On January 8, 1959, after sailing through a sea of people for more than a thousand kilometers, the Caravan of Freedom arrived in Havana, with Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz at the helm, to begin the complex process of the Revolution in power.
Millions of Cubans followed the procession that brought the bearded men from the Sierra Maestra, a new generation of mambises who this time truly achieved the full independence of the Island.
It was the beginning of a new Cuba. Sixty-seven years after the event that shook an entire country, January returns with its load of dreams and goals to fulfill, in a nation that continues to be warrior-like in its present, committed to its future.
And it does so amid great challenges, confirming what the Leader of the Revolution expressed that day: "Tyranny has been overthrown. The joy is immense. And yet, there is still much to do. We do not deceive ourselves thinking that from now on everything will be easy; perhaps from now on everything will be more difficult. Telling the truth is the first duty of every revolutionary."
How many truths, how much certainty in those words. In a country plagued by misery, as soon as the revolutionary transformations began in fulfillment of the Moncada Program, the historic enemy of our people, the United States, initiated a policy aimed at ending the triumphant transformative epic.
Only a people like ours, seasoned in the heat of battle and guided by Fidel’s teachings, has been able to withstand so many pressures and so many adversities.
Today, the challenges are different. The empire, emboldened, has dusted off the Monroe Doctrine once again to take control of what José Martí called Our America. To do so, it uses all the vast arsenal at its disposal and the blatant violation of the laws and principles that govern international relations.
The recent events in Venezuela, which included the military aggression and kidnapping of its legitimate President, Nicolás Maduro, demonstrate this. Imperial cynicism does not hide its intention to, when the time comes, deliver the final blow to the Cuban Revolution.
In this hour of the ovens, when only light must be seen, as our National Hero said, and when the Homeland is in danger, Fidel, on the centenary of his birth, warns and calls upon, as in 1959, a people who do not surrender and never will.
