[NYTr] Fidel Castro on the Ibero-Amer Summit: The Value of Ideas

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Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Reflections by the Commander in Chief


THE VALUE OF IDEAS

by Fidel Castro Ruz

Che was a man of ideas.

It would have caused him profound pain to hear the speeches that,
expressing traditional leftist positions, were delivered at the Latin
American Summit held in Santiago de Chile.

The Right also assumed traditional stances and made intelligent
concessions to the supposed Left.

Che would have been proud of the statements made by several
revolutionary and courageous leaders, regardless of the little or great
deal of political experience any of them may have.

Experience is the mother of science and of ideas.

It was from the battles waged by a handful of Cuban combatants in an
area of the Sierra Maestra, against forces that were vastly superior in
number and weapons, that Che drew the ideas he later synthesized in his
book "Guerrilla Warfare."

Chávez leveled devastating criticisms at Europe, the same Europe that
pretended to offer lessons on good governance at this Latin American
Summit.

The voices of Sandino and of the millennium-old cultures of this
hemisphere could be heard in the words of Daniel and Evo.

The speech delivered by the President of El Salvador at this Summit is
disgusting.

Capitalism is a system governed by blind, destructive and tyrannical
laws that have been imposed on the human species.

Dedicating the next Summit to the young people of Latin America was an
unpalatable mixture of hypocrisy and lies, aimed at inculcating the
minds of peoples with conditioned reflexes.

Havana, November 10, 2007 6:02 p.m.