How much barbarity and abuse have we come to in this world? How much cruelty have we come to in this world? Thus, while the empire's wounded soldiers travel immediately to the best hospitals over there, Panamanians lie bleeding in the streets.

That's why I say that the events are sufficiently sad and sufficiently harsh as to make anyone angry and bitter. I'm no longer thinking just of the brutality, the illegality, and the unjustifiable action of the United States.

Alongside this, there is something else that has occurred that is truly historic, that is truly significant. This is the resistance of the people of Panama, the resistance of the units of the Defense Forces and the civilians organized in the Dignity Battalions and other units.

The empire believed the resistance would last minutes, perhaps hours. They thought that when they dropped paratroopers at night or attacked with planes and helicopters, not a single soldier or a single civilian combatant would remain at his post. That is the conception they have of Latin Americans. They still have not learned enough. That is their conception--or more accurately, that is their contempt for our peoples.

The truth is that they believed the battle would already be over by dawn. The president of the United States had a speech prepared for 7:00 a.m. to announce that everything had already been wrapped up. One could see discouragement, disgust, even panic on his face that morning. Tens of thousands of soldiers had been deployed in a surprise attack, along with hundreds of planes, helicopters, heavy artillery, and armored personnel carriers. But despite all this, they encountered everywhere the heroic resistance of the Defense Forces and of civilians opposing the aggression.

In this respect they were unable to imitate Hitler. They were unable to imitate the fascists and the Nazis of 1939 or 1940. Because in many countries the Nazis were able to at least capture important cities in a matter of hours, fighting against well equipped armies. Yet in twenty-four hours the empire was not able to capture the capital city of Panama. This was despite the fact that they began the attack from military bases within Panama itself, and despite their fabulous superiority in men and, above all, in weaponry. And yet they were unable to overcome the resistance of a handful, of a few thousand combatants.

Don't imagine that Panama had a large military force. They possessed a few thousand men in their armed forces spread across the country, plus a few thousand civilians organized and trained in a relatively brief period of time. Don't imagine that large amounts of military equipment were in the hands of the Panamanians. Many of our municipalities in Cuba have more weapons and more firepower than the Panamanian people had as they confronted this aggression.

We ourselves have calculated our firepower in comparison with that of Panama. These calculations show that Cuba possesses 200 to 300 times greater firepower than Panama in terms of combat resources, quantity of arms, and the capability of our weaponry. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Yankee troops, attacking by surprise in the early morning hours of December 20, were unable to capture Panama City. Even today they have had to take another twenty-four hours to try to overcome the resistance. And this is in a city cornered between the Pacific Ocean and the canal.

That is why we believe that the Panamanian people have written one of the most heroic chapters in the history of the hemisphere during the last forty-eight hours.

None of the empire's key objectives have been attained.

They did not succeed in capturing the head of the Defense Forces, which was one of the main stated aims for this savage and illegal action. Their aim was to capture him and bring him to the United States.

See how far we have come: they have put into practice a new imperial principle whereby their armed forces can land in any part of the world to arrest persons they say are wanted by their courts. They can go into any part of the world and arrest people who in their view may have violated their laws, or whom they classify as terrorists.

This is the first time they have put this principle into practice. They have invaded a country and killed thousands of people under the pretext of capturing a senior official of a sovereign state in Latin America, a country that is a prominent member of the Movement of Nonaligned Countries and the United Nations. But they are frustrated because they say they have not attained their objective.

They also claimed that they were going to bring democracy. And they were going to do this through no less than a repugnant, puppet government. They have imposed a mercenary government over a river of blood, a river of Panamanian blood, the blood of the Panamanian people. In addition, they said they were going to guarantee implementation of the canal treaties and other, similar pretexts.  
 
 
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