The empty seats in the Auditorium of the University of Panama would have nothing special or inspiring if one were not Cuban and a supporter of Fidel Castro, if one could withstand the surge of emotion from the entrance sign, the excitement of arriving at the stage where the immortal won one of his thousand battles.

Twenty-four years have gone by since the day that my friend Adalberto remembers perfectly. He was not in the room, but he was already working at the University and he assures that not only was a murder avoided, but also a holocaust in which thousands of people would lose their lives, among them many young people who gathered to receive and listen to Fidel Castro, whose leadership goes far beyond the borders of the rebellious island that he himself put on the map of Latin American affection and owe.

Fidel spoke in this room for hours, receiving applause and cheers, denouncing the attempted terrorist act that Cuban security had managed to dismantle and whose architect, the sadly famous Luis Posada Carriles, was returned home (United States) by the Panamanian administration at the time.

The X Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government could have become a painful episode in the history of the region if the plans that one named Franco Rodríguez Mena, actually Luis Posada Carriles, from room 310 of the Coral Suites Hotel in Panama City.

Another Panamanian sister confesses now, from the fourth row in the same auditorium, while we wait to enjoy the music of the two countries together: “If I had not discovered that Franco, who was actually Posada, I would not be able to tell you now what I experienced that day, neither I, nor my companions who stayed outside supposedly to see Fidel when he came out, I tell you that with that amount of explosives it would have blown up much more than the Auditorium.”

However, it did not come to pass and she can tell me that she heard him enthusiastically almost until midnight, that she shouted passionately and cheered the Cuban Revolution as if it were her own country, that she was never so impressed by a man as the bearded 75-year-old who maintained all his lucidity. She was able to ask me, with tears in her eyes: “Don’t let him die, it’s up to you Cubans to keep Fidel alive, and we miss him so much.”

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff