Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, Feb 5. – At the end of October 1958, Radio Rebelde broadcast a communiqué from Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, in which he denounced that the dictator Fulgencio Batista, in collusion with the United States ambassador to Cuba and with the support of the State Department, plotted maneuvers aimed at involving the Rebel Army in a confrontation against the Government of that country.
The first attempt occurred at the beginning of July when the Batista army's General Staff ordered its troops to abandon the guard of the Yateritas aqueduct, which supplied the Guantanamo Naval Base; and they requested, in turn, that the Yankee marines replace them, with the purpose of provoking an armed incident between American sailors and Cuban rebels on our territory.
Later, the Government withdrew the military garrison it had stationed at the Nicaro Nickel plant without being attacked, and, logically, the place was occupied by the rebel command. Subsequently, it was learned that Batista soldiers would land at that point, which would inevitably provoke a clash between Government soldiers and rebels, with the grave danger of affecting the safety of the Yankee employees.
According to Fidel's communiqué read by Radio Rebelde, another unforeseen incident occurred on October 25, 1958, when two American citizens and seven Cubans, Texaco workers, traveling in a vehicle, were detained by a rebel patrol that had prepared an ambush for the advance of the tyranny's soldiers. They were later released.
These incidents were immediately exploited by the Yankee State Department to issue a threat against the integrity of our territory and the sovereignty of the people.
Those provocations were denounced from the Sierra Maestra many years ago, and in essence their aims are similar to those now instigated from the United States to attempt to destabilize the country, and which were condemned in the most recent Declaration of the Revolutionary Government in the strongest terms, in the face of the new escalation that seeks to impose an absolute siege on fuel supplies to the Island.
Our people, who have heroically resisted and continue to resist for more than 60 years a genocidal blockade imposed by the U.S. Government, which was increased with the approval of more than 270 measures against Cuba during the first administration of President Trump, will respond without hesitation to any attempt to destabilize the Homeland.
Fidel's response at that time to the threats of the Yankee government was forceful, and in the face of today's provocations, his words also remain fully valid:
"It is good to warn that Cuba is a free and sovereign country, we wish to maintain with the United States the best relations of friendship. We do not want a conflict to ever arise between Cuba and the United States that cannot be resolved through reason and the rights of nations…
"There are Duties to the Homeland that must be fulfilled at all costs. A great and powerful country like the United States is not honored by the words and threats contained in your latest statements. Threats have virtue among cowardly and submissive people, but they will never have it with Men who are willing to die in defense of their People." (Text and photo: Granma Digital)
