[News] Fidel Castro - The Eternal Flame

[Anti-Imperialist News]

A REFLECTION BY THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF - THE ETERNAL FLAME

This is a political reflection. To be more 
precise: it is another proclamation. Exactly one 
year ago today, on July 31, 2006, I issued the 
first proclamation. But the year gone by is worth 
10, for I have had the opportunity to live a 
unique experience which has afforded me 
information and knowledge on vital questions 
facing humanity, knowledge I have conveyed to the 
people of Cuba with the utmost honesty.
Today, I am bombarded with questions as to when I 
will take up again what some call power, as 
though that power were possible without 
independence. The world knows a real and 
destructive power, wielded by a decadent empire which threatens everyone.
Raúl has already responded that, as I recover, 
every important decision is consulted with me. 
What will I do? I will fight tirelessly as I have done my entire life.
One year after the first Proclamation, I can 
share with the people of Cuba the satisfaction of 
seeing that what was then promised is reflected 
by today’s unquestionable reality: Raúl, the 
Party, the government, the National Assembly, the 
Young Communists League and grassroots and social 
organizations, headed by the workers, move 
forward, guided by the unshakable principle of unity.
With the same conviction, we continue to struggle 
relentlessly to have the Five Heroes, who 
provided Cuba with information on the United 
States’ anti-Cuban terrorist plans, released from cruel and merciless prison.
The struggle against our own deficiencies and 
against the insolent enemy which seeks to take 
possession of Cuba must be unrelenting.
On this point, I am obliged to insist on 
something which the leaders of the Revolution can 
never forget: it is our duty to work untiringly 
to strengthen our defensive capability and 
preparedness, under the principle that, 
regardless of the circumstances, an unpayable 
price must be paid for any invasion.
No one should entertain the slightest illusion 
that the empire, which carries the genes of its 
own destruction, will negotiate with Cuba. Though 
we have said, again and again, that our struggle 
is not against the people of the United Sates 
­something which is absolutely true­ the latter 
is not in a position to curtail the apocalyptic 
impulses of its government or the foul and insane 
call for what they label a "democratic Cuba", as 
though leaders here put themselves forth and 
elect themselves without having to pass through 
that inflexible filter embodied by the 
overwhelming majority of an educated and 
cultivated people who must support them.
In a previous reflection, I invoked the 
historical figures of Martí, Maceo, Agramonte and 
Cespedes. To keep alight the memory of the 
innumerable people who fell in combat, of those 
who fought and sacrificed themselves for the 
homeland, Raúl lit a flame that shall burn for 
eternity, 50 years after Frank País, the young 
22-year-old hero whose example moved all of us, fell in combat.
Life is meaningless without ideas. There is no 
greater joy than to struggle in their name.


Fidel Castro Ruz
July 31, 2007
5:35 p.m.




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