Decisive response to the Yankee conspiracy

On February 4, 1962, Havana’s José Martí Revolution Square proved too small for the many Cubans who responded to the revolutionary government's call for the Second National People's General Assembly, following Cuba's expulsion from the Organization of American States (OAS) during its VIII Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, on January 23 to 31, 1962.

There the United States "sought the diplomatic isolation of Cuba; the complete cessation of trade with the Island; and, especially, its expulsion from the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Defense (TIAR), on the pretext that Cuba had links with extra-continental powers and that Marxism-Leninism was incompatible with the principles of the Inter-American System.”

Before more than a million people gathered in the Square, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, then Prime Minister, began his speech: “Comrades of the Second National People’s General Assembly: Today, this General Assembly meets for the second time as the sovereign body of the will of the Cuban people, and it is convened to give a full reply to the maneuver, the conspiracy, the plot of our enemies in Punta del Este”.

 Little by little, he unraveled the fabrication orchestrated against the Revolution, stating that “from the very outset, our people knew perfectly well what the Yankee imperialists were planning. The conference had no other purpose than to promote new aggressions and new plots against our country. (…) And, of course, imperialism has already taken new aggressive steps. As our President explained in his speech this afternoon, the imperialists have already agreed to yet another embargo—one more! —of our trade relations.”

Precisely on February 3, U.S. President John F. Kennedy had signed the Executive Order imposing on Cuba the ironclad economic, commercial, and financial blockade that has been in place for more than six decades.

While reaffirming the revolutionary vocation of the Latin American peoples, the Cuban leader denounced the increasingly open and unrestrained intervention of the U.S. government in the internal affairs of Latin American countries.

 The Second Declaration of Havana made clear the profound Martí-inspired vocation of the Cuban people. Not by chance did the opening lines of the document quote José Martí’s unfinished letter to his friend Manuel Mercado a few hours before he fell in combat on May 19, 1895.

 “Already in 1895, Martí pointed out the danger looming over America and called imperialism by its name: imperialism. He warned the peoples of the Americas that they were more interested than anyone else in ensuring that Cuba did not succumb to Yankee greed, so scornful of the Latin American peoples”, the declaration pointed out.

 The historic document, which ratified the First Declaration—approved in a popular referendum on September 2, 1960—underscored the pro-independence and Latin Americanist ideals of the Revolution, which had become a beacon for Latin America.

 Those final words still resonate: “For this great mass of humanity has said, ‘Enough!’ and has begun to march. And their march of giants will not be halted until they conquer true independence, for which they have vainly died more than once. Today, however, those who die will die like the Cubans at Bay of Pigs. They will die for their own true and never-to-be-surrendered independence!”

Upon completion of the reading, the crowd raised their hands and sang the Cuban national anthem and The Internationale. Thus was approved a manifesto that remains fully in force more than 60 years later, as the Cubans continue to demonstrate their willingness to defend their homeland and their Revolution at any cost against the aggressions of Yankee imperialism.