FIDEL ON THE SANDINISTA NICARAGUAN REVOLUTION 30 YEARS ON

Reflections of Fidel

The 30th Sandinista
anniversary and the San José proposal

(Taken from CubaDebate)

THE Honduran coup d’état promoted by the ultra-right wing
of the United States – which was maintaining the structure
created by Bush in Central America – and supported by the
Department of State, was not developing well due to the
energetic resistance of the people. The criminal adventure,
unanimously condemned by world opinion and international
agencies, could not be sustained.

The memory of the atrocities committed in recent decades by
dictatorships that the United States promoted, instructed
and armed in our hemisphere, was still fresh. During the
Clinton administration and in subsequent years the empire’s
efforts were directed toward the plan of imposing the FTA
(Free Trade Agreement) on all the Latin American countries
via the so-called Summits of the Americas.

The intention to compromise the hemisphere with a free
trade agreement failed. The economies of other regions of
the world grew at a good rate and the dollar lost its
exclusive hegemony as a privileged hard currency. The
brutal world financial crisis complicated the situation. It
was in those circumstances that the military coup came
about in Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the
hemisphere. After two weeks of growing popular struggle,
the United States maneuvered to gain time. The Department
of State assigned Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica, the
task of aiding the military coup in Honduras, under siege
from vigorous but peaceful popular pressure. Never had a
similar action in Latin America met such a response. The
fact that Arias holds the title of Nobel Peace Prize
laureate had weight in the calculations of the government
of the United States.

The real history of Oscar Arias indicates that he is a
neoliberal politician, talented and with a facility for
words, extremely calculated and a loyal ally of the United
States. From the initial years of the triumph of the Cuban
Revolution, the United States government utilized Costa
Rica and assigned it resources in order to present it as a
showcase of the social advances that could be achieved
under capitalism.

That Central American country was utilized as a base for
imperialism for its pirate attacks on Cuba. Thousands of
Cuban technical personnel and university graduates were
extracted from our people, already subjected to a cruel
blockade, to provide services in Costa Rica. Relations
between Costa Rica and Cuba have been reestablished
recently; the country was one of the last two in the
hemisphere to do so, which is a matter of satisfaction for
us, but that should not deter me from expressing what I
think in this historic moment of our America.

Arias, who came from the wealthy and dominant sector of
Costa Rica, studied Law and Economy in a central university
of his country; he studied and subsequently graduated with
a Masters in Political Science from Essex University in the
United Kingdom, where he finally obtained the title of
Doctor of Political Science. With such academic laurels,
President José Figueres Ferrer of the National Liberation
Party made him an advisor in 1970, at the age of 30 and,
shortly afterward, appointed him minister of Planning, a
post in which he was ratified by the president who followed
Ferrer, Daniel Oduber. In 1978 he entered Congress as a
deputy of that party. He rose to general secretary in 1979
and held the office of president for the first time in
1986.

Years before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, an armed
movement of Costa Rica’s national bourgeoisie under the
leadership of José Figueres Ferrer, father of President
Figueres Olsen, had eliminated that country’s small coup
army, and his struggle had the support of the Cubans. When
we were fighting against the Batista dictatorship in the
Sierra Maestra, we received some arms and munitions from
the Liberation Party created by Figueres Ferrer, but it was
too good a friend of the yanquis and soon broke off
relations with us. The OAS meeting in San José, Costa Rica,
which gave rise to the First Declaration of Havana in 1960,
should not be forgotten.

For more than 150 years, since the times of the filibuster
William Walker, who appointed himself president of
Nicaragua in 1856, all of Central America suffered and is
still suffering from the problem of United States
interventionism, which has been constant, although the
heroic people of Nicaragua have attained an independence
that they are prepared to defend to the last breath. It has
not known any support from Costa Rica since it achieved
independence, although there was one government of that
country which, on the eve of the victory of 1979, earned
the glory of being in solidarity with the Sandinista
National Liberation Front. When Nicaragua was bleeding on
account of Reagan’s dirty war, Guatemala and El Salvador
had also paid a high price in lives due to the
interventionist policy of the United States, which supplied
money, weapons, schools and indoctrination for the
repressive troops. Daniel [Ortega] told us that the yanquis
finally promoted formulas that put an end to the
revolutionary resistance of Guatemala and El Salvador.

On more than one occasion Daniel had commented to me, with
bitterness, that Arias, fulfilling instructions from the
United States, had excluded Nicaragua from the peace
negotiations. He met solely with the governments of El
Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala in order to impose
agreements on Nicaragua. For that, Daniel expressed
enormous gratitude to Vinicio Cerezo. He likewise told me
that the first agreement was signed in a convent in
Esquipulas, Guatemala, on August 17, 1987, after two days
of intensive talks between the five Central America
presidents. I have never spoken publicly about that.

But this time, at the commemoration of the 30th anniversary
of the Sandinista victory of July 19, 1979, Daniel
explained everything with impressive clarity, as he did
with all the themes throughout his speech, which was heard
by hundreds of thousands of people and broadcast on radio
and television. I use his words textually: "The yanquis
appointed him a mediator. We have a profound sympathy with
the people of Costa Rica, but I cannot forget that, in
those hard years, that the president of Costa Rica convened
the Central American presidents and did not invite us."
"But the other Central American presidents were more
sensible and they told him: ‘There cannot be any peace plan
here if Nicaragua is not present.’ In the name of historic
truth, the president who had the courage to break the
isolation imposed by the yanquis in Central America – where
the presidents had been forbidden to talk with the
president of Nicaragua and they wanted a military solution
– the man who took that valiant step was the president of
Guatemala, Vinicio Cerezo. That is the true history."

He immediately added: "The yanquis ran in search of
President Oscar Arias, because they know him! to seek a way
of gaining time, so that the coup perpetrators begin to
make demands that are unacceptable. Since when is a coup
leader going to negotiate with a person from whom he is
snatching his constitutional rights? Those rights can not
be negotiated, President Manuel Zelaya simply has to be
reinstated, as stated in the ALBA, Rio Group, SICA, OAS and
United Nations agreements. "In our countries we want
peaceful solutions. The battle being waged by the people of
Honduras at this time is a peaceful battle, in order to
avoid any more pain, which has already come about in
Honduras," Daniel concluded, textually.

By virtue of the dirty war ordered by Reagan and which, in
part – Daniel told me – was financed by drugs sent to the
United States, more than 60,000 people lost their lives and
a further 5,800 were maimed. Reagan’s dirty war gave rise
to the destruction and neglect of 300 schools and 25 health
centers; 150 teachers were killed. The cost rose to tens of
billions of dollars. Nicaragua was left with only 3.5
million inhabitants, it no longer received the fuel that
the USSR was sending it, and the economy became
unsustainable. He convened elections and even brought them
forward, and respected the decision of the people, who had
lost all hope of preserving the conquest of the Revolution.
Almost 17 years later, the Sandinistas victoriously
returned to government; just two days ago, they
commemorated the 30th anniversary of the first victory.

On Saturday, July 18 the Nobel Prize winner proposed the
known seven points of his personal peace initiative, which
detracted authority from the UN and OAS decisions and were
equivalent to an act of rendition on the part of Manuel
Zelaya, which were taking sympathy away from him and would
debilitate popular support. The constitutional president
sent what he qualified as an ultimatum to the coup leaders,
to be presented to them by their representatives, at the
same time announcing his return to Honduras for Sunday,
July 19, entering through any of that country’s
departments.

In the early afternoon of that Sunday, the huge Sandinista
event took place, with historic denunciations of the policy
of the United States. They were truths that could not be
anything but transcendental.

The worst thing is that the United States was encountering
resistance from the coup government to its sweetening
maneuver. We still do not know the precise moment at which
the Department of State, for its part, sent a strong
message to Micheletti and whether the military commanders
were advised of the positions of the government of the
United States. The reality is, for anyone who is closely
following the events, that Micheletti was insubordinate to
peace on the Monday. His representative in San José, Carlos
López Conteras, had stated that Arias’ proposal could not
be discussed, given that the first point – that is to say,
the reestablishment of Zelaya – was not negotiable. The
coup civil government had taken its role seriously and
didn’t even realize that Zelaya, deprived of all authority,
did not constitute any risk whatsoever to the oligarchy and
would suffer a heavy blow politically if he accepted the
Costa Rican president’s proposal.

On that same Sunday 19th, when Arias asked for another 72
hours to explain his position, Ms. Clinton spoke by
telephone with Micheletti and maintained what spokesman
Philip Crowley described as a "hard call." Some day we will
know what she said, but it was enough to see Micheletti’s
face when he spoke at a meeting of his government on
Monday, July 20: he really looked like a kindergarten kid
who had been scolded by the teacher. The footage and
speeches of the meeting could be seen via Telesur. Other
footage transmitted was that of the OAS representatives
making their speeches in the heart of that institution,
committing themselves to wait for the final word of the
Nobel Peace laureate on Wednesday. Did they know or not
what Clinton had said to Micheletti? Maybe they did, maybe
they didn’t. Maybe some, but not all of them knew. People,
institutions and concepts had been converted into
instruments of Washington’s high and arrogant politics.
Never did a speech in the heart of the OAS shine out with
such dignity as did the brief but valiant words of Roy
Chaderton, the Venezuelan ambassador, in that meeting.

Tomorrow the stony image of Oscar Arias will appear,
explaining that they have drawn up such and such a proposed
solution in order to avoid violence. I think that even
Arias himself has fallen into the large trap set up by the
Department of State. We shall see what he does tomorrow.

However, it is the people of Honduras who will have the
last word. Representatives of the social organizations and
the new forces are not the instruments of anybody within or
outside of the country, they know the needs and the
suffering of the people; their awareness and their courage
has multiplied; many citizens who were idle have joined
them; and those honest members of the traditional parties
who believe in freedom, justice and human dignity will
judge the leaders on the basis of the position that they
adopted at this historic minute. That attitude of the
military in the face of the yanqui ultimatums is as yet
unknown, or what messages are reaching the officers; there
is only one point of patriotic and honorable reference:
loyalty to the people, who have endured with heroism the
tear gas grenades, blows and shootings.

Without anyone being able to guarantee what the last
caprice of the empire will be; whether, on the basis of the
final decisions adopted, Zelaya will return legally or
illegally, the Hondurans will doubtless give him a great
reception, because it will be a measure of the victory that
they have already achieved with their struggles. Nobody
doubts that only the Honduran people will be capable of
constructing their own history!

Fidel Castro Ruz July 21, 2009 8:55 p.m.

Translated by Granma International

FIDEL REFLECTS ON THE LATIN AMERICAN (BAR CUBA AND PUERTO RICO) SUMMIT WITH OBAMA

[Fidel and the Nicaraguan Sadinista's Daniel Ortega, back in the day]

Reflections by comrade Fidel

The Secret Summit

Neither represented nor excommunicated, only today could I

learn what was discussed at the Summit of Port of Spain.

They led us all to entertain hopes that the meeting would

not be secret, but those running the show deprived us of

such an interesting intellectual exercise. We shall get to

know the substance but not the tone of voice, the look in

the eyes or the facial look that can be a reflection of a

person’s ideas, ethic and character. A Secret Summit is

worse than a silent movie. For a few minutes the television

showed some images. There was a gentleman on Obama’s left

whom I could not identify clearly as he laid his hand on

Obama’s shoulder, like an eight-year-old boy on a classmate

in the front row. Then, another member of his entourage

standing beside him interrupted the president of the United

States for a dialogue; those coming up to address him had

the appearance of an oligarchy that never knew what hunger

is and who expect to find in Obama’s powerful nation the

shield that will protect the system from the fearsome

social changes.

Up to that moment, a bizarre atmosphere prevailed at the

Summit.

The artistic function arranged by the host was really

spectacular. I have seldom seen something like it; perhaps

never. A good announcer, apparently a Trinitarian, had

proudly said that it was unique.

It was a feast of culture and luxury. I meditated about it.

I calculated the cost of all that and suddenly I realized

that no other country in the Caribbean could afford such a

display, that the venue of the summit is very wealthy, a

sort of United States surrounded by small poor countries.

Could Haiti with its exuberant culture or Jamaica, Granada,

Dominica, Guyana, Belize or any other have hosted such a

luxurious summit? Their beaches may be wonderful but they

are not surrounded by the towers that distinguish the

Trinitarian landscape and accumulate with that

non-renewable raw material the enormous resources that

sustain today the riches of that country. Almost every

other island in the Caribbean community located to the

north of this is directly battered by the hurricanes of

increasing intensity that hit our sister islands of the

Caribbean region every year.

Did anyone in that meeting remember that Obama promised to

invest as much money as necessary to make the United States

self-reliant in fuel? Such a policy would directly affect

many of the States taking part in the meeting since they

will not have access to the technologies and the huge

investments required to work on that area or any other.

Something really impressed me as the summit unfolded until

today, Saturday, April 18, at 11:47 a.m. when I am writing

these lines: Daniel Ortega’s remarks. I had promised myself

not to publish anything until next Monday, April 20, but

rather to observe the developments in the celebrated

summit.

It was not the economist, the scientist, the intellectual

or the poet speaking; Daniel did not choose an elaborate

language to impress his audience. He spoke as the president

of one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, as a

revolutionary combatant, on behalf of a group of Central

American nations and the Dominican Republic which is a

partner of SICA (Central American Integration System).

It would suffice to be one of the hundreds of thousands of

Nicaraguans who learned how to read and write in the first

stage of the Sandinista Revolution, when the illiteracy

rate was reduced from 60 to 12 percent, or again when

Daniel received power in 2008 as the illiteracy rate had

increased to 35 percent.

His remarks extended for nearly 50 minutes. He spoke slowly

and calm, but the reproduction of the full text would make

this Reflection too extensive.

I shall summarize his statement using his own words for

each of the basic ideas he expressed. I will avoid the use

of suspension points and use inverted commas only when

Daniel quotes other people or institutions.

“Nicaragua appealed to the International Court of Justice in

The Hague. It filed a lawsuit against the war policy, the

terrorist policy implemented by President Ronald Reagan on

behalf of the United States.

“Our crime: we had freed ourselves from Anastasio Somoza’s

tyranny imposed through the intervention of the Yankee

troops in Nicaragua.

“From the past century, Central America has been shaken by

the expansionist policies, the war policies that brought

the Central Americans together to defeat them.

“These were followed by interventions extending from the

year 1912 to 1932, which resulted in the imposition of the

Somozas’ tyranny equipped, funded and defended by American

leaders.

“I had the opportunity of meeting President Reagan during

the war; we shook hands and I asked him to stop the war

against Nicaragua.

“I had the opportunity of meeting President Carter and when

he told me that “now that the Nicaraguan people had got rid

of the Somoza tyranny it was time for Nicaragua to change”

I said to him: No, Nicaragua does not have to change, you

have to change. Nicaragua has never invaded the United

States; Nicaragua has not planted mines in the U.S.

harbors; Nicaragua has not thrown a stone against the

American nation; Nicaragua has not imposed governments on

the United States; you are the ones who should change and

not the Nicaraguans.

“As the war was still going on, I had the chance to meet the

then recently inaugurated President of the United States

George Bush, senior. In the year 1989, at a gathering in

Costa Rica, we sat facing each other, President Bush and

me, and he said: “The press has come here because they want

to see a fight between the president of the United States

and the president of Nicaragua, and we have made an effort

not to oblige them.”

“Nicaragua was still fighting the war imposed by the United

States. The International Court of Justice in The Hague

decided on the lawsuit filed by Nicaragua and passed

sentence. It clearly stated that “the United States should

cease every military action, the mining of the harbors and

the funding of the war; that it should indicate where the

mines had been planted since it refused to provide that

information;” it also ordered the U.S. government to

compensate Nicaragua for the trade and economic blockade

imposed on that nation.

“We are waging a struggle in Nicaragua, Central America and

Latin America to eradicate illiteracy with the generous and

unconditional solidarity of the fraternal Cuban people, of

Fidel who promoted such literacy campaigns in solidarity

with our peoples, and of President Raul Castro who has

continued these programs for the benefit of all of the

Latin American and Caribbean peoples.

“Later, the Bolivarian people of Venezuela and its President

Hugo Chavez Frias joined in this effort with a generous

spirit.

“Most of the presidents and heads of government of Latin

America and the Caribbean are here today; also the

President of the United States and the Primer Minister of

Canada. But there are two notable absentees: one is Cuba,

whose only crime has been to fight for the peoples’

sovereignty and independence; to give solidarity,

unconditionally, to our peoples. That’s why it is

sanctioned, that’s why it is punished; that’s why it is

excluded. That’s why I do not feel comfortable today in

this Summit; I cannot feel comfortable in this Summit. I am

embarrassed to be attending this summit in the absence of

Cuba.

“Another country is not present here because unlike Cuba,

which is an independent and supportive nation, that other

people is still submitted to colonialist policies: I mean

the fraternal people of Puerto Rico.

“We are working to build a great alliance, a great unity of

Latin American and Caribbean peoples. The day will come

when the Puerto Rican people is also a part of that great

alliance.

“In the 1950s racial discrimination was institutionalized,

it was part of the American way of life, part of the

American democracy: black people could not walk into white

people’s restaurants or white people’s bars. The children

of black families could not attend the white children

schools. In order to turn down the wall of racial

discrimination it was necessary --and this President Obama

knows better than we do—Martin Luther King, jr, said: “I

have a dream.” The dream became a reality and the wall of

racial discrimination collapsed in the United States of

America, thanks to the struggle of that people.

“This meeting, this gathering is opening exactly the same

day that the invasion of Cuba started in 1961. Talking with

the President of Cuba Raul Castro, he gave me some data:

“Daniel, President Obama was born on August 4, 1961; he was

three and a half months when we attained victory in Playa

Giron on April that year. Obviously he is not accountable

for that historic event. The bombings on April 15; the

proclamation of socialism by Fidel during the funeral of

the victims on the 16th; the invasion on the 17th; on the

18th, the battle goes on and victory is attained on the

19th, before 72 hours had passed. Raul.” (On his return

from Cumana, Raul related to me that in a note he wrote for

Daniel he made a quick calculation and was wrong to assert

that Obama was three and a half months at the time of the

Bay of Pigs invasion, when he should have said that Obama

was born three and a half months later; that it was his

[Raul’s] mistake.)

“That is history. In the year 2002, also in the month of

April, on the 11th, a coup d’etat was dealt to murder an

elected president in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

President Hugo Chavez was seized; the order to murder him

had been issued. When the puppet regime took over, the U.S.

government through its spokesman recognized the putschers

and offered them support. We are right to say that that is

not history; such violent events against the institutions

of a people, of a progressive, supportive and revolutionary

nation took place hardly seven years ago.

“I think that the time I’m taking is shorter than the three

hours I had to wait at the airport inside the plane.

“The freedom of expression must apply to the big ones and

the little ones: Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras,

Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic

as an associate. The territorial area is 355,617.5 square

miles. The population is a little more than 41.7 million.

“We are asking that all immigrants in the United States

receive the TPS, but the causes of migration are the

underdevelopment and poverty of our Central American

peoples.

“The only way to stop that flow of emigrants to the United

States is not building a fence or reinforcing military

surveillance along the border.

“The United States needs the Central American labor force,

as it needs the Mexican labor force. Then, when the supply

of that labor force is higher than the demand of the U.S.

economy, repressive policies come into play, while funds

should be contributed without political strings attached,

without the conditions imposed by the International

Monetary Fund.

“We have the ungrateful task of protecting the U.S. borders

due to drug abuse.

“Just in Nicaragua, the national police impounded over 360

tons of cocaine last year. That, at a market price in the

United States, would certainly amount to more than 1

billion dollars.

“How much does the United States provide Nicaragua for

guarding its borders? It provides 1,200,000 dollars.

“It’s not fair, it’s not equitable, it’s not ethical. It is

not moral that the G-20 continues to make the great

decisions; the time has come for the G-192, that is, for

all countries in the United Nations to make them.

“Those who have had dealings with the IMF are perfectly

aware of what the Fund has meant, of the social,

agricultural and productive programs that have been cut off

to obtain resources to pay back the debt, a debt imposed by

the rules established by global capitalism. It has only

been an instrument setting forth and developing

colonialist, neocolonialist and imperialist policies from

the metropolises.

“Mahatma Gandhi, who waged a heroic struggle against England

for the independence of India, said that England had used

one-fourth of the resources of the planet to reach its

current state of development. So, what resources would

India need to attain a similar condition? Now, in this 21st

century, and since the end of the 20th century, it was not

only England but every developed capitalist country that

established their hegemony at the expense of the

destruction of the planet and the human species, imposing

the consumerist patterns of their model.

“The only way to save the planet, and the sustainable

development of mankind with it, will be to lay the

foundations of a new international economic order, a new

socio-economic and political model which is truly fair,

supportive and democratic.

“There is the project known as PETROCARIBE and there is ALBA

–most of the Caribbean nations are members of PETROCARIBE,

but there are also members of SICA which belong to

PETROCARIBE: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican

Republic, Nicaragua and Panama.

““The heads of Sate and Government of Bolivia, Cuba,

Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela, members of

ALBA, consider that the draft Declaration of the Fifth

Summit of the Americas is insufficient and unacceptable for

the following reasons:

(He goes on to read the ALBA Declaration on the document

proposed for the Summit of the Americas.)

““It does not respond to the issue of the Global Economic

Crisis, even though that is the greatest challenge faced by

mankind in decades.

““It unjustifiably excludes Cuba without mentioning the

general consensus in the region to condemn the blockade and

the attempts to constantly isolate its people and

government in a criminal fashion.

““What we are experiencing is a structural and systemic

global economic crisis and not just another cyclic crisis.

““The environmental crisis has been caused by capitalism

which had subordinated the necessary conditions for life on

the planet to the predominance of markets and profits.

“To avoid this outcome it is necessary to develop an

alternative model to the capitalist system. A system in

harmony with our Mother Earth and not one that plunders its

natural resources; a system of cultural diversity and not

of crushing cultures and imposing cultural values and life

styles that have nothing to do with the realities of our

countries; a system of peace based on social justice and

not on imperialist wars and policies; a system that does

not reduce them to simple consumers or merchandise.

“Regarding the U.S. blockade on Cuba and the exclusion of

this country from the Summit of the Americas, the member

countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of

Our America (ALBA) reiterate the Declaration adopted last

December 16, 2008, by all of the countries of Latin America

and the Caribbean on the necessity to put an end to the

economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba

by the United States of America, including the

implementation of the so-called Helms-Burton Act, widely

known to all.

“In my country, Nicaragua, the governments that preceded me

strictly enforced the neoliberal policies, that is, from

1990, when the Sandinista Front left the government, until

January 10, 2007, when the Sandinista Front returned to

government; they enforced them for 16 years.

“As the Nicaraguan Revolution triumphed in 1979, it found

that the tyrannies and governments that had been imposed

and sustained in Nicaragua by the U.S. administrations, the

self-defined democratic governments, had left Nicaragua

with 60 percent illiteracy.

“Our first big battle was to eradicate illiteracy. We

undertook that battle and reduced illiteracy to 11.5 or 12

percent. We couldn’t go further because we were imposed a

war policy by the Reagan administration.

“We left the government in 1990 with 12.5 percent illiteracy

in the country and on January 2007 we received back the

country with 35 percent illiteracy.

“This data have not been made up by the government; they

have been released by agencies specialized in education and

culture.

“That is the result of the neoliberalism applied in

Nicaragua; the result of privatizations in Nicaragua where

healthcare and education were privatized and the poor were

left out. For others it was a good change because they

amassed fortunes; the model has proven successful to

concentrate riches and extend poverty. It is a great

concentrator of riches and a great multiplier of poverty

and destitution.

“It is an ethical problem, a moral problem, and the future

lies on it; not only the future of the most impoverished

countries --as the five countries of Latin America and the

Caribbean I have mentioned—that have little else to lose

other than our shackles, if there is not a change of

ethics, a change of moral, a change of values that will

enable us to be really sustainable.

“It is no longer a matter of ideology, it’s not a political

issue; it’s a matter of survival. And this applies to all,

from the G-20 to the G-5 who are the most impoverished in

Latin America and the Caribbean.

“I think that this crisis that is affecting the world today

and that is leading to discussions, debates, and to a

search for solutions we should approach it bearing in mind

that the current development model is no longer possible,

no longer sustainable.

“The only way to save us all is to change the model.

“Thank you, very much.”

Daniel’s phrases at the opening session of the Summit were

like a bell tolling for a centuries-old policy that until a

few months ago was applied to the peoples of Latin America

and the Caribbean.

It is 19:58 hours. I have just listened to the words of

President Hugo Chavez. Apparently, Venezolana de Television

introduced a camera in the “Secret Summit” and carried some

of his words. Yesterday we saw him graciously return

Obama’s gesture as he walked up to greet him,

unquestionably a clever gesture of the United States

president.

This time Chavez stood up from his chair, walked to Obama’s

seat at the head of a rectangular hall near Michelle

Bachelet, and presented him with the well known book by

Galeano, Las venas abiertas de America Latina,

systematically updated by the author. I simply mentioned

the time it was when I listened to him.

It is announced that the Summit will be closed tomorrow at

noon.

The United States president has been very active. According

to press reports he has not only taken part in the plenary

session of the Summit but also met with every regional

subgroup.

His predecessor went to bed early and slept for many hours.

Seemingly, Obama works hard and sleeps little.

Today, the 19th , at 11:57 hours, I don’t see anything new.

The CNN news channel has no fresh news. The clock struck 12

when the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago stood on the

rostrum. I prepare to listen to him, and then I perceive

some strange signals. Manning’s face looks tense. Later,

Obama speaks and takes some questions from the press; I

find him gruff although calm. I was surprised that a press

conference was organized with several leaders without the

participation of any of those who disagreed with the

document.

Manning had said before that the document had been

elaborated two years back when there was not a deep

economic crisis; therefore, the current issues had not been

properly examined. Of course, I thought, McCain was not

there; surely the OAS, Leonel and the Dominican Republic

remembered the name of the military commander of the

invaders in 1965 and the 50 thousand troops that occupied

the country to prevent the return of Juan Bosch who was not

a Marxist-Leninist.

The leaders in the press conference were the Prime Minister

of Canada, certainly a rightist and the only one who had

been rude to Cuba; Mexican President Felipe Calderon;

Martin Torrijos from Panama and, naturally, Patrick

Manning. The Caribbean and the two Latin American leaders

were respectful to Cuba; none of them attacked it, and they

had expressed their opposition to the blockade.

Obama spoke of the United States military power, which

could be of assistance in the fight on organized crime, and

of the significance of the U.S. market. He also admitted

that the programs carried forward by the government of

Cuba, such as sending groups of doctors to countries of

Latin America and the Caribbean, could be more effective

than Washington’s military power to gain influence in the

region.

We, the Cubans do not do it to gain influence; it’s a

tradition that was born in Algeria in 1963, when that

country was fighting French colonialism, and we have later

done likewise in scores of Third World countries.

He was gruff and elusive with regards to the blockade in

his interview with the press; but he is already born and he

will be 48 years next August 4.

Nine days later, that same month, I will be 83, almost

twice his age, but now I have much more time to think. I

wish to remind him of a basic ethical principle with

respect to Cuba: there is no excuse for any injustice, any

crime to last, regardless of time; the cruel blockade on

the Cuban people takes lives and causes suffering; it also

affects the economy of the nation and limits its

possibilities to cooperate with healthcare, education and

sports services, with energy saving and with the protection

of the environment in many poor countries of the world.

Fidel Castro Ruz

April 19, 2009

2:32 p.m.

LATIN AMERICAN UNITY AT SUMMIT SHOWS FURTHER PROOF OF THE START OF A NEW MULTI-POLAR WORLD

Obama Extends Hands to Chavez, Ortega at Summit Handshakes all around from Obama to Venezuela's Chavez, Nicaragua's Ortega at Americas Latsummit

By MARK S. SMITH
Associated Press Writer
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad

President Barack Obama offered a spirit of cooperation to
America's hemispheric neighbors at a summit Saturday,
listening to complaints about past U.S. meddling and even
reaching out to Venezuela's leftist leader.

…

In front of photographers, Chavez gave Obama a copy of "The
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage
of a Continent," a book by Eduardo Galeano that chronicles
U.S. and European economic and political interference in
the region.

When a reporter asked Obama what he thought of the book,
the president replied: "I thought it was one of Chavez's
books. I was going to give him one of mine." White House
advisers said they didn't know if Obama would read it or
not.

Later, during a group photo, Obama reached behind several
leaders at the summit to shake Chavez' hand for the third
time. Obama summoned a translator and the two smiled and
spoke briefly.

Those two exchanges followed a brief grip-and-grin for
cameras on Friday night when Obama greeted Chavez in
Spanish.

"I think it was a good moment," Chavez said about their
initial encounter. "I think President Obama is an
intelligent man, compared to the previous U.S. president."

At a luncheon speech to fellow leaders, Chavez said the
spirit of respect is encouraging and he proposed that
Havana host the next summit.

"I'm not going to speak for Cuba. It's not up to me...
(but) all of us here are friends of Cuba, and we hope the
United States will be, too," Chavez said.

…

Bolivia President Evo Morales, a close ally of Chavez, said
Obama's pledge of a new era of mutual respect toward Latin
America rings hollow.

"Obama said three things: There are neither senior or
junior partners. He said relations should be of mutual
respect, and he spoke of change," Morales said. "In Bolivia
... one doesn't feel any change. The policy of conspiracy
continues."

Morales expelled U.S. ambassador Philip Goldberg in
September and kicked out the Drug Enforcement
Administration the next month for allegedly conspiring with
the political opposition to incite violence. Chavez
expelled the U.S. ambassador in Venezuela in solidarity.
The Bush administration subsequently suspended trade
preferences to Bolivia that Bolivian business leaders say
could cost 20,000 jobs.

Obama also extended a hand to Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega,
whom President Ronald Reagan spent years trying to drive
from power. Ortega was ousted in 1990 elections that ended
Nicaragua's civil war, but was returned to power by voters
in 2006.

Ortega stepped up and introduced himself to Obama, U.S.
officials said. But a short time later, Ortega delivered a
blistering 50-minute speech that denounced capitalism and
U.S. imperialism as the root of much hemispheric mischief.
The address even recalled the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of
Cuba, though Ortega said the new U.S. president could not
be held to account for that.

"I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for
things that happened when I was three months old," Obama
said, to laughter and applause from the other leaders.

LATIN AMERICAN LEADERS STRIDE CONFIDENTLY AGAINST US HEGEMONY & IN SUPPORT OF CUBAN AND PUERTO RICAN ANTI-IMPERIALISM

Chavez, ALBA trade group slams Americas summit

18 April, 2009

CUMANA, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
and fellow leftist members of his regional trade group ALBA
slammed a summit Thursday of Latin American leaders for
excluding Cuba and not resolving the region's economic
woes.

The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) summit
was held to coincide with the two-day Summit of the
Americas in Trinidad and Tobago that welcomes US President
Barack Obama, amid signs of a thaw in 50 years of US-Cuban
relations.

The presidents of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and
new member Dominica said the Summit of the America's draft
final statement is "insufficient and unacceptable" because
it does not mention the region's near unanimous rejection
of the US economic blockade of Cuba.

Read out loud by Chavez, the ALBA text said the Americas
summit statement also fails "to address the issues of the
global economic crisis."

"We contend there's no consensus for adopting that draft
statement and we propose an exhaustive debate," Chavez
said. With the exception of Cuba, the ALBA members were to
attend the Americas summit in nearby Trinidad and Tobago
after meeting here.

In keeping with ALBA's leftist charter, Chavez said the
first order of discussion in the debate should be how
"capitalism is bringing about the end of humanity and the
planet."

Cuba is not included among the 34 countries meeting at the
Summit of the Americas, and is also excluded from the
Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS).

However, in another sign of warming regional relations
toward Cuba, OAS Secreary General Jose Miguel Insulza
announced at the Americas summit on Friday that he will ask
the OAS General Assembly meeting in June to revoke the OAS
resolution excluding Cuba.

US-Cuban relations have also improved since Obama took
office in January.

Obama last week lifted travel and money transfer
restrictions for Cuban-Americans with relatives in Cuba,
and only hours before the summit of the Americas opened US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said 50 years of US
policy on Cuba had "failed."

Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro earlier this week
both expressed their willingness to open talks.

Despite these encouraging signs, Chavez at the ALBA summit,
referring to Obama, said "we must demand that he abide by
United Nations resolutions" and lift the 47-year economic
embargo on Cuba.

The Summit of the Americas is expected to issue a general
call for lifting the US embargo.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega chipped in, calling the
US embargo "a real genocide" and dismissed the Summit of
the Americas as useless.

"You can't call that summit 'of the Americas' because Cuba
and Puerto Rico are missing," Ortega said, lending support
also to the US territory's independence movement.

ALBA was founded in 2004 by Venezuela and Cuba as a
counterweight to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)
that the United States and several Latin American nations
were proposing at the time.