Reflections by Comrade Fidel

LIES AT THE SERVICE OF THE EMPIRE

Yesterday Reuters headed the list of the international news agencies that mention Pedro Miret and Osmany Cienfuegos as two historical figures who have been dismissed from their posts by Raúl Castro.

The EFE Agency follows stating, verbatim: “Last March 2^nd, they were dismissed as Vice Presidents of the Council of Ministers.”

The excuse for this thriller, widely circulated throughout the world, was the March 24^th publication in the Official Gazette of the Decree about the restructuring of the Council of Ministers of the Government of Cuba, passed on the 2^nd of this month.

Pedro Miret is a magnificent comrade, having great historical merits and whom we all respect and for whom I have a lot of affection. For several years now, for reasons of health, he is unable to occupy any post. The slow progress of his illness led to the gradual cessation of his political activities. It is not fair to describe him as having been “fired”, without any consideration whatsoever.

Osmany Cienfuegos, the brother of Camilo, carried out important tasks not only as Vice President of the Council of Ministers but also as Party member or fulfilling my instructions while I was Commander in Chief. He has always been, and still is, a revolutionary. His functions were gradually ceasing from a time much earlier than that of my illness. He no longer held the post of Vice President of the Council of Ministers. Comrade Raúl Castro, President of the Council of State, has absolutely no responsibility for any of this. In both cases, it was a matter of purely legal procedures.

Reuters and EFE are two of the western news agencies closest to the United States’ imperialist policy. The latter behaves more poorly even though it is much less important than the former.

In another cable on March 24^th, making use of a customary technique, EFE takes the words of Joaquín Roy, director of the European Union Center in Miami, to print the following: “Spain has been rediscovered as a key country in certain regions of the world that are of interest to the United States such as Latin America, and in two countries in particular: Cuba and Venezuela”.

Right away, EFE adds: “The expert believed that the United States’ major interest, more than pressuring for an opening, changes, etc, is the stability on the Island.

“For years now, he explained, studies made by the U.S. security agencies do not indicate Cuba to be a military threat, but they remain alert to the development of changes in order to avoid eventual internal friction destabilizing the region.

“The United States is not interested for the result of an opening to be civil war in Cuba”.

The European Union and Spain, according to Roy, have no problem working alongside the United States but, ‘with caution’ so that from Cuba it is not understood to be, or is accused of being, following Washington’s lead.

It couldn’t be more crystal clear: the ideas of the old Spanish empire on crutches, trying to assist the corrupt, tottering and genocidal Yankee Empire.

Nothing has been learned by the United States superpower and the Spanish mini-power about the heroic resistance of Cuba

Fidel Castro Ruz

March 25, 2009

3:02 p.m.