"Reality
imposes urgent and necessary changes on us"
Speech delivered by
Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, at the closing of
the Extraordinary Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of Cuba, at the Palace of the Revolution, on June 17, 2026, "Year of the
Centenary of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz"
Author: Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez | internet@granma.cu
June 18, 2026 08:06:19
Comrades and comrades members of the Central Committee of
the Party;
Guests;
Compatriots:
This extraordinary plenary session is held on decisive days for Cuba. Proud
heirs of the legacy of the Commander in Chief, Cuban revolutionaries today face
challenges of enormous magnitude that require unity, ideological firmness,
courage, audacity and creative resistance.
We have the guidance of our leader, an outstanding member of the vanguard of
the Centennial Generation and zealous guardian of the continuity of the
socialist Revolution that he contributed decisively to raise from its
foundations to the present day, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, Hero of the
Republic of Cuba, who has taught us every day the sacred value of unity.
The context is extraordinarily complex and challenging because of the incessant
aggressiveness of the intensified economic, commercial and financial blockade
imposed by the Government of the United States and because of the criminal
purpose of the hostile actions of the current administration: first, the
incorporation of Cuba into the infamous and spurious list of countries that
allegedly sponsor terrorism, and other accusations, equally false, that seek to
discredit the authority and management of the Government, while depriving the
country of any source of income in foreign currency.
A blockade even intensified with the Executive Orders of January 29 and January
1st. of May, which support the genocidal energy siege and internationalize with
secondary sanctions the blockade, the financial, energy and investment
persecution to extremes of maximum pressure.
At the same time, political-ideological subversion intensifies through media
intoxication on social networks to damage the credibility of the Revolution,
among Cubans and foreigners, stimulating social disorientation in a national
and international scenario impacted by profound transformations in the
socioeconomic structure and world geopolitics, as a consequence of the
unlimited powers of a hegemonic imperial policy. which seeks to tear multilateralism
to shreds, feeds neo-fascist currents and sharpens global tensions, constantly
threatening international peace and security and trying to break the
indispensable unity of the forces of the left.
The silent genocide that has been undertaken against Cuba causes immeasurable
damage and terrible limitations in our daily lives as a people, while its
executors shamelessly lie to the world by denying the energy siege and claiming
that we prohibit the entry of millionaire donations, which announce a lot and
of which they have barely delivered anything of what was promised.
Cuba resists heroically and creatively, but for too long it has suffered a
barbaric, undeserved, unbearable punishment, to which is now added the threat
of military aggression as a new weapon against collective resistance.
Cuba faces a cruel blockade and real, daily financial persecution that makes
every drop of fuel, every medicine, every food, every piece and every
technology that the country needs more expensive.
Reality imposes urgent and
necessary changes on us. And when the life of the people becomes so hard, the
first duty of the Communist Party and the revolutionary government is not to
explain the crisis better, but to change what needs to be changed in order to
get out of it.
A deep and agile economic agenda is required, executable in the short term,
which combines macroeconomic stabilization, incentives to stimulate and promote
productive liberalization, legal certainty, investment attraction, intensive
use of technology, and focused and effective social protection.
Let us remember that at the close of the XI Plenum we stated that the
postponement of the Congress did not limit the possibility of making the
changes, modifications and movements that were necessary, taking into account
the powers of the structures of the Party and the Government, such as, for
example, the Plenums of the Central Committee when it comes to agreements
adopted by the Party Congresses.
To this end, intense work has been done, based on the report and debate of the
ANEC Congress, the popular consultation on the Economic and Social Program for
2026, the criteria of economists and experts, the debates and contributions
formulated by the Economic Commission of the Central Committee of the Party,
the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines approved and updated in the Sixth,
Seventh and Eighth Party Congresses, the proposals of the XI Plenum of the
Central Committee and the work carried out by the commissions that have been
preparing the documents for the postponed IX Party Congress, for the known
reasons, regarding the updating of the Conceptualization of the Economic and
Social Model, the Guidelines and the National Plan for Economic and Social
Development until 2030.
In addition, a study of
the experiences of socialist construction in other countries such as China and
Vietnam has been carried out, and artificial intelligence has also been
used to deepen the search for references and evaluate the proposals in relation
to our current laws and regulations.
It is a matter of facing the enormous challenge of continuing to advance in the
process of socialist construction, of defending the Revolution and its
conquests and of perfecting our society, in the conditions of a country
subjected to the most cruel, genocidal and prolonged economic, financial,
energy and commercial blockade, exercised by the most powerful power in the
world. And to overcome that, the legacy we have is that of our Commander in
Chief, Fidel Castro Ruz.
No one in the history of humanity has challenged socialism in the conditions
that this country, this nation and this people have to do today! We are
undoubtedly going to overcome that challenge with unity, courage, popular
participation and full conviction in our ability to achieve victory.
The transformations we are presenting are to advance in the defense of
socialism, to support and expand social justice, to create economic wealth and distribute it equitably. If
there is no wealth there is nothing to distribute, we would be talking about
social justice in the abstract. Social justice as conceived by the
Revolution, with its humanist vocation, helping those who are most
disadvantaged, generally, with welfare and free programs and projects, does not
cost people, but it costs the State, and to do so, to deepen it, to sustain it,
to maintain it, the State needs wealth, and we have to produce wealth
ourselves. And if there is no wealth there is no social justice, and everything
else is a story, everything else is a story! Or we produce in these withWe
create wealth and then we distribute with social justice, with equity, not with
egalitarianism. That's the challenge!
We need to unleash the productive forces, so that there is more production
instead of more restriction, because it has been proven that control without
supply only displaces operations to the informal market.
The equality and integration of economic actors is necessary in accordance with
the National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030 and the
territorial and local development strategies by the state enterprise, MSMEs,
cooperatives, agricultural producers, foreign and Cuban investors, residents or
non-residents: all must act and contribute under clear rules to the
socioeconomic development of the country.
We must export and produce to capture and bring in foreign currency and make
productive use of it. Each currency that enters must have ways to finance
production, imports, investment, wages and infrastructure.
Legal certainty must be
guaranteed: contracts, usufructs, leases, concessions, surface rights and
licenses, with temporary stability and protection against arbitrary changes. If
there is no legal certainty, no one invests, no one takes risks.
We must promote digitalization with traceability: electronic invoicing, digital
payments, public registries and interoperable data as a basis to reduce evasion
and corruption.
Social protection must be prioritized: replacing inefficient generalized
subsidies with direct support for vulnerable people. Always be careful that
each action does not increase social inequalities; on the contrary, that they
are attenuated until they disappear.
Act with selective and intelligent openness: attract technology, financing,
markets and external knowledge, protecting strategic sectors through
regulation, not through immobility.
Gradualness and experimentation are necessary: reform in phases and by
verifiable pilots, preserving state leadership and correcting the course with
evidence to deal with and minimize possible economic and social costs.
Political unity is also
essential to guarantee consistency and credibility of the measures, clear and
precise communication of the decisions to be applied, to gain support for the
transformations, as well as the adoption of compensatory mechanisms to mitigate
economic and social impacts.
We have to work with agility, with coherence and quality, and above all with
control. That what has been approved is well implemented.
In this scenario, it is necessary to advance on at least five simultaneous
fronts:
macroeconomic stabilization and recovery of external revenues.
The transformation of the Economic and Social Model.
The stimulation and recovery of the agricultural productive sector.
Strengthening accounting and cost management.
The anticipation and mitigation of the social costs associated with the
necessary transformations of the Economic and Social Model.
And these five aspects are very well developed in the report presented by ANEC
at its last congress.
The Commander in Chief taught us that in times of crisis we could not give up
either development or thought, that there is no insurmountable obstacle and
that there is always an opportunity to grow. And on that path the Army General
showed us that it can be done, yes it was possible and it always will.
The people know the causes
of many of the difficulties we experience, but they also need concrete answers,
timely decisions and results that are felt in daily life.
There are obstacles that do not come from outside or from the blockade. There is slowness, bureaucracy,
rules that slow down those who want to produce and decisions that we have
postponed. What depends on us we have to change, and we have to change it now.
We owe the homeland to the resistance, but today resistance alone is not enough.
This time requires us to transform, produce more, unlock more, listen more,
decide better and be accountable.
What we propose to implement is an emergency economic and social agenda, with
measures that are part of our Government Program and policies approved by the
Party, together with decisions that cannot continue to wait. Some will not have absolute
consensus, but they cannot be postponed. And all of them will have a
person in charge with a name and surname, a defined term, an indicator to
measure their compliance and public accountability to the country.
What works, will be expanded. Anything that doesn't work will be corrected
without delay. Whoever has a responsibility will have to be held accountable
for it, and when someone cannot fulfill what this moment demands, they must
make way, with responsibility, to those who can do better.
We are going to face this process as the challenge of the generations that
today share the defense of the Homeland, the Revolution and Socialism.
Regarding the System of Management of the Economy, I want to emphasize that the
most important thing is that central planning, if we adopt these
transformations, would not have the function of administering the economy, but
of creating an adequate institutional and regulatory environment so that
companies and workers are stimulated to produce goods and provide quality
services and efficiently. as well as to introduce innovations for these
purposes in its management.
And we definitely have to ensure that the Plan is built from below with the
participation of the workers.
We will continue the restructuring of the government apparatus, the state, the
party and the institutions. We will integrate structures where necessary,
review duplicate functions, reduce unnecessary steps and permanently optimize
the way in which the country is directed and served. That they are more
dynamic, more proactive and less bureaucratic structures.
One of the most important and urgent tasks is to promote the development of the
country from the grassroots, from the municipalities.
It is urgent to unleash
the management in the municipalities and that they have all the possible powers
to develop them.
No economic change will be enough if the socialist state enterprise, which will
continue to be the fundamental pillar of the economy, does not have the real
capacity to manage, innovate and answer for its results.
Reform the management of the state-owned enterprise on the basis of real
autonomy, economic and financial evaluation, separation of state and business
functions, and application of the principle of "comply or explain" to
prevent the rule from becoming a brake when there is a more beneficial
solution.iosa and demonstrable, it is necessary.
To this end, we will move in two directions: more real autonomy for companies
and a more professional management of State assets, through the National
Institute of Business Assets, in charge of representing the owner of the means
of production, evaluating results, demanding efficiency and better separating
the business function from the regulatory function of the ministries.
Autonomy does not mean the
absence of control, it implies a framework of responsibility; it means being
able to decide in time, associate better, invest better, pay better and be
accountable for the results before the people and the State.
It is necessary to strengthen the state enterprise, not replace it with
administrative mechanisms that immobilize it. To this end, the separation
between state and business functions must be completed, performance must be
evaluated with economic-financial tools and real autonomy must be granted to
manage material, financial and human resources, with subsequent control,
transparency and accountability.
There is no sovereignty with an empty plate. The food of the Cuban people will
be treated for what it is: a matter of national security.
And the idle lands in Cuba will have to end. Every piece of land that is
covered with marabou today, when it should be producing food, will have to have
a clear answer: either it
starts producing or it is given to whoever is willing to do so.
We are going to extend the delivery of land in usufruct to those who are
willing and able to produce: producers, cooperatives, MSMEs and associative
forms, without ever renouncing national sovereignty or going back to the
dependent country that we left behind with the Revolution.
We are going to recognize the right of those who work the land to invest in
what they need to make it produce, and those who are committed to real results, who can directly
import the seed, the fertilizer, the piece, the equipment. But one
principle must be clear: that land will continue to belong to the people; and
if it does not produce, if it does not serve the country, if it does not
fulfill its social function, it will have to pass into the hands of those who can
put it into production.
The Cuban peasant cannot
continue to be asked for more food with fewer tools and with prices below his
costs, he has to have mechanisms that work for direct access to foreign
currency, such as selling to exporters, as is the case of tourism, or to the foreign
exchange market.9
We have to make the land an opportunity and not a burden, so that those who
plant see the fruit of their effort, that those who produce can live better,
and that those who invest in the countryside find security, support and a
future.
Cuba needs its peasants, their work and their trust. When the Cuban countryside
is a path of prosperity for those who work it, the country will be stronger,
fairer and more sovereign.
In terms of foreign trade, exports, logistics, value chains, we must authorize
direct imports and exports for state and non-state companies, productive,
exporting or substituting imports, maintaining technical and fiscal
requirements, but eliminating mandatory intermediation.
As for the renegotiation of the debt, we must conduct a debt-for-asset swap
process, focused fundamentally on the swap of assets national debts, without
alienating in perpetuity the ownership of the same. With this mechanism,
financing and other benefits can be achieved without losing the right of
ownership over the assets.
Other mechanisms that can be explored must also be used, such as debts against
nature or debts against social development, issuance of bonds for the
Sustainable Development Goal and others.
We are going to comprehensively
review the list of activities prohibited to the private sector with a clear
principle: replace, whenever possible, prohibition with responsible regulation.
The country needs to open legal paths, with clear rules and adequate controls
for these activities.
We are also going to make the scope of the social purpose of MSMEs and other
economic actors more flexible, and significantly alleviate the bureaucratic
burden that many entrepreneurs face today; and, in addition, we must speed up
the creation of economic partnerships between state and non-state forms of
management.
Foreign investment is also imprisoned in a lattice of obstacles that hinder its
necessary increase. Not only must we tell the foreign investor where he should
invest, but also that he has the initiative to invest in the economic branch of
his interest, as well as
directly choose his workers without state intermediaries always.
We must authorize foreign direct investment in the national private sector,
including MSMEs, with clear rules for ownership, repatriation, reinvestment,
and dispute settlement.
We must facilitate investment models with different modalities and with all the
actors by Cubans living in Cuba. And to Cubans living abroad who want to
invest, donate, import technology, open a market, build a project in their
land, we are going to offer them a clear, stable and respectful framework,
without being looked at with suspicion for wanting to help their own or
contribute to the development of the land where they were born. To those who
want to build with Cuba, without trying to impose anything on it, we say with
our hearts in our hands: here you have your house and here you have the door
open, because this country, at this time, does not have any good Cubans to
spare.
The blackout is not only a problem of megawatts or generation deficit. The
blackout is the child who could not study for the test, the food that spoiled
in a refrigerator, the old man who spends the night awake without rest and in
heat. It is the hospital that works to the limit, the office that cannot keep a
medicine, the worker who loses his working day, and the establishment that has
to close. That is why energy is not a technical issue, it is a human, economic
and national issue.
We are going to accelerate the incorporation of solar energy into the national
economy as we have been doing. To achieve this, we will facilitate the direct
entry of foreign companies that supply panels, batteries, inverters and
associated solutions, reducing intermediaries that increase costs for the
population and for the country.
Import tariffs on solar technologies, storage systems, and energy-saving
equipment have already been eliminated. Now we will also make progress in
eliminating taxes on their sale and on the services linked to their
installation and maintenance.
In addition, we will create credit and financing mechanisms so that these
solutions are not only accessible to a few, but can progressively reach homes,
MSMEs, doctors' offices, educational centers, nursing homes and other essential
services for the population. And in this, our companies and our Cuban, state
and private technicians are going to be at the center, installing, maintaining,
repairing, integrating and creating employment. Cuban companies can specialize
in the installation, integration, operation and support of these technologies.
We will promote electric transport linked to renewable sources. Any electric
vehicle intended for public, private or light-duty transport that demonstrates
that it operates totally or mostly with solar energy, will be able to benefit
from special incentives, exemption from tariffs, elimination of sales taxes and
facilities to import chargers, batteries, parts and associated solutions.
We will also promote the installation of solineras throughout the country with
foreign, private, cooperative and state investment, prioritizing urban routes,
tourist poles, productive areas and essential services. Along with this, we
will establish an expeditious way to grant licenses for transporters, electric
taxis or associated mobility services, under clear rules, technical control,
road safety and transparent prices.
The first priority, before any other, are the people who cannot wait for the
economy to improve, because there are pains that do not understand deadlines.
True social justice is not based on artificial prices that later end up
becoming shortages, queues, low wages and an illegal market.
Social justice is built on real foundations, incomes with purchasing power,
direct protection for those who need it most, and a national economy capable of
producing more. There are no shortcuts, these are not new ideas, they are
decisions that the country discussed and approved years ago. The mistake was not in raising
them, but in having postponed them, and that stage of postponement has to end.
The basic basket will be guaranteed to retirees, families with chronically ill
children, and vulnerable people. Targeted programs for social transformation
will be developed in the poorest neighborhoods. The state and private business
sector must be given greater prominence and incentives to get involved in the
solution of prioritized local problems, such as soup kitchens, sanitation,
centers for children without family protection, among others. They will have
new concrete tasks, with these decisions: to bring the payment to the retiree
close to their home so that they do not have to queue for hours under the sun;
sponsoring soup kitchens, homes for the elderly, grandparents' homes and
children's centers; create solidarity quotas and cost prices for those who
really need it; digitize everything so that it is known who contributes, who
receives and what result it gives.
For years, we functioned under a logic of contained wages, regulated prices and
a State that subsidized a huge part of the country's economic life. That
formula had its reason, its context, its results and its timing; but it does
not respond to the complex reality we live in. The prices faced by a family
have become too far removed from what a worker or a retiree earns, and we
cannot continue to act like if that gap did not exist.
We are also going to open new avenues for safe access to medicines.
With regard to fiscal, tax, monetary and financial consolidation policy, it
should be noted that the main objective for reducing the fiscal deficit is to
increase production, which is the basis of taxes, and to decrease unnecessary
expenditures in the Budget. That is why we are also going to correct a policy
that did not give the expected results.
Price caps, in practice, failed to contain inflation. Many times they caused
the disappearance of products, deviations towards illegality, higher prices,
less tax collection and an impossible race between real prices and
administrative decisions that always arrived late or that remained immovable in
ignorance of the changing economic reality, limiting all those who wish to
develop their economic activity within the framework of legality and in a
transparent way. Therefore, we are not going to continue capping prices in a
general way, as the Prime Minister explained. We must correct distortions in
the tax system that today make production chains more expensive and end up
being transferred to the final price.
We will move towards a creditable value added tax (VAT) that will be
progressively supported by electronic invoicing, to avoid cascading tax
imposition. But these decisions can only be applied together with more direct,
more effective social protection, with the transition from subsidizing products
to subsidizing people, and with the effort to recover the purchasing power of
wages and pensions. It is not a question of leaving anyone alone in front of
the market, it is a matter of protecting better, producing more, regulating
intelligently and ordering realistically.
We need a financial system that accompanies the economy, is functional for the
different economic actors, that reduces queues, facilitates payments, makes
operations transparent and converts savings, credit and investment into
concrete tools for development.
To profoundly modernize the country's banking and financial system. For that,
Cuba needs banks that are more agile, more digital, closer to the people and
more useful for those who produce, export, import, invest or undertake.
We are going to open spaces, under strict regulation, to private and foreign
financial institutions; new credit mechanisms, productive financing,
development of financial markets and payment services, where state, cooperative
and private actors can participate. The objective is that collecting a pension,
receiving a remittances from abroad, paying for a service, asking for a loan,
financing a harvest, buying equipment or moving money to produce is not an
obstacle course.
Enable offshore accounts, intercompany currency payments, and auditable
international operations for actors importing, exporting, or providing global
services.
It is not a question of weakening the role of the State, but of expanding and
modernizing the country's capacities to finance production, support those who
generate goods and services, order the flows of money and provide a better
service to our people.
We will turn digital transformation, software and artificial intelligence into
cross-cutting tools to develop agriculture, the energy sector, health,
leducation, foreign trade, banking, digital trade, logistics, tourism and
taxation.
Specific proposals for software, artificial intelligence, the knowledge economy
and the digital economy must be presented as cross-cutting infrastructure to
raise national productivity. It is not just about exporting software, but about
digitizing payments, taxes, foreign trade, agriculture, health, energy,
logistics, government and statistics.
As for tourism and real estate businesses, new business modalities must be
applied, with the participation of all economic actors. Develop a regulated
productive real estate market that includes: leasing of idle state premises,
rental of buildings, premises, warehouses, warehouses, offices, tourist
facilities, workshops and industrial spaces, concessions, right of use over
real estate and transparent tenders to state, private, cooperative or mixed
actors.
We have talked about the import of fuel and everything that has been opened to
the private sector, but now it is a matter of achieving it with reasonable,
transparent and non-abusive profit margins.
As for the import of vehicles, eliminate all obstacles in imports, give
priority to the import of electric vehicles and, of course, develop the
solineras.
I know that the partial dollarization of the economy, inflation and the absence
of many products in national currency are worrisome. We are not going to ignore
that problem. The business models that we are authorizing in foreign currency
have to be taxed in a direct and verifiable way to an increase in income in
foreign currency that allows the sustainability of offers in national currency.
We have to have more demands on the use of digital payment platforms. Wholesale
and retail trade approvals must be expanded, eliminating intermediaries and,
definitely, electronic invoicing must be applied.
It is necessary to eliminate wage barriers that prevent retaining talent and a
highly qualified workforce in productive, export, technological, energy and
agro-industrial sectors, and allow variable remuneration in CUP and foreign
currency linked to verifiable results in exports, import savings, increased
productivity, innovation, energy availability or foreign sales.
As for digital government, public data and intelligent control, mandatory and
progressive electronic invoicing must be implemented for medium and large
taxpayers; then advance in MSMEs and self-employed workers, with simple tools
adapted to real connectivity.
Modernize the National Statistical System and the ONEI through digital capture
of data from companies and entities, publication by public service applications
of artificial intelligence and protection of sensitive data.
Artificial intelligence must be used to simplify procedures, process scanned
documents, detect errors, validate files, authenticate documents and reduce
administrative burdens.
The quality of services to the population must be improved, designing new
approaches to each issue.
And we must seriously face a problem that affects the lives of millions of
Cubans every day: the collection of waste onlygone. We will implement projects
at the local level to improve the collection, treatment and disposal of solid
waste, in which, responsibly, those who impose the greatest burden on the
system must also contribute more to sustaining it.
But this solution will not only be state-owned, it will incorporate foreign
investment into the non-state sector, the business system, communities and
creative initiatives that help restore cleanliness, order and health to our
cities and communities.
Comrades:
Cuba does not need more delays, it needs solutions. It is not a question of
creating more offices or multiplying meetings, but of achieving concrete
results.
To govern is to resolve, unblock, accompany and make decisions become real
improvements; because creating in Cuba, investing in Cuba, working in Cuba and
staying in Cuba also depends on the country being able to open paths, organize
intelligently and support those who want to contribute.
Along with economic opportunities, we are also going to promote specific spaces
so that young people can act from their communities.
The Community Youth Network should be a way for a young person to find where to
train, where to get a job, where to serve their community and where to turn an
idea into a real project. This network must articulate useful initiatives in
the neighborhoods: recovery of public spaces, support for vulnerable people,
cultural and sports activities, training in trades and technologies, community
communication, productive projects, local employment and accompaniment of young
people at risk.
It is not a matter of creating another structure or of summoning young people
only to receive orientations; it is about giving them skills, tools, knowledge,
responsibilities and real spaces to transform the place where they live;
because staying in Cuba also has to mean having a place where you can be
useful, grow, learn, lead and build a future from the block, the school, the
workplace and the municipality.
We know our country, we know where the obstacle is, where corruption is hidden,
where slowness is superfluous and where shame and dignity are lacking.
Each measure we announce will have those responsible, deadlines and indicators.
We are going to report what is progressing, what is not complied with and what
needs to be corrected.
There will be things that, in order to protect them from those who want to
sabotage them, we will have to deal with them with discretion. Martí already
taught us that there are things that must be hidden in order to be achieved;
but discretion will never be a permission to hide something from the people.
As a people we are not going to call only to resist; we are going to call on
ourselves to create, to produce, to decide, to supervise, to prosper and to
transform, because what we are starting today is not done by a government, we
all do this or we do not do it: with the farmer who replants, with the MSME who
dares, with the technician who installs the first panel, with the teacher, with
the doctor, with the young person who decides to stay and bet on his land, with
the Cuban living abroad who reaches out, with you, with me, with everyone.
We are not going to deny the problems, we are not going to defend bureaucracy,
we are not going to close the door on talent, we are not going to abandon the
vulnerable and we are never going to allow the suffering of this people to be
caused by the suffering of this people.or the perverse imperialist blockade is
used against the sovereignty of the homeland (Applause).
Nothing will be impossible if we take the challenge as an opportunity and
history as inspiration!
Céspedes, Agramonte, Maceo, Gómez, Martí, Mella, Villena, Guiteras, Che,
Camilo, Almeida, Fidel and Raúl, all our heroes, faced moments as difficult or
more difficult for their time than those faced today by the new revolutionary
generation, and they all emerged from those challenges with honor and glory,
even those who fell in combat without ever seeing victory. because they
bequeathed us lessons of courage that endure to this day, as was verified on January
3 of this year when 32 Cuban combatants fell facing elite troops far superior
in numbers and means.
No revolution has had it easy, and ours has had the audacity to survive six
decades of blockade, genocidal laws, hybrid war and a ladder of unilateral coercive
measures that no other nation endured or would endure for so long.
On the centenary of the birth of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro and on the
95th birthday of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, the best tribute we can pay to
the admirable work of our two historical leaders is to defend it and preserve
its essence of social justice, in the midst of the gale of predatory wars,
threats of invasion and processes of neocolonization that, like the giant of
the seven leagues, they go through the sky swallowing worlds in these times.
We are all summoned and together we will win.
Long live Cuba Libre! (Shouts of "Long live!")
Long live the heroic Cuban people! (Shouts of "Long live!")
Long live the sovereignty of the Cuban nation! (Shouts of "Long
live!")
Socialism or Death!
Homeland or Death!
We will win! (Shouts of "We shall overcome!")
(Ovation.)
