[News] Fidel - Venezuela Under Fire

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Reflections by the Commander in Chief

A PEOPLE UNDER FIRE

         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.

      Martí 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 Martí 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
8:12 p.m.


Permanent Mission of Republic of Cuba
to the United Nations
315 Lexington Ave. New York, N.Y 10016
Tel.: (212) 689-7215
Fax: (212) 689-9073
e-mail: <mailto:publicrel at cubanmission.com>publicrel at cubanmission.com
web: <http://www.embacuba.cubaminrex.cu/onu>www.embacuba.cubaminrex.cu/onu





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