SPEECH MADE BY ARMY GENERAL
RAUL CASTRO RUZ, PRESIDENT OF THE STATE COUNCIL AND THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF
CUBA, AT THE COMMEMORATION OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION. SANTIAGO
DE CUBA, JANUARY 1ST, 2009, “YEAR OF THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE REVOLUTIONARY TRUMPH.”
Men and women from Santiago;
People from Oriente;
Combatants of the Ejército Rebelde, of the
underground struggle and of every combat in defense of the Revolution
throughout these 50 years;
Compatriots;
In a day like this, our first thoughts are for those
who fell in this long struggle. They constitute a paradigm and a symbol of the
efforts and sacrifices of millions of Cubans. Closely united in the clamor of
battle, waging the powerful weapons embodied in Fidel’s leadership, his
teachings and his example, we have learned how to transform our dreams into a
reality; how to keep our heads cool and our confidence in the face of dangers
and threats; how to get over the big setbacks; how to turn every challenge into
a victory and to overcome adversity, no matter how insurmountable they might
have seem.
Those of us who have had the privilege to experience
the intensity of this stage of our history are well aware of the truth contained
in that alert he issued that January 8, 1959, during his first speech after
entering the capital:
“The tyranny has been overthrown. Our joy is immense.
However, much remains to be done. We shall not deceive ourselves believing that
in the future everything will be easier, because perhaps everything will be
more difficult,” he said.
For the first time, the Cuban people had attained
political power. This time, with Fidel, the mambises
entered Santiago de Cuba leaving behind exactly 60 years of absolute domination
by the emerging US imperialism, which did not take long to show its real
purposes by preventing the Liberation Army from entering this city.
The great confusion and above all the enormous
frustration caused by the US intervention had been left way behind. But the
Mambí Army, despite its formal dismantling, always preserved its fighting spirit
and the ideas that led Céspedes, Agramonte, Gómez, Maceo and so many other
heroes and independence combatants to take up arms.
For over fifty years our people would endure
corrupted governments and new US interventions, the Machado tyranny and the
frustrated revolution that overthrew him. Later, in 1952, the coup d’état dealt
with the support of the US administration, reinstated the dictatorship. This
formula was commonly applied in those years to ensure its dominion in Latin
America.
It was clear to us that the armed struggle was the
only way. Again, the revolutionaries would have to face –as Martí before us—the
dilemma of the necessary war for the independence that was cut short in 1898.
Thus, the Ejército Rebelde took up again the weapons
of the mambises and after the triumph
was forever transformed into the unbeaten Revolutionary Armed Forces.
The Centennial Generation, which in 1953 stormed the
Moncada’s and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes’ barracks, was inspired in Marti’s
important legacy and his humanistic global vision reaching beyond the
attainment of national liberation.
Speaking in historical terms, a short time would pass
from the moment the mambises’ dreams
were frustrated to the triumph of the War of Liberation. Early in that period, Mella, one of the
founding members of our first communist party and of the FEU (University
Students Federation), became the legitimate heir and the bridge connecting
Marti’s thoughts to the most advanced ideas.
In those years, the conscience and action of workers
and farmers matured and a genuine, valiant and patriotic intelligentsia was
formed which has accompanied them to the present. Then, the Cuban school, as a
loyal repository of the fighting traditions of its predecessors, planted them
in the best of the new generations.
Right after the triumph it became evident for every
humble man and woman that the Revolution was like a social cataclysm of justice
knocking on every door, from the large palaces on the 5th Avenue, in
the capital of the country, to the poorest shanty in the remotest mountain or
plain field.
The revolutionary laws not only fulfilled the program
that inspired the Moncada but also went far beyond it in the logical evolution
of the process. At the same time, they
set a precedent for peoples of Our America, which 200 years back had started
the movement for the emancipation from colonialism.
But, in Cuba the history of the Americas would take a
different turn. Nothing morally valuable has been alien to the turmoil that
even before January 1st, 1959, started to sweep away opprobrium and
inequity while opening the way to the enormous effort of all the people
determined to give itself everything it deserves and that it has built with its
own sweat and blood.
Millions of Cubans, men and women, have been workers,
students or soldiers; sometimes all of these as the circumstances have
demanded.
Nicolas Guillén’s masterly verses synthesized what
the January 1959 triumph brought to our people. “I have what I was meant to
have,” he said in one of his poems, referring not to material wealth but to
being the masters of our own destiny.
This victory is twice as worthy for it has been
attained despite the unhealthy and vindictive hatred of the powerful neighbor.
The promotion and support of sabotage and banditry; the
Playa Girón [Bay of Pigs] invasion; the blockade and other economic, political
and diplomatic aggressions; the permanent slandering campaign aimed at
denigrating the Cuban Revolution and its leaders; the October [Missile] Crisis;
the hijackings of and attacks on civilian planes and sea crafts; the state
terrorism, with its terrible result of 3478 dead and 2099 maimed; the attempts
on the life of Fidel and other leaders; the murder of Cuban workers, farmers,
fishermen, students, diplomats and combatants; these and many other crimes bear
witness to the stubborn insistence on putting out, at any cost, the beacon of
justice and honor that January 1st meant to so many.
One way or another, with more or less aggressiveness,
every US administration has tried to impose a regime change in Cuba. Resistance
has been the key word and the explanation of every one of our victories
throughout this half century of continued fighting when we have consistently
acted on our own and taken our own risks notwithstanding the extensive and
decisive solidarity we have received.
For many years, Cuban revolutionaries have abided by
Martí’s apothegm: “Freedom is most
precious and one must either accept to live without it or be determined to buy
it for its price.”
On the 30th anniversary of the victory,
Fidel said at this square: “We are here because we have put up a
resistance.” Ten years later, in 1999,
from this same balcony, he said that the Special Period was “the most extraordinary
page of revolutionary and patriotic glory and firmness […] when we were left
absolutely alone in the West, only 90 miles away from the United States, and we
decided to continue forward.” End of quote. We repeat the same thing today.
We have firmly resisted --far from any fanaticism--
based on sound convictions, and on the resolution of all of the people to
defend them at any cost. Presently, our glorious Five Heroes are a living
example of that unshakable determination. (Applause and exclamations)
Today, we are not alone on this side of the ocean
facing the empire, as it was the case in the 1960s when in January 1962 the
United States of America forced on the OAS the absurd expulsion of Cuba, the
country which had shortly before been the victim of an invasion organized by
the US administration and escorted to our coasts by its own warships. Actually, as it has been proven, that
expulsion was the prelude to a direct military intervention only prevented by
the deployment of the Soviet nuclear missiles leading to the October Crisis,
known to the world as the Missile Crisis.
Today, the Revolution is stronger than ever; it has
never failed to stand by its principles, not even in the most difficult
circumstances. This truth cannot be changed in the least even if some get tired
or even renounce their history as they forget that life is in itself an eternal
fight.
Does it mean there is less danger? No, it doesn’t.
Let’s not entertain any illusions. As we commemorate this half century of
victories, it is time to reflect on the future, on the next fifty years when we
shall continue to struggle incessantly.
The observation of the current disturbances in the
contemporary world tells us that the coming years will not be easier. This is
the truth; I am not saying this to scare anyone.
We should also keep in mind what Fidel told us all,
but especially the youth, at the University of Havana on November 17, 2005:
“This country could destroy itself, this Revolution could destroy itself, but
they [the enemy] cannot destroy it. We could destroy it ourselves, and it would
only be our fault,” he argued.
In the face of this possibility, I ask myself:
What is the guarantee that such a horrible thing
would not happen to our people?
How could we avoid such a numbing blow that we would
need much time to recover from and to attain victory again?
I am speaking on behalf of all those who have been
fighting from the moment the first shots were fired on the walls of the Moncada
barracks 55 years ago and of those who fulfilled heroic internationalist
missions.
Of course, I am also speaking on behalf of those who
fell in the wars of independence and more recently in the War of Liberation. I
speak on behalf of them all, and on behalf of Abel and Jose Antonio, of Camilo
and Che, when I say that this demands foremost from tomorrow’s leaders that
they never forget that this is a Revolution of the humble, by the humble and
for the humble; (Applause) that they should never be misled by the enemy’s
siren songs and be aware that, given its very essence, the enemy will never
cease to be aggressive, treacherous and dominant; that they should never
distance themselves from our workers, our farmers and the people at large; that
the party members must prevent the destruction of the Party. Let’s learn from
history.
If they act consistently, they will always have the
support of the people, even if they make mistakes which do not breach basic
principles. But, if their actions were inconsistent with such principles, they
would even lack the strength and the opportunity to rectify, since they would
fail to have the moral authority that the masses only grant to those who never
back from the struggle. They could end
up incapacitated for tackling internal and external dangers and unable to
preserve the work that is the fruit of the blood and the sacrifices of many
generations of Cubans.
Nobody should have any doubt that if that would ever
happen our people would put up a fight, and today’s mambises would be in the frontline; that they would never be ideologically
disarmed nor would they ever let down their sword. (Applause and exclamations)
It befits the historical leadership of the Revolution
to prepare the new generations to take up the enormous responsibility of
continuing to carry forward the revolutionary process.
This heroic city of Santiago and all of Cuba
witnessed the sacrifices of thousands of compatriots, the rage accumulated for
so many lives cut short by crime, the endless pain of our mothers and the
sublime courage of its sons and daughters.
This was the birthplace of a young revolutionary
killed when he was only 22 years old, a man who is a symbol of that willingness
to make sacrifices, of that purity, courage and serenity, and of that love for
our people: Frank País García.
This eastern land was the birthplace of the
Revolution. It was here that the call of duty was made in La Demajagua and on
July 26th; it was here that we landed in the Granma and started the
fight on the mountains and the plains, the same that extended later to the entire
island. As Fidel said in History Will
Absolve Me, “every day here looks like it will be again the day of Yara and
Baire.”
Never again shall poverty, ignominy, abuse and
injustice return to our land!
Never again shall the heart of our mothers be filled
with pain and the soul of every honest Cuban succumb to shame!
Such is the firm resolution of a nation on a war
footing; a nation that is aware of its duty and proud of its history.(Applause)
Our people are well aware of every shortcoming in the
work they have built with their own hands and defended with their own lives.
We, the revolutionaries are our strongest critics. We have never hesitated to
publicly discuss our flaws and mistakes. There are plenty of past and recent
examples.
Since October 10, 1868, disunity had been the main
cause of our defeats. After January 1st, 1959, the unity forged by
Fidel has been the guarantee of our victories. Our people have been able to
preserve that unity despite all of the ups and downs and the attempts at division,
and have rightly placed common aspirations above differences, crushing meanness
with the strength of collectivism and generosity.
Revolutions can only advance and endure when they are
carried forward by the people. The full understanding of this truth and the
consistent and unshakable action carried forward have been decisive elements in
the victory of the Cuban Revolution over its enemies, and over seemingly
insurmountable difficulties and challenges.
As we arrive at the first half century of the victorious
Revolution, let’s pay homage first to our wonderful people and to its
exemplary decision, courage, loyalty and
internationalist and fraternal vocation; to its extraordinary show of will, its
spirit of sacrifice and its confidence in victory, in the Party, in its maximum
leader and, above all, in itself. (Applause)
I know that I am expressing the feelings of my
compatriots and of many revolutionaries in the world, when I pay homage to the
Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz. (Applause and
exclamations)
We know that a man alone doesn’t make history, but
some men are indispensable as they can have a decisive influence in the course
of events. Fidel is one of them; nobody doubts it, not even his most bitter
enemies.
Ever since his early youth he adopted as his own one
of Martí’s thoughts: “All of the glory in the world fits in a kernel of corn.”
This he turned into his shield from everything that is superfluous or
transient, into his main weapon to transform praises and honors --even if well-deserved—into greater humility,
honesty, fighting spirit and love for truth, which he has invariably placed
above all else.
He made reference to these ideas 50 years ago in this
same square. His words that night are absolutely valid today.
At this very special moment when we think of our past
journey and particularly of the long way ahead, when we reiterate our
commitment to the people and to our martyrs, allow me to conclude by recalling
the premonitory alert and the call to combat made by the Commander in Chief in
this historic place on January 1st, 1959, as he indicated:
“We do not believe that all of the problems can be
easily solved; we know that the path is fraught with obstacles, but we are men
of faith, we are used to facing great difficulties. Our people can be sure of
one thing, and that is that we can make one or many mistakes, but we will never
steal and we will never betray you.”
And he added:
“We shall never let ourselves be carried away by
vanity or ambition, […] there can be no greater reward or satisfaction than the
fulfillment of our duty,” he concluded.
On this date full of significance and symbolism,
let’s reflect on these ideas which constitute a guidance for true
revolutionaries; let’s do it with the satisfaction of having fulfilled our duty
until the present and having behind us a life lived with dignity in the most
intense and fruitful half century of our history. Let’s do it with the firm
commitment that we will always be able to proudly claim in this land:
Glory to our heroes and martyrs! (Exclamations)
Long live Fidel! (Exclamations)
Long live the Revolution! (Exclamations)
Long live Free Cuba! (Exclamations)
(Ovation).