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August 11th 2009, by Hugo Chávez Frías, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
In the name of the spirit of freedom and justice in this era of supreme greatness that convokes us in this luminous present, I would like to extend to you all, my most sincere and fraternal greetings.
I would like to begin by recalling the fact that on August 10, 1809, the valiant Ecuadorian people proclaimed the First Cry of their dearly desired independence in Quito. The same city that today, 200 years after first embarking on our incessant process of independence, we gather for the purpose of responding to an irrevocable commitment and concrete hope: to honor the effort of a whole generation of freedom fighters, who traced the path of the new republics of Our America.
Under the light and cover of this libertarian germ spread by our predecessors in these imposing lands of Abya Yala <1>, the idea of the union of republics, proposed by the Liberator <2> throughout his political life, has been revived.
The same Bolívar that left us these visionary words on September 6, 1815, in his Letter of Jamaica, which was written in response to citizen Henry Cullen, a British national residing in Falmouth, as a marvellous ideological bitácora which continues to be opportune and truthful, and therefore will include in these lines: Surely, union is what we need to complete the work of our regeneration. However, our division is not surprising, because that is the hallmark of the civil wars formed generally between two parties: conservatives and reformers. The former are generally more numerous, because the rule of custom produces the effect of obedience to the established powers, the latter are always less numerous but more vehement and illustrated. Thus the physical mass is balanced by moral force, and the contest is prolonged due to the uncertain nature of its results. Fortunately, between these two, the masses have followed intelligence.
Father Bolívar revealed one of his greatest desires: to see all the nations along the width and breadth of our continent united in a Great Homeland.
The spirit of the nation of Colombia was first expressed in Angostura, bathed by our indomitable Orinoco, in the year 1819. Emerging from the dreams of Miranda <3>, Colombia was made a reality by our Bolivar that year and although he was broken, his spirit, now more than ever, must be expressed to remind us that it will never be lost.
Our union was for Bolivar, a prodigous goal, which can only be reached through sensitive effects and well-directed efforts. And today - 200 years after that enormous historic gesture - the birth of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), is a true sign that the process of liberation of our nations continues to impose itself more vigorously than ever.
However, and bringing to the present all this historical synthesis, I have to say with absolute dismay that the unity and independence of our countries constitutes a threat to those who aspire to continue controlling our natural resources, our economies and our political will; that is, our sovereignty.
Clearly, faced with the progressive and democratic advances in our continent, the U.S. Empire - which in the past one hundred years exercised its hegemony over the life of our republics - has launched a retrograde and anti-historic counteroffensive, with the aim of rolling back the union, sovereignty and democracy of our continent, and imposing the restoration of imperial domination in all spheres of life of our societies.
In this sense, we share the vision of many in Latin America and the world: this counteroffensive was launched on June 28 of this year, with the perverse coup d'état committed in the sister Honduran Homeland. The putchists in Honduras, and the powerful conservative spokespeople in Washington, say that this operation against President Zelaya was a manoeuvre designed to destroy the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA).
An alliance that is a project of peace, social justice, of solidarity-based union, of participatory democracy with and for the majorities of our countries; and at the same time a project of independence guided by legitimate leaderships of the humble people of today.
This infamous coup was answered by the Honduran people with dignity, facing repression and showing that they are worthy successors of the heroic Morazán <4> that 200 years later still watches on.
Therefore, in the interests of the unity that has always convoked us, and also following the events of recent times, allow me to call to your attention:
Comrades: on behalf of my government, I would like to express that we are truly and deeply worried by the tense situation with the sister Republic of Colombia, in relation to the installation of, at least, seven U.S. military bases in this endearing and brother South American territory.
We want to denounce, here and now, that this is part of a political and military plan orchestrated to put an end to the project of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), as well as being the biggest threat in this historical moment to the infinite riches that lie in our continent, that is: black gold, our oil; blue gold, the large water reserves; green gold, our Amazon.
In recent years, we have denounced the permanent harassment of our country and our Bolivarian Revolution, by the elites who run the U.S. Empire. Our people have defeated - to the astonishment of international opinion - coups, economic sabotage and the onslaught of stark media terrorism of a national and international reach. Brothers and sisters from South America: the media campaign and political justifications of the government of Colombia and the chiefs of these military bases are a threat to peace, independence and the rights of the people of Venezuela.
In recent days we have received expressions of concern and solidarity from the peoples and governments of the continent, as well as an important sector of Colombian society. Those who threaten us believe that they can halt the progress of the new and heroic story that we write today in peace: ensuring others respect you is the indestructible guarantee of your efforts to survive, said Jose Gervasio Artigas.
But as with 200 years ago, when our people pushed back the decaying Spanish empire, today we have superior moral and political conditions for neutralizing these warmongers and in doing so, ensure that our continent is a land of peace, without military threat.
It would be a grave mistake to think that the threat is only against Venezuela, it is directed towards all the countries in the south of the continent, as comrade Fidel said in his reflections entitled "Seven daggers in the heart of America." Geopolitically, we are to the South of the hegemon, and it is a reality that, beyond the political persuasions of the world's governments, the problem of war concerns all of humanity.
Our desires have never been secret, and this eternal truth was said by the Apostle of America, José Martí, in 1884, that even today, remains an unresolved question: "What are we, General (Máximo Gómez)? Are we the heroic and modest servants of an idea that fires up our hearts, the loyal friends of a people in trouble or those brave and fortunate caudillos that with a whip in hand and a heel in the spur will to drive a people to war, in order to afterwards possess them?
We can not obscure the clamor of the Colombian people and their desire to achieve peace in their country. Seven decades of war inside Colombia, will only be resolved through a political and negotiated solution that respects safeguards and enjoys the support of all South America.
The people of Colombia have the right to peace. A servile elite, whose business is war in our sister country, can not attmept to expand and impose its armed conflict with the intention of stigmatizing and destabilizing the progressive and revolutionary movements that in a legitimate, democratic and peaceful way move forward with our dreams and the banners of our freedom fighters, to accomplish the pending tasks of union, justice and independence.
We do not believe in a society completely free of conflict, that would be the realization of a dream, but we understand that we are called upon to better manage conflicts, to recognise them and contain them, living not in spite of them but rather productively and intelligently with them. Only a skeptical people, mature enough for conflict, is a people mature enough for peace, to paraphrase our Colombian brother Estanislao Zuleta.
And if we want real peace, we must respond in time with clarity and courage to the deepest needs of our people.
The hour of South America has arrived, the hour of UNASUR, we trust in the political capacity of our nascent union to confront this current threat, that compromises the future of our republics, the future of our peoples and the future of all humanity.
Let's follow, comrades, the maxim of Bolivar, let's constitute that great American Covenant to form a political body made up of all of our republics, to present America to the world with an aspect of majesty and grandeur without example in the previous nations. An America united in such a fashion, if the heavens concede us this desired vote, that may be able to call itself the queen of nations and the mother of the republics.
Fraternally,
Hugo Chávez Frías
Quito, Ecuador, August 10, 2009
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