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August 2007 Reflections |
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Submission to imperial politics Of all the presidents of the United States, and those who aspire to that office, I only met one who, for ethical-religious reasons, was not an accomplice to the brutal terrorism against Cuba: James Carter. That assumes, of course, another President who forbade that United States officials should be used to assassinate Cuban leaders. That was the case of Gerald Ford who replaced Nixon after the Watergate scandal. Given his irregular manner of ascending to the office, one might characterize him as a symbolic President. It is to the illustrious President Eisenhower, not in the least opposed to anti-Cuban terrorism but rather its initiator, that we owe thanks for at least providing a definition of the industrial-military complex which today, with its insatiable and incurable voracity, makes up the motor that is driving the human species to its current crisis. More than three billion years have gone by since planet Earth saw the first forms of life springing up. One day, Che [Guevara] and I went to play golf. He had been a caddie once to earn some money in his spare time; I, on the other hand, knew absolutely nothing about this expensive sport. The United States government had already decreed the suspension and the redistribution of Cuba's sugar quota, after the Revolution had passed the Agrarian Reform Law. The golf game was a photo opportunity. The real purpose was to make fun of Eisenhower. In the United States, you can have a minimum of votes and still become President. That is what happened to Bush. Having a majority of electoral votes and losing the Presidency is what happened to Gore. For that reason, the State of Florida is the prize everyone aspires to, because of the presidential votes it provides. In the case of Bush, an electoral fraud was also needed; for this, the first Cuban emigrants, who were the Batista supporters and the bourgeois, were best masters. Clinton is not excluded from all of this, neither is the Democratic Party's candidate. The Helms-Burton Act was passed with his support, with a ready-made excuse: the downing of Brothers to the Rescue planes, those which on more than one occasion had flown over the city of Havana and which had violated Cuban territory dozens of times. The order to fend off flights over the Capital had been given to the Cuban Air Force just weeks earlier. I must tell you that, close to that episode, Congressman Bill Richardson had arrived on a visit to Cuba on January 19, 1996. As usual, he brought with him petitions asking that several counter-revolutionaries be released from prison. We explained to him that we were by now tired of receiving such petitions, and I talked to him about what was happening with the Brothers to the Rescue flights. I also talked to him about the unfulfilled promises regarding the blockade. Richardson returned a few days later, on the 10th of February, and very earnestly told me, to the best of my recollection, the following: “That will not be happening again; the President has ordered those flights to be suspended”. In those days, I believed that orders issued by the President of the United States would be carried out. The planes were brought down on February 24, some days after the reply. The New Yorker Magazine supplies details about that meeting with Richardson. Apparently, Clinton gave the order to suspend those flights, but nobody paid any attention to it. It was an election year, and he took advantage of that excuse to invite the Foundation leaders over and to sign that criminal Act, with the approval of all. Following the migratory crisis of 1994, we learned that Carter wanted to do something to find a solution. Clinton didn't accept it and he called Salinas de Gortari, the President of Mexico. Cuba had been the last nation to recognize his electoral victory. He had contacted him on his inauguration as the new President of Mexico. Salinas informed me by phone of Clinton's decision to find a satisfactory solution, and in turn he was asked for his cooperation in this effort. That was how an agreement was reached in principle. That agreement with Clinton included the idea of putting an end to the economic blockade. The only witness we could count on was Salinas. Clinton had thus left out Carter. Cuba was not able to decide who the mediator would be. Salinas relates this episode accurately. Anyone with an interest can read about it in his books. Clinton was really kind when we informally crossed paths at a UN meeting attended by many heads of state. Moreover, he was friendly, as well as intelligent, in demanding adherence to the law in the case of the kidnapped boy, when he was rescued by special federal agents sent from Washington. The candidates are now immersed in the Florida adventure: Hillary, the Clinton successor; Obama, the popular African American candidate and several of the other 16 who, up until the present, have proposed their candidacy in both parties, with the exception of Republican Congressman Ronald Ernest Paul and the former Democratic Senator from Alaska, Maurice Robert Gravel, and the other three Democrats Dennis Kucinich, Christopher Dodd and Bill Richardson. I don’t know what Carter said during his race to the White House. Whatever his position was, I was right when I guessed that his election could avoid a holocaust for the people of Panama, and that is just what I said to Torrijos. He established the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba and promoted an agreement about jurisdictional maritime limits. The circumstances surrounding his term prevented him from taking things any further and, in my opinion he embarked on several imperial adventures. Today, talk is about the seemingly invincible ticket that might be created with Hillary for President and Obama for Vice President. Both of them feel the sacred duty of demanding “a democratic government in Cuba”. They are not making politics: they are playing a game of cards on a Sunday afternoon. The media declares that this would be essential, unless Gore decides to run. I don’t think he will do so; better than anyone, he knows about the kind of catastrophe that awaits humanity if it continues along its current course. When he was a candidate, he of course committed the error of yearning for “a democratic Cuba”. Enough of tales and nostalgia. This is written simply to increase the conscience of the Cuban people. Fidel Castro Ruz August 27, 2007 Remembering Chibas, 100 Years after His Birth When I read Hart's article, published by Granma in commemoration of Chibas' birth, and saw it quoted a paragraph of the speech I delivered at the Colon Cemetery on January 16, 1959, eight days after my arrival in Havana following the revolutionary triumph, many memories of fallen, heroic comrades came to me. I thought of Juan Manuel Marquez, a brilliant orator and follower of Marti's ideas and second chief of the Granma expeditionary force. I thought of Abel Santamaria, who was to take command of our forces were I to fall during the attack on the Moncada garrison; of Pedro Marrero, Ñico Lopez, José Luis Tasende, Gildo Fleitas, the Gomez brothers, Ciro Redondo, Julio Diaz and practically all the members of the numerous contingent of young people from Artemisa who fell at Moncada or in the Sierra. The list is endless. All of them came from the rank and file of the Orthodox Party. The first problem we faced was getting Batista out of office. Had Chibas been alive, Batista would not have been able to stage his coup d'état, because the founder of the Cuban (Orthodox) People's Party kept a close eye on him and called him into question publicly and methodically. Following Chibas' death, Batista was sure to lose the elections scheduled for June 1, 1952, two and a half months after the coup. Opinion polls were fairly reliable and Batista's unpopularity was constantly growing, day after day. I was at the meeting where the new Orthodox candidate was chosen. I was more of a bold intruder than an invitee. I was to enter parliament, to struggle in the name of a radical program. No one could have prevented this. Then, it was rumored that I was a communist, a word which prompted many negative reactions inculcated by the dominant classes. To have spoken of Marxism-Leninism then, or even during the first years of the Revolution, would have been foolish and clumsy. During the speech I delivered before Chibas' grave, I spoke such that the people would understand the objective contradictions which our society faced at the time and which we still must face. I spoke every day at a local radio station in the capital to deliver messages directly to tens of thousands of voters who had spontaneously joined the Orthodox Party. I also addressed the entire nation through the special supplements of the Alerta newspaper on several, nearly consecutive Mondays, publishing the proven accusations of corruption in the Prio government voiced between January 28 and March 4, 1952. Intuitively, I was able to predict and get inside Batista's intentions of staging a coup. I denounced these intentions before the party leadership and asked them permission to use Chibas' Sunday radio time to do so publicly. “We'll look into it”, they told me. Two days later, they announced the following: “We have looked into the matter through our channels and there's no indication of that whatsoever”. The coup could have been prevented but nothing was done. Months before, Chibas had already, painstakingly managed to prevent “a pact without ideology”, as he would call it, between members of the Orthodox party and the former Cuban (Authentic) Revolutionary Party. Most of the provincial party leadership had supported the pact. The economic system prevailing at the time made it easy for the oligarchy and land-owners to take control of the party leadership in nearly all of the country's provinces. Only one party leadership remained loyal, the one in the capital, which was heavily influenced by radical intellectuals. Following the coup and at a time when unity was most dearly needed, what the oligarchy did was abandon the vast majority of the people at the mercy of the imperialist tempest. I continued to adhere to my revolutionary project, only that this time it would be an armed struggle, from the very beginning. The day in which Chibas —whose body lay in state at the University of Havana— was to be buried, I proposed that the leadership of the Orthodox Party lead the enormous funeral procession to the Presidential Palace and seize the premises. I had spent the entire night answering questions from radio reporters and inciting the people to undertake radical actions. No one at the university paid any attention to the radio broadcasts that night. We had a disorganized, panic-stricken government, a demoralized army that had no intention of repressing that procession. No one would have held it back. One year after the death of Chibas, I wrote a proclamation titled “A Harsh Blow”, which was mimeographed six days following Batista's treacherous coup. What follows is the text of this proclamation.
When this irreverent article was not published —who would dare publish it?— it was distributed at the Colon Cemetery by friends and sympathizers in the Orthodox Party on March 16, 1952. On August 16, 1952, the clandestine newspaper El acusador published an article entitled “A Critical Assessment of the Cuban (Orthodox) People's Party”, under the pseudonym of “Alejandro”. As I have already offered a critical assessment of that party, I thought it apt to include the following analysis:
Later, we set up a clandestine radio station which did what Radio Rebelde would later do in the Sierra. In relatively little time, the mimeograph, broadcaster and the few things we had fell to the hands of the coup officers. I then learned the rigorous rules to which the conspiracy which culminated with the attack on the Moncada garrison had to adhere. Shortly, a small volume which expounds on two fundamental ideas that were expressed in two of my speeches -the one I delivered at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro over 15 years ago and at the international conference titled “Dialogue among Civilizations”, held two and a half years ago- will be published. I ask readers to study the two documents in depth. I apologize for this act of self-publicity, from which I hope you, not I, will profit. Fidel Castro Ruz August 25, 2007 The empire tastes an unprecedented moral defeat The words of Roberto González, a lawyer born to a Cuban family that fled to the United States during the dictatorship and returned to Cuba following the triumph of the Revolution, come to mind as I begin to reflect on this issue. Like René, he was born in the United States during his family's sojourn there. He has been fighting tirelessly to obtain the release of his brother René, who endures cruel and unjust imprisonment, as do four other heroes who sought to defend their country in the struggle against terrorism. “The worst thing that can happen to us is to allow a sense of defeat or victory paralyze us; we will have won in the case of the Five when they have set foot in Havana… for this is the kind of trial that is won with facts many times over but is lost before the Law, by virtue of the judges' decision”. These are wise and sensible words, spoken by a true expert at war against shameless actions. Even he expressed his surprise at what transpired. During the Round Table program, we were given a sense of the importance of the testimonies afforded, in the city of Atlanta, by 73 world-renowned experts in international law. There, it was shown beyond the shadow of a doubt that the felonies imputed to the accused, resulting in convictions unanimously approved by a supposedly impartial jury, in the last community on Earth where one could expect a fair verdict, were never in fact committed. Each and every one of statements made at the Round Table or over the phone, by those who spoke and those who have yet to speak, must be read word by word and analyzed. In real espionage cases, recently tried in the United States, convictions usually do not exceed a 10-year prison sentence. The charge of conspiracy to commit espionage brought against our five compatriots has not even been proven. Their cruel and unusual fate, and that of their relatives, reflects the perfidious overt policy pursued by Washington of using terrorism against the Cuban people, a policy which, for nearly half a century, has been in violation of the most elementary norms set down by the United Nations and encroaching upon the sovereignty of nations. There are many important and proven facts that I could add, but I wish to be brief so that these words may be transcribed and published by the Cuban press. The most important thing is for our people to develop a solid and unshakable conscience of these realities. Fidel Castro Ruz August 22, 2007 The Empire and The Independent Island The history of Cuba during the last 140 years is one of struggle to preserve national identity and independence, and the history of the evolution of the American empire, its constant craving to appropriate Cuba and of the horrendous methods that it uses today to hold on to world domination. Prominent Cuban historians have dealt in depth with these subjects in different periods and in various excellent books which deserve to be readily available to our compatriots. These reflections are addressed especially to the new generations with the aim of helping them learn about very important and decisive events in the destiny of our homeland. Part I: The Imposition of the Platt Amendment as an appendix to the Neocolonial Cuban Constitution of 1901. The "ripe fruit doctrine" was formulated in 1823 by Secretary of State and later President John Quincy Adams. The United States would inevitably achieve taking over our country, by the law of political influence, once colonial subordination to Spain had ended. Under the pretext of blowing up the "Maine" -a still unraveled event of which it took advantage to wage war against Spain, like the Gulf of Tonkin incident, an event which was demonstrably prefabricated in order to attack North Vietnam -President William McKinley signed the Joint Resolution of April 20, 1898, stating "…that the people on the island of Cuba are and by right ought to be free and independent", "… that the United States herewith declare that they have no desire or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over said island, except for pacification thereof, and they affirm their determination, after this has been accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people." The Joint Resolution entitled the President to use force to remove the Spanish government from Cuba. Colonel Leonard Wood, chief commander of the Rough Riders, and Theodore Roosevelt, second in command of the expansionist volunteers who landed in our country on the beaches close to Santiago de Cuba, after the brave but poorly utilized Spanish squadron and their Marine infantry on board had been destroyed by the American battleships, requested the support of Cuban insurrectionists who had weakened and defeated the Spanish Colonial Army after enormous sacrifices. The Rough Riders had landed without horses. Following the defeat of Spain, representatives of the Queen Regent of Spain and of the President of the United States signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898 and, without consulting of the Cuban people, agreed that Spain should relinquish all claim of sovereignty over and title to the island and would evacuate it. Cuba would then be occupied by the United States on a temporary basis. Already appointed U.S. military governor, Army Major General Leonard Wood, issued Military Order 301 of July 25, 1900, which called for a general election to choose delegates to a Constitutional Assembly that would be held in the city of Havana at twelve noon on the first Monday of November in 1900, with the purpose of drafting and adopting a Constitution for the people of Cuba. On September 15, 1900, elections took place and 31 delegates from the National, Republican and Democratic Union parties were elected. On November 5, 1900, the Constitutional Convention held its opening session at the Irijoa Theatre of Havana which on that occasion received the name of Marti Theatre. General Wood, representing the President of the United States, declared the Assembly officially installed. Wood advanced the intention of the United States government: "After you have drawn up the relations which, in your opinion, ought to exist between Cuba and the United States, the government of the United States will undoubtedly adopt the measures conducive to a final and authorized treaty between the peoples of both nations, aimed at promoting the growth of their common interests." The 1901 Constitution provided in its Article 2 that "the territory of the Republic is composed of the Island of Cuba, as well as the islands and neighboring keys which together were under Spanish sovereignty until the ratification of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898". Once the Constitution was drafted, the time had come to define political relations between Cuba and the United States. To that end, on February 12, 1901, a committee of five members was appointed and charged with studying and proposing a procedure that would lead to the stated goal. On February 15, Governor Wood invited the members of the committee to go fishing and hosted a banquet in Batabanó, the main access route to the Isle of Pines, as it was known then, also occupied at that time by the U.S. troops which had intervened in the Cuban War of Independence. It was there in Batabanó that he revealed to them a letter from the Secretary of War, Elihu Root, containing the basic aspects of the future Platt Amendment. According to instructions from Washington, relations between Cuba and the United States were to abide by several aspects. The fifth of these was that, in order to make it easier for the United States to fulfill such tasks as were placed under its responsibility by the above mentioned provisions, and for its own defense, the United States could acquire title, and preserve it, for lands to be used for naval bases and maintain these in certain specific points. Upon learning of the conditions demanded by the U.S. government, the Cuban Constitutional Assembly, on February 27, 1901, passed a position that was opposed to that of the U.S. Executive, eliminating therein the establishment of naval bases. The U.S. government made an agreement with Orville H. Platt, Republican Senator from Connecticut, to present an amendment to the proposed Army Appropriations Bill which would make the establishment of American naval bases on Cuban soil a fait accompli. In the Amendment, passed by the U.S. Senate on February 27, 1901 and by the House of Representatives on March 1, and sanctioned by President McKinley the following day, as a rider attached to the "Bill granting credit to the Army for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 1902," the article mentioning the naval bases was drafted as follows: "Art. VII.- That to enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its own defense, the government of Cuba will sell or lease to the United States lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points to be agreed upon with the President of the United States." Article VIII adds: "…the government of Cuba will embody the foregoing provisions in a permanent treaty with the United States." The speedy passage of the Amendment by the U.S. Congress was due to the circumstance of it coming close to the conclusion of the legislative term and to the fact that President McKinley had a clear majority in both Houses so that the Amendment could be passed without any problem. It became a United States Law when, on March 4, McKinley was sworn in for his second presidential term in office. Some members of the Constitutional Convention maintained the view that they were not empowered to adopt the Amendment requested by the United States since this implied limitations on the independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba. Thus, the military governor Leonard Wood hastened to issue a new Military Order on March 12, 1901 where it was declared that the Convention was empowered to adopt the measures whose constitutionality was in question. Other Convention members, such as Manuel Sanguily, held the opinion that the Assembly should be dissolved rather than adopt measures that so drastically offended the dignity and sovereignty of the people of Cuba. But during the session of March 7, 1901, a committee was appointed yet again in order to draft an answer to Governor Wood; the presentation of this was entrusted to Juan Gualberto Gomez who recommended, among other things, rejecting the clause concerning the leasing of coaling or naval stations. Juan Gualberto Gomez maintained the most severe criticism of the Platt Amendment. On April 1, he tabled a debate of the presentation where he challenged the document on the grounds that it contravened the principles of the Treaty of Paris and of the Joint Resolution. But the Convention suspended the debate on Juan Gualberto Gomez's presentation and decided to send another committee "to ascertain the motives and intentions of the government of the United States about any and all details referring to the establishment of a definitive order to relations, both political and economic, between Cuba and the United States, and to negotiate with the government itself, the bases for agreement on those extremes that would be proposed to the Convention for a final solution." Subsequently, a committee was elected that would travel to Washington, made up of Domingo Mendez Capote, Diego Tamayo, Pedro Gonzalez Llorente, Rafael Portuondo Tamayo and Pedro Betancourt; they arrived in the United States on April 24, 1901. The next day, they met with Root and Wood who had earlier traveled back to his country for this purpose. The American government hastened to publicly declare that the committee would be visiting Washington on their own initiative, with no invitation or official status. Root, Secretary of War, met with the committee on April 25 and 26, 1901 and categorically informed them that "the United States" right to impose the much debated clauses had been proclaimed for three-quarters of a century in the face of the American and European world and they were not willing to give it up to the point of putting their own safety in jeopardy." United States officials reiterated that none of the Platt Amendment clauses undermined the sovereignty and independence of Cuba; on the contrary, they would preserve them, and it was clarified that intervention would only occur in the case of severe disturbances, and only with the objective of maintaining order and internal peace. The committee presented its report in a secret session on May 7, 1901. Within the committee there were severe discrepancies about the Platt Amendment. On May 28, a paper drafted by Villuendas, Tamayo and Quesada was tabled for debate; it accepted the Amendment with some clarifications and recommended the signing of a treaty on trade reciprocity. This paper was approved by a vote of 15 to 14, but the United States government didn't accept that solution. It informed through Governor Wood that it would only accept the Amendment without qualifiers, and warned the Convention with an ultimatum that, since the Platt Amendment was "a statute passed by the Legislature of the United States, the President is obliged to carry it out as it is. He cannot change or alter it, add or take anything out. The executive action demanded by the statute is the withdrawal of the American Army from Cuba, and the statute authorizes this action when, and only when, a Constitutional government has been established which contains, either in its body or in appendices, certain categorical provisions, specified in the statute (...) Then if these provisions are found in the Constitution, the President will be authorized to withdraw the Army; if he does not find them there, then he will not be authorized to withdraw the Army…" The United States Secretary of War sent a letter to the Cuban Constitutional Assembly where he stated that the Platt Amendment should be passed in its entirety with no clarifications, because in that way it would appear as a rider to the Army Appropriations Bill; he indicated that, otherwise, his country's military forces would not be pulled out of Cuba. On June 12, 1901, during another secret session of the Constitutional Assembly, the incorporation of the Platt Amendment as an appendix to the Constitution of the Republic passed on February 21 was put to the vote: 16 delegates voted aye and 11 voted nay. Bravo Correoso, Robau, Gener and Rius Rivera were absent from the session, abstaining from voting in favor of such a monstrosity. The worst thing about the Amendment was the hypocrisy, the deceit, the Machiavellianism and the cynicism with which they concocted the plan to take over Cuba, to the lengths of publicly proclaiming the same arguments made by John Quincy Adams in 1823, about the apple which would fall because of gravity. This apple finally did fall, but it was rotten, just as many Cuban intellectuals had foreseen for almost half a century, from José Marti in the 1880's right up to Julio Antonio Mella, assassinated in January of 1929. Nobody better than Leonard Wood himself to describe what the Platt Amendment would mean for Cuba in two sections of a confidential letter to his fellow in the adventure, Theodore Roosevelt, dated on October 28, 1901: "There is, of course, little or no independence left Cuba under the Platt Amendment. (…) the only consistent thing to do now is to seek annexation. This, however, will take some time, and during the period which Cuba maintains her own government, it is most desirable that she should be able to maintain such a one as will tend to her advancement and betterment. She cannot make certain treaties without our consent (…) and must maintain certain sanitary conditions (…), from all of which it is quite apparent that she is absolutely in our hands, and I believe that no European government for a moment considers that she is otherwise than a practical dependency of the United States, and as such is certainly entitled to our consideration. (…) With the control which we have over Cuba, a control which will soon undoubtedly become possession, (…) we shall soon practically control the sugar trade of the world. (…) the island will (…) gradually become Americanized and we shall have in time one of the richest and most desirable possessions in the world." Part II: The Application of the Platt Amendment and the Establishing of the Guantanamo Naval Base as a Framework for Relations between Cuba and the United States. By the end of 1901, the electoral process which resulted in the triumph of Tomás Estrada Palma, without opposition and with the support of 47 percent of the electorate, had begun. On April 17, 1902, the President-elect in absentia left the United States for Cuba where he arrived three days later. The inauguration of the new President took place on May 20, 1902 at 12 noon. The Congress of the Republic had already been constituted. Leonard Wood set sail for his country in the battleship "Brooklyn". In 1902, shortly before the proclamation of the Republic, the United States government informed the newly elected President of the Island about the four sites selected for the establishing of naval bases -Cienfuegos, Bah¡a Honda, Guantanamo and Nipe - as provided by the Platt Amendment. Not even the Port of Havana escaped consideration since it was contemplated as "the most favorable for the fourth naval base". From the beginning, despite its spurious origins, the Government of Cuba, in which many of those who fought for independence participated, was opposed to the concession of four naval bases since it considered two to be more than enough. The situation grew tenser when the Cuban government toughened its stand and demanded the final drafting of the Permanent Agreement on Relations, with the goal of "determining at the same time and not in parts, all the details that were the object of the Platt Amendment and setting the range of their precepts". President McKinley had died in September 14, 1901 as a result of gunshot wounds he had sustained on the 6th of that month. Theodore Roosevelt had advanced to such a degree in his political career that he was already Vice President of the United States and so he had assumed the presidency after the shooting of his predecessor. Roosevelt, at that time did not deem it to be convenient to specify the scope of the Platt Amendment, so as not to delay the military installation of the Guantanamo Base, given what that would mean for the defense of the Canal whose construction France had begun and later abandoned in the Central American Isthmus, and which the voracious government of the empire intended to complete at all costs. Nor was he interested in defining the legal status of the Isle of Pines. Therefore, he abruptly reduced the number of naval bases under discussion, removed the Port of Havana suggestion and finally agreed to the concession of two bases: Guantanamo and Bahia Honda. Subsequently, in compliance with Article VII of the constitutional appendix imposed on the Constitutional Convention, the Agreement was signed by the Presidents of Cuba and the United States on February 16 and 23, 1903, respectively: "Article I. - The Republic of Cuba hereby leases to the United States, for the time required for the purposes of coaling and naval stations, the following described areas of land and water situated in the Island of Cuba: "1st. In Guantanamo"…(A complete description of the bay and neighboring territory is made.) "2nd. In Bahia Honda…" (Another similar description is made.) This Agreement establishes: "Article III. -While on the one hand the United States recognizes the continuance of the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba over the above described areas of land and water, on the other hand the Republic of Cuba consents that during the period of the occupation by the United States of said areas under the terms of this agreement the United States shall exercise complete jurisdiction and control over and within said areas with the right to acquire for the public purposes of the United States any land or other property therein by purchase or by exercise of eminent domain with full compensation to the owners thereof." On May 28, 1903, surveying began to establish the boundaries of the Guantanamo Naval Station. In the Agreement of July 2, 1903, dealing with the same subject, the "Regulations for the Lease of Naval and Coaling Stations" was passed: "Article I.- The United States of America agrees and covenants to pay the Republic of Cuba the annual sum of two thousand dollars, in gold coin of the United States, as long as the former shall occupy and use said areas of land by virtue of said agreement." "All private lands and other real property within said areas shall be acquired forthwith by the Republic of Cuba." "The United States of America agrees to furnish to the Republic of Cuba the sums necessary for the purchase of said private lands and properties and such sums shall be accepted by the Republic of Cuba as advance payment on account of rental due by virtue of said Agreement." The Agreement which governed this lease, signed in Havana by representatives of the Presidents of Cuba and the United States respectively, was passed by the Cuban Senate on July 16, 1903, ratified by the President of Cuba a month later on August 16, and by the President of the United States on October 2, and after exchanging ratifications in Washington on October 6, it was published in the Gazette of Cuba on the 12th of the same month and year. Dated on December 14, 1903, it was informed that four days earlier on the 10th of the same month, the United States had been given possession of the areas of water and land for the establishing of a naval station in Guantanamo. For the United States Government and Navy, the transfer of part of the territory of the largest island in the Antilles was a source of great rejoicing and they intended to celebrate the event. Vessels belonging to the Caribbean Squadron and some battleships from the North Atlantic Fleet converged on Guantanamo. The Cuban government appointed the Head of Public Works of Santiago de Cuba to deliver that part of the territory over which it technically exercised sovereignty on December 10, 1903, the date chosen by the United States. He would be the only Cuban present at the ceremony and just for a brief time since, once his mission was accomplished, without any toasts or handshakes, he left for the neighboring town of Caimanera. The Head of Public Works had boarded the battleship "Kearsage", which was the U.S. flagship, where he met Rear Admiral Barker. At 12:00 hours a 21-gun-salute was given and along with the notes of the Cuban National Anthem, the Cuban flag which had been flying on board that vessel was lowered, and immediately the United States flag was hoisted on land, at the point called Playa del Este, with an equal number of salvos, thus concluding the ceremony. According to the articles of the Agreement, the United States was to dedicate the leased lands exclusively for public use, not being able to establish any type of business or industry. The U.S. authorities in said territories and the Cuban authorities mutually agreed to surrender fugitives from justice charged with crimes or misdemeanors subject to the laws of each party, as long as it was required by the authorities who would be judging them. Materials imported into the areas belonging to said naval stations for their own use and consumption would be exempt from customs duties, or any other kind of fees, to the Republic of Cuba. The lease of these naval stations included the right to use and occupy the waters adjacent to said areas of land and water, to improve and deepen the entrances to them and their anchorages and for anything else that would be necessary for the exclusive use to which they were dedicated. Even though the United States acknowledged the continuation of Cuba's definitive sovereignty over those areas of water and land, it would exercise, with Cuba's consent, "complete jurisdiction and domain" over said areas while they occupied them according to the other already quoted stipulations. In the so-called Permanent Treaty of May 22, 1903, signed by the governments of the Republic of Cuba and the United States, future relations between both nations were detailed: in other words, what Manuel Márquez Sterling would call "the intolerable yoke of the Platt Amendment" was thus put firmly in place. The Permanent Treaty, signed by both countries, was approved by the United States Senate on March 22, 1904 and by the Cuban Senate on June 8 of that year, and the ratifications were exchanged in Washington on June 1st, 1904. Therefore, the Platt Amendment is an amendment to an American law, an appendix to the Cuban Constitution of 1901 and a permanent treaty between both countries. The experiences acquired with the Guantanamo Naval Base were useful to apply measures in Panama that were equal or worse, in the case of the Canal. In the United States Congress, it is customary to introduce amendments, whenever a law which is of urgent necessity for its content and importance is being debated. This frequently obliges legislators to put aside or sacrifice any conflicting criteria. Such amendments have more than once affected the sovereignty for which our people tirelessly struggle. In 1912, the Cuban Secretary of State, Manuel Sanguily, negotiated a new treaty with the U.S. State Department whereby the United States would relinquish its rights over Bahia Honda in exchange for enlarging the boundaries of the Guantanamo station. That same year, when the uprising of the Partido de los Independientes de Color (Independent Colored Party) took place, which the Liberal Party government of President José Miguel Gomez brutally repressed, American troops came out of the Guantanamo Naval Base and occupied several towns in the former Oriente Province, near the cities of Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba, with the pretext of "protecting the lives and properties of U.S. citizens". In 1917, because of the uprising known as "La Chambelona" carried out by the elements of the Liberal Party in Oriente who were opposed to the electoral fraud that had re-elected President Mario Garcia Menocal of the Conservative Party, Yankee regiments from the Base headed for various points in that province of Cuba, under the pretext of "protecting the Base water supply". Part III: The Formal Repeal of the Platt Amendment and Continued Presence of the Guantanamo Naval Base. The advent of the Democratic administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the United States in 1933 opened the way to a necessary accommodation of the relationship of domination that the U.S. exercised over Cuba. The fall of the Gerardo Machado's tyranny under the pressure of a powerful popular movement, and the subsequent installation of a provisional government headed by the university professor of physiology, Ramón Grau San Martin, were a serious obstacle to the achievement of the program demanded by the people. On November 24, 1933, U.S. President Roosevelt issued an official statement encouraging the intrigues of Batista and Sumner Welles, the Ambassador to Havana, against Grau's government. These included the offer to sign a new commercial treaty and repeal the Platt Amendment. Roosevelt explained that "…any Provisional Government in Cuba in which the Cuban people show their confidence would be welcome". The impatience of the U.S, administration to get rid of Grau was growing, as from mid-November the influence of a young anti-imperialist, Antonio Guiteras, was increasing in the government, which would take many of its more radical steps in the weeks to come. It was necessary to swiftly overthrow that government. On December 13, 1933, Ambassador Sumner Welles returned definitively to Washington and was substituted five days later by Jefferson Caffery. On January 13-14, 1934, Batista convened and presided over a military meeting at Columbia, where he proposed to oust Grau and appoint Colonel Carlos Mendieta y Montefur, which was agreed to by the so-called Columbia Military Junta. Grau San Martin presented his resignation at dawn on January 15, 1934 and left for exile in Mexico on the 20th of the same month. Thus, on January 18, 1934, Mendieta was installed as President after the coup d'état. Although the Mendieta administration had been recognized by the United States on January 23rd of that year, actually the fate of the country was in the hands of Ambassador Caffery and Batista. The overthrow of the Grau San Martin provisional government in January 1934, as a result of internal contradictions and a whole series of pressures, maneuvers and aggressions wielded against it by imperialism and its local allies, meant a first and indispensable step towards the imposition of an oligarchic-imperialistic alternative to solve the Cuban national crisis. The government headed by Mendieta would take on the task of adjusting the bonds of the country's neo-colonial dependency. Neither the oligarchy reinstated in power, nor the Washington government, were in position to ignore the feelings of the Cuban people towards neocolonialism and its instruments. Nor was the United States unaware of the importance of the support of Latin American governments -Cuba among them- in the already foreseeable confrontation with other emerging imperialist powers such as Germany and Japan. The new process would include formulae to ensure the renewed functioning of the neocolonial system. The "Good Neighbor" policy was very mindful of Latin American opposition to Washington's open interventionism in the hemisphere. The aim of Roosevelt's policy was to portray a new image in its hemispheric relations through the "good neighbor" diplomatic formula. As one of the adjustment measures, on May 29, 1934 a new U.S.-Cuba Relations Treaty, modifying the one of May 22, 1903, was signed by the other Roosevelt, perhaps a distant relative of he who had landed in Cuba with the Rough Riders. Two days earlier, on May 27, at 10:30 a.m., when United States Ambassador Jefferson Caffery was getting ready, as was his custom, to leave his residence in the Alturas de Almendares, he was the target of an assassination attempt; three shots were fired by several unidentified individuals from a car. The next day, May 28th, at noon, as it was driving along Quinta Avenida in the Miramar district, the car assigned to the First Secretary of the United States Embassy, H. Freeman Matthews, after having dropped off the diplomat at the Embassy, was attacked by several individuals traveling in a car and armed with machine guns. One of them approached the chauffeur and told him that he should let Matthews know that he was giving him one week to get out of Cuba: then he smashed the windshield of the car and sped off. These acts that revealed a general climate of anti-United States hostility could have precipitated the signing of the new Relations Treaty that proposed the alleged end of the unpopular Platt Amendment. The new Relations Treaty provided for the suppression of the right of the United States to intervene in Cuba and that: "The United States of America and the Republic of Cuba, being animated by the desire to fortify the relations of friendship between the two countries and to modify, with this purpose, the relations established between them by the Treaty of Relations signed in Havana, May 22, 1903, (…) have agreed upon the following articles: (…) "Article 3.- Until the two contracting parties agree to the modifications or abrogation of the stipulations of the agreement in regard to the lease to the United States of America of lands in Cuba for coaling and naval stations signed by the President of the Republic of Cuba on February 16, 1903, and by the President of the United States of America on the 23rd day of the same month and year, the stipulations of that agreement with regard to the naval stations of Guantanamo shall continue in effect in the same form and conditions with respect to the naval station at Guantanamo. So long as the United States of America shall not abandon the said naval station of Guantanamo or the two Governments shall not agree to a modification of its present limits, the station shall continue to have territorial area that it now has, with the limits that it has on the date of the signature of the present Treaty." The United States Senate ratified the new Relations Treaty on June 1, 1934, and Cuba on June 4. Five days later, on June 9, ratifications of the Relations Treaty of May 29th of the same year were exchanged, and with that the Platt Amendment was formally repealed, but the Guantanamo Naval Base remained. The new Treaty legalized the de facto situation of the Guantanamo naval station, thus rescinding the part of the agreements of February 16 and 23 and July 2 of 1903 between the two countries relating to the lands and waters in Bahia Honda, and the part that referred to the waters and lands of the Guantanamo station was amended, in the sense that they were enlarged. The United States maintained its naval station in Guantanamo as a strategic surveillance and control site, in order to ensure its political and economic predominance in the Caribbean and Central America and to defend the Panama Canal. Part IV: The Guantanamo Naval Base from the formal end of the Platt Amendment until the Triumph of the Revolution. After the signing of the Treaty of Relations of 1934, the territory of the "naval station" underwent a gradual fortifying and equipping process until, in the spring of 1941, the Base became established as an operational naval station with the following structure: naval station, air naval station and Marines Corps Base and warehouse facilities. On June 6, 1934 the United States Senate had passed a bill which would authorize the Secretary of the Navy to sign a long-term contract with a company that would undertake to supply adequate water to the Naval Base in Guantanamo; however, prior to this, American plans already existed for the construction of an aqueduct which would bring in water from the Yateras River. Expansion continued, and by 1943 other facilities were constructed by contracting the Frederick Snare Company. This hired 9,000 civilian workers, many of them Cubans. Another year of tremendous expansion of the military and civilian facilities on the Base was 1951. In 1952, the United States Secretary of the Navy decided to change the name of the U.S. Naval Operating Base to "U.S. Naval Base"; by that time its structure already included a Training Center. The Constitution of 1940, the Revolutionary Struggle and Guantanamo Naval Base until December 1958. The period between the end of 1937 and 1940 was characterized, from a political point of view, by the adoption of measures that allowed for elections for the Constitutional Assembly to be called and for them to take place. The reason why Batista agreed to these democratizing measures was that it was in his interest to move towards the establishment of formulae that would allow him to remain at the center of political decisions, and thus ensure the continuity of his power within the new order arising under the formulae that he had implemented. At the beginning of 1938 the agreement between Batista and Grau to install a Constitutional Assembly was made public. The Constitutional Convention, inaugurated on February 9, 1940, concluded its sessions on June 8 of that same year. The Constitution was signed on July 1st, 1940 and promulgated on July 5 that same year. The new Law of Laws established that "the territory of the Republic consists of the Island of Cuba, the Isle of Pines and other adjacent islands and keys, which were under the sovereignty of Spain until the ratification of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. The Republic of Cuba shall not conclude or ratify pacts or treaties that in any form limit or undermine national sovereignty or the integrity of the territory". The oligarchy would strive to prevent the materialization of the more advanced principles in this Constitution or at least to restrict their application to a maximum. Part V: The Guantanamo Naval Base since the Triumph of the Revolution. Since the triumph of the Revolution, the Revolutionary Government has denounced the illegal occupation of that portion of our territory. On the other hand, since January 1st, 1959, the United States turned the usurped territory of the Guantanamo Naval Base into a permanent source of threats, provocation and violation of Cuba's sovereignty, with the aim of creating trouble for the victorious revolutionary process. Said Base has always been present in the plans and operations conceived by Washington to overthrow the Revolutionary Government. All kinds of aggressions have come from the Naval Base:
On January 12, 1961, the worker Manuel Prieto Gomez who had been employed at the Base for more than 3 years was savagely tortured by Yankee soldiers on the Guantanamo Naval Base, for the "crime" of being a revolutionary. On October 15 of that same year, the Cuban worker Rubén Lopez Sabariego was tortured and subsequently murdered. On June 24, 1962, Rodolfo Rosell Salas, a fisherman from Caimanera, was murdered by soldiers at the Base. Likewise, the devious intent of fabricating a self-provocation and deploying American troops in a "justified" punitive invasion of Cuba has always been a volatile element at Guantanamo Base. We can find an example of this in one of the actions included in the so-called "Operation Mongoose", when on September 3, 1962 American soldiers stationed in Guantanamo would shoot at Cuban sentries. During the Missile Crisis, the Base was reinforced in terms of military technology and troops; manpower grew to more than 16,000 Marines. Given the decision of Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev to withdraw the nuclear missiles stationed in Cuba without previously either consulting or informing the Revolutionary Government, Cuba defined the unshakeable position of the Revolution in what came to be known as the "Five Points". The fifth point demanded withdrawal from the Guantanamo Naval Base. We were on the brink of a thermonuclear war, where we would be the prime target as a consequence of the imperial policy of taking over Cuba. On February 11, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson reduced the number of Cuban personnel working at the Base by approximately 700 workers. They also confiscated the accumulated retirement funds of hundreds of Cuban workers who had been employed on the Base and illegally suspended payments of pensions to retired Cuban workers. On July 19, 1964, in a blatant provocation made by American border guards against the Cuban border patrol sentries, Ram&oan López Peña, a young 17-year-old soldier, was murdered at close range while he was on guard in the sentry-box. On May 21, 1966, and in similar circumstances, soldier Luis Ramirez was murdered by shots from the Base. In hardly three weeks of the month of May in 1980, more than 80,000 men, 24 vessels and some 350 combat aircraft took part in Solid Shield-80 exercises; as part of its dynamic, this included the landing of 2,000 Marines at the Naval Base and the reinforcement of the facility with an additional 1200 troops. In October 1991, during the 4th Communist Party Congress in Santiago de Cuba, planes and helicopters from the Base violated Cuban air space over the city. In 1994, the Base served as a support station for the invasion of Haiti: American air force planes used Base airports for this. More than 45,000 Haitian emigrants were kept on the Base until mid-1995. Also in 1994, the well-known migration crisis was produced as a result of the tightening up of the blockade and the tough years of the Special Period, the non-compliance with the Migratory Agreement of 1984 signed with the Reagan Administration, the considerable reduction in the number of visas granted and the encouragement of illegal emigration, including the Cuban Adjustment Act signed by President Johnson more than four decades ago. As a result of the crisis created, a declaration made by President Clinton on August 19, 1994 transformed the Base into a migratory concentration camp for the Cuban rafters, in numbers close to 30,000. Finally, on September 9, 1994 a Joint Communiqué was signed by the Clinton administration and the Cuban government. This saw the United States committing to prevent the entry into its territory of intercepted illegal emigrants and to issue a minimum of 20,000 annual visas for safety travel to the United States. On May 2, 1995, as part of the migratory negotiations, the governments of Cuba and the United States also agreed what on this occasion was called a Joint Declaration establishing the procedure for returning to Cuba all those who continued trying to illegally migrate to the United States and were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard. Notice the specific reference to the illegal emigrants intercepted by the Coast Guards. Thus the basis had been laid of a sinister business: the traffic of persons. The Murderous Act was maintained, thus turning Cuba into the only country in the world subjected to such harassment. While approximately 250 thousand people have safely traveled to that country, an incalculable number of women, children and people of all ages have lost their lives as a result of the prosperous traffic of emigrants. Following an agreement by the two governments, as from the migratory crisis of 1994, regular meetings between the military commands of each side were initiated. A strip of mined territory would sometimes be flooded by tropical rainstorms and overflowing rivers. On many occasions our sappers had put their lives in danger to save persons who were crossing the restricted military zone in that area, even with children. The Guantanamo Naval Base since the enactment of the Helms-Burton Act. This Act, signed by President William Clinton on March 12, 1996, in its Title II about "Assistance to a Free and Independent Cuba", Section 201 related to the "policy toward a transition government and a democratically elected government in Cuba", establishes in its Point 12 that the United States must "be prepared to enter into negotiations with a democratically elected government in Cuba either to return the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo to Cuba or to renegotiate the present agreement under mutually agreeable terms". Something worse than what was planned by military governor Leonard Wood, who had landed on foot along with Theodore Roosevelt in the proximity of Santiago de Cuba: the idea of having an annexationist of Cuban descent administrating our country. The War in Kosovo in 1999 resulted in a great number of Kosovar refugees. The Clinton government, embroiled in that NATO war against Serbia, made the decision to use the Base to accommodate a number of them, and on this occasion, for the first time, with no previous consultation whatsoever as usual, it informed Cuba of the decision made. Our answer was constructive. Even though we were opposed to the unjust and illegal conflict, we had no grounds on which to oppose the humanitarian aid needed by the Kosovar refugees. We even offered our country's cooperation, if it should be needed, in terms of medical care or any other service they might need. Finally, the Kosovar refugees were never sent to the Guantanamo Naval Base. The manifesto called "The Oath of Baragua" of February 19, 2000 expressed that "in due time, since it no longer constitutes a prioritized objective at this moment even though the right of our people is very just and cannot be waived; the illegally occupied territory of Guantanamo must be returned to Cuba." At that time, we were involved in the struggle for the return of the kidnapped boy and the economic consequences of the brutal blockade. The Guantanamo Naval Base since September 11. On September 18, 2001, President Bush signed United States Congress legislation authorizing the use of force as a response to the September 11 attacks. Bush used this legislation as a basis to sign a Military Order on November 13 of that same year which would establish the legal bases for arrests and trials by military tribunals of individuals who didn't hold U.S. citizenship, as part of the "war on terrorism". On January 8, 2002 the United States officially informed Cuba that they would be using the Guantanamo Naval Base as a detention center for Afghan war prisoners. Three days later, on January 11, 2002, the first 20 detainees arrived, and the figure reached the number of 776 prisoners coming from 48 countries. Of course none of these data were mentioned. We assumed they were Afghan war prisoners. The first planes were landing full of prisoners, and many more guards than prisoners. On the same day, the government of Cuba issued a public declaration indicating its willingness to cooperate with medical assistance services as required, clean-up programs and a fight against mosquitoes and pests in the area surrounding the base which is under our control, or any other useful, constructive and humane measure that might come up. I remember the data because I was personally involved in details concerning the Note presented by the MINREX in response to the United States Note. We were very far from imagining at that moment that the U.S. government was getting ready to create a horrendous torture center at that base. The Socialist Constitution proclaimed on February 24, 1976 had set forth in its Article 11, section c) that "the Republic of Cuba repudiates and considers as null and illegal those treaties, pacts or concessions concerted under conditions of inequality or which disregard or diminish her sovereignty and territorial integrity." On June 10, 2002, the people of Cuba, in an unprecedented process of popular referendum, ratified the socialist content of that Constitution of 1976 as a response to the meddling and offensive expressions of the President of the United States. Likewise, it mandated the National People's Power Assembly to amend it so that it would expressly state, inter alia, the irrevocable principle which must govern the economic, diplomatic and political relations of our country with other states, by adding to the same Article 11, section c): "Economic, diplomatic and political relations with any other State may never be negotiated under aggression, threat or coercion by a foreign power." After the Proclamation to the People of Cuba was made public on July 31, 2006, the U.S. authorities have declared that they do not hope for a migration crisis but that they are pre-emptively preparing to face one, with the use of the Guantanamo Naval Base as a concentration camp for illegal migrants intercepted in the high seas being a consideration. In public declarations, information reveals that the United States is expanding its civilian buildings on the Base with the aim of increasing their capacity to receive the illegal emigrants. Cuba, for her part, has taken all possible measures to avoid incidents between the armed forces of both countries, and has declared that she is abiding by the commitments contained in the Joint Declaration on migratory issues signed with the Clinton administration. Why is there so much talking, threats and brouhaha? The symbolic annual payment of $3,386.25 for the lease of the territory occupied by the Guantanamo Naval Base was maintained until 1972 when the Americans adjusted it themselves to $3,676. In 1973, a new adjustment was made for the value of the old U.S. Gold dollar, and for that reason the cheque issued by the Treasury Department was since then increased to $4,085.00 each year. That cheque is charged to the United States Navy, the party responsible for operations at the Naval Base. The cheques issued by the government of the United States, as payment for the lease, are in the name of the "Treasurer General of the Republic of Cuba", an institution and official who, many years ago, have ceased to function within the structure of the Government of Cuba. This cheque is sent on a yearly basis, through diplomatic channels. The one for 1959, due to a mere confusion, was entered into the national budget. Since 1960 until today these cheques have not been cashed and they are proof of the lease that has been imposed for more than 107 years. I would imagine, conservatively, that this is ten times less than what the United States government spends on the salary of a schoolteacher each year. Both the Platt Amendment and the Guantanamo Naval Base were unnecessary. History has shown that in a great number of countries in this hemisphere where there has not been a revolution, their entire territory, governed by the multinationals and the oligarchies, needs neither one nor the other. Advertising took care of their mostly ill-trained and poverty-stricken populations by creating reflexes. From the military point of view, a nuclear aircraft carrier, with so many fast fighter-bombers and escort ships supported by technology and satellites, is several times more powerful and can move to any point on the globe, wherever the empire needs it the most. The Base is needed to humiliate and to carry out the filthy deeds that take place there. If we must await the downfall of the system, we shall wait. The suffering and danger for all humanity shall be great, like today's stock market crisis, and a growing number of people forecast it. Cuba shall always be waiting in a state of combat readiness. Fidel Castro Ruz August 14, 2007 A Written Record Many important events are taking place around the world. Some are related to Cuba. Sometimes the news that reaches our country is much more interesting than a simple reflection of mine aimed at creating awareness. The BBC interview of Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, one of our Five Heroes, which was televised yesterday, had a profound impact on me; what human content, profundity and brilliance, qualities that could only come from a mind that has endured 9 years of unjust psychological torture. We urge the Roundtable program to continue informing us about the historic process surrounding the fate of our historic compatriots. Meanwhile, in Brazil, the press continues to dig up news and to report on the activities of the two boxers who, breaking the rules, disappeared from the Cuban delegation’s accommodations. An EFE cable datelined Rio de Janeiro on August 3 reports: “After being found on Thursday in a beach resort on Rio de Janeiro’s northern coast, where they spent several days with a Cuban businessman and a German one, along with three prostitutes, the boxers were taken in the early morning to a hotel, where they are under the custody of Federal Police. “Ringodeaux and Lara were arrested in the beach resort of Araruama on Thursday. In their statements to Federal Police, the two boxers said that they were repentant and wanted to return to Cuba, and that supposedly, they were the victims of an operation, for which they were drugged by the businessmen before being taken out of the Pan-American complex. The athletes turned down the offer of two lawyers who appeared in Federal Police headquarters and insisted on representing them. “The two Cubans, however, were seen in different resorts on the northern coast of Rio de Janeiro in total freedom and enjoying the comforts of inns and parties full of alcoholic beverages and women. According to inn owners at the Saquarema resort interviewed by O Globo, the two boxers, together with the Cuban and German businessmen, spent several days in that city before traveling to Araruama in the company of three prostitutes hired in Rio de Janeiro. ‘They are good people; they treated us as if we were their girlfriends, and even said that they would miss us,’ said one of the women, who admitted that she had received almost $100 a day, in a statement to O Globo.” These are uncomfortable but essential details and I cannot use terms different from those chosen by the news agency in its article. I imagine the boxers themselves informed their closest adult relatives about these facts. Yesterday, August 6, a cable from the same agency reported: “The Brazilian police stated it believed the version of events offered by the two Cuban boxers who were deported to their country after disappearing from the Pan American Games of Rio de Janeiro, in the sense that they had been drugged and tricked by two businessmen who wanted to take them to Germany. “‘We believe what they told us and we consider their story feasible and probable,’ Federal Police Captain Felicio Latera, who headed the investigation, told EFE today. “‘The Brazilian Federal Police is not investigating the alleged desertion of the two Cubans; it is investigating the two businessmen who attempted to take them away,’ the captain declared. That same day and in the same cable, EFE reported: “In an interview with a Brazilian newspaper, German businessman Ahmet Öner, the promoter of four Cuban boxers given asylum in Germany, admitted that he organized the escape of Rigondeaux and Lara, for which he claims to have paid nearly half a million dollars.” We do not doubt, on our part, that the Federal Police believed that the athletes’ regret was sincere. The mission of that institution was to work with the Cuban consulate to process the documents urgently requested by the boxers, and to explain what happened to them after 12 days of absence. For the immense majority of our people, the essential thing is to learn of the moral conduct of these athletes, who are educated and trained with so much sacrifice. The greatest responsibility, in my opinion, lies with Erislandy Lara, who was captain of the boxing team, and despite that, broke the rules and ended up directly in the arms of the mercenaries. He is 24 years old, and studies Physical Education and Sport at the university. The two boxers are unaware of how their conduct has influenced the close friendships they shared with the three boxers who were bribed in Venezuela, although they surely did not know about the verbose indiscretion that would be used by the owner of the mafioso company after they failed to show up for their weigh-in. The two athletes were reluctant to speak to the press. Miguel Hernández, a Granma journalist, waited for them at the airport and spoke with them about the matter. He was later disappointed with their answers after trying to write a convincing article on the boxers’ sincerity. Julita Osendi, a TV reporter who was well-informed about the Pan-American Games in Rio, asked to visit them and tried to persuade them to speak with absolute frankness. They were more forthcoming and shared with her a number of additional details about their unusual adventure, but the final outcome of the interview was the same. I asked comrade Fernández, a vice president of the Council of Ministers who is responsible for the National Sports Institute (INDER), among other institutions, to send me a transcript of Osendi’s interview with Erislandy Lara and Guillermo Rigondeaux. The image was not enough for me; I wanted to analyze each question and answer. The transcript is twice as long as this reflection. I will ask Granma to publish it on the sports page or another section, to leave a written record of the conversation. Many poor countries have no problems with professional sports; however, in those countries many people also die prematurely or suffer debilitating illnesses due to lack of exercise. Rich, developed countries also suffer from this tragic state of affairs, given the shortcomings of their rotten system and the mercantilist spirit of their medical services. An athlete who abandons his delegation is like a soldier who abandons his comrades in the midst of combat. Cuba has many talented athletes but it has not stolen them from anyone. The people, moreover, enjoy their marvelous performances. It is now part of their culture, their well-being and their spiritual wealth. The Revolution has kept its word. It promised to treat the two athletes humanely, to reunite them immediately with their families, to offer them access to the media if they wished and to provide them with decent employment according to their experience. We also have attended carefully to their health, as we do with all citizens. It was essential, out of basic justice, to listen to them, and to find out to what extent they regretted their involvement in such a painful incident. We have made available to our people the facts that we were able to gather. The athletes now wish to return to their families. They have reached a point of no return as part of the Cuban delegation in that sport. We, on the other hand, must continue the struggle. It is now time to put together the list of Cuban boxers who will participate in the Beijing Olympics, about one year in advance. First, they must travel to the United States to participate in the World Championship, one of the three classifying events for the Olympic Games. Just imagine the mafia sharks demanding fresh meat. There is one thing we should warn them about: we are not eager to make home deliveries. Cuba will not sacrifice one bit of honor or ideas for Olympic gold medals; the morale and patriotism of its athletes shall prevail above all else. We know that in boxing, the sizes of the ring and gloves have been modified to affect our country, which wins so many medals in this sport, to the extent that even professional boxing has now been included in the Olympics, as well. Sport authorities are analyzing all possible alternatives, including changing the list of boxers or not sending a delegation at all, despite the penalties that follow. They are also analyzing possible strategies and tactics. We will maintain our principled policy, even if the world continues to increasingly emphasize professional sports, and as in the times of Kid Chocolate — a true genius —, and even if there are no medals for healthy sports, and the only concept of sport is the one that puts price tags on throwing pitches that are impossible to bat, scoring home runs and throwing and enduring punches with no protection whatsoever. We will never return to such a time. Healthy sports are incompatible with consumerism and wastefulness, which are at the root of the irreversible economic and social crisis facing the globalized world. Fidel Castro Ruz August 7, 2007 Politics and Sports I am writing this quickly and a little late. I should do this because of the strong emphasis I have placed in the analysis of this matter. Besides, the news is not disheartening. The wire services announced that the two boxers who had defected in Rio de Janeiro had been found and arrested by the authorities on a beach close to that city. Remember that they had been given up for missing. They were there without any documents. They were not sent to prison. They remained in the same hotel where they were staying, under the surveillance of the Federal Police. The boxers told the police that they had made a mistake and regretted it. They refused to see a German citizen who very promptly took interest in them, following instructions from a mafia company. We learned about this later. The authorities asked us for their documents, and the Cuban consular representatives, following our Ambassador’s instructions, proceeded to complete all relevant arrangements. The news stating that the boxers were in Turkey while immigration matters were being looked after had obviously been released by the mafia as a smoke screen. There was even a German Member of Parliament who attempted to hit a home-run with a fake ball. The company that had invested more than two million dollars in this grotesque business was talking about the "human rights" of the athletes' families. What will the United Nations say about this unfair competition? This is where sports and politics get together in the search for concrete and principled solutions, over and above fondness and bitterness. Those citizens will not be submitted to any sort of arrest, much less the kinds of methods being used by the United States Government in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, which we have never used in this country. They will be temporarily transferred to a guest house and allowed family visits. The press will also be able to contact them if they so wish. They will be offered decent jobs for the benefit of sports, given their knowledge and experience. The Brazilian authorities should not be worried in the face of the inevitable campaigns being launched by our adversaries. Cuba’s behavior will rise to the occasion. I, for one, shall have a good sleep. Fidel Castro Ruz August 4, 2007 A Reflection on Hard and Obvious Realities Because of its importance, I am prioritizing this subject, among others. I am not going to deny that the prerogatives of power, whether real, relative or fictitious, have an influence on human beings, because they were all educated this way, right from the remotest of times of the species. I did not arrive in just a minute at what I am thinking today about power, but I consider that this is a matter of consistent thinking. I attribute the modest contribution of our Revolution to the fact that our responses to questions have never regressed, despite the harsh reality imposed upon us by the empire’s brutal blockade. In the reflection published on July 31st, I explained what it meant for me to have spent a year gathering information and meditating in depth on the vital problems which today threaten our species as never before. On July 24th , the Russian news agency Ria Novosti published the following information: Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, a defense expert, stated that the main instrument of the US policy is the economic, financial, technological and military dictate. By implementing this, the US is trying to secure the world’s hegemony for itself. Its national security strategy explicitly indicates the necessity of guaranteeing sustainable access, in other words, controlled access, to the key regions of the planet, strategic communications and global resources. It is a strategy that has been turned into a law, and this brings us to the conclusion that in the future the United States will face even tougher conflicts with Russia, China and India. Washington insists on building a system capable of neutralizing the nuclear potential of Moscow and Peking, its strategic rivals, in order to achieve military superiority. The United States wants to deploy its anti-missile shield not just in Europe but also in other parts of the world, to see what is going on in Russia and China. Likewise, it is seeking to increase its offensive arsenal at a pace that surpasses even that which was followed during the Cold War. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO lost the status it had as a defensive organization when it was founded in 1949, and was transformed into a powerful and aggressive instrument at the service of the world oligarchy, eager to dominate the world. The new strategic concept of the Alliance, approved on April 1999 as a result of the efforts made by the United States, comprises new functions and expands its sphere of responsibilities to include the entire world, not just the North Atlantic. The current Secretary General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, frequently visits Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The Alliance has started to ignore International Law and the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, the United States promotes the expansion of NATO and refuses to ratify the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), taking on the right to act outside of any limitations and disposing of troops as it wishes. The United States would do anything in its power to prevent Russia from being an autonomous player. The debates on anti-missile defence, Iran and Kosovo, have not generated any formulas for compromise. It is important for Russia to consolidate its positions and recover its geopolitical potential. Early on the 1970’s, when Moscow had achieved nuclear parity with Washington, the latter became aware of the fact that it could not beat Moscow militarily and accepted to negotiate on equal terms. Consequently, in 1972, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT) as well as all other subsequent Strategic Arms Limitations Treaties (SALT) were signed. Strength is the only thing that the United States cares about. If it feels to be in a stronger position, it will never make concessions to anyone. In order to neutralize the plans for world hegemony it is necessary to build an alternative pole, and we already have the foundations to do so: the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). In fact, it appears to be rather incorrect to speak about the United States strength. The United States has military power, a vigorous economy and an enormous amount of hard currency which it can mint in unlimited quantities, but the geopolitical level of the country is extremely low. The United States inspires very little political confidence in the rest of the world. In 1999, China and Russia stated before the UN General Assembly the need to preserve the Anti Missile Defense Treaty of 1972. All nations voted in favour of the proposal except for four: the United States, Israel, Albania and Micronesia. The result bears witness to the United States’ total international isolation. Without the participation of Russia, it would be impossible to resolve the situation that has taken shape in the Middle East, the Balkans, the Korean Peninsula and other regions of this planet. This also holds true for China, which is able to put up to the pressures exerted by the United States. China enjoys great prestige in the world; it has a powerful economy and a strong currency. The SCO ought to recruit new allies and combine the potential of those countries which want to and are capable of implementing an autonomous policy. First, it is necessary to officially proclaim the rejection against the United States world hegemony. Second, China and Russia must denounce the deployment of the US anti-missile defense system before the UN Security Council, as an action altering the architecture of global security and threatening the entire international community. China, India and Russia could form a united front in the face of the United States’ dictates. It is also possible to propose the stabilization of the global financial system as a task. Within the SCO framework, a novel philosophy could be formulated, based on the harmony among civilizations and on the rational use of natural resources. The majority of States will surely support such measures, of that I am convinced. Thus, a new political pole will come into being, the pole of peace. The SCO mission is to create a new model of development for human civilization. Only an alliance of civilizations could oppose the United States’ empire: the Russian civilization whose orbit includes the Community of Independent States (CIS); the Chinese, the Indian, the Islamic and the Latin American civilizations. It is an immense space where we could create more equitable markets, our own stable financial system, our collective security mechanisms and our philosophy, giving priority to the intellectual development of man in the face of western modern civilization, which emphasizes material goods, and measures success by the amounts of mansions, yachts and restaurants people have. Our mission is to reorient the world towards justice and intellectual and spiritual growth. So much for Ivashov’s essential thoughts, as published by Ria Novosti. We have been able to find out that General Leonid Ivashov is Vice President of the Academy on Geopolitical Affairs; he was Secretary of the Council of Defence Ministers of the Community of Independent States (CIS) and Chief of the Military Cooperation Department at the Russian Federation Ministry of Defence. On September 11, 2001, the day when the tragic events in New York occurred, which served as a pretext to define the basis of the genocidal policy of the United States almost 6 years ago, General Ivashov was the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. He is a truly well-informed man. It is worthwhile that our people know about his views. The concern which the Cuban Revolution has always had about the education of the people is obvious. Judging by my own experience, I soon came across the idea that only conscience could prevail over the instincts that govern us. Technological advances today speak of the possibility of manipulating the functions of the cells in the human brain. What good would all this do in a world ruled by the commercial value of goods and services? Who will have the final say in this regard? By this means and through the shameless brain drain, a phenomenon we should adamantly continue to discuss, the most valuable part of the human being could be destroyed: a human being's education via its conscience. Laboratories can produce medicines to save lives, which could be something of great social value provided such products are available to all. But laboratories are also manufacturing all kinds of weapons that could put an end to human life. Commercial advertising and consumerism are incompatible with the survival of the species. After all possible calculations, you will realize that natural resources, space, climate, weather, and the system cannot yield any other outcome, given their pace and the direction in which they are moving. Fidel Castro Ruz August 3, 2007 The Eternal Flame THIS is a political reflection. To be more precise: it is another proclamation. Exactly one year ago today, on July 31, 2006, I issued the first proclamation. But the year gone by is worth 10, for I have had the opportunity to live a unique experience which has afforded me information and knowledge on vital questions facing humanity, knowledge I have conveyed to the people of Cuba with the utmost honesty. Today, I am bombarded with questions as to when I will take up again what some call power, as though that power were possible without independence. The world knows a real and destructive power, wielded by a decadent empire which threatens everyone. Raúl has already responded that, as I recover, every important decision is consulted with me. What will I do? I will fight tirelessly as I have done my entire life. One year after the first Proclamation, I can share with the people of Cuba the satisfaction of seeing that what was then promised is reflected by today’s unquestionable reality: Raúl, the Party, the government, the National Assembly, the Young Communists League and grassroots and social organizations, headed by the workers, move forward, guided by the unshakable principle of unity. With the same conviction, we continue to struggle relentlessly to have the Five Heroes, who provided Cuba with information on the United States’ anti-Cuban terrorist plans, released from cruel and merciless prison. The struggle against our own deficiencies and against the insolent enemy which seeks to take possession of Cuba must be unrelenting. On this point, I am obliged to insist on something which the leaders of the Revolution can never forget: it is our duty to work untiringly to strengthen our defensive capability and preparedness, under the principle that, regardless of the circumstances, an unpayable price must be paid for any invasion. No one should entertain the slightest illusion that the empire, which carries the genes of its own destruction, will negotiate with Cuba. Though we have said, again and again, that our struggle is not against the people of the United Sates–something which is absolutely true–the latter is not in a position to curtail the apocalyptic impulses of its government or the foul and insane call for what they label a “democratic Cuba”, as though leaders here put themselves forth and elect themselves without having to pass through that inflexible filter embodied by the overwhelming majority of an educated and cultivated people who must support them. In a previous reflection, I invoked the historical figures of Martí, Maceo, Agramonte and Cespedes. To keep alight the memory of the innumerable people who fell in combat, of those who fought and sacrificed themselves for the homeland, Raúl lit a flame that shall burn for eternity, 50 years after Frank País, the young, 22-year-old hero whose example moved all of us, fell in combat. Life is meaningless without ideas. There is no greater joy than to struggle in their name. Fidel Castro Ruz July 31, 2007 |
Fidel Castro Ruz is the President of Cuba. |
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