Reflections of Fidel

It is not known how many people in the United States write to Obama and how many different topics are presented to him. It’s clear that he cannot read all the letters and deal with everything because he wouldn’t be able to fit it into a 24-hour day or a 365-day year. What is certain is that his advisors, backed up by their computers, electronic equipment and cell, answer all the letters. Their contents are recorded and there are pre-written answers supported by the multiple declarations of the new president during his campaign to be nominated and elected.

Anyway, the letters have influence and bearing upon United States policy since we are not dealing, in this case, with a corrupt, lying and ignorant politician as his predecessor was, who hated the social advances made by the New Deal.

For that reason I fixed upon a news cable published yesterday on April 14, originating from Washington, provided by the DPA news agency.

It stated that a group of high-ranking retired U.S. military were urging President Barack Obama to ‘support and sign’ a law to end the prohibitions on travel to Cuba by all U.S. citizens, arguing that the embargo against the island is of no use for political purposes or for Washington’s security.

In a letter released today in Washington, the 12 retired high-ranking officers, among them the ‘drug czar’ during the Clinton administration, Brian McCaffrey and Colin Powell’s former chief of staff Lawrence B. Wilkerson, warn that the embargo has caused a significant diplomatic movement against U.S. policy.

As military professionals, we understand that the interests of the United States are better attended to when the country is capable of attracting the support of other nations to our cause, the soldiers insist in the letter sent to Obama on Monday, the same day that the U.S. president announced the end of the travel restrictions and remittances for Cuban-Americans, but not for all American citizens as progressive sectors want.

In the opinion of these soldiers, the ‘Law on Freedom of Travel to Cuba’ presented before the House of Representatives by the Democrat Bill Delahunt ‘is an important first step towards the lifting of the embargo’.

They add that this is a kind of policy ‘with more possibilities for bringing change to Cuba’ and also for changing Washington’s international image.

Throughout the world, leaders are demanding a real political change based on the hopes you inspired in your campaign, the soldiers maintain.

They add that Cuba provides a handier element to demonstrate that change and furthermore it would be a manoeuvre that would be deeply etched into the minds of our partners and rivals in the world.

Placed as it was among 315 pages of cables, the news would appear to be somewhat insignificant. However it deals with the crux of the problem that motivated four reflections in less than 24 hours, revolving around the Summit of the Americas which will be starting within 48 hours.

In the United States, wars are unleashed by the politicians and they have to be fought by the soldiers.

The young and untried Kennedy decreed the blockade and the Bay of Pigs invasion, organized by Eisenhower and by Nixon who knew less of war than he did. The unexpected twist of fate led him to new and unwise decisions that ended up in the October Missile Crisis from which he nevertheless emerged gracefully although traumatized by the risk of a nuclear war that hovered at his elbow, as the French journalist Jean Daniel told me. “He is a thinking machine”, was the praise he added about the president who had greatly impressed him.

Later, enthused with the Green Berets, he dispatched them to Vietnam where the U.S. was supporting the restoration of the French colonial empire. Another politician, Lyndon Johnson, carried that war to its final consequences. In that inglorious adventure, more than 50,000 soldiers lost their lives, the Union squandered no less than 500 billion dollars when the value of the dollar in gold fell 20 times, killed millions of Vietnamese and multiplied the solidarity for that poor Third World country. Conscripts had to be replaced with professional soldiers, removing the people from military training and thus weakening that nation.

A third politician, George W. Bush, protected by his father, carried out the genocidal Iraqi war that hastened the economic crisis, making it more serious and profound. Its cost in economic figures is at trillions of dollars, with a public debt that will fall upon the new generations of Americans, in a world which is convulsed and full of risks.

Those who affirm that the embargo affects the security interests of the United States, are they right or not?

Those who wrote the letter are not appealing to the use of weapons, but to the war of ideas, something which is diametrically opposed to what was done by the politicians.

In general, the American soldiers who defend the economic, political and social system of the United States have privileges and are very well paid, but they are concerned about not taking part in the stealing of public funds, something that would lead to their disrepute and to the total lack of authority for their military endeavours.

They do not believe that Cuba constitutes a threat to the security of the United States, as we have been attempted to be portrayed before American public opinion. It has been the governments of that country which have transformed the Guantánamo base into a refuge for counter-revolutionaries or emigrants. Worse than all this, they transformed it into a torture centre that made them famous as a symbol of the most brutal negation of human rights.

The soldiers also know that our country is a model for the fight against drug trafficking and that never have any terrorist actions been allowed against the people of the United States from our territory.

As the Black Caucus from the U.S. Congress was able to discover, including Cuba on the list of terrorist countries is the most dishonest thing that has ever been done.

We give thanks to those who wrote the letter to Obama, just as we thank senators Lugar and Delahunt, the Caucus and other influential members of Congress.

We do not fear dialogue; we do not need to invent enemies; we do not fear the debate of ideas; we believe in our convictions and with them we have known how to defend and continue defending our homeland.

With the fabulous advances of technology, war has become one of the most complex sciences.

It is something the American soldiers understand. They know it isn’t a matter of issuing orders along the lines of the old wars. Nowadays one will possibly never see the adversary’s face; they can be thousands of kilometres apart; the deadliest of weapons are fired by programmes. Men hardly participate. Decisions are previously calculated and bereft of emotions.

I have met several of them, by now retired, who dedicate themselves to the study of the military sciences and warfare.

They express no hatred or dislike of the small country which has struggled and resisted, faced with such a powerful neighbour.

In the United States these days there is a World Security Institute in existence; our country maintains contact with it and carries out academic exchanges. 15 years ago what existed was the Centre for Defence Information (CDI). It made a first visit to Cuba at the end of June in 1993. Between that date and November 19, 2004 nine visits were made to Cuba.

Until the year 1999, the delegations were mainly made up of retired military.

On the October 1999 visit, the composition of the delegates began to change, and the military became less of a presence. From the fifth visit, all the delegations were presided by the prestigious researcher Bruce Blair, expert in security policies and specializing in nuclear control and command forces. He is consulting professor at the universities of Yale and Princeton. He has published many books and hundreds of articles on the subject.

This was the way I met soldiers who had taken on important roles in the U.S. armed forces. We did not always agree with their points of view, but they were always pleasant. We had extensive exchanges about historical events in which they had participated as the military.

Visits continued in 2006, but I had had the accident in Santa Clara and later on I became seriously ill.

Among the twelve retired soldiers who signed the letter to Obama, one of them had taken part in those meetings.

I learned that in the last meeting to take place, they frankly said that the military had no intention of militarily attacking Cuba; that there was a new political situation in the United States coming out of the administration’s weakness on account of its disaster in Iraq.

For the comrades who met with the Americans it was evident that they felt they were being poorly led and they were embarrassed by what was happening even though nobody could provide guarantees about the president of the United States’ adventurous policy which he kept up right to his last day in office. That meeting took place in March of 2007, 14 months ago.

Bruce Blair must know much more than I about the thorny subject. I was always impressed by his brave and transparent behaviour.

I didn’t want this information to stay in the files waiting for a time when it would no longer be of interest to anyone.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 15, 2009
9:16 p.m.

Anyone would think that after the Summit of the Americas, just 13 days after the G-20 meeting and on the heels of the exhausting tour of France, Germany, Prague and Turkey by President Obama, the world would have the right to rest for a few days.

But that’s not the case. The United States Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, will be meeting in Washington on April 24th with the G-7 Finance ministers -the super-rich- and this shall be followed right away by a G-20 ministerial meeting to be held on that same day.

The two meetings will take place before the spring assemblies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the bodies that govern the world’s finances.

The interesting thing is that yesterday the Financial Times of London, the most important economic news journal in Great Britain, described Europe’s complications in the field of energy.

The EFE news agency quoted the above-mentioned paper as stating that the United Kingdom’s North Sea production of oil and gas may decrease because the economic crisis has led to a slow down in exploration in one of the most important reserves of the western world.

The number of exploration wells drilled in the North Sea has decreased by 78 percent during the first quarter of 2009 as compared to the same period last year, according to data supplied by the Deloitte Company and published by the economic newspaper.

Only 18 of the evaluation and exploration wells were worked on in the first quarter, which accounts for a 41 percent drop in the total drilling activity, as compared to the same period in 2008.

The UK Oil and Gas Group is even more pessimistic; it has forecast that drilling could fall off this year by 66 percent.

The newspaper adds that the situation in the North Sea is worse than in other places since the new discoveries tend to be smaller and the oil wells less productive and too expensive to maintain.

According to highly credible sources, on April 4th, during the London Summit presided over by Gordon Brown, the host of the event, the British prime minister behaved in a visibly contemptuous manner towards the Third World participants. He even treated Obama with prejudice due to the fact that he was black.

How much oil will be consumed in the world? At what cost? At what price? Who are the people responsible for the tragedy? What limits will be placed in Copenhagen on the countries that have yet to develop? It is a really complicated problem.

The world does not rest. Neither does Obama.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 14, 2009
7:02 p.m.

Today I spoke frankly about the atrocities committed against the peoples of Latin America. The peoples of the Caribbean were not even independent when the Cuban Revolution triumphed. Exactly on April 19th, the day when the Summit of the America finishes, it will be 48 years since the Cuban victory at Bay of Pigs. I was cautious when referring to the OAS; I didn’t say a single word that might be interpreted as an offence to that very old institution even though everyone knows how repugnant it is to us.

A rather hostile cable from the British news agency Reuters states that in an interview granted to the Brazilian paper ‘O’Globo’, Insulza said that Cuba needs to make it clear that it is committed to democracy if it wants to return to the Organization of American States, as demanded by an increasing number of Latin American governments.

He added that the U.S. President Barack Obama is reviewing Washington”s decades-old policy of isolating communist Cuba ahead of the Summit of the Americas meeting this weekend, where Latin American leaders are expected to press for an end to the U.S. embargo on the island, in force since 1962.

He said that some countries are also expected to push for Cuba to be readmitted to the OAS, from which it was expelled in 1962 at the height of the Cold War.

Insulza cautioned that the OAS” democracy clause remained an obstacle to the demands pushing to readmit Cuba, a one-party state.

He said that we needed to know if Cuba is interested in returning to multilateral organizations or if it is thinking only about the end of the embargo and economic growth. He added that this is a Summit of good will countries, but good will alone is not enough to make a change.

Insulza, a former Chilean foreign minister, said that all 34 leaders attending the Summit, from which Cuba is barred, come from democratic countries.

When asked about Cuba he told O’Globo that the General Assembly of the OAS decided that all member countries must adhere to democratic principles.

But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington”s harshest critics, has already said he would seek to place the Cuba issue at the center of the summit debates.

Isulza said to O’Globo that the return of Cuba to the body not only depends on the Summit of the Americas, but on the OAS General Assembly.

The OAS has a history which collects all the trash accumulated after 60 years of betraying the peoples of Latin America.

Insulza asserts that Cuba must first be accepted by the OAS before joining that institution. He knows that we don’t even wish to hear the loathsome name of that institution, for it has not rendered any single service to our peoples. It is rather the incarnation of betrayal. If one were to add up all the aggressive actions to which it was an accomplice, they would span hundreds of thousands of lives and several bloody decades. Its meeting will be a battlefield that will place many governments into an embarrassing situation. However, let it not be said that Cuba has thrown the first stone. Insulza even offends us by presuming that we are eager to join the OAS. The train has passed by a long time ago, and Insulza still does not know it. Some day many countries will ask to be forgiven for having belonged to it.

Evo spoke today at noon. He still hasn’t said the last word about whether or not he will be attending the ALBA meeting and the Summit of the Americas. He won an undeniable and overwhelming victory.

Nevertheless he accepted the number of seats assigned to indigenous towns to be reduced to 7 from the 14 he had proposed. The adversary will surely try to exploit that aspect to spur its machinations against the Movement towards Socialism (MAS), betting on the weakening of the movement.

MAS will have to struggle hard to secure both the electoral biometric register and an alternative, if the oligarchy succeeds in postponing the drawing up of the new register. His hunger strike was a brave and daring decision and the Bolivian people’s awareness was greatly enhanced.

Now the centre of attention will concentrate on the Summit of the Americas. It will be a privilege to know what will be said there; intelligence and decency will be put to the test. We shall not go down on our knees begging the OAS to allow us entering into infamy.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 14, 2009
4:43 p.m.

Forty eight years ago mercenary troops in the service of a foreign power invaded their own homeland, escorted by a United States squadron, including an aircraft carrier and dozens of fighter planes. That date cannot be forgotten. The great power to the North can apply the same recipe to any Latin American country. It has already happened many times throughout our hemisphere’s history. Is there any declaration guaranteeing that such an action will never repeat again, either directly or through the very armies of other countries, as it occurred in the Dominican Republic, Panama, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela and others?

The wily surprise attack on the Bay of Pigs cost us more than 150 lives and hundreds of seriously wounded. We would like to hear some self-criticism from the powerful country and a guarantee that this shall never happen again in our hemisphere.

Yesterday, April 13th, commemorated the seventh anniversary of the failed coup against the Revolution in Venezuela.

For the sake of democracy and human rights, we need to be hearing a voice from Washington telling us that the School of the Americas, specializing in coups d’état and torture, will be shut down forever.

We cannot forget that, in April, El Salvador will still be governed by the ARENA leader, who was an oligarchic ally of Bush in the Iraqi genocide. In a million human lives sacrificed there is enough blood to drown all the accomplices.

Am I being offensive by remembering this? Or, is it also prohibited, in the name of decency, naiveté and complicity, to refer to the subject?

The decision to relax travel restrictions is indeed positive in itself, although minimal. Many others are required, including the abolition of the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act which is exclusively applied to our country alone in the whole world. We should like to hear an answer to the question about whether the migratory privileges being used to combat the Cuban Revolution and to strip it of human resources would also be granted to all other Latin American and Caribbean nations. But everything in Port of Spain will be secret. Listening to the debates and the statements to be made by the heads of state and government will be forbidden. Whatever is said by each of them there will anyway be known.

We have no wish to offend Obama in the least, but he shall be president for one or two terms. He is not responsible for what has happened and I am sure that he wouldn’t commit Bush’s atrocities. In his wake, however, someone equal or worse than his predecessor might come. Men come and go; peoples live on.

There are other extremely serious problems such as the climate change, and the current president of the United States has decided to cooperate in that problem so vital for humankind. We have to acknowledge that.

Enough for today. I do not wish to add one single word.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 14, 2009
11:15 a.m.

The U.S. administration announced through CNN that Obama would be visiting Mexico this week, in the first part of a trip that will take him to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, where he will be within four days taking part in the Summit of the Americas. He has announced the relief of some hateful restrictions imposed by Bush on Cubans living in the United States regarding their visits to relatives in Cuba. When questions were raised on whether such prerogatives extended to other American citizens the response was that the latter were not authorized.

But not a word was said about the harshest of measures: the blockade. This is the way a truly genocidal measure is piously called, one whose damage cannot be calculated only on the basis of its economic effects, for it constantly takes human lives and brings painful suffering to our people.

Numerous diagnostic equipment and crucial medicines –made in Europe, Japan or any other country– are not available to our patients if they carry U.S. components or software.

The U.S. companies producing goods or offering services anywhere in the world apply these restrictions to Cuba, since they are extraterritorial measures.

An influential Republican Senator, Richard Lugar, and some others from his same party in Congress, as well as a significant number of his Democratic peers, favor the removal of the blockade. The conditions exist for Obama to use his talents in a constructive policy that could put an end to the one that has failed for almost half a century.

On the other hand, our country, which has resisted and is willing to resist whatever it takes, neither blames Obama for the atrocities of other U.S. administrations nor doubts his sincerity and his wishes to change the United States policy and image. We understand that he waged a very difficult battle to be elected, despite centuries-old prejudices.

Taking note of this reality, the President of the State Council of Cuba has expressed his willingness to have a dialogue with Obama and to normalize relations with the United States, on the basis of the strictest respect for the sovereignty of our country.

At 2:30 p.m., the head of the Interests Section of Cuba in Washington, Jorge Bolaños, was summoned to the State Department by Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Shannon. He did not say anything different from what had been indicated by the CNN.

At 3:15 p.m. a lengthy press conference started. The substance of what was said there is reflected in the words of Dan Restrepo, Presidential Adviser for Latin America.

He said that today President Obama had instructed to take certain measures, certain steps, to reach out to the Cuban people in support of their wishes to live with respect for human rights and to determine their own destiny and that of the country.

He added that the president had instructed the secretaries of State, Commerce and Treasury to undertake the necessary actions to remove all restrictions preventing persons to visit their relatives in the Island and sending remittances. He also said that the president had issued instructions for steps to be taken allowing the free flow of information in Cuba, and between those living in Cuba and the rest of the world, and to facilitate delivering humanitarian resources directly to the Cuban people.

He also said that with these measures, aimed at closing the gap between divided Cuban families and promoting the free flow of information and humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people, President Obama was making an effort to fulfill the objectives he set out during his campaign and after taking on his position.

Finally, he indicated that all those who believe in the basic democratic values hope for a Cuba where the human, political, economic and basic rights of the entire people are respected. And he added that President Obama feels that these measures will help to make this objective a reality. The president, he said, encourages everyone who shares these wishes to continue to decidedly support the Cuban people.

At the end of the press conference, the adviser candidly confessed that ‘all of this is for Cuba’s freedom.’

Cuba does not applaud the ill-named Summits of the Americas, where our nations do not debate on equal footing. If they were of any use, it would be to make critical analyses of policies that divide our peoples, plunder our resources and hinder our development.

Now, the only thing left is for Obama to try to persuade all of the Latin American presidents attending the conference that the blockade is harmless.

Cuba has resisted and it will continue to resist; it will never beg for alms. It will go on forward holding its head up high and cooperating with the fraternal peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean; with or without Summits of the Americas; whether or not the president of the United States is Obama, a man or a woman, a black or a white citizen.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 13, 2009
6:12 p.m.

Evo entered today his fourth day of rigorous hunger strike. He spoke yesterday evening and today at noon. His words were calm, persuasive and categorical. He offered a “biometric electoral register” that was still better than the one in force during the electoral processes held in his country, which had already been described by international institutions as reliable and of high quality.

He plays chess in his spare time.

He was interviewed by the television, and when asked by a journalist how he could guarantee that the electoral register is ready for the December elections, in the face of the tricks worked by the oligarchy, he answered: “I have confidence in the people.”

Nobody denies any longer that he is winning the battle without resorting to the use of force or abusing power.

The adversary can not cope with his volley. It is quite possible that, during the early hours of Monday, an agreement is announced — without having to resort to a Presidential Decree — by virtue of a Congress law, as Evo wanted. Every new hour without said agreement would multiply the strength of and the national and international support to Bolivia’s indigenous President.

The opposition parliamentarians are coming back and negotiations are under way. Those are good news.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 12, 2009
9:35 p.m.

Sometimes I have thought that I would not have to write the following day and that I could rather use part of the time to read and study, as I have often done. But, the significant events of the past few weeks related to the world economy and politics, and the developments in Bolivia have prevented me from doing so.

At 10:41 hours, I communicated with Dausá. I wanted to have details on the health of Evo and the other Bolivian leaders who are today in the third day of a hunger strike. He woke up well although weaker from the lack of food. Those accompanying him in the hunger strike are also enduring the situation; they asked the ambassador for books on Marti, Che Guevara and the Revolution. Today, our ambassador worked on the request and sent them such books as ‘Marti’s Life and Work,’ ‘Socialism and Man in Cuba’ and other materials.

It is a known fact that the electoral register was recognized by various international organizations, the OAS and the European Union included, which have no sympathies for the left. These used their specialized services to make analysis and determine that the electoral register was one of the most serious in the continent.

Despite all that, authorities from the legislative assemblies in five of the nine departments of Bolivia –that is, in Beni, Pando, Potosi, La Paz and Tarija—challenged the electoral register in obvious complicity with the opposition.

In Bolivia, the strongest Party in Parliament is the MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo) led by Evo Morales, with 72 seats of a total of 130 in the House of Representatives. It is, thus, the most powerful Party in Bolivia. The rest of the seats are divided among PODEMOS (Poder Democrático Social), the second stronger political force made up by the old loyalists of General Hugo Banzer, and the MNR (Movimiento Nacional Revolutionario). PODEMOS stands for the Bolivian oligarchy. Its leader, at the moment, is Jorge Quiroga who became a president of Bolivia shortly before the death of Banzer, since he had been the latter’s vicepresident.

The MNR is the third political force. It is headed by Representative Mirtha Quevedo. It has a smaller number of members in the parliament who oppose the MAS.

Unidad Nacional is the other opposing force in the Bolivian Parliament.

As far as Cuba is concerned, the main political organizations of the opposition are not characterized by their hostility.

Recently, after the constitutional referendum in January, a numerous Bolivian delegation visited our country in response to an invitation from our Party’s America Division. The delegation was made up by Carlos Both and Roberto Ruiz, both senators from PODEMOS; Cesar Navarro, a very positive man who follows Evo; Mario Justiniano, a representative from the MNR, who is critical of Evo; Hugo Moldiz, editor of the weekly La Época, an excellent writer and a very good friend of Cuba; and Guido Rivero, the executive secretary of the so-called Fundación Boliviana para la Democracia Multipartidista, which made the arrangements for the trip from March 11 through 15. They were looked after by the comrades from our Party’s International Relations Department.

It has been precisely to promote unity and cooperation among all of the political forces for the development of Bolivia that President Evo Morales has done everything within his power to foster collaboration while avoiding extremist positions that could damage the revolutionary process. How can anyone speak of extremism when the Bolivian leader consulted with the voters if the size of properties should be 10 or 5 thousand hectares? For the first time in the history of Bolivia, Evo has built a significant hard currency reserve which now allows him to face up to the grave international financial crisis; in less than three years he has eradicated illiteracy in Spanish, Aymara and Quechua; he has made it possible for the entire poor population to enjoy a safe minimum income; he is recovering the energy sources and conquering for Bolivia the admiration of the world.

Our people are contributing to his efforts with their experience in the areas of healthcare and education. Thousands of our compatriots are making their selfless contribution there.

Our physicians have offered 24,618,833 consultations and performed 35,390 general surgeries. They have saved 20,102 lives.

The number of patients who have had eye surgeries as part of Mission Miracle is 386,597; of these, 25,198 are Brazilian, 24,240 Argentinean, 17,008 Peruvians and 309 Paraguayan.

At the same time, close to 5 thousand Bolivian youths are pursuing a Medical career in Cuba.

That is our modest contribution to the fraternal Bolivian people, the poorest and most exploited in Latin America.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 11, 2009
1:43 p.m.

Yesterday, Thursday 9, our attention was focused on the tense situation in Bolivia…

Today, Friday, there is one more event of great interest: after a successful trip to China, Hugo Chavez arrives in Cuba. If in Bolivia the oligarchy has clashed with a serious and strong leader like Evo Morales, in Venezuela the adversaries of the Bolivarian Revolution, who were pinning all their hopes on the blow that the international economic crisis would deal that country, will understand that Chavez’ struggle for socialism is capable of surmounting any obstacle. He promised that all the achievements and the significant social progress attained so far will be maintained, that the industrialization of the country will keep up with its pace, and that Venezuela will become a model industrialized country, with social justice, which will be an inspiration and an example to the Third World.

His trip to China and Japan in the midst of the crisis that affects all nations of the world is a true example of political strategy. Before going on that trip he attended the South American and Arab countries Summit. These countries altogether own huge natural resources. He saw in Japan –one of the most industrialized countries of the world with the greatest economic potential- an important market for Venezuelan commodities. He clearly deduced, over and above anything else, that China, with its accelerated development, will be the biggest economic power on Earth, an inescapable stronghold for international trade and a fulcrum for the Third World countries which have been discriminated against and exploited by he richest capitalist powers.

The cable news published on April 8 reported the agreements that had been signed after the conversations held between the presidents of Venezuela and the People’s Republic of China, Hugo Chavez and Hu Jintao.

The cable news issued yesterday 9 reported the activities that, at the request of the President of China, Hugo Chavez attended on that day before beginning his return trip.

Cable news agencies gave a wide coverage to all his activities in China.

They reported that the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, said he had reached an agreement today with his Chinese homologue, Hu Jintao, to increase cooperation so that China could receive one million barrels of oil per day by the year 2010.

“I suggested to him that, given the world situation –the crisis- we should analyze the possibility and agree on advancing the goal set under the strategic agreement for the year 2013”, said Chavez today to the one hundred local, provincial and national leaders of the Chinese Communist Party School who applauded him.

“Achieving that supply volume, the construction of a Venezuelan refinery on Chinese territory and the creation of a bi-national shipping company for the transportation of crude oil were the priority goals pursued by Chavez’s visit.

“The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, deemed today as ‘indispensable’ the construction of a platform of alliances between China, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, concluded today his visit to China with a meeting he held with the Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping, who is considered to be Hu Jintao’s successor as leader of China’s Communist Party at its next Congress to be held in 2012.

“Xi is the Rector of the school where all the Communist Party leaders have been trained since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, which was visited by Chavez today.

“China is a country with foresight. After a few months in government I traveled to this country and began to build a relationship with Jiang Zemin; and now, with Hu, we have decided to endow that relationship with a new strategic dynamism.

“Yesterday, in a meeting held at the Great People’s Palace, Chávez told Hu that China is the biggest engine that exists right now that could pull the world out of this crisis.

“He reaffirmed today at the Party School that if Washington was the capital city of the imperial world, Beijing is today one of the big capital cities of the multipolar world.

“We are in the process of founding our own Party School, which has been in place for hardly one year, and its founding nucleus should first attend this school, because we have started to shape up a great party with a clear ideology, which is socialism”, he reaffirmed.

Around 2 o’clock in the afternoon, President Chávez will do me the honor of visiting me. It will be extremely interesting for me to be able to know about the details of his trip abroad –more than 12 days, all in all- showing his unlimited confidence on the people, its increasing socialist awareness and the cadres that were left at the helm of the country.

Most certainly, during the day we will receive more news about Bolivia and the political battle that is being waged by Evo and his selfless people. I will continue to write, trying to be as concise as possible in view of so many news.

At 13:15 hours I phoned Dausá. The news was that Evo still had not had any rest at 7:00 a.m. At that time he was given a copy of the Reflection I wrote today. He felt happy about it and read it before the journalists. He felt pleased to know that I was following the events very closely. After that he slept for two or three hours.

Dausá gave me more accurate information about the Parliament sessions. Both in the House –with 130 deputies, where Evo’s party has an overwhelming majority– and in the Senate –with 27 Congress members, where the opposition is the majority– laws are approved by a simple majority.

The problem is that the Provisional Electoral Act must be approved by a majority in both the House and the Senate. Since the oligarchy has a higher number of deputies within the 27 members of the Senate, it blocks its approval and demands conditions which are unacceptable, namely, to create a new electoral register, to reduce to only a few the number of special constituencies for the indigenous populations created by the new Constitution of Bolivia, which was approved by the people in the recently held elections, and finally to impose considerable restrictions on the voting rights of Bolivians living abroad –most of whom support Evo.

Through those demands they intend to deprive the Bolivian President of the increasing popular support he enjoys.

While a solution is negotiated based on a possible reduction of the number of indigenous deputies from 14 –as proposed by Evo– to almost half, since the opposition accepted only three, they have started to create intrigues by saying that the indigenous President is betraying his own people. Thus, they intend to undermine Evo’s forces and challenge the electoral register, which will question the right to vote of 700 000 Bolivian voters. A similar goal is pursued by restricting and hindering the voting rights of Bolivians living abroad.

It is only logical that Evo does not resign himself to suspend the elections or deprive a considerable number of Bolivians from their right to vote by virtue of a challenge to an electoral register whose quality has been approved by international agencies as one of the best in Latin America. At 14:05 hours, I heard Evo speaking on television; he looked calm, eloquent and persuasive.

It is impossible not to recognize him or support him. The hunger strike does not affect in the least his intellectual capacity. “I am not looking for power for myself; I am looking for power for the social organizations” he stated and reiterated. His answers to the press are really eloquent.

Dausá reports that many of the opposition parliamentarians, mainly those from Santa Cruz, left for their respective Departments to spend there the Good Friday as well as the rest of the week, as if they were pious believers.

Evo, for one, does not give up in his attitude, and remains firm, together with a group of leaders who accompany him at the Palace of Government. But at the same time he has asked all his followers elsewhere in the country who are also on a hunger strike to interrupt it until Monday, so that they could be with their relatives during the weekend.

I heard another good news today at noon during the national television news show. Our friend Bouteflika was reelected yesterday for a third constitutional term with the support of 90 per cent of voters. That is good news for Cuba, which reminds us of the importance of solidarity with other peoples, which so much has enriched our history ever since the very first days of the Revolution.

Chávez arrived at 15:55. He came accompanied by Luis Reyes Reyes, Minister for the Presidency; Rafael Ramírez, Minister of Energy and Oil; Nicolás Maduro, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and other cadres who went with him on his trip abroad. As soon as he sat down he began to tell me about his own impressions.

He felt very happy about his meeting with Hu Jintao, President of China. He told me about the extensive dialogue he had during his working visit, the last dinner hosted in his honor at the People’s Palace and the visit he paid to the historical Chinese Communist Party Cadre School at the suggestion of the Chinese President. He exchanged views with the Chinese Vice-President and Rector of that school, Xi JinPing, who left a deep impression in him. He had already met him in Venezuela, a country he visited as Vice President of that big nation.

Likewise he also met with his friend Chen Yuan, President of the Chinese Development Bank, who is son to the former President of that country during the first revolutionary stage. He also talked with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He highly praised the talent and the working methods of China’s top leadership, particularly Hu Jintao.

Meetings and visits took place with or without press coverage. He gave several interviews. Going through the reports published by the press agencies, he specified the words he had pronounced and those that resulted from the translation or the interpretation of what he had said; the press agencies broadly publicized all his activities.

He traveled back via Vancouver. The flight, with one stopover, lasted exactly 16 hours. He spent half of that time flying over U.S. territory, which did not object the itinerary of the Cubana de Aviación IL-96 aircraft. He also gave some details about his visits and meetings in Qatar, Iran and Japan. He talked with a great number of leaders. He devoted some minutes to convey the greetings sent by some of his interlocutors. He is very strict on that. He did not want to forget any, specially the ones conveyed by the Chinese leaders.

Among the topics we discussed at our meeting, which lasted 2 hours and 50 minutes, we addressed several issues. I told him that China was paving the way for the use of the yuan as a hard currency, which was not artificially devalued to cope with competition, as was claimed by its adversaries. Its capacity to compete is progressively increasing.

Paul Krugman, the Nobel Laureate in Economics, claims that quite possibly, in the next IMF meeting –which is held within a given number of years to assign certain currencies the condition of convertible hard currency– the yuan will be included on a par with the dollar, the euro, the pound sterling and others. Those who control the world economy can no longer ignore it.

Evo could not be left out from our conversation. I explained to Chávez in detail all the information I got, his excellent state of mind and his readiness to continue on a hunger strike until the end. He called Evo on the phone and expressed to him his full solidarity. Finally, he spoke about his next visit to Argentina. He asked some information about the Trinidad and Tobago Summit and the position adopted by Daniel. He and Cristina will speak at the opening ceremony of the Summit. I told him everything I knew.

At 21:54 hours I called Dausá and asked for some news.

The Congress, which was going to convene at 19:00 hours, could not meet out of lack of quorum. It was said to convene at 20:30 hours, but there was no quorum either. The TV channels showed images of the opposition parliamentarians at their respective Departments. García Linares felt sorry about their absence and said that attitude was bordering on offense. He said he would call a meeting again tomorrow, Sunday, April 11, at 12:30 hours. He added that there would be no other activity in Congress until the Law is approved.

Evo is fine. He was checked by the physician who accompanies him. The hunger strike by the leaders of different Departments in the country has continued, in solidarity with the President, despite Evo’s appeal that they should interrupt it until Monday. Today, according to the Secretary General of the Workers Central of Bolivia there are 1,027 workers in 96 pickets.

In a press conference given by the leaders of Coordinadora Nacional por el Cambio and the Workers Central of Bolivia they stated that if the parliamentarians’ absence from Congress continues, they will implement legal actions against them. He told me that he would visit the President tonight. He would take forty minutes to go from the embassy to the Palace. I promised to call him to say hello to Evo.

At 22:20 hours I called him. He immediately handed over the cell phone to Evo. I had the pleasure to listen to his calm but firm voice, confident on the justice of his cause. I conveyed to him our happiness on his good health condition. I congratulated him on his firmness and his calm and eloquent words, which do not insult or hurt anyone. I told him about Chavez’s visit and his attitude of solidarity towards him and Bolivia. I conveyed to him a message of solidarity and our confidence in his victory.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 10, 2009
11:02 p.m.