-DATE- 19930222 -YEAR- 1993 -DOCUMENT TYPE- -AUTHOR- -HEADLINE- Castro Speaks at Second Havana Elections Meeting -PLACE- CARIBBEAN / Cuba -SOURCE- Havana Tele Rebelde and Cuba Vision Networks -REPORT NO.- FBIS-LAT-93-035 -REPORT DATE- 19930224 -HEADER- ======================================================================= Report Type: Daily report AFS Number: FL2302135093 Report Number: FBIS-LAT-93-035 Report Date: 24 Feb 93 Report Series: Daily Report Start Page: 3 Report Division: CARIBBEAN End Page: 12 Report Subdivision: Cuba AG File Flag: Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Language: Spanish Document Date: 22 Feb 93 Report Volume: Wednesday Vol VI No 035 Dissemination: City/Source of Document: Havana Tele Rebelde and Cuba Vision Networks Report Name: Latin America Headline: Castro Speaks at Second Havana Elections Meeting Author(s): President Fidel Castro at the second working meeting for the elections , held at the Lazaro Pena Theater in Havana on 20 February-recorded] Source Line: FL2302135093 Havana Tele Rebelde and Cuba Vision Networks in Spanish 0127 GMT 22 Feb 93 Subslug: [Speech by President Fidel Castro at the second working meeting for the elections, held at the Lazaro Pena Theater in Havana on 20 February-recorded] -TEXT- FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE: 1. [Speech by President Fidel Castro at the second working meeting for the elections, held at the Lazaro Pena Theater in Havana on 20 February-recorded] 2. [Text] [Castro] Dear comrades: During this week, almost since the start of the week, and because of the things we were seeing about how this contest, this battle, this campaign was going, we reached the conclusion that it would be a good idea to hold a second working meeting to analyze the experiences we had been gaining and so that all of us would have the opportunity to hear the views, opinions, and impressions of many of the comrades who were participating in this struggle. 3. It is not the same for one to hear things in accumulation, one after another, as if we all met to think about the problem together. To hold this meeting, we needed to use the Karl Marx Theater, since we wanted to invite a larger number of comrades who are participating and whom we have seen at the base level. But the Karl Marx Theater was already booked for the jazz festival, which is an activity that should not and could not be interfered with. Therefore, we had to fit in here, in the Cuban Workers Federation [CTC] theater, our CTC theater, with the same comrades who met the first time and would have participated anyway, and a few hundred more people we had invited. I do not know how they have found room, but I think there was still some room last time; there were 200 or 300 empty seats. So we were able to invite a few more comrades, and they are present here. 4. You have listened to the many comrades who have spoken. It is a shame we cannot listen to more, but time is pressing. I do not have much to add, as far as impressions, to what they have said. I was trying to remember a little, to recall the last few years which have led us to this time we are experiencing. Everything began with the Fourth Communist Party of Cuba [PCC] Congress, with the basic document for the Fourth Congress. The fact is that in a relatively short lapse of time, we announced our congress and held our congress, on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Events abroad were moving faster and faster. When we were thinking about the Fourth Congress, the problems in the socialist bloc had already begun. While the congress was being held, circumstances were already difficult, and we could see very serious events coming. 5. In spite of everything, we did not hesitate to hold the congress. We said: Whatever the international circumstances may be, we will hold the congress. At the time there was a great crisis in the USSR, although it had not yet disappeared. It still had a few months to live, or a few weeks to live. We felt there was no hesitation. That congress was very important. I am not going to talk now about all the issues that were discussed. But one very important issue concerned the elections. Rather, not the elections, but the people's government, improving the people's government, as we called it, what we should do to improve the people's government. 6. At the congress, we came up with very important definitions, but we also had to modify the Constitution. We also completed the task of modifying the Constitution. We had to draw up the new electoral law. We completed the task of drawing up the new electoral law. We were already in the special period, at a very difficult time. Even so, there was no hesitation in announcing the elections. There were more than enough pretexts and reasons in the conditions of our country, under a double embargo, in a situation which closely resembles a war, and while we were involved in so many activities, so many urgent, pressing, and vital tasks....[rephrases] We did not seek pretexts. We did not accept, shall we say, reasons or even the idea that the elections should be postponed indefinitely until the special period was over. 7. Anyone could understand how tremendously difficult an election process would be in the midst of a special period. I think one of the most courageous actions the Revolution has taken is holding these elections during the special period. This is something that is also, in my opinion, the right thing to do. Far from regretting having done this, today we are happy we have done it this way. Now we have held the first part of these elections, those of 20 December, in which the district delegates were elected, and in three or four days, we will be in the final phase of this election process, the final and most difficult phase of this election process, which are the direct elections of the provincial delegates and the deputies to the National Assembly of the People's Government [ANPP]. These delegates and deputies have to do with state government, on the middle and highest levels, since the ANPP in our country is the highest state government body. Fortunately, when we drew up the first Constitution, we did not copy. Rather, we worked out ideas about what elections should be like in our country. It cannot be said that all the merit has come from the Fourth Congress, since we drew up the Constitution....[pauses] in which we copied things, we must say, but concerning the electoral issue-such a key issue as the form in which the people exercise their rights, sovereignty, and power-we developed entirely new forms which were not being applied in the socialist countries. That is how the people's government bodies were formed. 8. But in the entire process of discussing the basic document of the congress, this issue of the direct election of the ANPP deputies did not appear in the debates. Everyone understood our system was very democratic, in and of itself. At least, it was more democratic than all the others being applied both under socialism and under capitalism, because we had established a key principle that was being expressed in concrete terms for the first time. This is the principle that the people do the nominating and the electing. This took place from the very start, when the people meeting in assemblies nominated the candidates for district delegates and approved them. 9. During elections, they were elected by the same people, who chose between several of them, because this selection at the base level could not be done any other way. A minimum of two and a maximum of eight candidates was established. Even then, we were concerned that politicking not occur there at the base level. It was even said that campaigns would not be conducted. Rather, they would be known primarily through the candidates' resumes and the residents' knowledge of the candidates, since these districts covered a limited space, a limited area, of our populace. But it was to be the resumes that defined the voters' conduct. Those delegates-elected directly, nominated by the people and elected by the people-were the ones who in turn elected the provincial assemblies and the ANPP, as I have said other times. 10. That seemed so reasonable and right that this system was not challenged, and when we talked about improving the people's government system, we talked about other issues. The idea of a direct and secret vote to elect the ANPP is a PCC initiative. It was taken in the preparatory commission for the congress. It was proposed at the congress. This was a courageous, daring, revolutionary step to establish the principle that the people should nominate and elect not only the district delegates but also the delegates to the provincial assemblies and the deputies to the ANPP. 11. How to do this was an issue that had to be examined and studied, how to do this within our system, how to do this within the concept of a single party, within the ideas and concepts we must defend as one of our country's most important accomplishments. We had to reconcile the concept of a single party with this idea of the people doing the nominating and electing. We had to reconcile it with practice, because what was known in the world when there was not a single party was a multiplicity of parties. Those were the only known procedures for holding elections. 12. So we had to create something new, and something more just, equitable, democratic, and pure. Our major concern was to preserve the purity of our election process and not to introduce politics. If we had made a mistake in drawing up the methods for carrying out this electoral process, we could have run into serious problems and really corrupted democracy, as it is corrupted almost everywhere in the world. Because now this concept of democracy is penetrating much deeper into our awareness and blood. We can see the abysmal differences between our system and the system being applied in other countries. We have had the opportunity today to hear some opinions about how beneficial and extraordinarily useful and instructive this process has been. This is a great incentive for us, because I think we are really handling in a fortunate and revolutionary way issues that are fundamental to the life of any revolutionary and truly progressive society. 13. I think these elections have taught our people a great deal about democracy, something that is talked about so much in the world. In these days, we ourselves have been gaining much greater knowledge of the ideas concerning this issue, from what we have seen in the street. We ourselves have been learning a great lesson in democracy. We who thought we knew what we were doing, we who were striving to find the most just, perfect, democratic system possible, have been learning great lessons in democracy. We have been able to make many comparisons, since no one knew what this process was going to be like. It was a new path, a path we had to open up, because ideas in theory are one thing, and the practical application of ideas is another. Since we had never experienced such a process-and it had been experienced nowhere-there was no possible point of comparison. Many comrades have explained here honestly that they did not know what this campaign was going to be like. I would say none of us knew completely what this campaign was going to be like. 14. We were concerned about certain principles, which were above all that politicking not be introduced into our electoral process, that war, competition, the struggle for votes, demagogy, the corruption of our cadres, our candidates, hypocrisy, and lies not be introduced. How could we avoid this? We thought we had managed this in the electoral law. That is what explains the difference between the system for electing the district delegates and the system for electing the provincial delegates and the ANPP deputies. To tell the truth, for a long time our concern focused on the election of ANPP deputies. It was precisely when the principle of their direct and secret election was accepted that the decision was also made to apply the same system to the delegates to the provincial assemblies. There were still questions about whether the provincial delegates could be elected indirectly. But we reached the conclusion that we should include them in the same concept as well. 15. But we did not think as much about that as we thought about the ANPP. That is why these ideas were debated quite a bit at the ANPP meeting to discuss the electoral law. What should we do? How should we do this, choosing between the many alternatives that could arise? How could we avoid division, war, and politicking in our elections? That is how the formula we are applying arose. It was as simple as giving the citizens the right not to one vote but to as many votes as there were candidates. We gave them more votes. We did not give them one vote. They could use that vote however they thought best. They could vote for one, two, all or none of the candidates. 16. I have repeated this several times, and we must continue to repeat this, and not only so that we will understand it. The better we understand it, the better. But we must also help others understand it. When all the citizens of this country understand it, it will be useful to repeat it so that the citizens of other countries, who are used to other systems, will understand it. It may be difficult for them to understand our system. Their jaws may drop when we talk to them about it. 17. Now, the citizens were given as many votes as there were candidates, but a requirement must be established, a harsh, truly difficult requirement. They had to get more than half the valid votes. That is, any of those provincial delegates or deputies had to get more than half the valid votes. I think this really capped, we could say, the democratic nature of our system, when we established this requirement. So we established it. But it had to be tested in practice. [Words indistinct] then, and we must say we discovered new things. I already talked about some of them at the first working meeting. We discovered our populace was used to a different voting system, and abruptly, suddenly, they had to understand the new voting concept, and the reasons for these new concepts, and the values these new concepts were meant to preserve: the cleanness, honesty, and purity of our elections. 18. How could we meet all these goals? We realized these goals were still not understood. Concerns began to be voiced about the possibility that the voters would vote as they do in the base-level elections, and as a result an enormous number of votes would be wasted. As a result of this, plus the requirement for more than half the votes, many candidates might not be elected. But there was something even more painful. Although it might be painful that many candidate would not be elected- because it would force us to hold further elections, through the procedures established in the Constitution, which give the Council of State more than one option, and anyone could understand that we could not hold elections like these every day-there was something even more painful. 19. That was the fact that only the most well-known and popular....[pauses] who are certainly the minority among the candidates for the ANPP. They are the minority. I would say that the ones who are known nationally are about 20 percent, the ones we could call popular or very popular, or very well-known, if we do not want to equate the word well-known with popularity. If I am not mistaken, they would be a little more than 20 percent. But we realized many of the extraordinarily talented people in our nation, who had been recognized and nominated, ran the risk of not being elected. They would have to be replaced by others who would surely be less well-known than they were. They might have the same merits, but not more. 20. We were running the risk of committing a great injustice, which was the impossibility of having wonderful, excellent citizens elected. But this was not only an injustice. There was also the danger that our ANPP would not be representative, that the greatest number of talented people, and if possible the most talented people in the country, would not be present in our ANPP. We realized one of the characteristics of our democracy and our legislature, which no other country has, could be thwarted. That is the fact that almost half the deputies would be base-level delegates. Many things have become evident in this process, and one of them is this, that we have many things in our system that no other country has. The capitalist countries cannot even dream of this, because a base-level man has no opportunity to be in the legislature, or the senate if they have two chambers. The equivalent of a city councilman, as I have said before, could not be in the legislature. He would have no chance. The mayor of a municipality, the equivalent of our municipal assembly president, would have no opportunity to be in the legislature. 21. It became evident that in no legislature in the world are there so many base-level people as in our legislature, people who are in direct contact with the masses, direct contact with the people. They are not well-known. Because a district delegate-I repeat once again-is known there in the district. Now the elections were not going to be decided by a few hundred votes. By establishing the requirement of more than half, the elections were going to be decided by thousands of votes, in spite of the fact that we created the districts. Because imagine elections in Santiago de Cuba, with almost 500,000 inhabitants. What would that be like if we had not created the districts? 22. We had to create districts in the major cities. How could we have held elections in Havana, or Diez de Octubre Municipality with 240,000 or 250,000 inhabitants, if we did not divide it into several districts? But even divided into districts, a candidate has to get a very high number of votes. I was extremely worried about the risk that many of these base-level delegates would not be elected, if that tendency to be selective, that habit of being selective, or that tendency to vote for a person one knows well, or to vote for a neighbor one deals with personally would mean that votes were divided, scattered, and very few base-level delegates were elected. 23. Some would say: But the resumes are available. I have talked about this before and I will talk about it again. The resumes cannot solve everything, even assuming they were all read and studied. The resumes could not be the same, and when one compares the record of someone who has spent 45 or 50 years with the Revolution with that of a comrade who has spent 3 or 4 years, is only 18 or 19 years old, who is a student who has been outstanding since he was a Pioneer, whose comrades selected him from his merits, who has to be a good student, among other things, because he could not be a cadre in our student organizations if he were not, that young person cannot have the record of a comrade with 30, 40, 50 years in the Revolution. His resume could not be the same. 24. Our ANPP has to have men with 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, and 5 years of experience so that it can be representative. How could there be an ANPP without representatives of the students, of whom there are millions in this country? How could there be an ANPP without researchers, of whom there are tens of thousands in this country, who are playing a decisive role in this battle, and who have great talent, although they are not well-known? The innovators are not well-known, and many other candidates for deputies are not well-known. How could we have a truly representative ANPP without them? 25. How could we decide everything based only on the resumes, and also by being excessively selective, super-demanding, in electing a candidate? I am not going to talk-because I have done so many times-about the excellent selection process. The candidacy commissions are essential, and on the provincial and national levels the candidacy commissions have played the role of the people in the principle of the people doing the nominating and electing. It was not the party. We had previously freed the party from the task of nominating the district delegates and participating in the elections. But the party chaired the candidacy commissions. The principle had been established that the candidacy commissions were made up of the mass organizations and chaired by the party. 26. This time, we freed the party from that task, which clashed with the principle of mass sovereignty, one of the most sacred principles the party has to defend as society's vanguard. This is not a matter of reducing the party's role at all. On the contrary; it elevates the party's role even more so that it will be society's leader and strategist. But its mission could not be to nominate the candidates. The candidacy commissions would carry out that mission, but this time they would be chaired not by the party but by the CTC, the organization of our workers in a socialist state. 27. It has become clear that this was a very correct solution. It strengthens the whole idea, the whole concept, of our system, and it facilitates its defense. We can challenge other countries in the world to do what we are doing and to have the mass organizations, chaired by the workers, do the nominating. This cannot be done anywhere else. It was demanded that those commissions do almost perfect work. We have always said we cannot assert that it has been perfect. It is very difficult to do perfect work. They must try to make it perfect. They may make mistakes. A person can even change, in exceptional cases, and be one way today and a different way tomorrow. No one can prevent that. 28. We did not claim that the work by the candidacy commissions was perfect, but we do assert that they made the greatest effort to do perfect work. That was essential, because it was necessary precisely to find a correct strategy to forestall the dangers we were seeing. It was necessary to have faith in the work of the candidacy commissions. This was essential. Without this, we could not have worked out the correct strategy that we are applying right now. This work will become more and more perfect, because now we have the experience. If 1.5 million consultations were held this time, the next time there may be 3 or 5 million. The next time they may have more time. They may do much better work than they did now. 29. Problems will be overcome, because many candidates will be better known, because cadres have arisen from that entire pool of candidates for the provincial assemblies. People who will become outstanding will come from those 1,190 delegates to the provincial assemblies-I think that is the number, 1,190. Great knowledge will come from these contacts of the delegates and deputies with the people. Thousands of people will become known, not a few dozen or a few hundred. Because we have to draw the conclusion from this experience that these contacts must be made systematic. Not with the intensity they have today, but we must continue to apply them as a political, revolutionary method and as a practice of constant contact between the country's representatives and the country. 30. All this will be easier in the future, and the work by the candidacy commissions will be much simpler and easier. The work of the elections will be much simpler, much easier, because I think the millions and millions of explanations we have had to give in these few days will not have to be given in the future. Everyone will know them. 31. I have repeated ideas and concepts, but I do this for a reason: Because it is very important we understand the strategy. We wanted a correct strategy, and we found the correct strategy with the concept of the united vote. We found the correct strategy when we said the vote should not be divided or scattered, and that negative consequences and injustices could result from the scattering and division of the vote. The need for a united vote....[pauses] Sometimes I say a united and concentrated vote, but it is known as a united vote. That word covers the concept we are referring to. This can be expressed in many different ways, but I think that saying a united vote expresses the idea. 32. We already had the strategy. Very well. I was amazed in Santiago de Cuba that 48 hours after our first working meeting, the majority of people in Santiago de Cuba understood. I was amazed. However, I saw a certain danger. The problem is not that people should vote this way. The problem is that people should internalize, in their awareness, the raison d'etre, the cause, of this strategy of a united vote. Because if they see it as a matter of discipline, that is not what we wanted. If they see it as accepting a plea or request by the Revolution, that is not what we wanted. We did not want them to do this because they were being asked to in the name of the nation, in the name of the Revolution, to do this because they were being asked to in the name of socialism, to do this as a matter of the desire to win a great victory, or as a simple tactic without meaning. 33. We wanted-and I think we are on the way to achieving this, and we have to continue to struggle to achieve this, and what we are doing tonight is an effort to achieve this-the idea of a united vote to be not a slogan but rather a revolutionary strategy. We wanted the idea of a united vote not to be seen as an act of discipline but as an act of awareness, that would be understood and seen as being the most just thing in the world that we could do with our votes, [applause] the most just thing in the world if we wanted a truly representative ANPP, if we wanted the humble citizens of this country to be able to be elected as ANPP deputies or delegates of the provincial assemblies, if we wanted justice, if we wanted equality, and if we wanted our system to be better. 34. How could we achieve this? Teaching people to vote is one thing. As we have said, it is a technical, juridical thing. You say to the citizens: You have these rights, this many votes. You can do it this way, that way, or some other way. You can vote for one, two, all, or none. That is your right. So teaching people to vote is not a strategy. A united vote is not a technical matter. It is a political matter. It is a strategy. It is the strategy of patriots. It is the strategy of revolutionaries. We needed a strategy, and this began to be seen as a need. At the beginning, it was presented as something dangerous, or it was accompanied by a certain fear. What is the fear, in my opinion? It is the fear that some comrades have that a slogan will be applied as a slogan, [as heard] that something will be demanded as a matter of discipline, the fear of the idea of a straitjacket, of saying to the citizens: You have to vote this way. 35. This was giving rise to fear of talking about this, when the problem really had to be discussed publicly and clearly, argued from solid foundations, since we have very solid reasons for arguing the idea of a united vote as a revolutionary strategy, as a political strategy, as something that is very moral, as something that is very just, as something that is very legal. Because this is the right we have as revolutionaries to demand or ask something of ourselves, the right we have as patriots to demand or ask something of ourselves, but for a reason, for a profound reason. We must do it this way, and we would feel happier if we did it this way, if no one did this as an act of discipline but rather if everyone who did this did it as an act of awareness. We would be happier if everyone who did this did not do it to comply with a slogan but to comply with a revolutionary strategy, knowing the reason for this strategy, the reason for this awareness. 36. To illustrate things, I explained to many of the comrades with whom I spoke in these past few days at the public meetings that they should calculate the number of votes a deputy would have to get in a district with 45,000 voters. He would have to get more than 20,000 votes, and getting 20,000 votes is a truly titanic task. It would be a titanic task for the base-level delegates, who are nominated and known in the districts or a somewhat larger area. They are well- known there. Or a people's council president is better known. There is no doubt that the creation of the people's councils was a great step forward by the Revolution, an enormous step forward, a very important step in improving the people's government bodies. Because they are doing wonders, especially in the rest of the country. They can do many more things there than they can in the capital, and in the capital they are doing quite a lot, quite a lot. [repeats himself] [applause] 37. If it was difficult for one of those base-level delegates, whom we are so proud to have in our ANPP, how much more of a problem would it be for the delegates to the provincial assemblies? Naturally, they are even less well-known, and newer as a rule. How could we demand that a district delegate nominated to be a provincial delegate get 20,000 votes? If everyone puts crosses all down the column, how many ballots would be annulled by mistake? Because many ballots are annulled by mistake. How could we ensure the election of the delegates to the provincial assemblies? 38. That problem was even more serious, and we realized it. That is why we have insisted more and more on this idea. It is said 99 percent of the citizens understand it, or know how to vote. They are familiar with the system. But there is still 1 percent. We must make them understand. We cannot resign ourselves to having 1 percent that are not familiar with this. But what interests us, with regard to the patriots and revolutionaries, who are the ones who decide and who will decide, is that they should understand this very well, be well aware of this, have internalized this. You know I do not use these words a lot, but I think they are perfectly good for explaining what we mean. They must become aware of how revolutionary, just, legal, moral, and beautiful this idea is. [applause] 39. Because this is an act of awareness, and that is how we want it to be. Because this is an intelligent strategy of the Revolution and the people. This is a key issue. I think we must continue, and it is now easier to take this concept to the masses. No one can impugn it. No one can challenge it. We have enjoyed listening here to the ideas, the impressions of the comrades who have been waging the battle here in the capital. The battle in the capital has enormous importance, because it is the most difficult. 40. Conditions will always be the most difficult in the capital. The imperialist enemy has always done his greatest work of undermining, his largest amount of propaganda, in the capital. The enemy has concentrated his efforts and subversive actions in the capital. All kinds of problems have accumulated in the capital, in the capital of our country and in any capital, especially when massive migration occurs. There have been countries that have legally banned migration. We have never wanted to use those procedures. We have preferred the idea and concept of developing the rest of the country, as we have done. 41. But in spite of this, the capital continues to be very attractive. It continues to be very attractive, and the phenomena of migration continues now in the special period. I am told by the comrades who are candidates for some of those difficult districts that they have met some compatriots from the eastern provinces who have arrived recently, in those districts, where they have put up a roof or something, but they have arrived. They are from different provinces, but especially from the eastern provinces. They come for many reasons. As you know, at one time the inhabitants of the capital did not want to be construction workers, and the city was filled with construction workers from other provinces, mainly from the eastern provinces. Havana residents needed migrants in order to build, because there were not enough construction workers from Havana. They had many other opportunities. 42. That is one of the ways. I know about many of the ways that phenomenon has taken place. Even though this occurred in our country to a lesser degree than in any other country, in any case the fact is that a few hundreds of thousands of people have increased the population of the capital, overburdened the services, and worsened demand, especially the demand for housing. I do not say the demand for jobs, because here the Revolution has had to [words indistinct] citizens to ask them if they will do the favor of joining a construction force or a factory. There were job opportunities, but there were some jobs that Havana residents no longer wanted to do. 43. There are different ways. The defense of our capital also had to be stronger than that of other places in the country, and many compatriots had to come from other provinces to serve in the armed forces. Many stayed here afterwards, because coming to Havana, historically at least-and I say at least because now we are in the special period-has been easy. Returning to one's original province has been much more difficult. Naturally, this worsens our housing problems, our water problems, and our problems with services in the capital. This is the reality. 44. So there are objective factors and also the enemy's work, the work of imperialism, which is primarily concentrated in the capital. It does this throughout the country. You know they wanted to direct that radio station primarily at the capital. They wanted to direct that television station primarily at the capital. They have always directed their main subversive actions at the capital, knowing the objective problems the capital has. That is why the struggle is harder here, and what the comrades have said about their visits to all those poorer areas in the city is admirable. The attitude with which they were received, the fact that no one asked for anything or brought up personal problems, is admirable, more than admirable, amazing, knowing the needs they have, and we know them. 45. The comrades who have been in those difficult districts know. Naturally I did not know what a comrade said here, that the counterrevolutionaries were saying that the candidates were not going to go to the difficult districts. I did not know anything about that, and I am happy I did not, because I might have gone to more difficult districts. [applause] I did not know that. It is a matter of mentality, idiosyncrasy, and character, to go to places that are complicated, complex, and difficult. I tried to see in Havana, since I could not go everywhere, what districts had the most problems. I tried to go to those districts, those places, those meetings. 46. But the comrades have seen much more than I have, and I have been in those districts over the course of the years. I know a lot of their problems. I have visited houses. I have visited those places they call barracks, or what is the other name? Tenement houses. I have visited tenement houses, and I was very aware of the problem of the tenement houses. I know how they live in those tenement houses. Now, the Revolution worked throughout the country. The Revolution worked in all provinces. It transformed entire regions. The capitals of the 14 provinces are not even recognizable today, many of them, with their roads, their buildings, and their facilities. The face of those cities has changed. 47. The Revolution worked a lot, and it was very right, to develop all the provinces in the country. That was precisely the way to discourage migration. It was not only a matter of justice, but a method to reduce the problems of migration to the capital, which occurs throughout Latin America. We are talking about 2 million inhabitants. There are cities in Latin America that have 20 million inhabitants. An example is Mexico City; it has 20 million inhabitants. Sao Paulo has 16 or 17 million inhabitants, I think. I think Rio de Janeiro has around 10 million inhabitants. Caracas has between 4 and 5 million inhabitants. Bogota has about that many. Lima has about that many. It is a universal phenomenon. 48. The fact is that in our country, we feel an obligation to give every citizen, all citizens, a pension, a job, education, public health care, recreation, culture, a certain material standard of living. We cannot resign ourselves to the idea that there is a single person living in terrible conditions. That is why the Revolution exists, to help all citizens. We cannot forget anyone. You know how in the capitalist world, as a rule, they forget, and horrifying things happen. We all know about this. There are even death squads that kill children. They not only kill criminals, which is dreadful. Forces are organized, paid by landowners, which have the task of killing criminals, and they kill children 8, 9, and 10 years old, because many of those children have become involved in crime. 49. So the phenomena that can occur in any capitalist society....[rephrases] If there are people who sleep in doorways, we cannot resign ourselves to seeing anyone sleeping in a doorway. We cannot resign ourselves to seeing anyone homeless in the street, neither in normal times nor in the special period. [applause] We cannot resign ourselves to any of the many horrible things to which the capitalist societies have resigned themselves, especially in the Third World. Because we must not forget that the vast majority of humanity lives in the Third World, and that only a few privileged people live in the developed capitalist societies. They developed at the cost of looting the rest of the world for centuries. 50. That is why these problems take on great importance for us. Our citizens rightly feel that they should be helped and aided. If they come on their own account, without consulting anyone, and stay, and start to live anywhere, they feel that something should be done for them and that the problem should be solved for them. The Revolution has tried to solve the problem. It does not forget them. 51. Because if it is true that the Revolution has done a lot for the rest of the country, the Revolution has never forgotten the capital. The numbers, the figures, the facts, show this. The enormous social and economic development our capital has undergone show this, especially social development, because it already had a certain level of economic development. But our capital has undergone considerable economic development and colossal social development. 52. Think, for example, of the childcare center before the special period. In only two years, 114 were built in the capital, 114 or 112. I think that two more were built later. There are 114 in the capital, with capacity for more than 200 children, very modern institutions with everything that is needed. The capacity for children in the childcare centers increased by more than 50 percent in only two years. In those years, on the eve of the special period, 20 new polyclinics were built, and all the polyclinics- polyclinics and dental clinics-in the capital were put into suitable facilities. 53. In those years, 24 special schools were built. All the enrollment-that is, all the demand-for special schools in our capital was covered. No other city in the country has that. Dozens of hospital increased their numbers of beds or were repaired or remodeled. Hundreds of small food markets were built in those years before the special period. Dozens of supermarkets and minimarkets were built. Fifty video halls for the populace's recreation were built. Eighteen centers for physical fitness, or eighteen gymnasiums for physical fitness, were built. More than 1,000 senior citizens' clubs were organized. More than 1,000 aerobics clubs, mainly for young people and students, were organized. Nine completely new bus terminals were built in record time to improve everything to do with urban transportation. Dozens and dozens of bakeries were built with the idea of having bakeries close to the populace, as had been traditional, to replace the large bread factories because of their drawbacks in distributing the product, since people wanted to receive it very fresh. 54. It would take forever if we were to list the number of things of a social nature that were done between 1986 and 1989 in our capital. I should not forget facilities such as the pediatric cardiovascular surgery centers, completely new pediatric hospitals, intensive care wards in all the pediatric hospitals-this had been done shortly before-young people's computer clubs, the main computer club center, the Expocuba permanent exhibit center, completion of the botanical garden, great progress in building the new zoo. We were even working on the design for the new aquarium. There were new highways; we were building roads of all kinds. A great effort, a special effort, was being made, starting with the creation of the Blas Roca Contingent. There were new sources of water for the city, 30 entirely new brigades to repair roads, more than 60 brigades to repair water lines, new technology for rebuilding the old pipelines that leaked so much water, reservoirs built to supply water to the city. 55. In short, a lot of things were done throughout the years for the city. We were thinking, we had drawn up the plans, for new secondary schools, also with semi-boarding plans for working mothers. There were new designs for primary schools in the cities. There was no longer a need for new buildings but rather to improve the conditions in which all the children in the city were studying. These designs were being drawn up. There were sports facilities, 2,420 family doctor's offices, which now care for more than 80 percent of the population, according to figures we received recently, 2,420 family doctor's offices in a few years. 56. Was the capital being taken care of or not? But the most important thing of all was that we had started to develop the program to solve the housing problem in the capital. In the capital and throughout the country, but we were making a special effort in the capital. The minibrigades had been reborn, and considerable investment was made in hard currency to build factories to make bricks, blocks, tiles, and sanitary fixtures, to expand the cement factories, to expand the steel rod factory at Antillana de Acero, which almost tripled its capacity, to increase the production of sand and stone. But we were not just investing in Havana and Havana City Provinces because, comrades, we had even run out of stone in Havana and Havana City Provinces. It was already running out, and we were putting equipment in the last, relatively small quarries. But we were opening quarries in Pinar del Rio, Matanzas, even in Villa Clara, to transport the stone and sand to Havana by train. 57. There are new sources of sand from the seashore in northern Pinar del Rio Province, since we could not continue to take sand from the beaches in the north of Havana Province, nor from Varadero. That would be a crime, a great mistake. No responsible government could do that. That is what was done before. 58. The conditions had been created to build not less than 20,000 new housing units per year. That required electrical wires, aluminum fixtures, wood fixtures, etc., etc., etc. You cannot even imagine what a program to produce the materials needed for 20,000 housing units is like. Do not forget the asbestos-cement, clay, iron, and plastic pipes. The industrial capacity had been created not only to produce the materials for 20,000 housing units but also to repair tens of thousands of housing units every year. We knew that the city needed repairs, above all, and we had the information about the tenement houses and the houses that were falling down in the city. 59. How much effort was being made, over the course of the years but especially in the years before the special period? Although the minibrigades, as you know, were founded during the seventies, more than 20 years ago, and they gave a great boost to construction, unfortunately, the movement lost momentum later, for reasons we have explained. But now the social minibrigades were created, and citizens were given jobs building, repairing, or maintaining their houses. We had reached the extreme of saying to a housewife: Look, join this minibrigade and we will pay you to work repairing your house and your neighbors' houses. 60. Thousands and thousands of housewives joined that movement. We were looking for the work force to build new housing projects and repair the existing houses. We built paint factories, even a white cement factory in Siguaney, so that we would have the cement needed to make the paint for the new buildings, because paint is extremely expensive. We sought solutions of all kinds. But the contingents also arose as a new idea, with tremendous strength. These contingents were initially for construction. The first industrial contingent was created in San Miguel del Padron. It is there, and it has great prestige. It tripled productivity. It is one of the best factories in our city. So not only were investments made, but ideas and programs were worked out. 61. A group was formed for the strategic guidance of the city's development. As you know very well, in our capital the Revolution did not spend its time building offices and public buildings. The public buildings the Revolution uses after 30 years were almost all built before the Revolution. The Revolution did build many schools of all kinds in the city, and sports facilities, including the sports facilities for the last Pan-American Games, in which for the first time in the history of this hemisphere the feat of a Latin American country winning against the United States was accomplished. [applause] 62. These facilities are being used. The Revolution did not forget the capital, but it has always been aware of the complexity of the problems in the capital. That is why we said that the battle was more difficult here. I really think that the candidacy commission did an excellent job with the lists of candidates from the capital. They are strong, and no one has shirked their responsibilities. The party has not shirked its responsibilities. They nominated eight Politburo members, and here they are in the capital, in the most difficult place. [applause] 63. No one has shirked their responsibilities. They have been waging a tremendous battle. At first, we did not know how many days the campaign would last. It was clear to me from the first moments that this campaign would have to last up until 24 February, and be intense. Because of course, some comrades who have important responsibilities had to travel to the eastern provinces or Camaguey. It is not easy for them to spend two whole weeks. We must not forget that this special period....[corrects himself] No, these elections are taking place in the midst of the special period, the sugar harvest, the sugar harvest, [repeats] the cold-season planting-potatoes, vegetables, tubers-the tobacco planting, and many other agricultural activities, plus the tremendous work in managing the country in the midst of the great tensions arising from the special period. 64. But we were involved in this battle, and I have no doubt that all the comrades have spent two, three, or four hours on their work every day, if they could, but they spent the rest of the time in the electoral struggle, the battle, especially here in Havana City. They have done the same throughout the country, but I think the greatest effort has been made here. Here was where the greatest effort had to be made. It was clear to me that the comrades were going to be involved in this task up to 24 February. Since I had to be here, and I had already been in Santiago de Cuba, I also wanted to participate in some way in this great battle in the capital. Thus my modest-and I say this sincerely-participation in this campaign. I went to two or three meetings. Others went to five, six, seven, 10 meetings, to two or three meetings every day, two or three different places. But I was aware that the hardest battle was being waged here. 65. Now, if it is true that the objective and subjective conditions are more difficult in the capital, we also have tremendous patriotic and revolutionary forces in the capital. I do not forget how many Moncada combatants we recruited in the capital of the Republic, in addition to the large group [applause] of comrades from Artemisa. I do not forget that we organized the movement here, and it came to have 1,200 combatants. At Moncada and in Bayamo we used about 160 because we did not have resources or guns. But we had mobilized, organized, and trained 1,200 combatants. Then we did a selection, depending on the guns we had. 66. I do not forget the workers of the capital, who unanimously responded to the call for a general strike which consolidated our victory on 1 January. [applause] I do not forget the National Revolutionary Militia, made up of tens of thousands of workers from the capital, [applause] and the hundreds of artillery men. When artillery guns began to arrive here, surface guns and anti-aircraft guns, we recruited young people and workers from the capital. I do not forget the thousands of young people from the capital who participated in the literacy campaign. I do not forget that at the Bay of Pigs, the highest number of battalions was from the capital of the Republic. [applause] 67. I do not forget that before, the capital of the Republic had sent 40,000 armed workers to fight the gangs in the Escambray, 40,000. [applause] I remember this very well, because I visited the place more than once, because I met with almost all of them at ceremonies at which I explained the importance of that task. They surrounded the Escambray everywhere. They divided it up, they split it up, and they put a squadron in each house, at times, when they wanted to clear an entire area of bandits. That happened before the Bay of Pigs, because the enemy's plans, before the clearing of the Escambray, were to land at Trinidad, near the Escambray. They changed their plans when the battalions from the capital cleared the Escambray. 68. I do not forget the mobilizations of manual cane cutters, of the workers from our capital. [applause] They mobilized even to Camaguey. I do not forget those who are currently mobilized from here. I do not forget those from the capital who joined the Territorial Troops Militia. [applause] I do not forget those from the capital who are building tunnels to defend the nation. [applause] I cannot forget something I had not mentioned: the capital of the October missile crisis. [applause] 69. I do not forget the capital that organized the first contingents. I do not forget the capital of the mobilizations to agriculture, [applause] the capital that organized dozens of contingents and mobilizations. I do not forget the capital, hundreds of thousands of whose children have participated, contributing with their effort and sweat, in producing food for the city under the difficult conditions of the special period. [applause] 70. I know there are great revolutionary and patriotic forces in the capital, and that here, even though the conditions may be more difficult, the capital will be equal to the time we are experiencing. [applause] The capital will give the victory to the people's candidates, [applause] however difficult the circumstances may be, and we know them. I spoke before about everything we were doing when the collapse of the socialist bloc and the disappearance of the USSR dealt us such a terrible blow. That blow is felt, it must be felt, and it is felt with great force. You can see how bus trips have been reduced to one third of what they used to be every day, with buses for which we do not receive parts. They also need tires and batteries. They use quite a bit of fuel. Of course, fuel has dealt a terrible blow to many of the activities I spoke about. It has dealt a blow to transportation in the capital and throughout the country. 71. It has also dealt a blow to the supply of cooking fuel. It has dealt a blow to transportation. The sugar harvest, the sugar harvest [repeats] has suffered. Yes, it has been reported. Recently, I saw it on the television. Different reasons were given but the sugar harvest has also suffered due to the lack of fuel. On some occasions the mills and the combines have been stopped due to the lack of diesel. This has forced us to make an even greater effort and has caused greater difficulties. Fuel has dealt a blow to everything. Likewise, the lack of resources has dealt a blow to the supply of raw materials from abroad. It has also affected essential food staples. 72. When Cuba suddenly lost 75 percent of its imports, we were forced to reconstruct the country on a new basis under different conditions. Naturally, this is being felt and has to be felt. The whole country has felt it. The capital has also felt it. 73. If these examples are not enough, I can point out that approximately 800,000 bicycles have been distributed in the capital of the Republic in order to offset the problems with transportation. This figure is much higher than the number distributed in the rest of the country, despite the fact that we have built several bicycle factories in the rest of the country. Of course, the distances are greater here. In a city with 10,000 inhabitants, or in a city with 100,000 or 200,000 inhabitants, you do not have to walk far to reach specific places. However, in a city with over 2 million inhabitants, when sometimes you have to go from Habana del Este to La Lisa, or from Guanabacoa to Playa or Marianao, or from Arroyo Naranjo to any other municipality, such as Centro Habana, Habana Vieja or Plaza, it is natural that transportation would make life much more complicated here. This is why I had no objections to giving privileges to the capital in order to respond to the tremendous situation brought on by the blow suffered by transportation in the special period as a result of the collapse of the socialist bloc. 74. [Problems with] fuel halted many of our plans, in the same way that the lack of raw materials halted or considerably reduced production in many factories. Likewise, imported food resources became less accessible and everything-the freight charges, the shipping- became more expensive, as a result of the strengthening of the embargo and the double embargo. What took place following the disappearance of the socialist bloc and the USSR became the equivalent of a double embargo which forced Cuba to seek new markets for its products and receive ridiculously low prices for its exports. 75. We do not have enough fuel, yet we allocate for fuel the value of almost all the sugar we produce. I can give you one example: With what we spend on fuel every day we could purchase 15,000 tons of grain. These 15,000 tons of grain a day would allow us to distribute-pardon me, but did I say pounds? I said tons?-15,000 tons of grain every day would allow us to distribute 40 kg of grain to every Cuban citizen every month. 76. As I have mentioned on other occasions, today one ton of sugar buys 1.4 tons of oil. This was not the situation in 1959 or 1960; then we could buy eight tons of oil. However, today oil has a monopoly price. In trading with the USSR we obtained at least seven tons. Today, we trade some sugar for a small amount of oil from the USSR at these ridiculously low prices. Sugar is sold at garbage dump prices, and oil is sold at monopoly prices. These circumstances did not exist when the USSR existed. I am giving you this information to make you aware that, naturally, we are waging the battle in very difficult conditions, but we have the courage to wage it. 77. I was very impressed by what a comrade said because I also believe this: The masses are aware of what independence is, what the Revolution is, what socialism is, and what the Revolution has done for them. To this we could add so much more that the Revolution wanted to do for the people. Those programs we were talking about were perfectly feasible and we were developing them when our sugar was worth something, when we had enough fuel, when there was no shortage of raw materials, when we received considerable quantities of food, not only for direct human consumption but also for producing chicken, eggs, milk, beef, etc. Those programs were feasible. They were the result of the desire to struggle and work for the people. 78. We have worked not just for our people; we were capable not only of receiving but of giving. We were capable not only of receiving help from others but of giving our help to others. That is another Havana which cannot be forgotten, the Havana which contributed so much to civilian and military internationalist missions. [applause] 79. How many teachers, doctors, nurses, technicians, construction workers, and combatants? These people knew independence, liberty, dignity, equality, and justice. The justice we are now defending so much in these elections. The justice that we apply when we fight so that any honest and honorable man or woman of our people can become a deputy or a delegate. The justice we defend when we see our candidates, who are ordinary people. Our candidates are not millionaires. They are not wealthy. They are not sugar mill owners. They are not landlords. They are not big industrialists or businessmen. Our people can see this when they see all these candidates. Our people cannot say that among them there is an embezzler, a thief, or someone who has become wealthy with the money of the people. What the people see in these candidates who are visiting them is humble, simple, hard-working people. They see them supporting each other as brothers do. This has to be admired. 80. They know that this is the Revolution. This is the result of the equality of the Revolution, which some time ago brought about the disappearance of every type of discrimination for reasons of race or sex, or poverty, as we have mentioned many times before. The poor were terribly discriminated against in this country. I believe that the comrades have mentioned this here to explain the people's reaction. This is correct. I had reached the same conclusion. When the people have had the privilege of knowing such values, they refuse to live without them. When the people are no longer being exploited or enslaved, they refuse to become slaves again. [applause] The people have understood the battle being waged; they have understood what values are at stake; they have understood the importance of making a show of strength and unity, in order to wage the great struggle of the special period. 81. We need strength and unity. We have to send this message. What would we be saying to imperialism, to the enemy? If we show ourselves to be weak and divided, they would redouble their efforts to destroy us. We have to make them see that they will not be able to destroy us or will have to physically destroy us if they want to destroy the justice that the Revolution has brought to our nation. [applause] 82. This has been perfectly understood by the people. This is what in my opinion explains the reactions we have seen everywhere and that you have reported today. As was said here, we have only three more days. We cannot lose a single minute. We cannot lose a single second. We have three days of campaigning, three days of battle-Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. We do not have a right to rest as long as there is a single vote to be won, as long as there is a single mind to be persuaded, as long as there is a point that needs to be clarified. We have to remain in the front lines to the last minute, to the last second. 83. This has to be our method. This has to be our style in order to obtain not simply a victory but an energetic and resounding victory, a ``Yes for Cuba'', for the nation, and the Revolution which will reach every corner of the globe. [applause] I congratulate you, comrades of Havana, for the work you have done. In this meeting, I see in your faces the result of the battle you have waged. If two weeks ago you were what we could call inexperienced soldiers, today you are veterans. [applause] 84. A united nation is priceless. A combative nation is priceless. A fighting nation is priceless, capable of reaching mind after mind, house after house, as we would have to do if, instead of being in a battle of ideas, we had to defend the sacred soil of the fatherland with guns in hand [applause] to fulfill what Marti...[corrects himself] what Maceo said, which is as important today as when the fatherland was not even independent, when the things that we have to defend today did not exist: the justice, dignity, honor, equality, and brotherhood that we have to defend today. Without having lived the experience of a revolution such as we have, he said very clearly: Whoever attempts to take over Cuba will get only the dust of its bones [as heard] drenched in blood, if he does not perish in the struggle. [applause] Let us say as Maceo did: No one will ever be able to take over Cuba, certainly not this revolutionary Cuba, which on 24 February will render the highest tribute to our national hero Jose Marti. [crowd shouts: Viva free Cuba! Viva!] [applause] 85. Once, while speaking about our Mambises, our predecessors, we said: Then, we would have been like them. Today, they would have been like us. Therefore, all the generations, united in this beautiful, heroic, and honorable battle we are waging, would say: Socialism or death, fatherland or death, we will win! [applause] -END-