June 15, 2002
Imperialist domination and the
capitalist system shall never return to Cuba
Speech given by President Fidel Castro
Ruz, first secretary of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers, at the ceremony
in homage to the births of Maceo and Che in El Cacahual, Havana, on June 15, 2002
TRANSLATED BY THE COUNCIL OF STATE
 Fellow Cubans:
Today we are paying homage to two extraordinary men
who have left a profound imprint on the history of our homeland: Maceo and Che.
I avidly read anything and everything about the
former. I always saw him as a legend. His 26 wounds and the more than 800 combat actions
in which he took part went far beyond the limits of fantasy of a teenager or a young man,
seeming like a god of war to our eyes. To me he seemed to be unreachable, too high and too
far away. Later, the modest experience of our own revolutionary war helped me see that
amazing man more close at hand.
I saw the second of the two firing his first shot and
realizing his first exploits. Doctor and intellectual turned fearless soldier, always the
first to volunteer whenever we needed someone for difficult missions, I had the privilege
of knowing him a little more close at hand. If I were to look for a word that was
synonymous with austerity, integrity, a spirit of sacrifice and ethics, that word would be
Che.
They were born 83 years apart. The first was already
a legendary figure when the second entered the world. If one of them proclaimed that
whoever tried to take possession of Cuba would have to gather up the dust of its soil
soaked in blood, if he did not perish in the struggle, the other soaked Bolivian soil with
his blood trying to prevent the empire from taking over America.
Both invaded from east to west; both perished in
combat; both are today insuperable symbols of revolutionary courage and intransigence;
both are with us now and we with them; both did what an entire people has sworn it is
willing to do; both were born on the same day: yesterday, June 14. Fate could not have
arranged it anything better.
Seventy-two hours ago millions of Cubans marched in a
revolutionary mobilization that, because of its size, is unprecedented. It was like a
gigantic Protest of Baraguá against those who a century ago stole her independence from
Cuba and who today are trying to snatch the revolution and even our own homeland from our
people. And today, June 15 at 10 in the morning, that people will begin to write a similar
page in the history of our homeland and of the world, and they will bequeath to their
descendants what will perhaps be the greatest honor of our epoch.
We already swore an oath, at that historic site of
Baraguá, at the height of the battle for the return of the kidnapped little boy, that we
would battle on until the complete cessation of the economic war, the genocidal blockade
and the murderous laws to which the Cuban people has been subjected for decades on ends.
Today we are taking another oath, an oath that will
be also taken by the overwhelming majority of Cubans: that we shall be unshakably faithful
to the homeland, the Revolution, and to socialism, that imperialist domination and the
capitalist system shall never return to Cuba — that would be like going back to the
colonial system, or even the feudal system or the slave system which preceded it, and
which were long ago abolished by history.
General Antonio Maceo, Cubans today, brought up on
your immortal example, would like to have shared with you the honor of being with you that
glorious day when you said to the representative of Spanish colonial power: We want no
peace without independence.
Che, beloved brother: all your comrades in arms would
have liked to have fought with you at Quebrada del Yuro and to have battled for the
liberation of America. It was an unrealizable dream. Destiny had given our heroic people
the mission to withstand 43 years of aggressions and to finally say NO to the imperial
government which is threatening us and trying to impose a new Platt amendment on Cuba, one
more obnoxious than that of 1901.
This is why the people whom you helped to overthrow
the tyranny are today waging the most glorious battle in its history against the
government of the hegemonic superpower, which wants to destroy us.
Fellow Cubans:
Revolutionary Cubans, in the thick of the Battle of
Ideas we are waging and embroiled in the arduous and heroic defense of our Homeland, the
Revolution and Socialism, on a day like today we are rendering a special tribute to our
two great heroes, with a firm, unshakable decision:
We shall all be like Maceo and Che.
Long live socialism.
Patria o Muerte
Venceremos.
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