The Aztecs, Maya and other pre-Columbian human groups in Mexico and Central America, for example, were excellent farmers and didn’t even know about growing coca.

The Quechua and Aymara were capable of producing nutritious foods on perfect terraces that followed the mountain level curves. On the high plateaux that often exceeded three or four thousand metres in altitude, they grew quinua, a cereal rich in protein, and potatoes.

They knew about and also grew the coca plant whose leaves they chewed from time immemorial in order to lessen the ravages of high altitudes. This is an ancient custom that the peoples practiced along with products such as coffee, tobacco, liquor and others.

Coca originated on the steep slopes of the Amazonian Andes. The settlers there knew about it from times that predated the Inca Empire whose territory, at the height of its splendor, stretched over the area covered today by southern Colombia, all of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, eastern Chile and north-eastern Argentina; it totaled about two million square kilometers.

Consumption of coca leaves became a privilege of the Inca emperors and the nobility at the religious ceremonies.

When the Empire disappeared after the Spanish invasion, their new masters encouraged the traditional habit of chewing leaves in order to prolong the natives’ working hours, a right that lasted until the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs prohibited the use of coca leaves other than for medical or scientific purposes.

Almost every country signed it. They hardly discussed any topic regarding health. Cocaine trafficking then was not as huge as it is today. In the years that ensued extremely serious problems have been created that require profound analysis.

On the thorny issue of the relationship between drugs and organized crime, the UN itself delicately states that “Latin America is inefficient in combating the crime.”

Information printed by different institutions varies due to the fact that the matter is a sensitive one. Data at times are so complicated and varied that they might lead to confusion. What we can be absolutely sure of is that the problem is rapidly getting worse.

Almost one and a half months ago, on February 11, 2011, a report published in Mexico City by the Citizen Council for Public Security and Justice of that country, provided interesting data on the 50 most violent cities in the world in terms of the number of murders that occurred in the year 2010. The report states that Mexico has 25% of the cities. For the third year in a row, the number one spot belongs to Ciudad Juárez on the United States border.

It goes on to explain “…that year the Juárez murder rate was 35% higher than that of Qandahar, Afghanistan, number two on the list, and 941 % higher than in Baghdad…”, in other words, almost ten times greater than the capital of Iraq, the city occupying the number 50 spot on the list.

Almost immediately it adds that the city of San Pedro Sula, in Honduras, occupies third spot with 125 murders per 100,000 inhabitants; it is exceeded only by Ciudad Juárez in México, with 229; and Qandahar, Afghanistan,, with 169.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras, occupies the sixth spot with 109 murders per every 100,000 inhabitants.

Thus one can see that Honduras, where the Yankee air base of Palmerola is located, where a coup d’état was produced already during the presidency of Obama, has two of the cities among the six where the most murders are committed in the world. Guatemala City has 106.

According to that report, the Colombian city of Medellín, with 87.42, also rates among the most violent cities in the Americas and the world.

The speech of American President Barack Obama in El Salvador, and his subsequent press conference, led me to the duty of printing these lines on the subject.

In my Reflection of March 21st, I criticized his lack of ethics in not mentioning even the name of Salvador Allende in Chile, a symbol of dignity and courage for the world, a man who died as the result of the coup d’état promoted by a president of the United States.

Since I was aware that on the following day he would be visiting El Salvador, a Central American country that is the symbol of the struggles of the peoples of Our America that has suffered the most as a consequence of US policy in our hemisphere, I said: “There he is going to have to be quite inventive because, in that sister nation in Central America, the weapons and training received from the governments of his country spilt much blood.”

I wished him a good trip and “a bit more good sense.” I have to admit that in his long trek, he was a little more careful in the home stretch.

Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero was a man admired by all Latin Americans, whether they are religious or not, just as the Jesuit priests who were cowardly murdered by the henchmen trained, supported and armed to the teeth by the United States. In El Salvador, the FMLN, a militant leftist organization, fought one of the most heroic struggles on our continent.

The Salvadoran people granted victory to the Party that emerged from the heart of those glorious combatants; it is not yet time to construct their profound story.

What is urgently needed is to face up to the dramatic dilemma El Salvador is living, just as Mexico and the rest of Central and South America.

Obama himself stated that around 2 million Salvadorans are living in the United States; this is equivalent to 30% of that country’s population. The brutal repression unleashed against the patriots, and the systematic pillage of El Salvador imposed by the United States, forced hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans to immigrate to that country.

What is new is that added to the desperate situation of Central Americans is the fabulous power of the terrorist gangs, the sophisticated weapons and the demand for drugs, originating in the US market.

In his brief speech that preceded that of his visitor, the president of El Salvador stated, verbatim: “I insisted to you that the subject of organized crime, narco-activity, citizen insecurity, should not be a subject that only concerns El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras or Nicaragua, and not even Mexico or Colombia; it is a subject that concerns us as a region, and that is why we are working on building a regional strategy, through the CARFI Initiative.”

“…I insisted to you that this is a matter that should not only be dealt with from the viewpoint of persecuting a crime, through the strengthening of our policies and our armies, but also by emphasizing our policies of crime prevention and thus the best weapon to fight crime per se in the region is by investing in social policies.”

In his reply, the American president said: “President Funes is committed to creating more economic opportunities here in El Salvador so that people don’t feel like they have to head north to provide for their families.”

“I know this is especially important to the some 2 million Salvadoran people who are living and working in the United States.”

“…I updated the President on the new consumer protections that I signed into law, which give people more information and make sure their remittances actually reach their loved ones back home.”

“Today, we’re also launching a new effort to confront the narco-traffickers and gangs that have caused so much violence in all of our countries, and especially here in Central America.”

“…, we’ll focus $200 million to support efforts here in the region, including addressing, […] the social and economic forces that drive young people towards criminality. We’ll help strengthen courts, civil society groups and institutions that uphold the rule of law.”

I don’t need one single word more to express the essence of a painfully sad situation.

The reality is that many young people in Central America have been led by imperialism to cross a rigid and ever-more insurmountable border, or to work for the million-dollar gangs of drug traffickers.

Wouldn’t it be fairer – I wonder – to have an Adjustment Act for all Latin Americans? Just like the one they invented to punish Cuba almost half a century ago. Will the number of persons that die crossing the US border keep on growing infinitely along with the tens of thousands already dying each year in the countries where you are offering your Partnership of Equals?

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 25, 2011
8:46 p.m.

The post Between Emigration and Crime appeared first on Reflections of Fidel.

Nobody knew when he was arriving in Santiago de Chile and what a President of the United States would do there, where one of his predecessors had committed the painful crime of promoting the defeat and physical death of its heroic President, horrific acts of torture and the murder of thousands of Chileans.

For my part, I also tried to follow the news coming in about the tragedy of Japan and the brutal war unleashed on Libya, while the illustrious visitor proclaimed the “Alliance of Equals” in the region which has the worst distribution of wealth in the world.

Among so many things, I neglected myself a bit and saw nothing of the sumptuous banquet for hundreds of people with the exquisite food that nature bequeathed to the sea and which, had it taken place in a restaurant in Tokyo, a city where up to $300,000 is paid for a fresh blue tuna fin, would have cost up to $10 million.

It was too much work for a young man of my age. I wrote a brief Reflection and then slept for a long time.

This morning, I was refreshed. My friend would not be arriving in El Salvador until after midday. I asked for cable reports, Internet articles and other recently released material.

In the first place, I saw that, through my own fault, the news cables had given importance to what I said in relation to the post of first secretary of the Party, and I will explain that as briefly as possible. I was concentrating so hard on Barack Obama’s “Alliance of Equals,” a matter of so much historic significance – I am talking seriously – that I didn’t even recall that the Party Congress takes place next month.

My attitude in relation to the subject was basically logical. Understanding the gravity of my heath, I did what in my judgment was unnecessary when I had that painful accident in Santa Clara; after the fall the treatment was hard but my life was not in danger.

On the other hand, when I wrote the July 31 proclamation it was obvious to me that my state of health was extremely critical.

I immediately gave up all my public functions, adding to that certain instructions in order to offer the population security and tranquility.

In concrete terms, resigning from all of my posts was not necessary.

For me, the most important function was that of first secretary of the Party. In terms of ideology and as a matter of principle, that political responsibility carries the most authority during a revolutionary period. The other responsibility I held was that of president of the Council of State and Government, elected by the National Assembly. There was a replacement for both positions, and not by virtue of family ties, which I have never considered a source by right, but by experience and merit.

The rank of Comandante en Jefe was bestowed upon me by the struggle itself, a matter of chance rather than personal merit. The Revolution itself, in a later stage, correctly assigned the leadership of all the armed institutions to the President, a role which, in my opinion, should be fulfilled by the first secretary of the Party. I understand that that is how it has to be in a country which, like Cuba, has had to confront an obstacle as considerable as the empire created by the United States.

Almost 14 years have passed since the previous Party Congress, which coincided with the disappearance of the USSR and the Socialist Camp, the Special Period and my own illness.

When I progressively and partially recovered my health, the idea or need to proceed to the formality of expressly resigning from any post never even crossed my mind. During that period I accepted the honor of being elected as a deputy to the National Assembly, which did not require my physical presence and which allowed me to share ideas.

As I now have more time than ever to observe, inform myself and express certain points of view, I shall modestly fulfill my duty of fighting for the ideas that I have defended throughout my modest life.

I ask readers to excuse me for the time invested in this explanation, which the abovementioned circumstances obliged me to undertake.

The most important issue, I have not forgotten, is the unprecedented alliance between millionaires and the hungry proposed by the illustrious President of the United States.

The well-informed – for example, those who know the history of this hemisphere, its struggles, or even solely that of the people of Cuba defending the Revolution against the empire which, as Obama himself realizes, has lasted longer than “his own existence” – will surely be astounded by his proposal.

It is known that the current President is good weaver of words, a circumstance which, compounded by the economic crisis, growing unemployment, loss of homes, and the death of U.S. soldiers in Bush’s stupid wars, helped him to obtain his victory.

After observing him closely, it would not surprise me if he was the author of the ridiculous title baptizing the slaughter in Libya: “Dawn Odyssey,” which must have stirred the dust of Homer’s remains and of those who contributed to forging the legend in the famous Greek poems, although I admit that the title may have been a creation of the military chiefs who manage the thousands of nuclear weapons with which a simple order from the Nobel Peace laureate could determine the end of our species.

Faithful copies of his speech in the Moneda Palace Cultural Center to the white, black, native Indian, mixed race and non-mixed race peoples, believers and non-believers of the Americas were distributed everywhere by U.S. embassies, and translated and broadcast by Chile TV, CNN, and I imagine by other networks in other languages.

It was in the same style as the one he made in the first year of his mandate, in Cairo, the capital of his friend and ally Hosni Mubarak, whose tens of billions of dollars stolen from the people is a fact presumably known to a President of the United States.

“…Chile shows that we need not be divided by race or religion or ethnic conflict,” he assured, thus erasing the American problem from the map.

Almost immediately he emphasized, “…our marvelous surroundings today, just steps from where Chile lost its democracy decades ago…”

All of this without mentioning the coup d’état, the assassination of the honorable General Schneider, or the glorious name of Salvador Allende, as if the U.S. government had absolutely nothing to do with those acts.

The great poet Pablo Neruda, whose death was accelerated by the treacherous coup, was referred to more than once, in this case to affirm in a beautifully poetic way, that our original “guiding stars” are “struggle and hope.” Is Obama unaware of the fact that Pablo Neruda was a communist, a friend of the Cuban Revolution, a great admirer of Simón Bolívar, who is reborn every century, and who inspired the heroic guerrilla Ernesto Guevara?

I was amazed, practically from the beginning of his message, by Barack Obama’s profound historical knowledge. An irresponsible advisor forgot to explain that Neruda was a member of the Communist Party of Chile. After a few insignificant paragraphs he admits, “Now, I know I’m not the first president from the United States to pledge a new spirit of partnership with our Latin American neighbors. [...] I know that there have been times where perhaps the United States took this region for granted.

“Latin America is not the old stereotype of a region, in perpetual conflict or trapped in endless cycles of poverty.

“In Colombia, great sacrifices by citizens and security forces have restored a level of security not seen in decades.” There were never drug traffickers, paramilitary forces or secret burial grounds there.

In his speech, the working class does not exist, nor do landless campesinos, illiteracy, maternal and infant mortality, persons losing their sight or victims of parasites like Chaga or bacterial diseases like cholera.

“From Guadalajara to Santiago to Sao Paolo, a new middle class is demanding more of themselves and more of their governments,” he says.

“When a coup in Honduras threatened democratic progress, the nations of the hemisphere unanimously invoked the Inter-American Democratic Charter, helping to lay the foundation for the return to the rule of law.”

The real reason for Obama’s marvelous speech is indisputably explained halfway through his message and in his own words, “Latin America is only going to become more important to the United States, especially to our economy. [...] We buy more of your products, more of your goods than any other country, and we invest more in this region than any other country. [...] We export more than three times as much to Latin America as we do to China.  Our exports to this region [...] are growing faster than our exports to the rest of the world.” Perhaps from this it can be deduced, “When Latin America is more prosperous, the United States is more prosperous.”

Later on, he dedicates a few insipid words to reality.

“But if we’re honest, we’ll also admit [... ] that progress in the Americas has not come fast enough.  Not for the millions who endure the injustice of extreme poverty.  Not for the children in shantytowns and the favelas who just want the same chance as everybody else.

“Political and economic power that is too often concentrated in the hands of the few, instead of serving the many,” he says literally.

“We are not the first generation to face these challenges.  Fifty years ago this month, President John F. Kennedy proposed an ambitious Alliance for Progress.

“President Kennedy’s challenge endures – to build a hemisphere where all people can hope for a sustainable, suitable standard of living, and all can live out their lives in dignity and in freedom.”

It is incredible that he should arrive now with this contemptible story which constitutes an insult to human intelligence.

He has no choice but to mention, among the many calamities, a problem which has its origins in the colossal U.S. market and that country’s homicidal weapons: “Criminal gangs and narco-traffickers are not only a threat to the security of our citizens.  They’re a threat to development, because they scare away investment that economies need to prosper.  And they are a direct threat to democracy, because they fuel the corruption that rots institutions from within.”

Later on, he reluctantly adds, “But we’ll never break the grip of the cartels and the gangs unless we also address the social and economic forces that fuel criminality.  We need to reach at-risk youth before they turn to drugs and crime.

“As President I’ve made it clear that the United States shares and accepts our share of responsibility for drug violence.  After all, the demand for drugs, including in the United States, drives this crisis.  And that’s why we’ve developed a new drug control strategy that focused on reducing the demand for drugs through education and prevention and treatment.”

He says that, in Honduras, 76 out of every 100,000 inhabitants die as a result of violence, 19 times the rate in Cuba, where, despite its proximity to the United States, the problem is practically non-existent.

After more foolishness along these lines, about weapons confiscated en route to Mexico, a Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Inter-American Development Bank, with which he says efforts are being made to increase the Microfinance Growth Fund for the Americas and promises the creation of new Pathways to Prosperity and other pretentious terms which he pronounces in English and Spanish, he returns to his preposterous promises of hemispheric unity and tries to impress listeners with the dangers of climate change.

Obama adds, “If anybody doubts the urgency of climate change, they should look no further than the Americas – from the stronger storms in the Caribbean, to glacier melt in the Andes, to the loss of forests and farmland across the region.” He doesn’t have the courage to admit that his country bears the greatest responsibility for that tragedy.

He explains that he is proud to announce that, “The United States will work with partners in this region, including the private sector, to increase the number of U.S. students studying in Latin America to 100,000, and the number of Latin America students studying in the United States to 100,000.” It is well known what it costs to study medicine or any other career in that country and the shameless theft of brain-power practiced by the United States.

All of this oratory to close with praise for the OAS which Roa [Raúl Roa, former Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs] described as the “Ministry of Yankee Colonies” when, in his memorable statement from our country to the United Nations, he reported that the United States had attacked our territory April 15, 1961 with B-26 bombers bearing Cuban insignia, a shameful act which, within 23 days, will be remembered on its 50th anniversary.

In this way, he thought everything was well established, in order to proclaim the right to subvert order in our country.

He boasts that the U.S. is “allowing Americans to send remittances that bring some economic hope for people across Cuba, as well as more independence from Cuban authorities.

“… We’ll continue to seek ways to increase the independence of the Cuban people, who I believe are entitled to the same freedom and liberty as everyone else in this hemisphere.”

Then he admits that the blockade hurts Cuba, denies the economy resources. Why doesn’t he recognize that Eisenhower’s intentions, the goal announced by the United States when it was first implemented was to force the Cuban people to surrender out of hunger?

Why is it maintained? How many hundreds of billions of dollars of damages does the United States owe our country? Why do they keep the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned? Why isn’t the Cuban Adjustment Act applied to all Latin Americans rather than allowing thousands of them to die or be injured on the border imposed after that country stole half of their territory?

I beg the President of the United States to forgive my frankness.

I do not hold any hard feelings toward him or his people.

I am fulfilling my responsibility to express my opinion about his “Alliance of Equals.”

The United States has nothing to gain by creating and encouraging mercenary careers. I can assure him that our country’s finest, most prepared youth graduating from the University of Computer Science know much more about the Internet and informatics than the Nobel Prize winner and President of the United States.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 22, 2011
9:17 p.m.

The post The Real Intentions of the “Alliance of Equals” appeared first on Reflections of Fidel.

Both countries, one in the Caribbean and the other in the extreme south of Latin America, suffered the consequences of the danger that Jose Marti foresaw and tried to avert. As he indicated in his celebrated posthumous letter to his Mexican friend who had fought with Juarez, –and this is an idea I never tire of repeating: “Now, I am everyday in danger of giving my life…to timely prevent with the independence of Cuba that the United States expand over the Antilles and that, with that additional force, they may come against our American lands. Everything I’ve done until today, and everything I’ll do, is for that purpose.”

Our victorious Revolution was a friend of Allende, at the same time it hated Trujillo. This was an uncouth Pinochet begotten by the United States in the Caribbean. The despot had been the result of one of the Yankees’ military interventions in the island that country shares with Haiti, a country which was the first Spanish colony.

The American Navy infantry had invaded that sister republic to secure its country’s economic and strategic interests. Of course, there was not even a Platt Amendment there to cover up the action with a legal mantle.

In 1918, they recruited, among others, the adventurous and ambitious native Dominican, the son of a small merchant, who was then trained and admitted, as a 27-year old, to the National Army. In 1921, he went on to another training course with the Military Academy established by the country’s occupants. After he finished there, he was appointed unit chief and promoted to the rank of Captain for the services paid to the interventionist forces, although he was not previously a Lieutenant.

At the end of the Yankee occupation in 1924, Trujillo was ready to act as an instrument of the United States in high posts in the military, which he would use to deal the classic coup d’etat and the typical “democratic elections” leading him to the presidency of the republic in 1930. The beginning of his term coincided with the years of the Great Depression that hit the US economy so badly.

Cuba, the country most dependent and shackled by the trade agreements, stood to suffer the most severe consequences of that crisis. On the other hand, the Naval Base and the humiliating and unwarranted for Amendment would give them constitutional rights to intervene in our nation and to tear to pieces it glorious history.

In the neighboring country, with less direct economic dependence, the shrewd and ambitious Trujillo handled whimsically the properties of the Dominican middle class and the oligarchy. The major sugar mills and many other branches of industry became his private property. That cult to private appropriation did not offend the capitalist concepts of the empire. Many neon signs claimed everywhere “God and Trujillo.” Many cities, avenues, roads and buildings were named after him or his relatives. The same year he became President, a hurricane hit hard on Santo Domingo, the country’s capital. After the city recovered from the damages, he renamed it Trujillo City. Never before had the world known such a personality cult.

In the year 1937, he carried out along the border a huge massacre of Haitian workers. This was his reserve labor force in agriculture and construction.

He was a steady US ally. He was involved in the inception of both the United Nations and the OAS in 1948. On December 15, 1952, he traveled to Washington in his other capacity as plenipotentiary ambassador to the Organization of American States and stayed in that country for three and a half months. On July 2, 1954, he traveled to Spain on board a transatlantic ship which took him to Vigo. Franco, who was already an ally of the empire, welcomed him at the Madrid North Station accompanied by all members of the diplomatic corp.

My relationship with the Dominican Republic dates back to my days at the University. I had been honored with an appointment to President of the Committee for Dominican Democracy. It did not sound as a very important position, but since I was kind of rebellious, I took it seriously. The time to do something came up unexpectedly. The Dominican exiled fostered in Cuba the creation of an expeditionary force. I enlisted with it when I had not yet completed my sophomore. I was 21 years old.

I have told the story before of what happened then. After the frustrated Cayo Confites expedition, I was not among the over one thousand prisoners taken to the Columbia military camp, where Juan Bosch went on a hunger strike. These men had been incarcerated by the Head of the Army in Cuba, General Perez Dameras, who had received money from Trujillo to intercept the expedition. The General did this when the expeditionary were close to the Wind Passage.

A Cuban Navy frigate, aiming with its bow cannons at our leading boat, ordered us to return and to dock at the Antilla’s port. I then jump into the water of the Nipe Bay together with three other expeditionary. We were four armed men.

I had met Juan Bosch, an outstanding Dominican leader, in Cayo Confites, where we trained, and we talked at length. He was not the chief of the expedition but he was certainly the most prestigious personality among the Dominicans, even if he was ignored by some of the main leaders of that movement and by the Cuban chieftains who had rather important and well paid official relations. I was then very far from even imagining this that I’m writing today!

Eleven years later, when our fight on the Sierra Maestra Mountains was about to successfully conclude, Trujillo granted a credit to Batista to buy weapons and ammunitions, which were brought by plane in the second quarter of 1958. He also volunteered to airborne three thousand Dominican troops, and later another force that would land in Oriente.

Batista’s tyranny was defeated on January 1st, 1959, thanks to the hard blows dealt by the Rebel Army and the revolutionary general strike. The repressive state came crumbling down all throughout the island and Batista left for the Dominican Republic. He traveled there in the company of other sinister characters of that regime such as the well known thug Lutgardo Martin Perez, his 25-year old son Roberto Martin Perez Rodriguez, and a group of the top military chiefs of his defeated army.

Trujillo offered Batista a warm welcome and accommodated him at an official residence for distinguished guest, although he later sent him to a luxurious hotel. He was concerned over the example of the Cuban Revolution, therefore, he counted on the top chiefs of Batista’s former army and the likely support of the tens of thousands of members of the three army branches and the police, to organize a counterrevolution and support it with the Caribbean Legion, which might have had about 25 thousand soldiers from the Dominican Army.

The US Administration, being aware of these plans, sent a CIA officer to Santo Domingo to talk with Trujillo and assess his plans against Cuba. By midst February 1959, this man met with John Abbes Garcia, head of the Dominican Intelligence services to whom he recommended to send agents to recruit hostile elements in the ranks of the victorious Revolution. He did not say that the US government already had William Alexander Morgan Ruderth, an American citizen and CIA agent, who had infiltrated the Second Front in the Escambray, a man they had promoted to the rank of Commander and who was one of the main chiefs there.

The development of these events, which make for a fascinating story, can be found in the books of senior Cuban Intelligence and Security officers, in the testimonies of leaders of military units of the Rebel Army who were directly involved, in autobiographies, official statements made in those days and reports by national and foreign journalists, all of whom it would be impossible to mention in this Reflection.

There is another book in the process of publication written by a comrade who joined the Militias when he was 17, and who for his good conduct and sharp mind was then transferred to the Prime Minister’s and Commander in Chief’s security detail where he studied to become a stenographer, then took notes of the conversations and collected the testimony of hundreds of participants in the events he narrates. This chapter of the history of our Revolution has yet to be recounted.

As is understood, the top revolutionary leaders were constantly informed of the news about the enemy’s plans. We then conceived the idea of dealing the Yankee’s, Batista’s and Trujillo’s counterrevolution a hard blow.

When the weapons sent by sea from Florida to carry out the first actions and the chiefs and plotters were all under strict control, we simulated a successful counterrevolution in the mountainous Escambray zone, and in Trinidad, which had an airstrip. We then proceeded to isolate the municipality of that small and friendly town where revolutionary political work was intensified.

Trujillo was full of enthusiasm. A company of our soldiers disguised as peasants shouted at the airstrip: “Long live Trujillo! Down with Fidel!” which was reported to headquarters in the Dominican Republic. They had dropped plenty of ammunitions from planes. Everything was unfolding according to plan.

On August 13th, a plane came in with a special envoy from Trujillo. It was Luis del Pozo Jimenez, the son of a former mayor and Batista follower in the capital and a prominent figure with the regime. He pointed out on a map the positions that would be bombed by the Dominican Air Force and inquired about the number of legionnaires necessary in the first stage.

Another notable envoy came with him. It was Roberto Martin Perez Rodriguez who, as we have already indicated, had traveled with his father and Batista as they escaped to the Dominican Republic that January 1st. He was accompanied by several mercenary leaders who would stay behind. The plane had to go back. Its crew was the same that had carried Batista when he ran away.

I was in the proximity of the airstrip with Camilo Cienfuegos and other military chiefs. The head of the Cuban military personnel who had to unload the weapons and communication equipment had understood that they should arrest the aircraft crew. At this point, a copilot realized that something was wrong shot on them and a shootout ensued. Trujillo’s envoys and the other mercenary chiefs were then arrested. There were casualties.

That same night I visited the wounded from both sides. We couldn’t go ahead with the plan. Up until then, communications between Trujillo and the counterrevolution in the Escambray had taken place through short wave. Trujillos’s official radio station broadcast triumphant military reports similar to those we would hear from Radio Swan and Miami in the days of Giron. We never used Cuba’s public stations to spread false official reports.

It would have been possible to continue with the game even after the plane had been seized and Luis del Pozo Jimenez and Roberto Martin Perez Rodriguez were arrested. We could have faked a mechanic failure of the plane that should have returned there, but that would have misled and confused our people, which were by then restless over the news about the alleged counterrevolutionary victories in Escambray publicly spread from Trujillo City.

That August 13, 1959 was my 33rd birthday. I was in my prime, physically and mentally strong.

It was a major revolutionary victory, but at the same time a signal about the times that would come and a sad gift from Rafael Leonidas Trujillo on my anniversary. Twenty months later we would be fighting at Giron; there would be violence and bloodshed in the Escambray, by the sea shore, in towns and all over the country. It was the counterrevolution organized by the United States.

In that country they would have executed Roberto Martin Perez Rodriguez and Luis del Pozo Jimenez, as mercenaries in the service of an enemy power. The Revolutionary Courts sentenced them to prison, and they were not mistreated. What was the final destiny of Martin Perez? He migrated to the United States, legally, and he is today a standard bearer of the Cuban American terrorist Mafia which supports Republican candidate McCain.

A distinguished Canadian journalist and researcher, Jean-Guy Allard, describes the terrorist life of Roberto Martin Perez Rodriguez as follows:

“…in fact, since early in his life, ‘Macho’ (his nickname) Martin Perez joined the Batista police and, for his special merits, that is, his beating of the prisoners in the last months of the bloody regime, he earned the rank of Sergeant.

“Both, the father and son were so close to Batista that, on January 1st, 1959, instead of running away to Miami, they followed the dictator to his sanctuary in the Dominican Republic.

“…released on May 29, 1987…in 1989 he joined the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) established by the CIA under Ronald Reagan.

“He would very soon be leading the paramilitary committee created by this organization which ensures the financing, among others, of the terrorist group Alpha 66 and other extremist groups acting against Cuba.

“…Martin Perez Rodriguez took part in the arrangement of a series of failed attempts on the life the President of Cuba during various Ibero American Summits.

“In 1994, on the occasion of Fidel’s attendance to the 4th Summit, in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia… he purchased a 50 mm Barret gun and explosives which were transferred to Colombia from Miami…by plane!

“…he plotted with Jimenez Escobedo and Eugenio LLameras with a view to the 5th Ibero American Summit in 1995. That year, he revived the same plan for the Non Aligned Movement Summit, also in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

“In 1997, at Margarita Island, Venezuela, on the occasion of the 7th Ibero American Summit of Heads of Sate and Government, Posada mounted another conspiracy with direct support from Martin Perez Rodriguez and other leaders of CANF…”

“…he signed the Declaration of support for terrorism against Cuba published by the Foundation on August 11th…Roberto Martin Perez, Feliciano Foyo and Horacio Garcia are some of the people Posada publicly named as the ‘financiers’ of his terrorist actions during his interview with the New York Times in 1997.

“…he sponsored in Miami an exhibition of paintings by [Orlando] Bosch and Posada [Carriles], the two masterminds of the sabotage against the Cuban civilian plane, in 1976, where 73 people were killed.

“In 1998, the great advocate of the ‘political prisoner’ carried out one of his dirtiest deeds: with other Miami Mafia ringleaders…he led the new FBI chief, the very corruptible Hector Pesquera, to the arrest of five Cubans who had infiltrated the ranks of the terrorist organizations.

“…his unfailing friendship with Guillermo Novo Sampol, the murderer of Chilean leader Orlando Letelier is well known…

“The Republican candidate should know that his 73-year-old protégé was the first to assert that on the day of his longed for victory over the Cuban Revolution he would drive a bulldozer from the Cabo San Antonio to the Punta de Maisi crushing the island population guilty of any links with the Revolution.

“…on another occasion, asked about the risk of killing innocents in an attempt on Cuban leaders he said that he didn’t care if ‘the Pope died’.”

The historical truth tells us that John McCain’s father commandeered the amphibious attack, the invasion and occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1965 against the nationalist forces led by Francisco Caamaño, another great hero of that nation whom I knew very well and who always had confidence in Cuba.

I dedicate this Reflection on historical events to our dear journalists, since it coincides with the 8th Congress of the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC, by its Spanish acronym), whom I consider like family. How I would have liked to study the techniques of their trade!

The UPEC has been very generous in publishing a book under the title Fidel, the journalist, which will be presented tomorrow afternoon. They sent me a copy with several articles published in clandestine or legal newspapers over five decades ago, with a prologue by Guillermo Cabrera Alvarez and the selection, introduction and notes by Ana Nuñez Machin.

I gave Guillermo Cabrera the nickname of “the genius” since I first met him. It was the impression I received from that great man who unfortunately passed away last year. He had had a heart surgery some time ago at the prestigious Cardiovascular Center established by our Revolution in Santa Clara City.

I reread some of the articles published in Alerta, Bohemia and La Calle, and I relived those years.

I wrote those articles when I felt the need to convey certain ideas. I did it out of pure revolutionary instinct. I always applied the principle that words should be simple and the concepts understandable to the masses. Today I have more experience, but I’m not as strong; it’s harder for me to do it. Our people’s educational level is higher with the Revolution, thus the task is more difficult.

From the revolutionary point of view, discrepancies are not important; it is the honesty of the opinion that counts. And, it is from the contradictions that the truth will emerge. Perhaps, it would be worthwhile some other time to make an effort to make some observations on this issue.

Yesterday, an important event took place, which will be an issue the following days. This is the release of Ingrid Betancourt and a group of people held by the FARC, that is, the Revolutionary Armed Forces from Colombia.

On January 10th this year, our ambassador to Venezuela, German Sanchez, following a request of the Venezuelan and Colombian governments, took part in the release of Clara Rojas to the International Red Cross. She had been a candidate to vice President of Colombia when Ingrid Betancourt was running for President and was kidnapped on February 23, 2002. Consuelo Gonzalez, a member of the House of Representatives, kidnapped on September 10, 2001, was released with her.

An era of peace was opening for Colombia. This is a process Cuba has been supporting for over two decades, as it is most convenient for the unity and peace of the peoples of our America, using new ways in the special and complex circumstances prevailing after the demise of the USSR in the early 1990s –which I wont try to analyze here– very different from those existing in Cuba, Nicaragua and other countries in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s of the 20th century.

The bombing of a camp in Ecuadorian soil in the early hours of March 1st, –while Colombian guerrillas and young visitors from different nationalities were sleeping– using Yankee technology; the occupation of the territory, the coup de grace on the wounded and the kidnapping of corpses as part of the terrorist plan from the United States government was repudiated the world over.

A Rio Group meeting was then held in the Dominican Republic on March 7th. There the events were strongly condemned while the US administration applauded.

Manuel Marulanda, a peasant and communist militant, the main leader of that guerrilla founded almost half a century ago was still alive. He passed away on the 26th of that same month.

Ingrid Betancourt, feeble and sick, as well as other captives with a serious health condition could hardly resist any longer.

Out of a basically humanist sentiment, we rejoiced at the news that Ingrid Betancourt, three American citizens and other captives had been released. The civilians should have never been kidnapped neither should the militaries have been kept prisoners in the conditions of the jungle. These were objectively cruel actions. No revolutionary purpose could justify it. The time will come when the subjective factors should be analyzed in depth.

We won our revolutionary war in Cuba by immediately releasing every prisoner absolutely unconditionally. The soldiers and officers captured in battle were released to the International Red Cross; we only kept their weapons. No soldier will ever surrender if he thinks he will be killed or subjected to cruel treatment.

We are watching with concern how the imperialists try to capitalize on what happened in Colombia in order to hide and justify their heinous crimes of genocide against other peoples. They want to deflect international attention from their interventionist plans in Venezuela and Bolivia and from the presence of the 4th Fleet in support of the political line that intends to obliterate the independence of the countries located south of the United States while taking possession of their natural resources.

These should be illustrative examples for all of our journalists. In our times, truth is navigating rough seas, where the mass media are in the hands of those threatening human survival with their immense economic, technologic and military resources. That’s the challenge faced by the Cuban journalists!

Fidel Castro Ruz
July 3, 2008
4:26 p.m.

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