There was once a group of 13 British colonies that occupied a relatively small territory on the Mainland of North America.

The inhabitants of those colonies were daily suffering exploitation and impositions of all kinds by the metropolis. Through a document called Declaration of Independence, they established the right and duty of the population to struggle to overthrow the colonial power from overseas that had committed a long list of abuses, murdered some of their fellow citizens and violated ethics and morals established in these colonies.

The metropolis, which was considered omnipotent in its relationship with the colonies, dissolved local parliaments because they defended the interests of those who lived in them. Without having declared war on the colonies, they sent armies of occupation there to subdue their people. They established laws that forced the inhabitants of the colonies to give shelter and food to the invading soldiers.

They strengthened the system of exploitation of the metropolis by applying excessive taxes, exploiting the mineral resources of the colonies in their benefit and imposing a trade and economic blockade on them in order to isolate them from the outside world, so as to make them give in due to starvation.

Many of those who showed their dissatisfaction with the metropolis were taken to prison for the mere act of protesting against it. They were frequently submitted to the stocks, beatings and other tortures. The black slaves who rebelled were regularly lashed or hanged, according to what the master resolved.

Moreover, massive reprisals were applied against the inhabitants of the colonies when a major civic protest arose, reprisals that occasionally turned into veritable massacres, in which soldiers fired against those who protested.

Those men organized to fight the metropolis, with weapons in hand, under the watchword that all men had been created equal, and one of their leaders even uttered the famous phrase "Give me liberty or give me death" that closely resembles that of “Patria o muerte” (homeland or death).

What a change in 241 years!

If you change the subjects of this same text, replacing metropolis by United States, and colony by the name of any country against which the United States remains at war, I am sure that you will not have to make many more changes.

(Translated by selfhelpnews@googlegroups.com and ALAI)

Dr. Néstor García Iturbe, editor of The HERALDO group (Cuba) sarahnes@cubarte.cult.cu