-DATE- 19930224 -YEAR- 1993 -DOCUMENT TYPE- -AUTHOR- -HEADLINE- Government Holds National Assembly Elections -PLACE- CARIBBEAN / Cuba -SOURCE- Havana Radio and Television Networks -REPORT NO.- FBIS-LAT-93-036 -REPORT DATE- 19930125 -HEADER- ======================================================================= Report Type: Daily report AFS Number: FL2402141893 Report Number: FBIS-LAT-93-036 Report Date: 25 Jan 93 Report Series: Daily Report Start Page: 2 Report Division: CARIBBEAN End Page: 4 Report Subdivision: Cuba AG File Flag: Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Language: Spanish Document Date: 24 Feb 93 Report Volume: Friday Vol VI No 036 Dissemination: City/Source of Document: Havana Radio and Television Networks Report Name: Latin America Headline: Government Holds National Assembly Elections Subheadline: Castro Says `A Few Words' Author(s): President Fidel Castro at the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba-live] Source Line: FL2402141893 Havana Radio and Television Networks in Spanish 0046 GMT 24 Feb 93 Subslug: [Speech by President Fidel Castro at the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba-live] -TEXT- FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE: 1. [Speech by President Fidel Castro at the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba-live] 2. [Text] Young people and compatriots from Santiago de Cuba: [applause] I thought the election campaign had ended. [crowd shouts: ``No!''] When I got here now, I found that they were asking me to say a few words, [crowd shouts: ``Yes!''] after the many speeches that have been made during these days. [crowd shouts: ``That does not matter!''] My words will have to be brief in order not to take television time away from the other comrades in the rest of the country. [crowd shouts: ``No!''] The people of Santiago cannot take over all the television time and press space. It must be shared with the rest of the country. 3. To my mind comes the idea of what that 23 February 1895 must have been like, at this same time of day. I imagine the feverish work of our compatriots, the vibrant spirit, the emotions and tensions of the eve of the start of our second war for independence. Jose Marti had given the order in the name of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, in coordination with Maximo Gomez, the commanding general of the liberating army. Guillermon Moncada, the leader of the movement, lived precisely here, in Santiago de Cuba. A few days before 24 February, he left Santiago de Cuba right when they were going to arrest him. He went to the countryside around the city and on 24 February he was fighting with other compatriots from the eastern provinces, including those from Baire, and other compatriots in the rest of the country. 4. Moncada's participation in that war was very brief, however; he died on 5 April, 40 days after the uprising began. When he began fighting, he was already seriously ill as a result of a disease he had caught in this same place, in these same buildings. I imagine that they have been modernized since then. They were Spanish barracks and a prison. There, he contracted a lung disease that would bring about his death when the war had barely started. That is why afterwards these barracks were named Moncada Barracks, in honor of that extraordinary combatant of the War of 1868 and the head of the revolutionary forces in 1895, in anticipation of Maceo and Gomez's arrival, with Marti, of course. 5. What must those hours preceding 24 February have been like for Marti and Gomez? They were feverishly planning the uprising, anxiously waiting for news from Cuba, to find out what would happen on 24 February, the date set even after the terrible blow dealt by the seizure in the United States of the guns of what was called the Fernandina Expedition. The three ships that were to bring the guns were seized. Marti wanted a quick, short war, with as little bloodshed as possible, and well planned. 6. We all know how that war ended, with the intervention of the American forces in our country, at a time when Spain was already defeated. This intervention became an occupation of the country for four years. It resulted in the disbanding of the liberating army and the Revolutionary Party founded by Jose Marti. These barracks, which bore the name of one of those heroes, became a place for housing not Mambi forces but the forces of the army created by the American occupation troops. They were not used to defending those ideals for which our forefathers had fought. They were used to upholding regimes of force and exploitation, upholding the new colony founded by the United States where a Spanish colony had existed for centuries. 7. The Mambises, including Calixto Garcia, could not enter Santiago de Cuba. They were forbidden from entering Santiago de Cuba. What an atrocity, after 30 years of struggle! They did not let the Cuban troops enter the other cities in the country. No revolution triumphed. Fifty-eight years and five months after that 24 February, a revolutionary generation again experienced the tasks and tensions of preparing for an uprising, with the taking of precisely these barracks, or of what had been barracks until the revolution turned them into a great school. 8. We lived through those times and it was for good reason that the eastern region and the city of Santiago de Cuba were chosen to begin the armed revolutionary struggle. [applause] The heroic traditions of the population, which had begun the first war for independence in 1868, the patriotic spirit of this city and these provinces, justified it, but in addition the geography and topography of this eastern region justified our conviction that the just cause we represented would receive the support of Santiago de Cuba in the first place and of all the eastern provinces. [applause] 9. At that time, it was not the eastern provinces. Then, it was a single province. The reaction of support and sympathy from Santiago de Cuba was instantaneous. It was what we had hoped for. It supported us throughout those years of imprisonment, exile, and organization to resume the struggle. Almost simultaneous with the landing of the Granma, Santiago de Cuba rose up under the leadership of Frank Pais [applause], along with a group of heroic combatants who defied the powerful forces of tyranny. Throughout our struggle in the Sierra Maestra, Santiago de Cuba, along with Manzanillo and Bayamo, continued its ceaseless, systematic support of the combatants in the Sierra Maestra. They were our suppliers of essential things and they continued a heroic clandestine struggle for years, until 1 January 1959, when our victorious troops entered this hundred-times heroic city of Santiago de Cuba. [applause] 10. That time, as we said then, the Mambises did enter Santiago de Cuba. The Mambises did enter all the cities in the country and a true revolution for which so much blood had been shed during so many years was begun. [applause] The loyalty with which Santiago de Cuba, its population, and the population of the eastern provinces supported the revolution in all the battles of these 34 years has been admirable. They have never failed. We would have to write alongside the history of this city and these provinces the words loyalty, tenacity, perseverance, and heroism. 11. That is why it has been an immense honor for us to represent this city traditionally in the legislature. It has been an immense honor that we have been nominated as a candidate for deputy of the National Assembly. The people of the entire country were able to see on television, with emotion, the warm and enthusiastic support for the revolution in this city. Everyone was impressed by that child who spontaneously gave us a great lesson in political wisdom. This city and region have done a great deal for the nation, the revolution, and socialism. [applause] 12. They have done a great deal for national unity. They have done a great deal with their example for the entire country. [applause] We can never forget that this spirit that began in the eastern region ended with the invading forces in the western end of Pinar del Rio. The heroism, fervor, and patriotism of the people of the eastern region reached there. Santiago and Havana exchanged their titans, their giants. We cannot forget that Antonio Maceo was born in Santiago de Cuba [applause] and died in Punta Brava and that his remains lie there, near the capital. We cannot forget that Jose Marti was born in Havana, and that his remains lie here in the cemetery of Santiago de Cuba. [applause] 13. Tonight must bring many memories to mind and it brings us the awareness that we are also on the eve of an extremely important battle, a decisive political battle. We have invited as many journalists as have wanted to come. As you can see, there is no shortage of photographers, television cameras, and representatives of the foreign media, so that they can see everything they want to see, talk with whomever they want to talk, and ask questions of whomever they want to ask [applause] about our electoral system and how these elections have become a great battle of ideas and a test of strength between our people and imperialism. [applause, chanting] 14. We could ask ourselves if elections like this could be possible in societies... [rephrases] elections like the ones we are holding here, and with the nature of the ones we are holding here, with candidates nominated by the people and elected by the people, arising from the people themselves. We ask if this could be done in a society of exploiters [crowd shouts: ``No!''] and exploited, [crowd shouts: ``No!''] if this could be done in a society where injustice and inequality prevail. [crowd shouts: ``No!''] To hold elections like these, it is necessary first to carry out a revolution as profound as the one that has taken place in our nation. [applause, chanting] 15. What can I say to you about the elections that has not been said and repeated 100 times? What did you say? A real democracy. [applause] But it is a clean, pure democracy. Soldiers and police do not have to guard the polling stations in this country. [crowd shouts: ``No!''] Journalists will not see a single soldier or policeman. They will see pioneers, and they can talk with them and ask them about politics as well. [applause] These are elections without the slightest opportunity for fraud, which is so common in the so-called Western democracies. Because even in those democracies where they do not change the votes that have been put in the ballot boxes, there is the great fraud that to be a candidate you must be a millionaire, wealthy, a landowner, a landlord, have a whole machine. 16. That is fraud, because no humble, ordinary citizen has that opportunity. In our case, almost half of our legislature comes directly from the base level. That is a revolution. [applause] 17. What can I say to you about the united vote that has not already been said, and about its solid ethical foundation, about the equity and justice it represents, the possibility of electing those humble, ordinary men and women who do not have millions to print up placards and posters and create propaganda and hire space for advertising? The candidates in the United States.... [changes thought] They are waging this battle like brothers. Where else has this been seen? If we want to be just and start from the fact that to be elected you need more than half the valid votes, any honest person would have to acknowledge the purity and greatness of this process, as well as the courage of our people, who are able to carry this out in the difficult conditions of the special period. [applause] 18. Thus I do not have much more to add that has not already been said. It is not right to repeat things until people become bored or to repeat things too much. Perhaps one last recommendation: Do not let an excess of enthusiasm lead you to write slogans on your ballots, because that will nullify them. [crowd shouts: ``No!''] Is it clear to you that you cannot write slogans? [crowd shouts: ``No! Yes!''] In addition, there is one small point: You should not vote for any of the candidates outside your own district. [crowd shouts: ``No!''] Because this is a country where everyone knows how to read and write, and if you vote for any of the candidates outside your district, you will nullify your ballot. Is that clear, very clear? [crowd shouts: ``Yes!''] 19. Is there anything that is unclear? [crowd shouts: ``No!''] So what is left to do? Think hard. [crowd shouts indistinct] No, no, no. Conserve a little energy. I know some of you walked up to 10 km to come to this rally from some of the districts, going up and down hills. [crowd shouts: ``That does not matter!''] Yes, it matters. [crowd shouts: ``No!''] It matters because it shows your courage, bravery, and enthusiasm. [applause] 20. Return to your homes and relax. It is the eve of battle. Watch television programs and listen to the radio about what they are doing in the rest of the country, and rest like good soldiers on the eve of battle, so that you can begin it early. Tomorrow we must set an example for the world, so that not only Marti but also Antonio and Jose Maceo, Maximo Gomez, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Ignacio Agramonte, Julio Antonio Mella, Abel Santamaria, Frank Pais [applause]-we are on the same wavelength-Camilo [Cienfuegos] and Che Guevara and so many others who like them gave their lives for so long for the same values we are going to defend tomorrow, will feel proud of us. 21. Socialism or death, fatherland or death, we will win! [applause, chanting] -END-