(Council of State transcript – GI translation)

Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Party Central Committee;

Compañero Esteban Lazo Hernández, President of the National Assembly of People’s Power;

Deputies and guests:

Today we close an intense, productive cycle of work.

During this period, the Parliament has not only drafted and approved three new laws – as we proposed for ourselves – but also, through its committees, has evaluated the country’s fundamental activities, identifying with precision, seriousness, and responsibility what is being done, and not done, and how much is possible and necessary to solve our principal problems.

Extensive summaries of the debates in the standing committees have been disseminated through the media. All of these reflect deeper knowledge and a better understanding of the times in which we live. And most importantly, there is a clear identification of the most pressing issues.

The 38 activities that were reviewed by committees are precisely those which have engendered the most complaints from the public and those toward which the government has decided to direct its main actions and solutions.

I know, given the magnitude of the obstacles generated by bureaucracy, insensitivity, indolence, and other ills, that some believe it will not be possible to get ahead and with a certain dose of fatalism, which paralyzes and curbs enthusiasm, they affirm, “There isn’t anyone who can fix this.”

I am also aware of the sincere concern of some who believe that we demand too much of ourselves, or that all the value is in our personal action, and even that we take on tasks that “are not those of a President”.

I ask myself what task is not the President’s in a nation like Cuba, in a Revolution like our own, when we are preceded by the examples of Fidel and Raúl. (Applause)

José Martí said it, you have proven it: “Moving a country, no matter how small it may be, is the work of giants. And no one who doesn’t feel like a giant of love, of courage, of thought, and patience should try.”

In our case, as I have said more than once, we work not only with the guidance and support of the Army General and the historic generation, but also believe deeply in collective work.

And our Council of Ministers is acting, generally speaking, with the intensity and urgency that life dictates, based on constant interaction with the people, with our ears to the ground, as Raúl demands of us.

“Within a century we will be that school story that bores children because it’s over, over … You are not seeing me, you are seeing yourselves,” says Silvio in one of his songs, which helps me to answer those who personalize results.

The satisfaction with which we close this session stems from the level of the debates we have attended these days. And the leap forward evident in projections made by this supreme body of state power is noteworthy.

We are coming to understand that every minute is crucial to sustaining the future, and we have heard supportive, well-informed commentaries, reflecting deep ties with the community and the purposeful orientation of our efforts.

It is likewise satisfying to note that the government and Assembly are working together harmoniously. Together, we are dedicating ourselves today to finding solutions that allow us to face the complex economic situation marked by the resurgence of the blockade, financial persecution, and the criminal policy of the current U.S. administration, which with its return to the Monroe Doctrine persists in the malicious effort to erase from the map what they aggressively describe as the “axis of evil,” that is, the Bolivarian, Sandinista, and Cuban Revolutions.

What our adversaries ignore is that 60 years of sanctions, threats, and aggression of all kinds have only strengthened our resolve. The historic experience of the Revolution is an irreplaceable lesson book, the first of these lessons being direct, living interaction with the people, a permanent source of creativity and encouragement.

From the historical generation, from Fidel and Raúl, we learned to discard useless laments and concentrate on seeking solutions, turning challenges into opportunities and setbacks into victory.

In this school, we are inspired today to promote comprehensive, critical analysis of what is not working right, or not working, to break the internal blockade and to ask of everyone a proactive, intelligent, committed, and collective attitude, all of which has been expressed in this Assembly, in which we have approved three laws, beginning the intense legislative work required for the Constitution to become effective.

After an extensive process of consultation among deputies and non-deputies in another democratic exercise that contributed to the improvement of the texts of each law, and the legal norms that will support its implementation, we now have a new Electoral Law, which legally guarantees the election processes at different levels in the country, complying with the Transitory Provisions of the new Constitution. In addition, we have elected the members of the National Electoral Council, who we congratulate.

This puts us in a position to elect the state’s fundamental leadership positions, in October, within the National Assembly of People’s Power, and later, before the end of the year, to appoint Council of Ministers members.

The Law of National Symbols, for its part, updates all current legal regulations on the subject, specifies, and gives greater precision to the contents.

As has been reiterated, the use of national symbols is now more flexible, within a context of order and respect for the law, and promotes greater use of these emblems as an expression of patriotism and of veneration for what they represent: our long history of struggle for the country’s freedom, independence, and sovereignty, which is constantly attacked in a perverse symbolic war of a colonial and imperialist nature.

No less important is the Fisheries Law, as it provides the necessary regulation, administration, and control of the fishing industry, directed toward conservation and the rational use of hydrobiological resources in the maritime, fluvial, and lacustrine waters of the Republic of Cuba, in order to contribute to the nation’s food sovereignty.

Compañeras and compañeros:

Scholars are expressing caution about the performance of the world economy. Current estimates put average growth at 3.3%, lower than the 3.7% projected in December of last year.

As we know and have experienced in the first half of the year, the Cuban economy is functioning in a context of limitations, mainly in terms of hard currency and fuel, due to the resurgence of the blockade, financial persecution, the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Law, the prohibition of cruise ship travel, and other measures, fundamentally intended to affect tourism and foreign investment, to asphyxiate us economically, causing greater hardships that irritate and demobilize our people.

In this complex scenario, during the first six months of the year, expected revenue from exports was not achieved, with the main impact seen in tourism, nickel sales – in which prices fell – and sugar. Nonetheless, production levels that are essential to the country have been reached.

Once calculations of activity levels and balancing of accounts that determine the economy’s performance in 2018 were concluded, it was determined that gross domestic product growth of 2.2% was achieved, higher than the 1.2% we reported as an estimate in the month of December.

This implies that, in order to reach planned growth in 2019, the economy must grow more than initially planned.

In the present year, even in the eye of the hurricane of adversity that the enemy has conceived to strangle us, the Cuban economy can grow modestly, thanks to the fact that we have the potential to resist and continue advancing in our development.

But in terms of challenges, we are not yet over the top. The scenario which Cuban tourism will face in the second half of the year will be more difficult. The greatest decrease will be in maritime arrivals, due to the cancellation of cruise operations, which mainly impacts the U.S. market.

In this period, the hard currency balance will be maintained as planned. Likewise, the directive that debt payments must exceed the assumption of new credits is being implemented – another fundamental measures taken to avoid increasing external debt.

The result achieved is due to the supervision that is being exercised in keeping with the plan, in terms of the country’s indebtedness, based on the premise of not taking on more debt than we can pay.

There has been a deficit in fuel imports, which has forced us to establish internal restrictions on consumption, avoiding as far as possible effects on the population, and the economy’s main producers and service providers. In this context, savings and control become more important, to send every liter where it is most needed.

Despite fuel tensions, the generation of electric power has been supported, and as has been reported to our people, work is being done to guarantee this throughout the summer.

Logistical difficulties during the first months of the year caused extensive defaults in ship deliveries and arrivals, a situation that has been stabilized.

Over the course of the year, the need to recover production of pork has been emphasized, and its use in the elaboration of cold cuts is prioritized in the industry, in order to increase yields and the supply of meat products to the population.

Total production of fresh milk is surpassing projections.

A series of investment projects have been completed to increase the operative capacity of fuel distribution and storage, passenger transportation, tourism, production in the chemical industry, and to support water services and electric power generation through the use of renewable energy resources.

During the first half of 2019, 10 new businesses with foreign capital were approved, for total committed investment of 1.395 billion dollars.

The completion of 15,748 homes was projected by the end of the first half of the year.
Retail commerce plans were 95.1% met. In analyzes conducted, it is evident that actual sales do not reflect supplies available, confirming that the potential and conditions exist to reach anticipated levels.

The unemployment rate is 1.6%, similar to the previous period, with the expected 2% growth in the number of workers in the non-state sector, fundamentally self-employed.

The 2018 state budget’s closing balance showed that the fiscal deficit was lower than projected.

The execution of this year’s budget, in the first half of the year, has been characterized by the meeting of revenue goals, and a deficit below that planned.

What does this data basically tell us? That the country is advancing and that no imperialist policy can defeat our will to go for more. The aspiring executioners of the Cuban people will not be able to achieve anything in the face of our determination to work to overcome and defeat genocidal, anti-Cuban policies, with the efforts of all.

As Fidel wrote: “No one should have any illusions that this noble, self-sacrificing country will renounce the glory and the rights – the spiritual richness – won with the development of education, science, and culture.

“I inform them, as well, that we are capable of producing the food and the material wealth that we need, with the efforts and intelligence of our own people.”

I have retaken this phrase of Fidel’s because it serves as a lesson, more than a prediction, the product of his legendary capacity to travel to the future and return to tell about it, as an Algerian friend noted.

During analyzes in the Assembly’s committees, more than once we discussed errors and deficiencies that caused the rash of shortages that affected us in recent months. First of all, because of the lack of liquidity, but also, and this is only our responsibility, because of an import mentality. Importing is accommodating and becomes a vice that kills initiative.

In Cuba we produce eggs, but we import almost all the chicken. And there were no foreign investment projects in this area. Today there are eight projects identified for state production of pork and chicken that include the manufacture of feed, not only with imported raw material, but also using nationally produced grains and incorporating the results of the Comandante en Jefe’s animal feed program.

This issue leads to others: poor export management and limited foreign investment; little linking of national production with foreign investment, or with activities such as tourism, called upon to become a locomotive of the national economy; lack of vision about the contributions that the computerization of society can make in absolutely all areas; or underestimation of the economy’s non-state sector in such productive chains.

Today we are carrying out periodic analyzes to evaluate the implementation of measures related to the economy, and provide information on new decisions regarding domestic commerce and others that must mobilize all the country’s productive reserves.

I do not want to bore you with these topics that have been reiterated so often. We just want you to be aware of how much the government tours of the country and collective thinking have contributed to the economic battle. And how much, and how, we are working to promote the enormous potential and reserves, we still have, to move forward.

I must additionally devote a few words to the international situation and the role and place of Cuba in this new “Hour of the Furnaces” that Washington’s policies have imposed on the world.

Our foreign policy, which with the Revolution celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, has continued to expand the nation’s ties in all regions of the planet. As a result of the sustained effort led by Fidel since the triumph of the Revolution, our foreign policy continues to be inspired by solidarity and internationalism, respect for international law, and the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter.

Cuba today maintains relations of friendship, and in many cases of cooperation, with almost every country in the world. We enjoy respect and confidence, given our contribution to peace, our respect for commitments, and for our untarnished behavior.

We actively contribute to international efforts in favor of justice, the promotion of human rights, the protection of the environment, the promotion of security and, of course, in defense of the right of peoples to self-determination.

We enjoy the gratitude of peoples with whom we have shared efforts and sacrifices in a disinterested manner, not infrequently risking our lives.

Our international cooperation efforts currently involve some 33,000 professionals in 85 countries, who voluntarily provide health care services, education, construction, and sports, among other arenas. In Cuba, 12,699 young people from 133 nations are currently being trained as professionals. Our ties with most of these countries are a successful example of what the United Nations calls “South-South cooperation”, based on complementarity and self-sustainability among developing countries.

We are part of the international community that today faces the challenge of confronting the United States’ aggressive, arrogant behavior, a serious danger to peace, security, and the existence of resources on which life on the planet depends, associated with the use of nuclear weapons and progressive climate change.

Those who are now in charge of the political leadership of this influential nation have shown that they disregard commitments and legal instruments freely agreed upon by the great majority of states, ignoring the right to self-determination of peoples, and denying the principle of sovereign equality among nations.

They believe that their government’s desires can be imposed on others, including their own allies, through threat or punishment, with the imposition of punitive trade tariffs and other coercive, unilateral measures. In more serious cases, they resort to unconventional warfare or armed conflicts, regardless of the consequences, the coups, or the open, overt imposition of so-called “regime change” strategies.

They intend to quickly destroy the system of international relations built around the norms and principles of the United Nations Charter.

In the Western Hemisphere, the United States government has openly declared the validity and implementation of the infamous Monroe Doctrine, an old instrument of colonialism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, which denies the right to self-determination, threatens the sovereignty of all nations in the Americas, without exception, and seeks to intimidate the entire world.

The United States has launched numerous types of aggression against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, all banned by the United Nations. They have not been held accountable for the promotion of violence in that country; economic sabotage; assassination plots; the application of economic measures aimed at causing the population suffering and hardship; the financing and organization of coups; the theft of sovereign assets; and the opportunistic use of humanitarian aid for the purpose of political destabilization.

I reiterate, once again, Cuba´s firm solidarity and support to the Bolivarian, Chavista Revolution, the civic-military union of its people, the constitutional government led by President Nicolás Maduro Moros, and the efforts of this noble people to defend their sovereignty and resist foreign interference.

(Applause).

The conduct of the United States toward Cuba continues to cling to the objective of economic strangulation, through the tightening of the blockade, the promotion of political subversion, to which tens of millions of dollars are dedicated every year with the intention of dividing, confusing, and weakening the unity of our people, and a fierce propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting the Revolution, its leaders, its glorious historical legacy; denigrating our economic and social policies in favor of development and justice; and liquidating political forces of the left and popular movements, resorting to McCarthyism to attempt to destroy the ideas of socialism.

As Raúl pointed out last April 10 before this Assembly, “Despite its immense power, imperialism does not possess the capacity to break the dignity of a united people, proud of its history and of the freedom conquered with so much sacrifice.”

Compañeras and compañeros:

Within a few days, we will celebrate another anniversary, the 66th, of the assaults on Santiago de Cuba’s Moncada garrison and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in Bayamo, which will serve as the site of this year’s festivities, given the accomplishments of a province that honors, with its name, the generation that brought Cuba its definitive freedom, 60 years ago at Las Coloradas.

On behalf of the generations that are giving continuity to the independence process initiated in that land almost 151 years ago, we will speak at the commemoration and there will surely be new assessments to be made about progress and challenges that await us during the second half of the year.

But today it is urgent to call upon the people of Cuba, and especially their representatives in the highest body of state power, to defend, each and every one of us, all that we have done and may do, with the certainty that only in this way can we defend ourselves.

Our people, wise as they are, have understood the importance of the most recent economic measures and have reacted intelligently, insisting on the need to respond to salary increases in the budgeted sector with results and controls that protect us from inflation and others dangers. Economists are especially called upon to contribute to the search for untapped reserves of efficiency.

It is also necessary to take advantage of all the opportunities that open up for the national economy, be it in the enterprise sector, the budgeted sector, or even the private, and untie the knots that bind it – on the basis of work, innovation, science, and production.

In this new stage, the key is territorial, in the municipality, in local development, aware that everything that is generated and advanced at this level benefits the people more directly.

We must continue searching our material and human reserves for what savings can contribute, as a source of income, and our spirituality as a source of creative energy.

And we must also review the Comandante en Jefe’s directives for the Special Period. Without fear of the terms. The strategy of confronting the double blockade generated many initiatives that we shelved as soon as the situation improved, and that was a mistake. In order to avoid returning to the Special Period, we must draw on the lessons and contributions that he left us.

Dear compañeras and compañeros:

The National Assembly will always be a space to reflect and above all to share and decide collectively how to mobilize, more fully and better, our potential for prosperity.

We must lose the bad habit of believing that all solutions come from above. If we understand the need for a change in mentality, we will all cooperate in proposing solutions to our problems, some for now and others for later, but always with the goal of improving our people’s quality of life.

E-government, for example, is not a Cuban invention. It is a pressing need for the functioning of any society today.

And as for the fundamental task of connecting with the needs and demands of the people, this electronic government cannot be exercised Monday through Friday. It is a permanent task. We must learn, once and for all, that public servants owe it to the people and this entails permanent vigilance and the use of all the tools that can warn us in time when something is missing or failing.

That does not mean, of course, giving credit to the rumors or fake news that our enemies fabricate, and that, with some frequency, naive or irresponsible individuals spread on social media.

The leadership of the Party and the government have demonstrated commitment to timely and open information on whatever measure or step is taken based on public interests. And we will always defend this policy. Others may be more adept and effective in spreading lies, but the Cuban people know that the Revolution, as a matter of principle, only tells the truth (Applause).

I also call to attention those officials who consider that certain matters are not within the bounds of their position, but are the responsibility of lower levels of management.

Whoever has at hand the fastest and most efficient solution to a problem does not need to minimize or delegate its solution on the basis of hierarchical or sectoral considerations. We are all public servants.

Whoever is in a position to resolve something also has the duty to not leave it to others. Behind every problem there is a Cuban man or woman who needs attention. Recovering sensibility and making it customary is the order of the day.

(Applause).

Anyone who hinders, delays, or makes impossible the process of obtaining a subsidy, the title of a home, or land in usufruct to produce is ignoring the spirit of the Revolution. These are actions that, more often than not, rob time and energy from people who work, study, and contribute to society.

When we talk about recovering decency, we are also thinking about the honesty and desire to cooperate of public servants.

The vocation to serve cannot, and must not, be confused with servility. Giving good service kindly, humbly, and courteously makes us more professional and adds to our work a seal of quality and human warmth that others need today, and tomorrow, any of us may need. We must be serious and effective in providing answers.

As a society we must recover habits of courtesy that we have lost. Nothing is more alien to the Revolution than bad manners: the loss of values ​​harms us, from our personal relationships in the community to our export of services. And it is the primary cause of the unpleasantness we cause each other in everyday life.

I would like to call for subordinating personal interests to collective ones, without denying either one, but rather integrating them. It is clear to me that in a humanistic and solidary society like ours, we cannot be happy individually.

Putting away vanity and selfishness, practicing honesty, being industrious, decent, we will also be contributing to the Gross Domestic Product. The economy will grow, along with the spiritual strength of our people, this country that we have become and that sometimes is difficult to identify in each one of us.

Fernando Ortiz said: “… If not as serious as economic imperialism, which sucks the blood of the Cuban people, the ideological imperialism that follows it is also destructive. The first breaks economic independence; the second destroys moral life. One removes the support; the other the soul.”

Along with this anti-imperialism we have carried in our veins for more than a century, obliged to suffer a powerful neighbor that despises and attacks us, also to be nurtured is the socialist sentiment that the Revolution sowed in our people, in the struggle to conquer all the justice that José Martí bequeathed to us.

We would be nothing if we had abandoned the social system that this honorable Assembly reaffirmed as the immediate goal of the Cuban nation.

This is an exciting subject to which we will dedicate other moments, aware that all the happiness that we want to spread as a daily practice among our people is linked to the voluntary and conscious decision to make our socialism prosperous and sustainable.

I also share with you a personal conviction: the only way to solve all our problems is for each and every one of us who loves the Revolution to ask ourselves daily: What can I do? What can I contribute? What is my personal quota of devotion to collective growth?

If each of us does their part of the duty, nothing can defeat us, Martí said, and conscious of this, we have called for thinking as a country.

The journalist Leticia Martínez Hernández, answered with a tweet:

What does it mean to think as a country? Leticia says:

Let your problem be mine.

I am not indifferent to what is done poorly, to what damages Cuba, to what does not contribute.

Self-interest does not guide daily action, but rather solidarity.

Let the opinion of everyone be heard, with respect.

And Yoerkis Sánchez, editor of Juventud Rebelde, answered in verse:

What is thinking as a country?

It is to surrender to work;

Cut out vices with one slice, make others happy.

Protect our roots against cruel consumerism;

Do our part and humbly honor ‘We are continuity’ with Raúl and Fidel (Applause).

Indeed, to think as a country, to think Cuba is to all give ourselves in body and soul to the service of the nation, making the most of Revolution’s most formidable, powerful force: Unity.

This is our monument to the historic generation. A work under construction that consolidates the past, sustains the present, and guarantees the future of the Revolution – as infinite as the dreams of the men and women who initiated it.

We are Cuba! We are continuity!

Homeland or death!

Venceremos!

(Ovation)

Honorable Karen Cumming, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana;

Honorable Peter David, President of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) of CARICOM;

Ambassador Irwing LaRocque, Secretary-General of CARICOM;

Distinguished Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Heads of Delegations;

It is with great satisfaction that we are attending this meeting between brothers and sisters.

I appreciate the hospitality offered by the authorities of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and the CARICOM Secretariat, which have made every effort to guarantee the success of this meeting. I would like to convey fraternal greetings to the distinguished Ministers and Heads of Delegations as well as our appreciation for their attendance, which shows the willingness to advance CARICOM relations with Cuba even further

This Sixth Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Caribbean Community and Cuba is a propitious occasion to exchange on the development of our bilateral relations.

The consistency of these meetings evidences, beyond any question, the strength of our relations.

The Caribbean and Cuba share a common history and face similar challenges.

Cuba reiterates its permanent commitment to cooperate and share its modest achievement with the Caribbean. We feel we have a permanent debt of gratitude with CARICOM for its historical and fraternal support to Cuba. The courageous attitude of the first four independent Caribbean nations, which was soon followed by all the others once they managed to achieve their independence, will never be forgotten.

Cuba and the Caribbean have developed strong historical relations. The CARICOM-Cuba mechanism has decidedly and effectively contributed to strengthen our relations.

Hardly a few weeks ago, we inaugurated a monument in remembrance of the Caribbean National Heroes at a park in downtown Havana, as a symbol of the friendship that unites us and an expression of the Cuban peoples admiration for and recognition of the men and women who turned this group of countries into a community with dignity, an independent foreign policy and a voice of its own. That monument reflects the feelings of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz for what he considered to be his closest friends, for he asserted, and I quote: “No circumstances will ever change the interest and willingness of Cuba to strengthen the bonds of friendship and cooperation with the sister nations of the Caribbean. We will spare no effort to achieve regional integration and the unity of our peoples”.

Cuba reiterates its willingness to continue strengthening its relations with all CARICOM member countries.

We are pleased about the results achieved so far by the Regional Center to Encourage the Development of Children, Teenagers and Youths with Special Educational Needs Associated to Physical Disabilities. Cuban and Guyanese professionals have offered physical and occupational therapy to 103 persons; speech therapy to 158 persons; and have taught 98 pedagogy and 16 psycho-pedagogy training courses. A total of 56 pedagogical guidance sessions were offered to teachers and directors. We believe that all CARICOM countries can make a better use of this joint effort for the benefit of those in need.

We likewise express our disposition to find joint solutions so that the Regional School of Caribbean Arts based in Jamaica can start working. In the first two stages of the implementation of this project, Cuba contributed with the design of the study programs and curricula. We have received the excellent news that the Government of Jamaica will purchase a plot of land and will contribute funds for the construction of the school. We reiterate our commitment to continue supporting the creation of the school in Jamaica together with CARICOM and its member countries.

Our country will continue to support CARICOM’s fair claim for compensation for the horrors of slavery and the genocide perpetrated against indigenous populations.

We reject the decision not to take into account the real situation and needs of the Caribbean and that cooperation is arbitrarily adapted based on the statistics whereby its member States are classified as middle income countries.

The persecution, threats and sanctions against the financial systems of some of our countries, which are being accused of maintaining non-cooperative jurisdictions, is both immoral and harmful.

The vulnerability of our nations to the effects of climate change is disturbing.

It is precisely in this area where we have been taking important steps during the last few years. Several cooperative agreements have been signed, namely, one between the Civil Defense authorities of our country and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) in December of 2017 in the context of the Sixth CARICOM-Cuba Summit and, more recently, in Saint Lucia, a Declaration of Commitment to strengthen he hydro-meteorological early-warning systems in the Caribbean. We have also hosted in Cuba, with a high level of acceptance and usefulness, several international events to discuss the most recent international experiences in natural disaster risk mitigation, which have been attended by specialists from the most important national agencies of our countries.

We should also move forward together in our economic and commercial relations, for which we confirm our entire disposition.

Esteemed Ministers and Heads of Delegations:

This meeting is taking place at a moment when peace in our region is being jeopardized. We have the duty to reaffirm our commitment with Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, as was stated in the Proclamation approved by the Heads of State and Government at the Second Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States held in Havana.

Only in a climate of mutual respect and confidence shall we prosper as a region.

Only integration shall lead us down to that path.

Peace admits no ambiguities. It can not be said that all options are on the table, when one of them, the one that is most needed, has been rejected; and that is dialogue.

We welcome CARICOM’s decision, in view of the threat of use of force and foreign interference, to ratify its stand and defend the validity of the principles and purposes of the UN Charter and International Law.

We are gathered at a moment when attempts are made to re-establish the implementation of the Monroe Doctrine, which is opposite to the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

I would like to reiterate to you our gratitude for your firmness in denouncing the US Government’s authorization to activate Title III of the Helms-Burton Act so that lawsuits can be filed at the courts of that country against Cuban or foreign entities that legally engage in commercial business or investments in properties that were once nationalized in Cuba in full adherence to national and international laws, as was recognized by the US Supreme Court ruling on the Sabbatino case.

The Helms-Burton Act is arbitrary and is also an outrage and an insult against the sovereignty of Cuba and of third States.

There is an attempt to suffocate the Cuban economy and place our people on their knees through scarcities and hardships, but I can assure you that such an attempt will fail.

We recognize your resolute and irrevocable decision to join us in rejecting the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against our country and the fair claim to put an end to it.

Esteemed Ministers and Heads of Delegations:

Let us all engage in a deep discussion about our views, convinced that our brotherhood and friendship are indestructible.

Thank you, very much.

(Cubaminrex)

For us, as for Venezuela and Nicaragua, it is very clear that the siege is tightening and our people must be alert and prepared to respond to every challenge with unity, strength, optimism, and unwavering confidence in the victory.

After almost a decade of practicing unconventional methods of war to prevent continuity or stop the return of progressive governments, the circles of power in Washington sponsored coups, first a military one to overthrow President Zelaya in Honduras and later the parliamentary-judicial coups against Lugo in Paraguay and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.
They promoted rigged, politically motivated judicial processes, as well as manipulative campaigns to discredit leaders and organizations of the left, making use of their monopoly control of mass media. In this way they succeeded in imprisoning compañero Lula da Silva and deprived him of the right to run for President as the candidate of the Workers’ Party, to avoid his sure victory in the last elections. I take this opportunity to appeal to all honest political forces on the planet to demand his release and to stop the attacks and judicial persecution of the Dilma Rousseff and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Those who have illusions about the restoration of imperialist domination in our region should understand that Latin America and the Caribbean have changed, and the world, as well.

The escalating economic war, with the strengthening of the blockade and the continuous application of the Helms-Burton Act, reflect the longstanding desire to overthrow the Cuban Revolution through economic asphyxiation and hardship. This aspiration has failed in the past and will fail again.

We defend socialism, a system that the government of the United States disdains, because we believe in social justice, in balanced and sustainable development, with fair distribution of wealth and guarantees of quality services for the entire population; we practice solidarity and reject self-interest, we share not what we have left over, but even what we lack; we repudiate all forms of social discrimination and fight organized crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, trafficking in persons and all forms of slavery; we defend the human rights of all citizens, not of exclusive and privileged segments; we believe in the democracy of the people and not in the political and undemocratic power of capital; we seek to promote the prosperity of the homeland, in harmony with nature and caring for the resources on which life on the planet depends; and because we are convinced that a better world is possible.

Over 60 years, in the face of aggressions and threats, Cubans have shown the iron will to resist and overcome the most difficult circumstances. Despite its immense power, imperialism does not possess the capacity to break the dignity of a united people, proud of its history and of the freedom conquered by so much sacrifice. Cuba has already shown that, yes, it was possible, yes it is possible, and it will always be possible to resist, fight, and achieve victory. There is no other alternative.

Sources:
- Speech on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the Western Army’s founding, June 13, 2016.
- Speech on the occasion of the Fifth Celac Summit, January 25, 2017.
- Speech on the occasion of the 65th Anniversary of the assaults on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Garrisons, July 26, 2018.
- Speech on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, January 1, 2019
- Speech on the occasion of the proclamation of the Constitution of the Republic, April 10, 2019.

(Council of State transcript / GI translation)

Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee;

Compañero Machado;

Comandantes de la Revolución;

President Lazo;

Dear deputies:

It is impossible to take the floor in this extraordinary session of the National Assembly of People’s Power, in which we have focused the debate on economic issues, without making any obligatory and heartfelt reference to the historical significance of the event we experienced just three days ago, in a solemn session of our Parliament.

José Martí, although he did not live the events of April 10, 1869, described them with words that 150 years later still impress. Through him we can better understand the history of that small town where, on that day, the seed of the nation was planted, when its name was inscribed in the memory of the country, to travel, in just one month, from this high point to ashes.

Twenty-three years had passed when he published in the newspaper Patria the following, I’ll quote only excerpts: “Free Guaimaro was never more beautiful than in the days when it entered into glory and sacrifice (…). The families of the heroes, eager to see them, came to where their heroism occurred, by putting themselves into the law, they would be great (…). As brides came the wives, and the children, as when they talk about the supernatural (…). Coming together were Oriente, Las Villas and the center, the injured local souls spontaneously composed the national soul, and the revolution entered the republic.”

There are no words more perfect than those of Martí in this description of how the national soul was composed when “the revolution entered the republic.”

Considering the events and the role of men in them, the Apostle stated in 1892: “Neither Cuba nor history will ever forget that those who came first in the war became the first to demand respect for the law.”

Neither Cuba nor history, we can repeat today, will forget the ceremony of last Wednesday the 10th, and its links with the event that defined us as a nation, on April 10, a century and a half ago.

Our Army General, who was first in war, has also been first in proposing, conducting, and demanding the imperative updating of the law, out of respect for the law.

The chroniclers of these times will not have the challenge, overcome brilliantly by Martí, of telling the story of the serious disagreements among our founding heroes. Precisely thanks to 151 years of struggle for our emancipation, today we are not arguing, but rather proclaiming.

Nor are we obliged, as were our founding heroes, to construct a government before winning freedom. Freedom was first rescued and sustained by more than a generation of revolutionaries, over hard years of creation and resistance.

Thus, the Constitution we recently proclaimed has a great history. Its roots lie in the first that was born fighting within the heart of the Republic in Arms, and later reaffirmed in three constitutions during the war, to be reborn in 1901, under the worse circumstances, in an assembly with its hands tied by Yankee intervention.

In 1940, another Constitution, the conquest of several generations of Cubans, was celebrated although not implemented. It was violated and buried by a despot, but its death lit the spark of a Revolution that was destined to fulfill its precepts of fundamental justice.

Many years later, in 1976, the people inscribed their most radical aspirations in another Constitution, the first socialist one, that after a few reforms brought us to this Magna Carta, proclaimed this April 10, precisely in honor of this history.

I always say that the recently proclaimed Constitution is strong because it draws on this history of intense search for a national guide, that we have described briefly, and the more recent, too, and from long months of analysis, debates, and modifications that involved in its construction the majority of the people, who later supported it irrefutably in a referendum.

One parallel between that historic April 10, and the date three days ago, points to other vital links: we do not need to decide on a flag for our ceremony, because in 1869 the red triangle was chosen, which “proudly waved in the fight, / without a childish or romantic boast; / the Cuban who does not believe / should be flogged as a coward,” as we learned with the unsurpassed verses of Bonifacio Byrne.

Nor can it be said that a woman demanded here the place she deserved.

From Ana Betancourt to Vilma Espín, women’s contribution to the Revolution has been boundless. And justice has finally been served. Women are the majority in this Assembly, as is all important matters in our society.

But there are other moments that equal past and present times. All of Cuba, like Guáimaro 150 years ago, has a tenacious and avaricious enemy lurking nearby.

And just as the Spanish army viciously attacked Guaimaro, a month after that beautiful day of the first national Constitution, the neighboring empire threatens, again, to assault Cuba. And in fact it attacks every day with foolish measures that are escalating in hostility and in viciousness.

Guáimaro’s response to the Spanish assault, as Bayamo had before, was to burn everything that could not be defended. And that was also described by Martí as if he had seen it: “The mothers did not cry, nor did the men hesitate, nary a weak heart was to be seen as the cedars and mahogany fell. With their own hands, they lit the bonfires to the holy city, and when the night closed in, the sacrifice was reflected in the sky (…). The people went into the forest (…). And a good hand hid the constitution in the ground. It must be found!”

This is how Martí concludes this beautiful piece of journalism, entitled “El 10 de abril.”

We are passionate about history, it’s true. But if we return to it once and again, it is not only because of the pleasure our national glory provides. We return because within it there are formidable reserves of Cuban morality, always under attack, always ready to turn any material possession to ashes before raising our arms for the adversary to chain them.

What Martí asked us to find in 1892 in this “entry of the revolution into the republic,” will always have a pending task. In our case, it is the permanent battle to maintain our sovereignty and strive for all justice with the greatest degree of prosperity possible.

The current U.S. administration that dismisses multi-literalism and has decided to return the world’s to its worse times, shamelessly making threats of insolent intervention, and constant ultimatums, including the invasion option, has publicly stated, more than once, its intention to destroy any development alternative apart from the savage capitalism it attempts to promote in the region.

Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are nations with political projects that do not accept the version of the Monroe Doctrine followed by the Trump administration, which, unable to keep its election promises of industrial recovery and national greatness, is sinking into a morass of ridiculous lies to assert that three Latin American nations, struggling to overcome the underdevelopment they inherited, threaten the powerful empire.

They have been busy working against Venezuela, repeating the same script used in criminal aggressions against Cuba since the first years of the Revolution, including state terrorism and pressure on other countries to break regional unity.

The novelty is in non-conventional war tactics that range from the symbolic to very real, from fake news, lies wrapped in novel false trappings, to sabotage of computer networks that sustain the country’s functioning. The empire literally cut off Venezuelans’ lights and water. At the same time their spokespeople and latest puppet seethe before the world because the Bolivarian government rejects false humanitarian aid.

Hypocrites, criminals, thieves of Venezuela’s national treasury: there is no other way to describe those attempting to defeat the courageous people with hunger and deprivation, stealing their financial resources, while sharpening their teeth to devour the riches nature has given this sister nation in abundance, which Bolivar and Chávez raised to a place of honor on the map of America, with their contribution to the continent’s independence.

We cannot underestimate the escalation of this aggression. Beyond the threats, typical of these political merchants, with the rise to decision-making positions of deceitful, mediocre, criminal politicians, financial persecution has increased and the blockade of Cuba tightened.

They have pushed the precarious relations with our country back to the lowest level, fabricating false acoustic incidents, channeling millions of dollars to the counterrevolution and political subversion, issuing dishonest, spurious lists, and trying to activate the hateful Helms-Burton Law, in an attempt to return us to the beginning of this story, when we were a slave nation of another empire.

This year, they have focused on giving us deadlines for the possible implementation of Title III of this slave law, which is what it should really be called. They have done so year after year since 1996, in the style of capital pardons. Now they are putting it off for a month, a few days, with arrogant threats, like someone holding a sword over our heads, ready to cut them off, if we don’t surrender.

What is the entire Helms-Burton, if not the 60-year blockade made law?

What more can they do after 60 years of persecution, aggression, and threats?

This past April 10, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, said here:

“We have been warning of the aggressive actions unleashed by the U.S. government against the Latin American and Caribbean region. It does so in the name of the Monroe Doctrine, with an arrogant McCarthyist contempt for socialism, for the self-determination of peoples, and the sovereign rights of countries in the region.”

As he has alerted us, all indications are that the blockade is being tightened around Cuban sovereignty, reinforcing the blockade, especially the financial persecution. Pressure from the United States is creating obstacles to financing and credit from third countries; while internally we are still held back by administrative inefficiency, an importing mentality, the lack of conservation, and insufficient income from exports, among other evils, from which we cannot exclude cases of corruption and illegalities, unacceptable today, as always, in the Revolution.

Faced with this map of tremendous challenges, we run the risk of believing that there is no way out. But history has something to tell us. Fidel, Raúl, Almeida, Camilo, Che, the generation of our parents and grandparents, with less experience and even fewer resources, confronted more serious, darker moments, and emerged victorious.

History shows us that when we have a correct strategy, when there is unity of objectives, and a sense of nationhood, all obstacles can be overcome.

The difficult present panorama, that has been described, imposes two absolute priorities: preparation for defense and the economic battle, at the same time.

The strategy is to work without rest on alternatives, already designed, without abandoning a single one of our objectives directed toward greater wellbeing for our people.

To those who arrogantly and disdainfully ignored the call made for the world to be open to Cuba, we will respond by showing that, yes, we heard the appeal and are opening ourselves even more to those who act sovereignly in the interest of promoting and developing common policies to support the survival of the human species, as Fidel said at the Earth Summit in 1992.

This philosophy moves us when we call for reflection and discussion of economic issues.

Today we have evaluated progress on the implementation of the Guidelines. And it is very important that this information has been shared, because it clarifies for us just how intense and complex the work has been, and above all, what remains to be done.

What has been implemented over the last decade is no small thing: 206 policies, at the rate of 20 per year. In 2018 alone, 47 were approved and the rate of implementation rose, thanks to our greater experience, organization, and participation from Central State Administration bodies.

The government and Party’s constant monitoring of the implementation, through its fundamental programs, has allowed us to note negative outcomes and experiences. And this differentiated analysis has not only facilitated corrective action, but also helped avoid the repetition of errors, as the Party’s First Secretary has noted. Needed is more attention to detail in preparation, organization, and training in every process, experiment, and procedure, for every person involved in these.

We likewise advocate the incorporation of jurists, from the very conception of policies, in the design of legal norms, so that they are coherent with the fundamental objectives and protect our state apparatus from distortions that could be generated by volunteerism and improvisation.

Last but not least, we are obliged to speed up the process as much as possible, carefully defining the route in timelines for implementation. Thus far, we have not been able to achieve this.

With equal emphasis, we have analyzed the elaboration and advances of the National Social and Economic Plan through 2030.

The objective analysis of the country’s current conditions and the international environment, have led us to propose economic planning in three stages:

2019- 2021, 2022- 2026, and 2027- 2030.

But the current conjuncture requires us, realistically, to focus on the first, fully aware of the additional difficulties we face, which could become worse.

For this, we have identified six strategic sectors that have the greatest impact on the economy, in which efforts and resources will be concentrated, without ignoring others.

These sectors are: tourism; the biotechnology-pharmaceutical industry; the electro-energetic related to renewable resources; food production; the export of professional services; and construction.

To say this is in good Cuban: the difficult situation requires us to set clear, well defined priorities, to avoid returning to the hard times of the Special Period.

Today we have the advantage of a more diversified, internationally integrated economy; tourist development; the biotechnology-pharmaceutical industry; greater potential for exports; more construction capacity, a water distribution system, transportation; communications; and untapped potential for savings and the replacement of imports, which we must take better advantage of.

We are intent on developing government work with more efficient public and enterprise management; with fewer obstacles and less bureaucracy; greater transparency and participation; direct, ongoing links with the grassroots; more efficient social communication; more scientific research and a more active role on the part of universities, based on demand and needs, with greater impact on the economy and production.

With the strengthening of the socialist state enterprise, our greatest productive force; with our ears alert to those with knowledge and experience to contribute; with a constant view toward the provinces and communities; with deep and astute legislative work; with greater autonomy for municipalities; and regular accountability for those assuring development programs.

With no fear of change; chipping away at problems; taking full advantage of our strengths in collective leadership and advocating with discipline and commitment the orientations of our Party.

Unleashing a permanent ethical battle against corruption and illegalities; ordering and strengthening non-state economic management; revitalizing our communities; and promoting beauty and a culture of detail as everyday practices.

Being accountable to the people and encouraging their indispensable participation in the solution of every problem. Generalizing best practices. Overcoming the inertia of the tired. Spreading the enthusiasm and optimism of the committed. Understanding that the beauty of the worst moment lies in the extent of the challenges.

The list of tasks is infinite, but I would like to dwell on those that require more immediate action and I urge everyone to join us in assuming them:
First, the updating of the Economic Plan based on the most difficult scenarios.

We intend to immediately launch pending economic measures related to demands and needs; the reorganization of domestic commerce; the performance of the enterprise system, agricultural and non-agricultural cooperatives and self-employment.

Our government work will be focused on agriculture, export production, tourism, the replacement of imports (with domestic goods), foreign investment and productive linkages with all national industries possible.

Now more than ever it is essential to save and manage resources carefully, fundamentally energy, so that its use contributes to greater productivity; appropriately use credit and different forms of financing, with more emphasis on investment.

Under these circumstances, it is essential to meet and take advantage of all the potential present in human resources and the qualified workforce we have.

We will continue advancing in the process of computerization of society and working hard to improve food supplies, housing, and transportation, the quality of services, even in the midst of asphyxiating financial persecution that makes the importing of goods and resources of primary necessity particularly difficult, and sometimes impossible.

Compañeras and compañeros:

Awaiting this legislature are months and perhaps years of intense work, but we must advance as quickly as possible so that the Constitution is expressed in laws that are more in tune with our times and needs.

And we have no right to delay changes longer than absolutely necessary.

We assume the mandate to change everything that needs to be changed and correct everything that hinders and delays progress toward prosperity in the shortest time and with the highest quality.

What will not change will be our attitude toward those who hold their sword over us.

The answer is: No, imperialist gentlemen, we Cubans do not surrender, nor do we accept laws on our affairs that are not within the bounds of our Constitution. In Cuba, Cuban men, and of course women, govern.

Title III (of the Helms-Burton) is no worse than I or II, they are part of the toolkit used against the entire people of Cuba, simply to rob us of our lands, steal our homes, take possession of the few natural resources, and seduce and buy our people. All this to punish us for the bad example so many oppressed peoples would like to follow.

No one is going to steal from us, not by seduction or by force, “the homeland that our forefathers won on foot”, as Rubén Martínez Villena said in his forceful verses.

Cuba continues to have confidence in its strengths, in its dignity and also in the strength and dignity of other sovereign, independent nations. But we continue to believe in the U.S. people, in the homeland of Lincoln, who are ashamed of those who violate universal law in the name of the entire nation.

And take note, if history holds answers, that on a day like this, April 11, 1959, exactly 60 years ago, Fidel said, and with this I will conclude:
“Our people will be greater, the greater the obstacles we face; history will say more of our people, the more difficulties that must be overcome; the future will bring more justice, the more we are slandered today; and all that anyone can say will be that a society was organized here which all the world’s people could visit to learn what justice was, what democracy was, and we were able to defend this and sustain it, and, although we do not know what fate has in store for us, we do have the certainty to say that our Revolution will triumph because we will be able to defend it, and that our people will perish, if we must perish to defend it.”

Let us defend these convictions in massive popular demonstrations, in all of Cuba, this coming May Day.

“See you in the homeland’s plazas, because we are Cuba and we are continuity!

Homeland or Death!

We will always triumph!

(Ovation.)

As our population has noted, a series of measures have been underway for months in order to reinforce the combat capacity and readiness of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the country’s entire defense system, under the strategic conception of the war of all the people, as established in the Constitution of the Republic we have just proclaimed.

At the same time, a group of decisions has been adopted to guide the performance of our economy, to resist and overcome new obstacles imposed by the tightening of the economic and financial blockade, without renouncing development programs that are underway.

Thus, we must remain alert and aware that we could face additional difficulties and that the situation could worsen in coming months. It is not a question of returning to the most difficult times of the Special Period in the 1990s. The current panorama is different, with the diversification of the economy, but we must always prepare for the worst variant.

It is imperative that efforts be redoubled to increase national production, especially food; review all expenses to avoid those that are not absolutely necessary; ensure more efficient use of energy resources, especially gasoline, which includes ending existing theft and assuming conservation as a firm guideline for leaders, from the national level to the local, and among compatriots in general.

Over 60 years, facing aggression and threats, Cubans have shown the iron will to resist and overcome the most difficult circumstances. Despite its immense power, imperialism does not possess the capacity to break the dignity of a united people, proud of its history and of the freedom conquered with so much sacrifice. Cuba has already shown that, yes, we could, yes, we can, and will always be able to resist, fight, and emerge victorious. (Applause). There is no other alternative.

That’s all for now.
Thank you very much.
(Ovation).

Compañero Esteban Lazo, President of the National Assembly;
Compañero Miguel Díaz-Canel, President of the Republic of Cuba; now President of the Councils of State and Ministers;
Compañeras and compañeros:

It is an exceptional privilege for me to deliver the central remarks in this session to proclaim the Constitution of the Republic. This is the second occasion on which I am fulfilling such a great responsibility.

Just over 43 years ago, the Comandante en Jefe of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, before departing abroad to complete an obligatory international commitment, asked me to take his place in the solemn ceremony, held on February 24, 1976, to proclaim the Constitution which today ends its validity.

The date chosen is not accidental, 150 years ago, on April 10, 1869, the Mambises gathered in a Constituent Assembly, in Guáimaro, and agreed to our first Constitution, the product of the unity and institutionality required by the nascent Republic in Arms.

Freedom and independence from Spanish colonialism were among its essential objectives, along with the recognition of equality among all Cubans, without exceptions or privileges.

The Constitution we proclaim today represents the continuity of this first one, as it preserves the unity of all Cubans and the independence and sovereignty of the homeland, as fundamental pillars of the nation.

The constitutions of Baraguá, Jimaguayú, and La Yaya, later proclaimed at different moments during the insurrectionary conflict, were a continuing expression of the revolutionary constitutional tradition in our history.

It is worth recalling that, despite the victorious Mambi struggle against Spanish colonialism, true national independence was not achieved, nor was the installation of the democratic, progressive republic to which Cuban patriots aspired. The victory was cut short by the intervention of U.S. imperialism, the danger of which our forefathers, José Martí first of all, had warned.

Under the U.S. military occupation, the 1901 Constitution of the Republic was approved, which included the imposed Platt Amendment that subordinated our sovereignty to U.S. interests.

As Fidel said in his Central Report to the First Party Congress in December of 1975, after the Cuban War of Independence, (I quote) “Formal independence was conceded May 20, of 1902, with U.S. Navy bases and the constitutional amendment imposed, which, among other things, gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuba. This way, Yankee neocolonialism was installed in our homeland.” (End of quote)
Let us not forget that this constitution entered into effect on orders from the U.S. Military Governor.

Later, the 1940 Constitution, which was the product of a complex historical process following the defeat of the Machado dictatorship, was able to reflect some of our people’s aspirations at that time.

The international conjuncture during which the Constituent Assembly for that Magna Carta took place, within the framework of the world struggle against fascism and the active participation of assembly members with progressive ideas, in particular Communists, made possible the approval of an advanced constitutional text, for its time, establishing new social and economic rights. It included precepts such as the rejection of all forms of discrimination based on race, skin color, or sex; the eight hour work day; and prohibitions on large landholdings.

As is known, many of these postulates were left as dead letter, in some cases, because there was no subsequent legislative development, and in other cases, because their implementation was not feasible within the framework of that bourgeois society.

The validity of the 1940 Constitution was interrupted by the coup orchestrated by Batista in 1952, and the establishment of some spurious constitutional statutes. This event became the catalyst for the revolutionary movement of the Centenary Generation, whose political program was synthesized in Fidel’s self-defense statement during his trial for the assaults on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Garrisons, known as “History will absolve me.”

The triumph of the Revolution, January 1, 1959, rescued the 1940 constitutional postulates, that were adjusted to the circumstances of a true revolutionary process. One of the first measures adopted on the legal order, was the promulgation of the Fundamental Law on February 7, 1959, the constitutional base for the new challenges.

It could not have been done any other way: we would either be obliged to stop the revolutionary process to dedicate ourselves to producing a new Constitution, or do what was actually decided.

In terms of the institutional configuration, the most important change was the definition of the Council of Ministers as the highest legislative and executive body, with constituent authority. This was an imperative necessity, to be able to adopt future measures as quickly as this historical moment required.

Under this authority, rights recognized in the 1940 text were concretized, and at the same time, new rights emerged that reached the poorest.
In the first case, this meant enforcing what was established, and later, complementary laws abolishing large landholdings. Years went by and no one had taken charge of enforcing these complementary laws, until the Revolution, and Fidel, and just a few months after the victory, May 17, 1959, the Cuban Revolution’s Agrarian Reform was enacted in the heart of the Sierra Maestra.

The Revolution was the foundation of the law that gave land to campesisnos; that guaranteed free and universal access to education; that put public health at the service of citizens; that guaranteed the equality of all Cubans; that nationalized – with popular support – the huge properties held by foreign companies that exploited our compatriots.

In his Central Report to the First Party Congress, compañero Fidel said (I quote): “We need a socialist constitution now, given the characteristics of our new society, the social consciousness, the ideological convictions, and the aspirations of our people. A constitution that reflects the general laws of the society we are constructing, the profound economic, social, and political transformations launched by the Revolution, and the historic accomplishments achieved by our people. A constitution, that is, which consolidates what we are today and helps accomplish what we want to be tomorrow.” (End of quote)

The provisional period lasted until the proclamation of the Constitution of the Republic of 1976, the result of a broad popular consultation and referendum.

The Constitution of 1976 reaffirmed the socialist nature of the Revolution proclaimed by Fidel on April 16, 1961, established the rights won by the people through the revolutionary process, and created a system of government based on the authority of People’s Power bodies.

Agreements reached at the Fourth Party Congress, in 1991, along with the experience of the rectification of errors and negative tendencies process, the collapse of the socialist camp, and the need to perfect our situation given the circumstances reigning in our society, and new ones developing with the arrival of the Special Period, led to a partial reform of the Constitution in 1992.

Fundamentally, modifications were introduced in the economic system and the organization and functioning of People’s Power bodies. The direct election of deputies to the National Assembly and delegates to Provincial Assemblies of People’s Power by the people was established, and religious freedom was expanded.

Also transcendental was the Constitutional Reform of 2002, when the United States was increasing its threats against the Revolution. At the insistence of mass organizations, and with the people’s majority support, the irrevocable nature of our socialism, and our revolutionary political and social system, were established in the Constitution. Added along with this was the statement that economic, diplomatic, or political relations with any other state were never to be negotiated under aggression, threat, or coercion, on the part of a foreign power.

The Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Party and the Revolution, approved during the Sixth Party Congress, in April of 2011, and the agreements that emerged from the First Party Conference, in January of 2012, made clear the need to introduce changes on the constitutional order.

Consequently, in 2013, the Political Bureau approved the creation of a working group for this purpose.

The Seventh Congress, in April of 2016, reaffirmed the Sixth Congress agreements and advanced in the elaboration of programmatic documents on the Cuban Social and Economic Development Model, the implementation of which would, likewise, have constitutional implications.

During the studies we conducted, we came to the conclusion that more than a reform, a new constitution was required, one that would not be limited to updating the economic and social order, but would deepen the principles of our state structure, the extension of citizen rights and guarantees, and other relevant issues; thinking not only of the present, but, above all, the future of the nation.

On June 2, 2018, this Parliament approved the initiation of the Constitutional Reform process and, toward this end, created a Commission of 33 deputies to prepare the draft of the new Magna Carta. I consider it appropriate, in this solemn session, to note the meritorious work done by members of this commission and its four advisors, not only in the preparation of the initial text, but throughout the entire process.

The first version of the draft of the new Constitution was submitted to this Assembly for analysis, July 21-22, 2018, and after a broad debate, a new text was approved and it was decided to submit this document to a popular referendum.

As has been reported, some nine million people participated in more than 133,000 meetings. We can affirm that this was not mere assistance, but that consciously, responsibly, and with absolute freedom, everyone was able to express their opinions, which also contributed to raising citizens’ legal culture. There were more than 1,700,000 remarks made, from which some 783,000 proposals emerged.
With their participation, the people became a true constituency. It is enough to reiterate here that, as a result of the popular contribution, almost 60% of the draft’s articles were modified.

The work carried out by those in charge of collecting and processing the population’s opinions was commendable. Completed in record time, their contribution was decisive to the successes of this profoundly democratic process.

This past December, the National Assembly approved the new Constitution of the Republic, and in accordance with the established reform mechanism, agreed to submit it to a referendum, which was held on February 24, when our people provided more evidence of their commitment and support to the Revolution and socialism.
It is significant that the majority of Cubans who exercised the vote were members of generations born after the triumph of the Revolution, reflecting the strength and continuity of our principles.

The results of the referendum are unequivocal proof of this assertion. As has been reported, 90% of citizens with the right to vote went to the polls, and of these, 86.85% voted in favor, a figure that represents 78.3% of all compatriots with the right to vote, with which the new Constitution of the Republic was approved.

It is also relevant that 95.85% of ballots were valid and only 9% voted No. With regard to this last fact, we consider that this vote did not, in all cases, mean rejection of the general content of the new Constitution, but rather reflected opposition to specific topics.

Cuba demonstrated, once again, that via democratic mechanisms and exercising the right to self-determination, it is possible to strengthen our socialist system as a viable alternative, at a time when imperialist aggression is increasing, as it attempts to discredit progressive alternatives for social development.

The Constitution we proclaim today guarantees the continuity of the Revolution and the irrevocability of our socialism. It synthesizes the aspirations of all those who for more than 150 years have fought for a free, independent, sovereign Cuba, with social justice.

This law of laws is a product of its time. It reflects the historical circumstances of the construction of our society and legally establishes the changes that are taking place with a vision toward the future, with the supreme purpose of achieving an increasingly prosperous, sustainable, inclusive, and participatory socialism.

With this new text, the revolutionary state is institutionalized and strengthened, prepared to conduct its work, as required, transparently and in accordance with the law. If something in particular distinguishes the document, it is respect for the full dignity of women and men, and the equality of Cubans, without discrimination, and these are precisely the pillars on which this society is based.

The constitutional text is the product of the joint effort of those who had the privilege of accompanying Fidel in the revolutionary struggle and the “new pines,” who are gradually assuming responsibility for the nation. This Constitution is a legacy for new generations of Cubans.

It is not enough to proclaim it, it is necessary to put its precepts into practice. In this endeavor, it is the Assembly’s responsibility to undertake an intensive legislative effort to comply with the norms established in the Transitory Provisions of the Constitution, a task already entrusted to several working groups.

Today, once this proclamation ceremony is concluded, the full text of the Constitution will be published in the Official Gazette of the Republic, and as of that time enters into effect.

Among the immediate tasks that we must undertake, by constitutional mandate, is the approval of a new Electoral Law, the draft of which is being developed, with the purpose of presenting it to this Assembly for approval, during its next ordinary session.

Once the Electoral Law is in effect, the National Electoral Council must be elected by this Assembly and, in accordance with the Second Transitory Provision of the Constitution, within the next three months, the Assembly itself will elect its President, Vice President, and Secretary, other members of the Council of State, and the President and Vice President of the Republic.

Likewise, once the President of the Republic is elected, within three months, the new government will be submitted to the National Assembly, for approval, that is, this Parliament will designate the Prime Minister, First Deputy Prime Ministers, Secretary and other members of the Council of Ministers.

We will work to ensure that all these steps are taken before the end of the year.
Likewise, mandated at the beginning of 2020, are the election of provincial governors and vice-governors, and the designation of superintendents by municipal assemblies.

As expected, the historical enemies of the Revolution have attempted to cast doubt on the legitimacy of this broad constitutional exercise. But all the slanders evaporate in the face of the irrefutable, massive support of our noble people.

We have been warning of the aggressive actions unleashed by the U.S. government against the Latin American and Caribbean region. It does so in the name of the Monroe Doctrine, with an arrogant McCarthyist contempt for socialism, for the self-determination of peoples, and the sovereign rights of countries in the region.

On July 26, 2018, during the commemoration of the 65th anniversary of Moncada, and January 1, this year, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, I warned of the adverse panorama that was developing and the resurgence of our enemies’ enthusiasm and rush to destroy the example of Cuba. On both occasions I reiterated the conviction that the empire’s siege was tightening around Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba. The facts have confirmed that assessment.

The region that Martí called Our America has, in recent times, been able to strengthen regional independence, in a climate of peace, cooperation, and harmony among its member states.

With the precept of achieving unity within diversity, sustained progress was made towards integration, complementarity, and the agreement among all to solve the economic and social problems of our peoples.

Latin America and the Caribbean were declared a Zone of Peace and progress was also made in the goal of reaching a more respectful relationship with northern neighbors.

The scenario today is different. The current government of the United States, with its hegemonic ambitions for the region, poses the most urgent threat of the last five decades to the peace, security, and well-being of Latin America and the Caribbean.

In pursuit of establishing its domination, several coups were orchestrated over a number of years, in one case, a military one, and others of a parliamentary nature, to remove progressive Presidents from office, while the participation of leftist leaders in elections was prevented via media campaigns and malicious legal charges. Precisely, last Sunday, marked the end of the first year of compañero Inácio Lula da Silva’s unjust incarceration, whose freedom we demand.

Unfortunately, there are governments and political forces that irresponsibly join imperialism in this warlike escalation.

The relentless siege of the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, using methods of unconventional warfare and economic strangulation, is the main target of aggression, but, the threat concerns us all.

The Venezuelan government and the Chavista people are writing admirable chapters of resistance. On Bolivarian soil, being defined today is whether Latin American and Caribbean nations have the right to self-determination, if sovereign power rests with the people or with a foreign government, if it is acceptable for a powerful country to determine the rulers of an independent state, if the rules and principles governing the United Nations have real value or are dead letter, if the peoples of the region will remain passive before the imposition of a sovereign power in a sister nation or respond to repudiate the crime.

We reaffirm, from this Parliament, our firm solidarity and support to the Bolivarian Chavista Revolution, President Nicolás Maduro Moros, and his people’s civic-military union.

To the more than 20,000 Cuban collaborators, 61% of them women, who are fulfilling missions in Venezuela, I convey our deep appreciation for their commitment and consecration to the noble, deeply humanitarian task they perform in the service of families in this sister nation. (Applause)

The tone being used by the United States government against Cuba is increasingly threatening, while steps are being taken to impair bilateral relations.

Cuba is blamed for all evils, using lies in the worst style of Hitler’s propaganda. We will never abandon the duty to act in solidarity with Venezuela. We will not renounce any of our principles and will strongly reject any form of coercion.

The stepping up of the economic war, the strengthening of the blockade, and continued application of the Helms-Burton Law, pursue the old ambition to overthrow the Cuban Revolution through economic strangulation and hardship. This aspiration has already failed in the past and will fail again (Applause).

We have let the U.S. administration know, with the greatest clarity, firmness and serenity, through direct diplomatic channels and in a public manner, that Cuba is not afraid of threats and that our vocation for peace and understanding is accompanied by the unshakeable determination to defend the sovereign right of Cubans to decide the future of our nation, without foreign interference.

We defend socialism, a system reviled by the United States government, because we believe in social justice, in balanced, sustainable development , with a just distribution of wealth and guarantees of quality services for the entire population; we practice solidarity and reject selfishness, sharing not what we have left over, but even what we ourselves lack; we repudiate all forms of social discrimination and fight organized crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, trafficking in persons, and all forms of slavery; we defend the human rights of all citizens, not of exclusive, privileged segments; we believe in the people’s democracy and not in the political and undemocratic power of capital; we seek to promote the prosperity of the homeland, in harmony with nature and caring for the resources on which life on the planet depends; and because we are convinced that a better world is possible.

We hope that the international community responds to this dangerous situation with consciousness and a sense of duty, and that we are not lamenting the outcome when it is too late.

Faced with the turbulent scenario that has taken shape, we have defined as imperative priorities preparing the country for defense, and the national economy’s development, both of equal importance.

As our population has noted, a series of measures have been underway for months in order to reinforce the combat capacity and readiness of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the country’s entire defense system, under the strategic conception of the war of all the people, as established in the Constitution of the Republic we have just proclaimed.

At the same time, a group of decisions has been adopted to guide the performance of our economy, to resist and overcome new obstacles imposed by the tightening of the economic and financial blockade, without renouncing development programs that are underway.

Thus, we must remain alert and aware that we could face additional difficulties and that the situation could worsen in coming months. It is not a question of returning to the most difficult times of the Special Period in the 1990s. The current panorama is different, with the diversification of the economy, but we must always prepare for the worst variant.

It is imperative that efforts be redoubled to increase national production, especially food; review all expenses to avoid those that are not absolutely necessary; ensure more efficient use of energy resources, especially gasoline, which includes ending existing theft and assuming conservation as a firm guideline for leaders, from the national level to the local, and among compatriots in general.

Over 60 years, facing aggression and threats, Cubans have shown the iron will to resist and overcome the most difficult circumstances. Despite its immense power, imperialism does not possess the capacity to break the dignity of a united people, proud of its history and of the freedom conquered with so much sacrifice. Cuba has already shown that, yes, we could, yes, we can, and will always be able to resist, fight, and emerge victorious. (Applause). There is no other alternative.

That’s all for now.
Thank you very much.
(Ovation).

I believe that La Colmenita has moved us all, it excited Sosita, we are all thrilled, and it is good that educators do not lose that ability to be moved, because when we get excited, we are able to inspire our students (Applause).

Dear educators, representatives of international organizations;

Ministers participating in the 2019 Pedagogy event;

Colleagues from around the world (Applause and exclamations of: “Thank you!”):

First of all, our congratulations to the best teacher-researchers of our country. (Applause)

When I was invited to close this event, I asked myself what to say to you, how to honor the work of the founders of this gathering, one of the broadest, most diverse and most popular educational events in the world.

How to summarize precisely, when today we need so even more, the dialogue that for so many years the participants in this Pedagogy Congress held with our Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, educator of the masses, and with comrade José Ramón Fernández, educator of educators. (Applause)

But it has been enough for me to be twice among you over these days to sense their presence. Not only because you mention them or quote their words, but because in the program and in what I have been able to learn of the different symposia, workshops and meetings, the great motivation remains alive and active: the unity of educators. Not only Latin Americans or Ibero-Americans. Educators, such a beautiful word, which means so much.

A quick review of the history of these events reminds us that when they began, the decision to unite for a better world took precedence over all others, an idea that has prevailed over time. Then, you fought against the criminal foreign debt that asphyxiated our peoples, cutting educational budgets in most of the sister nations of the continent. And educators of the region came en masse, not only to gather experiences, but also to bring and share solidarity, which is the most beautiful and useful expression of unity.

It is very difficult to forget the magnitude of the first, and the following encounters, which became extraordinary events for the capital, for its schools visited by delegates, and for all Cuba, a country that cannot be ignored when it comes to education, literacy, teacher training, solidary cooperation, progress and shared practices.

With the accumulated experience of 15 previous encounters, you have now focused on the universal agenda directed toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal which is aimed to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”

I would say that here are the best conditions to interpret, thoroughly analyze and make practicable that ideal.

The 60-year history of the Cuban Revolution vouches for that truth, almost like a mathematical axiom. The first step was the Literacy Campaign. Just two years after the revolutionary triumph, Cuba was declared a Territory Free of Illiteracy.

Then came the battle for the sixth and ninth grades, which drove enrollment in worker-campesino schools, to complete the upper middle educational level among workers.

Today we have one of the highest averages of university graduates – 21% of the total population of the country – of Latin America and the Caribbean, and much of the world.

This strength led us to promote and extend our cooperation with the entire Third World, creating literacy programs in our language and in indigenous languages.

And, logically, an event such as this needed to be born and grow, capable of showing and sharing the best experiences – with respect for the diversity and identity of each nation – that among Cuban educators has generated an extraordinary movement from schools, fostering creativity, innovation, experimentation, research and exchanges among them and their colleagues in the world.

As had been said more than once, the Pedagogy Congress is the most important scientific event of the Cuban teaching profession.

And it is also an inexhaustible source of solidarity among our peoples, with expressions of great political and social commitment in each concrete historic moment. The final declarations of each edition attest to what I say.

On Fidel’s passing, a young Cuban singer-songwriter, Raúl Torres, created a song that is like an anthem for Cubans. Although its title is “Cabalgando con Fidel” (Riding with Fidel), many call it “Los agradecidos” (The Grateful), because thus the poet defines those of us who haven’t stopped thinking of him and defending his ideas.

Among the grateful of all professions, are Cuban educators. (Applause). They, you, like Fidel, know that we have much to achieve, and that all that we do for the dissemination of the knowledge that humanity has accumulated over centuries will never be enough. A lifetime is not sufficient to learn everything. Nor to teach everything.

Photo: Endrys Correa Vaillant
The merit is in the struggle, to always advance further, not being stopped by the obstacles. The case of this Pedagogy Congress can be cited as an example. Not even in the toughest years of the economic crisis of the 1990s, did these gatherings for the unity of educators cease to be held.

The Pedagogy Congress is the voice of the grateful in Education, of those who work for more and better access to knowledge, aware of what we are lacking, but also conscious of just how much we must defend, save and perfect.

Cuba, in recent months, has become a gigantic Constituent Assembly, on taking our new Constitution to a popular debate, prior to a Referendum, for which on February 24 we will vote Yes en masse, without a doubt.

Teachers and students of all levels are among the segments of the population that discussed with greater depth and enthusiasm the changes and new formulations for our Magna Carta.

I believe that this is due to the fact that, despite the criminal blockade that is being tightened, the financial limitations that hit us and delay the fulfillment of many of our dreams, the Cuban state has ratified, once again, its responsibility in terms of the absolutely free nature of education, from preschool to the conclusion of an undergraduate degree. And even more: to guarantee schools and full employment for graduate teachers at any level. This is something that surprises and is admired by many of our visitors. And it is simply a right, together with that of health, to which the Revolution devotes the largest budgets, as these are universal human rights and fundamental to our Martí inspired ideal of “conquering all justice.” (Applause)

Without any chauvinism, I feel that Cuba has long guaranteed that “inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all,” something that unfortunately remains an aspiration for many countries.

And the new Constitution reinforces all these concepts, is at the forefront of the most progressive trends in the world, and aspires to more, particularly in terms of quality, as the more educated and better informed people are, not only are they freer, as Martí stated, but they demand more.

Education and culture have the power to expand the horizons of knowledge infinitely. The desire to learn grows in as far as knowledge does.

In the coming months, two new special schools for children with physical and motor disabilities should be inaugurated, stemming from an idea of our First Party Secretary, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, who was strongly impressed after his recent visit to an emblematic school of Cuban education.

The “Solidarity with Panama” school, inaugurated by Fidel 30 yeas ago, with all its facilities and services available to children with serious physical and motor disabilities who, nonetheless, achieve impressive development of skills and knowledge, thanks to Special Education, will very soon have the company of similar institutions, strengthened in specialties such as Vocational, Artistic and Scientific Education.

We are also immersed in the repair of those schools damaged by the devastating tornado that hit five municipalities of Havana on the eve of Martí’s birthday. And we have proposed to rebuild them even more beautiful and with better facilities for the education of their students. (Applause)

At the same time, the more than 300 teachers from those areas, who were affected to some degree, and yet did not abandon their teaching responsibilities, must be recognized, encouraged, and supported. (Applause)

The extraordinary solidary spirit of our people, the very values that Cuban education shapes, with all its imperfections, which we recognize and constantly criticize, has allowed us to break records in recovery times of basic services.

I believe we owe much to the emphasis that our education places on history, and on its most prestigious protagonists. We are in a period of patriotic commemorations for the 150 years of the beginning of the independence wars, and the 60th anniversary of the revolutionary triumph of 1959.

Our young people know, even though they didn’t live it, that Cuba suffered 60 years of dependence on and neocolonial subjugation to the United States. The Revolution, in that same period, 60 years, has erased its consequences of profound inequality, racism, elitist education and exclusion. But schools have a duty to maintain that awareness in each generation that is educated in our classrooms.

We defend and exalt historical memory, culture and identity as a shield of sovereignty, “so that our children will not have to beg on bended knee, for the homeland which their forefathers won for us on their feet,” as Rubén Martínez Villena said, a young Cuban poet and revolutionary of the 1930s.

The current technologies have imposed new communication codes, and we are committed to their knowledge and healthy, critical, creative use.

Fidel was the first to realize the value of the Internet to truly democratize communications. He said that it appeared as if created for revolutionaries, due to the ability to spread messages at a negligible cost and with an infinite reach.

But he also warned us of the risks of plunging into the oceans of information of the Network of Networks, without the necessary knowledge and critical awareness to use it without being used.

The greatest and most serious problems of the world today are settled in this immense network, that connects us subtly or openly, and it is necessary to confront such scenarios with sufficient knowledge to avoid being objects at the service of the worst interests, or uncritical subjects of an environment that compromises even the survival of the species.

Back to schools. Without them, the most wonderful instrument of human intelligence would be just a useless toy, or a mirror to satisfy vanity. With them, with the tools that they contribute and the critical awareness that they shape, a better world will be possible in a shorter time.

In her opening remarks, Minister Ena Elsa Velásquez spoke to you of the four pillars on which government management is built. The fundamental aspect is the connection with the people, and addressing their problems and demands, appealing to the participation of all, and the search for more than one alternative solution, in a permanent exercise of communication.

For this management to be effective, it is necessary to apply knowledge in depth, in the use of new technologies, and we are committed to this with the talent and contributions of our technical schools and our universities. But, at the same time, we defend an education that informs students of the political complexities of today’s world, of the causes and origins of conflicts, the interventionist and overwhelming vocation of empires, and the right of the peoples to defend their dignity and sovereignty, as well as to value integration among nations of a similar composition, development, and interests, as a destiny essential to survival.

That knowledge is what makes us despise wars, defend just causes, practice solidarity with those who suffer, resist and overcome all forms of punishment that they attempt to impose on us for trying to forge our own path.

Under that conviction, we consider any scenario as useful to demand respect for International Law, non-interference or intervention in Venezuela (Applause), an end to the blockade and the threats against Cuba and sister nations like Venezuela and Nicaragua. (Applause)

In a text that every educator of our lands should know —“Maestros ambulantes” (Itinerant Teachers) — José Martí said: “Men need someone to stir their compassion often, and cause their tears to flow, and to give their souls the supreme benefit of feeling generous; through a marvelous law of natural compensation, he who gives of himself grows, and he who turns inward and lives from small pleasures, is afraid to share them with others, and only thinks avariciously of cultivating his appetites, loses his humanity and becomes loneliness itself. He carries in his breast all the dreariness of winter. He becomes in fact and appearance an insect.

“(…) Men grow, they grow physically and visibly, when they learn something, when they begin to possess something, and when they have done some good.

“Only fools or egoists talk of misfortune. Happiness exists on earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason, knowledge of the harmony of the universe, and constant practice of generosity.”

He wrote this in May 1884, but they are words that have the value of eternity, like almost everything we know about Martí.

Compañeras and compañeros:

I allow myself to approach these words to thank you for your presence here, your contributions to Cuban, Latin American and universal education. To express our permanent willingness to cooperate and exchange experiences and knowledge. To confirm that in Pedagogy, as in the Cuban Revolution, there is no rupture, there is continuity. (Applause)

We remain committed to a possible better world and we believe that the basis of that desire is education.

Thank you very much for making it possible every day.

See you at the next Pedagogy event! (Ovation)

(Council of State transcript, GI translation)

Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Party Central Committee;

Compañeros Machado and Lazo;

Deputies;

Compatriots:

Our first words on Educator’s Day are to congratulate and recognize Cuban teachers who, more than their time, dedicate their life’s purpose to us.

The year 2018 is almost at an end, and we gather again for the traditional embrace and evaluation of a crucial period in the history of the Cuban Revolution.

The year we bid farewell to today will remain in our national memory as the year in which a new generation, gradually and progressively, in a clear expression of continuity, began to assume the principal leadership tasks, with the good fortune of maintaining the guidance of the Historic Generation, in particular, of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.

During the months since the Assembly sessions of April, we have relied on that guide in the face of the most difficult and unexpected challenges, and found in his confidence and collective leadership the fundamental resources to come here today to render accounts, committed to the solution of the problems that most concern the people, which are those that absorb every minute of our days, and every element of our energies.

On taking stock of efforts and results, I must firstly speak of our deep satisfaction with the popular discussion of the new Constitution approved today.

With that debate, we have not only enriched our political culture, the sense of belonging to a nation and the future of the country. We have come closer to the concerns and demands of our people, a fundamental objective of the Revolution, which our opponents have always tried to distract us from, intent on fracturing and dividing Cuban society, aware that unity is its most valuable strength.

I would like to say that it has been a boom year for electronic government and greater efficiency in economic governance, but this is only the first step in a task of infinite demands that by 2019 should begin to bear its first fruits.

And it must also be said that we faced really hard tests, such as the floods that devastated the central provinces and the fall of an airplane that left a painful toll of 112 deaths and a single survivor, who in recent days has sent a beautiful message of thanks to her compatriots, and especially to the medical team that kept her alive.

After the sad task of revisiting the worst news of this year for Cuba, I return the most stimulating.

This session of the National Assembly concludes with a transcendent decision for the life of the nation: the approval of the new Constitution of the Republic, that in February will be submitted to a Referendum.

We arrive at this point after an extensive process of popular consultation where citizens, residents inside or outside the country, had the opportunity to freely express their considerations on the content of the draft text, which included, among other relevant aspects, political and economic foundations, rights and duties, and the structure of the State.

Each and every one of the contributions were duly evaluated and resulted in changes to about 60% of the articles of the draft, which enriched its content.

The popular analysis showed the will to improve the Constitution, but it went much further because it provided important elements to take into account in the broad legislative exercise that we must undertake to support, with the necessary laws, compliance with constitutional precepts.

This is a good opportunity, on behalf of the National Assembly, to congratulate those who participated in the guaranteeing and organization of the popular consultation process, including the two-person teams that led the more than 133,000 assemblies held throughout the country, the officials responsible for the collection and analysis of the proposals; the Party Central Committee’s Center for Socio-political Studies and, in particular, the Commission responsible for drafting the proposed Constitution and, as it has been heartfeltly and rightly expressed here, its president, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz (Applause).

The Fundamental Law that we have just approved reaffirms the socialist path of the Revolution, and allows us to steer the work of the State, government, organizations and the entire people in the continuous perfection of society; it reinforces institutionality; the prevalence of the Constitution establishes greater inclusion, justice and social equality in our work, and reinforcement of the empowerment of the people in the governing of the nation.

This process, which continues with the holding of the Referendum on February 24 of the coming year, is a genuine and exceptional demonstration of the people’s exercise of power and, therefore, of the marked participatory and democratic nature of our political system.

Contrary to what the enemies of the Revolution state, Cuba has once again shown that fundamental decisions and consensus on the issues that define the life of the nation are built with the decisive contribution of all. We should tell our detractors to dare to carry out in their countries a process with similar characteristics to the one we are undertaking.

On a date as dear as February 24, 124 years after the resumption of the independence struggle led by National Hero José Martí, Cubans of today, faithful to the traditions of struggle, will go to the polls to approve the Constitution, as an expression of resolve, loyalty to the legacy of the Comandante en Jefe of the Cuban Revolution, compañero Fidel Castro, and we will say with our vote: Yes to the Revolution, to the sovereignty and independence of the Homeland, to unity. Yes for socialism and for the commitment to heroes and martyrs in more than 150 years of struggles for freedom.

Dear compañeras and compañeros:

The debate in the ten standing committees of this Assembly has been intense and productive. In addition to the constitutional text, we have discussed two priority issues in plenary: fulfilment of the plan and budget for this year, and your proposals for 2019.

With discrete 1.2% Gross Domestic Product growth – which while limited, is no less encouraging, in the midst of so many adverse factors – economic performance closes the year on a positive note.

So that it is not underestimated, I would like to review some decisions favored by this discreet, but real growth:

In November of this year, the increase in the minimum pension for retirees was put into effect, rising from 200 to 242 pesos for almost 300,000 people.

In addition, all the monetary benefits received through social welfare were increased by 70 pesos, benefiting 99,000 households.

These increases, which have an annual cost to the State Budget of 224 million pesos, are aimed at modestly improving the income of people and households with lower purchasing power, and are a partial advance of the measures that will be adopted to order the situation of salaries, pensions, social welfare benefits, subsidies and free-of-charge services.

One of the sectors that contributes the most is communications, thanks to the growth of connectivity and Internet access in state entities, as well as in the services demanded by the population, with the increase of 700,000 mobile phone lines, for a total of 5,300,000 in service.

Public access points via Wi-Fi have also grown by more than 300, and there are already 60,000 homes connected to the Internet.

The major impacts on Gross Domestic Product were concentrated in the sugar industry and, more moderately, in the agriculture and livestock sector. However, it is right to highlight the increase in the production of rice and beans that allows us to substitute imports.

Despite the impact of Hurricane Irma, which severely affected the marketing of Cuba as a destination in the 2017-2018 high season, and the measures adopted by the U.S. government to deter travel to our country, tourism will end this year with growth and a new record number of international visitors.

No less relevant is the fact that in the midst of so many adverse factors, social services have been guaranteed to the population in Education, Health, Culture and Sports. It is expected that the year 2018 will close with an infant mortality rate of 4, similar to the previous year, which is the lowest in history.

A program that had a significant boost was that of housing, which allowed for the completion of more than 29,000 homes through the state plan, while those built through the efforts of the population will reach about 11,000. The housing policy that was recently approved by the Council of Ministers and of which deputies were informed in this session of the Parliament, will contribute to this effort.

Similar levels of economic growth are expected for the coming year: 1.5% in the Gross Domestic Product, with a recovery of the sugar industry, and increases in activity in other sectors such as construction, transport and communications.

But this growth, while reflecting the country’s progress in certain sectors, does not allow us to achieve the levels of development required to meet the ever-growing needs of the population. For this reason, within the National Economic and Social Development Plan through 2030, a group of objectives has been defined toward which economic performance for the period 2019-2021 should be directed. Among these, the increase in export revenues and the capacity to increase national production will be vital, through an investment process that requires more efficiency.

Non-state forms of management contributed 12% of total revenues to the State Budget in 2018, which should also grow slightly next year. Almost 600,000 self-employed workers contribute 5% of the Budget income.

Compañeras and compañeros:

The country continues to suffer from a strained external finance situation, due to non-compliance with planned revenues from exports, tourism and sugar production, in addition to the damage caused by a prolonged drought, followed by the destruction of Hurricane Irma, and subsequently the occurrence of heavy rains, all of which has affected the arrival of raw materials, equipment and supplies.

Only thanks to additional control measures over the main financial resources allocated in the 2018 plan, aimed at working with greater precision in decisions regarding imports and other foreign currency expenditures in the second half of the year, was growth achieved, with a positive trade and current account balance.

We have stated that the economic battle remains the fundamental, and also the most complex task. This is the task that today demands the most from all of us, because it is what our people anticipate most.

The context we have described demands mobilizing planning, aimed at preventing bureaucracy from immobilizing the performance of the main economic actors.

It is necessary to strengthen our leadership and economic management structures and teams, with the contributions of Economic Sciences specialists and experts, in particular, and others in general. We can not tire of hearing from those in the know, assessing their proposals and coordinating them with what we set out to achieve.

We need a more proactive, intelligent and precise attitude from leaders, promoting — not holding back or delaying — safe and specific solutions to problems, with the continuous and intense search for timely and efficient responses.

It is necessary to be more consistent with the Conceptualization of the Economic and Social Model, and more systematic and precise in the implementation of the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Revolution, approved by our Party.

It is time to act without dogmas and with realism, addressing the priorities, facilitating the real strengthening of state enterprise and its productive links with foreign investment, joint ventures and the non-state sector of the economy.

We must also put in order the activity of the private sector of the economy, but without impeding or slowing down its performance, stimulating best practices until ensuring that those working within it move away from illegalities. The challenge is to integrate all the actors, forms of property and management present in our social economic environment, into the battle for the economy that, I reiterate, is today the fundamental battle.

As the results of the year tell us, it is imperative to boost foreign investment, foster an environment of confidence and security for investors, export more, protect revenues, close export cycles of with timely collections; comply with what was repeatedly noted by Army General Raúl Castro – not to spend more than what we have as income, and not to assume commitments that we can not honor. Also, to halt and solve the chain of defaults.

Investing efficiently and enforcing the provisions of feasibility studies after the launch of investments is as important as awarding all possible attention to their execution, guaranteeing supplies and the labor force in a timely manner, avoiding surprises and improvisation.

At the same time, we must be familiar with and manage all financing possibilities, use credits more efficiently, and be responsible with payments.

Making efficient use of the valuable human resources and the qualified and scientific workforce that we have attained with the great educational work of the Revolution; defending national production, mobilizing all our potential to produce more and efficiently, is the only thing that will allow us to grow, beyond climatic effects and financial stains.

We must also prevent superfluous spending on government activity, achieve real control over resources, and take advantage of the experiences of other socialist nations such as China, Vietnam and Laos.

Government management should be directed with greater impetus toward the demand for quality services, and to avoiding that shortcomings cause inconveniences and irritation among the population. Never forget that as public servants, our greatest objective is the people’s wellbeing.

Addressing the current situation in a realistic and objective manner is what allows us to determine a sustainable economic plan for the year 2019, based on solid foundations that, despite the difficulties, favor development in the priority activities for growth, and contribute to the gradual restoration of the nation’s financial credibility.

Compatriots:

2019 will be a year of order. The plan will be based on the country’s hard currency income and payments, paying more debts than outstanding credits, and complying with the maximum punctuality possible in the payment of commitments.

There is no other way to draw up the plan; otherwise, it would be to propose something that will not be fulfilled and that would become unmanageable.

I must emphasize that what is foreseen in this plan is the minimum to be achieved. We must generate wealth to have more. Its execution must be supported by an adequate administration of the budget, in which we must promote all income possibilities, the reduction of budgetary expenses in the enterprise sector, and the greatest possible reduction of the budget deficit.

Achieving the proposed objectives requires an in-depth process of discussing the plan, a high level of control, and involving everyone to defend it among all.

The sugar harvest, an important economic activity not only for the production of sugar, but for its ability to generate liquid income, its contribution to electricity generation from biomass, the production of animal feed and derivatives, has started by surpassing the main indicators. The important thing now is not to let problems accumulate that undermine a good performance in what remains of the campaign.

As part of the process of computerization of society, the digitalization of television advances, and mobile phone Internet service was launched, a new possibility for citizens and a clear expression of the government’s political will to carry out this program with our own efforts and talent, with no space for the interference that some disguise with perverse offers and colonizing plans.

Investments in solar parks and wind farms continue, while those related to power generation from biomass in bioelectric plants have begun, supporting the plans for change in the energy martix, and the increase in the use of renewable energy sources.

In order to broadly discuss the country’s development projections, we have considered it appropriate to convene an extraordinary session of the National Assembly in the first quarter of next year, which we will devote to the analysis of the National Economic and Social Development Plan through 2030, in its three stages, and the report on the state of implementation of the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Party and the Revolution.

Moreover, measures related to self-employment activity have recently come into force. The majority of the population accepts them and considers that they are necessary for the organization and control of this process.

In this regard, I want to specify our point of view on this activity.

Self-employed workers are not enemies of the Revolution, they are the result of the process of updating the economic model, they have solved problems that burdened the State and for which it was sometimes inefficient. They have rescued trades that life proved necessary.

We have recognized the non-state sector as a complement to the economy and there is no intention of preventing them from prospering, but its operations must be within the law.

We know that we can rely on most of them to boost and revitalize the economy. We must erase from some minds the prejudices toward their work, which do us as much damage as those inspectors who come to be corrupt, and generate distrust and insecurity.

For its proper exercise, we must create conditions that encourage compliance with the new regulations, and contribute to the real order of the activity. The officials responsible for ensuring the application of the rules must act with ethics, rigor and fairness, and erase the bad image caused by the corrupt behavior of some.

Nor do we ignore that private workers of some modalities have expressed disagreement with these regulations, but not from a perspective of cooperation with the population, but because they are against an order that puts an end to illicit enrichment, which will not be allowed.

We know that there are still attempts to turn the non-state sector into an enemy of the revolutionary process, but they will not succeed in dividing us. For this we count on the commitment of our self-employed workers and of state institutions.

Deputies:

It is also necessary to clarify that there are those who try to distort the scope and objectives of Decree 349, associating it with an instrument to exercise artistic censorship. I speak of entities external to our Culture, who have never been concerned with and have remained silent in the face of the proliferation of banality, vulgarity, violence, rudeness, the discrimination against women, sexism and racism present in the most varied expressions that, undermining the cultural policy of the Revolution, are exhibited in state and private public spaces, some of which are not even legally recognized.

We know very well where the instructions come from, with the aim of confusing, dividing, discouraging and demobilizing.

It is evident that the aforementioned Decree, due to its importance, should have been more discussed and better explained. This is evident in the opinions of the greats of our Culture, who have a proven and committed work.

I call on them to accompany us in the task of doing now what we should have done before.

In these essential lessons, based on sincere dialogue, we can discover together how to implement this norm, because it was driven by a need and a demand of artists themselves, to prevent the proliferation of disrespect for cultural policy with pseudo-artistic productions that give an image of a country that we are not, nor have ever been, nor should we ever be.

I can assure you that this Decree has only one objective: to protect national culture from false artists, unqualified practice of a profession, and of the pseudo-culture generating anti-values, issues denounced in multiple spaces by our creators, writers and artists.

Artistic creation in Cuba is free and will continue to be so, as postulated in the Constitution, and cultural institutions have the responsibility to apply this norm with total adherence to these purposes.

Compañeras and compañeros:

The issues debated in this Assembly require priority attention from the Council of Ministers. In this regard, we are developing a work system based on exchanges with the people, visits to territories and communities, links with the collectives that are the protagonists of economic and social development programs.

We approach them to listen, argue, clarify, untangle and solve problems; address complaints, misunderstandings and mistakes.

We are interested in promoting the accountability of those we oversee, favoring direct communication with the people, through the media and on social networks, systematically.

We want to open paths for scientific research to have space in each process and provide innovation, and we need to promote the computerization of society.

We systematized the monitoring and assurance of development programs, promoting a collective direction and leadership style, and defending with discipline and commitment the guidance of our Party.

We have convened and continue an ethical battle against corruption, illegalities, addictions and social indiscipline, manifestations that are antagonistic and incompatible with our present and future.

What has been done is still insufficient, and what has been achieved is nothing with respect to our purposes as the Government of the Revolution, but we want to express thanks for the support and understanding of the Cuban women and men who inhabit our geography. We owe ourselves to them.

There are many questions to address and answer. We will provide answers to as many as possible, and for those to which we do not have answers for the moment, we will not cease in the effort to find them.

Cuban women and men:

The year 2018 has been intense, in the midst of a complex international context due to the increase in imperialist hegemony that mutilates multilateralism in international relations.

Latin America and the Caribbean, our Great Homeland, is no stranger to these influences.

Cuba is accused by the empire of being the source of what they consider “the great evils of the region.” The blockade tightens and financial persecution escalates to hinder the development of the country.

The result obtained on November 1, in ten successive votes of the United Nations General Assembly, demonstrated the overwhelming support that Cuba enjoys in its fight against the blockade – an aggressive, anachronistic, failed policy that causes enormous damages to the Cuban people, constitutes the main obstacle to our development, and is a violation of human rights. We are greatly appreciative to all the governments that contributed to the demand for its end.

That same day, the United States National Security Adviser, with extremely aggressive and disrespectful language, announced in Miami new measures that reinforce the blockade, which together with other events and threats, foretell that his government is moving toward a course of confrontation with Cuba.

U.S. imperialism has reiterated the validity of the Monroe Doctrine and attacks progressive governments and processes, attempts to reverse the progress made in terms of integration and social justice in the region; carries out a systematic and enormous communications and cultural manipulation operation; and persecutes and criminalizes leftist political forces and leaders, popular movements and social organizations, with the aim of imposing neoliberalism. It also tries to destroy the genuinely Latin American and Caribbean cooperation and collaboration mechanisms, such as CELAC and UNASUR.

But the peoples do not bow down or abandon the struggle, as demonstrated in the broad and united XXIV Meeting of the of the São Paulo Forum, held in this city this past July.

I express our deep gratitude to the Commonwealth Caribbean for its encouraging Statement of Solidarity of December 8, 2018, in honor of the celebration of CARICOM-Cuba Day.

The Declaration of the XVI Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, ALBA-TCP, held in Havana on December 14, addressed these issues, committed to act decisively in the mobilization and indispensable unity of revolutionary, progressive and popular forces, and expressed full support and solidarity to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of Nicaragua in the face of imperialist and oligarchic hostility.

In Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador won a historic victory that arouses great sympathy. To him and to the fraternal Mexican people, I thank you for the warm hospitality with which we were received during his inauguration.

In Brazil, the unacceptable conditions and repeated slander by the President-elect of that country to destroy the More Doctors Program, violating the respective agreements with the Pan American Health Organization, have forced us, in defense of the dignity, altruism and recognized professionalism of our health workers, to put an end to Cuban participation, as has been reported in detail to our people and to Brazilian and international public opinion.

Every day, from the remotest corners of the South American giant, messages of gratitude to our doctors arrive, and rejection of the new President’s policy that uprooted them from those places where only they went to save lives.

As Lula expressed in a message to our people: “I regret that the prejudice of the new Government against Cubans has been more important than the health of Brazilians living in the most distant and needy communities.”

History will document the before and after of our cooperation. In the fortieth edition of the Havana International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema, a Brazilian documentary maker brought the entire audience to their feet just by mentioning our doctors. Media from all over the world have turned their eyes to our medical collaboration for the first time, as a result of the inappropriate remarks of the far-right Brazilian government.

Our health professionals are the paradigm that contraposes the egotism and commercialization of medical services. They are Cuba, and are the most beautiful monument to Fidel’s internationalist, humanist work in defense of human rights on a universal scale.

In recent months, we have had intense and fruitful bilateral exchanges, in particular during our official visits to the Russian Federation, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the People’s Republic of China, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, whose warm hospitality we are grateful for, and from which stemmed important agreements, the fulfilment of which we dedicate all our efforts.

The exchanges sustained during our presence in the French Republic and the United Kingdom were also significant. The visit to Havana of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, was also beneficial.

The commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela and the thirtieth anniversary of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale against the apartheid regime was particularly moving.

Dear Compatriots:

What a tremendous year we are seeing off!

If we were to look to symbols alone, it would be enough to consider the 150 years of intense struggle for our independence that marks 2018, and the 60 years of combat, resistance and creativity of the final triumph, at the first minute of 2019.

We move from one to the other driven by the stunning feat of those who threw themselves into the scrubland, sometimes with no more weapons than their sense of shame, and who faced limitless hunger and scarcity to make us free.

Men and women of inherited properties and wealth, who renounced them to create a new nation.

This year, a local museum of the former mother country has lent us a chair that belonged to Maceo. The throne of the bravest of our Generals was made from a palm trunk. He did not take an elegant and soft chair from those who then subjected his country. That is why those who, even on killing him, could never overcome our vocation for liberty, kept it as a war trophy.

Exactly 60 years after the death of Maceo, in December of 1956, Fidel, Raúl and their compañeros of the Granma, took up again the spirit of that warrior and set up camp in the mountains. The rebel Command would be as Creole and sovereign as Bronze Titan’s chair.

Also made of palm boards and a palm leaf roof is Fidel’s house in La Plata, the site never conquered by the army of the dictatorship, guarded as it was and will always be, by the humble inhabitants of those lands, where the brook of the Sierra Maestra flows sonorous and free.

We are a nation marked by such great independence endeavours, that also saved us from egoistic dependencies on material possessions, when the price of obtaining them was freedom.

The symbols to which I referred, those signs and essences that History leaves us, speak to us of a country with character, that always knew that “poverty passes, what does not pass is dishonour,” as the Apostle of the worn frock coat said, who gathered money and wills for the Necessary War, without ever taking a penny.

That character, that comes to us from grandparents and parents, that for the Homeland even brings tears to our eyes, but above all, launches us at full gallop against anyone who wants to harm it; is not, as some believe, the History book that the young generation can not read.

To feel passion and pride for what we are, at the same time as impatience and anguish for what we do not achieve, rather than distress, makes the transition between these two years a triumphal arch, crowned by everything we have devoted, and the certainty that to fight is victory (Applause).

We always go for more. And with all the living generations together, in tribute to those who sacrificed everything, because the road toward the conquest of that more, always pending, was guarded by the peace and unity of all Cubans.

On behalf of a generation proud of being, not a substitute, but continuity, I want to express to you the deep commitment that moves us to struggle relentlessly to measure up to history, to our heroes and the people, inseparable in sentiment and fidelity.

Today we have come to render an account of our work and to commit ourselves to more: to promote everything that allows us to move forward and overcome, along with our own limitations and in the face of an economic war, financial persecution and the tightened blockade.

The greatest motivation is provided by the 60th anniversary of the Revolution, with its indelible lessons that it is possible to overcome all obstacles if the people accompany us.

It will be, without doubt, another year of challenges. But, as Martí said on speaking of the soul of the Revolution, and the duty of Cuba: “The Cuban people expect nothing from the revolution that the revolution can not provide.”

We will move forward. And we will continue to be victorious. That’s what the forefathers of the nation taught us. To this the dignified and heroic people of Céspedes, Mariana, Maceo, Gómez, Martí, Mella, Villena, Haydeé, Abel, Celia, Frank, Vilma, Camilo, Che, Almeida, Fidel, Raúl and their comrades in the struggle summon us everyday, who by accompanying us, honor us.

On February 24, in the Referendum to ratify the Constitution, Cuba will be reaching a high point of the 150 years we have celebrated, and the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, the Revolution of Fidel and Raúl, which we will celebrate on January 1st.

We will say yes and we will triumph again. Because We Are Cuba.

Congratulations to all our people for the New Year.

Ever onward to victory!

Patria o Muerte!

Venceremos!

(Ovation)

On welcoming the guests to the Cuban Mission to the United Nations, the President described this meeting with “one of the sectors that has most advocated U.S. relations with Cuba,” as vital.

He stressed that this is “the sector with which we have had the possibility of economic and commercial exchanges, although very limited.”

Díaz-Canel recalled that “there were times when we imported goods worth more than 1.1 billion dollars in a single year from the United States, a figure that has been decreasing because, with the blockade restrictions, we are forced to pay in cash and the amounts are also limited.”

Regardless of the tightening of this hostile policy and the measures the current U.S. administration has adopted against Cuba, the President reiterated: “We are still open to dialogue.”

He added, “At no moment will we close off the possibility of talks, but always on the basis of respect, without conditions and without impositions.”

Díaz-Canel also acknowledged the important role of the U.S. agricultural sector in the continued struggle for an end to the blockade: “It’s very important that people like you can visit Cuba, that we can converse, exchange, so that our reality is truly known and, based on that, we can create all the strength and build the unity that will allow us to end the blockade.”

Photo: Estudio Revolución
The Cuban President noted that the island currently has to import more than 2 billion dollars worth of food annually, “under very complex conditions, with countries that are located at a great distance, where the freight costs are very high, where, in fact, they raise the prices, as they know the needs and limitations we have.”

He noted that, despite its small size, the Cuban market is secure and offers many opportunities in terms of supplying a population of 11 million people.

The statesman noted that trade would be mutually beneficial. What bother us and hurts, he emphasized, is that sometimes a ship loaded with food from the United States arrives to Cuba, because we have been able to purchase it, and then it returns empty to the U.S., when it could return filled with our goods.

He also explained that technological transfers and scientific exchanges are another opportunity, as although Cuba has very modest resources, it has advanced scientific development.
The Cuban President concluded that the island’s delegation had brought to New York a message of peace, of unity, of understanding and also a call to action.

The meeting was attended, among others, by NASDA CEO Barbara Glenn; USACC Chair Paul Johnson; CEO of the U.S. Grains Council Thomas Sleight; and the Agriculture Commissioners of the States of Connecticut, Virginia and New Mexico.

Thanks to the efforts of this sector, sales of U.S. agricultural products and food to Cuba began in 2001, which are carried out in only one direction, due to the continued ban on Cuba exporting goods to the U.S.

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee recently adopted amendments to its farm bill that, if passed by the House of Representatives, would allow the use of trade promotion programs of U.S. goods in Cuba.

This amendment, which is a step in the right direction, is still far from facilitating agricultural trade with Cuba and the provision of private credits, as demanded by the U.S. agricultural community.

IN CONTEXT:

- In March of 2015, a delegation of almost one hundred people representing the U.S. agricultural sector visited Cuba and held a series of meetings with Cuban representatives with the purpose of exploring trade and exchange opportunities.
- In October 2015, the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act (for the exportation of agricultural products to Cuba), was submitted to Congress by Republican representative from Arkansas, Rick Crawford.

- In February 2016, United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack noted that there was great potential for sales of Cuban organic products in the United States, but the that current laws prevented such trade.

- In June, the Cuban Minister of Agriculture visited the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

- In September of that same year, during the first bilateral economic talks between Cuba and the United States, agriculture was one of the topics discussed, as of interest to both parties.

- In December 2017, Republican Representative Rick Crawford stressed the importance of the U.S. Congress passing the Cuba Agricultural Exports Act, focused on promoting private financing of sales to the island.
- In April 2018, both countries again exchanged on cooperation in agriculture.

BLOCKADE DAMAGES TO AGRICULTURE

During the period June 2017 through March 2018, losses in this sector amounted to 413,793,100 dollars, representing an increase of 66,195,100 dollars on the previous period.

(Granma)