Sixty Years of the Cuban Revolution and Still Going Strong!

Elio Delgado Legon

HAVANA TIMES – The Cuban people have just celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Revolution. The road here has been rough and bumpy, and we have had to navigate many obstacles that US Imperialism has placed in our way to make the project fail.

They have done everything in their power to make the Revolution fall: all kinds of attacks that have cost us 3,478 lives and 2,099 disabled, to break the will of the Cuban people and their resistance, who have never given up even when times were really hard, and continue to defend their Revolution.

First of all, they trained and armed many groups, who operated in Cuba’s mountains, murdering farmers, teachers and literacy teachers. Then, in April, 1961, they backed a group of mercenaries so they could disembark in Cuba, occupy part of the island and ask the OAS for a military intervention that they were already preparing just a few miles away from Cuba’s coastline.

However, they didn’t plan it well enough because they came up against a people who were willing to die before losing their Revolution, that they had had to struggle so much for and shed so much blood, and the invasion was suppressed in less than 72 hours.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) orchestrated over 600 assassination attempts on the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, but they were all discovered and failed.

Over all these years, Cubans have suffered sabotage attempts on their economy, including the introduction of a virus that ended pork production in the country, others which affected many crops, but dengue hemorrhagic fever was the most criminal of them all, which cost hundreds of people their lives, including 101 children.

The 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 is still fresh in our memories, which cost the 73 people onboard their lives, including Cuba’s young fencing team who had taken part in an international competition in Venezuela where they had won all the gold medals.

We also remember the many bombs that exploded in Havana’s hotels in the 1990s, one of which resulted in the death of a young Italian tourist, as well as the bombs placed in Cuban embassies abroad, one of which killed two diplomats. We haven’t forgotten the kidnapping and murder of two Cuban diplomats in Argentina, either.

We have to also add all the deaths and people suffering as a result of not having specific medicines, because Cuba is unable to buy them because of the US economic, commercial and financial blockade on the island throughout this whole time. We can’t understand where the consciences of these people lie (if they have a conscience), able to deny us the right to buy medicines to save children’s lives or make their lives more pleasant, because of this criminal law that bans trade with Cuba.

I also can’t get my head around how a country has taken on the right to impose sanctions on other countries or banks in other countries, without regard for a trial, a court and due process, clearly violating international law, and it’s no problem.

But, in spite of all these obstacles and many others that I don’t have space to mention in this article, the Cuban Revolution has celebrated its 60th anniversary and is being rejuvenated.

Last year, in 2018, economic growth continued, albeit slowly (1.2%), but it still indicates recovery. Health indicators are still good. For example, infant mortality rates have been below 5 per 1000 newborns for over 10 years, and it has stood at 4 over the past two years, the lowest on the American continent, including the US and Canada, while there are countries in the developing world where the rate is 120 per 1000 born alive.

Things are looking more promising for 2019, as the National Assembly has approved an economic plan that adjusts to our real chances of it being met with our own resources, without falling into debt. GDP is expected to grow by 1.5% if we continue to work well, it might even be greater, and this would translate into an overall improvement in the Cuban people’s lives, a people who have made huge sacrifices to save their Revolution and are willing to defend it with their lives if need be, from their foreign attackers and not let themselves be confused by counter-revolutionaries and annexionists living on the island.

We have a free and independent country, which continues to be a reference for every revolutionary in the world and proving that socialism is the only system of government that is able to ensure a more humane and equal distribution of wealth created. This is what Imperialism doesn’t forgive us for, but despite themselves, we have already celebrated 60 years of accomplishments and victories, even though detractors and sell-outs claim the opposite.