Vol. 80/No. 35 September 19, 2016
Rebel Army’s moral values key to overthrow of Batista
Below are excerpts from an Aug. 19, 1958, broadcast on Radio Rebelde, the station of the July 26th Movement’s Rebel Army, which was fighting against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. The broadcast focused on the Rebel Army’s humane treatment of enemy soldiers, a key part of rapidly overthrowing the dictatorship and charting a revolutionary course for working people there. This was the opposite of the “prolonged war” strategy of guerrilla groups in Colombia. The entire broadcast is printed in La Contraofensiva Estratégica (The Strategic Counteroffensive) by Fidel Castro, available in Spanish at www.pathfinderpress.com.
It could seem illogical in the middle of the war to free enemy prisoners. That depends on what kind of war and the concept that one has of the war. …
War is not simply a question of rifles, bullets, cannons and airplanes. Maybe that belief is one of the reasons of the failure of the tyranny’s forces. …
A prisoner’s life has never been taken; no wounded soldier has ever been left without medical attention; but we can say more; no prisoner was ever beaten; and something more can be added: no prisoner was ever insulted or offended. …
And this would not be more than an elementary duty of reciprocity if the forces of the tyranny had respected the life of the adversaries who fell under its power. Torture and death were the sure fate that fell to any rebel, sympathizer of our cause or simple suspect who fell into enemy hands. … Killing has made them weaker; not killing has made us stronger.
Why don’t we kill the soldiers we capture?
First, because only cowards and thugs murder an enemy who has surrendered.
Second, because the Rebel Army cannot fall into the same practices of the tyranny it is fighting.
Third, … through lies and deceit the dictatorship has tried everything to get the soldier to … [believe that] we will murder them all without exception so that every member of the Armed Forces thinks it is necessary to fight for it until the last drop of blood.
Fourth, because acts of cruelty are stupid in any war, all the more so in civil war where those fighting will someday have to live together and the perpetrators will face the children, wives and mothers of the victims.
Fifth, … to the dictatorship’s torturers and assassins we need to counterpose for the generations to come the example that our combatants are offering.
Sixth, because it is necessary to plant the seed of fraternity now that must prevail in the future homeland we are building for all and the good of all. …
Victory in war depends on a minimum of weapons and a maximum of moral values. …
Freeing a prisoner is the strongest refutation of the false propaganda of the tyranny. …
I am completely convinced that if one day instead of fighting we could bring together all the revolutionaries and all the soldiers to meet and converse, the tyranny would disappear in an instant.
Related articles:
Agreement to end Colombia-FARC war opens door for class struggle
Lessons of Cuban Revolution valuable in Colombia
Fidel Castro’s 2008 book discusses how Cuban fighters took power, course of leaders of FARC
UN caused cholera epidemic in Haiti; Cuban doctors fought it
IRS attack on Pastors for Peace is aimed at solidarity with Cuba
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