Articles of Fidel Castro Ruz

“Despite the confidentiality demanded from members of the General Staff and the assistants at the commanding posts it’s impossible to prevent any leaking about a war action lasting more than eight days and keeping an atmosphere of great tension among men and women on both sides of the ocean.

Trade, within a society and between countries, is the exchange of goods and services produced by human beings. The owners of the means of production appropriate the profits. As a class, they are the leaders of the capitalist state and they boast of fostering development and social wellbeing through market. This they worship as an infallible God.

The international press only reports on the economic hurricane beating the world. Many present it as a new phenomenon. For us it is not new; it was forseeable. Today, I’d rather deal with another current issue of great interest to our people, too.

Last October 2nd we discussed the international price of our fuel consumption. I am under the impression that its significance attracted the attention of many leaders and cadres.

Under normal circumstances, Cuba is a country where electricity is provided to 98 percent of the population. There is a single energy production and supply system. The use of power generators ensures supply to crucial centers under any circumstances. And this will again be the case as soon as the power grids are restored.

Kangamba is one of the most serious and dramatic films I have ever seen. I watched it on a small television screen but perhaps my judgment is influenced by cherished memories. Hundreds of thousands of Cuban compatriots will have the privilege of watching it on the big screen of movie theaters.

There is one accurate response to Bush’s “democratic capitalism”: Chavez’s democratic socialism. There wouldn’t be a more accurate way to express the big contradiction that exists between North and South in our hemisphere, between the ideas of Bolivar and those of Monroe.

In a brief 15-minute speech, the President of the United States made some assertions that, had they come from the mouths of any of his adversaries, they would have been described as atrocious and cynical slanders against the economic system of his country which he named “democratic capitalism”.

Around 35,000 Cuban health specialists provide free or paid-for services in the world. Furthermore, some young doctors from countries such as Haiti and others among the poorest of the Third World are working in their homelands thanks to the assistance provided by Cuba. In Latin America, our main contribution has been the ophthalmologic surgeries that will help to preserve the eyesight of millions of people. Besides, we are assisting in the training of tens of thousands of young medical students from other nations, both in and outside Cuba.

The news agencies are reporting that Chávez will visit Cuba tomorrow on his way to China, Russia, Belarus, France and Portugal.