Fidel Castro, at almost 81 years of age, having been in charge of the Cuban state for almost 50 years (the world's longest serving political leader) is still breathing fire. Below is a translated extract from his radio discourse to the people of Cuba,17 June 2007. It is entitled ''No Tendran jamas a Cuba!'' (''They will never have Cuba!'')
'' In spite of everything, we will keep growing the necessary and possible means.
'Liberty costs a great deal and it is necessary to buy it at the price it costs or [if not,] resign oneself to living without it', said Marti [a revered figure of the 19th century Cuban wars for Independence].
'Whoever tries to appropriate Cuba will pick up the dust of its earth drenched in [their] blood, if they don't perish in the attempt', proclaimed Maceo [another revolutionary figure].
We are not the first revolutionaries to think this way! And we won't be the last!
A man can be bought, but never a people.
For many years I have survived, through luck, the killing machines of the [North American]empire. Soon it will be one year since I became ill, and when I was between life and death I expressed in the Proclamation of the 31st of July, 2006:
''I do not harbour the least doubt that our people and our revolution will fight until the last drop of blood.''
Do no doubt it, Mr Bush!
I assure you that you will never have Cuba! ''
So much for the notion of feeble old age. One can almost imagine Fidel, in an imaginary US invasion, strapped to a heavy machine gun opposite the beach head, blasting away at the terrified Marines until he was removed by a tactical Patriot missile strike.
Against all odds socialist Cuba has survived the nineties and trudges on in the new century, beleaguered yet seemingly resolute. Yet it is hard to countenance the project having functioned even half as long as it has done without the devastating force that is Fidel. He is the be-all and end-all of the continuing Cuban revolution. Forget Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos, Raul Castro, and the Soviet Union: it was the charisma of one remarkable man that provided the dynamo for a society standing apart.
