Fidel Castro Addresses People of Granma Province-1 July 2000 22:00
 
 
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Radio Havana Cuba - News Update - 1 July 2000 22:00

FIDEL CASTRO'S MESSAGE TO THE OPEN TRIBUNE IN MANZANILLO
GRANMA PROVINCE, SATURDAY, 1 JULY, 2000
 
Manzanilleros, Bayameses, Orientales:

Our beloved province of Oriente was not multiplied by five when destiny
wanted to lead our small Granma yacht -- with only two inches of fuel left
in its tanks -- to the swampy shores of Las Coloradas, in Niquero
municipality. In Niquero the enemy spotted us, hungry and exhausted by a
long journey, and we immediately began our hazardous march toward the Sierra
Maestra Mountains, whose first peaks were hardly seen in the distance.

We could not then imagine that the region where we rebuilt and developed our
small army with the few scattered combatants that were left after the worst
of setbacks , would one day become a province named after the small yacht
that took us from Mexico to this corner of Cuba.

There we fought the first victorious skirmishes and decisive battles. There
we learned to win and never to give up. All the columns that later invaded
the rest of the country left from there. From there, in less than two years,
always fighting in a proportion of 20 adversary soldiers per each one of us,
we completely defeated the enemy on January 1st, 1959.

Precisely that day the glorious struggle that began a few kilometers from
Manzanillo in the Demajagua sugar mill more than 130 years ago, ended in a
complete victory and for the first time we were totally free. Since then
nothing and no one has been able and will never be able to defeat a people
like ours.

Without the support of Manzanillo, of Bayamo, and all fellow countrymen and
women who lived in what is today Granma, nothing of the afore mentioned
would have bee possible.

There is no other site on our island with more symbolism and more
encouragement to continue the struggle of ideas and mass participation that
over the past seven months we have been fighting in front of the most
powerful empire that humanity has known.

Only a few hours have passed since the moving return to our homeland of Juan
Miguel and Elián, now turned into two moral giants, and our struggle,
without a truce or moment of rest, resumes vigorously to enter a new and
prolonged stage. We are not a people who stop to enjoy the pleasure of
victories or boast of their successes. With the experience acquired and the
formidable strength accumulated, we won't stop until all and each one of the
just objectives for which we swore in Baraguá are accomplished.

We have not deprived any country of its right, neither do we intend to
deprive any country of the fruit of its peaceful work nor of its
independence. We have proclaimed no violent hostility, blockade or economic
war against any people. We have declared no people our enemy, not even the
people of the United States who, despite the ocean of bias and lies with
which they are deceived when a pretext is sought to commit great crimes,
supported the just cause of the kidnapped child and his father, as one day
they were able to put an end to the cruel and unjust war that killed 4
million Vietnamese and totally destroyed a small and poor country of the
Third World.

For us it's not important who will be the next President of the superpower
that has imposed its system of hegemonic and dominant control of the world.
None of those who are contending for the presidency is trustworthy. It is
useless for them to spend unnecessary time making statements and promises
against Cuba to obtain the votes of some people without a homeland who even
dared to trample on and burn US flags. Whoever is the new President of the
United States should know that Cuba is and will be here with its ideas,
example and its people's undefeatable rebel spirit. And all aggression and
attempts to strangle us and bring us to our knees will be defeated. Four
decades of stupid arrogance, underestimation and shameful failures should be
enough for them.

Since January first, 1959, Cuba was, is and will continue to be free. Its
capacity of struggle and resistance, its profound political culture, its
consciousness and the courage of its people show that the Cuban Revolution
with its project of justice and noble objectives has created such a spirit
of solidarity and heroism, and has laid such deep roots in the heart of our
homeland that it has become invincible.

This feeling of trust, safety and healthy patriotic and revolutionary pride
is what I want to convey today, July 1st of the year 2000, a day that will
be unforgettable in the history of Granma province and Cuba.

FIDEL CASTRO RUZ

(c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved.
 
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rhc-eng-7869
2000-Jul-01 22:50:42