[R-G] "Everything began with the arrival in Cuba of Mr. Cason,"

[Macdonald Stainsby]

SPECIAL PRESENTATION BY DR. FIDEL CASTRO RUZ,
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA,
AT THE TELEVISED ROUNDTABLE ON RECENT
EVENTS IN THE COUNTRY AND THE INCREASE
OF AGGRESSIVE ACTIONS BY THE UNITED
STATES GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE CUBAN
PEOPLE.  APRIL 25, 2003.



Dear compatriots:



            Everything began with the arrival in Cuba of Mr. Cason.

The arrest of several dozens of mercenaries who betrayed their homeland
in exchange for the privileges and money they receive from the
government of the United States, and the death penalty for common
criminals who hijacked a passengers ferry in Havana Bay with a gun and
five knives, were the result of a conspiracy concocted by the government
of that country and the Miami terrorist mob. This should be obvious to
anyone.

          The Cuban authorities cannot be held accountable in any way
for these events. This is something I intend to explain, as well as the
reasons and objectives behind every measure, why and what for they were
adopted.

          The current president of the United States, with a minority of
the total number of votes, acceded to power through a scandalous fraud
for which the Miami mob applied in the United States the methods they
had learned from their Batista-henchmen fathers and other corrupt
politicians from the U.S. neocolony of Cuba, ousted from power by the
Revolution.

          On November 4, 2000, tens of thousands of African Americans
were prevented from voting, many thousands of voters made mistakes on
their ballots because of a change in the order of the candidates' names,
and there was further fraud perpetrated during vote counting. This was
how, by a margin of a few hundred votes, Bush obtained a majority in the
state of Florida that determined his election.

          He is a considerate man who does not hide his obligation to
the Miami mob and the compromises he reached with these people during a
meeting in Texas.

          Even before the election, at a rally held on August 5
commemorating the 26th of July in Pinar del Río, I literally said to Mr.
Bush, and I quote:

          "I am very much aware of what you have recklessly told your
close and indiscreet friends in the Cuban American mob: that you can
solve the problem of Cuba very easily, in clear reference to the methods
used in the sinister period when the Central Intelligence Agency was
directly involved in assassination plots against our country's leaders."

          Bush's pledge was that he would solve the problem by literally
removing me, something that, quite honestly, after 40 years of
aggression and crimes against Cuba, could neither surprise me nor worry
me much.

          His administration has been just as hostile and reactionary as
everyone expected. The mob has achieved more power and influence than
ever before within the administration. Genuine criminals of Cuban
origins, responsible for the deaths of thousands of Central Americans,
like the notorious Otto Reich, have been called on to hold senior posts
in key positions for the application of Bush's preconceived policies,
ideas and pledges against Cuba. The fate and the destiny of over 11
million Cubans mean nothing to him.

           I will not elaborate further on what Mr. Bush thinks, or
about his obsessions and fixed ideas. Our people and the world know more
than enough about these things.

          Otto Reich would be the Assistant Secretary of State for
Western Hemisphere Affairs. The Senate, both Republicans and Democrats,
fervently opposed the choice. A recess of the Senate was used as the
opportunity to have him appointed temporarily. Then, from this post, he
was able to set the guidelines for State Department policy towards Cuba.
Outrageous claims rained down. One day they would say that Cuba was
planning electronic warfare against communications in the United States;
and the next, that a Chinese ship loaded with weapons was headed for
Cuba. Neither the ship nor the weapons ever existed. Amidst ludicrous
claims like these, the most heinous accusation of all: that Cuba was
developing a research program to produce biological weapons. All of the
accusations were refuted and ridiculed.

          During this same period, in September 2002, Otto Reich named
James Cason, a stalwart ally, as the chief of the USIS (United States
Interests Section in Cuba).

          Once Otto Reich's temporary mandate had expired, his ability
to remain in the post would be subject to the risky challenge of Senate
approval, and his chances there  were very slim. Thus, he quietly
disappeared from view. His place would then be taken by Roger Noriega,
former legislative assistant to evil Helms.

          A short time later, in December 2002, Otto Reich was appointed
Special Presidential Envoy for Latin America in the National Security
Council, where the fundamental decisions of the President are drawn up
and adopted. A terrorist bandit with his finger on the trigger of the
superpower's weapon aimed at Cuba!

          What better proof could there be of the Machiavellian plans of
Otto Reich, his mob and his boss, than the actions of the chief of the
Interests Section in Havana?

          What did Cason do before taking over the position formerly
held by Mrs. Vicky Huddleston, who was not assigned to some European or
Latin American country, as she had wished, but rather to Mali, in
Africa?

          Cason's appointment was no coincidence. Reich knew all about
his work during Reich's own tenure as Director of Public Diplomacy with
the Reagan administration. Specifically, they had worked very closely
when Cason worked in Central American Affairs in the State Department,
which was the supporting base for the so-called 'Contras' in the dirty
war against the Sandinista Revolution, in which Mr. Reich played a
significant role, as demonstrated during the congressional hearings on
the Iran-Contra scandal. Cason also had work experience in other Latin
American countries like Honduras, where he was the second chief of the
U.S. Mission, in El Salvador, Bolivia, Panama, Guatemala, Venezuela and
others.

          Cason had declared in November 2001, at a conference on
national security after the fateful terrorist attack on the Twin Towers,
that our country was "the only one that had not joined in the regional
chorus of sincere condolences, military support and diplomatic
cooperation with the United States."

          The truth is that Cuba had strongly condemned those terrorist
attacks before the national and international media, and expressed our
people's condolences to the people of the United States and our
willingness to immediately offer medical and humanitarian assistance.
Our country was perhaps one of the first to do so, if not the first.
Cuba immediately offered to open its airspace and airports, to receive
the passengers planes in the air at the time since landing in any
airport in the United States had been temporarily banned. Cuba did not
have to provide any military support to the U.S. war adventures.

          Upon learning of James Cason's designation as the chief of the
USIS in Cuba, the executive director of the Cuban American National
Foundation declared: "We hope this gentleman is qualified to carry out a
strong policy, as President Bush has ordered."

          James Cason appeared as the best choice to implement the
predetermined policy of an increase and escalation in hostility towards
Cuba from his State Department post.

          Before he had even arrived in Cuba, on August 6, 2002, five
individuals hijacked a boat called the Plástico 16, based in La Coloma,
Pinar del Río. The Cuban authorities, through Note 1428 of August 27,
2002, officially submitted a request for the hijackers to be returned to
Cuba. Months later, the five hijackers were released in the United
States.

          What follows is a chronological account of Mr. Cason's
activities in Cuba.



September 10, 2002

          Cason arrived in our country accompanied by his wife, and was
received at the José Martí International Airport by Louis Nigro, deputy
chief of the USIS.

          From the very outset, at a welcoming reception held at the
USIS, he demonstrated the interventionist nature of his plans, when he
stated, during a brief speech to the Cuban and American staff there,
that "his goal in our country was to speed up the process towards a
democratic Cuba, urging support for all those who were contributing to
this transition."



September 11, 2002

          At a memorial ceremony for the victims of the terrorist
attacks in the United States held at the USIS, Cason referred to
President George W. Bush's plans for the war against terrorism, and
expressed "his hopes that the Cuban people would play a crucial role in
the changes that should take place in Cuba, mentioning the freedom of
expression as an element to take into account for future changes in our
country."



September 16, 2002

          Four days after his arrival, a reception was held at Cason's
residence, with 17 counterrevolutionary group ringleaders in attendance.
The reason for the reception was to introduce the new chief of the USIS
to them and to determine their needs and interests.

          Cason said that he would work to implement the policy
announced by President George W. Bush. He asked how he could help the
"opposition" and to what extent the cooperation provided by the USIS had
been effective so far.

          He declared that he was willing to offer both his residence
and the Interests Section headquarters for the counterrevolutionaries to
meet with diplomatic personnel from different countries.

          He said that he would travel around the country to learn about
the situation of the various groups. He added that his plans included
participating in political events, such as rallies, and posting the
pictures and names of "political prisoners" in the consulate offices so
that visitors would learn about them.



September 17, 2002

          A reception was held at the Cason residence for the same
purposes as the previous day, but with different counterrevolutionary
ringleaders. The topics addressed were subversive radio stations, "the
press and independent libraries."



September 26 to 30, 2002

          The new USIS chief took advantage of the U.S. Food and
Agribusiness Exhibition being held in Havana in those days to show
another line of his hostile intentions.

          At the end of a function hosted by the American organizers for
the exhibitors, at the Melia Cohiba Hotel, Cason read a statement to the
foreign press indicating that while he appreciated the fair as a space
for making sales, "There's going to be a lot of beef being shown, but I
expect to hear and see a lot more bull than I do beef from the Cuban
authorities."

          He added that Cuba is not a significant market for the United
States, and that it has debts with the whole world. Businesspeople from
other countries are waiting for Cuba to pay them, he said, and "we don't
want to be part of that queue."

          Then he claimed: "The Cubans want credits, and nobody wants to
give them any, because they don't pay. It's a small market where the
average citizen earns only 20 dollars a month. Cuba has a foreign debt
of 11 billion dollars, he said, and if it has money some day, it won't
pay".

          His intentions were quite obvious. He did not, on the other
hand, say a single word about the blockade, the economic war, the
hostility and aggression aimed at Cuba by the United States government
for 44 years.



October 3 and 4, 2002

          Cason and the head of the refugee program made a monitoring
trip to the province of Villa Clara, where they visited individuals who
had tried to emigrate illegally but were sent back to Cuba in compliance
with the Migratory Agreements.

          On October 3 they visited a home in Caibarién, where they met
with a group of these illegal emigrants, along with another ten people
invited by counterrevolutionary Margarito Broche, head of a grouplet
known as the "Independent Rafters Association, North Central Cuba,
Peace, Democracy and Freedom".

          This is a group of illegal emigrants sent back to Cuba that
has been transformed into a group of "dissidents", pampered and guided
by Mr. Cason.

          On October 4, a similar meeting was held in the city of Santa
Clara, with another group of illegal emigrants who had also been sent
back in keeping with the Migratory Agreements.

          As a result, a number of these people repeat their attempts to
illegally travel to the United States, knowing that as soon as they set
foot on U.S. soil, they will be welcomed with special privileges. In the
meantime, Mr. Cason recruits "dissidents" among them.

          Both the chief of the USIS and the government official
accompanying him used aggressive language during these meetings, with
frequent criticisms and a derogatory tone against the person of the
President of the Council of State of Cuba.

          This is how the chief of the Interests Section monitors and
indoctrinates individuals who cannot obtain visas to the United States
because of their criminal and social records, and therefore must attempt
to travel there illegally and are sent back to Cuba.



October 7, 2002

          The chief of the USIS hosted a breakfast at his residence,
attended by counterrevolutionary ringleaders Martha Beatriz Roque
Cabello, René Gómez Manzano and Félix Bonne Carcassés, as well as
officials from the diplomatic mission.

          Cason reported that he had traveled to Villa Clara and seen
"the poverty" that prevails in that province, in addition to making
other comments about his stay there.



October 10, 2002

          Cason hosted a breakfast at this residence, attended by
counterrevolutionary ringleaders Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Osvaldo Alfonso
and Vladimiro Roca Antúnez, along with, on the U.S. side, the political
and economic affairs secretaries at the USIS, Francisco Sainz and
Ricardo Zúñiga.

          The subjects of conversation were the "Varela Project", the
elections in Brazil, the situation in Venezuela, and
counterrevolutionary grouplets in general.



October 30, 2002

          In the afternoon, and with the participation of six officials
from the USIS, a working meeting was held at James Cason's residence in
connection with the "Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society in
Cuba" project, organized and promoted by ringleader Martha Beatriz Roque
Cabello. Twenty-four counterrevolutionaries attended.

          Mr. Cason observed that he knew about the difficulties
involved in meeting, which was why he was offering them his residence.
He ratified his material and moral support, demonstrating his
government's position on "democratizing" the island. He then asked to be
excused for not participating in the meeting, as he had other things to
do at the Interests Section offices.

          He left them in his residence, protected by diplomatic
immunity, and the corresponding food and beverage services.



November 5, 2002

          At 3:15 p.m., Cason and his second secretary, Zúñiga, arrived
at the home of a counterrevolutionary ex-convict who exchanges letters
with and receives prizes directly from President Bush, Oscar Elías
Biscet González. Sentenced for actions he had carried out following
instructions from the Cuban American terrorist foundation, he had been
released five days earlier.

          The two men asked him countless questions on areas of interest
to them for their counterrevolutionary political objectives. Mr. Cason
told the counterrevolutionary about his plans to urge representatives of
other diplomatic missions to make contact with them.



November 11, 2002

          A meeting was held in Cason's residence with ringleaders
Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, Osvaldo Alfonso Valdés, Vladimiro Roca Antúnez,
Oscar Elías Biscet González and a U.S. delegation visiting Cuba.

          This had become a customary demand made by Interests Section
chiefs from every U.S. delegation visiting Cuba. Their goal was to
boycott Cuba's political and economic relations with other nations,
through the use of any slander and lies that might occur to these
mercenaries on the payroll of a warmonger and aggressive government
threatening our heroic people.

          That same day, November 11, 2002, an AN-2 fumigation plane was
hijacked and taken to the United States. The Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, through Notes 1778 of 2002 and 180 of 2003, called on the U.S.
government to return the hijackers and the plane. The U.S. authorities
did not even press charges against the hijackers, who were released four
days later. The plane was seized, auctioned off, and in fact stolen, in
an open and obvious anti-Cuban maneuver.



November 21, 2002

          Cason attended a meeting at the home of counterrevolutionary
ringleader Martha Beatriz Roque, with 13 more of his hired agents. Cason
spoke to them about filmed material with personal attacks on the Cuban
head of state. He also inquired about the sale of short-wave and
medium-wave radios in hard currency stores in Cuba, and mentioned the
possibility of bringing them into the country through the Interests
Section's diplomatic mail pouches, etc., etc. He then supplied those
present with nothing less than four boxes full of copies of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

          This, as a gift from the government of a country that has
subjected ours to a blockade for more than 40 years and threatened to
destroy our country, as it has done in other parts of the world.

          He also announced his intention to arrange a meeting in
January of 2003 between a delegation of U.S. doctors and the
counterrevolutionaries present there.

          Those doctors could very well travel to Central America, or to
countries in Latin America or Africa where thousands of heroic Cuban
doctors provide care and save hundrreds of thousands of lives every year
in remote areas where Mr. Cason's American doctors are seldom seen.



November 22, 2002

          The counterrevolutionary ringleaders Orlando Fundora Álvarez,
Yolanda Triana Estupiñan and José Barrero Vargas met at Cason's
residence. The meeting was arranged by the first of these. Their main
objective: to gather information on people adversely affected by the
Revolution -meaning hustlers, or individuals involved with drugs or
other crimes and illegal activities- in order to claim compensation from
the Cuban government.

          This was the first time that the grouplets used USIS premises
for meetings not attended by U.S. diplomats.



November 27, 2002

          James Cason and a number of other officials visited the
province of Ciego de Ávila on a "fact-finding" mission.

          Upon their arrival in the capital, they headed for the home of
a counterrevolutionary, where they met with another four members of
grouplets.

          Cason inquired about the situation of the
counterrevolutionaries and the investigation carried out on them. In
response, they regaled him with lies, as was to be expected, about
purported beatings, physical abuse and harassment of their families.

          The "dissident" being visited, along with other individuals of
his kind, had staged a public disturbance at the Ciego de Avila
Provincial Hospital, interfering with the emergency room services for
approximately two hours. The provocation orchestrated by these
individuals adversely affected several patients.

What was Mr. Cason doing there?



December 19, 2002

          A "social function" was held in the evening headed by James
Cason with another 12 officials from the USIS, ten members of the
diplomatic corps, including representatives from the United Kingdom, the
Czech Republic, Poland, Greece and Chile, and 52 counterrevolutionaries
from different groups.

          Unlike other activities organized by the USIS with these
elements, this time there were no welcoming or farewell speeches. They
dispensed with formalities and the guests arriving at the mission simply
sat where they wished, ate and drank freely, and happily conversed about
their common interests. There was, however, a 30-minute meeting between
the 52 "dissidents" invited and some of the main ringleaders: Elizardo
Sánchez Santacruz Pacheco, Vladimiro Roca Antúnez, René Gómez Manzano
and Félix Bonne Carcassés. Photographs were taken to record the event
for history.

They all felt completely at home. It was such a pleasant experience to
be at the diplomatic mission of the superpower conspiring against the
Cuban people that are defending their small and blockaded island from
the monster!



December 21, 2002

          Cason granted an interview to Channel 51 in Miami.

          Here is an excerpt from that interview. Although it has
already been published, I think it would be worthwhile to include it
here.

          Journalist.- .as chief of the United States Interests Section
in Havana, you are now traveling around, you have met with average
Cubans, with dissidents in Cuba. Have you also met with leaders of
anti-Castro organizations in exile?

          James Cason.- Yes, two or three times. Whenever I go to Miami,
I want to meet and I do meet with all of the groups, the Cuban-American
National Foundation, the Cuban Freedom Council, independent groups, all
of the groups here, because I want to explain what I have seen in Cuba,
what is happening, and to hear their points of view on what we are
doing, to see if there is something that we want to do that we are not
doing now. Our conversations are very pleasant, and one of my messages
is that the important thing in Cuba is that there is in fact an
opposition. They are isolated, harassed, but they persist and have a lot
of courage, and the important thing is that they meet, unite and
concentrate on the essential things, on the rights they don't have and
the freedoms they should have.

          So they shouldn't be focusing on personal concerns, on
differences in ideology. The important thing is that the opposition has
to gain a space, because the day will come when there will be a
transition. There is a transition now, but there is going to be a new
Cuba some day, and they have to play their part in shaping and deciding
the future of Cuba. So they have to gain a space for themselves, and
begin to discuss what needs to be done differently to change Cuba. It is
important that they focus on what is important, not on what is
non-essential.

          Journalist.- In the meetings you have had with dissidents -I
don't know if you want to go into these kinds of details- but where do
you see that perhaps the dissidents are not on the right track? What
message do you have for the dissidents? Before I ask you, if you will
allow me, for a message to the anti-Castro groups in Miami. What message
do you have for the dissidents in Cuba? What would you like to say to
them, based on what you have seen?

          James Cason.- Well, first of all, that the future of Cuba. we
Americans are not going to determine the future of Cuba, it is going to
be the Cubans, outside Cuba and inside Cuba. They should, from my point
of view, my advice is to focus on the essential. What are the important
factors? To not be divided, to meet together and try to reach a
consensus or an agreement on 10 points, for example, where they all
agree, and not to talk about where they don't agree. Because in a
democracy, everyone has their differences, there are actions, but the
important thing is that they are in a military dictatorship, and if the
people don't meet together, they won't have much chance of prospering.
So they should concentrate on the essential and look for points of
agreement, not disagreement.

          Journalist.- One of your priorities is also to help dissidents
in Cuba. How do you intend to help the anti-Castro opposition?

          James Cason.- Well, as I said before, by offering information,
moral and spiritual support, letting them know that they are not alone,
that the world knows what is happening in Cuba. One demonstration of
this is the fact that many of the leaders have received human rights
awards from Europe and other parts of the world. So the world knows what
is happening in Cuba, and we are there to tell them about this fact and
to help them in any way possible.

          We do not give them, it isn't true that we are financing the
opposition, as Castro says. The opposition is insisting on the fact that
the system has failed, and we are there to offer them the support of the
American people and the rest of the democratic world in what they are
doing, which is demanding the basic human rights that Cuba signed in the
Declaration of Human Rights, in the universal declarations, and has not
fulfilled in all these years.



          After reading these public statements by Mr. Cason, how unfair
it would be to say that the government of the United States and the
chief of its Interests Section are interfering in any way whatsoever in
the internal affairs of Cuba, or that the "noble patriots" gathered
there were counterrevolutionaries on the payroll of the United States!



January 9, 2003

          James Cason had informed the Foreign Ministry that he would be
traveling to Pinar del Río with four other USIS officials. He was
informed in turn that this trip would not be authorized.

          It was known that Cason was planning to meet with several
individuals. That same day, a USIS employee transported nine boxes
containing radios and literature sent to counterrevolutionaries in that
very province.







January 16, 2003

          Cason participated in a function held in the home of
ringleader Héctor Palacios Ruiz for the launching of a markedly
counterrevolutionary book, associated to the so-called "independent
libraries" project. The book had been presented at book fairs in
Guadalajara and Miami.



January 19 to 25, 2003

          Over the course of six days, James Cason and Ricardo Zúñiga
went on a tour through the provinces of Las Tunas, Holguín, Granma,
Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo. They had filed their request to make
private visits, however, what they actually did was to take material
supplies to the counterrevolutionary grouplets, in order to strengthen
and unify the so-called "opposition" and establish contacts with the
religious sector.

          Particularly significant were Cason's statements about the
existence of something called the "6000 miles" plan, consisting of
systematic tours throughout all of the country's provinces, aimed at
encouraging and supporting the counterrevolutionary grouplets with
resources to ensure their development.

          As if we were back in the days of the U.S. intervention after
our last war of independence against Spain, there was the proconsul of
the empire organizing a political party.



January 29, 2003

          The Ferro cement boat Cabo Corrientes, from the Isle of Youth,
was hijacked and taken to the United States. The Cuban authorities
presented a diplomatic note requesting the return of the four hijackers.
The United States has still not responded to the Cuban note requesting
the return of the hijackers, who were immediately released.



February 6, 2003

          A Cuban border patrol boat was hijacked and taken to the
United States. At this time, it is still not known whether the U.S.
authorities have pressed charges against any of the four hijackers. The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented a note to the USIS demanding the
return of the hijackers and protesting over this new anti-Cuban action.
The State Department has yet to respond to that note.



February 7, 2003

          In the evening, there was a function at Cason's residence in
honor of a visiting U.S. cultural delegation. Among those in attendance
were 21 members of grouplets and five diplomats from the USIS. There,
Cason consolidated a practice he had begun in late 2002: including
counterrevolutionaries in official USIS social functions, to which he
also invited Cuban professionals.



February 22, 2003

          Cason gave a press conference to a group of foreign
journalists accredited in Cuba where he criticized our country and
claimed that the Cuban authorities were afraid of letting books and
other materials into the country. He noted that works by Martin Luther
King Jr., John Steinbeck and Groucho Marx were among a shipment of books
seized by Cuban authorities after being shipped in by the U.S.
government. Of course, he failed to mention the openly
counterrevolutionary and subversive works that came in the same
shipment.

          An AP wire story under the headline: "James Cason denounces
the seizure of books sent by the United States" reported in some
paragraphs, and I quote:

"American diplomats were told it was a 'firm decision by the government'
not to allow the books into the communist-run country for distribution
to dissident groups, including independent libraries, U.S. Interests
Section Chief James Cason said.

"'They said it wasn't the books, but who we were going to give them to,'
he told a small group of international reporters. He said the American
mission has imported similar books in the past.

"'It's fear of losing political control,' said Cason, who arrived in
Havana five months ago.'"



February 24, 2003

          James Cason and two other officials from the Interests Section
participated in a press conference held in the home of ringleader Martha
Beatriz Roque, organized to commemorate no less than the anniversaries
of the beginning of the war of independence and the shooting down of the
airplanes from the Miami terrorist mob organization known as Brothers to
the Rescue.

          Foreign press correspondents interviewed Cason. In addition to
answering questions, he read a document and made public declarations
that were openly interventionist, offensive and defiant towards the
Cuban authorities. He called on the other diplomatic missions based in
Havana to follow the example of the USIS.

          That same day, the above-mentioned terrorist organization,
Brothers to the Rescue, beamed an illegal television broadcast at our
country from international airspace. Despite the fact that the Cuban
authorities had warned the government of the United States before
February 24 of the plans for this broadcast, and had clearly established
that this would constitute a violation of the regulations of the
International Telecommunications Union, the U.S. authorities did nothing
whatsoever to prevent the broadcast.



February 28, 2003

          It was known that U.S. prison authorities, following
instructions from the United States Department of Justice, had imposed a
regime that violated the human rights of our five heroes, confining them
to what inmates call 'the hole'.

          They had gone too far.



March 6, 2003

          In my speech at the closing session of the National Assembly
of People's Power latest meeting, I made statements responding to the
offensive interview given by the Interests Section chief during his
get-together with counterrevolutionaries on February 24.

          I should note that I did not make these statements earlier,
because in the midst of the colossal effort we are carrying out to
overcome obstacles and advance our revolutionary programs, I did not
know in detail the extent of the insolence, temerity and audacity of
Otto Reich's envoy.

          I said, among other things:

"This past February 24, on none other than the day we commemorate the
beginning of the last war of independence called upon by Martí, a
gentleman named James Cason, head of the United States Interests Section
in Cuba, met in an apartment in Havana with a group of
counterrevolutionaries paid by the U.S. government. They were gathered,
no less than to commemorate the Cry of Baire, a date of patriotic
symbolism that is sacred to our people. Other diplomats received
invitations, but only this illustrious character attended the event.

"However, he would not limit himself to discreetly attending. Asked by a
journalist if his presence there did not in fact confirm accusations
made by the Cuban government, Cason replied, 'No, because I believe they
have invited the whole diplomatic corps, and we as a country always
support democracy and people who fight for a better life. I am here as a
guest.'

"'I am not afraid,' he answered simply in response to a question from
another reporter, as to whether his presence at the oppositionist
activity could not be taken as an unfriendly gesture towards the Cuban
government, which denounces dissidents as subversive groups.

"Then, rudely and offensively, he added in perfect Spanish, 'Sadly, the
Cuban government is afraid, afraid of freedom of conscience, afraid of
freedom of expression, afraid of human rights. This group is
demonstrating that there are Cubans who are not afraid. They know that
the transition to democracy is already underway. We want them to know
that they are not alone, that the whole world supports them. We as a
country support democracy, and people who fight for a better life and
for justice."

"The news story reporting his statements said, 'Although foreign
diplomats often meet with dissidents, it is not usual for them to appear
at public events or express opinions on the government to the press.'"

Mr. Cason concluded his statements by saying, "I am here as a guest, and
I am going to go around the whole country visiting all the people who do
want freedom and justice."

At that time, I added, "Anyone can see that this is a shameless and
defiant provocation. It would appear that both he and those who ordered
the offensive performance by this bully with diplomatic immunity were
revealing that they are in fact afraid. Otherwise, his behavior was so
odd that anyone could rightly be wondering how much alcohol was served
at that 'patriotic' event.

"Actually, Cuba is so much afraid that it will calmly take all the time
needed to decide on its course of action regarding this bizarre
official. Perhaps the numerous U.S. intelligence agents working at the
Interests Section could explain to him that Cuba can easily do without
this office, a breeding ground for counterrevolutionaries and a command
post for the most offensive subversive actions against our country.
(Applause) The Swiss officials who represented the US interests for many
years did an excellent job, and did not engage in espionage or organize
subversion. If this is really what they want to provoke with such
insolent declarations, they could show some honesty and courage and say
so. Someday, no matter when, the American people will send a true
ambassador of their country, 'fearless and untarnished,' as they used to
say about Spanish knights."



March 7, 2003

The State Department confirmed that our five heroes had been transferred
to Special Housing Units (also known as 'holes') and that as from that
moment; the Bureau of Prisons would implement new procedures for
consular visits.



March 10, 2003

          The Cuban Foreign Ministry delivered Diplomatic Note No. 365
to the chief of the USIS. The Note strongly responded his
interventionist actions and public statements of February 24. The USIS
was also informed that, in reciprocity with the measures adopted against
our officials in Washington, and taking into account the subversive and
illegal activity of the USIS, there would be changes in the regulations
for travel outside of the area of free movement of this diplomatic
mission, effective immediately, and the regime of notification of travel
would become a request for permission to travel. From this moment on, in
order to leave the City of Havana, USIS officials should request
permission and wait for a response from the Foreign Ministry.



March 11, 2003

The State Department confirmed to the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington (CISW) the implementation of new measures for consular visits
to our five heroes.



March 12, 2003

          A function was held at Cason's residence with a group of 18
counterrevolutionaries.

          The Foreign Ministry delivered Diplomatic Note No. 390 to the
USIS, protesting over the worsening of prison conditions for our five
heroes. The note demanded an end to the regime to which they had been
subjected, in violation of their rights; the restitution of all of their
rights; and the possibility of direct and unconditional contact with all
of their family members, lawyers and officials of the Cuban Interests
Section in Washington.



March 13, 2003

          The State Department delivered a Diplomatic Note to the Cuban
Interests Section in Washington in response to our note of March 10,
applying the regime of permission to travel to our officials in
Washington.

          Our Interests Section received through the State Department a
request for travel to our country by anti-Cuban Congressmen Christopher
Smith (Republican of New Jersey) and Frank Wolf (Republican of
Virginia), who intended to meet with "civil opposition" groups in our
country. This visit was openly provocative in nature and a part of the
Bush administration's escalation against our country. On March 18, the
State Department informed that this visit had been canceled.



March 14, 2003

          Once again, a meeting with counterrevolutionary ringleaders
was convened in the residence of the chief of the United States
Interests Section in Havana. By now, it was practically a meeting every
two days. The purpose was to hold a debate on ethics with alleged
journalists. It was really the worst place in the world to discuss
ethics. Numerous officials from the mission were present. Members of the
foreign press were also admitted to this counterrevolutionary activity.

          As I explained during my comments on the Special Program
broadcast on April 4, and will now repeat:

          "Nobody ignores the fact that Mr. Cason, the new chief of the
Interests Section, came with instructions to carry out all sorts of
provocations against Cuba, and that he has attempted to transform his
diplomatic headquarters and his own residence into a venue for
organizing, instructing and directing mercenaries who betray their
homeland in the service of a foreign power, or violate other laws
through acts that cause serious harm to the country, expecting total
impunity. Several dozen of them are now standing trial in the courts
that deal with crimes against national security.

          "How many things has the government of the United States done
in the name of its national security, including even a brutal war,
without the slightest consideration? But we have to allow the impunity
of those who betray the country, paid by them, causing considerable
damage in many areas. These are people who act against the interests of
our country, against the security of our country, and this in a new and
dangerous stage.

          "They are mistaken. They need to learn a little bit more about
what kind of people we have here, about their education, culture,
organization and preparation to fight on every front if this country is
invaded. A One-Hundred Years' War would begin in Cuba. We do not want
this but we find ourselves in the need to prepare for it or fight it if
it is imposed on us.

          "They are being tried in the courts that deal with crimes
against national security, and this infuriates their masters."



March 17, 2003

          The chief of the United States Interests Section in Havana was
summoned to the Foreign Ministry to receive two Notes of protest: 1)
over the interventionist and counterrevolutionary conduct of Mr. James
Cason, chief of the USIS, in violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on
Diplomatic Relations; and 2) over the illegal television broadcasts
carried out by the terrorists of Brothers to the Rescue on February 24
and the passive attitude of the U.S. authorities that did nothing to
prevent this act that violated the international standards ruling
television broadcasts, despite prior warning from Cuba.



March 17 and 18, 2003

          Round Table programs on Cuban television unmasked the
subversive and counterrevolutionary actions of the USIS and especially
Mr. Cason.



March 18, 2003

          An Official Note on the blatant and repeated provocations of
the chief of the USIS was produced  and published in Granma on March 19.


          Thirty-two counterrevolutionaries were arrested for their
mercenary activities in the service of a foreign power. The decision was
made on the evening of March 14, as soon as it was discovered that a
meeting of mercenaries had been organized in Cason's residence, despite
repeated warnings issued by Cuba, both publicly and through diplomatic
channels, demanding an end to this unacceptable interference. This was
three days before Mr. Bush decided to launch his ultimatum on Iraq on
March 17.



March 19, 2003

          The State Department informed of the prohibition of various
trips proposed by the Cuban Interests Sections Washington, including
consular visits to Gerardo Hernández and Fernando González.

          Another 33 counterrevolutionaries were arrested for their
mercenary activities in the service of the United States of America.

          7:24 p.m. A DC-3 aircraft of the National Air Services
Enterprise, covering the route from Nueva Gerona to Havana, was
hijacked. Ten miles south of the Boyeros, Havana airport, when
everything was ready for the plane to land, the pilot informed Boyeros
Air Traffic Control (ATC) that there were political problems on board
and that the plane would be heading north. He requested the coordinates
for the shortest route because he had very little fuel left. He was
guided to Key West.

          7:30 p.m. Boyeros ATC informed Miami ATC that a DC-3 was being
diverted from its course by armed individuals on board and was heading
for Miami. A really unexpected and very strange development: the
hijacking of a passengers plane in flight. Such an event had not
occurred for years, since the Migratory Agreements were signed; it may
have been induced by the Miami mob. There is no way to know. They have
the hijackers and their accessories, to whom they gave residence, but
they are not saying a word about it.

          9:35 p.m. The United States begins the bombing of Baghdad and
other cities in Iraq. This is really two hours and nine minutes after
the hijacking of the aircraft.



March 20, 2003

          The chief of the USIS was summoned to receive a Diplomatic
Note urging the return of all of the passengers and crew, the hijackers,
and the plane. A similar note was delivered to the State Department in
Washington.

          During March 20 and 21, the Cuban authorities maintained
contact with the State Department and the USIS to continue demanding the
immediate return of all of the passengers and crew from the hijacked
aircraft, the hijackers, and the plane.

          Another six counterrevolutionaries were arrested, including
four of the most active ringleaders, for their mercenary activities in
the service of a foreign power.

          Two Informative Notes on the hijacking of the DC-3 were issued
and published in Granma on March 21 to inform the public.



March 21, 2003

          The U.S. authorities informed the Cuban Foreign Ministry and
the Cuban Interests Section in Washington that they would not return the
six hijackers of the Cuban DC-3. They said that the six individuals had
been formally charged with air piracy, and that the plane had been
seized following the decision of a U.S. court, in response to a suit
filed by a counterrevolutionary in Miami.

          During this time, anti-Cuban Congressman Lincoln Díaz-Balart
circulated in the House of Representatives a report drafted by the USIS
and leaked to the press by the State Department, recounting the supposed
harassment to which officials at this mission are subjected by the Cuban
authorities.

          Another counterrevolutionary was arrested for mercenary
activities.

          An Informative Note was issued and published in Granma on
March 22, under the headline "New Information on the Hijacked DC-3".



March 22, 2003

          I appeared on a special television program addressing the
March 19 hijacking of the DC-3, where among other things I said:

          "So now they do not want to talk about terrorism in connection
with the hijacked DC-3? Of course, they do not want to use the word
terrorism. They would rather say piracy, although it is a very offensive
word as well, because if they said terrorism they would be admitting
that terrorism is being practiced from the United States against Cuba,
right now, at this very moment when a terrible war is underway against
an Arab nation, in the volatile region of the Middle East, a war that
has shaken the world.

          "They cannot say that they will try the hijackers for
terrorism, because that would be acknowledging the truth. Why do these
people leave? Because they are absolutely certain of their impunity. Why
do these people leave, aside from the certainty of impunity? Because
they are welcomed there as heroes, and used as raw material for
anti-Cuban propaganda.

          "They leave because there is a law, in effect for 37 years
now, called the Cuban Adjustment Act, a murderous law -as we define it-
that has cost thousands of lives and created countless problems.

          "Very recently, individuals have arrived there on boats taken
by force, on airplanes taken by force, and yet these people are freely
walking the streets of Miami. The total certainty of the impunity and
privileges and advantages offered by this law are a powerful incentive
for terrorism.

          "Who is to blame for this? The government of the United States
is the main culprit, even more so than the terrorists themselves,
because of this law that is applied exclusively to Cubans.

          "Some people came to Cuba all the way from India and Pakistan,
because they had heard of this Adjustment Act and they thought that they
could benefit from it. They hijacked a recreational boat, almost fatally
beating the tourism industry workers operating it, and willing to murder
these people in order to get to the United States. As of now we have
still heard nothing about what was done with them, if any of them has
been sentenced, if they have been sent elsewhere. These are people who
brutally battered the workers, leaving some of them unconscious, and the
only reason they did not throw them all overboard was because they
needed some to steer the boat to get them to Florida. The U.S.
authorities are fully aware of this.

          "They are also aware of the threats, of the attempts to
intimidate, the warlike theories against Cuba of the current U.S.
administration, and these hijackers believe, just as some mercenaries
do, that this can intimidate our people. They think that they are doing
a favor for those who develop and implement such theories, like that of
a pre-emptive attack. I will not discuss this subject in this special
broadcast, because there would be many things to say, and I do not want
to stray too far from the main subject that brought us here tonight.

"But it should be made very clear that our country cannot be intimidated
by anything or anyone, because this is a country that -while not
renouncing the possibility of combat in any field- has learned to fight
and is fighting, above all, with ideas, with a very high morale, far
above the deluge of lies and slander used in an attempt to bury its
exemplary revolutionary work.

"This is a country that knows what it is doing, a country with a clean
record, not only clean, but impeccable, exemplary. And it has succeeded
in standing its ground and showing the world its political capacity, its
conscience, its culture. This is no warning but no one should believe
that this is a country of fools and idiots.

"Getting back to the subject of the hijacked DC-3, where are the guilty
parties? This question bears repeating. And why on earth have they not
at least had the courtesy to send back the plane? In the official note I
referred to, which I qualified as constructive, we expressed our wishes
for the return of the plane, and seemingly it would be so, yet we have
seen that that country is powerless to prevent that some people keep the
plane there.

"Dozens and dozens of American planes were hijacked and brought to Cuba,
and not a single one was ever kept here. They stayed here just long
enough for refueling and were sent back immediately. The hijacked
passengers were treated with kindness and courtesy; they were not
offered some junk food to eat at 1:00 in the morning. They were taken
care of in every way, aside from the fact that everything possible was
done -as in the case of that plane I mentioned- to prevent an accident.
Nevertheless, it has now become customary for any airplane hijacked from
Cuba to be seized: an incentive for potential hijackers and deranged
people.

          "There is more. How can a government say that it cannot send
back part of the crew of the hijacked plane, and refuse to accept any
solution other than the humiliating and unjust solution of holding them
there by force? In fact, they have been kidnapped; terrorist bandits,
who risked the lives of women, children and other passengers, took them
there. Oh, but they must stay there, because that was the decision of a
judge, a judge in Florida no less.

          "How can they ignore the seriousness of a kidnapping
perpetrated by holding large knives to the pilots' throats?

          "How can they ignore that this was the way in which passenger
planes were hijacked to be crashed into the Twin Towers in New York and
the Pentagon, and that there was even an attempt to crash a plane into
the White House? Could such a thing possibly be seen as a joke or as
something insignificant in a country that saw thousands of US people die
that day? And the methods used were identical: hijacking planes by
holding knives to the pilots' throats and then crashing them into a
target.

          "If there is any country in the world where hijacking a plane
by holding a knife to the pilot's throat should cause indignation and
horror, that country is the United States. And now, when an act like
this is perpetrated in Cuba, against children, women, people of a
certain age, retirees, honest people like these who have spoken here,
these people were mistreated, locked up, and subjected to all of the
things described here.

          "How can they possibly explain that while over 500 people die
every year on the U.S.-Mexico border as a result of the attempts to stop
these poor and desperate people from crossing into the United States,
where their salaries will be 10 or 15 times higher, or some who have
been living there illegally for years have to cross back and forth to
see their families and die by the hundreds, even before the events of
September 11.

"They are announcing that there are now who knows how many new devices
and who knows what kind of extraordinary equipment, the most
sophisticated in the world, to prevent Mexican immigrants from crossing
the border and to discourage all attempts to enter the United States
there, where so many lives are lost; how is it possible then that they
are now going to keep the airplane that was hijacked and use this as a
pretext to grant privileges to a number of adults -at least, seven- who
acted like accessories in this hijacking and not  even investigate them?

          "They could send them back and we would give all guarantees.
And we do something like that because we know how to honor our
commitments. They could at least send these people back instead of
setting a precedent that airplanes can be hijacked and the accessories
can stay there, and everyone traveling on the plane, without exception,
has been offered the possibility of staying in the United States. Where
is their honor? Where is their integrity? Where is the morality of those
who enforce such a policy? This is what we call an incentive for
hijacking airplanes.

          "We know only too well the tricks and traps they have used
before. And now the terrorist mob is stirring up a big scandal in
support of the hijackers.



March 24, 2003

          The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S.
Treasury Department issued new regulations reinforcing the U.S. blockade
against Cuba and adapting it to the subversive goals of the anti-Cuban
policy developed by the Bush administration.

Another counterrevolutionary was arrested for mercenary activities in
the service of a foreign power.



March 25, 2003

          One more counterrevolutionary was arrested for the same
reason.



March 26, 2003

          USAID announced that it would grant one million dollars to the
University of Miami's Cuba Transition Project.



March 31, 2003

          The State Department published a report on human rights in the
world. The report contains a section devoted to Cuba, which emphasizes
the false accusations against our country and expresses clear support
for internal counterrevolution. The State Department's anti-Cuban
diatribe is similar to that of previous years.

          That same day marked the beginning of the foreseeable
consequences that I had denounced in the special television program of
March 22, the result of the way the hijackers of the DC-3 were treated
and the privileges granted to the crime accessories, who were granted
residence in the United States.

          "10:10 p.m. The President of the Civil Aviation informs that
the Captain of an AN-24 aircraft, flying from the Isle of Youth to
Havana with 46 passengers, has reported problems on board. He said that
he did not have enough fuel to continue the flight and had thus landed
in "Jose Marti" airport. He was in the midst of the runway. The
hijacker, holding a grenade in his hand, threatened  to blow up the
plane if he was not supplied fuel to fly to the United States.

"10:45 p.m. I give instructions to senior officers in the Ministry of
the Interior and the Civil Aviation Institute:

          "Be very patient. Take no decisions without analyzing
carefully or consulting directly with us. This is a responsibility that
lies with the government. So, as soon as possible we will contact you,
because we also have some steps to take through diplomatic channels and
we have to see how we can do it, since it is late at night.

          "A man with a grenade is a problem that demands serious
thought. We must talk with him, if that's possible.

          "Try to communicate with him to get more information: if
there's one person, if there are several. We must have that information,
because we have been told there are six children on the plane.

"We are thinking of ways to solve the problem that do not involve using
force."

I spoke with them extensively and in detail about what should be done.

"11:14 p.m. On my instructions, Carlos Valenciaga phones the Head of the
Cuban Interests Section in Washington and passes this message on to him:

"Dagoberto, you must try to call Whitaker, the head of the Cuba Desk,
immediately, and give him the following information: that a AN-24 plane
with 46 people on board, including six children, was hijacked when it
was on its way from the Isle of Youth to the Rancho Boyeros airport, by
an individual who, according to the pilot, was carrying a hand grenade
and demanding that he be taken to the United States.

"That the pilot, since he didn't have enough fuel, had no alternative
but to land on the runway at Rancho Boyeros, where the hijacker is
demanding fuel to be on his way.

"That the hijacker is currently at the back of the plane holding what
appear to be two hand grenades.

"That there is no doubt that this is a consequence of the way the U.S.
authorities behaved towards the plane hijacked on the 19th and also of
the announcement extensively reported in the press that the hijackers
would be released on bail.

"The orders given to the Cuban authorities at the airport are, in the
first place, to not use force, to talk to him and try to persuade him to
give up. They will use the argument that the news about the previous
hijackers being released on bail is not true. Tell him that they are in
jail and charged with piracy, which is a serious crime.

"That we first of all wanted to let him know what was happening, the
line we will pursue, and we suggest that they think about whether there
is any possible way of letting him know -that is, the hijacker- what the
United States' position is on this kind of action and what penalties
they carry. In short: some kind of cooperation to solve this problem,
and not only because of the danger involved in making the flight under
these conditions, with one or two grenades in his hands, and we don't
even know if the safety catch is on.

"Secondly, because we think that it would be harmful for the U.S.
government if this second plane lands there 12 days after the first
hijacking.

"And thirdly, that there is no doubt that these precedents could trigger
a wave of this kind of things, and it is in the interests of both the
United States and Cuba that this not happen, because they jeopardize the
safety of air passenger transport. Such actions tend to be imitated by
irresponsible or deranged people. We beg them to also give careful
thought to the possibility that an official from the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana communicate directly with the hijacker. That would be
something really constructive and useful.

"11:57 p.m. (Cuban time) Dagoberto speaks to Whitaker and passes on the
entire message. Whitaker asks for some details. He says that he will
start to make phone calls and that he will call him back in a few
minutes.



April 1, 2003

"12:55 (Cuban time) [11:55 Washington time]. Whitaker, head of the Cuba
Desk at the State Department, calls Dagoberto, head of the Cuban
Interests Section in Washington, to tell him that he had spoken with his
boss and with Cason in Havana, who were willing to cooperate and to pass
on messages through the appropriate channels, adding that this is a very
serious crime and if they reach the United States, they will be arrested
and prosecuted with the full force of the law."

We agreed to deal with the case jointly and by coordinating our efforts.


Cason went to the airport. For the first time, he and Dausá, director of
the Foreign Ministry's North America Division, were allies for two hours
in the futile attempt to talk the hijacker out of this situation.

After 4:00 in the morning, everything was left up to the Cuban
authorities, which kept the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba continuously
informed of the way things were developing. We managed to have 22
hostages freed in exchange for loading enough fuel onto the plane for it
to land in Alabama, and not in the extremist fiefdom of Florida.

At first it seemed impossible because of the amount of fuel that a plane
full of passengers could carry. Then it could be done when 22 of the
hostages were allowed to get off. This was informed to the U.S.
Interests Section. Supplying the AN-24 with fuel was not a problem if
the U.S. authorities acted with the seriousness they promised and
allowed the plane, the crew and the rest of the passengers to return to
Cuba.

Seemingly, the issue was discussed at very high levels.

On Monday morning, we waited five hours for Cason's reply, and he in
turn was waiting for the government's decision. The deal we had made
with the man carrying the grenade after the 22 people got off was that
the plane would be refueled and would take off at 11:00 a.m. The Head of
the USIS asked for 40 more minutes. He was waiting for a response. Of
course, it was already known there that the plane had enough fuel to
land in another State. We managed to postpone take-off for 55 minutes,
until almost noon. There was still no reply. When the reply came, the
plane was already in the air. The absurd, stupid decision made was that
the AN-24 should land in Key West. There, it was the same old story:
brutal mistreatment and humiliation of the passengers, privileges for
the hijacker's accomplices, the kid glove treatment for the hijacker,
the plane seized, the crew detained. It was disgusting!

Otto Reich and the Florida mob got their way. I do not blame either
Whittaker or Otto Reich's subordinate for that. Cason behaved properly
and sensibly, for 24 hours at least.

The news that the hijacked plane had been refueled so it could continue
its journey had the disastrous effect we had wanted to avoid: a wave of
violent hijackings of passenger boats and planes.



April 2, 2003

Hardly 24 hours had passed since the preceding incident when, at 1:40 in
the morning, the Ministry of the Interior reported that its Command
Center had just learned that the ferry Baraguá was leaving the harbor,
that it had passengers aboard, no details on how many, and that all
indications were that it had been hijacked.

The Ministry of the Interior said that it was tracking the ferry with
the Border Patrol boat 040 and that a speedboat was also joining in.

The hijacked craft was sailing north at six knots per hour.

At 3:00 a.m. the hijackers made radio contact and said that they had 50
people on board, including six or eight children and five or six
foreigners, and demanded that they be given a boat so they could
continue their journey to the United States, otherwise they would begin
to toss hostages overboard.

It was the first time that such a demand was made. After that it could
have been a hijacked bus, that they put a knife on somebody's throat and
asked a bus driver to take them to Boyeros airport and demand a plane to
go to the United States. It is perfectly clear that that is simply
unthinkable.

At 11:45 a.m., the ferry Baraguá, designed to sail in inside waters, ran
out of fuel and was adrift 30 miles from the coast in a force 4 gale and
in serious danger of capsizing and causing the death of the 40 people
there actually were on board, 29 of them hostages, including women and
children.

At 2:32 p.m., the Border Patrol managed to attach a rope to the ferry's
bow, thus saving it from the danger of sinking, and towed it towards the
port of Mariel. The hijackers, who did not oppose the rescue operation,
continued to show a highly aggressive attitude, threatening to kill the
hostages if they were not given fuel when they reached port. They held
their knives to the throats of several women every time they demanded
something. Only 40 hours into the hijacking, with the cooperation of the
hostages themselves who jumped overboard, all were rescued unharmed. It
was not necessary to board the vessel, which would have been done as a
last resort.

A few days later, on April 10, it was learned through the MININT Command
Center in the Isle of Youth that between 5:30 and 6:00 in the evening,
five individuals had unexpectedly and violently wrested an AK-M rifle
from a draftee soldier who was on guard duty at a Revolutionary Armed
Forces (FAR) reserve arms deposit. They had fled in a car.

Eight people were involved in the plan. Their intention was to gather in
the waiting room a few moments before the plane arrived, wait until six
or 10 people had disembarked, --obviously, because they were eight, so
they had to wait for a number of people to get off the plane, otherwise
they wouldn't have space-- then break the glass wall facing the runway
using weights, force their way on to the plane and take the rest of the
passengers hostage. They were estimated to be around 30.

That same day NOTIMEX reported that a U.S. federal judge had upheld the
decision of a Florida judge to grant bail to the six Cubans charged with
hijacking and diverting a Cuban DC-3 with 31 people on board in March.

In a period of barely two weeks, two planes full of passengers had been
hijacked in midair, as had a vessel with capacity for 100 passengers,
that was luckily carrying only 40 although they had said 50. Also, a
soldier had been attacked and his automatic rifle wrestled from him so
as to use the rifle and three knives to forcibly seize another plane
that was about to land at an airport.

The news reported by the press that a Florida judge had granted bail to
the six DC-3 hijackers led to an immediate upsurge in the activities of
potential emigrants who, because of their criminal record and antisocial
behavior are prone to try to leave the country illegally, using these
methods.

>From March 19 on, when the first DC-3 was hijacked, we have had proof of
29 plans and ideas to forcibly hijack aircrafts and vessels, something
that had not happened in many years.

Forty-eight hours after the AN-24 was hijacked and given fuel to
continue its journey, two new plans were investigated on the same day.
On April 3, two were investigated; on April 5, four; three on April 7;
three more on April 9; and two on April 10. We had to radically cut off
this wave of hijackings, which was shown to be in full development by
the events that took place after the hijacking of the DC-3 on March 19,
and the information offered about the first days of April. We could
definitely not hesitate in applying the sentences handed down by the
courts and upheld by the Council of State in the case of the hijackers
of the Baraguá ferry.

The measure would not be complete, though, if I do not clearly state
here that no hijacked Cuban plane or boat will ever again be given fuel
to continue on its journey to the United States or any other country,
and the hijackers should know that they will be submitted to summary
proceedings in the appropriate courts and that they should not expect
clemency from the Council of State. Now they know what they should know.
This is also a very hard measure, but it is unavoidable, as we need to
definitely put and end to these actions.

Experience shows that when the perpetrators know that they have no
alternative, they abstain from committing such crimes. This was shown
irrefutably in September of 1980, when two individuals, in this case
unfortunately of Cuban origin, hijacked a U.S. passenger plane and
commandeered it to Cuba in spite of the timely warnings issued in that
respect. They were immediately sent back to the United States. No U.S.
plane has ever again been hijacked to Cuba in 22 years because even
those who are unbalanced or deranged know that they would be returned.
That is how the government of that country should behave, and not
continue to offer support and impunity in their country to the
perpetrators of such actions, which are so dangerous and which are
bedfellows of the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act that has cost our
people so many lives.

We know that those who try to go to the United States illegally are not
the people who apply for and receive visas through the Migratory
Agreement quota, who on the whole are peaceful people, who have no
criminal record, and at least a ninth-grade education. Many are
graduates of technical schools and there are also many teachers,
professors, doctors and professionals that the USIS wants to recruit
with or without the lottery. Those who travel illegally are people who
would never get a visa because of their low-level of education or skills
and their criminal record or bad social behavior. They give most careful
consideration to the people they give visas to, based on a long list
they once worked out, and which they wanted to update every year but we
refused. They wanted to have more people from where to chose their
recruits. They wanted to rob the country of the most talented, to
deprive it of technicians that the economy needs. Then those who leave
illegally are the ones who do not receive a visa and these are the most
violent and dangerous. They have the potential to unleash a wave of
attacks with knives or firearms, of taking hostages and threatening our
people's peace and safety.

The worst part of the anti-Cuban conspiracy of the Miami mob group and
the people they have positioned in Bush's inner circles, the sworn
enemies of the Migratory Agreements and the half-hearted opening of food
sales to our country after four decades of a cruel blockade, the worst
of it is the aim of breaking the Migratory Agreements and provoking a
massive migration. Their main instrument is the absurd and murderous
Cuban Adjustment Act, and the potential immigrants are former common
criminals and the worst antisocial elements who still exist in our
society and who will only disappear with the social and educational
programs, unprecedented in the world, that are underway in Cuba today.

Their evil idea is to bring about an armed conflict between Cuba and the
United States. They place their hopes of destroying the Revolution in
that, forgetting Maceo's warning, which is more relevant today than
ever: "Whosoever tries to take over Cuba will gather up the dust of its
blood-soaked soil, if they don't perish in the struggle."

More than 40 years of repeated failure should persuade any U.S.
administration that the most sophisticated weapons cannot crush our
people's steadfast resistance as they know beforehand what tactics to
use and what forms of struggles to employ to reduce to zero the
attacker's technological superiority.

A country cannot be conquered with armored divisions, thousands of
tanks, helicopters, fighter planes and bombers, dozens of aircraft
carriers and cruise missiles, tens of thousands of missiles. Once the
cities and the whole country are occupied, --and this must be considered
a basic principle-- millions of people in the cities and countryside
have to be governed. If they think that the Miami mercenary groups will
be of any use in Cuba, they will last about as long as a snowball in
hell. Once our top leaders are dead, none of who would ever wave the
white flag, tens of thousands of fighters will take the place of the
leaders who die, and the people of Cuba will fight on, generation after
generation, against the forces of occupation. That is, the war would not
end with the occupation of the country, it would rather begin then.

Never in any era, no army anywhere in the world has fought against the
men and women of a people made up of hundreds of thousands of
revolutionary professionals and millions of people with a high and
thorough education, culture and consciousness, who know that there is no
parallel in history for their work of justice and humanity created in
decades of struggle under blockade, hostility and aggression by the most
powerful country that could possibly exist.

The U.S. government, for example, has embarked on an adventure in the
Middle East to conquer a country of 24 million people, surrounded by
hundreds of millions of people who share the same race, the same
religious beliefs and the same culture, one of whose distinguishing
characteristics is indifference to physical death, all of which makes
them an awesome community whose potential for resistance and struggle
should be enough to keep the superpower's current political strategists
awake, since they stand at the threshold of what could be for them a
tragedy many times worse than that of Vietnam.

The Shiites in Iraq are already demanding that the invaders pull out,
that their oil is returned to them and an Islamic state be proclaimed.

We must not forget that a movement of the Iranian Shiite Muslims, wave
after wave of unarmed masses, who didn't care how many lives were lost,
got rid of the Shah of Iran, who was the United States' most powerful
and most heavily armed gendarme in that part of the world. The Sunni
Muslims will not remain far behind. They have never had more reasons to
unite.

Continuing with the report on what has been happening in our country, I
should note that there were 11 people in the group that attacked the
Baraguá passenger ferry. They took 29 passengers hostage, including four
young female tourists, two French and two Scandinavians whom they
threatened to kill first, aware of how much harm such an action would
bring on the country's economy. Actually, their actions were not
politically motivated but they did know where they could cause the most
damage, therefore, they threatened to kill the tourists first in order
to achieve their goal. They had a handgun, with the safe removed,
pressed on the head of one of them.

The vile propaganda of imperialism and its allies has insisted that
those who were executed were so-called "dissidents", that is, those who
were arrested, tried and sentenced for treason to their country, for
acting as mercenaries in the service of a foreign power which for more
than 40 years has blockaded their country and threatened to destroy the
Revolution, to do to Cuba what they have just done to Iraq. Not one of
them was even sentenced to life imprisonment, which is what the Miami
courts did to the five Cuban heroes imprisoned by the empire for
fighting against the terrorist acts with which the United States has
inundated our country.

All of those who took part in the three hijackings I have described and
in the attempt to hijack a third passenger plane, almost without
exception, have a record of common crimes.

Of the three sentenced to death, --and I will avoid mentioning their
names out of respect  for their families-- the main leader of those who
hijacked the passenger ferry had been involved in 15 criminal
proceedings for or investigations into common crimes; he was sent to
prison several times; he was given an official warning about harassing
tourists 28 times and on 119 occasions he was taken to the police
station for a variety of reasons.

The second one stood trial five times for common crimes and was found
guilty and sentenced on four of those occasions.

The third one was involved in seven criminal proceedings, including one
for an attack with a sharp instrument on a construction worker -a
foreman in a construction brigade-- who died from the wounds.

Only one of the other five, who were given long sentences, did not have
a criminal record.

Spokespersons for the U.S. government express their concern about a
massive exodus of illegal emigrants. Such concern could not be more
hypocritical when, deliberately and coldly and for vile purposes, the
Miami terrorist mob and its most important allies in high power circles,
such as Otto Reich and Roger Noriega, encourage large-scale hijacking of
Cuban planes and boats by ex-convicts and common criminals, who take
passengers and other innocent people hostage in order to go to the
United States. What they are really after is an inevitable massive
exodus -as it happened on August 4, 1994- which will serve as a pretext
for a military aggression against Cuba.

The Revolutionary leaders in Cuba are fully aware of the political cost
of the measures they felt obliged to take. Nobody should think that this
was not thoroughly analyzed, from every angle. We suffered beforehand as
we realized that many of our friends would hurt as well as a large
number of people in the world whose religious, humanist or philosophical
sensitivity over the death penalty we are very familiar with and in many
ways we ourselves share.

A few weeks ago a famous writer wanted to interview me and one of the
many subjects he brought up was that of the death penalty. I will take
the liberty of using some excerpts from that interview, although I will
not reveal the name.

The Writer.- Comandante, in many countries in the world the death
penalty is being abolished. All the countries in the European Union have
abolished it and many people wonder why in Cuba, where so much progress
has been made in the social field, the death penalty has not yet been
abolished.

Fidel Castro.- I think that is an interesting question. Did we have
doubts about the death penalty when we became revolutionaries, when we
were fighting or when the Revolution triumphed? Did we have doubts about
it in all those years of invasions, dirty war, assassination attempts
and all the rest of it? No, we certainly did not question de death
penalty then. What we thought a lot about was the different ways, the
procedures and the legal aspects of the subject. What has happened?

Political movements have had to defend themselves, both revolutions and
counterrevolutions have defended themselves through procedures of one
sort or another. For us the most important thing was to defend ourselves
with rules, legal procedures, to avoid injustices and above all to avoid
anything that was not legal and that was not judicial which we avoid and
have avoided at all costs.

Not that we were happy to apply the death penalty. We looked at it as a
matter of life or death. On the whole, those who are involved in these
struggles start out from the principle that it is a life or death
struggle. If revolutionaries do not defend themselves, their cause is
defeated, and they pay with their lives. In this case we could say the
lives of millions of people in this country would die, either fighting
or murdered later on. For us that was very clear. And in the process of
our Revolution we saw that and we learned that. Many of those who are
involved in terrorist activities don't think they will defeat the
Revolution. All of them live with the conviction that the United States
and its military might will defeat the Revolution.
Counterrevolutionaries are convinced that their cause will triumph for
one reason or another, and in this very special case because our
struggle was against the United States. For them it was a matter of
gaining a few Brownie points; being in jail did not worry them much nor
did it dishearten them.

They were waiting for a U.S. intervention to overthrow the Revolution.
How can we stop them? There is a lot of mercenary behavior among
counterrevolutionaries; they defend interests, not ideas. Fortunately,
we did not have to fight against fanatics of ideas or causes. We had the
privilege of fighting against people who were mostly motivated by
material, economic and social ambitions. Remember that gentleman who
sworn as President of Venezuela after the coup d'etat on April 11, and
he was almost captured by Chavez's own bodyguards who were still there,
in their barracks, but these people thought they were toy soldiers, not
human beings.  We would not have been able to free ourselves from
fanatics; I would not have escaped with my life from the hundreds of
assassination plots that were hatched against me. Once, when I visited
Chile in 1971, they had me in front of a camera like that one, which was
filming us, closer than that, and it had a machine gun inside, during a
press conference. They were definitely going to die if they fired that
gun. But when their lives are in danger they don't shoot.

Those who thought that by committing terrorist acts and killing people,
murdering teachers, sacrificing the lives of peasants and the lives of
soldiers who are our strength, they had the hope of gaining some reward
afterwards, those people feared death. This is why the most serious
crimes were punished by the death penalty. That was the prevailing way
of thinking. That battle was waged and won, and in fact, the death
penalty has not been used for counterrevolutionary crimes for many years
now. The last assassination plot was to be executed  at that meeting in
Panama; it was organized and directed by Posada Carriles, the man behind
the blasting of the Cuban plane off the coast of Barbados.

The Writer.- At the Ibero-American Summit meeting?

Fidel Castro.- Yes, and he was caught. We uncovered him by infiltration
methods, seeking out information and even by technological methods. We
also have the ability to know where a person is when speaking on a cell
phone, for example. Now there is a struggle because they want to release
him. All of that was financed from the United States.

Another kind of crime came into being: they sent young people from
Central America and paid them five thousand dollars to plant bombs:
Guatemalans, Salvadorans and others. They didn't come themselves, I
mean, the big shots, the main ringleaders, they used mercenaries for
that. None of those who were given the death penalty has been executed.

The Writer. - They were given the death penalty?

Fidel Castro. - They were sentenced to death but they have not been
executed.

This does not imply that we have relinquished the use of this penalty, I
mean, the use of that law. The law still exists, the law that
established it. For you never know what barbarous thing they might use
against Cuba. If they blow up a plane full of passengers, our people
would not accept either a reprieve or a pardon for those responsible.

On the whole the people's position on this matter tends to be hard line,
although a government does not always have to do what the people ask. De
facto, the death penalty has not been used in the last few years, but we
have not relinquished it, that is, the death penalty for crimes of one
type or the other. I don't think the world we live in allows for that.

If terrorism is used against a country, if they commit crimes and kill
children in a school, I can guarantee that it would be very difficult in
those circumstances not to use the strictest laws, because I don't know
what it is, if not terrorism, and what one could call putting bombs in a
school in the interests of a foreign power or government.

The Europeans are not under a blockade, nor are bombs being set off
every day. I don't know what they did when they had those groups like
the Red Brigades. I have also heard of people being executed abroad,
such as the Basques for example.

The Writer.- Are you referring to the GAL, for example? Because there is
no death penalty in Spain.

Fidel Castro. - There is no death penalty, but now something has
happened that we have never done, in Europe dozens of people have been
executed without trials.

The Writer.-  Without legal proceedings.

Fidel Castro.- Let them write the history of the members of the Red
Brigade executed without trials or let them write the real history of
the ETA members executed without trials when there is no death penalty.
We have the death penalty here, but there are no executions without
adequate legal proceedings, there is not a single case.

So you can see the truth about appearances and the real differences,
where the truth might lie and where there might be some demagogic and
hypocritical theories. There is some of everything.

We guarantee that there will never be an execution here that is preceded
by the corresponding legal proceedings and that there will never be
torture. You can ask those who planted the bombs if they said anything
because they were tortured or if they were beaten. Of course, they are
not fanatics, they are mercenaries, they talk straightaway, and all you
have to do is show irrefutable proof. They explained how they brought in
the explosive in a small television set, the plastic explosive of such
and such a color and manufactured so the dogs would not be able to
detect it, a special type of explosive; where the fuses were hidden in
some cables; the digital watch that they brought with them to add to the
device and make it explode five minutes later, if they wanted, or after
99 hours. Very sophisticated.

That mercenary wanted to set an Olympic record with five bombs exploding
almost simultaneously. In Miami, meanwhile, the Foundation said that it
was people from Military intelligence and State Security who were
discontent, a slander that for them was proper and legitimate. There are
a pile of publications about this.

The Salvadoran cooperated a lot, quite calmly, in helping to discover
the methods and techniques that Posada Carriles used to carry out
terrorist acts against the hotels, which caused the distressing death of
a young man, that helped us to unmask the people really behind them and
to put an end to such act until now.

I should say that thee was really an extraordinary cooperation. There
are comrades here who could better explain how cooperative he was from
the very beginning. He even received phone calls, he placed calls
himself, and he did everything he was asked to do, and he did so without
pressure. His family came for the trial, they visited him in jail. A
number of circumstances concurred so that even those who worked with
that young man in the investigations for many months, deeply disliked
the idea of applying the death penalty for the crime committed. This is
the whole truth, and I think they are right. There are still some who
ask, but Why? But I tell you that that man paid an important service and
helped to seize others because he had lots of information , which he
gave us. Yes, I should explain here what happened with that case.
Practically everybody who learned of his cooperation reacted in the same
way.

There are potentially thousands of young men like him in Central America
who could be used in the same way. There are some people, from the Miami
terrorist mob, who offer up to two thousand dollars per bomb, plus
airfare and living expenses. They take advantage of how easy it is for
tourists to come here.

The death penalty was in use for common crimes up to May of 2000.

The Writer.- And it has not been used since then?

Fidel Castro.- It was not used once. (This conversation took place a few
weeks before these events with he hijackers.)

The writer.- For three years?

Fidel Castro.- Yes. It is a sort of moratorium. But I do want to clarify
that it has not been abolished. There are two very serious cases of
murder awaiting trial. One of them is a case where a group of four
family members were murdered (two grandparents resident in Miami, a
grandchild, the daughter of the former, and the driver of the car,
residents of Villa Clara, who had gone to meet the grandparents at the
airport and were on their way home along the highway). There are two
very serious cases like that which create a very serious public opinion
problem and are awaiting a solution. There is no commitment to a
definitive moratorium. I think this is clear enough.

In fact, the death penalty was not applied, but we have not relinquished
it. I am explaining this because I don't want to mislead anyone.

We are now studying crime and the things that cause it. We are carrying
out all kinds of studies. There are cases of such horrible crimes that
they seem to be the work of mentally disturbed people. Anyone who has
studied law knows that there is a principle in law that says that a
mentally disturbed person is unfit to plead.

 Much research has been done in the world on the psychological reasons,
which could well have a genetic or accidental origin, that cause people
problems and make them violent. What are the genetic or accidental
agents that affect the way the human mind works, which more or less
turns these people into monsters? We are studying those factors.

I think that we are moving towards a future in our country when we might
be able to abolish the death penalty, not simply on philosophical
grounds, but out of profound feelings of justice and humanism."

In fact, nowhere have really deep studies been conducted of the human
mind and the factors leading to crime. I believe that Cuba is the first
country to conduct such a research, and we are working very quietly. By
the 30 of this month, every handicapped person, particularly those
suffering from any degree of mental retardation, will have been visited
by graduates in Genetics. We are discovering many things, because until
now nobody has made such studies, or cared to have them made. But we,
the human rights violators, are doing it, because we have our people,
and the human capital, and all the doctors we need, and the resources
and the will to struggle to improve people's health --and that from day
one of the Revolution--, and the will to struggle for every human being.

I have already mentioned the number of lives saved in this country just
by reducing infant mortality, which is the lowest in this hemisphere and
one of the lowest in the world, even lower than that of the United
States of America, despite its enormous resources. And we are also
saving many more lives every day with the 3-thousand doctors who are
working for free in comprehensive healthcare programs in a number of
other countries.

An there is more: no program can be implemented today in Africa, no
serious program to fight AIDS, without the participation of this country
"that violates human rights".

As you can see there is much hypocrisy in all that, that is why we
should continue debating and arguing to once and for all do away with so
much slander.

I feel that when you think carefully about all that I have said, you
will reach the conclusion that there will always be people who have to
be isolated strictly because it is necessary, and not as punishment.

Felipe González, who has attacked us so much recently, was the head of
the Spanish government when dozens of ETA members were executed without
trials.

It was Aznar, the current head of the Spanish government and an ally of
the superpower in the massacre of the Iraqi people, who in a meeting
with the President of the United States on April 13, 1999, at a time
when the war against Yugoslavia was getting bogged down, gave him this
advice, and I quote: "If we are involved in a war, let's be totally
involved, to win, and not just a little bit involved. If we need to go
on for a month, three months, let's do it. I don't understand why we
still haven't bombed Serbian radio and television stations." Hours later
NATO ordered the beginning of Phase 2, and the bombings were stepped up,
as were the number and diversity of the targets to be destroyed.

On April 14 a convoy of Albanian refugees in Kosovo was the target of an
air attack in which 85 people died, and that's not counting those who
were wounded. Two refineries and a residential neighborhood in Belgrade
were destroyed in Serbia; 300 more planes were added to NATO's forces.

On April 16, the bomb attacks on television transmitters and bridges
were increased. That same day, the most intense general attack in two
weeks took place.

Between the afternoon of Saturday, April 17 and the morning of Sunday,
April 18, NATO planes carried out 500 sorties, bombing refineries,
bridges, factories and dozens of other civilian targets, in what NATO
itself called the most active 24 hours of the war.

On April 18, oil refineries and chemical plants were attacked and
destroyed in Belgrade and Novi Sad and the highway linking Belgrade with
Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, was rendered impassable.

It is known that two days earlier the attackers had begun to use GBU-27
bombs, known as "seismic", which penetrate reinforced concrete and cause
an intense tremor which makes the building crumble and affects many
other nearby buildings.

On April 19, civilian buildings in Belgrade and Novi Sad and the
villages of Paracin, Kraligevo, and Sremska Mitrovica were attacked.
NATO admits that this could have been mistakes.

On April 21, NATO attacked the Yugoslavian president's private
residence, the Socialist Party building, three television stations and
20 shops in the Usche shopping center.

On April 22, two NATO missiles destroyed the last bridge over the Danube
in Novi Sad, cutting off highway and train traffic, and eight
broadcasting stations.

It was learned at the time that hospitals were only receiving emergency
cases and dozens of children and young people aged between 2 and 19 in
Belgrade were at death's door because of a lack of the resources needed
for dialysis.

At 2:30 in the morning on April 23, Serbian television headquarters in
the center of Belgrade was totally destroyed; 16 people died in the
attack, another 19 were wounded, including many journalists, and another
20 were trapped in the rubble.

NATO announced that it was focusing its attacks on communications, radio
and television.

In a 53-page report, Amnesty International, --and you know what this
organization is about-- considered this attack on Serbian radio and
television as a war crime since it was a direct bomb attack on a
civilian target.

Only ten days had passed since Mr. Aznar had given his advice in his
meeting with the U.S. president.

I ask Mr. Aznar to say if this is true or not. I have an important
document here. It is rather long, with more than 15 pages.

Applying the death penalty to the hijackers in Cuba was met with a far
greater lack of understanding internationally than the arrest of the
mercenaries on the U.S. government payroll, for obvious reasons I have
already explained, plus the deluge of lies and disinformation unleashed
by the media of the empire and its allies. Unfortunately, personalities
whom our people hold in high esteem jumped in and gave their opinions
and judgments without full knowledge of the facts and realities that
should have been taken into account. We had also calculated and foreseen
these risks. We do not expect them to share our points of view.

There are also many honest revolutionaries in our country who are
opposed to the death penalty, but who nevertheless understand the sacred
duty to struggle to prevent millions of Cubans being executed by those
who are trying to impose a global Nazi-fascist tyranny on all the
nations in the world. When I speak of fascism, I am not referring to the
internal political system of the United States. They can take away or
limit many of the rights of the American people but nobody could install
a fascist regime there. I am talking about a fascist world order imposed
by the government of the United States, through its immense military
power. I would not even use this word to describe the U.S. armed forces,
which are educated in the tradition of strictly fulfilling the orders
they are given, like the ancient Roman legions.

If there was a holocaust of the Jewish people scarcely 60 years ago,
today it is necessary to prevent a holocaust of dozens of peoples who
are threatened with aggression and even extermination since, according
to what is being announced, all weapons can be used to launch a
pre-emptive attack on any dark corner of the planet.

What is known as the Christian Western world should become aware of this
fact before it is too late, as they appear to be doing with regard to
the gigantic holocaust caused by poverty, hunger, underdevelopment, a
lack of education and healthcare, neoliberal globalization and the
current economic and social order imposed on humanity, which kills tens
of millions of people every year in Third World countries.

The Cuban nation is proud of its intellectuals, artists, scientists and
all of its university educated professionals who have almost unanimously
supported the declaration of the National Council of the Cuban Artists
and Writers Union calling for the creation of a worldwide anti-fascist
front.

Our people are also especially proud of the outstanding group of
internationally famous intellectuals and artists who issued the "Message
from Havana to Faraway Friends."

Countless intellectuals, artists, scientists and university-educated
professionals have expressed their earnest desire to sign this now
historic and exemplary Message. They want to place their commitment on
record for present and future generations. Hundreds of thousands will
put their signature to these words denouncing the fact that our small
country is today under more threats than ever before from the superpower
that is seeking to impose a fascist tyranny worldwide.

Our supportive and deeply revolutionary people are equally proud of the
five Heroes Imprisoned by the Empire who show the courage of a fighting
and heroic nation which the masters of the world should not ignore, nor
Hans Hertell, the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, nor the
honorable brother of the President of the United States from Florida,
who send us warnings that the barbarous war against Iraq carries a
message for Cuba. It is, as a matter of fact, a message not only for
Cuba but also a fascist message for the world.

Neither should it be ignored by the so-called "dissidents", who today
make their living from cooperating with the plans of the government of
the superpower that wants to destroy Cuba, and wishes to impose a
fascist tyranny on her as the "Message to Faraway Friends" reads.

Cuba is fighting today the Giant with the Seven League Boots, whom Martí
was the first to discover and whose footsteps not only extend over the
lands of our America but over all regions of the world.

Thanks to all those friends of Cuba who have defended her in this
glorious moment! We shall continue to be upright and consistent, as we
have been since 1959 until today. They will never have a reason to be
ashamed of their noble support!

          Ever onward to victory!

          Victory shall be with the peoples!

          (Ovation)

-------------------------------------------
Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
--
In the contradiction lies the hope.
                                     --Bertholt Brecht