People and will, united in defense of the homeland

It is a day like all but with a different enthusiasm, it is a day where the colors of the rainbow assault the streets but a very special one seizes the environment, yes, the green hopeful, that identifies dreams, motivation, commitment and constant effort.

Cuba wakes up this November 16, 2016 to the order! Ready to comply with the Strategic Exercise Bastion 2016, to be held from Cape San Antonio and to Punta de Maisi from today until next Friday.

Since 1980, every four years, this preparation for the defense of the fatherland has been carried out in the greater Antilles, aimed at training the management and command organs of the different structures in charge of national and territorial protection, in the organization of the Work in the interest of raising the country's willingness to safeguard and prepare the troops and the population to confront the enemy's various actions.

Mobilized, specialists in the field, common people, add to the call raised by the First Secretary of the Central Committee, Army General Raul Castro Ruz, last April 16^th, 2016 in the Central Report to the VII Congress of the Cuban Communist Party:

"I will dedicate some reflections to the subject of defense. In doing so, it is fitting to recall Fidel's words in the Central Report to the 1st. Congress when he said: "As long as imperialism exists, the Party, the State and the people will give the defense services the utmost attention. The revolutionary guard will never be neglected. History teaches with too much eloquence that those who forget this principle do not survive to mistakes."

The doctrine of the War of the whole People constitutes the strategic foundation of the defense of the country and defines that every Cuban knows and disposes of a means, a place and a form of fight against the enemy, under the direction of the Party, in a unique Political-military and economic system of the development of the war. If the aggressor tried to occupy Cuba, he would have to face millions of Cubans in a deadly wasp, without front, rear or flanks, nor rest day and night."

Cubans on foot, the compatriots of these and for all times today more than ever are appropriating the Marti’s core ideal that asserts: Homeland is humanity. Each trench counts on the soldier, the member of the militias of territorial troops. In the work places, the workers who make up the battalion of the indispensable are well-disposed and enlisted. Each community is well represented by its army.

We are one people, who in uniform prepare for war if the enemy dares to attack us. From this Wednesday until the coming November 20^th, the most caring region of the Caribbean will seal with honor, courage and dignity the honorable commitment to defend the country.