The eternal flame

Reflections
of President Fidel Castro                                      Read spanish version

This
is a political reflection. To be more precise: it is another
proclamation. Exactly one year ago today, on July 31, 2006, I issued
the first proclamation. But the year gone by is worth 10, for I have
had the opportunity to live a unique experience which has afforded me
information and knowledge on vital questions facing humanity,
knowledge I have conveyed to the people of Cuba with the utmost
honesty.

Today,
I am bombarded with questions as to when I will take up again what
some call power, as though that power were possible without
independence. The world knows a real and destructive power, wielded
by a decadent empire which threatens everyone.

Raúl
has already responded that, as I recover, every important decision is
consulted with me. What will I do? I will fight tirelessly as I have
done my entire life.

One
year after the first Proclamation, I can share with the people of
Cuba the satisfaction of seeing that what was then promised is
reflected by today’s unquestionable reality: Raúl, the
Party, the government, the National Assembly, the Young Communists
League and grassroots and social organizations, headed by the
workers, move forward, guided by the unshakable principle of unity.

With
the same conviction, we continue to struggle relentlessly to have the
Five Heroes, who provided Cuba with information on the United States’
anti-Cuban terrorist plans, released from cruel and merciless prison.

The
struggle against our own deficiencies and against the insolent enemy
which seeks to take possession of Cuba must be unrelenting.

On
this point, I am obliged to insist on something which the leaders of
the Revolution can never forget: it is our duty to work untiringly to
strengthen our defensive capability and preparedness, under the
principle that, regardless of the circumstances, an unpayable price
must be paid for any invasion.

No
one should entertain the slightest illusion that the empire, which
carries the genes of its own destruction, will negotiate with Cuba.
Though we have said, again and again, that our struggle is not
against the people of the United Sates –something which is
absolutely true– the latter is not in a position to curtail the
apocalyptic impulses of its government or the foul and insane call
for what they label a "democratic Cuba", as though leaders
here put themselves forth and elect themselves without having to pass
through that inflexible filter embodied by the overwhelming majority
of an educated and cultivated people who must support them.

In
a previous reflection, I invoked the historical figures of Martí,
Maceo, Agramonte and Cespedes. To keep alight the memory of the
innumerable people who fell in combat, of those who fought and
sacrificed themselves for the homeland, Raúl lit a flame that
shall burn for eternity, 50 years after Frank País, the young,
22-year-old hero whose example moved all of us, fell in combat.

Life
is meaningless without ideas. There is no greater joy than to
struggle in their name.

Fidel
Castro Ruz

July
31, 2007

(Translated
by ESTI)