Vol. 71/No. 16      April 23, 2007

Mr. Kent,

As you well know, I am saying goodbye to my friends and enemies now that I have left the directorship of the National Library to assume new tasks related to the culture and politics of my country.

I depart with mixed feelings. The feelings relating directly to you, or rather, to what you represent and for whom you work, are of enormous satisfaction: I have carried out with pleasure and pride the duty of confronting and unmasking you in all possible venues, showing to the world the magnitude of the immense fraud called the “independent libraries” in Cuba. Few times in my life have I learned a greater lesson than is signified by the fallaciousness and lack of scruples of those who, for money, are capable of lying and manipulating public opinion in a manner so vile and repetitious, without an atom of dignity or decorum, like pawns in the merciless struggle against the Cuban Revolution carried out by the U.S. government. On few occasions, such as the present, have I better understood that when the enemy feels obligated to lie and act in this manner it is because they are desperate and fully conscious of their defeat.

My departure, as you well know, is hardly transitory. In my new job I will keep current with the exemplary manner in which, day by day, the true Cuban librarians, and their friends throughout the world, will continue fighting against the attacks of the government for which you work… .

You can count on the fact that, together with the Cuban librarians, I will continue fighting in all possible ways everything associated with your name, for the culture of my country and for our principles. Count on the fact that the struggle will continue and that I, with pleasure and pride, will continue enjoying, as I enjoy now, every new victory of the Cuban Revolution, which inspires such hate and frustration among its [enemies], just as it inspires solidarity and support among the peoples of the world.

Until the next battle, Mr. Kent.

—ELIADES ACOSTA MATOS