On February 4th, 1962 over one million people gathered at the Jose Marti Revolution Square, the largest public rally so far in history, to listen to Commander in Chief Fidel Castro and approve the 2nd Declaration of Havana.

It was the revolutionary response of the people before Washington´s aggressive maneuvers backed by its allies when Cuba was excluded from the Organization of American States, OAS in the 8th Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Punta del Este, Uruguay on January 31st.

With the pretext of that agreement, US President John F. Kennedy decreed a total commercial blockade against the island on February 3rd, later tightened with the Torricelli Act and Helms Burton Law in the 1990´s.

The Declaration denounced not only the aggressive maneuver against Cuba and the level of dependence of other Latin American nations, but the essence of the US domination and exploitation and misery of millions of people in the continent.

As stated on the 2nd Declaration: “A great ideological battle was achieved in Punta del Este between the Cuban Revolution and US imperialism”. Cuba represented the peoples and the US the monopolies; Cuba the exploited masses and the US defended the exploiters; Cuba sovereignty and the US interventionism; Cuba for the nationalization of the foreign companies and the US for investments and ignorance.

Summarizing, the US was in favor of aggression and war, Cuba for socialism, struggle and total independence.

The Declaration argued that the national bourgeoisies were incapable of heading the fight against foreign domination although its interests are contradictory; they are paralyzed for fear of a social revolution and scared for the clamor of the exploited masses.

The 2nd Declaration of Havana was a look at the future, it offered a lesson that the Cuban people were saying that the Revolution was possible. Half a century later the events confirmed its validity. By Ángel Rodríguez Álvarez