According to Fidel

“I do not believe that it is an example for the world, that it is a good example, in my opinion, that a wall be built between Latin America and the United States, there on the border with Mexico, where Mexicans attempt to cross over from part of their territory to the part of their territory taken from them one hundred and some years ago, in that famous war, which we know was a war of expansion”.

This statement of Fidel’s is not about Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the southern US border, but rather goes back some 20 years to a speech given during a solidarity event for the 4th US-Cuba Friendship Caravan, held September 19, 1996, at Havana’s Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

“The wall they want to build is really 300 times bigger than that in Berlin, more sophisticated, and everyday people die there trying to get over this wall.

“Everyday there are more means and more technique in this wall, while poverty, unemployment, and misery grow in all of the rest of Latin America. These are the situations that drive emigration. They become economic emigrants, they are people who have no way to resolve their problems, and they emigrate”, Fidel concluded.

The 1999 Bolivarian Revolution of Hugo Chávez opened a new chapter in the history of Latin America. Beyond the unquestionable impact of the Bolivarian Comandante on the international level, his relationship with Fidel became one of father and son.

After the death of Chávez in March of 2013, Fidel called him “The best friend the Cuban people have had”, in recognition of the solidarity he showed under all circumstances.

“We have the honor of sharing with the Bolivarian leader the same ideals of social justice and support of the exploited. The poor are the poor in any part of the world,” he added.

In innumerable other texts, the leader of the Cuban Revolution refers to threats made against Bolivarian Venezuela. Today with the new right wing offensive against the government of Nicolás Maduro, Fidel’s statements and fears are confirmed.

“A great battle has been unleashed in Venezuela. Internal and external enemies of the Revolution prefer chaos, as Chávez states, as opposed to the just, ordered, peaceful development of the country,” he said in his reflection entitled “The brilliance of Chávez,” in January of 2012.

“Promoting a profound Revolution is no easy task in Venezuela, a country with a glorious history, but enormously rich in resources of vital necessity to imperialist powers, which have set and still set guidelines for the world,” he wrote.

“Given its extraordinary educational, cultural, and social development, and its vast natural and energy resources, Venezuela is called upon to become a revolutionary model for the world,” he added in another text, “The two Venezuelas,” published in October of 2011.

In a message to President Nicolás Maduro in March of 2015, Fidel noted that he had been able to “observe the attitude not only of the heroic people of Bolívar and Chávez, but also a special feature: the exemplary discipline and spirit of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces.

“Whatever U.S. imperialism may do, it will never be able to count on them to do what they did for so many years. Venezuela today has the best equipped soldiers and officers in Latin America. When you met with officers recently, one could note that they were ready to give even their last drop of blood for the homeland”.

 

This article has been excerpted from: ‘2017, According to Fidel’.

Courtesy: Counterpunch.org