Oppose the Escalation of Provocations, Threats and Attacks against Cuba by US Imperialism

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

Oppose the Escalation of Provocations, Threats and Attacks against Cuba by US Imperialism

Brutal Economic and Political Measures against Our Country and against Cubans Resident in the United States

Faced with New Aggressive Actions by the Bush administration, Cuba Announces Extraordinary Measures

US Sabre Rattling Worries Castro Regime

May Day 2004
More than One Million Cubans Come Together in Defence of the Revolution
May Day Statement by Cuban President Fidel Castro: The Adventurist Policies of the Bush Administration Have Given the World Increasingly Insoluble Problems

WDIE adds its voice to the condemnation of the escalation of US provocations, threats and attacks against Cuba, including its activities to interfere in the diplomatic activity of foreign countries. The latest measures the US is using to reinforce its aggressive policies against Cuba include calls for a tightening of the economic and trade blockade, attempts to subvert tourism to the island and outrageous proposals to achieve what is called "a political transition" in Cuba. These proposals are based on recommendations contained in a 500-page report by a so-called Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba headed by US Secretary of State Colin Powell. These actions of the US all the more outrageous seeking, as they do, to divert the attention of the American and world's people from crimes the US is committing in Iraq which also fully reveal the kind of democracy the US seeks to impose on Cuba.

The working class and people of Britain stand shoulder to shoulder with the Cuban people. They should also draw the appropriate conclusions as to British democracy as the government also systematically commits crimes against the Iraqi people. The Cuban people and their leadership are determined to defend Cuban sovereignty and the achievements of their revolution, and are fully preparing to deal with the escalating intervention of US imperialism.

Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Revolutionary Government of Cuba

May 7, 2004

Yesterday, May 6, the US government announced new measures for intensifying even further its aggressive and hostile policy towards Cuba.

In the morning, President Bush, setting forth the measures during brief comments to some representatives of the media, reiterated his hatred of and aggressiveness toward our people, repeating his habitual and cynical attacks and outlining his escalation of interference.

He went as far as to shamelessly affirm that the objective of the measures was to speed up the day that Cuba will be a free country.

Later, during the afternoon, Mr Roger Noriega, undersecretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, one of the authors of the Helms-Burton Act and a US government representative for the terrorist mafia of Miami, gave a presentation in Washington where he provided details of the contents of a report given to the US president by the so-called "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba", emphasising, above all, the new economic and political measures that the Bush administration is planning to apply against Cuba.

In six chapters and more than 450 pages, the so-called Report from the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba could not contain more lies, malice, frustration and interference in the internal affairs of any country.

The document incorporates the following as strategic tasks to achieve the overthrow of the Cuban government: increased support to international campaigns against Cuba; the intensification of subversive actions and disinformation against our country; the adoption of new measures that will affect the Cuban economy, and what they are given to call "undermining the regime’s succession plans".

In the first chapter, dedicated wholly to new measures aimed at destroying the Revolution, the following stand out:

1. To make available $59 million in the next 2 years for financing actions directed at destroying the Revolution. This money would be used, among other purposes:

a) To create an international fund for the development of the "civil society" in Cuba, which would attract "voluntary" personnel from third countries to travel to our country and offer aid to the mercenaries in its service in Cuba. In practice, it is the organisation of a messenger corps to supply financial and logistical help to the counterrevolution.

b) To establish, together with the OAS, a "scholarship plan" to enable counterrevolutionary elements selected by them to study in US and Latin American universities. It is, in essence, their plan to form cadres for the counterrevolution in Cuba.

c) To finance programmes to support what they call "pro-democracy efforts among Cuban youth, women and men of African origin". An unusual objective, coming from the country of all kinds of discrimination and the Ku Klux Klan.

d) To dedicate $18 million to transmissions from the ill-named TV and Radio Martí via a C-130 airplane devoted exclusively to that purpose.

e) To maintain and increase public campaigns against Cuba in other countries in the context of the alleged violation of human rights in Cuba, "espionage committed against other countries", the "subversion of democratically elected governments in Latin America", and other acts defined as a threat to US interests; likewise, the promotion of national or international conferences in third countries to "disseminate information" on US policies for promoting a "transition" in Cuba. It is the announcement of further $5 million for financing the international campaign of discredit and lies against Cuba.

2. To limit those who receive remittances of money and packages to immediate family members of Cuban resident in the United States, defined exclusively as grandparents, grandchildren, parents, siblings, spouses and children. This means that from now on, Cubans residing in the United States are the only immigrants to be prohibited from sending economic aid to an elderly aunt or another close family member.

3. To prohibit Cubans resident in the United States from sending remittances of money and packages to family members if the latter are "government officials or members of the Communist Party". A 70-year-old mother, for example, would have to renounce her political rights in order to receive a remittance.

4. To reduce visits to our country by Cubans resident in the United States from the current one per year to one every three years. The additional restriction is established by the obligation, from now on, to seek specific permission for each trip, instead of the general license that currently exists. It limits the granting of permission to travel to Cuba only for visiting immediate family members. To this effect, the US government has decreed that from this moment on, the definition of family is: "grandparents, grandchildren, parents, siblings, spouses and children." That is, from now on, a cousin, aunt or other close family member is not – according to President Bush – a family member. It also establishes, as well, that Cubans who have recently arrived in the United States will only be able to travel to Cuba three years after having emigrated. While the Cuban government is continually making visits to the country by emigrants more flexible, the US government is increasing the obstacles. What is it afraid of?

While the Cuban government is constantly making émigré visits to the country more flexible, the US government is increasing the obstacles. What is it afraid of?

5. Reducing the quantity of money that Cubans resident in the United States can    spend to cover their costs during visits to Cuba from $164 to $50 per day. A new and arbitrary discrimination against the Cuban community in the United States.

6. Ordering the US authorities to mount "covert operations" on any person bringing money from Cubans resident in the United States to relatives on the island, including recompensing individuals who inform on illegal transfers of family remittances.

7. To continue restricting the granting of licenses for educational visits and academic exchanges to US citizens and institutions by means of tighter regulations than those currently existing. It should be recalled that licenses for so-called people to people exchange have already been eliminated by the Bush administration.

8. To undertake a rigorous study to evaluate whether the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act is contrary to US interests or whether its application could accelerate the fall of the Cuban Revolution. In practice, this evokes the possibility of authorising trials in US courts against businesspersons from third countries engaged in business with Cuba, which has not been applied to date.

9. To firmly apply the sanctions contained in Title IV of the same act, which prohibits the granting of entry visas to the United States of foreign investors in Cuba, and to supply more resources and personnel to apply the Helms-Burton Act.

10. To "neutralise" Cuban companies dedicated to economic activity linked to the external sector, and to create an Assets Evaluation Group to investigate Cuban companies and those of other nations trading with Cuba.

11. To increase efforts to involve the governments of third countries in campaigns against the Cuban Revolution.

12. To support actions in third countries to discourage tourism to Cuba.

13. To continue refusing visas to Cuban officials who have to travel to the United States.

14. To create the post of a Coordinator for the Transition in Cuba at State Department level, who will be responsible for checking the application of all these measures.

The other five chapters brazenly cover the measures that the US government would bring into effect in our country once it has achieved its dream of overthrowing the Cuban Revolution. For now, we will not analyse it in detail, but merely quote one example. One of the measures proposed is "to immediately immunise all children under five years who have not as yet been vaccinated against the principal childhood ailments". Our people can draw their own conclusions. This is the plan for Cuba’s annexation and the return to the fake republic of the Platt Amendment.

The cruelty and hatred that inspire this new aggression against our country is really incredible. It attempts to increase the difficult conditions already imposed on us by the criminal US blockade by all means possible. It constitutes a flagrant violation of the human rights of 11 million Cubans, whom it is trying to force to their knees through hunger and disease for the sole "crime" of wishing to be free, independent and not subjected to imperial rule.

The measures announced yesterday likewise constitute a violation of the rights of citizens of Cuban origin resident in the United States who now face new and draconian restrictions in relation to travel to the island and sending economic aid to their families in Cuba.

All these measures and the US policy as a whole openly flout the real interests of the US people, the vast majority of Cubans resident in the United States, a large part of the US Congress and broad sectors in that country who want normal relations with the island.

Assigning tens of millions of dollars to provoking mercenary acts in Cuba, violating international law in order to transmit subversive broadcasts from aircraft, compounded by the scandalous and internationally criticised installation of a concentration camp in territory occupied by its army in our country, constitute unheard of provocations in total breach of the regulations and principles of international law, which will have to be debated in diverse international forums, including the Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

The cunning, cynical and cruel nature of the present administration is fully demonstrated in the face of adopting these measures against our people at a time when the price of foodstuffs and their transportation have virtually doubled on the world market, that of sugar is hardly exceeding its cost of production, and that of fuel is steadily rising, having reached the astronomical price of almost $40 per barrel. And now, there is to be an additional attempt to hit tourism, which was beginning to show a strong upturn, as hard as possible.

Listening to promises to vaccinate children in a country where preventative medicine and immunisation have attained the highest levels in the world is derisive coming from a country where tens of millions of men, women and children have no access to medical attention, and whose infant mortality rate per thousand live births is above Cuba’s. The real fact is that the Fuehrer is maddened by the vast human capital created by our nation; its capacity to send tens of millions of doctors to the most remote areas of the Third World, a total that exceeds the possibilities of all the developed countries together; and the advances in education, public health and culture that will soon rank Cuba in first place among all the nations of the earth. The solid support for the Revolution of almost its total population makes it invulnerable to the rotten ideology of Mr Bush. The example of Cuba has to be made to disappear from the map. That is the aim of the insults of the manic and crazed programme of transition in Cuba devised by a fraudulently elected president.

In that way the aim is to destroy everything than a heroic people is constructing with immense love. Cuba might be erased from the map, but no threat, no senseless madness from Mr Bush can make it lose heart. Without any doubt his cruel and cowardly measures will impose a certain sacrifice on our people, but those measures will not succeed in detaining for even one second the people’s advance towards the human and social objectives that have been drawn up, and nobody will left unprotected. Cuba will never return to the horrible, merciless and inhumane condition of a US colony.

As our president stated on May 1 before more than one million Cubans: "Without violating the standards that it has always applied in its struggles, this country will defend itself with laws and will defend itself with arms when necessary, until the last drop of blood has been shed."

In the face of the recent brutal sanctions against Cuba to suffocate the economy, announced by the US government, Cuba is taking new extraordinary internal measures, chiefly administrative, according to an official statement put out on May 10.

The government statement underlines that "the country will mobilise the additional resources needed to confront this aggression with minimal sacrifice on the part of the population", and announced several austerity measures that would affect the everyday life of Cubans, without announcing the date of implementation.

The set of measures includes suspension of sales in stores offering products in dollars, with the exception of food and items for personal cleanliness.

"The brutality of the measures adopted by the US government will unfortunately raise prices in the chains of stores operating in convertible currency and in fuel supply centres," the statement warns.

The statement makes it clear that this price hike will not compensate for the current high price of food, its transportation costs in the world market, nor the almost inaccessible price of oil.

The government said it will give priority to guaranteeing goods and services to all the Cuban people, without exception.

The government also informed it will not change the regulated and subsidised prices of products assigned to all citizens, nor will not affect health care, cultural and educational programs, including snacks and meals for students.

The statement affirmed that unemployment would remain under 2.5 percent of the active labour force.

Exchange in the Cuban banking system will continue function with efficiency as usual, and the present exchange rates for the Cuban peso, convertible peso and the dollar will remain unchanged.

The banks will absolutely guarantee citizens´ savings deposits and interest -in Cuban pesos, convertible pesos and US dollars.

Farmers markets, where farmers offer their products for supply and demand, and State-run agricultural markets will continue working under the present norms.

The mining industry will increase its nickel and cobalt production and will seek new sources of oil and gas in secure and researched sites using new extraction technologies to achieve self-sufficiency.

The government will give total priority to economic investments with rapid amortisation and more benefits.

The agriculture ministry will promote more exports and production of food, making use of more animal-drawn equipment in an effort to save as much fuel as possible, using fewer imported item and encouraging the rational and optimal use of land previously used for sugarcane.

The communiqué called on the population and production and service companies to make maximum effort in creating all possible goods and services with quality and economy of resources.

"The fundamental task is to continue perfecting the tactics, techniques, methods and principles of the war of all the people, and to continue raising the revolutionary, patriotic and socialist consciousness of our invincible people," the statement adds.

The Cuban government concludes: "Days of work and sacrifice await us, but also days of glory and victory for our heroic homeland."

(Prensa Latina, May 11)

The following article appeared in USA Today (April 20, 2004) as a commentary by DeWayne Wickham pointing up reasons why Cuba does indeed have reasons to take threats coming from the US seriously.

HAVANA – Ricardo Alarcón believes the Bush administration has Cuba in its cross hairs. He thinks it is only a matter of time before a US invasion force descends upon this island nation in an attempt to force a regime change.

While the warning signs of this impending military action may have gone unnoticed by many Americans – some of whom would scoff at the idea of any US invasion of Cuba – Alarcón, the president of Cuba's National Assembly, said they have not escaped the attention of Cuban leaders.

It's easy to dismiss such fears as a form of political cabin fever – the hallucinations of a communist government that for 44 years has been the target of a US embargo meant to choke the life out of Fidel Castro's government – but you shouldn't. These warning signs have an ominous parallel to the United States' build-up to war in Iraq. In the months leading up to the Iraq invasion, President Bush and top members of his administration portrayed Saddam Hussein's government as a totalitarian state that possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that could be used against the US. Two months before he ordered troops into Iraq, Bush painted a chilling picture – that of a rogue nation about to unleash another terrorist attack on the United States.

Similar language is now being used to cast Castro's regime as a threat to US national security. Even before the shooting started in Iraq, the Bush administration seemed to have Cuba in its sights. "States that sponsor terror and pursue WMD must stop," John Bolton, the undersecretary of State for arms control and international security, said two years ago. "States that renounce terror and abandon WMD can become part of our effort. But those that do not can expect to become our targets."

During an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press last year, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld initially dismissed the possibility of a US military intervention in Cuba. Yet when asked how the Bush administration might react if it thought Castro had weapons of mass destruction, he had this exchange with host Tim Russert:

"But if they have weapons of mass destruction, that's a different matter?" Russert asked. "To the extent our country is threatened ... the first responsibility of government, is to see to the protection of the security of our country," Rumsfeld said.

Late last month, Bolton focused on the possible threats posed by Cuba when he told the House International Relations Committee, "I believe the case for the existence of a developmental Cuba BW-R&D (biological weapons research and development) effort is strong. The administration believes that Cuba remains a terrorist and (biological weapons) threat to the United States."

As with Iraq and its still unlocated WMDs, no solid evidence or intelligence was offered to support this claim.

For the record, President Bush says he wants to "bring about a peaceful, near-term end" to the Castro regime. Toward that end, the president established a special commission last year to come up with ways of doing just that. The panel is expected to issue an initial report on May 1.

But President Bush's public position notwithstanding, Cuban officials still fear – and are preparing for – the worst.

Cuba "cannot avoid being bombed. We cannot avoid them landing. But what we guarantee is an organised hell for the invaders," Alarcón said.

I hope the military and diplomatic quagmire that the Bush administration has locked itself into in Iraq isn't repeated in Cuba. The US should not be propelled into war again by the bravado of those who put nothing more at risk than their reputations – for a cause that is backed up only with heated language, not unassailable facts. No Cuban or American blood should be shed for such a bad reason.

DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA Today.

Cuban President Fidel Castro addressed more than one million Cuban people at the central May Day event in the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana. Cubans also massed at countless plazas across the nation in defence of the revolution.

Fidel reviewed the results of the US anti-Cuba resolution in the Human Rights Commission in Geneva and how Washington and the European Union committed the error of overlooking the fact that one of the most grotesque cases of human rights violations exists on the Guantánamo Naval Base, where the United States has created that horrific prison camp where it is holding hundreds of people, with no identity, no trial, no guarantee of physical integrity, no procedural or penal law and no time limit. An English translation of his speech is reproduced below.

Also at the tribunal were General of the Army Raúl Castro; ministers; government, state and Party leaders; the families of the five Cuban patriots in US jails; and more than 1,000 guests from 55 countries.

One of the early speakers, Cuban workers´ union (CTC) general secretary Pedro Ross, condemned US President George W Bush’s plan to promote political changes on Cuba, scheduled to be announced by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, and noted that it was response to this threat that brought such record numbers of Cubans to the plazas for May Day.

We don’t know what they are going to invent today, in 45 years they have tried everything said Ross, referring to the many US aggressions against Cuba since 1959, and he continued: "while Cuban workers want to live and work in peace, they are not intimidated by danger and are prepared to resist any preventive war…we will never be slaves again".

Whoever tries to take over Cuba, will confront a fighting people, loyal to Fidel and socialism, the union leader promised, to fervent applause record number of Cubans at the Havana plaza.

Ross also referred to the five Cuban political prisoners held in the United States since 1998, unjustly condemned for trying to prevent acts of terrorism and who are viewed here as supreme examples of firmness and loyalty, "We will not rest until we free them," the CTC leader concluded.

The Havana event was attended by the diplomatic corps accredited in Cuba, notably the ambassadors of the 20 countries that did not back the proposal against Cuba at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Speech given by Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the Republic of Cuba, at the celebrations for Labour Day which took place in Revolution Square, Havana, on May 1, 2004

 

Dearest guests, dear comrades:

 

This is the 45th time we have celebrated a glorious Labour Day since the triumph of the Revolution.

Extremely important things are taking place both inside and outside our country.

The Revolution is following its triumphal course with more strength and success that ever. We have had proof of this recently: the Geneva meetings on April 15 and 22 will go down in the history of revolutionary diplomacy. They mark the moment when a crushing blow was dealt to the enormous hypocrisy, permanent falsehood and cynicism the masters of the world use to try to preserve the rotten system of political and economic domination they have imposed on the world.

Our country had bee placed in the dock yet again. The new US administration and the states in the European Union made the mistake of forgetting that at the extreme eastern end of Cuba one of the most horrendous examples of human rights violation ever to take place in this world was underway at that very moment in a 117.6 square kilometre section of land occupied by force, where the Guantánamo naval base is located – which in itself is a gross violation of the sovereign rights of a small country and of international law.

We were never consulted beforehand. We were simply informed of the decision taken by the US government to transfer the prisoners to that base.

On January 11, 2002 the Cuban government published a statement in which it clearly set forth our country’s position.

The world knows that the horrible crime committed against the Twin Towers in New York was unanimously condemned by all conscious people on the planet.

Nevertheless, the government of the most powerful nation on earth, showing contempt for all norms concerning what the world understands as the elementary principles of human rights, created this horrible prison where hundreds of citizens from many countries, including some from the United States’ own allies, are kept locked up, without having been tried, incommunicado, without having been identified, with no legal defence, no guarantee for their physical integrity, with no criminal, no procedural law and for an indefinite length of time. They could have used their own territory for such a bizarre contribution to civilization, but they did it on a stretch of land that they occupy illegally and forcibly in another country, Cuba, whom every year in Geneva they accuse of human rights violations.

It spite of that, admirable thing do take place in the Commission on Human Rights.

It current world conditions, there is a generalized fear of the fierce empire, of its threats, pressure and reprisals of all kinds, especially those against the most vulnerable countries of the Third World. It is almost suicidal to vote in Geneva against a resolution drafted and imposed by the United States, especially if it is against Cuba, the country that for almost 50 years has defied its arrogance and imperiousness. Even the strongest and most independent states find themselves obliged to take into consideration the political and economic consequences of their decisions.

Still, as could be seen just a few short days ago in Geneva, Cuba and 20 other countries –some acting out of principle and others showing amazing courage– opposed the resolution and 10 abstained, thus maintaining their dignity and self-respect. Only 22 of the 53 members of the Commission, including the United States, joined in this infamy.

There were seven from Latin America, four of whom suffer from great economic and social poverty, are highly dependent and have governments obliged to be totally abject. Nobody could consider them to be independent states. Up to now they have been pure fiction.

Peru, the fifth Latin American government which voted with the United States against Cuba, provides an example of the degree of servility and dependence into which imperialism and its neo-liberal globalisation have led many countries in Latin America, whom they ruin politically in the twinkling of an eye.

The Peruvian head of state has seen his popularity drop to only 8 per cent in just a few months. It is absolutely impossible to tackle the colossal economic and social problems affecting that country with such insignificant support. In fact, he does not govern, nor can he govern, anything; the transnationals and the oligarchies take care of that, until society explodes, as has already begun to happen in more than one country.

Then we have the Chilean and Mexican governments.

I am not going to judge the former. I prefer that the way the president of Chile behaved in Geneva be judged by Salvador Allende, who went down fighting and who now occupies a place of honour and glory in the history of this continent, by the millions of Chileans vanished, tortured and murdered by design of those who drafted and proposed this resolution to censure Cuba – where not a single act of that sort, nor anything similar ever took place– and by those who in their name are the standard bearers of the noble ideals and aspirations to create a truly humane society.

In Mexico, a beloved, sister country to all Cubans, the National Congress asked their president to abstain from voting for the resolution, although President Bush had demanded that he do so. It is truly painful to see the great prestige and influence Mexico earned in the eyes of Latin America and the world with its unimpeachable international policy, which stemmed from a genuine, far-reaching revolution, turn to ashes.

Latin America’s solidarity with and support for Mexico and Mexico’s for Latin America are crucial. More than half of Mexico’s territory was snatched from it by its northern neighbour and great danger threatens what is left. The US-Mexican border is to all practical purposes no longer the Rio Bravo of which Martí spoke. The United States has gone much deeper into Mexico. That border is today the line of death, where about 500 Mexican die every year. And all because of a brutal, ruthless principle: free passage for capital and goods; persecution, exclusion and death for human beings. And yet, millions of Mexicans take that risk. Today, the country obtains more income from their remittances than from oil exports, in spite of the high price of the latter.

Will such an inequitable and unfair situation really be solved by voting for anti-Cuban resolutions in Geneva, by accusing her of violating human rights?

The worst and most humiliating part for Mexico was that the news about its vote in Geneva, both on April 15 and 22, were announced in Washington.

The European Union, as usual, voted as a bloc, like a Mafia mob allied with and subordinate to Washington.

These sempiternal dirty, immoral displays against the Cuban Revolution never had any success until the socialist bloc disappeared. A plague of renegades, anxious for the credits and goods of consumer society added their votes to those of the European Community mafia. Thus they completed those petty deliveries in the Commission on Human Rights: resolutions pulled out with forceps, in the hard-fought battle which Cuba has never ceased to wage against the loathsome comedy which the empire, its allies, followers and vassals push through in order to gain an advantage of one or two votes over the opposition and abstentions of 60 per cent of the Commission’s members. The empire calls these Pyrrhic victories successes and condemns Cuba, despite the fact that the political effort and cost are greater every year.

When this year Cuba suggested sending a Commission representative to see what was going on in the Guantánamo naval base, panic spread through the herd of hypocrites, especially those from the European Community. Morale collapsed. Some European governments were truly ashamed, they had to confess their failure to act according to their principles and their hypocrisy, or do the impossible – disobey the empire. This was too much for such august defenders of human rights whose darts are only aimed at those who for centuries were their colonies, where they wiped out tens of millions of natives and to which they brought countless human beings from Africa whom they turned into slaves with less freedom than work horses.

And that is how they treat millions of people in the Third World, victims of the plunder, unequal terms of trade and looting of their natural resources and all the hard currency reserves in their central banks, which are deposited in US or European banks, for the most part, and which are used to finance investments, trade and fiscal deficits and for the military adventures of the empire and its allies.

As a result of the Cuban proposal in Geneva, Bush himself and his senior officials had to work frantically, personally calling presidents and heads of state. No one knew where he found the time, nor how he could attend to Iraq, the financial problems of the government, fundraising banquets and matters related to the elections. Perhaps it is not fair to call him Fuehrer; perhaps he is a genius.

Why can Bush talk of a fiscal deficit of $512 billion and a similar trade deficit, a total of a trillion dollars in just one year? Because he manipulates and spends the hard currency of the immense majority of the world’s population in order to defend those and other privileges. They are armed to the teeth with the most sophisticated war machinery and they wage wars of conquest in search of raw materials.

The international situation is complex. The adventurist policies of this administration have given the world increasingly insoluble problems. The economic order imposed is ever more unsustainable.

An impressive, encouraging event took place in Spain. It was an extraordinary achievement, accomplished almost exclusively by the Spanish people, especially the younger generation. Its heroic political battle, scarcely 48 hours after the tragedy and on the eve of the elections, dealt a devastating blow to the treacherous manoeuvres of the previous Spanish government to manipulate the awful acts of March 11 in its favour and in the warmonger interests of the United States.

The present government has kept its promise to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq. This is undoubtedly a commendable act. But the Spanish state, under the previous administration, had taken upon itself to recruit a considerable number of young Dominicans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans to be sent as canon fodder to Iraq with the Spanish Legion, something unique in the history of this hemisphere. Spain, which as the former colonial power in Latin America aspires to be given respect and consideration and even to play a certain role in Latin American and the Caribbean, has the responsibility and moral duty to fight for the return home of those young Latin Americans who were sent to Iraq due to the actions of the previous government.

The peoples of the world, including the Cuban people, do not hate the American people nor do they want young American soldiers to die –many of whom are black, mixed race or Latin American– who were induced by poverty and unemployment to take up soldiering and who today are the victims of an unnecessary, stupid war.

We do not support any government in Iraq or any given political system; this is the exclusive prerogative of the Iraqis. We felt solidarity with those who died in the attacks in New York and Madrid and we condemn such methods. The enormous and growing world sympathy with the Iraqi people was generated by the brutal bombings of Baghdad and other cities which sowed terror and death among innocent civilians, totally ignoring the terrible trauma which will affect millions of children, adolescents, pregnant women, mothers and old people all of their lives, bombings for which there is no possible justification, based as they were on barefaced lies. This sympathy is growing, because billions of people have come to realize that it is a war of conquest to gain possession of the country’s resources and raw materials, because there was no justification, nor legality whatsoever, because international laws were breached, because the United Nations’ prerogatives and authority were ignored.

The people of Iraq are today struggling for their independence, their lives, the lives of their children and for their legitimate rights and resources.

The US government is facing a complicated situation because of this, as it insisted on taking the path of violence, war and terror. I have the moral authority to propound this point of view, because long before this warmongering policy was unleashed, on September 11, 2001, the very same day as the horrendous attack on the Twin Towers, in a ceremony to inaugurate the school year for 4,500 young primary school teachers I said, and I quote:

 

"It is very important to know what the reaction of the US Government will be. Possibly the days to come will be dangerous for the world, and I do not mean Cuba. Cuba is the most peaceful country in the world for several reasons: our policy, our kind of struggle, our doctrine, and also, comrades, for the absolute absence of fear".

[…]

"The days to come will be tense both inside and outside the United States. A number of people will start voicing their views.

"Whenever there is a tragedy like this, even when they are sometimes so difficult to prevent, I see no other way but to keep calm. And if at some point I am allowed to make a suggestion to an adversary who has been tough on us for many years knows […] if under specific circumstances it were correct to suggest something to the adversary, for the well being of the American people and based on the arguments I have given you, we would advise the leaders of the powerful empire to keep their equanimity, to act calmly, not to be carried away by a fit of rage or hatred and not to start hunting people down dropping bombs all over the place.

"I reiterate that none of the world problems, not even terrorism, can be solved with the use of force, and every act of force, every reckless use of force anywhere would seriously aggravate the world problems.

"The way is neither the use of force nor war. I say this here with the full credibility of someone who has always been honest, with the sound conviction and the experience of someone who has been through the years of struggle that we have lived through in Cuba. It is only guided by reason and applying an intelligent policy based on the strength of consensus and the support of the international public opinion that such a predicament could be definitively solved. I think this unexpected episode must be used to undertake an international struggle against terrorism. However, this international struggle against terrorism cannot succeed by killing a terrorist here and another one there, that is, by using similar methods to theirs, sacrificing innocent lives. It is resolved, inter alia, by putting an end to State terrorism and other repulsive crimes, by putting an end to genocide and by honestly pursuing a policy of peace and respect for unavoidable moral and legal standards. The world cannot be saved unless a path of international peace and cooperation is pursued".

 

The Iraq war brings to many people memories of the Vietnam War. To me, it brings back memories of the Algerian war of liberation, when French military might shattered against the resistance of a people with a very different culture, language and religion, in a country which in places is just as desert-like as many regions of Iraq, a people that managed to defeat the French troops and all their technology, which was fairly advanced for its time. The French had previously sustained defeat in Dien Bien Phu, where Bush’s predecessors were on the point of using nuclear weapons.

In this type of war the entire arsenal of a hegemonic superpower is superfluous. This superpower can conquer a country with its enormous power but it is impossible to administer and govern that country if its population battles resolutely against the occupiers.

I never thought that one day Mr Bush would address a kind letter to the President of Syria and the authorities of the Iranian government –both countries considered terrorists until now-- and ask them with humility to help in the solution of the Iraqi conflict. It is still more amazing that, according to press dispatches, two days ago the US marines were pulled out of Fallujah and replaced by Iraqi soldiers led by an ex General from Saddam Hussein’s army.

I do not criticize any peace effort or initiative which the current US administration decides to take, but I doubt very much that there can be any solution other than withdrawing US troops from Iraq – where they should never have been sent– and returning full independence to the Iraqi people. This would have the support of the international community, which would no doubt find a way to resolve the complex situation that has been created there.

Meanwhile, we Cubans will continue to observe what happens and will continue to wage our most resolute battle against those who give themselves the luxury of advocating political changes based on the physical removal of some of us. The worst thing is that those who talk of speeding up the aforementioned changes are characters whose same old murderous ideas are quite familiar to us.

Now they are once again making themselves hoarse shouting threats of upcoming measures to affect our economy and destabilize the country. They would do well to return our five prisoners of the empire to us, who with unequalled dignity are withstanding the most shameful and cruel case of human rights violations. Their fate in federal government prisons, where they are kept completely separate, is hardly any better that that of those held captive in the Guantánamo naval base. But despite all that, we do not hesitate in suggesting to those who govern the United States that they be calmer, more sensible, saner and wiser.

To those who persist in their efforts to destroy the Revolution, I simply say in the name of the crowd gathered here on this May 1st, as I said at Girón and at other decisive moments in our battles:

Long live socialism!

Homeland or Death!

We shall overcome!