Can you imagine that the world no longer exists? That instead of people, plants, animals, buildings, our things, what we used to be, after an atomic smoke nothing remains?
There will be no memories because the human species will become extinct if something happens that seems unconsidered these days: the threat and frivolity, out of arrogance, can trigger nuclear war.
The thing is alarming, but it is there, in the same world we all live in, the only one we have; in the same one in which 77 years ago, on orders from the United States, the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, a shameful tale of death and terror that claimed the lives of nearly a quarter of a million people.
These days mark the 12th anniversary of one of Fidel’s most suggestive reflections, nuclear winter. Proceeding from a consultation with specialists, the commander-in-chief reflected: “I assumed that the planet could withstand the explosion of hundreds of atomic bombs when I calculated that countless tests had been carried out both in the United States and in the USSR for years. He had failed to take into account a very simple reality: detonating 500 nuclear bombs in 1,000 days is not the same as detonating them in one day”.
“The only way to eliminate the possibility of climate catastrophe is to abolish nuclear weapons,” wrote Fidel, defender of upright causes and aware of the ultimate enemy of the planetary balance.
Today, as increasingly growing hostility from Western capitalist powers – led by the United States – solidifies, common sense prevails.
The conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty made audible the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres a few days ago, when he pointed to new heights of geopolitical tensions and the danger of a nuclear conflict. For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted his country had respected the spirit of the treaty, arguing that there can be “no winners” in a nuclear war and it should never be triggered.
In front of the panorama, which is hideous just to imagine it, reigns the triumph of life. “Weapons are made of iron,” Martí said in a text in which he also appealed to the cultivation of the human will. May Cuba never lack the strength to defend the peace bequeathed to us by its Commander-in-Chief.