Reflections of Fidel

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.

Dear Hugo Chávez,

Congratulations to you and your people for a victory which, because of its magnitude, is impossible to measure.

Fidel Castro Ruz

February 15, 2009

As if there were not enough reasons to go mad, the proliferation of acronyms related to the crisis is such that one can hardly understand them. The first was the G20, a selected group meeting in Washington that pretended to represent all. The second was the also selective APEC group which met in Lima. There was the richest country, the United States; this is number one, with a per capita GDP of 45 thousand dollars a year. But there was also the number 100 country, the People’s Republic of China, with a per capita GDP of 2,483 dollars; this is also the number one investor in US Treasure bonds.

Now, G192 is the way that Leonel Fernandez, President of the Dominican Republic, which is not a member of either of the two, calls the member countries of the United Nations attending an economic conference with Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate of Economics.

George Soros, an immensely rich magnate of Hungarian descent and an American citizen, was one of the attending personalities.

One would have to be a chess player to disentangle the arguments of so diverse national and business interests as are represented in the G20 and the G21.

The truth of the matter is that if a Third World country signed free trade agreements with eight or ten developed or emerging countries, –some of them traditional producers of abundant and attractive low cost goods or sophisticated industrial products, such as the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, etc.– the nascent industry of a developing country would have to compete with the sophisticated products of the most developed countries’ industries or the hard working hands of their powerful partners, one of which handles world finances wantonly. The only thing left to them would be to produce inexpensive raw materials requiring large investments ultimately owned by foreign companies fully protected from nationalizing whims. They would only have their extended hands waiting for a pious development support and an eternal debt to be repaid with their children’s sweat. Isn’t this what has been happening until today?

That’s why I don’t hesitate to show my solidarity with Chávez’s position as he said that he disagreed with Lima’s recipe. There are plenty of reasons. Let’s see how the situation unfolds, and keep demanding out rights without ever bending our knees.

Fidel Castro Ruz
November 23, 2008
7:30 p.m.

Venezuela, whose people are heirs to Bolivar’s ideas which transcend his era, is today facing a world tyranny a thousand times more powerful than that of Spain’s colonial strength added to that of the recently born United States which, through Monroe, proclaimed their right to the natural wealth of the continent and to the sweat of its people.

Marti denounced the brutal system and called it a monster, in whose entrails he had lived. His internationalist spirit shone as never before when, in a letter left unfinished due to his death in combat, he publicly revealed the objective of his restless struggle:

“…I am now every day risking my life for my country, and for my duty -since I understand it and have the courage to do it- to timely prevent, with the independence of Cuba, that the United States expand over the Antilles and that they fall, with this additional force, over our lands in America…”

It was not in vain that he stated in plain verse: “With the poor of this earth, my fate I wish to cast”. Later, he proclaimed categorically: “Humanity is homeland”. The Apostle of our independence wrote one day: “Let Venezuela call on me to serve her: I am her son”.

The most sophisticated media developed by technology, employed to kill human beings and to subjugate or exterminate peoples; the massive sowing of conditioned reflexes of the mind; consumerism and all available resources; these are being used today against the Venezuelans, with the intent of ripping the ideas of Bolivar and Marti to shreds.

The empire has created conditions conducive to violence and internecine conflicts. On Chavez’s recent visit last November 21, I seriously discussed with him the risks of assassination as he is constantly out in the open in convertible vehicles. I said this because of my experience as a combatant trained in the use of an automatic weapon and a telescopic sight. Likewise, after the triumph, I became the target of assassination plots directly or indirectly ordered by almost every United States administration since 1959.

The irresponsible government of the empire does not stop for a minute to think that the assassination of Venezuela’s leader or a civil war in that country would blow up the globalized world economy, due to its huge reserves of hydrocarbons. Such circumstances are without precedent in the history of mankind.

Cuba developed close ties with the Bolivarian government of Venezuela during the hardest days resulting from the demise of the USSR and the tightening of the United States economic blockade. The exchange of goods and services grew from practically zero level to more than 7 billion dollars annually, with great economic and social benefits for both our peoples. Today that is where we receive the fundamental supplies of fuel needed for our country’s consumption, something that would be very difficult to obtain from other sources due to the shortage of light crude oil, the insufficient refining capacity, the United States’ power and the wars its has unleashed to seize the world oil and gas reserves.

Add to the high energy prices, the prices of foods destined by imperial policy to be transformed into fuel for the gas-guzzling cars of the United States and other industrial nations.

A victory of the Yes vote on December 2 would not be enough. The weeks and months following that date may very well prove to be extremely tough for many countries, Cuba for one; although before that the empire’s adventures could lead the planet into an atomic war, as their own leaders have confessed.

Our compatriots can rest assured that I have had time to think and to meditate at length on these problems.

Fidel Castro Ruz
November 29, 2007

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 Chavez 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 Chavez, 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 Garcia Iñiguez, 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. Chavez 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 Chavez 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 Chavez, Bolivar’s, Che Guevara’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 Chavez’ vibrant speech at the Summit debate!

Long live the courageous people who cast off the oppressor’s yoke!

Long live Hugo Rafael Chavez!

Fidel Castro Ruz
November 18, 2007

I have been working on the many reflections that I have promised. One of them deals with the main ideas of a book by Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, making use of his own words. His book clearly reveals how imperialism seeks to continue buying up the world’s natural and human resources with perfumed paper bills.

Another idea I had consisted in compelling certain individuals to confess the truth about NATO’s war plans. I directly challenged Mr. Aznar and brought pressures to bear on US leaders to have them openly admit their responsibility in the empire’s wars. Some of the documented evidence I presented had not been published before.

Then the Ibero-American Summit was held and hell broke loose there. Zapatero’s cowardly and untimely remarks, his defense of Aznar, the King of Spain’s abrupt interjection, and the dignified response of the President of Venezuela who, because of technical problems, was unable to hear precisely what the King had said, were an unambiguous display of the genocidal ways and methods of the empire, its accomplices and the anesthetized victims of the Third World.

Chavez’ talents and debate skills came to the fore in this tense atmosphere.

Aznar’s twisted soul is best captured by one of his pronouncements. When Chavez asked him what fate was in store, in the neoliberal world, for poor countries such as Haiti, he replied, verbatim: “Those guys are screwed”.

I know the Bolivarian leader well: he never forgets the words he hears in direct conversation with others.

I wrote a third reflection on the Ibero-American Summit which I have yet to publish. I am publishing this one, instead, on the eve of President Chavez’ trip to Riad, Saudi Arabia, tomorrow, where he will participate in the OPEC Summit.

Fidel Castro Ruz
November 15, 2007

All physical, geographic and time barriers disappeared. It seemed unreal. Never before had a dialogue of this nature taken place between heads of State and government, most of whom represented nations that had been pillaged by colonial and imperialist powers for centuries. Nothing could have been more instructive.

Saturday, November 10th, 2007, will go down in the history of our America as a day of truth.

The ideological Waterloo took place when the King of Spain abruptly asked Chavez: “Why don’t you keep quiet?” All hearts in Latin America raced at that instant. The people of Venezuela, who will be called upon to vote “yes” or “no” next December 2nd, were shaken by the emotion of living the glorious days of Bolivar again. The betrayals and the low blows that our dear brother endures each day cannot change the way the Bolivarian people feel.

When Chavez arrived from Chile at the Caracas airport and I heard him directly mention his plans to mingle with the crowds, as he has done so many times, I had the extremely vivid impression that, given the current circumstances and the highly significant ideological victory he has attained, a paid assassin of the empire’s, an oligarch corrupted by the reflexes that the empire’s propaganda machine has inculcated into people, or a mentally disturbed person could put an end to his life. It is impossible to avoid the impression that the empire and the oligarchy are doing everything in their power to lead Chavez to a cul-de-sac, that they can easily place him in the line of fire.

Venezuela must ensure its victory is transformed, not into a terrible setback, but into a much greater victory, to prevent imperialism from leading our species to suicide. We must continue to struggle and to face risks, but we must not play Russian roulette or flip a coin every single day. No one escapes the logic of probability.

In such circumstances, the modern means of communication through which the summit debates were aired live are preferable.

Fidel Castro Ruz
November 12, 2007

Che was a man of ideas.

It would have caused him profound pain to hear the speeches that, expressing traditional leftist positions, were delivered at the Latin American Summit held in Santiago de Chile.

The Right also assumed traditional stances and made intelligent concessions to the supposed Left.

Che would have been proud of the statements made by several revolutionary and courageous leaders, regardless of the little or great deal of political experience any of them may have.

Experience is the mother of science and of ideas.

It was from the battles waged by a handful of Cuban combatants in an area of the Sierra Maestra, against forces that were vastly superior in number and weapons, that Che drew the ideas he later synthesized in his book Guerrilla Warfare.

Chávez leveled devastating criticisms at Europe, the same Europe that pretended to offer lessons on good governance at this Latin American Summit.

The voices of Sandino and of the millennium-old cultures of this hemisphere could be heard in the words of Daniel and Evo.

The speech delivered by the President of El Salvador at this Summit is disgusting.

Capitalism is a system governed by blind, destructive and tyrannical laws that have been imposed on the human species.

Dedicating the next Summit to the young people of Latin America was an unpalatable mixture of hypocrisy and lies, aimed at inculcating the minds of peoples with conditioned reflexes.

Fidel Castro Ruz
November 10, 2007