Moncada Day: Fidel Castro accuses US of renewed subversion
Campaign News | Tuesday, 26 July 2005
July 26th speech attacks activities of US Interests Section
Havana, Jul 26: Cuban President Fidel Castro accused the US administration of promoting subversion and destabilization in the Island through the leading role of its Interests Section in Havana.
Fidel Castro said the administration of US President George W Bush has used over a hundred million USD for that purpose, pursuing multiple aggressions against Cuba, including interference with radio and television transmissions.
He noted the current Republican administration represented "the most repugnant and sinister hatred towards an honorable and heroic nation that will neither kneel down nor be intimidated by threats and tanks from the most powerful country."
The Cuban leader's speech was given on National Rebellion Day honoring the 52nd anniversary of the attack on Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks, fortress of the Fulgencio Batista regime.
The Bush government uses the Interest Section (SINA) for its plots and exceeds "the limits of the most fundamental decency" to engage in unusual provocations, denounced the Cuban statesman.
Fidel Castro noted Interest Section chiefs have directly assumed command of mercenary groups, whom they provide with large amounts of funds, in many ways and under various pretexts.
He said SINA offices and residences, under the shelter of diplomatic immunity, have become dens of provocation to facilitate communication and openly direct mercenary activities.
"They do not pretend, diplomatic parcels are openly used for smuggling computers, means of communication, printed material, libelous articles and any type of object or goods for their wage-slaves," added the Cuban statesman.
He said Washington used subversive methods to increase radio and television broadcasting against Havana, even in these harrowing times when Cubans are struggling to recover from the enormous damage caused by Hurricane Dennis.
Five days before the arrival of the hurricane, the Pentagon based two Hercules military aircraft in Florida, and one flew over Cuba on July 15, 16, 18, 20, 22 "in a provocative and aggressive escalation" to interfere with Cuban radio and television signals.
In this way, 46 broadcasts have taken place in less than a year, and they have maintained daily broadcasts on nine channels through a hot-air balloon.
Together with other counterrevolutionary transmissions, they represent 2,425 hours 24 minutes per week of radio and television interference against Cuba, undoubtedly a record in history, Fidel Castro added.
He noted that the White House offered Cuba 50,000 dollars to mitigate the damage of Hurricane Dennis, while Congress asked for over 37 million dollars for anti-Cuban transmissions.
The Cuban President pointed out that these tactics to oust the revolution have collapsed against the will of the majority, over 70 percent of whom were not even born on July 26 1953
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Moncada Day: The revolution began in a second
Havana, July 25: The plan was known only to Fidel Castro, Abel Santamaria and Renato Guitart, the three main leaders of the action so carefully prepared for several months.
The best tool to prevent detection for these intrepid youngsters was surprise. Only on Santa Ana's eve on July 26, 1953, near midnight, when the young rebels were all gathered, armed and wearing uniforms, were details of the action revealed.
It was to be a simultaneous assault on Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks, the first located in Santiago de Cuba and the second in Bayamo, both in Cuba's eastern region. Fidel with most of the troops, would try to take control of Moncada, second biggest military fortress in the country.
First off, Ramiro Valdes and a group of men in the first car were to be in charge of overcoming sentry box number 3 and removing the chains to let the rest of the vehicles through into the barrack's interior.
Abel Santamaria, with 22 comrades, would take control of the nearby civil hospital Saturnino Lora, and the goal of a third group of six, under Raul Castro's leadership, was to take control of the Justice Palace.
This was the plan decided for that July 26 by more than a hundred of the country's youth determined to reclaim dignity for all Cubans, so badly besmirched by Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship. That day ceased to be just another day, and was transformed into a symbol of National Rebellion.
Cuba is a nation with countless outstanding dates throughout its great history.
October 10, 1869, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, the homeland's father, opened the road to Cuba's freedom with the freeing of slaves, rising up after nearly 4 centuries of colonial exploitation. Since then the cry has been ?Independence or Death?.
Ten years later, May 19, 1878, General Antonio Maceo refused to accept the Zanjon Pact, as the war could not be said to be over without reaching its goals, and headed the . Baragua Protest. How could there be peace without independence?
The 'necessary war' designed by Jose Marti to put an end to colonialism in Cuba exploded on February 24, 1895. Baire's cry now widened freedom's flame from east to west in the continuing struggle for independence.
When Cubans won the war against Spain, the revolution was still unfinished. In 1898, knowing Cuba was winning, The United States opportunistically involved themselves in a blatant and outrageous bid for annexation, and seized control of the Island.
Cuba ceased to be a colony only to become a neo-colony. The pseudo-republic was a 50-year phase of shadows watered by the blood of Cuba's youth. After the March 10, 1952 Coup d' Etat by Fulgencio Batista, zero hour was about to arrive.
July 26, 1953 was the answer of a nation refusing to suffer any more abuse, in a heroic action by 105 young people, including two women, led by Fidel Castro and inspired by the pro-independence ideas of Jose Marti 100 years after his birth.
The date was the beginning and final stage of a Cuban revolutionary era led by Fidel Castro. The tyrant was running scared, and like any wild animal, went from surprise to attack. Torture and killings followed, with the vengeful intention to kill ten rebels for every military killed in combat.
In spite of the repression, people took to the streets to defend the 'Moncada combatants', as became known. Risking their own lives, Santiago de Cuba's inhabitants gave shelter to those rebels who managed to escape.
Fidel Castro was caught in the mountains on his way to the Big Rock, where they had agreed to meet to renew the attack from Sierra Maestra, in case of the action's failure.
Then it was not enough to struggle for independence, it was also necessary to fight against economic oppression and sever the tentacles of starvation, unemployment, and illiteracy, as denounced by Fidel during his plea at his trial for the July 26 events, known as "History will Absolve Me."
Havana city today is ready to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks. Cuba today is proof that true social justice can exist, and the struggle continues, to raise the living standard of its people through its ongoing cultural and social revolution.
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