Summit of the Americas

She was an important personality of the Cuban revolutionary movement, Heroine of the Republic of Cuba and founding president of the Federation of Cuban Women in 1960. With the name of war Deborah, she was a notable clandestine fighter under the orders of Frank País García, especially during the uprising of November 30, 1956 in Santiago from Cuba. He joined the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra when her life was in extreme danger in the urban insurrection. Chemical engineer, she fulfilled functions in the exercise of that profession.

From 1959 she was the main driver of the political and state actions to materialize the full access of the woman. From young she assumed revolutionary political positions, participating actively in student demonstrations after the coup d'etat of March 10th, 1952. She became inseparable collaborator of the revolutionary leader Frank País, militating in the organizations founded by him in the fight against Batista’s dictatorship, until forming part of the then National Revolutionary Action, its members joined the ranks of the 26 de Julio Movement.

Inserted in the preparations for the new stage of struggle and after finishing a postgraduate course in the United States, guided by the Direction of the 26th of July Movement, she stopped in Mexico to meet with Fidel Castro and receive his instructions and messages for the fighters who were clandestinely in Cuba.

War of Liberation

Under the direct orders of Frank, she participated in the armed uprising of Santiago de Cuba on November 30, 1956, in support of the Granma yacht expeditioners, and her house became, after this relevant action, the headquarters of the revolutionary movement in Santiago de Cuba.

In the most difficult moments of the guerrilla led by Fidel Castro, in February 1957 she met Frank País, Faustino Pérez and other members of the National Directorate of the 26th of July Movement to coordinate support from the plains, and lead New York Times reporter Herbert Matthews to Fidel's presence. The publication of the interview that the journalist made to the leader of the guerrilla would overturn Batista’s propaganda based on the supposed death of Fidel.

As a member of the National Directorate of the Movement July 26, shortly before being assassinated Frank País, she was appointed by him as Provincial Coordinator of the clandestine organization in Oriente province, a task she performed with particular ability and courage until, in the face of stalking and the constant persecution, she joined the Rebel Army in June 1958, becoming a guerrilla woman of the Second Frank País Second Front and effective coordinator of the clandestine movement of the East with the territory of the Front.

Frank País García Second Front

Vilma Espín's contacts with the guerrillas began with the meeting of the National Directorate in February 1957, which was led by Frank Pais, who was already assessing the revolutionary qualities of the young clandestine fighter.

On July 20, 1957, Vilma Espín, ascended to the leadership of the struggle as provincial coordinator of the MR-26-7, having the great responsibility of supplying the existing guerrilla fronts at those times.

From here, she moves, manages, organizes and directs different actions to this end, establishing for that a messaging system with the enthusiastic and determined participation of other women and men of the territory, as well as others that today make up the provinces of Holguín , Guantánamo and Bayamo.

With the death of Frank País it is assumed the structure designed by him, one of which was that the provincial coordinators form part of the National Directorate, thus Vilma becomes a member of the top leadership of the fight. For the date she traveled in many occasions to the guerrilla territories, to participate in important and decisive missions, among them the meetings carried out in the first months of year 1958.

On June 22, Raul Castro, leader of the second guerrilla front Frank País García, issued the order No. 30 that determined the capture of Americans, known as an antiaircraft operation, on which occasion Vilma rises as an interpreter of the conversations of the guerrilla leader with the consul because her knowledge of the English language.

Her performance allowed her to be protagonist of this unprecedented event and above all to achieve the understanding among the participants, through an efficient communication, where the consuls could know the magnitude of what was happening in the area, with the support of their government.

It is meritorious to emphasize that this fact was also part of the turn that from that moment had the revolutionary life of Vilma, because during her stay in this territory it was decided her permanence like guerrillera and Delegate of the 26 of July Movement before the Second Front, attending fundamentally the supply work. That way it happened to comprise of the maximum direction of the fight in the territory.

She began her guerilla life when the beginning of the transformations for the consolidation of the guerrilla front , that got to be constituted in Insurgent State and in which she remained by six months. In relation to the guerrilla she once said:

"... guarantee to die fighting, not to die hunted. It was tremendous to die hunted

Her participation moved between military and civil life fundamentally:

• Her presence in the constitution of new columns.

• Equitable distribution of supplies, based on the campaign of austerity in the use of funds of the Revolution

• Strengthening of the Departments that formed the front organization, many Second Front combatants rose through her management.

• Contributed to the supply of explosives to the armaments factory, managed the formula for the manufacture of pump.

• Participated actively in the encryption and decryption of keys used as an effective means of communication.

• The Peasant Congress in Arms took place on September 21, 1958, Vilma in the presidency witnessed the debates and the commitments made from an indestructible unit with the peasantry.

• The educational development provided for the political instruction of the officers and, for this reason, the "José Martí" school for army teachers was created in September, ascribed to the Central Command. Vilma was part of the faculty.

• Together with Raul they were sponsors of bridal events held in the territory by the Department of Justice.

The taking of her beloved city required of important meetings, these were carried out in La Rinconada, Central America, Tamarindo, central Oriente and the one that was coordinated in the Sanctuary of El Cobre that didn’t took place due to the treason of the general Eulogio Cantillo . Then she was present in the Escandel where the surrender was agreed upon. Years later, when she was asked about the Rebel Army, she said:

"... it was a school, an immense laboratory where the new social relations and the principles of human equality, of dignity on which our Revolution was founded, began. What we aspired for the whole country, began to be formed in the mountains "

Revolution in power

When the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1st, 1959 she led the unification of the feminine organizations constituting the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) on August 23th, 1960, to whose organization, from its maximum direction, consecrated with singular effort until the last minute of her life. She integrated the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba from its foundation in 1965, condition in which she was ratified in all its Congresses. In 1980, on the occasion of the Second Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, she was elected alternate member of the Political Bureau, and in the third she was promoted to effective member of that instance of direction, responsibility that she carried out until 1991. She was Deputy to the National Assembly since its first legislature and member of the Council of State since its constitution.

Since its creation, Vilma chaired the National Commission for Prevention and Social Care, and the Commission for Children, Youth and Equality of Women, of the National Assembly of People's Power.

Due to his outstanding merits, she received many national and international decorations, titles and orders, among them the honorary title of Heroin of the Republic of Cuba.

She died on June 18, 2007 in Havana due to the aggravation of a disease that had been affecting her for some time. Its remains rest in the Mausoleum of the Second Frank País Second Front, a historical place located in the foothills of the Mícara mountain, inaugurated by the Cuban President, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, on March 11, 1978, on the occasion of the XX Anniversary of the creation of the Second Front, founded and directed by today General of the Army and Minister of the FAR, Raúl Castro Ruz, during the struggle in the Sierra Maestra.

Decorations

The incorporation and performance of Vilma Espín in the student struggles, clandestine struggle, the Rebel Army, her unconditional support for the revolutionary process, the extensive work deployed for the equality of women and the rights of all men and women at national and Internationally, made her worthy of important national and international decorations.

One of the collections that today treasures the Memorial Vilma Espín Guillois is the one that contains these decorations, the same ones were transferred by the National Direction of the Federation of Cuban Women.

Title Heroin of the Republic

Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, by agreement of the Council of State, gave her the Title of the Republic Heroine, on December 2, 2001, in an event held in the Plaza de la Revolución Antonio Maceo de Santiago de Cuba, on the occasion of commemorating the 45th anniversary of the landing of the Yacht Granma. Together with Vilma were awarded the title Melba Hernández and Delsa E. Pueblas Viltre (Teté) and was also given this time the Order "Playa Giron".

Order "Ana Betancourt"

At the II Congress of the Federation of Cuban Women, celebrated on November 28, 1974, the Federation of Cuban Women institutes the "Ana Betancourt" Medal, and it was imposed on Vilma on August 23, 1975 by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, in an act celebrated by the XV Anniversary of the foundation of the Federation of Cuban Women, in the theater of the Central of Workers of Cuba "Lázaro Peña". On this occasion, 32 women, including Leocadia Araujo Pérez, Clementina Serra, Gloria Cuadras, Isabel Rielo, Melba Hernández and Celia Sánchez Manduley, were awarded this medal. his design.

Order "Francisco de Miranda"

This international award was given to Vilma in March 2001, during a visit to Venezuela. President Hugo Chávez honors her with the Order "Francisco de Miranda" First Class, on the 23rd of that month in Caracas at the Miraflores Palace. This order is a decoration of Venezuela created in 1943 under the Presidency of Isaías Medina Angarita, destined to reward the services made to the science, to the progress of the country and to the outstanding merit.

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It is a revolutionary process that began to take shape since the end of the nineteenth century, when the frustrated attempt on the part of the mambises, against the Spanish regime, to achieve the Independence of Cuba, in which the Liberating Army had an important participation. Leaving this example of patriotism and courage, which were inherited by the young generation of the mid-twentieth century, led by Fidel Castro, commanding the Rebel Army and, driving a new strategy of armed struggle against the dictatorship of the moment, led to the Revolutionary triumph of 1959, from which, for more than 50 years, the Cuban people's capacity for resistance, the intelligence and the ability of the revolutionary leadership, and the correctness of the struggle of this country for its independence.

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He was born in Sabaneta, July 28, 1954 and died in Caracas, March 5, 2013). He was a military and Venezuelan politician and President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela since 1999 until his death. His profound ideas and socialist thoughts and integrationist character inherited from the thought of Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda made him the undisputed leader of the Bolivarian Revolution.

A widespread popular sentiment in favor of substantive changes in the conduct of state affairs became evident on December 6, 1998, when 56.24% of voters elected Chavez as Constitutional President of the then Republic of Venezuela. This fact was considered by respected analysts as one of the most important achievements in the contemporary political history of Venezuela. With the elections of July 30, 2000, Chávez Frías crystallized the constituent political project and was re-legitimized as President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with 59.5% of the votes.

In the presidential elections of December 3, 2006 he was re-elected president with a wide advantage, obtaining more than seven million votes (62.84%) compared to the 36.90% achieved by opposition candidate Manuel Rosales who recognized the result that same night. In October 2012, Chávez again won his country's presidential election, this time defeating Henrique Capriles, governor of the state of Miranda and candidate of the opposition coalition, with 55% of the vote.

Hugo Chávez died on March 5, 2013 at the Military Hospital of Venezuela due to a cancer that had been affecting him since 2011.

His death was received by the people with great commotion, while the government and his relatives received messages of condolence from all parts of the world.

The Chavez-Cuban bond began even before Chavez was elected president. Chávez's first visit to Cuba came in December 1994, when Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, in a gesture of courage, accepted the invitation from Cuba by the Historian of the City, Eusebio Leal Spengler Havana and was full of dreams and convictions and, above all, with the eagerness to begin to build what became an indestructible friendship to the test of political pirouettes.

Since putting his feet on the slab at José Martí International Airport, he said: "I do not deserve this honor, I aspire to deserve it someday in the months and years to come."

During his presidential term, between 1999 and 2013, the year of his death, relations between Venezuela and Cuba were a priority for the Chávez government, which were strengthened through the signing of several agreements and agreements that helped establish a bilateral bridge between the two nations.

Promoter of Latin American integration

Chavez has promoted Latin American integration more than any other Venezuelan president in recent years, surpassing the projects of other pro-Latin American leaders. Policies such as the sale of oil under preferential payment conditions through integration mechanisms such as Petrocaribe, the promotion of cooperation programs in poor nations such as Haiti and the promotion of integration spaces such as CELAC or UNASUR, have been valued to consider him as one of the political leaders of Latin America.

Together with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, Chávez promoted the defeat of the Free Trade Area for the Americas (ALCA) during the Summit of the Americas held in November 2005 in Mar del Plata, as well as they decided to establish the UNASUR as the consummation of the dream of Bolívar, Sucre and San Martín to see South America united by the leftist governments of Rafael Correa, Evo Morales, Cristina Fernández and José Mujica.

In April 2011 Chavez and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos serve as mediators to the return of former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, deposed by a military coup in June 2009.
Relations with Africa

During the I South Africa - Africa Summit, held in Tripoli, Libya on 31 August 2009, Chavez, referring to the integration between the two zones, said:

Both are part of the new geopolitical map of the world, a world that must be multipolar or no world for anyone, enough of unipolarity and imperialism in our peoples ... I firmly believe that there will be no future for Latin America without Africa, As there will be no future for Africa without Latin America.

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He was a military and politician whose revolutionary campaigns were decisive for the independence of Argentina, Chile and Peru. Together with Simón Bolívar, he was recognized as the liberator of America for his important contributions to the self-determination of a large part of Spanish America.

In April 1784, when he was six years old, he arrived with his family at Cadiz, Spain and settled in the city of Malaga. He began his studies in the Royal Seminary of Nobles of Madrid and in the School of Temporalities of Malaga in 1786. He later entered the Spanish army and made his military career in the Murcia Regiment. He fought in North Africa, then against the Napoleonic domination of Spain and participated in the battles of Bailén and La Albuera.

At the age of 34, in 1812, after having reached the rank of lieutenant colonel, and after a short staying in London, he returned to Buenos Aires, where he placed himself at the service of the independence of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata.

He was entrusted with the creation of the Regiment of Grenadiers a Caballo that had his baptism of fire in the battle of San Lorenzo. Later he was ordered the head of the Army of the North, in replacement of the general Manuel Belgrano. There he conceived his continental plan, realizing that the patriot triumph in the war of Spanish-American independence would only be achieved by the elimination of all the royalist nuclei that were the centers of power loyal to maintaining the colonial system in America.

Named governor of Cuyo, based in the city of Mendoza, he launched his project, after organizing the Army of the Andes, crossed the cordillera of the same name and led the liberation of Chile in the battles of Chacabuco and Maipú.

Using a fleet organized and financed by Chile, and after receiving instructions from the Chilean Senate, he attacked the Spanish power center in South America, the city of Lima, and declared Peru's independence in 1821. He finished his arms race after Produced the Interview of Guayaquil with Simón Bolívar, in 1822, where he ceded his army and the goal of ending the liberation of Peru.

He left for Europe, where he died on August 17, 1850.

In Argentina he is recognized as the Father of the Fatherland and the Liberator and is valued as the main hero and hero of the national pantheon. In Peru he is also remembered as the Founder of Freedom of Peru, the Founder of the Republic, the Generalissimo of Arms and the Liberator of the country. The Chilean Army recognizes the degree of captain.

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It is a nation located in the north of the South American region, sharing borders to the west and southwest with Colombia, to the southeast with Brazil and to the east with Guyana. It also has maritime borders with the islands of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba (dependents of Holland ) On the facade of the Caribbean Sea and on the Atlantic with Trinidad and Tobago. In addition it has under its dependence many islands scattered in the Caribbean Sea, being greater the Island of Margarita; very away from the mainland there is the Island of Aves, of great strategic importance as it increases the continental shelf of the country.

During the pre-Columbian era, its territory was home to important tribal groups of Amerindians such as the Caribs, Venezuelan aborigines occupied the mountainous region, the plains and Guayana. After being sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1498, a process of colonization began shortly afterwards and then a process of cultural mestizaje.

Venezuela was the first country in Latin America to proclaim its independence from the Spanish Crown, a process that was consolidated with the Battle of Carabobo. After a long chapter of civil conflicts, the Republic found its way towards the modernization of the hand of notoriously authoritarian governments.

In the middle of the 20th century, the struggle for a democratic system began, which was consolidated after the overthrow of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez in 1958. Due to the oil boom, Venezuela experienced a period of high economic growth, which was interrupted by the crisis Energy crisis of the 1980s, provoking a period of political and social instability alternated with financial ups and downs until in 1999, when a former member of the Armed Forces of that country, called Hugo Chavez, reached the presidency beginning a process of changes and socio-political reforms and economic policies whose main examples are the Constituent Assembly of 1999 and the transition to the so-called "Socialism of the 21st Century" started in 2005, whic many recognize as the Bolivarian Revolution.

Venezuela is a tropical country, which has common geographical features with other nations of the American continent, as well as Africa, Asia and Oceania, which are located between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, both in the Northern Hemisphere and in the South. Its location favors that the continental and insular territory presents varied tropical climates, with great natural potential of renewable solar energy, expressed in exuberant and varied vegetation in hot and humid environments.

It presents a great physiographic diversity, originated by the occurrence of 27 climatic zones, 12 types of natural vegetation, 23 types of relief and 38 large geological units, with a soil cover that has a wide variety of characteristics and qualities.

With a height of 979 m above sea level, the Angel Falls are the highest waterfall in the world and one of the most recognized and revered symbols of Venezuela.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is located in the north of Ecuador, on the north coast of South America. The continental territory is between 0 ° 38 '53'' and 12 ° 11'46'' north latitude and 59 ° 47'30'' and 73 ° 23' west longitude. It limits to the North, with the Caribbean Sea or Sea of the Antilles, with an extension of 2,813 kms; To the south, with the Federative Republic of Brazil with 2,000 km of border; To the east, with the Atlantic Ocean and the Republic of Guyana with which it has a frontier line of 743 kms; And to the west, with the Republic of Colombia in an extension of 2,050 km.

Its continental shelf is located to the north and northeast of the country, covering approximately 18% of the total continental area with a maritime presence of 860,000 km2. In general, it comprises a wide coastal strip of low relief, between 0 and 100 meters above sea level. It is located between the Caribbean Sea and the Cordillera de la Costa. It presents three widened depressions of importance: the Lake of Maracaibo (to the west), the Deare de Unare (towards the central end northeast) and the region of the Orinoco Delta (to the east) of low lands and muddies. In the coastal zone are the most important ports of the country: La Guaira, Maracaibo, Puerto Cabello and Puerto la Cruz.

These extensive territories are expressed in a compact continental area, whose maximum distance is 1,993 km, in an East-West direction and 1,271 km, in a North-South direction, which contributes to facilitate the integration and internal cohesion. It is articulated with wide coastlines, which reach in the Caribbean Sea a sea front of 2,183 km in length, from Castilletes to the Promontory of Paria; Is of irregular form and is constituted by numerous gulfs and bays between which they emphasize Triste and Cariaco gulfs and more than 314 islands, keys and islets of Venezuelan sovereignty that arrive by the North to the Island of Birds.

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José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Ponte and Palacios Blanco, known as Simón Bolívar was born in Caracas on July 24, 1783 and died in Santa Marta, on December 17, 1830. He was a Venezuelan military and politician, founder of the republics of Greater Colombia and Bolivia. He was one of the most outstanding figures of American emancipation against Spain. It contributed to inspire and concrete decisively the independence of present-day Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela and the reorganization of Peru.

In 1813 he was awarded the honorary title of Libertador by the Cabildo of Merida in Venezuela, which, after being ratified in Caracas that same year, was associated with his name.

The problems to carry out his plans were so frequent that he even affirmed that he was the man of difficulties in a letter addressed to General Francisco de Paula Santander in 1825.

He participated in the founding of Gran Colombia, a nation he tried to consolidate as a great political and military confederation in America, of which he was president. Bolivar is considered by his actions and ideas the Man of America and a figure of the universal history.

He left a political legacy in the Latin American countries, some of which have turned him into an object of nationalist veneration. He has received honors in different parts of the world through statues, monuments, parks, squares, etc. His ideas gave rise to the political current of Bolivianism.