They present a magazine photo, something fit for commercial advertising, and since they are desperately attempting to sell us a return to that “golden era,” they must get rid of everything in their way, sweeping away, one by one, all the steps taken by the Revolution to uphold the dignity of the people, returning our fields and cities to the social reality overcome by the Rebel Army victory of 1959.

What was lurking behind the neon lights of Cuba in the 1950s?

Behind the commercial scenery ran the blood left by the Batista dictatorship’s crimes, committed by institutions that served as models for repression in Latin America, including the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (BRAC), the Military Intelligence Service (SIM), the Naval Intelligence Service (SIN), the Maritime Police, the Bureau of Investigations and the National Police, true academies of torture and death.

Havana was a paradise, yes, but for the mafias controlling gambling, alcohol, drug and prostitution in a kingdom of impunity that grew as a “sin city,” alongside Las Vegas, with great advantages over the pearl of Nevada.

What happened in Havana stayed in Havana. There was no popular site without a drug stash, a gambling table, and prostitutes on hand.

Dazzling hotels and casinos were built with the country’s money, and the profits they generated were sent daily to the United States. It was a big “bisnes” thanks to Batista, the strong man who protected every scheme to fleece the people, using public financing for dirty businesses that were of absolutely no use to them.

Among the great public works that are featured today in anti-Cuba propaganda, allegedly indicative of the success of the bourgeois republic, many were based on corruption. State funds were given to companies owned by the regime’s authorities, who received millions of pesos for projects that cost thousands.

Batista reaped 35% of all “transactions,” that is, 35% of absolutely all spurious profits from corruption.

In this “marvelous” Cuba, thousands of people occupied positions in ministries and were paid without lifting a finger. This was the famous “free ride” instituted in the republic, appointments made as payment for favors, political commitments, etc.

While the capital was filled with casinos and dream hotels, cathedrals to deceit and fraud, the other side of the city lived in painfully extreme poverty.

Hundreds of miserable slums were erected. Las Yaguas, the Cueva del Humo and so many other destitute neighborhoods grew in the shadow of the new ostentatious constructions.

In the neighborhood of Las Yaguas, as can be seen in the magazine Bohemia, thousands of families lived in subhuman conditions, sheltered under palm fronds, used by the cigar industry to wrap tobacco leaves, and recycled as walls and roofs after they were discarded outside factories.

Girls from the countryside were tricked into traveling to the capital, to be exploited in the infamous prostitution belt that served hotels, casinos and cabarets.

The island paradise belonged to Meyer Lansky, Santo Trafficante, Amleto Battisti Lora, Joe Stassi, Amadeo Barletta and Fulgencio Batista; five capos, one president, all in one and the same mafia.

The Sicilian Santo Trafficante, second in command of the so-called Havana Empire, the visible head of U.S. mafia operations in Cuba, with his headquarters in the Sans Souci cabaret, beginning in the 1930s took charge of bringing in cocaine from the Colombian city of Medellin and heroin from Marseilles.

For these trafficking operations, they founded airline companies in Cuba that flew in and out of military airports, serviced with equipment and by technicians from the Cuban air force, protected by the army and the national police. Havana was also the most important money laundering center in the Americas.

The Cuba which the counterrevolution presents toady as “a developed country,” was more accurately documented in the 1953 census, which determined that 68.5% of campesinos lived in miserable huts with palm roofs and dirt floors, 85% had no running water and 54% lacked any type of sanitary services.

Only 11% of families consumed milk, 4% meat and 2% eggs; 44% were illiterate, and, according to the National Economic Council, some 738,000 persons were unemployed – in a population of six million.

Almost 3,000,000 Cubans had no access to electricity, since the infrastructure reached only 56% of the country.

When the Revolution triumphed, there were 600,000 children without schools and 10,000 teachers without jobs. One and a half million inhabitants over six years of age had no schooling, barely 17% of young people between 15 and 19 years of age received any kind of education and the population over 15 years of age had an average educational level below the third grade.

In the cities, one out of every five inhabitants could not read or write; in the countryside, one out of every two campesinos was illiterate, and the few schools that existed were abandoned.

Only 20% of the arable land was cultivated, while 60% of the food was imported from the USA. More than half of the best land in the country was in foreign hands, and the properties of the United Fruit and West Indian companies stretched from the north coast all the way to the southern coastline of the former Oriente province.

According to data from Inter Press Service (ips), when the Revolution took power, the nation’s housing stock was seriously deteriorated, given the severe shortage of dwellings, notable differences between the countryside and the city, the variability of the materials used and the existence of poverty belts in the main cities, especially Havana. A 1953 study, coordinated by the U.S. Census Bureau, concluded that only 13% of homes could be considered in good condition.

In the capital, existing on the one hand was an ostentatious waterfront with exclusive bourgeoisie housing developments, luxurious apartment buildings and lavish residences, and on the other, huge areas of poor neighborhoods.

Given the conditions of economic underdevelopment that plagued Cuba, water resources were poorly administered. Of the 300 settlements with more than 1,000 inhabitants, only 114 had water distribution aqueducts and 12 had sewage systems.

At the beginning of 1959, 16 chlorination facilities were in operation and, of the four water treatment plants in Camagüey, Santa Clara, Palma Soriano and Cienfuegos, two lacked the required chemicals and one had not been operating for three years.

Havana’s sewage system was almost 50 years old and totally inadequate.

The only sewage treatment plant, located in Santa Clara, was abandoned, and sewage systems in Holguín, Guantánamo and Pinar del Río had been under construction for several years.

There were only 13 small reservoirs in the nation, located in Camagüey, Las Villas, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba.

This collection of facts, of course, does not match the commercial restoration presented by those who yearn for a return to the 50s, accepted by the naive who “swallow” the deception. Nor will they acknowledge that the cause of all this was Cuba’s status as a neocolony of the United States, a condition that plunged the country into the most brutal levels of underdevelopment and dependence, at the mercy of an oligarchy of military assassins, corrupt authorities and organized crime.

Nor will the restorers admit that the miserable reality suffered on the island was the driving force behind the warmth the people felt for the guerrilla insurgents in the mountains, fighting for a radical revolution in the country – the same Revolution that is today undefeated, heroically resisting, and aspiring to a prosperity obstructed by those who desire and invoke it, at the cost of selling the entire nation and our dignity, as was the case in the 50s they long for.

(Taken from Granma)

Yesterday, the town of Madruga, in the province of Mayabeque, awoke to the thundering sound of horns and the energetic roar of youth, when the Freedom Caravan stopped at La Palmita, as part of the re-enactment of the Rebel Army’s journey from Santiago de Cuba to Havana.

The Freedom Caravan also passed through the Matanzas towns of Colón, Perico, Jovellanos and Limonar, along the historic route, before reaching the provincial capital, where given the COVID-19 situation in the province, the commemoration was limited to a simple but heartfelt demonstration of love and gratitude to the rebels, and especially to Fidel, always in the forefront, yesterday and today.

(Taken from Granma)

The answer to this question does not lie in his physical stature or athletic passion, not even in his ability to train his thinking and devour every chapter of the homeland’s history. There was something much more powerful, something that led him to devote himself entirely to humanity, that gave him a vocation he could not renounce, of doing everything he could to transform and create, as the most sacred duty of a man. What made Fidel a natural leader, with exemplary humility and disinterest, the architect of this enduring work, was the greatest gift Martí left him and his generation: human sensibility.

Talent and willpower do not flourish, dreams do not take hold, nor are challenges surmountable, if the heart is not touched. One must feel, identify with just causes, and become part of them, if the destiny of humanity is to truly move in a positive direction. No one who does not feel the pain of others, who cannot put themselves in the place of the homeless, no one unwilling to take action, remaining passive and believing that nothing will ever change, no such person will leave much of a legacy in history.

Yes, the boy from Birán, beginning at a very young age, learned respect, the value of every human being, that neither social class or the color of one’s skin define a person, and that, on the contrary, it is our values that define who we are.

But, in the Cuba of his childhood, adolescence and youth, these characteristics made a huge difference. Poverty denied the most elemental human rights; humble origins meant discrimination and disadvantage; the lack of resources implied little or no ability to meet basic needs.

These were the reasons that led Fidel to assault the Moncada’s walls, that put him on the path of no return – of victory or death – to do justice for Martí, for the people, for Cuba. If anyone ever doubted the determination he felt, his self-defense statement is the clearest explanation of the reasons he and his brothers went to such extremes and were absolutely sure that their act of incalculable dimensions would serve as a call to rebellion that could no longer be silenced.

There were no sugar-coated phrases or arguments used manipulatively by the orator, only harsh realities, truths laid bare, thrown into the face of the dictatorship with dignity. The truths of a people with no right to the land, to health or education, who could not dream of a decent home, or regular work. From this moment on,

Fidel Castro became much more than his own lawyer, much more than the attorney of those who chose armed struggle with him, but rather the advocate of the humble and abandoned, to whom history would later give the opportunity to vindicate themselves.

That young man who could have chosen the sizable income of a law firm or the comfortable life of a landowner, was not born to turn his back on the world around him. He learned to take a critical view, to develop his opinions, to construct solid arguments. He chose duty and devoted his existence to this duty, without ever losing his will to live and feel as his people lived and felt.

These were the values that also won him the respect of his comrades, since his keen awareness of others was always evident, his unequaled consideration for every single revolutionary in the Sierra Maestra or on the plains. He always listened to and defended women, opening doors to women who, on their own merits, assumed a leading role in every one of the stages of the revolutionary process. He respected his enemies, and on more than a few occasions during the armed struggle, gave them lessons in civics and fairness.

He felt the pain of farmworkers, and gave campesinos title to the land they had always worked but never aspired to own; he saw the frustration and abandon in the eyes of the illiterate, and launched the literacy campaign. He rejected exploitation and founded a country based on honest, dignified work, in which workers were always heard and represented. This was the Fidel who moved forward with the nationalization of industry, as an absolute necessity to end the bleeding of Cuba by the North; who before the world declared the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution, thus radicalizing the position in defense of the majority’s wellbeing taken by the society being constructed.

He was the Commander in Chief of the truth, of the highest standards of transparency. He climbed on a tank in Girón because he knew that the militia was engaged in hand to hand combat with the enemy and he needed to be there. No one could stop him.

No one could stop him when the fury of Hurricane Flora was ravaging the island, risking his own life to personally direct the rescue operations to save his people, a people with absolute confidence in him. How much love for his people this immense man felt, visiting one hospital room after another when the hemorrhagic dengue epidemic was taking lives.

He shared the pain of Cuban families mourning the loss of their loved ones in cruel terrorist attacks, conveying in fiery language, on every one of these difficult moments, the confidence and certainty that every life cut short was one more reason to hold onto, ever more tightly, the self-determination we as a people had won to chart our own path, and use every national or international tribune available to unmask those who, presenting themselves as our saviors, sought to hide their hate for any country intent upon ending centuries of subjugation.

We saw him embrace the children of Chernobyl, opening our doors to give them the opportunity to recover their health, their dreams and smiles, after the terrible nuclear accident.

Fidel taught us that a people cannot live only for itself, that a country is only truly great when it is capable of giving of itself to the world, that is, to humanity. He showed us that solidarity is an unescapable principle for those who consider themselves revolutionaries. Under this principle, we contributed to ending apartheid in Africa, and travel the earth in white lab coats bearing hope after natural disasters, providing assistance free of charge to millions with no access to for-profit healthcare systems, confronting diseases like Ebola and the horrendous epidemic caused by the new coronavirus.

History and daily life gave this impetuous young man maturity, allowing him to understand how to defend Martí, how Cuba was obliged to become a beacon for all of America. Thus the continent’s progressive leaders have always enjoyed the support of our island and timely condemnation of imperialist crimes, persecution, coups, and constant interference in the internal affairs of sovereign nations.

We have faced aggressions of all kinds: economic, political and mediatic. All have failed before the moral strength of this nation, with Fidel’s name tattooed on its chest, opting for continuity without hesitation, regardless of his death, irreversibly united having also learned from him that dividing a people is the easiest way to defeat them.

Thus August is, and will always be, the month of Fidel’s birthday, the month in which we will celebrate his life no matter how many years pass, because his physical disappearance cannot erase such a prodigious existence, with a legacy that transcends all time, that transcends flesh and bones.

The world would be a very different place, if the power-hungry could embrace even a bit of his visionary thought. We would be stronger today, more capable of facing situations that have universal impact, beyond our political, ideological and systematic differences, and we would think more about saving the human race, a species which, as Fidel warned, is in danger of extinction.

Although we clearly cannot expect some minds to change – as long as capital dominates the destinies of millions around the world, using them as raw material in its implacable machinery – we can do our part. And yes, we do so in Fidel’s honor, in the name of all those who gave their lives for ours.

Congratulations, Comandante en Jefe, not only for another year of your infinite life, but for being, above all, human. For having kept your feet firmly on the ground, your eyes on the people, and your heart beating for the common good.

Here we are, standing tall, of our own free will, because this people -Fidel’s people – never surrenders; because there are no doubts about the path taken; because we believe a better world is possible and we will not forego our part in making it happen.

(Source: Granma)

The Court of Urgency, which heard Case 37 in the Palace of Justice, could not ignore the plaintiff’s request to defend himself. One day that young cultured lawyer, a prisoner in Isle of Pines, reaffirmed his demand in the corresponding court. At the same time, from the prison itself, he made sure the horrendous crimes committed in Moncada and Bayamo were denounced, and wrote a text entitled ‘For suffering Cuba.’ Its publication was entrusted to two women: Haydée Santamaría and Melba Hernández, who had been sentenced to eight months in prison in the Guanajay Women’s Prison, while their defender, Dr. Baudilio Castellano, managed to have their presence during the assault the result of a noble motive, as nurses with Dr. Mario Muñoz, murdered in their presence. That small pamphlet recounted these crimes.

The impact of the pamphlet circulated underground moved all who read it. Fidel then gave Haydée and Melba another responsibility: publishing the his self-defense statement which he improvised at the trial and would reconstruct on the Isle of Pines: History will absolve me. The mission was accomplished. The pamphlet circulated throughout Cuba, reaching even the Sierra Maestra mountains.

This is how this indispensable document denouncing the dictatorship’s crimes and presenting the Moncada program was developed. The people of Cuba, in their immense majority, assumed it as their banner to demand amnesty. This demand became the great battle waged by the people with truth as their weapon.

Politicians wanted to return to the electoral struggle, which the Batista regime was proposing in order to remain in power. But to do so, Fidel and his comrades would have to be freed.

Thus it became indispensable for the two traditional rivals to sign the amnesty law. It was naturally approved with the provision that all accusations and cases be dropped, including those filed against the military for their Moncada crimes.

On May 15, 1955, the combatants were released from prison. They would soon be in Havana. The railway station was overtaken by the people, waiting for the arrival of the train from Batabanó. The press would publish Fidel’s statements: “The national conscience is reborn, to try to drown it will bring an unprecedented catastrophe.” This was the language of the only leader accepted by the majority of the people and who would very soon find it impossible to access a tribune. Then he declared: “The doors to the civil struggle have been closed to me, thus, loyal to Martí, I think that the time has come to take our rights, not ask for them, to grasp them, instead of begging for them.”

And later: “… there is no other solution than that of 68 and 95.” He was only in Havana for six weeks. Then came the Granma expedition, the Sierra Maestra and victory.

(Source: Granma)

(Council of State transcript / GI translation)

SANTIAGO women and men;

Compatriots of all Cuba:

We gather today to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the revolutionary triumph of January 1st, and we do so again in Santiago de Cuba, cradle of the Revolution, here in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery, where the immortal remains of many of the best children of the nation are venerated, very close to the tombs of the National Hero, of the Father and Mother of the Homeland, and of the Comandante en Jefe of the Cuban Revolution.

I do not come here to speak in a personal capacity; I do so in the name of the heroic sacrifices of our people, and of the thousands of fighters who gave their lives over more than 150 years of struggle.

It seems incredible that destiny has reserved us the privilege of being able to address our compatriots on a day like today, commemorating six decades of triumph, an occasion on which, under Fidel’s command, the Cuban people attained political power for the first time, and the Mambises were able to enter Santiago de Cuba victorious, coincidentally 60 years after the establishment of absolute U.S. imperialist domination of Cuba.

A few months ago, in La Demajagua, we gathered to remember the 150th anniversary of the beginning of Cuba’s independence wars, October 10, 1868; a date that marks the beginning of our Revolution, which survived moments of bitterness and disunity, like the Pact of Zanjón, and brilliant episodes like that carried out by Antonio Maceo in the Baraguá Protest.

The Revolution was revived, in 1895, thanks to the genius and ability of Martí to bring together the best and most experienced leaders of the Ten Years’ War, and prepare the “Necessary War” against Spanish colonialism.

When the colonial army was practically defeated, with little combative morale, besieged by the Mambises across almost all of the island and depleted by tropical diseases which, in 1897, to mention just one example, caused 201,000 losses among its troops; the victory was usurped by the U.S. intervention and the military occupation of the country, which gave way to a long period of oppression and corrupt governments, subservient to its hegemonic designs.

Not even in these difficult circumstances was the redemptive fire of the Cuban people extinguished, manifested in figures of the stature of Baliño, Mella, Villena, Guiteras and Jesús Menéndez, among many others who did not resign themselves to living in dishonor and ignominy.

Nor was the Centenary Generation, which under the leadership of Fidel assaulted the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks on July 26, 1953, willing to tolerate, 100 years after Martí’s birth, the crimes and abuses of a bloody tyranny, completely subordinated to the interests of the United States.

Moments of profound pain and sadness ensued, after the setback and the vile assassination of many of the revolutionary fighters participating in these actions, powerfully denounced by Fidel in his historic defence “History will absolve me,” which became the program of the Revolution. A few meters from here lay the remains of the fallen on that July 26, and other martyrs of the insurrectional feat, including also the brave young Santiago people of the clandestine struggle, and the children of this city who fell in glorious internationalist missions.

In the hard years of imprisonment and ill-treatment, the fervor and commitment to recommence the struggle did not falter; the prestige and authority of the revolutionary leader grew to join new forces against the dictatorship.

There was no rest during exile in Mexico; it served to prepare the next and decisive stage of battle that brought us on the Granma yacht to Las Coloradas on December 2, 1956. The delay in arriving to Cuban coasts, due to the hazardous voyage, prevented the scheduled synchronization with the Uprising of Santiago de Cuba, on November 30, organized by the bold and courageous young leader of the July 26 Movement, Frank País García, who had not yet turned 22, his age when brutally murdered by the henchmen of the tyranny, July 30, 1957.

Neither could the disaster of Alegría de Pío, which almost annihilated the expeditionaries, extinguish Fidel’s optimism and faith in victory, convictions that led him to exclaim on December 18 when we were reunited, with just seven rifles: Now we have won the war!

Photo: Estudios Revolución
From Santiago de Cuba, as a result of the tireless efforts of the clandestine movement led by Frank País, we received in the Sierra Maestra the first reinforcement of young combatants, weapons and ammunition, which was a crucial contribution to the fighting capacity of the nascent Rebel Army.

Months of incessant fighting ensued, first in the Sierra Maestra, and then the struggle spread to other regions with the opening of new fronts and columns, and with the defeat of the great offensive of the Batista troops against the First Front led by Fidel, which marked the beginning of the strategic counter-offensive and the radical turning point of the war that led to the defeat of the regime and the seizure of revolutionary power.

Already on January 8, 1959, upon his arrival in Havana, the Commander of the Revolution expressed, (I quote): “The tyranny has been overthrown, the joy is immense and yet there is still much to be done. We do not fool ourselves into believing that from now on everything will be easy, perhaps from now on everything will be more difficult.” (End of quote).

It did not take long for Fidel’s premonitory words to become a reality. A stage of struggle began that shook the foundations of Cuban society. On May 17, just four and a half months after the triumph, in the Comandancia de la Plata, in the heart of the Sierra Maestra, the first Agrarian Reform Law was promulgated in compliance with the Moncada Program, an event that upset the powerful economic interests of U.S. monopolies and the Creole bourgeoisie, which redoubled the conspiracies against the revolutionary process.

The nascent Revolution was subjected to all types of aggressions and threats, such as the actions of armed gangs financed by the U.S. government; assassination plans against Fidel and other leaders; the murder of young literacy teachers, many of them still adolescents; sabotage and terrorism throughout the country with the terrible toll of 3,478 dead and 2,099 disabled; the economic, commercial and financial blockade, and other political and diplomatic measures in order to isolate us; the campaigns of lies to defame the Revolution and its leaders; the mercenary invasion at Playa Girón in April 1961; the October Crisis in 1962, when the military invasion of Cuba was being prepared in the United States; and an endless list of hostile acts against our homeland.

No one can deny that the Revolution that was born that January 1st, has not had a minute’s calm over 60 years. We have seen twelve U.S. administrations that have not ceased in the effort to force a regime change in Cuba, one way or another, with varying degrees of aggressiveness.

The heroic people of yesterday and today, proud of their national history and culture, committed to the ideals and the work of the Revolution, which four generations of Cubans have already joined, have managed to resist and win over the six decades of uninterrupted struggle in defense of socialism, always based on the closest unity around the Party and Fidel.

Only thus can we understand the feat of having withstood the tough years of the Special Period, when we were left alone in the middle of the West, 90 miles from the United States. Then, nobody in the world would have bet a penny on the survival of the Revolution. However, the challenge was endured and overcome without violating a single one of the ethical and humanist principles of the revolutionary process, and was worthy of the invaluable support of the solidarity movements that never stopped believing in Cuba.

Now once again, the U.S. government seems to be taking the course of confrontation with Cuba, and presenting our peaceful and solidary country as a threat to the region. It resorts to the sinister Monroe Doctrine to try to roll back history to the shameful era in which subjugated governments and military dictatorships joined it in isolating Cuba.

Increasingly, senior officials of the current administration, with the complicity of certain lackeys, disseminate new falsehoods and again try to blame Cuba for all the ills of the region, as if these were not the result of ruthless neoliberal policies that cause poverty, hunger, inequality, organized crime, drug trafficking, political corruption, abuse and deprivation of workers’ rights, displaced people, the eviction of campesinos, the repression of students, and precarious health, education and housing conditions for the vast majority.

They are the same who declare the intention to continue forcing the deterioration of bilateral relations, and promote new measures of economic, commercial and financial blockade to restrict the performance of the national economy, cause additional constraints on the consumption and welfare of the people, hinder even further foreign trade, and curb the flow of foreign investment. They say they are willing to challenge International Law, to contravene the rules of international trade and economic relations, and aggressively apply extraterritorial measures and laws against the sovereignty of other states.

I reiterate our willingness to coexist in a civilized manner, despite the differences, in a relationship of peace, respect and mutual benefit with the United States. We have also clearly indicated that Cubans are prepared to resist a confrontational scenario, which we do not want, and we hope that the levelest heads in the U.S. government can avoid.

Cuba is accused again, when it has been demonstrated that external debt, uncontrolled migratory flows, the plundering of natural resources, are the result of the domination of transnational corporations in the continent.

The force of truth has thwarted the lies, and history has put the events and protagonists in their places.

All that can be attributed to the Cuban Revolution and the epic written by this heroic people is the responsibility that emanates from their example, as a symbol of full independence, victorious resistance, social justice, altruismand internationalism.

As part of Our America, our respect and solidarity with sister nations has, and will be, invariable; in which more than 347,700 Cuban doctors and health workers have offered their services, many of them in remote and difficult places, and more than 27,200 young people have been professionally trained. This shows confidence in Cuba.

A few weeks ago, thousands of Cuban doctors who offered their services in Brazil returned, with dignity, with the recognition and affection of millions of patients, especially from rural areas and indigenous populations, whom the new President slandered and condemned, in order to destroy that social program and with it fulfill the directions of the extreme right in Florida, which has hijacked United States policy toward Cuba, to the pleasure of the most reactionary forces of the current U.S. government.

Sixty years after the triumph, we can affirm that we have seen it all before; we are not intimidated by the language of force or threats, they did not intimidate us when the revolutionary process was not yet consolidated, they will not even remotely achieve it now that the unity of the people is an indestructible reality; because if yesterday we were few, today we are an entire people defending their Revolution (Applause).

On July 26, here in Santiago, I explained that an adverse scenario had formed, and again the euphoria of our enemies had resurfaced, and the haste to materialize their dreams of destroying the example of Cuba. I also pointed out the conviction that the imperialist blockade of Venezuela, Nicaragua and our country was tightening. Events have confirmed that assessment.

After almost a decade of practicing unconventional warfare to prevent the continuity, or impede the return of progressive governments, Washington power circles sponsored coups – first a military coup to overthrow President Zelaya in Honduras, and later they resorted to parliamentary-judicial coups against Lugo in Paraguay, and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.

Photo: Juvenal Balán
They promoted rigged and politically motivated judicial proceedings, as well as campaigns of manipulation and discredit against leftist leaders and organizations, making use of monopoly control over mass media.

In this way, they succeeded in imprisoning compañero Lula da Silva, and deprived him of the right to be the Workers’ Party presidential candidate, to avoid his certain victory in the recent elections. I take this opportunity to appeal to all the honest political forces of the planet to demand his release, and an end to the attacks and judicial persecution against former presidents Dilma Rousseff, and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Those who entertained the illusion of the restoration of imperialist domination in our region should understand that Latin America and the Caribbean have changed, and so has the world.

For our part, we will continue to actively contribute to the processes of consensus and integration in the region, based on the concept of unity in diversity.

We have contributed to the peace process in Colombia, at the express request of its government, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and the National Liberation Army, and we will continue to do so, above all risks, grievances and difficulties.

The political and moral authority of Cuba is based on the history, conduct and united, conscious and organized support of the people.

Therefore, no threat will make us withdraw our solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The aggressive actions against this sister nation must cease. As we warned some time ago, the repeated declaration of Venezuela as a threat to the national security of the United States, the open calls for a military coup against its constitutional government, the military training exercises undertaken in the vicinity of Venezuelan borders, as well as tensions and incidents in the area, can only lead to serious instability and unpredictable consequences.

The region resembles a large prairie in times of drought. A single spark could cause an uncontrollable fire that would damage the national interests of all.

It is equally dangerous and unacceptable that the United States government unilaterally sanctions and also proclaims the Republic of Nicaragua a threat to its national security. We reject the attempts of the discredited OAS, Organization of American States, to interfere in the affairs of this sister nation.

Faced with the Monroe Doctrine, the principles of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed in Havana by Heads of State and Government, which some allies of the United States now seek to disregard, must be applied and defended, for the good of all.

The greatest lesson that revolutionaries and progressive movements can draw from the situation that has shaped is that of never neglecting unity with the people, and not desisting in the struggle in defense of the interests of the oppressed, however difficult the circumstances.

For us, in the complex international situation, the words of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution remain entirely valid, on presenting his central report to the First Party Congress, in 1975, when he said: “As long as there is imperialism, the Party, the State and the people, will pay maximum attention to defense services. The revolutionary guard will never be neglected. History teaches all too eloquently that those who forget this principle do not survive the mistake.” (End of quote).

Correspondingly, we will continue to prioritize defense training tasks, at all levels, in the interests of safeguarding independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty and peace, based on the strategic concept of the War of the Entire People, as is reflected in the recently approved Constitution of the Republic.

It is our duty to meticulously prepare ourselves for all scenarios in advance, including the worst, not only on the military level; so that we leave no room for the bewilderment and improvisation that flourishes in those with scarce will when the time to act arrives, but with the optimism and confidence in victory that Fidel bequeathed to us, and in close contact with the people, we can find the best solution to any challenge that may arise.

Specifically, one challenge that we will face in the year that begins today is the economic situation, hard-pressed by the external finance strains, due to the losses of export revenues, and the tightening of the U.S. blockade and its extraterritorial effects.

As expressed by our Minister of Economy and Planning at the last session of the National Assembly, the cost to Cuba of this arbitrary measure, calculated according to internationally approved methodology, amounted to 4.321 billion dollars last year, equivalent to almost 12 million in damages every day, a fact that is overlooked by analysts who tend to question national economic performance.

Regardless of the blockade and its reinforcement, we Cubans have enormous internal reserves to exploit, without increasing the external debt. For this it is necessary, in the first place, to reduce all non-essential expenses and save more; increase and diversify exports; raise the efficiency of the investment process and enhance the participation of foreign investment, which, as stated in the guiding Party documents, is not a complement, but a fundamental element for development.

In that same scenario, in the National Assembly on December 22, the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, compañero Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, took stock of the state of the economy during 2018, and the plan for this year, where he stressed that the economic battle remains the fundamental and the most complex task, and added that it is that which today demands the most from all of us, because it is the task most anticipated by our people.

With this purpose, he explained that a more proactive, intelligent and concrete attitude is required of leaders, promoting – not hindering or delaying – reliable and specific solutions to problems, with the continuous and intense search for flexible and efficient responses. At the same time, he called for more coherence with the Conceptualization of the Economic and Social Model, and to be more systematic and precise in the implementation of the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Party and the Revolution.

It is opportune to state that the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba firmly supports the pronouncements and actions undertaken by compañero Díaz-Canel since he took office at the helm of the state and the government, including his work system, based on visits to territories and communities; the link with collectives and direct exchanges with the people; the promotion of the accountability of leaders through the press and on social media; as well as the systematic control of the main development programs and the promotion of a collective leadership and management style in state and government bodies.

Without wishing to make a hasty assessment, I can say that the process of transferring the main responsibilities to new generations is going well. I’d go further – it’s going very well, without setbacks or surprises, and we are confident that thus we will continue. (Applause)

Those of us young people who then had the privilege of fighting under Fidel’s command, more than 65 years ago, from the Moncada, the Granma, the Rebel Army, the clandestine struggle, Girón, the confrontation with counterrevolutionary gangs, the internationalist missions and up to the present, together with the heroic Cuban people, are deeply satisfied, happy and confident to see, with our own eyes, how the new generations assume the mission of continuing the construction of socialism, the only guarantee of national independence and sovereignty.

It is 60 years since January 1, 1959. However, the Revolution has not aged, it is still young, and this is not merely rhetoric, it is historic confirmation, since from the very first moments its protagonists were young people, and this has been the case throughout these first six decades.

The revolutionary process is not circumscribed to the biological lifetime of those who initiated it, but to the will and commitment of the young people who ensure its continuity. The new generations have the duty to ensure that the Cuban Revolution is forever a Revolution of young people, and at the same time, a Socialist Revolution of the humble, by the humble, and for the humble. (Applause)

On this significant date, the fitting tribute to Cuban women can not be absent, from Mariana to today, always present in our struggles for the emancipation of the homeland and in the construction of the society we are building today. (Applause)

Compañeras and compañeros:

The Second Ordinary Session of the current legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power approved the new Constitution of the Republic, which will be submitted to a referendum February 24.

Previously, for a period of almost three months, a broad popular consultation process was undertaken, in which citizens freely expressed their opinions on the content of the draft, leading to the modification of 60% of the articles, in a clear demonstration of the profoundly democratic nature of the Revolution, where the major decisions that define the life of the nation are devised with the contribution of all Cubans. Our media provided detailed coverage of the process, which frees me from elaborating on the subject. In a few days, a tabloid of the definitive text of the new Constitution will begin to be distributed.

I only wish to add the confidence that once again our noble and courageous people will demonstrate at the polls on February 24, the majority support for their Revolution and Socialism, ratifying the Constitution in the year in which we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first Magna Carta of Cuba, approved in Guáimaro by the initiators of the war for independence.

After 60 years of struggle, sacrifices, efforts and victories, we see a free, independent country, the master of its own destiny. On imagining tomorrow, the work done allows us to glimpse a dignified and prosperous future for the Homeland.

Bearing in mind Cubans’ heroic history of struggle, on behalf of our people, with total optimism and confidence in the future, I can exclaim:

May the Cuban Revolution live on forever!

Thank you.

(Ovation)

‘We will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution with Fidel, Marti, Cespedes and Mariana Grajales’, the presidential office wrote in its @PresidenciaCuba Twitter account.

In its message on the social network, the Presidency released statements made on the eve by the first secretary of the Communist Party in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, Lazaro Exposito, with details about the celebration.

Exposito pointed out in the radio and television program ‘En Línea contigo’ (In line with your) that the event will be attended by a thousand people from Santiago, while another two thousand will be able to see it on a giant screen that will be placed in the Heredia theatre.

It also meant the symbolism that represents celebrating the triumph of the Revolution in the patrimonial cemetery that houses the remains of the historical leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, the apostle of independence and national hero, Jose Marti, the mother of the homeland, Mariana Grajales, and other heroes.

(Prensa Latina)

After a January 1 when all of Cuba danced, the Ministry of Culture and local institutions announced the continuation of performances by children’s choirs and concert bands.

The National Ballet of Cuba presented its customary Gala performance of Don Quixote, on New Year’s Day, in Havana’s Alicia Alonso Gran Teatro, while the presentation scheduled January 5 is dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the Federation of University Students (FEU).

Performances by the National Circus in Havana, La Colmenita children’s theater company in Artemisa, and movie premieres will likewise continue, along with celebrations in one of the country’s youngest provinces, Mayabeque, in honor of its 8th anniversary.

(Granma)

I recently revisited my photos from the 80s, when just graduated from the university, we brandished our youthful swords with enthusiasm, convinced that we were destined to establish, once and for all, revolutionary truth, reason, and justice, and I have drawn conclusions; our parents, back then, were younger than we are today. There were some who were never young, who did not attempt to change the world in their first years of life, even considering themselves self-sufficient. On the other hand, those who, as years and decades pass, never cease their efforts to change things, can never be considered old.

Little by little we discovered that the revolutionary vanguard is timeless, although it is very much a product of its time, connecting under the ground – where its roots grow – with previous vanguards, and is composed of men and women of all ages. If any doubts remain, Gómez and Martí, Baliño and Mella, can dispel them, but also the historic bridge that unites Martí and Fidel. If this were not the case, how can we explain the need revolutionary Latin Americans feel to call themselves Martianos, Sandinistas, Zapatistas, Bolivarianos, Fidelistas? The heroes of the past encourage those of the present, arguing with them like the passionate youth they are. They cannot be buried, they are comrades in the struggle. I am still moved remembering the magical instant when a million youth of all ages honored the Comandante en Jefe of the second half of the 20th century with the most stunning farewell a hero could receive: “I am Fidel,” shouted the people with fists raised, which simply meant, “We will not let you die.” Fidel had said the same of Martí, in the year of his centenary, but the times are different: Marti was abandoned, and Fidel is not.

We must learn how to identify a youth. Obviously, it’s not about how smooth your skin is or how black your hair, nor is it of any use to ask someone their age. These are confusing facts. Those who assaulted the Moncada were apparently just like their peers, but while they attacked the garrison, many others danced in the Carnival. We must not trust those who insist on going along with the majority view established by fashion and the corporate media, or the fatigue they have caused. On the other hand, the phrase, “what young people think” lends itself to manipulation, an over-used trick employed by older people to justify their desertion. Consensus is constructed – this is the job of revolutionaries – and to the degree that it responds to the needs of the majority, of the humble, it approaches the truth or not. The vanguard of young revolutionaries is intergenerational. There is no Party of the under-aged – they have dissimilar interests like the rest of society. There is rather a Party of youth of any age, that upholds the Communist ideal.

It is true that every generation contributes a different point of view, and that this perspective reveals aspects overlooked and sensibilities not previously perceived. However, the moral axis of revolutionaries is justice, regardless of the century in which they live – the justice that is possible and that which appears not to be. Thus, the inequalities of the day – the inevitable ones, those that are or appear to be “fair” – must be temporary. The revolutionary does not accept them. This is the horizon, the hazy image in the fog, toward which we are rowing: all the justice. No one who has disappeared rows, if he or she is not called upon. And the relief rowers are indispensable; it is imperative that we all play a role in this colossal effort.

The event that motivates this reflection is clear: the 60th year of the Revolution just begun. And we, its first children, are coming of age. The Cuban Revolution has now existed longer than the European socialist states. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is no longer. We have been the reference for other, more recent Latin American revolutions, without any one attempting to copy our methods.

Very close to our coasts, lying in wait, with claws at the ready, are the predators of big capital. Some friends argue for surrender. They say, empathically: We cannot ask the Cuban people to make more sacrifices. I ask myself if the surrender of our conquests is a minor sacrifice; if the dependent capitalism that awaits us in the stagnant water at the bottom of the cliff, toward which they push us, would not increase the people’s suffering and rob us of the possibility of fighting for a better future. All the shortcomings that revolutionaries know well, the dissatisfaction, can be resolved if, and only if, we are capable of preserving the Revolution.

As the 60th year progresses, the adolescents of today will imagine us to be very old; it is only natural. We will commemorate other important dates: the 150th anniversary, for example, of the beginning of the War of Independence. Once, Fidel said that in Cuba there had been but one Revolution, that begun by Céspedes at La Demajagua. He made this statement half a century ago, when we were very young and did not know that our parents were, too. On that occasion, Fidel said, “We, as revolutionaries, must find a way – when we say our duty is to defend this land, defend this homeland, defend this Revolution – to remember that we are not defending the work of ten years, we must remember we are not defending the revolution of one generation: We must remember that we are defending the work of a hundred years!”

This also explains why the Cuban Revolution of 1959 did not go down the drain when the others collapsed. It explains the link between generations in a war that in order to be anti-colonial in the 19th century, and anti-imperialist in the 20th, needed to be anti-capitalist.

I am four months older than the Revolution that educated me, and as young as it is. A Revolution that renews itself, and to repeat, that re-founds itself. With the new year come an end and a beginning, that grant us the opportunity for mediation. I could find no better rallying cry than that of the young José Martí: “The legend has not died. Indomitable and strong, our sons prepare themselves, without fear, to repeat, and finish this time, once and for all, the feats of those brave, magnificent men who were nurtured by their roots. Those men who snatched their enemies’ weapons from their belts, who with sticks from trees began a campaign that lasted ten years, who broke the horses in the morning to ride into battle that afternoon.”

(Granma)

This potential is evident today in various projects currently underway, as Vice President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez noted during a visit here, which included a stop at the children’s theater La Toronjita Dorada, where he emphasized the quality of restoration work done and the young actors’ enthusiasm.

At the Santa Fe Heath Center, Díaz-Canel noted the impact of recent construction on the quality of life and services for the older adults living here, highlighting the state’s commitment to supporting this sector of the population.

He likewise visited Nueva Gerona’s renovated central boulevard and the new Computer Palace, where construction is complete and equipment being installed, as well as a location being rehabilitated to provide 44 homes. He called on authorities to take better advantage of local production of building materials to improve the island’s housing stock.

Díaz-Canel wished the population a happy New Year, congratulating them for the notable development underway, and recalled that to be celebrated in 2018 is the 40th anniversary of the internationalist schools project designed by Fidel, that began here, validating the values of a place that was given new life by the Revolution.

(Granma)

“Fidel! Fidel! Que tiene Fidel que los americanos no pueden con él!” (Fidel! Fidel! What is it that he has that the U.S. imperialists can’t defeat him!). Cuban Revolutionary chant

On August 13th Fidel Castro, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, turns 90. Progressive, anti-war and social justice forces across the world will join in the celebration of the life of the one of the world’s most influential and significant leaders. It is especially worthwhile and necessary to mark and valorize the life and times of a man whose heart, without missing a beat, has withstood more than 600 assassination attempts by U.S imperialism.

Fidel’s life and legacy loom large in world history and development. Fidel is part and parcel of the wave of anti-colonial and national liberation struggles that swept Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean in the second half of the 20th century. Fidel is integral to the Cuban-born and international revolutionary and anti-imperialist tradition, theory and practice, stretching from, among others, the Taino cacique, Hatuey, Toussaint L’Overture, Simon Bolivar, José Martí, Karl Marx, Vladmir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh.

Fidel does not transcend, Cuba and history, as some have opined, but, instead, is ineluctably and organically bound to the deepest aspirations of the Cuban people and the demands of the times. Fidel belongs to the world. He does not stand above or outside life, but flesh and blood, brain and bone, embodies the finest traditions of humanity.

His life encapsulates the struggle of the exploited and oppressed, epitomizing (as U.S. political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal articulated) “their historic power to transform our dull realities.”

The significance of Fidel extends beyond the geographical boundaries of Cuba. Since its inception, the Cuban Revolution has made an invaluable contribution to the global struggle for justice, social development and human dignity. Under Fidel’s leadership Cuba has established an unparalleled legacy of internationalism and humanitarianism, embodying the immortal words of José Martí: “Homeland is Humanity. Humanity is Homeland.” In southern Africa, for example, more than 2,000 Cubans gave their lives to defeat the racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Nelson Mandela never forgot. After he was released from prison, one of the first countries outside of Africa and the first country in Latin America that he chose to visit was Cuba.

Today this commitment to humanity is mirrored in the tens of thousands of Cuban medical personnel and educators who have served and continue to serve across the world, battling in the trenches against disease and illiteracy, running the gamut from combatting the Ebola outbreaks in west Africa, to beating back other challenges to public health in southern Africa, to training in Cuba of medical cadres from North America (including African-American communities from the largest US cities) as well as Central and South America.

Fidel was only 26, when on July 26th, 1953 he led a group of courageous young men and women in the attack on the Moncada Barracks in the city of Santiago de Cuba, and the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Barracks in Bayamo, an unsuccessful but valiant effort to overthrow the U.S. supported puppet dictator Fulgencio Batista. Moncada was a crucial catalyst for the revolutionary struggle to free Cuba from U.S. tutelage and establish authentic independence. Fidel has epitomized the unbending commitment to Justice, Dignity and Independence that has characterized Cuba since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1st, 1959, leading Cuban resistance against the unjust and genocidal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on the island by Washington.

No words can adequately convey the singular meaning of Fidel. By holding aloft the banners of Socialism, Justice, Peace, Internationalism and Human Dignity, the Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel, demonstrates that a better world is possible. On October 16th, 1953 at his trial following the Moncada attack, Fidel laid our his vision of national independence and social justice, declaring, “Condemn me, it does not matter, history will absolve me.” Since those historic words and the subsequent unfolding of events, in a world fraught with intense challenges and dangers, history has not only absolved Fidel but also vindicated the meaning and legacy of his life.

¡Viva Fidel!

¡ Fidel 90 y más!

(Isaac Saney, National Spokesperson, Canadian Network On Cuba)