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President Fidel Castro’s closing
remarks, during his special television appearance on
January 22, 2006, on the maneuvers surrounding the
case of the notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles
and in response to new acts of provocation and
misdeeds by the US government and the US Interests
Section in Havana
The
government of the United States is deliberately
pursuing the following objectives:
First, the release of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles,
who was trained by US authorities —Bush Sr.
included— and used to perpetrate monstrous crimes
against the Cuban people. Recruited in 1961, this
repulsive character was trained to carry out special
operations during the Bay of Pigs invasion. He and
Orlando Bosch, officially pardoned by Bush Sr.,
subsequently received rigorous training to execute
despicable acts of terrorism against Cuba. Likewise,
he was given instruction to take part in Operation
Condor, an international terrorist organization
responsible for odious crimes against Latin American
personalities. He is the mind behind the midair
bombing of a Cubana de Aviación airliner, which
claimed the lives of 73 people, off the coasts of
Barbados, on October 6, 1976. Taken out of a
Venezuelan prison by the CIA on August 18, 1985, he
immediately became involved in the dirty war against
Nicaragua, supplying weapons to the ‘contras’ in El
Salvador and shipping drugs to the United States.
For over four decades, Luis Posada Carriles
maintained close ties with US intelligence agencies,
received financing from various administrations and
was used by the Cuban American National Foundation
in attempts to assassinate the Cuban head of state.
Efforts by the current US President, and a pardon
signed by Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso,
finally secured his release from prison on August
26, 2004. Then, taken to a Central American country
under protection from the US government, he was
authorized to secretly enter the United States.
Between March 18 and 20, 2005, he entered the
country on the Santrina, a yacht captained by the
notorious terrorist Santiago Álvarez, a man who,
strangely enough, is also being held for weapons
trafficking and gross violations of US national
security laws. These are irrefutable facts.
Second, the current US administration has utterly
failed in its efforts to isolate and stifle Cuba
economically. But it does not accept this failure,
and grows ever more desperate.
Third, the government of the United States has done
everything in its power to please the Cuban American
terrorist mafia, which resorted to fraud, in
Florida, to put President George W. Bush in office.
Fourth, President Bush and his administration have
committed themselves to implementing a macabre
transition plan in Cuba, an act of flagrant
interference in the internal affairs of our country,
which would return it to a state of backwardness.
Fifth, the government of the United States has
implemented every imaginable measure to deprive Cuba
of completely legitimate sources of income. It has
made it more difficult for people to send
remittances to Cuba and even, callously, forbidden,
or made it next to impossible, for Cuban-born US
residents to visit their relatives on the island.
Sixth, under pressure from the Cuban-American mob,
and as one their next step, the government of the
United States is intent on openly violating the US –
Cuba Migratory Accords.
Seventh: The government of the United States is
looking for any pretext to prevent, at all costs,
the sale of agricultural products to Cuba, which has
been growing, while our country has paid every cent
on time during five years, something it did not
expect from a blockaded nation facing constant
aggression.
Eighth, the government of the United States, unhappy
about President Carter’s decision of May 30, 1977,
is intent on breaking the minimal diplomatic links
which exist between Cuba and the United States
today. The gross acts of provocation of the US
Interests Section in Havana do not and could not
have a different objective.
The
Bush administration is well aware that no government
on earth can tolerate such an affront to its dignity
and sovereignty. As the government of Cuba hasn’t
the slightest doubt about the aim behind these new
actions, it shall take whatever measures are
necessary to respond to these provocations. On the
other hand, Cuba has been and continues to be
strongly committed to wholly fulfilling our
obligations towards US agricultural producers and
suppliers --who have seriously and effectively
fulfilled their share of the agreements--, while the
U.S. doesn’t impede us from doing so. However, we
shall take appropriate measures to avoid whatever
repercussion this treacherous action by the current
US government could have for Cuba, so that, an
abrupt interruption of food supplies coming from the
United States would not bear heavily on our people.
Cuba’s attitude, and its response to the empire’s
provocations, will be entirely peaceful, but we
shall strike back with all the strength of our moral
fortitude and we shall persist in our determination
to fight to the death, against whatever act of
belligerence of the restless and brutal empire that
threatens us. Let no one for a minute forget the
oath of Maceo, our Bronze Titan, when he said that
whosoever attempts to take possession of Cuba shall
conquer but the blood-soaked ground beneath his
feet, if he does not first perish in battle.
Within a day and a half, in the morning of January
24 when the status of the vicious terrorist will be
reviewed, the people of Havana will show their
discipline, unity and revolutionary spirit marching
on the US Interests Section of Bush’s fraudulent and
bastard government, a government which has been
imposed upon the people of the United States and
which constitutes today’s greatest threat to world
peace.
World public opinion will once again witness an
irrefutable testimony of what Cuba is and where it
stands.
Homeland or death!
We
shall overcome! |
