Posted on 09/13/2003 2:10:29 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
”THERE is no better tribute to the 30th anniversary of his death in combat than that of the new era that is beginning to arise, in which the revolutionary dreams of Salvador Allende are gaining a renewed presence,” affirmed José Ramón Balaguer, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, closing the national event in memory of the Chilean president at the hospital that bears his name in the capital’s Cerro municipality.
He recounted the struggle of the man who won the elections as a candidate of the Chilean Popular Unity Party and proceeded to initiate “a unique revolutionary process that proposed profound political, economic and social changes to the benefit of the people within the canons of bourgeois democracy.”
Balaguer recalled Allende’s visit “to our country in the early months of the Cuban Revolution and his meetings with Che Guevara, Raúl Castro and Fidel.
A few hours after the Cuban military victory on the sands of Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs), Allende arrived on the island, as he himself said: “To be with the people who gave a lesson in heroism by defeating Cuban counterrevolutionaries organized, funded and armed by U.S. imperialism,” the Party leader explained.
He stated that “our country will never forget that the first measure decreed by the recently acclaimed Chilean president was the reestablishment of full diplomatic relations between our two countries, in defiance of the might of imperialism which, with the honorable exception of Mexico, forced the rest of the Latin American governments to break of such relations. Likewise, his valiant gesture of going to find and accompany the three Cuban and two Bolivian survivors of Che’s guerrilla force, in his condition as president of the Chilean Senate.”
In a packed public meeting during a visit to the island who years after taking up the presidency, Allende referred to Fidel’s visit to Chile by Fidel in December 1971, affirming: “Fidel’s presence and the masterly teachings of his speeches fortified the revolutionary faith of the Chilean people and the revolutionary faith of the Latin American people.”
Speaking of the events that gave rise to the fascist coup of September 11, 1973, Balaguer reflected: “What a similarity with what is currently occurring in Venezuela! The same pattern, the same actions, fascism against the peoples. Hatred and scorn of human beings and their ascent to happiness. The hypocrisy and Paraphrasing Allende, Balaguer concluded: “The peoples’ struggle will inexorably open up the grand avenues that lead to the future. At that moment the memory and history of Salvador Allende will shine out like an infinite sun.”
AN UNFINISHED, NOT DEFEATED PROCESS Manuel Hernández, member of the Political Committee of the Communist Party of Chile, described the work that Salvador Allende fought and died for as “an unfinished, but not defeated process,” as today Chilean workers are once again mobilizing to demand the democracy and social justice that has not been attained.
Alejandro Navarro, Chilean Socialist Party deputy, also spoke at the event, affirming: “Millions of Chileans admire the Cuban Revolution, and we are proud that the principled history and struggle of Salvador Allende is remembered.”
TRIBUTE FROM FIDEL AND THE PEOPLE OF CUBA HAVANA.— Wreaths from President Fidel Castro and the people of Cuba were laid yesterday at the foot of the monument to the deceased Chilean president Salvador Allende on the 30th anniversary of his death in combat.
The ceremony, on Presidents Avenue (G Street) in the Vedado district, was attended by José Ramón Balaguer, member of the Political Bureau; Germán Guerrero Pávez, the Chilean ambassador to Cuba; Chileans resident or studying on the island; and others.
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And, he added: ``It is a sad fact that Chile has taken the path to communism with only little more than a third of the nation approving this choice, but it is an immutable fact.''
Three years later, on Sept. 11, 1973, Allende was overthrown in a remarkably surgical military coup. Despite elaborate plans to train, arm and equip a clandestine militia, and to ring Santiago itself with fortified factories, the fighting on the llth took fewer than 200 lives on both sides.
In the aftermath, another journalist -- the talented British writer, David Holden -- wrote ``Salvador Allende died a lucky man. In life, he was a failure. Both his policies and his country were shattered long before the end. But in death, he achieved success beyond his dreams. Instantly canonized as the Western world's newest left-wing martyr, he became overnight the most potent cult figure since his old friend, Che Guevara.''***
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