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Cuba celebrates 53 years
of socialist revolution
Nuriem de Armas
Cuba
is updating its economic and social model, but it
maintains the socialist nature of its Revolution,
proclaimed on April 16, 1961.
In
order to achieve that goal, measures have been
taken, including new forms of production such as
self-employment and cooperatives, among other
actions directed toward building a prosperous and
sustainable socialism.
The
historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel
Castro, noted that "This is the socialist and
democratic Revolution of the humble, by the humble
and for the humble".
"And
for this Revolution of the humble, by the humble and
for the humble, we are willing to give life," he
stressed on April 16, 1961, before a crowd of
passionate Cubans who accompanied the victims of
mercenary bombings perpetrated the previous day.
On
Saturday, April 15, enemy planes camouflaged with
the insignias of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
bombed the airport at Ciudad Libertad (in the
capital), the air base in San Antonio de los Baños
(southeast of Havana) and the airport in the eastern
city of Santiago de Cuba.
People gathered at the corner of 23rd and 12th
Street, near the Colon Cemetery in Havana. Cuban
flags were hanging from the balconies and flowers
were thrown from windows.
The
funeral procession and the march of thousands of
people stopped at the now historic corner of 23rd
and 12th, where Fidel Castro gave a speech.
In
allusion to the United States, the Cuban leader
said, "This is what they cannot forgive us, that we
are here, under their noses, and that we have made a
socialist Revolution under the very nose of the
United States."
In
this way the Cuban Revolution was announcing its
socialist nature to the world, and the U.S.
Fidel then accused the U.S. administration of
hindering the peaceful march of the Cuban nation,
destroying its people's economic resources and their
citizens' lives, and demanded that the United States
took responsibility for the aggression.
The
image of rifles raised by men and women immortalized
the total support for the turn which the
revolutionary process would take from that point on
and continues today.
In
that speech, Fidel foresaw the aggression which was
being organized and was perpetrated two days later
in Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs).
In
less than 72 hours, the recently-created National
Revolutionary Militias, along with forces from the
Rebel Army and the Police, defeated the invaders and
that victory, the first defeat of the United States
in Latin America.
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