Originally posted by
[email protected] 10 2006, 05:45 AM
I am surprised Castro could accumulate that much. My guess is he gets it from the drug trade.
btw all of you, dictators are never good. COmmunism in it self just seems to give rise to them for some reason.
Almost billionaire...right.
Dictator? LOL!
Alright, now that I'm done laughing, and you're just beginning to do the only thing you can against one of the greatest fighters for social justice (trashing his image), there's this.'
Fidel Castro Responds to Forbes Magazine Libel
I urge you to prove I have one single dollar in a foreign bank
account!
MARIA JULIA MAYORAL, PEDRO DE LA HOZ AND JOSE A. DE LA OSA
Cuban president Fidel Castro challenged US President George W. Bush,
the CIA, the 33 intelligence institutions of the United States, the
thousands of banks existing in the world, and the Forbes magazine
"servants", who said he has a personal fortune of $900 million
dollars, to prove he has a single dollar in a foreign bank account.
In exchange of one single piece of evidence he said he would offer
them what they have been looking for so desperately and have not been
able to achieve for almost half a century, during which they have
tried to destroy the Revolution and assassinate him through hundreds
of attempts against his life. "I will present you with everything you
have longed for," he stated. "Just show me one account, one dollar,"
he stressed.
"If you can prove that I have one dollar I will resign from all my
responsibilities; you will not need any transitions plans if you can
prove that I have one single dollar," the leader of the Cuban
Revolution emphatically stated.
They are now at a dead end street with all those lies, he pointed out
in reference to the US-based Forbes magazine that claimed he profited
from public enterprises of the island.
"What would I need that money for now if I am about to turn 80, and I
did not want it before?" He noted that during his entire life he had
had principles as a bulwark and had never abandoned them.
He said he had been calculating the amount of suitcases he would have
needed to carry all that money, and said he would have needed about a
thousand. "Who took them? In what plane? Who carried the money, who
guarded it? How could I be taking all this money out of the country
for so many years?" They have to be stupid to be claiming this, he
said, regardless of the moral arguments that could be used.
It is an insult, he said, noting that they want to depict him now as
the thieves they had always supported. "Where is Mobuto's money?
Where is the money of the Somozas?" He added that there are hundreds
of billions of stolen money in US banks. "It is all there: just look
for the money and publish a list," he said.
Fidel said that more horrifying than depicting him as stealing is
making him look as if he was betraying all those who had died in the
struggle, during the attack of Moncada Barracks, in the Sierra
Maestra mountains, in the Bay of Pigs, in the internationalist
missions, or defending the nation from terrorist acts. "It would be
like betraying entire generations of people who have struggled hard,"
he stressed.
He added that Forbes should proceed to publish a list of "bandits",
of those who have set a record in organizing the largest number of
attempts against the life of a person in all history, the
assassination plans orchestrated against him by the most powerful
nation on Earth.
He noted that while malicious slander is published against Cuba and
its leaders, the country is spearheading a program that will restore
eyesight to millions of Latin Americans through surgery.
Making reference to the thousands of patients who have benefited from
"Operacion Milagro", he wondered what those people would think when
they read the papers talking about his alleged wealth? "It is a
slander campaign to depict me as a thief," and that only pursues one
goal: to slander Cuba, to describe Castro as a thief so that no one
acknowledges what this country is doing to benefit the rest of the
world. This even when we are a country with some 25,000 healthcare
professionals working free of charge in a large number of countries.
And we can accomplish this because we have human capital, for we
certainly have 100 billion dollars worth of human capital," he
stressed.
The Cuban leader read from different media articles carrying the
slander circulated by Forbes. He noted that while these lies are
deliberately spread, "not one word is said about the 20,000 Latin
American students being trained as doctors in Cuba, or the nearly 100
000 doctors will be trained in the upcoming years."
FORBES: LIBEL SERVICE OF THE US EMPIRE
The slander and lies spread about Fidel Castro by Forbes magazine,
described as a defamation service in the hands of the US empire, were
laid bear Monday night by a group of well-known experts who took part
in a special broadcast that was transmitted by radio and television
from Havana.
The conspiracy plot on the part of the magazine's publisher and his
boss-the anti-Cuba obsessed US president, George W. Bush-was outlined
last night by a panel of experts who also noted the servility of the
US media towards the White House.
With solid arguments and evidence, each of participants demonstrated
how the US is exasperated by the advances made by the Cuban
Revolution in a meticulous, honest, fair and transparent manner.
Fidel Castro said it was disgusting to see the malicious slander
published by Forbes that included him between monarchs and dictators
on a list of the world's wealthiest leaders.
President Castro explained that the US government has frequently
resorted to such desperate accusations. He recalled how President
Bush had once said that business with Cuba "does no more than fill
the pockets of Castro and his henchman" in a pathetic attempt to
justify the blockade and appease his associates in the Miami-Cuba
mafia.
"I was not born poor. My father owned thousands of acres of land.
With the triumph of the Revolution [1959] his land was handed over to
farm workers and peasants. I have the honor of being able to say that
I have no bank accounts or assets, not even one dollar. All my
fortune, Mr. Bush, could fit in your shirt pocket."
He also spoke about how over the last year, Bush and US officials
have been caught in a serious breach by providing protection to
international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Bush has refused to
comment, but other officials have been forced to finally admit that
Cuba's allegations that the US was harboring this notorious criminal
were true.
The abuses hurled by Forbes have been made on several occasions; the
most recent have been repeated by a US media completely servile to
the Bush administration.
Fidel said that he hesitated about answering such ridiculous attacks
but thought that it would be useful to hear experts outline several
aspects related to the topic. Invited to the special address were
Francisco Soberon, the president of the Central Bank of Cuba, a man
whom Fidel said was one of the most honest persons he had ever met;
Abel Prieto, the minister of Culture, who is in frequent contact with
social movements and progressive intellectuals; Concepcion Campa, who
oversaw the creation of Cuba's vaccine against meningitis B; Augstin
Lage, head of the Molecular Immunology Center, one of the leading
research centers in the development of anti-cancer drugs; and
historian Eusebio Leal, a world authority in the restoration of
historic cities and at the head of the enormous task of restoring Old
Havana.
CONSPIRACY PLOTS SPUN BY THE ULTRARIGHT AND THE CIA
Soberon presented an accurate profile of the owner of Forbes
magazine, Steve Forbes. He noted that Forbes is an ultra-rightwing
businessman associated with presidents Reagan and Bush Sr. in their
efforts to destabilize the former European Socialist camp. A rich US
businessman interested in exposing the origins of far-off fortunes
while reluctant to publicly disclose the origins of his own that is
in the realm of $US1.84 billion.
Francisco Soberon also detailed the blatantly inconsistent methods
used to calculate the non-existent fortune of the Cuban leader. He
noted that Forbes could have equally attributed to Bush ten percent
of the $US 500 billion, profits from drug trafficking and organized
crime, that is laundered in US banks on a yearly basis with impunity.
Or the ten percent of the bribes and pay offs from the $US 280.46
billion that US taxpayers have spent on the war against Iraq.
The president of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) suggested that
instead of spreading slander and trying to taint the reputation of
Fidel Castro, the magazine would do better to investigate the turbid
past of Bush and the way he amassed his fortune, including the buying
and selling of the Texas Rangers baseball team and their stadium, the
financial irregularities of the Harken Energy Corporation and its
links to Enron, the leading player in the largest fraud in recent US
history.
Soberon pointed to the great confidence that people around the world
have in the Cuban banking system, noting that the BCC recently issued
€400 million worth of bonds at seven percent annual interest on the
London Stock Exchange that were all bought up the same day they were
released by foreign and Cuban banks.
In the last nine years, Soberon recalled, Cuba has paid $US 44
billion for imports, using among others revenues generated by the
Cuban state-owned import and export company CIMEX through the sale of
vaccines and funds from the Havana Convention Center, in addition to
other revenues that have fuelled Cuban bank accounts to pay for
national spending in education, health, security, internal defense
and reserves for natural emergencies and epidemics, among others.
He noted that with Cuba's centrally-planned economy and with a
national banking system that handles all of the hard currency
revenues, it is impossible for any high-ranking official to possess
bank accounts outside of Cuba.
"With absolute moral authority and before our people and public
opinion, we confirm that Cuban leader Fidel Castro embodies an
example of dignity and impeccable character," concluded Soberon.
LIES AS A WEAPON
"They chose the wrong millionaire," said Abel Prieto, the minister of
Culture, about Forbes magazine including Fidel Castro in its list of
wealthy leaders. He pointed to the long history of slander and lies
systematically used by the United States to try and discredit those
that do not give in to their hegemonic project.
Prieto explained that lies have become a powerful media weapon. He
compared two cases, one that made headline news and another which was
silenced.
First, he recalled the fuss made in 1986 over the made-up case of "a
supposed handicapped poet," notorious terrorist Armando Valladares,
who Ronald Reagan appointed as the US ambassador to the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva as a reward. Prieto
contrasted the fabrication with the investigation carried out around
the same time by Salvadoran activist Herbert Anaya on the torture and
crimes committed at the La Esperanza prison. None of the major media
was willing to publish information from the report or show victim's
video testimonies.
Prieto said the practice of using misinformation has reached
unprecedented extremes under the current US administration. He
pointed to the lies that justified the attack on Iraq and those
surrounding the assassination of Spanish cameraman Jose Couso and
other journalists in Baghdad.
On the positive side, the minister of Culture said that with time the
truth is making headway. He expressed his belief that the book 100
Hours with Fidel: Conversations with Ignacio Ramonet, to be presented
Tuesday in Havana, will be very useful. Ramonet was also one of the
guests during Monday's special address.
WE DON'T NEED TO DEFEND OURSELVES, WE ARE HERE TO ACCUSE
"We are here to accuse those who steal and those who lie," noted the
distinguished scientist Agustin Lage. "We don't need to defend
ourselves; Fidel is defended by his life's work, his ethics and his
consistency."
Agustin Lage, who is also a parliament member, termed the latest
defamation as an insult to the Cuban people and one more example of
decades of similar conduct from the ideological adversaries of the
Revolution. The slander is based on the premise "that we are a
country of idiots or cowards without a notion of history and that we
would allow the nation to be led by a leader capable of stealing and
enriching himself," he said.
"This country took up arms precisely to overthrow the corrupt
capitalist politicians and Fidel was one of the first to take up arms
to end the tyranny," added Lage, who heads one of the scientific
research centers on the west side of the Cuban capital.
The scientist underlined that the first thing one gathers from the
Forbes article is that the authors have a total lack of knowledge
about the Cuban reality. As an example he cited the firm MEDICUBA,
listed by Forbes as one of the sources of the personal wealth of
President Fidel Castro. The firm, said Lage, doesn't export any
medicines or any other biotech product.
He said what can be clearly read between the lines of the article is
recognition that Cuba's biotech industry is bringing in sizeable
revenues, at a time when many similar companies around the world are
unable to turn a profit. Lage noted that in the case of the United
States, 70 percent of the firms in the biotech sector survive and
obtain profits via financial speculation and other businesses.
"Not one cent of the revenues obtained by this sector goes towards
increasing the personal fortune of anybody. Between 1980 and 1990
alone, more than a billion dollars was invested in the biotech
sector," said Lage, who noted that facilities based on Cuban
technology have been set up in India and China.
Lage added that the foreign currency earned helps finance public
health programs in Cuba. "If that wasn't so, I could not speak today
of all Cuban children being vaccinated free of charge against 13
diseases or all HIV/AIDS patients receiving triple therapy
medication."
He noted that revenues from export sales also make possible the
development of scientific research which requires costly equipment,
made even more expensive by the extraterritorial laws dictated by the
US government and the constant persecution of firms willing to do
business with our country.
Presently there are more than 150 research projects underway and Cuba
has already registered over 900 patents as a result of the research
in this field, he added. The success of the biotech industry also
continues to increase its contribution to the national budget.
The enemy, commented Lage, is perverse but not stupid. They know that
Cuba is an example and strive to isolate it and hamper its success at
all costs. The attack on Fidel, he concluded, is an attack on the
Revolution, on the foundations of our political system, on the Cuban
concepts of economic development.
THE WEALTH OF VIRTUES
Eusebio Leal, the Havana City historian, spoke about the lack of
interest in material wealth that characterizes Fidel Castro. He said
that for years he has kept his personal experiences regarding this to
himself but decided to reveal them on the program. Leal explained
that at the personal request of Fidel Castro, between 1991 and 1995
he distributed 11,687 gifts received by the Cuban leader from 133
nations. These included paintings, jewelry, precious stones, marble
sculptures, valuable tapestries, old arms, clothes, furniture,
cameras and personal items.
Leal, a lover of history, said he would have preferred to show the
objects in a collection related to Fidel, but recalled that the order
was for the pieces to be delivered to cultural centers and others,
without any public mention of the donation. The only place where some
of these pieces appear are in museum registers or those of other
centers that benefited.
Given the new slander from the US, Leal also revealed that the
recently inaugurated numismatic museum in Old Havana has over a
thousand ounces of gold donated by Fidel, including 920 coins from
different periods in US history.
Leal spoke about the austerity and personal example that has
characterized Fidel throughout his life. "That's how it was during
the insurrectional phase when he decided to pawn his personal
possessions to raise money for the struggle rather than asking others
for money or using the resources of his parents. The same attitude
was taken by the Castro family when the Revolution succeeded in 1959
as they voluntarily gave up their land in Biran.
"The example of Fidel's austerity, selflessness, generosity and
ethics motivated many young people to join the struggle back then and
they are still willing to do so today and in the future," said the
Havana City historian. "His human qualities are also exemplified by
the fact that he never abandoned a comrade, his high demands of
himself and the special care he takes to protect Cuba's cultural
heritage." Leal said an outstanding example "is the physical, social
and spiritual recovery underway in Old Havana."
Also speaking during the program to denounce the Forbes accusations
was Dr. Concepcion Campa, a member of the Communist Party Political
Bureau and director of the Finlay Institute. The doctor said, "Cuba's
enemies are incapable of understanding those people who do not think
of money as a God." She added that "Fidel has taught us that wealth
is not measured by who has the most, but instead by who needs the
least," something very difficult to understand by those who make wars
of aggression and leave behind long-term effects like those suffered
in Vietnam, where malformed children are still being born as a result
of the use of Agent Orange more than 30 years ago.
The exceptional researcher then described the assistance Cuba
provides to many nations by supplying vaccinations without taking
into account the political positions of the governments in those
countries. As an example she mentioned the donation made to the
Uruguayan people in 2002 to combat a meningitis epidemic at the same
time that the government of that country was siding up with the
United States to condemn Cuba at the UN Commission on Human Rights.