It was
Reagan who created the Cuban American National Foundation,
whose sinister involvement in the blockade and in terrorist
actions against Cuba would be revealed years later, when the
United States declassified secret documents, albeit full of
information that had been shamefully crossed out. Had these
documents come to light earlier, our conduct would not have
been different.
When, on
March 30, 1981, we received news in Cuba that Reagan had
been shot with a low-caliber weapon in an assassination
attempt, we sent him a message condemning the act. The
22-caliber lead bullet lodged in one of his lungs was
causing him pain and putting his life at risk. The message
is contained in the conversation that, following precise
instructions, our then minister of foreign affairs, Isidoro
Malmierca, had with Wayne Smith, former head of the US
Interests Section in Havana.
What follow
are excerpts, quoted verbatim, of the conversation between
the two:
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: We summoned you to this meeting on the express
request of President Fidel Castro. He asked me to begin by
expressing our appreciation for the information on the
assassination attempt on President Reagan that you provided
us with through director Joaquín Más. On behalf of President
Fidel Castro, we also wish to express how deeply we regret
this event and our sincere hope that President Reagan will
recover from this attack as quickly as possible.
“WAYNE SMITH: Thank you, very much.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: We have been receiving information about the medical
attention the President is receiving. Initially, you had
also received information that the consequences of the
attack did not appear to be that severe, but it seems the
situation is more complicated and he is undergoing surgery.
“WAYNE SMITH: Yes. Our impression is that he has been operated on
already, but over the radio they are now saying that the
operation is to begin now. It is likely to be over in, say,
an hour. A 3-hour surgery, I mean, is nothing simple,
especially for a 70-year-old man. They say there's no
danger. My interpretation of this is that there's no
immediate danger. But, for a 70-year-old man, a 3-hour
surgery is a serious matter. They say he is not in serious
condition, that his condition is stable. We hope everything
goes well. I thank you for your best wishes, your concern
and President Fidel Castro's message.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: In Washington, Mr. Frechette also approached the
Cuban Interests Section and conveyed us information on this
situation. He explained that you had also received
information on this. Again, President Fidel Castro
personally asked me to meet with you and to express our
sincere hope that President Reagan recover promptly from the
consequences of the attack.
“WAYNE SMITH: Thank you, very much. My God! This is a difficult
situation. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas and
it looks as though the person responsible for the
assassination attempt on Reagan is from Dallas. He currently
lives in Colorado, but he's from Dallas. I don't know...
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: In some cables, I read that he was born near Denver,
30 kilometers from Denver.
“WAYNE SMITH: I don’t know. One of my consuls here in the Interests
Section told me he had heard on the radio that it's a guy
who studied in the same school he did. I don’t know, he may
have lived a number of years in Dallas. I don't know what's
in the air people breath in Dallas.
"ISIDORO MALMIERCA: They say they're three brothers, the sons of a man
who's in the oil business.
“WAYNE SMITH: His dad, yes. He's 22 years old. He was a student at Yale
University, but he had recently abandoned his studies. He
may feel bitter, a young man who has failed, who acted out
of resentment. To be completely frank, I'm glad it's a guy
like that and not, say, a Puerto Rican or something like
that, which could have political implications.
"ISIDORO MALMIERCA: You mean speculations about the political motivations
behind that.
“WAYNE SMITH: Yes, that could, undeniably, prompt, encourage political
readings. An attack by a white man from Colorado, Texas does
not lend itself easily to political interpretations.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: There have even been a number of police reports which
say that he acted alone, that he has no ties to any
groups...
“WAYNE SMITH: Yes, it must have been an insane or fanatical person. He
got so close to the President...He was captured immediately.
He took out his weapon and fired…
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: Brady died?
“WAYNE SMITH: No.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: They were saying he died.
“WAYNE SMITH: Yes. There were reports to that effect, that he had died.
But the latest news is that he didn't, that he's in very
serious condition, but that he hasn't died. I imagine that
that a 45-calibre round would have been deadly, but a
22-calibre certainly gives him possibilities... It seems the
shot hit him on the head, apparently in the head...That's
not good news, there isn't much hope.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: A shot to the head, no matter what the caliber, is
something very serious.
"WAYNE SMITH: Brady is in critical condition. He may survive, but he'd be
a vegetable.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: I do regret that we should meet because of such an
unfortunate event.
“WAYNE SMITH: I thank you for your best wishes. I will immediately send
out a cable telling my government of our conversation. I
kindly ask that you express my gratitude to President Fidel
Castro.
No comments
are needed. Malmierca's version, written immediately after
the meeting, speaks for itself. Wayne Smith is today a
staunch opponent of the blockade and aggressions against
Cuba.
But this is
not the only example of our conduct towards the President of
a country which, since the days of Eisenhower, has hatched
hundreds of plots to physically eliminate me.
A highly
confidential report submitted in the summer of 1984 to an
agent responsible for the security of Cuban representatives
in the UN warned of a possible assassination attempt on
President Ronald Reagan by a far-right group in North
Carolina. Upon receiving it, we immediately informed US
authorities. Our official suggested that we deliver the
information via Robert C. Muller, head of security of the US
mission to the United Nations, with whom we maintained
contact to ensure the protection of Cuban delegations
visiting the international organization.
The
assassination was planned for an imminent date, for Reagan's
visit to North Carolina, as part of his re-election
campaign.
We had all
of the information at our disposal. We had the names of
those implicated in the plot; the day, time and place where
the assassination was to take place; the types of weapons
the terrorists had and where they were being kept. In
addition to all this, we knew where the elements who were
plotting this were meeting and had a brief account of what
had been said at a meeting.
The
information was given Muller at a meeting in a building
located in 37 and 3rd Avenue, two blocks away
from the Cuban mission.
We provided
him with all the information, making sure the most important
details, such as the names of those involved, the place,
time and type of weapons to be used, were clear.
At the end
of the conversation, our official informed Muller he had
received instructions from the Cuban government to report
the matter urgently and that we had selected him because we
knew he was an expert on security matters.
Muller read
out what he had written down to ensure he had not changed
anything and that all of the important information was
there.
He asked
about the source and was told it was reliable. He said that
the Secret Service would need to meet with the Cuban
officials. He was told this would not be a problem.
At around
four thirty in the afternoon that day, Secret Service agents
met with the Cuban representatives.
The meeting
was held in apartment 34-F, in the 34th floor of
the Ruppert Towers building located in 92, between Third and
Second Avenue, in uptown Manhattan.
The agents
were two young, white men with brush haircuts wearing suits.
Their chief aim was to verify what Muller had reported, as
evidenced by the copy of the cable he had sent them they
brought with them. When the contents of the cable were read,
they were told no information was missing.
The Secret
Service agents wanted to know who had provided the
information and how it had come into our possession. They
were told what Muller was told. They were also interested in
knowing if we could elaborate on the information, and they
were told that, if any new information were to arrive, they
would be immediately informed.
They left
their cards and asked to be contacted directly if any
additional information was received, saying there was no
need to use Muller as an intermediary.
The
following Monday, we received news that the Federal Bureau
of Investigation had detained a group of people in North
Carolina, against whom a number of charges had been brought,
none, as is logical to assume, related to the plan to
assassinate President Reagan, who traveled to that State
shortly afterwards as part of his presidential re-election
campaign.
Four or
five days following the arrests, at the end of the week,
Muller phoned the Cuban mission to invite the Cuban official
to lunch. They had lunch at the UN delegates’ lounge. The
first thing Muller did was ask that the official convey the
United States' gratitude to the Cuban government for the
information provided, confirming that an operation against
those involved had been carried out. A Cuban anti-terrorist
activist had saved the life of a US President!
Some US
press reports mention an intimate diary, over 700 pages
long, kept by Reagan— from the time he entered office to the
day he handed the presidency over to Bush Sr.— which tries
to suggest that his government was not that aggressive
towards Cuba.
However,
according to some accounts, in his memoirs, Robert
McFarlane, then Undersecretary of State under Alexander
Haig, wrote that, of all the governments that had had
dealings with Fidel Castro since 1959, Reagan's seemed the
least indicated to hold talks with Cuba's communist regime.
Perhaps
Reagan was grateful for our concern, when he was nearly
assassinated in 1981, and for the warning that saved his
life from imminent danger, and he expressed this gratitude
through Robert C. Muller.
Reagan
signed the first migratory accord with Cuba, but he could
not rise above his milieu, for there were others, further to
the right than he was, who would have physically eliminated
him, as they did Kennedy after he faced the terrible risk of
a thermonuclear war. To be sure, Reagan did change his
policy towards Cuba in an electoral year, did not honor the
accord he signed which guaranteed the granting of up to 20
thousand visas a year for safe trips by granting less than a
thousand, and kept in effect the Cuban Adjustment Act, which
has cost Cuba many lives.
On
September 11, 2001, true chaos reigned in this neighboring
country. For long, planes were forbidden to land at
airports. A countless number of passenger planes were
mid-flight somewhere. These were the news spread by the
media in the United States. There were reports of thousands
of victims in New York, including Twin Tower staff,
firefighters and visitors. There were also reports of people
on a passenger plane which was flown into the Pentagon. We
offered to supply the United States with clean blood from
regular donors if it was needed for any eventuality. Blood
donations have long constituted a tradition of the
Revolution.
These
events happened to coincide with the day in which we had
convened nearly 15,000 higher education students and
university graduates for a 6:00 pm gathering, on the
occasion of the re-opening of the Salvador Allende School,
where 3,599 young people would begin higher studies and
avail themselves of new and tried methods to become primary
school teachers.
That
painful incident occurred six years ago today. Today, we
know that the public was deliberately misinformed. I don't
recall any talk, that day, of the fact that, in the
basements of those towers, whose higher floors housed the
banks of multinational corporations and other offices, lay
nearly 200 tons in gold bars. An order to shoot to death
anyone who attempted to get to the gold had been issued. The
calculations with respect to the steel structures, plane
impacts, the black boxes recovered and what they revealed do
not coincide with the opinions of mathematicians,
seismologists, information, demolition experts and others.
What is most shocking is the claim that we may never know
what actually happened. It is known, however, that a number
of people en route to San Francisco from New Jersey, had
conversations with their relatives when the air vessels were
already under the control of individuals who were not
members of the crew.
An analysis
of the impact of planes similar to those against the towers,
following accidental plane crashes in densely-populated
cities, concludes that no plane crashed against the Pentagon
and that only a projectile could have created the
geometrically round hole that the alleged plane created. No
passenger that perished there has turned up, either. No one
in the world questioned the news about the attack on the
Pentagon building. We were deceived, as were the rest of the
planet's inhabitants.
When I
spoke at the Ciudad Deportiva sports complex that September
11th, I spoke of the tragedy that had hit the
United States. In the interests of conciseness, I am
reproducing the following excerpts from that speech:
(…) We did
not even consider postponing the ceremony. It could not be
postponed, despite the international tension created by such
events. I would imagine that almost everyone knows about
them, but to briefly summarize, at approximately 9:00 this
morning, a Boeing airplane, a really big one, crashed
straight into one of the two New York famous towers which
make up one of the highest buildings in the world.
Naturally, the tower caught on fire because of all the fuel
from such a big airplane, and some horrific scenes began.
And then, 18 minutes later, another plane, also from an U.S.
airline, crashed straight into the second tower.
A few
minutes later, another plane crashed into the Pentagon. News
arrived, in the midst of a certain amount of confusion, of a
bomb outside the State Department, and other alarming
events, although I have mentioned the most important.
Obviously,
the country had fallen victim to a violent surprise attack,
unexpected, unimaginable, something truly unheard of. And
the scenes that ensued were appalling, especially when the
two towers were burning, and foremost when they both
collapsed, all 100 floors, spilling over onto neighboring
buildings, when it was known that there were tens of
thousands of people working there, in offices representing
many companies from various countries.
It was only
logical that this would be a shock for the United States and
the rest of the world. The stock markets started to
collapse, and because of the political, economic and
technological importance and the power of the United States,
the whole world was shaken up today by those events. So, we
had to follow the events throughout the day, but at the same
time, we also had to continue thinking about the conditions
and circumstances in which this ceremony would take place.
Therefore,
there were two issues: the school and the extremely
important course it will offer, and the political and human
catastrophe that had taken place over there, especially in
New York.
(…) Today
is a day of tragedy for the United States. You know very
well that hatred against the American people has never been
sown here. Perhaps, precisely because of its culture, its
lack of prejudice, its sense of full freedom –with a
homeland and without a master-- Cuba is the country where
Americans are treated with the greatest respect. We have
never preached any kind of national hatred, or anything
similar to fanaticism, and that is the reason for our
strength, because our conduct is based on principles
and ideas. We treat all Americans who visit us with great
respect, and they have noticed this and said so themselves.
Furthermore, we cannot forget the American people who put an
end to the Vietnam War with their overwhelming opposition to
that genocidal war. We cannot forget the American people who
–in numbers that exceeded 80% of the population-- supported
the return of Elián González to his homeland. We cannot
forget their idealism, although it is often undermined by
deception, because –as we have said often times– in
order to mislead Americans to support an unjust cause, or an
unjust war, they must first be deceived. The classic method
used by that huge country in international politics is that
of deceiving the people first, to count on their support
later. When it is the other way around, and the people
realize that something is unjust, then based on their
traditional idealism they oppose what they have been
supporting. Often these are extremely unjust causes, which
they had supported convinced that they were doing the right
thing.
Therefore,
although unaware of the exact number of victims but seeing
those moving scenes of suffering, we have felt profound
grief and sadness for the American people.
We do not
go around flattering any government, or asking for
forgiveness or favors. We neither harbor in our hearts a
single atom of fear. The history of our Revolution has
proven its capacity to stand up to challenges, its capacity
to fight and its capacity to resist whatever it has to; that
is what has turned us into an invincible people. These are
our principles. Our Revolution is based on ideas and
persuasion, and not on the use of force.
(…)That has
been our reaction, and we wanted our people to see the
scenes and watch the tragedy. We have not hesitated to
express our sentiments publicly, and right here I have a
statement, which was drafted as soon as the facts were known
and handed out to the international media around 3:00 p.m.
In the meantime, our television networks were broadcasting
news of the events. This statement was scheduled to be read
to the Cuban public tonight during the evening TV newscast.
I am going
to move the time up a few minutes by reading to you here and
now the Official Statement from the Government of Cuba on
the events that took place in the United States:
"The
Government of the Republic of Cuba has learned with grief
and sadness of the violent surprise attacks carried out this
morning against civilian and official facilities in the
cities of New York and Washington, which have caused
numerous deaths.
(…)"It is
not possible to forget that for over four decades our
country has been the target of such actions fostered from
within the United States territory.
"Both for
historical reasons and ethical principles, the Government of
our country strongly repudiates and condemns the attacks
against the aforementioned facilities and hereby expresses
its most heartfelt sympathies to the American people for the
painful, unjustifiable loss of human lives resulting from
these attacks.
"In this
bitter hour for all Americans, our people express their
solidarity with the American people and their full
willingness to cooperate, to the extent of their modest
possibilities, with the health care institutions and any
other medical or humanitarian organization in that country
in the treatment, care and rehabilitation of the victims of
this morning’s events."
Although it
is not known whether the casualties are 5000, 10,000, 15,000
or 20,000, it is known that the planes that crashed into the
Twin Towers and into the Pentagon were carrying hundreds of
passengers, and we have offered to provide whatever we can,
if necessary.
That is a
country with great scientific and medical development and
resources, but at some point in time it could need blood of
a specific type or plasma –any other product that we could
donate, we would be most willing to give-- or medical
support or paramedics. We know many hospitals are short of
specific technicians and professionals. In other words, we
want to express our disposition and readiness to be helpful
in relation to these tragic events.
(…) The
hijacking of planes –a method used against Cuba-- became a
universal plague, and it was Cuba that solved this problem
when, after repeated warnings, we sent two hijackers back to
the United States. It is painful because they were Cubans
but we had issued public warnings, so they came and we
returned them. We complied with our public pledge, yet they
never again provided us with any information about them to
give to their relatives. They have their own ways of doing
things. No one knows. I know they were sentenced to 40 years
imprisonment, and that put an end to those hijackings".
(…) None of the problems affecting today’s world can be solved with the
use of force; there is no global, technological or military
power that can guarantee immunity against such acts, because
they can be organized by small groups [which are] difficult
to detect.
(...) It is
very important to know what the reaction of the U.S.
Government might be. Possibly the world will be living
dangerous days, and I am not talking about Cuba. Cuba is the
most peaceful country in the world, for several reasons: our
policies, our forms of struggle, our doctrine, our ethics,
and also, comrades, and due to an absolute absence of fear.
Nothing
troubles us. Nothing intimidates us. It would be very
difficult to concoct a slanderous accusation against Cuba;
not even its inventor and the patent holder would believe
it. It would be very difficult. And Cuba means something in
the world today. It has a very high moral position, and a
very sound political position in the world.
The days to
come will be tense inside the United States. A number of
people will start putting forward opinions.
(…) We
would advise the leaders of that powerful empire to remain
calm, to act with a cool head, to avoid getting carried away
by a fit of rage or hatred, and not to start trying to hunt
people down by throwing bombs just anywhere.
I reiterate
that none of the world’s problems, not even terrorism, can
be solved with the use of force, and every act of force,
every imprudent action that entails the use of force
anywhere, is going to seriously aggravate the world
problems.
The way is
neither the use of force nor the war. I say this with the
full authority of someone who has always talked honestly, of
someone with sound convictions and the experience of
surviving the years of struggle that Cuba has lived through.
Only reason, and the intelligent policy of seeking strength
through consensus and international public opinion, can
definitely eradicate this problem. I think this unexpected
episode should be used to undertake an international effort
against terrorism. However, this international struggle
against terrorism cannot be won by eliminating a terrorist
here and another one there, by killing people here and
there, using similar methods to theirs and sacrificing
innocent lives. It can only be won, among other ways, by
putting an end to State terrorism and other repulsive forms
of killing, by putting an end to genocide, and by seriously
pursuing a policy of peace and respect for moral and legal
standards. The world cannot be saved unless a path of
international peace and cooperation is pursued.
(…) We have
proven that we can survive, live and make progress, and
everything seen here today is an expression of unprecedented
progress in all of human history. Progress is not achieved
only through the manufacturing of automobiles; developing
people’s minds, providing knowledge, promoting culture, and
looking after human beings the way they should be looked
after makes progress. That is the secret of the tremendous
strength of our Revolution.
The world
cannot be saved in any other way, and by that I mean the
situations of violence. Let us seek peace everywhere and
protect all the people from that plague of terrorism. There
is another horrible plague today, which is called AIDS, for
instance. There is another plague, which kills tens of
millions of children, teenagers and adults in the world,
that is, hunger, disease and a lack of health care and
medicines.
In the
political arena, there are absolutist ideas, and attempts to
impose a single way of thinking on the world; this fosters
rebellious attitudes and irritation everywhere.
This world
cannot be saved –and this does not have anything to do with
terrorism-- if this unfair economic and social order
continues to be developed and applied; an order that is
leading the world to disaster, along a path from which there
is no escape for the 6.2 billion people living today and the
future inhabitants of this planet, suffering ever greater
destruction and plunged further into poverty, unemployment,
hunger and despair. This has been proven by the masses in
places that have already gone down in history, like Seattle,
Quebec, Washington and Genoa.
The world’s
most powerful economic and political leaders now find it
almost impossible to meet; everywhere we can see that people
are less and less afraid, and are rising up. I was recently
in Durban, a province in South Africa, and there I saw
thousands and thousands of people members of
non-governmental organizations; discontent is spreading like
wildfire around the globe (…).
How
enormously different is the conduct of the Cuban government
from that of the government of the United States! The
Revolution, based on truth, and the empire, based on lies!
Fidel
Castro Ruz
September
11, 2007
5:25 p.m
