Some of his audience was taken aback in that Cultural Centre in
Santiago de Chile.
When the president looked anxiously over his audience after
mentioning perfidious Cuba, expecting an explosion of applause,
there was icy silence. Behind him, oh, yes! felicitous
coincidence! among all the other Latin American flags, there
precisely was Cuba’s.
If he were to turn for a second, over his right shoulder he
would have seen, like a shadow, the symbol of the Revolution on
the rebel Island that his mighty country wanted to destroy, but
could not.
Anybody would be, without a doubt, extraordinarily optimistic if
they were expecting the peoples of Our America to applaud the
50th anniversary of the mercenary Bay of Pigs invasion, 50 years
of cruel economic blockade of a sister country, 50 years of
threats and terrorist attacks that cost thousands of lives, 50
years of plans to assassinate the leaders of the historic
process.
I heard myself being mentioned in his words.
In truth, I gave my services to the Revolution for a long time,
but I never eluded risks nor violated constitutional,
ideological or ethical principles; I regret not having better
health so that I could carry on serving the Revolution.
I resigned, without hesitation, all my state and political
positions, including that of First Secretary of the Party, when
I became ill and I never tried to exercise them after the
Proclamation of July 31, 2006, even when I partially recovered
my health more than a year later, although everyone continued to
affectionately address me in that manner.
But I am and shall continue to be as I promised: a soldier of
ideas, as long as I can think or breathe.
When they asked Obama about the coup against heroic President
Salvador Allende, promoted as many others by the United States,
and about the mysterious death of Eduardo Frei Montalva,
murdered by agents of DINA, a creation of the American
government, he lost his composure and began to stammer.
The commentary on Chilean television at the end of his speech
was, without a doubt, accurate when it stated that Obama had
nothing to offer the Hemisphere.
As for me, I don’t want to give the impression that I felt any
hatred for his person, much less for the people of the United
States; I acknowledge the contributions many of its sons and
daughters have made to culture and science.
Obama now has before him a trip to El Salvador tomorrow, on
Tuesday.
There he is going to have to be quite inventive because, in that
sister nation in Central America, the weapons and training
received from the governments of his country spilt much blood. I
wish him bon voyage and a bit more good sense.
Fidel Castro Ruz
March 21, 2011
9:32 p.m.
