I was planning to go on a trip to Venezuela as an international delegate from the US working class section for “The Congress of the Peoples (El Congreso de los Pueblos)” conference, which was also the bicentennial for an important battle for the independence of Venezuela, led by the liberator Bolivar, the Battle of Carabobo in 1821. People from all over the world were coming, not just from this hemisphere, I was especially looking forward to meeting comrades from Libya, a country whose history I have studied extensively, and which is still suffering the consequences of the NATO invasion 10 years ago. It is interesting to note that June 23rd Micaela Bastidas, who is mentioned in the speech, and I was unaware of till after writing it, had her birthday. The conference was from June 21st-24th. I also mention Evo Morales, who I later found out was present at the conference. There were logistical problems in the last moment and I could not go, but I plan to go in the fall. This is the speech I would have gave had I been able to go. There were many speakers, I did a video reading it, but it was unable to be shown. The text however has been shown to many comrades down there, many of them impressed with it. If the occasion arrives to give a speech in the fall I will use segments of this speech, and parts of it may show up in an article a South American journalist is doing of me. A letter I was preparing in solidarity with Assange his father had approved of, had no time to get in the agenda of the conference, but will be shown to the Venezuelan government to see if a declaration can be made either way. The speech was of course written in Spanish and I am translating it here.
Speech to The Congress of the Peoples
My name is Alexander Rafael Suarez, but my comrades know me as Al. I am the son of a Peruvian father and Northamerican mother, and as I know both worlds, I know how to explain the Latin American view to the Northamerican. I had a grandmother from Cajamarca, the land of Pedro Castillo, and a Chilean great grandmother, the land of the great Socialist, Allende. However, I have the honor to come back to Latin American lands and to come to the land of Bolivar for the first time. Not only as a director of an anti-imperialist documentary, but also to speak on a vision. This vision I have in common with the other comrades in the struggle present today, is a vision that has grown throughout two centuries. With the brutal assassination by the Spanish imperialists in Peru of Tupac Amaru II, on the 18th of May of 1781, who with his wife, Micaela Bastidas, sacrificed their lives for our cause, the sacred cause of the great homeland. Tupac Amaru II tried to unite criollos (one born in the Americas of Spanish parents), blacks, mestizos (of mixed Spanish and Indian roots) and Indians in a common fight against the Spanish Empire for their true independence. Two years after this sacrifice, a child is born, son of criollos, Simon Bolivar, here in Caracas. If reincarnation exists, Bolivar would be the reincarnation of Tupac Amaru II, this way his spirit knew there was more possibility to win victory in a world being the son of criollos than of an Indian. Bolivar was born with wealth, but died poor in Santa Marta, because he donated his fortune to the revolution. That is a man of principles. Also, if we believe in reincarnation, Hugo Rafael Chavez, would be the reincarnation of Bolivar in the 21st century, with the ideal mix of progressive nationalism of Bolivar, and Socialism of the 21st century. Chavez was able to make conquests, but not like the Spaniards, but conquests of liberation against the Empire of today, and that Empire is that of the United States. Maduro, present, keeps up the fight, honoring the memory of Chavez with the backing of his dear people, despite the sanctions, which is a crime against humanity.
From the defeat of the rebellion of Tupac Amaru II mentioned earlier, comes the seeds of triumph from Ayacucho, Peru, where the right-hand man of Bolivar, Sucre, also Venezuelan from these lands, defeated the last Viceroy of the continent, Jose de la Serna. However, before the death of Bolivar, Sucre is assassinated, and tragedy begins to happen throughout the continent. The division, that Bolivar did so much to avoid. Just like the Battle of Carabobo, this battle marks in history a start of a change of consciousness of the peoples, but so much time had to pass before there was unity again. The country of my father, Peru, also has as liberator Bolivar. In reality we have two liberators, San Martin, the Argentine, and Bolivar, as the criollos in power in Peru in large number were against liberation, neighboring troops had to come to persuade the Peruvian people to change their minds. Today, we have Pedro Castillo, who can be part of the great homeland again, and like in the time of Velasco in Peru, can rise up the left. He will be a castle of the revolution (Castillo means castle).
I am a Chavista (follower of the ideas of Hugo Chavez) even though I am from the US, I do not have to be Venezuelan to be a Chavista. Biden once said to be a Zionist you do not have to be a Jew. However, we have to pressure Biden to cease supporting the crimes of Israel, likewise, pressure him to not go on with these strong and illegal sanctions that Trump had, against our brothers from Cuba, Venezuela or Iran. There is a proverb that comes from the Arabs that says “In every defeat there are seeds of victory, and in every victory, seeds of defeat.”
From the defeat of Ernesto Rafael Guevara, known by his nom-de-guerre El Che, in Bolivia, comes later Evo Morales. Evo with his political party the MAS, has returned to Bolivia, despite the fascist coup backed by the yankees now being defeated. Now Bolivia is free to sell its lithium to the government of China or any other country. That is what happens when the people are united, demonstrated by the history of sacrifice explained here today.
If we understand history, we understand the US government, full of contradictions, is an empire, and in its condition of empire, it has to fall as all empires have in the past. The question is when, not if it will happen. It is unavoidable. How do we understand how empires have fallen, the same as the Roman or any other powerful empire? Well, from the inside. If the militant left, full of intellectuals, film directors, writers, activists of all types, revolutionaries in general, many here today, would rise up from the country where I was born, the US, with one voice, that way the Empire would fall. We have to leave our egos behind, and unite for the sacred cause, of liberation. That way Kevin Zeese, who like me supported Maduro and the people of Bolivar from the embassy of Venezuela in Washington, would not have died in vain. All the comrades in the other dimension, we have to honor them keeping up the fight. In the same spirit, we have to show solidarity with Assange, who is suffering in an English jail, under the orders of the Empire. I had the honor to meet with his father recently.
We are in solidarity with the cause for independence of Puerto Rico, and in solidarity for the liberation of the kidnapped diplomat, Alex Saab. It is my hope, that my documentary will change the hearts and minds of the US people, of the world, and will honor Kevin and the other comrades who did so much to defend peace in the world. We have to offer ourselves, like Maradona did (the late Argentine soccer player), to be soldiers of the liberators of today, in this sacred land, in this land of the liberators. I end this speech with the words of one of my heroes, El Che:
But now from one end of the continent to the other they are signaling with clarity that the hour has come–the hour of their vindication. Now this anonymous mass, this America of color, somber, taciturn America, which all over the continent sings with the same sadness and disillusionment, now this mass is beginning to enter definitively into its own history, is beginning to write it with its own blood, is beginning to suffer and die for it.
Because now in the mountains and fields of America, on its flatlands and in its jungles, in the wilderness or in the traffic of cities, on the banks of its great oceans or rivers, this world is beginning to tremble. Anxious hands are stretched forth, ready to die for what is theirs, to win those rights that were laughed at by one and all for 500 years. Yes, now history will have to take the poor of America into account, the exploited and spurned of America, who have decided to begin writing their history for themselves for all time. Already they can be seen on the roads, on foot, day after day, in endless march of hundreds of kilometers to the governmental “eminences,” there to obtain their rights.
Already they can be seen armed with stones, sticks, machetes, in one direction and another, each day, occupying lands, sinking hooks into the land that belongs to them and defending it with their lives. They can be seen carrying signs, slogans, flags; letting them flap in the mountain or prairie winds. And the wave of anger, of demands for justice, of claims for rights trampled underfoot, which is beginning to sweep the lands of Latin America, will not stop. That wave will swell with every passing day. For that wave is composed of the greatest number, the majorities in every respect, those whose labor amasses the wealth and turns the wheels of history. Now they are awakening from the long, brutalizing sleep to which they had been subjected,
For this great mass of humanity has said, “Enough!” and has begun to march. And their march of giants will not be halted until they conquer true independence–for which they have vainly died more than once. Today, however, those who die will die like the Cubans at Playa Girón. They will die for their own true and never-to-be-surrendered independence.
All this, distinguished delegates, this new will of a whole continent, of Latin America, is made manifest in the cry proclaimed daily by our masses as the irrefutable expression of their decision to fight and to paralyze the armed hand of the invader. It is a cry that has the understanding and support of all the peoples of the world and especially of the socialist camp, headed by the Soviet Union.
That cry is: Patria o muerte! [Homeland or death]
My final words after quoting Che: Long live Chavez! Long live Maduro! Long live Bolivar! Long live Gaddafi! Long live El Che! Until victory always (the slogan of Che)!
Source: https://alrsuarez.wordpress.com/2021/06/24/speech-i-was-going-to-give-in-caracas