TRUE FRIENDSHIP

Yesterday I received the visit of the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela who was travelling abroad for matters relating to the defence of his country’s important oil interests.

As he passed through Cuba he took advantage of the occasion to get in touch with me and to personally say hello as he had promised on August 13th of this year when I had the privilege of celebrating my 88^th birthday. On that day he had given me the present of some fruit, among which were some small pearl-sized fruits that I had never seen before and which were delicious. He also gave me a track suit, the gift of Venezuelan athletes who compete for their country.

I was extremely pleased that his visit was so prompt, not only for the honor his presence and speedy actions imply, involved as he is with the difficult job of moving forward Hugo Chavez´ epic struggle, but also because of the exceptional activities he is carrying out.

Our world is living through an exceptional and unique moment: each day there are more persons involved. Among such events, one of the most dramatic is the genocide happening in the Gaza Strip where 1.8 million human beings live penned up between the desert, the sea and the military power of a Middle Eastern country where the most powerful empire ever existing has created, over more than fifty years and at a cost of close to a hundred billion dollars (by some estimates), a sophisticated and at the same time irresponsible nuclear military power. Many people are wondering: Who is governing whom? – the US is governing Israel or Israel is governing the US.

The facts are visible. Missiles with programmed targets, rapid and precise bombing raids, armored artillery and modern tanks, attacking buildings filled with people, as well as hospitals, schools and service facilities killing defenseless children, young people, the elderly, mothers and fathers.

Atrocities have occurred before. Of course, without going back to past millennia, but to the struggles that occurred prior to W.W. II: the war in Ethiopia, the Spanish Civil War, the bombing of Guernica, the Japanese war to conquer China, US interventions in Latin America: events that created commotion but which in no way resembled the horrific scenes we are seeing these days in the images citizens watch in their homes on TV. Politicians are in upheaval and chaos becomes evident in world politics.

That’s why it was so useful to meet with the Venezuelan President. However it seemed to me that staying quiet would benefit no-one. I very sincerely congratulated him for what he is doing for the martyr-people in the Gaza Strip. Countries suffering a tragedy deserve continuous help within the measure of the country’s resources, no matter how tough their own situation may be. That is what Cuba did, even though it was in its most difficult times under the ferocious Yankee blockade that has been going on now for more than half a century.

What Venezuela is doing today is an exceptional example. The Punic measures of imperialism against Venezuela are well-known from their attempt to overthrow Chavez with the support of the Venezuelan fascist oligarchy and to assassinate him if possible. Venezuela never faltered and showed solidarity with Cuba in the most difficult of times.

I congratulated Maduro for his extraordinary solidarity with the heroic people of the Gaza Strip. News of the genocide and the high numbers of children, mothers and other persons injured or killed by the Israeli genocidal attacks had barely arrived when he ordered a US-made military transport plane that has only with great difficulty been able to withstand the blockade on spare parts by its manufacturers, and he sent it loaded with essential equipment, medicines and food to Egypt, destined for Gaza; he also sent the indefatigable Minister of Foreign Affairs to Cairo in order to obtain the pertinent support for getting the materials to those who so desperately needed them.

Since then, brave Venezuelan pilots are transporting their humanitarian cargos that permit saving mothers, children and the elderly from their deaths. However, I was reading an AP dispatch today coming from Venezuela that published declarations from the Association of Clinics and Hospitals of Venezuela , an organization that groups together the private health centers in the country, asking the Government to declare a humanitarian state of emergency in order to deal with the lack of consumables, medicines, medical equipment and spare parts that, they assure, are putting the lives of the population at risk.

What a huge coincidence! That demand is made exactly when the Yankee-Israeli genocide is occurring in the Gaza Strip, in the poorest and most over-populated area of that community that has been living there throughout the millennia.

That is what makes Maduro’s behavior so praise-worthy, and that of the Venezuela military and specialists who are carrying out such exemplary actions in dealing with the tragedy of our brothers and sisters of Palestine.

Much could be said about this remarkable fact if Homo Sapiens should manage to survive – something that is in their hands – and doesn’t exterminate the species himself.

After touring areas that imply great prospects for food production, two women working there approached us. I asked them if they knew the man accompanying me. They looked at him and said: “President Maduro”, and they slyly smiled. The younger one said: “12 degrees”. The other woman, still young and strong, replied that she had graduated as a teacher of physical education and sports and she had worked in that area for several years. Finally I asked them whether they would be willing to work in Venezuela and they enthusiastically answered: “Of course we would!”.

I won’t go on if I wish to have this printed today as I told the Venezuelan President.

Fidel Castro Ruz

August 20, 2014

6:44 p.m.