http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/15399_fidel.html
World / Continents / AmericaFidel Castro: "Cuba is committing and will continue
to commit the sin of existing"
05/03/2005 11:33
"Faced with the most powerful empire in the history of humanity, we
are here"
Speech given by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, President of
the Republic of Cuba at the International May Day celebration in Revolution
square on May 1, 2005:
(Cheering)
Listen, hold on for just a bit longer, because today you will be
lucky and I won't be speaking at great length.
(Cheering, and shouts of "No!") Nature is on our side, look at the
breeze and the clouds; everything is on the side of our noble cause.
Dear personalities and fighters from more than 60 nations who are
sharing this historic May Day with us;
Dear delegates to the 4th Hemispheric Meeting of the Fight against
the FTAA and for the ALBA;
Dear fellow Cubans:
Faced with the most powerful empire in the history of humanity
determined to destroy our identity as an independent nation in the past, and
later during the inevitable Revolution, we are here, in this glorious Square,
after 46 years of heroic struggle, against which the most perfidious defamation
and the most vulgar crimes have crashed.
Ninety miles away from that Power, Cuba is committing, and will
continue to commit - don't let there be any doubt about this - the sin of
existing.
The fallacies of asymmetric warfare that Cuba is supposedly
preparing to wage are looking increasingly ridiculous, embarrassing and
impotent; the great lie about the production of biological weapons, involving
the enraged liar John Bolton, whose cynical facade they try to present - and
rightly so, perhaps - as the perfect symbol of the current United States
government to the United Nations.
They have failed in their renewed ideological war in which they
invaded or tried to invade our radio electronic space with a host of subversive
broadcasts of anti-Cuban radio and television; as they have failed in their
attempt to internationally isolate Cuba; in their support of idle mercenaries
and their use as Trojan horses within the country; in the vulgar actions of the
Interests Section under an agitator especially chosen and trained to work out
his own expulsion with a well deserved kick up the backside; and in their
intentions to suffocate us with the intensification of the criminal economic,
commercial and financial blockade.
On the other hand, Cuban credit has grown stronger, its
international economic relations have increased and business with US
agricultural producers has expanded, despite the many obstacles imposed by the
fraudulent and tricky occupant of the White House.
The maneuver to deprive our country of the dollar also failed - the
dollar has now been dishonorably dismissed from our country where, during the
very harsh times of the special period, it reigned as the Luis 14th of monetary
circulation.
All their aggressive plots against our people have failed. Here we
are, I insist, stronger than ever, more united than ever, more determined than
ever to continue with the exceptional work of building a more just, more
supportive, more humane and more prosperous society, like the Promised Land
already within our grasp.
The American government, along with its many other sinister
strategies to harm our Homeland, resorted to the vulgar option of adding Cuba
to a spurious and cynical list of terrorist countries.
This week that draws to an end today, the State Department
republished its updated list. It states, in a perverse and malicious way, that:
"Cuba remained actively opposed to the US-led Coalition prosecuting the global
war on terrorism".
Why does Cuba have to follow the lead of a corrupt and genocidal
government?
Following September 11, 2001 and the atrocious attacks on the Twin
Towers, planned and carried out by fanatic leaders financially linked to the
dynasty that currently reigns in the White House, individuals who were also
trained and used by the United States Special Services, the Empire's policy has
centered on what it described as a world crusade against the terrorism which,
invented by them against Cuba, Viet Nam and other countries, has become a world
tragedy. The Nazi doctrine of the preemptive and surprise attack on 'any dark
corner of the world' was declared and 60 or more states were grotesquely cited
as possible targets - one of these, of course, was Cuba, - as our country is
first on the list of possible objectives.
No one should be surprised if with the deepest contempt we use the
harshest words to qualify such ethylic and demented threats, as it was under
such pretext they embarked on wars supposedly aimed at fighting terrorism.
On the very September 11, 2001, Cuba warned of the absurdity of
this concept and advised that war would never be the solution to the problem.
Reports from the US Counter-Terrorism Center at this time show that
in 2004 there were three times more major terrorist acts (651 compared to 175)
than in 2003.
When the American government unjustifiably invaded Iraq, it
consciously lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. Actually,
it was the oil they were after; it was a vulgar war of conquest. All the
painful evidence has quashed Bush's hypocritical speech that the world is now a
safer place than it was four years ago.
What is the credibility of the shameless scarecrow designed against
Cuba by the State Department, which has also made the mistake of giving first
place on their list to the least fearful country and the most capable of
uncovering their despicable lies?
On top of all this, the government of that country has been foolish
enough to say that "the biggest cause for concern is that these States
(including Cuba in first place) have the capacity to produce weapons of mass
destruction and other destabilizing technology which could fall into the hands
of the terrorists". This at the exact time when John Bolton, the deranged
author of this folly, is questioned by several of the most important
intelligence services of the United States for venting his fury on some honest
officials who had the decency to oppose his depraved and untenable lies. Major
media outlets and what is even more worrying for the extremist, warmongering
and genocidal mob, the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are
amazed at such shocking behavior.
The sinister aims of these lies are well known.
In addition to this hysterical behavior, on Friday April 29 a cable
reported that the very distinguished President of the United States had just
ordered the Treasury Department to hand over a generous amount of Cuba's frozen
assets to meet another lawsuit from the extremist and terrorist Cuban American
mob in Miami.
What is truly incomprehensible and inexplicable about the US
government's behavior is that they published the abovementioned State
Department document at a time when the current administration is caught up in
one of the most embarrassing and sensitive chapters of its terrorist
adventures, its aggression and lies against Cuba. Are they stupid, or even
better, are they such stupid or what?
The whole world knows that Luis Posada Carriles, the cruelest, most
famous terrorist in the western hemisphere, as acknowledged by the most
important media outlet in this part of the world, has entered the United States
and requested asylum from the government of that country, whose soldiers are
dying every day and whose death toll have risen to almost two thousand, in the
name of a war against terrorism that was unleashed after the events of
September 11, 2001.
Our fellow Cubans, who have closely followed this unprecedented
scandal, know perfectly well what I am talking about. Many people will now be
wondering whether the George W. Bush administration has given birth to the
monster that was growing heavy in their entrails. Reply: it is incredible but
there are still no signs of labor, despite the fact that this could endanger
the health of both, the mother and the creature, as well as that of the many
midwives and others who are meddling in this affair, and whose numbers are
growing by the day.
Due to the fact that over the last three days we have been focused
on the agreements and documents signed between the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela and Cuba, and particularly on the events related to the visit of the
leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, our close brother Hugo Chavez Frias, and
the historic progress which we are rapidly making in such a short period of
time towards the integration of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean
- two hundred years after their struggles for independence first began - the
same that until now have been dominated and plundered by colonialism and
imperialism which have lead them to a now unsustainable situation, we haven't
been able to examine the highly significant situation created by the return of
the monster to the place where it was bred and trained for the long series of
crimes that it has committed against the people of Cuba and other peoples
worldwide.
Today, while we were speaking of the crime committed on October 6,
1976 in Barbados, with the blowing up of the passenger plane and the loss of
more than 70 lives; between that date and the day the young Italian was
murdered in a Havana hotel, 20 years have passed equivalent to 20 years of
murders, of crimes committed by US governments using mercenaries and terrorists
of the despicable caliber of Posada Carriles.
Neither can we forget more than 45 years of aggressions, mercenary
invasions, piratical attacks, acts of sabotage, a dirty war which, in the midst
of an atrocious and pitiless blockade, has taken the lives of thousands and
thousands of fellow countrymen, victims of these acts of terrorism. How can the
US government, least of all the present administration, accuse Cuba, the
victim, and write her first on a list of terrorist nations, when what they
should actually do is place her first on a list of victims of imperialist
terrorism, for more than half a century! (Cheering)
Since it has been almost 72 hours without news on the delivery, I
shall proceed straight to giving you, as briefly as possible, - and taking into
account the time and the effort you have all made over the last twelve hours -
the latest top stories:
The newspaper, El Nuevo Herald reported on April 29 that, faced
with the extradition request made by Venezuela, the terrorist's accomplices
were preparing to strengthen their legal team.
Santiago Alvarez, the well-known terrorist and accomplice of Posada
Carriles, said that the legal representation "is being strengthened with
lawyers of different origins".
According to the newspaper, the lawyers hired to assist the
terrorist include Kendall Coffey, the former Miami district attorney who led
the sinister team of lawyers that tried to keep the child Elian Gonzalez
kidnapped and Joaquin Chafardet, an equally mobbish lawyer who is well known in
Venezuela, and who previously represented Posada during his trial in Caracas
for the bombing of the Cubana airliner and is strongly associated with Ricardo
Koesling, a representative of the Cuban American National Foundation in
Venezuela and one of the instigators of the siege of the Cuban Embassy during
the ephemeral coup d'etat of April 11, 2002.
Accounts cited by the newspaper discuss the possibility that the
illustrious Posada Carriles will talk to the press very soon.
Santiago Alvarez Fernandez Magrina, the abovementioned character
who took Posada Carriles from Isla Mujeres to the city of Miami between the 16
and the 18 of March, in other words 44 days ago, gave an interview yesterday on
a Miami TV channel in which he shamelessly said that Posada Carriles 'is fine,
he is painting, listening to the news and reading'. Then he went on to announce
in a language that befits the ignorant and uneducated individual that he is
that "it is very probable that in the next few days he will be called to the
Immigration office, and when he shows up there they will have to see him and
talk to him. Preparations are being made for him to give a limited interview in
the next few days, as soon as the lawyers feel that the time is right, in order
to give information on certain points that need answering". In fact, there are
a million points that need answering: are you well aware of that Mr. George W.
Bush?
According to the Herald - which as you know has many connections
with the Mob, I particularly refer to the so called the New Herald - sources in
the United States capital affirmed that Posada's asylum request had gone down
like a "lead balloon" in high US ranks. "It has created a lot of political
friction", said a top official that asked to remain anonymous. "This is the
worst time that it could have happened". Listen to that official's phrasing:
'This is the worst time that it could have happened'.
Information received suggests that the Bush administration doesn't
know how to get out of this tangled and embarrassing situation. They're holding
a time bomb in their hands. While they have been playing with terrorism,
fomenting it, supporting it and nurturing it, it comes as no surprise that they
now have a time bomb on their hands.
It has also been said that even the beleaguered Cuban American
National Foundation, the group that gives the most protection and financial aid
to Posada Carriles, in close coordination with US administrations, is worried
because this matter could further harm their battered political image, and they
are also worried that the terrorist may demand more from them because he has
lots of information.
On the other hand, there are reports in New York press circles that
the United States government is involved in intense negotiations with several
Central American countries in order to secretly transfer the terrorist to any
country in that area.
In addition to this it has been said that the Salvadoran government
must have let the United States know through various channels that they don't
want Posada Carriles in their country - everybody wanting to get rid of the
corpse, acting like rats fleeing a sinking ship - and it is very unlikely that
they'll accept the terrorist. The final destination will depend on the pressure
exerted by the State Department. We already know what results have been
obtained by that distinguished lady who is the Secretary of State and who is
presently traveling through our hemisphere to discuss democracy and lack of
governability, or should I say governability, in this hemisphere. They haven't
even realized what has happened, they haven't even realized that in one week,
just one week, three governments are in the middle of serious crises.
Journalists are commenting that Cuba's denunciation of Posada
Carriles took the US authorities by surprise, but that they have by now
realized the sensitivity of the issue and changed their initial intention of
accepting Posada into their country.
Here, one of the distinguished speakers preceding me - it was
Schafick - spoke of the 'hot potato'. Cubans know very well how hot a potato
can be when it is taken out of the pot, perhaps out of the pressure cooker: it
burns your hands, your lips, your tongue, it burns everything; and there they
are, with a specially hot potato that won't cool down, one that we won't let
cool down. (Applause)
Meanwhile, there are reports from Salvadoran political circles that
some leaders of the ARENA government party would find themselves in deep water
if they didn't help Posada.
In this context, the former Minister of the Interior and coffee
entrepreneur Mario Acosta Oertel, "a close friend of Posada and the people of
Miami" would be the person in charge of handling the issue of the terrorist in
El Salvador. Acosta's wife is the cousin of Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena, the
terrorist detained in Cuba.
According to journalists from an important US television network,
their colleagues in Miami say they are convinced that Posada Carriles is hidden
in a house in Florida.
Reporters from this network in Miami believe that the FBI knows
where Posada is and who is with him, and they don't rule out the possibility
that one of the options might be to force him out of the country. To this end,
they could use the procedure of accusing the person who is sheltering him, and
those who allowed him to enter, and those who gave permission for his entry,
and those who know how he entered and where he hiding and are saying nothing.
They say that they don't understand why the FBI has not arrested
Posada, since the terrorist was singled out as a fugitive of Venezuelan justice
by a government preceding that of President Chavez.
However, they say that they couldn't send him to Venezuela either
because the American government is convinced that that would be tantamount to
handing him over to Cuba.
Such a sophism! It was precisely Cuba that, from the beginning,
relinquished its most legitimate right to judge him since it was her sons and
daughters, in huge numbers, who have been among the victims of this monster's
crimes, a monster bred and trained in the United States and used by them for
decades. If not, how could it be explained, or rather, how could the shameless
blackmail plaguing the most powerful superpower ever existing be explained?
It is the opinion of the reporters that the FBI are carefully
evaluating the scenarios to which they are being exposed, and they feel that
the Bush administration still hasn't decided how to deal with the case - they
are truly mute, paralyzed, puzzled - but they assume that when Posada enters
into the public eye the FBI will have a plan ready.
TV journalists in Miami are saying that the big networks in the
United States are on Posada's trail and some of them are very close to finding
out his whereabouts. One version of events is that he is hiding out in an
exclusive neighborhood on the outskirts of Miami, in a very expensive house
valued at three million dollars. There he spends his time reading, listening to
the news and painting, like a new Picasso; there in the lair of the Empire
whose political and cultural ideal, at least that of the present
administration, is to have painters with blood-stained hands and with the
barbaric notion: 'We put the bomb, so what?', or in that infamous phrase used
to describe the case of the young Italian Fabio di Celmo: 'He was in the wrong
place at the wrong time'. It now seems that it is he, as well as the US
government or the President of this administration, who are in the wrong place
at the wrong time. (Applause)
You can see what 180,000 people working in the Department of
Homeland Security, those 22 bodies that cooperate and participate in their
anti-terrorism struggle and in the protection of US internal security, have not
been able to accomplish; neither have the 15 intelligence agencies working on a
budget of billions of dollars; what these have not been able to accomplish or
discover, the US media will succeed in accomplishing and discovering.
They also say that the FBI is not keeping watch on the area where
Posada is supposedly staying, and that Eduardo Soto, the terrorist's lawyer,
has opted to give his statements and public interviews to Hispanic television
channels, without realizing that Posada has now become a priority target for
the majority of the country's TV channels, that are starting to work towards
finding and filming him, and that if the FBI doesn't find him, the television
networks will.
In a recent letter republican Senator Norm Coleman, confirmed that
the US Department of Homeland Security had received a request for asylum on
behalf of Posada Carriles.
You might recall that a few days ago the University of Informatics
Sciences (UCI) had been looking into the obligations of a lawyer or any other
person who is filing a plea for exile, and found out that it is a crime
punishable by several years in prison to violate these procedures. What would
the law say about those holding high office, indeed very high office, who act
as accomplices for the cover-up, or are accomplices of that terrorist when they
allow or authorize his entry, or even worse, those that allow his entry without
any previous consent? And there you have a government paralyzed for a month and
a half, incapable of arresting the terrorist and all of his minor accomplices
who bypassed the orders of higher authorities.
The Senator's letter means that there is finally news of a
zealously guarded document that we have been eagerly looking for over the last
few days.
What does this letter say exactly?
"Dear Mr. Hughes:
"Thank you for taking the time to contact me concerning Mr. Luis
Posada Carriles.
"As you may know, Mr. Carriles was pardoned by Panamanian President
Mireya Moscoso on August 26, 2004. Mr. Carriles attorney has alleged that Mr.
Carriles entered the United States through Mexico a few weeks ago.
"I have shared your concerns with the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS).
"DHS has confirmed that Mr. Carriles attorney has filed an asylum
request for his client. However, because of his past acts of terrorism that he
has, by his own admission, claimed to have planned and carried out, Mr.
Carriles is not eligible for asylum.
"DHS cannot confirm Mr. Carriles entry into the country, but has
alerted all major law enforcement agencies of his possible presence." If they
want to find out, all they have to do is to find Mr. Santiago Alvarez, the man
who brought him by boat to Miami from Isla Mujeres. They could never deny that,
they must swallow the whole nightmare, but this is not a nightmare; it is an
irrefutable and indestructible truth. They could have found out where this
creature was in five minutes, in the country where the authorities, the special
services and the government had spawned him.
The Senator continues: ".If he is found, Mr. Carriles would face
immediate deportation from the United States for his past terrorist activities.
"Thank you once again for taking the time to contact me. I value
your advice. If I may be of further assistance to you in the future, please do
not hesitate to contact me again.
Sincerely,
Norm Coleman
United States Senator"
In the next few days, we will be receiving very interesting news.
The US government, blackmailed by the crows it created, has lacked the courage
to pursue the only path left to it: the immediate arrest of Posada Carriles,
abiding by national and international laws and placing him at the disposition
of the Venezuelan Court that must put him on trial. I have already said that
Cuba has relinquished its right, just so that they will not have a minimum
excuse.
In Venezuela there is a Bolivarian government that is respected
worldwide, where there are many journalists. Would that not be the best place
to put him on trial, since Cuba won't do it? What excuse can they come up with
to avoid sending him there?
We have even proposed that Venezuela is in the best position to do
so. We would even accept an international absolutely impartial court, convened
in a location where they might agree to try this murderer. This is not even an
important individual; the importance of this individual lies in the fact that
his presence reveals to the world the immense hypocrisy, the lies, the immoral
acts and the cynicism that the Empire uses to dominate the world. This is
what's important, let's not forget it. The world demands that injustice be put
on trial; the world demands that hypocrisy be put on trial; the world demands
that these imperialist methods of deceit and domination, a domination that is
harder and harder to maintain on the world, be put on trial.
I promised not to talk at great length; it only remains for me to
thank our speakers. (Applause)
We were afraid that this event would go on for too long. We realize
that this is summer, the sun is strong and the people began to mobilize, those
close to Havana, at 10 o'clock last night, and that at 2 in the morning they
were already on their way, so that we might bring together a million
three-hundred thousand people, all of whom are not readily visible here,
because all the empty spaces and avenues around this Square are filled with
fellow Cubans.
You all deserve our infinite recognition for your revolutionary and
patriotic spirit, for your support of such a just cause, for your dignity and
revolutionary spirit; for your quietness and the attention paid to the valiant,
moving and eloquent words we have been hearing from all those who have stood on
this podium today, to widen our knowledge of the horrors committed by US
Imperialism against the peoples of Latin America and whose words have
strengthened our self-confidence and resolve that our nations will be free and
will unite closely to defend the same common causes we defend here, speaking
the same language that we have been hearing here today, even the English
language; because at the end of the day, it will not be too difficult, thinking
of those peoples who once struggled against colonialism and who lost many of
their sons and daughters in the struggle against fascism, that these peoples
will unite with their Latin American brothers and sisters, in the struggle for
justice, in the struggle for truth, in the struggle for the survival of our
species which is at stake today.
Let us never forget this event. Let us never forget the words of
solidarity spoken by our brothers and sisters from the South, the Center and
the North. Language will not be an obstacle, because all of us that speak
Spanish or Portuguese will learn English, and one day, all those speaking
English will learn the languages of Latin America, Spanish and Portuguese.
(Applause)
As I told you recently, the main slogan of the mobilization of this
May Day has become: 'Humanity has a yearning for justice'. You have proven this
here today. (Applause and shouts of: "Fidel! Fidel!")
And looking out onto this huge, unsurpassable and emotional crowd,
I remember that unforgettable October 15, 1976 as if it were today, the moment
in which we bid farewell to the victims of that monstrous act of terrorism
against the Cuban airliner over Barbados, which made me state: "When an
energetic and forceful people cry, injustice trembles!"
We shall see!
Long live the 30th Anniversary - which we also commemorate today -
of the glorious and exemplary victory of the heroic people of Vietnam, a
victory that the imperialists should never forget!
Patria o Muerte!
Venceremos!
(Ovation.)
Photo: Prensa Latina
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