-DATE-
19680705
-YEAR-
1968
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
INAUGURATION OF THE EL MATE DAM
-PLACE-
ORIENTE PROVINCE
-SOURCE-
HAVANA RADIO & TV
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19680708
-TEXT-
CASTRO SPEAKS AT EL MATE DAM INAUGURATION

Havana Radio and Television Services in Spanish 2210 GMT 5 Jul 68 F

[Speech by Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro at the inauguration of the El
Mate Dam in Oriente Province--live]

[Text] [The ceremony inaugurating the El Mate Dam in Oriente begins at 2145
GMT with a brief speech by chief Cuban engineer for the project Roberto
Caballero. He is followed by a worker selected by his comrades to read a
communique on the construction of the dam. After reading the communique, he
is embraced by Prime Minister Fidel Castro, who then begins his speech.]

Comrade builders of the El Mate Dam, comrade workers of the Contramaestre
and Mate region [cheering, yelling] and Palma, and all the other comrades
here present; comrades of Oriente and Comrade guests: This project has its
history and certainly an interesting and beautiful history which was
referred to here by the comrade engineer who directed the construction and
the comrade vanguard worker who preceded me here. They explained how a dam
could appear to be simple but have nothing simple about it

Perhaps, as they explained it here very well, the greatest difficulty was
the complete lack of experience in projects of this nature. It is enough to
say, for example, that in our country, when the Institute for Water
Resources was formed, there were four or five water resources engineers in
the country. At this time we are still very far from having all of them
that we need. However, there are approximately 50 water resources engineers
in Cuba. This figure by itself, for a country which had no water resources
projects of any type, a country where the largest dam was that of Charco
Mono--as one comrade says over there, it would go dry--and which is dry
right now and has been dry for more than a year, was for the purpose of
providing water for Santiago, Cuba--[Castro does not finish] The dam of
Hanabanilla, which was not a water resources dam but a hydroelectric dam,
was not yet finished when the revolution triumphed. Naturally, there was no
experience in this type of construction, and there was an absolute need for
it. It was necessary to begin to control our streams in some way. I do not
say rivers, because this country has no rivers. Anyone--any visitor who has
an idea of what a river is--we tell him, this is the Contramaestre River,
and he would ask, where is the river? [chuckles]

Nevertheless, these streams, when the hurricanes come and when from 1,500
to 2,000 millimeters of rain falls in 72 hours as it did during Hurricane
Flora--these streams become gigantic rivers. During that hurricane, the
streams flooded to a width equal to almost that of the Amazon, which is the
largest river in the world. At the city of Cauto, the floodwaters were 40
kilometers wide. Near the delta of the stream, the flooding covered an area
from Estrada Palma to the surroundings of Tunas. All the streams joined and
we had an Amazon in the middle of Oriente Province. It was necessary to
begin the task of controlling the streams in order to overcome droughts and
floods, for one is as harmful as the other.

A country that had lived with technical backwardness under economic
exploitation did not even have the chance to try to train a minimum number
of trained technicians to perform these tasks, without which there would be
no way to emerge from poverty, misery, and absolute dependence on
uncontrollable forces of nature.

And we have recently begun to do this. We are not inaugurating this dam
with the idea that we have done a great thing. This is an important dam
because it is one of the first, because it became a school, because it gave
us experience, because it was built with the enthusiasm, goodwill, courage,
and the tenacity of our workers. We are inaugurating a dam that is simply
the beginning of the enormous water resources undertaking that must be
carried out throughout the country.

Some weeks ago, in this same province, we inaugurated the Cauto holding
dam, which is for the irrigation of the new rice areas that are being
planted in this province. That project, it was estimated, would require at
least 2 years to complete under normal conditions. We must say that the
project was built in 120 days. This was an irrigation project that will
provide, if I am not mistaken, 20 cubic meters of water per second. In this
case, a quantity of water is taken from the river equivalent to the water
that can flow from that dam--some 20 cubic meters per second. On that
occasion, we listed the materials and equipment used in the project. On
this occasion we must point out, for example, some figures on this dam.

Description of Dam

The dam has a length of 850 meters, almost a kilometer. It has a maximum
height of 52 meters. Truly, what are comrades have done here is to build a
hill in the middle of the river bed, a hill 850 meters long and 52 meters
high, and no one can say how wide--it does not say it here, but I believe
it is some 300 meters. They have built this hill in the middle of the
Contramaestre River. It has two gates. The spillway, which is here to the
side, is 143.8 meters wide and 427.8 meters long. They have built a new
river bed so that when too much water comes--and and we are all hoping that
such a moment may arrive- -the excess can flow through that new river bed.

The total volume of the impounded water is 200 million cubic meters. This
means capacity for irrigating, depending on the crop, of course--if it is
rice less, if it is sugarcane more--but it will allow the irrigation of
some 3,000 caballerias of sugarcane, and 3,000 caballerias of sugarcane can
produce a good quantity of sugarcane, some 300 million arrobas if we grow
cane at 100,000 million arrobas--with the yield we have in Oriente
Province--that would mean half a million tons of sugar-- a little bit less,
perhaps, but not much less.

They moved dirt, sand, and rock in the amount of 4,605,000 cubic meters. In
cement construction of various other types, approximately 228,000 cubic
meters were used. Some 1,850 cubic meters of lumber were used, 23,740 tons
of cement, that is, 516,087 bags. Steel used was 4,100 tons. The maximum
number of workers employed here was 1,050, and the average was 600. Sixteen
bulldozers were used, 60 heavy trucks, 19 cranes nine loaders, 30 light
trucks--there must be some people here who are very worried about the cane
[aside by Castro as some of the crowd appears noisy and unsettled]--10
drills for making tunners, nine compressors, two concrete plants, and four
machines for injecting concrete under pressure. The total cost of the
project was 15,726,000 pesos.

The project was begun 1 July 1964 and was finished in 4 years. There was
one accident, of which the comrades spoke, on 27 May. A flood dragged off
(?the dam apron). However, the comrades reacted to the need to accelerate
the work and decided to shut the dam, that is, reach the point of safety by
1 May 1967. They did this by 20 April. This dam is being completely
finished this year, but it has been impounding water since 20 August of
last year because of the need for water. There was 496 houses in the river
basin. It was necessary to move these families to new housing elsewhere.
There were 2,500 people living where the lake is going to be now.

Names of Planners

It has already been explained here who planned the project. We must point
out the the participation of Comrade Roberto Caballero, a Cuban engineer,
in this construction; the participation of a French engineer, (Jean Claude
Poncin) a Soviet engineer, (Valeriy Yaponekov), and something very
important: the drafting of the plan for the project by a Soviet engineer,
(Henri Gerasimov). Seven engineers took part in the construction of the dam
and 23 engineers in the planning.

Acts of Heroism

These are the figures with respect to the costs in equipment, material, and
effort made. However, as it was pointed out also, there is something more
than appreciated by all of us and that is that this project cost the blood
of some workers. Six workers were killed in various types of accidents
during this construction, and this is something that should never be
forgotten--the cost to the people for their liberation and their progress.
The speakers here recalled the blood shed in revolutionary struggles, and
all of you who live in this region will recall that only 10 years ago,
around this very same town of Maffo and Contramaestre and Palma
Soriano--and Baire and Jiguaney and all the others--hard battles were
fought against troops serving the interests of imperialism and the
exploiters of our fatherland. Many men of just those five towns, more than
50, were killed in a few days of fighting.

Now we must think not only of the heroism of those who gave their lives in
liberation struggles, but also of the heroism of workers in construction
who give their sweat and sometimes their blood, as happened recently when
an accident caused a fire in one of our refineries--a very important
industry for our development. While fighting that fire, two workers were
seriously injured and their condition at this time is most critical. Ten
other workers in that center and comrades from the militia and the Ministry
of the Interior were also seriously injured fighting the fire. This teaches
us--or should teach us--the ideal by which workers defend their wealth,
their factories, their work; and who could ask any workers for acts of
heroism like these, with complete awareness of how important their work is,
their industry, in the acts of heroism that port workers also demonstrated
at the time of the criminal sabotage of the ship La Cubre in a Havana dock?
In many similar incidents, they leap to control the fire even where there
is fuel and explosives, protecting with their bodies and blood their work
and the results of their sweat.

How could this ever be conceived of in an exploiting and exploited society?
How could it ever be thought that men would be ready to do something like
this for what did not belong to them?

These deeds, more than any words, prove the identification of the worker,
in his deepest consciousness, with revolutionary work. That same worker who
cones forward in times of danger, who struggles in Giron, who fights in the
Escambray, who loses his life in any criminal sabotage, is ready to defend
the revolution with weapons in struggle against imperialist enemies, and
afterwards to defend it in struggle against nature and against the
contingencies, the accidental circumstances, that can occur in his work.

And these things teach us much more; that no manual and no word describes
what a revolutionary installation is. Perhaps many thought that on the day
after winning the fight with weapons, we would become heirs of abundance,
take full possession of the wealth, when the only certainty was that one
day after the victory with firearms, we would begin the time of
constructing the country, the time for building the wealth of the future.
And this work, together with our experience, the experience of all the
people in this province, teaches us how there will be no security, no
future, without this effort, this work.

Irrigation, Control

This water, as we were saying, this single dam will permit grain
cultivation, extensive rice and cane plantations. In this same province, as
you know, it did not rain last spring and the harvests were lost. It did
not rain in the autumn either, and the harvests were lost. As a result of
the drought, the cane suffered considerably. How does nature behave? It
behaves paradoxically, willfully. Nature follows its physical or biological
laws, not the laws and will of man. Man must fight against mature to force
his will on it, his laws.

In 1963, unusual floods which cost more than 1,000 lives in this province,
sudden avenues of water kilometers wide, the famous wave of water, as the
peasants call it, appeared in the early morning hours, cutting off all
escape, and swept away hundreds of dwellings. Thousands of persons lived
through endless anxiety in the treetops, on the roofs of houses; and
hundreds of children died. There were families who lost all their children
in that terrible situation; some children lost their parents and all their
brothers and sisters. Then there was 27 May 1966. An early rise in the
level swept away the (?apron) of this installation.' That is, in 1963 there
were tremendous floods, and in 1966, with work in progress, an enormous
rise in the month of May; nevertheless, last year the builders made
superhuman efforts and attained the safety height of 113 [presumably
meters], closed the dam, and it rained very little the rest of the year;
nor was there water in this dam even for the residents along the river. It
was even necessary to pump water with a motor-driven pump because it did
not even reach the height of the tunnel.

This year, nature continues to act in a paradoxical manner. From the
borders of Camaguey Province to the extreme western part of the country, it
has rained copiously [confused shouting in background] they say that they
are blocked, that over 4,700 people are isolated by the dam. It is a
problem. We will take care of it [someone yells something] It will not be
so difficult that it cannot be solved. [more shouting] I am not going to
talk about roads now. [more shouting] Well, we are now informed, let
somebody else talk who probably has something] [others shout] very well,
but what I am saying here, I believe, is also of interest to you that there
will be rice, milk, meat, root crops; is that not right? Do you agree?
[more shouting, applause]

I was telling you that from the borders of Camaguey to the extreme western
part of the country, it has rained copiously since May, in the months of
May and June. The only province in which rain has not been plentiful, in
which the rains have not yet been extraordinary, has been Oriente Province.
And this is not throughout the province. In some parts of Oriente, such as
Bayamo, it has rained more in these months than it has rained since I do
not know when. Nevertheless, in other areas, such as Bane, Guantanamo, the
southern part of the Sierra Maestra, rain has been very scant, and except
for some showers in this region and a few in Guantanamo a few days ago,
there are areas where there has been virtually no rain for 2 years.

Now we have this extraordinary condition that from El Mate down--in Bayamo,
Baire, Jiguani, Contramaestre, everywhere--it has rained tremendously, but
in the headwater area of the Contramaestre River--a river you all know
well, that same river that on 27 May 1966 destroyed the (?apron)--as of
this moment, and although it has been almost a year since the dam closed
off the river, there it sits with some 30 million meters of water. This
means that this project has had to confront all these difficulties and now
that it is finished, the river cut off, the amount of water it has
impounded is insignificant. That is the capricious and paradoxical manner
in which nature behaves. Of course, we do not believe that this dam will
continue to be empty. We will see how long it takes to fill it. We are
going to see how much it rains in July, and we are going to see when
October comes how much it will rain.

We have seen this river flooding many times, flooding greatly and causing
damage with its floods, and it is finally time, I believe, that this river
should lose the battle. This river has to increase its flow, and in spite
of its tremendous resistance, its tenacious resistance, it must allow
itself to be harnessed by man. This river has very little time left in
which it can destroy man's work, fight man's efforts; very little time left
in which it will do as it pleases.

This dam has also been built with all safety measures. It has been built so
that it can withstand rains and floods even greater than those of Hurricane
Flora. It is said that a Flora can happen every 500 years. This business
about it happening every 500 years does not mean that there will not be two
Floras in succession. It can be 500 or 1,000 years between Floras, or it
may be only 3 or 4 or 10 years.

However, when this dam was being built, the chance that a storm of that
nature could take place was taken into account. All safety measures were
taken. It has an artificial spillway with a bed great enough to handle more
water than that of Hurricane Flora.

Well and good; this year in Oriente Province, nine dams will be built. A
large dam will be started in the area of Guantanamo in November. A large
dam will be built on the Nice River. Several dams will be built on the
various rivers of the Holguin area. A dam will be built on the Pedregal
River. A dam will be built at Leonero Lake. A dam will be built on the
Jobabo River, and a dam larger than this one will be the one called
"Veinticuatro" in the Cauto Valley. It will be able to impound 285 million
cubic meters of water. However, that dam will not be as difficult to build
as this one, because its apron, which is very long, is not very wide. It
will. primarily be a problem of moving dirt.

However, with that water and the underground water that we will begin to
use next year--and for this purpose 25 well-digging machines will
arrive--we will have enough water by next year to irrigate the sugarcane.
We will have the water from this dam, the water that this dam impounds from
now until the end of the year. We will have the water that is impounded by
the Paso Malo Dam on the Yara River. We will have some 90 million cubic
meters of underground water in the cane-growing area of North Oriente where
the large sugar mills are. We will have, at the beginning of next spring,
just in case we have a dry year next year, the nine dams that are to be
built in about 6 months. The cranes and part of the equipment used here
will go to work on the "Veinticuatro" dam as soon as the dry season starts.
Two hundred heavy new 10-ton trucks will be added to water resource
projects in Oriente Province.

Looking toward the 1970 sugar crop, we will have in Oriente Province
approximately 1 billion cubic meters of water. This is more than enough to
irrigate at least 10,000 caballerias of sugarcane there. This means that
measures are being taken aimed at fulfilling the goals set for 1970
throughout the country. This is in addition to the enormous areas of new
Sugarcane being planted and of considerable amounts of underground water
and water in dams throughout the country.

The equipment being used in water resources construction this year is
enough to move 70 million cubic meters of earth per year. To get an idea of
the fleet of equipment used, it is enough to say that enough new earth
moving equipment is being added to move 12 times the amount of earth moved
to build this dam of El Mate, the largest dam built thus far in our
country. We will also add 75 new well-drilling machines.

Of course, these water resources projects will not be devoted to sugarcane
alone. They will be devoted to the new rice plantings, root crops, and so
forth--to all the agricultural projects in our country. However, as a
result of this effort we will free ourselves of floods. With respect to
floods, hundreds of kilometers of canals are also being built. These canals
and dams will allow us to control the water. Controlling water means
overcoming droughts. In years of much rainfall, we will store enough water
to face any drought no matter how severe. Then we will have security in our
work, the assurance that every minute, every hour of man's efforts will be
useful. Water will not only give us security in our work; there is also the
fact that under present conditions of our country, agriculture depending on
rain is extremely difficult because of 3, 4, or 5 months of drought.
Machines can work and prepare thousands of caballerias of land--our country
has the ability to plow 60,000 caballerias of land per year---but the land
must be prepared and then we must wait for the rain. When the rains come
suddenly throughout the country, it is virtually impossible to plant all
the crops in only 15 days, plus the scores of thousands of caballerias of
sugarcane.

This water will allow us to do many things, but above all it will allow us
to distribute the use of machines and our labor force throughout the entire
year. We will be able to plant in January, February, March, and April. It
will not be necessary to plant in May or June. What will sugarcane
agriculture be like, for example, in future years? In future years, thanks
to water, machinery, herbicides, and airplanes, sugarcane will not be
touched by man--thanks to the sugarcane combines also.

To produce two, three and even four times more sugarcane than used to be
produced in this country, it will not be necessary for man to touch the
sugarcane. Equipment with powerful motors will be able to plow the land
from the beginning of the sugar harvest. We will be able to harvest the
cane with machines and to plow the land for the new sugarcane with machines
during the dry season. We will plant the cane with machines. We will
fertilize the cane with machines. We will guarantee its growth with
irrigation. We will control weeds with herbicides. With airplanes, we will
spray foliar urea or solid fertilizers. We will be able to have the luxury
of cutting the cane not at 12 months but at 20, 22, and 24 months. Without
irrigation there cannot be any 24-month cane because when the drought comes
it will kill any canefield. This forces us to cut cane every year.

After cutting 80,000 or 100,000 caballerias of sugarcane, we have the task
of weeding and cultivating 100,000 caballerias of cane. This province
already has some 30,000 caballerias of cane. Almost 100,000 men have had to
work at weeding and fertilizing it. Next year, 700 tractors with
cultivators will cut the weeds, ditch and hill the cane, and apply
fertilizer. This will avoid having to use a labor force for weeding and
fertilizing. When we have enough water to have all canefields under
irrigation, then we will have 2-year cane. And we say that in the future,
when June comes around--that month when the entire province has to go to
work in the canefields--in the future, sugarcane workers' vacations can be
taken in June. There will be no need to weed sugarcane because weeds will
be controlled by herbicides. It will not be necessary to fertilize by hand
at that time because it will be done by airplanes. The pilots will not have
vacations in June.

I explain this to you so that you will have an idea of how many benefits
for man can be derived from controlling nature and from the use of
technology. We still do not have many of those resources, and we are
developing them. We still do not even have the resources to buy the
herbicides that we need, but when some ask why that enormous effort is
being made, the answer is that it is being made not only so that we can
provide what our people need, not only to satisfy the needs of our people,
but also to liberate man from such hard work as that which he has to
perform today, hard work with low productivity. Then man can have yields
that are incomparably greater with efforts that cannot be compared with the
efforts made today. However, the efforts being made today are needed very
much so that this can come about. This country has to build its material
base, it has to build its wealth.

The victory of armed struggle meant the chance to do this. These years have
been used for this: to work as much as we are able, to the limit of our
resources, our abilities, and our experience. Experience cannot be
underestimated. Much experience has been acquired during these past years.
In these past years, many resources have been accumulated. Today, a dam
like this one can be inaugurated. Next year we will be able to inaugurate
nine or 10 dams. We are going to work in nine zones on some large dams and
in others on a system of small dams. But next year no one will have enough
time to finish the dams that are going to be built during the coming dry
season, except in Oriente Province. Thus our country will be amassing the
resources and the means necessary to live a more decent life. To live a
more human life. We cannot speak of revolution if the revolution does not
humanize living and working conditions for man.

Revolutionary Progress

Many good things in many areas may have been done by the revolution. It
eradicated illiteracy, built schools in all corners of the country,
hospitals in all corners of the country also. Many good things may have
been done by the revolution to liberate the people from the exploitation of
their work as in the past, to liberate the peasants from exploitation by
landowners, to liberate the workers from exploitation by the rich. Perhaps
nothing can compare with what a revolution signifies when it liberates man
from dehumanized, unproductive work, when it liberates man from working
conditions that are barely different from those performed by animals and
allows him to work under conditions incomparably more human. When there is
no man in this country who has to cut cane, when there is no man who has to
plow behind a yoke of oxen, when there is no man who has to use a hoe to
cut weeds [several words indistinct] does not have to perform that work,
then the revolution will have performed one of its most human
accomplishments and will have moved from working conditions fit for beasts
to working conditions that are truly human. [applause]

That is why, and it is for that, that in these years we have had to work so
bitterly hard. That is why we have had to work like beasts: because on many
labor fronts we still do not have the machines that we need and the means
we need. We have had to win a battle against time. We have had to overcome
the backwardness of centuries in just a few years. It was an effort which
an exploited and under developed country had to make, an effort which our
brothers in Latin America cannot make, for they are subjected to the
domination of the Yankee monopolies, subjected to the domination of the
large landowners, subjected to the domination of exploiters whose interests
prevent, with their niggardly and enslaving production processes, the
development of the human and natural resources of a country. Our country
has been developing those human and natural resources during these past
years.

As Comrade Engineer Caballero said very well, it was even necessary to
teach the operators how to operate those cranes, those bulldozers, those
trucks that were acquired. That is what has been done on all fronts. This
work has had to be done in the midst of struggle against our enemies, in
the midst of struggle against the imperialists, amid the blockade. This has
been the most worthy effort by our people in these past few years. This has
been the most heroic effort; and we are now approaching years in which
poverty will be left behind, in which misery will be left behind.

The effort of all these years in all areas--in cattle, where from cows that
gave a liter and one-half of milk per day we have developed cows that are
able to satisfy our needs for milk for all our children and all the people
of our country--effort in agriculture and in all areas will allow us in a
short time--and nothing can stop it--to have all those things that have
been scarce during all these years. We will have enough of them to satisfy
our needs in a very short time. Next year we will see a great leap in
production of sugar. We will see how we will take all measures so that no
drought can prevent our production from increasing continuously. We will
see how enormous areas will be devoted to the production of rice and root
crops, milk, meat, and all essential crops.

We will see how we will develop a modern agriculture, highly mechanized,
with technology and high productivity, so that we will have the material
base, not to be able to sit down and rest, but to carry out other tasks, to
continue to advance, once the battle of agriculture is won, the battle of
industry; so that we can begin the next decade with all resources,
incomparably more resources than those we have had up to now; so that we
can continue our accelerated development in the field of economy, culture,
education, and in all areas of our country.

This dam had to have a name. This year marks the 100th anniversary of that
day on which Cubans rose up in arms to begin a war of independence. On that
day, Cubans rose with weapons to begin the war of independence, the first
war of independence, which lasted 10 years. They fought 10 years and did
not win their independence-- beautiful pages full of ineffable heroism.
They fought again in '95, and after 30 years of heroic struggle, the
imperialists came, intervening in the war that was almost won, and
established their rule in our country.

One hundred years have had to pass--and few can say that they are 100 years
of age-- 100 years of work from the Manuel de Cespedes and Cuban patriots'
uprising in arms to free the slaves--from that uprising to the present.
Much blood, much sacrifice, much work. Fifty years of false republicianism,
50, no, 58 years of hard work, with our people facing poverty, 58 years
working like beasts, 58 years planting cane, felling the woods with axes,
planting cane with picks and cutting it, working for landholders, working
for Yankee companies; 58 years working for the rich and the exploiters.
Nevertheless, and fortunately, after 100 years we can now inaugurate this
installation, which is only the beginning of all that will be done in the
coming years at an accelerated pace.

Name of Dam

Can there be anything more proper in naming this installation, 100 years
from the beginning of the struggle for independence, than calling it the
Carlo Manuel de Cespedes Dam? [applause] Cespedes lived hard and risky days
in these mountains of the Sierra Maestra. Cespedes often crossed this
Contramaestre River, and finally he died in San Lorenzo, where this river
has its source. As just tribute to that patriot who began the struggles for
our independence, and to those who fought with him and supported him in
that task, there is nothing more proper than giving this name to this
installation, as the first large one, the one which was their schooling,
and is looked upon proudly by our workers and technicians. Therefore, from
today onward, and with your approval, this installation will have only the
name of Carlo Manuel de Cespedes. [applause] We hope that soon we will see
it totally filled.

Road Construction

Concerning the comrades whose road has been commandeered: we shall take
steps at once to study their case. This province now has 22 new brigades,
organized in the past year, for roads and highways. I think that they have
already built, near Dos Palmas, a road leading to near Pinalito, that they
are now building one from Dos Palmas to Los Banos and one to San Lorenzo.
Another brigade is building a road from Victorinos to Matias or Los Negros.
Other brigades are building to the south and east, on the plain and in the
second front.

But no work will be finished immediately, nor any new brigade organized,
nor will we have available any of the 22 brigades who have finished any of
the roads to solve this problem immediately. It has not just dams that are
under construction. Never have we used so many machines and bulldozers and
built so many roads, so that we will have 30 brigades working in Oriente
Province by the end of the year. We will fill this province with roads and
highways, and not only [applause] do we hope to have built 5,000 kilometers
of roads throughout the country next year, and by 1975 to have 40,000
kilometers of highway--let us say roads and highways--but they will be
mostly all highways, because they will be paved as they are laid out. We
accomplish nothing by building splendid roads through these mountains only
to have them eroded by the first rains. For this reason, they will continue
paving, and we hope to have by 1975, constructing about 5,000 kilometers of
highway a year [does not finish thought]. To give you an idea, we say that
next year we will build more highways in the country than were built in the
past 60 years [applause]--in one year.

At this time there are approximately 72 brigades. When giant brigades were
begun, we spoke of 59 brigades. Afterwards, they increased in number,
machinery was better utilized, and new resources were acquired. By the end
of the year, we will have not 59 but 104 brigades throughout the country.

Our need for communications lines also increased. The population has grown.
Families live in every corner. There is not a single hill of those over
there that does not have a family on it. We know what happens when the
rains come--total isolation. Many times we have heard stories told us by
some families of what happened when someone was ill. How many stories have
we heard about families who died in the past because they had no way to
move in time, that is, members of the family died because they had no means
to get to a hospital in time! Today, hospitals are scattered throughout the
mountains. Nevertheless, roads are needed, and not a single place in the
country will remain isolated. No one will be isolated, particularly when
there are so many people who are happy because this dam has been finished.
[applause]

The same thing goes for water resources. When will water resources work
end? When there is not a single stream, a single stream that is not dammed.
I believe that this will not take long because of the volume of resources
that we have at this time for the accomplishment of this work.
Congratulations to all the builders of this dam; and fatherland or death,
we will win! [applause]
-END-