CHE

Reflections
by the Commander in Chief                                  Read Spanish Version

I
make a halt in my daily struggle to bow my head in respect and
gratitude to the exceptional combatant who fell in combat on October
8th, forty years ago; for the example he passed on to us as leader of
his Rebel Army Column, crossing the swampy grounds of the former
provinces of Oriente and Camagüey, while being chased by enemy
troops.

He was the liberator of the city of Santa Clara and
the mastermind of voluntary work; he accomplished honorable political
missions abroad and served as messenger of militant internationalism
in East Congo and Bolivia. He built a new awareness in our America
and the world.

I thank him for what he tried and failed to do
in his home country, because he was like a flower prematurely severed
from its stem.

He left to us his unmistakable literary style.
He was elegant, swift and true to every detail of whatever happened
to cross his mind. He was a predestinate, but he didn’t know it. He
still fights with us and for us.

Yesterday, we commemorated
the 31st anniversary of the killing of all passengers and the crew of
a Cubana airliner blown in mid-air, and we are on the threshold of
the tenth anniversary of the cruel and unjust imprisonment of the
five Cuban anti-terrorist heroes. We likewise bow
our heads in
respect to them all.

It was with great emotion that I watched
and heard the commemoration ceremony on TV.

Fidel
Castro Ruz

October
7, 2007