-DATE- 19870726 -YEAR- 1987 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- SPEECH -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- CASTOR SPEECH MARKING MONCADA ASSAULT ANNIVERSAR -PLACE- HAVANA PROVINCE -SOURCE- HAVANA DOMESTIC SERVICE -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19870731 -TEXT- CASTRO SPEECH MARKING MONCADA ASSAULT ANNIVERSARY F1270025 Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 2215 GMT 26 Jul 87 [Speech by president Fidel Castro at rally in Artemisa, Havana province, to mark the 34th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada Barracks -- live] [Text] Distinguished foreign guests, relatives of martyrs of the revolution, people of Artemisa, people of Havana province, compatriots: Today we have received the lovely gift of a downpour. [laughter, applause] When I heard the thunder in mid-afternoon, I thought of the rain in Artemisa. I remember a goodly number of 26 July's in which nature, so amenable to our revolution, did not choose to send us a single shower. I thought that after years of drought and in the midst of one of the driest years in our experience, if we had to celebrate this anniversary under the rain, we would be very pleased. [applause] I even asked for a plastic file right away just in case some or my notes got wet. Well, I know almost all the data by heart. I wrote them down so I could speak in more precise terms. Nature has wanted something more: It wanted to rain an hour before the ceremony. When we got here, we saw that the streets were practically rivers; yet everybody was marching toward the square. It is also a cool afternoon and we are protected from our burning sun. That is why we celebrate this 26 July with excellent omens. [applause] This time, the honor of hosting this commemoration has fallen on Havana Province. The province's leadership decided, in all historical fairness, to hold the main ceremony in Artemisa. By holding this ceremony in Artemisa we not only give recognition to Havana Province but also the neighboring Pinar del Rio Province to which Artemisa once belonged. [applause] This province grew in the revolutionary phase with a more rational political-administrative division, since the one we had was from the colonial era. But I do know this province very well. It was created some 11 years ago, 11 or 12 years ago with the new division by which this territory was sent up as a separate province from the Old Havana, which also included the capital of the Republic. I know this territory not only because I visited it many times, not only because I drove thousands of kilometers on the roads and highways of this province before 26 July. I also remember it because after the triumph of the revolution we had the privilege of traveling many more thousands of kilometers in this territory. I got to know it almost like the palm of my hand, from the western genetic plan bordering Matanzas province to this place bordering Pinar del Rio province. For years we visited practically all the territory, when we were preparing the economic and social development plans for the province. I can attest to how much the province has changed in all these years. Perhaps, many of you are equally witness to this process and perhaps an even greater number of young people, born after the triumph of the revolution, have no possible point of comparison with the past. That is why it is good that we reflect some on the work of the revolution in this province. Although the western region is the most developed area of the country, although in colonial times large sugarcane plantations were established around the capital and the neighboring Province of Matanzas, as well as coffee plantations cultivated by slave hands, when the revolution triumphed, the province was part of the nation that was agriculturally and industrially backward. When the population of the province stood at approximately 435,000 inhabitants -- I'm talking about what is now the present province -- the unemployed numbered more than 20,000. To this you could add tens of thousands of underemployed. These figures got worse during the famous off-season. The total number of employed people at the triumph of the revolution was approximately 65,000. During these 28 years, the province has grown and has more or less 621,000 people. I believe the exact figure is 621,200. They say it is 621,180. That is, without counting the children who were born last night and during previous weeks because that figure changes every day. The revolution has invested around 3 billion pesos in this province. This is a considerable amount. What was it invested on, or in what was it invested? For example, thousands of kilometers of roads, highways, and paths have been built. As a result, Havana Province's territory, which is mainly an agricultural province although it also has achieved an important level of industrialization, today has 0.39 kilometers of paved roads per square kilometer. This is really a very high figure and it is at the same level as any industrialized country in the world. Sixteen dams have been built. I do not remember one single dam in this province. I do not know if someone from Havana remembers seeing a small puddle in this territory but I do not remember any. Sixteen dams, 135 microdams and a large waterworks complex -- the (Maposton)-Pedroso-Guira -- have been built. Agriculture has been completely mechanized. Havana Province today has as many tractors as there were in the entire country at the triumph of the revolution. Over 1,000 livestock facilities were built -- for cattle, pigs, poultry, and other agricultural activities. I have attended many meetings during these last week that is why perhaps I am a little hoarse but if I do not speak up, if I do not raise my voice too much, I believe I can talk well for the necessary amount of time. Do not worry about it. There is some tea over here. [applause] Large and modern industries were built during these years such as Mariel's Maximo Gomez thermoelectric power plant, the new cement plant with capacity of over 1 million tons, Guanajay's Evelio Prieto bus factory, Artemisa's asbestos-cement and foam rubber factory, Alquizar's Ruben Martinez Villena textile plant, San Jose's pasta factory, Santa Cruz del Norte's beverages and spirits plant -- the largest in the country -- others were modernized and enlarged such as Ariguanabo's textile plant, San Jose de las Lajas' electric wire factory and San Jose de las Lajas' white ceramic factory. Large projects are under construction such as eastern Havana's thermoelectric power plant -- which will be the largest in the country -- Santa Cruz del Norte's cardboard and bristol board factory, the new facilities of Batabano's industrial fishery unit. Cacahual's center for laboratory animals -- it is a great center and very important for research and health programs -- Bejucal's vaccine manufacturing center. I have only mentioned part of the efforts made in economic, industrial, and agricultural development. I have not mentioned for example the large projects built in the port of Mariel, I have not mentioned hotels, camping sites, the 10 camping facilities the province has -- especially the ones in the northern area, which have not only become an attraction for domestic tourism but also to international tourism. I have not mentioned for example 26 automated telephone centers and many other projects of all kinds which could be noted. It is impossible to mention all of them. Do not think we have forgotten any of the workers of the province's centers. What has all this brought? The work of a revolution has to be measured by its results not by the more or less beautiful words that are said but by its results. What are the economic results, what are the social results of that work in this province in which we are marking 26 July? Well, I already said that at the triumph of the revolution there were around 65,000 jobs. In 1986 -- this figure would need to be updated -- there were already 270,000 jobs. That is, while the population grew 43 percent, employment grew 400 percent -- a bit more, over four times more the number of jobs than the ones existing before the triumph of the revolution. What did this mean? That the off-season was over, that unemployment was over, that underemployment was over. Whoever is not working today in this province really doesn't want to work. But there is no one queuing up in any factory, any work center, any agricultural enterprise. This is a colossal social step forward in any region of any country, and for any country. How many regions in other countries or other countries themselves can say the same thing? Here is another figure of great interest. If the number of employed grew by four, more than four, the number of employed women grew 10 times. Right now, 38.1 of the work force are women. Another figure of great interest: Of these 270,000 workers, 52,200 have a middle-level technician degree or higher. Today we have as many middle-level and higher technicians among the province's workers as almost the total number of workers we had before the triumph of the revolution. How wonderful if we had here data that could tell us how many of those 65,000 workers had a middle-level or higher technician degree. This give a very good idea of the progress and of the work of the revolution. Regarding material production, for instance, installed power generation capacity in all of Cuba was 397.1 megawatts in 1958. Today, in Havana province alone, installed capacity is 700 megawatts. Almost double what the whole country had., Including city and countryside, 60 percent of the province's houses had electricity in 1958. Today, in a fundamentally agricultural province, 95.2 percent of the houses have electricity. I hope that many of these homes are watching this ceremony on television because it can be said that all or almost all have a TV set. Production of crude petroleum in the whole country stood at 50,400 tons in 1958. Today, or rather yesterday, in 1986, Havana Province's production alone amounted to 420,000 tons. This is 7.3 times more. Before the revolution, there was no automotive industry. In our country this industry now has some production and has made some progress. Well, 585 big buses were produced in Havana province in 1986. Most of them [words indistinct], 200 articulated buses, and I believe 5 buses for radio broadcasting, big ones for radio broadcasting lab work. Production of wire and power cables in all of Cuba in 1958 was 150 tons. In 1986, production of wire and power cables in Havana province alone amounted to 3,400 tons. All of this is very important. Don't think that talking about power cables is unimportant. We were recently discussing how many square meters of power cable each new house needs. This varies according to height, between 350 and 300. When the building is higher it takes more power cables. This is important. We estimated that some 5,000 km...[pauses] Now, what were our figures? We figured out 5,000 km, or rather, 1,000 tons, 1,000 tons of cables, or 1,000 tons of copper for power cables would make it possible to supply -- perhaps it was a bit more, between 1,000 and 1,500 -- enough cables for 60,000 houses. Since we are working on the housing plans, we wanted to know exactly how much copper and plastic we needed to produce, in this very Havana province industry, the power cables that our ambitious housing construction program requires. Well, 12,000 km were enough for 60,000 houses. They were not impossible figures; they were not unattainable figures. People often say that there is a shortage of finishing materials and we have said, let's see what finishing materials we are short of. Well, I'll have you know that these figures for power cables production have enormous importance for social development. Another material of enormous importance: gray cement. In 1958, Cuba as a whole produced 742,200 tons. Havana Province alone produced 1,285,100 tons last year. And we still don't have enough. We are increasing cement production. Asbestos-cement pipes, a production particular to Artemisa: Cuba as a whole produced 205 km. Today, Havana Province alone produces 507.7 km. Clear flat glass, which is also very important for construction. All of Cuba produced 96,800 square meters in 1968 -- not in 1958; the data we have are for 1968. Today, Havana province produces 994,300 square meters. That is, 19.3 times more. Bottles: All of Cuba produced 13 million units in 1958. Today, Havana Province produces 91,800,000 bottles, units. This is six times more. Tiles: all of Cuba produced 24,000...[corrects himself] no, 24.4 million units. Today, Havana Province produces 49.5 and production is going to expand. We have other factories in other provinces. Textiles: All of Cuba produced 60 million square meters in 1958. Today, Havana Province alone produces 80 million square meters. There is other production. For example, liquid fodder, which is manufactured by collecting food waste. That did not exist prior to the revolution. Today, Havana Province produces 291,000 tons of liquid fodder. Egg production, for example: All of Cuba produced 312 million units in 1959. In 1986, Havana Province alone produced 731 million units. This is more than double what all of Cuba produced. Cow milk production: All of Cuba produced 192 million liters in 1952, 3 years after the triumph of the revolution. Havana Province alone produced 279.1 million liters in 1986. That's the result of the breeding plans, the dairy construction program. More than 800 modern, electrified, and mechanized dairies were built in the province, and their production these days has been exceeding a million liters a day. That is, the development effort has translated into material results. Approximately 78 percent of investments were made in the material sphere. But social investments also grew. They were attended to in this province. The same thing with the province's health situation, for example. I am going to give you some comparison data as well. Before the triumph of the revolution, the budget did not even come to a million pesos. Today, the budget is 40 times the budget prior to the triumph of the revolution. There were 217 doctors in the whole province, most of them in private practice. Today the province has 1,172 doctors or 4.4 times more. And they are all completely at the service of the population. This does not include the services the province receives in the capital of the republic. I was telling Lemus [first party secretary in Havana Province]: Don't give up those services. When we were discussing the province's hospital development program 2 days ago, I was telling him that we needed a program, a plan, because we had not been able to work on this province yet, since it had been part of the capital first and then it split off. I told him we needed a very cohesive program. That way you could build a polyclinic here, another there. I learned how the one in Artemisa got started, what they have done, what they plan to do. I said: We must coordinate the province's medical development program with the capital's medical development, because there are some hospitals in the capital that owing to their dimensions have such equipment and resources it would be impossible to take them to a polyclinic or smaller hospital. At any rate we must define a number of things in this connection. At any rate, Artemisa's 300-bed hospital is in the works. That is for certain. [applause] The same way that the one in Santa Cruz del Norte was built and is going to be expanded; in sum, the same way as other hospital installations. Dentists: There were 83 in the province prior to the triumph of the revolution. Today there are 450. There were no polyclinics. There were only 22 first-aid posts. And you know what first-aid posts are or were. Today we have 42 polyclinics. From zero to 42. Dental clinics: There were none. You either went to a private clinic if you had the money to fix your teeth, or else you found one of those dental technicians who used a device of the kind to sharpen scissors. They used a foot pedal and tried to fill a cavity or in the end pull out your teeth any way they could. Today we have 18 dental clinics. There were no rural stations. Today we have 40. They will disappear with the family doctor program, which is more complete and reaches the masses. The province will have a little over 1,000 or around 1,000 family doctors. There were no homes for pregnant mothers, today there are 14. There were no homes for the elderly, there are seven now. The infant mortality rate was over 60, today it is 14 for every 1,000 babies born alive. Life expectancy in the province is 75 years now. In Havana Province we are already ahead of the United States despite its blockade, threats, and all its things. [applause] And we will continue making progress. We have already expressed our view that in 10 more years we will be able to increase life expectancy to over 80 years. That is revolution. That is precisely what a revolution is. [applause] In education, the total number of illiterates surpassed 20 percent. In the entire country it was around 30 percent. This is a conservative estimate. How can an illiterate youth be found in this province today? How can an illiterate youth be found in this province? [repeats himself] We would have to walk with a lamp like Diogenes did in search of an illiterate or a child without a school. We would also have to walk with lamp to find a bum, a citizen sleeping in the arcades, the sick without medical assistance, a beggar, or to find a brothel in any city of the 19 municipalities of the province. There were a lot of those in the past. Those who lived during that time know that very well. Today, fortunately, the new generation does not even know what that is, that strange thing called tolerance zone, etc., which was a place of contamination of all kinds of diseases. Over 400 schools have been built in the province; 85 of them are countryside basic secondary schools and pre-universities. The province not only has schools for its youth, its young people, and adolescents, but also for many thousands -- tens of thousands -- of students from the capital who receive their education in Havana Province in the work and study schools. How many child care centers existed before the triumph of the revolution? Did anyone know about them? There were none. Today there are 73, [corrects himself] 76 child care centers. Many other figures can be quoted on primary school semi-boarding and technical schools. It is not necessary. An ESPA is about to be completed here. Do you know what an ESPA is? Sometimes it is hard to remember all those acronyms. Because the school does not have EIDI [expansion unknown], yes, the school has EIDI, the province has EIDI. Does it not have EPEP schools [expansion unknown], for physical education teachers? Yes, it has an EPEP that trains teachers. One of the province's preuniversity schools in the countryside is an EPEF. We are going to have an ESPA, higher athletic training school. How do you like that? Who would have said this on 26 July before 1953? [applause] That is something we could call a sophisticated thing. Now, on the occasion of 26 July they have just completed building all the classrooms for primary school double session. So our province, which is mainly agricultural, will have 100 percent of its primary school students attending double session, double session [applause] beginning with the next school year. What does that mean? It means development. It means better education for children, better attention for children, in addition to quality. It has to be noted that 63.9 percent of the students enrolled in primary schools are semi-boarding students; they have lunch at school. You know that semi-boarding schools are equivalent to a child care center for children who are over 6 years of age. Things can be said about culture. We have more or less the same number of 35-millimeter movie houses. We have one more. We have 41 now and had 40 before the triumph of the revolution. Before the revolution there were no 16-millimeter movie theaters. Today we have 95. This makes it possible to take films everywhere. You also know that there is a strong competition between films and television and we are already seeing the phenomena that there are more movie theaters than needed in some places. Museums, how many did capitalism have in this province? That humanitarian capitalism, the one that boasted so much about it. It had brothels but no museums. Well, it is all right. Brothels are part of the history museum. There were no museums; today there are 22. Houses of culture? No houses of culture. Today there are 24. Art galleries? Why would capitalism bother with art galleries, when they had people dying of hunger, and people were not even getting to third grade in school? Today we have 15 art galleries. Libraries? There were a few; there were 11. Today there are 33. Sports facilities? There were about a dozen. I don't know if some historian knows how many. I know that today we have 944 sports facilities. [words indistinct] I believe that some of those invited to this ceremony took refuge there during the heavy rainfall. Community services, such as aqueducts? The province already has 124 aqueducts. One hundred percent of the urban population has aqueducts. Let us see if we can organize the papers here a little bit, all right? I have not spoken of some agricultural benefits that the province has derived from all this development. The province has the greatest agricultural production in the country. Sugarcane production reached 85,000 arrobas per caballeria, despite the weather problems, 27,000 more than in 1959. Today, the harvest is carried out by less than 20 percent of the machete wielders employed in 1970 and it is known that this province has the highest productivity in the sugarcane harvest. Havana, with 6 percent of arable land, provides important food products to 26 percent of the population. In addition, it exports over half a million tons of sugar, and also exports other agricultural products, such as citrus fruits -- and by the way, we are going to change the policy as regards citrus fruits and promote development in other areas, and we are going to allocate the citrus fruits of the totally new Ceiba Plan for the consumption of the people of the two provinces. The province exports potatoes, green peppers, tobacco, and other agricultural products. The province produces as many roots and tubers as the five eastern provinces together, and as much mila as those five provinces plus Camaguey. To give an example of agricultural progress in the last 5 years: production of garlic, which was 150 tons, today is more than 7,000. The province provides a large part of the garlic that is used in the country. The country has an enormous genetic potential in the livestock area, and even exports to other countries. Its beef and pork herds are in excellent health, free of tuberculosis, brucellosis, and other diseases common to livestock. To commemorate 26 July, the province carried out many projects. It did not waste a minute. From the moment it was declared as the venue, it began to request cooperation and aid, and to mobilize the masses, and carry out a great effort toward this end. To date, the province -- that is, the state construction enterprises and the people's government -- completed 581 housing units for 26 July; 142 school installations, including all the classrooms needed for the double sessions for all elementary school children; 149 health installations, ranging from a polyclinic-hospital to 62 consultation rooms for family doctors; 27 agricultural projects; 10 industrial projects including the first unit of the eastern thermoelectric plants of 100,000 kilowatts, or 100 megawatts; 36 commercial and service installations; 14 cultural installations; 7 sports facilities; and other projects, for a total of 951. This 26 July has been a great stimulus to Havana Province [applause] It is a shame that 26 July doesn't come more often. But despite this, [repeats himself] despite this, we propose to do more. Of course, we will not be able to build more work-study schools, because we need only a few. Demand here has practically been saturated. [as heard] However, I have been talking here with Comrade Lemus about doubling the number of housing units built by the state next year, within the national program. Doubling them, going from a little over 1,000 to a little over 2,000, in 1988, and tripling them in 1989, without taking into account those constructed by the Agriculture [Ministry], the MINAZ [Ministry of the Sugar Industry] and the agricultural production cooperatives. The province will decide whether these housing units are to be placed in the cities and the countryside, giving priority to economic development. In other words, we are going to meet social needs, but we have to give priority to economic development. We have to build more houses for Ariguanabo, the Ariguanabo textiles, more houses in (Arquitec), we have to build houses for the Center for the Production of Pathogen-Free Animals. We have to build housing for the new bio-preparations center; that is, the center for the production of vaccinea, and it will be necessary to continue building rural houses and communities, an effort that has declined in recent years. I have spoken about the good things in the area of constructions and investments, but not everything is good. I have a huge book here; I am certainly not going to read all of it, but I took a few facts out of its regarding the main projects begun and discontinued. Fortunately, there are not a great many of them, but there are a few. We have built dozens of highways and roads, but five of them remained unfinished. What do you think of that? I am going to say this, because someone has to defend these highways, and I think this -- is a good opportunity to do so on this 26 July. For example, the Bana-Melena Highway, on which construction began before 1970. The main work was done with bulldozers; entire mountains were leveled with bulldozers and brought down to highway level. The main part of the job was done, but one day for unknown reasons, the equipment was removed, the work force was withdrawn, and the highway was left unifinished. The La Ruda-Buenaventura Highway was begun more or less around that time. It is 22 km long, and 8 km of earthwork and all the paving remains to be done. The Ceiba Mocha-Aguacate-Catalina Highway was begun more or less around the same time: 28 km long. The earthmoving work was done, and only 7 km remain to be paved. The Melena-Guines-San Nicolas highway was begun in 1972: 18 km long. With the earthwork done, 14 km remain to be paved. The El Comimo--Jibacoa-Canachi road was also begun in 1972. It was completely cleared, and 15 km remain to be paved. Five highways were left unfinished, and halted. It is true that many of the most important, most basic ones were completed, but none of them should have been halted. Incomplete social projects that affect communities: There is the Rio Hondo project. The builders withdrew in 1977, leaving the general store and the elementary school unfinished. I believe the residents of Rio Hondo, who have been so patient, who saw the builders withdraw 10 years ago, today can hope to see their store and their primary school built some day. This does not mean that the children there are not studying, but they are using the builders' temporary installations to solve their problem. In (Pueblo Trespil), the builders withdrew in 1974, leaving the commercial center unfinished. Babinay: the builders withdrew in 1977. Neither the primary school nor the commercial center were built. That is Babinay, (Pueblo Trespil), Rio Hondo. Bainoa: The builders left in 1978. The general store was not built. Pedro Pi: The builders left in 1975, without building the commercial center. Guaicanamar: The builders left in 1978. the primary school was not built. Canasi: The builders left in 1971. That date will have to be checked, because it doesn't seem right to me. Bacunayagua: The builders left in 1976. Neither the waste elimination nor water supply system was completed. (Levitan): The builders left in 1978. Neither its waste elimination nor water supply system was completed. Its general store and school was not built. La Chata: The builders left in 1981. The general store was not built. So we have here 10 communities that, unfortunately, have been neglected. For one reason or another, work was stopped, halted, and these things are lacking. Well then, I ask the provinces, and I ask our comrades of the planning board to look at these five highways that were halted. I do not say tomorrow, but as soon as possible, the work should be resumed and the five highways completed. [applause] Let us analyze the incomplete projects in these communities. It is shameful that a community should have been left without a school and should be using the builder's shack as a school. We should not work this way. It is a problem we have harped upon. A community has to be complete. It includes its store, its school, its day care center, its corresponding health clinic, its houses, streets, a sewer system, a water system. It has to have everything. This is a habit we must pull out from the roots. Not many communities have this problem. Some have been completed; others are being completed, but here I have an example of 10 that are missing these complements, and we must study them to complete them in this program of construction that we are making more dynamic. We will see about the highways, because that is something else we have to see to: those 5 highways, and those 10 communities and we must reach the conclusion this kind of thing should not occur. We cannot always blame the provinces or in any case, their failure to complain more, protest more, to demand that these projects be completed. The province has also made a great defense effort. You saw that today it was declared ready for defense in the first phase. They received the flag and the certificate, which were amply deserved. There are 3,000 production and defense brigades, with over 100,000 members, almost 100,000 combatants of the Territorial Troops Militia. Therefore, one of every two people over 15 years of age is part of the Territorial Troops Militia or the Production and Defense Brigades. In addition, there are 14,000 students between the ages of 14 and 15 who are organized, prepared, and have their weapons ready to defend Havana Province. Imperialism can come to take over Havana Province and it already knows what it will find. [applause] Undoubtedly, the province has achieved great successes. We need to congratulate the province's Communist Party of Cuba [PCC], the province's Union of Young Communists [UJC], mass organizations, mass organization leaders, and especially, the PCC leadership which led this colossal work. We have to congratulate two comrades because a change took place recently in this province and it is fair to share in some way or double the honors. We have to congratulate Comrade Luis de la Nuez, [applause] who worked as first secretary of the PCC in the province for many years, and congratulate Comrade Victorino Lemus, [applause] current first secretary of the PCC in the province. He is a son of this province. He was born in Bauta and continues to live humbly in Bauta next to his neighbors and parents. [applause] We have to congratulate Lemus for the efforts he made on the occasion of 26 July and for the tasks we are certain the PPC will work on during the next few years. Work does not decrease, work grows. Historically, this province also has had great merits. During this revolutionary stage, this province made an important contribution to the struggle for the final liberation. Particularly this province, of the 26 revolutionary martyrs who participated in the attacks against Moncada and Bayamo, this province made an extraordinary contribution to this operation. Of the 26 martyrs who participated in those actions and died after those actions or during the struggle on the Sierra Maestra, three of them were from Artemisa [applause] and three of them were from Guanajay. Sixteen of the twenty-six were from this region. [applause] Also the province and Artemisa, and all its municipalities contributed with other lives and the blood of brave and heroic youths throughout the revolutionary struggle, the liberation struggle, and the later struggle, which was no less important that that struggle. I have given an overview of the work of the revolution in this province. I hope it has been of interests to all and that you have had the opportunity to think about the specific work the revolution did by giving you economic and social facts, extraordinarily humane ones, and not mere words. Distinguished visitors from several countries are here with us, and I want to state that what has been achieved in Havana Province is a sample of what the revolution has achieved throughout the country. I visited Pinar del Rio Province a few days ago; the province has been historically called a Cinderella, and the name was quite fitting. What has happened in that province now? It has attained an extraordinary transformation, similar to the one attained by Havana Province. We even saw how they operate a modern semiconductor factory using high technology. We might even say it is very sophisticated, like this school -- perhaps even more so. The factory is operated by young people in Pinar del Rio, mostly Pinar del Rio engineers. The mechanical industry factory, which manufactures components for the automotive industry, is another excellent example. I was able to ascertain how the highway construction brigades work nowadays. A branch of the highway being built in this area will reach Pinar del Rio next year; that will result in considerable savings of time, fuel, and resources. Other brigades are currently working there. If we analyze how many were employed and unemployed in the past, and how many are employed and unemployed nowadays; and if we analyze the education, health, economy, and agriculture sectors, we will see the important changes that have taken place in this province. I recently visited Camaguey Province and I was able to ascertain really impressive changes and work. I visited Granma Province several months before that, and I was able to ascertain the revolution's achievements there. If someone travels to Villa Clara, Sancti Spiritu, Chienfuegos, Ciego de Avila, or any of the eastern provinces he will find similar cases. The situation was more difficult in the eastern sector because the population was growing more than in the rest of the country. In other words, we do not have the same excellent situation in the labor sector there. It is true the job sources have been increased extraordinarily; they have grown many times over, but the population increased at a higher rate there than in the rest of the country. However, when we analyzed the revolution's achievements in Guantanamo, Granma, Las Tunas, Santiago de Cuba, and Holguin throughout these years, we found almost a carbon copy of what we have seen here. Did the capital of the Republic also grow and attain development? We cannot say that it did. It did not experience the same increased social development the other provinces had. In fact, a great part of the revolution's efforts were centered in the country's interior. What happened in the capital? Many industries were founded in the capital; others were enlarged; and others were modernized. We have attained the same results in the capital's education, health, employment, and research sector. In sum, we have attained great development in the capital of the Republic, but the capital of the Republic has doubled its population in the last 20 pears; it has doubled its population [repeats himself]. Nevertheless, the construction of houses decreased in recent years. I will not talk about this topic today; 1 have explained it many times on several occasions. However, the rate of construction decreased progressively, even though 17 years ago we found the way to solve the capital's housing problem which was the result of population increase. That solution was the minibrigades, which today are renewed with even greater vigor. However, social problems accumulated in the capital of the Republic. The number of state-built dwellings was approximately 3,500. In the capital of the Republic housing cannot be resolved through individual effort because there is no space to build through individual effort. It is impossible to build through individual effort in Old Havana, Plaza, El Cerro, Diez de Octubre, or Marianao, for example. It is impossible to build in Old Havana, downtown Havana, and all of those. places. It is impossible. Some problems can be resolved through individual effort in the outskirts because there is space. However, there are multistoried buildings there. It cannot be resolved through individual effort. And thus there has been a considerable delay in the construction of dwellings in the capital. Very well. Then, many things are included within this process of rectification. The solution of this problem in the capital of the Republic is part of it. However, we are advancing various important plans throughout the country. I spoke here about 16 dams. And I believe there were 135 minidams. Well, these are not enough. Dams must continue to be built in the Province, naturally by now bigger ones have already been built. Water must continue to be sought. All the water that runs in the province's streams must be dammed up. All the little rivers that have not been dammed .up must be dammed. And there is not enough water. It is possible we will have to divert water from the San Juan River basin in Matanzas. It is possible that some day we will have to bring water to this province from places that are farther away. There is a special situation in this province. It has excellent lands and extremely well-qualified agricultural workers spanning the width of the province, which is approximately 144 km wide; that is, this province is not very wide. It is known that the narrowest part of Cuba is here, between Mariel and Majana. One has been hearing about this at least since one was in the second grade. Forty km. In that space, where there are no large rivers, but primarily underground basins, we find that needs are enormous. There is a population of almost 2.7 million, thousands of industrial installations, and all kinds of service installations. The city alone consumes more than 500 million cubic meters of water. The cities of the Province consume approximately 105 million [figure as heard] cubic meters. We need water for the population, water for industry, water for hospital services and schools. We need water for agriculture, because we must produce all the food of this growing population and more because, as we said, we are exporters. This requires strategic policies, which we discussed and analyzed during the last plenum of the party's Central Committee. We analyzed the situation of the entire country concerning this: The need, among other things, to make the best possible use of water, the need to rebuild the old water pipeline networks in the capital, where so much water is lost; the need for a policy of greater savings in all homes; the possibility of some day reusing the capital's sewage water for agriculture after recycling it. It could be used to irrigate sugarcane and other crops. Last, perhaps, will be the transport of water from yet more distant places. Although rains are good, the territory is too small. The available watershed, including the two provinces, is perhaps 6,000 km, approximately 6,000 square km. These dry years have made the situation more critical, because the water stored is excess water, not the water that falls in a downpour amounting to between 25 mm and 30 mm that wets the ground, but the water that exceeds the immediate needs of plants and accumulates in underground watersheds and behind the dams. A greater awareness of this problem has taken place during these years of drought. We were able to realize that, unfortunately, the hydraulic initiative in the past promoted the construction of dozens and dozens of dams and hundreds of minidams, to the extent that the capacity of dam water since the triumph of the revolution until the present grew 142 times. The existing dam capacity was multiplied 142 times. Despite this, we have seen that it is not enough and that an entire strategy to develop hydraulic resources must exist; to develop hydraulic potential for the best possible water use. We have fallen practically 5 years behind historical averages, and this year [the situation] is really very difficult. We have not lost the hope that it will improve in the second 6 months of the year. The months of May and June have been dry. There are places, including the Camaguey plant, where even the production of beer is in danger, and the production of soft drinks. Hundreds of thousands of people are supplied by coconut water in the middle of spring. This is one of the efforts the country is pursuing at this time, and it is part of the process of rectification. This is the recovery of the hydraulic initiative and to have again that big thrust we had and, if possible, an even greater and more efficient thrust. It must be taken into account that the dams that were easier to construct were built earlier: those which yielded more water with less land. The most difficult dams and works were left. However, we must build these without hesitation. And I repeat: This is not only by creating new sources, but administering water much more efficiently in services, industry, the population, and even in agriculture, where water is oftentimes wasted because of inefficient irrigation services or poor jobs. This -- the hydraulic initiative -- is something that is reviving throughout the country today. At the same time, we are promoting important social development programs. As we recently said, in only 3 years -- 1988, 89, and 90 -- we plan to bring electricity to 1 million people, particularly in the eastern provinces. Of course, we will not forget the sectors of Sancti Spiritus and Pinar del Rio. As 1 said, 95.2 percent of the houses in your province have electricity. What percentage is represented in the eastern provinces? A little over 70 percent. We also plan to bring electricity to more than 85 percent of that sector. We are working on that. So today, we can assure you that 1 million compatriots who live in far away and distant places -- not isolated areas -- will have electricity. Those areas that will remain without electricity will be isolated houses, having no access to roads and highways, where such an investment would not be reasonable. We must bring electricity to the communities, to populated areas. We will bring electricity to 1 million people. Some of them already have electricity for 2 to 3 hours, which they get from power plants, from hundreds and even thousands of power plants. These plants are very costly, and they only provide electricity for 2 to 3 hours, and a great number of people have no electricity at all today, so this is a very important social program. We can say that by the year 1990, 90 percent of houses throughout the country will have electricity. [applause] That is revolution, total revolution. 1 would like to hear what our enemies have to say, what those who slander the revolution have to say, what those who oppose the revolution and who say and write so many infamous things about the revolution have to say. I am asking them about these specific actions accomplished by the revolution, which make the great difference between capitalism and socialism; [applause] between whorehouses and nursery homes; between whorehouses and gambling places and schools and hospitals; between ignorant people and people who today have an educational level as no other Third World country and many developed countries have. Many countries do not have our level of education, not only general, but political education, which is very important. Political education is very important, so no one can deceive us, fool us, or play a trick on us. [applause] Political education is important so we can tell what revolution is and what the revolution has meant for our homeland. I am speaking of specific examples. We are also implementing an important development program in the eastern provinces. We stressed this during our trip to Granma Province some months ago, and we confirm it here now. In the coming years, the revolution's basic effort will be aimed at the intensive development of industry in the country's eastern provinces, where we have the greatest labor potential of the entire country. This policy is being applied consistently. We are installing there all that can be installed, with the exception of those industries for which either there is no raw material or it is uneconomical to transport such raw material from a long distance. But all the ministries have included this purpose in their plans. Fortunately, we have already begun this project, because the ministers a few years ago only thought about building manufacturing plants in or near the capital, at a time when the labor force had already diminished. We will now give more emphasis to this sector, not because industries have not been constructed in those regions, but because they are not sufficient yet for more equitable and balanced development. This is also another concept, which -- associated to the rectification process -- is also being emphasized. We want to say: It is our fundamental duty and the duty of the party, the state and, the government to find a solution to these problems, and to the problems of development regardless of the economic difficulties or the resources we have. We should force ourselves to be truly inventive, creative, and full of ideas. We are promoting a huge program for social development, which is very important. It is not a matter of merely constructing factories, roads, agricultural enterprises and irrigation systems. It is necessary to give all the required importance to social development. I have mentioned some examples. You should remember that in the beginning [of the revolution] industries were built in Mariel, but no houses were built. Industries were being constructed in Santa Cruz del Norte, but no houses were being built there. In the beginning, industries were being built in Nuevita, but no houses were built. We have been trying to correct those long ago, old and wrong concepts. Moa itself had been registering a delay in social development. Fortunately, the social development in Moa is receiving much impulse. The value of those agricultural communities constructed with the cattle breeder plans is not known. Today, they make it possible to obtain 1 million of liters of milk produced in Havana everyday, and sometimes even exceed 1 million during the dry season. The value of those social installations is not known: they have created the necessary living conditions that secure... [changes thought] We are not living under capitalism. The capitalistic system does not rare about how workers live. Capitalism builds factories, not houses. Unemployment forces workers to go to factories and to build a hamlet or anything else. The capitalists constructed houses at the sugar complex and factories only for the industry's high-ranking leaders. Workers were forced, because of unemployment, to build huts and to find jobs, and those was found jobs were lucky. These are not the conditions under which a country develops under a socialist system. First) there is an elementary reason of social justice, and of rational distribution of resources. This is fundamental to progress. Moreover, socialism can actually do what it wishes to do. This is being proven right now. We have started an ambitious program for construction of homes and social works, but because a lot of problems were accumulating, we gave more emphasis to that plan. I was saying that construction had declined; microbrigades were abandoned; and Havana had no labor force for the construction sector. Moreover, many people in the capital do not want to be builders; they would prefer a secure job in industry. They do not want to be nomads, as constructors, although they are paid seniority benefits and some premiums. If they can find construction work -- for example, providing maintenance to a factory -- near their home, they stay. As I have said many times, if we bring people from Oriente Province -- I turn to look at Lemus [not further identified], because he also has some people from Oriente Province here, and I was telling him that if Havana Province, if the province needs some people from Oriente for its development, we could bring workers from there. However, today our goal is to bring development, the greatest possible development, to those provinces. If we bring people from Oriente to the capital city -- you know that a person from Oriente Province has three times more relatives than someone from Havana. [applause] You know that. A regular Havana family is composed of 5 members; the regular Oriente family is composed of 15. In addition, the Oriente people are too family-oriented; once we bring Orientean person, we begin having the cousin of the cousin, the uncle of the cousin's mother-in-law coming to Havana. When we bring one person from Oriente, we never know how many people come after him. Therefore, the people from Oriente should build houses there. We have already said that Havana people have to build their own houses. The Havana work force has to build all its houses and social centers. That is a clear idea, and we are proving that we can accomplish it. Today, Eavana has some people from Oriente in construction enterprises that were being left without a work force. We began with Havana. We set a goal of building 5, houses per year. We are already building...[changes thought] -- FBIS)) First, the rebirth of the microbrigade movement, which is a mass movement and the sole way to face the construction problem under the present conditions. We will build 5,000 other houses this year, 5,000 more the next year, additional houses, and reach 20,000 houses in 1980 per year. [sentence as heard] In addition, in 2 years, we will build social centers, special schools, and the clinics we lack in Havana. This same program will be extended to the whole country in 1988. We already met with our comrades of the various Oriente provinces to propose a similar program. They have been building approximately 4 - 5,000 houses for the state. We told them they have to increase construction to 20,000 houses, 20,000 houses [repeats himself]. We have to build 5,000 more houses in 1988, 1989, and 1990. We are already making plans to extend the Havana program to the Oriente provinces. We will not need microbrigades there, because there is more of a work force there. We will do it with construction workers. We will train them, although part of the work will be carried our by mirrobrigades. We think that 30 -- 40,000 Oriente people will have construction jobs in the next 3 years. It will be a 3-year-program, not a 2-year-program. All the day-care centers, the great day-care centers, all special schools, and all clinics needed by the five Oriente provinces will be built. In 1988, we will start applying this program in the rest of the country. That is why we were talking to Lemus. How many houses is the state building today and how many will it build in 1988? We decided that we will triple the current construction work. We haven't said we will quadruple it, because we have to make some calculations, but we will use the same principle. For 1990, we have planned to cover all our needs for day-care centers and special schools throughout the country. We presently have a capacity for approximately 45,000 children, but we need to assist 80,000 children. There are children with physical or mental problems which need special attention, and according to our estimate, we need a capacity for 70-80,000 children. We will continue with our programs to build day-care centers, special schools, and clinics. In addition, next year we will begin building 1,500 houses for doctors, including houses for nurses. We are now building houses for doctors. Next year, we will build houses for both doctors and nurses. I think, if my estimates are correct, that we will build 2,000 of those houses next year. We are calculating the number of doctors graduating to see the increase needed for the 1988 doctor program. It is a large program; therefore, we have to keep the number at 26 [not further specified]. I want to remind you all of this. [applause] In many places such as Havana City, Havana province, and Cienfuegos, where there is a lack of a work force, we have to incorporate masses; there is no other solution. I was telling you that people do not want to be builders. They do not want that as a profession. However, if you organize a microbrigade to build a social center, they go very willingly for as long as necessary. They would build clinics, day-care centers, and houses; and expand hospitals very willingly. That is the sole way to mobolize them. The mass movement is the sole way to resolve that problem. I think that Havana is becoming a true example of how to resolve problems in a Third World country developing socialism. I do not believe I exaggerate when I say this. I was aware of how the microbrigades movement started, which unfortunately was stopped at that time because of erroneous interpretations and alleged contradictions between the microbrigade movement and the system of direction and planification of the economy. Those misunderstandings did not really exist; we saw clearly that they were imaginary. That movement is now reborn. We have a very ambitious program in the capital. There is no doubt we are going to build 20,000 houses a year, and maybe a little more for the date we have established. We have no doubts. Our current problem is that of materials. We are concentrating our efforts on construction materials in the entire country, because this plan started in the capital. Yet we never do anything in a single part of the country, we never do anything in the capital that we do not rapidly bring to the rest of the country. We have done that with everything, including the first microbrigade movement. We have given priority to the capital because of the accumulation of problems that have occurred there. We are concentrating on construction materials, especially cement. We have a capacity of more than 5 million [not further specified]. We are regaining all of these capabilities in maintenance, and we are giving great impetus in that direction. You know, you Artemisenians, you have a good cement factory here (?process). We can use it, and we are already using it. In Siguaney, in the center of the country, our heavy crude oil as fuel for the wet-process cement factory process. That is why we could talk here even about -- I am not saying the square meters needed for a one-story apartment or another -- the tons of cement; the tons of gravel; the finishing materials; the amounts of mosaics, tiles, floors; all the problems; all the construction materials; all the methods of fabrication. That is what we are concentrating on: Having the materials available for this program, which we will never allow to fall again. I do not believe this could ever happen, especially if this rectification process continues -- as it will continue, without doubt. We need materials. How much work force can we count on in the capital? In the beginning, we said 30,000 microbrigadists. Havana has so many -- of course, it is the capital -- even without excess work, simply calculating. The industrial worker in the capital, and the worker of service centers goes willingly to the microbrigade; nobody could make him go if this were not the case. With this political and mass work, with this reconciliation of the individual interests, the collective interests, we can make a giant movement. How large is that movement? We do not know any more. There are about 15,000 microbrigadists, and now everybody wants to be a member. We said 30,000 microbrigadists -- 20,000 to build houses and about 10,000 to build social works. When we finish the polyclinic and the children's centers, we are going to start on old schools; we are going to remodel them, rebuild them along with sports fields and gymnastic centers. We have many things to do in the future. As soon as we finish one aspect, we will emphasize another. No part of it is less important than the other, everything is important to raise the well-being and the standard of living of the population. Standard of living does not mean the pounds of bananas that one eats, standard of living means the cultural services, the health services, the recreation services that the population enjoys. Standard of living is the security that the population enjoys. Standard of living is the increasing of age expectancy levels to 75, 80 years of age. Yes, that is really the age expectancy level, and it seems like that is why one measures the age expectancy levels. Afterward, we became clearly aware that the problem was not only construction; one also had to maintain, reconstruct, and remodel. We came to the conclusion that approximately 20,000 more workers were needed to reconstruct, remodel, and repair; and where it is needed, to demolish and rebuild. Can we count on the 50,000? Yes, perfectly. And with how many others? Amazingly, we can count on however many we want. It is not the only answer to the question. How many construction workers are there in the capital, that capital that was bringing workers from Oriente province through erroneous concepts? Today, the capital is able to supply all the work force needed. The construction workers are being helped by the dwellers, who want to participate in the construction works. Tenants of houses that need remodeling want to participate in construction programs, as do the peoples in the neighborhoods. We have found that the people in some municipalities will build anything if they are asked to. It can be a bakery, a grocery store, a supermarket, a recreation center. Men, women, and children are working together. New concepts have emerged. Factory workers who are not members of the microbrigades want to build houses after working hours. There are some impressive examples. I recently visited Julio Diaz Hospital, a therapy center, a hospital that fills a great human need. That hospital is being expanded with 200 additional beds. It had already been expanded with 50 new beds, and now there will be 200 more. Who is building the facilities? A contingent mobilized by the party and the youth. It has more than 200 members. I have seen their work since they began. have seen the work of this contingent, which is not made up of construction workers, but of workers who answered a call made by the party. The same applies for those who are building the intensive therapy and surgery wards and Salvador Allende Hospital. They are members of a contingent created by the party. What did I see in just 1 day, during a 1-day tour of the city? I went around on a day off and visited those places. Those tours are good for resting and learning. Many times we go through pleasant and rewarding experiences. This has happened in different places. I went to a neighborhood called El Romerillo, which is considerably unhealthy. We had had a meeting with family doctors, and the family doctor in charge of El Romerillo has said it was an unhealthy neighborhood, that social conditions were difficult, that working there was harder, that there were early pregnancies and other problems. He blamed the people from Oriente, saying that most of the people living there had come from Oriente. I confirmed that the people from Oriente were being slandered, as I saw people from Las Villas, Matanzas, La Habana, Villa Clara, and of course some who were from Oriente. This neighborhood called El Romerillo has been built slowly; you can hardly notice it. It is located next to Cuidad Libertad. One of the walls dividing the two neighborhoods is the wall of many houses. They have used everything: bricks, other material, wood, everything, to build the neighborhood. I believe there are a few of these places in the capital; they are accounted for, as well as the number of people who live there, approximately 50,000. I found enthusiastic people. Children are in the best schools in their municipality and they were perfectly healthy. If organized, these people can do anything. For example, I asked them: What do you want? They said: We want to build. I told them: There are many of you; there is not enough space for all of you. They replied: Then get us another place; we will build in other places, and we will rebuild what we have here; we will build whatever is needed. This clearly showed that if the material is provided, there are people willing to work all day. Retired people will work, children will go for a brick; and youths, young boys and girls will also help. It is a fact that we can mobilize this neighborhood and others that are under similar conditions. I saw this in one of the so-called unhealthy neighborhoods. There are only a few of these neighborhoods in our capital, but we still have them. Then, among other places, we visited the Julito Diaz contingent. I was greatly impressed by two things: I saw dozens of women participating in construction work as part of that contingent. Who were they? Many of them worked in offices; others were midlevel technicians with good educational levels. They were helping with tile work, and they were doing a good job. They handled the winch and other tools carrying out several jobs with great efficiency. I asked them: How long do you want to be here? They said: All the time; as long as necessary. We like this work. We feel useful here in what we are doing. It was a large group of young girls. I was amazed. You could not have converted these comrades in any way other than political and mass work. They earn the salary they had there, and do you know how many hours they were working because they wanted to finish those areas with 200 beds soon? They were working up to 14 hours; up to 14 hours. I was really impressed with what those women were doing. I am no longer talking about the men. I am talking about women who worked in offices and voluntarily mobilized with the party to do this work, with great motivation, thinking of what that was worth. However, while there, a man, a worker in the contingent, approached me and said to me: We want to be given a building to build housing because some of us in the contingent need housing. We want to be given a building to build after working hours. I said that working hours are you talking about? Do you not see that you are working 14 hours and that you finish at 2200? At what time are going to construct the buildings? That man answered: At that time, at 2200, when we complete our working hours here. We are prepared to construct a housing building. [applause] After that, I visited a work of the Construction Ministry, a brigade. Then I was able to see the builders at work. There was a radical change: two shifts of 10 hours each. The last shift ends at 0300. This was something new. The workers were working at night -- when it is cooler -- and at many construction sites. I saw all this in 1 day. Now we are in July, in carnival season. In several places, I asked the people: It seems like August, with this heat. Everything guarantees that no one will leave. Everything dictates that they will not come down in these days and we guarantee you that they will not come down. We have taken every necessary step. We have divided up the vacation time. This is something you did not see 1 year ago. Then I visited a bakery built by the people, and I was amazed at what they built with the materials given to them. This was an excellent bakery. From that one, we can learn about the criteria of how it should be done in the capital. I am talking about the capital. There were many important ideas. After that, I found a crowd of residents who had also built a video recreation center. They showed me videotapes of how the crowd of neighbors built and paved a street. We decided to give them equipment to mechanize them. I realize that day...[changes thought] because, already on my way back at 2300, near the Children's Cardiovascular Surgery Center, a 30-room building we are constructing...[changes thought] The capacity of the hospital is going to be expanded by 30 beds because after surgery, the children would soon leave the hospitalization area, and this gives them greater assurance of avoiding in-hospital infections, etcetera. I arrived there at 2300, and the microbrigade members were finishing work at that hour. There were 22 of them. I asked questions. A girl appeared. Other comrades appeared. The girl began explaining: There are 44 of us. She explained how they began those works with picks and shovels -- they did not even have machines in one difficult location -- and the status of the work. It was 2300, and the woman comrade was seeing the workers off at 2300 sharp. I was told she was the microbrigade chief. The Comrade explained everything in detail with great seriousness. They reflected discipline, a tremendous spirit of work, and awareness about the importance of what they were doing. When I asked her where she works, she said: I work at the electricity enterprise. Then I asked her: What work do you do? She sort of smiled and said: I work in an office. Therefore, that day, at 2300 I found that the chief of a microbrigade was a worker from the capital who had never done construction work. She was simply trained and worked in an office. I reached a conclusion that day. It is clear. We have all the people we want in the capital. How many -- 100,000, 500,000, 1 million? As many as we wish. And the people I saw -- I say this with full conviction -- cannot only build the 200,000 but 225,000 homes from now until the year 2000. The fast stage will be achieved by the year 1990, and 200,000 homes will be built 1990-2000. They are not only capable of building a new Havana. I am convinced the people I saw are capable of building a new London, a new Paris. I tell you, the people of Havana make Havana look small insofar as their ability to do things is concerned; insofar as their capacity to do things. [applause] Where was the limit? It was in the materials. However, it will never be again in the work force, and we are paying to the matter of the materials the full attention it requires, and the new Ministry of Construction Materials Industry is working under tremendous pressure because it knows it must meet these needs. To me, that day was a revelation of what the mass method, the revolutionary work method, is. There would not be any other mechanism or way to do that. No. Furthermore, how much will that cost in salaries? The incredible thing about this is that it will not cost a cent in salaries. It is incredible. It looks like a miracle indeed. The microbrigade members are working there for the salary they received in the work center, and their work center is fulfilling its production plans. The limiting factor is not the work force. It may be in the raw materials or something else, but not in the work force. All those residents, dwellers, or tenants of propped-up buildings; workers who after finishing their jobs at the work centers wish to work in construction -- like the man who asks for a building [thought not completed]. What is happening with the microbrigades? It is amazing. Many microbrigades are willing to do construction work after their regular quitting time. They are willing to do this work after completing their microbrigade work. This does not cost the country a single centavo more. We can build a new Havana and resolve the problems we have accumulated without spending more money, just by mobilizing the people, rationing the efforts of the people, and properly. directing the people. The only spending involved would be equipment maintenance and fuel. This is truly amazing; this is truly extraordinary within this rectification process. I am a witness of this; therefore, I am pleased in presenting it to you. Sometimes we see things that we regret all the people cannot see. We see positive things. Many times we only see the negative things, but we have to take a good look at these negative things to correct them. But in these times, and in this process we are experiencing, we do see new and extraordinary things. More than once we have said rectification does not mean correcting mistakes made 10 years ago, or mistakes made throughout the revolutionary process. Rectification is our way of correcting 100-year-old problems. For example, the struggle for equality between men and women, incorporating women in the work process. We have been very successful in this. Rectification does not only mean resolving 100-year-old problems and prejudices. Rectification means finding new solutions for old problems; rectification means creation, opening new paths and trials. Rectification is what we are doing right now, and we are doing it at a time when the country has very little convertible foreign exchange, when the country's imports -- from the convertible area -- are one-fourth of our 1984 imports. Today, faced with all these problems, the people grow and multiply. They think, and they look for solutions. Many of the things we imported in the past are now being created and made in this country. That is what rectification is all about. We must rectify many areas. Rectification means looking for something new; 26 July 1953 was rectification. We struggled to erase old things, to open new paths, to make a revolution, to create a new life. That is good. Rectification has a meaning, a truly broad meaning. I am happy and very encouraged by what I am seeing. I am pleased with the results I am seeing, despite the fact I know we can still do much more. We have much more ahead. I said today that agriculture in Havana is the most productive in the country; however, this area has a great growing potential. Not all crops can be improved; however, the growing potentials are great. Fortunately, our resources are based on our potentials. Despite the crisis we are experiencing with convertible foreign exchange, the year we had the least has been the year when we have done the most. This was a very difficult year, a practically impossible year; however, we are seeing it through. During this even there, we have talked about the 951 works done in a single province in commemoration of 26 July. This is proof of our great possibilities. In my opinion, the process is advancing. There is a new style of work within the party and there is a new style of work within the state's cadres. Therefore, not only because of the rains, the signs are good on this 26 July. We are currently in a phase that, qualitatively speaking, is different. Difficulties are helping us. Perhaps some day we will be able to say: Blessed were the difficulties we experienced in 1987. It was a difficult year; it seemed like an impossible year; and imperialism was encouraged by this situation. They are just waiting to see how we resolve these problems. Sometimes imperialism is encouraged when it sees countries such as ours experiencing problems because of the blockade imposed by them. Perhaps some day we will also thank the blockade for the lesson it taught us, for teaching us to resolve problems. Perhaps some day we will have to thank them because we were one of the few countries of the world able to prove it could live without imperialism, that it could live without economic relations with the empire. How many countries claim this today? Furthermore, how many countries can live and develop the way we have? We have done this amid a ferocious blockade on the part of the empire. The empire, its magnates, and its leaders cannot cease but to be amazed by the fact that we have waged 28 years of heroic and strong struggle, and that we have been able to survive and advance despite deficiencies and mistakes. Deficiencies and mistakes will have to be left behind in our path. We have made mistakes but we have also had the courage to admit them. [applause] We have had the honesty to admit them. [applause] We have fought them relentlessly. Bad and terrible mistakes are those made if one does not become aware of them, those that are ignored, those that are not admitted, those that are not consistently fought. Imperialism may become encouraged when one or two cases of miserable and repugnant traitors pop up. They become traitors because they betray the fatherland or because they betray the principles, ethics, and morale of the revolution. What can the traitors and their masters do against the revolution? What can they do with their repugnant slander? Who will they deceive? Why do they want to lie? To return to the past? [Crowd: No!] The past that we fortunately left behind many years ago? Do we want to return to unemployment, prostitution, gambling, misery, illiteracy, shoeless children, sick people without doctors and medicines, and pregnant women who had to give birth in the boondocks? Why do they want to lie? To return to the repugnant and inhuman past? Who will they deceive? To return to repression, the tyranny, the rural guard, the machete plan, the discrimination of women, and racial discrimination? To again live in a society of privileges, abuses, and exploitation? Why so much propaganda? Who will they deceive? Here are the facts. The facts are and will be irrefutable. [applause] They may confuse or discourage a few. There will always be traitors. The popular saying, which is applicable now, is very old. It says: Rome pays traitors but it scorns them. There have always been rats that jump off a sinking ship. [applause] However, for each traitor and turncoat there will be 1,000 firm, invincible sailors and captains who will know how to steer the boat of the revolution amid any storm. [applause] Some thought that perhaps there were certain difficulties and became afraid. Their legs started to shake. [laughter] Their morale and even their physical legs were shaky. They were left with enough energy to flee from what they viewed as a danger. Who will they impress with that? Will they scare this revolution that started from zero? This revolution started, just like the child-care centers, from zero. It started from nothing. It did not have a peso, not even a rifle, when it began its long path That was back then, when we came here to win over a small group of youths from Artemisa. They were humble men. None of them were large land owners, industrialists, aristocrats, or rich. They were humble workers and peasants who had an idea in mind. They were capable of defending that idea. Many of them had to give their lives alone the way to make these ideas a reality. Who will they scare? Who will they impress? Difficult hours were those that followed the attack on Moncada. Difficult hours were. those when the goal was not reached, and dozens of comrades were murdered. Not even then, in those difficult moments, did we lack crewmen in the boat. Difficult hours were those back then, prior to the Granma, when we were betrayed, persecuted, imprisoned; and we lost part of the weapons. Difficult hours, which were more difficult and exemplary than ours, were those lived by our forefathers who fought for 10 years in the war for independence. They resumed that fight but then the empire foiled their work. Difficult hours Here those spent by Marti back then when La Fernandina [not further explained] and everything was lost. He did not hesitate, he disembarked from a small rowboat, with Maximo Gomez and some other comrades, in an isolated and solitary place of the eastern coast to resume the struggle, and die in the struggle -- with the conviction that others would follow; that some day, the fatherland would be free; and that some day, the history that he made, that, quietly, as he said, he had to make, would continue and culminate in victory. This cause we are defending is that same cause Marti had when he said: I know the monster because I lived inside it. [applause] He had to make that history quietly. We have had the privilege of making history without having to do it quietly. Difficult hours were those of the Granma expedition. That was a long road, a 1,500-mile road that ended with 1 inch of fuel in the ship's tanks. That ship did not land on a beach, but in a marsh. Difficult times were those following disembarkation from the Granma and the days when we were only a handful of men struggling alone. However, we never lacked men. We had more and more men loyal to the revolution and in love with the revolution's ideals and causes. One day, that handful of men became hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions of men. That is what we are today, millions [applause]. I would not say that we are experiencing difficult times. I do not know what could seem difficult for the rats, even if the sea moves 1 millimeter. I would not call these difficult times, but times of glory, honor, pride, and emotion; because we clearly see that a great task lies ahead of us, a task that has been done and is being done, a greater task. That is the work by those millions of people who did it, but not barefooted. Regardless of the model or making, we all have shoes, clothes, food, and medicine. We all have means of recreation and the necessary material goods. [applause] In these difficult times, no Cuban lives as the hundreds of thousands of jobless people lived or as those tenants who were evicted from their homes. Today, homes and the materials with which homes are made can be of better or worse quality, but everybody feels secure in their homes; everybody feels secure in their land, jobs, society; and everybody feels secure even after death, because they know that their wives, children, relatives, and parents will not suffer hunger, need, or lack of protection. [applause] Today, a person living in the worst conditions lives much better than the way in which the minorities lived in the past. That involves life-span expectancy, child mortality, and levels of health, education, and services. Those are the concerns and dreams of the revolutionary man. He is always thinking about what to do, how to create. He thinks about himself and about others. Be shares with others, because we learned a great lesson that we summarize in one phrase: To be an international volunteer worker is to pay our own debt to humankind. International volunteer work not only made our merits possible, but also gave us everything. We could criticize ourselves for not having used the internationalist assistance that we received in the very best way, as we are learning to do today. Thanks to the international assistance, particularly from the Soviet Union, we have been able to come this far [applause], win this battle, and face the monster. It is our duty to make the best possible use of those resources and that cooperation because of that, despite this enormous crisis of foreign exchange. It would be unjust to deny in any way the extraordinary political, moral, patriotic, revolutionary, internationalist, and communist virtues of our people. [applause] Today, we are working with pride. That is why, more than difficult days -- I repeat -- they are days of honor. They are days of glory. They are days of pride. They are days of creation. That is why on this 34th anniversary, we can tell our martyrs here in this heroic city: We have fulfilled our duty and we will continue to do so. We have fulfilled our duty to the fullest, but we are still not satisfied with the way in which we have done so. We will fulfill our duty more, and we will fulfill it better. To those who at one time believed that blood was useless, that Moncada led to adversity and not to victory, that the Granma was useless, or that the war in the mountains was useless, we say today it was proven that the sacrifice was never useless. Those who believe that one day all this effort, all this heroism, and all this blood will be useless should know that today more than ever before and with greater confidence than ever before we can say the sacrifice has been absolutely fruitful and absolutely useful. Those who believe that -- the empire and its servile mercenaries -- are mistaken if they believe that one day the blood of the good was shed in vain. Our revolution [applause], our people, and our party can never be underestimated. Free fatherland or death: We will win: -END-