Vol. 79/No. 28 August 10, 2015
“The decelerating growth rate of the gross domestic product … has clearly been reversed,” Castro said, adding that 4 percent growth is expected for the year, up from 1 percent last year.
In spite of “severe external financial restrictions,” Cuba has been “rigorously fulfilling its payment obligations to foreign creditors and providers,” he continued, “a practice that contributes to the gradual re-establishment of the credibility of the country’s economy, despite the U.S. blockade, which remains in full force.”
Castro said annual inflation has been contained between 3 and 5 percent, “although we cannot ignore the justified concerns of the population regarding the high prices of agricultural products, which are increasing more than the average salary.”
“The first half of the year has been marked by intense international activity,” the Cuban president said, recalling Cuba’s participation in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit in January and the 7th Summit of the Americas in April.
‘Return Guantánamo’
The opening of the Cuban Embassy in Washington, D.C., July 20 completes the first phase of the process of resuming diplomatic relations begun last December, Castro said, “and a new, long and complex stage will now begin.” However, he said, “it is inconceivable, while the blockade is maintained, that there be normal relations between Cuba and the United States.” It will also be necessary “that the territory illegally occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base be returned; illegal radio and television transmissions to Cuba ended; programs aimed at promoting destabilization and internal subversion eliminated; and the Cuban people compensated for the human and economic damages caused by the policies of the United States.”He added, “Changing everything which must be changed is the sovereign and exclusive domain of the Cuban people.”
“We are carefully following the dialogue underway” between Caracas and Washington, Castro said, reiterating solidarity with the Maduro government “in face of destabilization attempts and any act of foreign intervention.” Talks between U.S. and Venezuelan officials took place in June for the first time in several years, after Cuba and other Latin American governments denounced Washington’s threats and sanctions against Venezuela.
Referring to recent NATO moves in the Baltic region, Castro condemned “the attempt to extend NATO to Russia’s borders” and U.S. and European economic sanctions against Russia.
“We welcome the agreement reached between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the U.N. Security Council member countries plus Germany,” the Cuban president said. “We reiterate our support for the inalienable right of all states to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”
Castro said Cuba is preparing to welcome Pope Francis in September “with the affection, respect and hospitality he deserves.”
Castro noted the “solidarity, altruism and personal courage” of the recently returned medical volunteers who fought the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and those soon to return from Nepal, where they have treated victims of the April earthquakes there.
“Our country will continue to fulfill, in accordance with its means, our internationalist duty to support peoples in need, as today tens of thousands of compatriots in over 80 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia are doing, under the principle that those [countries] that can meet the cost of the collaboration do so, and we will continue helping those who do not have the resources,” Castro said.
July 26 rally in Santiago
July 26 marked the 62nd anniversary of the assault led by Fidel Castro on the Moncada barracks in Santiago in eastern Cuba, which launched the revolutionary war to bring down the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Raúl Castro and other Cuban leaders attended a mass rally in front of the barracks, which bears bullet holes from the 1953 battle. Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura gave the main address at the rally, which began in the cool of the morning at 5:12 a.m., the time of the assault.The rally also celebrated the 500th anniversary of the founding of the city of Santiago and its long history as a center of revolutionary struggle.
Machado Ventura cited the struggles of the indigenous people against the Spanish conquistadors in the eastern part of Cuba centuries ago, and the rebellion of slaves in early copper mines. These combative traditions continued with the wars for independence from Spain and the Cuban Revolution that triumphed in 1959.
The vice president praised the reconstruction of Santiago in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. “Those who saw this city the day after Hurricane Sandy passed through and who see it today have to repeat the words spoken by compañero Raúl at the last session of the National Assembly, ‘Nothing is impossible for a united people like ours.’”
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