A true leader protects his country with the same love and interest as one who protects a child. His attitude is shown in the immense passion that binds him to his homeland and in the responsibility he has -and feels in all its depth- to preserve its integrity, to define a path for it, to ensure its survival.
Fidel, whose umbilical cord was cut from two wombs -that of Lina, his biological mother, and that of Cuba-, wove with his nation an alliance founded on love. He loved her as a father loves his children, which is done in all circumstances, and is redoubled when they go through difficult times.
Those complicated moments have always been experienced by her country, because it has been under constant harassment, with the permanent desire to suffocate it, by the most powerful government -economically, mediatically and militarily- on the planet. And also the most morally abject.
That is why Cuba, the creature loved by him and by so many millions of Cubans and people from other latitudes of the world, suffers tribulations, shortages and hardships that no people deserves. Especially if it is as beautiful, generous and noble as ours.
The unstoppable hostility of the enemy increased the zeal of the Commander-Father, and the intensity and effectiveness of his safeguarding odyssey, whose success can only be understood from the power of affection.
No work in which its leaders and people do not conceive that unity with their Homeland, sustained in the very essence of tenderness, could survive such obstacles.
Just as one does with one's children, Fidel educated, instructed and illuminated the path of his own. In his case, by showing, from the irrefutable position of example, to be present in every battle to be fought, in every blow of the enemy or of nature.
Proverbial are his actions during meteorological phenomena and the methodology he bequeathed for dealing with hurricanes, articulated in a structure similar to the Civil Defense, which set the standard worldwide in the protection of life and material resources.
Fidel, literally, opened his chest to danger and, in the midst of rain, mud and roads destroyed by the combined power of wind and water, he stood by his people in those anguishing moments.
Under the leadership of the Party in the Defense Councils, the Government, the Civil Defense, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior and all the State agencies -in union with the people- faced the fury of the cyclones.
Neither the preaching nor the actions of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution ceased to be observed after his physical disappearance. They are alive, and are expressed in the tireless work of the current leadership of the country.
The Comandante's love for his people is reissued in our President Díaz-Canel, a human being with an extraordinary capacity to stand up in the face of difficulties in order to take into account, every second, the problems of his people.
His work is incessant in all fronts of the country's development, and it increases in times of crisis such as those resulting from hurricanes, earthquakes or other contingencies.
With the affection of a father who feels responsible for everything that happens to his people, he talks to the people who have had the misfortune of seeing their homes, their belongings, the school where their children studied, the bridge that leads to their town destroyed.
He asks them questions, understands their situation and encourages them. Encouragement forged in the historical certainty that the Revolution never left nor will leave anyone helpless.
He travels through the affected territories, time and again, and in each place he visits there are touching images, born of human and close contact with the people, which only germinate from the love, respect and trust of the Cubans.
We are one in the inescapable struggle to live. That is why we take care of ourselves, we protect ourselves and we save ourselves. That is Cuba, that is Cubans. That was and still is Fidel. That is, now, the Party, the Revolution and the people, who are the same, because they are interconnected by the eternal affection that forever unites fathers and sons.
PASSAGES BETWEEN HURRICANES
The legend of Fidel defying cyclones is epic. It is still remembered when the powerful hurricane Flora hit the eastern part of Cuba in October 1963, leaving almost 2,000 victims, how the Commander-in-Chief, guided by his boundless courage, moved towards the area in the midst of the dangers caused by the great floods.
On two occasions the amphibious vehicles in which the retinue was traveling sank, which did not prevent him from continuing the rescue operations of the people isolated on the roofs of huts and trees, to bring them food and drinking water.
Then, when some bodyguards wanted him not to go in the amphibians, Fidel said: "I thank the comrades for taking care of me. Don't you think -he asked Commander William Gálvez- that if we are not capable of sacrificing ourselves for this people in difficult moments, what sacrifice can we ask from the people afterwards?
The anecdote narrates very well the characteristics of a leader who never separated himself from the people, no matter how complex the circumstances were. It is also told that in those days he took off his boots to give them to a peasant who had lost his family and property, while he also ordered two of his bodyguards to give his shoes to the peasants.
That virtue of growing in the face of adversity was what made the people feel accompanied in those days when they were facing the most fearsome hurricane that crossed the country after the revolutionary triumph. "Now, in the midst of the devastating and fresh blow of the hurricanes, is when we must show what we are capable of doing," he said.
From what he experienced in the Cauto plain, the idea of the Commander-in-Chief emerged to have a Civil Defense system that would make it possible to foresee and make decisions in time, so that the lives of people and the preservation of material resources would not be at the mercy of improvisation.
Soon life proved Fidel right. Only three years after Cyclone Flora, Hurricane Inés crossed Cuban territory. Reflecting on that event, he would say: "Today, advancing along almost exactly the same route as Flora, a powerful hurricane is also advancing directly towards the eastern region of the country. If on that occasion an immense effort was made, thanks to which numerous lives were saved, this time from many hours before, there will be absolutely no one left in any of the places where the height of the rain of the waters can reach. However, we also have to face these blows of nature."
Later, before the onslaught of other hurricanes such as Cleo, Alma, Inés, Kate, the Lily of 1996, Georges, Michelle, Charley and Iván, Fidel was also seen giving instructions to protect people and preserve the resources of the economy, touring each affected area, even under the onslaught of severe inclement weather, encouraging the victims, and assuring them that the Revolution would never abandon them.
With the passing of these phenomena, Cubans almost got used to seeing Fidel occupy the front line of combat to face the dangers that threatened the homeland. At that time it was very common to see the Commander-in-Chief directing the whole process from the Forecast Center of the Institute of Meteorology in Havana, at the National General Staff of the Civil Defense or at the scene of the events.
At that time it was very common to hear a phrase that became popular among the population of the affected places: "Fidel is coming now", which translated into faith and hope that no one would be left helpless.
Today, when our country is going through difficult times, as a result of the effects of two hurricanes and an earthquake of great intensity, in addition to the major hurricane represented by the U.S. blockade against Cuba, thanks to the vision of the future and the greatness of Fidel's Revolution, the story is quite different, because, as the Commander-in-Chief said: "No hurricane can defeat the united Cubans.".
