Fidel recalled that in the hardest days of the battle for Elián's liberation, the support of the U.S. people as a whole rose to 70%, "which should not and will not be forgotten." Within that support, which he described as decisive and admirable," he noted than 90% of African Americans defended the rights of the child and his father.

In that context, he referred to the execution in Texas of Shaka Sankofa, who, he said, "was murdered." Subsequently, the Cuban president noted that independently of the legal infractions attributed to Shaka with great emphasis by his executioners when he was an marginalized adolescent living in conditions of poverty and racial discrimination, "what is unquestionable is that he was sentenced to death for an alleged homicide when still a minor, without any consideration or compassion whatsoever, and without his guilt even having been proven."

Fidel went on to affirm: "Everything done to him is in contradiction with universally accepted legal doctrines and principles."

After his comments on the irregularities committed with Sankofa, the Cuban leader stated that "it is generally believed in the United States and throughout the world that he was sentenced to death and executed simply for being black," on top of "the monstrous deed of subjecting him for 19 years to the funeral chapel or what is more bluntly known as death row."

Fidel emphasized that "Shaka Sankofa has shown the world the bitter fruit of a social system where differences between the richest and the poorest are infinite and where individualism, egotism, consumerism, a generalized use of firearms and violence reign as a philosophical foundation."