Fidel Castro - RIverside Church in Harlem (2000)

Speaker 1: Last week, Cuban President Fidel Castro was in New York attending the United Nations Millennium Summit. On Friday night, he addressed a gathering at Harlem's Riverside Church. Now a portion of that event, hosted by the New York Committee for the Cuban Delegation to the Millennium Summit.

Fidel Castro: It was what the people did for the revolution. what made it possible for it to behave with the heroism it has behaved to face such a tremendous test that no other country has been through. And this has been the situation for 40 years. And the last 10 years have been extremely difficult, much more than the 30 years before. Therefore, it is not strange that the American people has recognized that the healthiest youth who migrate into the United States one way or another are the Cuban youth. Even the American people recognize that they are the healthiest immigrants and the ones with the highest education. As compared to any other Latin American country. You who have been so steady in taking sides with us in the face of so many slanders. You who have been in solidarity with our people. I feel that it is my duty to explain this to you. Without... separating one atom from the truth. Now, our international spirit has never decayed in that period. It is true that we had to reduce the number of scholarships that we used to give to international students, which in the 1980s A 24,000 estudiantes. Éramos el país con más elevada cifra de estudiantes extranjeros per capita entre todos los países del mundo. Sin cobrarles. Sin cobrarles un solo centavo. Son decenas de miles los técnicos y profesionales graduados en África que estudiaron en Cuba. Digo África y otros países, pero fundamentalmente en el continente. From the African countries, from the poorest continent, though they also came from other countries as well. In the last decade, we had to reduce the number of scholarships. And we also had to cut down the programs in support of health care. But I can tell you, and I take pleasure in saying this, that now we have more doctors and more health workers working free of charge in the Third World, more than at any other previous time. I'd like to say just a few more words. After the hurricane, that was not me, but the one who preceded him a few months earlier, George. I do not understand why they named him that. The main... When George Washington was one of the founders of this country, well, that hurricane caused lots of destruction in Central America. At that moment, we offered Haiti the doctors it needed to recover from that disaster. And then when a few weeks later, the same thing happened in Central America with heavy rains, very heavy rains, all this as a result of the climatic strains. Principalmente porque los bosques han sido talados para exportar madera a los países más ricos. Le ofrecimos lo mismo. E incluso enviamos. And we sent hundreds of doctors to help those populations. And after that, we suggested to them to undertake comprehensive health programs. Because we feel that it is not enough with sending a number of doctors and helping for 15 or 20 days after the hurricane. The problem is after that. Because that hurricane killed, according to the figures, the highest figures given at the time were 30,000 dead. Perhaps the real figure was lower than that because many missing people showed up later after the hurricane. de 15,000. Y nosotros sabíamos que todos los años en Centroamérica mueren de hambre y enfermedades previsibles. More than 40,000 children die of hunger and preventable diseases in Central America. And that happens every year. So they are suffering a permanent hurricane, which is much worse than Hurricane Mitch or Hurricane George. So these preventable diseases and hunger are killing three times more people than a hurricane can kill. Sin que nadie hable de eso. And that happens without anyone ever mentioning it. Los países los aceptaron, principalmente aquellos que actuaron a un criterio independiente. The countries, most of them accepted our help. Algunos se lo prohibieron. Some were prevented from accepting our assistance. Y esos programas continuaron. But that program has continued at the present moment. In one of those countries. And in the remotest places. Of that country where there are snakes and mosquitoes and all kinds of infectious diseases. There are about 450 Cuban doctors working. Doctors and health workers. I mean that includes technicians, nurses. and intensive care unit nurses, but most of them doctors, about 450, and they are working there in the most remote places. And we continue to expand this comprehensive health program. We cannot take the medications with us because we don't have them. The medications are provided by a number of international organizations. o los adquieren los propios gobiernos. Pero los servicios de nuestros médicos son absolutamente gratis. En Haití, In Haiti, we have several hundred doctors working approximately the same amount, over 400. Our doctors in Haiti are caring for over 4 million people in that country. and a group of specialists who are working in the main hospital of the country where they did not have those specialists are taking care of those cases who need it coming from any part of the country. So they have saved a number of lives. To save a life is not that difficult. If you resort to the simple procedure of vaccines, vaccines which cost only six to produce, can save so many, many lives. So many lives are lost in the third world because the children are not vaccinated. And the vaccines cost just a few cents. Sometimes it is due to political misconceptions that many of these lives are not saved. However, they could be saved at a really minimum cost. And we have offered Central America about 2,000 doctors. To Haiti, we have offered as many doctors as are needed there. Also in Cuba, in a former military facility, which was rendered empty after we cut down our military, we have opened up a school, an international school, Alrededor de mil jóvenes centroamericanos procedentes de lugares apartados y de origen humilde para estudiar medicina. They take six months of premed education in order to level them up. Two years of basic sciences in that school. And after that, four more years in any of the 20 other medical schools that we have all over the country associated to teaching hospitals. At the moment, we have 40,000 capacities to study medicine. There were years in which we had 6,000 enrolled in those schools. Later, we began reducing the number of the enrollment in the medical schools. And we have been also training nurses of force who have graduated as nurses at the university. Also, we have graduated many level technicians to operate the different equipment in the hospitals. Of course, in addition to the dentists and other specialists. But we have the capacity. We have the facilities. And that school, which I have just mentioned to you, already has 3,000 students. Dentro de unos meses, cuando empiece el nuevo curso, unos países terminan el curso a fines de año y otros a principios de verano. Lo empezamos a recibir en marzo para el curso de nivelación. En marzo llegarán a esa escuela, ingresarán. 1,700 students will be joining that school for their pre-med course. So the total figure will be, as you see, over 4,000. 20. de cuatro años habrá más de 8,000 estudiantes latinoamericanos de medicina sin pagar un solo centavo. Y tienen incluso una alimentación mejor que la de los 40.000 becados universitarios cubanos que tenemos en nuestras universidades. Bien. En esa escuela también hay At the moment, we also have in that school 80 students from Equatorial Guinea who speak Spanish like the Latin Americans. This is a whole program which we call the Latin American School of Medicine. Hipermedica. But the program is more encompassing, and it includes all the rest of the universities of Cuba, the schools of medicine in Cuba. In Santiago de Cuba, the easternmost province of Cuba, we have over 200 Haitian students of medicine, excellent students. who have already taken their pre-med, and they will continue studying medicine this year. Every year we shall receive about About 80 new Haitian students to study medicine in Cuba. And that does not include the school of medicine for Caribbean students, which is in Cienfuegos. The total at this moment And this is a very conservative estimate. But the total at the moment could be over 4,000 foreign students from Latin America and the Caribbean studying medicine in our country. In the different universities as I have described. In four years from now, there will be 10,000 10,000 of them. That we can do in our country absolutely free of charge. And with adequate living conditions, adequate quarters and living quarters and meals and adequate laboratories. Textbooks, clothing, of course, transportation. That same school has 50 buses for the transportation of the students. How could we do that? Very simple. There are countries that, in order to keep their buses going, they need to change them every certain number of years. Those buses can be in service in those countries for a number of years alone, and after that, they're useless. They are sent for scrap iron. In those cases, what we have done is to buy them second-hand, almost new. We bought them for $5,000 when they would have cost $80,000. Good engines, economic systems. They cost that, plus the transportation. They cost us only $5,000 a piece in transportation. Those are the solutions we provide to our cases. The key of the problem is not trained doctors. It is that one day they will take the place of our doctors who are working there. A estudiantes de toda América Latina. Aquella que les hablé que surgió cuando los ciclones. Como una forma de unión, de hermandad, de intercambios culturales. And to promote also the cultural exchange among our countries. They will not only graduate as doctors, they will know each other better. And it is most of all, the creation of a new concept, a new of what the mission of the doctor should be. Because the capitals of the countries in the big countries and the big cities, they have plenty of doctors. But they have not been educated in the idea of what should be the mission of a doctor. So numbers are not important here. The important thing is the idea of the mission that those doctors will have. You cannot imagine how motivated they are, how hard these students study. They even get better grades than our own students. Of course, our own students are used to take all that for granted. The same way the sun rises every day, they have all that, so they take it for granted. But those youth who have been given the opportunity coming from very poor areas, then in those areas to think of being a doctor is like a dream. So their results, their grades are better than those of our own students. And they are being trained in those schools, as I said, to go back working in their communities. That is the compensation we receive for our efforts. Que ellos realizan. What do we do in Africa? It would be impossible to bring all the African students that would be needed to graduate as doctors for Africa. So in the case of Africa, well, in the case of Africa, to have a doctor to 4,000 people, necesitaría 160,000 médicos cada 4,000. Perfecto. Vuelvo a multiplicar. I would rather say that to have a ratio of one doctor to 7,000 people, Africa would need to graduate about 80,000 doctors. Every four years, this is the figure. Cuba's ratio is one doctor to 168 people. And Cuba can graduate in 2,000 doctors per year. Sub-Saharan Africa would need to graduate 520,000 doctors approximately. How would it be possible What could be the solution for such a dramatic situation? Well, with a comprehensive health program that we have undertaken there, it is our idea to graduate, I mean to take 3,000 Cuban doctors to Sub-Saharan Africa. Su primera tarea, donde quiera que no exista una facultad de medicina, es crear de inmediato una facultad de medicina, recogiendo bachilleros. Recogiendo bachilleros. Iniciando un curso de nivelación de seis meses. Así lo acabamos de hacer en Gambia. We have just done that in the Gambia. Donde hay 158 médicos cubanos. Where there are 158 Cuban doctors. Nos pidieron 90 más. We were asked 90 more doctors. Y se lo ofrecimos. And they will be going there very soon. Fue el primero donde empezaron estos planes. That was one of the first countries where we recently began this comprehensive health program for Africa. Tenían 30 médicos. They only had 30 doctors in that country. Local doctors. To care for a population of 1.2 million. The second place was Equatorial Guinea. They have also opened a school of medicine over there to train the Guinean doctors in situ. Over 100 Cuban doctors are there already. A school of medicine that we had open years ago in Guinea-Bissau. And which was destroyed by a recent war conflict. with international intervention, they have yet not been able to recover that school, to rebuild it. But they have asked us that the students of fourth and fifth year of medicine could continue their studies in Cuba. We have said yes, and they are coming to proceed with their medical studies. Thank you. As the reconstruction of that medical school in Guinea has taken some time, a few weeks ago, they asked us to bring to Cuba also the students from 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade. And we said yes. So they will be coming soon to study their medical career in Cuba. So we don't want for those students of medicine to be left without a school until their own can be rebuilt. They will be studying in Cuba in the meantime. That has been our policy. That is what we are doing. We feel that we... Hundreds of thousands of physicians need to be trained in Africa. No one ever cares about that. There is not... There is a wealthy part of the world that only cares about the oil, gas, and cheap labor force. And that's it. But the situation of that continent is worse today than it was in the days of the colonial domination. The population has multiplied and the situation is awful. Yesterday, are the United Nations We're discussing AIDS. That's another chapter. If you allow me one more minute, I will speak about that later. Why have I been elaborating so much on this issue of medicine? Well, I wanted to explain to you that to all the Caribbean countries, we have granted Scholarships without restrictions. I mean, free of charge scholarships for as many students as they want to send for any career whatsoever. As you know, the Caribbean countries have small populations, so they have an open quota to study in our country. But a few days ago, it just struck me that I was struck by something that really caused my admiration. Are you talking about this because the other side has been talking about this? It was an occasion when we had a visitor... When we had the visit of some congressmen from the Black Caucus. There was a congressman from Mississippi. And I was describing this program to them. And this congressman said, Look, I have many places in my own district Or they do not have a doctor. I said to him, how come? I said, well, now I realize that you are the third world inside the United States. And I said to him, we are willing to send you I said to him, we are willing to send you our doctors free of charge the same way we do with other third world countries. You hear so much talk about the wealth of the United States, about the GDP, about the surplus, and so on and so forth. And all of a sudden somebody comes up to me and tells me that. And that is a respected member of Congress who told me that. I said to myself, we can help you. But right away I said, look. I remember the schools we have. I said, look, we are willing to grant a number of scholarships for youth from your districts who cannot afford the tuition, the $200,000, $100,000 tuition. We are willing to offer this scholarship for those youth who cannot pay the $200,000 tuition to study medicine in your country. I can assure you that our doctors are very well trained. They begin relating to all things that have to do with medicine from the first year of their career. And for six years, while they study their theory of medicine, and they have all the labs and all the equipment they need They keep in touch with the hospitals, with community medicine. And our 20 schools of medicine, we have 20 schools of medicine, were built near the most important hospitals in the country. En todas las provincias. Allí mismo hacen sus prácticas docentes. Y allí mismo estudian sus especialidades. Sin salir de la provincia. Yo le añadí a aquellos diputados. Porque me dice que esa es la situación de otras minorías. Then I thought that that could be the situation for other minorities like the Chicanos and in the Indian reservations and in other areas of the United States as well. And not only Latin Americans who have migrated into this country, but also even the case of American people who have been born in the United States. So I said to that congressman, look, yours is a big country. We would not be able to do what we do with other modern nations. I do not know how many people live in the American third world, I said. I think perhaps 30 or 40 million Americans live in that American third world. Then I said to him, We have doctors to cover the needs of several million, but I wouldn't dare offer that to him. Still, I said something else. I said, look, we are not going to solve any problem to all those people. But I am sure I said that if a number of Cuban doctors apply for a visa to go to your district, it will be impossible for that to be overlooked by the American authorities for those visas to be denied. How could then the U.S. administration justify The thousands of physicians that have been taken away from us. The 3,000 who left our country in the first year of the revolution. Which were half of the 6,000 we had at that time. Half. And over half of the university professors. 3,000 pediatric physicians, however, stayed in our country. And it was with them that we organized our School of Medicine. Today, we have 67,500. We have more than 20. So for every one of those who left our country, 20 have been trained thanks to the hard work of the doctors who stayed. And at present, there is a policy to promote the defection of our doctors who are discharging those internationalist missions abroad. A few weeks ago, two of the 108 doctors working in Zimbabwe You have doctors working in provincial hospitals where there are no doctors, local doctors who can work. apartheid in Rhodesia. did not train black doctors. And that Rhodesia, which is today independent Zimbabwe, after 20 years of independence, does not have enough doctors to cover its needs in the main hospital. So practically in every province in Zimbabwe, there are brigades of Cuban doctors. Eight to ten doctors in every one of those brigades. Including surgeons and technicians to repair the equipment. Well, two of those doctors who were there attracted by those billions of dollars spent every year in advertising to extol consumption. Those who defected, there is always a small percentage who defects. Well, they did. I should say to the honor of our country that of all those who are involved in this program, Only 1.6 percent have defected. Only 1.6 of all those thousands of Cuban doctors who are working abroad. Those two went to another place that the commission is for refugees. Of course, those people who fought so hard in Congress to keep the child of Elian in the United States Immediately, they took up the cause of these two Cubans and applied for visas to bring them to America. No one then remembered all the children, all the sick people that were being left in Zimbabwe without medical care because those two doctors were defected. The important thing was to make publicity with those two. We have caught two fishes, two Cuban doctors who have defected. And that is the same thing that the Cubano-americana, como llamamos nosotros, a eso que nunca debió llamarse fundación, puesto que derivó en una organización terrorista. What has been called the Cuban-American Foundation, which is really a terrorist organization. De eso se ocupa. That is what they care for. That is what they do in Guatemala, Honduras, in Belize. in Haiti, in Guyana, in Paraguay, or in Ecuador, wherever there are Cuban doctors, they try to attract them to defect. In the 13 countries of our hemisphere where we have our doctors, This which will expand to 30 or 40 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, they are trying to catch them. They are trying to buy those people out. I told the American congressman, how could they refuse a visa to the Cuban doctors? What could be the argument to refuse a visa to the Cuban doctors that would go to work in your district? Where would be the morale behind the denial? If they are doing everything they can to make other Cuban doctors defect to come to America. ¿Acaso tendríamos nosotros... ¿Acaso tendríamos nosotros... I said, would we have to resort to the Cuban adjustment act, at least to do something positive with that act, which we call a murderous act for the thousands of lives lost due to it? Since it provides a privilege that no other Latin American has, and no other citizen of the world Only the Cubans to promote the destabilization of the country. To promote internal disorder. And of course, to have raw material for publicity against our country. That's why I said perhaps we would have to resort to that negative act which exists, which is in effect. We could have to sell some people a modest boat to bring to the United States the doctors that would come to work in your district. I said to the congressman, and as the Cuban Adjustment Act provides immediate right to live in the United States and to work just the following day, then the Cuban doctors could apply to the Cuban Adjustment Act and then go to work in that district Of course we would not do anything like that. But you know, I'll give you the example for you to understand how absurd that act is. Anyway, I am certain that if those congressmen from the Black Caucus or people from the Hispanic community or representatives from the American Indians for which the American taxpayers would not have to pay a penny because they would come free of charge. If that were the case, the American treasurer would have to pay nothing for them except the medicines they would be using to care for the I think that if that were the case, the U.S. government would not deny a visa. I do not find any logic, any rationale in doing so. I am absolutely certain pueden ser objeto del examen de cualquier tribunal justo y pasan todas las pruebas necesarias para cumplir con honor esa misión. Es más fácil todavía enviarlos However, I think it is easier for these communities to send their students to Cuba while they are involved in that now. And from this podium, I can assure you that we are willing to receive 250 American students per year of those who cannot pay the $200,000 tuition. Those coming... Students coming from the American Third World. Of course, they would also learn Spanish. And they would be able Con jóvenes de todo el hemisferio. Ustedes transmitirán lo que conocen sobre Estados Unidos. La cultura norteamericana. Ellos les mostrarán la cultura de todos esos países. They will learn from the other country's culture and they will show their own culture to their classmates. I have been making up this figure. But in the first year, which will begin by May, the pre-med course, we could offer you 500 scholarships, and then after that, 250 every year. For those students coming from those poor areas, we wouldn't choose them, of course. It would be up to the local authorities to choose them. the local authorities in those districts where they do not have enough doctors. What we want to do is to help them, to help the youth from those poor districts to be trained as doctors with the commitment to return home to work in their communities when they graduate as doctors in Cuba. . Les hablé de esto por esa razón. Ahora les quiero añadir algunas cosas. Y para que no se impasienten. I have only one subject left, which will not be very long. And then I would like to bring up the subject of Deshal Delian to give you some news about him. And let me look at my watch. I will not be too long now. The sanitation condition of Africa is really precarious. But the most terrible thing about Africa is that a new plague is threatening exterminate entire nations of that continent. More than that, amenaza con exterminar la población del África subsahariana, que tiene más de 500 which is over 500 million people, I am talking to you in all seriousness. This is serious. I am talking to you with all responsibility. This is a subject of which I have reflected a lot. At the moment, Of the 35 million HIV positives in the world, 25 million are in Africa. At the moment, this very year, Of course I have received data from different sources, but I have had good conversations with the UN, with the UN representative for that AIDS program. He's a person very much devoted to fighting AIDS and it's spreading in the world. He has told me The two million Africans, two million Africans, are dying every year. One million are dying from malaria. From 300 to 500 million people in Africa get infected with malaria. Of course, many have developed a resistance to the disease, but still a high number die every year. One million. It seems to be a small figure of those who died, but it is because they have created a resistance. But the number of those suffering the disease are really hundreds of millions. And perhaps it is not so distant to find a vaccine. As I have said before, only 1% of what is spent in medical research in the world is used to produce vaccines for several diseases. Over 2 million people are dying of AIDS every year. In sub-Saharan Africa. And they are mostly young people. and pregnant women. So for every two who die, five new people are infected with HIV. I don't remember now the exact figure of those who have died. I think it is 19 million who have died of AIDS. But it is something, as you see, extremely serious. There are 12 million orphans in Africa due to AIDS. And it has been estimated that in the next decade, there will be 42 million orphans in Africa due to AIDS. And I wonder how can a poor country of the third world develop itself under such circumstances as the ones prevailing in the world today where 30% of the population is HIV positive. They lack medical care. They do not have the medications. How then can they survive? How then to care for over 40 million children who are being left orphans? Also, among those 19 million who have died, several millions are children. Many of them were infected with HIV when they were born. Y también, por supuesto, muchas madres. ¿Cómo pueden alimentar? with the number of undernourished people in Africa, with the people starving there in many of those countries. A few weeks ago, there was a conference in Durban, South Africa, and there African representatives discussed the situation of AIDS with representatives industrialized. These said that an effort had to be made because AIDS was terrible. I said to myself, they have just discovered AIDS. It would seem that they just know that AIDS exists. How come? Then they are talking about what measures should be taken, what effort should be made. Para reducir el costo. For them to reduce the price of their medications for AIDS. Y qué dineritos dar para ayudar. And what amount of money they could provide those countries to fight AIDS. Pero de mil millones, mil y tantos millones. They are talking about a few billion. Muy bien. Pero basta señalar que si reduce a mil dólares. el costo de los 10,000 que cuesta cada tratamiento, necesitarían para cortar la enfermedad, empezar a cortar, 25,000 millones de dólares anuales. Y si son 10,000, cinco mil necesitarían 125 mil millones de dólares. Y si son, si costaran lo que cuestan ahora, son 250 mil millones. Ahora hay que ver cuánto se acuestan, se acuerdan Now we'll have to see how many still remember what they discussed there and how long it will take them to do something and how many millions will be infected before they do something and how many more orphans there will be before the big pharmaceutical companies do something. And I tell you, With the cooperation of industrial nations, a lot could be done. A great problem could be solved. Which is the one I was going to make reference to now. While referring to what the African representatives said at the meeting yesterday. Or at that meeting in Durban, I'm sorry. They said, what for? Why all that money and those medications? We do not have the infrastructure to deliver the medications to the patients. That's what they said in Durban. Because that is the number of pills that has to be given at a certain time in the day. It is not an aspirin that you take when you have a headache. It's a cocktail of medicine. And they said we do not have the infrastructure to carry the medicine to the patients. At the round table yesterday at the United Nations, many African representatives addressed the same issue. And while I was remembering, what was said in Durban, I said, yesterday, look, we do not like to boast about what we have, but we are really deeply moved by what we have heard here. I said, if the industrial nations are willing to provide the money and the medications, our country, based on the experience we have accumulated with the work of tens of thousands of our physicians in different parts of the world, In one year. In one year. Y no se preocupen por cuestiones políticas. Porque nuestros médicos tienen. La regla. Con la instrucción rigurosa. Por encima de toda una regla. No hablar jamás. never ever discuss politics, never ever discuss religion, never ever discuss philosophy. They go to those countries to save lives. If there is a pastor, they work with a local pastor. A pastor of any church, they work with the local church authorities. Of course, the pastors do not want their people to die, his people to die. He cooperates. He has to help in the programs of health. If they are with a pastor from another church, if it is a representative of any other church, the same thing happens. If it is a Muslim, it is the same thing. Because the people, no one wants their fellow citizens to die. Exactly the same. No one wants to see their fellow citizens dying. Who could oppose a doctor's work to save a life? So I tell you, it is impossible to save entire nations of Africa. It is possible. And perhaps, the population del África subsahariana. Cuando esto avance, no podrán ni siquiera producir alimento. No podrán trabajar. No alcanzarán jamás las pocas camas que tienen. The few beds they have in hospitals will never be enough. And of course, this makes a room for other diseases. I did not say that there are three million Africans dying from tuberculosis. And it could be a result of AIDS. then that infrastructure that Africa requires to deliver the medications, we are willing to work on that. The medications could be provided by the developed nations. We could send a minimum of 1,000 doctors to each one to everyone of those countries in sub-Saharan Africa where they do not have doctors today. Our doctors are ready to organize the infrastructure. They can prepare the youth and the children there. If a 15-year-old boy or girl with a sixth grade of schooling y los convierten en enfermeros en la mitad del tiempo de una... que necesita en una escuela de enfermería. Si quieren preparar especialistas en ortopedias, cirugía y otras cosas, lo pueden preparar, lo ponen al lado de... y lo pueden preparar And they can be trained in half the time that it would take to train them at the university. So as I'm telling you, our doctors can do much more than creating the infrastructure. They can train tens of thousands of health workers. In addition, Facultades universitarias en todos los países de medicina. En los países donde no exista. Y Cuba no cobraría un solo centavo. Por eso servicio. Ni esperaría años. Ni esperaría años. En ponerlo en práctica. And it would not take years to begin doing it. They will say, but you have no money. Well, some of that use in advertising could be used for this. And the consumer societies could take some of their money for that. There are many people living in the underdeveloped world who have no consumption at all, so... A reduction of the military expenses could also help to have resources for these programs. They could have a world emission of bones. For many people, good people to buy the bones. And then with those bonuses, then one could collect the money. Raise the money for this. Or perhaps to tax those speculative operations I described before. And then there would be plenty of money, not only for this program, but also for many other things which are needed practically to develop those nations. It is absolutely logical. It is absolutely rational. Why is it not done? Why do they talk about human rights? Why do they talk about human rights when all this is happening in the world? Who are responsible? for so many people, tens of millions of people dying in the world whose lives will be saved. Children, most of them, over 11 millions of them dying every year. Children from 5 to 15 years of age, teenagers and youth in general. who are also dying every year for lack of adequate medical care, or who die from diseases that have not been cared for before, or due to a congenital malformation that can be solved, or due to a surgery. En caso de accidente. No se sabe cuánto. Mueren que pueden salvarse. or even to extend life, the life of the elders. I'm sure you know many people who are older than 50 and who would like to live 10 more years or 20 more years. And the people who are 70 They also want to live 5, 8 or 10 more years. Or people of my age. 74 at the end. That which you reminded me of a while ago. They would like to live 4 or 5 more years. And perhaps 10. Just to see what happens in the world within 10 years. Se cumple. And if that were to happen in my case, I really would be pleased for that to happen so that I could put to better use the experience I have accumulated. Los adversarios de Castro en el gobierno hace X años. La dictadura de Castro, la tiranía de Castro, no se sabe cuántas cosas más. Y que está en el poder y no quiere dejar el poder. El poder si no es para hacer algo. Para hacer el bien no sirve para nada en absoluto. Y sería loco desearlo. As I have said to many visitors, I have a limited number of constitutional powers. I do not even appoint an ambassador. In most places of the world, the president appoints the ambassadors. Not in my country, I do not appoint ambassadors. I do not appoint anyone. The ambassadors are proposed by a commission, and they are taken to the state council. They are submitted to that council. Made up by 31 people who are the ones who endorse those positions. And I have to sign them, of course. I have appointed only one ambassador on my own initiative. And it is a combat we used to work with me, close to me. And we needed him as an ambassador in an important place. All the others that have signed their appointment, the same as the pardon, when we are going to amnesty or to pardon an inmate, it has to be discussed in the same council by 31 people, and the decision is adopted there. I don't care what they say about me anyway. I think that a leader or somebody with that responsibility No necesita cargo. Lo que necesita es autoridad moral. Lo que necesita es poder moral. A lo largo de 41 años, solo una vez, se produjeron en la ciudad de La Habana, cerca del puerto, determinados desórdenes públicos. Estaban asociados al aviso que enviaron por radio de que un grupo de naves se acercaría para recoger inmigrantes. Y como conocían que nosotros no disparábamos contra ninguna banda. Cuando empezaron a venir las lancias rápidas, en una ocasión, por primera vez, se ponen nerviosos, dan el alto, disparan. Hubo algunos heridos, no sé si eran. Otra vez un tractor trató y hago una carreta con la gente. There was an accident with people who were trying to leave the country illegally. Some people on the tractor tried to roll over a policeman who was trying to stop them. And there was an accident. There were these kind of accidents. All these, of course, encouraged by the Cuban Adjustment Act. There were shots by that policeman who was almost rolled over, but fortunately nobody was hurt. Immediately we issued instructions to all the Coast Guard forces not to shoot against any vessel with people on board who were trying to leave the country illegally, even if they were in the midst of the bay. You know, we have a small boat that cross the bay. It's a transportation means for the people who live on the other side of the bay. Secuestraban esa lanchita He tapped that boat. But nobody would shoot against him. The famous incident which is so much discussed on March 13th is a similar story. We ordered an exhaustive investigation into all the details. And what happened is that there was a place where there were the dog boats. It was assaulted by some people. The workers there were neutralized. The communications on the boat were destroyed. And the same workers there from another tugboat took their vessels. took another talk boat and this was a night and without telling anyone they tried to prevent the others from taking away the talk boat Nobody knew anything. I mean, not the authorities. Hours had passed before the authorities learned about that. Instructions were given to the consulars to get close to prevent an accident. and to order the return of the two tugboats that had gone to try to prevent the kidnapping of the first one. But before the Coast Guard arrived there, the accident had taken place. Fortunately, they could save a few people with the ropes they had. It takes the people out of the water. and he was robbed. Still, the Coast Guard should save some. At a given moment, even the Coast Guards were running the risk of being kidnapped because the others were overpowering them. But the Coast Guards were able to save almost half of those who were on the tugboat which had been kidnapped. That is the truth. But you know, it has been... All kinds of lies have been said about that. A legend has been created about that, about the famous March 13th tugboat that had an accident. They have said so many lies about that. I would not justify anything wrong if anything wrong had been done, but that was not the case. There are many of those, there are many people in the United States who were prisoners, made prisoners during the Bay of Peaks. None of them can say that they were beaten despite the fact that over 100 of our comrades had died and hundreds were wounded. I was there myself. I myself was there. Nobody told me. I was there. I myself made many of those members of the brigade of the mercenary brigade prisoners. I passed by them. They saw me. They had their weapons and they did not shoot. They were demoralized. None of them shot. Even during a trial, they mentioned that to their credit that they had saw me and they had not shot at me. Se lo agradezco muchísimo ya. No habría cumplido estos 74 años. Y también yo le estoy agradecido. Pero ninguno puede decir que habían invadido nuestro país armados y enviados por una potencia extranjera. Si hubiese ocurrido al revés, All the way around. You know that at least they would have been sentenced to life imprisonment. And nobody with life imprisonment sentence can be released here so easily. Because of those Puerto Ricans who spent many years in prison. Fue algo muy difícil. Yo no sé el número exacto que estuvieron en prisión. Tal vez ustedes me puedan decir, algunos de ustedes. How long did they stay in prison? Perhaps some of you could tell me. 20 años. Hermanos y hermanas, yo les aseguro que cuando en Cuba algunos de los que son pagados that when some of those who are paid from outside to conduct subversive activities against the government have spent three months in prison, we are under tremendous pressure from outside to release them. You cannot imagine all the pressures organized pressure, of course, for us to release those people. At the beginning of the revolution, there were 300 counter-revolutionary organizations. And at the Bay of Pigs alone, we were able to seize over 12 convicts. And they did not even spend two years in prison. They were swapped for baby food. Unos cuantos de ellos después cometieron crímenes y mataron compañeros nuestros con bombas, con atentados. Si hubiesen estado 30 años, se habrían salvado las vidas. Pero eso no influyó. Y un día, un barco cargado de héroes One day, a boat full of those heroes between quotations returned to the United States. They gave the president at that time a flag. I think they had to be given that flag here because they could not even save any flag over there in the Bay of Peaks. They brought that flag to the President of the United States, a flag they would say would be raised in Havana. But all those who took part in those actions were released, and many of them have changed their views ever since. And there are different people nowadays. So man can change. But I am giving you this example of the policy that we have pursued consistently. In the first battles in the Sierra Maestra, the Batista soldiers fought to the end because they were afraid of No se dio un solo caso de miles de prisioneros en combate. Donde a los heridos lo atendíamos con prioridad a nuestros propios heridos. The wounded we saved and we took care of them first than our own wounded. And those soldiers who became our prisoners were never beaten. When there were some who had committed many crimes, exceptional cases, they were put to trial. La Cruz Roja es testigo. Y obtienen las listas. Y los expedientes. De los cientos de prisioneros que les capturamos en la última ofensiva contra nuestra fuerza. Y ahí se puede investigar. And there was not one of those soldiers who was beaten or ill-treated by us. Not one of them was executed. To tell the truth, they were the best weapons suppliers we had. Afterwards, they would surrender. We have to say that they fought hard against our troops, always. But when they realized that their battle was lost, they surrendered to our forces, and they were soldiers. who surrendered three times. Why? Because they knew that they were not being mistreated. The same as we had a policy towards the population. But these two soldiers killed the people, burned their houses. We paid everything we took from the farmers, and they became our collaborators. And all along the war, The number one column we had from which all the other columns were produced, we all had the same rules. I don't remember one case of one of our combatants who was ever disrespectful with the wife or the daughter of a peasant family. Our war was won fulminantly from seven men who dispersed us in less than 24 months of war against forces that had 70,000 men between soldiers, policemen, sailors, etc. With the support of the whole people. Why? Because we were defending a just cause. And because we had a policy to deal with the farmers. Y una política para el enemigo. Y no tenga esa política. No tiene la victoria. Ni en tres ni treinta años. Suponiendo que las cosas se hagan más o menos bien. not in 30 years, if these things are not done correctly. Those traditions we have preserved. You can ask the South Africans who were our prisoners during the war whether anyone mistreated them, whether any one of them was executed. Because our policy during the war has always been respect for the prisoners. And that is what we have taught all those comrades in arms. There are many places where the combatants kill each other. Unfortunately, that happens. That was not our case. Neither during the war or during the internationalist missions. Never was a prisoner beaten by our forces. Never was a prisoner executed by our forces. And of course there are plenty of witnesses to these that I'm saying to you. That is what gives moral authority to our people. So we had those disturbances which had never occurred in 40 years. Some people throwing stones and everybody was amazed or somewhat disconcerted because that had never happened. Our own people were puzzled because that had never happened. And then I got the news that some people were throwing stones in old Havana. I said, not one unit should be mobilized. I will go there myself. I went there with nine of my bodyguards. I asked for some Jeeps. I said, I will not go in a safe car. I want to go on an open Jeep. I went there with my bodyguards. One conference was here with me, who's today our foreign minister was with me there, too. Felipe Perez Roque. I hardly could say his last name because I call him Felipe all the time. . I gave instructions to my bodyguards not to use their weapons. And so we went to the place where the disturbances were taking place. Myself and these 11 comrades, 9 bodyguards and these 2 comrades of the leadership. I climbed off the jeep and immediately the people reacted. All those who had been throwing stones up to that minute stopped doing so in five minutes. And then the people organized, and even those who had been throwing stones reacted and began to march with me together. Along the streets and they accompanied me back. That is our style. That is the way we operate in the revolution. In our country, we have never used a against the people. In our country, we have never seen the policemen dressed with all those gear that makes them look like people from the outside world, suppressing demonstrations and using brutality sometimes. We have never had in our country Never ever have we had that in our country in 40 years. We could pay a great prize to anyone who could prove otherwise.