Fidel Castro
FUNERAL OF MAJOR FAJARDO
"Comrade Rebels, Comrade Militiamen, workers, peasants, youths, ladies
and gentlemen:

"We have gathered here today to bury a major of the rebel Army. This
event is bound to be painful for all of us. First of all, because the
fatherland has lost a good son. Second, because the revolution has lost a
first-line fighting man; and third, because we who were his comrades and
his friends and his brothers have lost a comrade, a friend, and a brother.
However, how should we react as revolutionaries in response to the death of
a valiant comrade? Well, in response to the death of a comrade, we
revolutionaries must stand up straight; we must take a look at what the
destiny and the mission of a fighting man is. Death comes to all of us but,
above all, death is the only rest for a true revolutionary and death is
familiar to all of us. It was more so than ever before during the war, when
we witnessed episodes such as these continuously. It was an idea that we
simply had to become accustomed to. But when the war was over, the
situation changed.

"It certainly would have seemed strange to us on 1 January, in the
midst of the extraordinary jubilation of our people, to think that before 2
years were over, less than 2 years from that day, we would have to gather
here today in this heroic city of Manzanillo, to bury another heroic son of
Manzanillo, who have his life for the fatherland, during his duty, fighting
against the same interests and fighting against the same enemies because of
whom we had become so familiar with death. We had become familiar with the
death of those who fell in combat or those who died day after day,
assassinated in the streets and in the rural areas of our fatherland.

The Struggle Is Not Over

"And you, the people of Manzanillo, you accompanied us in the war, you
were the first and the most constant supporters in our struggle; you went
through 2 years of continuous terror and crime; you know very well and you
remember very well those days and the idea that there would be no death for
your youngsters. You believed that death and crime would be banished from
our fatherland; you believed that this constant holocaust would end, this
holocaust which claimed valiant and useful lives; and this through made us
happy; but we were wrong in thinking that the struggle was over on that day
and the reality is now that the struggle began in a different form on
January 1.

"Why did Major Fajardo die? Who is responsible for the death of Major
Fajardo? Who recruited the assassins because of whose guilt the fatherland
lost a son such a Fajardo? Who, if not those who do not want our country to
have any justice? Those who want the revolution to fail, whose who want our
country once again to become a land of injustice, privilege, oppression,
and crime. Those who once again want to dominate our people; those who once
again want to seize control of our economy. Who are the men who are
responsible for the death of Major Fajardo, if not, first of all, those
who, from abroad, from a foreign country, constantly deep dropping weapons
by parachute over a region of Cuba, in order to arm the
counterrevolutionaries and to support the spies and traitors?

"Although these weapons always fall into the hands of the revolution,
they keep right on dropping them; they continue to parachute weapons so
that the spies and the traitors will find the necessary encouragement as
they go out into the mountains with foreign support, so that they can fight
against the revolution. It is the government of the United States which is
primarily guilty of the death of Major Fajardo. The bandits in the
Pentagon and in the intelligence service of the United States are
primarily guilty of the death of Major Fajardo; it is they who have
constantly been dropping weapons into Escambrey, in order to develop small
armed groups against the revolutionary government there; this is why
Fajardo was in Escambray at this time, heading the peasant militia, trying
to stop all of the efforts of imperialism.

"The same criminals of yesterday, who assassinated so many
revolutionaries, are equally guilty in the death of Major Fajardo; the
traitors and the big privileged groups of yesterday, who have not resigned
themselves to the revolution, are guilty.

"Our grief as servants of the fatherland of course is reason for
rejoicing in the ranks of the enemies of the fatherland; the death of a
good son of the fatherland only makes the traitors to the fatherland happy;
nevertheless, this happiness will not last long because in this pain of
ours there is something more than grief.

"There is grief and there is valor. There is grief and there is
fighting spirit. There is grief and there is firmness. There is grief but
there is also the determination to go on. As we bury our comrade, we are
also firmly resolved that the enemies of the fatherland, the enemies of our
people, will continue to be defeated. There is pain but there is also the
determination of all of those of us who have come to bury a dead comrade, a
determination to make sure that the traitors to the fatherland will die a
death without glory, unmourned by their side.

Doctor and Soldier

"We are full of grief over the fact that this comrade of ours died in
the service of his country; he died doing his duty; but the traitors to the
fatherland, those who have sold out for foreign gold, those who want to
prevent the country's march toward progress and happiness, will not have to
face dishonorable death at the hands of the firing squad, unless they fall
in battle. And this is not very probable because they prefer to surrender
to the generosity of the revolutionary forces.

"Comrade Fajardo did his duty. He did it in war, as a doctor and
soldier. He did it in peace; and in the hearts of the first 500 students at
school city, the name of Fajardo will always be remembered with love. He
did his duty as a doctor, as a teacher, as a soldier. And the doctor and
the teacher fell with the soldier. It is not easy to live a life such as
the one lived by Fajardo.

"To achieve what Fajardo achieved, one must make a hard and long
effort, from the very first school days onward, to the very last years of
his career as a student.

"And to become a major in the Rebel forces, he had to make sacrifices
and he displayed valor from the very first day he joined our ranks until
the end of the war. And he was only a major because major is the highest
rank we have. This is the highest rank we have in the army and he could
not be anything more than a major; and Fajardo was one of those who
rendered great service even after he became a major.

The Fatherland Has Reserves

"We have had traitors among us; we have suffered extremely painful
losses in terms of comrades who fell doing their duty.

"However, as I look into so many dear faces of old fighters, as I look
into the faces of the veterans of the war, as we realize that the country
has tremendous reserves, the old reserves and the new reserves, we do have
the consolation of being able to tell our fallen comrade: 'Rest in peace,
you have earned your right to rest in peace. You have won the prize that
is given to the good. You have won the right to the eternal love of your
people, the love of the present generation and the love of the generations
yet to come.'

"'We are profoundly saddened because you will not continue to walk with
us, because you cannot go on contemplating with us the magnificent fruits
of the revolution, because you cannot go on looking into the new faces of
the new students who are attending this school city here, at which you
taught. We are profoundly saddened because you cannot go on among us,
contemplating the work that is growing here. But amid all this pain, we
are happy to be able to tell you, dear comrade, that the work will be
continued, that in this city, someday, we and others, will look into the
faces of 20,000 happy children.

"'We are happy to be able to tell you that the fatherland will continue
to march on cost what it may, that the struggle will go on, cost what it
may, and that the counterrevolutionaries and the men who have sold out will
continue to run into men such as you, fighting men such as you, first class
fighting men, capable of dying such as you did, capable of leading the men,
in doing their duty. And it makes us happy, dear comrade, to be able to
tell you that the enemies of the fatherland, regardless of where they may
spring up, regardless of where they may try to destroy the revolution, and
regardless of where they may intend to rise up in arms against it, will be
liquidated.

"'Rest in peace, comrade Fajardo.