Articles of Authors

Lula warmly reminded me of the first time he visited our country in 1985 to take part in a meeting organized by Cuba to analyze the overwhelming problem of the foreign debt; participants representing a wide spectrum of political, religious, cultural and social tendencies presented and discussed their opinions, concerned about the asphyxiating drama.

He spontaneously decided to visit Cuba for the second time since he became President of Brazil, even though the state of my health did not guarantee that he would be able to meet with me.

The wires made the announcement ahead of time. On January 6th we learned of Bush’s trip to the Middle East, just as soon as his very Christian Christmas holiday break was over. He would be going to Muslim territory, lands having a different religion and culture from that of the Europeans, who converted to Christianity, declared war on the infidels, in the 11th century A.D.

I am referring to a Chilean woman, Elena Pedraza, a highly educated specialist in rehabilitation. More than 40 years ago she paid her first visit to Cuba. Allende, a medical doctor, was not yet the president of Chile. The Cuban Revolution was almost 8 years old and it was already training teachers, doctors, physical therapists and health specialists, full speed ahead.

I am indebted to him. Yesterday marked another anniversary of his physical death. There are over forty versions of how it occurred, but all concur on several details that are of great interest.

Venezuela, whose people are heirs to Bolivar’s ideas which transcend his era, is today facing a world tyranny a thousand times more powerful than that of Spain’s colonial strength added to that of the recently born United States which, through Monroe, proclaimed their right to the natural wealth of the continent and to the sweat of its people.

Chávez said it very clearly in Riad: developing countries spend upwards of a trillion dollars in oil and gas. He proposed that the OPEC, which was nearly dissolved before the establishment of the Bolivarian government -which chaired and preserved this organization over 8 years- assume the tasks the International Monetary Fund was created for but has never fulfilled.

Last November 15, I referred to a third reflection on the Latin American Summit which, as I then wrote, “I have yet to publish”. It strikes me as timely, however, to do so before the referendum of December 2.

Sergio and I had the privilege of being at the command post located on the right of the Almendares estuary at dawn of April 15, forty six years ago, when US B-26 bombers with Cuban insignias, piloted by mercenaries, attacked the air bases of Ciudad Libertad, San Antonio de los Baños and the Santiago de Cuba civil airport.

I have been working on the many reflections that I have promised. One of them deals with the main ideas of a book by Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, making use of his own words. His book clearly reveals how imperialism seeks to continue buying up the world’s natural and human resources with perfumed paper bills.