the rural guard to evict them from it; the thirty thousand teachers and professors who are so devoted, dedicated and so necessary to the better destiny of future generations and who are so badly treated and paid; the twenty thousand small business men weighed down by debts, ruined by the crisis and harangued by a plague of grafting and venal officials; the ten thousand young professional people: doctors, engineers, lawyers, veterinarians, school teachers, dentists, pharmacists, newspapermen, painters, sculptors, etc., who finish school with their degrees anxious to work and full of hope, only to find themselves at a dead end, all doors closed to them, and where no ears hear their clamor or supplication. These are the people, the ones who know misfortune and, therefore, are capable of fighting with limitless courage! To these people whose desperate roads through life have been paved with the bricks of betrayal and false promises, we were not going to say: 'We will give you ...' but rather: 'Here it is, now fight for it with everything you have, so that liberty and happiness may be yours!' The five revolutionary laws that would have been proclaimed immediately after the capture of the Moncada Barracks and would have been broadcast to the nation by radio must be included in the indictment. It is possible that Colonel Chaviano may deliberately have destroyed these documents, but even if he has I remember them. The first revolutionary law would have returned power to the people and proclaimed the 1940 Constitution the Supreme Law of the State until such time as the people should decide to modify or change it. And in order to effect its implementation and punish those who violated it - there being no electoral organization to carry this out - the revolutionary movement, as the circumstantial incarnation of this sovereignty, the only source of legitimate power, would have assumed all the faculties inherent therein, except that of modifying the Constitution itself: in other words, it would have assumed the legislative, executive and judicial powers. This attitude could not be clearer nor more free of vacillation and sterile charlatanry. A government acclaimed by the mass of rebel people would be vested with every power, everything necessary in order to proceed with the effective implementation of popular will and real justice. From that moment, the Judicial Power - which since March 10th had placed itself against and outside the Constitution - would cease to exist and we would proceed to its immediate and total reform before it would once again assume the power granted it by the Supreme Law of the Republic. Without these previous measures, a return to legality by putting its custody back into the hands that have crippled the system so dishonorably would constitute a fraud, a deceit, one more betrayal. The second revolutionary law would give non-mortgageable and non-transferable ownership of the land to all tenant and subtenant farmers, lessees, share croppers and squatters who hold parcels of five caballerías of land or less, and the State would indemnify the former owners on the basis of the rental which they would have received for these parcels over a period of ten years. The third revolutionary law would have granted workers and employees the right to share 30% of the profits of all the large industrial, mercantile and mining enterprises, including the sugar mills.

The strictly agricultural enterprises would be exempt in consideration of other agrarian laws which would be put into effect. The fourth revolutionary law would have granted all sugar planters the right to share 55% of sugar production and a minimum quota of forty thousand arrobas for all small tenant farmers who have been established for three years or more. The fifth revolutionary law would have ordered the confiscation of all holdings and ill-gotten gains of those who had committed frauds during previous regimes, as well as the holdings and ill-gotten gains of all their legates and heirs. To implement this, special courts with full powers would gain access to all records of all corporations registered or operating in this country, in order to investigate concealed funds of illegal origin, and to request that foreign governments extradite persons and attach holdings rightfully belonging to the Cuban people. Half of the property recovered would be used to subsidize retirement funds for workers and the other half would be used for hospitals, asylums and charitable organizations. Furthermore, it was declared that the Cuban policy in the Americas would be one of close solidarity with the democratic peoples of this continent, and that all those politically persecuted by bloody tyrannies oppressing our sister nations would find generous asylum, brotherhood and bread in the land of Martí; not the persecution, hunger and treason they find today. Cuba should be the bulwark of liberty and not a shameful link in the chain of despotism. These laws would have been proclaimed immediately. As soon as the upheaval ended and prior to a detailed and far reaching study, they would have been followed by another series of laws and fundamental measures, such as the Agrarian Reform, the Integral Educational Reform, nationalization of the electric power trust and the telephone trust, refund to the people of the illegal and repressive rates these companies have charged, and payment to the treasury of all taxes brazenly evaded in the past. All these laws and others would be based on the exact compliance of two essential articles of our Constitution: one of them orders the outlawing of large estates, indicating the maximum area of land any one person or entity may own for each type of agricultural enterprise, by adopting measures which would tend to revert the land to the Cubans. The other categorically orders the State to use all means at its disposal to provide employment to all those who lack it and to ensure a decent livelihood to each manual or intellectual laborer. None of these laws can be called unconstitutional. The first popularly elected government would have to respect them, not only because of moral obligations to the nation, but because when people achieve something they have yearned for throughout generations, no force in the world is capable of taking it away again. The problem of the land, the problem of industrialization, the problem of housing, the problem of unemployment, the problem of education and the problem of the people's health: these are the six problems we would take immediate steps to solve, along with restoration of civil liberties and political democracy. This exposition may seem cold and theoretical if one does not know the shocking and tragic conditions of the country with regard to these six problems, along with the most humiliating political oppression. Eighty-five per cent of the small farmers in Cuba pay rent and live under constant threat of being evicted from the land they till. More than half of our most productive land is in the hands of foreigners. In Oriente, the largest province, the lands of the United Fruit Company and the West Indian Company link the northern and southern coasts. There are two hundred thousand peasant families who do not have a single acre of land to till to provide food for their starving children. On the other hand, nearly three hundred thousand caballerías of cultivable land owned by powerful interests remain uncultivated. If Cuba is above all an agricultural State, if its population is largely rural, if the city depends on these rural areas, if the people from our countryside won our war of independence, if our nation's greatness and prosperity depend on a healthy and vigorous rural population that loves the land and knows how to work it, if this population depends on a State that protects and guides it, then how can the present state of affairs be allowed to continue? Except for a few food, lumber and textile industries, Cuba continues to be primarily a producer of raw materials. We export sugar to import candy, we export hides to import shoes, we export iron to import plows ... Everyone agrees with the urgent need to industrialize the nation, that we need steel industries, paper and chemical industries, that we must improve our cattle and grain production, the technology and processing in our food industry in order to defend ourselves against the ruinous competition from Europe in cheese products, condensed milk, liquors and edible oils, and the United States in canned goods; that we need cargo ships; that tourism should be an enormous source of revenue. But the capitalists insist that the workers remain under the yoke. The State sits back with its arms crossed and industrialization can wait forever. Just as serious or even worse is the housing problem. There are two hundred thousand huts and hovels in Cuba; four hundred thousand families in the countryside and in the cities live cramped in huts and tenements without even the minimum sanitary requirements; two million two hundred thousand of our urban population pay rents which absorb between one fifth and one third of their incomes; and two million eight hundred thousand of our rural and suburban population lack electricity. We have the same situation here: if the State proposes the lowering of rents, landlords threaten to freeze all construction; if the State does not interfere, construction goes on so long as landlords get high rents; otherwise they would not lay a single brick even though the rest of the population had to live totally exposed to the elements. The utilities monopoly is no better; they extend lines as far as it is profitable and beyond that point they don't care if people have to live in darkness for the rest of their lives. The State sits back with its arms crossed and the people have neither homes nor electricity. Our educational system is perfectly compatible with everything I've just mentioned. Where the peasant doesn't own the land, what need is there for agricultural schools? Where there is no industry, what need is there for technical or vocational schools?

Everything follows the same absurd logic; if we don't have one thing we can't have the other. In any small European country there are more than 200 technological and vocational schools; in Cuba only six such schools exist, and their graduates have no jobs for their skills. The little rural schoolhouses are attended by a mere half of the school age children - barefooted, half-naked and undernourished - and frequently the teacher must buy necessary school materials from his own salary. Is this the way to make a nation great? Only death can liberate one from so much misery. In this respect, however, the State is most helpful - in providing early death for the people. Ninety per cent of the children in the countryside are consumed by parasites which filter through their bare feet from the ground they walk on. Society is moved to compassion when it hears of the kidnapping or murder of one child, but it is indifferent to the mass murder of so many thousands of children who die every year from lack of facilities, agonizing with pain. Their innocent eyes, death already shining in them, seem to look into some vague infinity as if entreating forgiveness for human selfishness, as if asking God to stay His wrath. And when the head of a family works only four months a year, with what can he purchase clothing and medicine for his children? They will grow up with rickets, with not a single good tooth in their mouths by the time they reach thirty; they will have heard ten million speeches and will finally die of misery and deception. Public hospitals, which are always full, accept only patients recommended by some powerful politician who, in return, demands the votes of the unfortunate one and his family so that Cuba may continue forever in the same or worse condition. With this background, is it not understandable that from May to December over a million persons are jobless and that Cuba, with a population of five and a half million, has a greater number of unemployed than France or Italy with a population of forty million each? When you try a defendant for robbery, Honorable Judges, do you ask him how long he has been unemployed? Do you ask him how many children he has, which days of the week he ate and which he didn't, do you investigate his social context at all? You just send him to jail without further thought. But those who burn warehouses and stores to collect insurance do not go to jail, even though a few human beings may have gone up in flames. The insured have money to hire lawyers and bribe judges. You imprison the poor wretch who steals because he is hungry; but none of the hundreds who steal millions from the Government has ever spent a night in jail. You dine with them at the end of the year in some elegant club and they enjoy your respect. In Cuba, when a government official becomes a millionaire overnight and enters the fraternity of the rich, he could very well be greeted with the words of that opulent character out of Balzac - Taillefer - who in his toast to the young heir to an enormous fortune, said: 'Gentlemen, let us drink to the power of gold! Mr. Valentine, a millionaire six times over, has just ascended the throne. He is king, can do everything, is above everyone, as all the rich are. Henceforth, equality before the law, established by the Constitution, will be a myth for him; for he will not be subject to laws: the laws will be subject to him. There are no courts nor are there sentences for millionaires.' The nation's future, the solutions to its problems, cannot continue to depend on the selfish interests of a dozen big businessmen nor on the cold calculations of profits that ten or twelve magnates draw up in their air-conditioned offices. The country cannot continue begging on its knees for miracles from a few golden calves, like the Biblical one destroyed by the prophet's fury. Golden calves cannot perform miracles of any kind. The problems of the Republic can be solved only if we dedicate ourselves to fight for it with the same energy, honesty and patriotism our liberators had when they founded it. Statesmen like Carlos Saladrigas, whose statesmanship consists of preserving the statu quo and mouthing phrases like 'absolute freedom of enterprise,' 'guarantees to investment capital' and 'law of supply and demand,' will not solve these problems. Those ministers can chat away in a Fifth Avenue mansion until not even the dust of the bones of those whose problems require immediate solution remains. In this present-day world, social problems are not solved by spontaneous generation. A revolutionary government backed by the people and with the respect of the nation, after cleansing the different institutions of all venal and corrupt officials, would proceed immediately to the country's industrialization, mobilizing all inactive capital, currently estimated at about 1.5 billion pesos, through the National Bank and the Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank, and submitting this mammoth task to experts and men of absolute competence totally removed from all political machines for study, direction, planning and realization. After settling the one hundred thousand small farmers as owners on the land which they previously rented, a revolutionary government would immediately proceed to settle the land problem. First, as set forth in the Constitution, it would establish the maximum amount of land to be held by each type of agricultural enterprise and would acquire the excess acreage by expropriation, recovery of swampland, planting of large nurseries, and reserving of zones for reforestation. Secondly, it would distribute the remaining land among peasant families with priority given to the larger ones, and would promote agricultural cooperatives for communal use of expensive equipment, freezing plants and unified professional technical management of farming and cattle raising. Finally, it would provide resources, equipment, protection and useful guidance to the peasants. A revolutionary government would solve the housing problem by cutting all rents in half, by providing tax exemptions on homes inhabited by the owners; by tripling taxes on rented homes; by tearing down hovels and replacing them with modern apartment buildings; and by financing housing all over the island on a scale heretofore unheard of, with the criterion that, just as each rural family should possess its own tract of land, each city family should own its own house or apartment.

There is plenty of building material and more than enough manpower to make a decent home for every Cuban. But if we continue to wait for the golden calf, a thousand years will have gone by and the problem will remain the same. On the other hand, today possibilities of taking electricity to the most isolated areas on the island are greater than ever. The use of nuclear energy in this field is now a reality and will greatly reduce the cost of producing electricity. With these three projects and reforms, the problem of unemployment would automatically disappear and the task of improving public health and fighting against disease would become much less difficult. Finally, a revolutionary government would undertake the integral reform of the educational system, bringing it into line with the projects just mentioned with the idea of educating those generations which will have the privilege of living in a happier land. Do not forget the words of the Apostle: 'A grave mistake is being made in Latin America: in countries that live almost completely from the produce of the land, men are being educated exclusively for urban life and are not trained for farm life.' 'The happiest country is the one which has best educated its sons, both in the instruction of thought and the direction of their feelings.' 'An educated country will always be strong and free.' The soul of education, however, is the teacher, and in Cuba the teaching profession is miserably underpaid. Despite this, no one is more dedicated than the Cuban teacher. Who among us has not learned his three Rs in the little public schoolhouse? It is time we stopped paying pittances to these young men and women who are entrusted with the sacred task of teaching our youth. No teacher should earn less than 200 pesos, no secondary teacher should make less than 350 pesos, if they are to devote themselves exclusively to their high calling without suffering want. What is more, all rural teachers should have free use of the various systems of transportation; and, at least once every five years, all teachers should enjoy a sabbatical leave of six months with pay so they may attend special refresher courses at home or abroad to keep abreast of the latest developments in their field. In this way, the curriculum and the teaching system can be easily improved. Where will the money be found for all this? When there is an end to the embezzlement of government funds, when public officials stop taking graft from the large companies that owe taxes to the State, when the enormous resources of the country are brought into full use, when we no longer buy tanks, bombers and guns for this country (which has no frontiers to defend and where these instruments of war, now being purchased, are used against the people), when there is more interest in educating the people than in killing them there will be more than enough money. Cuba could easily provide for a population three times as great as it has now, so there is no excuse for the abject poverty of a single one of its present inhabitants. The markets should be overflowing with produce, pantries should be full, all hands should be working. This is not an inconceivable thought. What is inconceivable is that anyone should go to bed hungry while there is a single inch of unproductive land; that children should die for lack of medical attention; what is inconceivable is that 30% of our farm people cannot write their names and that 99% of them know nothing of Cuba's history. What is inconceivable is that the majority of our rural people are now living in worse circumstances than the Indians Columbus discovered in the fairest land that human eyes had ever seen. To those who would call me a dreamer, I quote the words of Martí: 'A true man does not seek the path where advantage lies, but rather the path where duty lies, and this is the only practical man, whose dream of today will be the law of tomorrow, because he who has looked back on the essential course of history and has seen flaming and bleeding peoples seethe in the cauldron of the ages knows that, without a single exception, the future lies on the side of duty.' Only when we understand that such a high ideal inspired them can we conceive of the heroism of the young men who fell in Santiago. The meager material means at our disposal was all that prevented sure success. When the soldiers were told that Prío had given us a million pesos, they were told this in the regime's attempt to distort the most important fact: the fact that our Movement had no link with past politicians: that this Movement is a new Cuban generation with its own ideas, rising up against tyranny; that this Movement is made up of young people who were barely seven years old when Batista perpetrated the first of his crimes in 1934. The lie about the million pesos could not have been more absurd. If, with less than 20,000 pesos, we armed 165 men and attacked a regiment and a squadron, then with a million pesos we could have armed 8,000 men, to attack 50 regiments and 50 squadrons - and Ugalde Carrillo still would not have found out until Sunday, July 26th, at 5:15 a.m. I assure you that for every man who fought, twenty well trained men were unable to fight for lack of weapons. When these young men marched along the streets of Havana in the student demonstration of the Martí Centennial, they solidly packed six blocks. If even 200 more men had been able to fight, or we had possessed 20 more hand grenades, perhaps this Honorable Court would have been spared all this inconvenience. The politicians spend millions buying off consciences, whereas a handful of Cubans who wanted to save their country's honor had to face death barehanded for lack of funds. This shows how the country, to this very day, has been governed not by generous and dedicated men, but by political racketeers, the scum of our public life. With the greatest pride I tell you that in accordance with our principles we have never asked a politician, past or present, for a penny. Our means were assembled with incomparable sacrifice. For example, Elpidio Sosa, who sold his job and came to me one day with 300 pesos 'for the cause;' Fernando Chenard, who sold the photographic equipment with which he earned his living; Pedro Marrero, who contributed several months' salary and who had to be stopped from actually selling the very furniture in his house;

Oscar Alcalde, who sold his pharmaceutical laboratory; Jesús Montané, who gave his five years' savings, and so on with many others, each giving the little he had. One must have great faith in one's country to do such a thing. The memory of these acts of idealism bring me straight to the most bitter chapter of this defense - the price the tyranny made them pay for wanting to free Cuba from oppression and injustice. Beloved corpses, you that once Were the hope of my Homeland, Cast upon my forehead The dust of your decaying bones! Touch my heart with your cold hands! Groan at my ears! Each of my moans will Turn into the tears of one more tyrant! Gather around me! Roam about, That my soul may receive your spirits And give me the horror of the tombs For tears are not enough When one lives in infamous bondage! Multiply the crimes of November 27th, 1871 by ten and you will have the monstrous and repulsive crimes of July 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th, 1953, in the province of Oriente. These are still fresh in our memory, but someday when years have passed, when the skies of the nation have cleared once more, when tempers have calmed and fear no longer torments our spirits, then we will begin to see the magnitude of this massacre in all its shocking dimension, and future generations will be struck with horror when they look back on these acts of barbarity unprecedented in our history. But I do not want to become enraged. I need clearness of mind and peace in my heavy heart in order to relate the facts as simply as possible, in no sense dramatizing them, but just as they took place. As a Cuban I am ashamed that heartless men should have perpetrated such unthinkable crimes, dishonoring our nation before the rest of the world. The tyrant Batista was never a man of scruples. He has never hesitated to tell his people the most outrageous lies. To justify his treacherous coup of March 10th, he concocted stories about a fictitious uprising in the Army, supposedly scheduled to take place in April, and which he 'wanted to avert so that the Republic might not be drenched in blood.' A ridiculous little tale nobody ever believed! And when he himself did want to drench the Republic in blood, when he wanted to smother in terror and torture the just rebellion of Cuba's youth, who were not willing to be his slaves, then he contrived still more fantastic lies. How little respect one must have for a people when one tries to deceive them so miserably! On the very day of my arrest I publicly assumed the responsibility for our armed movement of July 26th. If there had been an iota of truth in even one of the many statements the Dictator made against our fighters in his speech of July 27th, it would have been enough to undermine the moral impact of my case. Why, then, was I not brought to trial? Why were medical certificates forged? Why did they violate all procedural laws and ignore so scandalously the rulings of the Court? Why were so many things done, things never before seen in a Court of Law, in order to prevent my appearance at all costs? In contrast, I could not begin to tell you all I went through in order to appear. I asked the Court to bring me to trial in accordance with all established principles, and I denounced the underhanded schemes that were afoot to prevent it. I wanted to argue with them face to face. But they did not wish to face me. Who was afraid of the truth, and who was not? The statements made by the Dictator at Camp Columbia might be considered amusing if they were not so drenched in blood. He claimed we were a group of hirelings and that there were many foreigners among us. He said that the central part of our plan was an attempt to kill him - him, always him. As if the men who attacked the Moncada Barracks could not have killed him and twenty like him if they had approved of such methods. He stated that our attack had been planned by ex-President Prío, and that it had been financed with Prío's money. It has been irrefutably proven that no link whatsoever existed between our Movement and the last regime. He claimed that we had machine guns and hand-grenades. Yet the military technicians have stated right here in this Court that we only had one machine gun and not a single hand-grenade. He said that we had beheaded the sentries. Yet death certificates and medical reports of all the Army's casualties show not one death caused by the blade. But above all and most important, he said that we stabbed patients at the Military Hospital. Yet the doctors from that hospital - Army doctors - have testified that we never even occupied the building, that no patient was either wounded or killed by us, and that the hospital lost only one employee, a janitor, who imprudently stuck his head out of an open window. Whenever a Chief of State, or anyone pretending to be one, makes declarations to the nation, he speaks not just to hear the sound of his own voice. He always has some specific purpose and expects some specific reaction, or has a given intention. Since our military defeat had already taken place, insofar as we no longer represented any actual threat to the dictatorship, why did they slander us like that? If it is still not clear that this was a blood-drenched speech, that it was simply an attempt to justify the crimes that they had been perpetrating since the night before and that they were going to continue to perpetrate, then, let figures speak for me: On July 27th, in his speech from the military headquarters, Batista said that the assailants suffered 32 dead. By the end of the week the number of dead had risen to more than 80 men.

By the end of the week the number of dead had risen to more than 80 men. In what battles, where, in what clashes, did these young men die? Before Batista spoke, more than 25 prisoners had been murdered. After Batista spoke fifty more were massacred. What a great sense of honor those modest Army technicians and professionals had, who did not distort the facts before the Court, but gave their reports adhering to the strictest truth! These surely are soldiers who honor their uniform; these, surely, are men! Neither a real soldier nor a true man can degrade his code of honor with lies and crime. I know that many of the soldiers are indignant at the barbaric assassinations perpetrated. I know that they feel repugnance and shame at the smell of homicidal blood that impregnates every stone of Moncada Barracks. Now that he has been contradicted by men of honor within his own Army, I defy the dictator to repeat his vile slander against us. I defy him to try to justify before the Cuban people his July 27th speech. Let him not remain silent. Let him speak. Let him say who the assassins are, who the ruthless, the inhumane. Let him tell us if the medals of honor, which he went to pin on the breasts of his heroes of that massacre, were rewards for the hideous crimes they had committed. Let him, from this very moment, assume his responsibility before history. Let him not pretend, at a later date, that the soldiers were acting without direct orders from him! Let him offer the nation an explanation for those 70 murders. The bloodshed was great. The nation needs an explanation. The nation seeks it. The nation demands it. It is common knowledge that in 1933, at the end of the battle at the National Hotel, some officers were murdered after they surrendered. Bohemia Magazine protested energetically. It is also known that after the surrender of Fort Atarés the besiegers' machine guns cut down a row of prisoners. And that one soldier, after asking who Blas Hernández was, blasted him with a bullet directly in the face, and for this cowardly act was promoted to the rank of officer. It is well-known in Cuban history that assassination of prisoners was fatally linked with Batista's name. How naive we were not to foresee this! However, unjustifiable as those killings of 1933 were, they took place in a matter of minutes, in no more time than it took for a round of machine gun fire. What is more, they took place while tempers were still on edge. This was not the case in Santiago de Cuba. Here all forms of ferocious outrages and cruelty were deliberately overdone. Our men were killed not in the course of a minute, an hour or a day. Throughout an entire week the blows and tortures continued, men were thrown from rooftops and shot. All methods of extermination were incessantly practiced by well-skilled artisans of crime. Moncada Barracks were turned into a workshop of torture and death. Some shameful individuals turned their uniforms into butcher's aprons. The walls were splattered with blood. The bullets imbedded in the walls were encrusted with singed bits of skin, brains and human hair, the grisly reminders of rifle shots fired full in the face. The grass around the barracks was dark and sticky with human blood. The criminal hands that are guiding the destiny of Cuba had written for the prisoners at the entrance to that den of death the very inscription of Hell: 'Forsake all hope.' They did not even attempt to cover appearances. They did not bother in the least to conceal what they were doing. They thought they had deceived the people with their lies and they ended up deceiving themselves. They felt themselves lords and masters of the universe, with power over life and death. So the fear they had experienced upon our attack at daybreak was dissipated in a feast of corpses, in a drunken orgy of blood. Chronicles of our history, down through four and a half centuries, tell us of many acts of cruelty: the slaughter of defenseless Indians by the Spaniards; the plundering and atrocities of pirates along the coast;