Reflections by President Fidel Castro Ruz

A brutal reply

George W. Bush is undoubtedly the most genuine representative of a system of
terror forced on the world by the technological, economic and political
superiority of the most powerful country known to this planet. For this
reason, we share the tragedy of the American people and their ethical
values. The instructions for the verdict issued by Judge Kathleen Cardone,
of the El Paso Federal Court last Friday, granting Luis Posada Carriles
freedom on bail, could only have come from the White House.

It was President Bush himself who ignored at all times the criminal and
terrorist nature of the defendant who was protected with a simple accusation
of immigration violation leveled at him. The reply is brutal. The government
of the United States and its most representative institutions had already
decided to release the monster.

The backgrounds are well-known and reach far back. The people who trained
him and ordered him to destroy a Cuban passenger plane in midair, with 73
athletes, students and other Cuban and foreign travelers on board, together
with its dedicated crew; those who bought his freedom while the terrorist
was held in prison in Venezuela, so that he could supply and practically
conduct a dirty war against the people of Nicaragua, resulting in the loss
of thousands of lives and the devastation of a country for decades to come;
those who empowered him to smuggle with drugs and weapons making a mockery
of the laws of Congress; those who collaborated with him to create the
terrible Operation Condor and to internationalize terror; the same who
brought torture, death and often the physical disappearance of hundreds of
thousands of Latin Americans, could not possibly act any different.

Even though Bush’s decision was to be expected, it is certainly no less
humiliating for our people. Thanks to the revelations of "Por Esto!" a
Mexican publication from the state of Quintana Roo later complemented by our
own sources, Cuba knew with absolute precision how Posada Carriles entered
from Central America, via Cancun, to Isla Mujeres, departing from there on
board the Santrina, after the ship was inspected by the Mexican federal
authorities, heading with other terrorists straight to Miami.

Denounced and publicly challenged with exact information on the matter since
April 15, 2005, it took the government of that country more than a month to
arrest the terrorist, and a year and two months to admit that Luis Posada
Carriles had entered through the Florida coast illegally on board the
Santrina, a “school-ship” licensed in the United States.

Not a single word is said of his countless victims, of the bombs he set off
in tourist facilities in recent years, of his dozens of plans financed by
the government of the United States to physically eliminate me.

It was not enough for Bush to offend the name of Cuba by installing a
horrible torture center similar at Abu Ghraib on territory illegally
occupied in Guantánamo, horrifying the world with these procedures. The
cruel actions of his predecessors seemed not enough for him. It was not
enough to force a poor and underdeveloped country like Cuba to spend 100
billion dollars. To accuse Posada Carriles was tantamount to accusing
himself.

Throughout almost half a century, everything was fair game against our small
island lying 90 miles away from its coast, wanting to be independent.
Florida saw the installation of the largest station for intelligence and
subversion that ever existed on this planet.

It was not enough to send a mercenary invasion on the Bay of Pigs, costing
us 176 dead and more than 300 wounded at a time when the few medical
specialists they left us had no experience treating war wounds.

Earlier still, the French ship La Coubre carrying Belgian weapons and
grenades for Cuba had exploded on the docks of Havana Harbor. The two well
synchronized explosions caused the deaths of more than 100 workers and
wounded others as many of them tool part in the rescue attempts.

It was not enough to have the Missile Crisis of 1962, which brought the
world to the brink of an all-consuming thermonuclear war, at a time when
there were bombs 50 times more powerful than the ones dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.

It was not enough to introduce viruses, bacteria and fungi in our country to
attack plantations and flocks; and incredible as it may seem, to attack
human beings. Some of these pathogens came out of American laboratories and
were brought to Cuba by well-known terrorists in the service of the United
States government.

Add to all this the enormous injustice of keeping five heroic patriots
imprisoned for supplying information about terrorist activities; they were
condemned in a fraudulent manner to sentences that include two life
sentences and they stoically withstand cruel mistreatment, each of them in a
different prison.

Time and again the Cuban people have fearlessly faced the threat of death.
They have demonstrated that with intelligence, using appropriate tactics and
strategies, and especially preserving unity around their political and
social vanguard, there can be no force on this earth capable of defeating
them.

I think that the coming May Day celebration would be the ideal day for our
people -- using the minimum of fuel and transportation -- to show their
feelings to the workers and the poor of the world.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 10, 2007

versions in other languages
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/

Related information follows

http://granma.co.cu/
http://www.cubadebate.cu/
http://www.familiesforjustice.cu/
http://www.antiterroristas.cu/
http://www.terrorfileonline.org/es/index.php/Inicio