FREEDOM

I believe in the unity of all the countries in the world, in the unity of all the peoples in the world and in a free unity, a truly free unity. I am not thinking of a fusion but of a free unity of all cultures in a truly just world, in a truly democratic world.

"Let’s perform the miracle of turning the impossible into possible. We are willing to receive from Europe, with open arms, co-operation without preconditions and solidarity with freedom."

"Let’s speak of justice, freedom and human rights where there is equality, respect for everyone, culture for everyone because without culture there cannot be freedom, without culture you cannot even be a democrat."

“Revolution is the sense of the historical moment; it is changing everything that must be changed; it is full equality and freedom; it is being treated and treating others like human beings; it is emancipating ourselves, by ourselves and with our very own efforts; it is challenging the dominant powerful forces within and outside of the social and national arena; it is defending the values one believes in at the cost of any sacrifice; it is modesty, selflessness, altruism, solidarity and heroism; it is fighting with audacity, intelligence and realism; it is never telling a lie or violating ethical principles; it is the profound conviction that there is no force on earth that can crush truth and ideas.  Revolution is unity, it is independence, it is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba and the world that is the basis of our patriotism, our socialism and our internationalism."

“We Cubans can feel proud of our awareness of the historic responsibility our people have acquired in their long struggle for liberty and justice.”

"Even though, after the opportunistic intervention by the nascent U.S. empire, Cuba was ceded by the colonial power to the United States, and the nascent empire imposed a constitutional amendment on us that gave it the right to intervene, the Cuban people today are a free people, who defend their independence".

“Today we should fight off the risk of unipolar hegemonism and work for the only viable, endurable and acceptable way to survive, that is, for a multilateral world to prevail where peace, freedom, development and progress can be realized by all.”.

“(…) NAM has again become an effective force in the international arena. Today, NAM is more necessary than ever. If in the past, when there was a struggle between two superpowers, we fought to occupy a worthy place in the world, today we should fight off the risk of unipolar hegemonism and work for the only viable, endurable and acceptable way to survive, that is, for a multilateral world to prevail where peace, freedom, development and progress can be realized by all”.

“For the first time, in this remote corner of Africa, Cuban and Angolan blood was shed in the struggle to free that troubled land.It was at this point that Cuba, in consultation with President Neto, decided to send Interior Ministry special troops and regular members of the Cuban army by air and sea, as fully-equipped fighting troops to confront the aggression by the forces of apartheid.(...) Then, the campaign started known as Operation Carlota, code name for the most just, lengthy, large scale and successful internationalist campaign undertaken by Cuba. ”.

"In his speech, Obama portrays the Cuban revolution as anti-democratic and lacking in respect for freedom and human rights. It is the exact same argument which, almost without exception, U.S. administrations have used again and again to justify their crimes against our country. The blockade, in and of itself, is an act of genocide. I don’t want to see U.S. children inculcated with those shameful values. An armed revolution in our country might not have been needed without the military interventions, Platt Amendment and economic colonialism visited upon Cuba. The revolution was the result of imperial domination. We cannot be accused of having imposed it upon the country. The true changes could have and ought to have been brought about in the United States. Its own workers, more than a century ago, voiced the demand for an eight-hour work shift, which stemmed from the development of productive forces".