Shorthand Versions – Office of the President of the Republic
Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution;
Dear comrades of the Historic Generation who are with us;
New members of the Council of State;
Members of the Council of Ministers;
Dear guests;
Deputies:
Our first words are to convey congratulations to the comrades elected or designated today, respectively, to hold the leadership of the National Assembly, the Council of State and the Council of Ministers.
Congratulations to all on the Victory Day! On April 19, 1961, on the sands of Playa Giron, Cuba earned the right to celebrate this day, by inflicting to imperialism its first great defeat in America (Applause and exclamation: “Long Live Fidel!”).
It is all about the triumph of the just over the unjust, of small David over giant Goliath, of a socialist Revolution right under an empire’s nose, as defined by Fidel on the corner of 23rd and 12th streets, at the farewell to the victims of the bombing on the airports of Ciudad Libertad, Santiago de Cuba and San Antonio de los Baños, in the prelude to the invasion.
It is such an epic victory that 62 years later the defeated have not been able to forgive us. It is thanks to that victory that today we install, for the tenth time, the People’s Assembly (Applause).
The 470 people that have just been sworn in as deputies did not win because we have more money or the support of election parties, whose sole goal is to put a defender of specific power groups’ interests in the place where the country’s laws are decided.
Every one of us is sitting here today to defend the majority’s interests and we will not be paid more or receive any perks for serving as a deputy, as it happens in so many countries bragging about democratic multi-partisan models.
Cuba defends the single Party, a guarantee of unity since José Martí founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party, as it is in our historical roots and because they do not disperse or confront the forces of a small country which was officially declared an appendix to be annexed to the mighty neighbor, when already a voracious empire was on the making.
In some days, April 28, we will turn two centuries since the then Union’s Secretary of State and later President, John Quincy Adams, left defined for Cuba his “ripe fruit” theory … “there are laws of political as well as physical gravitation; and if an apple severed by its native tree cannot choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its own unnatural connection with Spain, and incapable of self-support, can gravitate only towards the North American Union which by the same law of nature, cannot cast her off its bosom.”
From that April’s announcement until the Monroe Doctrine promulgation, in December 1823, months went by. But from then until today, for 200 years, the policy of the powerful neighbor has been one, even if two parties alternate in power. For Cuba, at least, is very difficult to differentiate them, while, for instance, almost all the measures applied by the Republican Donald Trump to reinforce the blockade have been kept in place by his political rival the Democrat Joe Biden.
“Remember Girón” our parents warned at every new threat of invasion that came after 1961. The slogan remains alive in the popular imagination because the mercenary attitude also is. Without Nicaragua and without Somoza, now the invaders are training in the Everglades and they threaten from their caves in social media.
The mighty neighbor continues to be generous with those “ready” to destroy the Revolution and every year allot dozens of millions of dollars who give themselves to subvert the internal order in Cuba, either in person or via internet.
Not a single day in these years have we stopped feeling the blows of this undeclared war on the economy and the society; on daily life and the dreams and progress of an entire nation.
Just as we remember Girón, we will always remember the cruelty of the blockade reinforced in pandemic conditions; the infamous inclusion of Cuba in a list of alleged sponsors of terrorism to besiege all financial channels; the oxygen they refused to give us, while stimulating street rebellions, was somehow already denied to us by closing every possibility of trade or financing.
From all these battles, the people are emerging victorious and I do not doubt that, as in Girón, we will continue to win! Cuba keeps its line of principles intact and it is open for dialogue, but without pressure or conditions.
However, the pitcher goes so often to the well that it is broken at last. One day sooner than later the hegemonic policy will have to stop; multilateralism will take its space and Cuba will be able to prove how far a nation of noble, creative and talented people can go united around clear objectives, if it is rid of pressure and blockades.
Now let us focus on what is to us and we can do, even bound hand and foot. To think and work together, skipping those conditions we cannot change, this 10th legislature is founded.
All of us will have now less time for our families and professions, less hours to rest. Only higher responsibilities are awaiting and an elevated duty: serve the people of Cuba, always connected with their demands and needs.
I pause here to point out what I believe should distinguish the new legislature: permanent contact with the neighborhoods, with the communities, with those who elected us, aware that we cannot perform miracles, but we can change the challenging reality of Cuba today if we manage to create the indispensable synergy between individual and collective efforts; between the neighborhoods and the municipalities; between the municipalities and the province, between the provinces and the nation.
Compatriots:
From the early days of People Power, the watchword was to elect the best ones. But electing the good among the good will always be a difficult and incomplete exercise.
That is why we have invited a representation of people of extraordinary values, like yourselves, but who were not in the nominations for an obvious reason: there are many more good Cubans than seats in Parliament (Applause).
Invited here are rescuers from the Saratoga Hotel and the Supertanker Base (Applause); creators of vaccines and medicines that saved us from COVID-19 (Applause); innovators and researchers who have taken part in the creation of lung ventilators, in the creation of hip prostheses, parts for electric plants (Applause); students and teachers who spent their vacations working in the Red Zone and in the reconstruction of schools and houses devastated by Hurricane Ian (Applause). Here is Alexis Leiva Machado, Kcho, with his mythical Martha Machado Brigade, who built a new school and several houses in the most devastated place, in the trail of the hurricane and who continues working in that community in several projects (Applause); jurists who brought us closer to the understanding of the Family Code (Applause); leaders of community projects, grassroots delegates who play a good role, such as "Paquito de Cuba" (Applause), among many others who could be here and who cannot fit in this room (Applause). That is why the people of Cuba are in this Assembly! (Prolonged applause).
We will hardly forget those uncertain days when we hardly slept and when we woke up the first glance went straight to the COVID-19 figures.
I am pretty sure that no artificial intelligence would able to summarize the Cuban people’s feat in the last few years. The creative resistance of the people from this country, their resilience surpasses the limits of any simulation or prediction. There is no algorithm able to reflect all that we have lived. That can only be felt (Applauses).
Cuba is a feeling, and a strength able to fight and subdue the strongest winds.
The global economy, uncertain and unstable in every latitude, presents the first and biggest challenge for the new Council of Ministers, which should count on the company of all to face obstacles and resolve inefficiency.
In the short term, the top management must focus on food production, the use of idle productive capacities, the increase of foreign currency income, the changes required by the socialist state company, the efficiency of the investment process, the complementarity of the economic actors and the participation of foreign investment. All this is in order to increase the supply of goods and services and control inflation, which is the main priority in the economic battle. We must take on this gigantic challenge without discouragement.
With the tightening of the blockade, the world crisis and our inabilities the economic and social situation of the country has become much more complex and the dreams, plans and projects that we will never give up are slowing down. Sometimes it seems that they will never be possible. But if we review the dynamics of the last five years, we will see that, under the worst circumstances and the most criminal pressures, we became one the few countries which saved itself from the pandemic with our own effort and challenges.
When I am asked where I get the optimism to face so many problems, I think of these feats. In that and in hundreds of solutions and proposed solutions that I find every time I see people who invest intelligence and energy in the drive to find solutions to the problems around them, instead of filling themselves with complaining and blaming.
I deeply respect everybody’s right to voice complaints, but cannot help contrasting attitudes: that of those who judge most effectively, fighting and doing, showing and creating solutions, and that of those who only see the mistakes and faults of others.
Deputies:
In the last six months, three referendums have been held in the country, all in a context of acute crisis and under the attack of a media campaign aimed at imposing the matrices of a failed State due to an incompetent government and at spreading hatred.
The real enemy of the Cuban nation is betting on an outbreak to take over the country and return it to the neo-colonial era we have already suffered and known, this enemy has seen in each of the recent votes: The referendum on the family code, the elections for delegates and then for deputies, a key moment to attack the government’s legitimacy hoping for the possibility of high abstention.
The most irrefutable proof of this was the headlines of the following day. Almost without exception, everyone spoke of historic abstentionism, even though, the turnout the valid vote and the united vote were above the average of other democratic models in the world.
Those who predicted a high abstention, knowing that Lester Mallory's old design of employing the economic war to the fullest to generate difficulties that induce political apathy, were once again left in the lurch.
This 75.8% turnout would have not been possible without the people’s faith in the Revolution. And this faith is expressed through participation. It was a demonstration of civism, but also of patriotism and, above all, of political conscience. Now we cannot abandon this confidence. It must commit us all even more. It obliges us to work for the whole country, in the name of all Cuba.
If we work systematically in each of the municipalities or districts, if we accompany the local authorities without taking over their functions, if we continue to listen to the people and bring the problems that exceed the possibilities of the territories to the attention of the higher authorities, I am sure that we will make daily progress in solving these problems.
They have tried to deny the transparency of our electoral process, but they have not a single proof which puts in question its integrity.
Transparency begins with the nomination of the pre-candidates in the plenary sessions of the social and student organizations and continues with the analysis and approval of the candidacies in the municipal assemblies.
It has been proven that by constantly interacting with the grassroots, of which we are all a part and to which we are all indebted, we can help solve problems before they become more serious and irritating.
How many accumulated difficulties and deficiencies have not been resolved in the days of exchange with the constituents? That is why I insist that we must maintain and perfect this system of work and that it should be a priority of the new legislature.
All the issues raised by the people in the meetings of the weeks leading up to March 26 and those arising later should be addressed.
The country's progress in the midst of the profound difficulties caused by external obstacles to our economy, but also by bureaucracy, indifference or corruption - unacceptable on principle - depends to a great extent on each and every deputy assuming with dedication and commitment the historic challenge we have set ourselves: to overcome the blockade without waiting for it to be lifted! (Applause).
Compatriots:
I am very pleased to see how much our Parliament has been rejuvenated, when one of the major concerns of recent months and years is the aging population and the high emigration involving the younger segments of our society.
I would like to thank the young Cubans for their inspiration and encouragement, but also for their consecration and their example, which have been decisive in making possible all that we have achieved, all that we have advanced in the midst of the storm of many crises: those that they cause when they block us, those that come to us simply because we live in a world in crisis, and those that we create ourselves with our inadequacies.
The Cuban youth are among those building up this country, holding up this Revolution and the dreams of those who are shaping and will be shaping the future. Like the entire Cuban people, they are suffering the economic necessities and their terrible effects. But they are the ones who leap over the blockade, the scarcity, those who build their every day, with ideas of the future, willing to make Cuba a better country from within or from outside.
The idea that it will always be possible to build a better country must never be abandoned, especially in difficult times or under the influence of discouraging messages. We Cubans have learned not to give up, because we see difficulties not as obstacles, but as challenges. And we face them. This courage is a characteristic of our peculiarity.
As I said a year ago when I spoke to young people, in my years as leader of the Young Communist League, Fidel once warned us that in a revolution under siege and blocked like ours, some comrades get tired, become bureaucratized, lose the enthusiasm of the early days, and that we had to play the role of a spring, of stimulators, of revolutionizing the revolution.
It was the nineties, very hard years, with prices skyrocketing for the little that could be bought, with blackouts that lasted much longer than the current ones, although there were few lines at the gas stations because there was almost no fuel.
We then prepared for the zero option, but we never gave up on building a better country. Like the heroic Vietnamese people who, in the midst of a terrible war, planned to build a Vietnam ten times more beautiful.
"It is still the dreams that bring people together, /like a magnet that unites them every day", sang Gerardo Alfonso in those years, in a verse that beautifully defines the collective desire to build a better country. Therefore, I can affirm that today we can do better and that tomorrow the young people will do even better, because those who were born from those dreams will not allow it to be otherwise! (Applause)
Young people are the best revolutionaries because they recognize the daily difficulties, they face them and try to change them, and they often succeed. Because in spite of adversity, they continue to smile, to love and to believe in the possibility of a better country, even though some people invite them not to participate, to destroy, to hate.
They understand that for a better world to be possible, it is necessary to accept the differences of others, to be inclusive, to abolish discrimination of any kind, and to understand that equality is a value of fulfillment that deserves to be cultivated in every society.
They demonstrated this by defending the Family Code as their own and by supporting all just struggles against exclusion and harassment because they are feminists, environmentalists and anti-racists. And they renewed their passion for the national baseball when they formed the team Asere from the Classic, while continuing to follow their soccer teams, and they continue to dance and enjoy the best Cuban music.
It is up to each one of us to encourage this youthful spirit to express itself, to show what they can give and what they can contribute, and to avoid the manifestations that often impair these potentials and are related to lack of attention, vanity, jealousy, prejudices and, what is worse, mental schemes defeated by time.
It is necessary to convince, but above all to prove to our young people that it will be possible for them to fulfill themselves in their homeland. Let them propose ideas, projects and prove in practice their effectiveness for a better country.
The measures that have been approved cannot die because of unjustified delays in their implementation. The life of each person is not eternal, and time and the needs of all pervade the spirit of the nation. Whenever a solution appears, we must put the dynamics of urgency in front of it.
On the other hand, we cannot be part of the politicization of Cuban emigration that the enemy is using. We must defend a relationship with Cuban emigrants that reveals that we admire their triumphs and that their homeland respects them, looks at them with pride and awaits their return, simply hoping that they will respect and defend the land that gave birth to them and raised them with love (applause).
I am not talking, of course, about those who have sold their souls to the devil by profiting from the pain of the Cuban people in pathetic McCarthyist shows. I am talking about those who, living anywhere in the world, maintain their love for their country of origin and their desire for its progress, despite the mountains of obstacles they face in their relations with Cuba, for a variety of reasons and for no reason at all.
Those of us who resist and build here are counting on those Cubans who are not ashamed of their origins to help sustain the nation.
Socialism is the closest thing there is to youth, because it is not a finished work, it is being done every day, and the energy and natural ambition of young people are essential to this work.
But why revolution? Why socialism? Sometimes we see it as the end, the goal. Revolution is the means, it is the way to achieve the highest possible degree of social justice and happiness for all.
This is not possible in other systems, where prosperity is associated with opulence, where some have very little or virtually nothing, because others appropriate most of the wealth created by those who have less.
The country project we have proposed aims to find a better synergy, different from that of other models, that leads to greater levels of equity and fulfillment, both individually and collectively, that has the seal of the values we share as a society and that also incorporates sustainability and prosperity. In a context as adverse as the one in which we live, such an idea may sound very ambitious.
But it is always difficult to undertake something new, especially when it comes to building a different paradigm of society. There is a lack of reference points for comparison, or those that are useful are adapted in some ways, but in others they lack compatibility due to cultural or axiological issues. The fact that it is difficult should not lead us to think that it is impossible. Our history is full of impossibilities. There is a tradition of overcoming challenges; the more and greater they are, the greater the impulse and the anxiety to overcome them. We must know that we can and must overcome them! (Applause.)
It was no miracle that brought us to this moment in history. It was a revolution that began in 1868, fighting almost unarmed against the most powerful empire of its time, for independence, sovereignty and the end of slavery.
It was the struggle of a small, sick and poor man, but enlightened by universal humanist ideas, to unite all the generations that had not been able to realize those dreams.
It was other men and women who suffered the frustration of those longings and gave continuity to the struggle, then against the new dependency and another great empire.
And it was a generation, heir to all those that preceded it, that summed up the legacy in a libertarian zeal that finally conquered independence and sovereignty with arms. And in the final possession of these conquests, it set out and succeeded in building a free nation, respected and admired in the rest of the world for its dignity, its own voice, its solidarity with all just causes, and the education and talent of its children.
In short, it is a heroic people that has never faded from the struggle, and whose heroism has produced leaders who continue to inspire it almost two centuries later. Heirs of all and the link between all generations, Martí and Fidel, emerge as symbols of this extraordinary national wealth.
To Raul, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, perpetrator of the traditions of struggle and leader of those of us who take on the highest responsibilities in the country, thank you for the support and confidence that we will never disappoint! (Applause.)
To Cuba, to the Cuban people, we pay tribute to your courage, to your dignity, to your fidelity as the main protagonists of another April of victories! (Applause)
Dear people, to whom I am proud to belong, receive the respect, admiration and immense affection of those who always feel indebted. Today I confirm that I will serve you with passion, commitment, without apathy, until the last consequence (applause).
Comrades, you have said it: Unity and victory are the hope, unity and victory are the present and the future of our homeland and socialism!
Homeland or Death!
We shall overcome!
(Applause.)
Translated by ESTI
