Che Guevara Talks to Young People. Ernesto Che Guevara

people. [Applause] They went after us viciously.

      There are government leaders here in Latin America who still advise us to lick the hand that wants to hit us, and spit on the one that wants to help us. [Applause] We answer these government leaders who, in the middle of the twentieth century, recommend bowing our heads. We say, first of all, that Cuba does not bow down before anyone. And secondly, that Cuba, from its own experience, knows the weaknesses and defects of the governments that advise this approach – and the rulers of these countries know it too; they know it very well. Nevertheless, Cuba until now has not deigned or allowed itself, nor thought it permissible, to advise the rulers of these countries to shoot every traitorous official and nationalise all the monopoly holdings in their countries. [Applause]

      The people of Cuba shot their murderers and dissolved the army of the dictatorship. Yet it has not been telling any government in Latin America to put the murderers of the people before the firing squad or to stop propping up dictatorships. But Cuba knows well there are murderers in each one of these nations. We can attest to that fact on the basis of a Cuban belonging to our own movement, who was killed in a friendly country by henchmen left over from the previous dictatorship.10 [Applause and shouts of “To the wall!”]

      We do not ask that they put the person who assassinated one of our members before a firing squad, although we would have done so in this country. [Applause] What we ask, simply, is that if it is not possible to act with solidarity in the Americas, at least don’t be a traitor to the Americas. Let no one in the Americas parrot the notion that we are bound to a continental alliance that includes our great enslaver, because that is the most cowardly and denigrating lie a ruler in Latin America can utter. [Applause and shouts of: “Cuba sí, Yanquis no!”]

      We, who belong to the Cuban Revolution – who are the entire people of Cuba – call our friends friends, and our enemies enemies. We don’t allow halfway terms: someone’s either a friend or an enemy. [Applause] We, the people of Cuba, don’t tell any nation on earth what they should do with the International Monetary Fund, for example. But we will not tolerate them coming to tell us what to do. We know what has to be done. If they want to do what we’d do, good; if not, that’s up to them. But we will not tolerate anyone telling us what to do. Because we were here on our own up to the last moment, awaiting the direct aggression of the mightiest power in the capitalist world, and we did not ask help from anyone. We were prepared, together with our people, to resist up to the final consequences of our rebel spirit.

      That is why we can speak with our head held high, and with a very clear voice, in all the congresses and councils where our brothers of the world meet. When the Cuban Revolution speaks, it may make a mistake, but it will never tell a lie. From every tribune from which it speaks, the Cuban Revolution expresses the truth that its sons and daughters have learned, and it always does so openly to its friends and its enemies alike. It never throws stones from around a corner, nor gives advice that contains within it a dagger cloaked in velvet.

      We are subject to attacks. We are attacked a great deal because of what we are. But we are attacked much, much more because we show to each nation of the Americas what it’s possible to be. What’s important for imperialism – much more than Cuba’s nickel mines or sugar mills, or Venezuela’s oil, or Mexico’s cotton, or Chile’s copper, or Argentina’s cattle, or Paraguay’s grasslands, or Brazil’s coffee – is the totality of these raw materials upon which the monopolies feed.

      That’s why they put obstacles in our path every chance they get. And when they themselves are unable to erect obstacles, others in Latin America, unfortunately, are willing to do so. [Shouts] Names are not important, because no single individual is to blame. We cannot say that [Venezuelan] President Betancourt is to blame for the death of our compatriot and co-thinker. President Betancourt is not to blame; President Betancourt is simply a prisoner of a regime that calls itself democratic. [Shouts and applause] That democratic regime, a regime that could have set another example in Latin America, nevertheless committed the great blunder of not using the firing squad in a timely way. So today the democratic government of Venezuela is a prisoner of the henchmen Venezuela was familiar with until a short while ago – and with whom Cuba was familiar, and the majority of Latin America remains familiar.

      We cannot blame President Betancourt for this death. We can only say the following, backed by our record as revolutionaries, and by our conviction as revolutionaries: the day President Betancourt, elected by his people, feels himself a prisoner to such a degree that he cannot go forward and decides to ask the help of a fraternal people, Cuba is here to show Venezuela some of our experiences in the field of revolution. [Applause]

      President Betancourt should know that it was not – and could not have been – our diplomatic representative who started this whole affair that ended in a death. It was they – the North Americans or the North American government in the final analysis; a bit closer, it was Batista’s men. Closer still, it was all those dressed up in anti-Batista clothing who were the reserve forces of the US government in this country – those who wanted to defeat Batista and maintain the system: people like [José] Miró Cardona, [Miguel Angel] Quevedo, [Pedro Luis] Diaz Lanz, and Huber Matos. [Shouts] And in direct line of sight, it was the forces of reaction operating in Venezuela. It is very sad to say, but the leader of Venezuela is at the mercy of his own troops, who may try to assassinate him, as happened a while ago with a car packed with dynamite.11 The Venezuelan president, at this moment, is a prisoner of his repressive forces.

      And this hurts. It hurts, because the Cuban people received from Venezuela the greatest amount of solidarity and support when we were in the Sierra Maestra. It hurts, because much earlier than us, Venezuela was at least able to rid itself of the hateful system of oppression represented by [Marcos] Pérez Jiménez.

      And it hurts, because when our delegation was in Venezuela – first Fidel Castro, and later our president Dorticós [Applause] – they received the greatest demonstrations of support and affection.

      A people who have achieved the high degree of political consciousness, who have the high fighting spirit of the Venezuelan people, will not long remain prisoners of a few bayonets or a few bullets. Because bullets and bayonets can change hands, and the murderers themselves can wind up dead.

      But it is not my mission here to list all the stabs in the back we’ve received from Latin American governments in recent days and to add fuel to the fire of rebellion. That is not my task because, in the first place, Cuba is still not free of danger, and today it is still the focus of the imperialists’ attention in this part of the world. Cuba needs the solidarity of all of you, the solidarity of those from the Democratic Action party in Venezuela, the URD [Democratic Republican Union], or the Communists, or COPEI [Independent Political Electoral Committee], or any other party. It needs the solidarity of all the people of Mexico, all the people of Colombia, Brazil, and each of the nations of Latin America.

      It’s true the colonialists are scared. They too, like everyone else, are afraid of missiles, they too are afraid of bombs. [Applause] And today they see, for the first time in their history, that these bombs of destruction can fall on their wives and children, on everything they had built with so much love – insofar as anyone can love wealth and riches. They began to make estimates; they put their electronic calculators to work, and they saw this set-up would be self-defeating.

      But this does not mean at all that they have renounced the suppression of Cuban democracy. They are again making laborious estimates on their calculating machines as to which of the alternative methods is best for attacking the Cuban Revolution. They have the Ydigoras method, the Nicaraguan method, the Haitian method. For the moment, they no longer have the Dominican method.12 They also have the method of the mercenaries in Florida, the method of the OAS [Organisation of American States]; they have many methods. And they have power; they have power to continue improving these methods.

      President Arbenz and his people know they have many methods, and a great deal of might. Unfortunately for Guatemala, President Arbenz had an army of the old style, and was not fully aware of the solidarity of the peoples and their capacity to repel aggression of any type.

      That is one of our greatest strengths: the strength being exerted throughout the world – regardless of partisan differences in any country – to defend