-DATE-
19711201
-YEAR-
1971
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
RALLY IN VALPARAISO
-PLACE-
SOTOMAYOR PLAZA IN VALPARAISO
-SOURCE-
SANTIAGO CHILE
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19711130
-TEXT-
CASTRO SPEAKS TO RALLY IN VALPARAISO

Santiago Chile in Spanish to Havana 1603 GMT 1 Dec 71 C--FOR OFFICIAL USE
ONLY

[Speech by Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro to a rally, in the Sotomayor
Plaza in Valparaiso on 30 November--Recorded; transmitted on special
communications channel.]

[Text] Dear President Salvador Allende, civilian and military officials,
representatives of the political and mass organizations: One thing is
clear: No one can come to Chile with out visiting Valparaiso. [applause,
chanting]

We know that the politicians, workers, and civilian officials and many
people in general here are displeased with us. For it was said that they
had planned a program to mark our visit, but that the visit has been too
brief. But I am sure you will understand the situation here on the Pacific.

While some complain, others protest. While some complain that the visits
are brief, others say they are too drawn out. So there is no way to satisfy
everyone. I have had a chance to reflect. Some have published something
about the visits that have been made--you received this or that person on
this or that occasion, and some spent 4, 5, 6 days. And it is alleged that
so and so made an official visit for 2 days, or that it was as a tourist.
But you can imagine what it is to tour this country as a tourist. Indeed
many illustrious persons have come to this country. I imagine they were
bestowed great honors, that many invitations were made. But I do not
understand how they arranged things because of the competition.

The fact is we have received invitations from the length and breadth of the
4,000-kilometer-long country. I do not believe there is any village of
peasants, no province, no city, that has not clamored for, insistently
requested, asked the authorities, the president, for us to visit.

And the reason for this is the Chileans' affection for Cuba, for our
people, the recognition of the accomplishments of our people, and the
ethical struggle we waged under trying conditions against a powerful enemy.

It is not Fidel who is invited to those cities, those rural areas, those
regions. It is the people of Cuba who are invited; it is the Cuban
revolution that they invite. When we listen to this or that remark, or when
speakers attribute to us certain revolutionary merits in the Western or
even the (?Eastern) world, we sincerely say that we feel that these are not
the merits of a man, a person, but rather the merits of all the people.
These are the merits of a people who have shed their sweat and blood
struggling for a cause. We are not and cannot be tourists for we
revolutionaries have too much work, too many obligations, and too short a
time to devote ourselves to being tourists. This, however, does not mean we
criticize the fortunate persons who have the time and money to be tourists.

Perhaps at a given time we could be tourists, but now we cannot be. We have
had no rest for our body, our voice, or our soul during these splendid days
among the Chileans. We have been highly interested in extending our visits,
so not a single place will complain, be displeased, or feel neglected or
forgotten.

Moreover, when we were going from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas, we
remembered the people of Aysen, the battle they waged for the ship we were
on to stop over. We remembered the people of Chile, how their
representatives went all out to try to get us to go there. And when we
reached Punta Arenas, we remembered the situation that arose in Natal. They
asked us to visit there, they said they would take us. Representatives from
small villages where so much hard work is done amidst a hostile climate,
[words indistinct] of the country, kept insisting that we visit there.

We had decided to make the trip by an air force plane. But then the weather
reports came in--cold fronts, hot fronts, humidity, and we would have had
to fly through the Torres de Paine with no visibility, although we wanted
to go, we were told that the plane could not have made it. So, the people
of Puerto Natales were left waiting. For they had organized a program.

This is natural, for every humane community likes to display what they do,
the fruit of their work, their historical traditions--there customs, their
songs, every man likes to show what he accomplishes; his great motivation
lies in the activity to which he devotes his life, furthermore, when they
have a friendly feeling they want to manifest it.

I visited a hacienda in the countryside, and about 20 haciendas could not
be visited. We visited some regions and some camps of Tierra del Fuego, but
we could not visit all of them. We could not visit the provinces between
Concepcion and Puerto Montt, yet we were showered with requests for visits.
So we have faced a constant dilemma, constant regret at not being able to
respond to such kindness, such magnanimous invitations. And in some places
they would say: Stay one day more. But this was impossible. The visits had
been planned to be much briefer, much shorter. However, sometimes it was
impossible to avoid remaining a little longer.

We know precisely who has invited, who has wanted us to visit them. It has
been the workers, the men and women of the countryside and the city, the
intellectuals, the students, the progressive persons, the men and women of
the Popular Unity, the men and women who support it, the men and women who
have [words indistinct] the effort of changes, the men and women who have
sacrificed themselves so the copper can be Chile's, so the iron, coal, the
nitrate, the banks, and numerous basic industries can be Chile's.

We know that this comes from the heart of the people, for the heart of the
people is not egotistic. The heart of the people embraces all generous
feelings, all truths. We do not overlook this, for it is clear and evident.

By the same token we know who are the ones who have wanted the visit to
last a few days more, pursuing their zeal to bother? To mortify the
visitor, to show him that he is not [words indistinct]. They talk, they
size up the visitor, and [words indistinct] just to publish it. We do not
know what conclusions they want to draw. But if on the other hand we wanted
to live here, and actually (?we could), for dozens of villages and cities
have declared us their illustrious sons. [applause]

In any case, there are only a few days left, so they need not be impatient,
only a few days remain, just a handful of days. We are nearing the end of
the visit. [shouts of No] Apparently, some of our activities [change of
thought] and we shall depart. And they shall say--but let us talk about the
Popular Unity. It is said that the visit is good for Popular Unity. But
what government invited us? [shouts] Who were the Chilean officials who
requested the visit and with what support? It was clearly the people and
the government which represents the people. So all of you extended the
invitation. And what flags (?invited us). It was the friendly flags. Who
gave us the honors and attentions? The friends, the revolutionaries, those
who support Cuba, those who support the Chilean process, those who struggle
for Chile's future.

Who are the ones who have been protesting? [shouts: the reactionaries] You
know that perfectly well. And they even have been accusing us of meddling
in domestic affairs. But in what domestic affair have we meddled? It has
been a long time since I heard so many lies. [shouts: the reactionaries]
Apparently we have lived despite the dire forecasts. Thank you. [Castro
chuckles]

Now I would ask some of those sirs to recall the visits of illustrious
figures here--the kings of England. However, we are not trying to compare
ourselves with them, not in the slightest. Not even the kings of England
have received the insults that have been made against me. Nor were they
told the things that have been said against me.

I would ask them to find another--those hardheads, those allegedly unbiased
ones, those superpatriots. No visitor has been shown the rudeness that has
been shown me. [crowd shouts and apparently Castro addresses a person
nearby] Well, you want me too. I think you will understand, and I am going
to say this. This is the truth. I know how you receive all visitors, and I
remember how different things have been as you have been historically
characterized for your hospitality. You are attentive and kind to visitors.
You have been endearing. This is a Chilean tradition. But who have broken
that tradition? And why was that tradition broken? [shouts]

Who pays for all that [Castro apparently is, told something by a person
nearby] Yes, but you will have less and less to pay. Because from now on no
one can obtain $300 million of Chilean copper [words indistinct] you will
have less to pay to your friends.

We [words indistinct] and you know this well. Several persons have told me,
but look, you are in Chile, you must be moderate, you know this perfectly
well. I wish there were restrictions, but no one imposes restrictions on
me, especially in my position as visitor. But a country's customs should be
respected. Moreover there are many ways to communicate, many ways to
(?relate) experiences without it being called meddling.

[Sentence indistinct] And this occurs in meetings. Some persons say: Let us
talk. And on some occasions this is done with bad faith. And I have been
asked to answer certain questions, when there were many workers, and when
there were many students. The fact is when you invited me, to meetings, you
did not perhaps invite a monkey.

If I am asked a question, I answer it. But this does not mean in each case,
gentlemen. I imagine that if you look up all the speeches made here you
will find all kinds of persons--visitors, intellectuals, all kinds of
lecturers.

How many rightist speakers must have come here. What things they must have
said. Yet when it comes to us, they accuse us of meddling in domestic
affairs, of [words indistinct] all that collusion, all those insulting and
outrageous investigations which an attempt was made to carry out here, here
in Chile, for political purposes.

You know who has meddled, and who has intervened, however, the struggle for
independence of this country and this continent began 150 years ago--150
years. And you know the soldiers who fought heroically to win the
fatherland's independence, to give Chileans a place in the world, to, in a
word, give them a fatherland. And naturally, the invaders did not leave
behind their weapons. But armed invaders had always found the Chilean
people prepared to die, making the sacrifice characteristic of them.

Also other types of invasions came. They did not have to send divisions or
squadrons or cannons. No, it would have been much easier for the Chileans
to combat those invasions. What would an invader come here for? [words
indistinct] Own all the land and put the people to work for his benefit.
Previously, these invasions were armed invasions. Later they were more
subtle. They brought no cannons, or ships, or rifles; however, they had
them just in case. But what did they do to our countries? They penetrated
our countries through other means, taking over what the dictators had
[words indistinct] in America. They took over the natural resources of the
country. They took the nitrate, they took the copper, the coal, the iron.
They took the principal industries. They took over trade, the
banks--ultimately they took over all essential things, without firing a
shot.

With the modern economic and control penetration came cultural and
ideological penetration--cultural and ideological penetration. The invaders
first surreptitiously took over the natural resources. And after the
invasion and the taking of the natural resources came the attempt to
spiritually disarm the country--the attempt to disarm it via ideological
and cultural penetration.

If all aspects are studied it will be seen that it was not only the copper,
the nitrate, and [words indistinct] but also how they are attempting to
destroy the cultural values in the country. As they brought their methods
and customs, they brought values of another society. If you walk today
through a street in any of these cities one can ask: How is this different
from New York?

Frequently one sees this or that advertising and propaganda--much of the
publicity media, the style, everything. None of this originated in Chile.
One begins to analyze buying habits and we can tell that none of this
originated in Chile. Then, penetration through magazines--let us say--which
arrived in great numbers. Projecting a type of society, an independent
society, but a selfish one because it transforms man into the (?wolf) of
man. Because it attempts to exalt man's baser instincts, the selfishness in
man. There are noble and positive tendencies in man but there can also be
negative and ignoble tendencies.

The commercial aspects of all this literature extols a way of life which is
opposed to the most elemental interests of the human community. Thousands
and tens of thousands of tons of literature, of magazines, of films, of
documents, and subtle means also, many of which were not printed abroad but
were printed right here.

Very often the exporters of this ideology, instead of bringing printed
paper, would say: No, if there is paper in Chile, if there is lumber, if
there is pulp, why not bring in a printshop? The, those living here print
all that literature at home and devote themselves to organizing a system, a
cultural and ideological penetration. And this indeed is intervention,
daily intervention, at all hours, every second.

When they make programs to promote a mercantile spirit, programs exported
from the United States, what do many of these programs bring? Pure poison,
pure corruption, pure selfishness, and this extends even to many political
programs, statistics will show.

Much of the world news is full of lies, omissions, deceit. Who brings this
news? Who distributes it? It is agencies responding to the interests of a
society, of an empire. It is agencies which respond to the interests of
imperialism.

These things the people see everyday. Millions and millions are spent by
the USIS, to cite an example which we saw in Cuba. Hundreds of millions of
pesos are spent for the distribution of literature, printing of books, for
press, radio, television and film programs.

What do these programs export? What do they bring? Reactionary ideology.
What do they bring? Antinational culture. They bring all that can poison
the people's soul. All that can [words indistinct] of the people; all that
can confuse the people; all that can deceive the people; all that
represents the spiritual disarming of the people. [applause]

Monopolies were only interested in preventing the awareness of the people.
The monopolies thought, to cite an example, that as long as the Chileans
lacked awareness the copper is safe, and we can take it and continue taking
our hundreds of millions of dollars. As long as the people lack awareness
of these issues, we can continue taking the nitrate; exploiting the
principal labor centers in the country, taking the iron, controlling banks,
controlling commerce, controlling everything.

The people's awareness is what must be prevented. That is the philosophy of
the monopolies. Tens and tens of millions are spent disarming the people,
stripping them of their culture, sowing a reactionary ideology, confusing
them, deceiving them, creating a habit of buying that has nothing to do
with the people's interests.

Thus, we see that all this literature creates a desire for buying things
which these countries' economies are not prepared for. Take out a magazine
and look at a marvel--the latest fashion from New York, from Florida, [name
indistinct], from California, from Washington. The latest coat, the latest
dress, be it miniskirts, be they maxi-skirts, one year the dress reaching
the ankles and another at mid-thigh, discreetly. True enough they still
praise me somewhat, praise surrounded by quotation marks.

Speaking of these things, yesterday, at the Technical University, two young
girls came to present a gift. They came in one of those fashions. How are
they called? Hot pants? Hot pants, right? As you can see those things do
not exist in Spanish. One must pronounce it in English--well and good.

The picture: Here is Castro with the two young girls that went there with
their hot pants, their mesh hose or their [words indistinct]. The last
thing we expected was to see this in a magazine. They arrived there so
natural, so normal, with a healthy spirit. Students from a revolutionary
university selected these girls.

What malice can emerge? As if to say that in Cuba we are against beauty.
Well, they are completely wrong. It is they who oppose the latest fashion.
No, no one has ever opposed fashion in Cuba. What we do oppose is the
commercialization of fashions. [passage indistinct]

When the revolutionary process begins, the difficult times begin. Why?
Because it receives an inheritance among many inheritances. No longer a
change in customs, the absence of culture, but among other things the
royalty--to cite an example--of the 3.5 to 4 billion of Chile's foreign
debt.

Who are you going to blame for this? The people. The people? Who were they
to create this debt, to contract these debts? We still have another
example, no? For what does the country receive as inheritance? Is it over
400 billion in the banks? In foreign exchange? [chuckles] No, the 3 or 4
billion are in debts.

All is discovered when everything is analyzed. How much development could
have been achieved? If the country has not been able to work rationally and
plan for 30 or 40 years, what shortages could arise? When a popular unity
government comes to any place in the world, the time comes to resolve the
problems of the masses--education, wages, hospitals, unemployment,
retirement, whether better medical attention should be given in hospitals,
whether milk should be given to all the children. Ensure this, the housing
problem, water, sewage, power services--all these needs which drive
intendants, mayors, and the whole world insane. The amount of needs
existing in any place are great, as we have told you. We have undergone
that experience.

So what did they leave? Paradise? A world full of wonders? No. What they
left was the mirage of full show windows. You know more or less what a
mirage is, no? They say that heat forms mirages.

Sometimes things look upside down, or like the phenomena of a mirage. A man
is dying of thirst, looking about in the desert and suddenly he sees an
oasis, a spring, and he says: "Now I am saved," and he heads towards the
oasis. It was, however, all imaginary. That is what is called a mirage. It
could be that the mirage is [words indistinct]. When a man is out of a
job--a worker with a wife and a daughter, a worker who has to count his
pennies every day to pay his rent, electricity, water, groceries, clothing
for the children, and all--he passes through this low state, but once in a
while he raises himself and [words indistinct] he finds many splendid
things. Perhaps he finds a magazine and thinks of buying a yacht, or
perhaps a Mercedes Benz--well any kind of a car, but men are told they must
buy a Mercedes Benz, a man who possibly (?does not) have shoes. He buys the
Mercedes Benz and he apparently thinks his world is full of goods. The
wealth looks unlimited.

Just let wages go up a little, let hundreds of thousands of new employees
be hired, let the needs of some sectors that are underprivileged be
satisfied, let some public services be provided, [words indistinct] and,
above all let the worker be paid a little more money, and the mirage
vanishes, the source full of minerals vanishes.

Frequently, however, people get the idea that unlimited goods exist, but
these cannot be acquired because there is a glass in between. As soon as
one gets just a little raise there is not enough to go around. What a
factory produces is not enough and it will not be enough. We who have had
this experience want to tell you: if the so-called shortages have arisen,
in our country, they are relative shortages. Shortages are one thing that
are never publicized.

We had half a million unemployed. They had left us half a million
unemployed. There were 800,000 children without schools in our country.
More than half the population had no medical attention--and the national
and state medical services were provided by interns, interns.

Even when a person had to go to a hospital he had to show he had political
connections, and that he had a voting identification card, registry with a
party. Would you believe that we had a lot of political parties? Yet an
individual who needed hospital attention was required to have a voting
form.

Then there were the campaigns, the upcoming election, and the parties meant
(?higher wages). In a word: the health services were bought. This was why
workers whose children became ill had to sell his voting card and commit
himself.

Imagine that a man of the people, a humble man who needed work, actually
believed that the politician had saved his child's life, and the worker
feels abundantly thankful [Castro chuckles] and he does not understand the
problem. Such a man, in solving his problems, has been kept humiliated,
ignorant, servile. That is how things were.

When the country progressed and jobs began to be created, money began to
become plentiful, and it was not long before we discovered the mirage of
the show window. Of course, this was a lesson for us. The people must be
told how things work. They must realize the truth of things. It is not
advisable for the show windows to be empty. This is because the
reactionaries seize upon this. Without saying a single word, without
explaining the cause of social phenomena, they exaggerate every trouble in
an effort to undermine the people's trust. They play upon the people's
ignorance. They maintained this ignorance for years and they exploit it for
their own benefit.

This is a cultural, ideological struggle. We lived under such a process for
years, fortunately now, after many years, our people realize all these
things. They understand this because the revolution has carried out a
cultural, ideological task--the masses have been trained over the years.
[words indistinct]

I too lived in a world [words indistinct] against hunger. In our country
there is a lot of work, hard work, inasmuch as we have many long-standing
needs. Let me tell you something, when the revolution triumphed, there were
300,000 autos; they were smuggled in, many of them. They were sold to
workers. From the time the revolution triumphed we spent foreign exchange
to buy spare parts, tires, and so forth. Many workers had autos, for we
bought them on time and paid for them in 3 years. [words indistinct] Some
persons even committed suicide as a result of buying autos. For some
persons would buy autos and they would even have to sell or lose their
homes to pay for them and then they killed themselves. In all there were
300,000 autos and 5,000 tractors.

Over the past 10 years we brought in only 1,000 autos but we imported
50,000 tractors. [applause, shouting] Yes, there were 800,000 children
without schools, clothing, anything, but there were cars bought on time.
[passage indistinct]

Children must be cared for, they must be given shoes, given everything, and
we had half a million unemployed. Schools must be built for all the
children, a (?clothing) program developed, while keeping in mind that tens
upon tens of thousands of children are born.

If the number of infant lives that the revolution has saved during its 12
and a half years of existence--through programs against poliomyelitis and
infectious diseases--were totalled we would find that the lives of hundreds
of thousands of children have been saved, statistically speaking. [passage
indistinct] For if we examine the statistics of Latin America, Asia and
Africa--poor countries--the number of children who die out of every 100 is
incredible.

In Cuba the revolution has reduced the infant mortality rate to a minimum.
Entire diseases have been eradicated. The country had to choose between
mourning and saving the lives of its children. [applause] [words
indistinct]

Then too, there was illiteracy. (?Do you know) the illiteracy index in the
Latin American countries? Anyone would be appalled--30, 40 percent, and
some countries have 70 percent illiteracy. Imagine a human being who does
not know how to read or write and who must spend his life in humiliation,
who must sign his name with his thumb print; one who must all his life feel
(?moments) of ignorance, insecurity, bitterness.

Here too, those who are reactionaries and behead children also behead men.
Look up the world figures. In some countries, in a rich highly developed
country, the average (?life span) is 85,69, 70. How many countries today
have average life spans of 35, 37, 40 years because of malnutrition, bad
health conditions, lack of doctors. The fact is that a doctor can save a
person today, but the person may die tomorrow if he does not eat. [passage
indistinct] I can tell you that our country is eradicating tuberculosis,
and that many hospitals that had been used for treating this are now
devoted to other public services. This disease, which had been a plague,
has been reduced to a minimum.

The conditions under which our people live are increasingly incredible. The
percentage of children who die the first year of their life and the
percentage of illiteracy are very high--50 percent in many countries. This
goes for developed countries, although paradoxically it is these same
countries which brought us the habits of industrialized societies. They
brought us luxury, and created minorities surrounded by frightful poverty,
for example, life in New York. They enjoy everything [word indistinct].
They change cars every year, amidst frightful poverty.

The revolution was (?waged) to try to change that, to change from the times
when a peasant plowed behind an ox spending hours and hours to plant spring
corn, rice on his plot--charca, I believe you call it. In any event there
was the man plowing 12 hours a day--actually working more than the ox--but
he also had to work mentally to direct the ox.

Meanwhile 300,000 cars were taking money for horns, spare parts, tires, for
everything. We were not against the automobile, but the problem was that
all that came from abroad and it was a burden [words indistinct]. Even so,
not importing these luxuries--we still do not have enough. Let me restate
this: We still do not have enough resources for luxury. We could say that
we suffer all luxuries but there is not enough for that.

Anyway it is a serious problem. Now every man will have to work double. We
are going to examine this thoroughly. Most of the work on farmland is with
tractors. Of course we have not achieved a perfect organization. With the
utmost honesty, wherever we go we tell of the errors, the waste, the
squandering, everything that has been done.

We who have in our hands the destiny of our country are not sages, we are
not scholars, we are not the sons of momios [applause] [momio are the
reactionaries in Chile]. Let me explain the momios of Cuba. This does not
mean the son of a worker, but the son or sons of big landowners, the
wealthy.

You in Chile have had much opportunity, you have universities in almost all
the cities. You have a substantially concentrated urban population. This
gives you more chances to go to the university. In our country we had just
one university--the University of Havana. What chance did a young man of a
humble family have to attend the university? Not one.

We had workers or a worker directing factories because they took away
everyone who knew anything. They bought them. Let me tell you Chileans that
the imperialists buy people, they buy them. They buy the boxer or the
baseball player sooner or later [words indistinct] that they trade in us.
You have seen how professionalized sports are.

Many ask, well, how is it that Cuba has been able to rival the United
States? Our country has beaten the United States in almost all team sports.
As we said before, taking baskethall for instance, they invented it and
they lost to us. [applause] They invented baseball and lost out to us. They
invented boxing and they lost out to us. They invented volleyball and lost
to us.

In Cuba athletes are not bought or sold. Sports is genuinely amateur, and
Cuba wins at sports. In Cuba there is no commercialization of sports. No
athlete is bought or sold. And if it is asked: Have professional sports
ended in Cuba? Yes, professionalism has ended and without it sports have
reached the highest level ever.

What did they do with the technicians? What did they do with many of our
technicians? The imperialists promised them villas and castles to leave the
country--without trained workers, without engineers, physicians--anything.
We declare this, we must say this. Let those who are here rejoice. We are
an alligator-shaped island 1,000 kms long and narrower than Chile, with a
superpowerful neighbor on one side. If magazines, movies and indoctrination
programs are brought here and your cultural values are being destroyed
imagine what the situation in Cuba was: What was Cuba? What cultural and
ideological penetration there was in our country. It is an unarmed country.
A new form of patriotism, a splendid form, is being created. The nation
will be tremendously strengthened.

That is why we were able to resist. But when the revolution triumphed we
did not have that form of patriotism. And the characters preferred a good
salary in New York and Miami to working in Cuba. There were many engineers,
technicians, and doctors; moreover, of the 6,000 doctors we had, they took
away 3,000. They were not patriotic. They had been brought up to be
indifferent toward society, their community, the community of a nation--an
indifference toward their fatherland, for the fatherland is everyone's.
Indeed the fatherland is everything; if you sell out the fatherland and go
to work in a rich country, you are a traitor to the fatherland, no question
about it. [applause, chanting]

Let us consider another kind of patriotism: Let us examine how much has
been written, how much protest there has been, against it. A (?son) of
imperialism does not give away a single thing. He does not let fall one
single word of (?technical knowledge), as we shall see. They take the
technicians away. That patriotism is doing two things: That fifth column at
the service of imperialist ideology has the mission of destroying the
people's moral values, destroying the peoples' spiritual values, destroying
their patriotism--for if you take that country completely, you buy it
completely, you penetrated it completely.

The word "fatherland" has great meaning, even under the Leninist concept.
And the symbol of the fatherland has great meaning. The idea that the
(?putschists) are against the fatherland is one of the biggest lies, one of
the most truculent, brazen slanders, ever made. Because under exploitative
regimes there is no patriotism, that is, under a regime of oligarchs and
land barons. They sell everything. Their task is to destroy patriotism.

For a country to be revolutionary, patriotism must be created; awareness
must be created; the new generations must be molded to fervently love their
country. But there is still more when the (?hour of danger) comes. Then
both the super-rich land baron, who goes to Paris or New York every year,
and the worker who has absolutely nothing--who does not even have a job,
who lacks everything, who lacks even a piece of bread in the morning, who
must wander around looking for odd jobs, whose daughter frequently ends up
in a brothel, who sees his child fall ill and die--both of them go forth
under one banner to defend the fatherland of the reactionaries, the
oligarchs, the sons of the rich and the exploiter.

The fatherland must have substance--not just an anthem, a flag, but an
anthem and a flag that represents something, everyone's fatherland. They
must represent the right to live. Look what happened in our country. The
fathers of the more than 800,000 children had not a single teacher. Then
the fatherland called upon them to defend it. The 500,000 unemployed were
called to defend it. Those who had not one miserable plot of land, with
nothing, no hospitals, schools, nothing, were called.

Yet did those symbols have meaning for them? (?A meaning)? No. And why had
this not occurred to them? Because the people are kept ignorant and
illiterate. And there is a reason for this. If they educate the people they
will wipe all this out. If they educate the people, the people would
resist. But see how they kept th people ignorant. yet when the hour
demanded sacrifice, who had to sacrifice themselves? Why those who had
nothing. And those who had everything sacrificed nothing at all.

Cuba--that was the kind of fatherland then; it was the fatherland of a
handful, though it should have been the fatherland of all the people. Our
country has had to retrench terribly, terribly; simply because it is
symbolic of the very word fatherland. Our national anthem has profound
substance, and every man and woman who feels he is part of the society,
every man and woman who feels the strength of the entire community knows
that no one will be abandoned, unprotected.

They know that if a life must be saved the community will spend what it
must, but the life will be saved--to save a life, an arm, sight. We never
spare any effort, any cost to insure respect. [applause]

In our country no one figures how much it will take to save the life of a
child. No, if the entire country has to ruin itself to save a life, it
ruins itself but it saves that life. That then is the feeling of solidarity
of the members of a country. This, the sense of the community.

Ah, and why does our country collect blood donations. More than 100,000
persons voluntarily donate blood for whoever needs it. This is the sense of
true brotherliness. Yet in the past one had to pay 50 pesos--imagine,
whenever a worker's child suddenly needed two three transfusions, at $53.

Today the community takes care of that. And this goes not just for domestic
matters. For when the earthquake occurred in Peru and plasma was needed, a
call was issued and 100,000 citizens donated blood in just 10 days, 10
days. [applause]

That is a lofty awareness of unity. Why? Because our revolution, besides
inspiring patriotism, true patriotism based on equality and justice, also
inspires the feeling of solidarity toward other countries. Hate toward
other countries was never engendered as the bourgeoisie nationalists did,
who many times had nothing to hate, but still conjured up numerous hatreds.
No. In our country, a solidarity toward our brother countries is aroused
and evident.

If a new country at a given time needs something or needs the blood of
Cubans, it can be sure that it will have it. They know that we teach the
feelings of patriotism in our country. We have raised the moral values in
our country [words indistinct].

One must see our fishermen when, on occasions, they are arrested
arbitrarily in international waters. Youth of 15, 16, and 17 years of age
are jailed and one must see how they behave, how they stand there. They
impress the imperialist [word indistinct]. I recall that anecdote, whether
true or not, which is told in history books concerned with early Rome when
Rome was being attacked. A youth is captured and he is threatened with
torture [word indistinct]. And his answer was to place his hand on the
(?sword), as if to say, "you cannot intimidate me by threatening to torture
me, or anything." That is how our youth behave. They maintain a proper and
firm attitude.

Everyone has been taught to fear the powerful United States. We had been
taught that it was powerful, invincible, that it must be respected, and it
would be best if we knelt, put our foreheads to the ground, and what have
you. And today when they go before the powerful those 15, 16, and
17-year-old youths hold their heads high, swelled with pride, and with a
dignity which others have become aware of but which the imperialists do not
know. [applause]

That was how they also made the mistake of Giron, when they went with
aircraft disguised with Cuban insignias. Pure minds! Moral minds! You can
see that everything is a lie, demagoguery, a falsehood. They bombed on the
morning of 15 April 1961 using planes which took off from Central American
countries. Then they landed in Florida, and immediately the U.S.
representative at the United Nations declared that they were Cuban Air
Force planes which had rebelled, had bombed a few places, and then had gone
to the United States.

What do you think of that?--At the United Nations, where there are the
representatives from all the countries of the world. And that is what they
told the entire world. And they are the ones who came to Chile and
everywhere. That is how they behave. Of course they could not hide (?the
truth).

When the invasion came, what happened? We had many 16 and 17-year-old youth
who had just finished learning how to handle the anti-aircraft weapons. And
we had the opportunity of observing the bombing of our fatherland--because
we had information of a certain movement in Oriente Province, because the
general staff was alert, and we saw in the early morning hours, about 0600,
some planes headed [leaves sentence unfinished].

The planes immediately attacked the air base, and munitions magazines. In a
matter of seconds, those boys who had never fired a weapon and had never
fought, in a matter of seconds there was a hail of (?tracer ammunition)
from the anti-aircraft weapons.

They were 16-year-old boys. In other words, patriotism had been raised to
its highest level in our country. But at the same time that patriotism had
been raised to its highest levels, we raised the nationalist awareness, the
spirit of solidarity towards the other countries of the world, and
especially toward the countries of Latin America which are our brothers.
Naturally, not toward the [words indistinct] of Latin America.

Understand me well. Our solidarity is toward the patriotic country, the
country that is struggling for its progress; the countries that struggle
for the solidarity of our countries; those which struggle for the union of
our countries; those which struggle for a fatherland of the future. Because
some day we will have the same fatherland without failing to love the
fatherland of our birth, and the feeling of love toward our fatherlands
joined in brotherhood.

That will be the inexorable future of this continent, and you have shown
this, you have shown it. The imperialist powers with their great economies
and great resources are advancing, advancing, advancing; and we remain
backward.

That is destiny and some day we will be distinguished sons of a community
of 600 million inhabitants which will be a united Latin America. [applause]

Our fatherland belongs to America. That is the will of our people. That is
the will of those who fought for our fatherland and independence in Cuba.
(?This is a return) to the will of Bolivar, San Martin, Sucre, O'Higgins
and of the patriots who made possible the independence of Mexico and
Central America, and of those who fought for Cuban independence. That will
be the inexorable result of awareness among our countries.

The Chilean case is clear proof of how one struggles when another country
has become aware. It begins to struggle. Of course the road is not easy. Of
course, it is long, the road is hard. But our fatherland and its modest
resources are at the service of brother countries. Our fatherland and our
(?resources) are at the service of Chile.

We do not go around preaching. No one in our country praises niggardly
chauvinism. No one in our fatherland praises Latin American disunion. When
any Chilean visits us he can stay there as long as he wants. And when the
representatives of the popular movement and of the Chilean Government visit
us, they are aware of the hospitality with which they are achieved. And
when President Allende visits our fatherland, he knows that he can stay
there as long as he wants. [applause]

Naturally, if the president visits our fatherland the conditions would be
different. Everyone would also want to see him. But we would be working to
persuade the people, telling them that when the president comes to our
country we must also rest. We will tell him that he has a house there where
he can rest. You tell me, one can rest in Valparaiso, or in any other
place. But you know how things are here.

When one is in his home there is no rest. Many times one has to leave home
to rest. And sometimes, one leaves home and is faced with what has happened
to me. There is one thing which Chileans can be certain about. No one will
insult the president of Chile [in Cuba]. No one will use indecent words
against the president of Chile. [applause] No one will use [word
indistinct] and hostility toward him.

Of course, in the face of the tremendous movement of the masses which has
been evident everywhere and in all cities, the insolent persons who were
planning (?demonstrations) have not appeared anywhere, anywhere. What has
this shown regarding the force of [words indistinct]? They do not appear
where the masses are. They show up where there are no masses. [applause]
[Words indistinct] a decisive chapter.

The entire world in observing. The entire world observes the process, how
it is moving forward, how they defend it, how awareness is awakened in the
most advanced sectors, the most progressive sectors, the most
revolutionary.

The entire world observes the Chileans' conduct. And the world trusts the
Chileans--their patriotism, their ability to struggle, their ability to
coordinate, to unite and to unify the forces needed to carry the process
forward.

The world observes, and we are all unafraid, without fright, with optimism
and confidence in the future, for our cause is a just cause. Our objectives
are the most worthy objectives humanity has set for itself. We aspire to
the creation of sister communities, real human communities wherein all have
the right to live with dignity, respect--where we can all enjoy the
strength of the entire community. Our cause is a just cause.

Fortunately we have reached the era in which the old societies will
disappear, as the enslaving society of the past has disappeared, as the
feudal society disappeared, so too the remaining society that has divided
humanity into the exploiters and the exploited, throughout history, will
disappear.

The proletariat, the revolutionary class, will unite with peasants and the
students, the intellectuals, the patriots, all men with feelings of love
for their fatherland. And Chile is a country that throughout its history
has highly demonstrated its capacity for this despite the enemy's actions,
despite the bewildering activity of its enemies, despite the attempt to
spiritually disarm the country.

The time has come for this process, in one way or another, to establish
that superior community envisaged by humanity today. And when the founders
of modern revolutionary theories were asked what would happen with human
history, or human society, the day that the social system under which our
people lived as the exploited and the exploiters ended, they answered:
Humanity's prehistoric era will have ended, and its real history will
begin. And we have had the opportunity of living it in our country.

For our country has already begun its real and definitive history. The
history of humanity is dawning.

Away with the prehistoric era. Those defending that era will also be left
behind. It matters not what they invent. It matters not what they do. Their
lies and their slander, their insolence, their servile spirit,
antipatriotic and reactionary, do not matter.

Humanity will more forward and will write its history and with it: Chile,
Cuba, Latin America. Thank you very much. [applause]
-END-