The Chilean oligarchs tore their cloths at the visit of President Michelle Bachelet to Cuba.

Alberto Van Klaveren, the Chilean Under Secretary of Foreign Relations, declared that in the February 12th Reflection, the ideas emitted were strictly personal in nature.  That is very true since they don’t intend to be anything else.

I welcomed the Chilean head of state with all due respect.  I used not one word that might offend the illustrious visitor.  That would not have had any common sense.  I understood that it was an elemental obligation even though it implied an additional effort for me since it meant hours dedicated to conversation and then to writing about the meeting.

I selected several photos taken by a collaborator from the days when I was head of state and I put them in her hands so that she might decide what to do with them.  I made no use of them on my own account.

What is the reason for such an oligarchic brouhaha in regards to the meeting?

Why do they state that my words constitute “a historical interpretation on subjects that are far back in history”, as the ANSA agency tells us?

I have no commitment other than with the historical truth, and history records that Simon Bolivar, the Liberator of America, upon proclaiming Bolivia’s independence, designated a broad strip of the Pacific coast of South America between the 22nd and 23rd parallels.  It also records that the Atacama Desert was included in the territory of the newly-born Bolivia when victory was won over the Spanish empire.

Guano, nitrate, copper and other valuable minerals that were later discovered were included in that territory.  I was rather moderate in my statement that it was not known whether those minerals were Chilean or Bolivian; it was a diplomatic way of expressing realities, thinking that in the long run Bolivar was conceiving a United Latin America, greater for its conception than for its wealth.    

Be that as it may, nobody can take away any of the brilliance or importance from the historical moment that the approval or rejection of the Venezuelan Constitutional Amendment will signify the day after tomorrow.

As for me, I shall always remain faithful to the historic people who sacrificed so many lives starting on September 11, 1973, defending the immortal ideas of President Salvador Allende and I will condemn the wily policies of Augusto Pinochet until my last breath.   Can the Chilean oligarchy and the bureaucrats who are attempting to clean it of all responsibility say as much?


Fidel Castro Ruz

February 13, 2009

6:17 p.m.