Che speaks about the situation in Congo in 1965, were French parachutists attacked Stanleyville, to bring down the socialist president Lumumba

[1.0 MB, 1.35 min.]

 

ORIGINAL TEXT:
"Tomaron por asalto la ciudad de Stanleyville, masacraron una cantidad grande de ciudadanos y, como acto último, después de haberlos ultimado bajo la estatua del prócer Lumumba, volaron la estatua del ex-presidente del Congo. Eso nos indica a nosotros dos cosas. Primero, la bestialidad imperialista... bestialidad que no tiene una frontera determinada ni pertenece a un país determinado. Bestias fueron las hordas hitleristas, como bestias son los norteamericanos hoy, como bestias son los paracaidistas belgas, como bestias fueron los imperialistas franceses en Argelia. Porque es la naturaleza del imperialismo la que bestializa a os hombres, la que los convierte en fieras sedientas de sangre que están dispuestas a degollar, asesinar, a destruir hasta la última imagen de un revolucionario, de un partidario de un régimen que haya caído bajo su bota o que luche por su libertad."

TRANSLATION:
"They seized the city of Stanleyville, the massacred many citizens, and, as their final act, after killing the people right beside the statue of the worthy Lumumba, they blew up the statue of Congo's former president.
This shows us two things. First, the imperialism bestiality. A bestiality that has no boundaries and does not belong to any country in particular. The Hitlerian hordes were beasts in the same way that North-Americans are beasts now and the Belgian parachutists are beasts too as well as the French were beasts in Algeria. Because it is the very nature of imperialism what makes people become beasts, it is what makes people become blood-thirsty beasts willing to behead, to slaughter, to destroy even the last image of a revolutionary, of a supporter of the subdued government or of a fighter for the freedom of the country."