Cuba is a state that resists, creates, and, make no mistake, that will prevail!
Speech delivered by Miguel Mario Dรญaz-Canel Bermรบdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, at the ceremony commemorating the 65th Anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution, at 23rd and 12th Streets, Revolution Square, on April 16, 2026, โYear of the Centenary of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz."
Long live free Cuba! (Exclamations of: โLong live!โ)
Down with the blockade! (Exclamations of: โDown!โ)
Heroic fighters of Girรณn present here;
Dear friends of solidarity with Cuba, participants of the V International Colloquium Patria;
Dear and heroic Cuban people;
Fellow countrymen (Applause):
Sixty-five years ago, women and men who were as young as or younger than all of us who fill these streets today โ possibly many grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers or fathers of some of us โ gathered here to write a truly epic chapter of the contemporary world.
That day changed history, and not only for Cuba. With an invasion on the brink of our shores, still uncertain of where they would land, but aware that behind the invaders was the full backing of the powerful United States government, the voice of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, almost broken by hours of sleepless nights and tension, rose above the crowd overflowing this historic corner to declare that we were what we continue to be: a socialist revolution right under the nose of the empire! (Applause.)
That declaration is momentous in the history of Cuba, marking the definitive course of the revolutionary process that began with the triumph of 1959 and which by 1961 had become profoundly radicalized in favor of the ever-dispossessed.
The mercenaries were preparing to attack the nation of their birth, convinced that nothing could stand against the protection guaranteed by the empire. But history would be merciless with them.
They expected fear and found courage. They gambled on betrayal and were met with a united people. They believed their lies and were met with truth, rifles at the ready and singing the Bayamo Anthem.
The Cuban people marched from here to the fight, and from the fight to victory! A small nation, fresh out of the war, would inflict, less than 72 hours later, the first great defeat on imperialism in America (Applause).
From that April onwards, all the towns in the region would be a little freer.
Cuba changed forever. The people who fought for socialism on the sands of Girรณn had already begun their cultural transformation with a Literacy Campaign that elevated the dreams of the humble to the university classrooms.
Human development would reach heights that only a just society can guarantee. This Revolution of the humble, with the humble, and for the humble would go so far that a shoeshine boy in capitalism would become Latin America's first cosmonaut; that young people from Africa and the entire Third World would become professionals in Cuban schools; that we would share our blood and our destiny with the forgotten and the vilified of all time (Applause).
And we defeated apartheid, illiteracy, and curable diseases in other parts of the world, to which we would bring doctors, not bombs; teachers, not bombs.ย ย That is socialism: a society where man is brother, not wolf to man!ย ย (Applause.)
When in the fateful nineties the socialist practice self-destructed in Europe, with vile conspiracies by its imperialist adversaries, Cuba resisted and transformed itself until it rose up with its own strength and the support of international solidarity.
Chรกvez had not yet triumphed in Venezuela, and the decade of integration that the Bolivarian Revolution had awakened was about to begin.
Fidel, Fidel again, as he had done in Girรณn, directing the fighting and advancing on a tank in the vanguard, led that superhuman fight to preserve Cuban socialism in an era of feverish neoliberal advance and unipolarity.
While others privatized even cemeteries and parks, blindly believing in the story of the market as the omnipotent ruler of a wealth that never existed, this country built a monumental work, with the science and the human labor and scientific potential formed in the Revolution and with the heroism and creative resistance of the Cuban people (Applause).
And our people's army went out to sow and build, to demonstrate, as Raรบl said, that yes, it can be done! That it can always be done! And we did it! That is socialism! (Applause.)
Many times throughout those years, while the country was striving to correct, perfect and adapt the battered economy besieged by the blockade, countless silent invasions occurred: laws to codify the blockade, terrorist attacks, discrediting campaigns, constant sabotage of all integration, solidarity and cooperation projects.
Every silent bomb that has fallen on development projects has left a wound in Cuban society. One particularly painful wound has been the migration of promising young people, educated free of charge in our schools and universities, whose skills and talent are stolen by capitalism, a system in which they failed to invest, while they accuse the society that shaped them of not guaranteeing them what the predatory market offers.
Truth be told: That human potential that impresses and gains ground and relevance in any country it reaches, was formed by socialism! (Applause.) Only socialism turned the children of workers and peasants into top-level professionals, and not exceptionally as in capitalism, but massively (Applause).
To hide the genocidal and multidimensional nature of the six-decade blockade that suffocates the entire population and can only be called an embargo on paper by those who apply it, a lying and very cynical narrative has been constructed: Cuba as a failed state.
The impacts of decades of blockade and financial persecution are very visible in our homes, industries, in the lack of goods, even the essential ones, in the lack of almost everything, even the most basic and essential things for life.
Also visible are our own mistakes in this process of social construction, with its peculiar and very Cuban characteristics, in which we strive, against the current, overcoming countless obstacles; but as long as the blockade remains like a noose around the neck of the economy, no one can denyโand I repeat, no one can denyโits absolute guilt in the suffering of Cuban families! The main cause of our problems is the genocidal blockade of the United States government against our people! (Applause and shouts of: โDown with the blockade!โ)
Liars also rely on the anesthesia induced in the minds of a world contaminated by prejudice and poisoned with anti-communism since the October Revolution brought the creators of wealth to power.
Brutal aggressions and blockades have been erected against all socialist experiments, and yet it will be impossible to deny all that they contributed to the balance and well-being of humanity. Nor can the colossal contribution of the USSR to the defeat of fascism and the conquest of space be erased from history; nor can the dazzling development of a gigantic nation, which emerged from famine and widespread poverty, such as the People's Republic of China, and of a small but brave country, which endured three wars and today wins the admiration of the whole world for its dynamic growth, the heroic and fraternal Vietnam, be ignored (Applause).
Socialism is the only guarantee of social justice, the only path to the real emancipation of all people, and in our case it has been and is also the real possibility of giving a collective response to the collective punishment that has been imposed on us all these years.
No, gentlemen of manipulation and lies,ย Cuba is not a failed state; Cuba is a besieged state, a state facing multidimensional aggression: economic warfare, an intensified blockade, and an energy blockade. Cuba is a threatened state that will not surrender!ย (Applause.)ย ย And despite everything, and thanks to socialism, Cuba is a state that resists, creates, and, make no mistake, a state that will prevail!ย ย (Applause.)
Today, April 16, we commemorate fundamental milestones in our recent history: the heroic and massive popular response to the prelude of the mercenary invasion, with the criminal bombings of the 15th, and the declaration of the socialist character of the Revolution, made by Fidel at the burial of the first victims of the ongoing aggression, and on that same day, although many did not know it then, our Communist Party was born, as has been explained here.
As Fidel said:ย โIn Girรณn, the socialist character of our Revolution was proclaimed; in Girรณn, our Party was practically forged.โย ย That is why we consider April 16th the founding date of the Party, the Party of unity, the Party of the Cuban nation, the Party of organization and leadership of everyone's efforts for the common good. (From the audience: Long live the Communist Party of Cuba!) (Exclamations of: โLong live!โ) But history would be worth little if we did not heed its lessons, if we did not take note of its patterns and transform them into definitive learning.
The attacks on the airports of Ciudad Libertad, Santiago de Cuba, and San Antonio de los Baรฑos in the prelude to the invasion, with surgical strikes, using aircraft with false Cuban insignia; the sustained use of disinformation and deception through media aimed at confusing the population, along with the economic war, the diplomatic pressures to isolate the Revolution, and the constant threats, show treacherous practices and methods, never abandoned by those who attack and who continue to repeat them today in the world.
They have repeated the aggressive and interventionist formula so often, so many nations and processes have been threatened and attacked over the years that, despite the technological, military and media extravagance they unleash left and right, a wave of solidarity with Cuba continues to rise as evidence of the isolation of the imperial policy that seeks to subdue us by suffocation.
From this historic platform, where Fidel's words still resonate, calling on the people to find their place for the coming struggle, and where today we pay well-deserved tribute and homage to the heroes and martyrs of that day when the Homeland resolutely donned the militia uniform, we call for a national and international solidarity movement that will carry to every corner of the planet the truth of Cuba, the suffering of the people due to actions of blockade and multidimensional economic warfare, aggravated by the energy blockade, which qualifies as genocide due to the extreme levels of deprivation to which all Cubans are subjected.
Daily life in Cuba is painful, from the vital rest interrupted first by the blackout and then by the return of the electricity after long hours, which has moved domestic work to the early mornings; to the paralysis of industries, transport, vital services and production because there is a lack of fuel for almost everything.
The list is very long, and all of this stemmed from a single executive order that declared us an โunusual and extraordinary threat,โ which is exactly what we are not.
The moment is extremely challenging and calls upon us once again, as on that April 16, 1961, to be ready to face serious threats, including military aggression. We do not want it, but it is our duty to prepare ourselves to avoid it and, if it is inevitable, to win! (Applause.) We have the faith in victory that Fidel instilled in us.
We believe in dialogue and in the extraordinary power of peace to sustain life on the planet. The history of the conflict between Cuba and the United States has shown that it is possible to achieve this.ย We must consider all the human lives that would be lost in our two nations if they were drawn into a senseless, illogical conflict, for which there are neither excuses nor justifications when there is so much we can accomplish together.
To Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, whose centenary we celebrate this 2026, we pay the highest tribute on this 65th Anniversary of the great epic (Applause). (From the audience shout: Long live Fidel!) (Exclamations of: โLong live!โ)
Fidel didn't just lead the Battle of Playa Girรณn. Fidel was and is Girรณn! (Applause.) Fidel is the conviction that a united people can defeat an empire!ย (Applause.)
Resisting the onslaught of daily invasions is the epic we write today, the best legacy to the fallen, to those who offered their lives in April 1961 for independence and for socialism. As long as there is one woman and one man willing to give their life for the Revolution, we will be victorious! (Applause.)
The socialist character of our Revolution is not a phrase of the past, it is the shield of the present and the guarantee of the future!ย (Applause.)
Girรณn is today and always!
Cuba does not surrender! (Applause.)
Nobody gives up here! (Applause.)
Here, as the song says: We're going to set things on fire! (Applause.)
Long live the rebellious dignity of our people! (Exclamations of: โLong live!โ)
Long live Socialism! (Exclamations of: โLong live!โ)
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