President Fidel Castro’s closing remarks, during his special television appearance on January 22, 2006, on the maneuvers surrounding the case of the notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and in response to new acts of provocation and misdeeds by the US government and the US Interests Section in Havana.

The government of the United States is deliberately pursuing the following objectives:

First, the release of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who was trained by US authorities —Bush Sr. included— and used to perpetrate monstrous crimes against the Cuban people. Recruited in 1961, this repulsive character was trained to carry out special operations during the Bay of Pigs invasion. He and Orlando Bosch, officially pardoned by Bush Sr., subsequently received rigorous training to execute despicable acts of terrorism against Cuba. Likewise, he was given instruction to take part in Operation Condor, an international terrorist organization responsible for odious crimes against Latin American personalities. He is the mind behind the midair bombing of a Cubana de Aviación airliner, which claimed the lives of 73 people, off the coasts of Barbados, on October 6, 1976. Taken out of a Venezuelan prison by the CIA on August 18, 1985, he immediately became involved in the dirty war against Nicaragua, supplying weapons to the ‘contras’ in El Salvador and shipping drugs to the United States. For over four decades, Luis Posada Carriles maintained close ties with US intelligence agencies, received financing from various administrations and was used by the Cuban American National Foundation in attempts to assassinate the Cuban head of state. Efforts by the current US President, and a pardon signed by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso, finally secured his release from prison on August 26, 2004. Then, taken to a Central American country under protection from the US government, he was authorized to secretly enter the United States. Between March 18 and 20, 2005, he entered the country on the Santrina, a yacht captained by the notorious terrorist Santiago Álvarez, a man who, strangely enough, is also being held for weapons trafficking and gross violations of US national security laws. These are irrefutable facts.

Second, the current US administration has utterly failed in its efforts to isolate and stifle Cuba economically. But it does not accept this failure, and grows ever more desperate.

Third, the government of the United States has done everything in its power to please the Cuban American terrorist mafia, which resorted to fraud, in Florida, to put President George W. Bush in office.

Fourth, President Bush and his administration have committed themselves to implementing a macabre transition plan in Cuba, an act of flagrant interference in the internal affairs of our country, which would return it to a state of backwardness.

Fifth, the government of the United States has implemented every imaginable measure to deprive Cuba of completely legitimate sources of income. It has made it more difficult for people to send remittances to Cuba and even, callously, forbidden, or made it next to impossible, for Cuban-born US residents to visit their relatives on the island.

Sixth, under pressure from the Cuban-American mob, and as one their next step, the government of the United States is intent on openly violating the US – Cuba Migratory Accords.

Seventh: The government of the United States is looking for any pretext to prevent, at all costs, the sale of agricultural products to Cuba, which has been growing, while our country has paid every cent on time during five years, something it did not expect from a blockaded nation facing constant aggression.

Eighth, the government of the United States, unhappy about President Carter’s decision of May 30, 1977, is intent on breaking the minimal diplomatic links which exist between Cuba and the United States today. The gross acts of provocation of the US Interests Section in Havana do not and could not have a different objective.

The Bush administration is well aware that no government on earth can tolerate such an affront to its dignity and sovereignty. As the government of Cuba hasn’t the slightest doubt about the aim behind these new actions, it shall take whatever measures are necessary to respond to these provocations. On the other hand, Cuba has been and continues to be strongly committed to wholly fulfilling our obligations towards US agricultural producers and suppliers --who have seriously and effectively fulfilled their share of the agreements--, while the U.S. doesn’t impede us from doing so. However, we shall take appropriate measures to avoid whatever repercussion this treacherous action by the current US government could have for Cuba, so that, an abrupt interruption of food supplies coming from the United States would not bear heavily on our people.

Cuba’s attitude, and its response to the empire’s provocations, will be entirely peaceful, but we shall strike back with all the strength of our moral fortitude and we shall persist in our determination to fight to the death, against whatever act of belligerence of the restless and brutal empire that threatens us. Let no one for a minute forget the oath of Maceo, our Bronze Titan, when he said that whosoever attempts to take possession of Cuba shall conquer but the blood-soaked ground beneath his feet, if he does not first perish in battle.

Within a day and a half, in the morning of January 24 when the status of the vicious terrorist will be reviewed, the people of Havana will show their discipline, unity and revolutionary spirit marching on the US Interests Section of Bush’s fraudulent and bastard government, a government which has been imposed upon the people of the United States and which constitutes today’s greatest threat to world peace.

World public opinion will once again witness an irrefutable testimony of what Cuba is and where it stands.

Homeland or death!

We shall overcome!