I WOULD like to start with a fundamental idea: the legacy and the thought of Fidel Castro is not a debate about the past, it is a debate about the future.

The thought of Fidel still has much to do and much to influence in the tasks we have ahead as Cubans and Latin Americans, in the present and future of our continent and of that immense world of “the poor of the earth.”

My visit to the United Kingdom is above all a mission of love for Fidel, commander in chief of the Cuban Revolution and a leader of the revolutionary left of Our America and the world. A mission of love for his work, in which his constant labour, even today, in the year of his centenary, serves us as an example and a motivation.

From my grandfather, I learned that the size of a nation that defends an idea does not matter. It is the magnitude of the idea and the justice that nation defends. I learned that a small island can project an immense light if it remains firm in its principles. He taught us that sovereignty is not negotiable; it is the very oxygen of a nation.

My father, Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, a nuclear physicist like me, taught me a lesson learned from his own father. Science is the ultimate tool for development, and splitting the nucleus of the atom is nothing compared to the power of education to transform a society.

The role of science in social development is one of the originalities of the Cuban Revolution: never before in an underdeveloped country had scientific thought and the practice of research played such a leading role in a process of social transformation.

In the ’90s, when the economic crisis of the Special Period hit rock bottom — after the disappearance of the European socialist camp and the opportunistic reinforcement of the US blockade — Fidel said: “Science and the productions of science must one day occupy the first place in the national economy… we have to develop the production of intelligence, and that is our place in the world, there will be no other.”

That is why, when the pandemic arrived and the great powers hoarded vaccines, the Cuban scientists —my colleagues, my friends— researched, developed, produced, and administered, not one, but five Cuban vaccines against Covid.

We achieved it under a financial siege that prevented us from buying from basic reagents to spare parts for ventilators. And by the way, I have to say that we are so grateful for the solidarity we received from across the globe. From here in Britain, from the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the trade unions, we received large quantities of raw materials for the production of the vaccines. We received a large supply of electronic components that enable us to build up to 200 ventilators that were urgently needed at the time. Your solidarity saved lives then, as it continues to do so today. And for that, we are eternally grateful.

Our country does not launch bombs against other people, nor does it send thousands of planes to bomb cities. We do not possess nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons.

Something I like to remember is when Fidel said that our doctors are going to win the first Olympic gold medal of solidarity, for their conscience, for the concept they have of the human being. Our doctors work across the globe in far-flung places helping people regardless of their political creed or their ability to pay. The tens of thousands of scientists and doctors that Cuba has, have been educated in the idea of saving lives.

But I must be brutally honest with you. Today the danger has never been so close. We are facing a grave situation in Cuba. We see who sits in the White House. We see Donald Trump and Marco Rubio obsessed with destroying my country.

It has been 35 days since the timeline of our continent was ruptured. Thirty-five days since the US helicopters descended on Caracas to kidnap a democratically elected president.

Thirty-two of my brothers died in Caracas that night. They were fathers. They were sons. They were men of the revolution who stood their ground against the most expensive military machine in human history. They died standing up, protecting a brother nation.

Last week, Trump signed a new executive order that escalates this aggression to levels never seen before. He has officially threatened to impose immediate bilateral trade tariffs on any sovereign nation that sends oil to Cuba.

An oil blockade paralyses ambulances, reduces surgeries, interrupts cold chains and the production of medicines, hits the infrastructure to purify water, aggravates food insecurity and intensifies blackouts.

If they can kidnap a president, do you think they care about international law? Do you think the UN Charter protects us? We are living in the age of naked force.

But they are making a fatal calculation.

He is offering us a deal. He says, “Give up your dignity, kneel in front of me, and I will turn the lights back on.” This is not diplomacy. This is a slave auction.

They call it “stubbornness.” I call it the physics of dignity.

In the physical world, we learn that when you compress a substance, you increase its internal energy, and it heats up.

Donald Trump thinks pressure creates submission. He is wrong. Pressure creates resistance.

He thinks loyalty is a transaction. He thinks that because he killed 32 of our men, we will be too frightened to fight with three million Cubans more.

But he ignores the laws of our nature.

More than once, the Cuban people have defied without hesitation. We have demonstrated that with intelligence, using adequate strategies and tactics, and especially tightening the unity around our political and social vanguard, there will be no force in the world capable of defeating us.

We count on the strength of our revolutionary ideas, with the strength of example.

We count on the legacy of Fidel, the statesman, the scientist, to give us wisdom.

Cuba is solidarity, it is kind and internationalist. Wherever there is a just cause, our arm will be there to support it, from Palestine to Venezuela. We support them because we are the same matter. We support them because their history is our history.

You cannot “make a deal” to sell your brother. You cannot negotiate the market price of your own soul.

There will be no blockades nor imperial pressures that change our march towards a sovereign, independent, prosperous, and sustainable socialism.

My father dedicated his life to using science for peace. In his memory, while they plan attacks, we plan vaccines. While they build walls, we train doctors. While others try to break us, without any fear we continue the work of my father and my grandfather, building academic bridges and sowing opportunities for intelligence.

In this special year of tributes for Fidel, we face difficult times. But my grandfather taught us a simple truth: no force is stronger than people standing together. He taught us that helping others is the only way to pay our debt to humanity. Importantly, Fidel taught us that there is no situation so desperate, no blockade so tight, that human intelligence cannot find a vector of escape.

So today, we do not ask for sympathy. We ask you to walk beside us. When they try to crush us with blockades, help us hold the line. When they try to silence us, please be our voice. When they try to isolate us, be the bridge.

Let us prove that the love between peoples is stronger than any hate. That is the best way to honour Fidel: by standing together, fearless, for our future.

All of us here share the historic privilege of being the generation of the Centenary of Fidel. We, the Cubans and our friends in the world, like you, are all responsible for not letting the Commander in Chief die in the year of his centenary.

Here is Fidel together with us, commanding, dreaming, riding, and we, in turn, continue building together with him. I speak in the name of the youth, of the Fidelistas, of the scientists of these times, of the grateful ones, of those of us who carry Fidel in our heart, in our blood, in our mind, and in the windmills that remain to be taken down.

Here we are, Commander, because we are blood of your blood, without any fear, and facing shortages, blockades, and threats, we continue fighting the battle.

Dear Fidel, our future carries your name and your example. For love and for ideas, here we are, and here we will be by your side.

Our time continues to be the time of Fidel. Commander in Chief, give the order!

This is the speech Fidel Castro Smirnov gave to the Adelante! Latin America conference at Hamilton House at the weekend.