Five years ago, a Papal Bull, applying concepts that prevailed at those
times, allocated approximately 40 million square kilometers of land,
inland waters and coastline to two small and belligerent kingdoms of the
Iberian Peninsula.

The English, the French, the Dutch and other important feudal States were
excluded from the share out. Endless wars were soon to erupt; millions of
Africans were turned into slaves throughout four centuries and the
autochthones cultures, some of them more advanced than those of Europe,
were destroyed.

Sixty four years ago, the execrable OAS was founded. It is impossible to
overlook the hideous role played by that institution. A great number of
people, who could perhaps be counted by the thousands, were kidnapped,
tortured and disappeared as a result of the decisions it adopted to
justify the coup against the reforms introduced by Jacobo Arbenz in
Guatemala, which was organized by the Yankee Central Intelligence Agency.
Central America and the Caribbean, including the small island of Grenada,
were victims of the interventionist fury of the United States through the OAS.

Much worse still was the role it played in South America.

Neoliberalism, the official doctrine of imperialism, gained unusual
strength in the 1970’s when the Richard Nixon administration decided to
frustrate the electoral victory attained by Salvador Allende in Chile. A
truly sinister period in the history of Latin America had just begun. Two
high-ranking officers of the Chilean Armed Forces who remained loyal to
the Constitution were murdered, and Augusto Pinochet was imposed as head
of State after an unprecedented repression whereby numerous selected
persons were tortured, killed and disappeared.

The Constitution of Uruguay, a country that for many years stood by its
national institutional system, was wiped out.

Military coups and repression expanded to nearly all neighboring
countries. The Cuban airline became the target of brutal sabotages. One
Cuban airliner filled with passengers was blown up in mid-air. Reagan
released the main perpetrator of that monstrous crime from a prison in
Venezuela and sent him to El Salvador to organize the drugs-for-money swap
to fund the dirty war against Nicaragua, which left tens of thousands dead
or maimed.

Bush senior and Bush junior sheltered and pardoned those involved in these
crimes. The list of misdeeds and terrorist actions perpetrated against
Cuba’s economy throughout half a century will be endless.

Today, Friday 13, I listened to the courageous words expressed by several
speakers at the foreign ministers meeting of the so-called Cartagena
Summit. The issue of the sovereign rights of Argentina over the Malvinas
Islands –whose economy is being brutally affected for being deprived of
the valuable energy and maritime resources that exist in those Islands-
was firmly addressed. The Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Nicolás Maduro,
after concluding today’s meeting, declared with profound irony that the
“Consensus of Washington” had become the “Consensus without Washington”.

Now we will have the Summit of the Guayaberas. The Yayabo River and its
aboriginal name, totally vindicated, will go down in history.

Fidel Castro Ruz

April 13, 2012

9:40 p.m.