“Fidel belongs to all revolutionaries of the world who admire his work and share his ideas” 

(Shorthand Versions - Presidency of the Republic)

Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution;

Dear Dalia and family of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz (Applause);

Comrades:

Fidel lives on, as do the women and men of all eras, geographies, and ethnicities who dedicated their lives to the struggle for a better world for all.

This is the Centenary of a warrior, a rebel, a fighter, a righteous man from Cuba, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. A righteous man of humanity! (Applause.)

More than 1,500 participants from 63 countries, including 500 Cubans, filled the various spaces of the Convention Center each day during the First International Colloquium commemorating Fidel's 100th birthday. For every delegate, thousands more interested parties were unable to attend from abroad, and many more Cubans were unable to register due to basic logistical issues.

The organizers are responsible for disseminating the presentations, with their undeniable contributions and numerous revelations from those who worked directly with the Commander-in-Chief or have dedicated years to studying the impact of his leadership on a wide range of issues.

It will also be important to learn what questions, concerns, and requests for information arise from the national and international participants, especially the young people.

The Fidel Castro Ruz Center and the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Party, primarily responsible for organizing the Colloquium, deserve our full recognition and congratulations (Applause), despite the extreme limitations the country faces. This is in addition to the other organizations and agencies involved.

We thank all the participants and guests for their personal and collective contributions to the valuable legacy that the institution honoring the life and work of our historic leader safeguards with the utmost care.

In the midst of the brutal and immoral imperial blockade that seeks the extermination of our people, this Fidel's celebration from Havana will be remembered as another challenge overcome by sheer willpower; an impossible feat transformed into a beautiful and tangible reality by the effort and solidarity of you, sisters and brothers, who have come prepared to do anything, covering expenses from distant countries, carrying suitcases of donations, and without demanding any material conditions whatsoever. All our gratitude to you! (Applause and shouts of: “Cuba is not alone!”)

It is impossible to commemorate this event of such profound universal resonance alone. Fidel is not only from Cuba. Fidel belongs to all the revolutionaries of the world who admire his work and share his ideas. Fidel belongs to all humanity! (Applause.)

To be a Fidel's follower is not to profess blind faith. It is an honorable attitude toward life. To be a Fidel's follower is to define ourselves as permanent anti-imperialist fighters against all injustices in the world.

And celebrating the eternity of the Commander-in-Chief means, first and foremost, defeating once again those who tried to assassinate him more than six hundred times and only succeeded in magnifying his figure.

The Soldier of Ideas is back in a way that should terrify his adversaries: hundreds, thousands, millions of people of all ages and faiths, in almost every corner of the world, are expanding his legacy, not only to alleviate the natural nostalgia for his absence—which we also feel and which forms part of the powerful emotions we share—but above all, to embark on new paths in the battle for the future, without surrendering, without selling out, without betraying, without submitting to the voraciousness of the decadent empire that acts with no adherence to any law other than the law of plunder and greed.

Fidel Lives! Long Live Fidel! (Exclamations of: “Long live!”) (Applause.)

Today we celebrate a life dedicated to fighting for all just causes, with passion and commitment, since he was practically a teenager. We delve deeply into the ideals of a tireless explorer of history and the human condition, who drew upon the best and most useful of universal thought with exceptional acuity and distinguished himself with an ethic that, like an invincible moral shield against which the worst attacks of his enemies shattered, enshrined him before history as the paradigm of the true revolutionary, at the highest rung of the human race.

I know you will agree with me: We will have many more anniversaries ahead to celebrate his ideas! (Applause.)

From what the doctors and teachers shared, what the scientists and religious leaders argued, what the artists and intellectuals extolled, what the athletes and combatants expressed, what the diplomats and parliamentarians revealed, and what the young people affirmed, let me tell you that we felt Fidel very much alive in every corner of this Colloquium. We saw him multiplied in each of you.

In a special way, Fidel was reborn in the Youth Forum. As I told them, after listening to their speeches, most of them showed impressive maturity, undoubtedly, some due to the very complexity of the alienating capitalist societies they have had to live in, but, above all, due to their well-reasoned responses regarding the causes of the problems and the way in which they assume and express their militancy, proudly defending it, despite the risks and threats they must face for attending the celebration of Fidel's Centenary in Cuba in times like these, when the McCarthyist practices of the Cold War are returning.

I told them quite honestly that without them, the Colloquium wouldn't have made much sense. Who better than young people to understand Fidel's humanist and revolutionary legacy?

He had already told them: even greater struggles and greater acts of heroism will be required of the new generations. The future is full of tasks, the future is full of struggles that require awareness, that require fortitude, and that require a revolutionary spirit (Applause).

As I spoke to them, I thought of Fidel always being close to young people, to whom he constantly entrusted the most important tasks. From his own experience, he knew that youth is the most passionately revolutionary stage of life.

I thought of Fidel as a law student, who also enrolled in Social Sciences as part of his political concerns and who always acknowledged that he became a revolutionary at the University.

I thought of the very young Fidel who joined the Cayo Confites expedition to be one more soldier against the Trujillo dictatorship, which was bloodying the neighboring Dominican Republic; In the student leader who met the Colombian leader, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, and witnessed the maelstrom of the Bogotazo; in the militant of the Orthodox Party who dignified journalism, transforming it into public denunciation, and ultimately chose the path of armed struggle when Batista's coup d'état closed off all constitutional avenues.

That is why I did not hesitate to recognize them and name them the Fidel Centennial Generation (Applause).

And they are not alone. Today we also honor the comrades who have dedicated their entire lives to the cause of defending Cuba. Younger generations can recognize their experience in them and admire their dedication to this struggle. The international movement for Cuba and just causes has the names and faces of tireless men and women on every continent.

It is urgent to articulate and unite all forces and arm ourselves with progressive, emancipatory, socialist ideas, without fear of words, which is precisely what the enemies of the people want in order to paralyze us at the very moment when mobilization equals salvation.

The reemergence of fascism in the world is imposing an ideological war on the Global South that, in its cultural and media dimensions, insists on reinforcing capitalism as the hegemonic destiny, subordinated to imperialist logic, and attempts to erase historical memory, recolonize us culturally, and break down our identities.

In parallel, and with the same objectives, the media war is being waged with its disinformation campaigns, its poisoning of the most basic human values ​​as if they were obsolete, in order to justify wars and aggressions as incompatible with International Law as the genocide in Gaza, the aggression against Iran, or the energy blockade of Cuba (Applause).

Comrades:

Exactly ten years and one day ago, on August 12th, 2016, Fidel published one of his well-known Reflections, on the eve of what would be his last birthday physically among us.

In that text, which today acquires renewed relevance—and I urge those of you who are curious to try to read it—the powerful and sensitive memory of the man who, about to turn 90, recalls his childhood, his father, a Spanish immigrant, and Birán, the family farm where he learned to love nature and to absorb the first glimmerings of the “moral world” of Cuban ethics, drawing from the nation’s history, already by then filled with truly heroic epics, comes to the fore.

We also find the Fidel of boundless curiosity, keenly attentive to the advances of science and constantly concerned about the destiny of humankind; But also, and always, a tireless watchman, a fair and severe critic of our powerful neighbor, whom he never ceased to publicly challenge, even against the current, exposing lackeys and sellouts.

When the fascist U.S. regime intensifies its genocide against our people, obstructing their well-being and quality of life in every way possible, Fidel remains the key to the fact that there is indeed a way out, however difficult the circumstances and however tightly the siege is tightened.

From Fidel we learned that we must always uphold three inalienable principles: the country's independence, the Revolution, and the values ​​and achievements that socialism represents (Applause).

Under this premise, we embark on a challenging process of Economic and Social Transformations, prioritizing the well-being of the people and the social justice that he so fiercely defended.

Comrades:

As I said at the opening of the Colloquium: the presence of so many people here in Cuba, besieged, blockaded, harassed, and accused by the empire to prevent his example from inspiring rebels everywhere, is the best monument we can erect to the memory of Fidel Castro Ruz on his centenary (Applause).

Solidary supporters of the world: you are the complementary force to the heroic resistance of the Cuban people, forged by what Army General Raúl Castro Ruz defined as Fidel's enduring teaching: “…that man is capable of overcoming the harshest conditions if his will to win does not falter, if he makes a correct assessment of each situation, and if he does not renounce his just and noble principles” (Applause).

Thank you for being here and joining us in this unforgettable celebration!

Fidel lives on in every Cuban medical professional who saves a life, most often without even having the necessary medicine; in the educators who never abandon their classrooms, whether in the city or the mountains; in the millions of workers who, despite the painful limitations on essential resources imposed by the blockade, arrive at their jobs every day; in every combatant who is willing to give their life for the homeland and socialism. (Applause)

When future historians look back in time, searching for Fidel Castro Ruz, the Commander-in-Chief, they will no longer see just a man. They will see his people and millions who, inspired by his exemplary life, earned a place in history by confronting, without surrendering, the most powerful and criminal empire and winning! (Applause)

Long live Fidel forever! (Exclamations of: “Long live!”)

Long live a free, sovereign, and independent Cuba! (Exclamations of: “Long live!”)

Long live socialism! (Exclamations of: “Long live!”)

Long live Fidel! (Exclamations of: “Long live!”)

Homeland or Death!

We shall overcome! (Exclamations of: “We shall overcome!” and “I am Fidel!”)

(Applause.)