Your Excellency Abdelaziz Bouteflika;

Distinguished guests;

Algerian sisters and brothers:

We have special ties with Algeria. When we fought in the mountains, the Algerians were fighting in the wilayas. When the Cuban Revolution triumphed on January 1, 1959, the heroic people of Algeria had still not achieved victory. They were waging a heroic and difficult battle against the powerful forces of a country that had written brilliant pages in European military history. We wanted to help them, and in a quiet and modest way we sent some of the few weapons we had at the time.

Cuba was already subject to a brutal blockade and a dirty, merciless war in which our enemy did not hesitate to use any means to crush the Revolution.

On April 16, 1961, a mercenary force invaded our country using fighter planes, tanks, artillery and infantry, and it was defeated in 72 hours.

Unwilling to accept the defeats it suffered, our powerful enemy made new sinister plans against Cuba, leading to a great crisis that put the world on the brink of nuclear war.

Algeria was the first country to test our internationalist consciousness. In addition to the modest cooperation I just mentioned, after the Missile Crisis and Algeria's triumphant struggle for independence, other great risks of foreign aggression emerged. The thousands of kilometers that separate our small island from Algeria did not keep Cuban fighters from crossing the Atlantic with all urgency to support that country.

Algeria was also the country where the first Cuban medical brigade arrived, when our country had barely 3,000 doctors left, after the United States had seduced half of the doctors we had with promises of high salaries.

Now, fortunately, there a thousands of Cuban doctors on internationalist missions in the Third World, and the total number of doctors our country has is more than 65,000.

Algeria is the country where I first attended a summit of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, in 1973.

Algeria was the country that gave the greatest support for Cuba to host the 6th Summit, six years later.

Algeria played a decisive role in the liberation struggle of countries that were still colonized or were subject to the shameful apartheid system.

Algeria is the country where I met so many loyal friends of Cuba, some of whom are no longer with us.

Algeria struggled untiringly for African unity. At that time this continent did not know the tragedy of division and wars that came later; the wise principle of maintaining the borders imposed by colonialism prevailed; the population had not almost tripled; the current foreign debt had not multiplied several times over; there were not such high levels of poverty and hunger; there were more forests and less deserts; development aid had not been reduced to 0.24% of the industrialized countries' gross domestic product; AIDS was unknown; there was hardly any talk of increasing environmental deterioration and climate changes. Africa was still the most forgotten region of the world.

Enumerating so many tragedies is very difficult. I'm not doing so because of any interest in exaggerating or dramatizing. I do so because if there is any value in saying some words here and taking your time, it is to exhort our African sisters and brothers to make a supreme effort to achieve peace and unity among the peoples of this long-suffering continent, as distinguished African leaders are doing and whose efforts we ought to second, so that the new generations of Africans, their children and their children's children may have a better future. I know that the circumstances and living conditions in the 54 countries on this continent are not all the same.

The most economically and socially developed countries, those with the most resources and knowledge, have the duty to transmit their best experiences and to cooperate. I invite those here who represent other continents and countries to meditate and reflect that Africa—exploited for centuries, and from which millions of its sons and daughters were uprooted and turned into slaves and where today, as a consequence of exploitation and underdevelopment, there are entire countries in danger of extinction—deserves our most determined support.

Cuba does not have any ties to the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank, nor is it a financial power, but it has demonstrated that it is willing to share its experience, to struggle and to cooperate. It has human resources that were created honestly and professionals who now have 40 years of experience: doctors, engineers, skilled personnel, men and women educated in solidarity and willing to serve in any corner of the globe. We offer our human capital. That's the last thing I want to tell you.

I beg you to excuse the time I have taken.

I wish the best for Algeria. I wish the best for Africa. I dream of a more just and more humane world.

Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE)