Address by the President of Venezuela, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, at the Thirteenth Andean Presidential Summit
(Unofficial version, transcript of the speech)

Valencia, Venezuela, June 23, 2001

Almost everything has been said –don’t get ready to go, I said almost everything. First of all, on behalf of the people of Venezuela, on behalf of our revolutionary Government, on behalf of all of the institutions of the Venezuelan State, and on behalf of everyone, I wish to express our most cordial and deeply-felt welcome, Messrs. Presidents, colleagues, and friends who visit us on this most special occasion.

Welcome to this land and at this time. To this land which becomes a savanna here in Carabobo, but which lies where the mountains that emerge from the Caribbean converge, in this Caribbean breast of ours, in this South American frontispiece; in this place and in this land which is a savannah, a valley, a lake, but where at the same time the mountains that extend from the deep Andes and the snow-capped sierras converge; in this land, in this savannah, in this valley where at the same time the immense savannahs converge –those that open out toward the Apure, toward the Arauca, toward the Orinocco, and beyond the Casiquiare toward the Negro and the Amazon deep in the jungles of South America.

Welcome to this land. Welcome also to this time, a time of whirlwinds, of encounters and reencounters, a time in which we Venezuelans have decided by our own sovereign, peaceful, and majority will, to undertake –as we did more than two years ago— a true and radical structural change, to which we will devote the rest of our lives. Deeply rooted political changes to leave behind the false democracy, to leave behind generations and decades that have almost destroyed Venezuela.

This is a time of revolution for us in Venezuela –of revolution that is fortunately peaceful and democratic, but that is revolution, nevertheless, with no turning back. We welcome you also to the memorable day of tomorrow, on the day before our memorable day of tomorrow. You have already referred to it in our excellent addresses, as Gustavo aptly put it, which revolve around and complement the same idea, the same anxiety, the same hope, as Andrés said.

180 years after Carabobo –the road has brought us back to Carabobo 180 years later. The road to Carabobo 180 years ago already had a history and then gave shape to another history. It left a deep impression. The war for our liberation, which lasted for 10 long years and which started in 1810-1811 began in this same city –in this city which witnessed the entry of a victorious, yet a mortally wounded, Miranda. "Venezuela is mortally wounded," he stated a few short days after capturing Valencia.

This long road to Carabobo passed –as Andrés also stated—through the fall of the First Republic, through the agony of the Cartagena Manifesto, through the Admirable Campaign and the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1813, through the horrendous year of 1814, through the terrible War to the Death: "Spaniards and Canarios, count on death, even amid your indifference, Venezuelans, count on life, even amid your guilt."

This road that reached Carabobo 180 years ago also passed through the eastward migration and the freeing of Guayana and through the Congress of Angostura and the birth of the Third Republic, which was already the announcement of Colombia. This road to Carabobo crossed the savannahs of Apure and of the Arauca toward Boyacá in 1819, this road to Carabobo reached Carabobo with that history, with that impression, with that pain. This road to Carabobo which saw the victory of the largest and most impressive army that ever took up arms in Colombia, continued its course, leaving its marks, moving southward to cross the Andes and arrive at Pichincha; and this road continued through Junín and over the Peruvian Andes to arrive at Huamanga in Upper Peru. It reached the Pampa de la Quinua and Cóndor Cunca Mountain in December 1924. But it did not stop there; it continued onward to reach Panama in 1826 with the summoning of the Amphictyonic Congress. But afterwards this road became a terrible, frightening, dark slope, which petered out in Santa Marta.

The road was lost; it petered out; it disappeared. It disappeared for decades. Today, with the birth of a new century, our arrival once again at Carabobo means, I think, arriving with this huge backpack of memories, hopes, discouragements, pain, and happiness and, above all, with an enormous faith in the roads we must now build almost two hundred years later. We must return to this course; we are not at the center of the road, but I do believe that we are approaching it once again, that we are returning to our own roots and to our own essence.

The Andean Community of Nations –it has been an honor for me to occupy the Chair of its Presidential Council over the year that has passed since the Summit of Lima last year. And as Sebastián and all of you friends and colleagues stated, we can feel truly satisfied with what we have accomplished over this year. I believe that we have taken highly important steps –I am not going to repeat them; we all know them— in the right direction, towards strengthening our movement. But that is not enough.

I have been proposing for two years now, on behalf of Venezuela, since our meeting in Cartagena at the 1999 Summit, that we need to make an in-depth exploration of the integration mechanism –in this case, the Andean Community of Nations. I believe that this task is still pending, that very little has been done in that direction. We were going to call a special Presidential meeting precisely to examine the political future of Andean integration; this has not yet been done and I believe it should be because integration should be noted, more than for its economic accomplishments, for its impetus to trade –which is vital, of basic importance—, it should be spurred by and noted for its profound political will. Integration is a political movement, not an economic one; the economic accomplishments should be the outcome of the political will, and not vice versa. We cannot put the cart before the horse: it is the political will that should pull the cart and the trains of the economy and development. It is my belief that we should put a greater measure of political will into the integration process, so that we can find our way back to the road to Panama. That is what Bolívar was summoning us to, he was not calling us to a Free Trade Area; that was not the original summons. We would most likely have arrived at it as a result of our political integration. Bolívar’s summons of the Congress at Panama could be said to have been issued with a prophetic vision.

Bolívar had already stated it in his celebrated Jamaica Letter when he wrote from Jamaica; with a prophetic and visionary approach. The very idea of forming a single nation from the entire new world is grandiose, a nation with a single link that interconnects its parts with the whole, with a single origin, language, customs, and religion, so that we could say: how wonderful it would be if the Isthmus of Panama meant to us what the Corinthian peninsula did to the Greeks! Wouldn’t it be great if some day we would be fortunate enough to establish there an august Congress of the Representatives of the Republics, kingdoms and empires, to address and discuss the lofty issues of war and peace –a political body. Today, when the world awakens to the twenty-first century and we are wagering on pluripolar worlds –not unipolar or bipolar worlds, but pluripolar worlds— and the areas of power in the world are well-defined, in North America, in Europe, in Asia, and in Africa, where enormous efforts are being made to form an African Union, as the President of Mozambique told us yesterday at our meeting with Mercosur, what is left for us but to first return to the road to political integration? In my understanding, and I believe that is the direction in which we should all strive, the Andean Community of Nations, which has played an important role over these past three decades and which enters the twenty-first century taking on renewed strength, as we have already mentioned and as we know from having worked so hard, from having sought alternatives and ways out of the situation, should give way in the medium term –I don’t know when—to a Bolivarian union of nations. I say Bolivarian, not because I am Venezuelan –for the fact is that I am one of those who believe that our homeland is this America and that in any street in Lima or Bogotá, Quito or La Paz, we would truly feel the same as in any street in Valencia or Puerto Cabello or Caracas or any other Venezuelan city; this America is one and the same –Bolivarian America. In this connection also, we should inject into the Andean Integration System a measure of ideology. Every battle needs an ideology. Should ours be imported from other latitudes? No, said Simón Rodríguez, we must be original and our methods and our laws and our procedures must be original. Either we invent them or we fall into error. I believe that there is no ideology that is more appropriate for building up the identify of our nations, no ideology that is more suitable for guiding the historical undertaking of our nations, for raising their self-esteem, for reinvigorating the soul and essence of our nations, than the deeply visionary and integrating Bolivarian ideology.

In addition to the political element, in addition to the need to give the Andean Community of Nations a larger measure of political thinking and action and to seeking to take a political leap, we should, to my way of thinking –and that is one of Venezuela’s proposals and we ratify it—, also restudy the economic models of the integration process.

Is neoliberalism the model we want for our integration? In Venezuela, we don’t think so. In Venezuela, we believe that neoliberalism is the way to hell; it is perverse course that favors a few minorities and excludes the majorities. I believe that the recent history of the Americas has clearly demonstrated this. We should, then, make an examination of the economic structures that still prevail in our countries, structures riddled with colonial signs, of enclave economies.

We have become specialized in exporting, particularly raw materials. We must make a huge effort to break these chains; these are the new battles of Carabobo, of Junín and Ayacucho, of Boyacá and Pichincha.

Paraguay sells cotton as a raw material, the businessmen told us yesterday, because they have neither the resources nor the other elements to process the cottonseed. The same is the case with Colombia’s or Venezuela’s coffee beans, Venezuela’s cocoa, and the crude oil exported by Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

We must design new economic models that are diversified and productive, which will require a major educational, scientific, and technological effort on our part. In addition to our political and economic efforts, we have a social debt that is not only huge, but also explosive, dangerous and which threatens all of us.

Poverty is the major threat to our nations, to our political systems, to our democracy. Social exclusion, the huge gaps, the enormous differences between the powerful sectors of our societies and the immense majority who live a marginal existence, with impoverished and proletarianized middle classes. We cannot leave to tomorrow what we must do today.

President Pastrana had already proposed in Cartagena that social issues be given first place on our agenda and we approved this last year in Lima, but little has been done in this area. We cannot sing victory merely because our trade has grown. Beware of neoliberalism’s economistic currents! That is not enough. What is the poverty situation, and what is the income of workers and their families? How are the undernourished children and street children doing? What is the people’s housing situation like? What do the people in the streets say? How are the peasants doing in the highlands and mountains and savannahs? How are the fishermen on the riverbanks and seaside faring? What is the housewives’ situation like? How are the school children doing? How are the students at the academies faring; are they studying in the academies and schools or are they out in the streets looking for a way to survive?

What is the health situation? How are the levels of malnutrition of our children and our nations? What is the life expectancy at birth among our peoples? What about unemployment? And underemployment? These questions require urgent answers. We cannot put them off until tomorrow.

We therefore have an enormous challenge ahead of us in the political, economic, and social terrains and I feel that it is very fitting that we start the new century by discussing these issues. We will start today, in the short time left to us, and will continue tomorrow morning before attending the military parade commemorating the 180th anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo and Venezuela’s Army Day.

I wanted to share these reflections and the anguish that burdens me today so that while we feel satisfied at our accomplishments, we will recall that they are very small when compared with our huge commitment. I feel certain that we will fulfill it, that when we meet again here in Carabobo in 2021 to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of that Battle, our nations and people will be far closer to the original road to Carabobo and beyond –the road to independence, justice, and equality. Bolívar, with his prophetic vision, foresaw this: "Looking among the coming ages, my imagination focuses on future centuries and from there I can see this immense territory bathed by the waters of the oceans, seated on the issue of justice and crowned by glory, demonstrating to the ancient world the majesty of the modern world."

I would like to conclude by thanking you, with great faith and great happiness over this meeting in Carabobo, dear and excellent friends, Presidents, First Lady and First Ladies, Ministers, Delegates, ladies and gentlemen, and to welcome you, as I have this land, at this moment, and in this place and at this time. A phrase written by recently deceased Venezuelan writer, Arturo Uslar Pietri, who lived the twentieth century and saw the advent of the twenty-first, perhaps expresses all that I wish to say: "When the road reached Carabobo, Bolívar rode ahead and asked much of us." Today, Bolívar is behind us and our obligation and done nothing but grow. We are moving ahead from Carabobo toward the grand future of our Bolivarian integration. Thank you, dear friends.