|
 People
of Villa Clara,
Fellow
countrymen,
Guests:
Everything
changes, even the time and the way our mass rallies are held. That was the
case the past May Day and this July 26th. The tenacious and
unrelenting struggle to correct a major injustice against a Cuban child,
his father and family, as well as the great massive battle of ideas waged
by our people throughout seven months, have deeply enriched our
revolutionary experience. We now have a great mobilizing capacity, more
organization and better discipline. Hundreds of new talented speakers,
many of them children, teenagers and youths have emerged everywhere as an
irrefutable proof of the unbeatable educational work of the Revolution.
New
and efficient ways to expose our people and the world to our truth have
been developed. Art and oratory, culture and the revolutionary message
have merged almost inseparably in our historical process. The knowledge,
general culture and political consciousness of the Cuban people are
growing swiftly. Long speeches to people rallied in uncomfortable places
under a hot sun will no longer be necessary to delve into complex issues
and explain events which are being debated and analyzed almost on a daily
basis on television, the radio and the newspapers.
We
are holding this rally today at this Revolutionary Square in front of the
mausoleum keeping the remains of the reinforcement detachment made up by
Che [Guevara] and his brave comrades who perished in a noble and generous
struggle in other nations of the world.
One
by one they were sought for and found dispersed in remote places; one by
one their bones were identified. It is our homeland’s privilege to keep
in this sanctuary of solidarity and internationalism the protagonists of
one of the most beautiful pages in the history of the Americas. Before Bolívar’s
and Martí’s dreams of unity can be realized, our Americas are already
integrated here. Argentineans, Bolivians, Peruvians and Cubans --even a
daughter of the country that was the birthplace of the first man who
dreamed of a socialist world-- are forever resting together in this place.
These
tombs, whose imposing presence convey an encouraging message, remind us
that we are not alone in this July 26th celebration in Villa
Clara, that here with us are also those who died in the battle where one
after the other the streets and the buildings of this gallant city were
recovered from the claws of the tyrant.
But,
even after we had occupied the cities of Santiago de Cuba and Santa Clara,
the struggle did not stop for a second. Our troops continued their
impetuous march with the unanimous support of the workers and all of the
people up to the total collapse of the regime less than 48 hour later. It
was not a forcibly take over with the use of weapons; it was a Revolution.
Soon,
we all realized that the true master was not the overthrown tyrant; the
real master was another one a thousand times more powerful. Under common
circumstances it would have seemed a simple theory or political
hypothesis. Those were times when many still believed that the peoples’
sovereignty and independence were sacred universal principles accepted and
respected by all.
Our
people learned their first lesson with the massive departure for the
United States --where their fortunes were kept-- of hundreds of big
plunderers of the public coffers and the worst war criminals who had
tortured and murdered thousands of our sons and daughters. But, that was
only the beginning.
The
leaders of that nation immediately cut off all credits and began an
intensive campaign of slanders, which they commonly use to justify their
actions and that still goes on today. Then, the pretext was the exemplary
punishment of the war criminals who failed to escape the country as well
as the nationalization and confiscation of farms, real states and other
unearned riches accumulated in almost seven years of tyranny.
A
crucially needed land reform, which had been decreed four and a half
months after the victory of the Revolution, aroused the wrath of the
empire. Several of its big companies owned extensive areas of the best
land in the country. Thus, the Revolution was unequivocally sentenced to
death. It seemed quite easy.
That
marked the beginning of the air raids by pirate planes coming from the
United States against sugar cane plantations, sugar factories and even
cities; terrorist actions, armed gangs and dirty war; attempts against the
life of leaders, raids from the sea against coastal facilities and the
merchant and fishing fleet; the Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion and the
seemingly final and irresistible weapon against a small underdeveloped
nation: total blockade and economic warfare.
One
after another the corrupted oligarchies and bourgeois governments in
countries of this hemisphere sharing our same language, culture and
colonial history --except for one Latin American country-- joined the
United States in that fratricidal action. Our sugar quota of over 3
million tons obtained in the course of a century was redistributed among
accomplices and traitors. Everything was done in the name of
"freedom" and "democracy", which seldom if ever
existed in many of those same countries.
Once
the mercenary invasion had been defeated, other plans were worked out for
a direct invasion of Cuba by the U.S. military forces as irrefutably
proven by declassified official documents. There was even a real
possibility of a nuclear war.
Efforts
were made to totally isolate Cuba; sabotages were carried out against our
merchant fleet and our airliners. A civilian plane was blown up in flight
carrying over 70 passengers including our youth fencing team, which had
won all the gold medals in a Central American Tournament. Biologic warfare
has been used to attack people, animals and plants; bombs have been set up
in hotels and other tourist facilities and other terrorist actions have
been directly executed either by entities run by the U.S. government or
through puppet organizations. Our people have had to endure all of that
for four decades.
The
collapse of the socialist camp and the disintegration of the Soviet Union
deprived our country of its basic markets, fuel, and food supplies, raw
materials, equipment and spare parts and led it into an exceptionally
difficult situation. It was disgusting that the moment was
opportunistically chosen by the U.S. administration to try to deal the
final blow to the Revolution using the Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts
and tens of amendments attached to major legislation in the U.S. Congress.
For
several years many hopelessly awaited the news that the Revolution no
longer existed. However, our people resisted with determination and that
unprecedented feat is for us a legitimate source of pride.
Nothing
could prevent the extraordinary social achievements that are today the
subject of admiration of every honest person in the world. Nothing could
prevent the golden pages written in the history book of internationalism
and solidarity with others. Nothing can write off the example we have set
for the world. Our patriotic sentiments are deeper and our
internationalist beliefs have multiplied with the blossoming in the soul
of the Cuban people of that most beautiful of Martí’s ideas, that is,
"Humanity is Homeland".
We
take pride in those sentiments that led José Martí to Dos Ríos and Che
Guevara and his comrades to Ñacahuazú, Río Grande, Quebrada del Yuro
and La Higuera; that led hundreds of thousands of Cuban internationalist
fighters to Angola, Cuito Cuanavale and the banks of the Cunene river
along the Namibian border providing a decisive cooperation to the sister
nations of Africa for the defeat of one of the most revolting and hateful
bulwarks of racism and fascism.
Those
sentiments have led dozens of thousands of medical doctors, teachers,
technicians and construction workers to many distant places in the world
to save lives and relief the pain, to restore and preserve health, to
educate and contribute to the well-being and development of millions of
people, as they have led us to offer our educational facilities and
universities to tens of thousands of youth from the Third World.
That
is a legacy that Cuba --threatened, harassed and blockaded as it is by the
mightiest power on Earth-- has contributed to the future world which can
only be saved by and built on those pillars of solidarity and
internationalism.
The
theoreticians and advocates of the imperial policies still dream that the
revolution, which could not be destroyed with such perfidious and criminal
means, might be subverted with such appealing methods as the one they have
called "the policy of people-to-people contact". It is all right
with us; we are willing to take up the challenge but they should play
fair. They should put an end to their conditioning and remove the
murderous Cuban Adjustment Act, the Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts and
the scores of legal albeit immoral amendments opportunistically inserted
in their legislation. They should completely end the deadly blockade and
the economic warfare.
Likewise,
they should respect the constitutional right of their students, workers,
intellectuals, businessmen and Americans in general to visit our country,
to do business, to trade and invest unrestrictedly --if they so wish--
without ridiculous fear, the same way we allow our people to freely travel
to and live in the United States. We shall see then if that is the way
they can destroy the Cuban Revolution, which is definitely their purpose.
It
is not our intention to disturb the sweet dreams of those who believe that
to be possible. It is simply out of courtesy that I am warning them that
the Cuban Revolution can neither be destroyed by force nor seduced by fine
words.
José
Martí said that trenches of ideas are worth more than trenches of stone,
and we share that thought, although he never said that the latter were
unnecessary. A double trench of stones and ideas presently defends Cuba:
the former against brutality. That one is made up by our people’s
determination to fight to the end, whatever the consequences, so that the
intelligent weapons and the most sophisticated means coming out of our
potential aggressors’ advanced centers that turn out death instruments
are rendered useless.
But,
there is also a gigantic trench of beliefs and ideas strong enough to
thwart the whole arsenal of lies, demagoguery and hypocrisy used by the
imperialists to deceive the world. Also, with well-founded ideas of
justice and a sound general and political culture, our people can defend
their identity and be protected from the demi-cultures emanating from the
dehumanized, selfish and irresponsible consumer societies. We can also be
winners in that field and, in fact, we will.
History
is on our side because the unfair and globalized political and economic
order imposed on the world is unsustainable and it will collapse rather
sooner than later. Nature cannot put up with the aggression against its
resources and the environment. The billions of poor people increasingly
populating this planet will become ungovernable. Neither the immigration
laws nor the walled borders will contain them. Civilization itself is in
jeopardy and the politicians, regardless of their haughtiness or
inefficiency, will have to understand that in this age and on this planet
there is no alternative to peace and close cooperation among the peoples.
The
people in our country are very quickly acquiring a deep knowledge and a
growing awareness of these realities. The enormous and combative march
seen in our country’s capital barely 72 hours ago is evidence of this.
Also this massive, well-organized, enthusiastic, exciting and beautiful
rally in Santa Clara confirm it.
That
monument, by which we stand now, is like a beacon showing us the path to
the future. The immortal, rather than mortal, remains of our comrades
resting in their tombs are proof of what human beings can do for a world
of justice, peace and fraternity.
Glory
be to those who died at the Moncada barracks, at the Bay of Pigs, in the
Escambray area, on the mountains and the cities of Cuba to make possible
the dreams of that July 26th!
Glory
be to Che Guevara and those who fought and perished with him!
Glory
be to those who died in Guinea Bissau, in the east of Congo, in Ethiopia,
in Angola, in Cuito Cuanavale, in the proximity of the Namibian border and
elsewhere!
Glory
be to the teachers and civilian workers who perished in the line of
internationalist duty!
Honor,
gratitude and appreciation be to the thousands of medical doctors and
health workers who are saving lives in remote corners of the world!
Honor
and glory be to the people capable of such deeds!
People
of Villa Clara, victors over difficulties and obstacles, who have won the
honor of holding the commemoration of the 47th anniversary of
the day when an example and an idea lit a flame that today expands
throughout the world, congratulations!
Fellow
countrymen of Cuba, carry on!
Ever
onward to victory!
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