[R-G] Fidel: Venezuela: A People Under Fire

[Anthony Fenton]

A People Under Fire
by Fidel Castro
	
December 02, 2007

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=14421

Venezuela, whose people are heirs to Bolivar’s ideas which transcend  
his era, is today facing a world tyranny a thousand times more  
powerful than that of Spain’s colonial strength added to that of the  
recently born United States which, through Monroe, proclaimed their  
right to the natural wealth of the continent and to the sweat of its  
people.

Martí denounced the brutal system and called it a monster, in whose  
entrails he had lived.  His internationalist spirit shone as never  
before when, in a letter left unfinished due to his death in combat,  
he publicly revealed the objective of his restless struggle: “…I am  
now every day risking my life for my country, and for my duty –since  
I understand it and have the courage to do it– to timely prevent,  
with the independence of Cuba, that the United States expand over the  
Antilles and that they fall, with this additional force, over our  
lands in America…”

It was not in vain that he stated in plain verse: “With the poor of  
this earth, my fate I wish to cast”.  Later, he proclaimed  
categorically: “Humanity is homeland”.  The Apostle of our  
independence wrote one day: “Let Venezuela call on me to serve her: I  
am her son”.

The most sophisticated media developed by technology, employed to  
kill human beings and to subjugate or exterminate peoples; the  
massive sowing of conditioned reflexes of the mind; consumerism and  
all available resources; these are being used today against the  
Venezuelans, with the intent of ripping the ideas of Bolivar and  
Martí to shreds.

The empire has created conditions conducive to violence and  
internecine conflicts. On Chavez’s recent visit last November 21, I  
seriously discussed with him the risks of assassination as he is  
constantly out in the open in convertible vehicles. I said this  
because of my experience as a combatant trained in the use of an  
automatic weapon and a telescopic sight. Likewise, after the triumph,  
I became the target of assassination plots directly or indirectly  
ordered by almost every United States administration since 1959.

The irresponsible government of the empire does not stop for a minute  
to think that the assassination of Venezuela’s leader or a civil war  
in that country would blow up the globalized world economy, due to  
its huge reserves of hydrocarbons.  Such circumstances are without  
precedent in the history of mankind.

Cuba developed close ties with the Bolivarian government of Venezuela  
during the hardest days resulting from the demise of the USSR and the  
tightening of the United States economic blockade.  The exchange of  
goods and services grew from practically zero level to more than 7  
billion dollars annually, with great economic and social benefits for  
both our peoples. Today that is where we receive the fundamental  
supplies of fuel needed for our country's consumption, something that  
would be very difficult to obtain from other sources due to the  
shortage of light crude oil, the insufficient refining capacity, the  
United States’ power and the wars its has unleashed to seize the  
world oil and gas reserves.

Add to the high energy prices, the prices of foods destined by  
imperial policy to be transformed into fuel for the gas-guzzling cars  
of the United States and other industrial nations.

A victory of the Yes vote on December 2 would not be enough.  The  
weeks and months following that date may very well prove to be  
extremely tough for many countries, Cuba for one; although before  
that the empire’s adventures could lead the planet into an atomic  
war, as their own leaders have confessed.

Our compatriots can rest assured that I have had time to think and to  
meditate at length on these problems.