In a one-week visit in April, Duque spoke at public meetings in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Hamilton; at university meetings in Auckland and Wellington; and at a community education class in Christchurch. He also had a number of media interviews. Some 260 people took the opportunity to hear him speak.

Duque pointed to the long history of aggressive acts by successive governments in the United States against Cuba, leading to thousands of Cubans being killed, injured, and disabled. "In 1961 there was an invasion which we defeated in just 72 hours," he said. The U.S. government and counterrevolutionary groups based on U.S. soil have "organized terrorist acts like bombing embassies, destroying crops, introducing biological pests, and so on. The first plane ever hijacked was a Cuban plane," he said, a hijacking "invented by the CIA and the terrorist organizations it backs."

To help learn about and defend Cuba from such actions carried out by counterrevolutionary groups based in the United States, "we had to infiltrate these terrorist organizations," Duque explained. "We had the right to do so because we reported their activities to U.S. authorities and they did nothing." For this information-gathering, five Cuban revolutionaries have now been jailed in the United States for between 15 years and life, framed up on a range of "conspiracy" charges. "This was a frame-up," Duque stressed. "It was established they did nothing against the United States."

Duque mentioned the mass rallies and televised political discussions held in Cuba to campaign for the release of the five prisoners. He urged his audiences to join in campaigning for their release and to write to them and their relatives.

A common question asked of Duque at his meetings was the Cuban government’s stance toward the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo in Cuba and about the prisoners from the Afghan war that Washington is holding in brutal conditions at the base.

Duque said the U.S. government illegally occupies the base against the wishes of the Cuban people under a lease signed in 1903, which was "an imposed agreement." Since the triumph of the socialist revolution in 1959 the Cuban government has repeatedly requested Washington vacate the facility, "but they won’t accept that. It would be stupid of us to take military action against them, because they are looking for an excuse to violently react. We can not give them that excuse, so we just watch over the border."

He said his personal opinion was that Washington’s transfer of the prisoners from Afghanistan to Cuba was a "provocation" and was done without warning the Cuban government.

Audiences also asked a range of questions about Cuba’s social policies and trade relations, and about the attempted military coup in Venezuela, which was unfolding as the tour began.

At the Auckland University meeting, a student said he’d heard that some Latin American governments accused Cuba of exporting revolution. "You can’t export revolution," the Cuban representative said, "put it in a jar and sell it. But ideas go around. If you’re in a country and poor, and you see the government is not working for you but for big business, you look at what you can do to overthrow the government.

"You might get to meet a Cuban doctor in your country, who will tell you honestly about all the shortages and problems in Cuba but also about its accomplishments. And that is what these Latin American governments get upset about. Cuba has never sent troops to impose itself on other countries."

Rebecca Broad, a member of the Young Socialists in Christchurch, contributed to this article. Janet Roth is a meat worker and member of the National Distribution Union.
 

René González Sehweret, Reg. #58738-004, FCI McKean, P.O. Box 8000, Bradford, Pennsylvania 16701

Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, Reg. #58741-004, USP Florence, P.O. Box 7500, Florence, Colorado 81226

Gerardo Hernández Nordelo (Manuel Viramontes), Reg. #58739-004, USP Lompoc, 3901 Klein Blvd., Lompoc, California 93436

Fernando González Llort (Rubén Campa), Reg. #58733-004, FCI Oxford, P.O. Box 1000, Oxford, Wisconsin 53952-0505

Ramón Labañino Salazar (Luis Medina), Reg. #58734-004, USP Beaumont, P.O. Box 26035, Beaumont, Texas 77720-6035
 
 
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Cuban youth leader speaks to unionists, students in Australia  
 
 
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