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Rodriguez addressed the more than 90 000 Villa Clara people in the main event for the 57 anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Garrisons, and said that the all the Venezuelan people are decided to fight.

We call for unity and peace, and therefore hate war. We want to live and build in peace, but if we are forced, the imperialists must know that in our people there are many men made of caguairan wood (a hardwood Cuban tree), Rodriguez said.

He recalled that the United States is the largest importer and consumer of drugs, which turned Colombia into a major producer of narcotics, “and now Venezuela is in the middle of the major producer and the major consumer.”

After noting that his country is accused by the Colombian authorities of what they have failed to resolve on its own territory, Rodriguez warned of the danger this represents.

From here, from this place, we repeat, we are lovers of peace, we will fight endlessly to ensure it, but we are not afraid of war if they bring it upon us, he said.

The Venezuelan Minister identified the oil wealth that lies in Venezuela’s womb as the true cause of the imperial aggression on Venezuela, its struggle to achieve the Latin American unity as well as the promotion of the socialist ideas along Cuba.

He began his speech with an emotional salute to “Fidel, wherever you are, always young, always vital, always heroic.”