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"MY message to the Cubans is that
all problems can be solved among Cubans," affirms
Luis Tornes, aged 80, with evident conviction. A
member of the Bay of Pigs invasion force in 1961,
the Cuban state has just returned his citizenship
to him and six of his comrades in that failed
adventure.
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PHOTOS: AHMED
VELAZQUEZ
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"However serious the problem is, we
can solve it among ourselves, without intervention
from anyone else," insists the ex-combatant, his
light blue eyes reflecting an intense faith.
Luis Torres and other former members
of Brigade 2506 taken prisoner in those days of
combat that ended in a victory for the
revolutionary troops had their citizenship
formally rescinded by the Cuban justice system.
However, Torres has never stopped loving the land
in which he was born. "I never stopped being
Cuban," he affirms today, 43 years after the
event.
"That is more of a symbolic act of
unity among Cubans. What Cubans can do, those of
us who fought yesterday and the day before
yesterday, is to enter into dialogue and solve all
the problems.
"It is a gesture of reconciliation
that Cuba has made to the exile community, with
the émigrés, part of the Cuban policy like
suspending visas to enter the country. It is
Cuba’s interest in uniting its people, without the
need to have to be whatever to reach such an
integration."
And how do you thus reconcile
yourself with the homeland? "You just have to be
Cuban, that’s all, with that you have all the
rights that you want. Foreign intervention is
damaging to us. What I aspire to is avoiding the
hatred that exits in the world today, that exists
in Iraq, in Israel; that is my greatest
aspiration."
"You live in Miami, how do you see
the situation there?" "Bush can do what he wants,
look what he’s doing in Iraq."
"Do you share the revolutionary
ideals?" a foreign correspondent asks him. "I’m
not a communist or a socialist but I do admire
Fidel very much. The only way forward is dialogue.
That’s my opinion and I am defending it,"
concludes the ex-combatant before disappearing
among the participants at the animated
gathering. (Granma) May 22, 2004 | 
