FIDEL: "Days That Cannot be Forgotten"

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Days that Cannot be Forgotten

Reflections by Comrade Fidel

Forty eight years ago mercenary troops in the service of a foreign power
invaded their own homeland, escorted by a United States squadron,
including an aircraft carrier and dozens of fighter planes. That date
cannot be forgotten. The great power to the North can apply the same
recipe to any Latin American country. It has already happened many
times throughout our hemisphere´s history. Is there any declaration
guaranteeing that such an action will never repeat again, either
directly or through the very armies of other countries, as it occurred
in the Dominican Republic, Panama, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina,
Venezuela and others?

The wily surprise attack on the Bay of Pigs cost us more than 150 lives
and hundreds of seriously wounded. We would like to hear some self-
criticism from the powerful country and a guarantee that this shall
never happen again in our hemisphere.

Yesterday, April 13th, commemorated the seventh anniversary of the
failed coup against the Revolution in Venezuela.

For the sake of democracy and human rights, we need to be hearing a
voice from Washington telling us that the School of the Americas,
specializing in coups d'état and torture, will be shut down forever.

We cannot forget that, in April, El Salvador will still be governed by
the ARENA leader, who was an oligarchic ally of Bush in the Iraqi
genocide. In a million human lives sacrificed there is enough blood to
drown all the accomplices.

Am I being offensive by remembering this? Or, is it also prohibited, in
the name of decency, naiveté and complicity, to refer to the subject?

The decision to relax travel restrictions is indeed positive in itself,
although minimal. Many others are required, including the abolition of
the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act which is exclusively applied to our
country alone in the whole world. We should like to hear an answer to
the question about whether the migratory privileges being used to combat
the Cuban Revolution and to strip it of human resources would also be
granted to all other Latin American and Caribbean nations. But
everything in Port of Spain will be secret. Listening to the debates
and the statements to be made by the heads of state and government will
be forbidden. Whatever is said by each of them there will anyway be
known.

We have no wish to offend Obama in the least, but he shall be president
for one or two terms. He is not responsible for what has happened and
I am sure that he wouldn´t commit Bush's atrocities. In his wake,
however, someone equal or worse than his predecessor might come.
Men come and go; peoples live on.

There are other extremely serious problems such as the climate change,
and the current president of the United States has decided to cooperate
in that problem so vital for humankind. We have to acknowledge that.

Enough for today. I do not wish to add one single word.

Fidel Castro Ruz

April 14, 2009

11:15 a.m.

either to extend the same opportunities to other groups from more dire circumstances, or to retire it completely.