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<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>Permanent Mission of Republic of
Cuba<br>
to the United Nations<br>
315 Lexington Ave. New York, N.Y 10016<br>
Tel.: (212) 689-7215<br>
Fax: (212) 689-9073<br>
e-mail:
<a href="mailto:publicrel@cubanmission.com">publicrel@cubanmission.com</a>
<br>
web:
<a href="http://www.embacuba.cubaminrex.cu/onu">
www.embacuba.cubaminrex.cu/onu</a><br><br>
<br>
</font><div align="center"><font size=3><b><i>Reflections by the
Commander in Chief<br>
<br>
SUBMISSION TO IMPERIAL POLITICS<br>
</div>
<br>
</i> </b>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.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
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. <br>
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.<br>
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: "<i>That will not be happening again;
the President has ordered those flights to be suspended</i>".<br>
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.
<i>The</i> <i>New Yorker</i> Magazine supplies details about that meeting
with Richardson.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
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. <br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
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”.<br>
Enough of tales and nostalgia. This is
written simply to increase the conscience of the Cuban people.<br>
<br>
Fidel Castro Ruz<br>
August 27, 2007.<br>
4:56 p.m.<br><br>
<br><br>
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