 In The General in His Labyrinth , García Márquez voices his political views through the character of the General . For example , Alvarez Borland points out that in the scene where the General responds to the French diplomat , his words closely reflect García Márquez 's 1982 Nobel Address . The diplomat is critical of the <unk> in Latin America and the brutal means used in attempting to achieve independence . Bolívar replies by pointing out that Europe had centuries to progress to its current state , and that South America should be left to experience its " Middle Ages in peace " . Similarly García Márquez remarks in his Nobel Speech that " venerable Europe would perhaps be more <unk> if it tried to see Latin America in its own past . If only it recalled that London took three hundred years to build its first city wall ... " . 
