First Declaration of Havana Declaration: the resolute will of a people

Going back today to the First Declaration of Havana, 61 years after its proclamation on September 2, 1960 by the leader of the Revolution Fidel Castro, is not only a tribute, but also an exercise in learning about a history still in the making under the barrage of threats and aggressions as brutal as those of the early days, now spiked with the invasive use of technologies at the service of symbolic warfare.

Over a million citizens of Havana, on behalf of the entire Cuban people, gathered in that stifling September in front of the monument to the Apostle of Cuban independence and National Hero to give a resounding ‘Yes’ to the document read by the Commander in Chief, in a rally baptized as the National General Assembly of the People of Cuba.

Cuba was vibrating with morale and courage in those days. The First Declaration of Havana was a categorical and appropriate response to the Declaration of San José de Costa Rica, put together by the Organization of American States (OAS) a few days earlier, and following a program dictated by the Empire, to meddle in the free and sovereign actions of the Cubans.

Everything was as clear then as it is now, despite the manipulators of the Internet and the mercenaries disguised as freedom of expression and democracy hell-bent on paving the way for a U.S. military attack to occupy the country.

Overthrowing the Cuban Revolution was part of their immediate and direct plans. They had to be defeated in April of the following year at Bay of Pigs and a million other times in other fields for them to know the fighting capacity and spirit of a people determined to do everything to defend their sovereignty and their process of justice.

Since then, they have made every effort and used to the most barbaric and also the most sophisticated methods to make the Cubans surrender, including the best manuals designed in scientific and technological laboratories run by the CIA and the Pentagon and put to the test in different parts of the world.

They have thrown everything at Cuba since 1959. In the last few days they have set in motion several techniques shamelessly outlined in the said manuals: soft coup, fourth generation warfare, attempted humanitarian intervention... these are some of the labels of their select and horrifying repertoire of attacks whose implementation has already caused great suffering in several countries classified by the empire as dark places.

In early September 1960, the crowd gathered to listen to Fidel Castro and acclaim the First Declaration of Havana heard from his mouth, as always, the truth, and learned of just principles and ideals, of terms until then unthinkable, such as solidarity among fellow human beings and nations and political and social commitment in favor of the poor of the Earth.

Truth is, when we go over these events, there are circumstances that seem to repeat themselves, although today they manifest themselves through other actions and actors. Some are laid down in the historical text, those that reflect the voracious, plundering and interfering policy of the power that has always despised Latin America. Something still very topical.

The Empire’s persistence to impose itself through force, economic and political pressures, threats, criminalization, lies, manipulation and a rampant profusion of fake news, now managed from social networks that stir up hatred and violence, as true human packs, is very much alive. No depravity or baseness is reprehensible to those champions of freedom Made in USA.

On that September 2, the head of the Cuban revolution denounced the attempts to preserve and put into practice the disrespectful Monroe Doctrine—America for the "Americans", those of the U.S.A.—as the political basis and almost divine inspiration for the actions of the U.S. leaders whose claims have been reinforced in these times.

The First Declaration of Havana denounced that the Declaration of San José, following the imperial government’s orders, was an affront to the sovereignty and independence of the peoples of Latin America. On the subject of brotherhood and solidarity among the peoples of the continent and the world, it ratified that Cuba would not only march with one part of the world, but with the whole planet, always alongside the dispossessed in every corner of the Earth.

The proclamation stated that true democracy was compatible with neither the submissive financial oligarchies of the Latin American nations that accused the island nor the discrimination of black people, the exploitation of workers, the persecution of intellectuals and scientists, the mistreatment of women, or the helplessness of children and peasants.

He stated that the concept of democracy would not be limited to a presidential vote manipulated by and largely favorable to the interests of the landowners and that in countries like Cuba those landowners had been one of the main sources of misfortune among the workers and the oppressed and the reason that there had been illiteracy, low salaries and extreme poverty.

The document was categorical—and this was essential—about the solidarity shown by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, making it clear that those nations were not seeking to undermine unity or strategically penetrate the hemisphere. They offered help to guarantee the sovereignty and security of this increasingly threatened territory.

Cuba accepted that support based on its right to self-determination and independence, achieved in 1959. At any rate, the U.S. rulers, incapable of such generous gestures, should feel ashamed by contrast.