“History has taught us that access to independence of a people who have freed themselves from the colonial or neocolonial system is the final act of a long struggle and at the same time the first act of a new and difficult battle. Because the independence, sovereignty and liberty of our peoples, apparently free, are under continuous threats by the external control of their natural resources, by the financial impositions of official international agencies and by the precariousness of their economies depleted of sovereign plenitude.”
Quotes
"the non-aligned countries are not opposed to solutions that may be achieved without armed struggle, provided that they are able to arise from a true government of the majority and in these independence is attained in a form which satisfies the combatant peoples (...)"
“Honor is not negotiable; the homeland is not negotiable; dignity is not negotiable; independence, sovereignty, history and glory are not negotiable!”In the closing ceremony of the first International Congress on Culture and Development
“Our country could be swept off the Earth, but it could never be conquered and submitted.”
“Our country could be swept off the Earth, but it could never be conquered and submitted.”
“The importance of the Bay of Pigs does not lie in the size of the battle, or the number of combatants, or the heroic events which took place there; the enormous historical importance of the Bay of Pigs is not what happened but what didn’t happen thanks to the Bay of Pigs!”
[…] “History points out and indicates that if all of us taking part in this struggle fulfill our duty, one day we shall come back to our homeland not only with the satisfaction of having cooperated to ensure Angola’s revolution and independence, but also to the independence of Namibia, the defeat of fascism, the disappearance of Apartheid. We would have contributed to the independence and safety and dignity of all the peoples of Africa”.
“Independence is not a flag, or an anthem, or a coat of arms; independence is not a question of symbols, but independence depends on development, independence depends on technology, it depends on science in the world today. How can we achieve that without education?”
“A people are nothing without honour, without decorum, without independence and without dignity, never mind the life of a people!”
“I say that this is not a unipolar world, because there is at least a piece of land --and it is not the only one—where the Yankees do not rule, where the Yankees will not rule. And if they were to try to one day, it would have to be on our ashes, on our bones, on our blood.”
“Let us imitate the example of those who were our predecessors. Let us do what Bolívar, San Martín, Artigas, O'Higgins, Sucre, Juárez, Morazán and Martí would have done in like circumstances, so that Our America takes an honourable place in a world where we all have a right to live.”
“Máximo Gómez. Humble son of this people, knew how to transform himself into the outstanding and cherished son of the Cuban people by the right earned through his struggle for the independence of Cuba, to which he contributed his might and his machete, his military genius and his valour, a remarkable political talent and profound revolutionary philosophy.”