“THE BLOCKADE NOW MAKES US LAUGH… THERE WILL BE SO MUCH MILK THAT WE COULD FILL HAVANA’S BAY WITH IT.”
—-Statements by Fidel Castro on the North American embargo.
Fidel Castro is the maximum leader, founder, and voice of the Cuban Revolution. His ideas and thoughts are a guide for anyone interested in the historical process, the hopes, the successes, victories, and failures of the revolutionary experiment.
In 1969, seven years after the confiscation without payment of all U.S. properties on the island worth one billion dollars, and seven years after the beginning of U.S. sanctions, the Commander-in-Chief told thousands at Revolution Square that the embargo “makes one laugh.”
But if the American embargo “made him laugh”, international terrorism elicited a different response.
In Fidel Castro’s words “If the Cuban government were to dedicate time to do terrorism, and to respond with terrorism to terrorists, we believe that we would really be very effective terrorists. Let no one be mistaken, if we were to dedicate ourselves to terrorism, with all certainty, we would be very effective. But the fact that the Cuban Revolution has never applied terrorism does not mean that we never will. We warn you.”
– Fidel Castro, address on the occasion of the 15th Anniversary Ceremony of MININT held at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana. June 6, 1976
1964, two years after the beginning of the embargo:
“Within ten years we will produce more milk than Holland and more cheese than France. This is the great goal we set for ourselves. By that date, we expect to exceed thirty million liters of milk, so much in fact that we will have to export.”
– Fidel Castro Interview with Eddy Martin, Hoy, (La Habana), March 2, 1964
1966, four years after the beginning of the embargo:
“In 1970, the island will have 5,000 specialists in stockraising, and something like 8 million cows and calves, all good producers of milk…there will be enough milk produced in Cuba to fill Havana bay.”
– Fidel Castro, Speech at the Meeting of the Federation of Cuban Women, December 1966
1967, five years after the beginning of the embargo:
PLAYBOY: What have been the effects of the U.S. blockade on Cuban overseas trade?
FIDEL CASTRO: The effect of the American blockade has been to require us to work harder and better.
PLAYBOY: Has it been effective?
FIDEL CASTRO: It has been effective in favor of the revolution.
– Fidel Castro interview, Playboy January 1967
1969, seven years after the beginning of the embargo:
“As for the blockade? Gentlemen! To speak of a blockade at a time like this, when we are about to split the blockade into tiny pieces! Just as Mr. Kennedy had to endure the unpleasant experience of the Bay of Pigs, Mr. Nixon will have to endure the possibly more bitter experiences of watching this country emerge from underdevelopment, achieve levels of agricultural production that no other country in the world has ever achieved. What in heaven’s name will the imperialists say in 1970? (Applause).
We are frankly impatience to see what they will see–what news stories, what arguments, what tricks, what fairy tales they will dredge up to explain this unpleasant fact. Mr. Nixon will in fact experience the unpleasant reality of a blockade which is meaningless.
“Nonetheless, he continues to argue in favor of ‘intensifying the blockade’. This gentlemen is years behind the times–fifteen, perhaps twenty. At times like this? Do they really expect to pressure countries that compete with the Yankee monopoly? Countries with whom Cuba has achieved a good credit standing, since it is one of the few countries that meets its obligations to the letter. Because the slogan of this country is–better to suffer hunger than to fail to pay a single obligation which might affect the country’s credit standing. (Prolonged applause)…
“Imagine thinking that the blockade could have any effect nowadays! At best it makes some people laugh in scorn. Because, besides, we have to pay for the purchases we have made. The countries that have sold us a lot want to sell us a lot more. Who could think that they would want to lose this business by submitting to the blockade? It makes one laugh, really.
“Thus the language of force does not intimidate us. We have been cured of it. The blockade now is a subject of scorn and laughter…it can be nothing less. That is the real situation.”
– Fidel Castro, Speech, Plaza de la Revolución, Havana, January 2, 1969
1975, thirteen years after the beginning of the embargo:
“At first the United States inconvenienced us with its cancellations …but now, happily, we depend on them for nothing—no trade, no food, nothing. And if now we emerge victorious, after the victory, what can they threaten us with? Cancelling…what?”
– Fidel Castro, Speech at the First Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, December 1975
“Given the solidity of our revolution and the development of our relations with the entire world, not to mention our solid links to the socialist world and the Soviet Union both of which guarantee us fuel, wheat, foodstuffs, machines and industrial investments—how are the imperialists going to threaten us?”
– Fidel Castro, Speech at the First Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, December 1975
1985, twenty three years after the beginning of the embargo:
This is Fidel Castro’s answer to the following question from Mervyn M. Dymally: “Let’s daydream a bit. What would happen if the United States were to resume its trade relations with Cuba? What effect would it have on the Cuban economy?”
“But, frankly speaking – I like frankness – economic relations with the United States would not imply any basic benefit for Cuba, no essential benefit. If trade relations with the U.S were renewed tomorrow, and if we were able to export our products to the United States, we would have to start making plans for new lines of production to be exported to the United States, because everything we are now producing and intend to produce in the next five years has already been sold on other markets. We would have to take them away from the other socialist countries in order to sell them back to the U.S., and the socialist countries pay us much better prices and have much better relations with us than does the United States.
We export our citrus fruit, a large part of our sugar, a large part of our nickel, and other products to the other socialist countries, which not only pay us much higher prices and sell their products to us at lower prices, but also charge us much lower interest for credits and reschedule our debt for ten, fifteen, or twenty years without interest. In fact, what are we supposed to do? There’s an old folk saying that goes, “Don’t swap a cow for a goat!”
– Fidel Castro: Nothing Can Stop the Course of History by Jeffrey M. Elliot and Mervyn M. Dymally (Pathfinder Press, 1986; page 80) The book was based in a question and answer interview of Fidel Castro
