Here is a reflection written by Comrade Fidel, in my opinion the greatest man of action and thought, with a clear and precise.
remember when he visited us, months before the election campaign he was thinking of running for the presidency of Ecuador. He had been Minister of Economy of the government of Alfredo Palacio, a surgeon with professional prestige who had also visited us in his capacity as Vice President, before becoming the President, unexpected situation that took place in Ecuador. He had been receptive to a program of ophthalmologic operations that recimos as a form of cooperation. There were good relations between both governments.
earlier Correa had resigned from the Ministry of Economy. He was unhappy with what he called administrative corruption instigated by Oxy, a foreign company that explored and invested important sums, but that was with four of every five barrels of oil extracted. Do not talk about nationalization, but to charge high taxes would be assigned in advance to specific social investments. He had already approved measures and a judge had declared valid.
As no mention of the word "nationalize, I thought he felt apprehensive about the concept. No wonder, because he was a graduate economist with much acclaim from a well known U.S. university. I did not bother getting into much depth, I bombarded him with questions from the arsenal accumulated in the struggle against the foreign debt of Latin America in 1985 and Cuba's own experience.
There are high-risk investments that use sophisticated technology, that no small nation like Cuba or Ecuador could take.
As we and in 2006 decided to promote the energy revolution, we were the first country in the world to proclaim as a vital issue for humanity, had broached the subject with special emphasis. I stopped, I understood one of the reasons.
I told him the conversation I had recently with the president of the English company REPSOL. The same, associated with other international companies, would undertake an expensive operation to drill into the seabed, at over 2 000 meters deep, using sophisticated technology, in Cuba's jurisdictional waters. I asked the head of the English company: How much is an exploratory well? I ask the question because we want to participate even at the one percent of the cost, we want to know what you want to do with our oil.
Correa, meanwhile, had told me that for every hundred dollars taken out by companies, only twenty remained in the country, or even get into the budget, he said, was left in a separate fund for anything less to improve people's living conditions.
I abolished the fund, he said, and directed 40 percent towards education and health, technological and highway development, the rest to buy back the debt if the price was favorable, or investing it in something more useful. Before we had to buy each year a portion of that debt is more expensive.
In the case of Ecuador-he added-oil policies verged on treason. Why do, I ask. Why fear the Yankees or due to unbearable pressure? He answered: If they have a Minister of the Economy who tells them privatization would improve efficiency, you can imagine. I did not do that.
I encourage him to go on and he calmly explains. The foreign company Oxy is a company that has broken its contract and according to Ecuadorian law it requires an expiration date. Means that the field operated by this company must go over the state, but under pressure from the Americans the government does not dare to occupy it creates a situation not covered by legislation. The law says nothing revocation. The trial judge, who was president of Petroecuador, he did so. I was a member of Petroecuador and we called an emergency meeting to expel him from office. I did not attend and they could not fire. The judge declared the expiration date.
What did the Yankees, I ask. They wanted a fine, he quickly replied. Listening to understand that he had underestimated.
I was embarrassed by a multitude of commitments. I invited him to attend the meeting with a large group of highly qualified Cuban professionals who were leaving for Bolivia to join the Medical Brigade; it had staff for more than 30 hospitals including 19 surgical positions that could do more than 130 thousand ophthalmologic operations per year, all in the manner of free cooperation. Ecuador possesses three similar centers with six ophthalmologic positions.
Dinner with the Ecuadorian economist took place into the early hours of February 9, 2006. Scarcely had views that I did not cover. I spoke to the very harmful mercury that modern industry scatters throughout the planet's oceans. Consumerism was of course a subject that I emphasized, the high cost of the kilowatt / hour in the thermoelectric plants, the differences between the forms of socialist and communist distribution, the role of money, the trillions spent on advertising is necessarily borne by people in the prices of goods, and studies made by university social brigades who discovered, among the 500 thousand families in the capital, the number of elderly people living alone. I explained the stage of universalization of university that we were involved.
We became friends, though he perhaps received the impression that I was self-sufficient. If that happened, it was truly not my party.
Since then watched each of its steps: electoral process, focusing on the concrete problems of Ecuadorians and the people's victory over the oligarchy.
In the history of our peoples there are many things that unite us. Sucre was always a highly admired figure, along with The Liberator Bolivar, Marti said, what is not done in America to do yet, and as Neruda exclaimed, awakens every hundred years.
Imperialism has just committed a monstrous crime in Ecuador. Deadly bombs were dropped at dawn on a group of men and women who, almost without exception, were asleep. It is clear from all the official reports right from the start. Any concrete accusations against that group of human beings do not justify the action. They were Yankee bombs guided by Yankee satellites.
In Cold Blood has absolutely no right to kill. If we accept that imperial method of warfare and barbarism, Yankee bombs directed by satellites could fall on any group of men and women in Latin America, in the territory of any country, war or no war. The fact that this happened on undisputed Ecuadorian territory is an aggravating factor.
We are not enemies of Colombia. Previous reflections and exchanges demonstrate how much we have tried both the current President of the Council of State of Cuba and I, to abide by a declared policy of principles and peace, proclaimed years ago in our relations with other Latin American .
Now that everything is at risk, we do not become belligerent. We are determined supporters of that unity among peoples of what Martà called our America.
keep quiet we shall become accomplices. Today our friend, the economist and President of Ecuador Rafael Correa, seated in the dock, something we could not even conceive that morning of February 9, 2006. It seemed then that my imagination was capable of embracing dreams and risks of all kinds, but never anything like what happened early Saturday 1 March 2008.
Correa has in his hands the few survivors and the rest of the bodies. The two which are missing prove that Ecuador's territory was occupied by troops that crossed the border. Now he can cry out like Emile Zola: ¡Yo acuso!
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