Fidel Castro - CASTRO BROADCASTS TO VENEZUELAN PEOPLE lyrics

(Summary) During our long years of struggle it has been the Venezuelans who have aided us. I came to Venezuela to express our gratitude, and to bring the greetings of the people of Cuba to the people of Venezuela. You know that the reaction, the counter-revolution, constantly seeks to discredit the revolution. We urge the people of Venezuela not to crawl before anyone, and absolutely not to fear anyone. There will be justice in order to prevent vengeance. It is necessary to have justice, for without justice there can be no peace. In our country there was not a single form of justice. It is not for me to an*lyze Venezuelan history. It is enough to an*lyze the affairs of our country because, after all, what happens in Cuba is the same as what happens here. We feel the same things for some reason, you Venezuelans and we Cubans. In our country there never was any justice. Justice was only for those who stole. Equality before the law was spoken of, but it was useless. The law was against those who did not have money, but the senators and representatives had enough money. There were always families who needed to send a son to the hospital, or some father who was hungry. Yet those who stole millions of pesos always were free. The moment one became a senator or a representative, nothing was a crime. He could k** and nothing would happen to him. Congress also protected the members of the band. He who had stolen before becoming a senator was beyond reach of the law. Ah, but if one representative k**ed another, well, in that case the law did apply, because national law was for the members of the band. The one who stole millions of pesos belonged to the same aristocratic club as the judge. The public force lived on plunder. There was no policemen who was not paid. The army officers stationed in rural areas collected two salaries, one from the state and a larger one from the company that owned the land. In each sugar center the administration paid a separate salary to the commander of the military unit who was always attentive to the interests of the company. Aside from this principal delinquents were those with authority. The authorities protected the potty delinquents. In the Bureau of Investigation, the head of the department against drug traffic was in charge or drug distribution in Havana. There was not any police chief, colonel, or general who did not become a millionaire through gambling, smuggling, and extortion. You must remember the history of America; who better than the Venezuelans can know the history of America, for the Venezuelans are the history of America. The Liberator was not able to free the island of Cuba. He was not able to do that, and our island remained for almost another century under the yoke of repression. The American governments forgot our country, and it had to struggle against Spain for 30 years. Alone it had to fight the battle that the people of America fought together, and when after 30 years of struggle, our people, our liberation army, had already virtually defeated the Spanish army, then the United States (intervened?) in Cuba. It declared the Cuban republic would be independent, but when the time came to turn the island over to the Cubans they occupied it. The Congress came up with an amendment--imposed by force--to our constitution giving the United States the right to intervene in Cuban internal affairs. There was no justice. When one country reserves the right to intervene in another, that country is not independent. Our government robbed, that is certain, our government stole, there were crimes and the people had to take it because if it protested the government would say "you are going to lose your sovereignty, they will intervene." So the people had to take all the horrors and all the abuses and injustices of the governors, all the interests exploiting our country. All that contributed to the first tyranny which appeared in our country and republic: the tyranny of Machado. Within 20 days the soldiers and the military cla**es overthrew the government which followed Machado. A revolutionary government lasted for three months. The U.S. amba**ador began courting Sergeant Batista, who was already a colonel, and in three months, Sergeant Bastita, following the orders of the American amba**ador, threw the revolutionary government out of power, and installed a dictatorship. One day a constitutional government was formed in Cuba, but one day Batista returned. He had been permitted to return after four years in exile with his stolen millions. Permitting Batista to return was an error. That error was paid for in our country by 20,000 dead Cubans. Every government that takes power by force can only govern through terror. We have taken power through a revolution supported by 90 percent of the people, and we do not even need a policeman. We do not have to use the slightest force because those most interested in peace and order are the people. As soon as the government takes over by treason and force, however,the hour of terror begins immediately. Meetings and public functions are not permitted; crime begins; shootings take place and funerals for the murdered cannot be permitted; privilege and exploitation begins and the people must be silenced and the opposition drowned in blood. I do not have to tell the Venezuelans about that. The traitor Perrez Jimenez and company came, and the Venezuelans had to put up with him for 10 years. Those 10 years of tyranny were like 10 centuries, with terror, security police, censorship, abuse persecution and barbarism. For 10 years the prisons were full of political prisoners who died there, and there was never any press campaign organized against it. The international agencies did not organize those campaigns against it because the dictatorship would have fallen. Once again we dug into the Sierra Maestra. Our counterattacks and counteroffensives ended with the result you know. Almost all of Cuba was in the hands of the rebels. Batista had fled and a general (General Cantillo--Ed.) contacted the rebels to make peace. Agreement was made with the general on condition that the rebels would take over entirely. Then the Cuban army was completed disarmed and all weapons were turned over to the rebels. A general strike was declared and it continued until every armed group of the previous regime laid down arms. There followed a slander campaign launched by the international monopolies that we were executing Batista's followers. They did not say that these men were war criminals who had tortured patriots. No, they just called them Batista's supporters. No one was interested when innocent citizens were a**a**inated. They did not tell the peoples of the rebel army's treatment of the war prisoners. They did not tell that there was not a single case of torture committed by the rebels. They did not tell we had absolute freedom and that among us reigned complete peace and order. Vengeance must not take the place of justice. We invited the reporters of the entire hemisphere to watch the trials and freely tell what they saw. There are among our nations too many men of great sensitivity who would scorn injustice. Why were there no protests when Batista's dictatorship tortured people and sent them to jail? Then the reactionaries were silent. The people of America know that in union lies their strength. I come in the name of the people which has overthrown tyranny with a message to a nation which has also rid itself of a tyrant. All Latin Americans have the same aspirations, the same feelings, the same language, the same perseverance. There is not a single Venezuelan, Cuban, or Dominican who does not feel that it must be Trujillo now; Trujillo now; Trujillo now. (Later Castro said that there are only three dictators left in America and that they must go--Ed.). In Venezuela there are mountain ranges higher than those in the Sierra Maestra. In Venezuela there is a heroic nation as in Cuba. Venezuela is the country of the liberator of the nations of America. The Venezuelans supported us, and Cubans, not let us back the people of Venezuela. We Cubans will remain bound to the Venezuelans if they have a government the product of free elections. They have civilian leaders like Romulo Betancourt, and Venezuela has never been in a better situation than she is today. I stand with Venezuela, Venezuela our friend, our loyal friend, Venezuela with her people and her wealth represents a great future in America. I was more moved when I entered Caracas than when I entered Havana because here I was alone. In the name of the people of Cuba, in the name of the very beginning of everything, and in our own name and from the bottom of our hearts we thank our brothers of Venezuela. -END-