ýt
seems that this crowd has broken all records (Applause and shouts)
Dearest guests, dear comrades:
This is the 45th time we have celebrated a glorious
Labor Day since the triumph of the Revolution.
Extremely important things are taking place both
inside and outside our country.
The Revolution is following its triumphal course
with more strength and success than ever. We have had proof of
this recently: the Geneva meetings on April 15 and 22 will go
down in the history of revolutionary diplomacy. They mark the
moment when a crushing blow was dealt to the enormous hypocrisy,
permanent falsehood and cynicism the masters of the world use
to try to preserve the rotten system of political and economic
domination they have imposed on the world.
Our country had bee placed in the dock yet again.
The new US administration and the states in the European Union
made the mistake of forgetting that at the extreme eastern end
of Cuba one of the most horrendous examples of human rights violation
ever to take place in this world was underway at that very moment
in a 117.6 square kilometer section of land occupied by force,
where the Guantánamo naval base is located — which in itself is
a gross violation of the sovereign rights of a small country and
of international law.
We were never consulted beforehand. We were simply
informed of the decision taken by the US government to transfer
the prisoners to that base.
On January 11, 2002 the Cuban government published
a statement in which it clearly set forth our country’s position.
The world knows that the horrible crime committed
against the Twin Towers in New York was unanimously condemned
by all conscientious people on the planet.
Nevertheless, the government of the most powerful
nation on earth, showing contempt for all norms concerning what
the world understands as the elementary principles of human rights,
created this horrible prison where hundreds of citizens from many
countries, including some from the United States’ own allies,
are kept locked up, without having been tried, incommunicado,
without having been identified, with no legal defense, no guarantees
for their physical integrity, with no criminal, no procedural
law and for an indefinite length of time. They could have used
their own territory for such a bizarre contribution to civilization,
but they did it on a stretch of land that they occupy illegally
and forcibly in another country, Cuba, whom they accuse of human
rights violations every year in Geneva.
It spite of that, admirable things do take place
in the Commission on Human Rights.
In current world conditions, there is a generalized
fear of the fierce empire, of its threats, pressure and reprisals
of all kinds, especially those against the most vulnerable countries
of the Third World. It is almost suicidal to vote in Geneva against
a resolution drafted and imposed by the United States, especially
if it is against Cuba, the country which for almost 50 years has
defied its arrogance and imperiousness. Even the strongest and
most independent states find themselves obliged to take into consideration
the political and economic consequences of their decisions.
Still, as could be seen just a few days ago in
Geneva, Cuba and 20 other countries —some acting out of principle
and others showing amazing courage— opposed the resolution and
10 abstained, thus maintaining their dignity and self-respect.
Only 22 of the 53 members of the Commission, including the United
States, joined in this infamy.
There were seven from Latin America, four of
whom suffer from extreme economic and social poverty, are highly
dependent and have governments obliged to be totally servile.
Nobody would consider them independent states. Up to now they
have been pure fiction.
Peru, the fifth Latin American government which
voted with the United States against Cuba, provides an example
of the degree of servility and dependence into which imperialism
and its neo-liberal globalization have led many countries in Latin
America, whom they ruin politically in the twinkling of an eye
when they force them to do things which are like the kiss of death
for them.
The Peruvian head of state has seen his popularity
drop to only 8 per cent in just a few months. I think that the
people who support him could fit in just a small part of this
crowded square. It is absolutely impossible to tackle the colossal
economic and social problems affecting that country with such
insignificant support. In fact, he does not govern, nor can he
govern, anything; the transnationals and the oligarchies take
care of that, until society explodes, as has already begun to
happen in more than one country.
At this point in my speech, remembering our Venezuelan
brother, I feel like crying out: Long live Venezuela! (Applause
and shouts of "Long may she live"!) Long live the Bolivarian
revolutionary process! (Applause and shouts of "Long may
it live"!) Long live Chávez, the brave, brilliant leader
of Bolívar’s people! (Applause and shouts of "Long may he
live"!)
(1 May 2004, Havana)
Then we have the Chilean and Mexican governments.
I am not going to judge the former. I prefer
that the way the president of Chile behaved in Geneva be judged
by Salvador Allende, (Applause) who went down fighting, a gun
in his hand, and who now has a place of honor and glory in the
history of this continent, by the millions of Chileans vanished,
tortured and murdered by design of those who drafted and proposed
this resolution to censure Cuba — where not a single act of that
sort, nor anything similar had ever happened— and by those who
in their name are the standard bearers of the noble ideals and
aspirations to create a truly humane society.
In Mexico, a beloved, sister country to all Cubans,
the National Congress asked their president to abstain from voting
for the resolution, although President Bush had demanded that
he do so. It is truly painful to see the great prestige and influence
Mexico earned in the eyes of Latin America and the world with
its unimpeachable international policy, which stemmed from a genuine,
far-reaching revolution, turn to ashes.
Latin America’s solidarity with and support for
Mexico and Mexico’s for Latin America are crucial. More than half
of Mexico’s territory was snatched from it by its northern neighbor
and great danger threatens what is left. The US-Mexican border
is to all intents and purposes no longer the Rio Bravo of which
Martí spoke. The United States has gone much deeper into Mexico.
That border is today the line of death, where about 500 Mexican
die every year. And all because of a brutal, ruthless principle:
free passage for capital and goods; persecution, exclusion and
death for human beings. And yet, millions of Mexicans take that
risk. Today, the country obtains more income from their remittances
than from oil exports, in spite of the high price of the latter.
Will such an inequitable and unfair situation
really be solved by voting for anti-Cuban resolutions in Geneva,
by accusing her of violating human rights?
The worst and most humiliating part for Mexico
was that the news about its vote in Geneva, both on April 15 and
22, was announced in Washington.
The European Union, as usual, voted as a bloc,
like a Mafia mob allied with and subordinate to Washington.
These sempiternal dirty, immoral displays against
the Cuban Revolution never had any success until the socialist
bloc disappeared. A plague of renegades, anxious for the credits
and goods of consumer society added their votes to those of the
European Community mafia. Thus they completed those petty deliveries
in the Commission on Human Rights: resolutions pulled out with
forceps, in the hard-fought battle which Cuba has never ceased
to wage against the loathsome comedy which the empire, its allies,
followers and vassals push through in order to gain an advantage
of one or two votes over the opposition and abstentions of 60
per cent of the Commission’s members. Once they lowered their
guard and lost the vote. Since then, their efforts have tripled
and the pressures and threats against countries which are totally
dependent on the credits, the money and resources handed out by
international bodies, all controlled by the United States, have
been stepped up one hundred fold.
One day a statue will have to be raised to those
countries which, under such difficult circumstances, risked all
and voted against Yankee resolutions (Applause) This story of
this battle should go down in history. As you can see, this year
60% of the Commission’s 53 members supported us. The empire calls
these Pyrrhic victories successes and censures Cuba, in spite
of the fact that the effort and political costs increase every
year.
I can say here, just between ourselves, that
an exhaustive examination of what occurs in the world, in every
human society — excluding none, certainly not the European society,
or the purest and most sacrosanct societies from some areas in
Europe— would show that not one has a clean record when it comes
to consideration and respect for human beings, such as the glorious
Cuban revolution. (Applause)
The very system that diminishes one part of society
to less than nothing while others live in great opulence, from
an ethical point of view, is not worthy to be called a humane
society.
These campaigns, run by the dominant superpower
and backed up by the allies who join with the empire in exploiting
the world, are nothing but a sham and a lie, a brazen political
display resulting from the need to justify the enormous inequalities
which shall remain insurmountable until the economic system imposed
on the world has disappeared. We do know about true human rights.
I cannot understand how an opulent society like
our neighbor’s dare to speak of human rights, while 44 million
people there have no right to medical care, where millions of
citizens live in ghettos and countless beggars live under bridges;
a society where there are millions of illiterates and semi-illiterates,
where there are millions and millions of unemployed and where
prisons are filled with the children of the poorest and most deprived
segments of the population.
On the other hand, no one can explain the brutal bombings against
just any country, or how the empire’s boss can speak of human
rights while proclaiming it his right to "launch pre-emptive
attacks on 60 or more countries", oblivious of the innocent
persons who will die. Their hatred for Cuba stems from the unexpected
resistance a small country has put up against this power and its
allied powers which have plundered the planet. Cuba’s presence
is a pointing finger and proof that nations can fight, stand firm
and win. Cuba’s very presence is a humiliation for those who have
imposed the most repugnant system of exploitation that has ever
existed on Earth.
There are many ways to explain it. Here our Venezuelan
brother reminded us of something we do not usually talk about,
of our people’s medical co-operation with other countries. None
of this would have been possible without a revolution. As is well-known,
when the Revolution triumphed 30% of our population was illiterate
and 90% were illiterate and semi-illiterate combined, because
in this world anyone who does not have at least a sixth grade
education —and today we should talk of at least a ninth-grade
education— can be considered a semi-illiterate.
They want to hide the fact that Cuba is first
worldwide in educational matters, that its children are in first
place in tests of knowledge, even above developed countries, (Applause)
that the minimum education level, except in rare exceptions, is
ninth grade and there is no other country in the world that has
reached these minimum levels in most of the population.
They know that despite their criminal blockade
and the obstacles they have placed in the way of our obtaining
medicines and medical equipment and technology, infant mortality
is lower in our country than in the United States (Applause).
Perhaps they are unaware that we are going to reduced this infant
mortality rate to even less that 6 and perhaps in the not too
distant future, to less than 5. We are convinced —and this is
something I have never spoken about— that in a period of no more
than five or six years, life expectancy in our country will not
be lower than 80 years (Applause) and that our country will become
the most advanced center for healthcare services in the world.
If an analysis were made of the millions of children
who die in Third World countries every year and who could be saved
— in many countries the figures are as high as 150 deaths for
every 1000 live births and those who die from the population of
the majority of those same countries who voted against Cuba in
Geneva— they would realize that a genocide is committed every
year on this earth; that millions more people on this planet,
children, adults —who could be saved— die every year than died
in the First World War and almost as many as died in the Second,
people who could have been saved but do not survive because of
a shortage of resources.
The arsenal of arguments that we have at our
disposal to show that this system is the most atrociously cruel
system that has ever existed is enormous. One has only to use
simple mathematical calculations to prove the genocide that the
United States and its European allies commit against the world
every year.
They know that this is true, they do not dare
to argue against it; they created underdevelopment and they have
perpetuated backwardness through colonialization, looting of natural
resources and even by enslaving millions and millions of human
beings, thus giving rise to this world of extreme poverty with
serious problems still to be solved. I won’t try to list them
here, but they are almost insoluble problems which, when combined
with others, place in jeopardy the very existence of our species.
Taking into account that events such as this
rally should not be too long and mindful of the effort you have
made to come and stay here for many hours, I shall limit myself
to mentioning just a few facts. I shall put it like this: the
capitalist system, which in its time played a somewhat progressive
role against feudalism and which later became the imperialist
system with the ways used today to plunder nations, to waste and
destroy the planet’s natural resources, is the system most inconceivable
and irreconcilable with an honest, sincere and objective notion
of human rights.
There, in Geneva, the gangs of the owners of
the world economy meet and it would be worthwhile asking them
how many Third World countries they have collaborated with, what
they did against apartheid in South Africa, how many teachers
they have sent to the Third world and how many doctors. I have
already said that I do not like to bring up these issues, but
I do so today because on this Labor Day we are in fact speaking
about what happened in Geneva a while ago.
One should ask each one of those gentlemen how
many doctors they have working in Third World countries. There
are some organizations like Doctors without Borders and some foundations
that give some aid. But I say this to those gentlemen: I am sure
that the United States and Europe together do not have as many
doctors in Haiti as Cuba does, providing medical care to more
than 7 million people under extremely difficult conditions (Applause)
They could be asked, one by one, because those
societies that were not designed for justice and solidarity but
educated in selfishness are incapable of making any sacrifice
whatsoever for other human beings.
I mentioned one country, Haiti, which they constantly
intervene and invade, but where they never send a single doctor.
I do not know how they would react if I said to them today that
right now Cuba is developing a number of healthcare programs in
Africa and in Latin America, and that a total of at least 17,000
Cuban doctors, dentists and healthcare technicians are serving
in other countries (Applause) and that every year they save thousands
of lives and give many tens of millions of human beings their
health back or guarantee their health. And let no one think that
we are left without doctors, because this effort is paralleled
by a veritable revolution in the healthcare services in our country.
A while ago I was discussing with Sáez the major
repairs of policlinics and the new services they will provide,
and they are working so that before the end of the year they will
have completed the repairs of Havana’s 82 outpatient clinics,
and some that are newly built, and they will offer services they
were never before provided. (Applause) And this is but one detail
because many other programs are underway too, and not only in
Havana but throughout the country.
We have estimated the many millions or tens of
millions of runs that we will save our people who, with all the
public transportation difficulties, have to go and visit their
relatives in hospitals, therefore, many services which were previously
only available in hospitals will, many of them, soon be available
in outpatient clinics.
There is no doubt, and I mean no doubt, that
our country will have the best healthcare services in the world.
And if a few years ago we talked about tens of thousands of general
medicine specialists, the day is not far off when we shall talk
of tens of thousands of PhDs in Medical Sciences. To that end,
and in addition to that, we are implementing programs in education,
culture, sports and other areas which will be supported by a much
more sounder economic base than that with which our country’s
development began when it was devoted to producing sugar cane
and other similar commodities, as this was all an illiterate and
starving population could do to survive.
The
bandits who accuse us of violating human rights would not dare
to say that Cuba is the only country in the world — see how great
our people’s feats are— in which there has not been a single disappeared
person, not a single person tortured in all the 45 years of the
Revolution . (Applause)
We have made a Revolution that is as clean as
that war we waged in the Sierra Maestra when not one prisoner
was shot, or ever beaten to obtain information. This is almost
the only country in Latin America where death squads have never
existed, nor extra-judicial executions and this for 45 years.
If those viper tongues of the empire and their followers could
find one case, just one, we would be willing to give them our
Republic of Cuba as a present, if they found just one case. (Applause)
These are realities; I am not exaggerating, far
from it. We know what we have done throughout these 45 years and
the unwavering straight line we have pursued in our principles
that allowed us to win the war and carry out a revolution that
we have defended for 45 years. And what is our people today, what
is its consciousness, its culture, its ideas, what degree of unity
has it achieved? There are no other people with a higher cultural
level, a higher level of political conscience than our people.
And this is only the beginning. (Applause)
I saw it this morning on television, while I
was waiting for sunrise, and it was obvious. They interviewed
many people and you should have heard what they said. I could
see a new world, students all over the place and from all over
the place: university students, students from the University of
Information Technology, students from the school for art instructors,
(Shouts form the crowd) students from the school for social workers,
students from the schools for with accelerated training courses
for teachers, nurses; schools that we share with thousands of
—I am not going to say foreign, young people— young brothers and
sisters from Latin America and from other parts of the world.
(Applause)
One can’t help but feel proud that not only our
doctors go there by the thousands but that we have also invited
thousands and thousands of youths from Latin America and from
other parts of the world to study medicine in Cuba.
We are, in fact, developing more and more efficient
ways of transmitting knowledge and who knows how long it will
take the rest of the world to catch up with this efficiency and
these methods and, even more importantly, to put them into practice.
I harbor not the slightest doubt, however, that
Venezuela, which is implementing and will be implementing highly
improved educational programs will, in a short period of time,
lead that heroic and valiant people, the cradle of the Latin American
independence struggle, to levels similar to those which Cuba has
today.
I was saying that the political cost of their
little game in Geneva is increasingly high but this year their
actions backfired ‘on them’ and almost killed them
When this year Cuba suggested sending a Commission
representative to see what was going on in the Guantánamo naval
base, panic spread through the herd of hypocrites, especially
those from the European Community. Morale collapsed. Some European
governments were truly ashamed, they had to confess their failure
to act according to their principles and their hypocrisy, or do
the impossible: disobey the empire. This was too much for such
august defenders of human rights whose darts are only aimed at
those who for centuries were their colonies, where they wiped
out tens of millions of natives and to which they brought countless
human beings from Africa whom they turned into slaves with less
freedom than work horses.
And that is how they treat millions of people
in the Third World, victims of the plunder, unequal terms of trade
and looting of their natural resources and all the hard currency
reserves in their central banks, which are deposited in US or
European banks, for the most part, and which are used to finance
investments, trade and fiscal deficits and for the military adventures
of the empire and its allies.
As a result of the Cuban proposal in Geneva,
Bush himself and his senior officials had to work frantically,
personally calling presidents and heads of state. No one knew
where he found the time, especially if one takes into account
that he likes to sleep a lot — or so they say— (Laughter), nor
how he could attend to Iraq, the financial problems of the government,
fundraising banquets and matters related to the election campaign.
Perhaps it is not fair to call him Fürher; perhaps he is a genius.
Why can Bush talk of a fiscal deficit of $512
billion and a similar trade deficit, a total of a trillion dollars
in just one year? Because he manipulates and spends the hard currency
of the immense majority of the world population in order to defend
those and other privileges.
All the reserves of Third World central banks
are kept in banks overseas, mostly in the United States. And all
the money of anyone who has any money —earned and unearned money—
is changed into dollars and deposited in US banks or in the banks
of some developed country because of the fear of constant devaluations
of their countries’ weak currencies. As per a provision of the
International Monetary Fund, no central bank in these Third World
countries can prevent people from changing their money into dollars
or any other convertible currency.
The owners of this money want safety for what
they have saved…or robbed. They take any money they have out of
the country, not to buy anything, not even to waste it, they simply
take it out definitely. This money on deposit in European or U.S.
banks is lent to businesspeople or to anyone who needs it, and
those who need it most include governments. The money to cover
a budget deficit of more than $500 billion comes from those banks.
Thus the economic system imposed on Third World
nations forces them to transfer their money to the more developed
countries, which is not the same but equally loathsome, as the
fact that these developed countries charge more and more for their
goods and pay less and less for commodities. And to top it all,
there is a debt which in Latin America stands at more than $750
billion, the same that if combined with that of the rest of the
Third World countries climbs to $2.5 trillion
This is already leading the world to the brink
of catastrophe, to a dead end, to insoluble problems. So, that
humanity will have to struggle for more than economic justice,
or for a fair distribution of wealth, it will have to struggle
for the survival of our species. I say this on this Labor Day,
at a time when this gathering should be over. (Laughter)
This year, the United States has a budgetary
deficit of $512 billion and also a trade deficit of more than
$500 billion and the rest of the world is paying this with money
that left and is never coming back. They use this money to arm
themselves to the teeth with the most sophisticated war machinery
and they wage wars of conquest in search of raw materials.
The order established in the world especially
that set up by the Bretton Woods agreements at the end of the
Second World War — you will probably have heard that name— gave
the United States enormous privileges because at that time they
had 80% of the world’s gold. That country was not destroyed by
the war, it rather exported a great deal, much, very much, but
Europe was destroyed, and so was Asia, thus it accumulated $30
billion in gold. This is how they were given the right to issue
the hard currency needed for world trade, although each dollar
they printed was supposed to be backed by a given amount of gold.
Since 1971, when they spent enormous sums of
money on the Vietnam War and their gold reserves dropped by one
third, famous Mr. Nixon suspended the gold conversion of those
currencies and since then it is just paper that is in circulation.
It would take time to explain this better and
in more depth but we have round tables, we have two new television
channels. Our technicians, our teachers and professors can explain
to our people these subjects, which are really interesting and
help to understand what the world is really all about.
The international situation is complex. The adventurist
policies —adventurisms!— of this administration have given the
world increasingly insoluble problems. The economic order imposed
is ever more irrepressible, which is why nobody finds it strange
that uncontainable social movement could spring up and revolutions
break out anywhere, anytime. This is already happening.
In Europe, an impressive, encouraging event took
place in Spain. It was an extraordinary feat accomplished almost
exclusively by the Spanish people, especially the younger generation.
Mark my words: "an extraordinary feat, accomplished almost
exclusively by the younger generation". Let no one now pretend
to have that glory. We are well aware of what the situation in
Spain was like at that point. The heroic political battle of the
Spanish people, hardly 48 hours after the tragedy and on the eve
of the elections, dealt a devastating blow to the previous Spanish
government’s treacherous maneuvers to manipulate the dreadful
acts of March 11 in its favor and in the belligerent interests
of the United States.
Everyone
knows what was happening with the elections. According to polls
and surveys, Mr. Aznar’s conservative party, on account of a favorable
economic situation and a monopoly over the most important media,
was perhaps about to win an absolute majority in parliament. However,
a great tragedy occurred in Spain, that act of terrorism which
claimed over 1000 victims counting the dead and injured. We witnessed
the way events unfolded.
Mr. "Anzar" — that is what Bush calls
Aznar, he has never learned to pronounce that name properly— (Laughter)
immediately began to manipulate the news and to blame ETA, when
in fact ETA had absolutely nothing to do with what happened.
Anyone can see how various organizations of one
kind or another operate and it was very clear that this attack
did not match ETA’s style.
Aznar immediately came out with the accusation
that this was ETA’s work and he kept on insisting on this at all
cost, because this attack took place on Thursday 11. I remember
that on Friday 12 at 8:00 p.m. Gladys Marín’s award ceremony took
place, she was decorated with the José Martí Order. That same
day at 6:00 in the afternoon, on Cuban television’s Round Table
program, our journalists denounced that cynical, crude manipulation.
Our televised round tables are watched in may places including
Spain over the Internet and by satellite. Our journalists expressed
their wish to have important information gathered in the West
about what had happened and the opinions of important international
analysts reach their Spanish friends, urgently. In Spain the media
said nothing about this information or these opinions. We do not
know if the Cuban broadcast was of any use to the young Spaniards
who led the epic political battle. In fact, there were only 36
hours left before the elections began.
On Saturday 13, Aznar was still insisting, and
persisting, on his accusation against ETA, he was seen furiously
defending his thesis that ETA was responsible, while Al Qaeda
was claiming authorship.
It would really have suited Aznar and the United
States if ETA were responsible because there was a lot of opposition
to the Iraq war in Europe, and the Spanish people has most thoroughly
opposed the war in Iraq. (Applause) If ETA had committed such
an act in the heart of Europe, Mr. "Anzar"’s political
capital and the belligerent line would have benefited considerably.
That was the reason for the enormous interest
in carrying out that dirty maneuvre 48 hours before the elections
in which they expected to win many more votes; but the Spanish
people unraveled the trick. On Saturday, the eve of the elections,
the people, mostly the younger generation, gathered en masse outside
the governing party’s offices, protesting against and denouncing
this atrocious deceit. Although no one imagined it at the time
—I confess that any reaction already seemed impossible to me—
the unexpected happened and the entire population, communicating
with each other through various channels, spread the denunciation
across the whole country and not exactly using the mainstream
media. It is said that all night long they used every possible
means to communicate with each other, and the next day more people
than ever turned out to vote. And now the big news, the Spanish
people had soundly punished that fraud, that Spanish procurer
—which is what we call him— who recruited youths in Santo Domingo,
in Honduras, El Salvador, and who would have thought it, who would
have thought it! even a small troop from the Sandinista army was
sent to Iraq as canon fodder along with young soldiers from the
countries I mentioned, encouraged by him, who took it upon himself
to expedite the necessary procedures to send them over there.
Who would have imagined that one day young Latin Americans would
be sent as canon fodder to that unjust, genocidal war!
In Spain, despite the fact that most of the media
backed the wrong cause, they saw how the people were capable of
striking back and giving a beating to the procurer, just as in
similar circumstances the Venezuelan people have given more than
one beating to the traitorous oligarchy in their country.
We must have confidence in the peoples, for the
more they learn, the more general culture and political culture
they gain, the more difficult it becomes to trreat them as herds
of ignorant illiterates.
And if you will alow me to continue, I don’t
have much left to say but it depends on you. (Applause)
The present government has kept its promise to
pull Spanish troops out of Iraq. This is undoubtedly a commendable
act. But the Spanish state, under the previous administration,
had taken upon itself to recruit a considerable number of young
Dominicans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans to be sent
as canon fodder to Iraq with the Spanish Legion, something unheard
of in the history of this hemisphere. Spain, which as the former
colonial power in Latin America aspires to be given respect and
consideration and even to play a role in Latin America and the
Caribbean, has a responsibility and a moral duty with the return
home of those young Latin Americans who were sent to Iraq because
of the actions of the previous government.
There is a new government but the state must
take responsibility for what the previous government did. It is
Spain’s responsibility that they are in that war and it is its
moral duty to promote and support the withdrawal of these young
people who are in Iraq.
You already know that colonial powers are what
they are, and they always tend to believe that their former subjects
are like newborn great grandchildren who need the help of the
wise motherland. Sometimes they speak of aid, like in Europe when
they said that they were giving us humanitarian aid, and one fine
day they had the idea of taking reprisals.
Those people had forgotten the monstrous prison
in Guantánamo; they did not remember that monstrous injustice,
the cruel, pitiless way in which the United States keeps Cuba’s
five heroes in jail, five men who were defending their country
against terrorism by seeking out information; the terrorism that
U.S. governments have invented and used against Cuba for 45 years.
(Shouts)
There is no need to repeat the story of thousands
of our fellow Cuban who have lost their lives; no need to speak
now of what happened in Barbados. The fact is that the European
Community remembered nothing, did not remember that over there
in Miami they have always freely and with complete impunity hatched
plans for assassination attempts and terrorism against Cuba, supported
by the mob, a mob which is close to the U. S. government. Mr.
Bosch enjoys his freedom in Miami, he and Posada Carriles who
together organized the mid-air explosion on a Cubana aircraft.
No, they do not remember that nor can they remember it.
For 45 years imperialism has planned and is still
planning conspiracies, attempts to destabilize our country; it
pays mercenaries and is now going about saying that they have
to invest much more money in this. Let them not cry out or complain
if Cuba then takes the appropriate measures to punish mercenaries
who work for a foreign power. (Applause)
If Cuba defends itself, if it arrests and punishes
mercenaries in order that no one should think he or she is invulnerable
to punishment, then they launch massive campaigns against our
country. They want to prevent her from defending herself, and
this country, without violating the standards it has always observed
in its struggles, will defend itself with the law, and it will
defend itself with weapons whenever this is necessary, to the
last drop of blood. (Applause and shouts)
So they should not entertain any illusions and
come weeping and wailing, and portraying us as human rights violators.
They are doing the same thing to Venezuela as
they do to Cuba: they concoct acts of provocation, create incidents,
kill people and then blame the Venezuelan government. Theirs is
a really interesting case, that is, how Venezuelans resist, even
when that Venezuelan people has yet to attain the level of knowledge
that our people has on a large scale. That is the people’s instinct
and they stand firm, and it is difficult to deceive them.
In Cuba everybody is very well aware of the truth
but the empire carries out these campaigns to damage Cuba’s reputation
abroad. We do not lose any sleep over them. It does not matter
what they think today, what matters is what they will think tomorrow.
This Revolution has left its indelible mark on the history of
the world (Applause). It has absolutely nothing to be ashamed
of, because its morals are as high as the stars and its behavior
has been unimpeachable, apart from individual errors of a different
sort that occur and which have nothing to do with human rights.
It would be naïve to think that no economic, political, administrative
or legal mistakes are made. However, no one makes mistakes, no
one practices deception about the fundamental things which concern
the most sacred of the Revolution’s principles, things concerning
human beings, nor are mistakes or deception about such matters
permitted.
What
we are doing today, I say this on this Labor Day, is really like
a huge new revolution (Applause), based on the experience of so
many years of struggle. It is something that goes beyond what
we have done so far for the welfare of each and every one of our
fellow Cubans with no social exclusion and follows this same amazingly
humane line.
We all know what has been done and you are proof
of it, but we know how many more things could have been done that
we did not do because we lacked the necessary knowledge, we lacked
the necessary experience. There are no books about how to make
a revolution and on what a revolution is about. Nor was there
any book about how, for 45 years, this little country would have
to stand up to the most powerful country that has ever existed
in the world nor about the fact that it could not defeat us with
its weapons. It knew the price.
The Bay of Pigs, where they underestimated our
people, did not even last 70 hours, and during the Missile Crisis
the world was on the brink of blowing itself up, as a result of
the imperialist plans of aggression and the steadfastness of our
people. And we have withstood all these years of the blockade
and the special period. This is a veteran, battle-hardened people
with great power in its, well-prepared, educated, revolutionary
young people whom nobody will ever be able to defeat. (Applause
and shouts)
So, we know that what we are doing is going to
transform this country once again, it is already changing it in
a most impressive way.
I spoke of the former colonial powers who think
they can give us political and social lessons. If the colonial
powers so wish, we can teach them a few things, but let no one
feel impatient in the belief that they can teach us.
We have already bid good-riddance to the European
Economic Community’s famous humanitarian aid and we warn them
that we are in no hurry for them to send any more handouts.
Look closely at this: if we buy $1.5 billion
worth of goods from them annually and if we only sell them $500
million worth of goods, much of it in the form of raw material,
it is we who are giving them humanitarian aid, because from the
$1.5 billion that they sell us, they must make around $500 million
net profit. Then they turn up with their fancy suitcases offering
a little bit of aid and they spend more in the five star hotels
they stay in and on the planes in which they travel than they
bring. So the European Community should not bother to come to
us with that nonsense.
Nor should anyone think that they can come and
give us their two cents worth of advice about how we should develop
our democracy because this country has more than enough experience,
has struggled a great deal and has been sufficiently successful
at the cost of sacrifice and blood for any European country to
come to offer us little lessons in democracy because no country
in Europe, afloat in their colossal inequalities, enjoys, and
some less than others, the true, egalitarian and fully participative
democracy that Cuba enjoys today, in all senses, and has since
the day the people took power and wealth was distributed fairly.
And not only did the people take power but it is the people that
defend that power, without NATO or military pacts with the Devil.
(Applause and shouts)
It would be a question of discussing each one
of the things that are done in this country and each one of the
things that are done in the world’s rich countries to see if they
have the level of equality, humanity, of care for all, with no
exceptions, that we have, something that has never existed anywhere
else.
We are quite aware of what we are, of what we
have done and of what we have. But it seems that some foolish
people still have not noticed this and persist in meddling in
our internal affairs, pretending to each us how to set up a democracy.
In any case, we can respond to such a generous gesture by teaching
them how to create equality, how to eradicate privilege and how
to establish a revolutionary democracy.
I
am talking about these things like this, on the fly, because I
did not have much time to write.
I remember that I spoke of what was going on
with young Latin Americans sent to Iraq and of the need for them
to return to their countries because now imperialism is looking
for canon fodder and it might happen that one day even the Poles,
who are over there as mercenaries, might decide to withdraw too.
They would have to be more consistent with the history of a country
that was invaded many times, occupied many times, divided up many
times and should not now go hiring its young people as mercenaries
for a war of conquest.
I have no doubt that before too long those who
today are acting ridiculously and shamefully by sending their
troops over there to support this repugnant war will begin to
think seriously about it in a very different way.
And since I have said all this, I think it is
my duty to say what our position is with regards to the U.S. people
The peoples of the world, including the Cuban
people, do not hate the American people nor do they want young
American soldiers to die —many of whom are black, mixed race or
Latin American— who were induced by poverty and unemployment to
take up soldiering and who today are the victims of an unnecessary,
stupid war.
We do not support any government in Iraq or any
given political system; this is the exclusive prerogative of the
Iraqis. We felt solidarity with those who died in the attacks
in New York and Madrid and we condemn such methods. The enormous
and growing world sympathy with the Iraqi people was generated
by the brutal bombings of Baghdad and other cities which sowed
terror and death among innocent civilians, totally ignoring the
terrible trauma which will affect millions of children, adolescents,
pregnant women, mothers and old people all of their lives, bombings
for which there is no possible justification, based as they were
on brazen lies. This sympathy is growing, because billions of
people have come to realize that it is a war of conquest to gain
possession of the country’s resources and raw materials, because
there was no justification, nor legality whatsoever, because international
laws were broken, because the United Nations’ prerogatives and
authority were ignored.
The people of Iraq are today struggling for their
independence, their lives, the lives of their children and for
their legitimate rights and resources.
The US government is facing a complicated situation
because of this, as it insisted on taking the path of violence,
war and terror. I have the moral authority to propound this point
of view, because long before this warmongering policy was unleashed,
on September 11, 2001, the very same day as the horrendous attack
on the Twin Towers, in a ceremony to inaugurate the school year
for 4,500 young primary school teachers I said, and I quote:
"It is very important to know what the reaction
of the US Government will be. Possibly the days to come will be
dangerous for the world, and I do not mean Cuba. Cuba is the most
peaceful country in the world for several reasons: our policy,
our kind of struggle, our doctrine, and also, comrades, for the
absolute absence of fear".
[ …]
(Havana Music Band)
"The days to come will be tense both inside
and outside the United States. Who know how many people will start
voicing their views.
"Whenever there is a tragedy like this,
even when they are sometimes so difficult to prevent, I see no
other way but to keep calm. And if at some point I am allowed
to make a suggestion to an adversary who has been tough on us
for many years knows […] if under specific circumstances it were
correct to suggest something to the adversary, for the well being
of the American people and based on the arguments I have given
you, we would advise the leaders of the powerful empire to keep
their equanimity, to act calmly, not to be carried away by a fit
of rage or hatred and not to start hunting people down dropping
bombs all over the place.
"I reiterate that none of the world problems,
not even terrorism, can be solved with the use of force, and every
act of force, every reckless use of force anywhere would seriously
aggravate the world problems.
"The way is neither the use of force nor
war. I say this here with the full credibility of someone who
has always been honest, with the sound conviction and the experience
of someone who has been through the years of struggle that we
have lived through in Cuba. It is only guided by reason and applying
an intelligent policy based on the strength of consensus and the
support of international public opinion that such a predicament
could be definitively solved. I think this unexpected episode
must be used to undertake an international struggle against terrorism.
However, this international struggle against terrorism cannot
succeed by killing a terrorist here and another one there, that
is, by using similar methods to theirs, sacrificing innocent lives.
It is resolved, inter alia, by putting an end to State terrorism
and other repulsive crimes, by putting an end to genocide and
by honestly pursuing a policy of peace and respect for unavoidable
moral and legal standards. The world cannot be saved unless a
path of international peace and cooperation is pursued".
The Iraq war brings to many people memories of
the Vietnam War. To me, it brings back memories of the Algerian
war of liberation, when French military might shattered against
the resistance of a people with a very different culture, language
and religion, in a country which in places is just as desert-like
as many parts of Iraq, a people that managed to defeat the French
troops and all their technology, which was fairly advanced for
its time. The French had previously sustained defeat in Dien Bien
Phu, where Bush’s predecessors were on the point of using nuclear
weapons.
In this type of war the entire arsenal of a hegemonic
superpower is superfluous. This superpower can conquer a country
with its enormous power but it is impossible to administer and
govern that country if its population battles resolutely against
the occupiers.
I never thought that one day Mr. Bush would humbly
write a polite letter to the president of Syria and the Iranian
government —both countries considered terrorist until now— and
ask them to help resolve the conflict in Iraq. It is even more
amazing that, according to press dispatches, the US marines were
pulled out of Fallujah two days ago and replaced by Iraqi soldiers
led by a former General in Saddam Hussein’s army.
I
do not criticize any peace effort or initiative which the current
US administration decides to take, but I doubt very much that
there can be any solution other than withdrawing US troops from
Iraq — where they should never have been sent— and returning full
independence to the Iraqi people. This would have the support
of the international community, which would no doubt find a way
to resolve the complex situation that has been created there.
Meanwhile, we Cubans will continue to observe
what happens and will continue to wage our most resolute battle
against those who dare to advocate political changes based on
the physical removal of some of us. The worst is that those who
talk of speeding up such changes are characters whose same old
murderous ideas are quite familiar to us.
Now they are once again making themselves hoarse
shouting threats of upcoming measures to affect our economy and
destabilize the country. They would do well to return our five
prisoners of the empire to us, who with unequalled dignity are
withstanding the most shameful and cruel case of human rights
violations. Their fate in federal government prisons, where they
are kept completely separate, is hardly any better that that of
those held captive in the Guantánamo naval base. But despite all
that, we do not hesitate in suggesting to those who govern the
United States that they be calmer, more sensible, saner and wiser.
To those who persist in their efforts to destroy
the Revolution, I simply say in the name of the crowd gathered
here on this May 1st, as I said at Girón and at other decisive
moments in our battles: