World Personalities Arrive in Havana

from César Vallejo -

Personalities from around the globe have arrived in Havana to attend celebrations for the 80th birthday of Cuban President Fidel Castro to take place this week.

28 November, 2006





FORMER ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT RODRIGO BORJA

Among those who have arrived for the celebrations organized by the Guayasamin Foundation is former Ecuadorian President Rodrigo Borja, who expressed his admiration for the Cuban leader; Belgium sociologist and priest Francois Houtart, founder of the Alternatives Sud magazine and one of the promoters of the World Social Forum; and Argentinean journalist Stella Callonni, author of Operation Condor. Upon her arrival, Calloni told the press: "I would like to tell the Comandante that the resistant Latin America is here with you. I would like to tell him that Latin America thanks him for having provided us with a model of resistance, humanism and dignity."

Brazilian intellectual Marilia Guimaraes, coordinator of the Rio de Janeiro chapter of the In Defense of Humanity Network, said she was happy to have the opportunity to participate in what is going to be "a big hug from Latin American revolutionaries, and especially Brazilian revolutionaries, to our Comandante." Argentinean Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, said: "Fidel is today what he was for our [missing] children —a clear thinker and one of the greatest men that ever existed."

HEBE DE BONAFINI, FROM THE ARGENTINEAN MOTHERS OF PLAZA DE MAYO

Claudia Camba, coordinator of the literacy campaign underway in Argentina has also arrived, along with lawmaker and chairman of the Cuba-Bulgaria Parliamentary Solidarity Group Alexander Paunov Bulgarian; Carmen Lira, editor of the Mexican newspaper La Jornada; renowned Argentinean filmmaker Fernando Solanas; Vladislav Kosarev, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazajshtan; Hans Otto Dill, the German recipient of the Casa de las Americas literary award; and Javier Diez Canseco, leader of Peruvian Socialist Party and former presidential candidate.

STATEMENTS BY ALFREDO VERA

Interviewed last night on the Cuban TV and Radio Program "The Round Table," Alfedo Vera, director of the Guayasamin Foundation International, said that "with each passing minute, the success of this call to honor Fidel is becoming more visible."

Vera spoke about the overwhelming response to registration to take place in the event and explained that foundation executives are doing their best to accommodate all requests, although it was important to take into consideration the limitations of space of the three halls of the Convention Center that, for two days, will host the colloquium Memory and Future: Cuba and Fidel.

"The ‘All Voices’ concert that will take place Thursday night at the Jose Marti Anti-imperialist Plaza will be open to everybody willing to be there, so we are anticipating a vibrant evening of art and solidarity," he said.

During the colloquium, a book on Neruda and Guayasamin will be presented, with poems by Neruda in Spanish and English, and illustrations by Guayasamin.

The book is the result of a cooperation effort between the Guayasamin Foundation, the Pablo Neruda Foundation and the Ocean Press and Ocean Sur publishing houses that for the first time brings together the work of two of the most important Latin American artists.