-DATE-
19600516
-YEAR-
1960
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
GIVES FIRST OF FRIDAY SERIES
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA FIEL NETWORK
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19600516
-TEXT-
CASTRO GIVES FIRST OF FRIDAY SERIES

Havana, Fiel network, in Spanish to Cuba, May 14, 1960, 0321 GMT--E

(Summary) I have read the "notice" and the statements issued by the U.S.
Embassy. The ambassador signed the statement. The explanation given by the
embassy is that this is routine and similar notices are in readiness
elsewhere.

In those countries where there is no U.S. property such notices do not
exist. Not all embassies in the world have them. In England there is none.
In France does the U.S. have such notices? No one doubts that these
countries do not have such notices. Why should they exist in Cuba?

There is no such problem in Britain but I am sure that if such an
announcement were made the British would be indignant and demand to know
why this was being done.

I am sure that our government has as much support as the British
Government. the rebel government has as much support as the De Gaulle
government. We have as much support as Adeneuer in Germany but the U.S.
Embassy in that country would not dream of such a thing there. Why in Cuba?

Are there going to be problems in Cuba? If so why is the American Embassy
interested? It says the notices were to be distributed when circumstances
arose which would make the distribution necessary. The previous embassy did
the same thing but is the situation the same now? The old embassy was a
Batista lackey and helped Batista obtain arms from the United States. Are
circumstances the same?

Batista did not rpt not have control of a large part of the country. We are
not at war. There are no problems to justify this. The situation is not the
same.

If this was a routine action why was it done just at this time? Why was it
not done in July or March or when the expedition was preparing against us?
Much as happened but the embassy did not at those times print such an
announcement. If such an action were routine the embassy would have done it
before.

This is not a routine warning. What are the circumstances in which it is to
be used? Why does the embassy concern itself about circumstances?

The enemies of the revolution do not have any faith in themselves. Their
philosophy is the philosophy of Yankee intervention. The Americans have
many resources. Since they are against the Cuban revolution, since U.S.
Senators listen to war criminals the counterrevolutionaries believe they
have the chance to resume power and destroy the revolution. No
counterrevolutionary believes he can overthrow the revolution without the
direct or indirect assistance of the United States. That is the
counterrevolutionary philosophy.

This warning and the circumstances under which it has occurred, Guatemala's
disruption of relations with Cuba and so forth, justifies the indignation
of the people. Why are the Cuban people concerned? A series of threats and
aggressions coupled with this announcement is what causes them to worry. If
it were not for the face that colonial countries customarily attack by
surprise perhaps the people would not be so indignant.

We have thousands of citizens in the United States but the Cuban Government
has not printed any warnings concerning the protection of property. Why
does the U.S. Embassy have to prepare such warnings? Do they think the
revolution is not stable?

U.S. propaganda would have one believe that we Latins are an inferior race,
that we are condemned to servility, that we are destined to produce raw
materials and sell it cheaply, that we are to work for nothing so the
bosses can get rich on our sweat. All propaganda revolves around that idea.
And we are expected to feel that they can publish what they want and we
have no reason to be angry.

But there are some among us those who await them with open arms. they are
waiting for the U.S. marines.

The U.S. explanation was not reasonable. It should have said that it would
never hurt Cuba, that it will never attempt to invade us, that it will
never organize invaders of our country. We want U.S. guarantees that it
will not do what it did in Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Santo Domingo, and
other places. Such a statement would have satisfied our desire for peace.

Remember when Sandino was fighting in Nicaragua and U.S. and world public
opinion was against it? Nicaraguans, nevertheless, died fighting. The
monopolies were stronger and the National Guard was fashioned in the image
and likeness of its creators. Public opinion was not heeded. Aggression
took place in cold blood. The perpetrators had the noble ideal of
safeguarding property and life.

But in this sovereign nation all buildings of Americans and Chinese, all
buildings are under the protection, not of the embassy, but of the Cuban
authorities! (Applause)

The embassy's concept of sovereignty is colonialist. It is colonialist,
interventionist, and imperialist.

The revolutionary government will protect all: Americans, Spaniards, and
Chinese. Who are those who will protect only U.S. property? The
counterrevolutionaries! This is the first revolution that has destroyed
nothing. The people attacked no property. On the contrary, they protected
it. The only ones who destroy property are mercenary armies and gangsters.
So, once again, we must say the embassy's explanation is unsatisfactory and
absurd.

Here are some more reasons for the concern of the people, for the
instinctive concern of the people. I have a report from the revolutionary
navy. It says: Report on foreign war units near the northern coast of Cuba.
On May 6, 1960, at about 2200 hours, the coast guard reported from a patrol
position five miles from the northern coast of Matanzas that it spotted
between its ship and the coast a submarine which refused to identify
itself. The ship pursued the submarine for some 30 miles "challenging with
a 20-millimeter machinegun." the submarine then replied with the signal
C4T(U?) following a north (West?) course at great velocity and submerged.

On May 7 the chief of the Cardenas naval post reported that a yacht was
sighted to the north and a plane with the identification of the U.S. Navy
flying low, m making a few turns, and disappearing to the north. The same
day at 1630 hours the chief of the Cardenas naval base reported sighting
U.S. frigate number 42 and two planes with the following numbers 7451L(M)7
and 7778, both flying low. On May 7, also, a Cuban merchant ship reported
that 20 miles south of (Cayo Sal?) one submarine and two scout planes were
sighted with the numbers already mentioned.

On May 8 a Cuban ship sighted an American destroyer northeast of the (Itabo
Baradero) Peninsula. The destroyer was named (Sullivan?) number 537. This
destroyer had been sighted on various occasions. On May 8 at 1530 it was
reported from Oriente that aviators of the revolutionary air force in a
helicopter sighted the U.S.N. submarine Baracuda some three miles north of
Cayo (Medano?) on May 11. At 0100 the light cruiser Norfolk was sighted at
2320 latitude and 8058 longitude or 2.5 miles north of Cayo Blanco. Another
U.S. warships was traveling the same route. The ship Norfolk was believed
within the three jurisdictional miles of our island.

The navy would like to clarify that it is not officially aware of a request
on the part of a war unit from a neighboring country to navigate in our
waters. The three-mile limit has been crossed on various occasions in
blackout as in time of war contrary to international regulations governing
navigation lights. there is no apparent justification for concentrations of
warships near our coasts. This information has been furnished by the
revolutionary navy.

There are many other things, too., Here is a magazine called (PAPOOSE?)
which is published for the naval base. It has information and songs about
Cuba. (Castro reads the words of one of the songs) (Applause and laughter.
Highlights from other items in the magazine range from the cost and taste
of beer to the "hundreds of prostitutes behind every door in Guantanamo).
This is some magazine! What ideas! What racial superiority! What a concept
it has of our people! What ideas and what opinions!

And yet there are some who defend this racism. They invent philosophies to
defend it. They ignore such things as this.

(A reporter asks Castro about DIARIO DE LA MARINA and says it appears that
some people are not satisfied with the way matters have turned out. He asks
Castro for his opinion.)

There are some who will not be reconciled. There are some who would have
the people mourn all the evil things of the past. The people do not feel
that way. No one killed DIARIO DE LA MARINA. It killed itself. The people
know what the paper has been. The people will not cry. Those who blubber
over this are those who do not care about the real tragedies of our
country. They are the ones who are trying to confuse our people, to divide
them so that they will become easy prey for the counterrevolutionaries.

Working against the people, confusion is sown by those who do not care
about the real tragedies of our country, by those who are not capable of
taking up arms to defend their country, by those not capable of donating a
cent to buy a bullet, by those who do not want to renounce luxury or make
sacrifices. Those who have enjoyed only the beauty and marvels of our
country, all the good things in our country, are not the ones who defend
it. The ones who defend our country are those who had never had anything,
because they know that today they do have something.

The DIARIO DE LA MARINA has committed abuses against the people, a happy
people enjoying themselves. Yesterday we were looking at some of the work
of the revolutionary government and we met a group on the beach, one of the
most beautiful natural beaches in Havana, and we conversed with several of
this happy group.

On this occasion I was thinking of all the plots, maneuvers,and efforts
made to thwart the revolution. Thinking of all this, I started to recall
the past when only the privileged ones could have afforded to come to such
a place. Why this injustice? What does it cost to bathe? Nevertheless,
beaches were for the privileged few. Sometimes we protested. This is just
one example of how things were; there are many others.

The education of the people was neglected. Educational benefits favored the
rich, these who bathed at the beaches and had several houses. And yet the
DIARIO tried to make the revolutionary government appear guilty of
depriving the people of their liberties. What sort of liberty used to
exist? Did anybody protest? The people were exploited and miserably
deceived. Sure there was freedom; freedom to lie, freedom to deceive,
freedom to sell to the highest bidder. The people were deceived and divided
and this was necessary so that privileges could remain.

The people of May 1 have come a long way. They have learned much with a
promptness characteristic of revolutionary times when the truth is told.
What our country was in the past, was with the support and aid of all those
who today are crying over the DIARIO DE LA MARINA.

How did this happen? Is there nobody here who does not know what the DIARIO
was? Is there anyone here who does not know about the provocations it has
been hatching since the triumph of the revolution? We have shown much
patience in the face of all sorts of provocations.

There is mourning for the DIARIO DE LA MARINA as though it had been a
victim of the revolutionary government. This is not so. It was the victim
of its own policy, its own betrayal. It is impossible for any
counterrevolutionary paper to exist in a revolutionary stage, not because
the government would close it. It is logical that in a true revolution that
any counterrevolutionary newspaper would provoke a situation such as that
created by the DIARIO DE LA MARINA . We did not touch the DIARIO DE LA
MARINA; we did not close the DIARIO DE LA MARINA. The paper was using every
pretext to do what it did. It provoked the workers and created conflict
within the paper. The counterrevolutionary attitude of the paper became
more obvious every day but the revolutionary government did not interfere.

The most influential elements on the paper converged upon the revolutionary
workers in the shops. they promoted divisionism among the workers with a
view to provoking a crisis to be used as a pretext by "that gentlemen" to
take asylum. A conflict was deliberately provoked before authorities of the
revolutionary government could in any way seek a solution, offer any
advice, as with the paper EXCELSIOR when we spoke to the workers. The
director lost no time. He went to any embassy, took asylum, and
immediately, the ball started rolling against the Cuban revolution as
planned. If we have been guilty of anything, it was excessive tolerance and
patience with the paper.

Those are the facts. We cannot be accused of lack of tolerance, of
violence. Was that gentlemen (Jose Ignacio Rivero--Ed.) ever pursued,
threatened, or victimized by us? Even after events like the Coubre,
campaigns of calumny, bombings, threats, never has a single citizen thrown
a stone at the DIARIO DE LA MARINA buildings. Why? Because he knows that us
not the spirit of our revolution, that we do not promote acts of violence,
that we have always advocated a spirit of respect.l This was the policy
which made the revolution triumph. We have never had to worry, even in
periods of tension, about any act of hostility on the part of the people
against the U.S. Embassy. They are not oriented toward violence or hatred
but toward respect and pardon. The revolution has been generous; the
tribunals have been generous. (Applause) The people interpret the policy we
are endeavoring to carry out. The people know that enemies of the
revolution exploit acts of violence.

In what other country in the world have a people behaved the way we have,
with a high civic spirit of respect and discipline and peace? The people
know where there enemies are, who they are, and what they are doing. When
La Coubre exploded, the people knew it was the result of a criminal act and
the knew who the accomplish were.

(Castro at this point enters a lengthy eulogy of the Cuban people--Ed.)

On Jan. 1 we believed we had the right to confiscate all newspapers which
had received money from the tyranny. (Applause) The revolution had a right
to do this when so many of our colleagues fell dying in the mountains in
prisons. For seven years those newspapers received bloody money from the
tyranny. We had a right to confiscate them, but we did not do so. We did
not want to be considered incapable of pardoning or intolerant or enemies
of freedoms.

What did we do? And what did they do? We had a right to punish those papers
which received bloody money from the tyranny. We were generous enough to
leave them alone. They were guilty of a great betrayal of the people and
the country. They accused the revolution of being aggressive, violent.

(Castro then discussed martyrs of revolution who fought for their ideals
beginning with Marti, and DIARIO DE LA MARINA comment over the years on
social, economic, and political reforms. He renews his attack on DIARIO DE
LA MARINA and reiterates his earlier statements to the effect that the
revolutionary government has not paid the newspapers huge sums of money as
the tyranny did. He lauds the true revolution and declares that freedom
does not exist in Cuba--Ed.)

There is a part of the world which is misinformed about us. This
misinformed part will say many things about us but we do not care what is
said by that part of the world misinformed by U.S. news agencies. Let them
say what they like.

To conspire and fight against the revolution is not a right and we do not
guarantee such an assumed right. The wealth and privileged are crying over
their losses, not over the people from whom they have never shed a tear.
Now the presses of DIARIO will print books for the people instead of lies.
And the books will be cheap. (Applause) There will be opportunity for more
people. We shall accomplish something useful. With the presses, we shall
make great social gains.

(Castro at this point recalls the efforts to destroy popular revolutions
and cites the example of France in 1789 among others--Ed.)

The people know that we are enemies of the use or abuse of force. The
revolution has advanced with generosity, despite efforts by its enemies to
make it alter this course. The counterrevolutionaries think they have more
numerous ranks of foreign soldiers. They think they have a foreign force
which they can use to achieve their aims. Public opinion is not important
to them.

We want to march forward; we have the will to do so, to do what others have
not done before us. A new era has arrived. Cuba can now carry its head high
and will not lower it under any circumstances. The nation knows this and
this is the raison d'etre of the revolution and this is what is important.

Announcer: Dr. Castro, I would like to inform you that there is a
delegation here in the studio from the workers of the old DIARIO DE LA
MARINA. (Applause. Colleagues from DIARIO DE LA MARINA come forward,
wearing uniforms of the national revolutionary militias. They greet Fidel
Castro, cries of support and "fatherland or death" are heard.
(Applause--Ed.) The revolutionary government will see that those workers
continue on their jobs.

(Castro here is asked if he would care to comment on the recent downing of
U.S. plane--Ed.)

This seems to have been a bad month for U.S. planes because a plane was
downed over Russia. According to U.S. authorities, it was spying over
Soviet territory Now in Cuba, also, a U.S. plane was downed. It was going
to pick up a group of of counterrevolutionary elements. It was fired upon
and the pilot died. The plane was American; the pilot was American; the
registration was American. U.S. authorities have stated they do not endorse
such flights. So it happens that such a plane leaves U.S. territory and
returns at night or at dawn and there are no problems.

Something else occurred over Russia. A very late jet model crossed the
border (reception deteriorates here and portions become unintelligible.)
The pilot is captured, papers and all. And here is a plane that comes and
goes, passes U.S. bases, flies many kilometers over U.S. territory, and it
is not discovered. Either they do not want to capture it or they are
deceiving the American people. They have rockets, they detect a plane, they
claim they are perfectly prepared and yet a plane comes and goes over U.S.
territory and is not discovered. They are the ones to offer explanations,
not I. (Applause)

The last time a plane was downed here, the United States sent a note
requesting pardon for the incident. Do you think perhaps another note will
be forthcoming? (Castro, not speaking into the microphone but heard in the
background says something to the effect that (pardon cannot?) be requested
every day. (Laughter) When we are lucky, we capture these planes.

(In reply to a question, Castro says many industrial projects are moving
forward--Ed.) We shall continue to sell sugar and we shall carry out all
the revolutionary government plans with more efficiency and organization.
We shall have another opportunity to speak more about this.

-END-