[Marxism] Full (English) text of RaÃl Castro's impromptu speech at the ALBA summit

[Pat Costello <pt_costello@xxxxxxxxx>]

Cubaâs Rubicon
April 24, 2009 Â No Comments

CUBA-ARMY-REHEARSALâWeâve said to the North American government, both 
privately and publicly, that weâre readyâto discuss everything: human 
rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everythingâbut on equal 
terms.â - RaÃl Castro

Speech by Cubaâs President at the Fifth ALBA Summit in CumanÃ, Venezuela, 
April 16, 2009

English translation by Machetera, revised by Manuel Talens

RaÃl Castro (to Hugo ChÃvez): Remember that you need to give me the floor to 
thank everyone, especially those whoâve spoken â and Iâm not going to 
exclude Daniel, because heâll also speak as well, just as heâs done 
throughout his entire life as a revolutionary â in the name of the Cuban 
people, all the expressions of solidarity and support for our Revolution, to 
our people, and I believe, therefore, also the Leader of the Revolution, 
comrade Fidel Castro, whoâs listening to us directly. [Applause]

Iâm not going to go on, Iâll speak on the other points.  I have to speak 
â according to what they tell me â at the mass meeting in the Plaza, 
donât I?  I still donât know how itâll be.  Are we going to speak there 
in the Plaza?

Hugo ChÃvez: Yes.  Weâve asked you to speak in everyoneâs name.

RaÃl Castro: No, thatâs a huge responsibility.  If anything, [it should be] 
the main host.

Anyway, I think that what weâve heard here this afternoon, that doesnât 
surprise us, the whole world knows it, except the United States, its main ally, 
Israel, and one country or another that occasionally abstains or has even voted 
against the United Nations General Assembly, is that the entire planet condemns 
the blockade.

I donât want to talk about the OAS, I already spoke in SauÃpe, at the Rio 
Summit, right?  And furthermore, our friend Zelaya will meet with all the 
delegates at the end of May and the beginning of June; I donât want to answer 
what Mr. Insulza recently said, because Fidel already did it some hours ago.

We can talk about many other things besides the OAS.  The OAS, it might be 
said, has oozed blood since its very creation; Cuba is one example, but before 
Cuba there were plenty more.  Venezuela, for example; I was in prison for the 
1954 attack on the Moncada barracks, when I heard about the intervention in 
Guatemala.  Why?  Because an honest president, whoâd been a colonel in the 
Guatemalan army, Jacobo Arbenz, once heâd won the presidency, within the 
rules of the game that the North Americans along with the ruling class in all 
the worldâs countries had imposed on that country, once heâd won, he wanted 
to return a little bit of land to the indigenous, the Indians, the descendants 
of the great Mayan culture.  And what happened? Three people: Eisenhower, his 
Secretary of State, Foster Dulles, and his brother Allen Dulles, who was head 
of the CIA, and furthermore, its founder, decided to launch that mercenary 
operation, with Castillo Armas leading
 it.  That history is known to practically everyone here.  Scarcely seven years 
later, in 1961, a day like yesterday, the bombardment of the main cities of 
[Cuba] and two of its airbases began.

A day like today â as Iâve already pointed out here â in the mourning 
farewell for the victims of those bombings, 48 years ago, Fidel proclaimed 
socialism, when the aggression was already evident, and a mass of people, among 
them, normal, everyday citizens, by which I mean workers, students, farmers, 
the Rebel Army that had overthrown the tyranny of Batista two years earlier, 
the police, with their rifles held high, supported that decision, and went on 
the next day to give their blood to defeat that aggression.

Why did they attack us?  This aggression was planned by the same three who went 
after Guatemala seven years earlier, before the word socialism was even 
mentioned in Cuba.

It just so happened that four and a half months after the triumph [of the 
Revolution], on May 17, 1959, the first Agrarian Reform Law was passed in our 
country; the most important one after the triumph of the Revolution, up until 
now.  I say that this is our Rubicon, that crossing it meant that those who 
seven years earlier had decided to invade Guatemala, condemned the Cuban 
Revolution to death.  Foster Dulles was the attorney for the United Fruit 
Company, the same company that in Cuba, instead of Fruit, was the United Sugar 
Company, and part of its lands were affected by that agrarian reform.

I speak now, very briefly, of recent history, and in SauÃpe, Brazil, I spoke 
of the more than 5,500 dead, more dead than maimed, a consequence of all the 
state terrorism of the United States against Cuba.  The list is interminable, 
from the epidemic of dengue hemorrhagic fever, where hundreds of thousands of 
people, all at once, filled our hospitals throughout the country, something 
that international health organizations say is impossible for a so-called 
normal epidemic.  Iâm not going to speak of the airliner at Barbados, and the 
73 victims that died, among them, Cubaâs junior fencing team, that had come 
from Venezuela, where theyâd won all the gold medals.  Iâm not going to 
talk about those who died at GirÃn.  On a day like yesterday, our comrades 
began to fall beneath the bombings; starting at dawn tomorrow, itâll have 
been 48 years since scores of comrades began to fall, because we had more 
casualties than they did.

Fidel ordered us â and he was right â to liquidate the aggression within 72 
hours, [for] the picture was quite clear.  The North Americans had formed a 
puppet government at the Opa-Locka military base in Florida, with Mirà Cardona 
leading it, and a council of ministers headed by the prime minister called for 
the occasion.  The invasion took place, and if they managed to consolidate 
their beachhead, protected by the marsh and the largest wetland in the 
Caribbean, the CiÃnaga de Zapata, which had to be crossed single file, because 
weâd had to build a road in the middle of that swamp, and troops could not be 
spread out, the only way across was by single file.  We had more casualties 
than they did.

Territorial waters at that time were three miles out, today theyâre twelve, 
and therefore, just beyond the three miles there was a North American fleet, 
with marine infantry, including an aircraft carrier.  Twice, North American 
combat aircraft passed in pairs above the spot where the combat action was 
taking place, they didnât do anything, but they passed overhead. And it was 
very simple.  Why didnât the OAS do in 1961 what it did in January of 1962?  
They condemned us in Chile, they condemned us in Costa Rica, they were creating 
the conditions, naturally, under the leadership of those whoâve directed the 
OAS since its founding, in 1948.  And it is here that you find the reason we 
were not expelled earlier, because if they brought a puppet government and 
consolidated themselves at Playa GirÃn, or at the Bay of Pigs, which is its 
real name, because Playa GirÃn is a little spot, a tourist attraction today, 
the OAS would have recognized that
 government, the government would have asked the OAS for help, and part of 
those North American forces that were barely three miles off our shores, would 
have invaded us.

What would have happened if North American troops had invaded Cuba in 1961?  
Iâll just make this comparison: How many deaths did our sister republic of 
Guatemala suffer as a consequence of that 1954 intervention, also organized by 
the Yankees, also directed by the three people previously mentioned, also 
supported by the OAS?  Why did the OAS not condemn that?

According to certain contemporary historians, as a consequence of that invasion 
and the dictatorships that went on to victimize that sister republic of 
Guatemala, between 250,000 and 300,000 Guatemalans have died.  Is it, or 
isnât it so?  Is it that figure, is it more, is it less?  There were hundreds 
of thousands of victims.  Who was responsible for it [the invasion]?  Who 
accused them?  Aside from the people, the honest people, the odd government.

How many deaths would Cuba have had, with a far greater population, with many 
more weapons, even at that time, and with a tradition of struggle, recently 
confirmed by the triumph of the Revolution, in 1959, and with hundreds of 
thousands of Cubans already armed at the time?  Could anyone calculate it?

Well then, could imperialism reconcile itself to that defeat, with that 
involuntary humiliation, of course, brought on by a tiny country in the 
Caribbean and our continent?  Were they going to allow it?  January 2nd, in 
commemoration of the second anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, which 
was January 1st - a holiday â the next day Fidel speaks at Revolution Plaza, 
January 2nd, 1961 â GirÃn was in 1961.  Eisenhower, who had 17 days left in 
his administration, broke relations with Cuba on January 3rd of that year, 
1961.  The OAS expelled Cuba on January 31, 1962.  And why not expel her 
before, in 1961, when GirÃn took place?  Because the puppet government they 
were going to install had to ask the OAS for help, it was a country that 
belonged to the OAS.  Why then did they expel us, separate us, suspend us, 
itâs all the same in this case, in 1962?  Because this time it wasnât a 
mercenary invasion, this time it was [to be] an invasion by
 the North Americans.  And that situation, of which not much has been written, 
or practically nothing â was what brought about the presence of Soviet 
missiles in Cuba and what blocked that invasion.

This has already been proved through documents declassified by the CIA and the 
Pentagon, and definitively, by the North American government â declassified 
documents, although with plenty blacked out â that this was the plan.  They 
didnât go through with it because a solution to the crisis was reached, 
whereby we had serious disagreements with Krushchev, the Soviet Prime Minister, 
for the way in which it unfolded, ignoring us, and as far as weâre concerned, 
nobodyâs going to ignore us, not the biggest country in the world, nor a 
group of countries, even though they may be the largest in the world, not the 
G-7, nor the G-20.

And thatâs the sad reality.  First they sanctioned us, they condemned us at 
various meetings, creating the environment, but they didnât cut us off from 
the OAS, for the reasons having to do with the request for help, and 
afterwards, yes, they expelled us.  They moved more quickly, even at GirÃn, 
when they knew how many weapons weâd already acquired, the pilots that we 
were training abroad, etcetera.

And at times, just as Evo and other comrades were commenting a few minutes ago, 
[they kept going on] about democracy, freedom, human rights. Weâve said to 
the North American government, both privately and publicly, that weâre ready 
whenever they are, to discuss everything: human rights, freedom of the press, 
political prisoners, everything, everything, everything that they might want to 
discuss, but on equal terms, without the slightest infringement of our 
sovereignty and without the least violation of the Cuban peopleâs right to 
self-determination.

I donât understand this democracy of the United States, I donât get it; 
Iâve said, even to certain North American citizens, that in the United States 
thereâs only one party, just one; you just have to analyze how their two 
parties function, you just have to watch their performance, what they do every 
time they have to take an important decision.  What they have, for sure, is a 
well-greased press system; it might be that one publisher or a group of 
publications, such as exist in the United States and in Europe, are owned by 
just one company, [who] goes to the rest of the media and says: You may write 
what you wish about this and that, but as for the rest of the story, the only 
thing written is that which the publicationâs owner, or the radio stationâs 
owner, or the TV stationâs owner wants.  Thatâs how it is, and if it 
isnât, someone please show me otherwise.

But I said thereâs only one party.  You say, âHow is that?â  I say, 
âYes.  Do you want just one example?  How is it possible that a Republican 
government, that of Eisenhower, organizes an expedition against Cuba and three 
months after a Democrat takes power, the invasion is authorized?  Thatâs the 
reality.  We might talk of many other things here.

We might be wrong, we admit it, weâre human - weâre ready to sit down and 
discuss, as I said, whenever they want, whatâs happening is that now â and 
I conclude â itâs evident that they have to create this climate and 
whenever thereâs a discrepancy on something, immediately they launch into 
their usual spiel on democracy, freedom, prisonersâ

The other day, in Brasilia, after a meeting with President Lula, a journalist 
with an insolent and provocative attitude asked me in an interview: âHow many 
dissidents have you [Cubans] killed?â  He didnât even hear himself, and he 
began to tremble when I answered him, in the way that I know how to answer.  He 
trembled!  And I said to him, âYes, those dissidents, who are on the United 
States payroll, go and look at the latest budget approved by Congress, the part 
that has to do with the $57 million dollars to finance all those 
âpatrioticâ dissidents, the âindependent journalists,â and so on.  And 
why do they not release our five Heroes, young heroic men who never inflicted 
any harm on the United States, nor sought information against the United 
States, but rather, against the terrorists that attacked and have been 
attacking, to a greater or lesser degree, my country for nearly 50 years?â

From that, this approach came forth, and I reiterate it here today: If they 
want these supposed âpolitical prisonersâ released, among whom there are a 
number of confessed terrorists, Guatemalans and Salvadorans, tried and 
convicted in Cuba, even facing the death penalty - that still exists but we 
havenât applied for some time - they were commuted to a life sentence.  Let 
our prisoners go and weâll send these there - with their families and whoever 
they want - those so-called dissidents and patriots.

We might say many other things in the same style, only that, Evo, if after what 
you said today, the OAS expels you for incompatible Marxism-Leninism, Bolivia 
and Cuba will form something else that wonât be called the OAS, not even 
remotely, and then weâll let those who are with us, enter.

Well, ChÃvez, pardon the time I took and the informality with which I spoke, I 
was on my way out [the door].  I came to beg pardon of Daniel, and took away 
his time.  This was an abuse of power, probably because Iâm dressed in a 
uniform.  [Laughter].

Thank you very much.

Speech by Cuban Armed Forces General, RaÃl Castro Ruz, President of the 
Council of State and Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, in the public portion 
of the 5th Extraordinary ALBA Summit, CumanÃ, Venezuela, April 16, 2009
(Stenographic version - Council of State)


http://machetera.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/cubas-rubicon/


      

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu