Cuba evokes the 23rd anniversary of the Battle of Ideas

Havana, Dec 5 (RHC) Cuba evokes today the 23rd anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Ideas, a political action that emerged under the leadership of Fidel Castro, following the kidnapping of the child Elian Gonzalez in the United States.

On November 22, 1999, the five-year-old child was illegally taken out of the country by his mother. The shipwreck of the boat in which they were traveling caused the death of 11 of the occupants, except for the child and two other people.

Clinging to a tire, the infant was rescued by fishermen and taken to U.S. territory. After his father's just demand, he became the center of a seven-month battle of an entire people for his return.

On December 5, the protest of hundreds of young people against the child's detention, in front of the former Washington Interests Section in this capital, was the prelude to what would later become demonstrations and open stands in different cities of the country.

The event was the beginning of the so-called Battle of Ideas, considered by historians as the most prolonged and massive popular movement since the revolutionary triumph in 1959.

The political action promoted the development of more than 170 programs in the economic and social spheres and had among its main guidelines the battle for the return of the five anti-terrorist heroes imprisoned in the United States.

Likewise, initiatives were carried out in the field of education and the integral culture of the Cuban people, which resulted in the creation of the University for All and the inauguration of the Art Instructors Schools.

As part of this process, the radio and TV program Mesa Redonda (Round Table) was also created, whose first broadcast, on December 16, 1999, entitled En qué Tiempo Puede Cambiar la mente de un niño (How long does it take to change a child's mind?), brought together psychologists, psychiatrists, and pedagogues to discuss Elián's situation and how much he was manipulated by those who denied his return.

In this sense, in his speech in March 2001, Fidel Castro expressed that "nothing and nobody will be able to stop our destiny, neither through weapons nor through ignorance". (Source: Prensa Latina)