The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, sent a letter of condolences to the Argentine people on Thursday for the physical departure of soccer star Diego Armando Maradona:
“These words that I send to the Argentinean people express the pain that Venezuelans feel for the departure of our great friend and brother, Diego,” says the president.
“An immense hug and infinite love to his daughters, sons and relatives,” adds the letter released by Maduro on the internet social platforms.
Maradona died this Wednesday after suffering a cardio-respiratory arrest at his home, in the locality of Tigre, in Buenos Aires.
He was one of the most acknowledged footballers in history and admired by a wide young and contemporary public.
He stood out for his ideological sympathy with the commanders Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, whom he referred to as his second father.
Following, the full text:
Caracas, November 25, 2020
Dear ones
Relatives and Argentinean People
“With the deepest regret I write these lines: we have received a devastating blow to our feelings. A friend, a brother, has physically disappeared: a Giant on and off the court. The People of Venezuela is by heart with you, his daughters and sons, and with our brotherly Argentinean People.
From the beginning of his career, it was clear that Diego was going to make history on the court and he did. With the Albiceleste and with all the clubs he played for, he literally wrote pages of gold, indelible pages.
I am among those who consider Diego the Greatest Soccer Player of all time: there is a before and after Maradona, a before and after the prodigious left-handed crack, the incomparable artist, the Cosmic Kite that continues and will continue to fly high.
A rebel, irreverent, but above all a genuine patriot, an unyielding fighter for the cause of the unity of the Great Homeland. I want to evoke Diego who became one of the great gravediggers of the FTAA there in Mar del Plata in November 2005: there he was, together with our Eternal Commander, demonstrating his status as a champion of dignity.
In reality and in truth, the Golden Boy of America deservedly earned the love of our Peoples. Diego not only leaves us with an extraordinary football legacy: our Pelusa embodies a human and political legacy as luminous as it is imperishable.
I speak of the Diego of the Peoples, the Diego loyal to his origins, the Diego of children, the Diego who will live in all of us men and women forever: Fidel’s son, the brother of Hugo and Evo, my brother. The Diego who did not hide his infinite love for Venezuela, the Diego who was an irreducible defender of the Bolivarian Revolution, the proud Chavista.
Receive an infinite hug from the People of Bolívar and Chávez, who carry Diego in their hearts.”
Nicolás Maduro Moros
