Elián called for unity at World Youth Festival
By: Luis Mario Rodríguez Suñol
Translated and edited for CubaNews
by Walter Lippmann. Oct. 20, 2017.
http://walterlippmann.com/elian-called-for-unity/
Elián González during the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students in Russia. Photo: Roberto Suárez / Cubadebate.
What can happen to the mind of a five-year-old boy who floats alone in the middle of the sea after losing his mother in a shipwreck? They say that he prayed to the Guardian Angel and that some dolphins dragged their raft towards the shore, but the opposite, away from his father and his true family in Cuba.
Little Elián González became a victim of the Cuban Adjustment Act. And at the same time, the key figure in the battle of a whole town for his return. The shipwrecked child has become a 24-year-old revolutionary. He shared his story on Wednesday at the Anti-imperialist Tribunal, one of the core areas of the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students.
His history and the images of his return, in June of the year 2000, shook those present. Their voices united against imperialism. When he remembered his experiences, Elián could not contain his tears. Neither did the audience who heard his heartbreaking testimony in the first person.
Elián recalled how, as a victim of the Cuban Adjustment Act, he and his mother left Cuba illegally for the United States and the ship sank in the middle of the voyage. He maintained that the pain of losing his mother and being away from his father and his land, added the violation of his rights and identity on American soil.
“They violated everything that is my country, my feelings, everything that was my culture,” said Elian, who said that these abuses happened with the approval of the United States government. He added: “Our crime has been sovereignty! Sovereignty was conquered, indeed, in January 1959! Our crime has been socialism! “
González pointed out other aspects in condemning imperialism, such as the 60 years of blockade against Cuba, the main brake for the country’s development. He traced the history of Cuba, stating in facts what should be have been prosecuted and condemned, such as the mercenary invasion of Playa Girón, orchestrated by the Central Intelligence Agency; the illegal presence, on Cuban territory, of the Naval Base at Guantanamo and the crime of Barbados where they killed 73 people.
At the end of his speech, he stated, before the heroic Cuban people, that he preferred to disappear before he would fall on his knees, condemning Yankee imperialism for all the human and economic damage caused.
In the tribunal, other voices of the world appeared like the one of the young Saharaui Omar Hanesa, who maintained that in 1975 his country was under the dominion and occupation of Morocco, after two years of Spanish colonization. He also demanded justice for the crimes committed and demanded the release of political prisoners, sentenced to more than 20 years for organizing peaceful marches to defend the cause of his people.
Korean President Ri Cho Liu also spoke. He listed the damage caused by the US government’s economic blockade of Democratic Korea for more than 60 years in order to subdue his country.
The Tribunal became a space of unity to fight against imperialism by denouncing its crimes and proving that the young people of the world are willing to realize the axiom that a better world is possible.
