It was Reagan who created the Cuban American National
Foundation, whose sinister involvement in the blockade and
in terrorist actions against Cuba would be revealed years
later, when the United States declassified secret documents,
albeit full of information that had been shamefully crossed
out. Had these documents come to light earlier, our conduct
would not have been different.
When, on March 30, 1981, we received news in Cuba that
Reagan had been shot with a low-caliber weapon in an
assassination attempt, we sent him a message condemning the
act. The 22-caliber lead bullet lodged in one of his lungs
was causing him pain and putting his life at risk. The
message is contained in the conversation that, following
precise instructions, our then minister of foreign affairs,
Isidoro Malmierca, had with Wayne Smith, former head of the
US Interests Section in Havana.
What follow are excerpts, quoted verbatim, of the
conversation between the two:
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: We summoned you to this meeting on
the express request of President Fidel Castro. He asked me
to begin by expressing our appreciation for the information
on the assassination attempt on President Reagan that you
provided us with through director Joaquín Más. On behalf of
President Fidel Castro, we also wish to express how deeply
we regret this event and our sincere hope that President
Reagan will recover from this attack as quickly as possible.
“WAYNE SMITH: Thank you, very much.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: We have been receiving information
about the medical attention the President is receiving.
Initially, you had also received information that the
consequences of the attack did not appear to be that severe,
but it seems the situation is more complicated and he is
undergoing surgery.
“WAYNE SMITH: Yes. Our impression is that he has been
operated on already, but over the radio they are now saying
that the operation is to begin now. It is likely to be over
in, say, an hour. A 3-hour surgery, I mean, is nothing
simple, especially for a 70-year-old man. They say there's
no danger. My interpretation of this is that there's no
immediate danger. But, for a 70-year-old man, a 3-hour
surgery is a serious matter. They say he is not in serious
condition, that his condition is stable. We hope everything
goes well. I thank you for your best wishes, your concern
and President Fidel Castro's message.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: In Washington, Mr. Frechette also
approached the Cuban Interests Section and conveyed us
information on this situation. He explained that you had
also received information on this. Again, President Fidel
Castro personally asked me to meet with you and to express
our sincere hope that President Reagan recover promptly from
the consequences of the attack.
“WAYNE SMITH: Thank you, very much. My God! This is a
difficult situation. President Kennedy was assassinated in
Dallas and it looks as though the person responsible for the
assassination attempt on Reagan is from Dallas. He currently
lives in Colorado, but he's from Dallas. I don't know...
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: In some cables, I read that he was
born near Denver, 30 kilometers from Denver.
“WAYNE SMITH: I don’t know. One of my consuls here in the
Interests Section told me he had heard on the radio that
it's a guy who studied in the same school he did. I don’t
know, he may have lived a number of years in Dallas. I don't
know what's in the air people breath in Dallas.
"ISIDORO MALMIERCA: They say they're three brothers, the
sons of a man who's in the oil business.
“WAYNE SMITH: His dad, yes. He's 22 years old. He was a
student at Yale University, but he had recently abandoned
his studies. He may feel bitter, a young man who has failed,
who acted out of resentment. To be completely frank, I'm
glad it's a guy like that and not, say, a Puerto Rican or
something like that, which could have political
implications.
"ISIDORO MALMIERCA: You mean speculations about the
political motivations behind that.
“WAYNE SMITH: Yes, that could, undeniably, prompt,
encourage political readings. An attack by a white man from
Colorado, Texas does not lend itself easily to political
interpretations.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: There have even been a number of
police reports which say that he acted alone, that he has no
ties to any groups...
“WAYNE SMITH: Yes, it must have been an insane or
fanatical person. He got so close to the President...He was
captured immediately. He took out his weapon and fired…
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: Brady died?
“WAYNE SMITH: No.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: They were saying he died.
“WAYNE SMITH: Yes. There were reports to that effect,
that he had died. But the latest news is that he didn't,
that he's in very serious condition, but that he hasn't
died. I imagine that that a 45-calibre round would have been
deadly, but a 22-calibre certainly gives him
possibilities... It seems the shot hit him on the head,
apparently in the head...That's not good news, there isn't
much hope.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: A shot to the head, no matter what
the caliber, is something very serious.
"WAYNE SMITH: Brady is in critical condition. He may
survive, but he'd be a vegetable.
“ISIDORO MALMIERCA: I do regret that we should meet
because of such an unfortunate event.
“WAYNE SMITH: I thank you for your best wishes. I will
immediately send out a cable telling my government of our
conversation. I kindly ask that you express my gratitude to
President Fidel Castro.
No comments are needed. Malmierca's version, written
immediately after the meeting, speaks for itself. Wayne
Smith is today a staunch opponent of the blockade and
aggressions against Cuba.
But this is not the only example of our conduct towards the
President of a country which, since the days of Eisenhower,
has hatched hundreds of plots to physically eliminate me.
A highly confidential report submitted in the summer of 1984
to an agent responsible for the security of Cuban
representatives in the UN warned of a possible assassination
attempt on President Ronald Reagan by a far-right group in
North Carolina. Upon receiving it, we immediately informed
US authorities. Our official suggested that we deliver the
information via Robert C. Muller, head of security of the US
mission to the United Nations, with whom we maintained
contact to ensure the protection of Cuban delegations
visiting the international organization.
The assassination was planned for an imminent date, for
Reagan's visit to North Carolina, as part of his re-election
campaign.
We had all of the information at our disposal. We had the
names of those implicated in the plot; the day, time and
place where the assassination was to take place; the types
of weapons the terrorists had and where they were being
kept. In addition to all this, we knew where the elements
who were plotting this were meeting and had a brief account
of what had been said at a meeting.
The information was given Muller at a meeting in a building
located in 37 and 3rd Avenue, two blocks away
from the Cuban mission.
We provided him with all the information, making sure the
most important details, such as the names of those involved,
the place, time and type of weapons to be used, were clear.
At the end of the conversation, our official informed Muller
he had received instructions from the Cuban government to
report the matter urgently and that we had selected him
because we knew he was an expert on security matters.
Muller read out what he had written down to ensure he had
not changed anything and that all of the important
information was there.
He asked about the source and was told it was reliable. He
said that the Secret Service would need to meet with the
Cuban officials. He was told this would not be a problem.
At around four thirty in the afternoon that day, Secret
Service agents met with the Cuban representatives.
The meeting was held in apartment 34-F, in the 34th
floor of the Ruppert Towers building located in 92, between
Third and Second Avenue, in uptown Manhattan.
The agents were two young, white men with brush haircuts
wearing suits. Their chief aim was to verify what Muller had
reported, as evidenced by the copy of the cable he had sent
them they brought with them. When the contents of the cable
were read, they were told no information was missing.
The Secret Service agents wanted to know who had provided
the information and how it had come into our possession.
They were told what Muller was told. They were also
interested in knowing if we could elaborate on the
information, and they were told that, if any new information
were to arrive, they would be immediately informed.
They left their cards and asked to be contacted directly if
any additional information was received, saying there was no
need to use Muller as an intermediary.
The following Monday, we received news that the Federal
Bureau of Investigation had detained a group of people in
North Carolina, against whom a number of charges had been
brought, none, as is logical to assume, related to the plan
to assassinate President Reagan, who traveled to that State
shortly afterwards as part of his presidential re-election
campaign.
Four or five days following the arrests, at the end of the
week, Muller phoned the Cuban mission to invite the Cuban
official to lunch. They had lunch at the UN delegates’
lounge. The first thing Muller did was ask that the official
convey the United States' gratitude to the Cuban government
for the information provided, confirming that an operation
against those involved had been carried out. A Cuban
anti-terrorist activist had saved the life of a US
President!
Some US press reports mention an intimate diary, over 700
pages long, kept by Reagan— from the time he entered office
to the day he handed the presidency over to Bush Sr.— which
tries to suggest that his government was not that aggressive
towards Cuba.
However, according to some accounts, in his memoirs, Robert
McFarlane, then Undersecretary of State under Alexander
Haig, wrote that, of all the governments that had had
dealings with Fidel Castro since 1959, Reagan's seemed the
least indicated to hold talks with Cuba's communist regime.
Perhaps Reagan was grateful for our concern, when he was
nearly assassinated in 1981, and for the warning that saved
his life from imminent danger, and he expressed this
gratitude through Robert C. Muller.
Reagan signed the first migratory accord with Cuba, but he
could not rise above his milieu, for there were others,
further to the right than he was, who would have physically
eliminated him, as they did Kennedy after he faced the
terrible risk of a thermonuclear war. To be sure, Reagan did
change his policy towards Cuba in an electoral year, did not
honor the accord he signed which guaranteed the granting of
up to 20 thousand visas a year for safe trips by granting
less than a thousand, and kept in effect the Cuban
Adjustment Act, which has cost Cuba many lives.
On September 11, 2001, true chaos reigned in this
neighboring country. For long, planes were forbidden to
land at airports. A countless number of passenger planes
were mid-flight somewhere. These were the news spread by the
media in the United States. There were reports of thousands
of victims in New York, including Twin Tower staff,
firefighters and visitors. There were also reports of people
on a passenger plane which was flown into the Pentagon. We
offered to supply the United States with clean blood from
regular donors if it was needed for any eventuality. Blood
donations have long constituted a tradition of the
Revolution.
These events happened to coincide with the day in which we
had convened nearly 15,000 higher education students and
university graduates for a 6:00 pm gathering, on the
occasion of the re-opening of the Salvador Allende School,
where 3,599 young people would begin higher studies and
avail themselves of new and tried methods to become primary
school teachers.
That painful incident occurred six years ago today. Today,
we know that the public was deliberately misinformed. I
don't recall any talk, that day, of the fact that, in the
basements of those towers, whose higher floors housed the
banks of multinational corporations and other offices, lay
nearly 200 tons in gold bars. An order to shoot to death
anyone who attempted to get to the gold had been issued. The
calculations with respect to the steel structures, plane
impacts, the black boxes recovered and what they revealed do
not coincide with the opinions of mathematicians,
seismologists, information, demolition experts and others.
What is most shocking is the claim that we may never know
what actually happened. It is known, however, that a number
of people en route to San Francisco from New Jersey, had
conversations with their relatives when the air vessels were
already under the control of individuals who were not
members of the crew.
An analysis of the impact of planes similar to those against
the towers, following accidental plane crashes in
densely-populated cities, concludes that no plane crashed
against the Pentagon and that only a projectile could have
created the geometrically round hole that the alleged plane
created. No passenger that perished there has turned up,
either. No one in the world questioned the news about the
attack on the Pentagon building. We were deceived, as were
the rest of the planet's inhabitants.
When I spoke at the Ciudad Deportiva sports complex that
September 11th, I spoke of the tragedy that had
hit the United States. In the interests of conciseness, I am
reproducing the following excerpts from that speech:
(…) We did not even
consider postponing the ceremony. It could not be postponed,
despite the international tension created by such events. I
would imagine that almost everyone knows about them, but to
briefly summarize, at approximately 9:00 this morning, a
Boeing airplane, a really big one, crashed straight into one
of the two New York famous towers which make up one of the
highest buildings in the world. Naturally, the tower caught
on fire because of all the fuel from such a big airplane,
and some horrific scenes began. And then, 18 minutes later,
another plane, also from an U.S. airline, crashed straight
into the second tower.
A few
minutes later, another plane crashed into the Pentagon. News
arrived, in the midst of a certain amount of confusion, of a
bomb outside the State Department, and other alarming
events, although I have mentioned the most important.
Obviously, the country had fallen victim to a violent
surprise attack, unexpected, unimaginable, something truly
unheard of. And the scenes that ensued were appalling,
especially when the two towers were burning, and foremost
when they both collapsed, all 100 floors, spilling over onto
neighboring buildings, when it was known that there were
tens of thousands of people working there, in offices
representing many companies from various countries.
It was
only logical that this would be a shock for the United
States and the rest of the world. The stock markets started
to collapse, and because of the political, economic and
technological importance and the power of the United States,
the whole world was shaken up today by those events. So, we
had to follow the events throughout the day, but at the same
time, we also had to continue thinking about the conditions
and circumstances in which this ceremony would take place.
Therefore, there were two issues: the school and the
extremely important course it will offer, and the political
and human catastrophe that had taken place over there,
especially in New York.
(…)
Today is a day of tragedy for the United States. You know
very well that hatred against the American people has never
been sown here. Perhaps, precisely because of its culture,
its lack of prejudice, its sense of full freedom –with a
homeland and without a master-- Cuba is the country where
Americans are treated with the greatest respect. We have
never preached any kind of national hatred, or anything
similar to fanaticism, and that is the reason for our
strength, because our conduct is based on principles
and ideas. We treat all Americans who visit us with great
respect, and they have noticed this and said so themselves.
Furthermore, we cannot forget the American people who put an
end to the Vietnam War with their overwhelming opposition to
that genocidal war. We cannot forget the American people who
–in numbers that exceeded 80% of the population-- supported
the return of Elián González to his homeland. We cannot
forget their idealism, although it is often undermined by
deception, because –as we have said often times– in
order to mislead Americans to support an unjust cause, or an
unjust war, they must first be deceived. The classic method
used by that huge country in international politics is that
of deceiving the people first, to count on their support
later. When it is the other way around, and the people
realize that something is unjust, then based on their
traditional idealism they oppose what they have been
supporting. Often these are extremely unjust causes, which
they had supported convinced that they were doing the right
thing.
Therefore, although unaware of the exact number of victims
but seeing those moving scenes of suffering, we have felt
profound grief and sadness for the American people.
We do
not go around flattering any government, or asking for
forgiveness or favors. We neither harbor in our hearts a
single atom of fear. The history of our Revolution has
proven its capacity to stand up to challenges, its capacity
to fight and its capacity to resist whatever it has to; that
is what has turned us into an invincible people. These are
our principles. Our Revolution is based on ideas and
persuasion, and not on the use of force.
(…)That
has been our reaction, and we wanted our people to see the
scenes and watch the tragedy. We have not hesitated to
express our sentiments publicly, and right here I have a
statement, which was drafted as soon as the facts were known
and handed out to the international media around 3:00 p.m.
In the meantime, our television networks were broadcasting
news of the events. This statement was scheduled to be read
to the Cuban public tonight during the evening TV newscast.
I am
going to move the time up a few minutes by reading to you
here and now the Official Statement from the Government of
Cuba on the events that took place in the United States:
"The
Government of the Republic of Cuba has learned with grief
and sadness of the violent surprise attacks carried out this
morning against civilian and official facilities in the
cities of New York and Washington, which have caused
numerous deaths.
(…)"It
is not possible to forget that for over four decades our
country has been the target of such actions fostered from
within the United States territory.
"Both
for historical reasons and ethical principles, the
Government of our country strongly repudiates and condemns
the attacks against the aforementioned facilities and hereby
expresses its most heartfelt sympathies to the American
people for the painful, unjustifiable loss of human lives
resulting from these attacks.
"In this
bitter hour for all Americans, our people express their
solidarity with the American people and their full
willingness to cooperate, to the extent of their modest
possibilities, with the health care institutions and any
other medical or humanitarian organization in that country
in the treatment, care and rehabilitation of the victims of
this morning’s events."
Although
it is not known whether the casualties are 5000, 10,000,
15,000 or 20,000, it is known that the planes that crashed
into the Twin Towers and into the Pentagon were carrying
hundreds of passengers, and we have offered to provide
whatever we can, if necessary.
That is
a country with great scientific and medical development and
resources, but at some point in time it could need blood of
a specific type or plasma –any other product that we could
donate, we would be most willing to give-- or medical
support or paramedics. We know many hospitals are short of
specific technicians and professionals. In other words, we
want to express our disposition and readiness to be helpful
in relation to these tragic events.
(…) The
hijacking of planes –a method used against Cuba-- became a
universal plague, and it was Cuba that solved this problem
when, after repeated warnings, we sent two hijackers back to
the United States. It is painful because they were Cubans
but we had issued public warnings, so they came and we
returned them. We complied with our public pledge, yet they
never again provided us with any information about them to
give to their relatives. They have their own ways of doing
things. No one knows. I know they were sentenced to 40 years
imprisonment, and that put an end to those hijackings".
(…) None of the problems affecting today’s world can be
solved with the use of force; there is no global,
technological or military power that can guarantee immunity
against such acts, because they can be organized by small
groups [which are] difficult to detect.
(...) It
is very important to know what the reaction of the U.S.
Government might be. Possibly the world will be living
dangerous days, and I am not talking about Cuba. Cuba is the
most peaceful country in the world, for several reasons: our
policies, our forms of struggle, our doctrine, our ethics,
and also, comrades, and due to an absolute absence of fear.
Nothing
troubles us. Nothing intimidates us. It would be very
difficult to concoct a slanderous accusation against Cuba;
not even its inventor and the patent holder would believe
it. It would be very difficult. And Cuba means something in
the world today. It has a very high moral position, and a
very sound political position in the world.
The days
to come will be tense inside the United States. A number of
people will start putting forward opinions.
(…) We
would advise the leaders of that powerful empire to remain
calm, to act with a cool head, to avoid getting carried away
by a fit of rage or hatred, and not to start trying to hunt
people down by throwing bombs just anywhere.
I
reiterate that none of the world’s problems, not even
terrorism, can be solved with the use of force, and every
act of force, every imprudent action that entails the use of
force anywhere, is going to seriously aggravate the world
problems.
The way
is neither the use of force nor the war. I say this with the
full authority of someone who has always talked honestly, of
someone with sound convictions and the experience of
surviving the years of struggle that Cuba has lived through.
Only reason, and the intelligent policy of seeking strength
through consensus and international public opinion, can
definitely eradicate this problem. I think this unexpected
episode should be used to undertake an international effort
against terrorism. However, this international struggle
against terrorism cannot be won by eliminating a terrorist
here and another one there, by killing people here and
there, using similar methods to theirs and sacrificing
innocent lives. It can only be won, among other ways, by
putting an end to State terrorism and other repulsive forms
of killing, by putting an end to genocide, and by seriously
pursuing a policy of peace and respect for moral and legal
standards. The world cannot be saved unless a path of
international peace and cooperation is pursued.
(…) We
have proven that we can survive, live and make progress, and
everything seen here today is an expression of unprecedented
progress in all of human history. Progress is not achieved
only through the manufacturing of automobiles; developing
people’s minds, providing knowledge, promoting culture, and
looking after human beings the way they should be looked
after makes progress. That is the secret of the tremendous
strength of our Revolution.
The
world cannot be saved in any other way, and by that I mean
the situations of violence. Let us seek peace everywhere and
protect all the people from that plague of terrorism. There
is another horrible plague today, which is called AIDS, for
instance. There is another plague, which kills tens of
millions of children, teenagers and adults in the world,
that is, hunger, disease and a lack of health care and
medicines.
In the
political arena, there are absolutist ideas, and attempts to
impose a single way of thinking on the world; this fosters
rebellious attitudes and irritation everywhere.
This
world cannot be saved –and this does not have anything to do
with terrorism-- if this unfair economic and social order
continues to be developed and applied; an order that is
leading the world to disaster, along a path from which there
is no escape for the 6.2 billion people living today and the
future inhabitants of this planet, suffering ever greater
destruction and plunged further into poverty, unemployment,
hunger and despair. This has been proven by the masses in
places that have already gone down in history, like Seattle,
Quebec, Washington and Genoa.
The
world’s most powerful economic and political leaders now
find it almost impossible to meet; everywhere we can see
that people are less and less afraid, and are rising up. I
was recently in Durban, a province in South Africa, and
there I saw thousands and thousands of people members of
non-governmental organizations; discontent is spreading like
wildfire around the globe (…).
How enormously different is the conduct of the Cuban
government from that of the government of the United States!
The Revolution, based on truth, and the empire, based on
lies!
Fidel Castro Ruz
September 11, 2007
5:25 p.m
