Castro: 1996 Speech Blaming U.S. for Defections
Dear comrades: Can you hear me clearly? We will talk
as a family, okay? This will not be a speech on occasion of
your departure, when there is plenty of love, kisses, good
wishes, and patriotism. Talking as a family means analyzing
realities, in private, not in front of the stairs as you are
about to board the plane. Besides, the sun is very hot, and
it is scalding, so it would not be the best place to say a
few things.
We have come here to see you off to the Olympic Games.
Are these, however, like any other Olympic Games? A simple
event? Plain and common Olympic Games? No. These are the
most difficult Olympic Games in which we will participate,
not only because we are going to compete in sports -- they
will be difficult sports-wise -- but because of the
conditions and the country where those Olympic Games are
going to be held, under [word indistinct] conditions against
our country and our delegation. There will be attempts to
hurt us as much as possible, and above all to deal moral
blows against the country and the delegation. All resources,
schemes, tricks, and cleverness will be used against our
delegation. For that reason, more than saying that we are
sending... [pauses] that we want to send a delegation of
athletes, I would prefer to say that we want to send a
delegation of patriots.
I would like you to be aware of all this. Wasn't there
a sheet of paper? A small piece of paper, over there. First
of all, you must be aware of everything the country has done
for sports. Every year in Cuba [word indistinct] and
currently during these difficult years, not in sports or in
the INDER [National Institute for Sports, Physical
Education, and Recreation] because this does not include
those in the ministry... [pauses] higher education [words
indistinct] 115 million pesos. That is the budget we have
this year for sports.
There are 100 sports schools in the country, which are
attended by 24,000 students. There are 32,000 professors
teaching physical education and sports. All those professors
have been trained in the sports schools and institutes and
the Higher Institute for Sports.
Some 11,000 sports facilities remain operating. Not
even during the special period has one professor been
dismissed, nor has one single sports school or sports
facility been closed. They charge. Yes, they charge peanuts.
What we pay at sports facilities is just for fun, nothing
else. What we charge for that is minimal compared to what
[words indistinct] not for business, nor was it ever a
business. This is a noble activity of our people, of our
revolution to give the opportunity for our country to occupy
fifth place in the world today, and where all children --
without exception, regardless of who their parents are,
without discrimination -- have the opportunity to practice
sports, and so that the entire people have the opportunity
to practice sports.
Who are those 24,000 students? Whose children are
they? Where do you come from? From what kind of [words
indistinct] from what rich, what landowners, from what owner
of sugar complex [words indistinct]. You are simply the sons
of the people, and all sons of the people.
No country has done more than our country for the
people and for sports, amid threats and blockade, and more
blockade, and more laws, and more measures to prevent us
from advancing. [13-second passage indistinct] most powerful
and rich superpower of the world. Our small country has
resisted [words indistinct] to the heart of that empire to
compete now. All [words indistinct] with you. Athletes are
loved by the people, who offer them support, love, and
confidence. Our noble country is entitled to expect from its
athletes and all those who have to do with sports exemplary,
honest, and patriotic behavior. This conduct has been
displayed by athletes throughout the years from the
beginning, since the times we had to make threats that we
could reach Puerto Rican shores by swimming.
As great examples, athletes continue in the
insurmountable process. We are living, however, in a new age
during which sports have been commercialized more and more
because of great economic powers. Standards and rules have
been broken in the Olympics in order to introduce
professionalism into sports. Unfortunately, this has brought
about some consequences.
I believe that athletes, their trainers, everybody, the
elites, and every superior should have a self-critical
attitude. They should demand more from themselves. Just as
everything else during our revolution, our sports have
worked with morality as their foundation, but not upon
materialism or money. Never would we use hypocritical words
to lure athletes or workers into athletics. If money were
the foundation, we would not have the athletic movement that
we do today. Neither would we have [words indistinct] so
many years. We should accomplish this based upon morality,
conscience, patriotism, and integrity, because there have
always been athletes who in recent times have been lured by
mercenariness, by commercialism, and by greed. These
athletes have committed the villainous act of betraying
their country.
You know what betrayal is. It goes back to Jesus
Christ's days when, as the Bible tells us, Judas Iscariot
betrayed him. There have been Judases throughout history. We
met many during the revolution. On the days of our
clandestine fight, there were Judases who sold their
fighting comrades. There were Judases who were in exile. We
met Judas in the Sierra Maestra. This individual was in such
a position that he was unable to stand the hardships of that
fight. Therefore, they quit socialism and left, they left.
Throughout the revolution, we have had Judases in all
sectors, including in the sports sector, where it possibly
hurts people the most [words indistinct], and inflicts on
them an enormous damage. That there are Judases among the
athletes, when the people puts all their trust in them, all
their love, all their support, freely, because they enjoy
sports, because of the pride they feel for sports [words
indistinct] some go to stadiums. Millions who participate in
the thrill of sports through television and radio [words
indistinct] this is something that hits very close to home,
our country's most sensitive cords.
Those who betray the warmest and purest sentiments of
the people, are not just hurting those sentiments, they are
hurting the country. They are encouraging the enemy who
wants to destroy us, who is blockading us, harassing us. It
encourages the enemy to continue onward with all his
misdeeds against our fatherland. They betray the prestige of
the country. They betray the country's sports. They betray
their comrades. They betray everything! That is why if we
recall the history of our sports, the heroic history that
has given prestige to the world [passage indistinct] they
betray the nation. They betray the nation, the loftiest
sentiments of the nation. That is why more than gold medals
[word indistinct] or a bronze plate we are interested in
moral medals that the athletes can win. The honor of our
athletes interests us more than medals, the concept of self
an athlete may have, and I cannot imagine what concept of
self a traitor can have.
The enemy taps on those weak points. That is why the
development of the muscles of the soul is more important
than the development of the body's muscles. That is a task
not just for athletes. It is the task for instructors,
coaches, and all. And history will never forgive a
traitorous athlete, trainer, coach, or manager.
I think I could not bid you farewell today without
saying this. There will be no attempts made to bribe
athletes from any of the other 100 countries that will
participate in the Olympics. They will not be asked to
betray their fatherland, their sports, and their comrades
[words indistinct] mostly because very few of them have the
quality of our athletes. The majority of the countries do
not even have the resources and their governments do not
bother to develop sports. What they have is [words
indistinct] The idea is to overwhelm our athletes with the
ostentatious wealth they have accumulated at the expense of
the world's exploitation.
They want to daze them by showing them a marvelous
world with more money. In the sports market that has been
developed in recent times, certain sports have more
commercial potential while others practically do not have
any. These sports are not profitable.
While our country was preparing for the Olympic Games,
they were drafting plans and more plans to see how they
could get the athletes to desert and how they could deprive
us of the best athletes. One of their strategies was to
deprive our baseball team of its best players as they could
not defeat our team under any circumstance. They wanted to
strip our team of pitchers. They knew they could not defeat
us in any other way. Thus, they bribed more than just one
pitcher. They bribed the team's best pitcher. He was a
person who was well respected and (?considerate). We are
talking about pitcher Rolando Arrojo, who disappeared. He
was bribed and we know who participated. They were scared
because they could not defeat our baseball team and they
bribed (?Osvaldo), they bribed (Livan), and they bribed
Arrojo.
It reminds me of the years in which they tried to leave
us without doctors. We had 6,000 doctors and they took
3,000. We now have 70,000 doctors.
We have had our share of Judases [words indistinct],
who were bribed even before the Olympic Games started
because their market value would have gone up after the
games. They could have been paid a lot more afterward, but
it happened before the Olympics. The idea was to demoralize
the team, which of course, has had a worthy reaction. They
have not hesitated in condemning the action, the act of
treason.
They also bribed boxers before the games. They knew
they could not defeat us in baseball, they could not beat us
in hitting homeruns, doubles, and triples. They want to
defeat us by investing millions. They want to defeat us with
their millions. We only have one weapon against that, men
like Teofilo Stevenson. There was no money capable of
bribing him. Men like Omar Linares. There was no money
capable of bribing him. [Words indistinct]. Men like Felix
Savon [words indistinct] in sports such as baseball, boxing,
or women's volleyball in which we have clear superiority.
[Words indistinct] to deprive us of a medal, to deprive us
of victory, to demoralize our athletes, to demoralize the
country, and to get the enemy to threaten us and harass us
even more.
The comrade who spoke on your behalf [words
indistinct]. There are many things that attack and offend us
and that profane the memory of those who have fought, of
those who have fallen, and of those who are fighting. They
are offending those who have to be cutting and carrying cane
by hand in a harvest such as this one, in which the food for
the people and the resources for the athletes are produced.
They are offending the teachers who educate our children.
[words indistinct]. They are offending those who are saving
people's lives in hospitals. They are offending those who
work in the heat of the furnaces, all our hardworking
people, the fighters who defend the fatherland, the
internationalists, who provided so much service to the
fatherland, and those who were killed while providing those
services.
We must bear these things in mind -- you, the trainers,
the athletes, and INDER, because we must gain some
experience from all this. You cannot wage a self-sacrificing
struggle in this country to train any athlete, or anyone,
who is capable of such infamy, such a betrayal of the
homeland, because it would be unfair to thus repay the
people who have done the most for sports and sportsmen.
It is necessary that each of you think about these
things when you are out on the track, the court, the field,
or wherever; think about what you are defending; think about
the things for which you struggle; and be capable, at that
supreme moment of your effort, of giving all that a human
being can give -- and what a human being can give in this
case is unlimited.
No one who is capable of appreciating these values,
this spirit should ever be swayed by the temptation of
driving a sharp knife into the backs of their people, who
trust you so much. We have done everything possible for the
athletes within this difficult special period. No one
believed we would be able to support the athletes' movement
and all [words indistinct] with everyone's effort. Even the
athletes and the instructors, who go to other countries and
give INDER part of what they receive, because INDER has no
hard currency and has annual expenses. Part of these
expenses have been paid by collecting funds that are used
for basic expenses [words indistinct] including the teams.
This has served to encourage all the athletes because,
although it is true that some teams have a relatively high
income, others have no income at all; and no athlete was
forgotten when it was time to allocate a larger or smaller
incentive. However, everyone made a special contribution to
prepare for these Olympiads and to seek food -- for the
number of calories and proteins that all the national team
needed. [Words indistinct], they should be strong, they
should lack nothing with regard to clothes and other
material conditions, even during the special period, when
there is a shortage of things, and when convertible currency
may be needed to buy medicine for a child.
Obviously, we have made sure that no child lacks
medicine, but you bear witness, you have lived in one of the
most difficult times in this country, in the defense of its
independence, in the defense of its integrity, in the
defense of its ideas.
We are attacked because the powerful empire regards as
enemies those who want justice for the world; they do
nothing against those who are dominated, those who do not
care about education, health, and sports. Their objective is
sweeping from the Earth's surface those who have given an
example. While performing your activities, you have
witnessed the example our people have given [words
indistinct] buying athletes. You have witnessed our support
for sports and our country's pride in sports. We must
preserve that pride, that honor.
We are human beings, and all human beings have defects,
just as we have some virtues. Human beings, however, can be
motivated to give the best of themselves, they can make
their utmost efforts, and they can appreciate their dignity,
their honor, and the love they receive from their people.
The love and confidence from the people cannot be shunned.
It is with this spirit that we want you to struggle,
all of you, in these Olympic Games that will be so
difficult, which will take place in the heart of the Empire
that [word indistinct] us, in the heart of the monster. I am
not referring to U.S. citizens -- many people have been
deceived through vile lies that are written and published --
but to the mechanisms and the system that prevails in that
country, a corrupt and corruptive system. I am referring to
the extraordinary abundance of resources they have which
they use to commit immoralities and injustices, and to
continue waging the battle against this small country, which
is shameful.
In boxing, it is tantamount to a fight between 20 kg
and 100 kg. No, more than that, between 10 kg and 200 kg.
This little David, however, of 5 kg or 10 kg, has a spirit
of hundreds of kilograms, of thousands of kilograms. They
have not been able to bring us to our knees in any field;
they have not been able to take over Cuba, thanks to the
heroic attitude of our people and our combatants.
Let us despise those who sell themselves for 12 coins,
like those coins Judas was said to have received for his
treason. Let us vindicate the honor of sports, and let us
return as the Spartans did in the old days with the shield
or on the shield.
The flag we have given you today is not to sell in
pieces or to let anyone tear a single piece from it. The
flag we have delivered to you today represents the
fatherland, dignity, courage, and heroism. It represents
honor. It will be the duty of each one of you, without
exception, no matter what happens; it will be your duty to
bring back that flag with glory and without stains.
Socialism or death! Fatherland or death! We will win!
[applause]