-DATE-
19900507
-YEAR-
1990
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
-AUTHOR-
-HEADLINE-
Castro Address at Second UJC-FAR Meeting
-PLACE-
CARIBBEAN / Cuba
-SOURCE-
Havana Television Service
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS-LAT-90-090
-REPORT_DATE-
19900509
-HEADER-
BRS Assigned Document Number:    000007835
Report Type:         Daily Report             AFS Number:     FL0805160590
Report Number:       FBIS-LAT-90-090          Report Date:    09 May 90
Report Series:       Daily Report             Start Page:     3
Report Division:     CARIBBEAN                End Page:       6
Report Subdivision:  Cuba                     AG File Flag:   
Classification:      UNCLASSIFIED             Language:       Spanish
Document Date:       07 May 90
Report Volume:       Wednesday Vol VI No 090

Dissemination:  

City/Source of Document:   Havana Television Service

Report Name:   Latin America

Headline:   Castro Address at Second UJC-FAR Meeting

Author(s):   President Fidel Castro, first secretary of the Communist Party of
Cuba , to the second meeting of leaders and militants of the Union
of Young Communists, UJC, in the Revolutionary Armed Forces, FAR,
in Havana on 28 April--recorded]

Source Line:   FL0805160590 Havana Television Service in Spanish 0000 GMT 7 May
90

Subslug:   [``Excerpt'' of address by President Fidel Castro, first secretary
of the Communist Party of Cuba, to the second meeting of leaders and
militants of the Union of Young Communists, UJC, in the
Revolutionary Armed Forces, FAR, in Havana on 28 April--recorded]

-TEXT-
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1.  [``Excerpt'' of address by President Fidel Castro, first secretary of the
Communist Party of Cuba, to the second meeting of leaders and militants of the
Union of Young Communists, UJC, in the Revolutionary Armed Forces, FAR, in
Havana on 28 April--recorded]

2.  [Text] All right, comrades, I am going to address this meeting. [applause]
I thought you would ask me to talk to you. I knew you would ask me to talk, but
under one condition: You want me to be brief. Do not laugh, [crowd giggles]
because I will keep my word. I will be brief. I do not have much to say about
the meeting itself.  Everything has been said here. In fact, Comrade Raul
[Castro] summarized this meeting well. He even cited the statements made by the
many comrades whose participation stood out during the meeting. I do not think
there is any doubt about the importance and value of this meeting. We have been
listening to praises for the meeting and its topics of discussions for two
days.

3.  If there is anything interesting or relatively new that I could add here is
that we are experiencing truly exceptional times.  I know that the young people
are not discouraged if they are told they are living exceptional times. I
believe that they would be discouraged if they were told that we are living
ordinary time, without problems, without worries, without risks.

4.  It has been said more than once that we are living exceptional times, but
that it is a matter of having exceptional times inside our country. Of course,
exceptional times, such as the October crisis, have shaken the world. The
development of that situation involved practically all humankind. The
exceptional time I am referring too, however, is of another nature. It is a
truly exceptional time in terms of the role our country should play.

5.  There were more of us before. There was a truly socialist community before.
Now, there are socialist countries, but not as many as there were around the
time of the triumph of the Cuban revolution, for example, or when the October
crisis took place. Today, our country has to play a very special role.

6.  Many thought that the Cuban revolution was going to collapse like other
revolutions throughout the world collapsed when serious problems began to
appear in East Europe during the second half of last year and when those
countries began to collapse one by one. Many thought our revolution had to
collapse as if it were a tower of meringue or a house of cards. The
imperialists began making their opportunist estimations on what would be the
consequences for Cuba from the problems in East Europe. When they saw the
objective difficulties, they said: No, Cuba will be unable to resist the
consequences of that situation. They did not see the subjective consequences of
that situation as far as Cuba is concerned.

7.  I have repeatedly stressed, and I will always emphasize, the enormous
efforts that the Soviets have made and are making to continue with their
cooperation with Cuba.  However, when the Yankees saw the objective
circumstances that were appearing and developing in the Soviet Union, they
filled themselves with hopes that the difficulties were going to be so large
that the Soviet Union would be unable to continue conducting the type of
cooperation it has maintained with Cuba up until this time. The Yankees thought
that in view of the problems inside the USSR, cooperation with Cuba would be
seriously affected. They know that we get fuel, raw material, equipment, and
armament from the USSR.  They are aware of how important Soviet cooperation is
for our country. And they filled themselves with hopes.  They thought that the
Cuban revolution had no chance to save itself and that therefore there was no
need to negotiate with a revolutionary country that was going to sink
irremediably.

8.  Perhaps among their estimations, the imperialists created further confusion
and once again underestimated the Cuban revolution, people, working class,
peasants, students, and combatants as a result of the phenomenon that was
taking place in Eastern Europe. The events taking place in Europe encouraged
the imperialists' imagination, but then they changed their attitude completely.

9.  They almost began to make postrevolutionary plans based on all those events
in Eastern Europe. The worms in Miami started to pack up their things to return
to Cuba. They were only waiting for the day and time when the Cuban revolution
collapsed, because according to them it had to collapse. [Castro pounds on
podium] They got the meringue mixed up with the steel. Oh yes, yes, yes. They
got mud mixed up with steel, and as they dug up in the mud, they found some
hard, very hard and sharp things. They found things that had deep foundations.
Those things did not move. Nothing can move those things. They started to
discover those things, but of course that is no reason for them to rectify
their attitude.

10.  I can tell you that at present they are more irritated than ever and,
therefore, more dangerous than ever. Obviously, what I want to tell you is
this. I told myself: Well, if they ask me to speak at the meeting, I will talk
to them about this. You are going back to your units after the meeting. Raul
was clear and precise about that. He said we must be alert to avoid surprises.

11.  If the imperialists decide to carry out a surprise attack on our country,
they would do precisely that. They would disguise its blow with the movements
of a military exercise. They would hide their true intentions behind those
exercises. After all, they are so shameless. We would create the perfect
conditions for an aggression if we are off guard and if we keep our arms
folded. What we have to prevent by all means is a surprise imperialist
aggression.

12.  We have been studying the whole situation of the Armed Forces, the
fortifications we are building, etc. The situation is good. We have made a
great deal of progress.  Fortunately, we have been working on this for the last
10 years. We have been working very hard. We have been preparing our entire
population for the war. The truth is that if the enemies really start believing
that the attack, the adventure will cost them very little, they will feel more
encouraged to carry it out. We have to constantly show the imperialists that
any aggression against Cuba will cost them very dearly and will end in defeat.
It will end in defeat not because we are going to take over the capital city,
but because so many U.S. citizens are going to die that there will not be
enough coffins for them.  There will not be enough funeral homes in the United
States. And because of the Vietnam experience, we know that the dead are the
only thing capable of moving and touching that society.

13.  Obviously, we do not wish to re-educate the Yankees or to educate them at
our expense or at the cost of our lives and sacrifices. It is better not to
give them the least sign of encouragement to conduct an aggression against our
country. It would be better that they are not at all encouraged to do such a
thing. We have to make sure they do not have the least reason to carry out an
attack against us. We have to make sure they do not have the least hope to
catch us unprepared. We have worked very hard. We have built hundreds of
kilometers of tunnels to keep our means safe deep below, and to protect our
means and men. [Castro pounds on podium] What we must prevent by all means is a
surprise attack. That is very important. We must manage to find out when the
attack will take place. When we are faced with circumstances such as the ones
we are experiencing now, however, we have to protect our means. We cannot
neglect anything or any place. We know the imperialists well, though. Among
other things, they would try to take over our capital city. They would try to
take over our capital city. [Castro repeats himself] That would be their basic,
strategic decision. This enemy philosophy is very important, because we would
really like to see the enemy taking over this capital. [Castro pounds on
podium] We do not see any way for them to take control of Havana.  We are
adopting many measures to defend our capital city. I do not see any way for
them to take control of our capital city. [applause] If not one stone were left
unturned in Havana; and if there was not one single defender left, the enemy
would then try to neutralize the rest of the country. The war of all the people
is the war of all the people, all the time. There is no front line, no
rearguard; nothing.

14.  Obviously, our Armed Forces' and our people's actions would depend on the
enemy's actions. I say this because we are even studying ways to increase the
fortification system in Havana. We will have to make a decision on the type of
mobilization we will conduct in Havana now.  After all, if the enemy carries
out exercises, we can also conduct our exercises. We would not like the enemy
to use these exercises to cover up preparations for a surprise attack on us.
These exercises could also be a test to find out the kind of mobilization and
the methods and quantities of means and troops they will have to conduct and
deploy.

15.  It makes no difference to us whether these exercises are a surprise attack
or preparations for a mobilization. It is the same thing for us. If they test
their abilities, we can test ours, too. Each building in Havana must be
secured.  We must have the names of each and every person who is defending the
hundreds of thousands of buildings in Havana. We have almost 20,000 buildings.
The more we train and prepare, the better it is for us. We will also be able to
spot weaknesses and problems. We will be able to conduct all kinds of studies
that will help us improve our defense. We cannot make mistakes and fail to
adopt the measures we have to adopt according to each situation. It is better
to mobilize 20 times without anything happening; it is better to mobilize 100
times without anything happening than to let something happen while we are
unprepared. I hope we will never have to fight that combat. We must be
realistic; we must be realistic and be prepared, because we have to guarantee
our victory over the enemy.

16.  It is not impossible to defeat the enemy. We are not a country that has
either nuclear or massive destruction weapons, but we can massively destroy any
invader who enters our homeland. We can do that with our people's courage,
intelligence, and imagination. It is possible for our measures, actions,
defense, and imagination to neutralize the enemy's sophisticated weapons.

17.  Thousands of our men are currently on training sessions.  We are training
snipers and antiaircraft shooters. The Yankees would have a bad surprise if
they decide to attack us. Our first duty, our very first duty before engaging
in the first combat is to get ready, to do as much as we possibly can, to do
the best we can. You can be sure that every effort we make in that direction;
that every single step we make in the preparation of our defense, in the
training of our personnel, in the increase of their efficiency, and in the
development of our fortifications and tactics are all part of the battle. That
will be our first battle. All those efforts, all those preventive measures are
part of the first and most important battle. That is the only way to come out
with the victory. Never ever think that you are wasting your time or that you
are making useless efforts while training and preparing.

18.  I am sure that faced with a potential enemy like Cuba, which is mobilized
and doing what it is supposed to be doing, our enemy will have to think twice
before attacking us. If we are willing to shed our blood in combat, if we are
willing to surrender our lives and everything we have, we must also be willing
to [words indistinct] things and to make some sacrifices. We must be willing to
sweat as much as necessary, because we have to invest our efforts in getting
ready in all possible fields. We must be forewarned and alert. That sweat,
those efforts and sacrifices are part of our first combat.  That sweat and
those sacrifices can spare us for the shedding of much blood. That sweat and
those efforts could also spare us from even having to resort to our weapons,
which would be the greatest victory of all.

19.  Many here have always wanted to participate in internationalist missions.
Hundreds of thousands did participate in such missions. Some even participated
in two, three, or more missions. I know of many people who have always wanted
and never could participate in internationalist missions. I tell you that the
internationalist mission that we are fulfilling here today is the greatest in
the history of the Cuban revolution. All of us will have the privilege of
participating in that mission right next to our combatants and soldiers. Each
effort we make, each trench we open, and each measure we adopt is part of that
mission.

20.  That is what I want to ask from you. I want to ask you to go back to your
units with these ideas and conviction in mind. I want to ask you to do all you
can there. Go back there and do the best you can in the fulfillment of a
mission in which we are all participating. If we mobilize when the enemy is
mobilizing; if we mobilize when the enemy is gathering large combat units,
including squadrons, etc., we would be fulfilling that mission. We want to you
to return to your units with that conviction, for you to share that conviction
with our combatants. This is all I wanted to tell you comrades. Socialism or
death.  Fatherland or death, we will win. [applause]
-END-