Speech by General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Council of State and Ministers, during the closing session of the fourth ordinary period of the Eighth Legislature of the National Assembly of Popular Power [1],
December 20, 2014
The session was called to order by Esteben Lazo, President of the National Assembly. He acknowledged the presence of the five Cuban heroes recently released from prisons in the United States, maintaining that their courage and dignity during their sixteen-year incarceration in the United States illustrate the heroism of the generation formed after the triumph of the revolution on January 1, 1959 [2].
The speech by Raúl Castro follows. It has been translated and edited by Charles McKelvey, who also wrote the Endnotes.
December 20, 2014
The session was called to order by Esteben Lazo, President of the National Assembly. He acknowledged the presence of the five Cuban heroes recently released from prisons in the United States, maintaining that their courage and dignity during their sixteen-year incarceration in the United States illustrate the heroism of the generation formed after the triumph of the revolution on January 1, 1959 [2].
The speech by Raúl Castro follows. It has been translated and edited by Charles McKelvey, who also wrote the Endnotes.
Compañeras and compañeras:
Recent days have been intensive and emotional.
We celebrated successfully during this month of December the Fifth Summit of CARICOM-Cuba [3], and last Sunday the Thirteenth Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), an occasion in which we rendered deserved homage to its two architects, our close friend Hugo Chávez Fríaz and the Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution, compañero Fidel Castro Ruiz [applause].
Gerardo, Ramón and Antonio accompany is in this session, causing genuine rejoicing and happiness among our people—I will amplify on this important matter in the final part of my comments. The compañeros Fermando and René and the families of the Five Heroes also are present, as is the youth Elián Gonzalez [4], his father Juan Miguel and Colonel Orlando Cardoso Villavicencio, Hero of the Republic of Cuba, who suffered severe imprisonment for more than ten years in Somalia.
As has been the custom in the sessions of our Parliament, my responsibility is to review the conduct of the economy during the year now concluding and to discuss the Plan and Budget of 2015, themes that have been debated vigorously by the deputies of the ten commissions and also in yesterday’s plenary session.
..........
[The President proceeds to review the conduct of the economy during the past year; the budget of 2015; the plans for the unification of the peso and the convertible peso into a single national currency; and plans for a salary increase].
..........
No one in the world can deny the outstanding international accomplishment of Cuba during the past year. The challenge ahead that we Cubans have is great: We must bring the economy to the same height of political prestige enjoyed by this small island, thanks to the Revolution and capacity of resistance of our people. The economy is the principal unfinished task, and we have the duty to guide it permanently toward the sustainable and irreversible development of socialism in Cuba.
As I said in the beginning, the deputies and all the people feel an enormous emotion and happiness for the presence in the country of Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René, fulfilling the promise of Fidel thirteen years ago [5]. The extraordinary example of firmness, sacrifice and dignity of the Five gave pride to the nation, which battled tirelessly for their liberation and now receives them as true heroes [applause].
I ought to reiterate our profound and sincere gratitude to all the movements and committees of solidarity that struggled to obtain their liberty and to the innumerable governments, parliaments, organizations, institutions and personalities that made a valuable contribution.
The Cuban people thank the President of the United States, Barack Obama, for this just decision. An obstacle in the relations between our countries has been eliminated.
The entire world has reacted positively to the announcements that were made this past Wednesday, appreciating their importance in international relations and especially for the ties of the United States with the region [of Latin America and the Caribbean]. They have provoked favorable declarations of governments, presidents, and well-known personalities, for which we express our sincere thanks.
It was the result of conversations at the highest level, carried out in strict discretion, which included the contribution of Pope Francis and the facilities offered by the government of Canada. In addition, this result has been possible thanks to the profound changes that have occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean, whose governments and peoples called for a new policy of the United States toward Cuba.
We welcome the proposal of President Obama to open a new chapter in the ties between both nations and to introduce the most significant changes in US policy of the last fifty years. Equally, we acknowledge his expressed disposition to undertake a discussion with the US Congress concerning the lifting of the blockade [6], as well as his desire to attain a better future for both peoples, our hemisphere, and the world.
We share the idea that a new era between the United States and Cuba can be opened, and that the re-establishment of diplomatic relations can be initiated. Such relations ought to be based on the Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations that regulated the conduct of Diplomatic Mission and Consulates and their functionaries [7].
We will participate with a constructive spirit of respect and reciprocity in high-level contact between both governments, with the purpose of moving toward the normalization of bilateral relations.
As I expressed on December 17, an important step has been taken, but the essential aspect has yet to be resolved, namely, the cessation of the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, intensified in recent years, particularly in the area of financial transactions, with the application of enormous and illegitimate fines against the banks of various countries.
Our people ought to understand that, under the conditions that have been announced, this will be a long and difficult struggle, requiring the international movement and the movement of North American society to continue demands for the lifting of the blockade.
All of the polls indicate that a majority of US citizens, and an even greater majority of Cuban émigrés, favor the normalization of bilateral relations. In the US Congress, which enacted the law regulating the blockade, opposition to existing policy grows.
We hope that the President of the United States will utilize with determination his executive authority, with respect to those aspects that do not require the approval of the Congress, in order to substantially modify the application of the blockade.
At the appropriate time, we will study the scope and the form of application of the executive measures announced by President Obama.
His instruction to revise the unjustified inclusion of Cuba in the list of States Sponsoring International Terrorism is encouraging. The facts show that Cuba has been the victim of many terrorist attacks, with many of those responsible enjoying impunity today; as we all know, these attacks have resulted in thousands of deaths and disabled persons. The pretexts that have been used for the inclusion of Cuba in said list are completely lacking in foundation, as everyone on the planet knows. They are false arguments serving political interests that justify the intensification of the blockade, especially in the financial sector.
No terrorist act against persons, interests, or territory of the United States has ever been organized, financed, or carried out from Cuba, nor would it be permitted. Every time that we have known of any information concerning terrorist plans against the United States, we informed its government. For many years, we have proposed to establish an agreement of cooperation in this respect.
We always have been disposed to dialogue respectfully, on a foundation of equal treatment of the most diverse themes in a reciprocal form, without compromising our national independence and self-determination, and as Fidel would say, without renouncing a single one of our principles.
I reiterate that it is possible to advance only on the basis of mutual respect, which implies the observance of the principles of International Law and of the Charter of the United Nations, among them the sovereign equality of states, the equality of rights and the free determination of peoples, the resolution of international conflicts through peaceful manes, abstention from threats or the use of force against the territory or the independence of any state, the obligation of not intervening in the international affairs of states, which implies that any form of interference or threat to the political, economic, and cultural institutions of a state constitutes a violation of International Law [8].
In accordance with the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Regions of Peace, signed by the Chiefs of State and of Government on January 29 [2014] in Havana, during the Summit of CELAC [Community of Latin American and Caribbean States], every state has the inalienable right to choose its political, economic, social and cultural system, without interference in any form by another state, which constitutes a principle of International Law. This document was signed here in Havana by all the Chiefs of State and of Government of this continent, with the exception of the United States and Canada, which were not invited.
It ought not be expected that Cuba, in order to improve relations with the United States, will renounce the ideas for which it has struggled for more than a century, and for which its people has shed much blood and has taken great risks.
It is necessary to understand that Cuba is a sovereign state whose people, in free referendum in order to approve the Constitution, decided on its socialist direction and its political, economic and social system [applause]. [9]
In the same manner that we never have proposed that the United States change its political system, we will demand respect for our [applause].
Both governments ought to adopt mutual measures for the prevention of acts that could affect progress in bilateral relations, based on respect for the laws and constitutions of both countries. We cannot ignore the virulent criticism to which President Obama has been subjected, as a result of these announcements, by forces that are opposed to the normalization of relations with Cuba, including legislators of Cuban origin and ringleaders of counterrevolutionary factions that are resistant to losing the means of support hat have been provided to them by decades of confrontation between our countries [10]. They will do all that is possible to sabotage this process, without ruling out provocative actions of all kinds. For our part, we will give priority to conduct that is prudent, moderate and thoughtful, but firm [Applause].
In Cuba, there exist numerous and diverse mass organizations of workers, farmers, women and students as well as organizations of writers and artists and non-governmental organizations, which are represented in the Council of State and in this Assembly, who would be offended if they were to be confused with the few hundred individuals that receive money, instructions and oxygen from outside the country.
In multilateral organisms, like the United Nations, we will continue our defense of peace, international law, and just causes, as well as our denunciation of the threats to the survival of the human species that are implied by climate change and nuclear arsenals. We will continue to promote the exercise of human rights, including the economic, social and cultural rights for all persons and the rights of the peoples of the world to peace and development.
The Cuban Revolution owes a profound gratitude to the peoples, parties and governments from whom it has received constant and permanent solidarity, and it will continue orienting its foreign policy on the unshakeable foundation of fidelity to principles [applause].
A symbol of this is the special relation that we maintain with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, to which we sill continue to lend support in the face of efforts to destabilize the legitimate government of President Nicolás Maduro Moro, and we reject the intention to impose sanctions on that sister nation [applause].
As I asserted a few days ago, we have the disposition to cooperate with the United States in a bilateral and multilateral form when confronting dangers that require collective and efficient humanitarian responses, which should never be politicized. This is the case with respect to the fight against Ebola fever in West Africa and its prevention in the Americas, as proclaimed in the Extraordinary Summit of ALBA on the problem, held in Havana in October.
As I have declared in recent summits of CARICOM and ALBA, I thank the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, for the invitation to participate in the Seventh Summit of the Americas, and I confirm that I will attend in order to express our positions with sincerity and with respect for all of the Chiefs of State and Government, without exception. The participation of Cuba is the result of the solid and unanimous consensus of Latin America and the Caribbean, which lives in a new era and has united, within its diversity, in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in which Cuba was honored to preside during the past year.
We do not forget that ALBA, with its permanent demand and with the support of all the countries of the region, attained the elimination of those old and dishonorable sanctions established in 1962 by the Organization of American States, in the Republic of Honduras, where scarcely a month later they overthrew, in a coup d’état, the President of that country, the compañero Zelaya [11].
Compañeras and Compañeros: In a few days we will be celebrating the new year and the fifty-sixth anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, and only two day ago, December 18, was the fifty-eighth anniversary of the reunion with Fidel in Cinco Palmas de Vicana in the Sierra Maestra [applause], in the heart of the Sierra Maestra, and of his historic proclamation, upon knowing that in total we had seven rifles to renew the struggle, “Now we will win the war” [applause] [12]. The unshakeable faith in victory that Fidel inculcated in us will continue to guide all of our people in the defense and improvement of their revolution.
Congratulations on the New Year. We salute the New Year, the fifty-seventh of the Cuban Revolution.
Thank you very much [ovation].
Recent days have been intensive and emotional.
We celebrated successfully during this month of December the Fifth Summit of CARICOM-Cuba [3], and last Sunday the Thirteenth Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), an occasion in which we rendered deserved homage to its two architects, our close friend Hugo Chávez Fríaz and the Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution, compañero Fidel Castro Ruiz [applause].
Gerardo, Ramón and Antonio accompany is in this session, causing genuine rejoicing and happiness among our people—I will amplify on this important matter in the final part of my comments. The compañeros Fermando and René and the families of the Five Heroes also are present, as is the youth Elián Gonzalez [4], his father Juan Miguel and Colonel Orlando Cardoso Villavicencio, Hero of the Republic of Cuba, who suffered severe imprisonment for more than ten years in Somalia.
As has been the custom in the sessions of our Parliament, my responsibility is to review the conduct of the economy during the year now concluding and to discuss the Plan and Budget of 2015, themes that have been debated vigorously by the deputies of the ten commissions and also in yesterday’s plenary session.
..........
[The President proceeds to review the conduct of the economy during the past year; the budget of 2015; the plans for the unification of the peso and the convertible peso into a single national currency; and plans for a salary increase].
..........
No one in the world can deny the outstanding international accomplishment of Cuba during the past year. The challenge ahead that we Cubans have is great: We must bring the economy to the same height of political prestige enjoyed by this small island, thanks to the Revolution and capacity of resistance of our people. The economy is the principal unfinished task, and we have the duty to guide it permanently toward the sustainable and irreversible development of socialism in Cuba.
As I said in the beginning, the deputies and all the people feel an enormous emotion and happiness for the presence in the country of Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René, fulfilling the promise of Fidel thirteen years ago [5]. The extraordinary example of firmness, sacrifice and dignity of the Five gave pride to the nation, which battled tirelessly for their liberation and now receives them as true heroes [applause].
I ought to reiterate our profound and sincere gratitude to all the movements and committees of solidarity that struggled to obtain their liberty and to the innumerable governments, parliaments, organizations, institutions and personalities that made a valuable contribution.
The Cuban people thank the President of the United States, Barack Obama, for this just decision. An obstacle in the relations between our countries has been eliminated.
The entire world has reacted positively to the announcements that were made this past Wednesday, appreciating their importance in international relations and especially for the ties of the United States with the region [of Latin America and the Caribbean]. They have provoked favorable declarations of governments, presidents, and well-known personalities, for which we express our sincere thanks.
It was the result of conversations at the highest level, carried out in strict discretion, which included the contribution of Pope Francis and the facilities offered by the government of Canada. In addition, this result has been possible thanks to the profound changes that have occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean, whose governments and peoples called for a new policy of the United States toward Cuba.
We welcome the proposal of President Obama to open a new chapter in the ties between both nations and to introduce the most significant changes in US policy of the last fifty years. Equally, we acknowledge his expressed disposition to undertake a discussion with the US Congress concerning the lifting of the blockade [6], as well as his desire to attain a better future for both peoples, our hemisphere, and the world.
We share the idea that a new era between the United States and Cuba can be opened, and that the re-establishment of diplomatic relations can be initiated. Such relations ought to be based on the Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations that regulated the conduct of Diplomatic Mission and Consulates and their functionaries [7].
We will participate with a constructive spirit of respect and reciprocity in high-level contact between both governments, with the purpose of moving toward the normalization of bilateral relations.
As I expressed on December 17, an important step has been taken, but the essential aspect has yet to be resolved, namely, the cessation of the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, intensified in recent years, particularly in the area of financial transactions, with the application of enormous and illegitimate fines against the banks of various countries.
Our people ought to understand that, under the conditions that have been announced, this will be a long and difficult struggle, requiring the international movement and the movement of North American society to continue demands for the lifting of the blockade.
All of the polls indicate that a majority of US citizens, and an even greater majority of Cuban émigrés, favor the normalization of bilateral relations. In the US Congress, which enacted the law regulating the blockade, opposition to existing policy grows.
We hope that the President of the United States will utilize with determination his executive authority, with respect to those aspects that do not require the approval of the Congress, in order to substantially modify the application of the blockade.
At the appropriate time, we will study the scope and the form of application of the executive measures announced by President Obama.
His instruction to revise the unjustified inclusion of Cuba in the list of States Sponsoring International Terrorism is encouraging. The facts show that Cuba has been the victim of many terrorist attacks, with many of those responsible enjoying impunity today; as we all know, these attacks have resulted in thousands of deaths and disabled persons. The pretexts that have been used for the inclusion of Cuba in said list are completely lacking in foundation, as everyone on the planet knows. They are false arguments serving political interests that justify the intensification of the blockade, especially in the financial sector.
No terrorist act against persons, interests, or territory of the United States has ever been organized, financed, or carried out from Cuba, nor would it be permitted. Every time that we have known of any information concerning terrorist plans against the United States, we informed its government. For many years, we have proposed to establish an agreement of cooperation in this respect.
We always have been disposed to dialogue respectfully, on a foundation of equal treatment of the most diverse themes in a reciprocal form, without compromising our national independence and self-determination, and as Fidel would say, without renouncing a single one of our principles.
I reiterate that it is possible to advance only on the basis of mutual respect, which implies the observance of the principles of International Law and of the Charter of the United Nations, among them the sovereign equality of states, the equality of rights and the free determination of peoples, the resolution of international conflicts through peaceful manes, abstention from threats or the use of force against the territory or the independence of any state, the obligation of not intervening in the international affairs of states, which implies that any form of interference or threat to the political, economic, and cultural institutions of a state constitutes a violation of International Law [8].
In accordance with the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Regions of Peace, signed by the Chiefs of State and of Government on January 29 [2014] in Havana, during the Summit of CELAC [Community of Latin American and Caribbean States], every state has the inalienable right to choose its political, economic, social and cultural system, without interference in any form by another state, which constitutes a principle of International Law. This document was signed here in Havana by all the Chiefs of State and of Government of this continent, with the exception of the United States and Canada, which were not invited.
It ought not be expected that Cuba, in order to improve relations with the United States, will renounce the ideas for which it has struggled for more than a century, and for which its people has shed much blood and has taken great risks.
It is necessary to understand that Cuba is a sovereign state whose people, in free referendum in order to approve the Constitution, decided on its socialist direction and its political, economic and social system [applause]. [9]
In the same manner that we never have proposed that the United States change its political system, we will demand respect for our [applause].
Both governments ought to adopt mutual measures for the prevention of acts that could affect progress in bilateral relations, based on respect for the laws and constitutions of both countries. We cannot ignore the virulent criticism to which President Obama has been subjected, as a result of these announcements, by forces that are opposed to the normalization of relations with Cuba, including legislators of Cuban origin and ringleaders of counterrevolutionary factions that are resistant to losing the means of support hat have been provided to them by decades of confrontation between our countries [10]. They will do all that is possible to sabotage this process, without ruling out provocative actions of all kinds. For our part, we will give priority to conduct that is prudent, moderate and thoughtful, but firm [Applause].
In Cuba, there exist numerous and diverse mass organizations of workers, farmers, women and students as well as organizations of writers and artists and non-governmental organizations, which are represented in the Council of State and in this Assembly, who would be offended if they were to be confused with the few hundred individuals that receive money, instructions and oxygen from outside the country.
In multilateral organisms, like the United Nations, we will continue our defense of peace, international law, and just causes, as well as our denunciation of the threats to the survival of the human species that are implied by climate change and nuclear arsenals. We will continue to promote the exercise of human rights, including the economic, social and cultural rights for all persons and the rights of the peoples of the world to peace and development.
The Cuban Revolution owes a profound gratitude to the peoples, parties and governments from whom it has received constant and permanent solidarity, and it will continue orienting its foreign policy on the unshakeable foundation of fidelity to principles [applause].
A symbol of this is the special relation that we maintain with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, to which we sill continue to lend support in the face of efforts to destabilize the legitimate government of President Nicolás Maduro Moro, and we reject the intention to impose sanctions on that sister nation [applause].
As I asserted a few days ago, we have the disposition to cooperate with the United States in a bilateral and multilateral form when confronting dangers that require collective and efficient humanitarian responses, which should never be politicized. This is the case with respect to the fight against Ebola fever in West Africa and its prevention in the Americas, as proclaimed in the Extraordinary Summit of ALBA on the problem, held in Havana in October.
As I have declared in recent summits of CARICOM and ALBA, I thank the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, for the invitation to participate in the Seventh Summit of the Americas, and I confirm that I will attend in order to express our positions with sincerity and with respect for all of the Chiefs of State and Government, without exception. The participation of Cuba is the result of the solid and unanimous consensus of Latin America and the Caribbean, which lives in a new era and has united, within its diversity, in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in which Cuba was honored to preside during the past year.
We do not forget that ALBA, with its permanent demand and with the support of all the countries of the region, attained the elimination of those old and dishonorable sanctions established in 1962 by the Organization of American States, in the Republic of Honduras, where scarcely a month later they overthrew, in a coup d’état, the President of that country, the compañero Zelaya [11].
Compañeras and Compañeros: In a few days we will be celebrating the new year and the fifty-sixth anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, and only two day ago, December 18, was the fifty-eighth anniversary of the reunion with Fidel in Cinco Palmas de Vicana in the Sierra Maestra [applause], in the heart of the Sierra Maestra, and of his historic proclamation, upon knowing that in total we had seven rifles to renew the struggle, “Now we will win the war” [applause] [12]. The unshakeable faith in victory that Fidel inculcated in us will continue to guide all of our people in the defense and improvement of their revolution.
Congratulations on the New Year. We salute the New Year, the fifty-seventh of the Cuban Revolution.
Thank you very much [ovation].
Notes
1. The National Assembly of Popular Power was established by the Cuban Constitution, which was approved by 96% of Cuban citizens of sixteen years or older in a free and secret vote in a 1976 referendum. The 500 deputies of the National Assembly are elected by the delegates of the 169 municipal assemblies, who are elected to five-year terms in free and secret elections involving two or more candidates in 14,946 voting districts. The candidates to the municipal assemblies are nominated in a series of neighborhood nomination assemblies in each voting district. The electoral process is conducted without the participation of political parties and without the campaign financing typical of representative democracies. The National Assembly is the highest authority in Cuba, and it elects the thirty-one members of the Council of State, including its President, who presently is Raúl Castro and who for many years was Fidel Castro.
2. The five were Cuban agents who had infiltrated counterrevolutionary and terrorist groups in Miami. The trial of the five in Miami was a travesty, stunning in its violation of the fundamental norms of the US system of justice. Each of the five made comments to the Court, in which they: demonstrated respect toward the US criminal process; defended the right of Cuba to take necessary steps, such as the infiltration of terrorist groups, to defend itself against terrorism; and defended their nation and its revolution. They resisted all attempts of coercions and bribery to which they were subjected. Proclaimed as heroes in Cuba, their release became a national and international cause. Two were released in recent months, having completed their sentences. The remaining three, who had many years remaining in their prison sentences, were released as part of the agreement between the United States and Cuba of December 17, 2014. The reuniting of the five in Cuba has provoked a tremendous popular display of affection and happiness.
3. CARICOM is the Community of Caribbean States.
4. As a child of six years, Elián Gonzáles was taken illegally to the United States by his Cuban mother, who drowned at sea during the voyage. Cuban appeals for the return of Elián to Cuba, opposed by the Cuban-American community, evolved into a national and international campaign that included the travel of this father to the United States, where he conducted himself with dignity, impressing the well-known journalist Dan Rather with his sincerity and patriotism. The campaign was a success; father and child returned to Cuba fourteen years ago. Now 21 years of age, Elián is in his final year of study in Industrial Engineering at the University of Villa Clara.
5. Fidel’s proclamation, “They will return,” became a slogan of the campaign for the release of the Cuban Five.
6. Cubans refer to the US embargo as a “blockade,” inasmuch as it included efforts to prevent other nations from trading with Cuba.
7. At present, US diplomatic missions in Cuba (the US Interests Section in Havana), Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador routinely involve themselves in the political affairs of these nations, in open violation of international regulations concerning diplomatic missions.
8. These comments by the Cuban head of state are not merely diplomatic abstractions; they emerge from a specific political context. US policy toward Cuba during the past fifty years, utilizing the strategies of the blockade and the creation and support of opposition groups, has sought to substitute a system of popular democracy with a system of representative democracy. As such, US policy can be understood as a violation of international law, which mandates respect for the sovereignty of nations. However, in his comments on December 17, President Obama in no sense suggested such an interpretation. He defended the motives behind US policy, presenting it as the defense of democracy in Cuba. He maintained simply that a new approach is needed, since existing policy has failed to bring democracy to Cuba.
9. The Cuban Constitution was approved in 1976 by 96% of Cuban citizens of sixteen or more years. See footnote 1.
10. The Cuban counterrevolution has been a lucrative business, as has been documented by Jesús Arboleya, Cuban scholar and diplomat who served as head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington form 1979 to 1981, in La Contrarrevolución Cuba (Habana: Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 1997) [English translation of the book is available on Amazon.com.
11. The Organization of American States was established as a Pan-American project under US direction. It excluded Cuba in 1962 and revoked the exclusion in 2011. The subsequent overthrow of Honduran President Zelaya provoked a strong protest from the governments of the region, but they were unable to reinstall him as president. Cuba has indicated that it will not seek entry in OAS.
12. The historic proclamation was made on December 18, 1956, at the beginning of the revolutionary war, shortly after the eighty-two revolutionaries led by Fidel had arrived in Cuba and had been routed and dispersed by the armed forces of the Batista dictatorship. The proclamation often is used in Cuba as an illustration of the unshakeable faith of Fidel in the triumph of the revolution. The Cuban poet and essayist Cintio Viter maintains that Fidel’s faith had roots in José Martí, the nineteenth century Cuban revolutionary who believed in the possibility of the impossible. Vitier writes, “Contagious, radiating, attracting with the moral magnetism of heroism, that faith, nurtured in analysis, became a live experience on the terrain itself of the struggle” [Cinto Vitier, Ese Sol del Mundo Moral (Habana: Editorial Félix Varela, 2006)].
1. The National Assembly of Popular Power was established by the Cuban Constitution, which was approved by 96% of Cuban citizens of sixteen years or older in a free and secret vote in a 1976 referendum. The 500 deputies of the National Assembly are elected by the delegates of the 169 municipal assemblies, who are elected to five-year terms in free and secret elections involving two or more candidates in 14,946 voting districts. The candidates to the municipal assemblies are nominated in a series of neighborhood nomination assemblies in each voting district. The electoral process is conducted without the participation of political parties and without the campaign financing typical of representative democracies. The National Assembly is the highest authority in Cuba, and it elects the thirty-one members of the Council of State, including its President, who presently is Raúl Castro and who for many years was Fidel Castro.
2. The five were Cuban agents who had infiltrated counterrevolutionary and terrorist groups in Miami. The trial of the five in Miami was a travesty, stunning in its violation of the fundamental norms of the US system of justice. Each of the five made comments to the Court, in which they: demonstrated respect toward the US criminal process; defended the right of Cuba to take necessary steps, such as the infiltration of terrorist groups, to defend itself against terrorism; and defended their nation and its revolution. They resisted all attempts of coercions and bribery to which they were subjected. Proclaimed as heroes in Cuba, their release became a national and international cause. Two were released in recent months, having completed their sentences. The remaining three, who had many years remaining in their prison sentences, were released as part of the agreement between the United States and Cuba of December 17, 2014. The reuniting of the five in Cuba has provoked a tremendous popular display of affection and happiness.
3. CARICOM is the Community of Caribbean States.
4. As a child of six years, Elián Gonzáles was taken illegally to the United States by his Cuban mother, who drowned at sea during the voyage. Cuban appeals for the return of Elián to Cuba, opposed by the Cuban-American community, evolved into a national and international campaign that included the travel of this father to the United States, where he conducted himself with dignity, impressing the well-known journalist Dan Rather with his sincerity and patriotism. The campaign was a success; father and child returned to Cuba fourteen years ago. Now 21 years of age, Elián is in his final year of study in Industrial Engineering at the University of Villa Clara.
5. Fidel’s proclamation, “They will return,” became a slogan of the campaign for the release of the Cuban Five.
6. Cubans refer to the US embargo as a “blockade,” inasmuch as it included efforts to prevent other nations from trading with Cuba.
7. At present, US diplomatic missions in Cuba (the US Interests Section in Havana), Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador routinely involve themselves in the political affairs of these nations, in open violation of international regulations concerning diplomatic missions.
8. These comments by the Cuban head of state are not merely diplomatic abstractions; they emerge from a specific political context. US policy toward Cuba during the past fifty years, utilizing the strategies of the blockade and the creation and support of opposition groups, has sought to substitute a system of popular democracy with a system of representative democracy. As such, US policy can be understood as a violation of international law, which mandates respect for the sovereignty of nations. However, in his comments on December 17, President Obama in no sense suggested such an interpretation. He defended the motives behind US policy, presenting it as the defense of democracy in Cuba. He maintained simply that a new approach is needed, since existing policy has failed to bring democracy to Cuba.
9. The Cuban Constitution was approved in 1976 by 96% of Cuban citizens of sixteen or more years. See footnote 1.
10. The Cuban counterrevolution has been a lucrative business, as has been documented by Jesús Arboleya, Cuban scholar and diplomat who served as head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington form 1979 to 1981, in La Contrarrevolución Cuba (Habana: Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 1997) [English translation of the book is available on Amazon.com.
11. The Organization of American States was established as a Pan-American project under US direction. It excluded Cuba in 1962 and revoked the exclusion in 2011. The subsequent overthrow of Honduran President Zelaya provoked a strong protest from the governments of the region, but they were unable to reinstall him as president. Cuba has indicated that it will not seek entry in OAS.
12. The historic proclamation was made on December 18, 1956, at the beginning of the revolutionary war, shortly after the eighty-two revolutionaries led by Fidel had arrived in Cuba and had been routed and dispersed by the armed forces of the Batista dictatorship. The proclamation often is used in Cuba as an illustration of the unshakeable faith of Fidel in the triumph of the revolution. The Cuban poet and essayist Cintio Viter maintains that Fidel’s faith had roots in José Martí, the nineteenth century Cuban revolutionary who believed in the possibility of the impossible. Vitier writes, “Contagious, radiating, attracting with the moral magnetism of heroism, that faith, nurtured in analysis, became a live experience on the terrain itself of the struggle” [Cinto Vitier, Ese Sol del Mundo Moral (Habana: Editorial Félix Varela, 2006)].