“The future of Cuba is one earned by a country that has resisted for over 50 years against the most powerful empire on Earth. The resilience of its people made this triumph materialize.” PeopleYearsMadeCountryEarthPowerfulResilienceTriumphEmpiresMost PowerfulCubaOver 50 Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The Cuban people along with international solidarity defeated this imperial position [America] in the middle of the 21st century and have demonstrated the potential of a nation that has lived under an iron handed blockade and permanent aggression including state sponsored terrorism and yet has survived. In the new circumstances we have the absolute conviction that we will move forward even more than we already have.” PeopleStatesAmericaMovingNationsMiddleCenturyPositionCircumstancesAbsolutesIncludingInternationalConvictionTerrorismMoving ForwardPermanentIronAggressionDefeatedSolidaritySurvived21st CenturyCubanBlockades Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“As you know Cuba has progressed a lot regarding all the indicators of social development and those rates can be compared favorably with the first world in several aspects. We think that without the heavy burden of the blockade that we can move forward a lot more in building prosperous and sustainable socialism to which we aspire.” ThinkingKnowsWorldFirstsMovingSocialBuildingDevelopmentAspectRateBurdenHeavySocialismMoving ForwardAspireProsperousCubaSocial DevelopmentIndicatorsHeavy BurdensBlockades Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador lived through times of cruel and ruthless capitalism where the workers, the masses of the population, saw themselves living in a precarious state of employment and subsistence conditions. The impact of this reality took hold and impacted the evolution of the social situation of those countries and even though that produced movements that were not exactly political movements but social movements.” CountryStatesRealityPoliticalSocialSituationSawsConditionsMovementEvolutionMassCapitalismImpactWorkersPopulationEmploymentRuthlessRough TimesPrecariousVenezuelaSocial MovementsSubsistencePolitical MovementsBoliviaEcuador Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“If we are going to talk about the most recent of the "Indignados" movements in several countries of the world, including Europe, those are social movements but eventually they will evolve into political movements. This will happen because the traditional bourgeois parties have lost credibility after being the main political influence in most countries of Latin-America and Europe in the last 50 or 60 years.” IfsWorldYearsCountryHappensLastsAmericaPoliticalLostSocialPartyInfluenceMovementEuropeIncludingTraditionalEvolveLatinCredibilityBourgeoisLatin AmericaSocial MovementsPolitical MovementsCountries Of The WorldPolitical Influence Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have shown that by breaking with the unfair order imposed by the neoliberal adjustment policies, promoted by Washington and the western powers, they already have a more favorable economic development, and even a better social development.” OrderSocialEconomicPolicyDevelopmentWesternUnfairAdjustmentSocial DevelopmentEconomic DevelopmentVenezuelaNicaraguaBoliviaEcuador Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have made a tremendous leap just by rejecting the neoliberal adjustment policies, they are making a statement from the social perspective. Capital in these cases has not been protected in any way which along with non - interference of the state is what neo liberalism stands for. It has gone the other way around; they have looked for social policies from the political movements and then when they have acquired the power of those political movements they have become in charge of the State.” WayMadeStatesPoliticalSocialCasesGonePolicyMovementPerspectiveStatementsLiberalismLeapProtectedAdjustmentInterferenceRejectingVenezuelaPolitical MovementsNicaraguaBoliviaEcuadorSocial Policy Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“In Cuba we had the most ferocious form of capitalism for 60 years. It dominated every sphere of life.” YearsFormCapitalismSpheresCuba Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Cubans are a people who suffered from capitalism in the cruelest way, in the social order, the economic order and the political order.” PeopleWayPoliticalOrderSocialEconomicCapitalismCubanSocial OrderEconomic Order Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The United States turned to repression when its prominence started to slip in Latin America through establishing military dictatorships.” StatesAmericaUnitedUnited StatesMilitaryLatinSlipsDictatorshipRepressionLatin AmericaProminence Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“There is the case of Henry Kissinger who was a known scholar who later became the National Security Advisor to President Nixon and later on Secretary of State. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in establishing relations between the U.S. and China. At the same time that he was doing that he was also encouraging all sorts of covert actions against Cuba including political assassinations. This contradiction is one that is hard to understand.” HardStatesActionPoliticalPresidentKnownRolesCasesSecurityRelationIncludingChinaContradictionPrizeScholarSecretaryNational SecurityCubaNobelAssassinationAdvisorsCovertNobel Peace PrizeKissingerHenry KissingerPresident Nixon Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Cuba cannot go back to capitalism; we know all the tragic experience that it has generated for Latin America and the world. We also know the positive experiences of socialism not only in our geographic environment but also like what we are witnessing in China.” KnowsWorldAmericaEnvironmentCapitalismChinaSocialismTragicLatinCubaLatin AmericaPositive Experiences Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Today China is a first world economy, in terms of development. The U.S. may still be in first in GDP but it is a broken economy in reality.” WorldFirstsMayStillsRealityTodayTermEconomyBrokenDevelopmentChinaGdpWorld Economy Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The United States is the most indebted country in the world. It has almost 17 billion dollars of debt with the rest of the world while living off the world's savings. They are living off the savings of the people of Greece, the savings of the people of Spain, France etc. All of those countries that save their reserves in the banks in dollars are simply financing the American economy, and that is why the average American citizen consumes two and a half times more than their income.” PeopleWorldTwoCountryStatesUnitedHalfUnited StatesEconomyCitizensDollarsAverageDebtBillionsIncomeSavingFranceEtcReservesSpainGreeceSavingsAmerican CitizensFinancingIndebtedAmerican EconomyHalf Time Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“What the U.S. does is it continues to print money when the economic situation gets difficult. This is what happened in the last depression during the summer of 2008 when they tried to resolve the economic crisis by printing valueless money. This is the business privilege given to them at the famous conference of Bretton Woods in 1944 when the United States emerged as the superpower after Europe and the rest of the world, mainly Europe, that had collapsed because of the war.” WorldDoeWarStatesLastsGivenDifficultUnitedSituationUnited StatesHappenedEconomicSummerEuropeCrisisPrivilegeWoodsResolvePrintConferencesPrintingSuperpowerEconomic CrisisValueless Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Basically with the financing of the war economy America emerged as the great power that developed logically into a superpower. I am not going to explain to you the history of the Cold War because you certainly know it but what we see now is China as the rising economic superpower, one that is certainly moving forward.” KnowsWarAmericaMovingEconomyEconomicColdChinaMoving ForwardRisingCold WarSuperpowerGreat PowerFinancing Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“When we speak of the origin of western democracy it's precisely here, in this territory that the modern definition of democracy first emerged in city/states known now as Greece. This was coming from a society in which 30 thousand citizens had rights and 300 thousand were slaves and citizens without rights that lived in this territory. So that was the concept of western democracy; some citizens had the prerogative of exerting their civil and political rights while the others had none.” FirstsStatesPoliticalSpeakCitiesKnownDemocracyRightsModernCitizensThousandConceptsSlaveWesternDefinitionsTerritoryGreecePrerogativePolitical Rights Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“America did not need to be discovered because quite simply America had the American-Indians. There were whole groups of people that already lived there including very developed societies such as the Incas, the Aztecs, and the Mayans. But then came the European vision that saw the conquest as a source of advanced growth away from medieval Europe. The new revolutionary bourgeois trend formed a new perspective on what was democracy that they saw as an improvement to the democracy of ancient Greece.” PeopleNeedsWholeAmericaGrowthVisionDemocracySawsGroupsSourcePerspectiveEuropeIncludingAncientImprovementRevolutionaryTrendsConquestGreeceMedievalBourgeoisNew PerspectiveAncient GreeceMayansMedieval EuropeIncas Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Can we say that the constitutional monarchies in Spain, Belgium or England are democratic? Those with superior chambers like the House of Lords in England, that still represent the English feudal nobility in terms of positions above regional representatives, who are in the end the representatives supposedly elected by the population. Many mechanisms exist, but they are mechanisms to preserve the power of the wealthy classes, of the bourgeois classes that hold the power and rights above the rest of the society.” StillsEndsHouseTermLordClassRightsPositionEnglandDemocraticPopulationSuperiorsPreservesWealthyMechanismRepresentativesSpainNobilityChamberMonarchyBourgeoisBelgiumConstitutional MonarchyHouse Of Lords Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“How is it possible that a process can be democratic when it comes by way of money? If there is money then it can be elected a senator, it can be elected a representative. Do you know how much it cost to be elected president of the United States? The amount has reached, billions of dollars, 2 billion, 3 billion, 4 billion dollars, that's how much a presidential campaign costs. How much does a senatorial campaign cost? It costs 80 to 90 million dollars; or the campaign of a representative, 40 to 50 million. Is that really a democracy?” IfsKnowsWayDoeStatesProcessPresidentUnitedMillionsUnited StatesKnow HowDemocracyAmountCostDollarsDemocraticBillionsCampaignsPresidentialDo You KnowRepresentativesSenatorsMillion DollarsPresidential Campaign Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“There is us living the Cuban experience that we believe is ours. We do not believe that it is perfect, but it has been above all counting truly on the people, which is where the origins of true democracy lie.” PeopleBelieveHas BeensLyingPerfectDemocracyCountingCubanTrue Democracy Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“In Cuba, we have a democracy that represents the humble, the dispossessed, those who make up the vast majority of the population. It is for those who carry the main weight of society's load in matters of the production of goods and services. These are not the ones that live from financial speculation.” MatterDemocracyWeightMajorityFinancialPopulationProductionsHumbleGoodsLoadSpeculationCubaGoods And Services Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The great financial capital is not in one country, it is transnational, that is why it answers to power elites and that is why when I talk about the imperial power of United States I am in no way referring to the American people, who are a noble people that have always been moved by humane concerns.” PeopleWayCountryStatesAnswersUnitedUnited StatesConcernMovedFinancialNobleElitesHumaneReferringGreat Financial Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The American people have on many occasions been willing to shed their own blood for a noble cause, like when hundreds of thousands of Americans participated in the fight against fascism in Europe, and other causes. There are many good people there, and the Cuban people know the American people, we have many examples of solidarity from the American people in every stage of the Cuban people's fight for independence.” PeopleKnowsFightingCausesBloodStageExampleWillingEuropeIndependenceNobleOccasionsGood PeopleFascismShedSolidarityCubanNoble Causes Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“What worker or peasant can pay 80 - 90 million dollars to elect a senator or 4 billion to elect a president? Only great capital can do that. That is why we say that bourgeois democracy has been evolving in the last years into dollar democracy, this is not the democracy of sovereignty, and only the people can determine that.” PeopleYearsHas BeensLastsPresidentCan DoPayMillionsDemocracyDollarsWorkersDetermineBillionsEvolveLast YearSenatorsSovereigntyPeasantsMillion DollarsBourgeoisDemocracies Have Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“When we talk about Cuban democracy we are referring to participatory democracy which is big difference with representative bourgeois democracy. Our is a democracy in which everything is consulted with the people; it is a democracy in which every aspect and important decision that has an impact in the life and society of the people, is done in consultation.” PeopleImportantDoneBigsDifferencesDecisionDemocracyAspectImpactRepresentativesBourgeoisReferringCubanImportant DecisionsConsultationParticipatory Democracy Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“In Cuba, despite having lived through the most difficult times, there has never been a neo liberal adjustment.” DifficultDespiteDifficult TimesCubaAdjustment Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Just imagine, more than half of the young people in the European Union do not have jobs. How can one explain that? How can one explain that to a working family, that produces goods and services, those who produce the olive oil that is a a main source of food in any European country? They humbly work the land with great effort and then the little resources they had saved in banks have now become dust simply because they did not have the means to withstand inflation produced by the adjustment policies.” PeopleMeanLittlesCountryJobsYoungEffortHalfImagineLandPolicyProduceSourceResourcesUnionsOilSavedDustGoodsInflationAdjustmentEuropean UnionOlivesEuropean CountriesGoods And ServicesGreat EffortOlive Oil Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“I have a lot of faith and confidence in Cuban democracy.” DemocracyCuban Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“In Cuba, our experiment is not the best democracy and should not be a reference to anybody elses, it is ours. It has worked for us and the clearest evidence that our democracy has worked is that there is a revolution that has continued after a half century of facing down the most powerful empire. This has not happened many times in history.” ShouldPowerfulHalfDemocracyHappenedCenturyRevolutionEvidenceExperimentsEmpiresMost PowerfulCubaDemocracies Have Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“We have a complete respect for history, we respect the experiences of other countries and we have our own, but the truth is that if the Cuban revolution had not been a democracy it would not have survived.” IfsCountryDemocracyRevolutionTruth IsOther CountriesSurvivedCubanCuban Revolution Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“It is only through popular consultation and exchange with the people about social and economic policies that we were going to define the strategic direction of Cuba in the next years. To reach prosperous and sustainable socialism, which is our aspiration, we discussed that with the entire population.” PeopleYearsNextSocialEconomicPolicyPopulationSocialismAspirationProsperousNext YearStrategicCubaEconomic PolicyConsultation Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“It is important to eliminate the stigma created by American imperialism and its allies regarding the Cuban political system. That stigma must be eliminated. You may think that there are no direct elections in Cuba. I am going to tell that they are direct and you can compare our process with any other country including the United States.” ThinkingMayImportantCountryStatesPoliticalProcessUnitedUnited StatesDirectElectionIncludingCompareAlliesOther CountriesImperialismCubaStigmaPolitical SystemsCubanAmerican Imperialism Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“In Cuba the elections for the powers of the State comes from the people, first it comes from meetings of the citizens at the base. In Cuba we call them blocks, the divisions of a city that is the term we use. Several blocks of neighborhoods that live in the same area gather in assemblies that are stipulated by law. In those assemblies the people choose freely among themselves who will represent them. The criteria takes into account the candidates characteristics, including if they are hardworking, If they are good people, if they have a clean past, and money has no bearing on who is nominated.” PeopleIfsFirstsStatesUsePastLawTermCitiesCitizensAreasAccountsElectionCleanMeetingsIncludingBlockCharacteristicsCandidatesNeighborhoodDivisionGood PeopleCriteriaCubaAssemblyHardworking Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Cuba is not like bourgeois democracy the ones that imposes the blockade to make Cuba change. We have direct elections. Here they put people on a list and then tell the people supposedly what they have done so they can be elected. That is the difference and why we say our democracy is truly participatory and popular.” PeopleDoneDifferencesDemocracyDirectElectionListsCubaBourgeoisBlockades Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Cuba has not accepted the domain and imposition of an empire that has wanted to dominate us for over half a century [America].” WantedAmericaHalfCenturyAcceptedEmpiresDomainCubaImpositionHalf A Century Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“In Cuba, what we do not accept is the comparison of our participatory democracy with bourgeois democracy which has not solved anything for humanity. The only thing it has done is to take humanity towards a precarious point. They have created the environmental crisis, the food crisis, the water crisis and the pandemics all over the world. The reason for that is because they have taken the majority of the resources and given it to militarism paid for by the western powers because it is a great business for them; this is the real truth.” WorldRealReasonDoneHumanityGivenWaterAcceptingDemocracyTakenResourcesPaidCrisisMajorityEnvironmentalWesternComparisonCubaBourgeoisPrecariousMilitarismGreat BusinessPandemicsReal TruthEnvironmental CrisisParticipatory DemocracyWater Crisis Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“To apply communism is an aspiration, in fact it has never been applied anywhere, it is really still a utopia.” StillsFactsCommunismAspirationUtopia Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Communism is something that comes from the classics of Marxism that talked of a modern society we should aspire to. One that is truly fair where relations of monetary exchange are not the priority but rather one where peoples' needs could be satisfied.” NeedsShouldModernFairsRelationPrioritiesSatisfiedCommunismAspireMarxismMonetaryModern Society Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The classics of Marxism talked of communism as a society to which a modern society should aspire, a society truly fair, where the relations of monetary exchange were not the priority but one wher the people's needs could be satisfied, and where people would not be worth more according to how much monetary wealth they acquired. Instead their value would be based on their contribution to society as a whole. It would be a society without class that would accept people based on their capabilities and their potential to contribute to that society.” PeopleNeedsShouldWholeWould BeValuesWealthAcceptingClassModernFairsRelationPrioritiesSatisfiedCommunismContributionCapabilityAspireMarxismMonetaryModern SocietyContribution To Society Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Under communism, no one would be living in marginal conditions as they do under capitalism today and where the greatest part of humanity lives.” Would BeTodayHumanityConditionsCapitalismCommunism Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“In the southern countries and in the regions and continents like Africa, which is where the origin of life on earth began, there is tremendous debt on humanity, it is one of the most underdeveloped areas and where the worst pandemics exist. In many incidents the European powers that colonized them are now not even capable of helping them.” CountryHelpingEarthHumanityWorstCapableAreasDebtRegionsSouthernContinentsIncidentsOrigin Of LifePandemics Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“How do we explain for example the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea Conakry? Those very powers that swindled and occupied them, in the face of the serious situation of social emergency, have not even had the capacity to send doctors there. In some cases they have sent in militaries instead because that is what they are compelled to do. They have had to send military to do it because they do not even have any doctors with the willingness to risk their lives in order to help those people that are precisely paying for the consequences of years of colonization.” PeopleYearsHelpingFacesOrderSocialSituationCasesRiskMilitaryExampleSeriousConsequenceCapacityDoctorsWillingnessCompelledEmergenciesEpidemicsColonizationGuineaSierraEbolaSierra Leone Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“When we talked about going to help Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Conakry how many doctors in Cuba raised their hands to go? 15 thousand. In their homes they said, "We are willing to go risk our lives to help other countries". That is true medicine; it is the true observance of the Hippocratic Oath that doctors swear to.” SaidCountryHelpingHomeHandsOur LivesRiskWillingThousandDoctorsMedicineRaisedHelping OthersSwearOther CountriesThey SaidCubaOathObservanceGuineaSierraSierra Leone Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“True medicine is to defend human life in any circumstances and not for political reasons or for reasons of any other kind, it is really to help, that is true solidarity.” HumansKindReasonHelpingPoliticalCircumstancesMedicineHuman LifeSolidarity Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The United States was the one nullifying any attempt in the Security Council of the United Nations to sanction those fascist governments, really segregationist and racist. The same thing it is doing for Israel is what it used to do for South Africa who ended up having seven nuclear weapons. Why didn't they act against them like they did against Iraq for the so called weapons of mass destruction during Bush that never existed in the first place?” FirstsStatesGovernmentUsedNationsUnitedUnited StatesSecurityWeaponsMassDestructionSouthSevenIraqIsraelNuclearRacistNuclear WeaponsSouth AfricaUnited NationsCouncilSanctionsWeapons Of Mass DestructionMass DestructionFascistsSecurity Council Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“When the nuclear weapons were sent to the racist South African government, where a few million white people subjugated more than 13 million black people, it was so they could use them against the Cuban forces that were defending Angola. These things have not been written down but they need to be told as part of the reality of history which should not be distorted the way the historians connected to the power elite tend to do.” PeopleWayNeedsShouldUseRealityGovernmentForceBlackWhiteMillionsWrittenWeaponsSouthConnectedNuclearRacistHistorianBlack PeopleElitesNuclear WeaponsSouth AfricaCubanAngola Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“The role that Cuba played and the lives of those 2,077 Cubans, whose mothers and families mourn for having lost their children in Africa, helped achieve the true security and independence of Angola. It was a contribution because in the end the Angolan people were the ones who decided that. We also contributed in a definitive way securing the independence of Namibia after years that a United Nations resolution was being ignored by South Africa and the western powers.” PeopleWayYearsChildrenEndsMotherLostNationsUnitedRolesAchieveSecurityDecidedIndependenceSouthWesternContributionResolutionSouth AfricaIgnoredUnited NationsCubaMournCubanBeing IgnoredAngolaNamibia Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“With the Cuban presence in Namibia it was possible to achieve the security and real freedom of that country and the end of Apartheid in South Africa, with the modest contribution of the international military presence in Africa.” RealEndsCountryAchieveSecurityMilitarySouthInternationalContributionSouth AfricaModestApartheidCubanReal FreedomMilitary PresenceNamibia Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Communism is an aspiration, an aspiration is an ideal, a dream, a longing of something that would be perfect, but hard to build because it has to clash with human nature and against the egotism of humans and the egotism of the elites which usually try to guarantee their own interests above those of their nations and of their own people. But they are the ones that prevail because they have the economic power, the political power and the military power.” PeopleTryingHumansHardDreamWould BePoliticalNationsInterestPerfectEconomicMilitaryHuman NatureIdealsLongingCommunismAspirationGuaranteesElitesEgotismClashPolitical PowerEconomic PowerMilitary Power Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
