Pilgrimage to Havana

PILGRIMAGE TO HAVANA

The latest Non-aligned Summit which was held in Havana, Cuba, did not feature our Head of State President James Michel, unlike the previous summit in 1979 when President Albert Rene made it all the way there to moan about American imperialism and to throw a verbal “challenge at America on the doorstep of imperialism” . Today, it is Hugo Chavez, the President of oil rich Venezuela who rants and rave about US imperialism.

Vice-President Belmont has not yet released the text of the speech he delivered to the gathering heads of states on behalf of President Michel, nor has he confirmed explicitly whether we voted for the right of the Iranians to build nuclear bombs. In the absence of any detail, we thought we should let our readers have a snippet of what President Rene said when he went there 26 years ago. It was, ironically the year the supporters of Ayatolla Khomeni invaded the US embassy in Teheran and took the entire embassy staff hostage while US President Jimmy Carter watched helplessly.

Mr Chairman,

Excellencies,

Comrades

Let me, first of all, state that I came to Cuba despite and because of the fact that there were so many imperialist manoeuvres to prevent leaders coming to Cuba for this summit and it gives me great satisfaction to be able to express myself so freely here in Havana only a few miles from the very heart of imperialism.

17 years ago in 1962, at the time of the so-called Cuban crisis, I and thousands of others marched through the streets of London chanting: Kennedy – No! Castro-Si; Cuba-Si. Today 17 years later, I am proud to state here in free and socialist Cuba: Imperialism - No; Castro-Si; Cuba-Si.

In these few words, I hope to have expressed clearly what I think of the imperialist manoeuvres to degrade one of the greatest leaders of our time, a man who has given his life and his destiny to the Cuban People and to all the people’s of the world who love independence, freedom and justice –our Comrade Fidel Castro.

Long live the Non-alignment Movement and down with capitalism! The revolution marches on.

(Reproduced from Seychelles: New Era)

It is not known if Rene actually shook hands with Castro when he was in Havana. Maybe he did but there was no one there to record the moment. Or maybe Castro has an aversion to flashbulbs. However, The New Era had both Rene and Castro in close proximity. At least we get the flavour of the non-encounter which we have faithfully reproduced.