"Dignity cannot be negotiated in the face of foreign aggression, a tool that some nations use to replace diplomacy with the use of force."
This has been demonstrated historically by Cuba and Venezuela, and was reiterated yesterday by the National Assembly (AN) of the South American country, after submitting to the Cuban Embassy the Parliamentary Agreement in honor of the Cubans who fell during the U.S. military intervention on January 3, declaring them Heroes and Martyrs of the Homeland.
Regarding the agreement, which was unanimously approved by the Parliament on January 8, the first vice president of the AN, Deputy Pedro Infante, said that it is not an administrative protocol, but rather recognition of a sacrifice that transcends borders.
During the ceremony to deliver the document to the diplomatic corps of the largest of the Antilles, the parliamentary leader said that the blood shed by Cuban and Venezuelan combatants in the heat of heroic resistance constitutes an unshakable foundation of freedom, according to the website of the National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
He also stressed that the 32 Cuban combatants have become part of the moral and political heritage of the nation. "We are here to express that the pain of the Cuban people is also ours," he said.
The document represents, he noted, the voice of Venezuelan deputies who reject violence and honor the memory of the brave. Finally, he reported that the Parliament, in addition to joining in the national mourning, committed to the construction of a memorial, with the aim of preserving the memory of those who defended, knee to the ground, the cradle of Bolívar.
For his part, Jorge Luis Mayo Fernández, Cuba's ambassador to Venezuela, thanked the National Assembly for its gesture and stressed that Latin American unity is the most forceful response to any attempt at political domination or armed aggression in the region. He also maintained that the agreement reaffirms the bonds of brotherhood and shared resistance forged over the years, and assured that "Venezuelans and Cubans, united as brothers, will continue to work hand in hand for the heroic freedom of Latin America and, like Che, Fidel, Martí, Bolívar, and Chávez, continue to fight for a just cause: the freedom and truth of the peoples in the face of imperialism."
