On June 5, 1958, upon seeing the fragments of the U.S. Air Force rockets that the tyranny's air force had launched over the house of peasant Mario Sariol in the heart of the Sierra Maestra, the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz had no doubt that the road of the Revolution would be much harder than expected and that the struggle would not end with the end of the war.
In March, the U.S. government had announced the suspension of all arms shipments to the dictatorship, however, those pieces of scorched metal with the inscription USAF (United States Air Force), were the confirmation that behind the scenes, the White House was determined to prevent once again the revolutionary triumph.
That same day, in a letter to Celia Sanchez, Fidel foresaw that at the end of that war would begin another one, "much longer and bigger," against the neighbor to the North.
In his book Por todos los caminos de la Sierra: La victoria estratégica, he would explain years later that "the use of American rockets in the attack on Minas de Frio only confirmed my opinion, based, in short, on Cuba's own history (...) that a true revolution (...) was incompatible with American interests".
Therefore, on January 1, 1959, when the country woke up to the news of the tyrant's escape, the rebel leader warned from Santiago de Cuba that "the Revolution begins now" and that "it will be a hard undertaking full of dangers."
Thus, the man who was able to travel to the future, return and explain it, always spoke to the people with the transparency of a close friend, without ever raising false expectations.
Not even on the day that the Caravan of Freedom finally arrived in Havana, after two years under arms, did he allow his joy to cloud his reason. And before the crowd celebrating the triumph of the Rebels, he said that from now on many obstacles would have to be overcome.
"We do not deceive ourselves believing that in the future everything will be easy; perhaps in the future everything will be more difficult," he said and he also expressed that "deceiving the people, awakening deceitful illusions, would always bring the worst consequences."
The leader of the movement that had achieved the impossible, proved it again and again in the convulsive years he spent figting in the Sierra Maestra mountain chain.
"How did the Rebel Army win the war? By telling the truth. How did the tyranny lose the war? By deceiving the soldiers (...).
And that is why I want to start - or, rather, continue - with the same system: that of always telling the people the truth".
In the most tense moments that would follow, the image of Fidel analyzing with the Cubans the most diverse events and defining the way to face them would be recurrent.
In the face of the economic war that the White House would unleash since 1959, the sabotage, the provocations, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the October Crisis, the banditry, the attempts to isolate the country in international organizations, the Commander's genius and his unequaled guidance would become a symbol of confidence and triumph.
"If Fidel says it, it is because it is so," would become a common phrase throughout the island in the most complex circumstances.
When the return of the Five seemed impossible, after the unconscionable condemnations of a biased and hostile judicial system, his affirmation that they would return would sustain the hope that millions of people around the world would keep fighting until they were released.
"One thing is known for sure: wherever he is, however he is and with whomever he is with, Fidel Castro is there to win," wrote Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.
It had been the case since his beginnings as a revolutionary. Many years ago, after the landing of the Granma yacht and the debacle that meant the first encounter with the forces of tyranny in Alegría de Pío, the Commander of the Revolution Guillermo García Frías would find him in the company of only two combatants, with two rifles, one of which had no bullets. But the leader of the generation that had sworn in 1956 they would be free or martyrs, did not look like a defeated man.
"In the midst of that situation in which his life was at stake, Fidel had an attitude of triumph (...) And at the end of that conversation he told me: "You know that if we do things right we will win the war." I looked at him and thought: "This guy is crazy as hell. We are not going to win anything with those shotguns, " the veteran guerrilla fighter would confess to journalist Wilmer Rodriguez Fernandez in an interview in the book Yo conocí a Fidel.
His speeches tell us today of how he would face the crudest difficulties at the head of the Revolution. On July 26, 1989, after exposing the complex situation in the socialist camp and that it might no longer be possible to count on the supplies that had been arriving in the country with the punctuality of a clock for almost 30 years, he assured that, even so, Cuba would not surrender.
"... if tomorrow or any day we were to wake up with the news that a great civil strife had been created in the USSR, or, even, that we were to wake up with the news that the USSR disintegrated, (...) even under those circumstances Cuba and the Cuban Revolution would continue to fight and would continue to resist!"
It was the prelude to one of the most difficult stages for this courageous Caribbean nation.
A year and a half later, amidst what was already known as the "special period," the head of the Revolution detailed the strategy to move forward: "The food program continues with all its strength, it has priority number one. Not a dam, a canal, where a hydraulic system for irrigation is being built, has been stopped".
In a context of limitations of all kinds, with this impressive vision of the future, he also bet on other areas that would be fundamental for our development. "Programs related to biotechnology and the medical industry, (...), which can become a source of great income for the country, those are prioritized and will continue to be prioritized," Fidel pointed out.
He also spoke of the need to promote areas of self-sufficiency, to stimulate savings, to rescue the use of animal traction, and clarified that under no circumstances would the main achievements of the Revolution, such as education and health, be renounced.
A few days ago, the president of the Union of Journalists of Cuba Ricardo Ronquillo Bello recalled in a text that for Fidel, "the people were never to blame for the problems, but the solution".
He had supported the defense of the Homeland when in 1959 he decided to create the National Revolutionary Militias and also great programs such as the literacy campaign.
In September 1960, in the face of the increase in sabotage promoted from the United States, his response had been the creation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR in Spanish). "We are going to implement, in the face of the campaigns of aggressions of imperialism, a system of revolutionary collective vigilance [...]. Because if they think that they are going to be able to confront the people, they are in for a big disappointment!
There are hundreds of anecdotes about the magnetism of his figure, from the white dove that landed on his shoulder during a speech in 1959 and that many interpreted as a divine blessing, to the man who had a shot at him, with a gun hidden in a television camera, but lacked the courage to shoot.
Perhaps the most impressive of all was his reckless exit, with his unarmed escorts, during the events of August 5, 1994.
It is said that even those who were throwing stones against the shop windows began to applaud him when they saw him arrive and what his enemies pretended to be a gigantic riot with unpredictable consequences, ended up as an act of revolutionary reaffirmation.
However, shunning any personal merit, from his dimension of giant, Fidel would say that it was another victory of all.
"Years ago we said that this Revolution does not collapse (...) and it is maintained on the basis of the support of the people, of the people's consensus, of the people's awareness of what this country was and what it can never be again".
Caption: Fidel informs the people of Cuba, through national television, about the October crisis.
Photo: During the worst moments for his people, such as when a hurricane was passing through, the Commander in Chief was closer to his people.
Translated by ESTI
