Havana, August 28 (RHC) – Radio Havana Cuba's weekly program "Recordando al Amigo," dedicated to the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela Hugo Chavez, dealt with the environment and current international issues.

Featured on this week's program were: Radio Havana Cuba's Roberto Bastidas, the host; the Venezuelan Ambassador to Cuba and brother of Hugo Chavez, Adán Chavez, speaking by phone from Caracas; and RHC journalist and environmental reporter Pedro Otero.  

Pedro Otero talked about the June 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, where he had the honor of covering the event for Radio Havana Cuba.  He recalled the speech delivered by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, in which he said that humanity has become an endangered species.  Fidel called for urgent action to protect the environment, emphasizing the importance of "using science to achieve sustainable development without pollution."

Nearly 30 years ago, at the Rio Earth Summit, Fidel said: "Enough of selfishness.  Enough of schemes of domination.  Enough of insensitivity, irresponsibility and deceit. Tomorrow will be too late to do what we should have done a long time ago."

A part of the speech given by Hugo Chavez at the Copenhagen Summit on December 16, 2009 was played: "Two powerful sayings are heard:  1: Do not change the climate, change the system.  Let's change the system and, as a consequence, we will start saving the planet.  Capitalism, the model of destructive development, is killing humankind.  And 2: If climate were a bank, it would have been saved already."

Adán Chavez, for his part, praised the importance of making socialism global, to stand up to capitalism, which is the core problem in today's world, and especially the root of environmental issues.  On Wednesday's program, they also referred to the situation in the Amazon, and how most of the region's countries have done little or nothing to stop the fires.