Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.-Cuban President Raul Castro highlighted today Fidel Castro”s visionary capacity enabling him to see the future.
In the political ceremony of posthumous tribute to the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, in the Square Antonio Maceo of this city, he recalled that the president of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, referred that Fidel had the extraordinary capacity to travel to the future, return and explain it.
In that way, he recalled the 26th of July, 1989 in Camagüey he predicted two years before it happened the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc and assured to the world that Cuba would continue to defend the banners of socialism.
He highlighted that Fidel’s authority and his close relation with the people were decisive for the heroic resistance of the country in the dramatic moments of the Special Period when the Gross Domestic Product fell by 34.8 percent, feeding of the people deteriorated significantly and we suffered blackouts of 16 and even 20 hours a day.
He underlined that in those moments, despite the situation, public health and education were preserved for all the population.
The leadership of Fidel made it possible to turn the Special Period in a new battle, in a victory in the homeland’s history, then very few in the world bet for our capacity to resist and conquer, asserted the Cuban President.
Raul Castro recalled that in July,1994 , he expressed that ‘The most precious son of Cuba in this century, he who showed us that the assault on the Moncada Garrison was possible, that it was possible to turn the setback into victory, which we carried out in five years, five months and five days
to that glorious January 1, 1959’.
He also demonstrated that it was possible to arrive in Cuba in the Granma yacht and that it was possible to resist the enemy, the hunger, the rain and cold.
That it was possible to overthrow supported by the people the Batista dictatorship backed by U.S. imperialism, he added.
Fidel, he said, was he who showed us that the Playa Giron invasion could be defeated and continue with the literacy campaign, that it was possible to proclaim the socialist orientation of the Revolution, 90 miles away from the Empire.
He showed that it was possible to send aid in solidarity with brotherly nations during the struggles against colonial oppression, foreign aggression and racism and that also the South African racists could be defeated, saving the territorial integrity of Angola and forcing the independence of Namibia.
That it was possible to turn Cuba into a medical power, reduce infant mortality to the lowest rates, of the third world first and the other rich world after, reaffirmed Raul Castro.
He showed also that it was possible to transform Cuba into a great scientific pole and advance in the fields of biotechnology and insert us in the closed circuit of international trade of pharmaceuticals, as well as develop tourism, build causeways and turn this country into an ever more attractive archipelago.
That it is possible to resist, survive and develop without renouncing to the principles nor the conquests of socialism in the unipolar world and the transnationals that appeared after the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe and the USSR, he asserted.
The permanent teachings of Fidel is that it can be done, that man is capable of overcoming the toughest conditions if he does not give up his will to conquer, makes an evaluation of each situation and does not renounce to his noble and just principles.
He showed that it was possible, that it can be done and that it will be possible to overcome any obstacle, threat or turbulence in our firm purpose to build socialism in Cuba or what is the same thing, guarantee independence and sovereignty of the homeland.