COMMENTARY & UPDATES : COMMENTARY

Che Guevara, Presente!

Granma International On line — June 15, 2006

"We are following in the path of Comandante Guevara," proclaims President Evo Morales in La Higuera

By Maria Julia Mayoral

LA HIGUERA, Bolivia, June 14—For those who are fighting today in Our America for equality, justice, solidarity and for a life in harmony with nature, the only path we have to follow is that taken by Che Guevara, affirmed the president of this South American nation, addressing hundreds of Bolivians, Venezuelans and Cubans gathered here to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the birth of the heroic guerrilla.

We are following in the path of Comandante Guevara Right in the small settlement where Che was murdered 39 years ago, the sons and daughters of the three countries met to reaffirm that nothing will halt their ties of cooperation in fields like those of health and education, because, Morales recalled: "Our continent is experiencing times of profound change, of the restoration of its national dignity and sovereignty."

Today La Higuera is a virtually unpopulated place; it never had many inhabitants, but its inhospitable conditions, the lack of work and hope have forced numerous people to emigrate over the decades. Nonetheless, the locality is still much loved on account of its wealth of symbolism, the exhortation not to forget anything that has happened there, because the enemies of today are the same as before, and their methods are no different.

Evo Morales highlighted in his speech that, as opposed to U.S. imperialism and that of other powerful nations, aid from Cuba and Venezuela is happening without conditions of any kind, in a spirit of solidarity, total respect for equality and Bolivia's decisions. Those are realities that Bolivian health professionals who have rejected the development of medical cooperation should understand, he commented.

A medical post was officially inaugurated in La Higuera and the first 15 people in the area to become literate via the "Yes, I Can Do It" method devised by Cuban specialists were acknowledged in the act of tribute.

For families living in the area these are great events; and that is what everyone says in their own way when they are asked. Pedro Calzadilla, a rural school teacher for 31 years, affirms that to give people health and education is to offer them invaluable well-being; without healthy people with educated minds it is difficult to think about development and national independence, he says.

Speakers at the event included Alvaro García Linera, vice president of Bolivia; Osvaldo Peredo (the brother of Inti and Coco, two valiant fighters in Che's guerrilla force); and Julio Montes and Rafael Dausá, the Venezuelan and Cuban ambassadors in Bolivia, respectively.

Dausá noted how in less than four months the Cuban medical brigade has attended more than 600,000 patients, has helped to save more than 1,000 lives and performed more than 15,000 eye operations. At the same time, he added, the donation of modern medical equipment destined for 20 hospitals is underway, including that belonging to Valle Grande, a facility reopened with the participation of President Evo Morales and the Cuban authorities.

A further example of that solidarity are the 120,000-plus men and women who are already incorporated into classes to learn to write and write.

The event closed with a cake topped with white meringue and 78 red candles, which would have been Che's age today. People spoke of sadness, of the intrepid revolutionary and daring thinker who commanded his men with valor and gallantry until the last minute.

Not one detail of the crime has been forgotten but, in the end, those present preferred to sing Happy Birthday to an Ernesto Guevara whom they feel is still alive, converted into millions in every compatriot disposed to fight for the second and definitive independence of this great homeland that is Our America.