News
Raul Castro Addresses Rally in Quito
President Raul Castro passed on greetings from the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, to the Ecuadorian people and congratulated President Rafael Correa – who was sworn-in on Monday for a second term in office until 2013 and all Ecuadorians for their victory.
Source
PL
Date
President Raul Castro passed on greetings from the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, to the Ecuadorian people and congratulated President Rafael Correa – who was sworn-in on Monday for a second term in office until 2013 - and all Ecuadorians for their victory.
Raul, his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez and the constitutional president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, were welcomed with a standing ovation by some 30,000 people that gathered at the Olympic Stadium in Quito, Juventud Rebelde newspaper reports.
After being invited to take the floor by Correa, Raul recalled that Ecuador, and Quito in particular, has the honor of being the place where the Latin American independence movement began.
“Two hundred years after the beginning of that independence struggle, we are here living a similar situation due to the big challenges and threats that our peoples face today,” Raul said.
He highlighted the increasing strength of popular movements in favor of social justice and true sovereignty and warned against desperate attempts from regional oligarchies and those who give orders from abroad, who try to obstruct the progress of the peoples.
The Cuban leader recalled recent actions of this kind in Venezuela and Bolivia and more recently in Honduras, and he pointed out that these maneuvers would continue inasmuch as popular forces become stronger. Raul also warned that “the establishment of US military bases in Latin America is not pure chance or a measure to fight, as they say, drug-trafficking or the guerrillas.”
The Cuban President recalled some of the aggressions suffered by the people of the Caribbean archipelago since 1959 and added that the Revolution would have not survived without the support of the majority of the Cuban people.
Raul ended his speech congratulating President Correa for his decision to work in favor of his compatriots and ratified Cuba’s willingness to continue supporting the people of Ecuador. Raul Castro headed the Cuban delegation, which also includes Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla and Havana Historian Eusebio Leal, that participated on Monday in the swearing-in ceremony of President Rafael Correa.
Raul, his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez and the constitutional president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, were welcomed with a standing ovation by some 30,000 people that gathered at the Olympic Stadium in Quito, Juventud Rebelde newspaper reports.
After being invited to take the floor by Correa, Raul recalled that Ecuador, and Quito in particular, has the honor of being the place where the Latin American independence movement began.
“Two hundred years after the beginning of that independence struggle, we are here living a similar situation due to the big challenges and threats that our peoples face today,” Raul said.
He highlighted the increasing strength of popular movements in favor of social justice and true sovereignty and warned against desperate attempts from regional oligarchies and those who give orders from abroad, who try to obstruct the progress of the peoples.
The Cuban leader recalled recent actions of this kind in Venezuela and Bolivia and more recently in Honduras, and he pointed out that these maneuvers would continue inasmuch as popular forces become stronger. Raul also warned that “the establishment of US military bases in Latin America is not pure chance or a measure to fight, as they say, drug-trafficking or the guerrillas.”
The Cuban President recalled some of the aggressions suffered by the people of the Caribbean archipelago since 1959 and added that the Revolution would have not survived without the support of the majority of the Cuban people.
Raul ended his speech congratulating President Correa for his decision to work in favor of his compatriots and ratified Cuba’s willingness to continue supporting the people of Ecuador. Raul Castro headed the Cuban delegation, which also includes Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla and Havana Historian Eusebio Leal, that participated on Monday in the swearing-in ceremony of President Rafael Correa.