Reflections by
Comrade Fidel
The Giant with
Seven League Boots
Part Two
On
Relevant
investigations corroborated that he had entered the country on February 27 that
same year onboard a private plane, along another person, and that he was accommodated in a rented home legally registered.
He
was arrested on March 30.
On
the 31st the Mexican Foreign Ministry presented, to the Cuban
Ministry of Foreign Affairs an extradition request against Carlos Ahumada Kurtz, since there was a warrant for his
apprehension for his probable participation in a generic fraud crime.
Five
days later he was taken into preventive detention as a
result of the investigations.
During the interrogations he declared that, since
November 2003, he had reached agreement with the political leaders of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) and Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) parties, with Senator Diego Fernandez
de Cevallos and former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari to denounce fraudulent schemes by officials with
the Government of the Federal District, collaborators close to the governor for
the PRD party, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Videos shot by him or
by his collaborators showed the personal aide of the Governor, Rene Bejarano receiving thousands of dollars from Ahumada, as well as other videos featuring the Secretary of
Finance of the Federal District, Gustavo Ponce Melendez spending large sums of
cash in a casino, in Las Vegas, the United States—those materials were
published on Mexican TV.
Bejerano was set up in a trap with an
interview in a television show where he severely criticized acts of corruption
by government officials and on concluding his statement he was invited into an
adjoining studio, where he was shown a video in which he appeared receiving
money, which led to a huge scandal with destructive consequences for his
prestige.
Salinas de Gortari and
Fernandez de Cevallos watched the videos previously
and they organized, along with the Secretary of Government and the Attorney
General of the Republic of President Fox, Santiago Creel and Rafael Macedo de la Concha respectively,
the presentation of the accusation and its later publication, offering him in
return economic support for his business and juridical protection for him and
his family.
Ahumada met with Fernandez de Cevallos
on several occasions, to analyze the quality of the videos, improve them and
even, manage to hide his face in the videos, so that the
accusation was ratified by him in a room of the Hotel Presidente in
Once
the videos were published,
The
main objective, according to Ahumada´s declaration,
was to harm Lopez Obrador and the PRD by weakening
him as a candidate for the 2006 presidential elections.
On
During
his arrest in
A
strong media campaign was launched about this case.
As
to the deportation, some favorable criteria on Cuba were issued by leaders of
different political parties, particularly the PRD, while a report from the
Cuban Interior Ministry, just received yesterday, dated August 11, 2010, reads that Lopez Obrador
was satisfied with the measure.
On
the other hand, an “evaluation dispatch on the information about the
deportation of Carlos Ahumada” reports in one of its
paragraphs: “ The PRD president Godoy
phoned our Embassy to say he was satisfied with the ‘Cuban’ statement and with
the ‘deportation’. He said that Lopez Obrador ‘is
very satisfied’.” This was what most interested us.
The
Attorney General of the
Similarly,
numerous personalities, representatives of organizations and political parties,
Representatives and Senators, conveyed their satisfaction and gratitude to us.
Blanche
Petrich and Gerardo Arreola,
special reporter and correspondent of La Jornada
newspaper respectively published a report saying: “The detainee directly
involves top government officials, said the Cuban foreign minister.”
“
“With
this mini clip, no more than four minutes of the announced and feared videos in
the hands of the Cuban Government, foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque presented ‘the proofs’ that the Secretary of Foreign
Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez, had requested.
“‘Unfortunately---concluded
Perez Roque—the events have considerable political
connotation because the planning, making and publication of the videos with political
aims directly involve senior government officials.’”
“In
these segments presented to the press this afternoon, Ahumada
does not mention any name of the Vicente Fox team, or any details of the
complot aimed against the political figure of the Head of Government of the
Who is Ahumada referring to when he says ‘they’?
To whom did he release the videos?
"That is for the Mexican government
to determine. We explained that he had
said that senior figures were involved in pre-planning everything. He stated that they had
political aims and objectives. It is in
"‘For a month,
This interesting study of
authors continues for many pages, of which I will not even attempt a synthesis,
I do no wish to extend this reflection like yesterday.
I do wish to include a
necessary instruction I gave to the Deputy Head of the International Relations
Department of the Party Central Committee, on April 2, 2004, to Joseph Arbesú, traveling to Mexico in order to make clear our
position on the Ahumada case.
"It must be done
with all the leaderships of the parties, our people must go there to talk to
them, including not only the PRD, PRI, but also PT, Convergencia. We must also talk to Bolaños
(Ambassador of Cuba in
"Tell Obrador,
first, that we are not in any plot against him, nor any conspiracy against him,
nor are we allied with anyone to harm him, that we learned that Ahumada was here, that we are not able to that.
"What we learned
about the presence of this individual in the country following the request made
by Interpol ..."
"That the real truth
is that we have many problems and are busy with other things, and the top
leadership of the country was not informed nor even about those scandals
..."
"When we knew, and
as soon as we knew the investigation was ordered. The fellow was even
arrested to learn and to know, that he was not the only victim of that, but we,
too, the honor, prestige of the country and the Revolution. There should be no
confusion about that. And
conversely, we are interested in everything that he has to say about it."
"Ask the opinions of the PRI, the
others, everybody; we want to know what they say. And foist or position on
everyone and how they have involved us in this, and that we are not going to le
them involve us in underhand things and be accused of harboring and
supporting…”
The people of Lopez Obrador's party wanted us to send them the copy of the
filmed statements by Ahumada, and that we could not
satisfy them with it. We send it, as it was appropriate, to the authority who
requested the extradition. Any other
approach would not have been responsible.
We fully understand the suspicions of
Lopez Obrador. He had been betrayed by people he thought were honest and these circumstances were exploited by those
who were willing to stick in the dagger.
There was an additional
reason. When Ahumada showed him the material, which he
termed a "nuclear missile" against Obrador,
When he was President of
Mexico, his rival had been Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, with
whom for obvious reasons we maintained excellent relations. All the major, medium and small states had
recognized him.
I was not aware whether
there had been any fraud. He was the candidate of the PRI, the party the Mexican electorate always
voted for, for decades. Only my
heart made me believe that they stole the election from Cuauhtemoc.
He was extremely kind to me, talked a lot
and showed me his huge library full of books on all four sides, on two floors. They were
not there for decoration.
Something much more
important happened. At a time of a serious migration crisis between
He behaved well and acted
truly as a mediator and not as a U.S. ally. Thus was produced the
agreement, which had been a joke in the first crisis during the Reagan years.
When Zedillo, a really mediocre man, replaced him in the presidency, maybe
he was jealous of his political influence, forbade him to reside in
He wanted to invest in
our country, and we did not allow that. He legally acquired a private residence in
the capital of
Bill Clinton did not behave well. He upheld the migratory agreements signed, but kept the economic
blockade, the Cuban Adjustment Act, and took the opportunity to tighten the
economic pressure with the Helms-Burton Law, which the Government of that
country has maintained against
When Salinas wrote about his role in the migratory negotiations in a
book, he told the truth and agreed with the leftist newspaper the New Yorker,
which published the story of the activities of Richardson, who was secretary of
Energy, during his visit to Cuba and proposed to Clinton
banning the provocations of the planes that they used in the Vietnam war for
violating our airspace over the City of Havana, which led us to communicate to
Richardson that we would not tolerate such violations.
When he returned to the
I have not changed. I will be faithful to the
principles and ethics that I have practiced since I became a revolutionary.
Today I am honored to share the views of Manuel López
Obrador, and without the slightest doubt, much sooner
than he imagines, everything will change in
"... The trees must form ranks to keep the
giant with seven-league boots from passing! It is the time of mobilization, of
marching together, and we must go forward in close ranks, like silver in the
veins of the
Fidel Castro Ruz
August 12, 2010