Díaz-Canel: May Every Sunrise Find Us Standing in the Fight!

Comrades of the Leadership;
Dear residents of Pinar del Río;
Friends of solidarity:

In the early hours of today, I received a phone call from Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of our Revolution, who asked me to convey the following message to you:

"Dear people of Pinar del Río, receive this July 26th my affection and recognition for having earned, through your effort, dedication to the revolutionary cause, and creative work, the great honor of hosting the main event for the 73rd anniversary of the assaults on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, National Rebellion Day."

A strong embrace to all,
Raúl Castro Ruz (Applause).

Compatriots:

Cuba is fighting a historic battle today: A new Moncada! Like the Centennial Generation that charged with simple rifles against the walls of two barracks of the Batista dictatorship 73 years ago, current generations are going against the walls of a genocidal policy designed to suffocate the entire population in order to take over the country. They will say that the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks in 1953 failed. We will remind them that action ignited the small motor that set into motion the large motor of the Cuban Revolution.

Those are the words of Fidel, who taught us back then to seek victory, even starting from the greatest setbacks. And in his historic self-defense plea, he stated why, declaring: "There is a reason on our side more powerful than all others: we are Cubans, and being Cuban implies a duty; not fulfilling it is a crime and treason."

For that reason, we are fighting fiercely and stubbornly in defense of our sovereignty and our right to freely choose our mode of governance, with the same passion with which José Martí set out to conquer total justice.

In memory of everyone, permit me to note that this is the first July 26th since the 1959 triumph in which Commander of the Revolution Ramiro Valdés Menéndez is not with us (Applause), a hero of that deed and of all those fought by the Cuban people ever since.

Eternal glory to the Moncada veteran! (Exclamations of: "Glory!"), to the expeditionary, the invader, the shaper of fighters for the security of the homeland, the advisor and guide, the man committed to the poor of the Earth who worked until his last breath, convinced like his Commander in Chief that "all the glory in the world fits in a grain of corn!" (Applause.)

Comrades:

We celebrate National Rebellion Day in this western land for the results already highlighted and recognized, but I would say that, in times like these, those are not just achievements; they are proof of daily heroism.

A single data point suffices to illustrate what I say: an infant mortality rate of 4.8 per 1,000 live births and a maternal mortality index of zero, amid blackouts and shortages of all kinds—that is called heroism!

As recognized by the Political Bureau, Pinar del Río shows results in fulfilling key political, economic, and social tasks, with the leadership of production and service workers, farmers, intellectuals, youth, and other sectors of society.

The province prioritizes fulfilling the Government's Economic and Social Program, the Economic Plan, and the State Budget, impacting foreign exchange income through exports; it is a surplus territory and is reducing the number of loss-making enterprises.

I would also highlight, as an example for other provinces, the constant work that has allowed it to boost food production in close coordination with producers, along with agility in the land lease process, a vital priority today.

Of course, it is necessary to speak of tobacco production—a symbol of the territory and an export item of extraordinary value—and food industry production featuring new linkages with non-state management forms.

Through science and innovation, the University of Pinar del Río Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca prioritizes territorial development, serving as a benchmark for the rest of the country.

Overcoming all imaginable adversity, in this region of rich literary and artistic traditions—birthplace of Luis and Sergio Saíz Montes de Oca, Pedro Junco, and Nersys Felipe—the flame of culture has remained alive and elevated.

The commendable work in protecting heritage, sustained cultural outreach in communities, and results achieved during the past academic year in artistic education speak eloquently of the combined efforts of Pinar del Río's institutions and creators to defend their culture, identity, and maintain cultural services for the public.

The province, along with its municipalities and entities, has established a working system that allows for greater connection between Party and Government structures and communities, especially those in vulnerable situations. We have seen this during our constant visits to this noble land.

Congratulations, Pinar del Río, for your heroism and results! (Applause.)

We also greet Villa Clara and Matanzas, outstanding provinces, and recognize the results of Guantánamo and Sancti Spíritus.

We urge you to remain at the forefront and continue to serve as an example of everything that can be done and changed to improve current and very difficult living conditions.

Compatriots:

The historical adversaries of the Cuban nation, intoxicated by the advance of the right and far-right in the region and blind believers in the power of money to buy consciences and subdue wills, launch threats against the Revolution daily and announce new punishments weekly for Cuban companies, officials, and even anyone—Cuban or foreign—who dares to send an oil tanker or invest in Cuba.

The latest sanctions break records of infamy by targeting Public Health officials and Cuban medical services. I ask myself under what absurd argument professionals can be targeted whose performance in remote areas—facing dangerous situations, natural disasters, and contagious diseases—is recognized as excellent by governments of the most diverse political spectrums.

State Department officials, experts in drafting sanctions, making lists, and inventing pretexts, are a modern version of the drafters of edicts and military decrees so feared and hated in the dark medieval times or during the Nazi occupations of World War II. As if the rest of the world were their colony, they order how things must be done under threats of punishment or aggression.

They have declared a global war against the left and labeled Cuba the capital of communism in the 21st century. Under the philosophy of this new mandate, in the country of supposed freedoms, protesting against state policies that impoverish the majority while power elites enrich themselves obscenely is forbidden.

In accusing Cuba, they are not only seeking a scapegoat, an external agent; they are looking for someone to blame for the protests of sectors hardest hit by an economy that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer to unsustainable limits.

They are criminalizing protest without analyzing its causes and opportunistically seeking a new excuse to sustain their genocidal policy against Cuba, which the world condemns.

"Let Cuba live in peace!" And also the most noble among the American people, who have historically fought for the human rights of other peoples without expecting recognition, often facing persecution, prison, and risks to their lives.

Cuba is not a threat to the United States or any other country on Earth! We are a noble people that saves lives where others destroy, sending doctors and teachers where others send bombs, training highly qualified professionals from various nations in sustained cooperation projects amid the greatest shortages!

In these end-of-year days, tense and difficult as only this people knows, Cuban universities have graduated 30,185 young professionals, 735 of them coming from 62 countries. And a data point that honors us to show: twenty-three new Palestinian doctors and five American doctors. Is this what they call terrorism, what they call a threat?! (Applause.)

Everything Cuba does, everything the Cuban Revolution can showcase in programs and facts, is a solid 67-year history of tireless defense of its sovereignty, solidarity, and international cooperation in favor of life, health, education, and science.

The only threat to security in the region, the true and real threat to world peace and human life, is the policy of aggression that causes famines, impoverishment, disorderly migration, chaos, instability, and tens of thousands of deaths worldwide.

Cuba is neither the first nor will it be the last victim of this type of warfare that blockades, suffocates, and seeks social unrest with the sole purpose of imposing governments aligned with imperial interests.

Therefore, from this platform, I denounce that Cuba is the victim of a cold-bloodedly calculated genocide!

The United States Government has consciously designed and implemented a policy of maximum economic suffocation against the Cuban people. It has intensified its six-decade blockade policy, imposing an energy and financial siege that has caused a deep crisis in the National Electroenergy System, resulting in blackouts lasting more than a day, the shutdown of industries, and impacts on tens of thousands of workers.

The immense pain of Cuban families is confirmed in statistics: deaths caused by the lack of medications that for decades the country produced and provided free of charge or at subsidized prices and today cannot guarantee; more than 100,000 surgeries that cannot be scheduled or performed because hospitals cannot be protected from unplanned blackouts during frequent collapses of the National Electroenergy System and due to lack of fuel for backup generators; more than 118,000 cancer patients, including 1,200 children, who cannot receive first-line treatments and are forced into second- and third-line alternative treatments; and what is as or more painful, the infant mortality rate rose to 9.3 per 1,000 live births, compared to the 4 or 5 recorded in previous years. In those numbers are the faces of children who did not live, as a direct consequence of the blockade and its genocidal nature!

Unilateral coercive measures—"sanctions," as the United States calls them, whose government believes it has the right to sanction the rest of the planet—are condemned every year by the United Nations General Assembly as contrary to International Law. It is illegal and criminal to torment a population merely to provoke them to rebel against their government; it cannot even be called a foreign policy tool.

The blockade is a weapon of war that causes deaths. Faced with international condemnation and the honorable, growing solidarity of the peoples we receive, the new hawks leading the U.S. Department of State have disseminated a slanderous report on Cuba's supposed subversive influence against that country. As stated in the Declaration of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is a mediocre propaganda pamphlet aimed at fabricating consensus for eventual military aggression through accusatory legends.

We denounce that those who designed this policy of suffocation, those who implement it and sustain it, are responsible for the suffering of the Cuban people! They are responsible for the deaths caused by lack of access to essential goods! They are responsible for the famine they intend to impose, and history will not forgive them!

We also denounce those who remain silent and tolerate the excesses of the emboldened U.S. fascist far-right, which lies, steals, kills, and aims to set itself up as the God of all destinies.

The U.S. blockade only works through the complicity of those who fear Washington's power more than the judgment of history.

This is a new call to the conscience of the world: Do not become accomplices to another genocide.

Every time a part of the world remains silent in the face of aggression against Cuba, international law is weakened. Every time a government accepts legitimate sanctions from the United States, the principle of non-intervention is eroded. Every time a company is pressured to abandon its investments in Cuba and others decide against making them for fear of retaliation, the economic dictatorship of a single power is strengthened.

Before it was Gaza, Lebanon, Iran; today it is Cuba. Tomorrow it could be any other nation.

Let us not forget that the solidarity that finally rose for Gaza worldwide arrived too late for more than 70,000 Palestinians, including some 21,000 children, whose ashes are part of the horrific mountains of rubble into which Zionist perpetrators converted that martyred strip of land.

That is why I say today that defending Cuba from the cruelty of its executioners cannot wait!

Defending Cuba with strength and urgency means halting the advance of supremacist, racist, xenophobic, elitist, exclusionary ideas that are enemies of true freedom and human emancipation!

Defending Cuba means fighting against 21st-century colonialism, against hegemonism, against the claim that a single country should decide everyone's destiny. There are no superior or inferior nations. The world divided between emperors and subjects was defeated after centuries of struggle and cannot return.

Against intentions to return humanity to the darkest parts of its past, forces and voices are rising globally.

Cuba knows, recognizes, and embraces the peoples and governments, including representatives of the most noble among the American people, who risk everything to bring their message of solidarity and support to the island.

To the women and men like those of the Open Arms flotilla and the Nuestra América convoy, to the social movements of Latin America and the Caribbean that have maintained solidarity with Cuba despite pressure from Washington.

To human rights organizations that denounce the crimes of the blockade in international forums.

To parliamentary groups and legislators from various countries who work tirelessly to condemn illegitimate sanctions.

To European civil society organizations that have maintained ties with Cuba despite threats.

To social, pacifist, and anti-imperialist movements worldwide that understand that the fight against hegemonism is the fight for peace, and to groupings of Southern Global countries that share the conviction that sovereignty is non-negotiable.

Special thanks to all governments that voted in favor of the Cuban resolution against the blockade and energy siege at the United Nations General Assembly, despite insulting pressures from the United States Government.

Special thanks to the solidarity groups visiting us and present at this event: Pastors for Peace; Carlota's Warriors from New York; the Australia-Cuba Solidarity Association; the José Martí Cultural Association of Miami; and the Marcapasos project (Applause). Your presence is living testimony that we are not alone.

Your presence here today is an act of courage, because defending Cuba in times of maximum pressure means taking risks, facing criticism, and exposing the hypocrisy of those who preach human rights but remain silent before crimes of genocide.

We thank you for your solidarity! We thank you for your courage! We thank you for your commitment to justice!

Rest assured that we will not surrender!

Like that morning of July 26th, every day we take harsh daily reality by storm to write the history of our time.

Amid such great difficulties, what are we doing: we are working, creating, and innovating. In all productive areas, workers, farmers, scientists, intellectuals, artists, and students innovate, contribute, and modify technologies to keep producing and keeping our lights on, even minimally; while our adversaries exceed their own perversity, intending to leave us without lights, water, energy, or hope.

Our response to suffocation is inventiveness, creativity, and—even if it bothers them—the joy of the Cuban people! (Applause).

The response to the blockade is intelligent and efficient effort. The response to attempts, never abandoned, to isolate and divide us, is unity.

"Unity is our main strategic weapon," Army General Raúl Castro Ruz told us upon completing another year of the Revolution in January 2024, asking us to guard it more than the apple of our eye.

Unity does not mean uniformity. It means that despite differences in style, dynamics, and ways of facing challenges, we all share the same objective: for Cuba to be a socialist, sovereign, independent, dignified, and ultimately prosperous country, leaving no one behind. Anything that undermines that purpose would strip the Revolution of meaning, because whenever unity fractured in our long history of struggle as a people, the Revolution was lost.

Compatriots:

Creativity and effort alone, however heroic, are not enough to dismantle the structures of the siege. That conviction turns the implementation of ongoing economic and social transformations into a strategic priority. These are deep, necessary changes that have been proposed and debated for several years.

We have undertaken a macroeconomic stabilization process and are boosting all forms of management, encouraging workers and farmers, and opening spaces for responsible investment—always under the sacred principle that changes cannot disregard social justice. This is the economic and social battle of this generation.

The mission is complex and fraught with risks, which we have a responsibility to minimize for those facing vulnerability.

The boldness passed down to us from Moncada demands that we not fear change, but in the name of the supreme ideal of those who fell then and those who gave everything over these years, economic transformations must be guided by a fundamental principle: the highest degree of social justice.

We reaffirm that Cuba is and will be a sovereign country, that no one under any circumstances has the right to decide for us, and that economic, political, and social decisions are and will remain ours!

This year 2026 holds special significance, not only for Cubans; the Centennial Year of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz resonates globally.

Very soon, revolutionary friends from five continents will begin to arrive who, using their own resources and willing to share the complex and challenging harshness we live through, wish to participate in the Colloquium and other events celebrating 100 years of Fidel.

These will be days to analyze and debate the ideas of his extraordinary legacy, evaluate the international and national situation, and examine the role and place of the Cuban Revolution in one of the most difficult moments of its history. It will also be a time to test ourselves in the study and practice of revolutionary work bequeathed by the Commander in Chief.

In his centennial year, Cubans are called to honor his memory with words, but also with deeds: through work, unity, dignity, and sufficient clarity and determination to apply the transformations demanded by the moment and the nation in the shortest possible time.

To young Cubans, I wish to address you now in a particular way. You are the present and the future. Consider yourselves heirs to the courage of Abel Santamaría, Melba, Haydée, and that entire generation: Martí's Centennial Generation. You are the youth of Fidel's Centennial! You are called to lead this moment from every neighborhood and corner of this island. Participate and transform for the good of all, just as it was done one day thinking of your good (Applause).

José Martí, intellectual author of the actions we commemorate today, said: "A people needs only one force: not to distrust its own strength."

Compatriots:

The call now is to action—not to wait, not to complain, not to conform, but to think as a country, seek alternatives with boldness and creativity, care for every resource as if it were the last, produce, substitute imports, and develop our potential. To trust in our own strength! May every Cuban at their workplace, field, workshop, school, and neighborhood be and feel like the protagonist of the transformation we owe ourselves to overcome this moment.

The call today is to hope!

As on that morning of Saint Ana, we face enormous challenges with the same fortitude, optimism, and unshakeable conviction in victory.

Today's Cubans are also overcomers of the impossible, and on this July 26th, we reaffirm our commitment to the homeland, the Revolution, the achievements of socialism, and the task of building an economy mercilessly battered by four centuries of colonialism, six decades of neocolonialism, and six decades of a blockade reinforced into a genocidal plan.

May every sunrise find us standing in the fight!

Long live July 26th!
Long live National Rebellion Day!
Long live a sovereign and independent Cuba!
Long live international solidarity with Cuba!
Socialism or Death!
Homeland or Death!
We Shall Overcome!