The Patria Grande Will Never Forget Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez talks with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during a meeting in 2010. Venezuela offered to establish a mediation team to work toward resolving the conflict in the North African state., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Havana. March 6, 2013

The Patria Grande will never forget Chávez

• Political leaders express condolences for the death of the Bolivarian President

PREMIERS and political leaders from a number of countries expressed their sorrow at the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, with messages of condolences for his family and the people of the Bolivarian Republic.

"We are devastated by the death of our brother, compañero Hugo Chávez," stated Bolivian President Evo Morales, his voice breaking with emotion.

“Chávez was a brother in solidarity, a revolutionary comrade, a Latin American who fought for his Patria, for the Patria Grande [Greater Homeland], as Simón Bolívar also did," he added, upon announcing he would travel to Caracas to take part in the funeral rites, and decreeing seven days’ national mourning.

In Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff described Chávez as a "great Latin American whose death leaves a void in the region."

"We recognize in Chávez a great leader and, above all, a friend of Brazil…His death is an irretrievable loss," she affirmed.

Former President and current leader of the Brazilian Partido de los Trabajadores, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, stated, "On this sad day, I am confident that his example of love for the homeland and his dedication to the cause of the least fortunate will continue to illuminate the future of Venezuela."

Argentine President Cristina Fernández also announced she is to travel to Caracas, and decreed three days of national mourning in honor of President Chávez.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa also decreed three days of national mourning for the death of the Venezuelan leader who, he assured, “will continue more alive than ever," and inspiring revolutions in Latin America.

In Nicaragua, a memorial tribute took place in Managua's Plaza de la Revolución, led by President Daniel Ortega and First Lady Rosario Murillo. They affirmed that Chávez will live on forever among the men and women of Latin American and the Caribbean.

Uruguayan President José Mujica expressed his confidence “in the Venezuelan people, in their government and in the strength of that democracy, of which the late President was a master builder."

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera communicated his sorrow at the death of the Bolivarian leader and said that he always appreciated "the strength, the commitment with which President Chávez fought for his ideas."

From El Salvador, before arriving in Miraflores, President Mauricio Funes, communicated his condolences to Venezuelan Vice President Nicolás Maduro, describing the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution as "a patriot, a man of transformative thought and action, who governed for his people and changed the reality of inequality and exclusion they suffered before his arrival at Miraflores Palace.”

Former President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras affirmed, “Today Hugo Chávez has passed to that place of human beings who never die, because they are in the heart of the Latin American peoples."

The governments of Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Jamaica also expressed their sorrow at the death of the Bolivarian leader and their solidarity with his family and his people.

Similarly, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter sent his condolences to Chávez' family.

From Europe, French President François Hollande expressed his sadness to the Venezuelan people and stated that Chávez "has had a profound impact on the history of his country."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon offered his "deepest sympathy" to the Venezuelan people. (SE)