Speech given by Fidel Castro Ruz,
President of the Republic of Cuba, at the
presentation of UNESCO’s International “Jose
Marti” Award to Hugo Chavez Frias, President of
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, at the
Revolution Square, on February 3rd,
2006.
Dear
President Chavez;
Dear members of the Venezuelan and Cuban
delegations;
Dear participants at this glorious ceremony;
Dear compatriots:
This is a historic day, one of great
significance: the bestowing of the International
“Jose Marti” Award by the United Nations
Organization, to the President of Venezuela.
What comes to mind at this emotional moment?
Seven years and one day ago, exactly, on
February 2nd, 1999,
I had the privilege of attending the inauguration
ceremony of Hugo Chavez Frias, as the new
President of Venezuela (Applause). I had first
met him about five years earlier, when he was here
on a visit after his release from prison, in
December 1994. We got to know each other a lot
and discussed subjects that we had very much in
common and which impassioned us. We spoke of the
future, but it was difficult to imagine that in
such a brief historical time Hugo Chavez would be
assuming the presidency of the glorious Venezuela
of Simon Bolivar. (Applause)
At that time, he audaciously stated: “I swear
before this dying Constitution”, a phrase that
would make history.
His actual words that day were:
“We have unemployment figures that reach 20%.
Under-employment of the economically active sector
that hovers around the 50% level, almost a million
children barely surviving, children just like my
daughter Rosines, who is one year and four months
old, and they are just barely surviving.
Venezuela’s
infant mortality rate is twenty-seven, almost
twenty-eight per one thousand live births, one of
the highest rates on the continent. Malnutrition
is taking a toll on the lives of children; fifteen
per cent of them die from malnutrition. We cannot
wait until the Constituent Assembly session to
amend that.”
“(…) It is outrageous that only one out of every
five children entering pre-school, only one out of
every five, will complete basic schooling; it is
outrageous because this is the future of our
country.”
“(…) Forty-five percent of teenagers do not
attend high-school; they are out there, just
surviving, and many of them are delinquents for
that reason, because man is not evil by nature,
we are children of God, we are not children of
evil (Applause). I have inherited this situation
right now, I have it right here in my hands, and
it is the accumulation of all of those crises that
I just mentioned a few minutes ago.”
His words on that February 2nd deeply
impressed me. Forty-eight hours later I was
attending an event at the Central University of
Venezuela where I had spoken to the students 40
years and 10 days earlier, on
January 24th, 1959.
Figures and facts that this visitor was aware of
at that moment when we met again, had led him to
the conclusion that the people of Venezuela, at
the moment of this new dawn, had to bravely and
intelligently face up to a series of difficulties
that were the result of an economic and social
situation besetting that heroic people.
I mentioned paragraphs and figures which today I
literally copy from that speech which he gave on
that February 3rd, seven years ago.
“Exports of goods, according to the report of the
Venezuelan Central Bank:
“In 1997: 23.4 billion dollars”, those were the
exports.
“In 1998: 17.32 billion. The value of exports in
just one year decreased by 6.08 billion dollars.
“Oil (the principal export). Prices: 1996: 20
dollars a barrel; 1997: 16.50 dollars; 1998: 9
dollars”, that was on the eve of his inauguration.
The basic minerals: iron, aluminum, gold and
derivatives such as steel, all to a lesser or
greater degree, had substantially decreased in
price. Both items make up 77% of exports, that
is, oil and minerals.
“Commercial balance:
“1996 – 13.6 billion dollars.
“1998- 3.4 billion. That’s what had been received
in one year and what they were receiving in the
other year, almost a third.
“Difference: 10.2 billion in just two years.
“Balance of payments”, another chapter:
“1996- 7 billion in
Venezuela’s
favor.
“1998 - 3 418 billion not in the country’s favor.
“Available international reserves:
“In 1997- 17 818 billion.
“In 1998- 14 385 billion dollars.” The reserves
were plummeting, just as they were perilously
about to, after the oil coup and even later at the
time of the military coup on
April 11, 2002.
Yes, because this huge decrease happened in the
following year, in 2003. In
other words, the reserve rapidly dropped, I think
it had reached 13 billion in the first semester of
that year and without a doubt, in a few more
months, it would have dropped to zero. Some had
already taken 300 billion dollars out of
Venezuela, at today’s value that would be
equivalent to 2 trillion dollars, more than enough
for an accelerated development in the entire
hemisphere, especially if it were a rational
development and not a consumer oriented, wasteful
development.
“Net losses: approximately 3.5 billion in one
year.
“Foreign debt:
“Almost 40% of the nation’s budget is spent
servicing the foreign debt”, we used to say.
Those were international figures.
“The social situation according to various
national and international sources.
“Unemployment: Official figures speak of 11 to
12 %. Other figures indicate 20%. And after the
coup d’etat and the oil coup, this figure rose to
more than 20%, when these unemployment figures had
been dropping to 10 or 9%.
“Under-employment hovered at the 50% mark.
“Almost a million children in a state of bare
survival”, in the words of the President. All of
this appeared in the statistics of the period.
“Infant mortality at almost 28 per 1000 live
births. Fifteen per cent of those children die
because of malnutrition”. They really died from
malnutrition.
“Only one out of every five children finished
basic schooling”; another true fact, expressed on
that inauguration day; “Forty five per cent of all
teenagers do not attend high-school.” By that
time, we were talking here in
Cuba
about having reached a schooling rate of more than
90%. Who was going to talk to us about these
problems? How could we ignore them when we had
spent so many years trying to reduce them, as from
the very first days after the triumph of the
Revolution until today, when it is almost 100%,
just as it’s beginning to be, or as it is about to
be in Venezuela.
“The fact that forty five per cent of children do
not attend school is truly impressive”, we said
then.
We added:
“More than a million children are incorporated
into the labor market; more than 2.3 million are
excluded from the educational system, without any
trade.
“In the last ten years –we said we had read that
before the trip to
Venezuela-,
“more than a million middle class Venezuelans,
category “C”, became part of the poor and
destitute class, who account for 77% of the
population today, due to salary reductions,
unemployment and the effects of inflation.
“All of this was happening in the homeland of
Bolivar, the nation with the greatest mineral
wealth in
Latin America,
with almost a million square kilometers and no
more than 22 million inhabitants.” It wasn’t as
large or as populated as
Brazil.
“I am reflecting on this –I finally said, very
carefully, so that it I didn’t appear to be
meddling in internal affairs- “totally and
absolutely responsible for my own comments in the
hope that they will be useful.”
How could we imagine that on one day, here, seven
years later, we would be repeating these same
facts as an inescapable demonstration of all that
had been happening there and all that had come to
pass during seven years in
Venezuela.
The tremendous emphasis that the Bolivarian
process placed upon schooling, in the first
instance, is perfectly explicable. The Bolivarian
schools are well equipped, lacking in nothing,
attended by all those children that had been
excluded from the educational system, and these
schools are now still being quickly constructed
and perfected. This movement is also reaching the
Bolivarian high schools -what we here in
Cuba
call the middle education schools- and there are
other additional and very important projects for
them. I have heard of figures that speak of the
creation of around 1000 high schools, also
beautifully equipped, something which is truly
admirable.
So, that all happened at the beginning, but those
days were followed by events that don’t happen in
other areas, events that culminated in the
bestowing of the “Jose Marti” Award, an
unquestionably just act.
On October 28th, 2005, the Literacy
Campaign was concluded and Venezuela was declared
a territory free of illiteracy, after a tough
struggle since mid-2003,
a
year and three months after the coup d’etat on
April 11th, eight months after the oil
coup, the Literacy Campaign had begun; the
Bolivarian process had only been in power for
three years, since that day when the president
took his oath on the dying Constitution.
The number of people who became literate until
that day: 1 482 533. Only a few thousands more
were about to finish the course.
On
Friday, January 27th, 2006,
the first 423 people reached sixth grade education
under the auspices of Mission Robinson 2.
Incorporated in this Mission –in a nation
where there is no longer illiteracy thanks to a
serious, systematic campaign, which included tests
and examinations- are 1 449 292 students; of them,
616 833 come from Mission Robinson 1.
During this year, 2006, one million students
will graduate from this level – those were people
who used to be illiterate or semi-illiterate;
people who were not students and had been
converted into students.
Another 500 000 graduates from this level will
be added to these numbers by the end of 2007.
Thanks to Mission Ribas, 162 543 adult
citizens have graduated from high-school. We all
know that more than
3 400 Venezuelan students coming out of that
Mission Ribas are here with us, studying medicine
or getting ready to start doing so.
Let them raise their flags! (They wave
their flags and cheer:
Cuba,
Venezuela
are one and a single flag!”)
According to figures, right now there are 602
502 students attending classes as a result of
Mission Ribas; this year approximately 500 000
will graduate from senior-high school.
Mission
Sucre,
for higher education, has welcome 513 568
Venezuelan students from Mission Ribas; 416 769 of
them have just finished their University
preparation course.
Of these, 310 192 are already following their
university programs.
It is worth noting that among these
Venezuelans who are already enrolled in higher
education courses, 15 392 are studying community
comprehensive medicine in Mission Barrio Adentro
(Cheers).
I have already mentioned that more than 3 400 are
studying medicine in Cuba, and before the end of
this year there will be 10 000 Venezuelan students
in Cuba, who would come under a new program
(Cheers) which has very positive perspectives
thanks to the methods used, the experience, the
work of the professors, something which is
absolutely new. An example of this is that Barrio
Adentro has already become a gigantic university
for the whole
Venezuela.
This is absolutely a new phenomenon in the history
of humankind and it is the only way to train the
doctors which are needed by the Third World, which
is made up of thousands of millions of people,
from a world population that is reaching the
impressive figure of 6.5 billion inhabitants, who
are members of our human species, whose
misfortunes and problems have accumulated and
multiplied.
If a better world were not possible, then we must
bid farewell to any hope that the human species
could survive.
132 014 Venezuelans are already enrolled in
higher education, as we have already indicated,
and they are already part of the national
teacher’s training program in
all the municipalities of Venezuela (Applause and
cheers).
A total of 74 677 are presently enrolled in
four municipal program offered by the Bolivarian
University of Venezuela (UBV), in 308
municipalities throughout all states, in the
specialties of Social Management, Local
Development, Social Communication and Legal
Studies.
A group of 84 892 are enrolled in technical,
scientific, and management specialties which are
taught at the municipal university chapters.
Three thousand, two hundred and seventeen are
studying law at the “Romulo Gallegos”
National
Experimental
University.
One could get exhausted by reading the whole list
of all the activities that have been carried out
in education –and in other areas too, but here we
are speaking about education- by Venezuela in just
half of these past seven years, while struggling
against imperialist conspiracies, coups of every
kind, malignant attacks on the economy, all of
then in the attempt to quash this process.
Has any other country in the world ever attained
such progress in fighting against total or
functional illiteracy?
What kind of a person is he or she who can not
read or write? What is a functional illiterate, a
person who can hardly sign his or her own name?
And in this so complex world, which is getting
ever more complex, in this so globalized world,
which is getting ever more globalized, what will
it mean not to have reached sixth grade of
education? ¿What is the difference between the
living non-thinking beings and the living beings
with a brain that thinks or is able to think, who
have not been educated, not even to read and
write; those who have not been taught into
thinking, as Jose de
la Luz
y Caballero insisted almost two hundred years ago
during the Spanish colonial era in Cuba.
But, who, in the eyes of the empire, is this man
of humble origin, who followed the ideas of
Bolivar and Marti and opened up a new chapter in
the history of Latin American peoples?
The answer is right here:
“Rumsfeld,
United States
Secretary of Defense and Pentagon chief, compares
Chavez to Hitler. Listen to me well: he compares
him to Hitler!
“WASHINGTON (AP) – “The Secretary of Defense,
Donald H. Rumsfeld, compared the Venezuelan
president Hugo Chavez to Adolph Hitler.
The comparison came up during a lecture given on
Thursday night at the National Press Club, when he
was asked about the general state of deterioration
in
Washington’s
relations with some of the Latin American
countries.
“We saw dictatorships over there”, he said. “And
we saw that the majority of those countries, with
the exception of
Cuba”,
of course, “are advancing towards democracy”, he
stated. (It appears that we are advancing towards
hell, towards total and absolute ignorance here,
where no form of democracy is possible.)
The Secretary of Defense admitted that “we have
seen some populist leaders”- this is a little word
that he puts in; those who look after the people,
those who are concerned for their people, those
who care about their health, education,
employment, those who think about the people are
“populist leaders”- attracting the masses in those
countries”. As if those people were stupid, when
in fact they are cleverer, and they listen more
and see more. Truths so
evident that they can no longer be covered up so
easily. “And there are elections like those won
by Evo Morales in
Bolivia,
which are truly worrisome” (Cheers).
And of course it is truly worrisome for the
leaders of the empire to see that a humble Indian
has become the president of Bolivia, elected by
the overwhelming majority of his people, in spite
of the fact that a million Bolivians, most of them
Evo supporters, were deprived of the right to
vote. It was almost impossible to imagine Evo
winning with an absolute majority, when everyone
knew that a million humble Bolivians could not
cast their ballot that day. What is going to
happen when Evo calls the next Constituent
Assembly? No doubt he is going to emulate the
feat of the Bolivarians.
Yes, I prove them right; they have well founded
reasons to worry. This is something new and
unexpected for those who dreamed, as Hitler did,
of an empire that would last a thousand years.
Then he went on to say:
“We have Chavez in
Venezuela”
– and he is here too, being honored with this
award. “He is someone who was legally elected”
–well, at least they don’t doubt that fact- “just
like Adolph Hitler was legally elected”- if they
only knew a little history they would know why
Hitler was once elected and what were the
consequences, who supported him and why –“and then
he consolidated his authority and now he is,
obviously, working closely with Fidel Castro”-
that ‘perverse’ character-, and Mr. Morales.”
What could they say about Morales!
That’s great. We feel happy that we have served as
a steel armor. I don’t say this out of conceit,
it is just the way I see it. They are talking
about Fidel Castro, and for the past 47 years they
have been trying to destroy this Revolution.
Who knows how many of them have tried to
assassinate me, and the fact is that it is not
only me they have tried to assassinate, but this
people, a small portion of which is standing here
in this Square tonight only because there is no
room for more of them (Cheers), rejoicing in this
unitary Bolivarian dawn for the nations which
Marti called “our America”.
Individuals may indulge in a certain kind of
privilege, and this is what we were talking about
as I presented this award to our dear brother Hugo
Chavez. We were happy in that moment, thinking
about the effort that was made on behalf of human
beings. We should have done much more, but we
were not wise enough to know how to do it, nor had
we matured far enough in our consciousness of duty
and necessity to have been able to do it - I am
speaking for myself, I am not speaking for him, I
am speaking for myself because I have had just
such privilege. And we were
saying: we have no merits in doing so, we are
privileged to have been born in this exceptional
time when changes are not only possible but
indispensable, and they are a basic condition for
survival.
Having lived through the experience of witnessing
the presence of the millions who voted in the
referendum in
Venezuela,
of those who voted for Evo, of those who in ever
growing numbers reject the ones that are lackeys
to an empire that intends to destroy us and
exploit us even more, is a singular privilege.
How many have died! How many lost their lives,
since the days of Bolivar and
Sucre until
today! Including many of our comrades, like him,
that figure which is over there, Ernesto Che
Guevara, an Argentinian, a Cuban, a Bolivian, a
Venezuelan, a martyr of Latin America and the
world (Applause). Those who are struggling today
for their country and for this continent, are
struggling for the world. And
so we can say about that extraordinary thinker
whose portrait stands over there on the façade of
the National Library – there is no better place
for it- , Jose Marti. How much that man
struggled, and how many like him died, without
even having the privilege of seeing what Chavez,
Evo, many others and myself are seeing here today.
But you are even more privileged than we
are, you are so young, with so many future
possibilities, that you will be flooding this
continent with graduates from higher education,
because
Venezuela
and
Cuba
together are training the doctors of this
hemisphere, with no intention of ignoring or
replacing anyone. We are
training the doctors who are ready to go to Barrio
Adentro, to the places hit by natural disasters,
without thinking it over, whose destiny will be to
practice one of the noblest of professions, like
being a doctor or a teacher, among many others,
acting in favor of the human species.
You will not come to study here so that you will
go into private medical practice. I am sure that
you are not thinking of that; you are studying so
that you may go out and serve your people, like
those young Venezuelan medical graduates from
ELAM, who were sent by president Chavez to Delta
Amacuro, to the Amazon, and he has been talking of
sending a few of them to Bolivia now to help that
people cope with the disaster. The day will come
when you will go out in the thousands, in the tens
of thousands.
Not too long ago we were talking about the 100,000
doctors that
Venezuela
and
Cuba
would train. Today, I can tell you right here
that
Venezuela
and
Cuba
intend to train 150,000 doctors in 10 years time
(Applause), and they will be not only from
Cuba
but from all of
Latin America.
We shall include Cubans who are ready to set off
for any part of the world.
Here tonight, we are honored to have among us 300
or more medical students from Timor Leste
(Cheers). Look at them over there; what
enthusiasm, what a heroic nation, which used to be
a colony for 500 years – 500 years! - and its
independence was paid for with blood at a high
price. We are proud to have
them here. This year, we will have around 1000
students from Timor Leste, most of them to study
at our medical sciences schools; and over there as
well, serving in that country, there are 180 Cuban
doctors, whom we shall remember also today. Timor
Leste used to be a colony of an Iberian nation,
and as usual, the powerful ones sent soldiers to
those countries. They never sent doctors or
teachers, they never taught the inhabitants to
read and write, they never educated those peoples.
Forgive me for having put aside my written
speech. I shall try not to do that any more
because we are impatient to hear President Hugo
Chavez on a day like today (Cheers).
Now, this statement made by the Pentagon chief was
immediately followed by another serious statement
made by the chief of the super-agency which is
made up by 15 services, including the CIA and the
FBI, the sadly well-known John Negroponte, a close
friend of that terrorist they intend to protect,
and who bears the repugnant name of Posada
Carriles, for all that it represents, who is the
man they were supposed to return to Venezuela to
stand trial.
Just imagine! Bringing up the pretext of torture
to say they are not sending him to
Venezuela,
a country whose president was at the verge of
being assassinated, where there was a military
coup d’etat, an oil coup, and where there is a
president who, in his immense generosity, even
pardoned those who betrayed
Venezuela.
We did it too here, at some point in time, after
exacting compensation from the empire.
We pardoned and released more than a
thousand mercenaries to the service of a foreign
power, who came to
Cuba
dressed in their uniforms, on
US
planes bearing Cuban markings on the fuselage,
which attacked us by surprise, treacherously.
They invaded our nation escorted by the
US
naval units and troops, which did not have time to
land because hardly 48 hours after the landing
there was no one they could give support to.
I was not going to mention any of this, but some
things remind you of others. When you hear what
others say or when you speak about Negroponte
while you are sitting in your office, it is quite
possible that your reaction is not very deep. But
after listening to professor Bonasso, who reminded
us very well about his infamous role –and we have
referred to that gentleman quite a few times,
being, as he was, one of
Posada Carriles’ partners in the dirty war against
Nicaragua-- we should remember that this is the
man who said today what was published
by the cable: “The chief of the US
intelligence services –‘the super agency’,
according to the cable-- expressed his fears on
Thursday that an electoral victory by President
Hugo Chavez in December would strengthen what he
called a foreign policy aimed at interfering in
the internal affairs of neighboring countries,
thus drawing him closer to Cuba, Iran and North
Korea”, two countries they call terrorists.
Moreover, they threaten to use tactical
nuclear weapons against them if they develop –as
do dozens of other countries in the world--
nuclear fuel for the production of electricity, so
that their gas and oil will not be depleted in a
few more years. To threaten with a nuclear strike
is truly something crazy. But then, how many
other insanities can we expect from some people?
It is not my wish to offend, but it is impossible
not to point out that television exists, speeches
and messages exist, and some of these people have
truly insane faces, to put it nicely.
In whose hands does the fate of the world lie? Or,
we should rather ask, in whose hands does the
security of the peoples of this planet lie? They
can do nothing for a better world, but they can
bring the world to the brink of destruction, even
create situations that are impossible to control
later on; they could unleash wars whose extension
and expansion no one could contain.
These are the risks facing humankind.
They are quite new, they belong to the last
100 years, and they are not even confined to the
last 60 years, both the danger of extermination by
weapons of mass destruction and the all-out
aggression on natural environments which are
indispensable to the lives of human beings.
“John Negroponte, Director of National
Intelligence, said that President Chavez was ready
to continue being particularly hostile against the
opposition and curtail freedom of the press.”
Did you hear that, Venezuelan youths, that
President Chavez was ready to be particularly
hostile against the opposition and curtail freedom
of the press? Well, we are publicizing here what
the illustrious Negroponte said, with no
restriction whatsoever, and I haven’t the
slightest doubt that it will be to his own
disgrace, if there is any sense of shame among
those who uttered such crass and deceitful
statements.
“Negroponte, in his first statement after his
appointment…” His first statement was not directed
against Posada Carriles, against terrorism,
against torture, against extra-judicial executions
committed by the US government, or against
universal espionage in a society like that of the
US where so much has been said about each
citizen’s undeniable rights, or against freedom,
security and life. In his first testimony he said
nothing about all that; he spoke of
Venezuela
and Chavez…both he and the Pentagon chief. Let’s
see if he can count on having enough soldiers to
continue with these adventures. Every day they
have less troops, less Americans are willing to
enlist.
Just a few hours ago we heard the news, released
on the same day of the famous message to the
Congress, that Mrs. Sheehan had been arrested. So
far I have not heard anything else about this
mother, a sweet person indeed, whose words,
gentleness, and serenity impressed everybody at
the Venezuelan forum. That
mother lost her son, and her face shows not a
single sign of hatred, but a deep conviction about
the fairness of her claims, her demands and her
plea that the war should end. She was sent to
prison in the same country where Posada Carriles
remained a free man for at least 70 days, even
though the US government and the
super-intelligence agency knew full well where he
was, what he was doing and how he entered the
country. And he was not
arrested for being a privileged accessory to
serious crimes, an accessory to an atrocious act
of terrorism, promoted by the
US
intelligence services in
Barbados,
which took a toll on so many lives.
This man killed Venezuelans – more than
one-, tortured Venezuelans, and participated in
Operation Condor; he committed crimes beyond
borders and overseas, in
Europe.
But he even did so in the
US,
where Orlando Letelier, the foreign minister in
the Salvador Allende government, was killed after
a bomb was planted in his car, which also killed a
US
citizen who was with him.
Thinking or knowing that Mrs. Sheehan has been
arrested causes indignation for she was in
Congress at the invitation of a legislator.
She was sent to prison, and at this very
moment I don’t know whether she is still under
arrest.
This Mr. Negroponte appeared before the Select
Senate Intelligence Committee together with the
CIA chief, Porter Goss; FBI director, Robert
Mueller, and other intelligence chiefs from the
Pentagon and the State Department.
Hitler had his SS and the Gestapo, but he never
had so many agencies and super-agencies, or so
many intelligence services. Never! He had enough
to commit terrible genocides and he was not any
more dangerous than those who possess tens of
thousands of nuclear tactical and strategic
weapons.
“He indicated that radical populist figures were
coming up in certain countries, that they were
advocating state economic policies…” Have they
ever listened to an “Alo Presidente” program and
to what is being promoted in
Venezuela,
particularly through the missions, which are an
expression of true citizen participation in all
activities related to the nation and people’s
life? “…and they show very little respect” --very
little respect, listen to that, youngsters!-- “for
democratic institutions.
“Negroponte said that, in
Bolivia,
Evo Morales’ victory reflected the public’s loss
of faith in traditional political parties and
institutions.”
Sure, how are they going to continue believing in
the stupidity and garbage that they are being told
everyday? And they are forcing the people to
believe in them with the use of highly developed
techniques which transform human beings into
persons who act by reflex action, like trained
animals in a circus. This is done with the
billions of dollars spent each year on advertising
instead of on education, as is being done, for
example, in our country. Here
there are more and more media, more and more
television stations, and more than 60% of
broadcast time is spent on education without
commercials. That is the reason why it is very
bad for the empire to talk to
Cuba,
with the Cubans.
Well, once again, I beg your indulgence for having
strayed from the written speech. I have failed to
live up to my word of being brief.
This important award bestowed on Hugo Chavez today
was established in 1994 by the Executive Council
of UNESCO following a proposal by its Director
General, distinguished scientist and intellectual,
Federico Mayor Zaragoza, in response to a request
made by
Cuba,
at a time when nobody in our country knew about
Chavez.
Who would have imagined –only a soothsayer with a
crystal ball could have predicted it-- that some
day this award, for the glory of those who
proposed and supported it, would be presented to
Hugo Chavez? (Applause).
Such an exalted recognition would be bestowed,
according to the terms of the agreement, in the
name of the “eminent thinker and man of action who
was the principal instrument in the liberation of
Cuba and a key figure in the Spanish-American
literature”, Marti, “as a way of promoting and
recognizing especially meritorious acts by persons
and institutions that, following the ideas and
spirit of Jose Marti and embodying a vocation for
the sovereignty and
liberating struggles of a nation, have contributed
significantly, in any part of the world, to the
unity and integration of the countries of Latin
America and the Caribbean, to their social
progress and the preservation of their identity,
of their cultural traditions and historical
values”.
Obviously, this award will never go to a Pinochet,
or to any of those who committed thousands of
crimes and tortures against the people in
Argentina, Guatemala or Paraguay; or waged dirty
wars such as that in Nicaragua, which cost the
lives of thousands of Nicaraguans, or elsewhere in
this hemisphere, with the help of henchmen
and torturers who were trained in those schools
through which imperialism propped up and
maintained governments that resorted to the use of
force and experts in torture, who had been trained
in the US in the practice of the atrocious acts
committed against the people of Vietnam, where 4
million persons died in an unjust war, and
millions more were maimed.
There will never be any award for those criminals,
those traitors who have betrayed millions of
people, hundreds of millions of people in this
hemisphere, where there are not enough doctors,
schools, jobs, teachers…and where millions, for
example, loose their sight; they go semi-blind,
and then sooner or later they go completely blind.
How are they going to support the plans of people
like Hugo Chavez, who made medical care a reality
for 17 million Venezuelans, Mr. Negroponte, who
never before had access to medical care or to a
pharmacy? Today, these 17 million receive free
medical care and free medicines supplied by the
Bolivarian government.
It is thanks to a truly revolutionary process that
eye exams have been promoted and free eyeglasses
have been delivered, that there is free dental
care. This revolutionary process is quickly
developing the most complete social program ever,
not only in the area of education, but also in the
health sector. By mid-2006
there will be 600 comprehensive diagnostic
centers, top quality polyclinics, 600 centers for
physical therapy and rehabilitation using the best
electromagnetic equipment from the most
prestigious companies in the world, and 35 high
tech diagnostic centers which are now being
outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment. The
chieftains of the empire do not speak of these
things, since very few private clinics in the
US
possess such an impressive quantity of cutting
edge equipment, as the ones these centers will
have.
Services will be extended to all sectors of the
Venezuelan society. That was President Chavez’
request more than a year ago. For this reason,
the total number of centers requested from
Cuba
grew in number from 824 to 1 235.
I am not exaggerating. I know very well that in
the
US
everything is ruled by the principle of profits,
and that the most expensive equipment is only used
on a few privileged. I know for a fact that in
Venezuela
this equipment will be used on 30, 40 and 50
people per day.
I have no doubt that in the country of Bolivar,
just like in
Cuba,
and much more rapidly than in
Cuba,
excellent services will be available.
Here we are still struggling to have those,
and we are getting close, because we have more
than 70,000 doctors, among them approximately
60,000 specialists who are working on their Master
or PhD degrees in science.
This is the human capital which Chavez is also
willing to train: professors, doctors, and
engineers, university graduates who will attain
their Master or PhD degrees in science. It is
about creating human capital that will not run out
such as nickel or aluminum or hydrocarbons, but
which will multiply. These
youngsters from Venezuela and Bolivia who begin
their studies today so full of life, hope and
goodwill at these high quality centers, will
become much wiser and will have grown in numbers
by the time they graduate, they will grow in
numbers again by the time they perfect their
specialty, they will grow in numbers after they
have accomplished one, two, or
as many internationalist missions as there might
be necessary, they will have multiplied by the
time they attain their Master or PhD degrees, just
as in a not too distant future our own doctors
will be doing en masse.
Nothing compares to human capital, and one day
future generations will be thankful to the
Bolivarian process for two things: the first and
most important is the development of Venezuelan
human capital, its multiplication, knowing that it
will never run out; the defense of the country’s
natural resources, the proclamation of integration
and cooperation within a united America, so that
fuel may be ensured for more than 100 or 200 years
provided it is properly saved, and at the same
time, the development of all the technology needed
to create substitutes for our present fuel,
substitutes for hydrocarbons, which will certainly
make their appearance, but given the pace at which
the world is moving, they could be monopolized by
the richest and most developed nations to exploit
the Third World even more, just if it were likely
that we will not rebel and be ready to give our
lives to prevent it. Then we
would be struggling not only for material
improvements, we would be struggling for
survival! I am sure that that is how it will be!
(Applause and cheers)
This International “Jose Marti” Award is being
presented to President Hugo Chavez Frias at the
behest of six Latin American countries: Panama,
Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, the Dominican Republic
and Cuba. It was a unanimous vote –I repeat, a
unanimous vote, Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Negroponte--
by a jury composed of prestigious world
personalities who agreed upon the merit of his
redeeming struggle on behalf of the peoples of Our
America.
President Chavez wished to receive the award in
Havana, the city where Jose Marti was born on
January 28th, 1853, exactly 153 years
and six days ago. His birth date is still very
fresh in our minds.
We are accompanied today in this extraordinary
ceremony by 38 distinguished world intellectuals
who have come just for the occasion; among them
are five of the seven members of the prestigious
jury which granted the International “Jose Marti”
Award. They do not regret
having decided to bestow this award on someone who
so highly deserves it, someone like President Hugo
Chavez.
Present here as well are more than a hundred
important artists, writers, publishers and
professionals from the many nations participating
in the XV International Book Fair which this year
is dedicated appropriately to the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela, a country where education,
health and culture flourish (Applause and cheers).
Who exactly are here with us tonight?
As a categorical and irrefutable reply to the
ignominy by those who would rather see a world
full of illiteracy, ignorance, hunger, illness and
poverty, so that they could perpetrate even more
shameful pillage, here at this glorious Square
are:
3 421 Venezuelan students, members of the new
project to train Latin American doctors (Applause
and cheers).
Raise your flags high so that they can be seen in
the United States, so that they may see what
Chavez is doing to support the young people.
2 592 students from Bolivia. Raise your
hands (Applause and cheers).
477 students from Honduras. Raise your
hands (Applause and cheers).
334 students from East Timor (Applause and
cheers).
200 students from Ecuador (Applause and
cheers).
59 students from Paraguay, for the new
course (Applause and cheers).
50 students from Guatemala, and soon there
will be 2000 (Applause and cheers).
Which makes a big total of 7 133 students already
here in Cuba.
Present here today as well are:
2 206 students of Basic Sciences from the
Latin American School of Medicine, ELAM, in Havana
(Applause and cheers).
200 students from the International Physical
Education and Sports School (Applause and cheers).
Look how strong they are!
1 100 students from a program to train Cuban
doctors, technicians and electro-medical engineers
who will serve on international missions (Applause
and cheers). They are further away.
1224 students from a course to train
Venezuelan social workers (Applause and cheers)
Look at that, a forest of flags!
4 806 young Cuban social workers,
representing the 28,000 who make up this force
today.
8 000 Cuban students from the University of
Information Sciences (Cheers).
600 young Cuban art instructors, members of
the “Jose Marti” Brigade in Havana. Oh! they are
very far away! (Laughter).
850 members of the Cuban delegation to the
VI World Social Forum just held in Caracas
(Cheers).
A representative group of the personnel who
work at hospital residences for patients of
Operation Miracle.
More than 43 000 Cuban students from the
Middle-Level Education Students Federation (FEEM)
(Cheers) and the University Student Federation (FEU)
(Cheers), which include the Art Instructors
Schools, the Technical and Professional Education
Schools, the “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” Vocational
School for Exact Sciences, intensively trained
primary school teachers, general comprehensive
professors of secondary education, intensively
trained nurses, health technologists, and students
from the various university campuses in Havana.
A representative group of students from
military colleges.
42 000 construction, tourism, CIMEX
corporation and CUBALSE corporation workers, who
are standing nearby this Square.
Representatives from the various organizations
and institutions pursuing research on the work of
Jose Marti (Cheers).
Representatives from mass and political
organizations and institutions.
125
000 compatriots from the municipalities of Centro
Habana, Cerro, Habana Vieja, Boyeros, Diez de
Octubre, Playa and Plaza de
la Revolucion.
A few days ago, a natural disaster struck with
great severity at the suffering population of
Bolivia, which was liberated by Bolivar and
Sucre. Venezuela and Cuba have offered assistance
to that sister nation.
As soon as we learned of the news, following Evo’s
call for assistance to the international
community, an IL-62 aircraft left Cuba with 15.7
tons of medicine, and a few hours later, another
plane took off from Rancho Boyeros Airport
carrying 140 medical specialists to combat the
consequences suffered by humans as the result of
such natural disasters (Applause and cheers).
It was an entire brigade of the “Henry
Reeve” Contingent. As many doctors as Evo needs
will depart to assist that sister nation! (Cheers)
Venezuela and Cuba are also gearing up to commence
the literacy campaign in Bolivia as soon as Evo
gives us the go-ahead. This literacy campaign
will be better than the previous ones, since
people will be taught to read and write in Spanish
as well as in Aymara or Quechua simultaneously,
depending on the place they come from (Cheers).
It is a brand new form of mass literacy; a
tremendous experiment that I think will set an
example for other countries to follow in the
future. Both of our countries, Venezuela and
Cuba, are united in our cooperation with Bolivia –
as well as in several other issues- but not to
drop bombs on any country, not to use terrorist
methods, not to use force or violence.
Quite to the contrary, we do so to carry
out absolutely fraternal and humanitarian
activities, as writer Bonasso explained. We do
not regret doing any of this, our people do not
regret it, and we feel very proud of it.
Venezuelans will never regret doing this,
and in the midst of enormous obstacles,
difficulties and risks that we do not
underestimate, we will sincerely long for peace
and the happiness of struggling for a truly better
world.
I do not wish to go on any further –that is what
was written in my draft, even though I think I
have gone on far too long, and so I once again ask
for your forgiveness. I would just like to add
that nothing and no one could ever darken the
bright future that is awaiting the peoples of
Latin America and the Caribbean.
Ever Onwards to Victory!
(Ovation)
