IN the past few hours, eminent French intellectual and journalist Ignacio Ramonet has presided over a further three launches of his book Cien horas con Fidel (One Hundred Hours with Fidel), at venues of particular symbolic value for our people: in the Birán area of Holguin province; outside the replica of Fidel’s birthplace, and at the former Saturnine Lora Civil Hospital in Santiago de Cuba where, on October 16, 1953, the leader of the Revolution gave his famous speech "History Will Absolve Me."

Last Thursday, after visiting the Ernesto Guevara memorial in Santa Clara, where the remains of the national hero and his comrades from the guerrilla war in Bolivia are located, Ramonet presented his work at the Central University of Las Villas.

According to correspondent Alexis Rojas, over 500 people attended the meeting in Birán with the editor of Parisian monthly Le Monde Diplomatique, who stressed that the real author of his book was his interviewee.

In Santa Clara, Ramonet stated that visiting the mausoleum was "an emotional experience because Che represents an extraordinary symbol for mine and successive generations, even today," reported correspondent José Antonio Fulgeiras.

The author added that during the writing of the book, Fidel had confirmed that Che was the political figure who had impressed him the most throughout his life, and provided details of his revolutionary qualities, including how they had met and struck up a friendship.