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
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,
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
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
Long live the
courageous people who cast off the oppressor’s yoke!
Long live Hugo
Rafael Chávez!
Fidel Castro Ruz