These two headed nowhere else than the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Right away, the same characters who fought so hard in Congress to keep little Elián in the United States addressed the Administration to obtain visas for these two doctors. Nobody gave a thought to the children and sick people they had abandoned, those they were providing medical care for and the lives they were saving. The important thing was the publicity: “We snagged two Cuban doctors!” And the same has been done by the Cuban-American mob, which is the name we give to something that should never have been called a Foundation since it became a terrorist organization. (APPLAUSE AND SHOUTS) And now they are busy trying to do the same in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Haiti, Guyana, Paraguay, and in the 13 countries where these programs are currently in operation. We plan to extend them to roughly 30 or 40 countries, primarily in Africa. Who knows how many talents they will manage to steal!

I said to the U.S. Congressman: “How can they deny you the visas, on what grounds, where is the moral right if they are doing this kind of things?” (APPLAUSE)

Could it be that to send these doctors we will have to resort to using the Cuban Adjustment Act? We call it a murderous law because of the thousands of lives it claims due to the privileges that are not granted to people from any other country in Latin America or the world but only to Cubans, as a means of promoting destabilization, disorder, and fodder for anti-Cuban publicity.

We would not actually do this, of course. This is a serious matter. It is my hope that if a group of lawmakers from the Black Caucus or the Hispanic minority or representatives of the natives’ community requested a number of doctors, who would not cost the taxpayers or the U.S. Treasury a penny, I believe that the U.S. government would not deny them a visa. That is what I think. I cannot see the logic of any other decision.

They will argue, as is only logical, about the training. I am absolutely certain that our doctors could be subjected to a rigorous examination by any fair tribunal, and they would successfully pass any tests needed to carry out this mission honorably.

It is easier to send medical students. They are already working on that and I can say here that we are prepared to accept 250 students a year from the United States’ Third World. (APPLAUSE) They will learn Spanish as well, and they will get to know young people from all over the hemisphere to whom they will teach all they know about America and its culture and the others will teach them about theirs.

I already said a figure, 250 scholarships per year, but for the first premed course beginning in March we could offer 500 to include other minorities. We would not choose the candidates, they would be selected by the members of Congress who want to help poor young people in their districts to study medicine, and these young people would commit themselves to go back home after they graduate as doctors. (APPLAUSE)

Now I want to add a few things, and to keep you from becoming impatient I will say something at the end about the little boy Elián, and then I will conclude. I should see what time it is. (He looks at his watch) We have already been here quite some time, and I hope this will not go on much longer.

I was saying that the health situation in Africa is calamitous but the worst is that a new plague is threatening to exterminate entire nations on that continent, mark my words. Something else: it is threatening to wipe out the population of sub-Saharan Africa, that is, 596 million people.

This is a very serious issue that I am only addressing after much thought. I do not want to sound as an alarmist but I can tell you without reading from nay papers that of the 35 million people in the world who are HIV positives, 25 million are African. Based on data I have from various sources but mostly from my conversations with the head of the UNAIDS program run by the United Nations, whose raison d’être is to deal with this problem, I can say that more than two million Africans are dying every year from AIDS and these include, as you might imagine, young people, mothers of childbearing age. And for every two that die, five more become infected. Nineteen million have already died, there are 12 million orphans, and it is estimated that in the next ten years this figure will reach 42 million. And there is a long way to go before a vaccine is found.

I wonder, how can a poor Third World country develop in a situation where 30% of the population is infected with AIDS and there is a shortage of doctors, medicines and infrastructure? How can 42 million orphan children be cared for? It is much distressing that a high percentage of the 19 million who have died are children infected at birth because, of course, many mothers are infected. How can these children be fed while there are so many undernourished and hunger prevails in many of these countries?

There was a meeting in Durban, South Africa, a few weeks ago and representatives from African countries and from industrialized nations spoke. They said that an effort had to be made to deal with this appalling problem. So I said to myself, they have just discovered AIDS in Africa, or it seems that they have just discovered it. They discussed what measures to take, what to do with the companies who manufacture the medicines so as to reduce their cost, and what little bit of money could be given to help. They discussed a billion, or a billion and something. Very well. But, they should know that if they cut down the price of each treatment that stops or begins to stop the development of the disease from 10,000 to 1,000 dollars, they would need 25 billion dollars annually. If the price were 5,000 dollars they would need 125 billion dollars, and at the current price they would need 250 billion dollars.

Now we will have to see how much they agree on, how long it will take them to implement a health program, how many more millions will become infected, how many more millions will die and how many more millions will add to the number of orphans.

I can assure you that with the cooperation of the industrial nations a basic problem could be solved, and that is what I was going to refer to when I spoke about something that has been raised by several African representatives. They said: “What is the point? What is the point if we do not have the infrastructure required to use these medicines?” They consist of a drugs cocktail to be administered at such and such a time and under such and such conditions. It is not an aspirin which one takes for a headache. I have thought a lot about this.

At yesterday’s round table in the UN many African representatives addressed the AIDS issue, and recalling what was discussed in Durban I said: “If the industrial nations put up the money for the medicines, our country, thanks to the experience acquired through the work of tens of thousands of doctors in the Third World, could set up that infrastructure in one year to fight AIDS and other diseases. (APPLAUSE) And do not worry about politics because our doctors have strict instructions to follow, one rule above all: “Never to discuss politics, religion or philosophy”. And they abide by that rule.

If there is a pastor of a Protestant church, they work with the pastor. The pastor does not want his children or his people to die, and he cooperates. He can be a lot of help in health programs, he can persuade the people to adopt a given measure. If they are with a pastor from another church, if he is a Muslim or a spiritual leader of an African religion, the same thing applies. They do not want the children to die. If it is a Catholic priest involved, exactly the same, he does not want the children or the families in the parish to die. Who could oppose that?

With the progress of such terrible epidemic, they will soon be unable to work, even produce food and the few hospital beds they have will not be enough because AIDS brings with it other terrible diseases.

To this health predicament we should add the hundreds of millions of cases of infection or re-infection with malaria, which kills one million people every year, and the three million who die from tuberculosis, a disease unquestionably linked to malnutrition and HIV. I have already said that only 1% of total world spending on health research programs is used to research tropical diseases.

The infrastructure could be useful to provide other medical services not only medication for AIDS. If there are medicines and vaccines to treat or prevent other diseases which affect many people, these diseases could be fought as well, services could be provided, and these are indeed fairly economical. We could send a minimum of 100 doctors to each of the countries in most need in sub-Saharan Africa.

Those doctors would organize the infrastructure, direct and train the young people. If they were assigned young 15-year-old assistants with a sixth-grade education, with the right books they could turn them into nurses in half the time needed in a nursing school. If they want to train orthopedic specialists, surgeons, or specialists in other fields of medicine, they could train them in half the time used in a residency in a hospital. So, those doctors could do much more than create the infrastructure: they could train tens of thousands of qualified personnel. In addition, they could open university schools of medicine in countries where they do not exist. Cuba would not charge a single penny for those services, nor wait years to implement them. (APPLAUSE)

They will say that there is no money. A little bit could be taken from the amount spent on advertising, which encourages consumption not only in developed societies but also among billions of people living in underdeveloped countries where they can have hardly any consumption. They could also take a small amount from military spending, which currently totals 800 billion dollars. (APPLAUSE)

They could release a worldwide issue of bonds and many good people who do not know about this could buy bonds as part of their contribution. One more thing: a small tax on speculative operations, and there would be more than enough money not just for that but practically enough to develop the whole Third World. It is necessary, it is absolutely crucial.

Why is it not done? Why do they talk so much about human rights when all these catastrophic things are happening in the world? Who is responsible for the death of tens of millions of people every year whose lives could be saved? There are children among that number --eleven million of those who die-- teenagers, young people and adults, who also die for lack of treatment or of some disease that was not treated timely or because of some malformation that could be mended, or because they needed surgery or an orthopedic operation after an accident. It is not known how many die who could be saved, or how many old people could live a little longer.

A person who lives 50 years --you know a lot of them and have many relatives like that-- would like to live 10 more years, 20 or 30 more years. And 70-year-olds would like to live five, eight or 10 more years, or people my age, 74, as you remembered today, would like to live four or five or even 10 more years to see how the world evolves and if any predictions come true.

Personally, I would like to have more time to benefit from the experience I have accumulated in the long time I have spent fighting in the service of the people. (APPLAUSE) My adversaries talk about “Castro in power for X number of years”, “Castro’s dictatorship”, “Castro’s tyranny”, “Castro who is in power and does not want to step down”, and a number of other things. If power is not used to do something good, it is absolutely worthless, and it would be crazy to want it. (APPLAUSE)

Anyway --as I have explained to many visitors-- I have very few constitutional and legal powers, the minimum. I do not appoint ambassadors. In every part of the world the President of the country appoints ambassadors, appoints ministers. I do not appoint ministers, I do not appoint anyone to any state office. The ambassadors whose names are put forward are suggested by a commission which analyzes all candidates and submits their names to the 31 members Council of State, which must approve them and at the end, my job is to sign.

The same is true with pardons, or commutation of a death sentence, in the case of the highest penalty; these are discussed by the 31 members of the Council of State.

But, such power is not important to me, I do not need that. I think that a person who governs or a leader does not need the trappings of power, what he or she needs is moral authority, is moral power. (APPLAUSE)

Only once in the course of 41 years were there some public disturbances in Havana, near the harbor. They were associated to announcements made by foreign radio stations in the sense that a number of boats would come from the United States close to Cuba to pick up immigrants. They knew that we did not shoot at or try to intercept boats in the sea with people on board. When speedboats from the United States began to come on smuggling operations, one of them came very close to the coastline east of Havana, and those keeping watch, taken by surprise by that unusual occurrence, told them to halt and shot at them; some people wounded, I do not know if anyone died.

Another time a tractor --it was pulling a cart with people in it towards the coast-- attempted to run over a police officer who stood in front of it and its partner who was with him fired shots. Some people were wounded and some died. That happened twice.

On another occasion a sand dredging boat was hijacked with crew members aboard --all this is encouraged by the Cuban Adjustment Act-- and a patrol boat fired some shots; luckily no one was hit.

Then, all coast guard forces and authorities were instructed: “Do not shoot at nor try to intercept any vessel with people on board who are trying to leave, even if it is in the middle of the harbor.”

Even the Regla passenger ferry, which as many of you might know provides sea transportation between Old Havana and that other municipality, was the target of a hijacking. Someone went on board with a revolver who had several accomplices already there; they overpowered the skipper and left through the same port. Nobody laid a finder on them.

The famous incident they talk about involving the tugboat 13 de Marzo has its own history, which we know fully and in detail because we ordered an exhaustive investigation into it. There is a place where the tugboats that work the port are kept, that was assailed and those keeping watches were neutralized, communications destroyed and a tug stolen. Three people who worked there boarded another tugboat and another three or four --I do not have the exact numbers right now-- boarded a third one. This was at night and without saying anything to anyone they left with the two tugboats to try and intercept those who were escaping. No one knew anything; in fact, hours had gone by since the theft of the tug.

As soon as the relevant authorities learned of the event they issued immediate orders to the coast guards to sail towards the course the others had set to prevent an accident and to order the return of the tugboats, which had followed to try and intercept the first tug.

It was in the early hours of morning, there was a rough sea and big waves. Before a coast guard cutter reached the tug --it luckily saved almost half of those who were on the stolen vessel, since the coast guard had life vests, ropes and other equipment to aid and rescue shipwrecks-- one of the two tugs which were trying to intercept the first one crashed into the stern of the stolen tug, which then sunk. The few crewmembers on the other two tugs rescued several of the shipwrecked people despite the fact that they lacked the right equipment and were afraid of being kidnapped themselves. The coast guard boat soon arrived and even in those difficult conditions and the darkness of the night, they saved 25 people. That is the true story. Ah, but they had to invent lies and create a patently false myth around the incident.

I assure you that I am not exaggerating, not altering the facts one iota. I would feel infinitely ashamed to try to justify any disgraceful act. That is not our way.

There must be many of those 1200 prisoners we took at the Bay of Pigs still in the United States. Not one of them can say that they were hit with a rifle butt, despite the fact that over 100 comrades had died and hundreds had been wounded. I was there, this is not something I was told, I was personally involved in taking prisoners. I even walked in front of an armed squadron of the invaders that was positioned behind one of the mangrove swamps --I was going along a road close to the shore-- they saw me, just a few meters away but did not fire.

There are moments in a battle when the enemy’s morale completely deflates and no one fires any more shots. Later, during the trial, they claimed this as a merit, that is, to say in their favor that I walked in front of them who were armed with automatic weapons and they did not shoot on me. Well, thanks a lot! I really thank them for that. I would not have reached this age of 74, so I thank them. (APPLAUSE) But no one can say that they were mistreated and they had invaded our country, armed and sent by a foreign power.

If it had happened the other way around, you know that at the very least they would have been sentenced to life imprisonment. And over here it is not very easy for someone with a life sentence to be released because those Puerto Ricans who have been in prison for many years and were recently released (APPLAUSE) had a lot to suffer before seeing the fruit of a long solidarity struggle. I do not know the exact number of years that they were in prison, perhaps some of you can tell me. (They tell him it was 20 years.)

Brothers and sisters, I can assure you that in Cuba some of the mercenaries who receive pay from abroad to carry out subversive activities spend barely three months in jail before the pressure and letters from all sides start arriving, according to plans and mechanisms set in place beforehand, asking us to set them free. We have released a large number of rightfully sentenced counterrevolutionaries! Because it has been a long struggle.

At the beginning of the Revolution there were 300 counterrevolutionary organizations involved in terrorism, and when 1200 prisoners were captured in just that one action, they did not even spend two years in prison. We suggested to those who sent them: “Look, if you pay damages in medicine and baby-food, we will set them all free.” Quite a few of them committed crimes afterwards, they killed our comrades with bombs and attacks. If they had been in prison for 30 years, the lives of many comrades would have been spared. But, that risk did not enter into our calculations, and one day a ship loaded with “heroes” reached the United States with no problems. They were given a flag, I think that the then president gave it to them or the other way around so that one day it might be unfurled in a free Cuba. In fact they could not save anything, neither the flag nor the pennant, nor their weapons, not a thing. That was many years ago.

Since those incidents I have spoken to quite a few of those who took part in that expedition who have changed their opinions, their way of thinking, who feel different now because people can change.

I gave you the example of what happened in the Bay of Pigs because it shows the continuity of a policy that we have pursued since the war in the Sierra Maestra. In the first clashes, the enemy soldiers fought on to the last cartridge, they thought we would kill them. Later, that changed. Over the course of the war we took thousands of prisoners. We gave priority to their wounded and treated them before our own. No prisoner was ever executed, not a single one of them was ever beaten. The International Red Cross can witness to that. They have the lists and the files of hundreds of prisoners taken captive in the last offensive by government forces against our Front Number One in the summer of 1958. You can look into through them to see if any soldier was ever beaten, if any soldier was executed.

They were our arms suppliers. They were transferred to other provinces and when the columns arrived and they found themselves losing in some battle they did not fight on to the end anymore, like at the beginning. To be more exact, it has to be said that, as a rule, they always fought, they did not cease offering strong resistance but when they realized the battle was lost, they surrendered. There were soldiers who surrendered three times. Why? Because we had a policy towards the enemy, just as we had a policy towards the civilian population. They killed civilian population, burned houses, stole everything, and paid nothing. We paid for everything we bought. If there was nobody around, we left the money with a neighbor or somewhere else. For the whole time the war lasted, in Front Number One in the Sierra Maestra, which was where all the columns left from, we had the same war doctrine, the same political doctrine. I do not remember a single case of one of our combatants behaving disrespectfully towards the wife or daughter of a peasant family.

After we were scattered --immediately after the landing our yacht-- the war was won in less than 24 months, starting out with seven armed men, with the help of all the people against forces which had 80,000 men, that is, counting soldiers, sailors and police. Why? Firstly, because we were defending a just cause (APPLAUSE), and secondly because we had a policy towards the peasantry and the population in general, and a policy towards the enemy. Without that policy, victory would not have been possible, not in 2 year nor in 30, even assuming that everything else was done more or less correctly.

Those traditions remain in place still today. You can ask South Africans who were prisoners of our troops if anyone beat them, if a single one of them was executed, because we taught and passed on our war policy to those with whom we collaborated. There are many places where combatants kill one another. That is how it is.

In our case, neither in our war nor on our internationalist missions was any prisoner ever beaten or executed. There are living witnesses to this. That, of course, is what builds a good morale and authority.

Even the police were surprised when those disturbances occurred in the capital on August 5 of 1994. It had never happened before. Groups of civilians who numbered several hundred people began throwing stones at shop windows and houses. People were somewhat dismayed. I heard the news, I was on my way to my offices and they told me, “This is happening.” I said, “Not one single unit is to move out.” I alerted my escort, nine men who were with me. I had requested three jeeps --I wanted to go in a jeep, not in a safe car, nor in an armored car-- and the jeeps arrived. Counting the nine in my escort, a comrade who is here and at that time was working with me and whom you know, Felipe Pérez Roque, presently our brilliant minister of Foreign Affairs (APPLAUSE) and comrade Lage, who joined us on the way, we were a total of 12 people.

We headed towards the place where all the commotion was. The escort had categorical orders not to use weapons. When we arrived I stepped down the jeep, walked to the place and the people reacted immediately. In a matter of minutes the disturbances ceased and even those same people who had been thrown stones got caught up in the mood and marched in one great throng. We went down to the Malecón and back on foot. That is and will always be the Revolution’s style. (APPLAUSE)

In our country, the people have not seen a fire truck turning its hoses on the population, or men wearing those outfits which make them look like denizens of another planet, carrying all that gear and using brutal methods. That has never happened in our country in 40 years. We would give a big prize to anyone who could show us just one photograph of that.

I remember that in the first years of the Revolution there were 300 counterrevolutionary organizations, armed bands, all over the country, thousands of people in prison. When I was visiting the Isle of Pines, now the Isle of Youth, I used to meet with those prisoners who were working in the fields with machetes, axes and I talked to them. They never tried to harm me!

I met several times with those who invaded through the Bay of Pigs, I even went to the prison after they were sentenced. Not one of them showed me the least disrespect!

Ethics and an honorable behavior are invaluable. That is the most powerful force anyone can have. (APPLAUSE)

I have already told you about my trips, about all the threats. I even said I would like to live a few years more. Nevertheless, I can also assure you that I would not change a single principle, I would not accept a single dishonor, I would not give in to a single threat in exchange for my life. (APPLAUSE)

That is why I told you I was happy when I began the trip to this country, to New York rather --I do not have a visa to visit the country, only for New York and within its 25 miles, not a millimeter beyond. I was pleased of my contempt for the series of threats and my desire to meet with you.

Perhaps these views I have offered you will be useful for others who, like you, have been so brave and have shown us so much solidarity.

I have spoken of the Third World’s serious social problems. But there are serious social problems even in such a rich country as this, the richest in the world. I want to mention some of them.

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