[News] The Cuban people will not be defeated

[Anti-Imperialist News]

peoplesdispatch.org
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/29/the-cuban-people-will-not-be-defeated/>
The Cuban people will not be defeated
July 29, 2022
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Yuri A. Gala López addressing solidarity activists in New York City on the
anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks.

*A gathering was held at the People’s Forum in New York City on July 26,
the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks in Cuba in 1953, also
known as National Rebellion Day. This attack was the spark that ignited the
Cuban revolution and was led by the same leaders of the revolution such as
Fidel and Raúl Castro, Haydée Santamaría, and others.*

*Yuri A. Gala López, Cuban Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative
of Cuba to the UN gave an address to this gathering to emphasize the
importance of the July 26 anniversary and efforts Cuba has made to overcome
the COVID-19 pandemic and the stranglehold of US unilateral coercive
measures. Below are his words:*

Today, the main ceremony of the celebration [of National Rebellion Day]
took place, in the province of Cienfuegos with the presence of Army General
Raul Castro, the leader of the revolution, and Miguel Diaz-Canel, the
president of the Republic of Cuba.

A day like today, but in 1953, marked the beginning of a new stage in our
nation’s struggle to achieve our true independence. A group of youngsters,
like in the picture we saw a couple of minutes before, led by Fidel, sought
to find an ultimate solution to the country’s economic and social problems
and its heavy dependance on the United States. Although on July 26, 1953,
the taking of those barracks was not possible, the actions meant the
solidification of a revolutionary movement that never wavered in the
struggle until achieving the final victory on January 1, 1959.

These milestones, which we commemorate and which have been declared in Cuba
as Cuba’s National Rebellion Day, bring us together to remember those
historic events and their views, as well as honoring the bravery and
loyalty of that group of young people who embarked on the assault on those
barracks. The Moncada attack taught us to turn setbacks into victories, and
learn the lesson of perseverance.
Celebration of National Rebellion Day in Cienfuegos, Cuba. Photo: José
Manuel Correa / Granma

It has been said that it is not possible to explain Cuba’s socialism
without the reasons that led Fidel to storm the barracks with simple rifles
and an arsenal of ideas.

Dear friends, the 1959 victorious revolution continues to endure, and
overcome against hostility. It remains strong because our people back in
Cuba inherited, throughout history, solid concepts and revolutionary
principles from men and women who gave everything for their motherland.

While the United States blockade has been implemented for the past six
decades, since 2017, the Cuban people have endured an unparalleled and
excessive tightening of that system of unilateral coercive measures. During
the Trump administration, more than 240 unilateral measures were adopted
against Cuba, and some of them, out of an unprecedented cruelty, as part of
the so-called policy of maximum pressure, with a ruthless objective of
suffocating sensitive sectors of the Cuban economy, such as foreign trade
and tourism. These measures posed and continue to be a huge burden on Cuban
families, including through the imposition of serious restrictions on
remittances.

In 2020, the then US administration took on the virus as an ally, in its
merciless, unconventional war against our country. And tightened the
blockade. Those coercive measures remain in force, they are in full
practical application under the current US administration, in spite of the
fact that a large majority of Americans do support the lifting of the
blockade, and the freedom to travel to the island, and that many Cubans
living in the United States yearn for normal relations and well-being for
their families.

In addition to that, Cuba has also had to face political and communications
operations orchestrated from the US territory, supported by a sophisticated
technological infrastructure, dedicated to the disinformation or
misinformation, slander and smear campaigns. They apply against Cuba the
recipes of the unconventional warfare already rehearsed and implemented in
other parts of the world with serious human and material costs. Even during
this current month of July, they have tried again to force a popular
uprising, but they have failed as they did, or as they tried and failed in
2021.

Dear friends, for 29 years, the General Assembly of the United Nations, its
most comprehensive and democratic body, has adopted the text of a
resolution on the necessity of ending the blockade imposed by the United
States against Cuba. Throughout these years, the number of countries voting
in favor of this resolution has been increasing. The most recent vote took
place in June 2021, when 184 countries voted in favor, and only two
countries voted against. This shows clearly that the overwhelming majority
of member states are in favor of putting an end to the blockade that
affects the Cuban nation and has a strong territorial effect as well.

However, year after year, the US government has dismissed that demand of
the vast majority of the UN Member States, an attitude that is neither
democratic nor ethical. The human damage posed by the blockade cannot be
measured. No Cuban family is spared from the effects of this inhumane
policy. No one could honestly claim that it does not have a real and very
negative impact on our population.

The in-person ceremony today in Cuba to mark the National Rebellion Day is
indeed a feat, achieved thanks to the control of the pandemic with our own
resources. It should be recalled that within a context of strengthened
blockade, Cuba has had to face COVID-19 with very limited resources. But
the results are evident. We’ve succeeded in developing highly effective
treatments for patients. We have to remember that while, or when the US
blockade cruelty, or cruelly prevented the supply of lung ventilators, Cuba
had to develop its domestic production with our own prototypes.

And Cuba is today the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to
have three anti-COVID vaccines of its own and two vaccine candidates
waiting approval. But Cuba is also the first country in the world to have
carried out a vaccination campaign in children between the ages of two and
18. I guarantee more than 90% of the Cuban population is fully vaccinated
with our own vaccines and more than 60% of that population have already
gotten a booster dose.

We also make our humble contribution to other countries in a manner
consistent with our international vocation. In fact, when the slanderous
campaign of the United States administration against our medical
cooperation intensified amidst the pandemic, Cuba sent 57 specialized
brigades of the Henry Reeve International Contingent to 40 countries or
territories to join over 28,000 health professionals already providing
services in 59 nations at that time.

Cuba makes an effort not only to survive, which is difficult, but we also
make efforts to continue to make headway in all possible areas. For
example, in recent days the National Assembly of the People’s Power met and
approved the new Family Code, an indispensable legislation for the Cuban
society, which in September will be submitted to a referendum so that the
people can vote on it. We want to commemorate and to actually give thanks
to those scientists, professors, academicians and people who actually
contributed to the design, to the conceptualization of that important
document, and more importantly, to those who are on the streets explaining
to the Cuban population what the family code is all about.

In the sections of the National Assembly, important measures in economic
matters were also announced. Our role, dear friends, has not been easy,
will not be easy, as you know. But Cuba, as our president said this
morning, will not stop. In that battle, the face of Cuba in the United
States and in every corner of the world, is essential and represents a
bulwark for the resistance of the Cuban people in their defense of their
sovereignty.

It is you, our dear friends, the ones who stand up and resolutely call for
the end of the unjust blockade against Cuba, in every possible space. It is
you who carry out our just call for justice to every community. That is why
we will always be grateful to you.

Countless will be the challenges and even greater the threats that will put
to the test the tenacity and determination of Cubans. But we will always be
accompanied by the example of struggle of those young people who stormed
the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks. The unshakeable ideas
and the faith in victory that our commander in chief, Fidel Castro, always
had, and the symbolism of the “Yes we can!” proclaimed by Army General Raul
Castro.

So allow me to conclude my remarks by recalling words of Cuban President
Miguel Diaz-Canel who stated just a few days ago the following, and I
quote, “They want to stop this country. Well, we are not stuck and we are
not going to stop. Our alternative is clear, and it will never be
capitulation. We will not surrender, nor will we let ourselves be defeated.”

So join me in expressing aloud: “Let Cuba live!” (“Let Cuba live!”)

Also join me in saying, “Long live the solidarity movement with Cuba in the
United States!” (Viva!)

Viva la revolución cubana! (Viva!) Viva el 26 de julio! (Viva!) Venceremos!
(Venceremos!)

Thank you.
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