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All physical, geographic and time barriers
disappeared. It seemed unreal. Never before had
a dialogue of this nature taken place between
heads of State and government, most of whom
represented nations that had been pillaged by
colonial and imperialist powers for centuries.
Nothing could have been more instructive.
The Saturday of November 10th,
2007, will go down in the history of our America
as a day of truth.
The ideological Waterloo took place
when the King of Spain abruptly asked Chávez:
“Why don’t you keep quiet?” All hearts in Latin
America raced at that instant. The people of
Venezuela, who will be called upon to vote “yes”
or “no” next December 2nd, were
shaken by the emotion of living the glorious
days of Bolivar again. The betrayals and the low
blows that our dear brother endures each day
cannot change the way the Bolivarian people
feel.
When Chávez arrived from Chile at the
Caracas airport and I heard him directly mention
his plans to mingle with the crowds, as he has
done so many times, I had the extremely vivid
impression that, given the current circumstances
and the highly significant ideological victory
he has attained, a paid assassin of the
empire’s, an oligarch corrupted by the reflexes
that the empire’s propaganda machine has
inculcated into people, or a mentally disturbed
person could put an end to his life. It is
impossible to avoid the impression that the
empire and the oligarchy are doing everything in
their power to lead Chávez to a cul-de-sac, that
they can easily place him in the line of fire.
Venezuela must ensure its victory is
transformed, not into a terrible setback, but
into a much greater victory, to prevent
imperialism from leading our species to suicide.
We must continue to struggle and to face risks,
but we must not play Russian roulette or flip a
coin every single day. No one escapes the logic
of probability.
In such circumstances, the modern means
of communication through which the summit
debates were aired live are preferable.
Fidel Castro Ruz
November 12, 2007
4:45 p.m. |
