President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

Speech by President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez at the March of the Combative People

Speech by President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez at the March of the Combative People

Edited by Ed Newman
2024-12-21 12:55:20

Speech by President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez at the March of the Combative People

Havana / December 20, 2024

 

Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution;

Dear people of Cuba;

Havana residents;

Compatriots:

The current U.S. administration, which today has exactly one month left in the White House, has done nothing to move away from the line of reinforced blockade and economic suffocation of Cuba that was left as a legacy by the Republican administration that returns to the Oval Office in January.

With the application of the 243 additional measures and the maintenance of Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, Biden has disciplinedly and cruelly complied with the policy that Trump approved during his term.

In recent weeks and days, there have been numerous statements by personalities from the United States and other parts of the world demanding that Biden use his power to at least remove from that spurious list the name of a nation that should never have been on it.

Pointing to Cuba as a State that supposedly sponsors terrorism is at the very least false and immoral, no matter where the accusation comes from, but it is doubly so when the accusation comes from US territory, where paramilitary groups that organize, promote and finance terrorist actions against social and economic structures in Cuba are currently training.

They are based in South Florida and do not hide to train. They do so publicly, in plain sight and with the protection of local authorities, even violating their own laws and international treaties.

This is how they have acted for many years, sheltering in their territory confessed terrorists from this continent, such as Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, masterminds of the abominable crime in Barbados who, however, died peacefully in the United States without ever paying for their crimes.

Knowing such antecedents, no American ruler can classify Cuba as a terrorist State.

The current Government of that country knows this well. This was recognized by the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, last May when he declared to the media that there is no justification for Cuba to remain on that list.

They recognize it but do not act, because American policy towards Cuba was hijacked more than six decades ago by a mafia remnant of the Batista regime, based in southern Florida and before which they have shown weakness when it comes to acting coherently towards our country.

Cuba’s continued presence on that list and the intensification of the blockade policy are ruthless actions against the Cuban people that must cease now!

When financial transactions are persecuted and impeded in our international trade, the Cuban people are being denied food, medicine, fuel, goods, supplies and merchandise essential for their survival.

When obstacles are placed on our exports or relations with our companies are persecuted and penalized, the country is being deprived of essential foreign currency to develop ourselves and to finance our project of social justice.

When the contracting of online services is prevented or academic and scientific exchanges are restricted, a blow is being dealt to a nation that seeks to develop and move forward with its own talent and efforts, in the midst of an increasingly interconnected world.

When a people is denied medicinal oxygen in the midst of a pandemic, and even other countries or foreign companies that can do so are intimidated, this is criminal action.

This is the day-to-day life in which Cuba, its people and its government struggle to make their way.

The United States’ attempt to undermine the dignity of this people by means of the club has been destroyed today with this rally and combative march, which shows how high the honor of our country continues to be! (Applause.)

Since we launched the call for this march, the prophets of anti-Cuban hatred have been hysterically shouting that it would be a failure, calling for a boycott and lying about their motivations.

How little they know the Cuban people!   How much they still underestimate our patriotic and revolutionary convictions!

Other spokesmen of the US government and the anti-Cuban mafia in South Florida insisted on poisoning the networks with the false idea that this was an anti-American march.

We do not profess the slightest feeling of hatred or animosity against the American people. To the noble citizens of that country we extend all our respect, and our hand is always extended to strengthen the bonds of brotherhood between the two peoples.

It is the same hand that we have extended to all the governments of the United States, since the triumph of the Revolution until today, always based on a serious, respectful relationship and on equal terms.

But if the United States persists in its efforts to undermine our sovereignty, our independence, our socialism, it will only find rebellion and intransigence! (Applause.)

Every administration that has tried has been outlived by the Cuban Revolution, and it will continue to be so.

This will be a march, yes, a very anti-imperialist one! Against American imperialism and its attempt to impose itself in Cuba by force or seduction, we will march now and always! (Applause.)

We march now, to tell the United States Government: Let the Cuban people live in peace!

Down with interference! (Exclamations of: “Down!”)

Down with the blockade! (Exclamations of: “Down!”)

Down with unilateral coercive measures against Cuba! (Exclamations of: “Down!”)

Down with Cuba remaining on the list of state sponsors of terrorism! (Exclamations of: “Down!”)

Down with the genocide against the Cuban people! (Exclamations of: “Down!”)

Socialism or Death!

Homeland or Death!

We will win! (Exclamations of: “We will win!”)

(Shorthand Versions – Presidency of the Republic)

Blockade of Cuba

Cuba demands its right to happiness 

Cuba demands its right to happiness

This Friday, the people demonstrated in Havana to demand their rights from the U.S. government

Author:  | internet@granma.cu

december 20, 2024 20:12:15

people demonstrated in Havana to demand their rights from the U.S. government
Photo: Estudios Revolución

More than 500,000 people flooded Havana’s Malecon this Friday to send, as a message across the ocean, a claim to the U.S. government against the blockade and the permanence of Cuba on the list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism.

The first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, condemned U.S. President Joe Biden for continuing the hostility of his predecessor, Donald Trump, who will return to the White House in January.

He highlighted the arrogance to keep the Island on the aforementioned list, a doubly immoral accusation, since it comes from an administration that promotes violent actions against the largest of the Antilles and has become an asylum for the members of that machinery of hatred.

Photo: Estudios Revolución

In contrast, there is no rancor against the northern people, but in the face of imperialism and its attempts to destroy our sovereignty, “we will demonstrate today, tomorrow and always,” Díaz-Canel assured.

In the presence of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution, Yankiel Cardoso Muñoz, president of the Ceiba-Kolhy Popular Council, demonstrated in the capital’s Playa neighborhood.

He explained to his son Antuán Cardoso Chaviano, with the phrase “I want to grow up without a blockade” on his sweater, how these measures limit his happiness.

Meanwhile, Yolanda Isabel Acosta Rosell, a 7-year-old student, asked her mother to take her for the first time to a mobilization of such magnitude and said: “I was born here and I’m going to stay here”.

Colombian Silvia Juliana Casadiegos González has been studying at the Latin American School of Medicine since 2019, thanks to Cuba’s role in the peace process in her nation. “They have help me fulfill my dream and, for this reason, they deserve to be unblocked.”

Tourism Economic Engine

Cuba forecasts 2,600,000 arrivals of foreign visitors in 2025

Cuba forecasts 2,600,000 arrivals of foreign visitors in 2025

That’s means an 18% growth over what was estimated for the calendar that concludes

Author:  | internet@granma.cu

december 17, 2024 08:12:21

By the year 2025, 2,600,000 foreign visitor arrivals are forecast, which represents an 18% increase over the estimate for the calendar year that has just ended.

This was informed by Juan Carlos García Granda, Minister of Tourism, during the first day of meetings of the Parliament’s permanent work commissions, and added that, since the beginning of 2024, there has been a downward trend in the security perception index of the destination, and the negative impact of this (visa exemption request) in the decision of European and Chilean visitors is maintained.

He emphasized the need to perfect a closed financing scheme and guarantee compliance with standards throughout the country’s tourism system.

“This,” he said, “is essential for the recovery of the sector. We must present a decent tourism product, which stimulates demand.”

The country’s main destination continues to be Matanzas, followed by Havana, the keys of Villa Clara and Ciego de Avila, and Holguin.

The Minister assured that, in the second half of the year, no new works have been invested in, but work is being carried out on those that were already underway.

He argued that 2024 has been a hard year for tourism, due to labor fluctuations, the effects on the provision of services, the lack of insurance and supplies, the migratory phenomenon in tourist operations, as well as the media campaigns against the sector in the country.

Likewise, the high prices of turbo-fuels have had an impact on these results.

However, as a positive aspect, electronic commerce in the sector is consolidated and progress continues to be made to complete the use of all electronic payment channels, “under the principle that the banking process is a fundamental premise for providing a quality service,” he added.

According to the report presented, in order to materialize foreign investment projects and boost tourism, the Strategy for the Export of Health, Wellness and Quality of Life Tourism Services was concluded, in which Cayó Bienestar and Elegua are negotiating with foreign and personalized medicine companies.

“It was approved that Vima and Meliá have importing companies and perform wholesale trade, so they will supply direct to tourist facilities,” he said.

Cuba /Africa

“Cubans are very proud of our African roots”

“Cubans are very proud of our African roots”

Díaz-Canel received a representation of the participants in the International Conference Cuba 2024 Decade for People of African Descent

Author:  | internet@granma.cu

december 12, 2024 12:12:19

Conference Cuba 2024 Decade for People of African
“Cuba attaches high value to the fight against discrimination based on skin color”, said the Cuban President, in dialogue with participants of the International Conference Cuba 2024 Decade for People of African Descent. Photo: Estudios Revolución

“A meeting like this strengthens us; you have been thanking Cuba, but we have to thank you very much, because you have given us a lot of energy with your participation,” said the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, to a representation of those attending the International Conference Cuba 2024 Decade for People of African Descent.

The President received, on Wednesday evening at the Palace of the Revolution, guests from 18 countries of North America, Central America, the Caribbean, South America and Africa, and there were interventions, virtual or in person, by the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Unesco, directors of United Nations agencies, the African Union, Caricom and other international organizations.

In the exchange, which was also headed by Inés María Chapman Waugh, Deputy Prime Minister, and Alpido Alonso Grau, Minister of Culture, the Cuban intellectual Rolando Rensoli Medina, coordinator of the Color Cubano Program, paid a special tribute to the American artist Danny Glover Laverne, present at the meeting, who ten years ago, after the declaration by UNESCO of the Decade for People of African Descent, had said that Cuba was the most moral country to develop this kind of meetings.

“And Cuba,” Rensoli said, “has thus closed the Decade for People of African Descent with dignity and morality”.

The American James Counts Early, retired from the Smithonian Institute and social activist, affirmed that “in Cuba we see something different in our America, because it has been able to promote a path of possibilities, of a new world, with the triumphant Revolution of 1959, which confronted racism, which sowed awareness in the people, mapping the sociological reality of racism.”

He thus stressed “the importance of informing the American people of the Cuban model against racism, which is, he emphasized, another legacy of Cuba to America and the world.”

Geoffroy De Laforcade, professor of History at Norfolk State University, expressed that “Cuba is the country in the world where he feels most comfortable, because here we talk intelligently and with hope about the future of humanity.”

He considered that the International Conference Cuba 2024 Decade for People of African Descent has been “an opportunity for dialogue between authorities, social activists, organizations and communities, which constitutes a different model of improvement and happiness.”

The Mexican Sheila Zamudio Beltran stressed that the event has been “an exchange between the African diaspora and its descendants, which has confirmed that the struggle is still alive. The fundamental point here has been – she said – the meeting of people who are talking about how to be treated as people.”

The American Colette Pean, founder of the December 12 movement, an organization for the rights of African-Americans, thanked Díaz-Canel, on behalf of her organization, the Cuban people, who “have acted in terms of leadership and a future of resistance.”

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