Fidel Castro - Castro in Diatribe Against Conte Aguero lyrics

Prime Minister Fidel Castro appeared on a nationwide television and radio network program "Telemudo" on Mar. 28 at 0222 GMT to which commentator Pardo Llado had had been invited but declined to take part as a member of the panel because it concerned his feud with commentator Conte Aguero on the topic of communism and the Cuban government, and, he said, he did not wish to appear to be drawing the Prime Minister into the argument. A summary of Fidel Castro's reply to a question this topic posed by Mario Cuchilan, a member of the panel, follows: I believe this question implies a deep an*lysis of the problem. It is not a simple question that can be answered in a few words. I believe this discussion has done harm. It is a matter that is hurting the revolution and must be an*lyzed. Positions must be judged in the light of the interests of the revolution. During the middle of the week I became aware of the problem when Conte Aguero said in a broadcast something to the effect that among the public who applauded his letter to the Prime Minister were members of the rebel army and then [Unreadable text] that the TV cameras not be turned on them for obvious reasons. I am a very close friend of the rebels. We were together for a long period. In all that time Conte Aguero never turned up. A rebel was never seen with Conte Aguero in all that time. It does not seem natural to hear of a rebel with Conte Aguero on a program. It was like being stabbed to hear that there were rebels but they must not be shown by the TV camera, as though the government would take reprisals against them. Conte Aguero made this charge against a government headed by a Premier whom he, again and again, claimed as a friend. I told myself: A revolutionary does not talk like that. A man who calls himself a friend does not talk like that. That is the way an enemy talks. That is the way Diario De La Martina talks. It is the way a counter-revolutionary acts. I wish Conte Aguero had shown more sense and not been such an ingrate. I wish I had not the obligation of severely judging a man who, on occasion,was our friend. But, when he acts as he has, I can have no consideration for him. He cannot have done what he did mistakenly. This is a case of bad faith. I conclude that Conte Aguero knew quite well what he was doing and that it was premeditated and the harm to the revolution was a result of his conscious act. Enemies of the revolution are fully aware of the service Conte Aguero has done them. I am sure he considered the benefits he may reap from those services to the enemies of the revolution. I am going to prove this. Those in the service of the big interests can take this or that group of data and make them meet their own needs, escaping the fact of the revolution which is that the revolution has done many things. The revolution's enemies try to turn the people's attention away from its accomplishments, from its realities. But we are not building theory; we are building reality. We are doing what all revolutions have done since the beginning. We are forging a reality. This reality is too strong for the enemies of the revolution and they try to turn the attention of the people from it. I knew Conte Aguero at the university. He seemed intelligent. He spoke well. Later he turned to public life. I was nobody then. I kept a good opinion of him, I did not have any more relations with him until July 26. I thought he could help us by speaking for us. I though if I sought him out and invited him to join the action he would accept. When I went to look for him, he was not there. He was speaking from Havana, not Oriente. After this incident came the Moncada evens and murders. I think he made a farewell speech for those who had died. We were grateful for this. This of course identified him with us, Castro said, adding that later,after the Moncada trial and when we were in prison, he became our defender.A friendship developed and in many ways, Castro said, he expressed his gratitude. He declared that he had not betrayed that gratitude but on the contrary had maintained it even years after our political identification had long disappeared. But I no longer can maintain my gratitude; the damage done the revolution is too great. Castro recalled that on leaving prison he observed that Conte no longer thought like us. Castro said he was invited to speak on a TV program and also to the Ortodoxo Party but in each instance only others were permitted to speak; all Castro was permitted to do was walk the street; and he finally determined that he would not return until the overthrow of the tyranny. By that time, the Premier said, Luis Conte was completely opposed to Castro's ideas, was against revolutionary opposition, and was of those who wanted to accept the old situation. Castro read from a letter which he said Conte had written to him urging that the rebellion be halted. This man, the Premier declared, was incapable of seeing the potential power of the people. We saw this potential. Today attempts are being made to sow doubts about the success of the revolution but we are veterans in this battle. We achieved victory after Luis Conte had been preaching that we could not win, Castro continued. We arrived in Havana and we found him. Did we treat him badly? No, we did not reject him. Everywhere we went he appeared. He even took credit for my speeches. But we treated him generously and well. Luis Conte, Castro said, turned to writing a biography "about a person still living and occupying the post of Premier." He did not even consult the Premier to make certain that everything was accurate. Castro then read a quotation attributed to him and commented that it had been written by him when he was inexperienced and a young member of the Ortodoxo Party. Castro said a written work can be misinterpreted and that his first reaction was sorrow that it had been published. There was no reason for such a book. Conte, the Premier declared, reproduced a page allegedly written by Castro in a book by Marti. "I never used these phrases," Castro a**erted. The Premier declared that what Luis Conte has done has been done deliberately and that Conte has created the controversy regarding communism. Conte, he continued, spoke at the funeral of a communist. This, Castro declared, was before Conte began his anticommunist campaign. Who would have thought that this Luis Conte would do what he has done? Castro asked, adding that he could have destroyed Conte time and again but did not do so out of consideration. Now he has done this damage. The day after the La Coubre explosion, Castro declared, Luis Conte walkedwith us along the procession route and attempted to join us on the platformbut was prevented from doing so. He already was preparing his campaign.Those who in good faith were taken in by him should meditate on all these things. Castro than outlined some of the benefits of the revolution. Despite every weapon being used against us, he said, the great majority of the people still are with the government. From the very beginning, the Premier declared, enemies of the revolution have been calling it communist. What do they want? he asked. Do they want the government to persecute communists, to organize repressive measures against communist? Do they want us tobecome Bastistas, Falangists, or Nazis? What they want is to use the pretext of communism to create international problems, to prepare the way for aggression and to do to us that which was done in Guatemala. They want to divide the people and thereby weaken the revolution. But we will not sit back with arms folded and let counter revolutionaries work. We know how to act. Castro repeated his declaration of Sunday that "street by street, block by block" Cubans stand ready to defend the nation. We are against the Batistas and the bases used by pilots for their aggressive flights. Enemies of the revolution, Castro declared, do not want us to do anything; they are against our lowering rents, building houses, setting up cooperatives converting fortresses into schools and developing industries. The Premier a**erted that from the very beginning the revolution has maintained one line of conduct and that documents, manifestos and other writings prove this. He noted that electric and telephone enterprises as yet have not been nationalized and promised that this will be done because public services must be nationalized. He also pledged that rental contracts between tenants and landlords will be converted into sales contracts under which tenants will become owners of housing quarters under a long-term amortization plan. He promised that if "foreign forces" should land in Cuba they would be repelled in a war unparalleled in fierceness. We have been called communists by the American press, by the State Department, and by Mr. Herter, Castro declared, and then cited a cable attributing to Secretary Herter a statement to the effect that there are communist sympathizers in high positions in the Cuban government and that some actions of that government appear to follow a communist pattern. Rio Treaty Repudiated Castro continued that by such a statement Herter was seeking to invoke the Rio de Janeiro treaty concerning communist governments among the Latin American nations and is threatening Cuba. "But," Castro a**erted, "we do not feel bound by this treaty, because the revolution did not sign this treaty." He repeated: "We do not feel bound by this Rio de Janeiro treaty." People, he continued, should know how to read the statements by officials of a country which has "broad experience in intervention in other countries," and they will recall all the declarations at the time of the intervention in Nicaragua. Castro reiterated that attempts are being made to frighten the Cuban people but Cuba has a force of half a million Cuban men ready to fight. He said hewas talking to the people in this way because a coalition is threatened against us. Cuba, the Premier continued, has been accused of being intransigent, yet there have been more than 40 air raids against us. We have experienced bombings and fires. We are the patient ones. Cuba has been pictured as intractable;l all the blame has been cast on us. Then Amba**ador Bonsal arrived. He is always welcome. But with his arrival there were other incidents, in no way friendly ones. We have faced a campaign of personal defamation in the press in his country. We need helicopters but his government forbids them being sent because they can be used for military purposes. Is this friendly? Is it friendly to talk of patient and tolerant policy when one attack follows another, including threats? Welcome, Mr. Bonsal, but more is needed. Herter must change his policy. When they want to talk on a friendly basis "we are ready to begin with thediscussion of a bilateral trade treaty." The revolution, Castro concluded, is ready to do what is necessary to solve Cuba's problems, always serving in the interest of the people. This the people must realize so that they will not play the game of their enemies.