Within a few hours, we will celebrate another anniversary of that beautiful dawn, 49 years ago, when our Revolution was victorious.

Upon the ruins of the pro-U.S. tyranny, we have travelled a long and difficult path. Thanks to the noble and selfless people of Cuba -- the workers, intellectuals, farmers, students, men and women, children, the elderly and citizens of all ages, those who could read and write, and those who could not -- Cuba became the owner of its destiny for the first time.

If I have the rare privilege of addressing you again, it is because you have seen me as a person who has always told you the truth.

It is not a merit to be honoured, simply a sacred responsibility.

In the early morning hours, we will leave behind the 49th Year of the Revolution and enter into the fiftieth year, which symbolizes a half century of heroic resistance.

Let's proudly announce to the world this record enabling us to make the fairest of all claims: that our Homeland's right to life and wholesome happiness be respected.

For this right, we will struggle until the death. To the Cuban people, more than one century ago, Jose Marti proclaimed: "Homeland is Humanity."