May 1 Address

Speech given by commander in chief Fidel Castro Ruz,President of the Republic of Cuba at the InternationalMay day celebration in Revolution Square on May 1, 2005http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2005/ing/f010505i.html

(Cheering)Listen, hold on for just a bit longer, because today you will be lucky and I won’t be speaking at great length.(Cheering, and shouts of "No!")Nature is on our side, look at the breezeand the clouds; everything is on the side of our noble cause.Dear personalities and fighters from more than 60 nations who are sharing this historic May Day with us;

Dear delegates to the 4th Hemispheric Meeting of the Fight Against the FTAAand for the ALBA;Dear fellow Cubans:Faced with the most powerful empire in the history of humanity determined todestroy our identity as an independent nation in the past, and later duringthe inevitable Revolution, we are here, in this glorious Square, after 46years of heroic struggle, against which the most perfidious defamation andthe most vulgar crimes have crashed.Ninety miles away from that Power, Cuba is committing, and will continue tocommit – don’t let there be any doubt about this – the sin of existingThe fallacies of asymmetric warfare that Cuba is supposedly preparing towage are looking increasingly ridiculous, embarrassing and impotent; thegreat lie about the production of biological weapons, involving the enragedliar John Bolton, whose cynical façade they try to present –and rightly so,perhaps– as the perfect symbol of the current United States government tothe United NationsThey have failed in their renewed ideological war in which they invaded ortried to invade our radio electronic space with a host of subversivebroadcasts of anti-Cuban radio and television; as they have failed in theirattempt to internationally isolate Cuba; in their support of idlemercenaries and their use as Trojan horses within the country; in the vulgaractions of the Interests Section under an agitator especially chosen andtrained to work out his own expulsion with a well deserved kick up thebackside; and in their intentions to suffocate us with the intensificationof the criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade.On the other hand, Cuban credit has grown stronger, its internationaleconomic relations have increased and business with US agriculturalproducers has expanded, despite the many obstacles imposed by the fraudulentand tricky occupant of the White House.The maneuver to deprive our country of the dollar also failed –the dollarhas now been dishonorably dismissed from our country where, during the veryharsh times of the special period, it reigned as the Luis 14th of monetarycirculation.All their aggressive plots against our people have failed. Here we are, Iinsist, stronger than ever, more united than ever, more determined than everto continue with the exceptional work of building a more just, moresupportive, more humane and more prosperous society, like the Promised Landalready within our grasp.The American government, along with its many other sinister strategies toharm our Homeland, resorted to the vulgar option of adding Cuba to aspurious and cynical list of terrorist countries.This week that draws to an end today, the State Department republished itsupdated list. It states, in a perverse and malicious way, that: "Cubaremained actively opposed to the US-led Coalition prosecuting the global waron terrorism".Why does Cuba have to follow the lead of a corrupt and genocidal government?Following September 11, 2001 and the atrocious attacks on the Twin Towers,planned and carried out by fanatic leaders financially linked to the dynastythat currently reigns in the White House, individuals who were also trainedand used by the United States Special Services, the empire’s policy hascentered on what it described as a world crusade against the terrorismwhich, invented by them against Cuba, Viet Nam and other countries, hasbecome a world tragedy. The Nazi doctrine of the preemptive and surpriseattack on ‘any dark corner of the world’ was declared and 60 or more stateswere grotesquely cited as possible targets –one of these, of course, wasCuba--, as our country is first on the list of possible objectives.No one should be surprised if with the deepest contempt we use the harshestwords to qualify such ethylic and demented threats, as it was under suchpretext they embarked on wars supposedly aimed at fighting terrorism.On the very September 11, 2001, Cuba warned of the absurdity of this conceptand advised that war would never be the solution to the problem.Reports from the US Counter-Terrorism Center at this time show that in 2004there were three times more major terrorist acts (651 compared to 175) thanin 2003.When the American government unjustifiably invaded Iraq, it consciously liedabout the existence of weapons of mass destruction. Actually, it was the oilthey were after; it was a vulgar war of conquest. All the painful evidencehas quashed Bush’s hypocritical speech that the world is now a safer placethan it was four years ago.What is the credibility of the shameless scarecrow designed against Cuba bythe State Department, which has also made the mistake of giving first placeon their list to the least fearful country and the most capable ofuncovering their despicable lies?On top of all this, the government of that country has been foolish enoughto say that "the biggest cause for concern is that these States (includingCuba in first place) have the capacity to produce weapons of massdestruction and other destabilizing technology which could fall into thehands of the terrorists". This at the exact time when John Bolton, thederanged author of this folly, is questioned by several of the mostimportant intelligence services of the United States for venting his fury onsome honest officials who had the decency to oppose his depraved anduntenable lies. Major media outlets and what is even more worrying for theextremist, warmongering and genocidal mob, the members of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee are amazed at such shocking behavior.The sinister aims of these lies are well known.In addition to this hysterical behavior, on Friday April 29 a cable reportedthat the very distinguished President of the United States had just orderedthe Treasury Department to hand over a generous amount of Cuba’s frozenassets to meet another lawsuit from the extremist and terrorist CubanAmerican mob in Miami.What is truly incomprehensible and inexplicable about the US government’sbehavior is that they published the abovementioned State Department documentat a time when the current administration is caught up in one of the mostembarrassing and sensitive chapters of its terrorist adventures, itsaggression and lies against Cuba. Are they stupid, or even better, are theysuch stupid or what?The whole world knows that Luis Posada Carriles, the cruelest, most famousterrorist in the western hemisphere, as acknowledged by the most importantmedia outlet in this part of the world, has entered the United States andrequested asylum from the government of that country, whose soldiers aredying every day and whose death toll have risen to almost two thousand, inthe name of a war against terrorism that was unleashed after the events ofSeptember 11, 2001.Our fellow Cubans, who have closely followed this unprecedented scandal,know perfectly well what I am talking about. Many people will now bewondering whether the George W. Bush administration has given birth to themonster that was growing heavy in their entrails. Reply: it is incrediblebut there are still no signs of labor, despite the fact that this couldendanger the health of both, the mother and the creature, as well as that ofthe many midwives and others who are meddling in this affair, and whosenumbers are growing by the day.Due to the fact that over the last three days we have been focused on theagreements and documents signed between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuelaand Cuba, and particularly on the events related to the visit of the leaderof the Bolivarian Revolution, our close brother Hugo Chávez Frías, and thehistoric progress which we are rapidly making in such a short period of timetowards the integration of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean--two hundred years after their struggles for independence first began—thesame that until now have been dominated and plundered by colonialism andimperialism which have lead them to a now unsustainable situation, wehaven’t been able to examine the highly significant situation created by thereturn of the monster to the place where it was bred and trained for thelong series of crimes that it has committed against the people of Cuba andother peoples worldwide.Today, while we were speaking of the crime committed on October 6, 1976 inBarbados, with the blowing up of the passenger plane and the loss of morethan 70 lives; between that date and the day the young Italian was murderedin a Havana hotel, 20 years have passed equivalent to 20 years of murders,of crimes committed by US governments using mercenaries and terrorists ofthe despicable caliber of Posada Carriles.Neither can we forget more than 45 years of aggressions, mercenaryinvasions, piratical attacks, acts of sabotage, a dirty war which, in themidst of an atrocious and pitiless blockade, has taken the lives ofthousands and thousands of fellow countrymen, victims of these acts ofterrorism. How can the US government, least of all the presentadministration, accuse Cuba, the victim, and write her first on a list ofterrorist nations, when what they should actually do is place her first on alist of victims of imperialist terrorism, for more than half a century!(Cheering)Since it has been almost 72 hours without news on the delivery, I shallproceed straight to giving you, as briefly as possible, --and taking intoaccount the time and the effort you have all made over the last twelvehours– the latest top stories:The newspaper, El Nuevo Herald reported on April 29 that, faced with theextradition request made by Venezuela, the terrorist’s accomplices werepreparing to strengthen their legal team.Santiago Alvarez, the well-known terrorist and accomplice of PosadaCarriles, said that the legal representation "is being strengthened withlawyers of different origins".According to the newspaper, the lawyers hired to assist the terroristinclude Kendall Coffey, the former Miami district attorney who led thesinister team of lawyers that tried to keep the child Elián Gonzálezkidnapped and Joaquín Chafardet, an equally mobbish lawyer who is well knownin Venezuela, and who previously represented Posada during his trial inCaracas for the bombing of the Cubana airliner and is strongly associatedwith Ricardo Koesling, a representative of the Cuban American NationalFoundation in Venezuela and one of the instigators of the siege of the CubanEmbassy during the ephemeral coup d’état of April 11, 2002.Accounts cited by the newspaper discuss the possibility that the illustriousPosada Carriles will talk to the press very soon.Santiago Alvarez Fernández Magriñá, the abovementioned character who tookPosada Carriles from Isla Mujeres to the city of Miami between the 16 andthe 18 of March, in other words 44 days ago, gave an interview yesterday ona Miami TV channel in which he shamelessly said that Posada Carriles ‘isfine, he is painting, listening to the news and reading’. Then he went on toannounce in a language that befits the ignorant and uneducated individualthat he is that "it is very probable that in the next few days he will becalled to the Immigration office, and when he shows up there they will haveto see him and talk to him. Preparations are being made for him to give alimited interview in the next few days, as soon as the lawyers feel that thetime is right, in order to give information on certain points that needanswering". In fact, there are a million points that need answering: are youwell aware of that Mr. George W. Bush?According to the Herald --which as you know has many connections with theMob, I particularly refer to the so called the New Herald-- sources in theUnited States capital affirmed that Posada’s asylum request had gone downlike a "lead balloon" in high US ranks. "It has created a lot of politicalfriction", said a top official that asked to remain anonymous. "This is theworst time that it could have happened". Listen to that official’s phrasing:‘This is the worst time that it could have happened’.Information received suggests that the Bush administration doesn’t know howto get out of this tangled and embarrassing situation. They’re holding atime bomb in their hands. While they have been playing with terrorism,fomenting it, supporting it and nurturing it, it comes as no surprise thatthey now have a time bomb on their hands.It has also been said that even the beleaguered Cuban American NationalFoundation, the group that gives the most protection and financial aid toPosada Carriles, in close coordination with US administrations, is worriedbecause this matter could further harm their battered political image, andthey are also worried that the terrorist may demand more from them becausehe has lots of information.On the other hand, there are reports in New York press circles that theUnited States government is involved in intense negotiations with severalCentral American countries in order to secretly transfer the terrorist toany country in that area.In addition to this it has been said that the Salvadoran government musthave let the United States know through various channels that they don’twant Posada Carriles in their country --everybody wanting to get rid of thecorpse, acting like rats fleeing a sinking ship-- and it is very unlikelythat they’ll accept the terrorist. The final destination will depend on thepressure exerted by the State Department. We already know what results havebeen obtained by that distinguished lady who is the Secretary of State andwho is presently traveling through our hemisphere to discuss democracy andlack of governability, or should I say governability, in this hemisphere.They haven’t even realized what has happened, they haven’t even realizedthat in one week, just one week, three governments are in the middle ofserious crises.Journalists are commenting that Cuba’s denunciation of Posada Carriles tookthe US authorities by surprise, but that they have by now realized thesensitivity of the issue and changed their initial intention of acceptingPosada into their country.Here, one of the distinguished speakers preceding me –it was Schafick--spoke of the ‘hot potato’. Cubans know very well how hot a potato can bewhen it is taken out of the pot, perhaps out of the pressure cooker: itburns your hands, your lips, your tongue, it burns everything; and therethey are, with a specially hot potato that won’t cool down, one that wewon’t let cool down. (Applause)Meanwhile, there are reports from Salvadoran political circles that someleaders of the ARENA government party would find themselves in deep water ifthey didn’t help Posada.In this context, the former Minister of the Interior and coffee entrepreneurMario Acosta Oertel, "a close friend of Posada and the people of Miami"would be the person in charge of handling the issue of the terrorist in ElSalvador. Acosta’s wife is the cousin of Otto René Rodríguez Llerena, theterrorist detained in Cuba.According to journalists from an important US television network, theircolleagues in Miami say they are convinced that Posada Carriles is hidden ina house in Florida.Reporters from this network in Miami believe that the FBI knows where Posadais and who is with him, and they don’t rule out the possibility that one ofthe options might be to force him out of the country. To this end, theycould use the procedure of accusing the person who is sheltering him, andthose who allowed him to enter, and those who gave permission for his entry,and those who know how he entered and where he hiding and are sayingnothing.They say that they don’t understand why the FBI has not arrested Posada,since the terrorist was singled out as a fugitive of Venezuelan justice by agovernment preceding that of President Chávez.However, they say that they couldn’t send him to Venezuela either becausethe American government is convinced that that would be tantamount tohanding him over to Cuba.Such a sophism! It was precisely Cuba that, from the beginning, relinquishedits most legitimate right to judge him since it was her sons and daughters,in huge numbers, who have been among the victims of this monster’s crimes, amonster bred and trained in the United States and used by them for decades.If not, how could it be explained, or rather, how could the shamelessblackmail plaguing the most powerful superpower ever existing be explained?It is the opinion of the reporters that the FBI are carefully evaluating thescenarios to which they are being exposed, and they feel that the Bushadministration still hasn’t decided how to deal with the case --they aretruly mute, paralyzed, puzzled-- but they assume that when Posada entersinto the public eye the FBI will have a plan ready.TV journalists in Miami are saying that the big networks in the UnitedStates are on Posada’s trail and some of them are very close to finding outhis whereabouts. One version of events is that he is hiding out in anexclusive neighborhood on the outskirts of Miami, in a very expensive housevalued at three million dollars. There he spends his time reading, listeningto the news and painting, like a new Picasso; there in the lair of theEmpire whose political and cultural ideal, at least that of the presentadministration, is to have painters with blood-stained hands and with thebarbaric notion: ‘We put the bomb, so what?’, or in that infamous phraseused to describe the case of the young Italian Fabio di Celmo: ‘He was inthe wrong place at the wrong time’. It now seems that it is he, as well asthe US government or the President of this administration, who are in thewrong place at the wrong time. (Applause)You can see what 180,000 people working in the Department of HomelandSecurity, those 22 bodies that cooperate and participate in theiranti-terrorism struggle and in the protection of US internal security, havenot been able to accomplish; neither have the 15 intelligence agenciesworking on a budget of billions of dollars; what these have not been able toaccomplish or discover, the US media will succeed in accomplishing anddiscovering.They also say that the FBI is not keeping watch on the area where Posada issupposedly staying, and that Eduardo Soto, the terrorist’s lawyer, has optedto give his statements and public interviews to Hispanic televisionchannels, without realizing that Posada has now become a priority target forthe majority of the country’s TV channels, that are starting to work towardsfinding and filming him, and that if the FBI doesn’t find him, thetelevision networks will.In a recent letter republican Senator Norm Coleman, confirmed that the USDepartment of Homeland Security had received a request for asylum on behalfof Posada Carriles.You might recall that a few days ago the University of Informatics Sciences(UCI) had been looking into the obligations of a lawyer or any other personwho is filing a plea for exile, and found out that it is a crime punishableby several years in prison to violate these procedures. What would the lawsay about those holding high office, indeed very high office, who act asaccomplices for the cover-up, or are accomplices of that terrorist when theyallow or authorize his entry, or even worse, those that allow his entrywithout any previous consent? And there you have a government paralyzed fora month and a half, incapable of arresting the terrorist and all of hisminor accomplices who bypassed the orders of higher authorities.The Senator’s letter means that there is finally news of a zealously guardeddocument that we have been eagerly looking for over the last few days.What does this letter say exactly?"Dear Mr. Hughes:"Thank you for taking the time to contact me concerning Mr. Luis PosadaCarriles."As you may know, Mr. Carriles was pardoned by Panamanian President MireyaMoscoso on August 26, 2004. Mr. Carriles attorney has alleged thatMr. Carriles entered the United States through Mexico a few weeks ago."I have shared your concerns with the Department of Homeland Security(DHS)."DHS has confirmed that Mr. Carriles attorney has filed an asylum requestfor his client. However, because of his past acts of terrorism that he has,by his own admission, claimed to have planned and carried out, Mr. Carrilesis not eligible for asylum."DHS cannot confirm Mr. Carriles entry into the country, but has alerted allmajor law enforcement agencies of his possible presence." If they want tofind out, all they have to do is to find Mr. Santiago Alvarez, the man whobrought him by boat to Miami from Isla Mujeres. They could never deny that,they must swallow the whole nightmare, but this is not a nightmare; it is anirrefutable and indestructible truth. They could have found out where thiscreature was in five minutes, in the country where the authorities, thespecial services and the government had spawned him.The Senator continues: "…If he is found, Mr. Carriles would face immediatedeportation from the United States for his past terrorist activities."Thank you once again for taking the time to contact me. I value youradvice. If I may be of further assistance to you in the future, please donot hesitate to contact me again.Sincerely,Norm ColemanUnited States Senator"In the next few days, we will be receiving very interesting news. The USgovernment, blackmailed by the crows it created, has lacked the courage topursue the only path left to it: the immediate arrest of Posada Carriles,abiding by national and international laws and placing him at thedisposition of the Venezuelan Court that must put him on trial. I havealready said that Cuba has relinquished its right, just so that they willnot have a minimum excuse.In Venezuela there is a Bolivarian government that is respected worldwide,where there are many journalists. Would that not be the best place to puthim on trial, since Cuba won’t do it? What excuse can they come up with toavoid sending him there?We have even proposed that Venezuela is in the best position to do so. Wewould even accept an international absolutely impartial court, convened in alocation where they might agree to try this murderer. This is not even animportant individual; the importance of this individual lies in the factthat his presence reveals to the world the immense hypocrisy, the lies, theimmoral acts and the cynicism that the Empire uses to dominate the world.This is what’s important, let’s not forget it. The world demands thatinjustice be put on trial; the world demands that hypocrisy be put on trial;the world demands that these imperialist methods of deceit and domination, adomination that is harder and harder to maintain on the world, be put ontrial.I promised not to talk at great length; it only remains for me to thank ourspeakers. (Applause)We were afraid that this event would go on for too long. We realize thatthis is summer, the sun is strong and the people began to mobilize, thoseclose to Havana, at 10 o’clock last night, and that at 2 in the morning theywere already on their way, so that we might bring together a millionthree-hundred thousand people, all of whom are not readily visible here,because all the empty spaces and avenues around this Square are filled withfellow Cubans.You all deserve our infinite recognition for your revolutionary andpatriotic spirit, for your support of such a just cause, for your dignityand revolutionary spirit; for your quietness and the attention paid to thevaliant, moving and eloquent words we have been hearing from all those whohave stood on this podium today, to widen our knowledge of the horrorscommitted by US Imperialism against the peoples of Latin America and whosewords have strengthened our self-confidence and resolve that our nationswill be free and will unite closely to defend the same common causes wedefend here, speaking the same language that we have been hearing heretoday, even the English language; Because at the end of the day, it will notbe too difficult, thinking of those peoples who once struggled againstcolonialism and who lost many of their sons and daughters in the struggleagainst fascism, that these peoples will unite with their Latin Americanbrothers and sisters, in the struggle for justice, in the struggle fortruth, in the struggle for the survival of our species which is at staketoday.Let us never forget this event. Let us never forget the words of solidarityspoken by our brothers and sisters from the South, the Center and the North.Language will not be an obstacle, because all of us that speak Spanish orPortuguese will learn English, and one day, all those speaking English willlearn the languages of Latin America, Spanish and Portuguese. (Applause)As I told you recently, the main slogan of the mobilization of this May Dayhas become: ‘Humanity has a yearning for justice’. You have proven this heretoday. (Applause and shouts of: "Fidel! Fidel!")And looking out onto this huge, unsurpassable and emotional crowd, Iremember that unforgettable October 15, 1976 as if it were today, the momentin which we bid farewell to the victims of that monstrous act of terrorismagainst the Cuban airliner over Barbados, which made me state: "When anenergetic and forceful people cry, injustice trembles!"We shall see!Long live the 30th Anniversary --which we also commemorate today-- of theglorious and exemplary victory of the heroic people of Vietnam, a victorythat the imperialists should never forget!Patria o Muerte!Venceremos!