Provocations orchestrated by counterrevolutionary elements, organized and financed by the United States to destabilize our country, were analyzed
Analyzed during the meeting were provocations orchestrated by counterrevolutionary elements, organized and financed by the United States with the intention of destabilizing our country.

Members of the Party’s highest leadership  body also discussed the exemplary response of the Cuban people to comrade Díaz-Canel’s call to defend the Revolution in the streets, making possible the defeat of these subversive actions.

(Taken from Granma)

Yesterday afternoon Benito Alonso Gonzalez left the comfort of his home in the municipality of San Antonio de los Baños, in the province of Artemisa, because a group at the service of foreign and annexationist interests, paid and directed by the United States, was looking to provoke a social explosion.

He went to the park, and spoke to reporters there about “the traitors who want to sell the Revolution for a few pesos,” the revolution that helped save his brother from COVID-19 just two weeks ago, the revolution that asks us to stay home, to avoid seeing more people die due to the pandemic.

There, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, Benito himself, and the provocateurs came across a crowd of residents carrying Cuban flags and shouting: Long live the Revolution, Homeland or Death, Venceremos!

“Those of us who have come this far are faithful custodians of the Revolution, we want it strong, we were raised by the Revolution. And now, with the presence of Díaz-Canel, we feel firm, secure, because the Revolution is with the people, who are the true owners of the streets. In Cuba we will not allow those who want to take away what we have conquered to enter,” warned Antonio Crespo, a resident of San Antonio who joined the popular response.

Also in the park where Díaz-Canel went to confront those who intended to fracture the unity of the Party, the state, the government and the people, were father and son, Roberto Reyes Herrera, president of the Antonio Briones Montoto agricultural cooperative production unit, and Yosbel Reyes Sotomayor. The former recalled the hard times Cubans faced before 1959, which his parents told him about, and insisted that he is grateful for “the opportunities the Revolution has given me, that a few do not want to recognize.”

His son likewise stated, “I’m sure that it was the Cuban-American mafia who paid the provocateurs who wanted to take advantage of the difficult situation Cuba is experiencing,” adding, “The youth of San Antonio are on the side of our leaders, that is why we have taken to the parks and the streets.”

The flags, the cheers, the revolutionary conscience and confidence in those who are working every day to move our nation forward, left drowning in a sigh of impotence the malicious imperialist lackeys who made Benito leave his quiet Sunday at home. He insisted, “Let it be known, the people of Cuba are not those who disturbed the peace today, those who love the empire so much. The people of Cuba are the doctors, the scientists who made the vaccines, those of us who came to tell the President: Whatever it takes, Díaz-Canel, whatever it takes!”

(Take from Granma)

The President began his remarks with a revolutionary greeting to the entire people, and said: “Unfortunately, we have been obliged to interrupt our Sunday, that all our families take to rest and spend time together, to inform you and share with you a series of elements related to the events that have been taking place today, which are part of a high level, systematic, escalating provocation, which has been promoted by the counterrevolution over these days.”

What is the background to this situation we are experiencing, he asked.

“We have been honest, we have been open, we have been clear, and at all times we have explained the complexities of the current situation to our people. I remember that more than a year and a half ago, when the second half of 2019 was just starting, we had to explain that we were heading toward a difficult conjuncture, and we used that term, which was later taken up as part of popular humor, since we have remained in this ‘conjuncture’ for a long time…Beginning with all the signs that the U.S. government, headed by the Trump administration, was giving in relation to Cuba.”

Diaz-Canel recalled that the adoption of an extensive series of restrictive measures to tighten the blockade began; financial persecution, energy persecution, with the goal of asphyxiating the country’s economy.

He denounced ongoing efforts to provoke a massive social explosion in Cuba, including all sorts of propaganda and ideological constructions they fabricate to call for misnamed humanitarian interventions, which end up as military interventions and interference, trampling the rights and violating the sovereignty, the independence of peoples.

This succession of hostile acts continued, he noted, “Then came the 243 measures we all know about. And in the last days of that administration the decision was made to include Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.”

He reiterated that this list is a totally spurious list, an illegitimate list, and a unilateral list, fabricated by the U.S. in the belief that they are the power dominates the world, that they are the emperors of this world.”

He noted that, unfortunately, due to the lack of principles that exists within more than a few international institutions and national governments, many cave in and go along with these hostile measures and actions.

“It must be recognized that others do not submit to be the imposition of these measures, but they are limited by the extraterritorial nature that these.

“And that further increased the impact of the restrictions, which above all implied that the country was immediately cut off from its main sources of foreign currency income: I am talking about tourism, I am talking about the trips of Cubans and U.S. citizens to our country, about the much-awaited remittances to Cuban families from their relatives in the United States.”

The President also denounced U.S. efforts to discredit Cuban medical brigades, since this medical collaboration, beyond the many instances of solidarity provided, also generates foreign currency income.

All this, he said, is causing shortages in the country: “Shortages of food, of medicines, raw materials and inputs needed by our economic and productive processes, which contribute both exports and supplies for the people; therefore here two important elements are cut off: the capacity to export and to acquire foreign currency to import and invest, and the capacity of the productive processes to be produce a full range of goods and services for our population.”

He pointed out that the country “has seen its fuel supply limited, access to spare parts limited, and all this has caused dissatisfaction, has exacerbated accumulated problems, which we have not been able to resolve, have been around since the special period, and to all this has been added a ferocious media campaign to discredit us, as part of a so-called non-conventional war, which attempts, on the one hand, to break the unity of the Party, the government, the state and the people, attempting to portray the government as inept, incapable of providing wellbeing to the Cuban people, attempting to portray the U.S. government as “very concerned about the welfare of the Cuban people,” who it has unjustly blockaded, telling them how they can aspire to development and progress in a country such as ours.

“These are the usual hypocritical prescriptions and speeches of double standards, which we know very well, throughout the history of United States behavior toward Cuba. We know how they intervened in our country, how they appropriated our island, how they maintained domination of our Island during the pseudo-republic and how their interests were hit hard by the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

“For 60 years the example of the Cuban Revolution has bothered them, and they have constantly tightened… applied an unjust, criminal, cruel blockade, reinforced, worse than ever under pandemic conditions. Therein lies the manifest perversity, the maliciousness of all these intentions: blockade and restrictive measures, which they have never taken against any other country, or against those they consider their main enemies.

“This has been a work and a policy of viciousness against a small Island, which only aspires to defend its independence, its sovereignty and build, with self-determination, its society in accordance with the principles that more than 86% of the population has approved, has supported in the broad and democratic exercise we held, to approve the current Constitution of the Republic of Cuba.

“And in the midst of these conditions comes the pandemic, a pandemic that has not only affected Cuba, a pandemic that has affected the whole world, a pandemic that has also affected the United States, that has affected rich countries. It must be said that the United States and other rich countries did not have the capacity to confront the effects of this pandemic at the beginning.

“And in many of those first world countries, with much more wealth, health systems collapsed, intensive care units were overwhelmed. The poor have been disadvantaged because there are no public policies directed toward saving the people,” and these rich countries in many cases have worse results than Cuba in terms of responding to the pandemic.

“And we were impacted by the pandemic and, in the midst of all these other restrictions, with the reserves that the country has created, with the little we had in the country, with the little we have been able to acquire this difficult year and a half, is that we have been able to meet these challenges, these tests.

“And we have done it with courage, we have done it without giving in and, above all, we have done it by sharing among all the little we have, and we have not only shared within Cuba, we have shared with the world. There is the example of the Henry Reeve internationalist brigades, which has gone to places brutally affected by the pandemic.

“And this is how we have moved forward, controlling one wave after another, with a tremendous capacity for sacrifice on the part of our people, of our scientists, of our health personnel, of almost the entire country involved in this.

Díaz-Canel recalled that five candidate vaccines have been developed, one already recognized as a vaccine, the first in Latin America against COVID-19. Cuba is already vaccinating our population, and this is a process that takes time. Vaccines must be produced, but we currently have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and in a few weeks we will have reached more than 20% of the total population,” he noted.

However, he noted, in the last few months more aggressive strains have appeared, and in the midst of this already serious situation, another group of complications began to appear.

“First of all, new cases are emerging at a speed and accumulation that exceeded the capacities we have been able to create to treat these patients in state institutions. On the other hand, we have been obliged to expand capacity in other centers,” he explained.

In this sense, by opening more centers, to which energy priority must be given – in the midst of the accumulation of problems in the generation of electricity, the number of circuits that we must protect, to attend these patients, has increased.

With more patients, he continued, the stock of medicines is also running low and acquiring them is very difficult; and in the midst of all this, we continue to work for everyone.

“Now we have been obliged to resort to home isolation due to the lack of capacity in a number of provinces, and call on families to participate more directly, more responsibly. One never tires of admiring the capacity for creative resistance of our people.”

With these values, he insisted, with vaccination advancing, complying with the necessary sanitary measures, we will emerge sooner rather than later from this peak in the pandemic, which is not only hitting Cuba. Cuba managed to postpone this high point with everything we did, and we will overcome it.

But now, he noted, in a very cowardly, subtle, opportunistic and perverse manner, exploiting the most difficult situations we have in provinces like Matanzas and Ciego de Avila, those who have always supported the blockade, those who have served as mercenaries, lackeys of the Yankee empire, begin to appear with calls for a humanitarian intervention, a humanitarian corridor, to strengthen the idea that the Cuban government is not capable of handling this situation, as if they were really interested in the welfare and health of our people.

“If they want to make a gesture toward Cuba, if they really are concerned about the people, if they want to solve Cuba’s problems: lift the blockade and let’s see how we do, why don’t they do that? Why don’t they have the courage to lift the blockade, what legal and moral basis allows a foreign government to implement such a policy against a small country, and in the midst of such adverse conditions? Isn’t this genocide?”

He denounced the assertion that a dictatorship exists in Cuba, “A dictatorship that is concerned about providing healthcare for its entire population, that seeks welfare for all, that in the midst of this situation is capable of conducting public policies, aspiring to vaccination with a Cuban vaccine, because we knew that no one was going to sell us any, since we don’t have the money to buy them,” he said.

“What a strange dictatorship,” he exclaimed. Now they are shouting that we are murderers. Where are the murder victims in Cuba, where are the missing persons in Cuba? Other countries that have suffered these pandemic peaks were not attacked in the press and they were not offered humanitarian intervention as a solution, nor were they subjected to these slander campaigns as we are, Díaz-Canel emphasized.

“I believe that life, history, the facts show what is behind all this, which is the effort to asphyxiate us and put an end to the Revolution, and for that they are trying to discourage our people, to confuse our people. And when the people are facing severe conditions, then events like the ones we experienced in San Antonio de los Baños take place.”

About the events in this area, he detailed:

Who was part of the group? It included members of the population, who have needs, who are experiencing some of these shortages; it included revolutionaries who are confused, do not have all the arguments, or were expressing these dissatisfactions, but they were doing differently, because they were seeking to understand, seeking explanations.

“But this was led by a core group of manipulators who are indeed lending themselves to the designs of the SOS Matanzas or SOS Cuba campaigns… Several days ago, they were preparing demonstrations or social disturbances of this type in several Cuban cities. This is criminal, at a time when people should be at home, protecting themselves.”

Diaz-Canel reported that revolutionaries in San Antonio de los Baños, provincial authorities, a group from the country’s leadership showed up there, we confronted the counterrevolutionaries and we talked to the revolutionaries, and to those asking for explanations, to show that Cuba’s streets belong to revolutionaries.

He pointed out that we know there are other groups of people gathering in streets and plazas, in other cities of the country, also moved by unhealthy purposes. “I am also giving this information, to reaffirm that in Cuba the streets belong to revolutionaries, that the state, the revolutionary government, guided by the Party, are more than willing to discuss, to argue and to participate with the people in the solution of problems, but recognizing the real cause of our problems, without allowing ourselves to be confused.”

Those who are encouraging demonstrations are not interested in good healthcare for Cuba, he emphasized. Remember that their model is neoliberal, the privatization of health, of medical services, of education; that everyone should save themselves as best they can, that those who have the money can access health care, he warned.

“We are not going to surrender sovereignty, the independence of our people, or the freedom of this nation. There are many of us revolutionaries in this town who are willing to give our lives and this is not a slogan, it is a conviction. They will have to step over our corpses if they want to confront the Revolution, and we are ready for anything and we will be in the streets fighting.”

We know that incidents of this type are being orchestrated in the streets of Havana and that there are large groups of revolutionaries confronting counterrevolutionary elements. We are separating the confused revolutionaries, the inhabitants of Cuba who have specific concerns, but we are not going to allow any counterrevolutionary, any mercenary, to provoke destabilization among our people.

“This is why we are calling on all revolutionaries in our country, all communists, to take to the streets in any of the places where these provocations may take place today, from now on, throughout these days,” he insisted.

“As I said in my closing speech at the Party Congress, we revolutionaries defend the Revolution above all else, we communists on the front lines, and with that conviction we are now in the streets, we are not going to allow anyone to manipulate our situation, or defend a plan that is not Cuban, that is not for the welfare of Cubans and that is annexationist. This is the task to which we call revolutionaries and communists of this country,” he concluded.

(Taken from Granma)

During his statements, the Head of State denounced the participation of the US administration in the historic political destabilization actions that are taking place against Cuba, and which have intensified, particularly during the pandemic.

Order:

22:10 - Tranquility, peace, tranquility in the heart of Havana

21:54 – The streets of Guantanamo belong to the revolutionaries

20:25 – Minister of Energy: What factors influence the increase in planned outages?

I ask the people for understanding, they work uninterruptedly, including Saturday and Sunday, to solve problems that we have in the base generation, mainly thermoelectric
Tense situation limitations in spare parts and technology, fuel for generation due to blockage problems and fuel quality
Since June 21, impacts that have increased in recent days because Guiteras came out, which contributes 300 megawatts
More instability of other plants
Last 3 days increased because demand increased considerably more than 320 megawatts at the peak of the night more consumption than previous days
Causes major effects
This also has to do with rising temperatures
19 units 13 have their maintenance cycle postponed
Final phase of concluding work on La Guitera
In the early hours of Tuesday, the block should be synchronized with the national electrical energy system
Work is being done to incorporate Felton
Between Felton and Guiteras, more than 500 megawatts must be incorporated into the system

19:58 – Cuban scientists willing to preserve the Sovereign Homeland

One of the creators of the Sovereign vaccines, Dagmar García Rivera, shared on her Twitter account the willingness of Biocubafarma scientists to do whatever is necessary to preserve our Homeland.

“The streets are ours, Cuba is ours. We will overcome this crisis as we have overcome others. Only the unity of the people will save us,” he said.

While some try to boycott the Cuban revolution, the scientists continue with their work to immunize the island. From very early on, workers from the Matanzas Drug Store continue to distribute Abdala and specialists from the Cuban National Neuroscience Center install PCUVENTE ventilators in the Matanzas hospitals .

19:53 – Good Faith: Nobody imposes anything on us

Israel and Yoel: “Nobody imposes anything on us.” “We have never hidden what we stand for.” “We believe in the great Cuban family.” “We defend the Health System, which is the one that is battling the pandemic.”

19:51 – Tranquility in most of the streets of Havana

19:40 – Fernando González Llort: At the call of the homeland, always, Present!

19:32 – The humble and grateful people of Artemis

19:27 – Piedad Córdoba: “Our support for Cuba and Díaz-Canel”

From Colombia, through Twitter , Piedad Córdoba sends her support to Cuba and the Díaz-Canel government.

19:22 – The answer in Cienfuegos is clear

Long live the Cuban Revolution!

19:18 – UPEC Presidency: The Cuban people would never rise up against themselves

The professionals and workers of the press in Cuba, always guided by the righteous and libertarian ideal of revolutionaries such as José Martí, Juan Gualberto Gómez, Pablo de la Torriente Brau, Fidel and Raúl, exalt the patriotic greatness of the Cuban people, their integrity and dignity , with which we will confront any attempt to provoke a social outbreak in the country. The latter will be impossible in a geographically small but morally immense nation that carried out one of the most profound social revolutions in this world.

The sensitive and honorable Cuban people would never rise up against themselves. He learned to discover his true enemies very well, to confront them under that Martian idea that freedom is paid at its price, something that mercenaries and plattists on duty will never understand.

Daily witnesses to the sacrifice of our people, the press workers will stand alongside them in defense of their honor and rights and alerting them to the serious scenario of fourth-generation warfare and mean and lying media siege imposed on the country.
19:17 – Cubans join the revolutionary response from the ICRT

Revolutionary response of ICRT workers. “The street belongs to the revolutionaries.

19:16 – From Jobabo, support for Díaz-Canel

19:10 – Young UCI university students ready to defend the Revolution

19:04 – Revolutionaries parade through the Havana Prado
18:54 – This afternoon at Maceo de Las Tunas park

18:53 – Ministry of Finance and Prices: “At the forefront in the defense of the Revolution”
18:40 – The provocateurs in Cuba wave United States flags

18:32 – “This street belongs to Fidel”, assures the people of Havana18:28 – In Ciego de Ávila, the streets also belong to the revolutionaries

In Ciego, the streets also belong to the revolutionaries, the entire people   on the street defending the Homeland.

Avileños take to the streets to defend the Revolution.

18:20 – What did Díaz-Canel say in San Antonio de los Baños?

18:14 – Gerardo Hernández at the head of the revolutionary people in Neptuno and Galiano

18:09 – Caibarienenses take to the streets

18:06 – The revolutionary people of Cienfuegos, true owners of the streets

18:05 – The MINREX in the first line in defense of its people

18:01 – Bruno Rodríguez: The people mobilize against the campaign of imperialism against Cuba

17:57 – Díaz-Canel has called and his people respond without hesitation

17:50 – On video, the Cuban people take to the streets to defend the Revolution

17:47 – Díaz-Canel exchanged with the population in San Antonio de los Baños

The first secretary of the PCC exchanged with the population of San Antonio de los Baños.

17:45 – Unofficial version of Díaz-Canel’s words

Cubadebate shares the unofficial version of Díaz-Canel’s words

Díaz-Canel to the people of Cuba: “The order to fight is given, the revolutionaries to the streets”

Just as he is, in his authentic dimensions, José Martí is of no use to their cause. This would require suppressing a good many texts, no longer publishing them, condemning them to oblivion to such an extent that they become obscure, a topic of study for experts only. Anti-Cuban mercenaries were obliged to quote only certain phrases in their most recent farce, which taken out of context, could serve them very well.

They were looking for a decaffeinated hero, a ‘lite’ patriot, but they found it uncomfortable to actually come face to face with his words, especially with his last, dedicated to Manuel Mercado, with his devastating definition of a monster, a country that boasted of being an eagle. The clairvoyance of a man who portrayed them with his pen hurts them, but without him, without presenting him as their ally, they could do little to subjugate Cuba.

If he were alive, they would not even have tried; he was much too loyal and honest to switch sides. But now, believing he had become nothing more than a statue, a bust or poster, they perceived him as an appropriate figure to incorporate into their manipulative games. They calculated that there would be no repeat of what happened in 1953, when a generation of young rebels made sure that Martí did not die in the year of his centenary.

Again and again they have attempted to misrepresent him in radio and television appearances that are never seen or heard, stories about the improbable intrigues of Gomez and Maceo, slogans and photos on Calle 8, ridiculous events every May 20th, badly translated quotes from the mouths of imperialist Presidents, the unreal Martí who they pretend to honor acting like pigs, perhaps inspired by the disgraceful behavior of drunken Marines, in the Havana of the1950s.

But their pitiful attempts will be reduced to ashes; the people ignite their torches and keep Martí’s light alive. He has long since come down from pedestals and walks among his people, who care for him, because he continues to be the Teacher who guides us.

(Taken from Granma)

In the face of this rich, permanently evolving tradition, any attempt to pervert feelings and erode convictions by means of operations such as the one circulated recently from Miami – where else – will fail miserably.

There are no hidden agendas. The lyrics openly call for the restoration of capitalism and the overthrow of revolutionary power in Cuba. In reviewing the launch, provided by communication channels at the service of subversion, the EFE news agency highlighted these objectives: “The song is openly opposes the government of Cuba and its policies.”

There are no arguments, but a string of assertions, commonplace in the anti-Cuban discourse: a dictatorial Cuba where lies, repression, and torture predominate; a dictatorship without popular support , (“you are already outnumbered, you have nothing left, you are going down, the people are tired of putting up with you”)

There is not even the slightest hint of wit, not a shred of intelligence in the crude conversion of the slogan Patria o Muerte (Homeland or Death) into Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life), the title of the diatribe. As if the defense of life, freedom and resistance were not embodied in the slogan that has accompanied Cubans since Fidel spoke during the farewell tribute for victims of the La Coubre sabotage.

Nor is the alliance of the protagonists surprising. Celebrities, a couple with talent developed in our educational system had commercial successes in Cuba and were promoted by fashionable currents within the trend that has come to be called urban music – although it is well known that fame and talent are not synonymous .

Until, dazzled by their eagerness to gain greater revenues, seduced by Floridian show business linked to the anti-Cuban industry, and seriously miscalculating the Cuban people’s capacity of resistance to the brutal onslaught of Trump, they tore open their shirts to reveal the precariousness of their ethical principles, if they ever had any at all.

Thus, once they were comfortably installed in Miami, they began to bawl, malign, rant and rewrite their personal stories. One erased from his memory the verses he sang in 2016: (“I return to the cradle that saw me born / I return to that neighborhood that saw me run / what I was, what I am and will be for my beautiful island”); another, as if to leave no doubt of his moral standing, disavowed having greeted the President of the Republic of Cuba during a concert (“It was a mistake… I was afraid”), and a third, encouraged no doubt by a hallucinogenic high, threatened to come “give” the island’s leadership a bit of his “machete.”

This last performer reveals his likeness to another guest invited to participate in the show: the delinquent who in Havana called on Trump for “fire, fire and fire, to put an end to this,” meaning more blockade and an invasion of Cuba. The fire that in the video burns a Cuban flag. The vile fire with which they attempt to trash the memory of Martí and Che in their lyrics. Fire against the homeland, against life.

It would be good to keep in our hearts the words written by Martí to a compatriot in 1886: “The homeland needs sacrifices. It is an altar, not a pedestal. It is served, but it is not taken to be of service.” And to accompany these words with a soundtrack that includes, among others, Silvio Rodríguez’s Pequeña serenata diurna.

(Taken from Granma)

The Articulation arose within the context of an attempt to produce a soft coup in our country based on a fake hunger strike, allegedly protesting the imprisonment of a representative, a self-proclaimed Trump supporter, for contempt of police authority. Among its signatories are individuals with known records as U.S. employees promoting subversion in Cuba, among them, journalists for media financed by right-wing organizations that have historically served as cover for interference in countries of geopolitical interest to this country.

They do not seek dialogue; they seek to legitimize themselves as the “democratic” alternative promoting a change of system in Cuba, which is, politically speaking, another agenda altogether. In this sense, many of the signatories of the group’s statement speak of political plurality, not only in terms of recognizing that this exists, which is undeniable, but to advocate a multiparty system, which would provide access to the Cuban National Assembly and state administration bodies to economic and political interests of the center and the right, which, in effect, are nothing more than class interests associated with the United States, as happens in most of the region, and as occurred in Cuba before 1959. After gaining this foothold, the plan would be to push for the restoration of capitalism. This, above all, is an unconstitutional demand that is contrary to the consensus expressed by the majority of the Cuban people when we voted to approve our new Magna Carta.

The concept of democracy in the group’s narrative is void of meaning. There is no genuine concern for a deepening of democracy in Cuban society, given that the Articulation is clearing the way for the reactionary right, the main threat to democracy in the region and the world.

The building of a sovereign nation is not guaranteed, when playing a leading role are individuals who work for the media and organizations of a foreign government, and demand mediation for the resolution of our internal disagreements. It is no coincidence that one of the participants in the discussion in question prepared a letter addressed to the U.S. government requesting that conditions be placed on the lifting of the blockade of our country. This is not only an open act of surrender, but also sabotages the work of our diplomats, in genuine representation of our people, to end the blockade and move toward resuming normalized relations with this country.

They do not represent the voice of Cuban civil society, as they pretend. This presumptuous posture leaves out more than 86% of Cubans, including all who, while maintaining criticism of our reality and anxious for a more prosperous country, do not intend to abandon socialism or national sovereignty.

They declare themselves democratic socialists intending, in concrete terms, to avoid distinguishing themselves from the liberal narrative that has been used by the international right wing to implement neoliberalism around the world. Abstractions and nonsense such as “Democracy without surnames,” or “The opposite of capitalism is not socialism but democracy” have been touted, clearly demonstrating the ideological foundation of the “dialogue” advocated by the Articulation.

I believe that dialogue and debate must continue to be essential components of our political system. And I say continue, because dialogue in Cuba is obviously not just beginning now that the Articulation has called for it. I think we can agree on that, although the mechanisms our institutions and organizations have to promote participation, and make discussion more effective in improving their work as public servants, must be perfected and adjusted to the dynamics of a society that has changed.

The unmasking of the farce proposed, disguised as dialogue by those earning millions of dollars allocated for subversion in Cuba, through sponsorships, events and publications on the Internet, which for the first time have managed to manufacture opinion leaders who have attracted minority sectors of the Cuban intelligentsia, not only requires denunciation, but also demands that we renovate our ways of communicating, mobilizing and doing politics, building consensus, promoting dialogue that is authentic and deeply connected to the people, and participation in resolving the fundamental problems of the country. This is the only way to eliminate any opening that could be exploited by the regime change operation, which, far from diminishing in the coming months and years, will increase.

Those of us who have lived in other societies have noticed that Cuba is perhaps the country in the region where the people most deliberate and discuss political issues whenever and wherever they may be, during the everyday course of their lives.

The Constitution was recently discussed as the Policy Guidelines were discussed previously, in an unprecedented exercise of popular participation, unseen in any contemporary liberal democracy, although this does not count as dialogue according to the promoters of imported politics. It would seem that dialogue is only that which is conducted through channels alien to Cuban institutionality and in open hostility to the Revolution, no matter how much they try to pass it off as something else.

Dialogue yes, but as Hero of the Republic of Cuba Fernando Gonzalez would say, no dialogue should mask an attempt to destroy the Revolution and socialism.

(Taken for Granma)

“And it is best to say so without boasting, as those who are truly determined to do what is promised.

“May those who, lacking the most elementary common sense, dare to consider as possible any kind of invasion of our soil, understand the monstrosity of their mistake, because we could save ourselves many sacrifices. But, should this happen, unfortunately, above all given the misfortune of those who might attack us, let there be no doubt that here, in this land called Cuba, here in the midst of this people called Cuban, they will be obliged to fight us as long as we have a drop of blood left, they will be obliged to fight t us as long as we have an atom of life left.

“We will never attack anyone, no one will ever have any reason to fear us, but whoever cares to attack us must know, without fear of being mistaken, that Cubans of today are not in the year 1898 or 1899, we are not at the beginning of the century, that we are not in the decade of 1910 or 1920 or 1930, with Cubans of this decade, with Cubans of this generation, with Cubans of this era – not because we are better, but because we have had the good fortune to see more clearly, because we have had the good fortune to receive the example and the lessons of history; the lessons that cost so much sacrifice to our ancestors, the lessons that cost so much humiliation and so much pain to past generations, because we have been fortunate enough to receive that lesson – with this generation they will have to fight, if they attack us, until the last drop of blood….

“And unintimidated by the threats, unintimidated by the maneuvers, remembering that one day we were only 12 men and that, comparing our strength with the strength of the dictatorship, our strength was so minute and so insignificant that no one would have believed it possible to resist; but, we believed that we could resist then, as we believe today that we resist any aggression. And not only that we will be able to resist any aggression, but that we will be able to defeat any aggression, and that once again we have no other choice than the one with which we began the revolutionary struggle: that of freedom or death. Only now freedom means more: freedom means homeland. And our dilemma is homeland or death”.

Excerpts from speech delivered by Comandante en jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, March 5, 1960, during the funeral ceremony for victims killed in the explosion of the La Coubre ship in Havana Bay, a terrorist act committed by the United States.

(Taken from Granma)

Before his indecorous exit, Trump did Cuban counterrevolutionaries the favor of putting Cuba on his list of state sponsors of terrorism, another measure among the 200-plus his administration adopted with the intention of opening a hole in the map and sinking us to the bottom of the ocean.

What was the reaction of the “independent press? Whose work expands daily with the tenacity of the grateful who, for every stroke of the pen, get paid: Oh, happy day! The same media which, in an entirely unprofessional manner, are incapable of covering up their distortions and lies, always presented in a tendentious tone, when referring to the difficulties the country is facing, in the midst of the pandemic and the blockade sponsored by their protectors in the North, along with our own deficiencies (no denying it).

Although journalism requires constant criticism, the way in which these media exercise it is brutally counterrevolutionary, although they may deny the term, coined at the time of the French Revolution to describe the monarchy’s maneuvers intended to restore the previous socio-political order.

This is, in fact, their aspiration and that of others who, using a softer and even paternal tone, lend themselves to efforts to hide the essence of what is really at stake.

By their actions you will know them.

Just like the provocation that took place this past January 27 – one more chapter from the anti-patriotic machine – in which, cell phones in hand, they gathered in front of the Ministry of Culture, interested not in covering a cultural dialogue, but to participate in a planned disturbance and later disseminate to the world a vision of “Cuba can’t take it anymore,” a cheap script that, within hours, was picked up by the Miami counterrevolution to demand – amidst a social media uproar – that the new U.S. President follow the path of his megalomaniac predecessor and maintain all sanctions.

The plan is more than clear, but this does not prevent some defenders of the “cell phone gesture” from embracing Voltairean theories full of contradictions regarding concepts such as tolerance, universal morals and human rights, addressed by an enlightened man, but also an elitist critic of the “populace” and with more than a nod of consideration for the absolutist sovereign.

Voltaire’s theories are recognized for their undeniable civilizing magnitude, but are malleable, and can serve those who cling to them as victims and, from this stance, move to the level of aggressors against a nation they would like to see subjected to the dictates of those who, since time immemorial, have operated the counterrevolutionary machinery.

Or what is the same: offering for sale, with no shame whatsoever, the sacred value of sovereignty.

More than enough to dismiss them.

And dialogue with those who would like to do so based on respect and serious arguments, which in truth would mean not much to discuss, without interference from external sources, and for the good of all.

(Taken from Granma)

Among those fitting this profile are several highly visible faces and audible voices participating in the reality show produced January 27 outside the Ministry of Culture. If they were seriously interested in addressing artistic or cultural problems, and the functioning of this institution, why did they refuse the opportunity?

In this recent period, I have witnessed complicated, difficult, heated debates among artists, intellectuals and cultural promoters, during which, on more than one occasion, disagreements and divergent opinions emerged. I have attended artistic performances characterized by critical assertions, even highly critical, related to our national reality, and can testify to the fact that via constructive interaction, and analysis that is not exempt from passion, concerns and legitimate disagreements have been addressed.

But this was not the case during the January 27 events, as I observed in the manipulators participating, fishing in muddy waters. The confrontational tone was set well beforehand and the audience that needed to witness the spectacle had been previously arranged. Against the Revolution, everything; with the Revolution, nothing. Zero dialogue, aggressive positions. Vulgar words, common places.

After the planned performance came the summoning of the triangulated media financed by U.S. agencies and institutions; live broadcasts from the site of the events via social networks; the media harassment of the Minister and other authorities; the violation of the right to privacy in communications between the provocateurs and the representatives they targeted.

All this to create an artificial atmosphere of chaos, intolerance and ungovernability, reproduced by the enemy media in collusion. They had even prepared a sort of international panel discussion, offering analysis ready to be consumed, more like a junk food buffet, more from abroad than Cuban, to be used on international platforms.

Silvio Rodríguez unambiguously exposed the falsity of the episode: “I have tried to view the mentioned video of Culture functionaries attacking the artists, but have not been able to do so. I saw one in which the deputy minister Fernando Rojas invites them several times to enter the ministry; then something very confusing occurs, some shouting, and there is a young man saying there are police with pistols present (which cannot be seen either). On two of the opposition’s web sites, to see the video, they request that you approve the cookies. If they are so interested in disseminating the supposed injustice, they should facilitate the process, right?”

The simulation failed. Using culture, one of our greatest strengths, it will be impossible to upset the table of the political system we have freely adopted.

(Taken from Granma)