Transcript of the conversation between General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz, Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and Cuban television journalist Marta Moreno in the final moments of 2000, to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the Revolution. Also participating were Majors of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque, Ramiro Valdés Menéndez and Guillermo García Fría, along with Jaime Crombet Hernández Baquero, vice president of the National Assembly.
Marta Moreno: The year, the century and the millennium have come to an end. Over the past year, Cubans have had the privilege of taking part in this great battle of ideas and who better to speak about the mass movement that has always existed in our country, ever since the triumph of the Revolution, than the historical personalities I have with me today. What similarities or characteristics have you noticed between the phenomenon of the masses at the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 and the current battle that has been unleashed today?
Raúl: I think that during those first few years, in that mass movement that was born with the Revolution, the predominant emotions were excitement and joy because of the triumph over the dictatorship that laid waste to the country for seven years. There was great enthusiasm. I believe that the difference in this era, I don’t know what my comrades think, is that now there is the same enthusiasm, but there is a more moderate excitement because it is more profound. But above all, now there much more consciousness than we had initially, among us as well as among the population. And the characteristics of Cuban people. Their constant joy. Don’t forget that historical moments like the triumph of a Revolution have always been accompanied by great joy, but it has also been there in the very difficult times too, like for example during the threats of aggression during the 1962 Missile Crisis. Nobody has been able to take joy away from Cubans. Isn’t that true? Even [Juan] Almeida has never stopped writing songs, starting with "Lupita" over there in Mexico through to the latest, what is it called?
Almeida: (LAUGHS) "El Toro Negro de Pachi" (Pachi’s Black Bull).
Raúl: "El toro negro de Pachi," that’s right, you’ll publish that some day. (LAUGHS). Well, I see much more consciousness now and much more organization. When a Revolution first triumphs, the sacred chaos that always accompanies revolutions predominates, and we experienced that deep-down. Really, what we have seen over the last year with the Elián case and the battle unleashed by our people to recover a boy, a little boy, that has gigantic symbolism. Here we go by the motto of all for one. It was a gigantic symbolism that didn’t escape anyone, least of all our adversaries. The huge victory that represented has demonstrated the Revolution’s strength, firstly to our people and secondly to the rest of the world, above all to our northern neighbors.
It is usually said that revolutions run out of steam. We were witness to that 10 years ago when the Soviet Union was dissolved and the socialist bloc fell apart. In Cuba there were hundreds of foreign journalists waiting for our Revolution to fall. The first years of that decade were very difficult and that continued until beyond the middle of the decade, 1995-96.
Don’t forget 1994. Don’t forget the difficult state of mind that existed at that time, but there was calm among the leaders and in the people. I also think some were losing heart. We were sent by Comrade Fidel to travel the country from one place to another and hold assemblies and meetings with Party members and local governments. We ended here in the west with a meeting at the Ministry of the Armed Forces. Those were difficult times. Today our people are celebrating the 42nd anniversary of the Revolution together with moments that have great symbolism; it is not just any end of year or just any anniversary. It’s not just the end of a year, but also the end of a century and the end of a millennium. It is of particular importance.
This 42nd anniversary is being celebrated with special activities organized by the government for the legal holidays which run through January 2, the day dedicated to the children, who well deserve it. Our people are going to enjoy and they are enjoying a rest and a chance for some fun, despite the rain and the mild winter temperatures, which I hope don’t affect us too much. They are well deserving of it because nothing has come free of charge for our people.
If we look back on history, on our history, the road has been long and difficult for the whole people with a great deal of blood, sweat, tears and sacrifice. Our wars of independence began in the second half of the 19th century and it is very difficult to pick out of that melting pot of struggle, which continued for so many years, the moment that eventually brought about the very difficult birth of our nationality. We can say with pride that this country, this little country, which barely had one and a half million inhabitants at that time, faced the largest colonial army that existed in this continent, the largest Spain had had outside its territory on the European continent. Probably no European colonial power had an army as large as that which was stationed here. There were around 300,000 troops. When the Spanish General Weyler arrived with his sinister intentions and added his troops to the volunteers and the forces who were here before his arrival, there were around 300,000 troops against a population of barely 1.5 million.
On other occasions we have spoken about this tremendous correlation of forces. There was one Spanish soldier for every five citizens, including women, children, old people and Spaniards living here.
After so many long years of struggle, the United States snatched the ripe fruit with the provocation of the explosion of the Maine. Then they intervened. They had an inexpensive war, won through the sinking of Cervera’s naval squadron at Santiago de Cuba and the battles at Siboney, San Juan Hill and El Viso in Santiago. As you know, Lenin called it the first imperialist war simply because by 1895 the world had already been divided up between the colonial powers in Berlin. It was imperialist because in order to gain new lands they had to be snatched away from someone else. That is what the United States did with Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Hawaii. The intervention began. The misery and pain of Weyler’s concentration camps have been forgotten and there are certain Spanish historians who also don’t like to talk about that dark and sinister page of the colonial era either.
The first U.S. soldier entered Havana on January 1, 1899. We know that history of the occupation. We were allowed our national anthem, flag and coat of arms and those are the same today. We have not touched those symbols of a nation because it wasn’t necessary to change them. Then followed 60 years gloomy years, which were also very hard. That crushing presence remained until the 1920s, when the trade union organizations and the Communist Party emerged. A few years later there was the struggle against Machado’s dictatorship, the eventual triumph of the anti-Machado revolution, which was frustrated once again by U.S. intervention, and the nascent experience of a people who had started the century with the adversity previously described. The Platt Amendment was imposed. The Liberation Army had been dismantled and the people crushed, and they emerged from that humiliation about a quarter of a century after the events I mentioned.
There was the collapse of the anti-Machado revolution, all that process of strengthening popular organizations and the process of World War II. After that first seven-year period of Batista as the power behind the throne in the period between 1940-1944, there were those rigged, fraudulent and supposedly independent elections from which President Grau San Martín emerged. That was how it was historically. Those so-called democratic governments arrived and we know the history of the corruption they left in their wake. Then came Batista again, and I am going to be sincere, it was fortunate that Batista came again. In order for a glorious January 1, 1959, to exist, it was necessary for Batista’s coup of March 10, 1952, to also exist. I was a university student and Juan Almeida was a bricklayer. Ramiro, what were you doing at the time?
Ramiro: I worked in a store.
Raúl: He was a worker at a fancy store in Artemisa. Guillermo was a campesino in El Plátano near Cabo Cruz, in the extreme southeast of the island.
Guillermo: In Ojo del Toro.
Raúl: Near where we should have landed in the Granma. Guillermo sometimes had to take big baskets full of taro root and sweet potato from there to Manzanillo. How many hours of travel did you used to have, Guillermo?
Guillermo: The journey to the town of Media Luna took 12 hours.
Raúl: And often he had to return home with half of his merchandise unsold because there were no buyers. We lived through interesting times, from the point of view of citizens of this country.
To conclude the idea that I expressing about previously, Cubans have never stopped struggling under very difficult conditions, and the final phase of the battle against Batista demonstrated that. But I think it has been shown even better and even more massively subsequently, since the triumph of the Revolution and the first measures benefiting the population were adopted, beginning with the lowering of rents.
Marta Moreno: And electricity prices.
Raúl: Electricity, yes.
Marta Moreno: And communications.
Raúl: Yes, communications too. Those were the simplest things. The first far-reaching measure was the Agrarian Reform Act that was signed into law on May 17, 1959. I refer to that event as the Cuban Rubicon. It was the event that unleashed the full virulence of U.S. aggression and the class war. In the days following the Agrarian Reform Act, before the socialist character of the Revolution had been announced, U.S. President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon had already made the decisions that would later lead to the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Then there was the great struggle against the bandits in the Escambray Mountains starting in 1960. We wanted to defeat the bandit groups before the Bay of Pigs invasion came, we knew it was being planned. We spent five years up until January 1965 fighting bandits. That is a long history.
We had to fight simultaneously against 179 bands that were armed simultaneously by the United States.
They were of different sizes, but sometimes they would group together to carry out an operation. They would then separate once again into smaller groups so as to be able to more easily evade capture. I remember these facts that those of my age, probably more than half the population, know perfectly well. There were five years of struggle. The Bay of Pigs invasion happened at a heroic time, the first heroic act on the part of our youth, which was the Literacy Campaign. Remember that young people carried out that work. And the campaign didn’t stop, even in the Escambray, despite the murders of teachers and campesinos in that region.
When the Bay of Pigs invasion took place, the Literacy Campaign continued and that great work was completed. In December there was a huge march of young people and they chanted: "Fidel, give us another task to carry out." That was really exciting. I believe I was in the east of the island when I saw that march on television. I think I was in Santiago de Cuba organizing and consolidating the Eastern Army. Juan Almeida was in the center of the island, Guillermo was in the west and Ramiro was working for the Ministry of the Interior. Jaime was still a young student at that time.
Jaime: I was in the university.
Raúl: There were five years of struggle against the bandits. I said that there were a total of 179 bands. By sea and by air¼ at night arms and communications equipment, etc., were parachuted into them. On two occasions there were bandits operating in the whole country, in all of the six provinces that existed at that time, including to the south of Havana. That is difficult to imagine now. It was a hard struggle.
After many problems, we began to advance in the midst of the cold war, linking our economy with the socialist bloc, especially the Soviet Union. Little by little the machinery, the transportation, the technology and the factories were changed from Western technology to that of the socialist bloc, until the start of the 1990s and its terrible consequences.
Now our history, the history I spoke about initially. Our people have received nothing free of charge. Everything has cost them a lot of work and sacrifice. Their war of independence was very similar to the revolutionary war, in that arms had to be captured from the enemy, because the shipments arriving in Cuba from other countries, above all from the southern United States, were scarce. The same thing happened in our era. Rifles and ammunition were taken from the enemy one by one in fierce battles. Since the war of independence, we have always had to face powerful enemies, because Batista had 80,000 men under his command including, in this case, the police. They faced the few arms of a group that didn’t consist of more than 15 men, we probably didn’t have more than 17 or 18 weapons when we started, when the first victorious battle at La Plata took place. What is the correlation of forces of 15 rifles with very little ammunition? In our war we never allowed anyone to carry out practice shots. Only Guillermo García was allowed to fire a rifle when he was hunting hutias in the hills of El Plátano. Fidel allowed him to take two or three shots.
Guillermo: Just one shot.
Raúl: Two days before the attack at La Plata, in the gorge of the La Plata River where we bathed for the first time since disembarking from the Granma cabin cruiser. The rest was instruction without real shooting and it was effective. Perhaps that is why we were so effective in battle and in the protection of our fighters. That was something that was unchanging on the part of the commander-in-chief. Thus when we look back on our history, we triumphed in conditions when there was a precise historical moment. If it had been earlier, it would have been more difficult to sustain the Revolution in those early days.
When the Revolution had existed for around 30 years, there was the dissolution of the socialist bloc and the disappearance of the Soviet Union, as Fidel had predicted in his speech in Camagüey in 1989. The Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991 or rather 30 months earlier, two and a half years earlier¼
Marta Moreno: It was clear it was coming.
Raúl: Then we had to start over again, the same way as what happened at Moncada Garrison, which is almost half a century away now. In July 2003, it will be the 50th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada. I look in the mirror and think and about that and I can’t believe that I’m still alive. (LAUGHS)
Did any of you think you would make it to the third millennium? Did you dream about that sometimes? Eh, Ramiro?
Ramiro: No.
Marta Moreno: And after living though so many dangers.
Raúl: We have made it through to be senior citizens. Isn’t that what they’re called? Senior citizens (LAUGHS). We achieved the goal of becoming senior citizens and we continue with the same spirit of Moncada, the same spirit of the Granma and the same spirit of the Bay of Pigs, and that is vital. I believe that the best example of productive vitality is the commander-in-chief. But he has always been like that. We had to start over again after the attack on the Moncada Garrison with all of its sacrifice, we saved cent by cent to buy the shotguns. We trained clandestinely. There was exile and prison. We saved cent by cent to buy the Granma cabin cruiser, the rifles and the bullets there were destroyed in the battle of Alegría de Pío on December 5, 1956. To start over again and we were on the point of being exterminated some months afterwards, above all because of treachery¼
Marta Moreno: On the part of Eutemio.
Raúl: And we returned to seeing the same conditions that were defeated under Fidel’s command. With hardly 300 rifles he gathered all the troops together. Almeida. Camilo was around the Cauto River. They didn’t call me because I was far away in the northeast of the former Oriente province. With barely 300 rifles we had to resist an assault made by 10,000 soldiers after the strike of April 1958. Batista launched everything at us.
Marta Moreno: The offensive.
Raúl: Yes, the offensive, with all of the airplanes and artillery at his disposal. Tanks were used wherever possible, in the foothills. There were three frigates at sea firing at us and although they didn’t do us much damage, it affected us psychologically. There have been very few cases like that in history. The offensive had barely come to an end¼ Ramiro, when did you reach Las Villas?
Ramiro: We arrived there in October.
Raúl: November and December. The defeat of the offensive in the Sierra Maestra was really the end of Batista and Fidel didn’t waste a minute. With the few weapons we had. We started to fight with 300, plus those that I had in the north, which could only have been around 100. But the resistance began with only 300. The offensives launched by one column after another were successful and nobody doubts that Camilo Cienfuegos would have arrived in Pinar del Río if the war hadn’t come to an end. It was no longer necessary. So the history of our people has always been one of struggling with few resources against powerful adversaries. And now our adversary, we could say our only adversary, is our neighbor, which is the most powerful country in the world, powerful in all senses of the word except morally. And I am really optimistic. I, who have lived through all these years in the same way as my comrades here, after having been on the front line or in the middle of all the great events of the last 47 years, almost half a century together with the commander-in-chief. I have suffered every type of sadness and every type of joy. Now we have a calm joy and a secure coexistence. After having witnessed the attitude of our people, after having lived with the attitude of our people in these 10 years and seen what our people have put up with, especially the women who have had to improvise every day within their homes. Our people have had to put up with that and especially the women. Having seen the attitude of our people over the last year, what should be most emphasized is their indestructible unity, which Martí began and Fidel completed. From the very first day after the triumph of the Revolution, even before the triumph, they have been forming a unity, a unity of the whole people. Today, one can say that it is a consolidated unity. It has allowed our friends and adversaries, but above all our people themselves, to see what unity signifies. It is the third millennium’s principal factor, the principal factor for maintaining the Revolution in the third millennium. I don’t mean in the 21st century, I mean in the third millennium or, to be more categorical, as long as the planet exists. Unity is what Fidel has always called for. Today that unity has become deeper, more inclusive, it has become more profound in many more sectors, it has manifest the Revolution’s achievements in this year that is coming to an end, and that was something which we didn’t notice very often. When we have had open tribunals, which have been held from Guane in the extreme east of the island to Maisí in the extreme west, in every corner of the country and its mountains, we have seen the talent that exists. It exists everywhere in adults, young people and most especially in children. Most especially we have seen it growing, like little wildflowers, in the countryside. Today we saw in Placetas how children age 10 were making speeches, there were children ages 9 and 10 who were brilliant. Although they receive help from their parents, the speeches they make and the ideas they put forward are theirs, they relate their own experiences with great emotion reflected in their faces and their words. Previously we hadn’t been able to see the results of our work in education on such a massive scale. It has been the same in the mountains, in the plains and in the sugar-cultivating areas. The country now has a great deal of culture. Instruction is one thing and culture is another and the strength that culture is assuming means that it is playing a role in defense of the Revolution, like a shield protecting us against this brutal world that wants to swallow us. I have heard many opinions, one of those I have heard most is that of Fidel, and what a great deal of variety there has been in the concepts and opinions given about what we have seen this year. All of them are true, exact and correct. So one can speak of many things. I want to make the role played by unity more prominent. All of this can only be achieved by unity. Naturally I am at an age when experience fundamentally predominates, I was going to say that experience predominates more than vitality, but let’s say the two of them are equal. Vitality in the sense that we climbed Turquino Peak, we came down the other side, we have walked the whole country from one tip to the other when I wasn’t yet 25. Look at him, how he is laughing. (LAUGHS)
Almeida: It’s proportional.
Raúl: Exactly. And at our age, one naturally thinks about the future. This is an opportunity for me to say that I am among those who does not want a street named after him when he dies, and much less a statue, a factory or a farm. In reality nothing. If we are worthy of a modest tribute, I think that the best tribute that could be made to us, and above all to those who died in the heroic struggle and who have not been able to see the end of the century and the Revolution’s 42nd anniversary, would be to have the Revolution continue onwards. That is what I think, that the Revolution shouldn’t deviate from its course, that the people should be alert so that, most especially, what happened in the Soviet Union doesn’t occur here.
That self-destruction of the world’s biggest country. We have to have the Revolution’s institutions, in first place the Party, functioning with an efficiency that will enable the very first negative steps to be detected. One step is taken and then another, etc. We must not be taken by surprise by any well-intentioned foolishness or any evil betrayal. I believe that when one thinks about the future, and we have to think about the future, it is a future that must be better. At times over the past few years I have had to meditate very deeply, along with my comrades, the majors of the Revolution. Jaime has accompanied me throughout. We have attended the open tribunals throughout the country and we have also been able to take advantage of the visits to participate in other activities throughout the length and breadth of the island too. There have been exchanges of opinion over this question [the reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union] and it is one of the things that worries us. We have to take the corresponding measures to ensure that mechanisms to prevent situations of that type exist institutionally. The enemy will continue on. They are now talking about the post-Castro era and that the transition process has to be peaceful. Of course, there will always be a transition process towards an ever better form of socialism. That is, as Fidel has said on various occasions, both the times still to come and the times we are living through at the moment are times of difficult struggle and one senses that in what we have been seeing over the past year, as I mentioned in the answer to your previous question. In military terms, this massive irruption of our young people under the direction of the greatest young person of all, the bearded one, our commander-in-chief Comrade Fidel, I see it as the entrance of fresh troops in the middle of a long and hard battle, like a type of second strategic echelon to continue the battle onwards for many years to come. I am among those who believe that, with our insuperable differences, it would be better for imperialism to try to normalize relations with Cuba as much as possible during Fidel’s lifetime rather than in the future, because it is going to be more difficult then. It is not sufficient for me to speak about improving institutions. The fundamental role has to be played by the people’s vigilance when they see some deviation that is apparent, because this is an educated, cultured and ever more politicized people. One could go on speaking about the collective experience of this magnificent year 2000.
Marta Moreno: I interviewed a group of campesinos from Cabo de San Antonio, in the Sierra Maestra mountains and here in Havana, where at times it can be more difficult for the people to have a very firm answer about the Revolution’s accomplishments. I encountered very good responses, such as many black people who said, "The Revolution made me into a person, without the Revolution I could never have been a dignified person." I spoke to a teacher who said, "You probably see me as a very humble person, but I was a teacher for 27 years and I studied after the Revolution."
Raúl: There are thousands of cases like that. We have seen them speaking in the rallies. There are people who became literate and went on to become teachers.
Marta Moreno: That is why when I asked you this, it was important that you gave the historical account because it includes some of the greatest moments of the Revolution’s works, even though some have left the country, because it is a very long history. The history of 42 years is long because we have lived it intensely, that is my opinion at least. I have had the privilege to be born in the Revolution and to have lived through some of those moments.
Raúl: Future generations will live much better than we have, but they will always be envious of us who have lived through difficult times, in the same way as we are envious of the Mambí independence fighters. Who among us has not dreamed of mounting a horse and leading a cavalry charge?
Marta Moreno: I think those of us who are living today are privileged to live in these times and to be able to continue the work started by yourselves and others who fell during the struggle.
Raúl: We continued the work of other generations from the previous century.
Marta Moreno: We are a young nation. Why do you think we have such a solid character and so much patriotism?
Raúl: There are various factors, taking into account that our nationality was formed barely a century ago. One of these is the ethnic composition. Fidel has said that we have an explosive ethnic composition. By chance, there was one part Spanish, another part African and a few other minorities such as Chinese. The first boat of Chinese immigrants arrived in 1847. Their culture and their physical features, such as slanting eyes, have made a contribution. In my case there is no Chinese background. My father was from Galicia and, as Vilma said to me, he had slightly slanting eyes. That could have come from the Celts or the Huns who arrived on the Iberian Peninsula.
In addition to the geographical position and the ethnic melting pot there was in the Caribbean, the fundamental thing is the Spanish and African roots, which are reflected in our music, our character and our sports. Our joy. Our playful nature. The Cuban character is different and I think those of us present here who have been in the Soviet Union during the winter, when you don’t see the sun for three months, or in London where the same thing happens would agree. When a week passes without seeing the sun I feel that it influences my character. The hot Cuban sun is reflected in the temperament.
Marta Moreno: In your long career as a revolutionary, what has been the moment that has impacted most on you?
Raúl: Positively or negatively?
Marta Moreno: Positively, so we don’t have to talk about negative things.
Raúl: It is not the first time I have been asked that and I have never been able to give a categorical response. There have been so many. There were painful moments at Moncada. I hid in a house that I knew would be searched, because the family consisted of good friends of ours, and then I was taken to another near to Moncada. I heard the rifle shots when they were murdering my comrades in Moncada. I was really close. Ramiro has told me about his experiences in the bivouac near Santiago de Cuba.
The slaughter they carried out when we attacked the Moncada Garrison, I am talking about the sad things here, when we went aground in the late afternoon due to the exhaustion of those who had disembarked from the Granma, the terrible surprise of the battle at Alegría de Pío. That was a very difficult time. Then to receive the news of those who had died one by one, trying to identify them from the photos that appeared in Bohemia magazine some months later. In those same Sierra Maestra mountains, to receive the news of the death of Frank País. That had great repercussions. It generated a spontaneous strike throughout the former province of Oriente. Batista, knowing the avalanche that was heading here, suspended all guarantees. I remember that Frank was buried in military uniform. The army had to take shelter in their barracks, especially the Moncada. The whole population of Santiago de Cuba carried him to the Santa Efigenia Cemetery and things went on from there. It is very difficult, I can’t choose.
When I knew that Fidel was alive in the Sierra Maestra it was a great moment. I must confess honestly that I went to the Sierra Maestra to continue the struggle with the other comrades, but it wasn’t the same. I had asked myself whether I had lost faith. I didn’t lose faith and I wasn’t about to surrender, but being so young and lacking experience, it was difficult without a chief. Today we can say that we have a little more experience. That was a great moment when we met up again and other comrades were appearing, among them those who are here. Almeida, Guillermo and Ramiro. Those were joyful times.
When Fidel defeated Batista’s offensive. The day of the triumph of the Revolution I felt a mixture of joy and great worry. What will happen now? A good part of the rebels, with their long hair and beards, told me that their next priority was to look for a little job. I had to grab them by the beard and say, look this is just beginning now. (LAUGHS)
Remember that this was at the height of the cold war, but you were just a little girl at that time, weren’t you?
Marta Moreno: I was born after the Revolution.
Raúl: Ah yes. Excuse me. (LAUGHS). It was a time of great ideological confusion and that role that Fidel played must be appreciated. He continues to lead this struggle by paying attention of every detail, and a simultaneous struggle has been unleashed. I’m referring to the battle of ideas.
A GREAT STRATEGIST’S CAPABILITIES AND A GREAT TACTICIAN’S VIRTUES COME TOGETHER IN FIDEL
If one day I am asked what is most outstanding about Fidel, there would be so many things, for example this battle of ideas. But there is one that I want to emphasize and that is that a great strategist’s capabilities and, most unusually, a great tactician’s virtues come together in him. He goes right down to the details of strategy in the military and political orders. Our friend Arismendi, that magnificent secretary of the Communist Party of Uruguay, helped us greatly during those difficult years until they also suffered a terrible dictatorship. He comes regularly to Cuba and when I was speaking with him on one occasion he said, "You have a brother who would have been marvelous in whatever field he decided to dedicate his life."
I was also speaking with another friend of ours, Juan Bosch, the former president of the Dominican Republic, who lived here in exile for many years and who is married to a Cuban. I enjoyed speaking to him because he has impressive experience of pre-revolutionary Cuba. Fidel was in Cayo Confite in 1947, during that attempt to defeat Trujillo. Of course, I knew him after the triumph of the Revolution. I enjoyed speaking with him about the era that I didn’t experience and we talked about the situation in the Dominican Republic. He told me that Fidel always defeats the United States because he employs guerrilla tactics. (LAUGHS). I started to think afterwards and I believe he was right in the sense that it is never the same thing, there is always variety.
Now the battle of ideas. What is it? New ways of struggle. The emphasis is on being a bastion of ideas, that is vital. The commander-in-chief made a reference to stones and today a young official from the Central Army said that trenches of stone reinforce trenches of ideas and he was right. They complement each other and both are vital.
The commander-in-chief said during a speech to the National Assembly that in these times we have started to live, with the beginning of a new year, we have to give attention to defense. When we came out I said to him that we have always given attention to that. As minister of defense, I was obliged to say that to him. He replied that it was a call that he had made. It is an area that has always been attended to, sometimes more than others depending on the availability of resources, but we have always been strengthening it. I was asked today in Placetas what my predictions are for the future. I replied that I am not a prophet and that it is risky to try to predict the future. But the future will have to be one of struggle. A struggle like the one we have unleashed. There is much more terrain still to be covered and rights that must be conquered or re-conquered. These are among the principal objectives for beginning the battle of ideas. In first place the blockade, with all its unjust laws. The Cuban Adjustment Act, the Helms-Burton Act and all the resolutions and regulations that have been passed. Faced with that, it will be a future of struggle and a future of victories.
(THEY SING "IT’S
THE TIME TO SHOUT REVOLUTION. IT IS THE TIME TO TAKE HOLD OF ONE ANOTHER’S
HANDS.)