Cuba marks 50th anniversary of revolution in shadow of world crisis

An ailing Fidel, now 82 and having last year transferred power to his 77-year-old brother Raul, issued a 15-word statement congratulating Cuba's "heroic people."

For his part, Raul delivered a brief speech in the eastern city of Santiago, the birthplace of the revolution, to an audience of some 1,000 state officials and invited guests. The Cuban people were instructed to stay away.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Bolivian counterpart, Evo Morales, apparently in response to the Cuban leadership's decision to keep the celebration of the revolution's golden anniversary restrained, cancelled plans to visit the island.

Much of Raul Castro's speech was dedicated to the memory of those who died in the revolution and a depiction of the 1959 revolution as the realization of the ideals of Cuban nationalist leader Jose Marti, which had been frustrated by six decades of US semi-colonial domination that followed the Spanish-American War of 1898.

He reviewed the record of the "diseased and vindictive hatred of the powerful neighbor" in the aftermath of the Cuban revolution, from the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961, to the countless attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro and other Cuban leaders, to CIA-backed terrorism and the five-decade US economic blockade.

The revolution, he insisted, remains "stronger than ever." He continued: "Does it mean there is less danger? No, it doesn't. Let's not entertain any illusions. As we commemorate this half century of victories, it is time to reflect on the future, on the next 50 years which will also be ones of permanent struggle.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/pers-j03.shtml