[Marxism] NOT on MYSPACE or YOUTUBE: the new Fidel-Hugo Chavez video

["Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

        CNN en Español apparently has recently begun to put its video
"packages" (as correspondent reports are called in the TV news racket) and
other video material on the Internet.

        For some reason, it is being done not through CNN's own web site,
but through Yahoo!'s Spanish-language news site for the U.S., and has not
been widely publicized. 

        The URL for the service is: http://espanol.news.yahoo.com/video/

        If you scroll down, the fourth or fifth item currently is the
Fidel-Hugo Chavez video released on Cuba a day or two ago. It shows Fidel
sitting on what appears to be a bed and reading to Chávez what appears to be
something like the inscription on a book, or perhaps the end of a statement,
taking off from Chavez's just concluded tour. 

        Although the statement Castro reads to Chavez is only a few
sentences long, it is clearly and cogently a restatement in thesis form of
themes he has developed in speeches in recent years.

        Fidel speaks with vigor, and his typical gestures, is totally alert,
shows no signs of pain or weakness. He seems quite the same as he's been in
recent years as he's grown older, albeit he usually doesn't present his
thinking in a bathrobe nor so concisely.

        Quite a different image than the previous video of a convalescing
Fidel, which was also with Chavez, but where Fidel was lying in bed and
didn't say much.

        There's an interesting question of image and protocol involved in
all this, which is Cuba's decision -- and undoubtedly Fidel's -- to release
images on the occasion of Chávez's visits. One message is that the bond
between the two goes far beyond official posts and titles, as Fidel relieved
himself of all official duties. It is a relationship between close friends
and comrades that goes above and beyond titles and roles.

        Another is that Fidel communicates that he's been following news and
international developments and thinking about their significance.

        This is the statement or inscription that he wrote for Chávez. First
he refers to various Latin American heroes, and then adds:

*  *  *

Escribí aquí una síntesis de lo que creo y tengo en la mente:

Hugo,  felicidades a ti y a tu pueblo Bolivariano y glorioso, por el éxito
de tu última gira que superó todas las expectativas.

La época ha cambiado, es nueva y sin precedentes.

Pero han cambiado, o están cambiando, los pueblos con gran historia como el
tuyo. Y surgen estadistas brillantes, audaces y valientes con nuevas ideas
como tu.

Nuevas ideas de lo que esta época necesita. 

Esta epoca tan difícil. 

(Eso no lo escribí pero te lo añado. Se me acababa el papel.)

Fidel Castro, Septiembre 1 del 2006

*  *  *

I wrote here a synthesis of what I believe and what is in my mind:

Hugo, I congratulate you and the Boliviarian and glorious people of
Venezuela for the success of your latest tour which went beyond all
expectations.

The epoch has changed, it is new and unprecedented.

But what has also changed, or is changing, are the peoples with a great
history, such as your people. 

And statesmen have come forward who are brilliant, audacious and courageous
like you with new ideas about what is needed for this epoch.

This epoch which is so difficult. (I didn't write that but I will add it for
you. I was running out of paper.)

Fidel Castro, September 1, 2006.

*  *  *

Joaquín


        


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