It would be sad to think, we are fithging without other alternative, Fidel stated

At exactly 11 am, Fidel arrived at the hall of the Palacio de las Convenciones, freshly dressed in a red and white plaid shirt. Waving and smiling at all, he walked up to the table on which was a blue diary and several pages of documents.

With loud applause, hundreds of young people, led by the National Bureau of the Young Communist League (UJC) and its first secretary, Liudmila Alamo Dueñas, workers, students, artists and intellectuals, members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and the Interior Ministry and in his special place, Elian Gonzalez and his family, were waiting for him.

"I have a few things to say," he announced. He would talk about the matter that he had been constantly dealing with for almost two months, even before being fully recovering. "Not long ago actually, I overcame the last battles to be as you find me today."

He recalled that during this time he had written eleven Reflections, the first on June1st., entitled "The Empire and War" and most recently, "The Strategic Victory", to be followed by one that will published on Tuesday August 3, but that he did want to talk about that or the title, though he warned that its content will draw on the events and news that should occur in the coming hours.

Liudmila opened the dialogue for the young people, commenting on how the organization received the warning contained in the Reflection of June 24 - "How I wish I were wrong" - and the need, even on holiday, of students and young people in general, be kept informed "so that the events did not surprise us."

After a brief preamble, which referred to the concern Marti had for world balance, Yoelkis Sánchez, a journalist and editor of the Alma Mater magazine, asked Fidel, taking into account the dangers which he warned of, if he believed that, with the current conflicts, bipolarity would re-emerge or uni-polarity would deepen in the world.

"I say that the conflict is inevitable, however, there is a formula for which we must fight and it opens up a hope. It would be very sad to think that we are fighting with no other alternative," Fidel replied, adding that that is precisely the importance of the battle we are waging.

In the world many forces are moving, "the opinion of intellectuals, people who think, who see the danger and that are not waiting on pending election results or anything like that," he said.

"I am very confident in the strength of all that thinking. Let's see if those on which it all depends, at some point decide.... we have to force them to It is with ando so. It may seem strange, but no, not with a gun. overall proof. "

Everything is new

Yailín Orta Rivera, a journalist with Juventud Rebelde and lecturer at the School of Communication at the University of Havana, after speaking of the national and even worldwide rejoicing at seeing him recovered, asked Fidel for his recommendations for the youth of Cuba and the world, faced with the critical conditions of the current context.

In response, the leader of the Revolution referred to the message he would read at the end of the meeting, and at the same time stated that: "We can not approach the future with the concepts and images of the past. Everything is new. We must use our imagination. "

He wondered what might happen if nuclear war breaks out and the world market were to disappear. "Man can not miss the chance to survive with everything he knows today."

He expressed his hopes that they would take advantage of all the great achievements of human intelligence for the good and not for the extermination of the species, the same species that is rightly accused of having directed the planet to its own extinction, destroying everything.

Closing the issue, Fidel went back to the possible ways of saving the human race and stated: "would have to rethink everything or it would not be worth fighting now. Many things can happen in the infinity of time. Nobody knows, not even what time it is. That is an invention of man. "

Gerardo in the hole: That is Torture!

Yesterday in our National Assembly, (Ricardo) Alarcon explained the case of Gerardo, said Fidel. "It breaks one’s heart to think of that man now. I have thought about the information Alarcon gave on Gerardo, a man with political ideas who has spent 12 years separated from his family ( .... ) They are people who have suffered 12 years. Doesn’t the suffering of these people count at all? Is it worth nothing? "

On July 26, after the meeting at the Memorial, Fidel spoke with Gerardo's wife, Adriana Pérez O'Connor. "I did not know he was in the hole. I did not even remember what the hole was. Not only is he in a high security prison, which is itself a very deep hole, but he is in a "hole within the hole."

He compared his experience in prison after the Assault on Moncada Barracks, with the case of the Five and acknowledged that he had known “tepidly what it is like to be in prison, and what you suffer in prison for the injustice that is being committed... It is a very pale reflection of what it is like being imprisoned. I mentally put myself in the place of a man under those conditions, in which Gerardo is.”

"There are two men in a space that is one meter wide," he said, and his hands measured that on the table in front him, sitting next to Liudmila. "Two people! They have to have a hole through which air enters. I do not know if they have light or not, and if they do, they (the guards) must turn it on and off when they want. What do they eat?"

As Alarcón said, and was published on Friday in the national and international press, -" we also know he is sick, he may have a bacterium, that he needs medical attention. That he should be in a hospital, treated, fighting that bacterium." And he emphasized, "He is a person who needs medical care!"

There is no reason for this locking up. "Did he do anything?" asked Fidel. "No, nothing. And this punishment was not decided by the prison. Four FBI officials met to decide, and they decided. That's torture!"

And this happens with impunity, as happened when the Five were unjustly condemned in American courts." This is happening in the sight of everyone, even before the illustrious President of the United States, who could release them, as they just released a bunch of people said to be Russian spies, - the Russians also released a few Americans -. " And they round off with an irony: "They are protecting the security of the United States."

Meanwhile, they are pressuring Cuba to release another spy, "who was never in a prison like those, and would never be tortured," emphasized Fidel.

I Have a news hunter

Fidel showed a printout of a photo of the U.S. soldier who leaked videos and documents about the U.S. war in Afghanistan to the website Wikileaks. The 22 year old called "Bradley Manning, is a brave soldier, an intelligence analyst who gave 260,000 intelligence documents, of which 92,000 have been used." The courts "have papers to be accusing this government until the Last Judgment, which is what they deserve."

However, they accuse anyone, be it this young soldier or the Five, of putting the security of that country at risk. "America is committing a horrible crime with these comrades, and especially with Gerardo."

There is awareness of this, and every day they are publishing news exposing the U.S. government. Fidel showed, for example, the newsletter taken from the Internet on July 29, 2010. "I have become a news hunter," he smiled. "I am looking for news every day, looking at the commas and full stops."

He read some of the headlines that appeared in the index of the newsletter: "The United States is blocking access to Internet servers from the Island", "What is legal in Germany, is illegal in Cuba," "Why Venezuela?", "Links between bases and extrajudicial executions," "United States trying to manipulate the forthcoming elections in Haiti", "U.S. unloads the capitalist bankruptcy onto the immigrants," "The leaking of military secrets corners Obama", "Censored news: Who sank the South Korean ship, Cheonan? ":the sources are very diverse, official media and news agencies, alternative news sites

"Which of these problems- they ask-have not been identified in the Reflections? I do not discuss these issues with anyone. I talk about what people write." He closed the folders he had been reviewing. "I think we have been talking here awhile... How long?" Fifty-five minutes, answered the audience. "Then I will read the message."

He got up, and walked to the podium. He read in a vibrant voice his "Message to the young people." His right hand rested on the edge of the wooden platform. He pressed it with the same force he spits out his words. This statement lasted six minutes 28 seconds, and we listened in expectation. "We prefer to hold onto hope," a phrase with a double meaning, because it speaks to the young people and because Fidel, as ever, trusts in man, his essential reference.

The applause lasted even when he had gone into the hall of the Palace of Conventions. We approached Elian. The teenager is the one who makes the final point of this note with simple words: "It was very exciting to come back to meet the Comandante... I missed seeing him, and I am very happy. It was very important for me, for everybody."

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