We asked the current Attorney General of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, for an account of what we already knew had been, this Friday afternoon, a rich and relaxed exchange with Cuban President Díaz-Canel.

And that was the launching pad that launched multiple reflections marked by firmness, loyalty, and emotions.

Photo: Revolution Studios

"For me it is very pleasing, it is a great honor that the President, the Cuban Head of State, has received us and we have been able to exchange on all the issues that are on the table, I would say."

Thus, from the sincerity and typical passion of a man who likes to protect what is fair, who makes words pass through his poetic heart and then share them as they grow in the wind or on paper, Tarek William Saab spoke to us

From the Havana Convention Center, to where the jurist had come to take part in the closing of the XV International Meeting of Criminal Sciences and the III Legality, Law and Society Event, he had held -shortly before the closing of the conclaves- a fraternal meeting with the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and president of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.

Aware that the dialogue between the dignitary and the Bolivarian friend had taken place, we asked Tarek William for an account of what we already knew had been, this Friday afternoon, a rich and relaxed exchange.

And that was the launching pad that launched multiple reflections marked by firmness, loyalty, and emotions.

In order not to lose sight of what we usually call context, the interviewee wanted "first of all, to thank the Cuban State, the Cuban Revolution, the Cuban Prosecutor's Office for always showing this deference to us, to our institution -in this case, in the framework of the XV Meeting of Criminal Sciences that takes place in Havana”.

"In said meeting, he explained, we have presented a paper called Universal History of Human Rights, and the guarantees in the Venezuelan Constitution, within the framework of what the Revolution and the constituent process of 1999 implied."

And when entering the subject related to the fraternal exchange, the Attorney General of Venezuela expressed:

Tarek William said of the Cuban President that, despite his youth, despite the challenge he faced - like President Nicolás Maduro, since both had to succeed "two giants like Fidel and Chávez" - the current president of The largest of the Antilles "has managed in a wise, patient way, to direct the Cuban Revolution to the destiny it has always had: to shine in the struggles of the peoples for their liberation."

Regarding what was discussed, the Venezuelan writer recounted that, as a "preamble", he wanted to convey to his interlocutor "the admiration of my country, of myself, for the Cuban Revolution, for what Fidel has meant in all these decades for a generation like ours, which is the same as Miguel Díaz-Canel”.

Tarek emphasized that he was born in 1962, just like President Nicolás Maduro: “In other words,

.

And we talked about all that;

we talked about what that generation of ours meant to the world, in the struggle;

of what the counterculture that he has faced implied”.

He emphasized that, between them, they addressed the issue of the large transnational communication, propaganda, and military-industrial complexes -even cultural- that are still ahead of them in the battle: "this has happened to our generation: follow the legacy, the example of eternal leaders like Bolívar, like Martí”.

The value that justice entails, according to Tarek William, was part of the content of the meeting.

And "we talked about the importance, obviously, of the issue of culture, of the unity of our young people with the legacy of our ancestors to keep alive -and this is extremely key and strategic- the idea, the spirit of sovereignty, of independence, of understanding that the Cuban, Venezuelan, American, and European peoples can be brothers beyond what their governments mean.”

The writer also made reference to reflections shared during the fraternal exchange, such as the one according to which,

"by not selling us the medicines, selling us ventilators, not selling us vaccines;

and we, both Cuba and Venezuela, were able to avoid that fate”.

“We talked about all this - Tarek William continued detailing -: the subject of geopolitics;

the example of the struggles of the Arab world;

what the left as a vanguard, the true left as a cultural, ideological, political vanguard, meant and still means, as a living presence;

I mean, I think it was an extremely pleasant meeting”.

It was a dialogue in which brotherhood gravitated, said the intellectual: this virtue "will always unite us as nations, and I feel that we still have a beautiful road to go in the case of the institutions that I represent, and the Cuban Prosecutor's Office ”.

Regarding the above, the Attorney General of Venezuela stated: “We signed the second cooperation agreement between the two institutions in February, and yesterday we signed the action plan;

In other words, what we are going to do between the year 2023 and the year 2025, which is to further strengthen the pedagogical and educational ties between the two prosecutors, and the visits, the training to get ahead.

A pleasure to welcome brother @TarekWiliamSaab, Attorney General of our beloved Venezuela, who participated in an international event on Criminal Sciences, Legality, Law and Society.

We talked about the challenges of the Cuban and Venezuelan Revolution, culture, communication, justice.

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— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) March 18, 2023

—In Cuba we always remember you as one of the politicians, social activists and also one of the youngest writers and intellectuals who accompanied Chávez since the Bolivarian Revolution came to power for the first time in December 1998.

So many years later, what is the challenge facing the Bolivarian homeland, the Chavista homeland, in such a complex regional context?

—Imagine how impressive that could be: the path, I would say the path traced, not only in that epic victory that was the beginning of the democratic Revolution of the left on the continent.

Let us remember that Chávez won in 1998 against all odds, and that was the impetus for Lula to win, for Kirchner to win in Argentina, Correa in Ecuador, or Ortega to be re-elected in Nicaragua, for Lugo to win in Paraguay, Zelaya in Honduras .

That was a tremendous swell.

—…and Evo…

—An Evo Morales in Bolivia, which we are seeing now, again.

That sustained recovery.

But I would say that the precedent was the rebellion of February 4, 1992, where I had to be one of Hugo Chávez's defense lawyers in prison;

therefore I would say that, if we go back to those thirty, twenty years in perspective with the challenges of today, I would say that they remain the same, but with the strength of a Venezuela, of a consolidated Bolivarian revolution, with the awareness of our much higher people, because it has withstood extreme situations, such as the early and surprising death of President Hugo Chávez in 2013.

At that point in the interview, Tarek William recalled how it was that, before the physical disappearance of the Bolivarian Commander, "

, and I would say that the intelligence, the strategy as a leader that President Nicolás Maduro has had, and the team that has been accompanying him, achieved it: overcome that great void that the death of Hugo Chávez obviously left.”

“

.”

It had to be done, denounced the writer, "in the midst of even atrocious circumstances, such as resisting the Executive Order launched by Obama, where he placed us as a supposedly extraordinary threat against the United States of America."

Venezuelans had to "resist and fight the neo-Nazi government, with the 960 unilateral coercive measures that Donald Trump launched against our people, resist and defeat the assassination attempt on President Nicolás Maduro."

The assassination attempt, Tarek said, which occurred on August 4, 2018, was after the Bolivarian government had been able to defeat the "so-called guarimbas - which were embryos of the civil war of 2017, during April, May, June and July, and which caused a huge number of deaths and injuries, as a result of the attempt to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro by violent means.

Seeing that they did not achieve any of the above - the jurist pointed out - "then they dropped the atomic bombs."

He said it in reference to “

When I tell you massive, it is that they have prevented us from marketing our products;

sell our oil to who could be our direct buyers on the planet, our gas, our iron, our natural wealth, to starve us to death”.

The purpose was, said the intellectual, to lead Venezuela to torture, to extreme suffering and from there to seek a change of government: “We have faced these challenges and we have been overcoming them;

we have been defeating, step by step, each one of these attempts to take Venezuela by storm and turn it into a US colony, which was what it was before President Chávez came to power”.

“These are challenges that are on the way, that are underway, and that I am convinced that we are going to achieve, little by little, be winning;

and fortunately having Cuba as a solidary ally, always loyal to the Venezuelan Revolution, to our country and our people”.

—In your sensitive heart, of a writer, of a man who loves words, who has even written books that we have read, what place does Cuba occupy?

—Cuba is my second homeland.

Tarek William told us that he has shared this truth of his on several occasions, “even in the special period (difficult moment experienced by the Caribbean island in the nineties of the 20th century) I visited Cuba once;

and after the victory of President Chávez I have not stopped coming”.

He has done it motivated by the Book Fairs, the meetings with Cuban writers, or the events of solidarity with our peoples.

"Since 2016 I have come to the international meetings of Criminal Sciences, and it is like being not only at home: here one feels the powerful energy of a Revolution, of a people that has a world history."

It was inevitable that the Venezuelan intellectual would evoke his book Los niños del misfortune.

He recalled that it is "a tribute to the Henry Reeve Brigade, and a tribute to the Cuban Revolution, to its top leader Fidel."

Regarding the saga of that text that saw the light, its author said that it was surprising to be in Pakistan and speak with young Pakistanis, and name Cuba for example, and that they say: Fidel, Viva Fidel, Viva Cuba, and that they knew in a place so far away - which at that time was devastated by an earthquake similar to the one that shook Turkey today - "that Cuba was the only country, the only country in the world that had approximately 3,000 doctors assisting, supporting the Pakistanis."

"So, there are many things that have united us: my brotherhood with Fidel, my long friendship of decades."

Although Tarek told us that he could not personally meet the Commander in Chief in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, he acknowledged that one felt that "he was a brother."

In 1999 the young writer began to treat Fidel closely: «He always came to Cuba.

Petrocaribe was founded in Venezuela, in the Anzoátegui State, when I was governor of the Anzoátegui State, and Fidel stayed in my home state for approximately three days, sharing with us;

and obviously, you ask me about my heart as a writer, I name you Los niños del misfortune because that was a complete homage to what this nation is, and when we presented the book, surprisingly I saw Chávez and Fidel there accompanying me in the presentation of the book, and they had words in that presentation, on February 2, 2006;

therefore Cuba will always be for me, apart from a second Homeland, a source of inspiration to fight, to dream, to resist and get ahead”.

—A few days ago we were in Venezuela accompanying the Army General and leader of the Cuban Revolution, Raúl Castro Ruz, and you were there at the Teresa Carreño Theater in Caracas.

It was a really exciting moment, to see a group of leaders, friends of Chávez arrive, and among them was Cuba...

—And I would say that what Raúl said remains for history, what he read is a lecture not only on loyalty and solidarity but also on what Venezuela means for Cuba, what Chávez means for Cuba, what it means today, Also for Cuba, the leadership of Nicolás Maduro, who has never allowed the course of unity of our peoples to be twisted beyond any adverse circumstance.

“It was a moment, that act, that closing event, exceptionally beautiful, because seeing so many leaders, six presidents, world delegations recognize what Chávez has been and what he will continue to be, is an unforgettable tribute to our country. , which we will always be grateful for”.

(Taken from Presidency)