Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro recalled on Friday the three decades since the embrace of Commanders Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, which forever changed the history of the continent.
“How can an embrace change the course of history? No one could have imagined that this was what was going to happen on the night of December 13, 30 years ago, when Chavez was surprisingly received, with the honors of a head of state, by Fidel,” wrote the president on his Telegram account.
Maduro said that “he then dazzled with a master lecture at the University of Havana.”
He said that between both leaders a unique history of unity, solidarity and liberation of Latin America and the Caribbean began to take shape.
“Both of them,” he said, “with their developments and actions in function of development and justice for our peoples, proved to be friends to all intents and purposes to build a brotherhood that still has a promising path to follow.”
The Bolivarian leader stressed that this is where we come from, “we are united with the Cuban people by the soul, the heart and the rebellious anti-imperialist force, and I know that together we will continue writing the pages of this admirable history, fulfilling the great dreams of integration of Bolívar and Martí.”
In the audiovisual that accompanies the message, the Venezuelan Supreme Commander indicated: “It was December 1994 and I went to Havana with an olive green liquiliqui and a small briefcase and a heart full of dreams.”
He said that in our dreams we Latin American youth have often come to Cuba for a transformative project and “we are just beginning to build so that you can see the triumphant Revolution of this beautiful part of South America.”
Fidel! Until victory always, Commander! exclaimed Chavez.
The historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, for his part, assured that he had “no doubt that for a personality like Hugo Chavez, accepting that invitation entailed an act of bravery.”
Venezuelan and Cuban historians recalled the embrace of the two exceptional men yesterday, at the International Colloquium 30 years after the Fidel-Chavez meeting.
The Bolivarian University, created by the Venezuelan leader, welcomed the academics who from their perspectives exposed the political and historical significance of that memorable encounter.
