Havana, February 4 (AIN).- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underscored the need for Latin American Unity and recalled that the ideas of Independence heroes Jose Marti and Simon Bolivar are present today.

During a ceremony where he received the Jose Marti International Award granted by UNESCO, President Chavez said that Bolivar and Martí were not only the master minds of the Latin America's current revolutionary awakening, but that they also are the actors of ongoing struggle, since their ideas and examples are present in the fight against imperialism and oligarchies.

He said more than 200 years have gone by, during which the 'empire has tried to submit us and we have tried to be free', and he predicted that the peoples will defeat that US empire despite its efforts to prevail.

President Chavez recalled a long list of US military interventions in Latin American countries aimed at wiping out progressive movements and nationalist leaders who were assassinated or overthrown by different US administrations.

He stressed Cuba's example for Latin America and said that the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas has yielded important results and advancement for both Cuba and Venezuela, and that such benefits are also being extended to other countries of the region as part of the integration initiative. Some initiatives are being jointly implemented with Central and South Americans nations, such as Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia.