Bolivia’s Morales Finds Fidel Castro “Very Lucid, Very Wise”

“I find him very lucid, very wise, because on my last visit months ago (in 2008) I was pretty worried,” Morales told reporters at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana where he boarded a plane to return to his country shortly before midnight Thursday.

Castro “feels very well, and as always is concerned about health policies, social policies, economic policies,” according to the visitor, who also met with Cuban President Raul Castro, Fidel’s younger brother.

“I’d love to stay here, but I also have commitments in Bolivia and with our neighboring countries. Tomorrow I’ll be in Paraguay with my colleague (Fernando) Lugo,” Morales said.

The Bolivian will visit Paraguay to commemorate with President Lugo the 74th anniversary of the armistice ending the ferocious 1932-1935 Chaco War.

During his brief visit, Morales gave a speech at the University of Havana in which he said that the revolutionary process in Latin America is now “unstoppable.”

He said that in Bolivia the second stage of regional liberation “is irreversible,” using a term coined by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

According to Morales, the “other option” for his country would be a return to the “neoliberal (capitalist) model, the plunder, the privatizing of basic services.”

In an auditorium where Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura was present, he expressed gratitude for the “unconditional cooperation” and “solidarity” of the Havana government.

“If it hadn’t been for Cuba and Venezuela, their cooperation from the first moment, we’d have had many problems in Bolivia,” he said. EFE