I had heard about Lula from Friar Betto. He was a leader of workers, someone in whom the leftist Christians had early placed their hopes.

He was a humble worker from the metal industry, a man of remarkable talent and of prestige among the trade unions in that great nation that was leaving behind the dark days of the military dictatorship imposed by the Yankee imperialism in the 1960s.

Brazil’s relations with Cuba had been excellent until the dominating power in the hemisphere brought them to an end. Several decades would pass before those relations could slowly recover to what they are today.

Each of our countries lived its own history. Our homeland endured exceptional pressures during the incredible stages since 1959, confronting the aggressions of the mightiest power known to history.

Hence the enormous significance we attach to the recent meeting in Cancun and to its decision to establish a Community Latin American and Caribbean States. No other institutional event of the past century in our hemisphere is so transcendental.

The agreement has been reached at a time when the most serious economic crisis of the globalized world develops concurring with the greatest danger of an ecological catastrophe for our species and the earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, this being the most painful human disaster in the history of our hemisphere, in the poorest country of the continent and the first one to eradicate slavery.

As I was writing this Reflection, only six weeks after the death of over 200,000 people, –according to official figures released in that country– we received dramatic news of the damages caused by another earthquake, this time in Chile, causing the death of close to one thousand people and huge material damages, according to official figures released by the authorities there.

It was particularly moving to watch the suffering of millions of Chileans materially and emotionally affected by such a harsh blow of nature. Fortunately, Chile has more experience in coping with this kind of phenomenon and it is a country with more resources and a higher economic development. If it were not for the sounder buildings and infrastructure, a countless number of people, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of Chileans would have perished. There are reports of two million victims and the potential loss of between 15 and 30 billion dollars. Faced with this tragedy, Chile counts on the solidarity and the sympathy of the peoples, ours included, although given the type of cooperation required there is not much that Cuba can do. Nevertheless, the Cuban government was one of the first to communicate to Chile our feelings of solidarity at a time when the communication system was not yet operational.

The country which is today putting to the test the world capacity to tackle climate change and ensure the survival of the human species is Haiti, as it is a symbol of the poverty suffered today by billions of people worldwide, including a significant portion of the peoples of our continent.

The recent earthquake in Chile, with the amazing intensity of 8.8 in the Richter scale, although fortunately at greater depth than the one which devastated Port-au-Prince, leads me to emphasize the importance and the duty to encourage the steps toward unity taken in Cancun, even though I do not entertain illusions knowing how difficult and complex our struggle of ideas will be vis-à-vis the efforts of the empire and its allies inside and outside our countries to thwart our peoples efforts toward unity and independence.

I want to place on record the significance and symbolism I attach to Lula’s recent visit and my meeting with him, both personally and as a revolutionary. He had said that as he was nearing the end of his term as president, he wanted to visit his friend Fidel; he honored me with that description. I think I know him well. We often had fraternal conversations both in Cuba and abroad.

I once had the honor of visiting him in his house located in a modest neighborhood in Sao Paulo where he lived with his family. It was very moving for me to meet with him, his wife and children. I will never forget the fraternal and healthy family atmosphere in that home and the sincere affection showed by the neighbors who approached Lula when he was already a prestigious worker and political leader. No one knew then whether or not he would become the President of Brazil since major interests and forces opposed him: but I enjoyed talking with him. On the other hand, Lula did not care much about that position; he took pleasure in fighting and he did so with irreproachable modesty. This he showed extensively when after being defeated twice by his adversaries he only accepted to run for the Workers Party on a third occasion due to the strong pressure of his most sincere friends.

I will not try to relate the times we spoke before he was elected president; on one of these occasions, actually one of the first was in the midst of the 1980s as we were struggling in Havana against Latin America’s foreign debt, which then amounted to 300 billion dollars and had been paid more than once. He is a natural born fighter.

As I said, on two occasions his adversaries beat him in the elections with the support of their huge economic and media resources. However, his closest assistants and friends knew that the time had come for that humble worker to be the candidate of the Workers Party and the leftist forces.

Certainly, his opponents underestimated him; they thought he would not achieve a majority in the legislative body. The USSR did not exist anymore. What could Lula do at the head of Brazil, a nation of great wealth but little development in the hands of a rich and influential bourgeoisie?

But, neoliberalism was in a crisis; the Bolivarian Revolution had triumphed in Venezuela; Menen was in a free-fall; Pinochet was off the political stage; and Cuba was putting up a resistance. But Lula was elected when in the United States Bush won the elections through fraud robbing his rival Al Gore of his victory.

It was the beginning of a challenging stage. Fostering the arms race and the role of the Military Industrial Complex, and cutting down taxes to the wealthy sectors were the first steps taken the new US President.

The fight on terrorism was his pretext to resume the wars of conquest and to institutionalize assassination and torture as an instrument of imperialist domination. It’s impossible to publish the events related to the secret prisons which exposed the complicity of the US allies with that policy. Thus, the acceleration took place of the worst economic crisis of those that cyclically and increasingly have accompanied developed capitalism, just that this time the privileges of Bretton Woods were there but none of its commitments.

On the other hand, in the past eight years, with Lula at the head of the nation Brazil kept overcoming obstacles, increasing its technological development and expanding the weight of the Brazilian economy. The most difficult part was his first term, but he succeeded and gained experience. With his restless struggle, his calmness and composure as well as his growing devotion to his work, under such challenging international conditions, Brazil attained a GDP close to two trillion dollars. The data vary depending on the sources but they all agree to place it among the 10 largest economies in the world. In spite of this, with an area of 5,327,500 square miles, compared to the United States with barely a larger territory, Brazil only has about 12 percent of the GDP of that imperialist country that plunders the world and deploys its armed forces in over one thousand military bases worldwide.

I had the privilege of attending his inauguration as president at the end of 2002. Hugo Chavez was there too. He had just faced the treacherous coup d’etat of April 11, that same year; later there would be an oil coup organized by Washington. By then, Bush was president. The relations between Brazil, the Bolivarian Republic and Cuba had always been good and mutually respectful.

I had a serious accident on October 2004, which markedly limited my activities for months; then I fell gravely ill at the end of July 2006, the reason for which I did not hesitate to delegate my responsibilities at the head of the Party and the State through the proclamation of July 31 that year, first provisionally, and soon with a final resolution as I understood that I would not be able to resume them again.

As soon as my health situation allowed me to study and meditate I devoted myself to that and to review materials about our Revolution, and once in a while to publish some Reflections.

After I fell ill, I have had the privilege of receiving the visit of Lula every time he has traveled to our homeland; and we have talked at length. I will not say that I always coincided with all of his policies. I oppose by principle the production of biofuels using crops that can serve as food since I am aware that hunger already is, and can increasingly become, a major tragedy for humanity.

However, I must honestly say that this is not a problem created by Brazil, least of all by Lula. It is an essential part of the world economy imposed by imperialism and its rich allies that subsidize their farm productions to protect their domestic markets and compete in the world market with the food exports of the Third World nations, which are forced to import the industrial items produced with the raw materials and energy resources of these same countries that inherited poverty from centuries of colonialism. I perfectly understand that given the unfair competition and subsidies of Europe and the United States, Brazil had no choice but to produce ethanol.

The infant mortality rate in Brazil is still 23.3 per one thousand live births and maternal mortality is 110 per 100,000 deliveries while in the rich industrial nations is lower than 5 and 15 respectively. We could offer many more such data.

The beet sugar subsidized by Europe deprived our country of its sugar market derived from sugarcane, a precarious and seasonal farm and industrial labor that kept the sugarcane workers unemployed a good part of the year. Meanwhile, the United States seized our best lands and its companies became the owners of the industry. Suddenly, one day they deprived us of our sugar quota and blockaded our country in order to crush the Revolution and the independence of Cuba.

Presently, Brazil has developed the cultivation of sugarcane, soybean and corn with high-yield machinery that can be used for these crops with a very high productivity. One day, as I watched a documentary about 40 thousand hectares of land in Ciego de Avila used to grow soybean alternating it with corn where they will try to work the entire year, I said that this is the ideal of a socialist farm enterprise, highly mechanized and with a high productivity per man and per hectare.

The problem with farming and its facilities in the Caribbean are the hurricanes that are increasingly sweeping the territory.

Our country has also elaborated and signed with Brazil a project for the financing and construction of a very modern port in Mariel that will be of great importance to our economy.

Venezuela is using Brazilian farming and industrial technology to produce sugar and to use bagasse [fibrous residue remaining after sugarcane stalks are crushed] as a source of thermo-electrical energy. This is sophisticated equipment working in a socialist enterprise, too. At the Bolivarian Republic they are using ethanol to reduce the harmful effect of gasoline on the environment.

It was capitalism that developed the consumer societies and also the waste of fuel that has begotten the risk of a dramatic climate change. It took nature 400 million years to create what our species is consuming in barely two centuries. Science has yet to solve the problem of the type of energy that will replace the one generated with oil today. No one knows how much time that will require and how much it will cost to resolve it in time. Shall we ever have it? That was the issue under discussion in Copenhagen and the Summit was a complete failure.

Lula told me that when the cost of ethanol is 70 percent that of gasoline, it is not good business to produce it. He said that Brazil, which has the largest forest on earth, will progressively reduce the current pace of cutting by 80 percent.

Today, Brazil has the best technology in the world to drill in the sea; it can extract fuel from as deep as seven thousand meters of sea water and bottom. Thirty years back this would have seem a science fiction story.

He explained the high-level education programs that Brazil intends to carry forward and expressed great appreciation for the role of China in the world scenario. He proudly said that trade with that country amounts to 40 billion dollars.

One thing is clear: the metal worker has become an outstanding and prestigious statesman whose voice is respectfully heard in every international meeting.

He is proud to have been honored with the choice of Brazil to hold the Olympic Games of 2016 thanks to the excellent program presented in Denmark. His country will also host the World Football Cup in 2014. All of this has been the result of the projects submitted by Brazil, which left those of their competitors behind.

A great proof of his selflessness was his refusal to go to the reelection and his confidence that the Workers Party will continue in government in Brazil.

Some of those who envy his prestige and his glory, and worse still, those at the service of the empire, criticized him for coming to Cuba. To that end, they have resorted to the vile slanders used against Cuba for half a century.

Lula has known for many years that in our country no one has ever been tortured; that we have never ordered the assassination of an adversary, and that we have never lied to the people. He does know that truth is the inseparable companion of his Cuban friends.

From Cuba he left for our neighbor Haiti. We shared with him our ideas on what we are proposing with regard to a sustainable and efficient program, one especially important and very economic for Haiti. He knows that more than one hundred thousand Haitians have been treated by our doctors and by graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine after the earthquake. We discussed serious issues; I am aware of his fervent wishes to help that noble and long-suffering people.

I shall keep an unforgettable memory of my last meeting with the President of Brazil and I do not hesitate to declare it.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 1st, 2010
12:15 PM

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Medvedev, whom he has offended with the threat of locating strategic radars and missiles not far from Moscow, was assigned a seat at a distance from the White House host.

The king of Saudi Arabia, a country that, in the near future, will be producing 15 million tons of light oil at highly competitive prices, was also sitting on his left, beside Hu.

Meanwhile, his most loyal ally in Europe, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, could not be seen close to him in the footage

Nicolas Sarkozy, who is not happy with the present architecture of the financial order, was at a distance from him, with a pained expression on his face.

In the television coverage of the meal, I couldn’t even see the president of the Spanish Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, a victim of Bush’s personal resentment and also present at the Washington conclave.

That is how those attending the banquet were seated.

Anyone would have assumed that the following day there would be a profound debate on the thorny issue.

Early Saturday morning, the press agencies were reporting on the program that would unfold at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Every second was covered. There would be an analysis of the current crisis and the measures to be taken. It would start at 11:30 a.m. local time. First, there would be a photo op, or “family picture,” as Bush called it, and 20 minutes later the first plenary session would start followed by a another one in the second half of the day. Everything was strictly planned, even the majestic sanitary services.

The speeches and analysis would last approximately three hours and 30 minutes. At 3:25 local time, lunch, immediately followed by the final declaration at 5:05. One hour later, at 6:05, Bush would leave to relax, have dinner and sleep placidly in Camp David.
The day passed by, for those following the event, with an impatience to know how the problems of the planet and the human species could be dealt with in such a short space of time. A final declaration had been announced.

The fact is that the final declaration of the Summit was drafted by pre-selected economic advisors, very close to neoliberal thinking while, in pre- and post-Summit statements, Bush demanded more power and more money for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other world institutions under the rigorous control of the United States and its closest allies. That country had decided to inject $700 billion to bail out its banks and multinational corporations. Europe offered a similar or higher figure. Japan, its strongest pillar in Asia, has promised a contribution of $100 billion. In the case of the People’s Republic of China, which is developing increasing and advisable relations with Latin American countries, it is expected to make a further contribution of $100 billion dollars from its reserves.

Where could so many dollars, euros and pounds sterling come from, as if they are not seriously indebting new generations? How can the structure of the new world economy be built on paper money, which is what is really being put into circulation immediately, when the country issuing it is suffering from an enormous fiscal deficit? Is so much air travel to a point on the planet called Washington to meet with a President with only 60 more days left in government to sign a document previously designed to be adopted at the Washington Museum? Was the U.S. radio, TV and press right in not paying special attention to this old imperialist replay in the much-trumpeted meeting?

What is really incredible is the final declaration adopted by consensus in the conclave. It is obvious that it constitutes a full acceptance of Bush’s demands before and during the Summit. A number of the participating countries had no choice but to adopt it; in their desperate struggle for development, they do not want to be isolated from the richest and most powerful and their financial institutions, which constitute a majority in the G-20.

Bush spoke with veritable euphoria, using demagogic phrases that mirror the final declaration.

He said:

“The first decision I had to make was who was coming to the meeting. And obviously I decided that we ought to have the G-20 nations, instead of just the G-8 or the G-13. But once you make the decision to have the G-20, then the fundamental question is, with that many nations from six different continents, who all represent different stages of economic development, how is it possible to reach agreements that are substantial, and I’m pleased to report the answer to that question is that we have done so.”

“The United States has taken some extraordinary measures. Those of you who have followed my career know that I’m a free market person – until you are told that if you don’t take decisive measures then it’s conceivable that our country could go into a depression greater than the Great Depression.

“[…] we just started on the $700 billion fund to start getting money out to our banks.”

“[…] we all understand the need to work on pro-growth economic policies.”

“Transparency is very important so that investors and regulators are able to know the truth.”

The rest of what Bush said continues more or less along these lines.

The final declaration of the summit, which takes half an hour to read in public due to its length, clearly defines itself in a number of selected paragraphs:

“We, the leaders of the G-20 have held a first meeting in Washington, on November 15, in the light of serious challenges to the world economy and financial markets…
“[…] we should lay the foundations for a reform that will make this global crisis less likely to happen again in the future. Our work should be guided by the principles of the free market, free trade and investment….”

“[…] the market players sought to obtain higher profits without making an adequate assessment of the risks and they failed…”

“The authorities, regulators and supervisors from some developed nations did not realize or were not adequately warned about the risks created in the financial markets…”

“…insufficient and poorly coordinated macroeconomic policies as well as inadequate structure reforms, led to an unsustainable macroeconomic global result.”

“Many emerging economies, that have helped sustain the world economy, are increasingly suffering the impact of world braking.”

“We note the important role of the IMF in response to the crisis; we salute the new short-term liquidity mechanism and urge a constant review of its instruments to ensure flexibility.”

“We shall encourage the World Bank and other multilateral developing banks to use their full capacity in support of their agenda for assistance…”

“We will ensure that the IMF, the World Bank and other multilateral developing banks have the necessary resources to continue playing their role in the solution of the crisis.”

“We shall exercise a strong monitoring of the credit agencies through the development of an international code of conduct.”

“We pledge to protect the integrity of the world financial markets by reinforcing protection to investors and consumers.”

“We are committed to advance in the reform of the institutions of Bretton Woods so that they reflect the changes in the world economy in order to increase their legitimacy and effectiveness.”

“We shall meet again on April 30, 2009, to review the implementation of the principles and decisions made today.”

“We concede that these reforms will only be successful if they are based on a serious commitment to free market principles, including the rule of law, respect for private property, free trade and investment, efficient and competitive markets and effectively regulated financial systems.”

“We shall refrain from erecting new barriers to investment and trade in goods and services.”

“We are aware of the impact of the current crisis on the developing nations, especially on the most vulnerable.”

“We are certain that as we advance through cooperation, collaboration and multilateralism we will overcome the challenges and restore stability and prosperity to the world economy.”

Technocratic language, inaccessible to the masses.

Respect for the empire, whose abusive methods are not criticized in any way.

Praise for the IMF, the World Bank and the multilateral credit organizations, the engenders of debt, fabulous bureaucratic costs and investments directed at supplying raw materials to the large multinationals, which are also responsible for the crisis.

It goes on like that until the last paragraph. It is boring, full of the usual rhetoric. It says absolutely nothing. It was signed by Bush, the champion of neoliberalism, the man responsible for massacres and genocidal wars, who has invested in his bloody adventures all the money that would have sufficed to change the economic face of the world.

The document does not say one word on the absurdity of the policy promoted by the United States to convert food into fuel; on the unequal exchange to which we, the nations of the Third World are subjected; or on the sterile arms race, the production and trade of weapons; the rupture of the ecological balance and the extremely serious threats to peace that are taking the world to the brink of annihilation.

Only one short four-word phrase lost in the lengthy document mentions the need “to face up to climate change.”

One can see in the declaration how the countries attending the conclave are demanding to meet again in April 2009, in the United Kingdom, Japan or any other country that meets the necessary requirements – nobody knows which one – to examine the situation of the world finances, cherishing the dream that the cyclical crises with their dramatic consequences will never happen again.

Now is the time for the theoreticians from the left and the right to offer cool or heated opinions on the document.

From my point of view the privileges of the empire were not even touched upon. If one has the necessary patience to read it from the beginning to the end, it can be appreciated that it is simply a pious appeal to the ethic of the most powerful country on earth, both technologically and militarily, in the period of the globalization of the economy; rather like those who beg the wolf not to devour Little Red Riding Hood.

Fidel Castro Ruz
November 16, 2008
4:12 p.m.

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When I spoke of The Worst Choice, I was thinking of the objectives of the money injection and the way it was given. I have been analyzing the idea that the financial crisis is the consequence of the privileges granted to the United States developed capitalism at Bretton Woods in 1944. At the end of World War II, this country was emerging with a considerable economic and military power. The phenomenon tends to repeat itself every so often.

Upon President of Brazil Lula da Silva’s arrival in the country, I addressed him a letter. We had not scheduled a meeting during his short visit to our country. On the abovementioned point I wrote:

“Whoever becomes the United States leader after the current crisis should feel a rising pressure from all of the Third World countries towards solutions involving every nation and not only a few of them. The wealthiest nations are in desperate need of the poor nation’s consumption, otherwise their goods and services production centers would be paralyzed. Let them use their computers to estimate how many trillions they’ll need to invest to enable the poor nations to develop while preventing the destruction of the environment and life on our planet.”

Any reader can see that when I speak of investing in the Third World, I mean making a contribution in funds, basically as soft loans, with almost no interest, in order to promote a rational ecology-friendly development.

I could meet with Lula who asked to see me despite his tight schedule. We talked for almost two hours. I explained to him that I would be making public the concepts contained in my letter. He did not raise any objection. Our conversation was, as usual, pleasant and respectful. He related to me in detail the work he is carrying out in his country. I thanked him for Brazil’s political and economic support to Cuba in its struggle and emphasized the decisive role played by Venezuela, a Latin American developing country and its President, in the most critical days of the Special Period and today, as the imperialist blockade has tightened and our country has just endured the scourge of two devastating hurricanes.

Despite our broad exchange, he was free an hour and a half before the time scheduled for his departure.

As I could see in the press reports this afternoon, he adopted a brave position with regards to the United States elections. If McCain were elected, he would not be able to count beforehand with the largest Latin American country: Brazil.

The G-20 meeting convened by Bush will be held in Washington next November 15. The first thing you see as you turn on a TV set is a Head of State addressing a high level gathering. I wonder how much time is left to the Heads of State to be informed about and to meditate on the complex problems afflicting the world.

The current President of the United States has no problem at all. He does not solve problems, he creates them.

Fidel Castro Ruz
October 31, 2008
5:15 p.m.

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