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Families of the fallen;
Veterans of Playa Girón;
Compatriots:
Three days ago we commemorated the proclamation of the
socialist nature of the Revolution, and paid tribute to the young artillerymen
who died in combat while repelling the cowardly surprise attack by U.S.
government-owned planes, disguised to look like they were from the Cuban Air
Force. Today, we are commemorating the overwhelming victory of the revolutionary
forces and the first defeat sustained by imperialism in the Americas.
The fact that the Bay of Pigs was back in our hands 66 hours
after the invading forces’ scouts set foot on our coasts shows the intensity of
the devastating counterattack launched against the invaders. Our men fought
relentlessly, day and night, without a moment’s respite. Three miles off the
coast, a large U.S. squadron, including an aircraft carrier and marine infantry
ready to intervene, watched as the revolutionary counterstrike proceeded at such
a pace that had they been given the order to take action, there would no longer
have been an invading force to back up, nor a safe strip for a puppet government
to land.
There is no need to dwell on details. At the conference
recently held in Havana, The Bay of Pigs: 40 Years Later, a rather elaborate
account of the events was given, and broadcast to the entire population during
the Round Table programming slot over the course of nine days. New books have
been written and will continue to be written. Two generations of Cubans needed
to learn, in the most vivid and realistic way possible, of the momentous events
that their parents and grandparents participated in or witnessed first-hand.
The eagerness to learn more grew over the last few weeks, after
the aforementioned conference and the forthcoming date of the 40th
anniversary. Undoubtedly, hearing about this moment in history straight from the
mouths of those who can retell the story with memories that are still fresh and
the necessary documents is quite different from learning about an episode
through cold texts and ancient engravings, such as the taking of Havana by the
British or Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, for example. After the triumph of the
Revolution in 1959, no single event had such an impact on the fate and the
future of our people as the battle of the Bay of Pigs.
On Monday we talked about what socialism meant for our country
as a revolutionary process that has placed us at the top among Latin American
and Caribbean nations today. I feel the special need at this moment to recall
and invoke the words of José Martí. When he wrote his famous unfinished letter,
he declared that everything he had done up until that day, and everything he
would do later, was aimed at securing Cuba’s independence in order to prevent
the United States from falling upon the lands of the Americas with that added
force.
When he wrote that letter, he could not have known that within
a few brief hours, he would be dead. And although he may have physically died,
he was reborn through his ideas, and was thus able to continue doing what he
said he would do. Not only was Cuba’s independence achieved in time to prevent
it from adding to the force that would fall upon the peoples of the Americas.
More than that, Cuba became a trench of ideas and impregnable strength in the
face of the enemy of the Latin American peoples, and its sons and daughters, in
serving their other homeland, which Martí called humanity, have also served the
causes of many other peoples in the world. (Exclamations and Applause)
Martí’s revolution was resumed the same year of the centennial
anniversary of his birth, by those of us who had the privilege of receiving the
inspiring light of his infinite patriotism. And after defeating countless
setbacks and mountains of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, time and time
again, that revolution has victoriously entered a new millennium.
By enduring 42 years of blockade and economic warfare imposed
by that power which could not subdue Cuba; by resolutely withstanding sabotage,
terrorism, attempts to assassinate its leaders, biological warfare, and even the
threat of nuclear war, without surrendering an iota of its principles; by
suffering 10 inconceivably hard years of a special period, when others failed to
uphold the sacred duties they were privileged to be granted by human history; by
unwaveringly carrying onward when it found itself alone before the empire
foreseen by Martí, now turned into a hegemonic superpower that has used all of
its political, ideological and economic might to isolate the Cuban people, to
suffocate them, to bring them to their knees through hunger and disease; by
doing all of this, Cuba has remained undefeated by the powerful empire.
(Applause and shouts of "It will never be !")
The day we entered the new millennium, on January 1, 2001, at
the exact time that each new year begins --which is also a time of indelible
memories and unsurpassed symbolism for the Cuban Revolution-- we dealt
imperialism its second major defeat before the eyes of the Americas and the
world. (Applause.)
Homeland and Humanity have forever become inseparably united by
history in the hearts and minds of the Cuban people. (Applause)
Your ideas, Martí, which have been sown in us along with those
of the man who, like you told us, deserved to be honored for taking the side of
the poor, and those of another giant, who studied in depth and described with
irrefutable proof what you were the first to discover and call imperialism in
the most modern sense of the concept, have proven to be much stronger than all
of the power of the greatest empire that has ever existed. We dedicate to you
this 40th anniversary of that first victory. (Exclamations) We swear
to you that we will fight up until our last drop of blood for the Homeland and
for Humanity. We swear to you that the sacrifices of those who have fallen, from
La Demajagua to the Bay of Pigs, and of those who have given their young,
generous and noble lives fighting in the mountains, plains and towns of every
corner of our little homeland, or in other lands of the world that have called
out for the contribution of their modest efforts, in distant reaches of our big
homeland, have not and never will be in vain. (Shouts of "We swear !" )
The sweat and sacrifice of millions of anonymous heroes whose
hard work and efforts have built and preserved the beautiful Cuba of today, and
will bequeath the even more beautiful Cuba of tomorrow to future generations,
have not and never will be in vain, either. (Exclamations)
Today, 11 comrades will be decorated with the high honor of
Heroes of the Republic of Cuba, for having served the Revolution, the Homeland
and Socialism for over 40 years. Some are veterans of the Bay of Pigs, some are
not, but they all carry within them some or many pieces of our history
throughout almost half a century, from the attack on the Moncada Garrison on
July 26, 1953 until today, April 19, 2001. They never asked for it, perhaps they
never even thought of it, and none of them knows that they will be receiving
such a high honor today.
But we want to decorate them here, on this 40th
anniversary of that great victory, as a tribute to all those who fought in those
crucial days, and those who died for the lives and destinies of the 11 million
people living in Cuba today, for the hundreds of millions of people in Latin
America and the Caribbean, for the billions of human beings presently exploited
and plundered in countries that were formerly colonies, sources of slaves, raw
materials and gold, and today supply cheap labor and non-renewable natural
resources under the unbearable weight of the imperialist yoke.
We promised to talk about interesting things related to the
United States pyrrhic victory or moral defeat in Geneva. Yesterday, our people
heard the first news. On Friday, the in-depth analysis will begin. The empire
and its accomplices will have a lot to listen to.
Today is a day of glory that nothing and no one will ever be
able to erase from history. Remembering the feat achieved, remembering the
fallen, remembering the humble sons of the people who dealt a devastating blow
to the pride and arrogance of the empire in this sacred place, full of
symbolism, this time we will not say: "Homeland or Death" , "Socialism or
Death"; instead, we will say, from the bottom of our hearts:
Long live our Homeland! (Shouts of Long live!)
Long live Socialism! (Shouts of Long live!)
Long live Victory! (Shouts of Long live!)
(Shouts of "Long live Fidel" !)
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