"Today drugs are one of the most serious problems in this hemisphere and in Europe. In the war against drug trafficking and organized crime, encouraged in the enormous U.S. market, the Latin American countries are now losing almost ten thousand men each year, more than twice the number lost by the United States in the Iraq war. The number grows and the problem is very far from being resolved".
“Saving Old Havana, which they were already completely destroying, but which the world now admires as the Heritage of Humanity, all that architecture that has incalculable value, protected, where they were already starting to make heliports and tall buildings. If the Revolution had been delayed a few more years, nothing would remain of Old Havana, which is now not only a cultural center admired by the world but even a center of wealth and income for the country.
“Without socialism, Cuban families could not watch their children grow up healthy, educated and skilled, with no fear of them being lured into drugs or crime, or killed at school by their own classmates.Without socialism, Cuba would not be, as it is today, the most solid barrier in the hemisphere against drug trafficking, something that benefits even American society”.
"(...) that everything that today contributes to underdevelopment and poverty is tantamount to a flagrant attack on the ecology".
"The new communications technologies have divided the world into those who are, and those who are not connected to the global networks. Being connected to this knowledge and participating in a true globalization of information that amounts to real sharing as opposed to exclusion, and that puts an end to the widespread ‘brain drain’, is a strategic imperative for the survival of our cultural identities in the coming century."
“(…) a computer connected to Internet is now a possibility to make a message, a thought, reach millions of people in the world”.
“To create bureaucracy is to blow human resources sky high, is to turn a man or a woman into a useless and parasite citizen; is to ditch human energy and intelligence, which should be destined for useful things for the society, useful things for the human beings.”
“It seems to me that one of the best things that is being done in our country is the revolution we are carrying out in education, which includes a general comprehensive education, that includes not just the professional knowledge a person must possess but the minimum of cultural knowledge in order to possess an artistic culture, a general culture and a political culture.”
“The noble and extraordinary idea of solidarity and internationalism does not exist in the rich, developed, capitalist world. Such ideas can only arise from the heart of a society that struggles for brotherhood among peoples and nations, one that struggles for justice in the world. This has been our conduct so far, and it will continue to be in the future, because we trust our people.”
The name of Cuba will go down in history for ever because of what it has done and is still doing for humanity in the fields of education, culture and health in the most difficult period that our species has known.