CHILEANS DO NOT TREMBLE

*Tomas Borge*
*Nicaraguan Ambassador to Peru*


This article is almost the report of a journalist.

I was in Chile, representing President Daniel Ortega, in the
swearing in ceremony of the new head of state, Sebastian Piñera. I
greeted President Michel Bachelet, whom I embraced in Daniel's name,
and asked her if she would run in the next elections. She did not
say no.

We were in the Hall of Honor of Congress where Mister Piñera
received the presidential sash. During that ceremony, the earth
trembled with the energy of an earthquake. I was in the line where
the Heads of State were and was a privileged witness to their
reactions. They all maintained an air of flawless dignity.
All except Alvaro Uribe, President of Colombia, who turned as pale
as a white sheet of blank paper, when he tried to greet Rafel
Correa. He could not shake his hand with dignity. Terrified,
Uribe exited, running with the speed of a well trained /marine/, as
was shown in pictures by the right wing newspaper,/ La Tercera/,
that I send, so that no one may think that I say this only because
of political antipathy. The serenity of Evo and Correa was worth noting.

As a tsunami alert was immediately posted, Piñera suspended lunch
and greetings, so that I could not give him Daniel's greetings of
protocol. Piñera immediately left, flying his own plane to Rancagua,
the epicenter of the quake, an act that was very well received.

/The following morning I had breakfast in the hotel with ambassador
Maria Luis Robleto Aguilar and, by coincidence, at the next table, a
handful of Chilean senators and major Antonio Ledezma, from
Venezuela, had coffee and juice. They were talking in loud voices of
conspiracies and other possible mischief to isolate Cuba, Venezuela,
Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua./

/One of them recognized me. They lowered their voices and looked at
me with hatred and mistrust. Hotel workers gave us the names of some
of the participants: senator Sergio Romero Pizarro, senator Patricio
Walker (their looks were caustic and were it not that nothing scares
me, I would say annihilating), who belong to a family of
millionaires. Supposedly he descends from William Walker, Antonio
Sandoz (Venezuelan-Chilean, advisor to the Venezuelan major) and
Antonio Ledezma, ferocious enemy of Hugo Chavez. There were others
but I do not know their names. What was most interesting about their
conversation was the joy in their commentaries about the future of
their enterprises, as a consequence of the destruction caused by the
earthquake./

The next day I accompanied President Rafael Correa to Concepcion,
the city devastated by the recent quake. Correa brought several tons
of medicines and the help of many Ecuadorian physicians. I had the
opportunity to exchange information of interest to Nicaragua and
Ecuador and even to joke around with the cordial and charismatic
leader. Besides some declarations we made in the popular, /"Radio
Biobio,"/ (where I made a well commented phrase: /"In Chile the
Earth trembles but, in no way, do the Chileans tremble!"),/ the
right wing mass media, (there is no left leaning means of
communications), did not report the important and generous visit of
President Correa, who, among other measures, has sent around 400
citizens from Ecuador, victims of the earthquake, back to their
homeland.

I got together with scores of Chileans who fought in the Nicaraguan
war of liberation, (now organized in, /The Salvador Allende Brigade,
BRISA/.) I spoke to them about the old theme of unity, warning them
of the risks of ideologic vanity and sectarianism. Men and women
extremely /solidarian/. They are collaborating with energy among the
sectors most affected by the earthquake. Having been in that sister
country, with whom I shared the anxieties of a magnitude 7
earthquake, was for our delegation a reason for pride and true
solidarity with the people of Salvador Allende and Pablo Neruda.