Chavez Isn’t Dead

He Lives On with Bolivar and Marti

Elio Delgado Legon

HAVANA TIMES — “Death is not true when one’s life work has been carried out well; the cranium of a thinker turns to dust, but their thoughts live forever, bearing the fruit of what that thinker envisioned.” Jose Marti wrote these words in an article published in the Mexican newspaper El Federalista, on March 5, 1876.

Coincidentally, it was also on March 5 — but in 2013 — that the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, ceased to exist physically. One hundred and thirty-seven years have passed, but the words of Marti returned to acquire extraordinary validity.

Venezuelan revolutionaries will not allow the flags hoisted high by the Chavez government in recent years to fall.

Hugo Chavez, like no one else, knew how to interpret the ideas of Bolivar. He managed to jump-start a revolution that has been doing and will continue doing what Bolivar could not: unite all of Latin America and give the Venezuelan people their well-being and dignity denied from them for 200 years.

Undoubtedly, Chavez is one of those indispensable people who struggle all their lives, but in his short life he managed to leave a gigantic accomplishment, one that can only be compared to the work of Simon Bolivar.

The ideas of Chavez will live on and prove victorious, as he proclaimed upon learning of his illness. “We will live and we will win” was his motto then, and I’m sure he was referring to his ideas.

His struggle was hard and he left his life in it, but he cleared the path for the onward movement of those comrades who accompanied him in his years in office, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the armed forces and the revolutionary people.

Chavez’s flag has not touched the ground, he himself was transformed into the flag and it flies in every effort realized, in each of the missions carried out during his governance. Convinced, the Venezuelan people proclaimed: We are all Chavez and we will not let the gains of the Bolivarian Revolution be taken away.

Undoubtedly, Chavez is one of those indispensable people who struggle all their lives, but in his short life he managed to leave a gigantic accomplishment, one that can only be compared to the work of Simon Bolivar.

Now the revolutionary people of Venezuela and their leaders will continue it. They will succeed in all the tests imposed on them and they will save the Bolivarian Revolution.

Chavez’s flag has not touched the ground, he himself was transformed into the flag and it flies in every effort realized, in each of the missions carried out during his governance.

The people of Venezuela have been in the streets since they learned of the death of their leader. The views expressed on television are all hold the same conviction – to continue the revolution and defend what has been achieved so far.

The PSUV will continue along the path outlined by Chavez, upholding his ideas, refining the missions undertaken in the interests of working people.

Chavez, along with other revolutionary Latin American leaders, succeeded in creating the unity that Bolivar dreamed. His struggle and strength are made a reality in ALBA and CELAC, but —

above all — they are reflected in the reductions in poverty, marginalization and illiteracy; in the provision of health care and education for his people, and in the elimination of inequalities – though much remains to be done.

If the Venezuelan people are convinced anything, it’s that the Bolivarian Revolution will continue, and that socialism of the 21st century, as proclaimed by Hugo Chavez, will remain a reality. This is because for revolutionaries of Venezuela and the world, Hugo Chavez has not died. He lives on, with Bolivar and Marti.