© Copyright GRANMA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EDITION.
La Havana. Cuba
Total or partial reproduction of the articles in this Website is autorized,
as long as the source of the copyright
BARAGUA OATH
We shall see who resists longer!
* Text published in Granma daily on February 18 and sworn as a commitment
by thousands of Cubans in Mangos de Baraguá on Saturday 19
THERE can be no doubt: in spite of the statement by the Secretary of State
on the issue of kidnapped Cuban child
Elián González on February 17 in the House of Representatives, which could
be described as a constructive, one,
given the apparent and evident impotence of the U.S. administration, the
Miami mafia are clearly betting on
weariness in Cuba. They believe that our forces will become exhausted, that
the monstrous injustice will be left to
one side, that our people's weariness is beginning to show. At least this
is what was stated very recently in a cable
agency dispatch and has been circulated by various U.S. newspapers.
How little they know our people!
The mass offensive unleashed in our country on the basis of ideas is
unprecedented. Innovative, surprising and
unexpected, U.S. imperialists, well used to committing all kinds of crimes
and misdeeds with impunity, were totally
incapable of imagining it. At no other time and in no other place has there
been a similar battle of ideas and ethics
between such a powerful nation and the people of a little island located
only 90 miles from the former's coast. The
world is contemplating with increasing surprise everything that is
occurring here. It is not simply a battle for a
child's return, it is the fight for the right of all children in the world
not to be kidnapped, snatched from their her
most intimate, closest and most legitimate relatives; not to be uprooted
from the culture and nation into which they
were born and spent the early and most tender years of their lives; nor
from those who taught them their first letters,
or took the best care of their health; or the first children they related
to and played with. Even the landscape
impregnating the first images of the exterior world and nature captured by
Elián's eyes was wrested from him.
Having completed kindergarten a happy child, he wasn't even able to finish
his first term in elementary school.
These are and always will be an inseparable part of the life of any human
being that nothing or nobody can replace.
The crime was too great, too abusive, too arbitrary. That is why it has to
hurt all the parents and close relatives of
every child in Cuba, throughout the world and even in the country where he
is being held: the United States. There
are many issues over which human beings disagree, but there is one in which
everybody believes: in a child's
innocence, tenderness and defenselessness.
They are torturing him in a psychologically cruel way. They are shamelessly
exploiting him, manipulating him,
shooting thousands of photos of him, and exhibiting him like a political
trophy, as if he was the scalped head of one
of the millions of American Indians exterminated in that country. Or they
are trying to purchase him like the child of
any of the millions of slaves who were sold in public auctions for
centuries by those who occupied, colonized and
created that nation. In this case, what matters is not to buy the body but
the soul of that child. The idea that children
can be bought with trips to Disneyland or by stuffing them with all kinds
of sophisticated games produced by
consumer societies constitutes an insult to the world, particularly to the
overwhelming majority of that world made
up of the poor. What is most insulting and offensive to human sensibilities
is the gross idea that parental custody is
being decided on the basis of a country's rich or poor nature. Worse still
is the repugnant process of the destruction
of that child's soul. Specialized personnel and sophisticated techniques,
including brutal methods, are being utilized
to destroy all vestiges of that defenseless child's love for and memory of
his father, his baby brother and his four
grandparents. When they feel like it, the individuals who have Elián in
their power either allow or prevent his family
in Cuba from communicating with him by phone. Thus they are not only
torturing the child with pressure, coercion,
shouting, noise, nudges and perceptible threats to disrupt the
communication, but also his desperate father and
grandparents on the other end of the line. The proposition? To create in
the child fear, terror and rejection of his
father and grandparents, in such a way that he even comes to fear the
moment of communication with them. At all
costs, they want the child to reject them and, to effect this, are
utilizing methods similar to those of that eminent
researcher Pavlov to create conditioned reflexes in dogs.
They made him put his name to a printed document, something that a child
who cannot even read yet could draw on
a paper, so as to name lawyers and apply for U.S. citizenship. In order to
vote for any presidential candidate,
legislator, mayor, state judge or any other elected official of greater or
lesser importance, a young U.S. citizen must
have reached the age of 18; on the other hand, in the case of a kidnapped
Cuban child, they are claiming that a child
of barely six years old is capable of choosing his homeland or of deciding
whether he wishes to return to Cuba or
not. And most outrageously-for a little boy who has not even reached the
age of reason-whether he wants to
return to his father and real family, who wanted him with so much
tenderness and sacrifice, managed to bring him
into the world after numerous frustrated attempts, and cared for him so
well up until that age. In summary, a child
grossly kidnapped, who is also the victim of psychological torture and even
daily physical maltreatment.
The authorities of that country have repeatedly been told that the
government's duty is to proceed to halt the crime
and return him ipso facto to his family in Cuba. That is in compliance with
international, U.S. and Cuban law.
There is no possible justification for assigning that task to the U.S.
courts via a series of lengthy, interminable and
illegal procedures, thus permitting the kidnappers the consummation of the
barbaric act of destroying the child's
mind. The U.S. courts not only lack jurisdiction over the case, but also
the possibility of solving the problem with
the urgency required to avert irreversible consequences for his health. It
is the U.S. government that has total
authority in this case.
Anyone in that country stupid enough to believe that the Cuban people would
tire of waging this just battle, they
should be shut up in a lunatic asylum for life. In the battle for the
return of that child many values and principles are
at stake, none of which can be renounced.
The U.S. authorities have gone too far in this case, in spite of the fact
that they were warned at a very early stage of
the consequences. Our government clearly stated that if the child was not
returned as quickly as possible to his
family and his homeland, a massive battle of national and international
opinion which would be extremely costly for
that country's prestige would inevitably break out.
It was explained to our people from the beginning: the battle would be a
lengthy one; our forces are massive, but it is
necessary to use them intelligently and with the maximum of flexibility and
conservation of energy so as not to wear
ourselves down. In the initial days, the most difficult part was to ensure
that the participants in open rallies and
demonstrations were strictly limited in each case to the sectors and
persons invited. With the passing of time our
discipline has increased exceptionally and our experience has been enriched
in an incredible way. And there exits
something much more decisive: our revolutionary awareness has deepened like
never before in our homeland. In
fact, throughout this historic battle, popular energy and our ways and
means of fighting have multiplied. We now
have many more forces than those we had in the early days of December. A
large and growing number of steadily
more experienced cadres are sharing the tasks. Day by day events are
becoming more effective and of a higher
quality. Swarms of children, adolescents, young people, manual workers and
academics of all ages, artists,
combatants and organizers are displaying energy, talent and a capacity for
communication and persuasion which is
filling visitors with surprise, and is a source of pride for our country.
The entire country has become a scenario of
mobilizations, marches and open rallies, and the most significant aspects
of politics, information and national and
international culture have become the themes of roundtables. Orators,
artists, exponents, professionals or persons
with great natural talent are flowering everywhere.
PART II
Editorial office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Business officeL:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki - Finland
+358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081
e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
___________________________________
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe/unsubscribe messages
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
___________________________________
