Articles and Reflections
What supports that order? Wealth and the use of force. For that they have all the money in this world and the most sophisticated military means. Besides, they are the big producers and exporters of weapons that pose no threat whatsoever to their international hegemony, but spur local wars, multinationals profits and their allies’ dependence.
On May Day, still under the impression of the parade, the colors of our national flag -which is today a symbol of solidarity before the eyes of the whole world-, the young, intelligent and enthusiastic faces of our students, which closed the parade of that overflowing river, the words of the poet, so many times repeated during that day, came to my mind:
“For this freedom…we will have to give our all!”
Thursday, April 30 was unlucky for the United States. On that day it occurred to them to include Cuba yet again on the list of terrorist countries. Committed as they are to their own crimes and lies, perhaps even Obama himself was unable to untangle himself from that mess. A man whose talent nobody denies must feel ashamed about the empire’s cult of lie. Fifty years of terrorism against our Homeland come to light in an instant.
The white, red and blue colors of our flag, sustained by the industrious hands of thousands of students from the University of Informatics Sciences closed the parade, preceded by the youths of the university and middle level education students’ federations from the capital; the disciplined and active youths of humble origins being trained as Social Workers; the children from La Colmenita art troupe and other creations of the Revolution; they are all aware that they carry a flame that nobody will ever be able to extinguish.
We hope that every May 1st thousands of men and women, in every corner of the globe, will share International Workers’ Day with us, a day which we have been celebrating for 50 years. It was not in vain that long before January 1st, 1959, we had proclaimed that our Revolution would be the Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble.
These days, while so much was being said about the lengthy and unfair blockade of Cuba in the upper echelons of the continent’s countries, I read a news item in Mexico’s La Jornada: “At the end of 1963, the then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sought to overturn the ban on travel to Cuba and today his daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, wrote that President Barack Obama ought to take this into account and support legislative initiatives that would allow all Americans to travel to the island.
Daniel’s appearance on the National Television Round Table program went as I hoped. He spoke eloquently and he was persuasive, calm and irrefutable.
He gave no offence nor did he wish to offend any other Latin American country; he held firmly to the truth in every moment of his appearance: Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua, as ALBA spokesmen, rejected the idea that the Final Declaration was submitted as a matter of consensual agreement, in no uncertain terms.
Historical events prove the hegemonic policies of the United States in our region and the disgusting role of the OAS as the hideous instrument of the powerful country.
Insulza’s formula consists of wiping the criminal agreement off the map. Raúl declared in Cumaná that Cuba would never rejoin the OAS. Using Marti’s scathing phrase, he expressed that first “the Southern sea would join the Northern sea, and a serpent would be born from the eagle’s egg”.
The blockade of Cuba was not even mentioned in the Final Declaration and the president of the United States used it to justify his actions and to cover up alleged concessions made by his administration to Cuba. We would better understand the real limitations that the new U.S. president has to introduce changes to his nation’s policy towards our country, than the use of lies to justify his actions.
We are living in a new era. Changes are unavoidable. Leaders just pass through; peoples prevail. There would be no need to wait for thousands of years to pass by; only eight years will be enough so that a new US President –who will no doubt be less intelligent, promising and admired in the world than Barack Obama- riding on a better armored car, or on a more modern helicopter, or on a more sophisticated plane, occupies that inglorious position.
Some kind of miracle should have been worked out, I said to myself. The philosopher’s stone has just been discovered. Why should we worry for one more second? No one should think that this happened out of mere chance. Don’t we know how to read and write? It was the OAS which saved us all; it has been so stated in 13 out of the 97 subparagraphs contained in the 67 pages of the final declaration.
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.