-DATE-
19900912
-YEAR-
1990
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
-AUTHOR-
-HEADLINE-
Dailies Publish `Version' of Castro Award Speech
-PLACE-
CARIBBEAN /
-SOURCE-
Havana Tele Rebelde Network
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS-LAT-90-178
-REPORT_DATE-
19900913
-HEADER-
BRS Assigned Document Number:    000016005
Report Type:         Daily Report             AFS Number:     FL1209200090
Report Number:       FBIS-LAT-90-178          Report Date:    13 Sep 90
Report Series:       Daily Report             Start Page:     2
Report Division:     CARIBBEAN                End Page:       3
Classification:      UNCLASSIFIED             Language:       Spanish
Document Date:       12 Sep 90
Report Volume:       Thursday Vol VI No 178

Dissemination:  

City/Source of Document:   Havana Tele Rebelde Network

Report Name:   Latin America

Headline:   Dailies Publish `Version' of Castro Award Speech

Subheadline:   `Most Difficult Times' of Revolution

Source Line:   FL1209200090 Havana Tele Rebelde Network in Spanish 1700 GMT 12
Sep 90

-TEXT-
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1.  [Text] [Announcer] We are going to show you moments of the speech delivered
by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, first secretary of the Communist Party of
Cuba and president of the Councils of State and Ministers, after he received
last Monday the medal conferring on him the honorary doctorate degree of the
National University of San Marcos of Peru. [Begin recording] [Unidentified
speaker] This is the most important part of this ceremony for us. Allow me, on
behalf of the National University of San Marcos and the Peruvian people, to
bestow on you the medal conferring on you the honorary doctorate degree from
our university.  [applause] [vidoe shows the speaker placing the medal around
Castro's neck]

2.  [Castro] It has been necessary to take some time from the enormous amount
of work we have been involved in during these last days to hold this informal
meeting among us. It has not been possible to fulfill the traditional
requirements and formalities. Although the rector referred to the solemnity of
this event, which is true, we have not been able to even get the space and time
to organize it with all the attributes an event such as this one deserves. We
are not in an amphitheater.

3.  I cannot forget either the fact that there was a possibility of having this
degree presented at the San Marcos University when there was almost a
possibility of visiting Peru.  This was going to be a visit, even if it was a
short one, so that I could meet with the Peruvian people.  I would have liked
very much to receive this degree there.

4.  I also greatly appreciate the fact that you did not wait for the
possibility of making that visit to hold this event. I appreciate even more the
fact that you have visited our fatherland during these times and that you have
come here to carry out the agreement reached by the university. I believe that
all my comrades and I can appreciate the value of your gesture, especially if
one takes into account the times in which we are living. They are difficult
times for all. They are difficult times for the truly democratic ideas, they
are difficult times for progressive ideas, for socialist ideas, for
revolutionary ideas.  Perhaps they are one of the most difficult times we have
known in the last few decades, and undoubtedly the most difficult we have known
since the triumph of the revolution in 1959.[end recording]

5.  [Announcer] Finally, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro expressed his
gratitude for the gesture made by the National San Marcos University for
visiting our country during these times. [Begin recording] [Castro] I know that
the times are not only difficult for us. I think about you. I think about the
rest of the Latin American countries and the problems that await them. I think
about the San Marcos University. I imagine it must not be easy for such a
prestigious university, for an institution that has played such an important
role in the development of the political thought, in the development of the
democratic thought, in the development of the revolutionary thought as the San
Marcos University has.... [changes thought] I repeat, you have made an
extraordinary gesture. I am going to say it even more clearly. One has to have
a lot of courage to come to Cuba today. You have to be men of deep convictions.
As we said before, in the middle of such confusion as there is today, in the
middle of so much disinformation, the University of San Marcos with that
courageous gesture, we could say, with that heroic gesture, is showing that
this institution rises to its glorious centuries of history, that this
institution deserves the recognition and prestige it enjoys in the heart of all
the democratic, progressive, and revolutionary men in our hemisphere.

6.  I know that you do not give out many honors, that you do not confer many
honors. I know that to make this type of decision the consensus of professors
and students is needed. We understand this clearly and we appreciate it
immensely. I can also tell you that we will always be grateful for the
confidence that you have had in us. I want to guarantee you the certainty that
we will know how to deserve this honor.

7.  I will conclude with one phrase, that we will never disappoint the
University of San Marcos.[applause] [end recording]
-END-