This year our people are celebrating the 71st anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, which took place in the year that commemorated the centenary of the birth of our national hero José Martí.
With scant weapons and training, the group of young men led by Fidel Castro, Abel Santamaría, Raúl Castro, Ñico López and other outstanding revolutionaries who were for the most part practically unknown, carried out that feat in which many of them fell in combat or were killed, and which unfortunately did not immediately have the expected success; But it stirred the national conscience and was an essential component of the preparations for the struggle, which would later continue in hiding and exile, in the landing of the Granma and the guerrilla movement in the Sierra Maestra and the urban and other mountainous regions of the country, culminating in the glorious victory of 1 January 1959.
It was the first time in the 20th century that a revolutionary movement took power through armed struggle in Latin America and the Caribbean, after defeating a professional army and other repressive forces, trained and armed by the US government.
From before the revolutionary triumph and the first moments we had to face the hostility of our powerful neighbours, who at the last moment tried to get rid of Batista, but the tyrant resisted and the revolutionary leadership, led by Fidel, moved quickly and boldly and did not give them time to prevent the popular victory.
They quickly began campaigns against the Revolution, organising hostile groups that had the support of the US government, although at times they had to do so carefully and not openly, because of the great sympathy that the Revolution enjoyed in influential sectors of US society and internationally, especially in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.
The measures that the Cuban government was adopting, especially the Agrarian Reform Law which affected important US economic interests, the creation of the popular militias, the search for unity among the revolutionary forces and the participation of the Popular Socialist Party (communist) in the process, and the style of contact with the popular sectors, especially Fidel, soon convinced those who had any doubts in US power circles that the Cuban process was a powerful adversary that they had to eliminate by all means if they aspired to ever again dominate the country. Moreover, many in Latin America and the Caribbean saw Cuba as an example of what should be done against the despotic and repressive regimes that ruled their countries.
The rest of the events up to the present day are well known: the systematic aggressions against Cuba, the assassination attempts against its leaders, especially Comandante Fidel Castro, the support for counterrevolutionary groups, the sabotage and terrorist activities, the economic blockade, the unprecedented worldwide media campaign against the Cuban process.
More recently, it has tried to take advantage of circumstances such as the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the socialist community in Eastern Europe and its very serious impact on the Cuban economy, the death or ageing of the historic leaders of the Revolution, natural disasters and the COVID19 pandemic, and even the mistakes that have been made in the midst of very adverse and difficult circumstances, subjected to the aggressions of the world's greatest imperialist power.
Thus the economic blockade has intensified, the financial persecution, the efforts to deepen and intensify all the difficulties, such as the inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries that promote terrorism and many others, in which our small country has a record, accentuated by our proximity to the imperialist power.
In spite of everything, Cuba strives to resolve the difficulties, to preserve its social, cultural, scientific, sporting and many other achievements and to maintain its internationalist policy of support for all those who struggle and suffer oppression in the world. Cuba does not give up, nor will it renounce its political and social system and the defence of its sovereignty and national independence.