While there has still been no resolution of the brutal and vulgar kidnapping of a Cuban boy torn from his family, school and desk before he had even turned six years old, a case that has shaken all of Cuba, at the early morning hour of 8:07 a.m., as our city was resting after a tiring yet fruitful year in all areas, a light airplane appeared overhead. It came down from U.S. territory, like all the rest, flying low, in typical traitorous fashion. It approached from the north of the city, flew past the Meliá-Cohiba Hotel, headed west as far as the corner of 5th Avenue and 86th Street, then up to 19th and 84th, turned east, passed over the Havana Forest, the National Hotel, the entry to the Port, Casablanca, and the Naval Hospital, and then headed out to sea, back to the United States, over Habana del Este. While flying over our city, it dropped tens of thousands of leaflets calling for a general strike, an uprising of the people, and internal war. There was no way we could be left in peace on the day marking 41 years of heroic struggle, resistance and revolutionary victories on the part of our people.

Such a thing could not even be imagined in Washington or New York, of course. Who would dare to disrupt the imperial power’s hours of pleasant and placid rest in such a way? This outrageous provocation took place, as always, in Havana, the capital of Cuba, the tiny revolutionary neighbor that has been subjected to blockades, pirate attacks, and various other forms of political, economic and military aggression for more than four decades. It is an imperial power’s right to never tolerate such offenses, while spending all of its time threatening, attacking or offending any country in any corner of the planet, particularly when it comes to the nations of the Third World.

In this case, the aircraft was not even piloted by a Cuban-born mercenary. Whether as the result of a ruse, a trick or collusion, this time it was not one of those who have been committing similar misdeeds against Cuba for many years, with the full support and tolerance of the U.S. authorities. One of their best known gangleaders, in fact, appeared just a few days ago in the company of Torricelli, Mas Canosa’s little boy, the ferocious she-wolf Ileana Ros, and a number of other criminals, gathered around the innocent kidnapped child, in an orgy of revolting and repugnant publicity that so deeply offended the people they strive to break down through hunger and disease, including women, children and the elderly.

The "heroic" pilot was nothing less than a U.S. citizen, Vietnamese by birth, a former member of the Saigon Air Force, who fought in the puppet army alongside the U.S. forces that murdered four million men, women and children in Viet Nam.

Now we have seen everything! Just a few months ago, immigrants of Indian and Pakistani origin, passing themselves off as tourists, had beaten and seriously injured two humble workers in order to hijack a boat to the United States, drawn by the lure of taking advantage of the infamous Cuban Adjustment Act. Now along comes a remnant of the fecal matter known as the Saigon Army, flying over the capital of Cuba in the early morning hours of January 1, with the highly noble purpose of "freeing" our "enslaved" people. As if we were still illiterate, he has illuminated our brilliant destiny with a pamphlet full of spelling mistakes, in the style of that common criminal, on the payroll of the United States Interests Section, who demanded "justisia" (a misspelling of "justicia", justice) for the outlandish and imaginary "acesinato" ("asesinato", murder) of children. A coincidence, or something drafted on purpose by his partners in Miami to confuse and mislead?

After praise for the feats of NATO and other nonsense, the "sublime" proclamation states:

"God and Justice order all Cuba patriots to stand up and declare the death of the inhuman and tyrannical regime. All Cubans must:

"1. Disseminate this proclaim in the most efficient way possible.

"2. Call a general strike and take to the streets to demand the right to be they own masters once again.

"3. Protest at key military and administrative sites, calling on soldiers and the police to return to the just national cause.

"4. Occupy radio and television stations to call for a popular uprising.

"5. Coordinate internal resistance forces with external ones, including all those who fight for freedom in Viet Nam, China, Korea, etc., as part of a general uprising to depose the tyrant of Habana... with the goal of building a independent, free and prosperous Cuba.

"Commander-in-Chief of the Worldwide Anti-Communist

Revolutionary Forces"

(illegible signature)

The most absurd thing about this silly counterrevolutionary provocation is that it has taken place when the people of Cuba, more steadfast, energetic and aware than ever, are mobilizing, marching and demonstrating on the streets and in public squares to demand the liberation of young Elián González.

Yes, the people are rising up more than ever, but they are rising up against imperialism and its cowardly attacks on our country. As opposed to encouraging them to do battle, they need to be restrained to ensure that their righteous anger and impatience do not boil over.

Who could the author of this strange provocation be?

Is he mad, insane, drug-crazed, or a vulgar salaried mercenary following somebody’s instructions?

It is hard to imagine a madman renting an aircraft, taking off from the air base in Opalocka, Florida, following a flight plan to Key West, continuing straight to an installation on the north coast of Havana, precisely covering various points in the city many blocks from the coastline, passing over the bay to the east part of the city, and then returning to the United States. A madman who could also drop explosives, inflammable material, viruses and bacteria over our country, which, while in the grips of a criminal blockade, has just achieved the feat of reducing infant mortality to 6.4 per 1000 live births.

Where did he get all that money, all those leaflets, and all the information needed to fly along the route he followed?

There is insanity involved here, yes, but not in individual terms. It is the insanity and chaos of an evil system that violates all international laws and tolerates heinous crimes; a lying and immoral system that encourages such insanity and is, at the same time, unable to control it, too cowardly to control it, now that it has taken root in the insolent, defiant and arrogant mobs created by the system itself to attack Cuba and destroy the Revolution. Today, with their abundant wealth from shadowy sources, they fund electoral campaigns over and under the table, form lobbies, and finance and align themselves with the extreme right, whose ideas are not far distanced from those of the madman excreted by the Saigon regime, the offspring of U.S. interventionism in the rest of the world and imperialist hegemony.

He will be held under arrest for a few hours, will not even be sent to a psychiatrist, and then will be set free. Otherwise they would have to apply the same recipe to Basulto and his scum, which is inconceivable. The farce of a penal trial would conclude like the shameless trial held in Puerto Rico for a serious act of international terrorism planned and financed in the United States; those proven guilty were unanimously declared innocent, in a venal, corrupt court, which is tantamount to encouragement and permission to kill for the imperial power’s henchmen.

On the basis of an incident created by acts of vandalism like this most recent one, which are systematically repeated over the seas and skies of our country, President Clinton justified and sanctioned the barbaric and genocidal Helms-Burton Act, while his administration threatened armed attacks against Cuba in the days that followed. This is the shameless and hypocritical way in which the masters of the world behave.

As fate would have it, on the very same day that this unusual madman launched his leaflets over the capital of Cuba, calling for war, a boat with 406 emigrants from Haiti, the Dominican Republic and other countries arrived on the coasts of Florida. For them there will be no Adjustment Act, nor sophisticated toys and trips to Disney World for the children undoubtedly found among these undocumented immigrants. They cannot be used for evil counterrevolutionary political objectives or for electoral propaganda. They will be tossed out of U.S. territory like undesirable animals, who threaten to contaminate its idyllic society and purported superior race, having arrived on its coasts while fleeing from the hunger and poverty that colonialism and imperialism have sowed throughout the rest of the world.

Once again, long live the first of January, the day we freed ourselves, at the cost of thousands of precious lives, from the Cuban puppet leader and the empire that created him.

We have resisted, and we will continue to resist. We will look upon this gross offense as just one more episode in our long and heroic struggle. An energetic diplomatic protest? What for? It would merely be a waste of time. We must not allow our attention to be distracted, even for a minute, from our fundamental goal at this moment in time, the historic battle for the liberation of the kidnapped child. That could very well have been the purpose of this clumsy attack.

We must wage this battle with the same energy with which we set out on the glorious revolutionary path that has brought us to where we are today, with reason, truth, morality and the people on our side. We must close ranks and win the support of all honest men and women throughout the world. The United States, despite all of its power, will not succeed in stealing this child from us. In a grotesque and hateful spectacle, with no respect for his age and innocence, this child was forcibly wrapped in a U.S. flag, something worthy of our respect as a symbol of the people of the United States, the majority of whom support Elián’s return, yet strange to him, with its stripes and dozens of stars. It is the same flag that flies in the school with tuition fees of 40,000 dollars a year, where Elián will be enrolled this Monday, according to the news reports, also by force, and despite the fact that the kidnappers have no right to decide his life for him.

A modest and honorable family, an efficient and humane school where it does not cost a penny to study, a loving teacher, a humble desk, a little classmate and friend who happens to be black, a glorious flag with a single star, and 11 million Cubans impatiently await him here in his homeland.