30212: Potemaksonje (News) A Day of Brotherhood and Unity (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Potemaksonje@yahoo.com



HAITI: A Day of Brotherhood and Unity
GRANMA  March 15, 2007  Orlando Oramas Leon

Haiti is the poorest nation of the Western Hemisphere. It was the first of
the American republics to declare its independence, a heresy for which the
colonial powers of those times and of today, still condition any aid they
grant it to fight its severe underdevelopment.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Port-au-Prince on Monday to a
cheerful welcome of thousands of people, "with hurricane force", as
Commander in Chief Fidel Castro described the reception in a phone
conversation with Chavez and Haitian President Rene Preval.

The Spanish news agency EFE reported from Port-au-Prince that the Haitian
crowd welcomed Chavez with shouts of "Long Live Chavez, Down with Bush", and 
noted that the Venezuelan leader disregarded security norms hanging out of
the car to personally greet people.

That same day in the Guatemalan capital, riot police charged against
demonstrators who were protesting the visit of the unwanted US President
George W. Bush, whose Latin American tour was met by protests everywhere he
went. In contrast, Chavez was bathed in Port-au-Prince by the warmth of an
enthusiastic crowd.

Chavez had earlier visited Argentina, Bolivia and Nicaragua. In Managua,
thousands of Nicaraguans, together with President Daniel Ortega, backed the
ideal of integration and liberation taking shape through the Bolivarian
Alternative of the Americas. Then he visited Jamaica, and signed with Prime
Minister Portia Simpson a cooperation agreement to supply her country with
gas, of great importance for the Caribbean island.

"I have missed none of your speeches at the rallies and everything seems
very impressive to me," Fidel told Chavez from Havana by telephone as the
Venezuelan leader met with Rene Preval at the Haitian Presidential Palace.
Chavez described the Cuban leader's voice as "thunderous".

This time the Palace is surrounded by a crowd, but not an angry crowd, as
occurred the last time the United States staged a coup, said Chavez. "We are
surrounded," he warned, as he came out to the balcony holding a cell phone
and shouting with all his heart "Long live Fidel!"

Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister Yilliam Jimenez described the scene to me
still filled with emotion. She was part of a Cuban delegation visiting
Haiti, headed by Vice President Esteban Lazo and the Minister of Foreign
Investment and Cooperation, Martha Lomas.

And then the telephone was given to President Preval. He said he was very
happy with the historic visit, the reaction of his people and because of the
importance of the Venezuelan and Cuban cooperation. "What we have here is
almost a revolution. It's your fault Fidel. The teacher."

And Preval is right. It is a revolution in terms of healthcare, energy,
humanitarian aid and above all, for its contribution to development, to
eradicate poverty and for its quest of a dignified life, without
conditionings, without the undermining of national sovereignty.

It was a day when that innate sense of wisdom with which people identify
true friends was present. "It was a day of brotherhood, of unity", all
coincided.

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