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Last November 15, I referred to a third
reflection on the Latin American Summit which,
as I then wrote, “I have yet to publish”. It
strikes me as timely, however, to do so before
the referendum of December 2.
In this reflection, written on the 13th,
I pointed out the following:
Yesterday, the Cuban people had the
opportunity to hear Chávez speak on the Round
Table program. I phoned him when he said that
Fidel was a man who was out of this world, that,
on April 11, 2002, he spoke with him, when all
official lines of communication were tapped,
over a phone located in his kitchen.
I was at a meeting with the President
of the Basque Country the day of the coup.
Events succeeded each other restlessly. That
fateful afternoon, several of the people there,
who were willing to die next to Chávez, had used
the same phone to say goodbye. I remember
exactly what I told him that night when I asked
him not sacrifice himself: that Allende could
not rely on a single soldier to fight back and
that he, on the other hand, could rely on
thousands.
In our telephone conversation during
the Peoples’ Summit function, I tried to add
that to sacrifice oneself so as not to fall
prisoner ―a choice I once faced and something I
nearly decided, again, before reaching the
mountains― was a way of dying with dignity. I
had said the same thing he had: that Allende had
died fighting.
Calixto García Íñiguez, one of the most
glorious generals of our wars of independence,
survived a gunshot to his chin, aimed at his
head. His mother, who had refused to believe her
son had been taken prisoner, on finding out the
whole truth, exclaimed with pride: that’s my
boy!
That was what I wanted to convey to him
over the cell phone without amplifier, held,
this time, by Lage, Secretary of the Executive
Committee of Cuba’s Council of Ministers. Chávez
could barely hear what I was saying, the same as
when the King of Spain abruptly ordered him to
keep quiet.
It was at that moment that Evo arrived
at the function. He is a genuine Aymara native,
who also spoke there, as Daniel did, and in
whose face Chávez wisely discerned Maya
features.
I agree with what he said, that I am a
strange blend of races. I have Taino, Canary
Island, Celtic and who knows what other bloods
in me.
I was anxious to hear the three of them
speak again. Before they spoke, I said: “I
salute the thousands of Chileans who died
fighting the dictatorship imperialism imposed on
them!” And I concluded my remarks proclaiming,
next to Chávez, Bolivar’s, Che Guvera’s and
Cuba’s slogan of: “Homeland, socialism or death!
We shall overcome!”
Yesterday, Monday the 12th,
over a notorious private Venezuelan television
station at the empire’s service, I heard a
declaration and speech which had been prepared,
from beginning to end, by the US embassy. How
empty and ridiculous it all sounded in
comparison to Chávez’s vibrant speech at the
Summit debate!
Long live the courageous people who cast off the
oppressor’s yoke!
Long live Hugo Rafael Chávez!
Fidel Castro Ruz
November 18, 2007
3:16 p.m. |
