-DATE-
19910527
-YEAR-
1991
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
-AUTHOR-
-HEADLINE-
Castro Reaffirms Trust in Future of Revolution
-PLACE-
ANNEX / Cuba
-SOURCE-
Havana PRENSA LATINA
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS-LAT-91-105-A
-REPORT_DATE-
19910531
-HEADER-
BRS Assigned Document Number:    000008070
Report Type:         Daily Report             AFS Number:     PA2805143391
Report Number:       FBIS-LAT-91-105-A        Report Date:    31 May 91
Report Series:       Latin America            Start Page:     12
Report Division:     ANNEX                    End Page:       13
Report Subdivision:  Cuba                     AG File Flag:   
Classification:      UNCLASSIFIED             Language:       Spanish
Document Date:       27 May 91
Report Volume:       Friday Vol VI No 105-A

Dissemination:  FOUO

City/Source of Document:   Havana PRENSA LATINA

Report Name:   ANNEX

Headline:   Castro Reaffirms Trust in Future of Revolution

Author(s):   Angel E. Pino]

Source Line:   PA2805143391 Havana PRENSA LATINA in Spanish 1529 GMT 27 May
91--FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Subslug:   [Report by Angel E. Pino]

-TEXT-
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1.  [Report by Angel E. Pino]

2.  [Text] Havana, 27 May (PL)-- President Fidel Castro has expressed his trust
in the future of the Cuban revolutionary process, saying that his country will
never again have a master.

3.  ``No one will rule us and no one will make us bend, because all our
generations will continue to fight for the honor we now possess,'' the Cuban
leader told more than 400 former combatants of the Guerrilla Column No. 1, a
column he commanded in the Sierra Maestra.

4.  Recounting the Cuban people's struggles for their independence from the
United States since the beginning of this century, he said: ``It does not
matter how big the Goliath of the North has grown because David has also grown
bigger, morally and spiritually.''

5.  Last night Fidel Castro presided over a ceremony to decorate former
combatants of the rebel army's ``Jose Marti'' Column No. 1. The event was held
in San Antonio de Los Banos, approximately 50 km west of the capital.

6.  He noted that with the same spirit of sacrifice, courage, and confidence in
victory with which they fought against Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship, the
Cuban people today know the difficulties stemming from the disappearance of the
socialist world and the rising U.S. hostility.

7.  He emphasized: ``However, just like yesterday, patriotic and revolutionary
values are deeply embedded in us and the future generations will never agree to
giving them up.''

8.  The former combatants, many of whom had met again for the first time since
the revolutionary war, had spent 15 days working in agricultural projects in
Havana Province.

9.  The Cuban president was very moved to recognize many of them after so many
years. He said that perhaps he would forget some faces with the passage of
time, but that he would always keep them in his heart.

10.  The ``Jose Marti'' Column No. 1 was founded by Castro with survivors of
the Granma expedition of 1956 and with the first peasants who joined the
struggle in the Sierra Maestra.

11.  As the war developed, these men were ordered to new units sent to other
regions in the country to face and defeat the army of the Batista tyranny,
which was defeated in only two years.

12.  Castro remarked: ``We could not have picked a better time to hold this
ceremony, when our enemies are bent on destroying our work and defeating our
revolution, which would be tantamount to sweeping Cuba away.''

13.  He said that the spirit that the old combatants have shown and are showing
now, despite the passing years, is what the present revolutionaries need to
face the complex situation experienced in today's world.

14.  He noted that the history of 32 years of revolution ``is full of heroic
deeds.''

15.  ``What this country has done for many just causes throughout the world,
for the independence of many people, in open struggle against the great empire
(the United States), will have to be recognized by mankind some day,'' he said
amid strong applause.

16.  The president ended his speech with a verse by Jose Marti, Cuba's national
hero, who said: ``When I die-- without a fatherland, but also without a
master--I want a bouquet and a flag on my grave.''

17.  ``Today, we can tell Marti, with true pride, that he will have flowers, a
flag, and a fatherland, and no master,'' Fidel concluded.

18.  After the ceremony, Castro dined and talked with the former Sierra Maestra
combatants in an improvised tent amid laughter and old stories.

-END-