"- Brasilia - Ma'an dispatch Nasser Laham - I watched president Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) very quietly throughout the journey to Latin America, asking myself in every hour 'what does Abu Mazen want to tell us, himself, and the Fatah leadership through the warm relations with Latin America? how were the people of this continent liberated from colonialism and dictatorships? How did these countries turn into the biggest producers and exporters in the global economy? And how will we Arabs learn from all this? Questions that stole our hearts with joy as we stood in solidarity with tens of thousands of people who gathered in the rain in Brasilia when President Lula - a friend of the Palestinian people - handed over power to newly elected president Dilma Rousseff, his pupil from the same political party.
I felt proud as a Palestinian when president Lula warmly shook the hand of our president, and I felt it even more when more of the continents' presidents shook his hand especially Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez who said to him: "you are going in the right direction and we are with you until the establishment of a free Palestinian state."
So it is freedom, we say freedom not money, privileges. or position. Freedom is the key.
The moment was a historical one, important, big, and far away from the preoccupied Arab and local news agencies creating details of the problems of this or that, far from party media and the insults that they make us hear every day, here we see nations freed, freed first from the illusion, greed, and dependence of its decisions on strangers. Their creativity excelled in the project of human civilization, and their necks drink water from the river of freedom that never runs out.
In the Middle East we have seen in the past decade nations crumble, armies run away, capitals fall, and our cities shatter under bombardment, let alone heroes are imprisoned and leaders executed. I see that we must rise again, not to carry weapons and fight, but to think first and regain the confidence in ourselves and free ourselves from delusions and sophistry, magic and palmistry. At the same time that Arab satellite channels are busy hosting fortune-tellers on New Year's eve, here the people are free dancing samba and salsa in the streets restoring their dignity and raising the banners of victory.
Some time back, the U.S. President issued a warning to Brazil, President Lula replied: "Don't forget that Brazil is an independent and powerful nation". When I heard this I couldn't help but hear myself saying: "God bless you, Lula!", not because he challenged the U.S., but because this president, who began his life mopping shoes in the streets of poor neighborhoods, is now in the moral strength that allowed him to say so.
To seize the moment I asked Dr. Monjed Saleh - Palestinian Director General of Latin American issues - to explain more to me about the people of Latin America. Dr. Saleh, a native of Kufl Haris who studied in Cuba in 1981, said a lot and I allowed myself to re-formulate the information that he gave me in the form of stories.
Almost all of the people of Latin America are now liberated from tyrants and oppression without resorting to violence or massacres, but through community-based programs and a national struggle and using the ballot to vote in heroes and leaders that did not go against international order or shut down their embassies or borders, instead they set up national laws that protected them from tyranny and international companies that came to loot their property and turn them into hired slaves.
For your information, a U.S. citizen will need a visa to enter most of these countries. So as the U.S. requests a visa from them to enter its territory, in return they ask every American to obtain a visa before entering theirs.
One of the strange and bizarre stories that I have heard here, El Salvador - its capital is San Salvador with a population of around 10 million people - has witnessed five years ago presidential elections and two of the people that nominated themselves were originally from the city of Bethlehem, the first from the well-known Al-Saqqa family, the other also from a well-known family named Handal. The nominee from the Al-Saqqa family represented the right-wing party while the other represented the left-wing party, Al-Saqqa won the presidency, but unfortunately the Palestinians didn't get much use out of it as much as the Israel did, who managed to get an ambassador from El Salvador of Jewish origin appointed in Tel Aviv!
Peru - the capital Lima has a population of around 25 million people - now headed by Alan Garcia, a leftist, but now part of the centerist party.
As for Paraguay, the capital Asuncion has a population of 10 million, a country with very little resources, elected two years ago a priest named Fernando Lugo, who studied in the city of Beit Jala near Bethlehem, but was slapped with 8 lawsuits and admitted to 5 of them where women said they gave birth to his children. Paraguay's government and people are kind and respectful to Palestine, they know a lot about it since Lugo was in Beit Jala when Sharon occupied it in 2002, this really affected Lugo.
Uruguay - it's capital Montevideo has a population of 4 million people - currently led by 76-year-old President Pepe Mujica, who in his earlier years was part of the rebels in Tupac Amaru and in his body are 6 bullets. A free man and a fighter who knows the meaning of freedom.
At the ceremony that we attended for the inauguration of President Dilma, the media was busy filming vice-president Michel Temer, a Lebanese national, and his beautiful wife Marcela.
Although the Lebanese presence is ever increasing in the Amazon countries, the first of them to immigrate some 130 years ago, around 6 million today, which is 3% of its 194 million population, none of them have reached a political position like the one Temer was able to reach. The largest Arab communities in Latin America are Lebanese, Syrian then Palestinian.
Temer's wife, over 42 years his junior, a former beauty queen now called "Carla Bruni America" because she is a former model of Italian origin exactly like the wife of the French president, Sarkozy.
Ecuador - it's capital Quito with a population of 15 million - currently led by Rafael Correa, a part of Alba, the axis led by Venezuelan President Chavez.
Bolivia - capital: La Paz, it's president is Evo Morales. Strangely enough, it is 4000 meters above sea level, Brazilian football players cannot play in its stadiums and are forced to use artificial air to continue playing, they don't get to enjoy a victory because they're not accustomed to this weather.
FYI, countries like Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela give Palestinian students scholarships annually.
Back to the Palestinian expert Dr. Saleh who says Europe has consumed almost all of its natural resources who now turn to this rich continent, the first ever in the world in terms of alternative energy, recycling waste and biggest exporter of rubber, coffee and agricultural products.
The Mountains of Bolivia, for example, are rich with in diamonds, gold and uranium. Brazil and Argentina have immense agricultural production whereas Chile is the biggest exporter of copper, and Venezuela is the biggest oil-exporting country in the world after Saudi Arabia.
In response to our question about the percentage of religious affiliation, our Palestinian expert tells us most of the people here are Catholic Christians, clergy are mostly loved by the people because they helped the rebels, and stood by the people, not by the side of tyranny.
At the end of the report there was a sigh of relief when Dr. Saleh answered my question: Do Brazilians and Latin Americans work as servants in richer countries? He answered quickly and without hesitation "no, no, they work in professions, they're not servants".
So, how can there be any cooperation between us except for religious tourism? Since it is a rich continent and doesn't need the Arabs? He answered: "They are interested in importing stone, olives, and popular embroidery paintings from Palestine, they love them!"the bottom line is that President Abbas wanted to tell us, the delegation that's accompanying him: Look, the origin of the matter is that we feel the importance of liberty and to breathe the air of freedom, get over our internal differences and others will help liberate our country. To draw lessons that victory comes from the issuance of men, and not by violence alone will revolutions be won, but with leaders and with nations that believe in themselves and their cause.
As Jesus said: What good is a man if he gained the world but lost his soul?
Before we liberate the land, we must first free our souls from fear and internal differences. From now until September we can achieve the dream of Yasser Arafat, the founding of the state of Palestine with (East) Jerusalem as its capital. "
For those who prefer reading the article in Arabic: http://www.maannews.net/arb/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=347278
