Speech delivered by Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, at the closing of the XXIV International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, at the Convention Palace, on August 8, 2026, Year of the Centenary of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.
Comrades of the communist and workers’ parties of the world;
Dear colleague Kemal Okuyan;
Sisters and brothers from all corners of the world who honor us with their presence today in this rebellious capital:
It is an honor to have celebrated this meeting in the context of Fidel’s Centenary, who summons us with his indisputable legacy to face the enormous challenges and difficulties of this turbulent and threatening present that we have had to live through.
Cuba, island of dignity and historical resistance against empire, today also against fascism, welcomes you with open hearts and thanks you for your courage and determination to get here, amidst so much pressure, blackmail and lies.
At the previous meeting in Havana in October 2022, representatives of communist and workers’ parties from more than 60 countries, who gathered at that time, agreed to warn about the dangerous situation facing humanity. Almost four years later, we can reaffirm, without a doubt, that the world is going through one of its most uncertain and dangerous periods.
We are living through a period of extreme intensification of the contradictions of capitalism: excessive concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, inequalities in its distribution, environmental destruction, and wars for markets, resources, and areas of influence.
Marxist and Leninist analysis remains fully valid in stating that these crises are not accidents, but rather the result of the laws of development of monopoly and imperialist capitalism.
Capitalism, consumed by its own contradictions, has unleashed a perfect storm: wars of aggression in Eastern Europe and the Middle East; open genocide in Gaza; a climate crisis that is no longer a warning, but a reality; structural hunger that devours millions; and an external debt that the peoples of the Global South will never be able to pay, because it was conceived to enslave us, not to develop us.
In this context, the resurgence of fascism sends us a stark warning. Fidel warned us about this years ago, about how it was changing its appearance but maintaining its essence. Today we denounce the reestablishment of fascist regimes around the world.
Nationalism, hegemony, supremacy and racial discrimination; xenophobia, displacement and population extermination; wars of conquest of territories and natural resources; punishments that fall on millions of human beings, and proscription of ideologies and civil liberties, are unequivocal features of this current fascism and of its Hitlerian predecessor.
Not content with the genocide in Gaza and its shameful public broadcast, they are trying to repeat it in Cuba, through an aggressive and criminal policy, which is said and denied, refuted and intensified without disguise.
The total suffocation to which we are subjected constitutes a collective punishment that seeks, through the deprivation of the most basic resources and services to survive, to promote weariness, discouragement and social fracture, with the objective of destroying the Cuban socialist project.
Those who sadistically devise an energy blockade against an entire nation, leaving a humanitarian toll of alarming proportions that deprives Cuban children of life at birth, reduces the life expectancy of cancer patients, and denies our people access to medicines, food, electricity, water, transportation, and many other resources for a full life, can be called nothing less than criminals and fascists.
I’m going to give you some data on the impacts of the blockade on Cuban society.
Particularly in the energy sector: in recent years, with enormous effort, we had recovered more than 1,400 megawatts of power for electricity generation in a group of distributed generation units. These plants are currently not generating power due to a lack of fuel; they run on diesel and fuel oil. If we had those 1,400 megawatts available every day, the troublesome blackouts in Cuba would only last three hours, not twenty or more as our people suffer today.
In health, such a sensitive issue and where you know all the potential of our universal and free health system, with opportunities for all, with things we know how to do: there are 98,500 patients on the surgical waiting list and, among them, there are 12,000 children, operations that we can do in Cuba, and we lack the resources, we lack the energy to power our operating rooms.
There are 34,000 pregnant women for whom we cannot perform enough prenatal ultrasounds during that stage of pregnancy.
There are 67,000 children under one year old who have been born in these months without an updated immunization schedule, when vaccination in Cuba and our immunization system were always up to date.
There are 117,000 adults and 1,200 children who are cancer patients who do not have adequate treatments, and we have to resort to secondary or tertiary formulas.
There are 16,000 patients who have difficulty accessing the services they need for radiotherapy, 12,400 for chemotherapy, and 3,000 for hemodialysis.
Only 30% of the basic list of medicines is available, even though we are capable of producing all of our medicines.
The technical availability rate of ambulances is only 22%. The healthcare transport system is overwhelmed.
There is an inability to purchase cobalt-60 sources for cancer treatments, and there are delays in licenses to release medical goods in ports, also due to the refusal of international shipping companies that have been pressured by US imperialism not to bring the goods we need to Cuba.
And as if this were not enough, we had always maintained infant mortality rates between 4 and 5, which are first world infant mortality rates, however, in recent years the rate has doubled and is currently over 9.8.
Wherever relief is glimpsed or sought from this meticulously calculated genocide, the guardians of this ignominious policy will be there, ready to tighten the noose of suffocation, if that were possible.
Their plans conceive of the Cuban people only as a tool, a dying society, to turn against the government and achieve their sinister goals of overthrowing the Revolution. This is not our own interpretation; it has been written and conceived this way for over sixty years by the State Department.
All of this that I have described constitutes flagrant violations of international norms and human rights, condemned by the vast majority of the international community, as recently occurred at the United Nations where 136 nations supported Cuba in its just denunciation.
However, the world based on laws and norms for peaceful and civilized coexistence between states has disappeared, giving way to the will of the strongest and most powerful, to the detriment of the poorest nations.
We are living through the most dangerous time since the October Crisis. Along with the economic war, Cuba is being subjected to a high-intensity unconventional war through digital subversion, the financing of internal mercenaries, media smear campaigns, and networks of influence that try to disguise what is blatant intervention as humanitarian aid.
In this regard, we are not at all surprised by the recent revelations in major US media outlets about an increase in CIA operations in Cuba aimed at subverting the internal order. These are not random leaks, as they are portrayed, but rather part of the US regime’s deliberate plan of psychological warfare against Cuba.
In an act of utter cynicism and perversity, the Secretary of State recently declared that U.S. sanctions against the Cuban regime will only be tightened. “What we’re trying to teach them,” he said, “is that there are no escape valves.”
It is an unreserved acknowledgment that Cuba faces a dire situation as a consequence of an unprecedented economic war. This assertion constitutes an open threat of extermination against an entire people if they do not submit to the dictates of the empire.
The United States government has intensified its military threats and updated its “regime change” doctrine, maintains Cuba on the spurious list of state sponsors of terrorism, and, to top it all off, has invented the ridiculous accusation of being a spying power or a hotbed of subversion of the so-called radical terrorist left, of which it seems all of us here are a part, a pathetic and fanciful name, only credible in their psychotic minds, but which they use to confuse, justify more punishments and legitimize their aggressions.
On this matter, United Nations experts stressed that the illegal unilateral coercive measures of the United States against Cuba contravene Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations and are part of a broader regime change strategy that encompasses decades of embargo against Cuba.
“The United States government must end all threats and hostile acts against the sovereignty of Cuba and revoke all measures it has imposed on the country that are contrary to international law,” the experts said.
They added: “The Security Council and the General Assembly must urgently address these threats as a matter of international peace and security.”
There can be no greater act of cynicism than for the perpetrator to try to pass himself off as the victim, when his misdeeds have been public and notorious for decades. The United States has no moral authority or right to point the finger at Cuba, which has arguably been the nation most spied on by them and with the largest budgets for economic and ideological subversion.
Cuba doesn’t have to indoctrinate anyone. It doesn’t have to export ideas. History teaches the lessons, showing the depths to which empires can descend to satisfy their insatiable appetite for domination and possession of the material and human resources of other nations.
In this meeting, and before you, we denounce the criminal policy of the United States against Cuba and also those who remain silent and tolerate the excesses of the emboldened American fascist far right, which lies, steals, kills and pretends to be the God of all destinies.
The US blockade only works because of the complicity of those who fear Washington’s power more than the judgment of history. The world cannot become complicit in 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 illegitimate US sanctions, the principle of non-intervention is eroded. Every time a company is pressured to abandon its investments in Cuba, and others hesitate to invest for fear of reprisals, the economic dictatorship of a single power is strengthened.
Faced with this proven and undeniable reality, Cuba has defended itself, within its legitimate rights, as any country in the world would. The Cuban people have also benefited from the solidarity of men and women with a strong sense of justice and morality, aware that reason and truth are on our side, many of whom are now being persecuted or threatened for their solidarity activism.
The revival of McCarthyism in its worst version and with a transnational projection, which puts Cuba at the center of its irrational crusade, attempts not only to criminalize solidarity towards Cuba or create a new false pretext for its aggression, but also to try to silence dissenting voices against the world order they want to impose.
What common cause unites us on the left and progressive movements around the world? Undoubtedly, it is social justice; labor and children’s rights; the defense of feminist, gender, and racial causes; the care and preservation of the environment; popular participation; historical memory and respect for indigenous peoples; world peace and harmony among nations; international solidarity, among many others that are generally projected in terms of human dignity.
Can anyone with a rational mind believe that this makes the left or progressive forces a danger to humanity? The obvious answer is no.
Only fascism can see such a danger in the left, because it seeks to impose by force an ideology and system of values that are completely contrary; that is why in its current rise it desperately seeks to criminalize, neutralize and silence it.
The extermination of Palestinians in Gaza, the coup in Venezuela, and the collective punishment inflicted on the Cuban people are events serious enough not to remain inactive. Tomorrow, any nation could end up like Gaza or Cuba if fascism is not confronted. The key lies with the people, in their awareness, their mobilization, and their international unity.
Faced with this suffocation, Cuba has not given up. We have answers that prove it: the COVID-19 vaccines, the production of food using agroecological techniques amidst scarcity, the progress of clean energy, popular participation in the neighborhoods, and the defense of the entire territory with a people transformed into militias and ready to defend their self-determination, their independence, and their sovereignty.
Yes, we have many needs. We are burdened by blackouts, lack of water, inflation, and long lines. But no material shortage has extinguished the flame of solidarity, in which Fidel raised us, nor do we renounce Martí’s principle that “homeland is humanity”.
One fact that confirms this is that in these final days of the school year, tense and difficult like no other, 30,185 young professionals have graduated from Cuban universities, 735 of them from 62 countries who received their training in Cuba. And a statistic we are proud to share: 23 new Palestinian doctors and 5 American doctors.
The people’s response, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba, has been firm and creative resistance, unity, the defense of their achievements, and the updating of their economic and social model, without ever renouncing the principles of socialism and without yielding to pressure or blackmail. This capacity to resist and transform has its roots, firmer than ever, in the thought and action of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.
Fidel understood, like few others, the need to combine ideological firmness with tactical flexibility. He taught us that Marxism-Leninism is not a dead doctrine, not a catechism, but a method, a guide, an instrument for concretely solving life’s problems.
Cuba is working under this concept on the uncharted path of building socialism, as Army General Raúl Castro Ruz once stated. Not even the classics of Marxism could have ever imagined how to do so on a small island, threatened by the largest empire in the history of humankind and completely blockaded, its state cut off from all sources of resources, financing, and trade.
Faced with this dilemma, it is necessary to produce and generate wealth to redistribute it with all possible social justice and preserve historical and essential achievements of the Revolution in strategic areas such as health, education, culture, science, energy and communications.
Doing so will be everyone’s task, from state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises, along with other forms of economic management that together make up the Cuban business network, focused on a single goal: to build the prosperous and sustainable socialism that the heroic Cuban people deserve.
I know that the topic of economic and social transformations has been the subject of much reporting and debate. However, I want to emphasize some key concepts: this is a process to revitalize the economy, not to establish capitalism; there will be no rampant privatization, the fundamental means of production remain in the hands of the people, and above all, national sovereignty and independence are preserved.
For such a complex process, the Communist Party of Cuba, as the superior leading force of the State and society, stands as primarily responsible for its direction, coordination and control.
The Party will continue as a vigilant guardian of the interests of the people, the working class, the social gains, and the social justice that has driven the Revolution since its inception. It is not, nor will it ever be, a party of elites or lobbies. Its role as the sole party requires it to become ever more democratic and representative, as Raúl has called upon us to do on so many occasions, without ever losing sight of the people, the Revolution, and socialism.
In a world where attempts are made to convince us that there are no alternatives, our common task is to demonstrate with facts that there are alternatives, that socialism remains the only realistic and humane way out of capitalist barbarism, as scientific Marxism taught.
Dear companeros in struggle:
Today, on the centenary of his birth, Fidel is not physically present, but his presence is stronger than ever. What did the Commander-in-Chief bequeath to us? He bequeathed us the certainty that dreams are achieved by defending ideals; he left us the lesson that internationalism is not just a phrase, but an attitude that should define us; he taught us the conviction that socialism is the only path to save humanity from the abyss.
Fidel was the first to denounce neoliberal globalization as the empire of death, and also the first to raise his voice for a better world for all.
He taught us that the struggle for the preservation of the environment and the human species is also a socialist battle, that science must be at the service of the people, that the unity of revolutionaries is more important than any tactical difference.
In Fidel we find not only a historical leader, but a school of revolutionary work: to study, analyze, anticipate, listen to the people, and act with boldness and honesty. As he affirmed amidst the worst threats: “If what the imperialists want for peace is for us to stop being revolutionaries, we will not stop being revolutionaries, we will never lower our flag!”
Sisters and brothers:
May this meeting in Havana, in Fidel’s homeland, serve to renew our commitment, coordinate actions, and strengthen the conviction that the organized working class, guided by its vanguard parties, can change history.
The moment demands more than declarations of principles. It demands a qualitative leap in our international articulation and coordination. We, the communist and workers’ parties, have the historic duty to weave a network of effective solidarity, one that is not limited to statements, but translates into concrete actions:
In breaking the fascist media blockade, using the platforms to spread the truth about Cuba, Palestine and all peoples under aggression.
To stand with the Cuban people in their just struggle to lift the criminal blockade against Cuba, by mobilizing parliaments, unions and social movements.
Strengthen the mechanisms of economic and technological cooperation between our countries and organizations.
And, fundamentally, to advance the theoretical debate on 21st-century socialism, adapting Marxist and Leninist principles to the new conditions of the digital revolution, communication, and the ecological crisis, without ever renouncing the central objective: the full dignity of man.
Furthermore, I call for self-criticism. It is not enough to condemn the empire; we must build popular power at the grassroots level, win the streets, the neighborhoods, the factories, the schools. The unity of communists must be solid, but as flexible as Fidel’s intelligence in engaging in dialogue with all progressive sectors. Unity is not uniformity; unity is the will to fight and to win together!
Faced with the imperialist offensive and the structural crisis of capitalism, communist and workers’ parties are called upon to play a vanguard role, not only in the electoral or institutional sphere, but above all in the organization, politicization and mobilization of the working class under the complex conditions imposed by contemporary capitalism.
It is up to us to strengthen the unity of the international communist movement, respecting the diversity of experiences, but with strategic clarity in the face of the common enemy: imperialism, fascism and monopoly capital.
To deepen political and ideological work, to challenge cultural hegemony, and to confront the disinformation machinery that seeks to present capitalism as the only possible horizon.
Organizing the working class and popular sectors in the new realities of work, where digitization, automation and the platform economy change the forms of exploitation, but not its essence.
Brothers and sisters in battle:
Despite the military might of the United States, the international communist movement does not back down; it resists and stands up to it.
It is impossible to predict how long this imperial offensive will last. We may yet see more aggression and more blockades, but we have the certainty, inherited from our own history, that the future belongs to those who dream and build, not to those who destroy and lie.
Defending Cuba forcefully and urgently means halting the advance of supremacist, racist, xenophobic, elitist, exclusionary ideas, enemies of true freedom and human emancipation.
Defending Cuba means fighting against 21st-century colonialism, against hegemonism, against the pretension that a single country should decide the destiny of all.
Comrades, on the eve of Fidel’s first Centenary, I call upon you to redouble your efforts.
Let us not settle for mere survival; let us aspire to build together a world where solidarity is not just an ornament, but the driving force behind everything. Where children do not die of hunger while food is thrown into the sea. Where science heals, not profits. Where politics is, as Che said, the art of serving others.
Until victory, always!
Long live Fidel on his Centenary and forever!
Long live the unity of the communists!
Long live the struggle of our people!
