On Thursday, December 8, tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets of the capital, Caracas, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Day of Loyalty and Love for Hugo Chávez.
Workers, students, members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and citizens gathered at the Plaza Venezuela and marched to the Cuartel de la Montaña 4F, where the mausoleum with the remains of Commander Chávez is located. The Chavista people held this massive march to pay homage to the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution and to express their commitment to his anti-imperialist and socialist legacy.
President Nicolás Maduro and several high-level government officials also joined the march. Later, they, along with military authorities, placed red roses on Commander Chávez’s tomb.
Marchamos junto al pueblo venezolano, con alegría, con cantos y con el amor a flor de piel hacia nuestro Comandante Eterno Hugo Chávez. Son 10 años de su última alocución y sus palabras retumban en las calles, marcando el camino de lucha y construcción de la Patria. ¡Chávez Vive! pic.twitter.com/9MqMQ6sX5T
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) December 9, 2022
El Comandante Hugo Chávez en su última proclama, con orientaciones, verdades y líneas estratégicas, le habló a los tiempos, las décadas y siglos por venir. Chávez confió en nosotros, el pueblo, porque no le vamos a fallar nunca, como fuerza revolucionaria. pic.twitter.com/kq36E1jnPc
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) December 9, 2022
On December 8, 2012, Chávez, the then-President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, delivered his last televised public speech. He called on the “people of Liberator Simón Bolívar” to preserve the unity of the patriots in struggle and battle for victory.
Chávez had warned that the national and international right-wing adversaries would never rest in their attempts to reverse the social achievements made by the Venezuelan people with the Bolivarian Revolution, in the construction of a truly free and sovereign Homeland for a more just and inclusive society. He denounced that the oligarchy would try to reassert their interests and recover the privileges that they lost with the arrival of the Bolivarian Revolution by any means.
In this address to the nation, Chávez, who had returned from Cuba after receiving treatment for cancer, called on the people to elect and support Nicolás Maduro as president in the face of an unforeseen event that could prevent him from continuing as the head of the Bolivarian Republic.
In this speech, Chávez gave the people one of the most emblematic, fundamental, revolutionary and visionary slogans of all time: “Unity, Struggle, Battle and Victory.”
“Today we have a Homeland, and no matter what happens, in any circumstance we will continue to have a Homeland, a perpetual Homeland, a forever Homeland, a Homeland for our sons, a Homeland for our daughters. Patriots of Venezuela, men and women: knee on the ground, unity, unity, unity of the patriots. There will be no shortage of those who try to take advantage of difficult situations to maintain this commitment to the restoration of capitalism, of neoliberalism, to put an end to the Homeland. But they won’t be able to. Faced with this circumstance of new difficulties, of whatever size they may be, the response of all patriots, all revolutionaries, those of us who feel the Homeland deep within should be Unity, Struggle, Battle and Victory.”
In a series of tweets, President Maduro paid tribute to Chávez and vowed to continue on the path paved by him.
“In his last proclamation, Commander Chávez summarized the meaning of the revolutionary struggle: to love the Homeland is to defend it in any circumstance. Loyalty to that thought and love for our Eternal Leader remain intact, beating in the hearts of the People,” tweeted Maduro.
“Commander Hugo Chávez in his last proclamation, with orientations, truths and strategic lines, spoke for the times, decades and centuries to come. Chávez trusted us, the people, because we will never fail him, as a revolutionary force,” he wrote in another tweet.
In a short address to the nation from outside the Miraflores presidential palace, President Maduro thanked the people for “keeping the legacy of the commander alive.”
He said that “the people of Venezuela are the greatest warriors, who have fought the battles against the sanctions and the blockades in the past decade” and once again thanked them, saying that “without them there is no revolution.”
