Fidel Castro being greeted by teachers and students at the Central University of Venezuela during his first visit to the country in 1959, days after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. File photo.
By Dalia Reyes Perera – Jan 26, 2024
On January 23, 1959, just days after the triumph of the Cuban revolution, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro visited Venezuela. The leader’s stay corresponded to a historical debt Cuba had with Venezuela.
According to Professor Rubén Rodríguez Echevarría, president of the Venezuela Chapter of the José Martí Cultural Society, “we had a historical debt with the Venezuelan people. In 1958, when Fidel was in Sierra Maestra, Radio Continental of Venezuela disseminated to the Americas the voice of Radio Rebelde and our military reports. It was an invaluable help from the dear people of Venezuela to tell the truths of the Cuban process. In 1958 Venezuelans also created the One Bolívar Campaign for the Sierra, through which they contributed six tons of weapons for the struggle. Also Manuel Urrutia—who later betrayed the Revolution—but who was destined to be the first President of the Republic for just a few months, was protected by the Venezuelan people and by the 26th of July Movement here to not just save his life but also to move him to Cuba after the Revolution triumphed. On January 27, 1958, the March of the Torches in honor of the birthday of Marti was held in Caracas, similar to the one that was held in Cuba.”
Rodríguez Echevarría recalled that “Fidel’s visit to Venezuela in January 1959 was the first he made as Head of the Revolution, but it was not his first visit to Venezuela. In 1948 he was in Bogota as a student leader—remember the Bogotazo [revolt that took place after the assassination of liberal Colombian presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán], and Fidel was one of the insurgents defending the democratic process in Colombia. Then he moved to Venezuela. Of course, in 1959, grateful for the support of his Venezuelan brothers and sisters, the first visit he made after the triumph of the Revolution was to Venezuela.”
It was an unscripted whirlwind visit that shook Venezuela and that broke protocols, as Fidel met with representatives of various spheres of society, students, workers, politicians, exiles, and people who greeted him everywhere he went.
Professor Rodríguez Echevarría stated that according to the press reports of the time, “Fidel arrives in Venezuela on January 23 with the features that always characterized him: he was always like a hurricane. He arrives at the Maiquetia Airport, breaks protocols, gets on a truck with the bearded men that went from the Guaira Highway to Caracas, to our Embassy; at another moment he breaks protocol again, escapes from his Personal Security, climbs the Avila [Waraira Repano], the mountain range that surrounds Caracas. Afterwards he meets with the government authorities who were avoiding him, because in fact he had not been invited by them but rather by the Venezuelan people. H speaks with students, Dominican exiles, leaders of the Venezuelan Parliament. He went to the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) and gave a magnificent speech before the young people.”
The professor added that 40 years later, Fidel returned to the Central Hall of the UCV and “as he himself said, it was another Fidel, and it was another people, another city, but it was the same historical moment, it was a cardinal speech for America, and it was there that he uttered the historical phrase ‘A revolution can only be the daughter of culture and ideas.'”
It was precisely the Venezuelan people who welcomed Fidel with all the love that the sons and daughters of Venezuela know how to give.
According to Rodríguez Echevarría, “His stay in Venezuela in 1959 was like an earthquake, it was beautiful, he recognized that he was very happy about it, because, as he said, the Cuban people is our [Venezuela’s] natural people and hence he was directly grateful. But in an apparently foreign land like Venezuela, to feel so many signs of joy, fervor, gratitude, support, company, support for the Cuban Revolution was a stellar moment that reminded him of Venezuelans’ love for José Martí during his stay in 1881 in this beloved homeland.”
The president of the José Martí Cultural Society described that Fidel “arrived at the O’Leary Plaza filled with people. There he spoke of the history of Venezuela, of Martí, of Bolívar, of the struggles of the Venezuelan people, and thanked them for allowing him to stay in their country a year after the fall of the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez.”
“Undoubtedly, it was an incredible event, as spectacular as the entrance of the Caravan of Freedom to Havana on January 8, because the two capitals were flooded with the humble, the peasant, the poor teacher, the common people, in addition to the political, culture, economic and educational personalities who accompanied him,” Rodríguez Echevarría continued. “I compare it with the joy of the entry of the rebels into Havana on January 8 just a few days before this event, they were two triumphal entries of our giant of America into the most volcanic capitals of American history.”
For Fidel, his stay in Venezuela, just a few days after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, was an enriching visit, since in his opinion “it was a beautiful symbiosis,” the professor said. “Fidel had to return to Venezuela, it was necessary for him to come to get a second wind, to start the Revolution that marked a milestone in Latin American history. He was compelled to come to Venezuela to thank the people, to be nourished by the people, by Venezuelan history. He stopped to talk to the people in the streets into the early hours of the morning; he ate with the poorest, he shared with the poorest; he lived in Caracas at night, at dawn; he climbed the Waraira Repano; and was welcomed by the people in the O’Leary Plaza. Clearly for the revolutionary forces in Venezuela his presence was very important, as well as for the Dominican exiles who welcomed him with affection. Fidel’s presence was nourishing for the Venezuelan, Dominican, Puerto Rican revolutionaries and the Cuban exiles who remained in Venezuela and who had fought since the 26th of July Movement. Of course, this visit impacted the people of Cuba and its great leader who inhaled this air to undertake the great tasks that lay ahead. It was also decisive for the great events that took place later in the continent and the rest of the world.”
Such was Fidel’s stay in Venezuela in January 1959, a visit that shook Venezuela and that strengthened the roots of love between two of our American homelands, the homelands of Martí and Bolívar.
