[News] Fidel - Sumission to Imperial Politics
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Tue Aug 28 11:56:08 EDT 2007
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Reflections by the Commander in Chief
SUBMISSION TO IMPERIAL POLITICS
Of all the presidents of the United States, and those who
aspire to that office, I only met one who, for ethical-religious
reasons, was not an accomplice to the brutal terrorism against
Cuba: James Carter. That assumes, of course, another President who
forbade that United States officials should be used to assassinate
Cuban leaders. That was the case of Gerald Ford who replaced Nixon
after the Watergate scandal. Given his irregular manner of ascending
to the office, one might characterize him as a symbolic President.
It is to the illustrious President Eisenhower, not in the least
opposed to anti-Cuban terrorism but rather its initiator, that we owe
thanks for at least providing a definition of the industrial-military
complex which today, with its insatiable and incurable voracity,
makes up the motor that is driving the human species to its current
crisis. More than three billion years have gone by since planet
Earth saw the first forms of life springing up.
One day, Che [Guevara] and I went to play golf. He had been a
caddie once to earn some money in his spare time; I, on the other
hand, knew absolutely nothing about this expensive sport. The United
States government had already decreed the suspension and the
redistribution of Cuba's sugar quota, after the Revolution had passed
the Agrarian Reform Law. The golf game was a photo opportunity. The
real purpose was to make fun of Eisenhower.
In the United States, you can have a minimum of votes and still
become President. That is what happened to Bush. Having a majority
of electoral votes and losing the Presidency is what happened to
Gore. For that reason, the State of Florida is the prize everyone
aspires to, because of the presidential votes it provides. In the
case of Bush, an electoral fraud was also needed; for this, the first
Cuban emigrants, who were the Batista supporters and the bourgeois,
were best masters.
Clinton is not excluded from all of this, neither is the
Democratic Party's candidate. The Helms-Burton Act was passed with
his support, with a ready-made excuse: the downing of Brothers to
the Rescue planes, those which on more than one occasion had flown
over the city of Havana and which had violated Cuban territory dozens
of times. The order to fend off flights over the Capital had been
given to the Cuban Air Force just weeks earlier.
I must tell you that, close to that episode, Congressman Bill
Richardson had arrived on a visit to Cuba on January 19, 1996. As
usual, he brought with him petitions asking that several
counter-revolutionaries be released from prison. We explained to him
that we were by now tired of receiving such petitions, and I talked
to him about what was happening with the Brothers to the Rescue
flights. I also talked to him about the unfulfilled promises
regarding the blockade. Richardson returned a few days later, on the
10th of February, and very earnestly told me, to the best of my
recollection, the following: "That will not be happening again; the
President has ordered those flights to be suspended".
In those days, I believed that orders issued by the President
of the United States would be carried out. The planes were brought
down on February 24, some days after the reply. The New Yorker
Magazine supplies details about that meeting with Richardson.
Apparently, Clinton gave the order to suspend those flights,
but nobody paid any attention to it. It was an election year, and he
took advantage of that excuse to invite the Foundation leaders over
and to sign that criminal Act, with the approval of all.
Following the migratory crisis of 1994, we learned that Carter
wanted to do something to find a solution. Clinton didn't accept it
and he called Salinas de Gortari, the President of Mexico. Cuba had
been the last nation to recognize his electoral victory. He had
contacted him on his inauguration as the new President of Mexico.
Salinas informed me by phone of Clinton's decision to find a
satisfactory solution, and in turn he was asked for his cooperation
in this effort. That was how an agreement was reached in
principle. That agreement with Clinton included the idea of putting
an end to the economic blockade. The only witness we could count on
was Salinas. Clinton had thus left out Carter. Cuba was not able to
decide who the mediator would be. Salinas relates this episode
accurately. Anyone with an interest can read about it in his books.
Clinton was really kind when we informally crossed paths at a
UN meeting attended by many heads of state. Moreover, he was
friendly, as well as intelligent, in demanding adherence to the law
in the case of the kidnapped boy, when he was rescued by special
federal agents sent from Washington.
The candidates are now immersed in the Florida
adventure: Hillary, the Clinton successor; Obama, the popular
African American candidate and several of the other 16 who, up until
the present, have proposed their candidacy in both parties, with the
exception of Republican Congressman Ronald Ernest Paul and the former
Democratic Senator from Alaska, Maurice Robert Gravel, and the other
three Democrats Dennis Kucinich, Christopher Dodd and Bill Richardson.
I don't know what Carter said during his race to the White
House. Whatever his position was, I was right when I guessed that
his election could avoid a holocaust for the people of Panama, and
that is just what I said to Torrijos. He established the U.S.
Interests Section in Cuba and promoted an agreement about
jurisdictional maritime limits. The circumstances surrounding his
term prevented him from taking things any further and, in my opinion
he embarked on several imperial adventures.
Today, talk is about the seemingly invincible ticket that might
be created with Hillary for President and Obama for Vice
President. Both of them feel the sacred duty of demanding "a
democratic government in Cuba". They are not making politics: they
are playing a game of cards on a Sunday afternoon.
The media declares that this would be essential, unless Gore
decides to run. I don't think he will do so; better than anyone, he
knows about the kind of catastrophe that awaits humanity if it
continues along its current course. When he was a candidate, he of
course committed the error of yearning for "a democratic Cuba".
Enough of tales and nostalgia. This is written simply to
increase the conscience of the Cuban people.
Fidel Castro Ruz
August 27, 2007.
4:56 p.m.
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