History will absolve me of Fidel Castro

"History will absolve me" is the phrase with which Fidel Castro (1926-2016) closes his plea of ​​self-defense before the trial against him in 1953 for the assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba and Carlos Manuel Céspedes in Bayamo.

"History will absolve me" became the title of his speech, the document of which would later become a manifesto that would dictate the bases of the political program of the new stage of struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencia Batista (1901-1973) in Cuba.

Fidel Castro, as a civil law graduate, was allowed to present his defense, highlighting the complaint of crimes against the assailants, the social problems that the country presented and the concrete solutions to fix them.

The exposition of the ideas contained in History will absolve me Published in 1958, it is highly influenced by the thought of José Julián Martí Pérez (1853-1895) considered a national hero of Cuba.

In the work, the six fundamental problems that according to Fidel Castro, Cuba presented at that time are exposed:

• Land problem: 85% of small farmers paid rent and were threatened with eviction,
• Problem of industrialization: the urban population reached two and a half million people who had to pay high rents for the houses they occupied,
• Unemployment problems: more than a million unemployed,
• Housing problems: families lived in crowded,
• Education problems: a large part of the population was illiterate,
• Health problems: 90% of the children in the countryside were eaten by parasites.

Faced with these problems, History will absolve me Propose five solutions that would establish the initial structure of the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro:

• Restore sovereignty to the people with a new Constitution,
• Grant tenants ownership of the land,
• Offer workers participation in 30% of the profits of large companies,
• Grant the settlers 55% of the yields from sugarcane,
• Confiscate the assets of the rulers for retirement funds, hospitals and nursing homes.

The 102 defendants in the 1953 trial were sentenced between seven months to thirteen years in prison, while Fidel Castro was sentenced to 15 years of deprivation of liberty. He served twenty-two months in prison before being released.

Below is the last paragraph of his speech, where you can find the phrase with which his allegation would be known:

As for me, I know that jail will be hard as it has never been for anyone, pregnant with threats, ruin and cowardly cruelty, but I do not fear it, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the life of seventy my brothers. Condemn me, it doesn't matter, history will absolve me.