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'Confidence in Human Beings and Their Infinite Potential' by Fidel Castro
Speech delivered by Commander
in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the Council of State
and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, on the
40th Anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist nature
of the Cuban Revolution, held on 23rd Ave. and 12th St. in Havana
16 April 2001.
Compatriots:
The B-26 bombers used for
the attack, a property of the U.S. government, had been painted
with the color and insignias of our modest Air Force. Our three
main air bases -in Ciudad Libertad, San Antonio de los Baños
and Santiago de Cuba- were the targets hit on that treacherous
and bloody morning. The aircraft involved were carrying 10,000
kilograms of bombs, 64 five-inch missiles and 23,040 50-caliber
bullets. In a matter of seconds, our young artillerymen, still
in training, responded to the surprise attack with their antiaircraft
weapons. The enemy could only destroy three fighter planes on
the ground.
Seven of our compatriots
died and 53 others were wounded, including five children who
lived in the vicinity of the Ciudad Libertad airport.
The attackers' planes had
taken off from a base in Nicaragua. One of them was shot down,
two had two make forced landings in different places, and all
those that made it back to their base had been hit repeatedly
by antiaircraft fire.
By the end of the fighting
at the Bay of Pigs, our devious enemy had lost 14 pilots, including
four U.S. citizens, and 62% of the aircraft supplied by the United
States.
The Revolution, after fighting
off the attack of April 15, was still left with more fighter
planes than pilots. And 48 hours later, at daybreak on April
17, those pilots would deal a devastating blow to the invading
forces. That air attack had served to alert us to the imminent
invasion, 36 hours before the invaders had landed. By then, all
of our forces were mobilized and on full alert.
Thus the superpower commenced
its loathsome and cowardly military aggression against our country
in a flagrant violation of international law.
As was to be expected, the
powerful imperialist machinery of propaganda and deception was
immediately put in action. How did the United States explain
those events to the world?
"Miami, April 15, UPI.
Cuban pilots who escaped from Fidel Castro's Air Force landed
today in Florida in World War II bombers after having blown up
Cuban military facilities. [...] One of the Cuban Air Force B-26
bombers landed in the Miami international airport riddled with
bullet holes from antiaircraft artillery and machine guns, and
with only one of its engines working. Another came down in the
air station at the Key West marina; a third bomber landed in
another foreign country different from the one they had originally
planned to head to after the attack. There are unconfirmed reports
of another plane crashing off Tortuga Island. The U.S. Navy is
investigating into the case. The pilots, who asked for their
identities not to be revealed, disembarked from their planes
wearing their maneuver uniforms and immediately requested asylum
in the United States."
Minutes later, another cable:
"Miami, April 15, AP.
Three Cuban bomber pilots, fearful of being betrayed in their
plans to escape from Fidel Castro's government, fled to the United
States today after strafing and bombing the airports in Santiago
and Havana.
"One of the two twin-engine
bombers landed in Miami international airport, and the pilot
described how he and three others of the 12 B-26 pilots who remain
in the Cuban Air Force had planned for months to escape from
Cuba. [...] Immigration authorities placed the Cubans in custody
and seized the planes." As you can see, they seized their
own planes.
"Mexico City, April
15, AP. The bombing of Cuban bases by Cuban deserter planes was
particularly welcomed here by the majority of newspapers, which
joined with the Cuban exile groups to say that the bombing was
the beginning of a movement for liberation from communism. [...]
A great deal of activity was seen among the Cuban exiles. A Cuban
source commented that the new Cuban government in exile would
head to Cuba shortly after the first wave of the invasion against
the Fidel Castro regime, to establish a provisional government
that it hoped would be quickly recognized by many anti-Castro
Latin American countries. Amado Hernández Valdés,
of the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front here, said that the
time of liberation was drawing close. He declared that four Cuban
bases had been attacked by the three Cuban deserter planes."
Both agencies published the
following news item:
While Castro and his followers
try to convince the world that Cuba has been threatened by an
invasion from abroad, this blow in favor of liberty like others
before it, was dealt by Cubans living in Cuba who decided to
fight back against tyranny and oppression or die trying. For
security reasons, no further details will be released."
"The U.S. ambassador
to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, rejected Roa's claims
[...] and showed the Commission photographs from United Press
International showing two airplanes that landed in Florida today
after taking part in the raids against three Cuban cities. 'They
have the mark of Castro's Air Force on their tails, they have
the star and the Cuban initials; these are clearly visible. I
will exhibit these photographs with pleasure.' Stevenson added
that those two planes were piloted by officers of the Cuban Air
Force and manned by deserters from the Castro regime. 'No U.S.
personnel participated in the incident today, and the planes
were not from the United States, they were Castro's own planes
that took off from his own airfields.'"
Possibly the U.S. government's
trickery and lies deceived even the press agencies.
It is clear how such lies
were concocted in advance and fed to the pilots: everyone regurgitated
the same lies with the same details.
Forty years have passed.
Nevertheless, the methods of lies and deception used by the empire
and its mercenary allies remain unchanged. Barely four years
ago, when bombs began to explode in Havana hotels, financed by
the Cuban-American National Foundation and brought to Cuba from
Central America by bloodthirsty terrorists, the story they tried
to spread was that these were actions carried out by members
of the Cuban state security services disgruntled with the Revolution.
Almost at the end of the
speech I gave here 40 years ago, I said, "What the imperialists
cannot forgive us is that we are here. What they cannot forgive
us is the dignity, the determination, the courage, the ideological
firmness, the spirit of sacrifice and the revolutionary spirit
of the Cuban people, and the fact that we have undertaken a socialist
revolution. And that socialist revolution we defend with these
guns! [Applause and shouts of "Viva Fidel!"]
We defend that socialist revolution with the same courage with
which our antiaircraft artillery force riddled the attacking
planes with bullets yesterday! We do not defend it with mercenaries;
we defend it with the men and women of our people!
"Is it the millionaires
who have the weapons?" [Shouts of "No!"]
"Is it the children
of the rich who have the weapons?" [Shouts of "No!"]
That is what I asked then, and this is what you answer now.
"Is it the foremen who
have the weapons?" [Shouts of "No!"]
"Who has the weapons?"
[Shouts of "The Cuban people!"]
"Whose hands are those
raising those weapons?" [Shouts of "The people!"]
"Are they the hands
of the rich kids?" [Shouts of "No!"]
"Are they the hands
of the rich?" [Shouts of "No!"]
"Are they the hands
of the exploiters?" [Shouts of "No!"]
"Whose hands are those
raising those weapons?" [Shouts of "The people!"]
"Are they not the hands
of workers, are they not the hands of peasants, are they not
hands callused by work, are they not creative hands, are they
not the humble hands of the people?" [Shouts of "Yes!"]
"And who makes up the
majority of the people, the millionaires or the workers?"
[Shouts of "The workers!"] "The exploiters
or the exploited?" [Shouts of "The exploited!"]
"The privileged or the humble?" [Shouts of "The
humble!"]
"Do the privileged have
them? [Shouts of "No!"]
"Do the humble have
them? [Shouts of "Yes!"]
"Are the privileged
the minority? [Shouts of "Yes!"]
"Are the humble the
majority? [Shouts of "Yes!"]
"Is a revolution democratic
when it is the humble who have the weapons? [Shouts of "Yes!"]
"Comrades, workers and
peasants: This is the socialist and democratic revolution of
the humble, by the humble and for the humble! [Applause and
shouts of "Viva el Commandante!"] And for this
revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble, we
are willing to give our lives!
"Yesterday's attack,
which cost seven heroic lives, was aimed at destroying our planes
on the ground. But they failed, they only destroyed three planes,
and the bulk of the enemy planes were damaged or shot down."
Compatriots of yesterday,
today and tomorrow:
Once and for all, they crushed
the absurd idea that the suffering endured, and the blood and
tears spilled throughout almost a hundred years of struggle for
independence and justice against Spanish colonialism and its
slavery-based model of exploitation, and later against imperialist
domination and the corrupt and bloody governments imposed on
Cuba by the United States, were to serve for the rebuilding of
a neocolonialist, capitalist and bourgeois society. It was essential
to seek out loftier objectives in the political and social development
of Cuba.
When we see that south of
the Río Grande there is a whole collection of balkanized
countries --although they all share the same language, culture,
history and ethnic rootsabout to be devoured by the mighty,
expansionist and insatiable superpower of the turbulent and brutal
north that scorns us, we Cubans can cry out to the top of our
voices: Bless that day, a thousand times over, that we proclaimed
our revolution to be socialist! [Applause and shouts of "Fidel!
Fidel! Fidel!"] Today it might have been too late. The
victory of January 1, 1959 offered an exceptional opportunity
to do it.
Without socialism, we would
not have been able to reduce the illiteracy rate to zero.
Without socialism, we would
not have schools and teachers for all our children, without a
single exception, even in the most distant and remote corners
of the country. Nor would we have special schools for those who
need them, nor a primary schooling rate of 100%, nor a secondary
schooling rate of 98.8%. We would not have exact science vocational
schools, or senior high schools, or military schools, or sports
training schools, or schools for physical education and sports
instructors, or trade schools, or technological and polytechnic
professional training institutes, or colleges for workers and
peasants, or language schools, or art schools in every province
of the country.
Without socialism, Cuba today
would not have 700,000 university graduates, 15 teacher-training
colleges, 22 medical schools, a total of 51 higher education
institutions, plus 12 affiliates and independent faculties, with
137,000 university students.
Without socialism, we would
not have 67,500 doctors, over 250,000 professors and teachers,
and 34,000 physical education and sports instructors, the highest
number per capita in all three categories among all countries
in the world.
Without socialism, sports
would not be a right of the people, and Cuba would not win more
Olympic gold medals per capita than any other country.
Without socialism, we would
not have been able to attain the level of political culture we
have today.
Without socialism, we would
not have 30,133 family doctors, 436 polyclinics, 275 hospitals,
both general and specialized, including surgical, pediatric and
maternal hospitals, and 13 specialized medical institutes.
Without socialism, our country
would not have 133 scientific research centers and tens of thousands
of either Masters or Ph.D. researchers.
Without socialism, there
would not be 1,012, 000 retired workers, 325,500 pensioners and
120,000 people on social welfare receiving social security benefits,
without a single exception, nor would those social security benefits
be available to all of the country's people when needed
Without socialism, 163,000
peasants would not be the owners of their lands, whether in the
form of individually owned parcels or cooperatives, nor would
252,000 agricultural workers be the owners of the facilities,
machinery and crops in the basic units of cooperative production.
Without socialism, 85% of
families would not own their homes, nor would 95% of the population
have access to electricity, and 95.3% to drinking water; 48,540
kilometers of highways would not have been built, nor would there
be 1005 water reservoirs, which hold almost all of the water
that can be dammed for agricultural, industrial and domestic
use.
Without socialism, the infant
mortality rate would not be less than 8 per 1000 live births.
Vaccines against 13 diseases would not protect our children,
nor would our people's life expectancy at birth be 76 years.
The HIV positives' rate would not be 0.03%, as compared to 0.6%
in the United States and other developed and wealthy countries;
nor would 575,000 voluntary blood donations have been made in
the year 2000.
Without socialism, we would
not be able to promise, as we are now doing, to provide decent
employment to 100% of our youth under the sole condition that
they be trained; nor would we be developing the programs that
will offer them all the opportunity for training.
Without socialism, manual
laborers and intellectuals, whose works help fulfill the material
and spiritual needs of our species, would never have taken the
vanguard role they justly deserve in human society.
Without socialism, Cuban
women, formerly discriminated against and relegated to humiliating
work, would not constitute 65% of the country's technical workforce
today, nor would they enjoy the right to equal pay for equal
work, a goal that has yet to be achieved in almost all of the
developed capitalist countries.
Without socialism, there
would not be mass organizations, made up of workers and laborers,
peasants, women, neighborhood residents organized into Committees
for the Defense of the Revolution, primary school, junior and
senior high school students, university students, veterans of
the Cuban revolution. These organizations encompass the vast
majority of our people and play a decisive role in the revolutionary
process and the truly democratic participation of all the people
in the leadership and destiny of the country.
Without socialism, we could
not have a society without beggars wandering the streets, without
children going barefoot or begging, or absent from school because
they need to work for a living, or subjected to sexual exploitation,
or used for committing crimes, or joining gangs, things that
are so common in other parts of the world, including the United
States.
Without socialism, Cuba would
not have an outstanding place in its growing, tenacious and sustained
struggle to preserve the environment.
Without socialism, the country's
cultural heritage would be left unprotected, subjected to plunder
or destruction. The historic parts of Cuba's oldest cities would
have been replaced with new buildings totally unrelated to their
architectural surroundings. The oldest section of our capital,
where visitors increasingly marvel at the painstaking care taken
in its restoration and preservation, would not exist. The eyesore
built behind the Palace of the Captains-General, where a centuries-old
university building was torn down to put up a heliport in its
place, provides ample evidence for these claims.
Without socialism, we would
not have been able to withstand the overpowering foreign influence
progressively imposed on so many peoples around the world, nor
would we be witnessing the vigorous cultural and artistic movement
developing in our country today: the Higher Institute of Arts,
a prestigious institution created by the Revolution, is being
restored and expanded; valuable knowledge is being passed on
in the 43 vocational and professional art schools throughout
the country, which will soon grow in number; and 4000 young people
have just entered the first year of study in 15 new art instructor
training schools (Shouts from the audience), created last year.
Every year, another 4000 students will enter these schools, which
have room for a total enrollment of 15,000, and they will graduate
with a baccalaureate degree in humanities.
Presently, we have 306 cultural
centers, 292 museums, 368 public libraries open to the entire
population, and 181 art galleries.
Without socialism, we would
not have the televised courses of University for All; its initial
programming has had a tremendous impact, and it promises to contribute
significantly to achieving a level of comprehensive general knowledge
that will make Cubans the most educated people in the world.
Three hundred Youth Computer
Clubs are operating, and 20,000 personal computers are being
distributed among junior and senior high schools. Computer skills
will be taught on a mass basis from preschool all the way up
to the university level.
The list of comparisons and
contrasts would be endless, but there are a few that I cannot
fail to mention, given their patriotic, internationalist and
human significance:
Without socialism, Cuba would
not be the only country in the world today that does not need
trade with the United States in order to survive, and even to
advance, both economically and socially. As to the latter, not
even the wealthiest and most industrialized countries compare
to Cuba.
Cuba is one of the few countries
in the world that is not a member, and does not want to be a
member, of the International Monetary Fund, which has become
the zealous guardian of the empire's interests. Nothing I have
described here would have been possible if our hands and feet
were tied to this sinister institution spawned at Bretton Woods,
which politically crushes those who must turn to it, destabilizing
and destroying governments. There is no escape for those tied
to the double yoke of the IMF and neoliberalism, both manifestations
of the unfair and irrational economic order imposed on the world.
Without socialism, each and
every person in our country would not have the same right to
receive educational or health care services free of charge, regardless
of the cost, and without anyone ever questioning him or her on
their religious or political beliefs.
Without socialism, we would
not have a country free of drugs, brothels, gambling casinos,
organized crime, vanished people, death squads, lynching and
out of court executions.
Without socialism, Cuban
families could not watch their children grow up healthy, educated
and skilled, with no fear of them being lured into drugs or crime,
or killed at school by their own classmates.
Without socialism, Cuba would
not be, as it is today, the most solid barrier in the hemisphere
against drug trafficking, something that benefits even American
society.
Without socialism, Cuba would
not be a country in which, for 42 years, no one has suffered
the repression and police brutality so commonly practiced in
Europe and other parts of the world, where anti-riot vehicles
and men dressed up in strange gear, like visitors from outer
space, attack the population with clubs, shields, rubber bullets,
tear gas, pepper gas and other means.
It is difficult for the West
to understand why such things do not happen in Cuba. They do
not have the slightest notion of the way human society can be
enriched by the unity, political consciousness, solidarity, selflessness
and generosity, patriotism, moral values and commitment built
through education, culture and all the justice offered by a true
revolution.
Without socialism, hundreds
of thousands of Cubans would not have discharged internationalist
missions; nor would our country have contributed even a grain
of sand to the struggle against colonialism in Africa; nor would
its people have shed a single drop of blood fighting against
the seemingly invincible forces of the hateful system of apartheid,
racism and fascism.
Without socialism, over 40,000
Cuban health care workers would not have provided their noble
internationalist cooperation in more than 90 countries, nor would
they be helping to develop comprehensive health care programs
today in 16 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa,
thanks to the immense human capital created by the Revolution.
Without socialism, it would
not have been possible for 15,600 students from the Third World
to graduate in Cuban universities, nor would there be 11,000
students from those countries currently enrolled in higher studies
in Cuba.
Without socialism, we would
not have the prestigious Latin American School of Medical Sciences,
where there are currently young people from 24 countries and
63 indigenous ethnic groups studying, and 2000 new students will
enroll every year.
Without socialism, we would
not have been able to establish the International School of Sports
and Physical Education that can accommodate a total of 1500 students,
and where 588 youths from 50 countries are currently enrolled
in the first year of studies.
Without socialism, we would
not have been able to provide medical treatment in Cuba for 19,000
children and adults from the three republics affected by the
Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, the majority of whom were
treated in the midst of the special period, and for 53 people
harmed by the radiation leak in the state of Goiás, in
Brazil.
What we have shared with
other peoples has not prevented a single one of our compatriots
from having the opportunity to be a part of the millions of mid-level
technicians and university-educated professionals in Cuba today.
This shows that much can be done with very little, and that everything
could be done with much less resources than those spent today
on commercial advertising, weapons, narcotics and luxury.
Without socialism, Cuba would
not have become, without actually trying, an example for many
people in the world, and the loyal and constant voice for the
most deserving causes; a small country that enjoys the enviable
privilege of being almost the only one that can speak out at
any international forum and freely denounce, with no fear of
reprisals or aggression, the unfair economic order and the insatiable,
rapacious, hypocritical and immoral policies of the hegemonic
superpower's government.
Without socialism, Cuba would
not have been able to endure the hostility of nine U.S. presidents,
all of whom, with the exception of Carter -I must say this, in
all honesty- were either hostile or extremely aggressive and
hostile towards our country. I would have to add the one who
has just assumed the presidential throne, since judging from
his first steps in the international arena and the language of
his advisors and allies in the Miami terrorist mob, there are
signs that we could be facing a particularly aggressive and utterly
unethical administration.
On a day like today, it is
worth recalling that immortal quote from Maceo, the Bronze Titan:
"Those who attempt to take over Cuba will reap nothing but
the dust of its blood-drenched soil, if they do not perish in
the fight!" [Shouts and applause]
The Cuban people today, heirs
of the thinking of Maceo, and of Martí, and of the whole
legion of heroes who pioneered the long path we have followed
to get to where we are now, are in a position to declare that:
"Those who attempt to take over Cuba today will not reap
even the dust of our blood-drenched soil, because they will have
no other choice but to perish in the fight!" [Applause
and shouts of "Fidel! Fidel! Fidel!"]
As I said earlier, at this
very moment in history, the nations of Latin America are about
to be devoured by the United States, the hegemonic superpower
of today's world. Within a few days, from April 20 to 22, a hemispheric
summit meeting will be held in Quebec. There, the hegemonic superpower
will attempt to dictate the terms of surrender to the governments
of Latin America.
The documents for a free
trade agreement among the countries of the hemisphere have been
hastily drawn up. The United States wants to speed things up,
in order to feast upon the privileges it hopes will block the
path for commercial competition and investment from Europe and
the industrialized countries of Asia. The strategy is to get
the agreement adopted at any cost before there is time for MERCOSUR
to consolidate and for the integration of the countries of South
America to develop to the point where they can negotiate with
the United States from a much stronger position.
The U.S. government would
prefer to negotiate with each of these countries individually,
exploiting their economic weakness, their unequal levels of development,
and the conflicts among them, as well as the desperation created
by the enormous foreign debt that suffocates them.
Given their total dependence
on the United States and the International Financial Institutions,
some of these countries are in no position to put up resistance;
others are unaware of the danger they face of being swallowed
up, or do not want to put up any resistance. But, not all of
them are willing to be simply devoured, and there will be resistance.
For their part, the peoples
represented there, many of them mired in ignorance, extreme poverty
and desperation, will have no participation whatsoever in the
decisions made, and will look on from afar at negotiations whose
objectives, content and consequences they are not in a position
to know about, much less understand. Building awareness, denouncing
the voracity of imperialism and the danger facing the peoples
of Latin America and the Caribbean is perhaps the most urgent
task today for political and social leaders, progressive economists
and intellectuals, and all the forces of the left.
Those of us aware of the
social realities, of the gravity of the daunting problems facing
us, and of the fact that they can never be solved in this way
and will only grow ever more critical, we do know that Latin
America can be devoured, but it cannot be digested. Sooner or
later, like the biblical character, in one way or another they
will escape from the whale's belly. And the Cuban people will
be waiting outside, for they learned a long time ago how to swim
in troubled waters, and they know that until there is a radical
change in their living conditions, the peoples of the Third World
will become increasingly unrulable and force the needed solutions
to be adopted.
On a day like today, as we
look back over the accomplishments of the Revolution, it is amazing
to discover that we are far from having achieved all the necessary
and possible justice.
The socialism we conceive
of today is far superior to our dreams back then. The special
period forced us to walk back on a stretch of the road we had
traveled. Painful inequalities emerged. Those who were willing
to patiently endure, those most dedicated to the revolutionary
cause above all else, our most loyal manual and intellectual
workers, the most humble and faithful of the people, the most
conscientious revolutionaries understood this inevitable circumstance.
And as has always happened and always will happen in difficult
times, they shouldered the bulk of the burden in the efforts
to save the country and socialism at any cost. [Shouts from
the audience]
In the future we will not
only achieve much higher goals than those we achieved in the
past but we will even surpass them. Today, we are advancing towards
objectives we would not have even dreamed of 40 years ago, and
much less in the extremely difficult stage that began 10 years
ago, from which we are emerging victorious. A new dawn is beginning
to shine on our future, a future that will shine brighter on
a more accomplished socialism, a more promising and profound
revolutionary work.
We did not come here today
to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the proclamation of the
socialist nature of the Revolution, but rather we came here to
ratify it, to swear on it once again.
Using the exact same words
as on that unforgettable day 40 years ago, I will ask you, "Workers
and peasants, humble men and women of the homeland, do you swear
to defend to your last drop of blood this Revolution of the humble,
by the humble and for the humble?" [Exclamations of "We
do!"]
"Here, before the tomb
of our fallen comrades; here, near the remains of those heroic
young men, sons of workers and sons of humble families,"
-and today I will add two more things: in memory of all those
who have died for the homeland and for justice in the last 133
years, and in the name of all those who have given their lives
for humanity in heroic internationalist missions-- "we reaffirm
our determination that like those who stood up to the bullets,
like those who gave their lives, no matter when the mercenaries
come, all of us, proud of our Revolution, proud to defend this
Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble, will
not waver, in the face of whoever they may be, in defending our
Revolution to our last drop of blood."
Ever onward to victory!
Patria o Muerte!
Venceremos!
[Ovation]
_____________
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