"It is not our fault, nor can we take credit, if the struggle that began on January 1st must inevitably become for the people of today and tomorrow other people’s struggle for the benefit of all mankind. No people on their own however great and rich they might be, much less a middle size or small country, can solve their problems by themselves and on their own".
Quotes
"Our people is not better than other peoples; (...) It is not just a great people but a people that has uplifted its spirit with the noble ideas and the justice of the causes it defends. There are no other causes like these and there never have been".
"We have trained our sportsmen and women to serve their people, to bring joy to their people, glory to their people, honor to their people. We can say of our athletes, in the first place, that they have brought much glory and honor, great satisfaction and joy to our people".
"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".
“To begin with, I will say that neither in the first or the second half of this century nor at any other time in history has a country done or achieved as much in sports as Cuba in an extremely short period of time. And it is a small Third World country, one that is additionally subjected to an economic blockade by the wealthiest and mightiest nation on Earth as well as to a thousand different forms of harassment and aggression”.
"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?"
“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."
“All conditioning becomes unacceptable when the inalienable principles of our homeland are involved. The political organization adopted by a sovereign nation cannot be subjected to conditions. Cuba will neither negotiate nor sell out its Revolution, which has cost the blood and the sacrifice of many of its sons and daughters.”