Inspiration for the revolutionary processes of the continent

On February 4, 1962, the Revolution Square, in Havana, hosted more than one million Cubans to listen to Fidel in the General Assembly of the People, which would be known as the Second Declaration of Havana.

The document, of exceptional Latin American transcendence, prefigured an initial stage of the resistance and victory of the emerging Cuban Revolution and of the revolutionary deeds of Latin America during the 1960s, which had their greatest expression in the guerrilla of Ernesto Che Guevara in Bolivia, and sowed the seed of the current anti-imperialist and progressive processes in the region.

In making it public, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro stated: "...history will have to reckon with the poor of America, with the exploited and vilified of Latin America, who have decided to begin to write their own history forever. This great humanity has said Enough! and has started to walk, and its march of giants will not stop until it conquers true independence".

Before those gathered, the Leader of the Revolution reaffirmed the decision to resist. It was an energetic response to the expulsion of Cuba from the Organization of American States (OAS) on January 31, 1962, through the complicity of puppet governments in the area.

In this context, it is worth remembering that US President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 3447 on February 3, which imposed the economic, commercial and financial blockade against the island.

The CIA Station in Miami redoubled its infiltration of spies and the shipment of weapons to the rebels and counterrevolutionary organizations that were multiplying in the countryside and cities of the country.

The document, a true affirmation of principles, began with the historical guide of the analysis of the aggressions of the empire against the nations of Our America for more than two centuries, and emphasized the anti-imperialism of JosEE MartI referenced in the unfinished letter of the Apostle to his friend Manuel Mercado.

In the aforementioned letter MartI states: "(...) I am already in danger every day of giving my life for my country, and for my duty... to prevent in time, with the independence of Cuba, the United States from spreading through the Antilles and falling, with that force more, on our lands of America. What I have done until today, and will do, is for that (...)".

Fidel ratified his unshakable faith in victory in the face of the new maneuver and said: "We will resist in all fields: we will resist in economy; we will continue advancing in culture (...) the Homeland does not work for today, the Homeland works for tomorrow. And that tomorrow full of promise no one will be able to snatch it from us, no one will be able to prevent it, because with the fortitude of our people we will conquer it, with the courage and heroism of our people we will conquer it".

The Second Declaration of Havana constituted, without a doubt, an inspiration for the revolutionary processes throughout the continent, and in turn consolidated Cuba's political and moral victory before the world and served as a warning to the White House that an aggression would also have to face the active opposition of the peoples against the puppet governments in the geographical environment.