News of Chávez and of Evo

YESTERDAY, Thursday the 9th, the tense situation in Bolivia captured our attention.
Today, Friday, an event of great interest is added: the arrival in Cuba of Hugo Chávez after his successful visit to China. While in Bolivia, the oligarchy is clashing with a leader as serious and solid as Evo Morales, in Venezuela the adversaries of the Bolivarian revolution, who placed all their hopes in the blow that the economic crisis would deliver that country, will understand that Chávez’ fight for socialism is capable of surpassing any obstacle. He promised that the achievements and great social advances will be maintained, that the country’s industrialization will maintain its rate and Venezuela will become an example of an industrialized country with social justice that would serve as an inspiration and example for the Third World.
His journey to China and Japan, in the midst of the crisis that is lashing all the nations of the world, is a veritable example of political strategy. Previously, he had participated in the South American and Arab Summit, two regions which possess vast natural resources. He saw in Japan one of the most industrialized countries of the world and of great economic potential, a significant market for Venezuelan products. Above all, he deduced with clarity that China, with its accelerated development, will become the greatest economic power on earth, an inevitable bastion of world trade and a point of support for the Third World countries that have been discriminated against and exploited by the richest capitalist powers.

News agency reports datelined April 8 noted the agreements signed after talks between the presidents of Venezuela and the People’s Republic of China, Hugo Chávez and Hu Jintao.

Those of yesterday, the 9th, reported on the activities which, at the request of the Chinese president, Hugo Chávez’ carried out that day prior to beginning his return journey.

The news agency reported widely on his activities in China:

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stated today that he had come to an agreement with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to increase cooperation in order to ensure that by 2010, China will receive one million barrels of oil per day.

‘I proposed to him, given the world situation (crisis), that we should discuss the possibility and we agreed to bring forward the goal fixed in the strategic agreement for 2013,’ Chávez today informed the100 national, provincial and local leaders of the Chinese Communist Party School , who applauded him.

"Attaining that supply, the construction of a Venezuelan refinery on Chinese territory and the creation of a bi-national shipyard for crude transportation, were the prime objectives of Chávez’ visit.

"The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, today described as ‘essential’ the building of a platform of alliances between China and Latin America and the Caribbean.

"The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, today concluded his visit to China with a meeting with Chinese Vice president Xi Jinping, who is considered Hu Jintao’s possible successor at the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), at the next Congress in 2012.

"Xi is dean of the school where CPC leaders have been trained since the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and which Chávez visited today.

"’China knows how to look far into the future. After a few months after our government was elected, I was here and, with Jiang Zemin, we initiated a relationship which now, with Hu, we have decided to give a new strategic dynamism.’

"Yesterday Chávez said to Hu, in their meeting at the Great Hall of the People, that ‘China is the largest existing engine for pulling the world out of the crisis. "Today, in the School, he affirmed that ‘if Washington was the capital of the imperial world, Beijing today is one of the great capitals of the pluripolar world.’

"We are in the process of founding our School of the Party, which is barely one year old, and its founding core must pass through this, because we are beginning to give shape to a great Party with a clear ideology: socialism,’ he affirmed."

At around two in the afternoon President Chávez will do me the honor of a visit. It will be extremely interesting for me to learn the details of his tour abroad where, in total, he spent more than 12 days, thus demonstrating his unlimited confidence in the people, his growing socialist awareness and in the cadres who remained in the country.
During the day, more news will be arriving on Bolivia and the political battle of Evo and his selfless people. I shall continue writing, trying to be as concise as possible, given so much news.

At 13:15 I called Dausá. The news is that Evo still had not rested by 7:00 a.m. My Reflection of today reached him at that hour. He was happy and read it out to the journalists. He was pleased that I was closely following the situation. Then he slept for two or three hours.

Dausá supplied me with more precise information on the functioning of Parliament. Both in the House, which has a total of 130 deputies and where Evo’s Party has an ample majority, and in the Senate, with 27 congress members, where the opposition is in the majority, laws are passed by a simple majority.

The problem is that the Electoral Transition Law needs that majority in the two Houses to be approved. By having a larger number of members among the 27 in the Senate, the oligarchy is blocking it from being passed by demanding conditions that are unacceptable, such as the new electoral register; reducing to virtually none the number of special constituencies for the indigenous population created by the new Bolivian State Constitution approved by the people in the recent referendum, and finally, by imposing considerable restrictions on the voting possibilities of Bolivians resident abroad who, in the main, are Evo sympathizers.

Through those demands, they are trying to dispossess the Bolivian president of the growing support that he enjoys.

While a solution is being negotiated in virtue of the possible reduction of the 14 indigenous deputies that Evo is proposing to almost half, given that the opposition was only accepting three, they have started to intrigue, affirming that the indigenous president is betraying his own people. In that way they are attempting to reduce his forces, moreover by impugning the electoral register, which would call into question the right of 700,000 Bolivian electors. They are seeking the same objective with the limitations and obstacles on Bolivians resident abroad.

It is logical that Evo is not resigning himself to suspending the elections, nor to depriving a large number of Bolivians of the possibility of voting in virtue of the impugning of an electoral register whose quality has been endorsed by international agencies as one of the best in Latin America. At 14:05 I heard Evo speaking on television, serene, eloquent, persuasive.

It is impossible not to acknowledge him and support him. The hunger strike is not affecting his intellectual capacity in the slightest. "I am not seeking power for myself, I am seeking power for the social organizations," he affirms and reiterates. His replies to the press are truly eloquent.

Dausá informed me that many of the opposition parliamentarians, above all those from Santa Cruz, have left to spend Good Friday and the rest of Holy Week in their departments, as pious believers.

For his part, Evo is not going to lay down his attitude and it is maintaining it together with a group of leaders who are accompanying him in the Government Palace. But, in his turn, he has communicated with all his followers on hunger strike in the rest of the country to suspend their fast until Monday, so that they can be with their families for the weekend.

I heard another agreeable piece of news today at midday via the National television News. Our friend Bouteflika yesterday obtained a third constitutional mandate with the support of 90% of the electorate. That is good news for Cuba, which reminds us of the importance of solidarity with other peoples which has so much enriched our history since the early days of the Revolution.

At 15:55 Chávez arrived. He was accompanied by Luis Reyes Reyes, minister of the President’s Office who, with Rafael Ramírez, minister of energy and oil; Nicolás Maduro, minister of Foreign Affairs; and other cadres, accompanied him on his tour abroad. He had barely sat down when he began to tell me of his impressions.
He came extremely content with his meeting with Hu Jintao, president of China. He talked to me of the wide-ranging dialogue he had during his working visit, the dinner offered him afterward in the Great Hall of the People and his visit to the historic Chinese Communist Party Cadre School, suggested by the president. He exchanged impressions with the vice president of China and dean of the aforementioned school, Xi Jinping, who made a profound impression on him. He had already met him in Venezuela, a country that he visited as vice president of the great nation.

He also met with his friend Chen Yuan, president of the Chinese Development Bank, the son of the man who was president of that country in the initial revolutionary stage. He also spoke with the minister of foreign relations. He was highly praiseworthy of the talent and working methods of the Chinese leadership, in particular those of Hu Jintao.

The meetings and visits were with the press or without it. He responded to interviews. Through cables published by the agencies, he detailed what words he had spoken and which were the fruit of a translation or interpretation of what he said: they circulated his activities widely.

He returned via Vancouver, in the opposite direction. With a stopover, the flight took 16 net hours, half the time over territory of the United States, which placed no obstacle whatsoever on the Cubana de Aviación IL-96. He also recounted details of his visits and meetings in Qatar, Iran and Japan. He talked with many leaders. He devoted a number of minutes to greetings sent by many of his interlocutors. He is rigorous in that. He did not want to forget any of them, especially those sent by the Chinese leaders.

Among the issues of our meeting, which lasted for two hours and 50 minutes, we covered many matters. I stated that China was opening the way to employing the yuan as a hard currency, which was not artificially devalued in order to compete as imputed by its adversaries, but because its capacity to compete is progressively increasing.
Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, maintains that, in its next meeting, which every few years assigns the nature of convertible currencies to specific monies, it is possible that the International Monetary Fund will include the yuan together with the dollar, the euro, the pound sterling and other currencies. Those leading the world economy cannot go on ignoring it.

Evo could not be missing from our conversation. I explained to him in detail the information that I possessed, his excellent spirits and his preparedness to maintain the strike until the final consequences. He called him by telephone and expressed his total solidarity with him. Finally, he spoke of his upcoming visit to Argentina. He asked for information on the Trinidad and Tobago Summit and the position of Daniel [Ortega] who, with Cristina [Fernández], is to speak at the opening session of the same. I told him everything that I knew.

At 21:54 I called Dausá. I asked for news.

The Congress, convened for 19:00, was unable to meet for lack of a quorum. It was convened again at 20:30, there still wasn’t a quorum. At those times the television channels showed the opposition parliamentarians in their departments. García Linera lamented this absence and stated that that attitude bordered on the criminal; that they would be reconvened tomorrow, Saturday, at 12:30.That there will not be any other activity in Congress until the law is passed.

Evo is well. He was checked over by the doctor accompanying him. Despite Evo’s appeal to suspend the hunger strike until Monday, the strike of the leaders of the various departments of the country has continued in solidarity with the president. Today, according to the general secretary of the Bolivian Workers’ Central Organization, 1,027 people are taking part in 95 hunger strike pickets.

In a press conference, leaders of the National Coordination Committee for Change and the Bolivian Workers’ Central Organization proposed that, if the absence of the parliamentarians in Congress continues, they will take legal action against them. He informed me that he was going to visit the president tonight. It would take him 40 minutes to get from the embassy to the Palace. I promised to call him to greet Evo.
I called him at 22:20. He immediately handed the cell phone to Evo. I had the pleasure of hearing his serene, but firm voice, confident in the justice of his cause. I told him of our happiness at his good state of health. I congratulated him on his strength and his serene and eloquent words, which do not insult or wound anybody. I told him about Chavez’ visit and his attitude of solidarity with him and with Bolivia. I transmitted to him a message of solidarity and our confidence in his victory.

Fidel Castro Ruz
April 10, 2009
11:02 p.m.