In The General in His Labyrinth , García Márquez voice his political views through the character of the General . For example , Alvarez Borland point out that in the scene where the General respond to the French diplomat , his words closely reflect García Márquez 's 1982 Nobel Address . The diplomat is critical of the barbarism in Latin America and the brutal means used in attempting to achieve independence . Bolívar reply 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 remark in his Nobel Speech that " venerable Europe would perhaps be more perceptive 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 ... " .