DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILIZATIONS
INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR
On August 3, under the title of A Reflection on Hard and Obvious Realities,
I published a number of remarks on the prerogatives of power and its effect on
human beings and quoted the arguments advanced by Colonel General Leonid
Ivashov, Vice-President of the Russian Academy for Geopolitical Affairs and
former Secretary of the Council of Defense Ministers of the Community of
Independent States and Chief of the Military Cooperation Department of the Russian
Federation’s Ministry of Defense. As I indicated on that occasion, Ivashov is a
well-informed man whose views are deserving of our people's attention.
General
Ivashov’s analysis, which appeared in a note published by the Russian news
agency Ria Novosti last July 24, began by identifying the United State’s
economic, financial, technological and military dictatorship in today’s
international arena as the chief political tool wielded by that country.
I
will not reiterate General Ivashov’s arguments, which lead him to the
conclusion that, in order to neutralize the plans aimed at world hegemony,
alternative poles of power must be created. In this connection, I wish only to
draw attention to one of his main arguments:
“Only
an alliance of civilizations could oppose the
The concept of an “alliance of civilizations” where ideas
would prevail took me back to an international gathering held in our country in
March 2005, titled "Dialogue among Civilizations World Conference.
Nearly 300 scientists and intellectuals, representatives
of social organizations and the media, politicians and religious figures from
29 countries participated in this conference, organized by the Founding Council
of the Russian National Glory Centre and the Ministry of Culture and Union of
Cuban Writers and Artists, with the purpose of challenging current theories on
the clash of civilizations which are grounded in the exclusivist nature of
neoliberal globalization, the advocate of a single model which can be
confronted by encouraging dialogue among peoples, cultures, creeds and States
in search of common responses to the key challenges facing today's world.
I was invited to make the closing remarks at the
conference and, at the event’s closing session, held in
Because of its length, I did not revise the text of those
remarks nor submit it to the press for publication at the time. However,
inspired by General Ivashov’s arguments and his reference to an alliance of
civilizations, I have reread that address, suppressed a number of paragraphs
which did not contribute anything new in essence and touched up a number of
details in terms of structure and style. On rereading the text, I was surprised
at the extent to which many of my current ideas and concerns were already
developed there.
Because of this, I have asked that the text of that
address be reproduced. It is important to stress that I delivered that address
on
Fidel Castro Ruz
SPEECH GIVEN BY COMANDER IN
CHIEF AT THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT.
RIO DE JANEIRO,
JUNE 12, 1992
Mr. Fernando Collor de Mello, President of Brazil;
Mr. Boutros Ghali, Secretary General of the United
Nations;
An important biological species is
endangered due to the accelerated and progressive destruction of its natural
living conditions: man.
We are becoming aware of this problem only
now when it is almost too late to tackle it.
It is worthwhile indicating that the main
responsibility for the brutal destruction of the environment lies with the
consumer societies. They are the offspring of the old colonial metropolises and
of imperialist policies that also begot the poverty and backwardness which are today
the scourge of the overwhelming majority of humanity.
These societies, with only 20 percent of
the world population, consume two thirds of the metals and three fourth of the
energy produced in the world. They have poisoned oceans and rivers and contaminated
the air; they have weakened and opened holes in the ozone layer and saturated
the atmosphere with gases that impair climate conditions with catastrophic
effects that we are starting to feel.
Forests are disappearing and deserts
growing while billions of tons of fertile soil end up in the oceans every year.
Numerous species face extinction. Overpopulation and poverty lead to desperate
efforts for survival, even at the expense of Nature. The
The solution cannot be to put off the
development of those who need it most. The truth is that everything that today
contributes to underdevelopment and poverty is tantamount to a flagrant attack
on the ecology. As a result, tens of millions of men, women and children perish
every year in the
The unequal terms of trade, protectionism
and the foreign debt are also an assault on the ecology and facilitate the
destruction of the environment.
A better distribution of wealth and of the
technologies available in the world could spare humanity such devastation. Less
luxury and waste in a few countries could bring about a reduction of poverty
and hunger in a large part of the planet.
Let’s put an end to the transfer of
lifestyles and consumer habits to the
Now that the alleged threat of communism
no longer exists, neither the pretexts for cold wars, the arms race nor
military expenditures, what prevents the immediate use of those resources to
foster development in the
Let
selfishness and hegemonism cease, as well as callousness, recklessness and
deceit. Tomorrow it will be too late to do what should have been done a long
time ago.
Thanks.
(Ovation)
Speech Given by Commander in
Chief Fidel Castro Ruz at the closing ceremony of the “World Conference
Dialogue among Civilizations.
in the 21st
Century: Universalism and Originality at the
Dear Friends:
I refer to
all the guests coming from other countries and from
I must confess to you that I do not like the
word “foreigners”, because it is as if I were addressing you as “Dear
Strangers”.
It is not
often that one has the possibility, and the challenge, to meet with a group
such as this. One would have to be, in
the first place, a fortune teller to know what one should speak about
here. I have this reputation for talking
at length, often going on far too long; such is not my intention this
afternoon, even though often times intentions do not match up to results
(Laughter); but, I understand, and not because I listened to all the
presentation –something that I would have liked very much to do, but because I
was fortunate to be provided a summary of the activities and of the various
presentations.
The first
thing that occurs to me is to congratulate those who had the initiative of
arranging an event such as this, and to give it such a suggestive name, like
that of the Dialogue among Civilizations.
Anyone who
is not aware of some of the sessions or the content of your task could have
thought that this was all about a group of amateurs exchanging philosophical
ideas, or using their time to have interesting exchanges and reflections.
Based on
what I have read, I think that the content of this dialogue is much more lofty
and profound than could be deduced from just the name. It seems to me that you have really
participated in a dialogue, although I'm not sure if it was a dialogue among
civilizations or by civilizations.
One must
think of the concepts of civilization and wonder, what are civilizations? From my boyhood and my school days, which was
not so long ago (Laughter), it seems like it was just yesterday when I was
listening to the first concepts about the world and about history. It was said that
this world was civilized, and it was even said that the Europeans had come to
this hemisphere to bring us civilization.
It was
also said that it was necessary go to Africa to civilize the Africans, and go
all the way to the Pacific region, to what was then called the Indian Ocean to
civilize the Indians, and the Indonesians;
a bit further yet and they arrived in China, to civilize China.
For a long
time now we have all heard about Marco Polo. As a boy I also heard of him, of
his voyages to
Once I was
visiting
We all
know that in Julius Caesar’s day and age he won his glory fighting with his
legions against the Barbarian Germanic tribes, and that after vanquishing the
Barbaric Frankish tribes he moved on to conquer Gaul, that is, in the Gallic
Wars, and he went as far as what today is Great Britain. He even had a wall
built in those islands because apparently he was unable to totally dominate
some of those peoples, and so they built a wall. That same
Well, one
of the pretexts that I read by one of the writers of that time, Bernal Díaz del
Castillo, is that these people had to be civilized because they made human
sacrifices. And if the people who made
human sacrifices had to be civilized, then I think that there are many in this
world that still need civilizing.
I think,
for example, that those who bomb cities, terrorize millions of men, women and
children and then say that there were civilian casualties need civilizing. Apart from the civilian casualties which
always occur during all bombings, and the Russians know about this better than
anyone else, because the Russians lived through the bombings of
Those of
us who have been able to know and admire the great feats of the Russian people
know the terrible challenge they had to confront, suddenly, in a matter of
hours, while the soldiers from that famous Brest-Litovsk fortress, which so
gallantly and heroically defended itself, despite the surprise, were home on
leave. And while studying those events we observed something that speaks
volumes about the historic values of the Russian people. When everywhere else
the news of enemy tanks in the rearguard were the signal to surrender and hoist
the white flag, the Russians did not surrender, the Russians did not hoist the
white flag.
Sometimes,
one reflects on what might have happened if that people had been mobilized, if
the Russian Army and her allies had been in a state of combat alert. We, an extremely small country, a tiny island
here near the powerful neighbor, many times we have had to foresee the dangers
and declare ourselves in a state of combat alert! We are determined not to allow anyone ever to
take us by surprise and to catch us off our guard. I am not going to rummage
through history nor shall I speak of accountability. The truth is, however,
that if the Russian people and her armed forces had been mobilized, I know very
well where World War II would have ended; not in Berlin, but in Lisbon. I dare say this here with every sense of
responsibility. I have thought about this many times because I have read many
history books about that war, written by people on both sides. We all know that millions and millions of men
and women died; the figure has been given of 15, later 20 and later 27 million
people from that multinational Soviet state; then and now as well, of course,
Russia is largely a multinational State, but tens of millions died, and I think
it was mostly due to the surprise.
In our
country, a great many books were published, even, while great dangers
threatened us. We resorted to heroic Russian literature. And so, books were printed in the hundreds of
thousands to instill in our people the idea that when the people fight and when
the people resist they can face up to any difficulty.
I mean
that for us that heroism of the Russians is not something that we have read
about like the heroism of, let’s say, those who fought in Numancia and Sagunto,
against the Roman troops, until the very last man, until the extermination of a
population. In this case we have lived together through a part of history, a
difficult part. You had lived through it earlier and we have lived through it
later, constantly threatened with an invasion. And we were not threatened by
the Grand Cayman island lying south of Cuba, with an area of some square
kilometers and perhaps 8,000 or 10,000 inhabitants; we have been threatened by
a country which 8, 9 or 10 million square kilometers and a populations of
almost 300 million, by the power which, from a technical, economic and military
point of view, has prevailed over the last 60 years, the United States
superpower. It is a great danger.
And we
were inspired by the deeds of the Soviet people --I must say this, I should not
hesitate to call them so-- for we know
that the soul of that resistance, the axis of that resistance, the heart of
that resistance, was the Russian people,
the heroism of other peoples who fought alongside the Russians
notwithstanding.
Retamar
was speaking about the invasion of
It is not men
who make history, it is history that makes men or the great figures and
personalities; men interpret events, in one way or another, but they are born
from history. We see here the Venezuelan
ambassador, our friend Adán (Adam) who bears the name of the first human being
who lived on this planet; he represents the country of Bolívar, but as I was
saying, without those historical processes, the name Bolívar would be unknown
today.
It was the
great crisis, Napoleon's occupation of Spain, the imposition of a French king
in that country, a brother of the emperor –who I believe was a bit of a fool–
that caused a rebellion, first as an act of loyalty, not by Bolívar but
certainly by that society represented at the time by the wealthiest sectors,
the ruling sectors.
But those
historical events, that revolution, made it possible that today we know about
Bolívar. This would not have been the case if Bolívar had been born 30 years
earlier or 30 years later. The name of
Martí would not be known, and we would not know the names of many of histories
greatest figures whose reputation, more than their merits, sprang out of
historical events. I say this about the great figures: Martí, the moment when
he was born the son of a Spanish soldier, both mother and father were
Spaniards, he was born with an enormous sensitivity, he was born on this soil
at a time of crisis. Therefore, the
great historical events are a product of crises.
I say this
because, history –and there are many interpretations of history– is made up of
a series of events and advances from one era to another. The history of which we speak, the history of
those civilizations which sprang up before the Greeks and the Romans, are
teaching us many things.
I think
that the history of man is a history of wars, it’s a history of conquests, it’s
a history of some peoples dominating other peoples, of some groups being
dominated by other groups. At a certain
moment empires emerged, but the
There were
empires in
In other
words, each one of these stages was creating values, each one of these stages
was creating cultures that were accumulating; but, when we speak of
civilization, we cannot forget about the Mayan civilization which had knowledge
of space, or the Aztec civilization, or the Inca civilization or the Pre-Inca
civilizations.
I have
spoken with eminent men such as [Thor] Heyerdahl, the famous author of the Kon-Tiki Expedition, who was an
explorer. He dedicated his life to the
study of ancient civilizations. He
worked a lot in Peru and he told me how there were things and designs that
could only be seen from an altitude of 2,000 or 3,000 meters, stretching over
the plains, constructions that were feats of engineering such as had not
existed in Europe when this hemisphere was conquered. And so what did these civilizations bring to
us? Up to which point did they conquer
us? Almost until today, and I say "almost", because many of us are
still conquered and dominated by other civilizations that rule over the remnants
of those that existed in this hemisphere, and this, keeping in mind the great
values which the conquerors brought with them, because they all created
values. All civilizations created
values, but values that have clashed against each other.
When
I hear this phrase, “Dialogue among Civilizations”, what crosses my mind is the
idea of an accumulation of values, an amalgamation of the values of all
civilizations. Just as when we speak of teaching people to read and write, I
think of providing the unschooled with those values they have not been able to
obtain, because they had no one to teach them or no school to go to. When one
speaks of teaching people to read and write, one thinks of that, of passing on
values. But we must also ask ourselves what values, exactly what values we are
passing on?
I
was moved by the words that were spoken about saying goodbye to chauvinism,
saying goodbye to narrow-minded nationalism, saying goodbye to hatred, saying
goodbye to intolerance, saying goodbye to prejudice, by gathering all that is
good in all cultures and all civilizations and all religions, by teaching
everyone a universal ethic which is dearly needed in this neo-liberal and
globalized world which began by globalizing egoism, globalizing vice,
globalizing frantic consumerism, globalizing the attempts at stealing the
resources of others, and making slaves of them.
It
is said that slavery dates back to primitive times and that, as soon as
humanity became involved in production and learned that people could produce
for themselves and for others, rather than murder its prisoners, it began to
preserve them. This is what is said and it may be very true, but slavery would
persist for thousands of years afterwards.
It
is said that the passage from Roman slavery to feudalism which took place in
Europe in what was called the Middle Ages, was a great step forward, up until
the very moment they discovered us here. I say “us” because, even though I
share in the blood of the discoverers, I consider myself a son of this land and
this island, and, above all else, a son of humanity. This land knew a great
patriot, a great philosopher who once said —and not at the time of
internationalism, this man was struggling for his homeland's independence
against Spanish colonialism— but he said a phrase that ought to be remembered
for all time: "Homeland is humanity". That man's name was, is and
will always be José Martí. See this: "Homeland is humanity". Here,
where the representatives of more than 25 countries, where scientists,
intellectuals and religious leaders have gathered to hold this dialogue among
civilizations, have you not been moved by the feeling, have you not had a sense
that your homeland is humanity?
I
stress this point because I hate chauvinism; I revile chauvinism as I revile
many other things that have characterized humanity in its long journey
throughout its brief history…no one knows whether Homo Sapiens first appeared
50, 100 or several hundreds of thousands of years ago. Archaeologists spend
their lives looking for skulls to determine at which point in the evolution of
the species humanity arose. I mention this without fear of offending anyone,
even if I know there are many religious people here, because the leader of the
Catholic Church himself, some years ago, declared —courageously, in my
opinion—that the theory of evolution is not irreconcilable with the doctrine of
creation. I don't know, of course, how other religions view this issue. I
respect them all, as I respect all points of view. I limit myself to offering
you an example of how the Catholic Church interprets this knowledge. These are
new phenomena, for churches have learned from experience and have attempted to
broaden their points of view and their conceptions in their search for good.
I was
educated in religious schools; I was critical, and I can still be so, of the
way in which they taught me religion, a very dogmatic way. Everyone is not born the same and everyone
has their own character, their own personality.
I reject those things that they tried to force on me, or that they
forced me to believe without persuading me about, those things they wanted me
to believe. Thus, everyone has their own
way of reacting.
But I can
say that the churches themselves have been making an effort. The Catholic Church has criticized the crimes
that were committed, the conquest of this hemisphere with great violence; they
have criticized the Inquisition, they have criticized the condemnation of
Galileo, they have condemned those horrible acts such as the burning of
heretics at the stake. The first native to revolt in this country --he was a
peaceful man, and he was not even a Cuban-- came from Santo Domingo where there
was a much more combative population. His name was Hatuey and he was condemned
to burn at the stake; and there a priest was sent to persuade him to be
baptized so that he could go to heaven, and the story goes that he asked
–whether it is true or not, I say it is a lovely story; we have been taught this right from primary
school –he is said to have been asked whether the Spaniards went to Heaven and
when he was told that, yes, they did, that rebellious native said: “Then, I
would rather die, I don’t want to go to such Heaven where Spaniards go."
Look at
that lesson, how every man who lives leaves us something. That rebel died with those words on his lips,
which may be true or not, but he at least inspired them. Consider that
beautiful example of dignity, of heroism.
And I was
speaking about all the mistakes we have made and which we must overcome and the
values we have created that we must bring together. Thus I interpret what could be termed a
dialogue among civilizations, whose spirit I share one hundred percent and
which makes me happy. I wish I could one
day participate fully in a dialogue and not just in its closing ceremony and not
have to find out about it from a summary of all that was discussed.
Our
distinguished visitor, whom we have received with much satisfaction, and we
know that it is not his fault that he arrived late --we could call this a
contradiction in views, a contradiction of civilizations—he was speaking about
the satisfaction with which they were awaiting the next dialogue to be held in
Greece, where all those who wanted to, could attend, I was reminded of a recent
occurrence that I, sports lover that I am, that I always have been wanting to
see one of the Olympic Games, which I have never attended, even when I could
have gone; but I thought that I had the right to participate in the Olympics,
if I wanted to, and there in Greece many people invited me, even people from
the Greek Orthodox Church, and they promised that they would take me to see a
famous monastery. And truly, my mind is
overflowing with ideas, memories, things they told me, the marvelous things
they told me about the history of that church and what they have accomplished
and what they have created. It was very interesting having the Patriarch of the
Greek Orthodox Church visit me precisely on the day we were inaugurating the
Orthodox Church building. And we have
also been talking about laying the first stone of a Russian Orthodox church;
there will also be a cathedral here, to all of our satisfaction, in the same
way that there is a mosque in our city, and in the same way all the religions
are represented. We have this honor and we are pleased and honored that they
are all represented here. And I think
that our country has been an example of how ecumenism can exist not just in the
religious terrain but also in the respect of the sentiments of all.
I could
not be ecumenical with those who deny other people their right to think and
their right to believe, because for us, we who are so often accused of
violating human rights, I shall say nothing more other than that the first
human right is the right to think, the right to believe, the right to live, the
right to learn, the right to know dignity, the right to be treated like any
other human being, the right to be independent, the right to sovereignty as a
people, the right to dignity as a human being.
We really
think that to discuss human rights, a sort of Olympics would have to be
organized, getting us all together, the accused with all the frauds and
hypocrites in the world today, and assemble together in a room like this one to
debate what human rights are, which ones we have violated and which ones we
have defended for dozens of years, without ever abandoning our principles. You,
many of whom are religious persons –and I am not a religious person in the
traditional sense of the word– at the end of the road could remember religious characters and God
forbid, I am not comparing ourselves with any other character in history. I am not just myself; I speak for the people
of
There are
religious beliefs and there are political beliefs. There are religious convictions and there are
political convictions. And I mean it in the best sense of the word because
everything political has been so discredited.
There are political ideas. I
conceive political ideas to be those that are truly worth the life of a man, of
a man’s sacrifice, of a man’s life, of a man’s death; or that of many men, of
an entire people if necessary, who would sacrifice themselves in defense of
those values, whoever defends values and knows that without values there is no
life. And I say more, without values
there is no civilization; even more, without values, this humanity cannot
survive, because when we speak of civilizations –and we know there were many,
and just as many have disappeared –we might also wonder how long these
civilizations will last if we do not take the relevant steps just as you are
trying to do here so that not just civilization but the species can survive.
Because for the first time in the long march through a brief history, the
survival of humanity is in jeopardy. I
would invite anyone to answer and tell me if there was ever any other time like
today when the survival of the species was in danger.
In the past, it was the
This is now the year 2005, and I wonder
just how much oil will remain in the world in 91 years. In 1896, the world
spent 6 million tons of oil a year and today consumption amounts to 82 million
barrels, that is, nearly 12 million tons of oil every day.
One hundred nine years ago, again, homo
sapiens —and just how sapient humanity is, dear friends, is still to be
established—109 years ago it spent 6 million tons of oil a year and today it is
spending nearly 12 million every day, and consumption is increasing at a pace
of 2 million barrels of oil per day each year. There is not enough oil to go
around and it is becoming more and more expensive.
And I am limiting myself to but one
problem, the energy problem. We could ask ourselves how long this easily-accessible
energy is going to last our civilized neighbors, I don’t mean the people, I
mean that very civilized government —and do forgive me for mentioning a
government in particular, I don't want to mention any because I don’t want to
offend anyone— but that policy, or whatever you wish to call it, that is so
civilized and humanitarian, opposed to the Kyoto Protocol, a simple and modest
attempt to contain atmospheric contamination, that policy deserves our
repudiation.
That country is spending 25% of the
world’s energy. Today, there is an oil crisis, and it will not go away. The
latest, most serious one was in 1975. It is said that oil is expensive today.
No, oil was truly expensive in 1975.
We're not in the oil business. Even if we
were, I am not defending any one doctrine here, I am merely saying that, if oil
becomes more expensive, so much the better; because, if they're going to
contaminate the world, the more expensive oil is, the greater the hope of
having it last a few more years before we are poisoned or intoxicated to death,
before they finally change the world's climate completely, the greater the hope
that we will see some rainfall.
We are facing the most severe drought that
Just calculate how many trucks are transporting
water. Why do I mention this? We don't have to wait until hell freezes over
—one can't help but talk about climate change, it seems— we are doing this now.
A drought like this one obliges us, not to say farewell to arms, as Hemingway
wrote —we can't say farewell to arms just yet— but farewell to the idea of
depending on the sugar industry or sugarcane, for sugarcane plantations require
water. We filled this country with water reservoirs; today, they are empty.
There are some here and there that have some water. But we have not lost hope,
we have confidence that it will rain.
I see, for instance, that
I am not exaggerating. I am firmly
convinced that I am not exaggerating when I say that we must struggle and do it
with the utmost determination, again, if we want civilizations to survive, if
we want the species responsible for these civilizations, whatever its
shortcomings and mistakes may be, to survive. It is through this lens that I
have observed the dialogue you have had and the meeting you’ve held, and the
gathering you are to hold next year in
In an article, I read something along the
lines of: “Castro has not been invited” to the Olympics. This is false. Someone
from a paper, a slanderer, said that Castro was going to attend the Olympics,
and, immediately, the government spokespeople there reacted. I don't know which
government they represented, I don't even know what party is in power there,
nor am I hugely interested in knowing, forgive me if I am been disrespectful. I
don't know if it’s a left-wing or right-wing party —you would know this better
than I— I don’t know if they have a new government, if there’s been elections,
if there’s been change. It‘s all the same to me but, well, it would be
unfortunate if they invited me to a conference there and I was unable to
attend, because of the many hurdles one has to skirt when one is being hunted
down everywhere. I still face a number of restrictions. I am forced to use two
planes to travel, even though, as you all know, I am one of the “wealthiest”
men in the world. That's what was said in a two-penny
But I was saying that, as they say, I am
one of the world's wealthiest men, according to them. This convention centre,
where you have gathered, is mine, so don't forget to pay up. I don't know if
the tour operators have charged you, but you should know that according to them
this convention center is mine, just like all the country's research centers,
schools and hospitals we are building, the tens of thousands of doctors and
hundreds of thousands of university professionals that the Revolution has
trained. From their point of view, I own this country, including the few fish
that remain, that's all mine, get it, the birds that come and go, that fly over
this country, they're mine. They even say that this convention center is mine,
that it’s a business. One cannot but laugh, and, as they say, he who laughs
last laughs loudest (Applause). I am going to strike back at that magazine, put
them in check; they’re going to regret this. But I don’t want to talk about
that now; I don't want to get sidetracked. It's just to warn you, since we're
speaking of wealth, and they say that I am one of the wealthiest men in the
world. I think they put me in the sixth place, I don't know which place you are
in [pointing at somebody in the audience] but they've said that you are someone
who, as a decent businessman, has had great success. Well, what about Bill
Gates? They say he is one of the richest, though I believe some rivals are
popping up here and there, in some fashion or other. What is by no means
justifiable is that I should be rich, I say it in all honesty, it is
unjustifiable, I have no right to be rich.
When I was a young man, my father had some
money and they said I was rich. As rich as owning a large estate makes you, not
as rich as Bill Gates is or anything close to that. But I am not a rich man,
nor do I have the right to be so. And here I am, discussing these topics with
you. But I have to use two planes to travel anywhere, as I said, because, if a
‘stinger’ is lying in wait to take down my plane, I have to have a card up my
sleeve to confuse them. Sometimes, my plane lands first, then the other. There
have been times when I have taken off from somewhere and I have said: “turn off
all of the lights”, because I imagine someone pointing a ‘stinger’ at the
plane. So, if you’re thinking of inviting me there, you should know I am
putting my life at risk, a life I appreciate today more than ever. Do you know
why? Oh, because I want to devote the little time I have left and the experience
I have accumulated over the years to what we are doing now. I don't ask much,
two or three short years will suffice, we are going to take the fullest
advantage of nearly 50 years of experience in this field (Applause).
If I say I don’t want to place my life at
risk, I don't mean to say I tremble at the prospect of dying tomorrow. No, not
really; I am at ease, I have the utmost serenity and patience. But I am also
hugely enthusiastic about what we are doing right now and, if you wish, if you
are patient, and provided it's before, say,
I feel that the most significant thing I
could say is that I am convinced that the survival of the species is at stake,
that the species faces real dangers. If you have come from so far and have had
the immense patience of waiting to hear me speak to you, if I owe you a
statement of significance, the most significant thing I can say is this, that I
have this feeling and that conviction, and that these are not based on
fantasies but on facts, on calculations, mathematics, the conviction that
humanity faces true risks, that we must not only achieve peace but save the
species. And I believe the species can be saved. I would not speak about this
if I were a pessimist, if I thought the problem could not be overcome. I
believe it can and I am used to facing difficult problems. These are not the
words of someone given to idle fancy: I believe the problem can be solved and
that this is the most important thing. But I will move on to other issues.
What I was going to say is that he
[meaning somebody in the audience] wasn’t allowed to travel because he was
coming to
What I mean to say is that, I value the
Olympics, even though the Olympics are designed for rich countries. They always
have to be held in the
On the other hand, at the
But there was another battle, of the many
waged by the Greeks, and then the marathon competitions came into being. And,
since you were the founders of the Olympics, and with everyone’s support,
including ours —because we had defended
Well, that's why you got to be host of the
Olympics. Now, they are already discussing the big investments. You have to be
a multimillionaire. After a lot of work and becoming one of the motors of the
world economy,
Do excuse the bad habit of constantly
speaking my mind, of saying things I believe to be true.
I have insisted on this issue to express
my appreciation, to tell you how important I consider this gathering to be, to
urge you to continue working hard and to continue to do what you did here.
Many important issues were taken up here:
regional and international issues, issues related to peace. I hope the speeches
delivered will be published and spread, that they become available to more than
just a handful of people. The discussions struck me as very valuable and open.
Everyone expressed their opinion without any kind of apprehension. Everyone
expressed the truth as they saw it and I think it has been worth our time. I
offer you all our support, all of the assistance that we can offer.
This is my objective assessment, and this
is my mind speaking. We spoke from our hearts when Retamar spoke and said,
among other things, how happy Cubans were to see so many representatives of
I recalled the experiences we shared in
the course of 30 years of history.
We have never sown
hatred; we have never bred any type of chauvinism, fanaticism or
fundamentalism. They are the true fundamentalists, advocates of war and of
violence.
When I spoke of that first of June when a surprise and
pre-emptive attack was launched against the Soviet Union, I was taken back to
words I heard recently, spoken at a US military academy, when the leader of
that other powerful country told officials there that they had to be ready for
a pre-emptive attack on any dark corner of the world. In the blink of an eye, he
spoke of 60 or more countries and we, who were listening to him, know that we
are one of the darkest corners of the world, due to their idiosyncrasy and
fundamentalism, their technology and ignorance —yes, we mustn’t exclude
ignorance. To be ignorant means to know absolutely nothing of the world, of the
world’s problems, of world reality. Ignorance, the ignorance I am referring to,
means being completely oblivious, and the world is in trouble when the most
powerful superpower that has ever existed, capable of destroying the planet
twenty or thirty times over, is led by people who are completely oblivious to
it. We would all have heart attacks were we not strong at heart, were we not
equipped with strong consciences.
I was saying humanity must be saved. I believe
consciousness is the tool with which humanity can be saved.
I practice what I preach in this connection. I was
speaking of humanity, of the long and, at the same time, short history of the
species that, 200 years ago, was made up of 1 billion inhabitants; which took tens of thousands of years to
become that numerous and that, 130 years later, reached the figure of 2 billion
and which, in only 30 years, was 3 billion inhabitants large. In 10 years, it
went from 5 to 6 billion inhabitants. Let us not forget that. There are
currently 6.5 billion inhabitants in the world. Whoever has any idea of the
poverty that exists in the world, the backwardness, the hunger, the diseases,
the shortage of homes, the lack of hygiene, the poor health conditions which prevail
in this world where there are African countries in which the life expectancy is
36 and may go down to
I
spoke of wars. I could say to you what I have told many comrades that this
species evolved, it produced man, and man is truly a marvelous creation worthy
of survival. I have great confidence in man, in his creative capacity.
Why
has education been of the essence in our efforts to date? Because human beings
are born as a bundle of instincts. Education is the process whereby values are
instilled into this being moved by a plethora of instincts. Deprive that being
of education, leave it in an incubator, at the mercy of a machine that cares
for it and feeds it and you'll see what sort of education it has, if what US
filmmakers dreamt of can actually result from that: Tarzan, the ape man, the
man from the films of our childhood who was born who knows where in Africa, the
Tarzan we were brought up with, the intelligent man surrounded by tribes whose
pots were always boiling and who were ever ready to eat each other.
Yes,
that was the ideology they instilled in us when were children, that Africans
were cannibals, that they ate each other. Yes, we saw many movies like that,
it's a wonder we are not all racists and ultra reactionaries, given the movies
we watched.
Yes,
we have been given lethal doses of barbarism, lethal doses of ignorance, and
lethal doses of lies. That, however, has not destroyed our country’s ideas.
It
has to do with what I stress: education is passing on the positive values
created by human beings, the values I said we had to bring together. For us,
this has been of the essence: the creation and the accumulation of values.
Will
lies or values we have sown prevail? Will humanity make true values prevail
over lies? Will we have to own the big television networks? Is it
indispensable? No, let us become the owners of knowledge, even if we are only a
minority. Let us be owners of information, let us avail ourselves of those same
technical means to communicate with each other, because, while there are
networks that spread lies, there can also be networks of computers through
which someone can communicate with someone else who lives in Australia, in the
United States or in any corner of the world and exchange ideas.
I
believe that humanity has also created the technology with which truth can be
made to prevail.
For
instance, we have made use of television for this purpose. Until recently, there
were only two television channels in our country. Today, there are four and 62%
of televised programs are educational, that is, devoted to spreading
educational, cultural and informational materials, aimed at cultivating a
wholesome culture in people. There are recreational programs, but we try to
make these an educational instrument, to make of culture a way to instill
values in people; we strive to show any good film made in any part of the
world, to multiply the values that underpin it and those who made it.
We
no longer use television to teach people to read and write. We use television
for higher levels of education, to disseminate university courses and language
classes. We use the media for this. Put to good use, the media, radio and
television could put an end to the scourge of illiteracy in the world.
Why
are there still 800 million illiterate and billions of semi-illiterate people
in the world? If there is radio, if there is television, why are there still
billions of illiterate and semi-illiterate people? This is the question we
should ask ourselves. We have the means to eradicate illiteracy in but a few
years.
Why
has UNESCO been discussing the eradication of illiteracy for half a century,
what for? It has been demonstrated that illiteracy can be even eradicated over
the radio.
Before
the latest invasion of
Here,
more than a million Cubans have learned English over the television. French,
Portuguese and other language courses have also been aired. We make exhaustive
use of television and the media to offer these and other educational programs,
Today,
not only literacy in general but also political literacy must be cultivated and
applied.
You
speak of a dialogue among civilizations. How do you expect people to understand
each other? I ask myself if illiterate people will get your message, and where
in the world it will be understood, with the millions of illiterate people in
the
How
do you expect people who are illiterate, both generally and politically, to
understand your message? Do you believe that people who are fed the stories the
media churns out day after day will understand the message? However, we must
work to drive the message home.
The
message will not simply reach everyone because you elaborate it and convey it
to people. I return here to the idea of crises, that the message will be spread
and understood as a result of crises.
Let
no one believe that the Latin American volatility of which a number of Latin
Americans here have spoken, about which the ambassador of Venezuela spoke,
about which Villegas spoke...I haven't seen Villegas, he should be around here.
Vladimir Villegas. - Here I am.
Commander in Chief. - It's just that you look different on
television than in person.
Vladimir Villegas. - I look younger.
Commander in Chief. - That's what you think, I'm the one who's
young here (Laughter). I also believe I am younger, but you are actually,
objectively younger, and my best wishes to you, you have a lot of time ahead of
you, use it wisely, that is all I can ask of you.
Don't
you think that volatility is accidental, it stems from a crisis which shook the
country with the most resources in Latin America, the country with possibly the
largest oil reserves in the world, the country that saw a capital flight of 300
billion dollars, worth ten or fifteen times then what they are worth now. If
you do the math from 1959 on, when that hypocritical oligarchy came to power
under a democratic and progressive cloak —40 years have gone by, to date—you
see that the capital flight is equivalent to a purchasing power of over 2
trillion dollars. That is the sum extracted from a single country. Use your
imagination, if you wish, to do the math, for it's the only way to do it, not even
computers could offer us precise figures, because, we are dealing with so many
zeros that people already omit all of them, which is what one usually does when
one multiplies mentally.
How
much did they take from
This
phenomenon which scourges the
They
did this also in
Since
we are on the subject of currencies and we’re talking about money, they take
away money, ill-gotten or not, and they have to take it because there is a world
economic order, whose watchdog is an institution called the International
Monetary Fund, which obliges states to deposit their reserves in foreign banks.
When someone comes along with the required documents to say: "I am taking
these funds with me", they are obliged to say where to. If they do not
comply, they are condemned; they are not given one cent. These were the methods
they used when they were super powerful. Fortunately, they are becoming less
and less powerful. The system's growing inability to prevent recessions and the
ever more feeble financial mechanisms behind it are becoming more and more
noticeable. That order can only be maintained through the use of nuclear
weapons, guided missiles, stealth bombers, weapons that can be launched from a
distance of
Nature
is being stripped of its balance and nations are being stripped of their
natural resources, their energy resources in the first place. And this order
can only be maintained through the use of weapons, but weapons are becoming
less and less effective as people grow in awareness and thanks to that
extraordinary capacity human beings have: the ability to think, to reflect, to
adapt to the concrete conditions of any given moment in history.
You,
Russians, what did you do when the Nazis invaded and when their armored columns
were penetrating deep into Russian territory? The Russians did not surrender,
they fought back, they struggled to rejoin their armies, or they fought in the
jungles. Their attitude was not one of: "I surrender". I stress this
again. They adapted, they went to
You
had to redeploy; you redeployed as much as you had to, until you struck a
balance. And everyone knows what happened afterwards. I have thought much about
those historical events. We have faced danger, true, but we have never been surprised
by unforeseen attacks, we are always well-prepared, be it above or beneath the
ground.
I
can assure you that no one can occupy this country. I hope we're never put in
the position of having to demonstrate this, because we are well aware of the
costs. But, let me underscore this, this city cannot be occupied. This is a
city of hundreds of thousands of combatants who know how to defend it, where
there is not one illiterate person. Allow me to stress this: the lowest level
of schooling anyone has here is ninth grade; everyone knows how to handle a
mortar, a cannon or any similar weapon.
The
Iraqi soldiers who fought in Fallujah, who held their ground against tanks and
the most sophisticated armament deployed by the invaders for days and days, I
wonder what level of schooling they had. I know only that they fought there for
weeks, and, later, the
Human
beings, as I tell you, adapt themselves, human beings find a way to survive.
The imperialists have never had to confront a nation with the conditions that
Any
potential invader knows that it will meet with a people determined to fight and
defend their homeland here. That is much more powerful than a nuclear weapon,
than 1,000 chemical weapons. What need do we have of nuclear weapons? Being a small
country, we have never entertained such a ridiculous idea which would spell our
ruin, having a weapon that would be useful only to commit suicide. How would we
transport it? We won't be playing that silly game which plays into the hands of
imperialism.
Since
you’re interested in getting to know
We
have no need of weapons of mass destruction to defend ourselves. What we have
modernized are our tactics, the role of people, of individual combatants, of
coordinated groups of combatants, the methods, the tactics, the weapons with
which the most powerful instrument an adversary can have are neutralized.
Let
me say this: our country has achieved what could be referred to as military
invincibility, and at the moment, parallel its efforts to become stronger
militarily, it is seeking to attain economic invincibility; two concepts.
Military invincibility proved easier to secure than the latter.
Humanity
can be saved, for the empire is enduring a profound crisis. Without crises, no
change is possible, without crises, no awareness can be built. A day of crisis
can raise the awareness of people to a greater extent than 10 uneventful years,
than 10 years without a crisis.
Look
at
Today
one senior member of a European government, the government of
The
presence of the President of Colombia is a positive sign indeed, because there
are those who want to impel the war between
I
went for a walk today and I was thinking of jogging, but I decided to do laps
and using a loudspeaker I listened to Zapatero's speech to the Venezuelan
Parliament. It caught my attention; I thought it was a good speech. It’s my
opinion.
I am
going to reread it, because I missed a small part of it. His speech was one of
peace, a courageous address.
Now,
he is being accused of being a warmonger, because he sold a few patrol boats to
Oh,
but
So,
they're saying that
In
In
So,
many people buy the inexpensive fuel and take it to
The
enemy says: "
Not
one of them ever took the time to find out how many people were dying in
Venezuela as a result of diseases and what the life expectancy was, what the
infant mortality rate was, how many people were left blind.
Do
you know how many Venezuelans are going to undergo eye surgery this year,
according to what our governments have discussed and what we have agreed? A
hundred thousand.
We
have 24 ophthalmologic centers equipped with the most modern equipment, 600
surgeons who treat all sight disorders: glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and many
others which, if not diagnosed in time, can lead to blindness. I am speaking of
a rich country, of
Now,
if you're interested, I will tell you that a conservative estimate reveals that
4 million Latin Americas require this kind of medical care every year and that,
left unattended, they would all go blind. Of the 550 million inhabitants of
Just
now, I was speaking of blind people in
Yesterday,
as a matter of fact, we were conversing with a man who said to us: "My
wife was extremely happy, very happy, she went to such and such a hospital”
—she went for a check-up— "she went for a check-up because they told her
she might be at risk of developing glaucoma". "And what did they tell
her, did they examine her?” He said: “There's no danger, but, should one arise,
it would suffice to operate using a laser beam which would give you a lifetime
guarantee that you will never suffer from glaucoma". Just like that, with
those words, that is the importance of an early diagnosis. You don't get
diagnosed and then it's too late. You could have a sunspot, associated to age,
a growing spot in your eye which be treated with laser surgery.
By
the end of this year, our country will have the capacity to operate on no less
than 5,000 or 6,000 patients a day, in 24 centers that are already fully fitted
with the most modern equipment. We are still in the training phase. If a
blockaded country like
Some
days ago, we revalued our currency and devalued the dollar in our country. Yes,
because of the extreme privileges it enjoyed. I will give you one example, if
you wish, to summarize this point.
You
know that electricity is indispensable and that a kilowatt is equivalent to
1,000 watts —I am sure you know this, most of you know this, because you pay an
electricity bill. Generating a kilowatt of electricity costs no less than 10
cents today. The fuel needed to generate one kilowatt costs 9 cents. Well,
because of the devaluation of currencies, because of this phenomenon, with one
dollar you could, till recently, purchase 27 pesos. When, three weeks ago, we
revalued our peso by 7 %, this ratio dropped to 1 to 25. This took place two
weeks ago, this measure involving the peso.
A
week ago, it will be a week tomorrow, we revalued the convertible peso, and
because the convertible peso is governed by an exchange rate, the Cuban peso
was again revalued by 8%, for a total of 15%. With this stronger peso, tomorrow
we are going to raise the retirement payments of all pensioners who receive
less than 300 pesos, by categories: those who receive the least will get the
highest raise. We are talking about generations of workers who have suffered
the rigors of the blockade, who have endured many sacrifices. Yes, salaries
were raised, but pensions remained the same, there were no resources to raise
them. We are going to have a look at the lowest salaries as well.
I
said that, those who go blind in
Tomorrow,
there will be a total raise in pensions of more than 80%, starting tomorrow,
thanks to a revalued currency that will continue to gain in value. At least
it's something.
In
other places, people go blind and, what state looks after them, what
organization? Only charity organizations run by churches. How many blind people
wander the streets, how many blind or disabled children are out there cleaning
windshields or begging on the streets?
We
challenge anyone to try and find, in our country, children who are not at
school, who are begging on the streets instead of at school. We have suffered
poverty, and we faced harder times, yes. There were irresponsible parents who
sent their children to ask tourists for money. These things will happen less
and less, because we have calculated everything mathematically, goods, prices,
costs, international costs, incomes, pensions, the needs of citizens.
That
is the reason I was saying that our Revolution has already acquired much
experience and has created the conditions needed to do what we are doing.
Our
food has been rationed but that won't last forever. It was an unavoidable
measure. We have been involved in a war that has lasted 46 years, defending
ourselves against the empire's onslaughts. We have had to face crises, very
difficult periods, and we still keep our weapons within arm's reach.
Living
in extreme conditions and enduring the crises to which we were led by the
blockade did not make us turn our backs on the people of the
In
the case of the
That
people is concerned about the environment. It does not like that Alaska is
being destroyed, that the Kyoto Protocol is abandoned, that national parks are
destroyed and submitted to mining or oil field exploitation.
There are
values which are held dear by the American people, and among them are health
and peace, just like other peoples.
Now, up to
what point have the American people had a right to objective information? Is that not a brutal violation of human
rights, to prevent an entire nation from receiving objective information?
Even
today, the United States government would like to destroy the small opening
towards Cuba that was produced when sales of foodstuffs were authorized by a
law passed in Congress, where the majority of senators and representatives
asked for an end to the blockade, and that law which had wider aspirations was
sabotaged, it was overloaded with amendments, a procedure they use whenever
they want. They tie an amendment to a fundamental law which must be passed and
all the representatives see themselves forced into a vote; but the majority is
already against that law and the farmers are opposed. They are inventing things; they had invented
payment in advance. I was under the
impression that paying in cash, without a second of delay, was a good thing,
but no, that is not a good thing; you have to pay in advance, that is what they
ask of us. What for? To tie up our funds and to destroy the sales
of foodstuffs.
Of course,
we have all learned a bit and we realize what harm this has caused, we measured
it, we calculated it, where the goods come from, the price of transportation,
how much it costs, etc. Truly we have
become immune to all their inventions, and so what has been happening is that
everything they invent turns out badly for them. That’s how it is, I am not exaggerating.
And now
they want to find out what resources
We have
some advantages in the new hemispheric situation, relations with other nations
in the hemisphere. We know very well the
cost of a pound of black beans, red beans; corn, what the market value is; how
much transportation costs, whether to spend on any of these; we know what we
must do, and we have been spending, but I do not wish to speak of this.
We have
been taking measures. I can tell you, for
example, that we are buying 50% of
There was
an eminent Russian who studied reflexes, Pavlov, he knew how to make a bear
dance and how to make monkeys almost talk, through reflexes, and it is through
reflexes that the masses are dealt with, the modern techniques of commercial
advertising, transmitting political ideas through the use of commercial
advertising techniques by creating reflexes.
If you
want to create consciousness, you must fight against reflexes, and our nation
has learned to fight against reflexes, because when the Revolution triumphed,
many Cubans had reflexes which had been created by advertising; so the battles
are not easy battles, and just like with President Chávez, they are still
saying that he is not democratic, they are saying that we are not democratic,
we are delighted and we certainly haven’t lost our sleep over that. We know what we are, we know it very well,
and what we feel, what we have accomplished in life, and the principles which
have governed our behavior. What is
politicking? It is the satirical poster,
it is the buying and selling of votes.
Everyone knows that if you want to be President of the
I have
spent hours watching TV, as a friend and a brother of the Venezuelans, I have
even studied the methods and procedures used by the enemies of peace and
progress of the people, and I have seen how they work; it is incredible, as is
all the time that they waste.
In our
country we have no commercial advertising, none, and that is why everything
produced by television brings in zero GNP, services of education and health and
recreational activities in Cuba have almost zero GNP because they are free,
they are not calculated; thus a ton of cement could cost more than a life. Someone can save a life, because perhaps a
doctor has made a heart beat again, arriving on time at the hospital, and that
costs less than the ton of cement because it doesn't contribute anything to the
GNP.
One has to
analyze how one measures values, even literature, art, the wealth and quality
of life. The quality of life doesn’t
appear on any GNP, a man can end up in an insane asylum, a man can live 10
years less because he was brainwashed into smoking and he smoked three packs a
day, and then he dies of cancer or of a heart attack. No, they didn’t teach him about the hygiene
you should have if you want to live longer.
Everyone knows what you need to live a little longer, what you should be
eating and what exercises you should be doing.
So, since
I have had to broach this little subject, and since we are great violators of
human rights, the greatest existing on the face of this earth, I shall now
explain this, like I spoke about the blind, and I told you about that. I know that you would like to know about
hemispheric matters, I know that you have asked about what the future holds for
the hemisphere, I know that you have clearly seen that this hemisphere is the
future.
It is not
the future, but it is being called upon to play a very important role in a
peaceful world, in a world of dialogue, in a civilized world; this is where you
have the potential and many know this already, the Europeans know it, otherwise
what was Zapatero doing at the meeting, what was Zapatero doing speaking to the
Assembly and making a constructive speech?
Moreover, why was a European Commissioner visiting
I have
attended many meetings and I haven’t spoken, but here specifically I am
explaining to you how things are in this hemisphere, things you want to know
and things you have discussed on the subject.
I tell you that you are right in doing so, because if
A short
while ago, the President of China was here, and he visited other parts of
I know
that a short while ago, the President of Russia met in Europe with the
President of France, with the German Prime Minister and another President who I
cannot recall right now; those men
governing our neighbor to the North were not very happy.
But have a
look, observe: four Presidents get together in Paris, –it’s amazing that the
Chinese President wasn’t there, he is usually at every meeting– the Presidents
of Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and Spain met in Venezuela, in the homeland
of Bolívar, observe how the spirits, the currents are communicating; ideas
travel and fly everywhere and they are the only thing traveling faster than
light, faster than electricity. Ideas
fly and they are ideas, everyone can observe what is happening everywhere.
There, they try to create conflict and division, to promote wars, because at
the moment a country like China raises its head with all that strength, the
ideal situation for imperialism is the promotion of wars there, secession and
conflicts that interrupt the extraordinary growth of that nation.
Everyone
knows that economic competition gave way to wars, those colossal commercial
deficits and those colossal budgetary deficits due, fundamentally, to an arms
race without taxes; tax-free wars and pillage can also bring temptations for
the promoting of conflicts that put countries which have the potential for
great growth out of the race.
I wonder
whether in that colossal American empire there are any leaders –I refer to
those among the fundamentalists– any politicians who desire the growth of
We know
where there was quality and where there was none, just like in the West, we
know what works and what doesn’t, we know this very well, the value and the
possibilities that each of these countries has, we cannot overlook that, we
cannot afford ignoring that.
I wonder,
what space remains, if everything is being conquered, if everything is being
occupied, if
But this
reality is also arousing consciences. This same oil crisis is going to awaken
consciences. The leader of the North
recently declared: Let’s go looking for all kinds of energy. Nuclear energy,
since the
They are
talking about hydrogen; the President of the United States spoke of hydrogen,
but what he hasn’t said yet is whether he is going to pull the hydrogen out of
the gases, out of the fossil energy or whether he is going to pull it out of
water, because if he is going to get it from water, we are surely going to send
him our congratulations, even I would congratulate him warmly if he were to get
energy from water, and I would be willing to propose his name for a Nobel
Prize, and even start a list for people to sign for his canonization, if he
were to have the wonderful idea of solving the problems by pulling hydrogen out
of water and so fuel all the cars.
Yes, I
know very well, because here we have three or four fanatical comrades who
wanted to get hydrogen from water; they worked for something like 30 years and
I remember that I visited them. I know that once it exploded, because they
really got a bit of hydrogen and what they had was an explosion, but I haven’t
heard anything about them for a while.
I know for
a fact that everyone is manufacturing the little hydrogen car in Japan, in
Europe, in the United States, but what has never been said is where the
hydrogen is coming from, because if it is going to come from oil, well, like
all those materials, this bottle, this lid, this telephone which I think also
comes from oil, it doesn’t come out of steel or iron, everything comes from
oil, there isn’t anything that doesn’t come from oil, I think even we come from
oil (Laughter), and that’s reality.
There is
this question: What is going to happen when it’s over? And everyone knows that it is running out,
nobody is ignorant of that fact; you would have to be a complete and utter
illiterate or a totally irresponsible person to believe that oil is going to
last 100 years more at this same rate of use.
Yes, there
are more modern techniques, they discover it quicker and the faster they find
it at the bottom of the ocean, the faster they use it up, and the faster they
waste it. The struggle should be geared
towards making cars that save fuel.
One of the
things that government did was to suppress some of the measures that required
cars that consume less and less. So what
then? To conquer the world at the point
of a cannon, threaten it with all possible weapons, all squadrons, all aircraft
carriers, all cruise missiles and all nuclear weapons, so that they can be
obedient and disciplined, so they can produce raw materials, produce oil, in
order to keep on using 25% of the world’s energy?
We are
making some small efforts that may be quite interesting in the matter of energy
and the saving of energy, and with these we are arriving very meticulously at
the core of the problem. We are going to
make a modest contribution to the world by simply saving perhaps 50% of
electrical energy that is being consumed, saving some hundreds of millions of
dollars in energy, and part of this is going to be converted into those
programs that I was telling you about, and part will go into highly beneficial,
and I might add highly profitable investments. And we shall continue working on
education, a raw material which is called education and knowledge; and a raw
material of great value that is called “human capital”. It is human capital
that we possess, basically, and so we shall see.
Jas we say
to our compatriots: Perfect? No, we would be the last people to say that we are
satisfied; we have learned with time; by making mistakes, we have acquired
experience. That is a privilege, not a
merit.
In my own
personal case, if I have lived for a certain number of years I cannot say that
that is a merit, it is luck, especially when there have been so many attempts
to prematurely put me out of combat. If
Nature has granted me a certain capacity to survive, why should it be taken
away from me? So then, I have lived and
I have learned a few things; not just myself, there is an entire contingent of
people who have learned, there is a people who have learned through 46 years, a
people conscious of their qualities and conscious of their weaknesses,
conscious of their flaws. We are very
conscious of our flaws and we are critical, very critical, and I have no qualms
about telling you about all the errors we have committed.
We do not
live hiding our errors; we live being honest; we live ceaselessly correcting
ourselves, we live examining our behavior and never being sitting on our
laurels, and that is why the impression we might give is that of a
I think I
have been speaking longer than I should, really, and you agree. Yes, I know
that you agree, at least that is the truth, you will not say that I should be
less than sincere, you will not say that I was afraid to speak clearly and
frankly, respectfully, talking the truth.
I have been speaking as your brother, as a person who appreciates life.
I too
harbor strong feelings within me; I have not silenced sentiment, I have tried
to let reason have a voice, as our poet said when speaking about
literature. When he was speaking about
literature and he was speaking about what he was reading there, I was
remembering solitary confinement in the prison on the
Well, I
should be truthful, I was already a Marxist-Leninist when I began the armed
struggle; that is what I was, what I am now and what I will always be, and
nobody should be amazed at that. I am not dogmatic, I analyze peoples’ merits
in history, I never renounce my ideas, and I am capable of being critical; but
I have nothing to criticize to either Marx or Lenin, I say this honestly –I
could make other criticisms– nor can I criticize Engels, he was the first one
to show me that even the stars will go out when energy runs out, and there are
stars which stopped shining long ago, while there are others moving further
away from the location of the great explosion.
Lenin had
not yet been born when Marx published the Communist Manifesto.
The world
today is very different from the world which Marx and Lenin knew; nobody could
know it, nobody could imagine communications that happen in a matter of
seconds. They saw globalization, they saw what a system where the productive
forces were developing would become. They saw that the development of these
productive forces would achieve such level that they would bring about new
situations and great changes in the world. We have reached globalization, a
globalization created in conditions unimagined by anyone. The contradictions and competitions were
being resolved by wars. Today, there is
no war that can resolve any problem.
Wars are prohibited per se now
because in any modern war there are neither winners nor losers. You, the Russians, know this as the
superpower you once were, great and powerful, and the power you are still
today.
We were
around to see when there was a certain balance; first they had nuclear weapons,
then there was a balance, and then both sides would manufacture more weapons.
Then the difference consisted in that one could destroy the other fifteen times
and the other side could do it ten times. The issue was about how many times
one side could destroy the other. You,
the Russians, ceased being a superpower, however, everyone knows that each side
can destroy the other five times.
As a real
power, from a technical-military point of view, the Russian state has four
times as much power as it needs; because it only needs one shot to destroy the
other side, and the other side can have as many times more as they like. And one fine day, the American people will
realize that; it will understand and there will be some hope.
I can tell
you that I am happy to see this meeting, to hear you all speaking as you have
here; I am happy because that country, with all its merits, with all its
history and heroism, has a great potential to contribute to world peace, to
civilization, to preserve the species.
There are not too many of us, as there are not enough of those that can
accomplish much, like Russia, to preserve the species, like China, like Europe,
like Latin America; all together we can
do something, and all together, some more than others, I see Venezuela, I see
Brazil, I see that they can achieve a lot.
I see what
I am going
to ask again, because I really still cannot believe it; but he was praising
Kirchner to attack Chávez. He was attacking yesterday’s meeting which he really
didn’t like much. Of course, they are
not going to neutralize Kirchner with flattery, or any such thing, because
Kirchner has just given them a “jab”; more than a “jab”, a hard punch; he
hasn’t knocked out the International Monetary Fund but he has left it somewhat
unsteady on its feet after the way he handled the debt. It is the first time any country adopts such
a resolute position like
The
International Monetary Fund will survive for some time still, I don’t think it
will be much longer, and when I say I don’t think it will be much longer, I
think that it won’t survive two more decades.
Moreover, let me tell you, I doubt that this Fund will live one decade
longer because the accounts make no sense.
I look at them, I add, subtract, multiply and divide and it doesn’t come
out, the crisis cannot be handled. It is no longer a crisis, but the sum total
of crises: the sum total of crises, the
sum total of problems won’t let this state of affairs last even two decades. They have always invented something: this
formula or that, or the Keynesian method, spreading money around, avoiding the
crisis by printing more bills, increasing liquidity, etc.
I have one
last debt owing to you. I have been speaking quickly, and I am willing to
answer any question you wish to direct to me, any question whatsoever, whatever
comes to mind, and not one, two, three, for as much time as the chairman would
give me.
I arrived
seven minutes late. It’s been a long time since I have arrived anywhere even a
minute late, but I was chatting with the Canadian Minister of Agriculture, we
were discussing agriculture, product prices, the price of wheat, corn, beans,
lentils, peas, cows, many facts, the state of production, everything.
I was
telling him of all the things we are going to buy from
So, please
forgive me that I arrived seven minutes late, because I was speaking with the
Minister of Agriculture and with a group of Canadian farmers.
They were
just leaving to go to a meting and I wanted to come here. I found out they were leaving at
Don’t you
worry; I’ll be getting you all dinner later.
(Laughter)
Fine, I
shall submit to whatever question you want to make, on any subject (Laughter)
Let’s
listen to the Dominican, they tell me she is a great writer.
Luisa Zheresada Vicioso.- In this
dialogue among civilizations, I would like you to tell us where the
You know
that we, as a region, have produced a most extraordinary theoretician, not just
for us, but for the world, Frantz Fanon, to begin with, and his role in
Commander.- What, do you think that I
am not from the
Luisa Zheresada Vicioso.- I know.
Commander.- Don’t you know that when you had
I don’t
know if you know this, but I stayed to the end, many deserted. A problem came up at a given moment and the
boat I was to go in was stopped close to the Haitian coast. I wasn’t the leader, I was lieutenant of a
squad, because I had a bit of knowledge and I liked adventures, I’m not going
to deny that. If they want to call me an
adventurer, I accept with honor the title of adventurer in geography, in
excursions and in anything else, but not in politics. In politics I would accept the description of
“audacious”; whoever is not audacious should never embark in this profession,
better leave it to someone else.
(Laughter)
But I went
there before finishing my second year.
My 21st birthday I spent in a key where an expedition was
being organized by a handful of idiots and arrogant Cubans who were assisting
the Dominicans and thought they could do it all.
There I
met Juan Bosch and from that time I appreciated his intellectual worth, his
ideas. That was where I met Pichirilo,
who later came on the Granma; he was
the captain of the boat I was on, called the
Pichirilo,
a Dominican, was with me on that boat, as I already said. How determined and brave he was! Years later he was our pilot on the Granma.
We became brothers, because on that day I revolted from that expedition,
from the company where I was a squad leader, and I said: “I don’t agree that we
should return to port, there is a situation in
I was of a
mind to salvage the weapons and take them into the mountainous region, and so I
collected the weapons and I even had quite a number of collaborators, among
them, the captain of the boat. It was at
this time that I became his friend, he became my accomplice in that complicated
situation when I revolted against the Cuban and Dominican expedition
leaders. Rebellion: I did what Hugo
Chávez did. I rebelled because I didn’t
agree in returning to a port where we were going to lose our weapons and be taken
prisoner. At the beginning I even
thought that the frigate which impeded our passage was Dominican. Soon I realized that it was Cuban.
I carried
on in complicity with Pichirilo. I
couldn’t make that move because the frigate was tailing us. We awaited
nightfall. With the captain’s complicity, the frigate reduced speed to less
than half. It was to no avail, it was
summer and the sun was setting late. I continued rebelling until I left the
boat on a raft, along with three others; we were the only four, out of about a
thousand, who weren't taken prisoner.
The captain told the frigate that he didn't know the entranceway and was
afraid to run aground. I was an adventurer, I admit it. Everyone thought I had been eaten by sharks,
and one day I surprised them all and I reappeared. I have reappeared many times, more than once.
So I know
the cause, I love it and I am from the
In other
words, I have been a militant in the
I am very
sympathetic towards the English-speaking
You should
not think that I am a fan of Latin Americans; I am critical, just as I am
critical of myself, and as I can be of the Cubans.
And it was
them, the people from the
It was the
There is a
Latin American school for medical students here with 10,000 Latin American and
Maybe I
should have said that the existence of the Venezuelan revolutionary process and
the economic agreements with China have been very important factors; the
agreements with Venezuela on the basis of ALBA, signed on December 14, 10 years
after Chávez visited us for the first time, signed by us as an agreement that
is supremely beneficial for both countries.
We are semi-integrated. We share the same feelings, the ideas and the will
for integration.
Before
being a Marxist, I was a Communist. A
Utopian Communist! Where did I learn about this? I learned from life, from reflection. I arrived at that conviction by studying
economics.
I was born
and brought up on a large estate farm that had
I attended
religious schools. Thus, I was not born
in a proletarian cradle. Moreover, if I
had not been a landowner's son, I would not have been able to go to school, and
if I had not been able to go to school, then I wouldn’t have even been able to
have ideas, I wouldn’t have had a cause to defend.
I must be
grateful to that circumstance because I was able to learn something, to not
become a political illiterate. I stopped being a political illiterate by
myself, because I was literate in ideas.
Well, partly because I was the son and not the grandson of a landowner;
I never lived the bourgeois lifestyle in some aristocratic neighborhood where I
would have surely become the greatest reactionary ever to live in this country,
because in one way or another, I wasn’t going to be mediocre.
Well, some
people have the personality that doesn’t allow them to stay mediocre, they are
far too enthusiastic, in one way or another, and so I have had to go into a bit
of autobiographical data to show that I am from the Caribbean; but I am also
Latin American, I am African, I am Russian, I am Chinese, I am Japanese, I am
Vietnamese. And
If you
wish to look for serious governments, look to the
There are some who call themselves Medecins Sans Frontieres (“Doctors
without Borders”), that’s good, give them a medal, give them the Nobel Prize,
but they are just a handful. The truth is that all of
I know
here where all the benefits go. They criticize us that we have centralized. If
we didn’t centralize we wouldn’t be able to do what we are doing; like in war,
the decisions made at the headquarters in the middle of a war are decisions
that have to be made quickly, you cannot take too much time to deliberate.
Here we
debate; here this country cannot be forced into debt by anyone.
Who
contracted the debts of
In Latin
America, which is so democratic, the ministers of the economy decided on the
debts and that imperial government didn’t say that they were anti-democratic
countries, it said nothing of the sort; the countries that contracted the debt
were super-democratic. In 1985 we waged
a battle against that, for 350 billion; today they owe 750 billion. Just look at how much democracy reigned on
this hemisphere.
And in
Central America and elsewhere, what is happening in Costa Rica, that cradle of
democracy, that paramount democracy?
Today in Cuba we have 70,000 doctors and more than 50,000 specialists.
We are fighting tooth and nail against the brain drain, and in Costa Rica they
have more than eight hundred doctors of Cuban descent that were stolen from the
country years ago.
One day, at an international meeting, one of
Costa Rica’s Presidents told me about how many of those unsung doctors are in
that country: “We have 800 Cuban doctors.”
I told him: “Ah, yes, 800 doctors”, but they haven’t paid one single
cent for those 800 doctors we educated.
The United
States wanted to construct a showcase in front of Cuba to demonstrate that,
with “democracy”, they could do as much as Cuba was doing
“anti-democratically”, that they were saving children’s lives, mothers’ lives
and all of that; a showcase and Costa Rica has 800 Cuban doctors practicing
private medicine.
That is
very valuable when we are going to discuss why we are paying for 300 kilowatts
that could be paid for with a dollar, and 300 kilowatts are bought for a dollar,
costing the country 25 dollars to produce, in convertible currency.
Just look
at how the dollar being sent to Cuba is abused. If you have an old fridge, and
the thermostat is gone, it costs the Cuban state seven dollars per month. One of our saving measures is that all those
fridges without thermostats are going to disappear, not because we are going to
take them away and send them to the scrap heap, but because we are going to
install thermostats and because we are also going to equip them with new
gaskets so that the cold air cannot escape, because we have discovered that
they use up between 7 and 8 million kilowatts a day. We don't even know how
many million we will be saving there, with 10 million invested in thermostats;
things we didn’t know and things we have been finding out as fuel becomes more
expensive, that it is becoming more expensive to produce a kilowatt.
So, what
is happening to electricity?
Perhaps
some people have more thermostats than we do, but they haven’t lived through a
blockade like the Cubans have. But, the blockade they are enduring is much
worse, for it is a blockade that produces illiterates, a blockade that produces
malnutrition, hunger, infant mortality, maternal mortality, worsening of life
expectancy, and democracy that has led them to that point. It is a blockade that is worse than the
economic one, because we have not had such a blockade here for some time, and
that is the reason why we can even devaluate the dollar. How amazing!
And they cannot protest because, who can demand that we pay 25 dollars
for kilowatts of electricity that can be bought for one dollar and sent from
overseas? And who is it that sends
it? Are they illiterate seasonal farm
workers? No. They don’t receive illiterates from Cuba. The emigration from Cuba has included many
university graduates, technicians and many former landowners and bourgeois who
knew all about business.
The
immigration which results in the highest income in the United States is the one
coming from Cuba; it is much greater than the Dominican, Haitian or any other
Latin American immigration.
Well then,
we have our own currency. We threw the
dollar out of circulation; we replaced it with the convertible peso. Now we are
headed towards the re-evaluation of our peso and the re-evaluation of our
convertible peso, both of our currencies. We take one step in one direction,
and another in a different direction.
Thus, now the dollar has been devaluated vis-à-vis our convertible peso,
that’s it, they haven’t any argument left to stand on.
Now what
does this devaluation mean? Before, you could buy 27 pesos for one dollar and
now you can only buy 25. This is a
measure that we can apply as many times as necessary.
What a
blow we can deal to the poor old dollar. There, in the United States, they are
paying 12 to 15 cents for one kilowatt of electricity. Here we are paying less than one cent of a
dollar. How is it bought? Well, with one cent, if consumption is truly
lower that 300, today with one cent you can buy 3 kilowatts.
What a
crime we have committed against the dollar! What a terrible complaint! What vandalism we have committed, asking them
to pay more with a dollar! We have barely touched it; we have barely brushed it
with a rose petal. Now we can brush it
with that rose petal; also with a file, and if we want to we can brush it
again, caress the dollars with petals or file them down.
What a
wonderful thing it is to not belong to the International Monetary Fund! What a
glorious thing it is not to have to ask this institution’s help in this
ever-changing world!
In four
years we shall be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Triumph of
the Revolution. We have just celebrated
50 years since the beginning of our armed struggle on July 26, 1953. It’s more
than 50 years of struggle, more than 50 years of experience.
I speak on
behalf of this, and on behalf of this alone do I dare to speak to you. And I do not always speak like this; today, I
speak this way because we are defining some very important things.
I conceive
of all forms of Socialism with the same objective and with a different path to
bring it to fruition, a different style, born from the roots, from the concrete
historical circumstances of each and every country. We have constructed this, and I have already
told you how we did it. It is now that
we can obtain all the advantages from what we have accomplished. Now it is that we shall begin to harvest the
fruit; now it is when we shall depend only on our own conscience, our human
capital, our experience and our will to correct all the errors we have made on
a large scale, tactical errors, and some errors that have been big but not
strategic. We have really attempted to
avoid making strategic errors at all costs since, by definition, these are
irreversible.
I would
like you to know that some of the things that happened to us were the result of
theories and books that were written in other times and in other places.
The most
that I can say in my lawyerly defense –once I had to defend myself like this–
is that I have always been anti-dogmatic. I have always taken a stand against
dogma, preconceptions, pamphlets that talk about a subject. I think something else –and Osvaldo knows
this well– I think that economics, like politics, is not a science, but an
art. Artists cannot say that they master
a science; they need science, they need all calculations. If you do not subtract, add, multiply, find
the square root, then you cannot add anything up; but the poet combines words,
ideas, images and styles. A writer does the same. The politician mixes elements
and factors; the economist also mixes elements and economies. Monopolies have always existed, fee trade has
hardly ever existed; these are just theories which have been opposed by all
industrialized nations.
Now that
they rule the world, they tell everyone else that they are about to be
developed: free trade, zero tariffs, zero this and zero that.
This is
quite clear: to me, economics is an art and a science, and politics is an art
and not a science. One needs the support
of politics, science and every other element.
Now, I
have the best concept of economics, I see it as an art; and politics, I see it
as an art.
Who would
like to speak? Hey, chair this meeting.
Let
whoever wants to speak, speak.
I’ll
answer all the journalists, anyone of them you like.
Bishop Feofan.- Comrade Castro…
Commander.- Isn’t anyone going to
translate for me? I’m just hearing some
Russian (Laughter)
Bishop Feofan.- Comrade Fidel Castro,
allow me to first express my thanks for the possibility of having here a
Russian Orthodox church.
Unfortunately, factories age, they even lose their meaning even though
they have been erected upon a base of brotherhood; nevertheless, a church, no
matter how ancient, has more value, and within a century, the church that you
have been helping us to construct for the Russian Orthodox faithful will be a
steadfast witness to our good relations.
But I am
interested in another matter: I am a
bishop in a region of the northern Caucasus, and I personally experienced a
tragedy caused by terrorists when one of our schools was attacked. I went to that school 20 minutes after the
attack and I stayed there until the end.
That was a truly horrible thing.
I would
like to know your opinion, since terrorists often speculate about the fact that
they are carrying out missions of salvation; but what I saw there was something
terrible. I would like to hear your opinion
on that. Thank you.
Commander.- In my heart of hearts and
in the most profound of my convictions, I repudiate the deaths of innocents.
I remember
the combats during the war in the Sierra Maestra; there were combats and
sometimes there were people who came to us with all the information –our
comrades who had relatives living close to the objectives– we were attacking
towns occupied by the army, and we took many of them, some of these were
difficult combats and I cannot recall one single dead civilian. See how even in
wartime and whenever you have to fight, because a garrison is in one location
and you have to attack it, even though it is preferable to have them come out,
because they are weaker on the move than when they are ensconced in their positions,
it is possible to avoid the deaths of innocent people. I cannot recall one single civilian death in
any of the combats during the 25 months of war that we were engaged in.
I had a
contingent from which all the others derived, and our people learned to fight
by fighting; they didn’t learn it in academies since there were no academies at
that time.
These are
not just my words that I am saying here today; there is a long history that
backs up these words.
No, I
cannot kill a child to destroy the blockade, deliberately go out and kill a
child…I just can’t do it. We have an ethic, we have principles. You can sacrifice your own life whenever you
like, but you cannot sacrifice the life of an innocent person.
That is
what I believe and I have always said it, and our country has participated in
internationalist missions –not just one, but quite a few–when the South African
racists invaded Angola; or when the Mobuto forces invaded it from the north
–surely he was backed by lots of money, without anyone knowing where it was
being kept, or which bank was dealing with it– and not just there, in more than
one place we have been carrying out missions. You can make inquiries in the
world whether any of our prisoners of war were executed, in any of the places
where our troops were stationed and where our comrades died. It was a doctrine
and it was respected not just here; because our army never shot a prisoner of
war. For us, this is a point of pride. We will give you all that we have and anything
we can borrow if anyone can prove that in our war against apartheid and the
other allies of imperialism in Africa we ever executed any prisoner. Often
times, the soldiers of apartheid even preferred to become our prisoners because
their lives would be respected. I say no
more (Applause).
Bishop Feofan.- Thank you very much Commander Castro. That’s what I wanted to hear from you.
Natalia Chopin.- My name is Natalia
Chopin. I am a journalist from ECO of
Moscow.
A very
short, very simple, question.
Tell me,
please, if you think you will be visiting the Russian Federation in the near
future. Thank you.
Commander.- …how can I plan a visit to
the
No other
people suffered as much or were more devastated than the Russians during World
War II. That people truly knew war and
the tragedy of war, and for that reason loved peace more than any other people;
but I can also say that the Russian people are a very unselfish people. That
man who had lived through war was able to give everything and return to
combat. That Siberian knew I was a
citizen of a little island and that I was there at the ends of the earth and he
talked to me and told me his feelings; because that was a people who, having
lived through a war and hating war more than anyone else, had the generosity of
spirit to die for another.
We Cubans
also learned about this. Not only have we given our lives for our homeland and
for our soil, many Cubans have given their lives fighting or offering their
services on internationalist missions.
There are
risks in wartime, in peacetime, under any circumstances.
I was
really amazed by my experiences at age 21. I could tell you that a short time
later, when I was in Bogotá, during an OAS meeting, an important leader was assassinated
and I watched the entire city explode. I enlisted there with the people, with
the students, grabbing a gun just like them, and I took up position in a police
station, armed. I think I had but seven bullets, a cap with no visor looking
like a beret and a pair shoes not specially fit for combat. I was in that city
until the last day; they almost had to throw me out. There was even a
negotiation and peace and they left everybody high and dry there. I’m not inventing this, there are written
accounts of all this.
And I had
an instant of doubt one night, in the early morning at around 2:00 or 3:00. We
were in the police station; it was a rebel police station. Because of the way
violence erupted, and the looting and all that, even the army didn’t know what
to do. At that time, Gaitán was a much loved leader. He was defending a
lieutenant from some kind of slander and everyone listened to him. But the
looting led to martial law; and I was on the side of the rebels, on the side of
the students, the people.
The people
destroyed and looted because their level of education left them no other
option; they looked like ants carrying pianos, fridges measuring two cubic
meters. I saw all that. Those men holed
up in the police station, rebels, were lost. I was aware of that because of our
history, because I had been thinking, I had meditated on many things like that,
in spite of my tender years, and there I was with the lost garrison, where a
tank would rumble by and fire some shots.
I saw
there how they were abusing a policeman, and I was outraged; he was a “godo”, that’s what they called a
reactionary, and they mistreated him there.
I was in one of the dormitories standing at the window, because that was
the position they assigned me, and I was upset; they mistreated him, insulted
him and told him all sorts of things. I spoke two or three times with the
leader and said: "Look, these troops are lost.”
Anyone who
has read books about the French Revolution knows what violent protests are
like, knows that troops who stay put are lost; any troops in that situation
must take the initiative. That’s what happened during the French Revolution. We
have read about it in books by many different authors…Anyone staying put in a
place is lost. I told him: “Take the men
out on the street, attack.” I was trying
to persuade him but he didn’t understand.
Well, there I was, and in a given moment I remembered my family, I even
remembered my girlfriend. I remembered everything. So, I had an instant of
doubt. Nobody knew I was there; I was going to die there, without a face or a
name, and I had to explain to myself why I was still there. And I explained it
to myself right away, saying to myself: this people is just like all the
others, like mine, their cause is just, the injustice is the same as it is over
there. And I knew I was right, my
inconformity came from the fact that the men were being poorly used. I said:
Should I sacrifice myself or not? And what did I decide? To stay, to
sacrifice myself along with all those people. I was lucky that we were not
attacked, the other side had tanks.
The
next day, I said to him: “Give me a patrol”; all the high points were
unoccupied and all the armed forces had to do was show up and take the high
points. I said: “Give me a patrol”. And they gave me a patrol and I went up to
defend the heights.
It was a
tremendous experience for me; that day I watched the city burn, and in the
evening I returned, and I didn’t make use of that as an excuse to save my life;
I returned to the garrison because they told me the station was being attacked;
thankfully the rebels were attacking a building somewhere else. And so, by pure chance, I survived, I stayed
there and the next day they didn’t even let me take away a little sword that I
wanted as a souvenir; peace had been declared and everyone was applauding: “The
Cuban!”, everyone was talking to the Cuban, because everyone was amazed that a
Cuban student had stayed there.
I was
there for a congress we were organizing, and I enlisted, and I had my doubts
that day. This story I’m telling you, I’ve never told it before, because it was
a matter of conscience; I stayed and I decided to sacrifice myself for a people
that was not my own, in an operation that was a lost cause, in a group of men
who were defeated, and I stayed there because it was a matter of conscience.
I say that
it was very recent, because it was just at the time I was going from the second
to the third year of university; I already had many ideas, I was an
anti-imperialist or anti-colonialist. I was in favor of Dominican democracy,
the independence of Puerto Rico, the return of the Panama Canal to the
Panamanians, the Falklands to the Argentines, the end of European colonies in
Latin America, those were the banners.
Well, it wasn’t a Socialist banner, yet.
I had not
yet read Marx at that time I’m telling you about. I have just told you about
two episodes. But observe how my thinking goes, so, I really say what I am
thinking, and it isn’t an answer. I can
answer any question you ask me because I have tried to be consistent in my
ideas, to maintain a steadfast position, and so, “be steadfast”, that is what I
would advise any young person. And like all young people, I must have had my
measure of vanity; it is not what I should have, but surely I had. I have had
it all, even petit bourgeois vanities, pride, those sorts of silly things; but
I never abandoned my set of values, and life has taught me to be more modest,
more self-effacing. I think I am more humble now than when I began as a young
man. A youth is very critical of everyone else, he thinks he knows it all and
that he is right, but he is not always right; and, of course, I always remember
the way I was.
Life is a
constant struggle right up to the very end, and I think I shall be fighting
against myself until the day I die, on the exact second I die, because I am
still analyzing whatever I do, I analyze myself and whenever I make a mistake,
no matter how small, if it is a detail, I correct it. Who knows whether I will start thinking later
about what I have just said here; but I hope not, because I have been true in
telling you, as I appreciate your meeting.
I am not going to make a speech here, I have not had time, because I am
involved in all of this. I have had
little information, just minimal. I could barely eat lunch because I was
reading, looking into other things, dashing to meet with the minister,
returning, and there were people waiting for me there. Tomorrow I make an
important appearance at 6:00 p.m. and supposedly I am still recuperating from
an accident I had on October 20 last year.
That’s why
I’m telling you that perhaps I will make a soul searching, and say: What did I
tell the Russians? But I am sure that I
won’t be sorry about anything I have told you, because I have spoken with you
like a brother, I have spoken with you affectionately, I have spoken to you
from my heart. So, whatever we feel for
you, because just like I was saying to you, I met men like those, I met forest
rangers, I met true patriotic and revolutionary Russians, like the combatants I
always saw, those who fought in Stalingrad, in Leningrad, in Kiev, all over, in
Smolensk, the ones who never surrendered, those that continued the resistance,
those that fought. Yes, those who went
to fight the Japanese, when without saying anything to anyone the United States
dropped that famous bomb, in an act of terror.
If I were
to calculate what the Allies lost, the Russians and all the Soviet peoples who
fought alongside Russia sacrificed more lives than all the allies who
participated in that war; it’s the truth. I have visited some cemeteries, the
one in Leningrad, and I know history, the 1,000 day siege. I have also read a
huge book that commemorates all the sacrifices made in Leningrad, like the ones
made by the Russian people everywhere.
So, my feelings are on solid ground, I know what the Russians are like
and I admire them.
As I said
before, our relations with the Russian state and government are going well, and
I am pleased because we have to unite in a dialogue in defense of
civilization. That is what I wish to
say.
Alfonso Bauer.- My question is that in
Commander.- I wish I had been there, I
would have liked that, really. How many
were the disappeared? Well, I know there
were more than 100,000 dead and more than 100,000 disappeared after the United
States intervention against the Guatemalan revolution.
That is
what would have happened to us if they had won at the Bay of Pigs.
How many
lives were lost in the mercenary expedition in Guatemala that overthrew the
Arbenz government?
Alfonso Bauer.- Some 200,000.
Commander.- Yes, that’s right, 100,000
dead and 100,000 disappeared. Why then
are there protests for some imprisoned mercenaries? Oh, but here there are prisoners, here there
are no disappeared, here there are no murders.
Those who deserve a large medal, Olympic-sized, the blessing of the
empire, are those who kill in those countries where illiterates and
semi-literates make up 30%, 40% or much more, where infant mortality is sky
high, all of those miseries to which I was referring. That, gentlemen, is “democracy”, and what we
are doing is nasty, a “systematic and permanent violation of human rights”.
I think
that if we had not been capable of applying severe measures, we would have been
cooperating with those who wanted to destroy our Revolution and with those who
wanted to destroy our people.
Do we like
applying the death penalty? Not in the least, it is repugnant to us; more than
the fact that we do not like it, we consider it to be repugnant. Now, when it
has been a matter of defending ourselves from the most powerful empire in
history, we have used it. There is no
other place in the world like
They have executed insane people; here that
has never happened.
Therefore
I wonder: Why don’t they take that fine little gentleman who governs the
Russian delegate.- First of all, many
thanks for your brilliant speech. Please tell us, from the beginning of your
revolutionary struggle, what has been the most difficult phase for you?
Commander.- Now I have the most
difficult one, this question which you have just asked me (Laughter and
applause).
There is
some time left. If you resist, I will
still resist.
Mikhail Chernov.- Dear comrade Fidel Castro, thank you very
much for your intervention. My name is Mikhail Chernov, I am a Russian
journalist, a Soviet, from the magazine Expert.
This is not my first visit to
Commander.- The second very difficult
moment (Laughter). I cannot help you with anything; on the contrary, you are
the ones who can help us. Here I speak to you with total candor, exchanging
impressions. I can help you and your
people just as much as you can help us; by doing so, you will be helping yourselves
and you will be helping us.
The only thing left to us is our obligation to
you, because you have had confidence in us and you have seen fit to hold this
meeting here, to have this exchange and to invite us.
I cannot
imagine that I am helping you, or that there could be a way for me to help you;
I do think that you are helping us and the world.
This is
our job. Here there are many religious
persons, they know what their obligation is, what their job is; there are
doctors and professionals, and each one of them knows his job; we know that
this is our job.
The only
thing I can do is make exchanges, truly, the most I can say: let us help each
other, that is what we can do (Applause).
Everyone
who wants to ask a question, the press, delegation members, you can ask anything.
Russian delegate.- Dear Mr. Fidel
Castro, we would like to hear your opinion, if possible, how long will the
occupation of
Five
minutes ago you said that you sometimes made mistakes. Could you tell us about the mistakes you have
made leading the government of
Commander.- This meeting, and
submitting myself to your interrogation (Laughter). That is one mistake, among many.
You ask
how long the occupation of
You are
asking about when they will leave.
That’s what I think (Applause).
Could you
clarify your question? Do you think that
the country is occupied? Do they no
longer have a government there, do they have no assembly? Why aren’t they leaving? You want to know when they are leaving?
When will
they really go? When they can; they will withdraw whenever they can
withdraw. It’s just that now they can
neither leave, nor can they stay, they are part of the game about what if the
Shiites this, what if the Sunnis that, what if there is a government; they’ll
leave when they can, because invaders do not leave when they want, they leave
when they can do so. They know the
moment they can invade, but they don’t know when they can pull out.
In
The
problem is that they already need to pull out, but they can’t. Now they are looking for whatever they can
invent, what to do in order to be able to pull out.
So the
question is: When can they withdraw? That will ultimately depend on the
American people and on the economic crisis and the almost 500 billion budgetary
deficits and the commercial deficit of another 500 billion, that is, a
trillion. For how many consecutive years
can they put up with this trillion dollar deficit and how are they going to get
out of it? Do they think they will
annihilate culture? They are exploiting
religious contradictions, national contradictions, a complicated situation;
Kurds to the north, Sunnis in the center, Shiites to the south, Orthodox
Christians there; the country of
It is a
well-known history, we know a fair amount about that history, because when that
war between
That is
all I want to say about the matter. I
have a clear opinion on all of that. It
was an influential country which later committed serious errors.
We were
also opposed to the occupation of
In
We had
relations with
Therefore,
some of the events that came before we arrived at that tragic page occurred
earlier, and the consequences were seen, and even foreseen, and can be shown on
paper.
That
helped, just like the destruction of the
I recall
in
Here we
have had a Special Period, a blockade, an endless list of things, but children
have not died; first the adults die, the parents die before the children.
Thus, my
position to them was: “We cannot justify it.
Why don’t you finally declare peace with
There were
even a lot of people, some of the Arab countries which were at war, who wanted
to correct the error, who wanted to seek peace, and they kept on maintaining an
unyielding position. In
On the other occasion, the Kuwaiti
incident, the Iraqi government had stated:
“The Mother of all Wars is going to take place.” I had said:
This and this are going to happen.
It’s not
Many
people there are thinking. It is not a
matter of pulling a trigger or pushing a button. In order to push a button, you
have to have something like 200 or 300; I don’t know how many people decide
upon pressing a button. The soldiers themselves know, they are professionals,
and they know the toll this will take in lives, in prestige. It has been a tremendous discredit. Even I have been surprised by the events.
Imagine
how naive we are that even knowing exactly what they are like, that they have
absolutely no scruples, I would never have thought the
I would
never have imagined that one day the Guantanamo Naval Base, a piece of Cuban
territory occupied by force, would be a torture center, of all sorts of
sadistic tortures. I could never have
imagined it. I really didn’t think…I
believed that that uncivilized civilization, that government which was capable
of dropping nuclear weapons, bombing everything, would not commit the
foolishness of taking human beings, whoever they might be. Have we never dealt with criminals who have
murdered our comrades? Whoever they
might be, we never laid a finger on them.
We can give all the money in the country –there is not a lot, but there
is some– to whoever can prove that here we have ever laid a finger on any of
the most despicable prisoners, on the perpetrator of any of the worst crimes or
on the worst acts of terror against our country.
We had
prisoners, those taken at Giron, after the attack by the
Later,
after the paratrooper had been dropped, I was totally convinced that that was
the main attack. We were there, they had
rejected our tank attack, and we were preparing another from a different
direction. We were going to surprise them in the rearguard, on Playa Larga and
at Girón, at both locations. There I was
awaiting a tank battalion. There was our
artillery shelling them hard. Maybe we
would have arrived at Girón before dawn.
The Yankees maneuvered; today's highway did not even exist then. We had
poor communications, organized at the level of battalions, not by army or even
by corps or divisions or even brigades.
When we were guerrillas we didn’t have battalions, no tank, artillery or
anti-aircraft battalions, or 130 mortar battalions, or howitzer 122 battalions.
It was on the level of batteries, but in the mountains we had none of that.
So we were
facing the American squad and nobody was executed, nobody hit over the head
with a rifle butt. What did that
prove? That ideas had turned into
conscience, that ethics were conscience, and those soldiers who were angry were
not abusing anyone. The American squad was 3 miles away, not 12. When we entered the Girón area they were
there with their lights off; aircraft carriers, Marine infantry in boats,
waiting to set up a government.
That’s
what I want to say; I know these people well, but I could not imagine that they were capable of
torturing prisoners, not at
Therefore,
that’s what I tell you, they will withdraw when they can, when the moral and
political price will be as little as possible; but no-one knows. Perhaps one
day the American people will decide that they have to withdraw from that
country, no matter who is President of the
Well, now those are things that may happen,
they are incalculable.
Let
someone else speak.
Don't end
this session or you will become unpopular (Applause) [addressing the chairman].
Quickly,
two or three more.
I will try
to be brief, we have to try to explain.
Vladimir I. Yakunin.- I think that we
have violated some laws or regulations about work.
I ask
those attending the conference to lower their hands, There is a saying which puts it well: “You should not overstay your welcome.”
I think we
should be thanking the President of the Council of State and the Council of
Ministers for the time he has given us.
We must thank him (Applause).
Commander.- Maybe we will meet again
there, but they haven’t invited me to the meeting, I don’t even know if they
will grant me a visa (Laughter).
When is
the meeting? What month?
Vladimir I. Yakunin.- October 3 to 7.
Commander.- This year?
Vladimir I. Yakunin.- Yes, sir.
Commander.- Where?
Vladimir I. Yakunin.- In
Commander.- Any guests?
Commander.- What are the requisites to
…?
Commander.- No, I cannot make the commitment
because I don’t know what problems may come up, and I don’t want my word…
Vladimir I. Yakunin.- Perhaps you will
think about it.
Commander.- I will think about it, yes, I will think about it, of
course (Applause).
Thank you
very much for all your patience.
Long live
peace!
Long live
the dialogue among civilizations! (Applause).