http://socialistaction.org/fidel-castro-on-obamas-visit-to-cuba/
Fidel Castro on Obama’s visit to Cuba
Published March 29, 2016.
Fidel 10
By FIDEL CASTRO RUZ
This letter by Fidel Castro is reprinted from the March 28 edition of
Granma, published by the Cuban Communist Party.
Brother Obama,
We don’t need the empire to give us anything. Our efforts will be legal
and peaceful, because our commitment is to peace and fraternity among
all human beings who live on this planet.
The kings of Spain brought us the conquistadores and masters, whose
footprints remained in the circular land grants assigned to those
searching for gold in the sands of rivers, an abusive and shameful form
of exploitation, traces of which can be noted from the air in many
places around the country.
Tourism today, in large part, consists of viewing the delights of our
landscapes and tasting exquisite delicacies from our seas, and is always
shared with the private capital of large foreign corporations, whose
earnings, if they don’t reach billions of dollars, are not worthy of any
attention whatsoever.
Since I find myself obliged to mention the issue, I must add—principally
for the youth—that few people are aware of the importance of such a
condition, in this singular moment of human history. I would not say
that time has been lost, but I do not hesitate to affirm that we are not
adequately informed, not you, nor us, of the knowledge and conscience
that we must have to confront the realities which challenge us. The
first to be taken into consideration is that our lives are but a
fraction of a historical second, which must also be devoted in part to
the vital necessities of every human being. One of the characteristics
of this condition is the tendency to overvalue its role, in contrast, on
the other hand, with the extraordinary number of persons who embody the
loftiest dreams.
Nevertheless, no one is good or bad entirely on their own. None of us is
designed for the role we must assume in a revolutionary society,
although Cubans had the privilege of José Martí’s example. I even ask
myself if he needed to die or not in Dos Ríos, when he said, “For me,
it’s time,” and charged the Spanish forces entrenched in a solid line of
firepower. He did not want to return to the United States, and there was
no one who could make him. Someone ripped some pages from his diary.
Who bears this treacherous responsibility, undoubtedly the work of an
unscrupulous conspirator? Differences between the leaders were well
known, but never indiscipline. “Whoever attempts to appropriate Cuba
will reap only the dust of its soil drenched in blood, if he does not
perish in the struggle,” stated the glorious Black leader Antonio Maceo.
Máximo Gómez is likewise recognized as the most disciplined and discreet
military chief in our history.
Looking at it from another angle, how can we not admire the indignation
of Bonifacio Byrne when, from a distant boat returning him to Cuba, he
saw another flag alongside that of the single star and declared, “My
flag is that which has never been mercenary…” immediately adding one of
the most beautiful phrases I have ever heard, “If it is torn to shreds,
it will be my flag one day… our dead raising their arms will still be
able to defend it!” Nor will I forget the blistering words of Camilo
Cienfuegos that night, when, just some tens of meters away, bazookas and
machine guns of U.S. origin in the hands of counterrevolutionaries were
pointed toward that terrace on which we stood.
Obama was born in August of 1961, as he himself explained. More than
half a century has transpired since that time. Let us see, however, how
our illustrious guest thinks today: “I have come here to bury the last
remnant of the Cold War in the Americas. I have come here to extend the
hand of friendship to the Cuban people,” followed by a deluge of
concepts entirely novel for the majority of us.
“We both live in a new world, colonized by Europeans,” the U.S.
President continued, “Cuba, like the United States, was built in part by
slaves brought here from Africa. Like the United States, the Cuban
people can trace their heritage to both slaves and slave-owners.”
The native populations don’t exist at all in Obama’s mind. Nor does he
say that the Revolution swept away racial discrimination, or that
pensions and salaries for all Cubans were decreed by it before Mr.
Barrack Obama was 10 years old.
The hateful, racist bourgeois custom of hiring strongmen to expel Black
citizens from recreational centers was swept away by the Cuban
Revolution—that which would go down in history for the battle against
apartheid that liberated Angola, putting an end to the presence of
nuclear weapons on a continent of more than a billion inhabitants. This
was not the objective of our solidarity, but rather to help the peoples
of Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau and others under the fascist
colonial domination of Portugal.
In 1961, just one year and three months after the triumph of the
Revolution, a mercenary force with armored artillery and infantry,
backed by aircraft, trained and accompanied by U.S. warships and
aircraft carriers, attacked our country by surprise. Nothing can justify
that perfidious attack which cost our country hundreds of losses,
including deaths and injuries
As for the pro-yankee assault brigade, no evidence exists anywhere that
it was possible to evacuate a single mercenary. Yankee combat planes
were presented before the United Nations as the equipment of a Cuban
uprising.
The military experience and power of this country is very well known. In
Africa, they likewise believed that revolutionary Cuba would be easily
taken out of the fight. The invasion via southern Angola by racist South
African motorized brigades got close to Luanda, the capital in the
eastern part of the country. There a struggle began which went on for no
less than 15 years. I wouldn’t even talk about this, if I didn’t have
the elemental duty to respond to Obama’s speech in Havana’s Alicia
Alonso Grand Theater.
Nor will I attempt to give details, only emphasize that an honorable
chapter in the struggle for human liberation was written there. In a
certain way, I hoped Obama’s behavior would be correct. His humble
origin and natural intelligence were evident. Mandela was imprisoned for
life and had become a giant in the struggle for human dignity. One day,
a copy of a book narrating part of Mandela’s life reached my hands,
and—surprise!—the prologue was by Barack Obama. I rapidly skimmed the
pages. The miniscule size of Mandela’s handwriting noting facts was
incredible. Knowing men such as him was worthwhile.
Regarding the episode in South Africa I must point out another
experience. I was really interested in learning more about how the South
Africans had acquired nuclear weapons. I only had very precise
information that there were no more than 10 or 12 bombs. A reliable
source was the professor and researcher Piero Gleijeses, who had written
the text “Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa,
1959-1976,” an excellent piece. I knew he was the most reliable source
on what had happened and I told him so; he responded that he had not
spoken more about the matter as in the text he had responded to
questions from compañero Jorge Risquet, who had been Cuban ambassador
and collaborator in Angola, a very good friend of his.
I located Risquet; already undertaking other important tasks he was
finishing a course which would last several weeks longer. That task
coincided with a fairly recent visit by Piero to our country; I had
warned him that Risquet was getting on and his health was not great. A
few days later what I had feared occurred. Risquet deteriorated and
died. When Piero arrived there was nothing to do except make promises,
but I had already received information related to the weapons and the
assistance that racist South Africa had received from Reagan and Israel.
I do not know what Obama would have to say about this story now. I am
unaware as to what he did or did not know, although it is very unlikely
that he knew absolutely nothing. My modest suggestion is that he gives
it thought and does not attempt now to elaborate theories on Cuban policy.
There is an important issue: Obama made a speech in which he uses the
most sweetened words to express: “It is time, now, to forget the past,
leave the past behind, let us look to the future together, a future of
hope. And it won’t be easy, there will be challenges and we must give it
time; but my stay here gives me more hope in what we can do together as
friends, as family, as neighbors, together.”
I suppose all of us were at risk of a heart attack upon hearing these
words from the President of the United States. After a ruthless blockade
that has lasted almost 60 years, and what about those who have died in
the mercenary attacks on Cuban ships and ports, an airliner full of
passengers blown up in midair, mercenary invasions, multiple acts of
violence and coercion?
Nobody should be under the illusion that the people of this dignified
and selfless country will renounce the glory, the rights, or the
spiritual wealth they have gained with the development of education,
science, and culture.
I also warn that we are capable of producing the food and material
riches we need with the efforts and intelligence of our people. We do
not need the empire to give us anything. Our efforts will be legal and
peaceful, as this is our commitment to peace and fraternity among all
human beings who live on this planet.
Posted in Cuba, International, Latin America. | Tagged Cuba, Fidel Castro.
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