Kein Betreff

of the United States used Costa Rica and apportioned it resources to present 
it as a showcase of the social advances that could be achieved under 
capitalism.

That Central American country was used as an imperialist base for the 
piratical attacks against Cuba.  Thousands of Cuban technicians and 
university graduates were stolen away from our people who were already 
being submitted to a cruel blockade, in order to provide their services in 
Costa Rica.  Relations between Costa Rica and Cuba have been restored in 
recent times; it was one of the two last countries in the hemisphere to do so, 
something that is of satisfaction for us, but in spite of that I must express 
what I am thinking at this historic moment for our America.  

Arias, originally from the wealthy and leading class in Costa Rica, studied law 
and economics at a university in his country and later studied and graduated 
as master in political sciences from the English University of Essex where he 
finally graduated as Doctor of Political Sciences.  Having such academic 
laurels, President José Figueres Ferrer of the National Liberation Party 
appointed him as advisor in 1970, at the age of 30, and shortly after he was 
appointed Minister of Planning, a position ratified by the next president Daniel 
Oduber.  In 1978, he enters Congress as Deputy for that party.  He ascends 
to secretary general in 1979 and is president for the first time in 1986.

Years before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, an armed movement of the 
national bourgeoisie of Costa Rica, under the leadership of José Figueres 
Ferrer, father of President Figueres Olsen, had eliminated the small 
coup-perpetrating army of that country and his struggle gained the 
sympathies of the Cubans.   When we were fighting in the Sierra Maestra 
against the Batista tyranny, we received some weapons and ammunition from 
the Liberation Party created by Figueres Ferrer, but he was too much of a 
friend to the Yankees and he soon broke with us.  It cannot be forgotten that 
the OAS meeting in San José Costa Rica gave rise to the First Declaration of 
Havana in 1960.

All of Central America suffered for more than 150 years and, since the days 
of the filibusterer William Walker who made himself president of Nicaragua in 
1856, is still suffering the problem of United States interventionism which has 
been a constant, even though the heroic people of Nicaragua have now 
attained an independence that they are ready to defend right up to their last 
breath.  Any support from Costa Rica is unheard of since it was achieved, 
even though there was a government in that country which, on the eve of the 
victory in 1979, saw fit to show solidarity with the Sandinista National 
Liberation Front.

When Nicaragua was being drained of its life blood in Reagan's dirty war, 
Guatemala and El Salvador had also paid a high price in human lives due to 
the US interventionist policy that provided money, weapons, schools and 
indoctrination to the repressive troops.  Daniel told us about how the Yankees 
finally promoted formulae that put an end to the revolutionary resistance of 
Guatemala and El Salvador.

On many occasions, Daniel had bitterly commented to me that Arias, 
following US instructions, had excluded Nicaragua from the peace 
negotiations.  He only met with the governments of El Salvador, Honduras and 
Guatemala to impose treaties on Nicaragua.  Therefore he was expressing 
great gratitude to Vinicio Cerezo.  He also told me that the first treaty signed 
in the convent of Esquipulas, Guatemala on August 7, 1987, after two days of 
intense conversations among the five Central American presidents.  I have 
never publicly spoken about that.

But this time, while commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Sandinista 
victory on July 19, 1979, Daniel explained it all with impressive clarity, as he 
did with all subjects throughout his speech that was heard by hundreds of 
thousands of people and broadcast on radio and television.  I use his exact 
words: "The Yankees appointed him as mediator.  We have deep sympathies 
with the people of Costa Rica, but I cannot forget, in those tough years the 
president of Costa Rica called together the Central American presidents and 
he didn't invite us."

"But the other Central American presidents were more sensible and they told 
him: There can be no peace plan here if Nicaragua isn't present.  In the name 
of historical truth, the president had the fortitude to break the isolation the 
Yankees had imposed on Central America - where they had forbidden the 
presidents to talk with the president of Nicaragua and they wanted a military 
solution, they wanted to finish Nicaragua off, finish off its revolution, with a 
war - , the man who took that courageous step was President Vinicius Cerezo 
of Guatemala.  That is the true story."

 Right away he added: "The Yankees came running to find President Oscar 
Arias, because they already know him!  They want to find a way to gain some 
time, so that the perpetrators of the coup begin to make demands that are 
unacceptable.   Who has ever heard of a coup negotiating with the people 
from whom it is ripping away their constitutional rights? Those rights cannot 
be negotiated; one simply has to reinstate President Manuel Zelaya, just as 
the ALBA, Rio Group, SICA, OAS and United Nations treaties stated.

"We want peaceful solutions in our countries.  The battle being fought by the 
people of Honduras at this time is a non-violent battle, in order to avoid more 
pain than that which has already been inflicted on Honduras", concluded 
Daniel, verbatim.

Because of the dirty war ordered by Reagan and which in part - he told me - 
was funded by drugs sent to the United States, more than 60,000 persons lost 
their lives and 5,800 more were made invalid.  Reagan's dirty war gave rise to 
the destruction and abandonment of 300 schools and 25 health centres; 150 
teachers were murdered.  The toll rose to tens of billions of dollars.  
Nicaragua only had 3.5 million inhabitants, it stopped receiving the fuel that 
the USSR was sending them and the economy became unsustainable.  It 
called elections and even had them earlier, and it respected what the people 
decided, those people who had lost all hope for holding on to the gains of the 
Revolution.  Nearly 17 years later, the Sandinistas returned to the government 
in victory; just two days ago they were celebrating the 30th anniversary of 
the first victory.

On Saturday, July 18th, the Nobel Laureate proposed 7 points of the personal 
peace initiative that was detracting from the authority of the UN and OAS 
decisions and was tantamount to an act of renunciation by Manuel Zelaya 
that took away sympathies and weakened poplar support.  The constitutional 
president sent what he described as an ultimatum for the coup, which his 
representatives were to present, announcing at the same time his return to 
Honduras on Sunday, July 19th via any department of that country.

Around noon on that Sunday, a giant Sandinista demonstration takes place, 
with historical denunciations of US policy.  They were truths that could be 
nothing other than tremendously significant.

The worst of the matter is that the United States was running into resistance 
for its sweetening manoeuvre from the coup government.  It would still need 
to be pinpointed at what moment the Department of State sends their strong 
message to Micheletti,  and whether the military chiefs  were warned about 
the positions of the US government.

What is real is that for whoever would be closely following the events, 
Micheletti was against peace on Monday.  His representative in San José, 
Carlos López Contreras, had declared that the Arias proposal could not be 
discussed because the first point, the one dealing with Zelaya's 
reinstatement, was not negotiable.  The civilian government of the coup had 
taken its role seriously and did not even realize that Zelaya, divested of his 
authority, would not represent any risk to the oligarchy and would suffer a 
politically hard blow if he accepted the proposal made by the president of 
Costa Rica. 

That very same Sunday the 19th, when Arias is asking for another 72 hours 
to explain his position, Mrs. Clinton is speaking on the phone with Micheletti 
and sustains what the spokesperson Philip Crowley describes as a "tough 
phone call".  Some day we shall know what she said to him, but it would be 
enough just to see Micheletti's face when he spoke at a meeting of his 
government on Monday July 20th:  he really looked like a kid in kindergarten 
who had been scolded by his teacher.  I was able to see the images and hear 
the speeches at the meeting on Telesur.  Other images broadcast were those 
of the OAS representatives making their speeches in the heart of that 
institution, committing themselves to await the last word of the Nobel 
Laureate on Wednesday.  Did they or didn't they know what Mrs.Clinton had 
said to Micheletti? Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.  Perhaps some of them, 
not all of them, knew.  Men, institutions and concepts had turned into 
instruments of the high-handed and arrogant policy of Washington. Never had 
a speech in the heart of the OAS shone with such dignity as the brief but 
brave words at that meeting spoken by Roy Chaderton, the Venezuelan 
ambassador. 

Tomorrow the stony image of Oscar Arias will appear, explaining that they 
have drawn up such and such a solution to avoid violence.  I think that even 
Arias himself has fallen into the great trap set up by the Department of State.  
Let's see what he does tomorrow.

Nevertheless, the people of Honduras are the ones who will have the last 
word.  Representatives of the social organizations and the new forces are not 
the instruments of anyone, inside or outside the country.  They know the 
needs and suffering of the people, their awareness and their mettle have 
multiplied; many citizens who were indolent have joined the cause; the very 
members of the traditional parties who are honest and who believe in 
freedom, justice and human dignity will judge their leaders on the position 
they will adopt at this historical moment.

We still do not know what the attitude of the military will be when faced with 
the Yankee ultimata, and what messages will get to the officers; there is only 
one patriotic and honourable point of reference: loyalty to the people who 
have heroically stood up to the tear gas bombs, the blows and the shooting. 

Without anybody being able to be sure about what the final whim of the 
empire will be, whether Zelaya returns legally or illegally as a result of the 
final decisions adopted, without a doubt Hondurans will give him a grand 
welcome because it will be a measure of the victory that they have already 
won with their struggles.  Let nobody doubt that only the Honduran people will 
be able to build their own history!

 

 

Fidel Castro Ruz

July 21, 2009
8:55 p.m.

 
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Cheers, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------