The Second Declaration of Havana, a program for the Revolution

This time, the heads of Yankee central intelligence (the CIA) and the
Pentagon, embittered over their total defeat at the Bay of Pigs, in April
1961, thought up a strategy for US armed forces to directly attack the
Island, together with representatives of puppet Latin American armies.

A significant development to justify the attack was Cuba’s expulsion from
the Organization of American States (OAS) during a meeting that took place
in Punta del Este, Uruguay. At this meeting, with the sole exception of
Mexico, every single Latin American country broke off diplomatic relations
with the revolutionary government.

This fact and the general climate that presaged the attack, drove Fidel
Castro, the Leader of the Revolution, to declare on 4 February 1962, the
Second Declaration of Havana, approved unanimously by the People’s
General Assembly that had assembled in Plaza de la Revolución José
Martí.

On this occasion, Fidel denounced these plans, reaffirmed his decision to
resist the imperialist attack and delivered a historical analysis of the
revolutionary situation on the continent and the imperialist exploitation
that had endured. For almost a century, the Latin American governments had
cowered in submission to Washington’s interests.

One part strikes out:
"We will resist on every single battle site: we will resist on the economic
battleground, we will persist in advancing on the cultural front (...) Our
Fatherland is not toiling away for today. Rather, our Fatherland sweats for
tomorrow. And this will be a tomorrow, overflowing with promises that
nobody will be able to snatch away from us; no one will be able to deny us
it, because with our people’s pietas, we are going to win it; through our
people’s bravery and heroism, we are going to conquer.”

The Second Declaration of Havana aroused support from the people of Latin
America and was an inspiration for the revolutionary processes across the
entire continent. And this consolidated in a political and moral victory
for Cuba against the whole world. [What’s more], it served as a warning
to the White House: if it attacked the island, it would be faced with a
trump card: the active opposition of the peoples against the puppet
governments in the surrounding lands.

In this respect, the Cuban Leader said that the poor would rise up like of
wave of
“fibrilating rancour, justice demanded and rights that had been trampled.
A wave that is beginning to surge throughout the lands of Latin
America”.

Fidel ended with words repeated years later by Ernesto Guevara at the UN:
“Because this great humanity has said “enough’s enough!” and has
awoken. Because this march of giants will not stop until it has won true
independence; because they have died more than once in vain. Today, in any
event, those that may die, will die like those in Cuba, those at the Bay of
Pigs. They will die for a single, genuine independence that can never be
given up!"

The Second Declaration of Havana heralded an entire initial phase of
resistance and victory for the Cuban Revolution, still a newborn, and for
the revolutionary heroic acts of Latin America during the 1960s. This
revolution found its greatest expression in the guerrilla, Che, in Bolivia.
Such heroic acts sowed the seed of processes - anti-imperialism and
revolutionary in kind - that are currently taking place in the region;
that, today in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, are fighting against
imperialist aggression, which with just as much anger, is trying to topple
them.