(Shorthand Versions - Presidency of the Republic)
Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution;
Comrades and companions of the leadership of the Party, the State and the Government;
Dear members:
First of all, our congratulations to Teresa for her well-deserved reelection as General Secretary of the Cuban women's organization, and to the colleagues elected to the Directorate of the FMC, its National Committee and Secretariat, who are an excellent example of Cuban women ( Applause).
Congratulations colleagues! Congratulations and thank you!
Thank you infinitely for this joy with which you have animated your Congress, you, who fearlessly face the most difficult moments of a nation that has weathered difficulties, without losing tenderness.
Thank you for the love of daughters, mothers, grandmothers, that the hatred of the powerful and cowardly neighbor has never been able to extinguish.
Thank you for the creative resistance, which you symbolize like no one else, and which inspires us, constantly renewing the energies of the Revolution.
Thank you for these unique songs, those personal and collective stories of economic empowerment in defense of sustainable development, of participation in food production and in the defense of food sovereignty, of community work and of the patriotism that you have brought to Havana since every corner of our archipelago, defining Cuban women as winners of the impossible!
Once again here we have seen how there are good experiences that inspire us with the certainty that we can overcome the intensified blockade with our own talent, with our own effort, with our own work, as Cuban women have demonstrated here. Those good experiences are still exceptions, and now we have to multiply those exceptions and turn them into the rule.
The hatred of those who live from the business of attacking the Revolution against the strength of Cuban women can do nothing, because from the times of Ana Betancourt, Mariana Grajales, Amalia Simoni to the times of Haydeé, Melba, Vilma, Celia, the Marianas Platoon and any of you, those who are gathered here to talk about your dreams and also your complaints, the tender but firm strength of Cuban women is love.
Although when it comes to defending their children, their country, their conquests and their rights they can transform into fearsome Cuban lionesses, even in those moments, what moves them is revolutionary love, a powerful feeling that conquers all.
For this fundamental reason, it will always be a great honor and a high responsibility to speak to Cuban women. And it is especially so today, when you close your XI Congress, coinciding with International Women's Day, a date marked by the rebellion of women against a discriminatory order prevailing globally, which has not yet disappeared.
We cannot ignore in the tribute of this day that on a day like this in 1908, in New York, 129 textile workers were burned alive in a factory from which they were prevented from leaving to claim their rights. The declaration of International Women's Day was inspired by her martyrology.
They were socialist women, led by the proud communist Clara Zetkin, who managed to honor March 8 in 1910, at the Second Conference of Socialist Women, in Copenhagen. They not only vindicated the value of New York workers, but also promoted an advanced list of demands in which women were recognized as a social force that could not be ignored, and that should enjoy political and economic rights on a standing basis. equality with men.
More than a century has passed since those events and, although the demands in women's struggles have changed, discrimination and various forms of violence against them still persist, to the shame of all humanity, without a solution in capitalist societies.
Today, in this Congress, we once again strongly condemn the genocide and extermination carried out by Israel with the support of the United States Government against the Palestinian people and, in particular, against the women and children of Palestine.
The Cuban Revolution, with its profound emancipatory and humanist vocation, since its triumph on the 1st. January 1959, promoted the development of an inclusive model based on equality and social justice, focusing its public policies towards the elimination of all forms of discrimination, particularly those that, due to gender, affect women.
It is no coincidence that Cuba was the first country to sign, and the second to ratify, the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, with which it assumed the commitment, as a State Party, to comply with that important norm. binding international law.
Just a little more than a year and a half would pass after the revolutionary triumph, when on August 23, 1960, the Federation of Cuban Women was founded, and in that act, with the leading presence of Fidel, its recognized eternal President was elected, the always endearing heroine of the Cuban Revolution, Vilma Espín Guillois (Applause).
With the Federation, as our people know it, Cuban women would be integrated into a single organization that, from its birth, achieved the incorporation of women into employment and into the social and economic change programs of the Revolution, adding to its historical future. new tasks and responsibilities at the social and community level.
The Cuban woman would thus have a transcendental role in society, earned through effort, example and determination. As Fidel said: “No one like her has made the greatest sacrifices (...) nor has she worked so hard to turn daily effort into a feat.” The logic of socialist construction with the Revolution surpassed the logic of capitalism in matters of emancipation of Cuban women.
Reviewing the achievements of the Federation of Cuban Women, it is obligatory to evoke the legacy and action of Fidel, Raúl and Vilma, and with it that of all the companions, hundreds, thousands of companions that it would be impossible to name now, who throughout These years promoted and made the feminine conquests of our society irreversible within the Revolution.
But they also instilled in us the spirit of dissatisfaction, which forces us to turn this day of tribute into a reminder of everything pending to do and advance, which implies, in essence, uprooting all the vestiges of discrimination and violence that still exist. they lurk
As I have said more than once, we recognize everything that the Revolution has done for women, but we cannot remain stopped or complacent. There is still much to do! We still must break cultural barriers or mental schemes that underlie and end up belittling women or lacerating their rights, their dignity, their fair place in a society that aspires to the highest degree of social justice possible. We still have a way to go!
Dear colleagues:
Between the X and this XI Congress, the National Program for the Advancement of Women was designed and approved, the best expression of the political will of the State, which encourages progress towards gender equality in the country, an approach on which still We observe misunderstanding and prejudices that we must eradicate.
Although the postulates of the Program, in essence, are not new, they do expand the impact of the Revolution in this area, and enhance it in a comprehensive way, so that the process of transformations in which the country is immersed right now does not cause setbacks in what has been achieved. And wherever something like this can occur, correct it immediately.
To guarantee the implementation of the National Program for the Advancement of Women, an extensive, intense work plan is deployed, which involves all the agencies of the Central Administration of the State, as well as the various institutions up to the level of provinces and municipalities. The objective is to guarantee that the gender approach predominates in the design of public policies and there is sensitive monitoring of all issues that involve the development of women in society.
The legislative advances that support these political projections are eloquent: the approval of the Family Code, the Penal Code, the Criminal Execution Law, the Criminal Procedure Law, the Process Code, the Comprehensive Prevention Strategy and Attention to Gender Violence, and the Protocol for action in situations of discrimination, violence and harassment in the workplace.
In these legal instruments we have very valuable tools to ensure the rights achieved prevail and to conquer other pending rights.
Confronting gender violence and all types of discrimination has a central place in the content of these regulations, but also in the actions and measures contemplated by the National Program for the Advancement of Women.
Although the reprehensible scourge of violence against women in Cuba does not reach the brutal expressions that occur in other countries, the cases that appear with regrettable frequency are enough to outrage us and act, so as not to remain expectant, impassive and tolerant.
The enemies of the Revolution use and manipulate figures conveniently and tendentiously. For the Cuban State, a single case is alarming and unacceptable. These are people, human beings, lives that have been cut short or are being lacerated right now as a result of the validity of degrading patterns, of a patriarchy incompatible with the principles of a socialist society.
A single name of a violated woman should be enough to make us feel indignant and act energetically on a political and legal level, but always aware that this cannot be a one-day struggle, but rather a permanent purpose.
The subversive anti-Cuban platforms try to impose the matrix that feminicide exists in Cuba, a term that indicates alleged state inaction in the face of gender-based violent acts. We can state here, categorically, that this is a media construction, completely foreign to Cuban reality. There can be no impunity in Cuba, much less for crimes motivated by any type of discrimination and, above all, against women!
The legal regulations that I mentioned above have very precise sections that classify as crimes the most diverse figures that can undermine the physical, psychological or moral integrity of women.
The Internal Order system has the primary mission of confronting and bringing to justice all the perpetrators of these events. At the same time, the court system, in accordance with the law, provides high and exemplary sentences for those who commit this type of crime.
To cite just one example, in 2023 the Cuban courts sanctioned 61 individuals responsible for the murder of women. In 93% of the cases the sentences exceeded twenty years, and five subjects are serving life imprisonment.
These are just a couple of facts that illustrate the zero tolerance of the Cuban State towards this type of behavior. However, I think we all agree that it is not enough to confront these crimes with the Police and the courts. It is urgent to improve popular and family education systems at the community level, with a prophylactic and preventive approach.
In particular, preventive action is required in the community, in the neighborhood, with the timely identification of each case prone to gender-based violence. Warning calls, early reporting, attention and treatment as part of the influence on the social and family environment where it manifests must be the priority for the organizations that exist there.
On the other hand, we are not going to give up continuing to be a cultured, educated and educated society, and in those processes that are vital and that involve education and social communication, it is necessary to promote the condemnation of any manifestation of violence or discrimination.
Dear colleagues:
This Congress, from the grassroots level, has promoted deep and very critical discussions of the organization's problems, especially in the current circumstances.
Identifying the weakening of the base structures, that is, of the bloc and the delegation, as one of the main problems, forces the leadership of the Federation of Cuban Women to seek the most urgent and effective ways for its revitalization in the shortest possible time. possible time. Not doing so would break the logic of the profound social and mass meaning of this organization that brings together nearly 4 and a half million members throughout the country, but whose action is embodied in more than 14,000 blocks and 82,000 base delegations. That is where the FMC is or not, depending on how it does its job.
The blocks and their base delegations are essential for social work, house to house, family to family, woman to woman, which is the essence of ideological work and gains greater strength in the current context.
Preventive, educational and social care work at the community level needs the vision and action of the Federation of Cuban Women and must be the center of the organization's fundamental activity, particularly in the 1,236 communities identified as having a vulnerable situation.
I do not see a more sensitive and generous look than the feminine one when they have to face in their environment the presence of young people disconnected from study and work, of people with addictions, of single mothers with more than two children, of helpless elderly people, who often travel around us, deprived of basic human treatment.
These people, as we have been repeating in recent weeks, cannot be left behind, they have to feel the weight of the concern and attention of all our organizations, with the Federation of Cuban Women at the forefront, due to its massive nature, the nature of their missions and the sensitivity of women to face these challenges.
It is true that the organization alone will not be able to solve everyone's problems, but this requires permanent and integrated work with the rest of the community factors and especially the social workers.
To achieve this and at the same time revitalize the grassroots structures, we must also advance in the preparation of leaders at all levels, another of the problems identified by you.
The Revolution of women in the Revolution was initiated by leaders with solid Marti training and, therefore, a deep humanist, altruistic and supportive vocation. These qualities allowed them to understand and address all the sensitive phenomena and issues of our society, at the local and community level, which for years have been assumed by the Federation of Cuban Women.
In those and in thousands of examples that the emotional memory of our neighborhoods preserves, the most beautiful feminine tradition beats and the main challenge of the current generations of Cubans beats.
The current leaders and members must constantly be nourished by these virtues to promote with the greatest possible impetus the motivation for the work of the Federation in the new generations. That motivation can never be missing in a work as exalting of the human spirit as the objectives and missions pursued by the organization.
To imbue this spirit in the work of the federated women, it is necessary to eradicate formalisms, methods and ways of doing things that were defeated by time and the rapid advancement of technologies. It is necessary to uphold the principles from new platforms and media; connect with girls in their neighborhoods and in their study and work centers. Taking the FMC on time is the first step to guarantee your participation in the organization.
Dear members:
Remember and always carry with you that phrase from Fidel that we have quoted several times today, when he said that you are a Revolution within the Revolution.
Always be a revolution, in the semantic and political sense of that word, constantly revolutionizing, without giving room to routine, accommodation, conformity with what works poorly or does not work, simply.
Keep going out, as Fidel called you from day one, to conquer the world and to continue being at the center of this Revolution, with the enthusiasm and creative spirit of the Cuban woman since the emergence of the nation.
In our tough fight to face and overcome the blockade without waiting for it to be lifted; for guaranteeing the highest degree of social justice possible in the current complex economic environment; to correct the distortions in the implementation of economic measures and to cleanly and decisively confront the negative trends and the growing phenomena of corruption and illegality that the historical enemy of the Revolution fuels with the hope that a social outbreak will be unleashed, we have the will, dignity and courage of Cuban women to continue saving the homeland, the Revolution and socialism with the invincible force of the love of the Cuban woman! (Applause.)
The ethics of the cadres have been and will be a pillar of the Revolution and, as Che said, “its backbone.” The cadres come from the ranks of the people, in the midst of difficulties and shortcomings they choose the path of sacrifice, that of doing, creating and transforming. The trust of the people is placed in the paintings, their ethics are the shield where all the actions of influence and subversion of the empire have crashed to try to outrage their example.
The maximum historical leaders, Fidel and Raúl, and the Party Leadership have shown and will continue to show signs of a frontal, transparent and without tolerance combat against the manifestations of lack of ethics and exemplarity of the cadres, always in the name of the people and for the unity of our country (Applause).
Let us act as Army General Raúl Castro Ruz has asked us in his speech on the occasion of the 65th Anniversary of the Revolution, in Santiago de Cuba: “I call upon all our cadres to meditate every day on what more can be done to justify the trust and the exemplary support of our compatriots, even in the midst of so many needs, to not be naive or triumphalist, to avoid bureaucratic responses and any manifestation of routine and insensitivity, to find realistic solutions with what we have, without dreaming that something is going to fall on us from the sky".
Cuban women have a lot to contribute and the Revolution needs a lot from Cuban women, not only resisting, but above all fighting (Applause).
I conclude with the words of recognition and encouragement that the Army General told us at the end of the 10th Congress:
“More than ever we need the strength and morality of our women” (Applause).
Eternal glory to the endearing Vilma! (Exclamations of: “Glory!”)
Socialism or death!
Country or Death!
Overcome! (Exclamations of: “We will win!”)
(Ovation.)
(Cubaminrex - Presidency of Cuba)