Reflections by Comrade Fidel
EVO’S SPEECH
There are moments
in history that require a speech, even if it is as brief as the “Alea jacta est” (“The die is cast”) pronounced by Julius Caesar
when he crossed the Rubicon. It had to be crossed that day, precisely
when the ministers of defence of the sovereign states of the western hemisphere
were meeting in the city of
It was Monday the
21st and the news agencies were devoting their time to divulging and commenting
on the NATO meeting in
They were
completely ignoring the fate of billions of people, and the real causes of
poverty and suffering of most of the planet’s inhabitants.
NATO’s cynicism
deserved an answer, and that arrived in the voice of an Aymara Indian from
Evo Morales,
president of that country, elected by the vast majority of his people, with
indisputable arguments, information and facts, perhaps even before being aware
of the monstrous NATO document, provided an answer to the policy that the
United States government has historically been carrying out with the peoples of
Latin America and the Caribbean.
The policy
of might expressed through wars, crimes, violations to consitituions and the
laws; training the officers of the armed institutions in conspiracies, coups
d’état, political crimes that were used to overthrow progressive governments
and install regimes of force to which they regularly offered political,
military and media support.
Never was there a
more timely speech.
Many times using
the expressive manner of his Aymara language, he stated truths that will go
down in history.
I shall attempt to
briefly summarize what he said, using his own phrases and words:
“Thank you very
much.
“It is a great satisfaction to receive you, the ministers of defence of the
“Men
such as Andrés Ibáñez, Atahuallpa Tumpa, a
native brother who, during the republic, fought for autonomy and for equality
for all the peoples of our lands.
“Welcome
to
“
“…following the footsteps of Antonio José de Sucre, of
Simón Bolívar, of so many native, mestizo and Creole leaders who lived 200
years ago.”
“Exactly
one week ago, we were celebrating the bicentenary of the Army of Bolivia which,
on November 14th of 1810, native peoples, mestizos and
Creoles had organized as a military force to fight against Spanish
domination…”
“In
recent years, Latin America again takes up that decision to free ourselves as
in a second liberation that is not only social or cultural but also economic
and financial for the peoples of
“…this
9th Conference
of Ministers of the Defence has on its agenda gender and multiculturalism in
the Armed Forces, democracy, peace and security for the Americas, natural
disasters, humanitarian aid and the role of the Armed Forces; an appropriate
agenda, an agenda that is well-conceived to discuss the hopes of the peoples,
not just of Latin America, but of the world”.
“In
1985 […] the only ones who could be elected or could elect authorities were
those having money, those who had a profession or who spoke Spanish or
Castilian.
“Therefore,
less than 10 percent of the Bolivian population could take part in electing or
being elected as authorities, and more than 90 percent of us had no rights […]
there have been various processes […] some reforms, but in 2009, with the
participation of the Bolivian people for the very first time, a new
Plurinational State Constitution was passed by the Bolivian people.”
“…in
this new Constitution, of course the most excluded sectors […] had no rights to
be elected or to elect the State authorities of the
“More
than 180 years had to go by for us to make some profound transformations and
incorporate these historically excluded sectors in
“Of
course beyond norms, the constitution […] I think that this is the political
decision we must take in order to include the most abandoned sectors; after the
Constitution was approved by the Bolivian people in 2009, the most excluded,
reviled people, those that were considered to be animals, those that were the
indigenous movement, now they are represented in the Plurinational Legislative
Assembly as well as in the departmental assemblies.
“Something
important; for the indigenous movements that do not have a large population,
special electoral districts have been created so
that our brothers and sisters from the highlands, the valleys and the eastern
part of
The single candidate system also allow for our
indigenous brothers and sisters to be represented in the Plurinational
Legislative Assembly …”
“In
this way, we permit these indigenous brothers and sisters, who were left out
and condemned to extermination, to be present.”
“…that
had never happened before …”
“…when
I was a young man, as a union leader I would
sometimes dispute with the Armed Forces and later, when I became president, I
realized that a large part of the Armed Forces comes from the peasant
communities, particularly those in the valleys…”
“Dear
Ministers: I would like to tell you that never before did we have such
participation; before, it was merely the color of your skin that determined
your class in society and now, a indigenous person, a union leader, an
intellectual, a professional, a business leader, a soldier, a general, anyone
can become the president, democratically. Before, we didn’t have this way
of changing
“When
this conference is putting forth the idea of only democracy, security and
peace, of reviewing history, of reviewing the norms, this is for me very
exciting; it is a pleasure to review these things dealing with democracy,
security and peace in the Americas or in the world, not just for the sake of
reviewing.
“If
we talk about democracy in
“…up
to 2005, from 1952, the 1950s, in
“A
party in third place could become president; it all depended on the contracts
and the distribution of the ministers. This kind of contract was
precisely the kind that used to be guided by the
“Luckily,
thanks to the conscience of the Bolivian people, these kinds of democracies are
being eliminated; now we do not have a ‘contractual democracy’, but a
legitimate democracy in the hearts of the Bolivian people who accompany it with
the thoughts and feelings coming from the suffering of peoples, under a
government program.”
“…a
program that brings dignity to the Bolivians, a program that seeks equality of
all Bolivians, men and women; a program that recovers its natural resources, a
program that allows basic services to be a human right…”
“…when
some of our opposition, like yourselves, every country has its opposition,
tells us, some totalitarian government, a dictatorial government, is it my
fault that this program proposed by a party has more than two-thirds support in
the different bodies of the Plurinational State, by myself I have not been able
to win the mayoralty of the city of Santa Cruz.
“We
respect our mayor, they won, but I salute you, Mr. Mayor, for the actions you
undertook last week to fight against the speculation […] congratuations Mr.
Mayor, you have my respect…”
“And
some say to us, one single philosophy, there is no single philosophy; only a
program that is working in the different social sectors at the head of social
movements of the indigenous peoples and the workers can obtain the support
needed to change
“But
what do we face along the road if we talk about democracy, conspiracy, coup
d’état, attempts at coups in 2008 […] who was it
that contributed to this coup? The former
“I
was looking over some history […] about the 1946 coup d’état when the president
was Lt. Col. Gualberto Villarroel, who said as president, I am not the enemy of
the rich, but I am more a friend to the poor; this patriotic soldier was the
first president who called together the indigenous peoples’ congress.
“Another
president, Germán Bush, a soldier, who stated: I have not become the president
to serve the capitalists.
“The
first president to nationalize natural resources, was
another soldier, David Toro; I’m speaking of 1937 or 1938 […], but this soldier
was hanged in 1946, they assassinated him in the Palace.”
“…and
so the offensive was concentrated on the massive part of the Palacio Quemado
that was under fire from Illimani Street, at the corner of Bolívar, from
Comercio Street, from the Police and from behind from the
“…watching
the fire coming from the Kersul Building, where the US consulate was, and which
had been investigating this patriotic soldier who had ensured the first native
congress, strafing the building, shooting to kill that soldier…those are the
documents we are looking over.
“…history
repeats itself; I had to face an ambassador who organizes, who plans to
terminate my presidency using anti-democratic means, and I think that this gets
repeated all over the world.
“But
a comrade, a compatriot of ours who has been the victim of so many military
coups tell me: President Evo, you have to watch out for the United States
Embassy, there have always been coups d’état all over Latin America and, he
says to me, there has never been a coup in the United States because there is
no US embassy; I really start to see the truth that history does not hear coups
d’état.
“…we,
the countries who have suffered attempts at coups from
“…this
internal assessment should be a profound debate by the ministers of defence to
guarantee the democracies […] my ancestors, my people, have permanently been
victims of coups, bloody coups, not because they wanted the military, the Armed
Forces, but because of internal and external political decisions designed to
terminate revolutionary governments, the governments that are born of the
people; that is the history of Latin America.”
“…we
have the right to propose for ourselves the ways of guaranteeing democracy in
each country, but without coups, or coup attempts.
“We
would like this conference of ministers of defence to guarantee an true peoples’ democracy, respecting our regional
differences, the differences from sector to sector.
“But
also, when we speak of peace, I am saying, how can we have peace if there are
military bases? And there too I can speak with some knowledge because I
have been the victim of these
“When
I was a soldier, a private in the Armed Forces in 1978, the officers and
non-commissioned officers taught me to defend the Homeland; the Armed Forces
are there to defend the homeland, the Armed Forces cannot permit any foreign
uniformed and armed soldier to be in
“…when
I became a leader, I personally have been witness to the fact that uniformed
and armed DEA members were leading the Armed Forces and the National Police,
armed with machine guns, with the excuse of fighting agains drug trafficking
against the social movements, persecuting by flying light planes over the
marches from Santa Cruz, from Cochabamba, from Oruro, and they couldn’t find
us, not with their light planes; and they would say that these were ghost
marches, some ghost marches; thousands of comrades looking for retribution and
seeking dignity and the sovereignty of out peoples.”
“…I
am convinced that it we the people fight for our dignity, for our sovereignty,
this cannot be done with military bases nor with military interventions, no
matter how small we may be, we, the countries called under-developed, countries
called developing countries; we have dignity, we have sovereignty. Also,
when I had a seat in parliament they tried to make me support immunity for
officials of the
“What
is immunity? So that US embassy officials, including the American DEA, should
they comit some crime, wouldn’t be tried under Bolivian laws; this was an open
invitation to kill, to wound us as they did in my region.”
“…Peace
is the legitimate daughter of equality, and of dignity which is social justice;
if there is no dignity, then there is no social
justice and we cannot guarantee peace; how can we give a guarantee? Because there are peoples who rise up in rebellion because there is
an injustice.”
“…listening
to our UN Secretary General talking about the doctrines, the doctrines we know
about in Bolivia, an anti-Communist doctrine that says coups should take place
to militarily intervene in the mining communities because of the social
movements; the mining communities were great revolutionaries aiming to
transform Bolivia.
“In
the 1950s, 1960s, they accused us of being Red Communists to the leaders of the
mining sector so that we should be imprisoned, exiled, put on trial, even massacred;
that era has passed; by now they cannot accuse us of being Reds or Communists –
we all have the right to think differently.
“If,
for a country or a region, the solution is Communism: fine; for another country
it is Socialism: fine. It is the democratic decision of any country.
“But
when we have won that struggle and they can no longer justify it with an
anti-Communist doctrine to silence the people, to replace presidents, to change
governments, another doctrine appears: the war on drugs.
“Of
course it is the obligation of all of us to fight against drugs […]
“…behind
the war on drug trafficking there cannot be geopolitical interests that need
the excuse of the drug war to demonize the social movements, to
criminalize the social movements, to confuse the coca leaf with cocaine, to
confuse the coca grower with the drug trafficker, or the legal consumption of
the coca leaf with the dependence on the narcotic.
“Why
is it that they didn’t fight against coca right from the last century, if coca
is so harmful? The Europeans were the first landowners to exploit the
coca leaf, surely it wasn’t a detour to cocaine.
“Before,
the
“…the
world knows, you all know, that the so-called war on drugs has failed; we have
to change those policies, of course, what is this new policy, such as for
example, ending the banking secrets: could it be that great drug
trafficker, the big fish in the drug trafficking world, carries his money in
his backpack, in his suitcase, travelling by plane, no, going around the banks
– why not end the banking secret in order to end drug trafficking in order to
control that drug trafficker?
“Why
doesn’t every country defend its borders against the entry of all drugs with
similar technology, radars? I think there is a capacity out there to control
and we cannot control; and it is with the excuse of the war on drug trafficking
that controls are put in place, especially directed towards how to recover
natural resources for the trans-nationals.”
“…the
former
“In
other words, dear ministers, ministers of defence, according to this type of
doctrine, you are at this very moment meeting with the Andean Bin Laden and my
comrades from the social movements are the Taliban. Such
accusations, often bending the truth out of shape.”
“…now,
when they can no longer sustain these anti-Communist, anti-terrorist ideas and
doctrines there is another new doctrine that we heard about a few days ago and
I would like to take this opportunity to inform my people through the
media.
“On
the 17th of this month, a meeting of some Latin Americans and some
“…Congresswoman
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said that in recent years we have been observing with
concern the efforts of several countries in the region, such as Hugo Chavez in
Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua
, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, which are trying to consolidate their power
at any cost, the ALBA Alliance members with Chavez at the head, one after
the other manipulating the democratic systems of their countries to serve their
own autocratic goals.
“Perhaps
we should tell that congresswoman that we didn’t win, like in the
“What
does the agenda say about Daniel Ortega, but the coca agenda promoted by Evo
Morales, it is a brand new alliance with
“…under
my leadership
“…without
stable democratic partnerships we cannot have regional security: regional
security or security for the
“The
second congressman (he is talking about Connie
Mack, and he explains his ideas in these words), I have everything he wrote,
all his speeches, but to save time I shall try to summarize, I’d like to speak
about some observations for the last six years as member of this Congress, I
have frankly seen two administrations: the Republicans and the Democrats.
“Along
these lines I think that this idea both the administrations have had in regards
to Hugo Chávez, is that we shall not intervene, let’s just sit back and let him
implode by himself; and the other thought is, what if Hugo Chávez is
crazy, and what does he say, I don’t go for any of these ideas so I don’t think
Hugo Chávez is crazy and I don’t think the approach of letting him implode is
going to work, Hugo Chávez is a threat to freedom and democracy in Latin
America and around the world.”
“…this
is what concerns me most, I hope therefore that we become the following
majority in the next Congress, as chairman of the subcommittee we shall do just
that, we shall look after Chávez, whether defeating him politically or
exploding him physically.”
Next,
Evo states:
“I
would say that this congressman Connie Mack is a self-confessed murderer or
conspirator against our comrade brother the president of
“If
anything should happen to the life of Hugo Chávez, the only person responsible will
be this
“Comrade,
brother secretary general of the OAS, you have to throw us out of Venezuela,
Ecuador and Bolivia and also another place, also Nicaragua, and apply
sanctions: what does that mean? Surely it is an economic blockade like the one
against
“I
think that’s what the sanctions refer to, so how can some of us countries in
the
“I
was looking over in this respect, the reason why they had expelled Cuba in
1962, supposedly for being Leninist, Marxist and Communist, Cuba is thrown out
of the OAS; now the new doctrine is an anti-ALBA doctrine since, in these
countries, we greet Fidel and Chávez and other presidents, since having
an instrument such as ALBA is having an instrument for integration, solidarity,
unconditional solidarity, sharing instead of competing, practicing policies of complimentarism
and not competition.
“…within that competition only small groups benefit
and not the majorities who aspire to that from their presidents.
“Within
these policies of competition and not complimentarism, not even capitalism is
the solution for capitalism – that is the financial crisis.
“…the
new doctrine much like earlier there were the doctrines from the School of
Panama, the southern command was trainning our military, they shut that down
thanks to the struggles of the people and now the School of the Americas is no
longer around; what do we have now? Joint operations
with special forces.”
“…I
admire some of the officers of my Armed Forces who give details about those
training sessions that they carry out each year on a rotational basis in the
different countries of the
“…with
great indignation I had seen some pictures of these joint operations with
special forces that rotate from country to country; of course Bolivia no longer
participates, as long as I am the president, in these types of joint operations
to keep on attacking democracy.
“…for
the indigenous peoples’ movement […] this planet, or Pachamama, can exist
without human beings, but we human beings cannot live without the planet,
without Pachamama.”
“…capitalism
is not private ownership because sometimes they try to confuse us and they say
that President Evo is questioning capitalism; they are going to take away our
homes, our cars; no, private ownership is guaranteed.”
“…the
new constitution guarantees a plural economy and that plural economy ensures
private ownership, it ensures communal ownership, state ownership and that of
all the other social sectors, but when we are talking about capitalism we are
talking about this irrational, irresponsible and
unlimited growth.”
“Our
comrades can no longer find water in the Amazon; when we start drilling in some
region we have to go deeper and deeper to find very little water, and when we
cannot ensure water on account of drought, exactly the result of global warming, that family must be left to fate,
there are billions of them in the world, they are climatic migrants.
“We
are not going to resolve that with the participation of the Armed Forces; we
are not going to be able to resolve it with the participation of the ministers
of defence or with cooperation; it is a structural world-based matter.”
“…we
would like to resolve here, for the middle and long term,
that the best solution is to put an end to disasters, or putting an end
to natural disasters is putting an end to capitalism, changing those
exaggerated industrialization policies.
“Of
course all of our countries would like to become industrialized, to
industrialize for life, to industrialize to be human beings and not to
industrialize to end life and human beings; there are doctrines that proclaim
and promote war, there are peoples or states living from war and that must end;
and what we really have to end are those great weapons industries that put an
end to life.”
“…I
know that many ministers are bringing messages from their presidents, from
their governments, their people; but let’s responsible to life, and being
responsible to life means being responsible to the planet, or to Pachamama, our
Mother Earth, and being responsible to Mother Earth, the planet or Pachamama is
to respect the rights of Mother Earth.”
“…I
would hope that the Americas, through you the ministers of defence, can
lead the guaranteeing of the rights of Mother Earth in order to ensure human
rights, life, humankind, not only for the Americas but for the entire world; I
feel that we bear a great responsibility in this situation.
“I
would like to acknowledge the participation of our Armed Forces, and to be
honest with you, I was very much afraid, afraid in the year 2005, 2006, when I
came to the Presidency, whether the Armed Forces would be with me or against me
in this process.”
“…the
Armed Forces taking part in social works, in structural changes, recovering the
mines, supporting the policies for the recovery of the natural resources; these
Armed Forces are now beloved by the Bolivian people.”
“…the
people feel they have Armed Forces that are for the people; now we fortunately
have two important bodies in the Plurinational State: the social movements that
defend their natural resources and the Armed Forces are also defending their
natural resources, and if we go back to 1810, it is obvious that the Armed
Forces were born defending their natural resources, the identity and
sovereignty of our peoples; only during some times were our Armed Forces used
for evil, not to blame the commanders, but because of oligarchic interests or
interests that were not of the people, and that obviously caused us a lot of
harm.”
“…with
policies being imposed from above and abroad, coming from the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank, privatizations, public companies being sold
out to foreign interests.”
“…just
the profits […] 18 percent was for the Bolivians and 82 percent went to the
transnational corporations.
“On
May the first of
Evo
concludes his speech by contributing irrefutable information about the economic
results achieved by the revolution.
“Before,
the GDP in 2005 was 9 billion dollars, in 2010 it was
18.5 billion dollars of GDP.
“…with the World Bank and the IMF average income
per person per year $1000 […] in our government it is $1,900.”
“…in 2005,
“…when we were dependent on US governments we could
not even eradicate illiteracy; thanks to the unconditional cooperation of
“In exchange for this cooperation, what does
Out of sheer modesty, Evo didn’t speak of the
colossal advances obtained by the Bolivian people in matters of health.
In the ophthalmological field alone, some 500,000 Bolivians had eye surgeries,
health services reach all Bolivians and about 5,000 General Comprehensive
Medicine specialists are being educated and will shortly be graduated. That sister country of
Evo concludes:
“…without the IMF, I mean, if they don’t impose
economic policies of privatizations, of auctions, we could be better off in
democratic matters, if we didn’t depend on the United States we would improve
our democracy in Latin America, it is the result of these last five years that
I have been president.”
“Of course by saying this I am not saying that
Bolivia now no longer needs cooperation, Bolivia still needs international
loans, international cooperation, I acknowledge the European countries
cooperating in Latin America, facilitating loans because we are in a
process of profound transformations …”
“…that the peoples have the right to decide by
themselves alone about their democracy, about their security, but while we have
interventionist attitudes for any excuse […] we shall surely have to wait for
the liberation of the people and as we can see they are going to keep on
rebelling.
“For that reason, I am sure of rebellion towards
revolution, of revolution towards decolonization …”
After Evo’s speech, a mere 48 hours later, Chávez’
speech fell like a bolt from the skies. The
lights of rebellion are illuminating the skies
of Our America.
Fidel Castro Ruz
November 24, 2010
7:36 p.m.