Message from President Chávez to the Venezuelan people

"I hope for much from time. Its immense belly contains more hopes than past events and future events have to be superior to past ones." Simón Bolívar.

Time and its rhythms, time and its mandates, time and its designs, as Ecclesiastes notes, bring me today to read this communiqué to the Venezuelan nation and the international public, as attentive as they have been to the situation of my health since it began to show signs of deterioration some weeks ago.

After the excellent tour that we made of Brazil and Ecuador this past June 5 to 7, we arrived in Cuba and its solidarity of always to conclude the event with a review and the signing of new cooperation agreements.

I confess that, from the point of view of my health, I had only planned to have a check of my left knee, already almost recovered from that injury in early May.

Throughout my life I have been committing one of those errors that could perfectly well fit into that category which some philosopher called "fundamental errors": neglecting my health and, moreover, being very remiss in terms of medical checks and treatment. Without any doubt, what a fundamental error! And above all in a revolutionary with certain modest responsibilities like those that the revolution has been imposing on me for more than 30 years.

However, already in Havana in the evening of Wednesday, June 8, there we were again with Fidel, with that giant who has already exceeded all times and all places. Certainly it wasn’t difficult for Fidel to realize the discomforts which, beyond my left knee, I had been trying to conceal for a number of weeks. He questioned me almost like a doctor, I confessed almost like a patient, and that night all the immense medical advances that the Cuban Revolution has achieved for its people and a good part of the world were placed totally at our disposition, with the initiation of a combination of examinations and diagnoses.

It was thus that a strange formation in the pelvic region was detected and warranted an emergency operation given the risk of a generalized infection. That was Saturday, June 11, in the very early hours of the morning, a few hours before the announcement which was read to the country and to the world, and which has prompted so many demonstrations of solidarity that I am touched at every second.

After that operation which, in principal, managed to drain the abscess, an intensive treatment with antibiotics began, which was effective and led to a notable improvement. However, and in spite of my generally positive progress, throughout the process of draining and treatment, some suspicions arose as to the presence of other cell formations not previously detected.

And so another series of special cyto-chemical, cytological, microbiological and anatomic studies immediately began, which confirmed the existence of an abscessed tumor presenting carcinogenic cells, which made a second operation necessary, in order to totally remove the aforementioned tumor.

It was major surgery, but without complications, after which I have continued making satisfactory progress, while receiving complementary treatment to combat the various types of cells found and thus continue along the road to my full recovery.

Meanwhile, I have been and am being kept informed and in command of the actions of the Bolivarian government, I am in constant communication with the Vice President, compañero Elías Jaua and my entire government team.

I am infinitely grateful for the numerous and enthusiastic demonstrations of solidarity which I have received from the Venezuelan people and other sister peoples, as well as the heads of state and government of countless countries in the world, with the conviction that all of that love, all of that solidarity, constitute the most sublime energy which is promoting and will promote my will to win this new battle which life has placed before us, and, in a very special way, I thank the Cuban people, the Cuban nation, Fidel, Raúl, all this medical legion which has placed itself at the forefront of this battle in a veritably sublime manner.

However, I have also been very aware of a certain degree of anguish and uncertainty which, throughout these days, these nights, has been running through the body and soul of the Venezuelan nation. I believe that beyond manipulative attempts on the part of certain well known sectors, those sentiments were and are inevitable, and are part of human nature itself, this being surrounded, moreover, by circumstances which frame it and often shake it, as is occurring in this case.

From the very first moment I assumed full responsibility in terms of ensuring the strict veracity of the bulletins to be transmitted, fundamentally for two sets of reasons: in the first place, the medical-scientific reason and, in second place, and in a very specially careful way from the very depths of my soul and conscience, the humane reason, the reason of love, to be more precise, the reason of love!

We have already talked a bit about the first; in other words, the medical reason. It has been a slow and careful process of approximation and diagnosis, of advances and discoveries throughout various stages, during which rigorous scientific procedures have been implemented which did not admit any haste or pressure of any kind. The supreme guiding principle sustaining this powerful reason is full scientific verification, beyond the indications and suspicions that were appearing.

And, in relation to the reason of love, I am now obliged to talk to you from the most intimate part of myself. At this moment, I am remembering the 4th of February of that year of turmoil, 1992. That day, I had no alternative but to talk to Venezuela from my decline, from a road that I felt was dragging me towards a bottomless abyss. As from a dark cavern in my soul the "for now," burst out and then I sank.

Right now those fateful hours of April 11, 2002 also come into my mind. Then, as well, I sent that message to my beloved Venezuelan people, written from the Turiamo Naval Base where I was a prisoner, an overthrown and imprisoned president. It was like a song of pain, shouted from the depths of another abyss, which I felt was swallowing me in its throat and I was sinking and sinking.

Now, in this new time of difficulties, and above all since Fidel Castro himself in person, the Fidel of the Moncada Garrison, the Fidel of the Granma yacht, the very same Fidel of the Sierra Maestra, the giant of always, came to tell me the harsh news of the carcinogenic discovery, I have begun to ask my Lord Jesus, the God of my fathers, Simón Bolívar would say; to the Mantle of the Virgin, as my mother Elena would say; the spirits of the savannah, as Florentino Coronado would say, to grant me the possibility of talking to you, not from another abysmal path, not from a dark cavern or a night without stars. Now I would like to talk to you from this steep path via which I feel that I am already emerging from another abyss. Now I would like to talk to you with the sun of dawn which I feel illuminating me. I think we have achieved that. Thank you, my God!

And finally, my beloved compatriots; my adored sons and daughters; my dear young compañeros, the girls and boys of my people; my valiant soldiers of always; my brave workers, men and woman; my dear patriotic women; my beloved people, all and one in my heart, I am saying that wanting to talk to you today from my new ascent towards the return has nothing to do with me myself, but with you, a patriotic people, a good people. I did not want nor do I want at all that you should accompany me along paths that sink into an abyss. I invite you to continue with me to scale new summits; there are semeruco trees there in the mountains and a beautiful song to sing which the poet of the people, our dear Alí Primera, keeps singing to us from his eternity: "Let us go then, let us go, with our father Bolívar in the vanguard, to continue climbing the peak of the Chimborazo!"

Thank you, my God! Thank you, my people! Thank you, my life!

Hasta la victoria siempre!

Nosotros venceremos!

Havana, this dear and heroic Havana, June 30, 2011.

From the patria grande, I say to you, from my heart, from all of my soul, from my supreme hope, which is that of a people: "For now and for always we will live and overcome!

Thank you very much! Until my return!