The Awakening of Latin America

by Ernesto Che Guevara

  The history of these weapons is another thing the United States does not like. Why are these weapons here? Did we try to get them from Czechoslovakia right from the start, or don’t the US authorities remember how we went from one European country to another, trying to buy weapons and planes, and how we took up a collection among the people to be able to buy these planes and these weapons?

  What was the imperialists’ response? They pressured all the European governments in their sphere of influence not to let even a single bullet reach Cuba, and the last government that stood firm against the empire’s pressures—it maintained that position up until recently—has now told us that it won’t send us any more rifles. We had the choice of accepting assistance from the socialist countries and being attacked as “communists” or doing nothing here and being wiped out as fools.

  It’s been a long time, compañeros, since the Cuban people could be fooled with words, promises and empty posturing. When we were faced with that dilemma, we accepted the challenge, and here are the Czech weapons. Soon, planes from any power willing to sell them to us will be flying here, and there will be tanks from other powers, and cannon, bazookas, machine guns and ammunition of all kinds for those weapons, bought from whoever will sell them to us.

  This is another example that the US authorities don’t like.

  The same thing happened with Guatemalan democracy some time ago.

  One fine day the Guatemalans weren’t sold any more weapons; the rifles began to age, and the cartridges began to run out; and that democracy began to look for weapons with which to defend itself against the attack that was being prepared precisely by the people who would no longer sell them weapons. And when, in the end, exercising its legitimate right to do so, it bought a handful of rifles from a socialist country, it was attacked, because the United States wouldn’t allow a “communist” base to exist so close to the Panama Canal. And then the pirate planes that were allowed to leave Panamanian airports without any insignia pitilessly bombed the Guatemalan people until the aggressors subjugated the government and plunged that country into the poverty and ignominy in which it exists to this day. That is what the US authorities want. When they see the example of Cuba, they suffer greatly, because those bestial reactions are the spawn of spite, the spawn of the suffering of those who see their imperial privileges reduced once and for all.

  Without any right to do so, they are trying to confine Fidel Castro to a tiny part of Cuba’s territory; they are also trying to assassinate him, if possible. They are trying to destroy our democracy; they would like to trample on and massacre our people. When they learned about the Soviet missiles, they controlled their fury and replaced all the insults they had planned to hurl against our people with high-sounding words. That is why they’re like this, just like wild beasts that become more dangerous and more aggressive when they are wounded and restrained. That is what US imperialism is like now, restrained by the forces all over the world that want their liberation. The people are clamoring for their freedom and fighting against the puppet governments, which are threatened with losing their privileges, threatened with losing all the wealth they amassed from the sweat and blood of the people. That is why they’re like this, why they’re bellowing from impotence and attacking anybody within striking distance, like mad dogs.

  In view of all this and aware of the importance of the Declaration of Havana—considering all this background and the reasons for this declaration—I will now read it. When I have finished reading it, raise your hands if you agree with what it says.

  Declaration of Havana:

  The people of Cuba, Free Territory of America, acting with the inalienable powers that flow from an effective exercise of their sovereignty through direct, public and universal suffrage, have formed themselves in a National General Assembly beside the monument and memory of José Martí.

  The National General Assembly of the Cuban People, as its sovereign act and as an expression of the sentiments of the people of Our America states:

  FIRST: Condemns in its entirety the so-called Declaration of San José, Costa Rica, a document that, under dictation from US imperialism, offends the sovereignty and dignity of other peoples of the continent and the right of each nation to self-determination.

  SECOND: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People strongly condemns US imperialism for its gross and criminal domination, lasting for more than a century, of all the peoples of Latin America, who more than once have seen the soil of Mexico, Nicaragua, Haiti, Santo Domingo and Cuba invaded; who have lost to a greedy imperialism such wide and rich lands as Texas, such vital strategic zones as the Panama Canal, and even, as in the case of Puerto Rico, entire countries converted into territories of occupation; who have suffered the insults of the Marines toward our wives and daughters and toward the most cherished memorials of the history of our lands, among them the figure of José Martí.

  This domination, built upon superior military power, upon unfair treaties and upon the shameful collaboration of traitorous governments, has for more than a hundred years made of Our America—the America that Bolívar, Hidalgo, Juárez, San Martín, O’Higgins, Tiradentes, Sucre and Martí wished to see free—a zone of exploitation, a backyard in the financial and political Yankee empire, a reserve supply of votes in international organizations where we of the Latin American countries have always been regarded as beasts of burden to a “rough and brutal North that despises us.”

  The National General Assembly of the Cuban People declares that Latin American governments betray the ideals of independence, destroy the sovereignty of their peoples and obstruct a true solidarity among our countries by accepting this demonstrated and continued domination. For such reasons, this assembly, in the name of the Cuban people, with the same spirit of liberation that moved the immortal fathers of our countries, rejects this domination, thereby fulfilling the hope and the will of the Latin American peoples.

  THIRD: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People also rejects the attempt to perpetuate the Monroe Doctrine, until now utilized “to extend the domination in America” of greedy imperialists, and to inject more easily “the poison of loans, canals and railroads,” as denounced by José Martí long ago.

  Therefore, in defiance of that false Pan-Americanism that is merely the prostration of spineless governments before Washington and rule over the interest of our peoples by the Yankee monopolies, this assembly of the Cuban people proclaims the liberating Latin Americanism of Martí and Benito Juárez. Furthermore, while extending the hand of friendship to the people of the United States—a people that includes persecuted intellectuals, blacks threatened with lynching, and workers subjected to the control of gangsters—this assembly reaffirms its will to march “with the whole world and not just a part of it.”

  FOURTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People declares that the spontaneous offer of the Soviet Union to help Cuba if imperialist military forces attack our country cannot be considered an act of intervention, but rather an open act of solidarity. Such support, offered to Cuba in the face of an imminent attack by the Pentagon, honors the government of the Soviet Union as much as cowardly and criminal aggressions against Cuba dishonor the government of the United States. Therefore, this National General Assembly of the Cuban People declares before America and the world that it accepts with gratitude the help of rockets from the Soviet Union should our territory be invaded by military forces from the United States.

  FIFTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People denies absolutely that there has existed on the part of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China any aim “to make use of the economic, political and social situation in Cuba… in order to break continental unity and to endanger hemispheric unity.” From the first to the last volley, from the first to the last of the 20,000 martyrs who fell in the struggle to overthrow tyranny and win power for the revolution, from the first to the last revolutionary law, from the first to the last act of the revolution, the peopl
e of Cuba have acted of their own free will. Therefore, no grounds exist for blaming either the Soviet Union or the People’s Republic of China for the existence of a revolution that is the just response of Cuba to crimes and injuries perpetrated by imperialism in America.

  On the contrary, the National General Assembly of the Cuban People believes that the peace and security of the hemisphere and of the world are endangered by the policy of the US government—which forces the governments of Latin America to imitate it. This US policy seeks to isolate the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, and engage in aggressive and provocative acts, systematically excluding the People’s Republic of China from the United Nations, despite the fact that it represents nearly all the 600 million inhabitants of China.

  Therefore, the National General Assembly of the Cuban People confirms its policy of friendship with all the peoples of the world and reaffirms its intention of establishing diplomatic relations with, among others, the socialist countries of the world. From this moment this Assembly expresses its free and sovereign will to establish relations with the People’s Republic of China, therefore rescinding relations with the puppet regime maintained in Formosa [Taiwan] by the Seventh Fleet of the United States.

  SIXTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People—confident that it is expressing the general opinion of the people of Latin America— affirms that democracy is not compatible with financial oligarchy; with discrimination against blacks; with outrages by the Ku Klux Klan; nor with the persecution that drove scientists like Oppenheimer from their posts, deprived the world for years of the marvelous voice of Paul Robeson, held prisoner in his own country; and sent the Rosenbergs to their death against the protests of a shocked world, including the appeals of many governments and even Pope Pius XII.

  The National General Assembly of the Cuban People expresses the Cuban conviction that democracy does not consist solely of elections that are nearly always managed by rich landowners and professional politicians in order to produce fictitious results, but rather in the right of citizens to determine their own destiny, as this assembly of the people is now doing. Furthermore, democracy will come to exist in Latin America only when people are really free to make choices, when the poor are not reduced— by hunger, social discrimination, illiteracy and the judicial system—to the most wretched impotence.

  Therefore, the National General Assembly of the Cuban People:

  Condemns the backward and inhuman system of latifundia—large, poorly cultivated holdings of land—a source of misery and poverty for the rural population; condemns the starvation wages and the heartless exploitation of human labor by illegitimate and privileged interests; condemns the illiteracy, the absence of teachers, schools, doctors and hospitals, and the lack of care for the aged that prevail in the countries of the Americas; condemns discrimination against blacks and Indians; condemns the inequality and exploitation of women; condemns the military and political oligarchies that keep our peoples wretched, and hinder the full exercise of their sovereignty and their progress toward democracy; condemns the concession of the natural resources of our countries to foreign monopolies as handouts, disregarding the interests of the people; condemns governments that render homage to Washington while they ignore the sentiments of their own people; condemns the systematic deception of the people by the press and other media serving the interests of political oligarchies and the imperialist oppressor; condemns the monopoly of news by agencies that are the instruments of Washington and of US trusts; condemns repressive laws that deter workers, peasants, students and intellectuals, who together form a majority in every country, from joining together to seek patriotic and social goals; condemns the monopolies and imperialist enterprises that plunder our resources, exploit our workers and peasants, bleed our economies and keep them backward while subjecting politics in Latin America to their own designs and interests.

  Finally, the National General Assembly of the Cuban People condemns:

  The exploitation of human beings and the exploitation of underdeveloped countries by imperialist finance capital.

  In consequence, the National General Assembly of the Cuban People proclaims before the Americas:

  The right of peasants to the land; the right of the workers to the fruit of their labor; the right of children to education; the right of the sick to receive medical and hospital care; the right of youth to a job, the right of students to free education that is both practical and scientific; the right of blacks and Indians to “a full measure of human dignity”; the right of women to civil, social and political equality; the right of the elderly to a secure old age; the right of intellectuals, artists and scientists to fight through their work for a better world; the right of states to nationalize imperialist monopolies as a means of recovering national wealth and resources; the right of countries to engage freely in trade with all other countries of the world; the right of nations to full sovereignty; the right of the people to convert their fortresses into schools and to arm their workers, peasants, students, intellectuals, blacks, Indians, women, the young, the old—all the oppressed and exploited—that they themselves may better defend their rights and their destiny.

  SEVENTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People affirms:

  The duty of workers, peasants, students, intellectuals, blacks, Indians, youth, women, the aged, to fight for their economic, political and social rights; the duty of oppressed and exploited nations to fight for their liberation; the duty of every people to make common cause with all other oppressed, exploited, colonized and afflicted peoples, wherever they are located, regardless of distance or geographical separation. All peoples of the world are brothers!

  EIGHTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People affirms its faith that Latin America, united and victorious, will soon be free of the bonds that now make its economies rich spoils for US imperialism; that keep its true voice from being heard at conferences, where cowed ministers form a sordid chorus to the despotic masters. The assembly affirms, therefore, its decision to work for this common Latin American destiny, which will allow our countries to build a true solidarity, founded on the free decision of each and the common goals of all. In this fight for a liberated Latin America there now arises with invincible power—against the obedient voice of those who hold office as usurpers—the genuine voice of the people, a voice that breaks forth from the depths of coal and tin mines, from factories, and sugar mills, from feudal lands where rotos, cholos, gauchos, jíbaros, the heirs of Zapata and Sandino, take up the arms of liberty; a voice heard in poets and novelists, in students, in women and in children, in the old and helpless.

  To this voice of our brothers and sisters the Assembly of the People of Cuba responds: We are ready! Cuba will not fail!

  Cuba is here today to proclaim before Latin America and the world its historic commitment and irrevocable resolution: Homeland or death!

  NINTH: The National General Assembly of the Cuban People resolves that this declaration will be known as the “Declaration of Havana.”

  Before proceeding to a vote on whether or not to ratify this Declaration by the National General Assembly of the Cuban People, I would like to comment on each of its most important points. This is a historic declaration that will live on as long as there is history in the world. This is the first cry of true, reasoned freedom that a Latin American people has addressed to the entire world. It exposes—and this is important—the true essence of US democracy. It is the “democracy” in which the great black singer and actor Paul Robeson was kept sometimes in prison and sometimes in what those who don’t think like the imperialist oppressors consider a larger prison—the United States— because he was black and because he struggled for recognition of black people’s right to be treated as human beings.

  US democracy is the “democracy” that murdered the Rosenbergs but which, before killing them on the charge of espionage, gave them a terrible choice. That husband and wife, honest intellectuals who had earned their
daily bread by working, were condemned to death but could have saved themselves. The only condition—which imperialism always demands—was that they renounce their self-respect. If they had “confessed” that they were the agents of a foreign power, if they had “confessed” to a crime they hadn’t committed, they could have saved themselves. But instead they proclaimed their innocence to the world and were condemned and executed.

  That is the essence of US democracy: hypocrisy as the norm for action. That couple left the world a simple, emotional memory when they said that, although they were young, had children, loved life and didn’t want to die, the price they were asked to pay for their lives was too great, and they preferred death. That was the reply of the Rosenbergs, who were condemned in the period when McCarthyism was spreading throughout the United States, condemned because their accusers considered them communists and for being Jews.

  US democracy is the setting in which blacks are lynched in the South, a black boy is lynched for having looked too long at a white woman, divisions are established among people and individuals beat and massacre all who oppose them. And it is very clear that, if you approve this resolution of this General Assembly, you will be making the same choice as the Rosenbergs: life is very beautiful, and it’s worth living. But if the price that is asked for life is a people’s honor, then it’s preferable to die. That is the choice that is presented at the end of the Declaration of Havana, stated simply in just three words: Homeland or Death!

  Moreover, the Declaration of Havana takes a stand on two of the worst plagues ever to afflict humanity. One is the system of large landholdings, which is intrinsically exploitative, denouncing it in all its forms for being detrimental to self-respect. Furthermore, for the first time in Latin America and before the entire world, basing itself above all on the people, the Declaration of Havana states something that all of us have wanted to hear for many years: it denounces the exploitation of human beings by others and declares that the peoples’ main goal is that such exploitation be completely eliminated, so that nobody exploits even one of the citizens of any country.