We defend the Revolution, above all else
For 60 years the example of the Cuban Revolution has bothered the United States, stated First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, yesterday, during a special message from the Palace of the Revolution explaining to the people the most recent provocation orchestrated by small groups of counterrevolutionaries.

Author: Gladys Leydis Ramos López | internet@granma.cu
Author: Juan Diego Nusa Peñalver | internet@granma.cu
july 12, 2021 11:07:59

Photo: Estudios Revolución
For 60 years the example of the Cuban Revolution has bothered the United States, stated First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, yesterday, during a special message from the Palace of the Revolution explaining to the people the most recent provocation orchestrated by small groups of counterrevolutionaries.

The President began his remarks with a revolutionary greeting to the entire people, and said: “Unfortunately, we have been obliged to interrupt our Sunday, that all our families take to rest and spend time together, to inform you and share with you a series of elements related to the events that have been taking place today, which are part of a high level, systematic, escalating provocation, which has been promoted by the counterrevolution over these days.”

What is the background to this situation we are experiencing, he asked.

“We have been honest, we have been open, we have been clear, and at all times we have explained the complexities of the current situation to our people. I remember that more than a year and a half ago, when the second half of 2019 was just starting, we had to explain that we were heading toward a difficult conjuncture, and we used that term, which was later taken up as part of popular humor, since we have remained in this ‘conjuncture’ for a long time…Beginning with all the signs that the U.S. government, headed by the Trump administration, was giving in relation to Cuba.”

Diaz-Canel recalled that the adoption of an extensive series of restrictive measures to tighten the blockade began; financial persecution, energy persecution, with the goal of asphyxiating the country’s economy.

He denounced ongoing efforts to provoke a massive social explosion in Cuba, including all sorts of propaganda and ideological constructions they fabricate to call for misnamed humanitarian interventions, which end up as military interventions and interference, trampling the rights and violating the sovereignty, the independence of peoples.

This succession of hostile acts continued, he noted, “Then came the 243 measures we all know about. And in the last days of that administration the decision was made to include Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.”

He reiterated that this list is a totally spurious list, an illegitimate list, and a unilateral list, fabricated by the U.S. in the belief that they are the power dominates the world, that they are the emperors of this world.”

He noted that, unfortunately, due to the lack of principles that exists within more than a few international institutions and national governments, many cave in and go along with these hostile measures and actions.

“It must be recognized that others do not submit to be the imposition of these measures, but they are limited by the extraterritorial nature that these.

“And that further increased the impact of the restrictions, which above all implied that the country was immediately cut off from its main sources of foreign currency income: I am talking about tourism, I am talking about the trips of Cubans and U.S. citizens to our country, about the much-awaited remittances to Cuban families from their relatives in the United States.”

The President also denounced U.S. efforts to discredit Cuban medical brigades, since this medical collaboration, beyond the many instances of solidarity provided, also generates foreign currency income.

All this, he said, is causing shortages in the country: “Shortages of food, of medicines, raw materials and inputs needed by our economic and productive processes, which contribute both exports and supplies for the people; therefore here two important elements are cut off: the capacity to export and to acquire foreign currency to import and invest, and the capacity of the productive processes to be produce a full range of goods and services for our population.”

He pointed out that the country “has seen its fuel supply limited, access to spare parts limited, and all this has caused dissatisfaction, has exacerbated accumulated problems, which we have not been able to resolve, have been around since the special period, and to all this has been added a ferocious media campaign to discredit us, as part of a so-called non-conventional war, which attempts, on the one hand, to break the unity of the Party, the government, the state and the people, attempting to portray the government as inept, incapable of providing wellbeing to the Cuban people, attempting to portray the U.S. government as “very concerned about the welfare of the Cuban people,” who it has unjustly blockaded, telling them how they can aspire to development and progress in a country such as ours.

“These are the usual hypocritical prescriptions and speeches of double standards, which we know very well, throughout the history of United States behavior toward Cuba. We know how they intervened in our country, how they appropriated our island, how they maintained domination of our Island during the pseudo-republic and how their interests were hit hard by the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

“For 60 years the example of the Cuban Revolution has bothered them, and they have constantly tightened… applied an unjust, criminal, cruel blockade, reinforced, worse than ever under pandemic conditions. Therein lies the manifest perversity, the maliciousness of all these intentions: blockade and restrictive measures, which they have never taken against any other country, or against those they consider their main enemies.

“This has been a work and a policy of viciousness against a small Island, which only aspires to defend its independence, its sovereignty and build, with self-determination, its society in accordance with the principles that more than 86% of the population has approved, has supported in the broad and democratic exercise we held, to approve the current Constitution of the Republic of Cuba.

“And in the midst of these conditions comes the pandemic, a pandemic that has not only affected Cuba, a pandemic that has affected the whole world, a pandemic that has also affected the United States, that has affected rich countries. It must be said that the United States and other rich countries did not have the capacity to confront the effects of this pandemic at the beginning.

“And in many of those first world countries, with much more wealth, health systems collapsed, intensive care units were overwhelmed. The poor have been disadvantaged because there are no public policies directed toward saving the people,” and these rich countries in many cases have worse results than Cuba in terms of responding to the pandemic.

“And we were impacted by the pandemic and, in the midst of all these other restrictions, with the reserves that the country has created, with the little we had in the country, with the little we have been able to acquire this difficult year and a half, is that we have been able to meet these challenges, these tests.

“And we have done it with courage, we have done it without giving in and, above all, we have done it by sharing among all the little we have, and we have not only shared within Cuba, we have shared with the world. There is the example of the Henry Reeve internationalist brigades, which has gone to places brutally affected by the pandemic.

“And this is how we have moved forward, controlling one wave after another, with a tremendous capacity for sacrifice on the part of our people, of our scientists, of our health personnel, of almost the entire country involved in this.

Díaz-Canel recalled that five candidate vaccines have been developed, one already recognized as a vaccine, the first in Latin America against COVID-19. Cuba is already vaccinating our population, and this is a process that takes time. Vaccines must be produced, but we currently have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and in a few weeks we will have reached more than 20% of the total population,” he noted.

However, he noted, in the last few months more aggressive strains have appeared, and in the midst of this already serious situation, another group of complications began to appear.

“First of all, new cases are emerging at a speed and accumulation that exceeded the capacities we have been able to create to treat these patients in state institutions. On the other hand, we have been obliged to expand capacity in other centers,” he explained.

In this sense, by opening more centers, to which energy priority must be given – in the midst of the accumulation of problems in the generation of electricity, the number of circuits that we must protect, to attend these patients, has increased.

With more patients, he continued, the stock of medicines is also running low and acquiring them is very difficult; and in the midst of all this, we continue to work for everyone.

“Now we have been obliged to resort to home isolation due to the lack of capacity in a number of provinces, and call on families to participate more directly, more responsibly. One never tires of admiring the capacity for creative resistance of our people.”

With these values, he insisted, with vaccination advancing, complying with the necessary sanitary measures, we will emerge sooner rather than later from this peak in the pandemic, which is not only hitting Cuba. Cuba managed to postpone this high point with everything we did, and we will overcome it.

But now, he noted, in a very cowardly, subtle, opportunistic and perverse manner, exploiting the most difficult situations we have in provinces like Matanzas and Ciego de Avila, those who have always supported the blockade, those who have served as mercenaries, lackeys of the Yankee empire, begin to appear with calls for a humanitarian intervention, a humanitarian corridor, to strengthen the idea that the Cuban government is not capable of handling this situation, as if they were really interested in the welfare and health of our people.

“If they want to make a gesture toward Cuba, if they really are concerned about the people, if they want to solve Cuba’s problems: lift the blockade and let’s see how we do, why don’t they do that? Why don’t they have the courage to lift the blockade, what legal and moral basis allows a foreign government to implement such a policy against a small country, and in the midst of such adverse conditions? Isn’t this genocide?”

He denounced the assertion that a dictatorship exists in Cuba, “A dictatorship that is concerned about providing healthcare for its entire population, that seeks welfare for all, that in the midst of this situation is capable of conducting public policies, aspiring to vaccination with a Cuban vaccine, because we knew that no one was going to sell us any, since we don’t have the money to buy them,” he said.

“What a strange dictatorship,” he exclaimed. Now they are shouting that we are murderers. Where are the murder victims in Cuba, where are the missing persons in Cuba? Other countries that have suffered these pandemic peaks were not attacked in the press and they were not offered humanitarian intervention as a solution, nor were they subjected to these slander campaigns as we are, Díaz-Canel emphasized.

“I believe that life, history, the facts show what is behind all this, which is the effort to asphyxiate us and put an end to the Revolution, and for that they are trying to discourage our people, to confuse our people. And when the people are facing severe conditions, then events like the ones we experienced in San Antonio de los Baños take place.”

About the events in this area, he detailed:

Who was part of the group? It included members of the population, who have needs, who are experiencing some of these shortages; it included revolutionaries who are confused, do not have all the arguments, or were expressing these dissatisfactions, but they were doing differently, because they were seeking to understand, seeking explanations.

“But this was led by a core group of manipulators who are indeed lending themselves to the designs of the SOS Matanzas or SOS Cuba campaigns… Several days ago, they were preparing demonstrations or social disturbances of this type in several Cuban cities. This is criminal, at a time when people should be at home, protecting themselves.”

Diaz-Canel reported that revolutionaries in San Antonio de los Baños, provincial authorities, a group from the country’s leadership showed up there, we confronted the counterrevolutionaries and we talked to the revolutionaries, and to those asking for explanations, to show that Cuba’s streets belong to revolutionaries.

He pointed out that we know there are other groups of people gathering in streets and plazas, in other cities of the country, also moved by unhealthy purposes. “I am also giving this information, to reaffirm that in Cuba the streets belong to revolutionaries, that the state, the revolutionary government, guided by the Party, are more than willing to discuss, to argue and to participate with the people in the solution of problems, but recognizing the real cause of our problems, without allowing ourselves to be confused.”

Those who are encouraging demonstrations are not interested in good healthcare for Cuba, he emphasized. Remember that their model is neoliberal, the privatization of health, of medical services, of education; that everyone should save themselves as best they can, that those who have the money can access health care, he warned.

“We are not going to surrender sovereignty, the independence of our people, or the freedom of this nation. There are many of us revolutionaries in this town who are willing to give our lives and this is not a slogan, it is a conviction. They will have to step over our corpses if they want to confront the Revolution, and we are ready for anything and we will be in the streets fighting.”

We know that incidents of this type are being orchestrated in the streets of Havana and that there are large groups of revolutionaries confronting counterrevolutionary elements. We are separating the confused revolutionaries, the inhabitants of Cuba who have specific concerns, but we are not going to allow any counterrevolutionary, any mercenary, to provoke destabilization among our people.

“This is why we are calling on all revolutionaries in our country, all communists, to take to the streets in any of the places where these provocations may take place today, from now on, throughout these days,” he insisted.

“As I said in my closing speech at the Party Congress, we revolutionaries defend the Revolution above all else, we communists on the front lines, and with that conviction we are now in the streets, we are not going to allow anyone to manipulate our situation, or defend a plan that is not Cuban, that is not for the welfare of Cubans and that is annexationist. This is the task to which we call revolutionaries and communists of this country,” he concluded.

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A la Revolución la defendemos ante todo (+Video)

A Estados Unidos le ha molestado mucho durante 60 años el ejemplo de la Revolución Cubana, dijo este domingo el Primer Secretario del Partido Comunista de Cuba y Presidente de la República, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, en una intervención especial desde el Palacio de la Revolución para explicar al pueblo la más reciente provocación orquestada por grupúsculos contrarrevolucionarios

Gladys Leidys Ramos López12 de julio de 2021 01:07:22

A Estados Unidos le ha molestado mucho durante 60 años el ejemplo de la Revolución Cubana, dijo este domingo el Primer Secretario del Partido Comunista de Cuba y Presidente de la República, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, en una intervención especial desde el Palacio de la Revolución para explicar al pueblo la más reciente provocación orquestada por grupúsculos contrarrevolucionarios.
 El Jefe de Estado inició sus palabras con un saludo revolucionario para todo nuestro pueblo, y dijo: «lamentablemente  tenemos que interrumpir las jornadas dominicales, que todas nuestras familias asumen para descansar y compartir, para informarles y compartir con ustedes un grupo de elementos sobre los sucesos que han estado aconteciendo en el día de hoy, que tienen que ver con todo un nivel de provocación sistemático escalado, que ha estado promoviendo la contrarrevolución en estos días».
¿Qué antecedentes estamos viviendo de la situación que tenemos?, preguntó.
«Hemos sido honestos, hemos sido diáfanos, hemos sido claros, y en todo instante le hemos estado explicando a nuestro pueblo las complejidades de los momentos actuales.

«Yo recuerdo que hace más de un año y medio, cuando se iniciaba el segundo semestre del año 2019, tuvimos que explicar que íbamos hacia una coyuntura difícil, y usamos ese término, que después se tomó como parte del humor popular, porque hemos permanecido en esa coyuntura durante mucho tiempo… a partir de todas las señales que estaba dando el Gobierno de los Estados Unidos, encabezado por la administración Trump con relación a Cuba».
Recordó que ahí empezaron a recrudecer todo un grupo de medidas restrictivas del bloqueo; la persecución financiera, la persecución energética, con el objetivo de asfixiar la economía de nuestro país.
Díaz-Canel denunció ese anhelado deseo que tienen de que se provoque un estallido social masivo en Cuba, a lo que contribuyen toda esa propaganda y todas esas construcciones ideológicas que han hecho para convocar las llamadas intervenciones humanitarias, que terminan en intervenciones militares y en injerencias, que aplastan los derechos y la soberanía, la independencia de todos los pueblos.
Esa sucesión de acciones hostiles continuó, dijo. «Después vinieron las 243 medidas que todos conocemos. Y en los últimos días de esa administración se decide incluir a Cuba en la lista de países patrocinadores del terrorismo». 
Reiteró que esa «es una lista totalmente espuria, una lista ilegítima, y una lista unilateral, que asume los EE. UU. sobre la gracia que ellos se creen que son la potencia que domina al mundo, que son los emperadores de este mundo».
Subrayó que, lamentablemente, por la falta de dignidad que existe en un grupo de instituciones internacionales y también en una parte importante de algunos países, muchos se someten 
de golpe a todas estas medidas y a todas estas acciones.
«Hay que reconocer que otros no permiten que se les impongan, pero también se ven limitados por el alcance extraterritorial que tienen estas.
«Y eso acrecentó más todas estas limitaciones, todas estas restricciones, que sobre todo implicaron que al país se le cortaran de inmediato sus principales fuentes de ingreso de divisas: estoy hablando del turismo, estoy hablando de los viajes de cubanos y americanos a nuestro país, de las remesas que tanto esperan las familias cubanas de sus familiares en los Estados Unidos».
El Presidente cubano denunció también que se hizo un plan tremendo de desacreditación de las brigadas médicas cubanas, y por esa colaboración médica, además de la colaboración solidaria que presta Cuba, también se ingresaba una parte importante de divisas, y todo esto fue provocando una situación de desabastecimiento del país: «Desabastecimiento de alimentos, desabastecimiento de medicamentos, desabastecimiento de materias primas y de insumos para poder desarrollar nuestro proceso económico y productivo, que a la vez tributan a las exportaciones y a los abastecimientos del pueblo; por lo tanto aquí están cortados dos importantes elementos: la capacidad de exportar y de recibir divisas para importar e invertir, y la capacidad de los procesos productivos para poder desarrollar todo un grupo de bienes y servicios para nuestra población».
Puntualizó que el país «tuvo limitaciones con el combustible, limitaciones en piezas de repuesto, y todo esto ha provocado un grupo de insatisfacciones, ha acrecentado problemas acumulados, que no hemos podido resolver y que venían del periodo especial, y a todo esto se ha sumado una feroz campaña mediática de desacreditación como parte de la llamada guerra no convencional, que trata, por una parte, de fracturar la unidad entre el Partido, el Gobierno, el Estado y el pueblo, que trata de poner al Gobierno como insuficiente, incapaz de proporcionar bienestar al pueblo cubano, y que pretende enarbolar al Gobierno de los ee. uu., “muy preocupado por ese pueblo” al que tiene bloqueado injustamente, indicándole que es por donde se puede aspirar a la esperanza del desarrollo y al progreso de un país como el nuestro.
«Esas son consabidas recetas hipócritas y discursos de doble rasero, que los conocemos muy bien en toda la historia de los Estados Unidos hacia Cuba. Conocemos cómo intervinieron en nuestro país, cómo se apropiaron de nuestra Isla, cómo mantuvieron una dominación de nuestra Isla en la etapa de la seudorrepública y cómo esos intereses fueron golpeados por la Revolución Cubana con su triunfo.
«Y les ha molestado mucho durante 60 años el ejemplo de la Revolución Cubana y constantemente han estado arreciando…, han estado aplicando un bloqueo injusto, criminal, cruel, recrudecido ahora, peor en condiciones de pandemia. Ahí está la perversidad manifiesta, la maldad de todas esas intenciones: bloqueo y acciones restrictivas, que nunca han tomado contra ningún otro país, ni contra los que ellos consideran sus principales enemigos.
«Por tanto, ha sido una labor y una política de saña contra una pequeña Isla, que solo aspira a defender su independencia, su soberanía y construir, con autodeterminación, su sociedad de acuerdo con los principios que más de un 86 % ha aprobado, ha apoyado en el ejercicio amplio y democrático, que sostuvimos, para aprobar la actual Constitución de la República de Cuba.
«Y en medio de esas condiciones  viene la pandemia, una pandemia que no ha afectado solo a Cuba, una pandemia que ha afectado a todo el mundo, una pandemia que ha afectado también a los Estados Unidos, que ha afectado a los países ricos. Hay que decir que los Estados Unidos y esos países ricos no tuvieron toda la capacidad para enfrentar los efectos de esta pandemia en sus inicios.
«Y en muchos de esos países del primer mundo, con muchas más riquezas, colapsaron los sistemas de Salud, colapsaron las salas de terapia intensiva. Los pobres fueron desfavorecidos, porque no existen políticas públicas orientadas al pueblo para su salvación.
Acotó que la norteña nación del norte y esos países ricos tienen indicadores en relación con el enfrentamiento a la pandemia peores resultados que los de Cuba en muchos casos.
«Y a nosotros nos afectó esa pandemia y, en medio de todas estas restricciones, con las reservas que ha creado el país, con lo poco que teníamos en el país, con lo poco que hemos podido adquirir en este año y medio tan duro, es que hemos podido enfrentar todos estos retos y todos estos desafíos. 
«Y lo hemos hecho con valentía, lo hemos hecho con coraje, lo hemos hecho sin claudicar y, sobre todo, lo hemos hecho compartiendo entre todos lo poco que tenemos, y no solo lo hemos compartido en Cuba, lo hemos compartido con el mundo, porque ahí está el ejemplo de las brigadas internacionalistas Henry Reeve, que ha ido a lugares afectados brutalmente por la pandemia.
«Y así fuimos avanzando, fuimos controlando brotes y rebrotes, con una capacidad tremenda de sacrificio de nuestro pueblo, de nuestros científicos, de nuestro personal de la Salud, de casi todo el país involucrado en esto.
Díaz-Canel destacó que se han creado cinco candidatos vacunales, ya uno de ellos reconocido como vacuna, que es la primera vacuna de Latinoamérica contra la COVID-19. Ya Cuba está vacunando a su población, y esto es un proceso que toma tiempo. Hay que producir las vacunas, pero nosotros tenemos en estos momentos una de las zonas de vacunación más alta del mundo y en pocas semanas hemos llegado a más de un 20 % de vacunados, del total de la población», refirió.
En los últimos meses, alertó, han comenzado a aparecer cepas más agresivas, que provocan más transmisión de la enfermedad, y en medio de esa situación empieza a aparecer otro grupo de complicaciones.
«En primer lugar, los casos ocurren con una velocidad y acumulación que superan las capacidades que hemos podido crear para atender en instituciones estatales a estos casos. Por otra parte, hemos tenido que acudir a abrir capacidades en otros centros», explicó.
En ese sentido, fundamentó que al abrir más centros, a los cuales hay que darles una prioridad energética –en medio de la acumulación de problemas en la generación eléctrica, que han llevado a mayores afectaciones–, la cantidad de circuitos que tenemos que proteger para que se atienda a estos pacientes ha aumentado.
Al tener más enfermos, continuó, las reservas de medicamentos se van agotando también y las maneras de adquirirlos son muy difíciles; y en medio de todo esto seguimos con voluntad, seguimos pensando en todo, trabajando para todos.
«Ahora hemos tenido que recurrir a la experiencia del ingreso domiciliario ante la falta de capacidades de un grupo de provincias, y hemos tenido que convocar, entonces, a las familias para que tengan una participación más directa, más responsable. Uno no se cansa de admirar esa capacidad de resistencia creativa que tiene nuestro pueblo».
Con esos valores, aseguró, si los acompañamos de responsabilidad, en el menor tiempo posible, con vacunación, cumpliendo las medidas sanitarias necesarias, saldremos más temprano que tarde de este pico pandémico que no es solo un caso cubano. Cuba logró postergarlo con todo lo que hicimos, y también lo superaremos.
Entonces, de manera muy cobarde, sutil, oportunista, muy perversa, a partir de las situaciones más complicadas que hemos tenido en provincias como Matanzas y Ciego de Ávila, estos que siempre han estado apoyando el bloqueo, los que han servido como mercenarios, lacayos del imperio yanqui, empiezan a aparecer con doctrinas de intervención humanitaria, de corredor humanitario, para fortalecer el criterio de que el Gobierno cubano no es capaz de salir de esta situación, como si estuvieran tan interesados en el bienestar y salud de nuestro pueblo, sentenció el Presidente.
«Si quieren tener un gesto con Cuba, si quieren de verdad preocuparse por el pueblo, si quieren resolver los problemas de Cuba: abran el bloqueo y vamos a ver a cómo tocamos, ¿por qué no lo hacen? ¿Por qué no tienen valor para abrir el bloqueo, qué fundamento legal, moral, sostiene que un gobierno extranjero le pueda aplicar esa política a un país pequeño, y en medio de situaciones tan adversas? ¿Eso no es genocidio?».
Enarbolan, denunció, criterios de que somos una dictadura, «una dictadura que se preocupa por darle a toda su población Salud, que trata de buscar bienestar para todos, que en medio de esta situación es capaz de llevar a cabo políticas públicas, que está aspirando a la vacunación con una vacuna cubana, porque sabíamos que nadie nos la iba a vender, porque no teníamos dinero para comprarla», sostuvo.
«¡Qué dictadura más extraña!», exclamó. Ahora vociferan que somos unos asesinos, dónde están los asesinados en Cuba, dónde están los desaparecidos en Cuba, por qué los otros países que han sufrido estos picos pandémicos, no fueron atacados en la prensa y a esos no se les puso como solución la intervención humanitaria, ni se les armaron estas campañas de descrédito como a nosotros, enfatizó Díaz-Canel.
«Yo creo que la vida, la historia, los hechos demuestran qué está detrás de todo esto, que es asfixiarnos y acabar con la Revolución, y para eso tratan de desalentar a nuestro pueblo, de confundir a nuestro pueblo. Y cuando la gente está en condiciones severas, entonces ocurren hechos como los que vivimos en San Antonio de los Baños».
Sobre los hechos en esta zona, detalló:
¿Quiénes componían ese grupo? Lo componían personas de pueblo, que tienen necesidades, que están viviendo parte de estas carencias; lo componían personas revolucionarias confundidas o que no tiene todos los argumentos, o que también están expresando estas insatisfacciones, pero estos lo hacían de manera distinta, porque buscaban argumentos, explicación.
«Pero esto estaba encabezado por un núcleo de manipuladores que sí se están prestando a los designios de las campañas SOS Matanzas o SOS Cuba, o el llamado cacerolazo, que están preparando hace varios días, para que en varias ciudades de Cuba hubiera manifestaciones o disturbios sociales de este tipo. Esto es muy criminal, en un momento en que la gente debe estar en sus casas, protegiéndose».
Los revolucionarios de San Antonio de los Baños, reconoció Díaz-Canel, las autoridades de la provincia, un grupo de personas de la dirección del país nos presentamos allí, nos enfrentamos a los contrarrevolucionarios y hablamos con los revolucionarios, o a los que estaban pidiendo explicaciones, para demostrar que la calle es de los revolucionarios.
Apuntó que sabemos que hay otros grupos de personas en determinadas calles o plazas, en otras ciudades del país, donde se han concentrado movidos también por esos propósitos tan malsanos. «Estoy dando esta información, también para ratificar que en Cuba las calles son de los revolucionarios, que el Estado, el Gobierno revolucionario, guiado por el Partido, tiene toda la voluntad política para discutir, para argumentar y para participar con el pueblo en la solución de los problemas, pero reconociendo cuál es la verdadera causa de nuestros problemas, sin dejarnos confundir».
Los que están alentando a que haya manifestaciones, no quieren para Cuba un bien de salud, enfatizó. Recuerden que su modelo es el neoliberal, es la privatización de la salud, de los servicios médicos, de la educación, es que cada cual se salve como pueda, que puedan acudir a la salud los que tengan dinero, alertó. 
«Nosotros no vamos a entregar la soberanía, ni la independencia del pueblo, ni la libertad de esta nación. Somos muchos los revolucionarios en este pueblo que estamos dispuestos a dar la vida y eso no es por consigna, es por convicción. Tienen que pasar por encima de nuestros cadáveres si quieren enfrentar la Revolución, y estamos dispuestos a todo y estaremos en las calles combatiendo».
Sabemos que se están orquestando incidentes de este tipo en las calles de La Habana y que hay masas de revolucionarios enfrentando elementos contrarrevolucionarios. Separamos a los revolucionarios confundidos, separamos a los habitantes de Cuba que puedan tener determinadas preocupaciones, pero no vamos a permitir que un contrarrevolucionario, mercenario, vaya a provocar desestabilización en nuestro pueblo.
«Por eso estamos convocando a todos los revolucionarios de nuestro país, a todos los comunistas, a que salgan a las calles en cualquiera de los lugares donde se vayan a producir estas provocaciones hoy, desde ahora y en todos estos días», sostuvo.
«Como dije en el discurso de clausura del Congreso del Partido, a la Revolución la defendemos ante todo, los revolucionarios y, en la primera fila, los comunistas, y con esa convicción estamos ya en las calles, no vamos a permitir que nadie manipule nuestra situación, ni que nadie pueda defender un plan que no es cubano, que no es bienestar para los cubanos y cubanas y que es anexionista. A eso convocamos a los revolucionarios y a los comunistas de este país», concluyó.

Continue reading A la Revolución la defendemos ante todo →

The moment I learned of the Batista regime’s fall
Raúl recalls speaking to Batista’s troops in Santiago de Cuba, on orders from Fidel, to arrange their surrender

Raúl Castro Ruzjanuary 4, 2021 09:01:44

Raúl enters the Moncada Garrison, with only his escort, to talk with Coronel Rego Rubido, chief officer of the dictatorship’s troops in Santiago de Cuba.

Photo: Granma Archives
Fidel had predicted that the Moncada Garrison would surrender its forces during the first days of January, 1959. I had been inside the fort in 1953, as a prisoner, along with other compañeros who attacked the Moncada. Fidel had been taken directly to the Santiago de Cuba Vivac.

The story goes like this. I was at the Soledad sugar mill, now called the El Salvador, when I heard about the fall of Batista regime. At the time I was organizing the attack on the city of Guantánamo, on orders from Fidel. As soon as we began to hear the first news coming from the Dominican Republic, I left to find Fidel and we were able to meet between San Luis and Palma Soriano. Together we went to the foothills located to the north of Santiago de Cuba, to a place known as El Escandel. From there, contact was established with a group representing the troops in Santiago de Cuba, which included some 5,000 men. This delegation was headed by the base commander, Coronel Rego Rubido. Fidel ordered that all the officers be brought to El Escandel, and if I remember correctly, Rego Rubido proposed that the revolutionary command speak with the officers first, and I offered to do that.

Two officers from the Rebel Army accompanied me to Santiago de Cuba, and we arrived in the afternoon. The people were in the streets. The army, although defeated, still had its weapons. We entered through the Moncada’s main door, the same door through which they led me after being detained in 1953, under the threatening eyes and insults of officers and soldiers. In the command building, I greeted two or three guerilla officers from the Third Front who were already there, and who, via a different route, led by Comandante René de los Santos, had reached the Moncada before me.

I was taken to the Regiment Chief’s office, where I had also been interrogated in 1953, on that occasion by General Díaz Tamayo. There, in the office, I spoke to the officers, standing on top of the Regiment Chief’s desk. I noticed that hanging on the wall, within my reach, was a portrait of General Tabernilla, head of the Army, and another of Batista.

When I finished by words to the officers and communicated Fidel’s decision that I was to take them to El Escandel to talk with him, I yanked the portrait of General Tabernilla from the wall and handed it to Coronel Rego Rubido, who accepted it hesitantly, not knowing what to do, unaware of my purpose. I then immediately pulled down Batista’s portrait, and holding it over my head before the officers, shouted, Viva la Revolución, as I threw the dictator’s likeness to the ground. All the Army and Navy officers and the main Police chiefs were there, and in unison let out a thundering cry of Viva la Revolución, in response to mine. The officer at my side atop the desk, still holding the portrait of Tabernilla in his hands, stood looking at me, still not knowing what to do. That was when I asked him, “What’s the matter, old man?” He finally understood and threw the portrait of his former general to the ground, too.

Immediately following the applause, the officers insisted that I speak to the troops who had gathered, upset and without leadership, in the Moncada’s main square. I went to the balcony. I didn’t have a microphone. After some applause, it quieted down and I began to speak.

First as a tenuous murmur and quickly becoming a shout, more like a generalized chant, they yelled, “Gerolan, gerolan, gerolan!” The shouting surprised me and I asked a Batista army officer at my side what gerolan was. He said he didn’t know, so I asked another one, while the rhythmic demand for gerolan continued. Finally, one of the officers approached me and explained, “Comandante, Gerolan is the name of a restorative medication for old people, and this is what the soldiers call the overtime, the bonus, they are paid on campaign.” The uproar was about the fact that they had not been paid for months, since the bonus had simply been stolen by some officers in the leadership of the troops.

“There will be gerolan for everyone tomorrow,” I told them, and the troops applauded my words deliriously. I was finally able to conclude my message to the defeated army.

As Raúl looked out to the horizon, he said, “Gentlemen, it is something tremendous to see the fall of a regime.”

Note: This testimony was published in the book El pueblo cubano, in the collection by Antonio Núñez Jiménez entitled La naturaleza y el hombre.

THE BATISTA DICTATORSHIP’S LEGACY

When the Revolution triumphed January 1, 1959, Cuba’s condition was abysmal, ranking among the poorest countries in Latin America and the world. This is the “inheritance” left by the Batista dictatorship:

LAND:

85% of small farmers paid rent and lived under the perennial threat of eviction from their plots.

WORK:

51.5% of the working age population, in 1953, had jobs. Three years later, the situation was worse.

HOUSING:

85% of rural homes had no running water.

90% of rural homes had no electricity.

HEALTH:

65% of the country’s doctors were in the capital, serving only 22% of the population.

2,026 trained nurses were available in 1959.

60 children died for every 1,000 live births.

62% of the hospital beds were in Havana.

58 years was the average life expectancy.

8% of the rural population had access to free medical care.

Access to state hospitals was only possible on the recommendation of a political figure, who demanded in return the votes of the patient’s and his or her entire family.

EDUCATION:

45% of children between the ages of six and 14 did not attend school. In public schools, of every 100 children who enrolled, only six reached the sixth grade.

500,000 children without schools.

23.6% of the population over ten years of age was illiterate and more than 1,000,000 who could not read or write.

Secondary and higher education was reserved for a minority.

Tens of thousands of children were forced to work to alleviate hunger in their homes.

Secondary education was available to only half of the school-age population.

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