|
|
|
July
26 1995
|
|
|
|
Speech
by President Fidel Castro at the ceremony marking the 42d anniversary of
the assault on the Moncada Barracks at the Mariana Grajales Plaza of the
Revolution, in Guantanamo.
(Source: Havana Radio and Television Networks in Spanish,
recorded: July 26, 1995, by Foreign Broadcast Information Service
(FBIS),
USA, remarks in the text are from the USA-administration)
Warning:
this text is translated by the USA-administration and from USA
databases, recording Cuban radio broadcasts!
|
 Relatives of Moncada Barracks combatants,
distinguished guests, people of Guantanamo, fellow countrymen: I have come with pleasure to fulfill my duty to be with you for the
commemoration of the 42d anniversary of the attack on the Moncada
Barracks. Guantanamo was honored with hosting this anniversary not only because of
its outstanding work performance in many fronts but especially because of
the dignity and efficiency with which it faced the various natural
disasters that have battered this province. Fate determined that we should also commemorate this year in Guantanamo
the landing of Marti and Gomez at Playitas and the landing of Maceo and
Crombet and other patriotic commanders at Boada. This year we commemorated in Dos Rios the 100th anniversary of Jose
Marti's death in combat. Many emotions and memories are going through our
minds at this moment. However, the essence of this is that our struggles
for independence began 127 years ago. These were struggles for
sovereignty, liberty, justice, and dignity for our small but patriotic and
heroic nation. We are at the very doorstep of a powerful and expansionist nation that has
never ceased expanding its borders, first at the expense of the Indians
who lived in much of what is now the United States, who were practically
exterminated, and later at the expense of the Latin American and Caribbean
nations. Very few countries have had to face a challenge and a threat as
huge as the one faced by Cuba -- the ripe apple that was supposed to fall
of its own weight in the claws of the incipient empire. At that time, there were already people who thought resistance was an
impossible task, but there were also people who never resigned themselves
to the idea of surrendering their independence, their culture, and their
national identity. Thanks to those eminent forefathers, today we speak Spanish and not
English. The efforts and sacrifices made by entire generations of Cubans
did not realize revolutionary dreams of justice and full independence but
planted the good seed and paved the road. We could not continue being a foreign colony, we could not remain obedient
servants of the empire, or a country of landless peasants, of children
without schools, of sick people without doctors, of exploited workers, of
blacks without rights, of discriminated women, of young people without a
future, of jobless people, of humiliated citizens, of mocked laws, of
unstoppable corruption, of senseless flags and anthems. Evictions, police brutality,
abdominal crimes: This is the kind of
makeshift republic the imperialist intervention left for us in our
fatherland. Looters of the public treasury, corrupt politicians, people responsible of
atrocious repressive crimes, had sure refuge in the United States,
especially if the crimes were committed on behalf of U.S. economic
interests and the anti- communist ideology of that country. The same has happened in recent years in many other countries of our
hemisphere. Who has trained repressive forces of Latin America in crime, torture, the
massive elimination of citizens, death squads, clandestine cemeteries, and
other abominable practices? The 26 July military uprising was carried out in 1953 against everything
that occurred in Cuba under Batista, the most obdurate servant of the
empire's interests and reactionary ideology. The revolution that emerged
in the Moncada Barracks and continued in the prisons, the Granma, the
Sierra Maestra, and the clandestine struggle in cities, prairies, and
mountains led us to the 1 January 1959 victory. We became masters of our
own destiny for the first time in history. The Moncada program was rigorously carried out in a relatively brief time.
Secular privileges and injustices were swept aside. It was not a socialist
program but it included the basic ideas for subsequent progress in that
direction. We, the main leaders, had socialist ideas and convictions --
Marxist-Leninist, to be more precise -- as we have said many times, but
the Cuban revolution did not at the time. Nevertheless, the process was
quickly stepped up as a result of the aggressive policy adopted by the
U.S. Government. As soon as the first agrarian reform law was approved in
May 1959, that country's administration decided to liquidate the
revolution by using mercenary forces -- like it was done in Guatemala in
1954 with Jacobo Arbenz' government, which also tried to conduct an
agrarian reform. Prior to this, strong actions of economic aggression were carried out
against our country. Because of a process of measures adopted by the U.S.
Government and Cuban reaction to these measures, most U.S. enterprises in
Cuba were nationalized in a short time. The measures were followed by
others to nationalize the most important Cuban private companies, whose
owners, as a rule, supported the North American policy. Thus, the
socialist character of the revolution was declared on 16 April 1961, the
day after the treacherous bombing of our air bases and on the eve of the
Playa Giron invasion, before tens of thousands of armed militia members.
If we fought for the Moncada program at the Sierra Maestra in Playa Giron,
our heroic people shed their blood for socialism, right in front of a
powerful U.S. squadron located a few miles off the coast, ready to
intervene. The historical circumstances in which our struggle was waged showed it
could not even be termed revolutionary unless it was also anti-imperialist
and socialist. Only socialism could unite the great masses of the people
so closely to wage the huge moral, political, economic, and social battle
that lay ahead of us and to be prepared to wage it in the military field
if the country was invaded. It was necessary to conquer with justice -- as
Marti told Juan Gualberto Gomez. Only socialism as a political, economic,
and social regime could provide all the justice. [applause] We did not design the world in which this long 36-year struggle has taken
place; its extraordinary story cannot be expounded at this moment. It was
already designed on 1 January 1959. However, no one should harbor any
doubts that, whether or not the USSR and the socialist bloc existed, we
would have attacked the Moncada Barracks, we would have landed with the
Granma, we would have made it to 1 January, and we would have struggled in
Giron. When Mateo protested in Baragua, when Marti landed in Playitas,
when the Mambi Army carried out the glorious invasion, and when Cuba
fought alone against 300,000 Spanish soldiers, neither the USSR nor the
socialist bloc existed. At the time, we did not have any contact or relations with those
countries; those relations only emerged after our victory. The emergence
of the Cuban revolution and the existence of the USSR and the socialist
bloc was a historical coincidence, although extraordinarily useful when
our small country was mercilessly blockaded in the economic field,
harassed and threatened militarily by the United States. For those harboring doubts about what I have just said, one need only
witness the irrefutable fact that when the socialist bloc and the USSR
disappeared, our people, in spite of having abruptly lost 70 percent of
their imports and all military assistance, did not hesitate for one second
to move on and defend at any price their independence, their extraordinary
social accomplishments, their glorious history, their ideas, their
revolution, and the fruit of the blood spilled by their children inside
and outside of Cuba. [applause] Many who underestimated the courage of these people believed that the
revolution would collapse in a matter of days or weeks. And here we are,
not only resisting but gradually beginning to gain ground. [applause]
Compatriots, we do not forget for one second the efforts and sacrifices
that the special period has meant for our people. It has also been very
difficult and tough for the revolution to wage the struggle, when it is
necessary to attend each day to the problems and needs of 11 million
people. What must we do to prevent one child from being deprived of his
milk, one sick person from being deprived of the essential attention he
may require? What must we do so that there is a minimum amount of food,
electricity, water, domestic fuel, transportation, and many other products
and services that the population requires? It is not the same to attend to the problems of a guerrilla army in the
mountains as it is to attend to the requirements of an entire nation, when
our enemies are making tremendous efforts to block and hamper everything.
But nothing of what we do today has been or will ever be in vain. It
represents an unprecedented feat in history that even under these
circumstances, not one school, not one hospital, not one elderly home, not
one children's nursery has been closed. The infant mortality rate is today lower than when the special period
began, and there are many more doctors now. The defense and security of
the country have been strengthened. Scientific research, culture, and
sports activities continue to be developed. Our agriculture and our
industry are functioning. Orderly work is being performed everywhere. Some
results can already be observed. The petroleum production is increasing,
together with that of nickel, electricity, steel, cement, edible roots,
vegetables, and other products. The gross domestic product increased by 2 percent in the first semester of
1995. This is a modest yet noteworthy figure. It would have been higher
without the reduction in production registered in the sugar sector, where
today special efforts are being made to produce positive results in the
near future. In less than a year, excess liquidity in the hands of the population
declined by practically 2.7 billion pesos. The peso strengthened from a
street value of 130 pesos per U.S. dollar to nearly 35 pesos per U.S.
dollar, which is being paid today. Thus, we are making significant
progress in reorganizing the country's finances, but this objective also
requires strict compliance with the outlined policy that still has
measures pending. In this respect, we should not fall prey to the
temptation to issue new pesos for circulation. As liquidity continues to
decline, efforts to reduce the amount of pesos in circulation are becoming
more difficult, even if the need is becoming indispensable. The positive
effects of this measure can be seen in the increased interest in the work
being done and better wages. Tax collection must be more rigorous. However, the scarcity of convertible
currency to carry out necessary imports still constitutes a major problem
for our economy. This currently represents a major setback. We are
receiving some funding but with very high interest rates. There have been
occasions when an increase in the price of just one of the items we import
such as fuel, food, or powdered milk, tends to generate critical deficits.
This is a reality we should always keep in mind. Several measures have been implemented in the past few months that
constitute a major shift and focus on the economic sector. Some of these
measures are wide-ranging, as well as quite radical, and seek to improve
work in that particular sector and to enable our economy to adapt to the
realities of today's world. Other countries such as China and Vietnam are
currently taking the same measures. However, does this mean that we should
abandon our socialist principles or our Marxist-Leninist convictions? On
the contrary, we should continue to conduct ourselves as genuine
Marxist-Leninists with all the courage and realism circumstances may
demand. At any rate, this does not imply -- as some would seem to believe
-- that this is a return to capitalism, or much worse, an insane and
hysterical race in that direction. The incredible misfortunes that have
been taking place in the countries of the former USSR, despite their
tremendous reserves of energy resources, raw material, and foreign
financing, compared to the impressive success accomplished by China and
Vietnam, is clearly indicative of what can and cannot be done if we expect
to preserve the revolution and socialism. [applause] All of this without taking into account the fact that the previously
mentioned nations are not suffering a blockade by the United States. Cuba
is blockaded to the hilt, cruelly and viciously. All of the empire's
financial weapons are turned against us. It is for this reason that only
our socialism, serenity, and sangfroid have made it possible for us to
brave our problems and to pave the way to the miracle of our resistance.
The unquestionable elements of capitalism introduced into our country,
have also brought along that system's harmful and alienating problems.
Examples of corruption and blackmail, which we never witnessed during our
30 years of trade with the USSR, are gradually taking place and growing in
our economic relations with capitalism. Let us fairly say that there are
some very responsible capitalists who have relations with us and who
conduct themselves correctly. However, there are others who prefer to turn
to such universal capitalist practices as corruption and blackmail in
either a subtle or open manner. There are also those who have allowed
themselves to be driven insane by their lust for convertible currency and
are even prepared to sell their souls. Wide-scale tourism, the
depenalization of convertible currency holdings, institutions that sell
these currencies, are all measures that became unavoidable but that also
carry an inevitable cost. It appears as if some, by looking at their
demeanors and lifestyles, seem to relish their roles as entrepreneurs.
Others seem committed to create firms or small establishments at whatever
cost simply to handle foreign currencies and on many occasions simply to
lavish these resources and violate specific guidelines regulating these
holdings. The struggle that the party and government will have to
undertake against these trends before they turn into a cancer that devours
our ethics and revolutionary spirit will have to be a colossal one. We
will have to be implacable toward those who violate our most sacred
principles. The blood of so many was not spilled for nothing to allow such
a pathetic conduct in this most difficult hour of the fatherland.
[applause] Our struggle is a formidable one; therefore our souls must be
hardened by steel. The enemy does not falter in its determination to destroy us. There are
two concepts: that of the extreme rightists in U.S. politics who dream of
strangling us with an even stronger economic blockade, if this were
possible, and to erase us from the face of the earth by any means. These are the people who promote bills such as the Helms-Burton bill --
which is well-known and has been analyzed by our people -- and other
Draconian measures. These are the people who want to destroy us from
abroad. The other concept is that of those who want to infiltrate us, weaken us,
to create all types of counterrevolutionary organizations, and to
destabilize the country regardless of the consequences. An entire theory
has been devised, with a program designed for this purpose. These people
want to exert their influence through broad exchanges with diverse sectors
that they consider vulnerable, to grant doubtful scholarships, and to
dazzle us with their billion-dollar institutions, their technology, and
their social research centers. They do not authorize North Americans to travel to, tour, or rest in Cuba,
but they are willing to send to our universities sociologists,
philosophers, historians, Cuban experts, professors of English, and other
academicians to impart knowledge among us. However, by no stretch of the
imagination do they want to send a professor of cybernetics, computer
technology, or any other technological area that has nothing to do with
ideology and who could be of some use to the country. In other words, the so-called track two of the Torricelli Law. These are
the ones who want to destroy us from within. There are many valuable and
noble North Americans of all spheres, including businessmen, who do not
share any of those concepts. Meanwhile, from U.S. territory -- and this is
very serious -- active work and organization very brazenly is under way to
prepare and carry out terrorist acts against the people and vital areas of
the economy, and once again, attack plans against revolution leaders, in
which frantic work is carried out. The basic center of such actions is the so-called Cuban-American National
Foundation. It is absolutely impossible that the CIA and the FBI do not
know about these plans, when supposedly they have penetrated these organizations
and many foundation members had connections to them. Today, with the opening of our country to tourism and the possibility of
traveling in both directions, between Cuba and the United States, these
plans become easier. Different ways to introduce the means to carry them
out makes it more feasible. Our security corps are alert over these activities and work to prevent
such acts. We do not speak without proof, we warn about this in time, and
we hope that no one regrets afterward the rigor of the revolutionary laws
that sanction these crimes. No use appealing to the generosity of the
revolution. [applause] [crowd shouts "Fidel!"] To this we must add the fact that from U.S. territory, more than 1,000
weekly hours of radio broadcasts incite the population to stage sabotage
actions, to hamper the economy, and to murder political leaders. It is absolutely shameful, following the brutal Oklahoma crime, that from
the United States acts of terrorism are organized and planned against
Cuba. What I have said up to now gives you an idea of how hard our
struggle is and will be. It must also be taken into account that that country is undergoing an
electoral process; and the extreme right elements, who today hold the
majority in the U.S. Congress, aspire not only to wipe out the social
measures originated in the time of Roosevelt but also to occupy the U.S.
Government, with all the consequences that may have for the world. Compatriots, we must be prepared for all these alternatives. The
conditions of the blockade, in which we are obliged to resist and advance,
demand from all an extraordinary effort, an immovable firmness, absolute
honesty. In normal times and with an abundance of resources, which were
also times of great egalitarianism, many people got used to receiving
everything and contributing very little. A critical analysis would make us recall the inflated personnel rosters in
production and services, absenteeism with any excuse, the 4- and 5-hour
work schedules in many agricultural companies, excesses in fuel and raw
materials spending, and the misuse of agricultural machinery and
transportation. We cannot afford any of these luxuries today. In recent times, we have been demanding increased efforts from party and
state cadres. The renewal has been broad. Everybody has a big commitment. However we can
still see errors, weaknesses, irresponsible attitudes, lack of ability. Today, as never before in our history, our workers and cadres must exhibit
the highest levels of patriotism, morale, and dignity. Side by side with cases that sow discouragement, there is a growing number
of men and women whose behavior corresponds to the times we are living
through. In many places there is a revival of the revolutionary spirit. It is moving to see how in the countryside and in factories there are men
and women who have to work wearing tennis shoes and often barefoot. This
should serve as an example to the opulent ones and to those who did not
believe hard enough in the virtues of our people. The extraordinary human and political qualities of our fellow countrymen
became evident in the most recent elections, which became a veritable
message to the world about how Cuba is. The elections demonstrated how a
nation that has an elevated culture and solid political awareness behaves.
The enemies of the revolution had the illusion that the revolution was
worn out and weak because of the difficult special period situation. What
happens here is very different from what happens almost everywhere and in
the United States. The people here are absolutely free to vote or not, yet 97.1 percent of
the people voted. Even if we were to believe that none of the void ballots were the products
of errors, that none of the blank votes were the result of unconformity
with all the candidates of the district, if we were to believe that all
void and blank votes were expressions of discontent and opposition, we
find that the total of void and blank votes was only 11.2 percent, only
0.6 percent higher than in 1992. A certain wearing down, a relative demonstration of discouragement was
expected as a result of the difficult situation our most heroic people
have endured, but this did not occur. This election was a moral Playa
Giron defeat inflicted on those who want to bring us to our knees.
[applause] People of Guantanamo, I have said little about you and I will say little
to avoid being too lengthy. The list of figures that speaks of
Guantanamo's performance is endless. I will mention only two to give the
North Americans an example of what social development means. [applause]
Guantanamo, Cuba's poorest province, with one doctor for every 271
citizens, has more doctors per capita than the United States. [applause]
Its 9.2 child mortality rate is lower than that of the capital of that
country. [applause] I warmly congratulate you for having been chosen to be
the host of the 26 July event. Cuban women to whom this commemoration has been dedicated: I would have to
begin speaking again to be able to speak about you. I wonder if there is
any other place in the world where 62 percent of the country's technical
force is made up of women [applause] and if what we have achieved so far
would have been possible to achieve without you. [applause] I also congratulate you for the unselfishness and sacrifices that made you
earn this just homage. [applause] Soldiers of the heroic Border Brigade [Brigada de la
Frontera], I
congratulate you for having received the Major General Jose Maceo flag of
combative glory. [applause]. You have written an indelible page of bravery
in the revolution's history and you have given the supreme example of
generosity through the dangers you confronted to save the lives of those
who had renounced the fatherland. [shouts, applause] I also congratulate the party and People's Government of Guantanamo
[applause]; I congratulate the people of Guantanamo [applause]; I beg your
forgiveness if, for the sake of time, I failed to say many other things
that could have been said here. [applause] In 1995, I too will observe 50 years since the start of a lengthy and
intense political and revolutionary struggle, which, among other things,
has allowed me [applause, crowd shouts: "Congratulations Fidel,
congratulations!"] which, among other things, has given me the
enormous privilege of being here with you. It is no longer necessary to deliver the lengthy speeches of the
revolution's early years. I wish to add only one thing: the revolution
will never renounce its principles; it will never renounce [applause] it
will never renounce the achievements it brought our people; it will never
renounce its ideas and goals; it will never kneel before the empire.
[applause]. Sovereignty is not surrendered or negotiated. [applause] The right to
build the social, economic, and political system of our people's choice
cannot be surrendered to anything or anyone. [applause]. The revolution cannot be destroyed from the inside or the outside.
[applause] If we must struggle 100 years more, we will do so. Those of us
who have had the privilege of knowing freedom, dignity, and justice will
never resign ourselves to living without them. [applause]. Socialism [crowd shouts: "Or death!"]
Fatherland or death [crowd shouts: "We will win!"] [applause]
|
|
Republic of Cuba
