(Also
see my directly related entry In
Memoriam, posted on this blog two years ago, on March 5th, 2011.
Another earlier-written entry, Sons Of
Unhappy Caracas, comparing Hugo Chavez to Simon Bolivar, will be posted,
after some updating revision, later on.)
The
Fifth of March has always had a special significance in my life: my father’s
birthday and the day of my grandfather’s death.
…Sixty
years down the road, shouldn’t Stalin be finally treated with an objective
detachment, given to, say, Peter the Great, who was no less ruthless, and, undoubtedly,
had more blood on his hands, proportionately speaking, than Stalin had, by the most
unfriendly accounts? I have no doubt that in the years to come, history herself
will make the necessary corrections…
Today,
yet another figure of world-historical importance has passed away. El Comandante Hugo Chavez is dead. He
may have been hated by a few as much as he was loved by many, but even those
few, if they have any self-respect, must not deny him his greatness.
Ironically,
the younger man will never attend Fidel’s funeral. Dying first has its
privileges: in death Chavez has preceded Fidel. The legend of Chavez is no
longer a legend in the making. Death has put its imprimatur on it for all
eternity.
This
does not mean of course that he now gets a world-historical precedence of some
sort. Nobody can take away Fidel’s laurels. It just means that Latin America’s
history from now on will be resting on three whales: Bolivar. Fidel. Chavez.
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