Reflections of Fidel

When World War I broke out in 1914, China joined the allies. As recompense, China was promised that the German concessions in the province of Shandong would be returned to them at the end of the war. After the Treaty of Versailles, which President Woodrow Wilson imposed on friends and foes alike, the German colonies were transferred to Japan, a more powerful ally than China.

Thousands of students gathered in Tiananmen Square on May 4, 1919 to protest this move. The first triumphant nationalist movement in China was born there. Called the “May 4th Movement”, it brought the petty bourgeoisie, the national bourgeoisie and the workers and peasants under one coalition.

The founding of the Kuomintang or National People’s Party had consolidated the nationalist currents that emerged at the close of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It was headed by Dr. Sun Yatsen, a progressive intellectual and revolutionary heavily influenced by the October Revolution, with which he strengthened his party’s ties.

The Communist Party of China was founded at a congress that took place from July 23 to August 5, 1921. Lenin sent representatives of the International to that Congress.

The communist movement devoted its efforts to reuniting China. The young Mao Zedong was among its founding members. Between 1923 and 1924, the Communist Party of China and Kuomintang joined forces to form the First United Front.

Following Sun Yatsen’s death in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek took command of the Kuomintang. He focused on establishing firm control of southern China, the Shanghai region in particular.

Chiang did not sympathize with the communist doctrine and, in 1927; he undertook a large-scale repression of communists within the National Revolutionary Army, unions and other social institutions in the country, especially in Shanghai. The left within the Kuomintang was also heavily repressed.

In 1932, following the five-month military occupation of Manchuria, Japan established the state of Manchukuo, which posed a great threat to China. Chiang Kai-shek launched five campaigns to besiege and eliminate the communists, who had gathered strength in the bases set up in southern China.

In 1927, leading those who had managed to evade Chiang Kai-shek’s treacherous move to the mountainous region of Jiangsu and Fujian, Mao Zedong established an encompassing center of armed resistance, primarily made up of devoted and well-organized communists. This center came to be known as the Soviet Republic of China.

In 1934, pitted against Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist forces, which were vastly superior in number, nearly 100 thousand Chinese combatants under Mao’s command undertook the Great March towards China’s northeast. Skirting China’s central region, the combatants traversed more than 3,750 miles and fought almost continually through one year. This unprecedented feat made Mao the undisputed leader of both China’s Communist Party and Revolution. The application of Marx’s and Lenin’s ideas to China’s political, economic, natural, geographic and cultural conditions established him as the brilliant political and military strategist who liberated a country whose significance in today’s world cannot be underestimated.

The second Sino-Japanese War broke out on July 7, 1937. The Japanese deliberately brought about the incident that sparked the war. A Japanese soldier disappeared while his troop was in a military parade at the Marco Polo Bridge, over a river located some 10 miles west of Beijing. China’s army, based across the river, was accused of kidnapping the soldier, and an armed conflict which lasted several hours ensued. The soldier reappeared almost immediately after combat began. The accusation was false, but the Japanese commander had already ordered the attack. With its usual arrogance, Tokyo made unacceptable demands from China and ordered the deployment of three divisions, equipped with the country’s best weapons. In a few weeks’ time, the Japanese army secured control of the East-West corridor between the Gulf of Chihli (today Bo Hai) and Beijing.

From Beijing, the Japanese army headed to Nanjing, where Chiang Kai-shek’s government was headquartered. They carried out one of the most horrendous terrorist campaigns known to modern warfare. The city was razed to the ground, as were others. Tens of thousands of women were raped and hundreds of thousands of people brutally murdered.

The Communist Party of China had prioritized the struggle for national unity and against Japanese designs aimed at taking control of the enormous country and its natural resources and to condemn over 500 million of its citizens to merciless bondage.

Japan was looking for lebensraum. It was guided by a mixture of capitalist and racist values: it was the Japanese version of fascism.

The Anti-Japanese United Front had already been created that same year, in 1937. The nationalists were also aware of the danger. Japan occupied most of the coastal cities. At the end of the Second World War, there were millions of Chinese casualties.

During the epic war, the communists stepped up their struggle against the invaders and caused them significant damage.

The United States aided the communists and nationalists. Sensing that its entry into the war was imminent, it asked the Chinese government permission to send a volunteer squadron as well. The Flying Tigers were thus created. Roosevelt deployed Captain Lee Chenault, who was retired at the time, whose conduct expressed his admiration towards the discipline, tactics and efficacy shown by the communist combatants.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States entered the war. However, at no point during the war was Japan able to withdraw from China its elite troops which, near the end of the war, numbered one million soldiers.

The Truman administration, which, in an act of terror, dropped nuclear weapons over Japan’s civilian population, made Chang Kai-shek the United States’ right-hand man. He took up the anti-communist struggle again, but his demoralized troops were unable to hold up against the uncontainable advance of the Chinese People’s Army.

When the war ended in October 1949, Kuomintang members, backed by the United States, fled to Taiwan, where they set up an anti-communist government fully supported by the United States. Chiang Kai-shek used the U.S. Naval Fleet to travel to Taiwan.

Might China be yet another dark corner of the world?

Before Troy was built and the Greek city-states knew the Iliad and Odyssey, unquestionably marvelous fruits of human intelligence, a civilization that encompassed millions of people were already taking shape on the wide shores of the Yellow River.

Chinese culture finds its roots in the Zhou Dynasty, which existed 2,000 years before Christ was born. Its peculiar writing system comprises several thousand graphic signs, which generally represent the language’s words or morphemes, a term coined by modern linguistics which is little known to the lay public. The mysterious magic of this language, which the natural intelligence of Chinese children assimilates in the learning process, is beyond our grasp.

Many of the products that emerged in China, such as gunpowder, the compass and other inventions, were totally unknown in the Old Continent. Had the winds blown from the opposite direction on the route followed by Columbus, perhaps the Chinese would have discovered Europe.

From 2000, the Taiwanese government was controlled by a party whose neo-liberal and pro-imperialistic policies were even worse than the traditional policies of the Kuomintang, a staunch opponent of the principle of a unified China, historically proclaimed by the Communist Party of China. This thorny issue threatened to unleash a war of unforeseeable consequences, a new sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of over 1,300 million Chinese people.

The election, this past March 23, of a candidate from the party that provided Chiang Kai-shek with his political foundations, was undoubtedly a political and moral victory for China. It removes from the Taiwanese government a party which, in office for nearly eight years, was about to take new, nefarious steps.

According to press agencies, the party lost by a landslide, securing a mere 4.4 million votes from a population of 17.3 million people entitled to vote.

The new president will be sworn in on May 20. “We will sign a peace treaty with China,” he declared.

The cables report that Ma Ying-Jeou supports the creation of a Common Market with China, the island’s main trade partner.

The People’s Republic of China maintains a dignified and cautious attitude towards the thorny issue. At the Beijing State Council, Taiwan’s official spokesperson declared that Ma Ying-Jeou’s victory proves that “independence is not a popular issue among the Taiwanese.”

This laconic statement speaks volumes.

The works of prestigious U.S. historical researchers have divulged what took place in the Chinese territory of Tibet.

Kenneth Conboy’s The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet (University Press, Kansas) describes the sordid details of the conspiracy. William Leary calls it “an excellent and impressive study of a major CIA covert operation during the Cold War”.

During two centuries, not one country in the world had recognized Tibet as an independent nation. It was considered to be an integral part of China. In 1950, India conceived it as such, following the triumph of the communist revolution. Britain assumed the same stance. Until the World War II, the United States considered it a part of China and even brought pressures to bear on Britain in this connection. Following the war, however, they saw it as a religious stronghold that could be used against communism.

When the People’s Republic of China implemented the agrarian reform on Tibetan soil, the elite saw its properties and interests undermined and opposed the measures. This led to an armed uprising in 1959. Tibet’s armed rebellion —as opposed to those in Guatemala, Cuba and other nations, where fighting took place under truly harsh conditions— was prepared for years by U.S. secret services, as these studies reveal.

Another book —which essays an apology of the CIA— Mikel Dunshun’s Buddha’s Warriors, tells the story of how the agency took hundreds of Tibetans to the United States, led and equipped the rebellion, parachuted armaments to Tibetan fighters and trained them in their use. The rebels moved on horseback, as Arab warriors once did. The book’s prologue was written by the Dalai Lama, who writes: “Though I am deeply convinced that the struggle of Tibetans will succeed only through a long-term and peaceful process, I have always admired these freedom fighters for their courage and their unwavering determination.”

The Dalai Lama, bestowed with the U.S. Congress Gold Medal, praised George W. Bush for his efforts in defense of freedom, democracy and human rights.

The Dalai Lama called the war in Afghanistan a war of “liberation”, the Korean War a war of “semi-liberation” and the Vietnam War a “failure”.

I have summarized information taken from the Internet, from the Rebelión site, specifically. Because of space and time limitations, I have not included the page numbers of each book from where the exactly quoted paragraphs were taken.

There are those who suffer from Chino-phobia, a condition shared by many Westerners, accustomed by their education and cultural differences to regard whatever comes from China with contempt.

I was virtually still a child when people started to speak of a “yellow peril.” The Chinese revolution seemed impossible back then. The real causes behind anti-Chinese sentiments were racist at root.

Why is imperialism so intent on subjecting China, directly or indirectly, to an international wearing down?

Some time ago; that is to say, 50 years ago, it sought to deny China the prerogatives it had heroically earned for itself as a full member of the Security Council. Later, highlighting the errors that led to the Tiananmen Square protests, it deified the Statue of Liberty, the emblem of an empire which today embodies the negation of all freedoms.

The People’s Republic of China passed legislation which stood out in proclaiming and enforcing respect for the rights and cultures of 55 ethnic minorities.

The People’s Republic of China is, at the same time, highly sensitive with regards to all things related to the integrity of its territory.

The campaign orchestrated against China is like a bugle call aimed at unleashing an attack on the country’s well-earned success and against its people, hosts of the next Olympic Games.

The Cuban government issued a statement categorically expressing its support of China in connection with the campaign undertaken against it on the issue of Tibet. This was the right stance to assume. China respects the rights of its citizens to hold religious beliefs or not. In China, there are Muslim, Catholic and non-Catholic Christian and other religious groups, not to mention dozens of ethnic minorities, whose rights are guaranteed by the Chinese constitution.

In our Communist Party, one’s religion does not represent an obstacle to becoming a Party member.

I respect the Dalai Lama’s right to believe, but I am not obliged to believe in the Dalai Lama.

I do have many reasons to believe in China’s victory.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 31, 2008
5:15 p.m.

Without some basic historical knowledge, the subject I am dealing with could not be understood.

In Europe, people had heard about China. In the autumn of 1298, Marco Polo told marvelous tales about an amazing country he called Cathay. Columbus, an intelligent and intrepid sailor, was aware of the Greeks’ knowledge about the roundness of the Earth. His own observations led him to agree with those theories. He came up with the plan of reaching the Far East sailing westward from Europe. But, he calculated the distance with far too much optimism, for it was several times greater. Unexpectedly, between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, this continent loomed up on his route. Magellan would make the journey conceived by him, even though he died before reaching Europe. Still, the value of the spices collected paid for the expedition initiated with a number of vessels – of which only one returned – a prelude of future colossal profits.

From that point, the world began to change at an accelerated pace. Old forms of exploitation were repeated again, from slavery to feudal serfdom; ancient and new religious beliefs spread over the planet.

From that fusion of cultures and events, accompanied by technical advances and scientific discoveries, today’s world was born, and it could not be understood without a minimum of real precedents.

International trade, with its advantages and disadvantages, was imposed by the colonial powers, such as Spain, England and the other European powers. These, especially England, soon began to control southwest, south and southeast Asia, and Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, forcibly expanding its rule everywhere. The colonizers were not able to impose their authority over the gigantic country of China, which had an ancient culture and fabulous natural and human resources.

Direct trade between Europe and China began in the sixteenth century, after the Portuguese established the commercial enclave in Goa in India and in Macao in southern China.

Spanish control in the Philippines facilitated an accelerated exchange with the great Asian country. The Qin dynasty, which ruled China, tried to limit this kind of unfavorable commercial operation with foreign countries as much as possible. It was allowed only through the port of Canton, today called Guangzhou. Britain and Spain had great deficits because of the low demand of the enormous Asiatic country, related to English goods manufactured in the metropolis, or Spanish products coming from the New World that were not essential to China. Both of them had begun to sell opium.

Large-scale opium trade was at first dominated by the Dutch through Jakarta, Indonesia. The English observed the profits that were close to 400 percent. Their opium exports which, in 1730, were 15 tons, grew to 75 in 1773, shipped in crates weighing 70 kilograms each; with this they bought porcelain, silk, spices and Chinese tea. Opium, not gold, was the currency Europe used to acquire Chinese goods.

In the spring of 1830, faced with the unbridled abuse of the opium trade in China, Emperor Daoguang ordered Lin Hse Tsu, an imperial official, to fight the plague; he ordered the destruction of 20,000 crates of opium. Lin Hse Tsu sent a letter to Queen Victoria asking for respect for international regulations and not to allow trade with toxic drugs.

The Opium Wars were the English response. The first lasted three years, from 1839 to 1842. The second, with France joining in, lasted four years, from 1856 to 1860. They are also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars.

The United Kingdom forced China to sign unfair treaties committing this country to opening up several ports to foreign trade and handing over Hong Kong. Several countries, following England’s lead, imposed unequal terms of exchange.

Such humiliation contributed to the Taiping Rebellion of 1850 to 1864, the Boxer Rebellion of 1899 to 1901 and, finally, the fall of the Qin Dynasty in 1911 which, for various reasons – including its weakness in the face of foreign powers – had become highly unpopular in China.

What happened with Japan?

This country with its ancient culture and very hard-working, like others in the region, resisted “Western civilization” and for more than 200 years – among other causes because of a chaotic domestic administration – remained hermetically sealed to foreign trade.

In 1854, after an earlier exploratory voyage with four gunboats, a U.S. naval expedition commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry, threatening to bomb a Japanese town – defenseless before the modern technology of those vessels– obliged the shoguns to sign, on behalf of the Emperor, the Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854. Thus, the grafting of capitalist trade and Western technology was begun in Japan. At the time, Europeans were unaware of the Japanese capacity to develop in that field.

On the heels of the Yankees, representatives of the Russian Empire arrived from the Far East, fearful that the U.S., to whom they later sold Alaska on October 18, 1867, would get a head-start in trading activities with Japan. Britain and the other European colonizing nations came quickly to the country with the same intentions.

During the U.S. intervention in 1862, Perry occupied different parts of Mexico. At the end of the war, the country lost more than 50 percent of its territory, precisely those areas where the greatest oil and gas reserves were to be found, even though at that time, gold and land to expand into, not fuel, were the main goals of the conquerors.

The first China-Japan War was officially declared on August 1, 1894. At the time Japan wanted Korea, a tributary state subordinated to China. With more developed weaponry and technology, it defeated Chinese forces in several battles near the cities of Seoul and Pyongyang. Later military victories opened its way toward Chinese territory.

In the month of November that year, they took Port Arthur, today Lüshun. In the River Yalu estuary and at the Weihaiwei Naval Base, surprised by a land attack from the Liaodong Peninsula, heavy Japanese artillery destroyed the fleet of the attacked nation.

The dynasty had to ask for peace. The Treaty of Shimonoseki, which put an end to the war, was signed in April of 1895. China was forced to cede Taiwan, the Liaodong Peninsula and the archipelago of the Pescadores Islands to Japan “in perpetuity;” China also had to pay a war indemnity of 200 million taels of silver and open up four ports to the exterior. Russia, France and Germany, defending their individual interests, obliged Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula, paying in exchange another 30 million taels of silver.

Before mentioning the second China-Japan War, I should include another armed episode with a double historical importance; it took place from 1904 to 1905 and it cannot be omitted.

After being inserted into armed civilization and wars for the partitioning of the world as imposed by the West, Japan, which had already waged the first war against China as mentioned above, developed its naval power to such a degree that it was able to deal a harsh blow to the Russian Empire, which was at the point of prematurely inciting the revolution programmed by Lenin when he created in Minsk, 10 years earlier, the Party which would later unleash the October Revolution.

On August 10, 1904, with no advance warning, Japan attacked and destroyed the Russian Pacific Fleet at Shandong. Czar Nicholas II of Russia, upset by the attack, ordered the Baltic Fleet to be mobilized and to set sail for the Far East. Convoys of colliers were contracted to bring in the shipments needed by the fleet while it was sailing towards its distant destination. One of the operations to transfer coal had to be carried out on the high seas due to diplomatic pressure.

The Russians, upon entering south China, sailed towards Vladivostok, the only available port for the fleet’s operations. In order to reach that point, there were three routes: the best choice was the Tsushima route; the other two required navigation to the east of Japan and increased the risks and the enormous wear and tear on the vessels and crews. The Japanese admiral had the same thought: for this option he made his plan and located his ships so that the Japanese fleet, after making a U-turn, would have all its vessels, mainly cruisers, passing about 6,000 meters away from the adversary’s ships, a large number of battleships. These would be at the reach of the Japanese cruisers, outfitted with personnel that were rigorously trained in the use of their cannon. As a result of the lengthy route, the Russian battleships were navigating at a speed of only 8 knots as compared with the 16-knot speed of the Japanese vessels.

The military action is known by the name of Battle of Tsushima. It took place on May 27 and 28, 1905.

On the side of the Russian Empire, 11 battleships and eight cruisers took part.

Admiral of the Fleet: Zinovy Rozhdestvensky.

Losses: 4,380 dead, 5,917 wounded, 21 ships sunk, 7 captured and 6 rendered useless.

The admiral of the Russian fleet was wounded by a shell fragment that hit him in the skull.

On the side of the Japanese Empire, 4 battleships and 27 cruisers took part.

Admiral of the Fleet: Heichachiro Togo

Losses: 117 dead, 583 wounded and 3 torpedo ships sunk.

The Baltic fleet was destroyed. Napoleon would have termed it “Austerlitz at sea”. Anyone can imagine the deep wound caused by the dramatic event to traditional Russian pride and patriotism.

After the battle, Japan became a much feared naval power, rivaling Britain and Germany and competing with the United States.

Japan rehabilitated the concept of the battleship as the principal weapon in the years to come. They embroiled themselves in the task of empowering the Imperial Japanese Army. They requested and paid a British shipbuilder to construct a special cruiser, with the intent of later reproducing it in their Japanese shipbuilding yards. Later, they manufactured battleships that were far better than those of their contemporaries, both in armor and power.

There was no other nation on the face of the earth that could come close to Japanese naval engineering in the 1930’s in the design of warships.

That explains the bold action with which, one day, they attacked their master and rival, the United States which, through Commodore Perry, started them off on the road of war.

I shall continue tomorrow.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 30, 2008

This past Wednesday, March 26, 20-year-old Lisandra Guerra became the 500-meter time-trial cycling world champion in the World Track Cycling Championship held in Manchester, Great Britain, following intense competition with athletes from 37 different countries. Fruit of our educational and sports system, of our talented youth and women, we can sincerely and legitimately feel proud of this victory. Credit where credit is due! Today, however, I shan’t write about sports. That same day, on the 26th, the Henry Reeve Contingent Detachment that had been involved in relief work in Peru returned to Cuba, undefeated.

The earthquake took place on August 15, 2007. It measured 7.9 on the Richter scale. The detachment arrived in Cuzco on August 18. Their two-month relief work plan had been designed to address the most urgent needs.

The real needs were to require more than double this time. They saw 153, 292 patients, 65,299 of whom were visited in their homes. They remained in Peru until March 25, 2008, seven months and seven days.

Dr. Juan Carlos Dupuy Núñez, who has been in charge of the Henry Reeve Contingent since its creation in September 19, 2005 and was the head of the Cuban medical brigade in Pakistan, headed the detachment. Several members of the detachment had done relief work in Pakistan and Indonesia. Not one of these 77 men and women turned a deaf ear to the call of duty.

The glorious pages in history they have written cannot be erased. Such dignity and conscience are a bulwark against the rusted armaments of imperialism.

In view of the Peruvian people’s gratitude and acknowledgement, it was morally impossible for us to leave the country without having other members of the Contingent travel there to undertake relief work in their place.

I shall be writing about China in coming days. The material has already been written and needs only some minor touches.

I didn’t even try to write about the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Cuito Cuanavale battle, the loftiest example of our people’s internationalist conscience. I would prefer that those who witnessed the heroic events in person, during a time that was to last, not one day, but months, speak in honor of the glorious fallen.

Yesterday, I watched the Round Table program on Cuba’s congress of intellectuals and artists, about to start. There is no doubt in my mind the debates will be extremely interesting.

We shall be alert, following developments, as Bush gets up to his old tricks in Bucharest and the Black Sea the first days of April, as we have already denounced. And keep an eye on the Vice! This was a typical saying in the days Cuba was a neo-colony, meant to keep people on their guard.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 29, 2008

Tuesday, March 18 marked the fifth anniversary of the arrest of more than 70 quislings, the capos of imperialism’s fifth column in Cuba who, paid by the U.S. government, violate the laws of the land and share the opinion that this dark corner of the world should be swept off the map. On that date, a Department of State spokesperson described the event as the “Black Spring”, a term with racist overtones. We could call it “White Spring.” Darkness does not exist in space, only in the mind. What a huge difference between the methods used by the government of the United States and those used by Cuba! Not one of the mercenaries was tortured or deprived of lawyers or trial, even if it was of a summary nature, provided by the law in cases of danger of aggression; they have the right to receive visits, access to family facilities as well as the other legal prerogatives of all prisoners; and if at any time their health seriously requires it, they are released, without the demands of imperialism and its allies having anything at all to do with it. We urge the United States to do with its prison population as we have done here in Cuba. The Revolution demands respect for sovereignty, not pardon.

With Wednesday, March 19 being the fifth anniversary of the stupid war unleashed in Iraq, Bush is grabbing hold of any Bin Laden declaration, either fictitious or real, even though in the case of the latter no date is supplied as to when it was made, nor can they assure us that it is his voice. They will investigate it, so they promise. Nobody ever took so much advantage of such materials to shape the opinions of the citizens of the United States and of many other countries in the world with similar cultures and beliefs, in order to justify the brutal and genocidal wars that imperialism needs so much. Time and time again he formulates and repeats selected words and phrases. The people and institutions referred to, without exception, find themselves obliged to respond, whether the declarations are true or not. Just observe how, year after year, from day one, Bush keeps on milking the events of September 11.

From the Bucharest conference, Bush will move on to that of NATO, and from there he will pole vault over to Croatia, which had disputes with Serbia, and whose president was tried and convicted by the International Criminal Court for the Kosovo affair. Did he really die a natural death in prison? What kind of peace will be attained from those strange twists and turns?

Swedish Hans Blix, who headed the UN inspectors team that diligently searched for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and who shares many of the ideas and lies of the empire’s sinister philosophy, wrote the following on the occasion of the fifth anniversary: “The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a tragedy for Iraq, for the United States, for the UN, for truth and human dignity. They could not succeed in eliminating WMDs because they did not exist. Nor could they succeed in the declared objective of aim eliminating al-Qaeda members, because they were not in Iraq. They came later, attracted by the attackers.”

The Association of Muslim Ulemas, the supreme religious Sunni authority in Iraq, made the following statement on the occasion of the fifth anniversary: “The occupier has entered our lands by force and he is not going to leave unless we use force. Any call made by politicians who acquiesce to working under the umbrella of occupation should be considered an invitation to surrender and capitulation. The occupation forces have turned Iraq into the world’s most dangerous zone. The era of occupation will soon end.”

Without giving himself a chance to recover from his exhausting meeting in Afghanistan with Karza, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney had talks yesterday, Friday, and today, Saturday, with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, in order to secure his cooperation and that of the OPEP over oil supplies and to pay with devaluated dollars. In truth, there can be no war without oil, nor oil without war.

In the Latin American scenario, the Ecuadorian high command stated that the bombs used in the attack on Raúl Reyes’ camp were GBU-2/B Paveways, weighing more than 500 pounds, and with exact targeting precision thanks to advanced technology. There were 10 such bombs and they left craters 2.80 meters in diameter and 1.80 meters in depth.

In Western Europe, Sarkozy, whose honeymoon with the French electorate ended a few days ago, was impatiently awaiting McCain and his entourage of pro-Israeli Republican senators. McCain urged him to join the NATO mechanisms, defended the Iraq war and forcefully lambasted China. Meanwhile, Hillary and Obama are bleeding from attacks from the right, the left and the center. There is nothing more resembling a lunatic asylum. The candidates for the presidency of the United States are discussing certain war vs. probable war.

Today, Bush’s radio broadcast coincides with Easter. What is he thinking? A message that, although brief, needs quite a few paragraphs or phrases to catch his drift:

“This is the most important holiday in the Christian faith. And during this special and holy time, every year millions of Americans pause to remember a sacrifice that transcended the grave and redeemed the world.

“Easter beckons us homeward. This [...] is an occasion to reflect on the things that matter most in life: the love of family, the laughter of friends, and the peace that comes from being in the place you call home…”

“America is blessed with the world’s greatest military, made up of men and women who fulfill their responsibilities…”

“At Easter, we remember especially those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom. These [...] have lived out the words of the Gospel: ‘Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend’…”

“Every year, millions of Americans take time to feed the hungry and clothe the needy and care for the widow and the orphan…millions across the world remember the gift that took away death’s sting and opened the door to eternal life…”

“Thank you for listening.”

Bush imagines that God will reward him for accelerating the day of the Apocalypse and the Final Judgment, after which he will seat him at His right, in a place of honor. Then perhaps he will abandon the odious gestures that accompany his speeches, so that he can dwell under the same roof as those souls of the human beings he exterminated in his war on terrorism, the great majority of them girls and boys, adolescents and young people, women and the elderly, those who have no reason whatsoever to be blamed.

The Old Testament speaks of archangels who were transformed into the enemies of God by ambition and who were sent to Hell. It is difficult to put aside the idea that the genes of some of those archangels are lurking in Bush’s head.

Today is Saturday. It is a slow day for political news. Reporters are resting.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 22, 2008

In this reflection I will go by news received from different sources, including international cable services, –without specifically recognizing any of them as the information source, but strictly abiding by the text of the news- books, documents, the Internet, and even questions asked to well-informed sources.

There is a big hustle and bustle everywhere, as if we lived in a madhouse. Our very well-known characters continue on their hectic tour.

After visiting Brazil and Chile, Condoleezza flew to Moscow to sound out the new President. She wants to know his mind. She traveled with the chief of the Pentagon. With a dislocated arm after a fall in February, he said: “With a broken arm, I won’t be nearly as difficult a negotiator.” A typically Yankee joke. You may figure out the effect this had on the proud ears of a Russian, whose people suffered the loss of so many millions of lives in their struggle against the Nazi hordes that were claiming vital space –what today would be called cheap oil, raw materials and guaranteed markets for surplus goods.

We have known of the adventures of McCain and Cheney in Baghdad; one of them hopes to become head of government, and the other, being already deputy head of government, issues more orders than his boss. They met them with the most unexpected and violent predictions. They devoted no more than two days to that, but enough time to flood the world with sinister forecasts.

Bush was delivering speeches in Washington while the prices of gold and oil were sky-rocketing.

Cheney didn’t stop. He took off for the Sultanate of Oman -774,000 oil barrels per day in 2005 and 780,000 in 2004. Last year Oman revealed its plans to invest $10 billion during the next five years to increase its oil production to 900,000 barrels per day and reach the figure of 70 to 80 million cubic meters of gas per day. This is what the Sultanate authorities reported on January 15, 2007.

Cheney, accompanied by his family, went sailing on of the Sultan’s yacht “Kingfish I” to fish in the limits of the maritime boundaries between Oman and Iran. What temerity! Nobel prizes should also be given to those super-brave persons who run the risk of death or mutilation after a sumptuous private lunch with a fishbone stuck in their throat. The absence of the owner of the luxurious yacht spoiled the hero’s party.

McCain isn’t stopping either. He jumped into a helicopter to tour the territory where the Israeli soldiers, while chasing Palestinian leaders, continue to kill women, children, adolescents and youth in the West Bank with their sophisticated technical means. The Republican candidate is an expert on that.

He traveled to Jerusalem and there promised to be the first to recognize that whole city as the capital of Israel, which the United States and Europe has converted into a sophisticated nuclear power, whose satellite-guided missiles could fall in Moscow, more than 5,000 kilometers away, in a matter of minutes.

There will be no oil- or gas-producing state left unvisited by Cheney before he returns to attest to the happiness of the world before the President of his country.

Bush, for one, speaks on the 17th for one reason, on the 18th for another, and on the 19th to mark the beginning of his fantastic war. Cuba, as may be expected, continues to be a target of his insults.

In the midst of the chaos created by the empire, wars become inseparable partners. The one in Iraq has now lasted for five years. Profound thinkers estimate that millions of people have been affected, and that its total cost is in the trillions. Four thousand regular soldiers have died, and for every one killed, 30 are injured in this type of war. White phosphorous and cluster bombs are the war’s daily bread. Anything goes, except for living.

Cheney and McCain are competing with one another, one as the creature’s father, and the other as its stepfather. They both meet with heads of State and make demands: oil and gas production should be increased; Yankee technology, Yankee supplies, and Yankee weapons from the Yankee military-industrial complex should be used; Yankee military bases should be authorized.

From Jerusalem, McCain hops over to London to talk with Gordon Brown. Before that, while speaking in Jordan, he makes a mistake and asserts that Iran, a Shiite country, is training Al Qaeda, a Sunni organization. It’s all the same to him; he doesn’t even apologize for his mistake.

Cheney hops over to Afghanistan. The war waged by NATO and the Yankees has turned the country into the world’s largest opium exporter. The USSR wore itself out and collapsed in a similar war. Bush launched his first military blow there, along with NATO.

They are doing all that needs to be done to convene two parallel meetings: one to discuss the fight on terrorism and a NATO meeting.

One thing is certain: Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO’s top official, will meet with Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan on April 1, 2 and 3 in Bucharest to participate in the Trans-Atlantic Forum. At the same time, a conference convened by the GMF (German Marshall Fund, of the United States), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, and Chatham House will bring together a large number of strategists and politicians to address matters of vital interest for NATO. According to the GMF Chairman, the conference will be attended by nine Heads of State, 24 prime ministers and other ministers, and 40 presidents of research institutions from Europe and the Americas, comprising the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which dissolved Tito’s Yugoslavia and carried out the war in Kosovo. Anyone can understand that any similarity between its interests and those of Yankee imperialism is purely coincidental. The situation in the Balkans, the anti-missile defense system, the energy supply and weapons control are unavoidable issues.

Given that Bush needs to perform his role as the main character, he has already drafted his own schedule: he will be in the city of Neptun, on the Black Sea, to attend a meeting with Traian Basescu, President of Romania, on the eve of the conference. The fate of humankind which contributes surplus value and blood, are in those hands.

(To be continued tomorrow, in Part II)

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 22, 2008

I promised I would continue the reflections today, using textual news and adding pertinent commentaries.

“NEW YORK, March 13 (ANSA) – The absence of Argentina in the itinerary of the new trip by the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to South America is another sign of Washington’s annoyance with the authorities in Buenos Aires, according to The New York Times today.

“The newspaper recalled that Rice is visiting Brazil and Chile this week but ‘notably absent from her itinerary’ is Argentina, where Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, wife of ex-President Néstor Kirchner, ‘became the first woman elected as the country’s president.’

“The omission underscores Washington’s disappointment with the new Kirchner government, which has continued to strengthen ties with the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, while ‘accusing the United States of political motives’ in the case of the $80,000 illegally brought into the country by Venezuelan officials.

“The New York Times describes this money as ‘suspected to be a secret contribution from Venezuela to the Kirchner campaign’.”

“BRASILIA, March 13 (EFE) –U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed her hope that Colombia’s neighbors would fulfill their commitment to prevent FARC guerrillas from using their territories ‘to continue killing innocent people.”

“‘We are very concerned with the regional situation (in South America)’, said Rice at a press conference today in Brasilia accompanied by Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Celso Amorim.”

“‘Countries cannot be threatened from within or from outside. And we must avoid that the terrorists continue killing innocent people,’ the head of U.S. foreign policy said after meetings with both Amorim and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.”

“BRASILIA, March 13 (ANSA) – [...] the official said that the U.S. government maintains good relations with left-wing leaders such as Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.”

“After the press conference, Rice and Chancellor Celso Amorim had lunch together at the Itamaraty Palace.”

“BRASILIA, March 13 (AP) – [...] Rice made these declarations one day after President George W. Bush said that the recent crisis between Colombia and Ecuador was ‘the most recent step of a worrisome pattern of provocative behavior on the part of the Caracas government.”

“Washington is toughening its rhetoric against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, while at the same time praising its South American allies for firmly confronting terrorism.”

In Brazil, after dealing with the subject of the future composition of the Security Council, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice clearly explained that the United States would not be opposed to Brazil’s entry into that Council, but noted that its support was committed to Japan, its strategic and economic partner.

“SANTIAGO, March 13 (AFP) –U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will make a brief visit to Chile on Friday, where she will be meeting with President Michelle Bachelet to consolidate bilateral ties and review the regional situation.”

“Rice will arrive in Santiago Friday afternoon, coming from Brazil, where she arrived this Thursday. The chief of U.S. diplomacy will be in the Chilean capital for almost six hours, and will return to Washington the same day, just before taking off on a trip to Moscow.”

According to that same agency, the U.S. ambassador in Santiago, Paul Simons, stated:

“The fact that she is coming to Chile in the middle of a very busy schedule shows the importance she is giving to conversations with her colleague, Chancellor Foxley, and with the president, about our positive agenda.”

“Brazil and Chile ‘are countries that are friends and strategic regional partners of the United States,’ the diplomat added in a press conference.”

“With the Chilean authorities, Rice will be discussing the state of bilateral relations, but also the regional situation following the serious crisis created by the Colombian military incursion into Ecuadorian territory, resulting in the death of the second-in-command of the FARC guerrillas, Raúl Reyes.

“‘We shall be talking about the regional situation’, Simons disclosed.”

“In Santiago, Rice will also give the go-ahead to her Chilean colleague for the so-called ‘Chile-California Plan for the 21st Century’, an agreement that attempts to take advantage of similarities in geography, climate and productivity between the South American country and that U.S. state.”

“The agreement is unprecedented and came up following a personal conversation between Foxley and Rice, according to Ambassador Simons, who did not disclose any more details.”

Unquestionably, the U.S. ambassador in Chile, as is his habit, let too much slip out, speaking of a plan that the Chilean government still hasn’t even publicly mentioned, nor has there been any decision made about something that appears to be a fantasy from the Arabian Nights.

There is also much news on the Internet about the U.S. secretary of state’s tour. On March 13, the following headlines could be read:

BBC World – London, UK. “Rice: Borders, not hiding places.”

Terra – News Portal, Spain. “Rice Ratifies in Brazil U.S. commitment to Colombia and against the FARC.”

Alarde – Brazilian newspaper. “U.S. Defends South American Security Plan.”

El Observador – Venezuelan newspaper. “Rice emphasizes that U.S. is to study information about alleged Venezuelan ties with the FARC.”

Ansalatine – Italian News Agency. “Rice proposes joint action against FARC.”

BBC World – London, UK. “Rice visits ‘strategic’ partners.”

El Nuevo Diario – Nicaraguan newspaper. “U.S. toughens rhetoric against Chávez on Rice tour”

AFP – French News Agency. “Rice to visit Chile to consolidate ties and talk about the regional situation.”

EFE – Spanish News Agency. “Rice ratifies in Brazil U.S. commitment to Colombia and against the FARC.”

AFP – French News Agency. “Rice: U.S. examines ties between Chávez and FARC and will take action”.

La Prensa – Argentine newspaper. “Borders cannot be a hide-out, U.S. warns.”

On March 14, O Estado de Sao Paulo, a Brazilian news site, successively sends three articles titled: “Untimely interference”, “Rice discusses African tourism in Bahia” and “Amorim and ‘Condi’ make mistakes.”

O Globo on line – Digital site of the Brazilian TV channel. “Condoleezza: borders are not ‘hiding places.’”

El Mercurio – Chilean newspaper. “Rice, arriving today in the country, will discuss a request to send peace forces to Kosovo with the Chilean Government.”

Crónica Digital – Chilean News site. “Policy: sticks and carrots: Condoleezza Rice’s Chilean agenda.”

Condoleezza Rice herself should have to answer some questions: How many Americans have been killed by bombs sent by Cuba? Has one single brick ever been broken on account of an explosive device coming from our country? Why are we being included on the grotesque list of terrorist countries, the same one on which Venezuela’s inclusion is being arbitrarily threatened? Who used terrorism against our homeland to blow up planes in mid-air, commit acts of sabotage and launch mercenary invasions and threats of bombings and wars, economic blockade and actions that have cost thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars? Who is going to believe you or Bush? Why are you insisting on provoking fratricidal wars between the peoples of Latin America?

In Iraq, more than one million people have died. How many deaths is the United States of America offering Latin America, a region with over 500 million inhabitants, to defend its democracy and its empire?

It is a real fact that Bush and his group are much more trapped in their foreign policy errors than even Nixon when he resigned in 1972. The bloody Iraqi war and its rejection by the U.S. people, the toll in human lives, the extremely high number of wounded and maimed for every death in the military adventure, all reveal a situation full of contradictions: the deteriorated image of the United States and the impossibility of giving up the wars of conquest for raw materials, the dollar and the price of gold, currency devaluations and inflation, consumerism and the inability to supply itself with consumer goods, the production of ethanol and the world shortage of food, fascist methods and democratic demagoguery, torture practices and secret prisons and human rights, maximum environmental pollution of the country and the species’ right to survival, the benefits of science for health and the use of the same to massively liquidate or invalidate human beings, the brain drain and underdevelopment of poor countries, the price of oil and the ever-greater wasting of energy, the November elections and increasing numbers of Latinos dying on the border.

The list would be endless. It is, in essence, a contradiction between life and death.

Today, on Sunday March 16, we can read the dispatches that correspondents were writing in Havana last night, Saturday, about the material published today in Juventud Rebelde, received by that newspaper in advance on the previous day.

It is remarkable that none of the capitalist news agencies have published a single word on what was written about former guerrilla Pedro Pablo Montoya, who killed a leader of the FARC and cut off his hand in order to receive a bounty of 2.6 million dollars that was legalized by an attorney general of Colombia. He was probably an agent infiltrated by the Yankees. The issue has elicited much debate due to its ethical implications.

Condoleezza is off to Moscow, Bush has announced a trip to the Ukraine and Bucharest for the first days of April and he will conclude the tour in Croatia, Serbia’s neighbor, from which imperialism ripped its vital province of Kosovo, site of its culture and source of essential material resources that formed the basis of its development.

McCain has just arrived in Iraq for the eighth time, to offer his full support to Bush’s war, and to the 3 trillion dollars it has cost, to which millions of victims must be added, among the displaced and the dead, for the price of the fallen and mutilated Americans already mentioned.

What can the world expect from such a policy?

The imperialist leaders and officials are working feverishly, threatening everyone with their brutal strength, but the empire is unsustainable and it is not giving up. It is thirsty for blood. We must persistently denounce it!

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 16, 2008

The empire is not resigning itself to being the only loser at the Rio Group meeting held in Santo Domingo on March 7. It wants to set up the bloody mess once more. That is not difficult to demonstrate.

On Tuesday March 11t, El Nuevo Herald, a paper that is extremely hostile to Cuba and destined to chart guidelines in Latin America, under the title of “Cuban is the alleged leader of the FARC in Mexico”, signed by one of its writers born in our country, states:

“A Cuban engineer living in Mexico has been identified by intelligence authorities as the alleged leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) support group on Mexican territory.

“The intelligence report –quoted by the newspapers El Universal and The Wall Street Journal– points to Mario Dagoberto Díaz Orgaz, aged 48, as the main suspect of organizing the expedition of a group of Mexican students to a FARC camp in Ecuador, attacked by Colombian forces on March 1.

“Mexican agents say they photographed Díaz Orgaz in Quito on March 5 at 6:25 p.m., while he was prowling around the Military Hospital where Lucía Andrea Morett Álvarez, a survivor of the armed operation, is being held.

“The young woman, known as ‘Alicia’ in the rebel ranks, had traveled from Mexico to Havana on January 10, and from there to Quito. Her return to Mexico was scheduled for Tuesday.

“The report on Díaz Orgaz also presents him as the financial operator of the FARC in Mexico…”

“The Cuban engineer had been located in Ecuador by Mexican intelligence services after surviving the military attack on the FARC camp.

“Last night, El Nuevo Herald telephoned a close friend of his in the city of Queretaro, where Díaz Orgaz lives and works as a researcher in the Engineering and Industrial Development Center attached to the National Science and Technology Council of the Mexican government…

“In order to avoid being harassed by the press, Díaz Orgaz has been at the house of friends since Monday.

“The source said that the Cuban engineer can prove that the trip to Ecuador attributed to him is false, given that on the date that Mexican intelligence has him located in the vicinity of the Military Hospital in Quito, he was in the city of Villa Hermosa, capital of the state of Tabasco, with a group of colleagues from the Engineering and Industrial Development Center.

“Díaz Orgaz is originally from the town of Bejucal, in La Habana province, where he was born on January 15, 1960. According to information in the hands of the Mexican federal government, Díaz Orgaz studied mechanical engineering at the Vladimir Polytechnical Institute, 112 miles from Moscow, and later took several specialization courses in Metrology…

“He would have played a key role in the financial support given to FARC supporters at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), one of the largest and most prestigious academic centers in Latin America…

“Revelations in the case come a few days prior to the visit of Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa to Havana, motivated by a policy to reestablish relations between the two countries.

“Last February, the Colombian army captured Cuban doctor Emilio Muñoz Franco in Palmira, department of Valle del Cauca. This optometrist had been mentioned as a keystone in the FARC logistical support network.

“Muñoz Franco had taken Cuban medical students as trainees to the FARC camps between 2000 and 2001.

“The Colombian authorities consider that there is enough evidence to accuse him of being a foreigner associated with the guerrillas. His neighbors in Palmira claim that they have never seen him involved in anything scandalous.”

The stupid intention of mixing Cubans into the matter is very clear, besides the lie about the impossible presence of our medical students in that faraway Colombian jungle. Whenever a Cuban engineer or doctor abandons his country it is someone who is leaving with knowledge that our people have paid for with great sacrifice. Exactly on the 13th of this month, 177 members of the Medical Brigade and 35 teachers returned after fulfilling their sacred mission in East Timor for two years.

I myself bade them farewell when they left.

In East Timor, which prior to its independence, suffered genocide, internal conflicts arose supported by Australia, an ally of the United States, which took over the natural gas fields in the proximity of the Timor coastline. Under no circumstances did the Cuban doctors abandon their patients who were all inhabitants of that small nation. The personnel who replaced them have remained there. These are indeed Cuban doctors and graduates, of which there are thousands, the same ones that the empire is making unspeakable efforts to bribe away, but to very little effect.

No other country in the Western hemisphere or in the world has such wealth. Today we are training hundreds of young people from East Timor in our medical schools. The doctors who have just returned set an example of what conscience can do.

The quoted article from El Nuevo Herald is also a clear attempt to justify the fact that among the victims there were young Mexicans who were meeting with Reyes, out of curiosity or for whatever other reason, but who had not planted bombs and who did not deserve to be murdered by Yankee bombs while they were in their beds at dawn.

El Mercurio of Chile, under the title “Deserter warns that the leader of the FARC could be assassinated”, states in the words of Pedro Pablo Montoya, former FARC guerrilla:

“The guerrilla deserter who last week killed José Juvenal Velandia, a.k.a. ‘Iván Ríos’, member of the top FARC leadership, affirmed yesterday that rebels in the middle and lower ranks might assassinate their leaders, among them the top leader of the Colombian guerrilla group, Pedro Antonio Marín, alias ‘Manuel Marulanda Vélez’ or ‘Tirofijo’ (Sharpshot).”

“Pedro Pablo Montoya, a.k.a. ‘Rojas’, who has been under Army protection since last Thursday after surrendering with two other FARC members after having assassinated ‘Ríos’, said in an interview to the Bogota paper El Tiempo that non-ranking rebels are demoralized and without incentives due to the ‘bad treatment’ they are receiving from the guerrilla leaders…!

“After killing his leader, ‘Rojas’ chopped off the man’s right hand and presented himself to the soldiers who had surrounded the rebel unit with the dead man’s identification papers and his laptop computer.

“In a statement to Radio Caracol, ‘Rojas’ said that the FARC doesn’t want to liberate former candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Not even for ‘the big guy’ –they wouldn’t free her for any reason. Doña Yolanda, mother of Ms. Betancourt, should know this…”

The rebel said that he is expecting to be paid a juicy bounty that was offered by the Colombian government, equivalent to 2.6 million dollars, in exchange for information about the insurgent commanders, while lawyers are debating whether or not he should receive the booty. Last night ‘Rojas’ received backing, since the Attorney General of Colombia, Mario Iguarán, indicated that “in principle, the Attorney General’s Office wouldn’t press charges for the murder of Iván Ríos, and thus the way would be cleared for him to receive the bounty”.

For its part, last March 10 The Washington Post, a well-informed paper on the prevailing mood in Washington, published an article titled “The FARC’s Guardian Angel”, signed by Jackson Diehl, where he points out:

“Latin American nations and the Bush administration are just beginning to consider a far more serious and potentially explosive question: What to do about the revelation that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez forged a strategic alliance with the FARC against the democratic government of Colombia?

“…in their totality, the hundreds of pages of documents so far made public by Colombia paint an even more chilling picture…

“All this is laid out in a series of three e-mails sent in February to the FARC top leaders by Iván Márquez and Rodrigo Granda, envoys who held a series of secret meetings with Chávez…

“Assuming that these documents are authentic –and it’s hard to believe that the cerebral and calculating Uribe would knowingly hand over forgeries to the world media and the Organization of American States– both the Bush administration and Latin American governments will have fateful decisions to make about Chávez. His reported actions are, first of all, a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373, passed on September 2001…”

The Washington Post starts from the premise that only Uribe could invent or deliver that document to the United States government and didn’t even consider any other possibility for the complicated situation. However, it is known that since Thursday 13th, Chávez has spoken to Uribe by phone and agreed with him an exchange of visits between the two presidents and the normalization of the trade relations that so much benefit both their peoples. Chavez, for his part, is not giving up on his search for peace between the sister peoples of Latin America.

The most surprising thing is the very speech made by Bush on March 12 and the speedy dispatching of the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Brazil and Chile, a subject about which the wire agencies are writing reams and reams:

“BRASILIA, March 13, 2008 (AFP) –U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Brazilian Racial Integration Minister, Edson Santos, signed an agreement this Thursday in Brasilia to launch a joint action plan ‘for the elimination of racial discrimination.’

“The text of the agreement emphasizes that Brazil and the United States share the characteristic of being ‘multi-ethnic and multiracial democratic societies’.”

I read and I re-read these words. I think it is the opposite of what is really happening in the United States, while I select dispatches and I write. It’s astounding!

I shall continue tomorrow.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 17, 2008

The secondary school students met: their 11th Congress was taking place. Listening to them, I felt a healthy pride and understandable envy. What a privilege at their fruitful age! Along with the massive nature of university study today, so is a more important activity: the battle of ideas before enrolling in university.

It would seem that Nature determined the evolution of human beings so that they are capable, from a very early age, of making consciousness prevail over instinct. My dear compañeros of the Federation of Students in Intermediate Education, that will be your battle.

Today, the decadent and unsustainable empire’s greatest effort is to deprive us of the right to learn and think. Reflect for a moment on the petty attempts by the ringleader of that empire to prevent our people from having access to the Internet, which Rosa Miriam, a young and profound journalist, exposes in a commentary, adding information that The New York Times —in an opinion article, in fact— does not mention:

“…the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control, of the U.S. Treasury Department) reports that 557 ‘accursed’ businesses from all over the world, and 3,719 .com domains have been blocked on the Web without their owners receiving any prior notification… The United States has blocked almost three times as many sites as the country has registered under the country’s generic domain.”

“This is new evidence that the United States is not only controlling its own citizens’ access in cyberspace, but that of all Internet users worldwide.”

She is referring to the policy followed by Bush during his mandate. Although her article was published in Juventud Rebelde, it was worth repeating the information she cites.

What a response in the statements made by the secondary school students. Is there anything like it in the consumerist society of the United States? It is from there, unfortunately, that distressing news arrives about adolescents and young students in contact with deadly firearms, which are sold freely in a society where money and the market chart the course. The U.S. government is based on the National Rifle Association and fear of culture, but it cannot block Cuba’s.

Onward, young Cuban students! Let us fight against egotism, vanity and the sterile ambition of glory, which are vipers that devour human souls; let us maintain our ideas and our consciousness, always upward, together with our glorious ancestors.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 9, 2008