“Let us imitate the example of those who were our predecessors. Let us do what Bolívar, San Martín, Artigas, O'Higgins, Sucre, Juárez, Morazán and Martí would have done in like circumstances, so that Our America takes an honourable place in a world where we all have a right to live.”
"I have, for a very long time, had the very deeply-held conviction that, when a crisis comes, leaders arise. So Bolívar arose when Napoleon occupied Spain and the imposition of a foreign king created the conditions that facilitated the independence of the Spanish colonies in this hemisphere. So Marti arose when the right moment came for the independence revolution in Cuba. So arose Chávez when the dreadful social and human situation in Venezuela and Latin America determined that the time to fight for the second, real independence had come".
“One day, when the revolution is triumphant in all the rest of the countries of Latin America, we shall unite with the other peoples and we shall form a community of Latin American peoples. We need the revolution for that; we need socialism for that.”
“I have faith in this wonderful awakening of our continent. I have absolute faith in the future of this continent. I have faith and I can affirm right here that I am certain that the future of the Americas will be totally different from what it has been so far. Everything depends on our faith, everything depends on our own effort, and everything depends on us."
“Trust in Cuba! Cuba is not just defending its own sovereignty over there in that trench: we understand that from that trench we are also defending the interests of other Latin American peoples.”
“Let us follow the example of our predecessors. Let us do what Bolivar, San Martin, Artigas, O'Higgins, Sucre, Juarez, Morazan and Marti would have done in similar circumstances, so that our America will hold a dignified place in a world in which we all have a right to live.”
“We can rightly say that it was the cradle of South African liberation; but one day it will also be considered the cradle of African dignity. And it’s not that Africa has not fought, or that Africa has not carried out thousands and tens of thousands of heroic deeds but this was the most painful stronghold of a system of slavery and injustice that has existed for thousands of years, and particularly in the of Africa, Latin America and the Third World, it prevailed hundreds of years.”
“A year ago already, as expression of our sovereign political will, we decided to constitute the Association of Caribbean States. We have before us a great challenge. It is a matter of forging a mutual destiny for nations that are remarkably dissimilar in terms of size, population and development […] The region understands, ultimately, that the future path for our peoples lies in unity.”
“Those of us who have read about the history of the Americas, who have meditated more than once about it, from the time when we acquired the first political notions and learned the first concepts about what this continent was like, its origin and its history, have found it very difficult to understand why our America has reached the present status; (…) why have we lived so estranged from each other; why have we lived so indifferently to those who many a time have been separated from us only by a river, or an imaginary line, or a mountain, or an inlet, when we all were essentially o
"Can the empire and the system responsible for all this really talk to the world about human rights? Human rights within a system where a large part of the population is unemployed, where women are prostituted, where children are abandoned? The numbers of abandoned children in Latin America are impressive, they number millions, many millions. How can this system offer hope to mankind? How can this system speak of consideration for mankind?
That’s why we have so much faith in socialism, and we have so much confidence in socialism and such deep socialist convictions".