“If there is something we are sure of, is that never again the predatory eagle symbolizing the empire will perch on these columns which were turned into a monument of what the empire was in our country and what will happen sooner or later, to its desire for enslaving the world.”
Quotes
“We look at the entire planet, in hopes it will survive, that the men will find enough intelligence and energy to survive, that mankind will find
enough consciousness and spirit to fight, because only fighting anarchy, fighting the madness of the empire and the system it represents mankind will be able to survive.”
“On July 17 - look how close we are to the date - negotiations took place between the U.S. and Spanish troops, without the participation of any representative of the Cuban forces; an armistice was called and the city surrendered that day. U.S. troops penetrated the city and did not allow Cuban patriots to enter. This is one of the saddest episodes in our history, since those soldiers who had fought for 30 years, beginning on October 10, 1868, were not permitted to enter the city. The U.S. flag was raised over the Government Palace and the Morro Fortress. Totally indignant and faced with that insufferable humiliation, General Calixto García, who had cooperated so loyally with the troops who were supposedly his allies, wrote to Máximo Gómez and renounced his post as head of the Cuban troops in Oriente. What day? July 17.”
“As a matter of principle, we have never blamed the American people. The most that we can say, recalling Lincoln’s famous quote is that you can fool all the people some of the time, or some people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
"Every time an illegal migrant reaches the United States, he or she raises the desire or need to reunite family members and friends there, thus increasing and further promoting illegal migration. The infamous Cuban Adjustment Act is at the root of this phenomenon, which in no way benefits U.S. society. The United States will never be able to reestablish discipline on its own coasts while this law stands. Past and present senior authorities in the United States bear the full responsibility for those who throughout the last three decades have perished and those who still run the risk of perishing in these ventures, as the result of an immoral and anachronistic policy fully devoid of ethics and a sense of humanity".
"In its zeal to destabilize and destroy the Cuban Revolution, this extremely vague and confusing law, with a few subsequent modifications, set forth the legal basis for the automatic right to permanent resident status a year after entering U.S. territory granted to all Cuban nationals leaving the country illegally the minute they set foot in the United States. Such right has never been extended to citizens of any other country in the world".
"The Revolution never hindered legal travelling from the country to the United States or anywhere else in the world. Successive U.S. administrations, on the other hand, have always encouraged illegal migration. Visas ceased to be a necessary requirement to enter the United States, without exception, regardless even of criminal records or crimes committed in the past; not a single illegal migrant was ever sent back to the country".
"We will fight against this vicious law, this heinous and criminal law. We will keep fighting until it has been repealed. Only then can we be certain that thousands of innocent children will not be illegally uprooted from their homeland, from their schools, from their identities, and subjected to extreme dangers, or even death. No matter how much it hurts, the Revolution will continue to respect as something sacred the parental rights of our citizens and their right to leave with their children, by legal and safe means, for other countries, to opt for another identity, another kind of education, another culture, another flag".
"If it were not for the Cuban Adjustment Act, we would never have seen the emergence of this disturbing and criminal smuggling of human beings, which now uses techniques developed by drug traffickers, with speedboats equipped with three powerful outboard motors that no Coast Guard could intercept".
"How many lives has the Cuban Adjustment Act cost our people throughout the 33 years it has been in force? How many lives of innocent children, torn from their schools and placed in great danger by mothers and fathers acting irresponsibly or fooled by illusions or by the vicious campaigns and incitement of the overwhelming propaganda originated in a country which, on the other hand, subjects ours to a blockade aimed at destroying our people through hunger and disease?"
“We could not care less about who becomes the next head of government in the superpower that has imposed its system of hegemonic rule and domination to the rest of the world. We do not find any of the candidates trustworthy. It is useless for them to waste time on declarations and promises against Cuba to capture the vote of a few traitors who even dared to trample and burn American flags. Whoever the new president of the United States turns out to be, he should know that Cuba is here and will always be with its ideas, its example, and the unbreakable rebelliousness of its people”.
"I have left out many other unforgettable events, yet at none of those moments in our struggle have I felt such intense emotion as I did when I saw on television that door open on the little plane that brought them from the United States, after so many months of tireless battle, and the figures of Juan Miguel and Elián emerge, at 7:53 p.m. on June 28. A small boy and a modest Cuban father, known by very few people hardly a few months before, were returning as great moral symbols of our homeland".