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<h1 class="title">Letter from Fidel Castro to Hugo Chavez upon Chavez’s
Departure from Cuba </h1>
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<p class="byline"> By <span class="author">Fidel Castro</span>, <span
class="date">February 18th 2013</span> </p>
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<div class="block-inner"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7823">http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7823</a><br>
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<p><em>Venezuenalysis.com translates the letter written to Hugo Chavez
by Fidel Castro just before Chavez’s return to Venezuela in the early
hours of Monday 18 February. </em></p>
<p>Dear Hugo,</p>
<p>I am extremely satisfied that you have been able to return to that
piece of American land which you love so much, and to our brother
people who support you so much.</p>
<p>A long and agonising wait, as well as your astonishing capacity for
physical resistance and the total dedication of a team of doctors, as
has been the case over the last 10 years, were necessary to achieve
this objective.</p>
<p>It would be totally unfair not to mention the insurmountable
dedication of your closest family members, your colleagues in the
revolutionary leadership, the Bolivarian Armed Forces, who were
re-armed and re-equipped by you, and the honest people of the world who
have shown their support.</p>
<p>The breath the Venezuelan people offered you also deserves a special
mention, who saluted you with their daily demonstrations of
enthusiastic and unshakeable support. It is to this which your happy
return to Venezuela is owed.</p>
<p>You learned a lot about life, Hugo, in those difficult days of
suffering and sacrifice. Now that we will not have the privilege of
receiving news of you on a daily basis, we will go back to the method
of correspondence which we have used for many years.</p>
<p>We will always live to fight for justice for human beings,
consciously and humbly, without fear of the years, months, days or
hours that we might have left to live in the most critical era of the
history of our humanity.</p>
<p>Our people, who are also your people, will know tomorrow of your
return to Venezuelan via this message. Everything had to be done with
much discretion, so as not to give an opportunity to the fascist groups
to plan any of their cynical actions against the Bolivarian
revolutionary process.</p>
<p>When the socialist camp collapsed and the USSR disintegrated, and
imperialism with its sharpened knife tried to drown the Cuban
Revolution in blood, Venezuela, a relatively small country in divided
America, was capable of preventing that. Due to time restraints, I have
not mentioned the numerous countries in the Antilles, Central and South
America that Venezuela has helped, on top of its great economic and
social programmes. That is why all honest people of the world have
followed closely the “health and news of Chavez”.</p>
<p>Until victory always!</p>
<p>A firm hug!</p>
<p>Fidel Castro Ruz<br>
8.35 p.m.<br>
February 17 2013</p>
<p><em>Translated by Rachael Boothroyd for Venezuelanalysis.com</em></p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
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San Francisco, CA 94110
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