The continent needs to connect, to activate, to mobilize the strength of the people, because that has beenit has been the formula to walk with the leader in these ten years of physical absence. Photo: Estudios Revolución
Caracas, Venezuela - In front of a multitude gathered to meet with their leader, at 4:25 in the afternoon of March 5, the same hour in which, ten years ago, Hugo Chávez's heart stopped beating in his chest to start beating in that of Venezuela and Latin America. Once again, the cannon shots sounded in memory of the Bolivarian commander at the Cuartel de la Montaña, where his remains rest.
Meanwhile, in one of the halls of the Teresa Carreño Theater, representatives from more than 60 countries and numerous social movements paid homage to him in the World Meeting for the Validity of the Bolivarian Thought of Commander Chávez in the 21st Century.
Together with Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz; the Commander of the Revolution Ramiro and Vice Prime Minister Valdés Menéndez; Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, and the Ministers of Public Health and of Energy and Mines, among other Cuban Government officials, also attended the event.
Venezuela as a whole, without exception of states, municipalities, parishes, neighborhoods, communes -and with it the nearly 19,000 Cuban collaborators- dawned on its feet, inflamed with patriotism, erect in its Bolivarian fidelity.
Before the memory of the one who gave back hope, an entire people bowed respectfully, as every year for a decade, because, with the physical departure of Hugo Chavez, March 5th is no longer just another day in the calendar.
Political personalities, intellectuals and leaders of social movements from different countries agreed that the work of Bolivar's follower transcends, and that the Revolution he restarted is, before the world, an example of struggle, more valid than ever in the face of imperial hegemonies.
President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro, for whom the essence and strength of the Bolivarian people are in the action and thought of Chavez, said that the continent needs to connect, to activate, to mobilize the strength of the people, since it has been the formula to walk with the leader, in these ten years of physical absence. "Always with the people!, Never without them!".
In his intervention, Argentinean intellectual Atilio Boron read a declaration of the Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity in which he said that Chavez's life encompasses the emancipating deeds of our America. He infected the members of this movement with his rebelliousness, and they will continue with Chavez in anti-imperialism and socialism, he remarked.
Former President of Ecuador Rafael Correa described the eternal Commander as a man of great feats, but also of immense tenderness, generosity and solidarity, and said that the best way to be consistent with him is to never give up.
Likewise, former President of Bolivia Evo Morales said that the best homage to Chavez is to be revolutionary, and to be revolutionary is to be anti-imperialist, not to betray the peoples' struggle. The indigenous leader referred to the need for unity and to never negotiate with the enemies of humanity. Chavez, like Fidel, was the most solidary men in the world, he said. He also remembered Fidel telling him to share the little they have. Likewise, he commented on the impact of the Eyesight Recovery Miracle Mission in the region as an example of solidarity, he reaffirmed.
Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya expressed that for those who celebrated the death of Chávez and believed that Venezuela would be an easy prey of imperialism, those who have tried to assassinate Bolivarian leaders, those who undertook political trials against leaders and leftist leaders in Latin America, for those who masterminded coups d'état, those of infamous blockades against Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, to those fateful members of the international community they say: you were wrong, here is Venezuela with its worker president Nicolás Maduro. Here they are, he stressed.
Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit declared that Chavez is not dead, "he lives among us", he pointed out. He aslo condemned the unjust and illegal sanctions imposed on the Venezuelan people and Government.
Luis Arce Catacora, President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, highlighted the solidarity and consequence between Chávez's thought and action, "unwavering in his principles", whose integrationist ideology still faces globalization today.
Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves said that Hugo Chávez died undefeated, that imperialism could never conquer him, neither could death; that is why he is still alive; when we call him Eternal Commander, it is not pure rhetoric, because his ideas, his example, his life are still with us and among us, he said.
"I have come to honor this friend", added the Grenadian. He recalled Chavez' anti-imperialist battle for the emancipation, the solidarity and the unity of the peoples. He praised the sincerity and strength he saw in Chávez's love towards children, the poor, the weakest, the suffering, and qualified him as "a sensitive, gentle and loving man".
Ralph Gonsalves also denounced the continuous attempts of imperialism to defeat the Bolivarian process, and revealed that when he gets up every morning, he remembers Fidel and Chávez, whom he calls "fathers."
The next speaker, President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega recounted the relationship between Chavez and Fidel, "our elder brother, a man of those who never die", he underlined, and said that the figure of the Commander in Chief was decisive in the victory of the Sandinista Revolution.
Of the Bolivarian leader, Ortega said that he is the synthesis of the struggles waged by the people of Venezuela since the time of the colonialist invaders until his electoral victory in 1999. To the people of Bolivar and Chavez he ratified the love and affection of their Nicaraguan brothers, as well as the feeling of gratitude towards Chavez, whom "like Fidel, we feel him as ours."
At the closing of the tribute to Cuba's best friend, ten years after his death, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz also spoke of how "in so many years of revolutionary struggle, we have experienced the pain for the loss of many comrades, some very young, at the moment of the greatest splendor of their lives," as is the case of Chávez, whose example is reborn and multiplied in the nobility of his people.
Translated by ESTI
