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Rio Group for closing ranks
BY NIDIA DIAZ —
Granma International staff writer —
IN a
world marked by the hegemony of the rich and
industrialized North, the fight against poverty and
marginality and to overcome asymmetries as a source
of inequity among states must be via the rescue of
multilateralism in international relations,
integration and solidarity.
In
that search for better forms of understanding and
cooperation, the Rio Group heads of state and
government gathered in Georgetown, the capital of
Guyana, for their 19th Summit.
With
an agenda focused on issues of poverty, education,
health and other pressing social issues,
representatives from the Group’s 20 nations
expressed their unwavering decision to advance on
political consultation, coordination and harmony
among members as an important tool for Latin America
and the Caribbean, by common consent, to use their
own voice to confront the decisions they face on an
international level, and which they have avoided on
more than a few occasions.
In
the last two decades, precisely since the Group’s
founding, the neoliberal model imposed on our
countries aggravated the social situation and
general ungovernability, and demonstrated the need
to overturn the status quo with processes of change
that — with the peculiarities of each nation — have
opened infinite possibilities for the benefit of
all.
Reasons for which the Bolivarian Revolution was
recognized at this Georgetown meeting for the
efforts it has made toward integrating the region’s
nations and for its spirit, expressed in initiatives
like the creation of the Simón Bolívar Brigade for
providing aid to nations hit by natural disasters.
Natural disasters that tend to stem from the
dramatic and dangerous phenomenon of global warming
— also discussed at the proposal of Chilean
President Bachelet.
Likewise, Venezuela was praised for cooperating in
the energy sector on the basis of agreements and
pacts that take into account complementariness and
asymmetries in the countries that benefit.
In
that sense, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva spoke in favor of defending that solid energy
integration among our peoples, while also calling
for a reduction of dependence on oil and exploring
new energy sources.
It
was Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorín who, in
addition, revealed to the media that the Rio Group
discussed — although informally and outside the
agenda — the possibility of Cuba’s future entry.
A
discussion that could not omit the contributions
made freely and selflessly by our country to the
peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean in terms
of health, education, professional training under a
new ethic, and energy savings.
Likewise, the Final Declaration featured the support
of member states for the just cause of the Argentine
people in their demand for sovereignty over the
Malvinas Islands.
The
event’s host, Guyanese Prime Minister Bharrat
Jagdeo, noted in opening remarks that all who were
gathered there were responsible for cooperating more
closely and effectively to reform the United
Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank, to ensure greater democracy in
decision-making in these institutions, in line with
today’s reality.
Social justice and equity were at the center of the
discussions; how to achieve them through joint work
and in unity was the common denominator in speeches
given, and above all in the political will of those
present.
Only
unity and complete understanding that the time has
come to settle accounts with our debtors and to the
benefit of our peoples, can guarantee that the Rio
Group will put action before rhetoric and join in
the efforts underway in diverse scenarios.
Twenty years of existence are sufficient for
understanding that the time has come for the Rio
Group to set itself higher goals as a tool for
political coordination in this new Latin America. •
The
Rio Group was created on December 18, 1986 as a
result of the fusion of the Contadora Group —
charged with achieving peace in Central America —
and the Support Group that accompanied it.
Today, 20 years after its founding, in the different
political situation that is opening up in the
region, it is one of the area’s main blocs for
coordination.
It is comprised of Argentina, Belize, Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, the Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana,
Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
Uruguay and Venezuela.
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