Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 27, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
AS I MILLION CUBANS MARCH: FIDEL CASTRO STANDS UP TO BUSH'S THREAT [Following are excerpts from a talk by Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz at a protest of over 1 million people in Havana on May 14:] Mr. George W. Bush: the million Cubans who are gathered here today to march past your Interests Section is just a small part of a valiant and heroic people who would like to be here with us. ... You completely ignore that no force in the world could drag a dignified, proud people, which has withstood 45 years of hostility, blockade and aggression from the most powerful nation on earth, onto the streets like a flock of animals each one with rope around their neck. ... In the world that you seek to impose on us today there is not the slightest notion of ethics, credibility, standards of justice, humanitarian feelings, nor of the elementary principles of solidarity and generosity. Billions of human beings live in inhuman conditions starving, without enough food, medicine, clothes, shoes or shelter. ... You have only to ask your assistants for precise data on the tens of thousands of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, bombers, smart long-range missiles, battleships and aircraft carriers, conventional and non- conventional weapons in your arsenals, which are enough to wipe out all life of the planet. ... Neither you nor anyone else would ever be able to sleep again. Neither would your allies, who are trying to emulate your military build-up. ... You cannot speak of the environment because you are completely ignorant of the fact that the human race is in danger of disappearing.You label a tyranny the economic and political system that has guided the Cuban people to higher levels of literacy, knowledge and culture than those in the most developed countries in the world. The same that has reduced infant mortality to a rate lower than that of the United States and whose population is provided with all health care and education services and with other extremely important social and human services free of charge. This, Mr. Bush, is one of the few countries in this hemisphere where not once in 45 years has there been a single case of torture, a single death squad, a single extra judicial execution or a single ruler who has become a millionaire through having held power. You lack the moral authority to speak of Cuba, a dignified country, which has withstood 45 years of a brutal blockade, economic war and terrorist attacks that have cost thousands of lives and tens of billions of dollars in economic losses. ... You lack the moral right to speak of terrorism because you are surrounded by a bunch of murderers who have caused the death of thousands of Cubans through terrorist methods. ... You have no right whatsoever, except for that of brute force, to intervene in Cuba's affairs and, whenever the fancy takes you, to proclaim the transition from one system to another and to take measures to make this happen. This people can be exterminated -- it's as well you know this -- or wiped off the face of the earth, but it cannot be subjugated nor put once again into the humiliating position of a United States neocolony. Whereas you kill countless people with your indiscriminate, preemptive surprise attacks, Cuba saves the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, mothers, old and sick people all over the world. The only things you know about Cuba are the lies that spill forth from the ravenous mouths of the corrupt and insatiable mob of former Batista supporters and their descendants who are experts in electoral fraud and capable of electing president of the United States someone who did not obtain enough votes to claim victory. Human beings are not aware of nor can they be aware of freedom in a regime of inequality like the one you represent. No one is born equal in the United States. In the Black and Latin ghettos, and on the reservations for the Natives who once inhabited that land but were exterminated, there is no other equality but that of being poor and excluded. Our people, educated in solidarity and internationalism, do not hate the Amer ican people nor do they want to see young white, Black, Native American, mestizo or Latin soldiers from that country die, young people driven by unemployment to enlist in the military to be sent to any corner of the world in traitorous, preemptive attacks or in wars of conquest. The unbelievable torture applied to prisoners in Iraq has rendered the world speechless. ... Since you have decided that the die is cast ... my only regret is that I would not even see your face because in that case you would be thousands of miles away while I shall be in the frontline to die fighting in defense of my homeland. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. 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