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."