-DATE-
19770726
-YEAR-
1977
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
SPEECH
-AUTHOR-
F.CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
24TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSAULT ON MONCADA BARRA
-PLACE-
CAMAGUEY
-SOURCE-
HAVANA DOMESTIC SERVICE
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19770727
-TEXT-
Fidel Gives Speech

FL262239Y Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 2208 GMT 26 Jul 77 FL

[Speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro marking the 24th anniversary of the
assault on Moncada barracks at public rally held in Camaguey--live]

[Text]  Comrades of the party, government, youth and mass organizations;
distinguished guests; people of Camaguey; [applause, indistinct chanting]
people of Ciego de Avila; [applause] compatriots from throughout the
country:  [applause]

Today we commemorate one more anniversary of the historic 26 July 1953.
All of us, the party leaders, revolutionary cadres, relatives of the
glorious ones killed at Moncada and of all who gave their lies in this long
struggle are happy to see the joy and enthusiasm with which you hail this
date. [applause] We know the tremendous joy produced among the peoples of
Camaguey and Ciego de Avila over the news that this city was selected to
host the main event on 26 July. [applause]

We know of the emulation work, the special effort, the push given to all
tasks in all fields in these two provinces.  At first, we were considering
the idea of holding a smaller ceremony such as the one held for the 20th
anniversary [of the Granma landing] in Santiago de Cuba because of the
concern that is always involved in a mobilization of this magnitude, the
risks of accidents, the inconveniences for citizens, the unending hours
that many of them must remain standing from early hours. [applause,
indistinct cheers]

However, the people of Camaguey and Ciego de Avila insisted that they
wanted a big rally in which all could participate. [applause] In the end,
the party leadership decided to hold a big public rally.  We have been
informed that present here are 150,000 citizens from the interior of the
two provinces, who came in 4,000 trucks and 29 trains [applause] and,
fortunately, we have not had the slightest accident to regret. [applause]
That is efficiency.  That is organization. [applause] There are also
present here more than 100,000 residents of the city of Camaguey.
[applause] And no one doubts that the total number of people attending this
rally exceeds expected estimates. [applause] At least there are many
outside the perimeter of this gigantic plaza.  We then have problems with
loudspeakers and microphones and some who say they cannot hear. [indistinct
shouts] But apparently now all can hear. [cheers]

This ceremony is characterized not only by its organization and enthusiasm
but also by its exemplary discipline. [applause] Those who believe that
revolutions lose the enthusiasm of the first days [people shout "no!"]
should have come to Camaguey during these past few weeks. [applause] They
should see this ceremony to convince themselves that real revolutions do
not lose the enthusiasm of the first days. [people applaud and shout
"Fidel, Fidel!"] In real revolutions, besides the greater conscience,
greater organization enthusiasm also grows along with the confidence of the
masses, with their greater understanding of all their problems and with
their self-confidence.

Revolution teaches all of us much and teaches us something new every day.
Why?  What are the deepest causes of this enthusiasm?  They are that the
revolution has not lost time; the revolution has worked; the country has
made progress in many areas, in all areas; the people have made much effort
[crowd shouts "no!"] yes, I think so, although we should always try to make
a greater effort. [people shout "yes!" and applaud] The people placed all
their trust in the revolution, they placed all their enthusiasm, all their
support.  How could we have witnessed this kind of miracle without the
support which the people have given the revolution over these 24 years!
[applause]

Without the people's support victory would not have been possible; the
creation of a revolutionary fatherland would not have been possible.  The
revolution's work would not have been possible without this support and
without this examplary unity of our people, our workers, peasants, manual
laborers and intellectuals.  And the revolution's work can be seen.  We can
see it in this city of Camaguey.  However, the first work of the revolution
was to survive, defend itself, defeat the enemies [applause] in order to
enjoy the right to live in peace, to work, to create and to make progress.

Camaguey is part of our country, and here in Camaguey one can see in all
areas the revolution's work and the impressive progress of the past few
years.  Contrary to what happened in the past, the revolution is not
characterized by demogogy or by false promises.  It faces difficulties and
tries to create them [corrects himself] to resolve them.  We could say that
in the past 5 years, the progress made in Camaguey and Ciego de Avila is in
reality impressive.  In the industrial area, a number of factories are
being built, some of which have been completed.  In this city alone, you
have commemorated this 26 July with an important industry, which is the
water and sewage pipe plant. [applause] You are building, all at the same
time, a very modern and large milk industry with a capacity to pasteurize
200,000 liters of milk daily and to process another 40,000 of yogurt.
[applause] Already a bakery which can produce 25,000 pounds of bread daily
is being built.  [applause] A large meat complex which can process the
production of the cattle farms of the two provinces is being built.  A
housing factory [presumably for prefabricated components] capable of
producing 1,500 a year is being built.  [applause] A construction complex
is being developed.  A stone and sand mill capable of producing 1.2 million
cubic meters a year is being built.  [applause]

There are other industries.  For example, the agricultural-livestock
packinghouse, the poultry slaughterhouse.  A hydroponic installation also
is under construction for the cultivation of vegetables in summer, and this
constitutes a real industry.  [applause] And to the extent that the
country's economic possibilities allow it, new industries will continue to
be built around the city of Camaguey--mechanical industries [applause],
foodstuff industries, construction industries and textile industries.

We would have wanted to include in this 5-year period--but it was not
possible--an important textile mill and a modern brewery industry
[applause] for which it is said you possess magnificent waters.  They were
not included in this 5-year period, but some day these industries will come
to the city of Camaguey, for this city is the country's third largest in
population and we are very much concerned that the new generations now
being educated and growing up in their time have appropriate jobs.
[applause]

These industries not only create wealth but they also raise the region's
contribution to the entire country and provide immense satisfaction.

We not only have been working hard and will continue to work in the
industrial field for the development of this city, but in recent years an
impressive effort has been made in social development.  Camaguey today
already has its university [applause]--or its universities whatever you
want to call it--which will have 6,000 students in the next school year.
And the Camaguey universities already have many new
installations--laboratories, classes, residences for the students and
professors--and will continue developing at a great rate of speed.

Camaguey already has its Maximo Gomez Vocational School [applause] which is
one of the most beautiful of its type in this country.  [applause] Camaguey
already has its primary teacher training school [applause] with more than
2,000 students, with an adjunct primary school having a capacity for 1,000
students [applause] which also comprises one of the most beautiful
architectural complexes in Cuba.  Camaguey already has its physical
education and sports teacher training school [applause] which guarantees
the growing rate of these activities in both provinces.  Camaguey has
already completed the sports initiation school [applause] from where, we
have not doubt, will come great national international champions.
[applause]

Camaguey will complete a school for child care center instructors in
August.  [applause] At the same time, it is beginning to build what it
lacks--and I had forgotten to mention it--a school which is the first of
its kind--the magnificent Pino Tres agricultural-livestock school.  This
was the first.

What does Camaguey need to be complete in these educational institutions?
Shall I tell you!  You need a new Camilo Cienfuegos military school
[applause] which will have a capacity for 1,000 students.  The school now
exists but it really does not have facilities.  You need a public health
technology institute and a construction technology institute [applause]
and, lastly, an arts school.  [applause]

This city, capital of this province, has already begun to have all the
educational institutions which, in our judgment, the country's 14 provinces
should have.  [applause] In the past, just a few years ago, we lacked all
of that and here we are merely lacking only a few of these types of
institutions, and they are beginning to be built.

The provincial hospital has been expanded in Camaguey and new capabilities
have been created.  [applause]

New clinics, nursery schools, dental clinics, old people's homes and
special schools are being built.  Primary schools are also being built.
All these installations which are necessary for the security, tranquility,
welfare, education, health, sports and culture of the Camaguey people are
being built.  [applause] In practice nothing has been forgotten.  Nothing
is neglected.  If more cannot be done it is not because of a lack of will
among you and among us, it is because we do not have more resources.  We
are working for the present and planning for the future.

Camaguey is not only the third largest city in the country; it is also one
of the oldest, founded 400 years ago [applause] or more. [applause] We are
working on drawing up the outline plan for the city, which is something
very important in order to know where the housing, the schools, the
factories, the streets, the avenues, the water and sewage system and so on
are to be placed.

By virtue of this outline plan, important problems are being solved
because the old railroad, as you know, crosses the city.  The old main road
crossed the city also.  In the new plans, the national highway will pass
near the city, near this place, but outside the city.  And it will be
connected to the city by a six-lane avenue.  In the future modern central
railroad which is being rebuilt or, that is, being built, since we are
turning the old railroad into a modern and efficient railroad, will not
pass through the center of the city, it will pass outside the city
[applause], a relatively small distance from this place where we are now.
Therefore in the coming years, Camaguey will see the crossing of that
modern railroad, of that magnificent national highway without it bothering
the people of Camaguey, who will be able to receive the extraordinary
benefits of these communications systems which are important for the whole
country.

In Camaguey, other social projects such as the beautiful recreational park
for children, which was practically the first of this kind built in Cuba,
have been built.  [applause] Recently, a hotel was built, and also the city
is being expanded.  In the future, however, we should know where the city
is being expanded to, where each building is to go, where the housing will
be.  We cannot grow in any direction as in the past or one day we will be
in the middle of the railroad again [laughter] or we will be in the middle
of the national highway.

As you know, besides the hydraulics projects built for the city, a dam with
a capacity of 150 million cubic meters of water is being built.  And a
plant to make water potable is being built.  This decreases the number of
[Castro falls to complete sentence] In the first place it provides water in
which we can trust 100 percent and prevents illnesses.  In the area of
housing [applause], in the are of housing, work is also being done in
Camaguey.  We already have the first 12-story building. [applause] Now,
when someone gets near the city, he can say we are already near Camaguey
because this building can be seen from several kilometers away.  They are
really beautiful buildings.  There is a plan to build some more.
Unfortunately, we cannot always build upward because these buildings
represent an expenditure of foreign currency per apartment which is much
higher--since elevators and other installations must be added--much higher
than 5-story buildings.  However, we know that although we are making
progress in housing, that new microdistricts are being established in this
area we cannot say that what has been done has been sufficient, either in
Camaguey or throughout the country.

During the past few years new cement plants have been built.  The first
lines will already begin production in 1978, and then in 1979.  The last
lines will begin in 1980.  In 1980, we will have a cement production
capability above 5 million tons of cement.  [applause] New factories to
make floor tiles construction materials, stones, sand are being built.

You will have to do something with this 1.2 million cubic meters which the
new mill for construction materials will produce.  We have been creating
the material conditions to give a considerable impetus to the construction
of housing when the time comes.  We have been able to give an impetus to
other things during the past years, such as the ones I mentioned initially.
However in the future we will be able to devote greater amounts of cement
and construction materials to the solution of the housing problem in
Camaguey and in the whole country.  [applause] All this must be done with
much organization, with much planning--this is the importance of the
outline plans.  Constructing new buildings does not mean that we are going
to forget the old, especially in Camaguey where they have a special
importance because you have thousands of buildings in old
Camaguey--buildings which have a very great historic and cultural value.
[applause]

These structures must be preserved and maintained so that in the future the
community and visitors to Camaguey can have the two types of
architecture--the old and the modern. [applause] You must understand that
the style of homes of the past cannot be built today.  Prefabricated
elements must be used and elements must be combined.  Beautiful buildings
can be built with these, of course, but not of the same style.
Construction is done with much more productivity and the solution cannot be
other than through prefabrication.  However, the old structures built under
another style will acquire more value as time passes.

You can see, for example, how many persons who come is Camaguey go to see
the residence where Ignacio Agramounte was born and lived.  [applause] It
is of great cultural value, which enriches the spirit of the community and
people.  The future generations will be eternally grateful for the
preservation of those buildings that are more than 100 years old and even
more than 200 years old.  [applause]

The revolution has even tried to reproduce those famous earthen water
tanks from the times when there was no aqueducts.  [applause]  Today they
are practically esthetic elements, a characteristic of this region, and
there is always the need for one or another water tank to replace one that
was broken or for a restaurant or for some recreation center or for any
construction that imitates the old style.  And we believe that if we can
build modern and big aqueducts and water purification plants, we can also
build some earthen water tanks.  [applause]

Work has been done not only in the city of Camaguey.  A new industrial
community has emerged in Nuevitas which today has an important cement plant
that already produces half a million tons annually and an important
thermoelectric plant that has been expanded constantly and where a
64,000-kilowatt unit is being installed.  Neuvitas has the extremely
important chemical industry that produces fertilizers.  It was built there
with the generous assistance of the Soviet Union.  [applause] This factor
already produces more than 200,000 tons of nitrogenous fertilizers, which
are so important for agriculture.

The port of Neuvitas is being modernized.  A modern 300-bed hospital is now
under construction.  A technological institute for more than 1,000 students
is under construction or is almost completed.  A foodstuff complex is also
under construction.

A modern fishing port has been built in Santa Cruze del Sur and you have
just repaired, rerouted and practically rebuilt and much improved the
highway from Camaguey to Santa Cruz.  [applause]

The greatest efforts in these provinces are being made in the agricultural
field.  Important rice plans have been developed in the south in recent
years.  Very important dairy projects are being developed in this area
around Camaguey, where more than 150 new dairies have been built already.
The (rectangulo) plan is being developed for the production of meat.  It
covers 12,000 caballerias and today is the country's largest and most
important.  [applause]

An important citrus fruits project is being developed.  It will have
covered an area of approximately 12,000 caballerias, about 1,000
caballerias, in the area of Sola.  New important sugarcane projects are
being developed.  The production of tubers and vegetables has grown
considerably in recent times.

There is an important tourist resource in this area--Santa Lucia Beach,
known throughout the country for its quality, where a modern hotel has been
built.  And a highway, or at least the earthwork for a highway has been
completed joining the province's land areas with the adjacent keys where
[applause] there are tens of kilometers of magnificent beaches.  All this
is an important potential for national and international tourism and due
attention is being given to this possibility to develop it as soon as
circumstances allow us.

An enormous effort is being made also in Ciego de Avila Province.  It will
also have its own university, consisting of an agricultural livestock
school that is already under construction.  [applause] They [the people of
Ciego de Avila] are building their primary teacher training schools--one in
Ciego de Avila and another one in Moron, each with a capacity for 1,000
students.  [applause]

They are building their hotels in each one of those cities.  They are
building yeast factories for food production which is of great importance
for the whole country.  Also, they are developing important citrus fruit,
cattle and sugarcane plans.

In Moron, a 600-bed hospital is being built.  [applause] The Moron sewage
system is almost finished, according to some reports, or it will be
finished soon.  [applause] The sewage system and the hospital, the two
greatest demands of Moron the past few years will both be satisfied soon.
[applause]

In the two provinces important communications and road construction plans
have been developed during the past few years.  Camaguey was one of the
largest provinces and with the least communications in all the country.
The northern branch of the beltway is being built; the central highway is
being built from Santa Clara; and thousands of kilometers of agricultural
roads and hundreds of kilometers of socioeconomic roads have been built.

Also, we cannot forget the effort which has been made in the whole province
in the area of education, especially in the rural areas, the hundreds of
new primary schools which have been built in these two provinces, and above
all the very important plan to build rural boarding secondary schools and
pre-university schools and polytechnic schools. [applause]

In the two provinces we already have dozens of schools and polytechnic
schools of this kind, and more are being built.  Because of this, the
number of secondary school students in these two provinces has increased in
an extraordinary manner. Besides this, we have been able to support the
development plans, such as the ones for Sola, Ceballos and others.  These
schools have been an important step in our progress, and you people of
Camaguey and Ciego de Avila know that not one of your children will lack
the opportunity to study in a basic secondary school.  [applause] You have
known for a long time that everyone can study in a primary school.

This has been guaranteed, but during the past few years we have been trying
to guarantee entry to the basic secondary schools, to the pre-university
institutes, to the polytechnic schools and in the technology institutes.
As we said recently at a graduation ceremony, we have hopes that in the
future we can create the conditions so that any citizen of the country,
through regular study or through guided study, will be able, if he wants,
to undertake higher studies.  [applause]

Along with this and to guarantee the agricultural-livestock development of
the province, of the provinces, special attention has been paid to the
construction of dams, microdams and the exploration and exploitation of
underground water.  You know well how the climate behaves in this country,
with the work which the rains gave us during the dry season constantly
interrupting the sugarcane harvest.  A rainy April, an even more rainy May,
and a dry June, and an almost dry July without knowing what August will be
like.  We cannot for all our lives depend on these conditions of nature.
We must be able to control these factors of nature.  The province has four
large dam construction brigades.  To tell you the truth, one of them is the
result of the generous cooperation of our sister Villarenas provinces
[Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, and Sancti Spiritus] [applause]--the Antonio
Maceo Brigade.  [applause] Dams and mirodams and irrigation systems are
being built in all the regions of these two provinces.  At the rate we are
going, it will not take us too long to be able to make use of even the last
drop of water that falls in these two provinces.  This principle which
applies to the entire country, by which work is being done in all the
country, is being consistently applied in these provinces.  We will have
over 30,000 cubic meters, more than 300 million cubic meters for
agriculture, and we will be able to irrigate dozens of thousands of
caballerias of land.  Only this will give security to our agriculture.
Only this will enable us to respond to the demands and needs of a growing
population.

We are working in cane agriculture.  In the provinces, in these two
provinces large possibilities still exist to increase sugar production.  If
we draw comparisons, we still have weak points in the areas of agriculture
and the sugar industry.  For instance, in these two provinces we now have
more caballerias dedicated to the cultivation of sugarcane then there were
under capitalism.  In these two provinces we now have more sugarcane per
caballerias than we had under capitalism.  In the two provinces taken
together we now produce more sugar than was produced, for instance, in the
last 5-year period under capitalism.  But in certain areas we are at a
disadvantage.  Although capitalists had fewer caballerias dedicated to the
cultivation of sugarcane, they were obtaining more sugar per caballeria.
This is so despite the fact that our caballerias have more sugarcane and
not only that, we have better sugarcane than the capitalists had.  Still,
in these two provinces we are obtaining less sugar per caballeria than the
capitalists were obtaining.  [applause]

Industrial efficiency and yields are below capitalist levels.  Their
efficiency level was a little more than 86 percent, but in the past year we
have obtained only a little more than 82 percent in these two provinces.
These are two aspects in which we have to make greater efforts.

Where are we way ahead of capitalists?  In productivity per man in the area
of sugarcane agriculture.  [applause] For instance, in 1952, capitalists
employed 74,000 macheteros.  In 1977 we are employing about 14,000
macheteros.  [applause] About 60,000 macheteros less than under capitalism.
The revolution is producing three times more sugar per sugarcane
agricultural worker than each sugarcane agricultural workers produced under
capitalism.

In 1952, 10,000 arrobas was produced by each man-harvest.  Today we produce
50,000 arrobas per man-harvest, mechanization included.  That is, five
times more.  [applause] This has been the greatest advance made by these
two provinces--in the area of sugarcane production.  It represents an
important advance.

Already, 55 percent of the cutting procedure and 100 percent of the
collecting process are mechanized in the two provinces, and the process
will continue.  [applause]

You may recall the anguish of the first years of the revolution, when we
did not have mechanization in sugarcane, when we had to mobilize tens of
thousands of workers and youths from all over the country of Camaguey.  For
this reason, it was decided that the main emphasis would be placed on the
mechanization of agriculture and harvests in these provinces and we are
already reaping the fruits of this effort.  We still have to mobilize
people.  We have the important participation of the youth labor army
[applause], but now these mobilizations are much smaller.

You cannot imagine what mechanization has meant to these provinces.
Because in the past, where did those almost 80,000 macheteros who arrived
in Camaguey come from!  They came from all over the island.  They came from
the armies of the unemployed.  They mobilized on their own.  Capitalists
spent very little because they did not provide loading, cafeterias, or
anything.  Not even transport.  Each person came on his own with his little
basket hanging from the shoulder and his [word indistinct] to stay in any
barrack or any other place to live as he could.  By creating new job
opportunities, the revolution eliminated this type of man, whom hunger
forced to come to Camaguey.

Then, the voluntary work and the people's enthusiasm enable us to solve the
problem.  Now it is practically the machines which are solving the problem.
[applause] Machines in agriculture, machines in harvest, machines in
construction, machines in transport, and so on.  As you know, at present we
use planes to spread herbicides.  Machines and chemistry, we could say.
This year there was a mobilization to help these two provinces.

The 11th festival contingent was created, [applause] formed by the workers
of the capital who cleaned as I understand--about 4,000 caballerias, or a
little more--and it is said they worked extraordinarily hard--and of
brigades [applause] and unions which fulfilled the norms on a 300 percent
basis; they worked 10 and 12 and even 14 hours.  They refused the passes
[applause] and stayed 2 months in the province.  This is a good
demonstration of the enthusiasm and awareness of the masses.  This is a
good demonstration [applause] that the revolution is strengthened in the
spirit of work, in the spirit of struggle of its children.  But not only
have workers come from the capital, but also from Oriente or from the
sister eastern provinces [applause].  And even more, thousands of students
mobilized for the 11th festival [applause].  And the students who had
already worked in agriculture as students of pre-university schools in
rural areas or polytechnic schools or who had already been working in the
programs of rural schools for 6 weeks, thousands of these students
sacrificed 3 weeks of their vacations in the months of summer--in the
hottest months [applause] when work is hardest--and did not hesitate to
participate in those tasks.  This is a good demonstration also of the
magnificent revolutionary spirit of our extraordinary youth.  [applause]

Those who do not believe in the increasing spirit of enthusiasm and
awareness of the countries in revolutionary times:  Let them come and see
this.  [applause] And how very important these mobilizations are, because
we did not have enough herbicides for our entire crop of cane; the ideal
thing is to clean the cane with herbicides, but due to the low price of
sugar the country could not purchase all the herbicide it needed; it
purchased some, but there was not enough foreign currency to buy more
herbicide.  However, the cane had to be cleaned because the revolution can
suppress the exploitation of man by man, but it cannot suppress the need to
plant, to clean, to cut cane and to produce sugar, [applause] because that
is the material basis of the life of the people.  And with the herbicide
available, and using it much more effectively, with airplanes and with
knapsacks--according to circumstances--and with the sweat and goodwill of
the workers of these two provinces, the workers of the eastern provinces,
the students, we have reached this 26 July almost with 100 percent of the
cane cleaned in the provinces of Camaguey and Ciego de Avila.  [applause]

That will mean more sugar next year, working here with new varieties,
increasing irrigation as we are doing here and in the other provinces.  We
will liberate ourselves from the hazards of climate and I can assure you
that no sugarcane-producing country in the world and no country in this
hemisphere is exerting as much effort on irrigation as Cuba is doing.
Nothing even similar to this, either in cane sugar or in anything else.
But working like this in the area of farming--with new varieties, with
fertilizers, cleaning our plants and implementing mechanization--we will be
able to guarantee a yearly increase in our sugar production.  It is true
that at present sugar brings low prices in the world market, but we sell a
very important amount of our sugar to the USSR and to other socialist
countries [applause] at very satisfactory prices.  And Cuba's supplies to
the Soviet Union, our main market, and to other socialist countries
[applause] will continue growing from now until 1980, and after 1980, and
from 1980 to 1990.  For this reason we cannot forget sugar and these two
provinces are sugar producers par excellence.  They have potential for the
future, not only for producing more sugar in the current centrals and in
the current caballerias of cane, but they have possibilities for
considerable increasing new sugarcane areas and new sugar centrals.
[applause]

We are all pleased to hear that a new central is already being built in the
current province of Camaguey, in the southern part, and that rapid advances
are being made in the construction of that central, which will have a
capacity of 600,000 arrobas per day.

(?In general there is a lot of rain there) and water can be dammed.  A
large part of this new central will be irrigated and there is a possibility
of building up to six new centrals of this kind in the current Camaguey
Province [applause] without taking into account the possibility of
expanding new facilities and especially of increasing the cane yield per
caballeria and utilizing the most effective industrial means possible.

The day may come when the current Camaguey will produce as mush sugar as
former Camaguey and Ciego de Avila produced together. [applause] Of course,
Ciego de Avila has possibilities, though not as many as Camaguey, of
increasing its sugar production.  Your problem is mechanization, because
the people of Camaguey themselves and the new people who are arriving must
tackle their industrial and farming tasks. [applause]

The country will help them out, particularly by stressing the use of
machinery, by supplying them with equipment fertilizers and herbicides.  To
the extent possible, we will increase the available supply so that a day
may come when the people of Camaguey will not need any kind of
mobilization.  [applause] We are certain that you will be able to
accomplish this.  [applause]

Evaluate the advancement made in many areas.  In 1970 there was practically
not a single construction brigade of those that have filled the province
with polytechnic institutes, technology institutes, and high schools, and
have filled the city with all these institutions that we said are being
built--hospitals and many other social service facilities.  Due to
Camaguey's recent advancement, we are convinced that there will be no
impossible task of any kind or any sort of insurmountable obstacle for your
people of Camaguey and of Avila.  [applause]

Ah, and what good news:  The sugarcane combine factory will be dedicated in
Holguin tomorrow.  [applause]  It will have be able to produce 600 combines
a year.  [applause] And they will be top quality machines.  Who does not
remember the distress of the early years of the revolution, Che's efforts
to manufacture [applause] the first sugarcane combine at a time when there
was no know-how for this in the country?  Blockaded, the country could not
even secure the instructions for a machine that was being used in Hawaii or
any other similar place.  The sugar-producing countries, most of the
under-developed, did not have machinery either.  The initial efforts to
build a little combine by our poor, almost nonexistent mechanical industry
began.  We began to use the cane collector [alzadora].  The first was
practically a piece of equipment that was used to pick up hay in the Soviet
Union, and it began to be adapted so at least cane could be collected by
means of machines and the work of the cane cutters was made lighter.  And
then came other machines, other efforts, [applause] the collection centers,
intended to increase the production rate of the cutter.

Thus, our technicians gradually developed machinery and the Soviets, along
with us, also developed their machinery.  [applause] Although they have no
sugarcane and they did not manufacture combines, in the interest of helping
us out, they gave the pertinent instructions to their mechanical industry,
and once we had a blueprint, we could undertake the task of improving it.
There have been many efforts made in these past years to have our own
sugarcane combine and we already have the KTP-1, which is a good machine.
[applause] And we are going to have the KTP-2, which will be an even better
machine.  [applause]

I would like to tell you an anecdote.  A friend of Cuba, a foreigner, made
a gesture.  He said he wanted to donate money to purchase a sugar combine,
the best there was.  He made the offer.  We talked to the comrades in
charge of farming, the sugar industry, the sugar sector, and we asked them
what to do.  They answered: Buy the parts for the machine that we are
manufacturing, because in the long run it will be the best in the world.
[applause]

It is not a matter of chauvinism or anything like that that we have the
mania of thinking that what we have is best and we are going to overvalue
ourselves.  No, No, no.  We know all the defects of the KTP-1 and how year
after year it improved as its defects were corrected.  We know that the
KTP-2 already registers better performance rates than many of the most
modern machines of other countries.

It still has mechanical parts which will have to be replaced with hydraulic
systems, but when you have a factory of 600 units per annum and a mass of
young workers and technicians working enthusiastically to improve, with the
country's cooperation, the existing machinery.  I do not have the slightest
doubt that with passing years this machine will be one the best sugarcane
combines on the market.  [applause]

We shall have difficulties during the first phase, but to be able to say
that the country already has its factory for sugarcane combines in
something really stimulating and extraordinary.  To know that our own
workers and engineers will day by day improve these machines gives us a
great deal of confidence.  [applause]

Likewise, the day after tomorrow, we shall inaugurate in Manzanillo the
irrigation tubing plant [applause] and the day after that we shall
inaugurate in Cienfuegos the first match factory of the 10 we are building
in the country.  [applause] Likewise on June 1 we inaugurated in Guantanamo
a new telegraphic system.  This is why we can say that this effort which
we have seen today in Camaguey Province in Building industries, developing
agriculture and in social projects, can be applied to the whole country.
[applause] because the whole country is making a similar effort.
Throughout the country the masses have a reply to the same problems
confronting the Camaguey masses.  Throughout the country a great effort has
been made to cultivate and work the canefields, to harvest sugarcane even
under the worst conditions, practically in the rain, [applause] and
fulfilling, almost 100 percent, the sugar production plan.  Although we
have not had such poor harvest weather for many years, the workers and
party leaders in all the provinces, aware of the importance of this effort,
made it.  So we can say that today the revolutionary spirit is a symbol of
revolutionary effort and fighting spirit prevailing throughout the country.
[applause]

These efforts are a homage to those who have fallen, [applause] not with
words but with deeds.  [applause] In the past we were used to hearing the
politicians speak of Marti, Naceo Gomez and others.  Yet we all know that
this was the most cynical and the most hypocritacl of all homages.  The
highest homage was present in today's speech when, through our minds, our
souls and our hearts we recalled the past and its truths and the best
homage paid to Marti, Maceo, Gomez, Agramonte and all the patriots
[applause] and their struggle for liberation is the struggle of our
generation for national liberation.  This is why we commemorate this 26
July among many advances and encouraging signs.

We greet this 26 July with the implementation of the new
political-administrative division in the country [applause] which
undoubtedly operates efficiently and contributes with encouraging and
useful results.  We can see how the party works at its best and how the
mass organizations work better and how the state organizations work better
with this new political-administrative division.  Above all, we can see the
extraordinary force we created and the momentum and [words indistinct]
represented by the popular powers. [applause] They have barely begun
working, but their results can already be seen.  Now in any province,
smaller now, work can be carried out much more efficiently in every
respect.  There is more control, besides the fact that our leaders have
much more experience and much better understanding and much better balance.

When I mentioned the schools, I forgot one here in Camaguey, precisely the
party's school.  [applause] Ah, but how important are these party schools.
How important it is that cadres be trained.  I spoke of the first years of
the revolution and recalled when we were trying to invent a small machine
to cut sugarcane.  Likewise, during the first years of the revolution, I
recall the widespread ignorance, the number of illiterates in the country,
the immense majority of the people and the cadres without a third or
fourth-grade education.  I recall having to face all tasks all of a sudden.

One has to see the levels being reached now by our cadres--our political
and administrative cadres--through labor and peasant education, through
directed courses, through the party's schools.  Many of them have already
reached university levels.  A large number of them are studying in high
school.  It is quite a spectacle to see an entire party and an entire
people studying together.

The desire to study reigns everywhere, especially within the party, from
the directorate to the rank and file.  On this 26 July, we can say with
satisfaction that we have comrades in the Central Committee who were our
comrades in the guerrilla struggle when they only had an elementary-level
education but who today have university degrees. [applause] They acquired
these degrees through their will, persistence and efforts.  And this
educational effort is beginning to show.  We see much better educated
people everywhere.  They are not new--it is just that they were young at
the beginning of the revolution and they have been training over the years.
And the new generations will be even better prepared. [applause]

Things are being done better, much better.  Take for instance the
organization [of this event].  I do not mean to say that everything is fine
or anywhere near it.  There are abundant reasons to complain.  But we also
have new institutions, and we have the popular powers, and we have the
masses continuously participating in all these things.  Therefore, we could
say, or rather, the masses could say:  I am to blame for whatever is going
wrong.  Meaning the masses, not me.  Please do not be confused.  [laughter,
applause]

As a member of the masses, I have my share of blame just like anybody else.
[applause] What this means is that now problems are increasingly in the
hands of the masses.  Besides, the leaders come from the masses.  The
leaders of today and of tomorrow.

Illiterate masses could only produce illiterate leaders or wait for some
doctor to return from a university to rule them.  Yes, there will be
doctors graduating from the universities, but they will be the sons of
workers and peasants.  [applause]

Before, the doctors in the universities were usually the sons of members of
the bourgeoisie--landowners, capitalists and big tycoons.  In these two
provinces, 1,500 families and 16 foreign companies owned 80 percent of
the land. [applause]

What satisifies us the most is seeing those institutions in which our
people's children are receiving education without exception.  What
capitalist schools--the best among them, which of them--could resemble the
Maximo Gomez Vocational School?  Which one of them? [applause]

What capitalist school--the best among them--could resemble the high
schools and pre-university schools that the revolution has built in the
rural areas for the workers' children?  [applause]

Today, our people's children not only receive an education and have schools
in which to conduct their high school studies in preparation for their
higher studies, but they also have the best of all imaginable schools.  It
is a matter of great satisfaction to be able to say after these years of
revolution that today the children of Cuban workers and peasants have much
better schools, in which they receive a much better and more scientific
education, than the best schools attended by the children of members of
the bourgeoisie and the landowners.  [applause]

For all these reasons, the people are increasingly supporting the party and
the revolution.  [applause] Certainly to what has been said, it is not true
that any human being is being mistreated.  The ones who mistreated and
exploited the people were the exploiters and oppressors, to whom the people
responded with the deepest hatred.  In the same manner, the people respond
to the revolution with the greatest support and solidarity, because
solidarity and generosity have truly developed in the hearts of our
people.  [applause]

We are celebrating this 26 July not only with a new political and
administrative division, but also perfecting our work, gradually forging a
system for directing the economy and consequently implementing the
agreements reached at our party's first congress.  [applause]

This 26 July is also being commemorated on the eve, or rather in the year
preceding the celebration, of the World Youth and Students Festival, which
is to be held in our country.  [applause] This constitutes an immense
stimulus for our students and an immense honor for our people.  And our
people have warmly welcomed as their own this great festivity of youth.

Work is being carried out to organize the festival and it is hoped that 50
million pesos will be collected.  [applause] No form of collection is more
beautiful than that of the students who have come to clean sugarcane and
who will contribute their wages to the festival's funds.  [applause]

We will also receive contributions from other countries, especially the
socialist countries.  The festival will be financed through a collection
and with contribution from other countries.  I say this so that nobody will
say later that the festival is taking even one grain of sugar or rice from
anybody.  But if it did, we would gladly give it because we have already
done that more than once.  [applause]

They already took it away from us once to give to Chile.  But, simply for
your information, the country will receive many thousands of tons of food
for the festival. [applause] Therefore, it will be achieved with a minimal
financial sacrifice for our country, but with all our support and our
enthusiasm. [applause] Also in 1979, our country will host the Summit
Conference of Nonalined Countries. [applause] These events demonstrate the
increasing prestige of our revolution and our socialist fatherland.
[applause] On 28 September I spoke to you about the difficulties facing us
and, in fact, we have faced them and we still have them, but we confront
them and we struggle against them and, as we had said, in spite of those
difficulties we would forge ahead. [applause] The sacrifices have been
reduced to a minimum.  We have tried to rationalize our efforts and our
resources.  We cannot forget that the world is undergoing a serious
economic crisis.  We cannot forget that.  And some countries more than
others, because, for example, there are oil-producing countries which
receive much revenue, but the countries which produce sugar and other raw
materials have had to pay more for everything and are receiving much less
for their products.  But our revolution and our system demonstrate the
advantages with which socialism can--with support from the masses, above
all with that, with the support of the masses--confront any type of
difficulties. [applause]

In several countries of the world, as a consequence of the economic crisis
and economic restrictions, rightist governments have won elections.  In
other countries coups have taken place where the problem is solved by means
of terror and repression.

How different it is in Cuba where we solve problems with enthusiasm, with
effort, with unity, with struggle.  How different the circumstances are,
because there it is not a government at the service of exploiters who
repress the masses when difficulties arise in order not to affect the
interests of the exploiters.  Here the people are in fact the owners, the
government is in fact the government of the people.  [applause] And the
response of the people, the workers, the peasants, is to exert a greater
effort, to confront the harvest, to confront the rains, to seek, to save,
to mobilize workers, to mobilize students, to work to seek more efficiency,
to save all all we can.  And what the will of man can do was demonstrated
by the Camaguey and Avila masses in these past days [applause] in the
objectives they set for themselves in the overfulfillments they have had,
in the manner in which they acted, politically, revolutionarily and
economically.  [applause] For this reason, no matter what the difficulties
and the world crisis may be, and the low prices of sugar in the world
market, we will continue to struggle without ever getting discouraged, and
we will continue to advance.  In the future we will see things like this
and even better things than we have seen in these past days.  And we will
not only advance, but we can even allow ourselves the privilege of being
able to cooperate with others.  [applause]

Without taking into account the members of the armed forces, that is,
without taking into account the military comrades, there are currently
4,100 Cuban civilians who are lending internationalist services in other
parts of the world [applause].  And by the end of the year, there will be
about 6,000.  To give you an idea, you remember that at the beginning of
the revolution this country had practically no doctors.  Half of them were
taken away by imperialism, and the ones remaining faithful and loyal to
their country were not sufficient.  There were not enough doctors in the
mountains, in the rural areas or in the city or any where, and also
stomatologists, and so forth.  Well, there is hardly a single place in the
country where doctors are lacking.  The indexes of infant mortality have
been drastically reduced, many illnesses have been conquered and now we
have around 12,000 doctors. [applause] There are 6,000 first, 3,000 were
left and now we have 12,000. [applause] How many are going to enter?  Three
thousand are going to enter the school of medicine in the next school year.
And we will continue to produce doctors.  There are 370 doctors and 30
stomatologists fulfilling internationalist missions, [applause] that is,
400.  And by the end of the year we will have around 700. [applause].  We
all know how those technicians and our workers travel, without their
families.  They live austere lives and they work indefatigably in their
host countries.

We have seen during our travels what our doctors do, for instance.  And
their number will continue to increase because we will increase the number
of doctors in Angola and especially because doctors are being sent to
Ethiopia [applause] and to other countries. [words indistinct] More than 90
percent of this Cuban civilian personnel is lending their internationalist
services in Africa. [applause] Therefore, there is no reason to fear
graduating many engineers, doctors, and technicians of all sorts, because
when they are no longer needed here, they may be needed somewhere else.
[applause]

As we recently explained, as the aid grows, we analyze the way that
international cooperation is given.  If we give too much, our economy
cannot pay for it.  But the principle that we are falling is that those
countries that have the best economic conditions can partially pay for this
service.  Those that are experiencing difficult economic conditions will
receive it free of charge.  [applause]

That is to say, we do not charge them anything for any of the technicians.
However, we hope that this policy will result in a balancing of income and
expenditures; because the important thing in all this is man, the doctor
who is willing to go to Africa, to go to any country.  The engineer, the
technician, he is the one that matters, the most important thing.
[applause] And, of course, only the revolution produces these men.  Do not
forget that under capitalism it was often impossible to find a teacher to
teach in rural areas in the country.  A doctor would not go to work in
rural areas.  There were no doctors to send to Baracoa.  Today there are
doctors that can be sent to Africa and the country that does not have
doctors to send to Africa does not have them to be sent to Baracoa either.
[applause] This is what the internationalist spirit means.  If someone is
incapable of doing something for others, he is incapable of doing anything
for himself. [applause] Whoever is incapable of doing something for other
people, is incapable of doing something for his own people [applause].

Well, I was saying that by the end of the year we will have 600 doctors;
600, no, 700 I think 700 stomatologists who will work in 18 countries, as
many stomatologiests as Camaguey Province has.  What do you think of that?
[applause] It does not mean that we are losing these doctors and
technicians.  No, they will return home with all that prestige, that
effort, that more highly developed awareness, with all that spirit of
solidarity still more consolidated, and so our country will have better
technicians, better cadres, better revolutionaries. [applause] It is
necessary that every generation make its quota of effort and have its quota
of glory.  Glory is not only achieved by fighting against imperialist
aggression or by working at home.  It is not only achieved on the
battleground.  Beautiful glory can also be attained by supplying this kind
of service to other peoples. [applause] But it has been demonstrated that
we have men and women who are ready to undertake any task and it has been
proved by the solidarity aid given to the fraternal people of Angola.
[applause]

You know, when we asked for volunteers to go to Angola, hundreds of
thousands of Cubans wanted to participate in that solidary aid to the
people of Angola, hundreds of thousands. [applause] That means that out of
every one that want, 30 reservists stayed behind with the desire to go.
[applause] And we could apply the same principle that whoever is willing to
defend other peoples will be ready to defend his own people to the last
drop of this blood. [applause, indistinct shouts[]

That attitude, that spirit is the most beautiful fruit of our revolution.
That is why today our country is loved, esteemed and respected.  Everyone
knows, and especially the imperialists know after all the attempts they
made to crush us, that it is impossible to crush Cuba now, [applause]
because Cuba has multiplied and, in order to crush it, it has to be crushed
in many places. [applause]

Indeed, on a day like today, as we honor all the comrades who have died,
all the comrades who died in the past 24 years in fulfilling their duty,
what really compensates us all and encourages us all and consoles all of us
is the knowledge, as can be noted on a day like today, that none died in
vain.  [applause] That the fruits of their blood and their sacrifice are
this people, this revolution, this profound patriotic spirit and this
profound internationalist spirit, these generous and solidary feeling of
our people.  [applause] And if the revolutions have these beautiful
flowers, this flower of human solidarity--the capacity to sacrifice oneself
for others, for others at home and even abroad--is the most beautiful of
all.  [applause] Flowers such as this we place on a day like today at the
tomb of our late comrades.  [applause] Fatherland or death, we will win.
[applause]
-END-