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Forging unity
Pedro de la Hoz and
Juan Diego Nusa Peñalver
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THE speeches given by presidents and heads of
delegations from the member countries of the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America
–Trade Treaty of the Peoples meeting in Havana
demonstrated in the closing session of the Summit a
coordinated strength unprecedented in the history of
the region.
The
speakers’ round was initiated by Winston Baldwin
Spencer, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, who
described the ALBA-TCP as an important opportunity
at a point when the world is seeking solutions for
combating the global economic recession.
He
particularly highlighted how the Alliance, in barely
five years, has already had a very positive effect
on the life of millions of citizens and residents in
the member states.
“My
country,” he stated, “has directly benefited from
hundreds of scholarships, from a reduction in the
cost of public services, and the granting of food
subsidies to people with a certain degree of
disability and in a disadvantaged position.”
He
was followed on the platform by Evo Morales,
president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia,
whose electoral victory last December 6 confirmed
him as a fully-established popular leader.
The
heart of his speech was the defense of the
sovereignty of Latin American countries in the face
of imperial voracity. He warned the United States
that if it attempted an invasion of any of our
countries it would suffer a second Vietnam; “Just as
Bolívar defended other peoples, all of our Latin
American countries will defend the dignity of any
one of our nations.” In that context he called on
the White House governors to abandon paternalistic
and vertical conduct in their relations with Latin
America. Evo reiterated the idea of convening a
referendum of the peoples of the region on the
presence of U.S. military bases there.
Greeting the people of the host country of the
Summit, he said that Cuba is a revolutionary seedbed
and described Fidel as an elder brother and a man of
great wisdom.
He
recalled how, from Washington, the current
emancipation processes are consistently being
demonized as part of the “axis of evil” when, in
reality, “What we are constructing is the “axis of
humanity.”
Philbert Aaron, ALBA national coordinator for the
Commonwealth of Dominica, brought greetings from
Premier Roosevelt Skerrit and noted that the
Alliance represents an opportunity for recovering
the unity of our ancestral homeland of Latin America
and the Caribbean.
In
her turn, Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas
spoke emotively and brought an embrace from Manuel
Zelaya, the constitutional president of Honduras.
She affirmed that close to five years ago the sun
began to dawn for our peoples.
She
made particular reference to the social advances
achieved with her country’s integration into the
ALBA and also to the grave political crisis
generated in her country by the military coup,
sponsored by the United States and the national
oligarchy.
She
ratified her conviction that, just as this coup
d’état has been dealt against the ALBA and against
Honduras, it will also be defeated in the land of
Francisco Morazán. “That is a commitment to the
Cuban people, to our people and to Comandante en
Jefe Fidel Castro,” she affirmed.
For
Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Fander Falconí, this
year his country took two extremely significant
decisions: joining ALBA and closing down the U.S.
Manta base.
In
terms of contributions to sustainable development he
explained how, in exchange for compensation from the
international community, Ecuador is proposing to
halt exploitation of the
Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oilfield, located
in the Yasuní National Park, one of the world’s
areas of greatest biodiversity.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and
the Grenadines introduced a passionate issue: the
debt of the former colonial powers to the enslaved
African peoples transported by force to Latin
America and the Caribbean, and in particular to the
one that Britain still has with the genocide that
decimated more than half of the Garífuna population
(of African Caribbeans) in the early 19th century.
Gonsalves condemned imperial rancor toward Cuba, a
country that it has blockaded for half a century and
toward other ALBA countries.
Daniel Ortega Saavedra, president of Nicaragua,
similarly attacked imperialist attempts to destroy
revolutionary processes. In his speech he exposed
the nature of terrorism exercised from the
United States and evidenced by the invasions of
Grenada and Panama, the dirty war in Nicaragua, the
genocide of civilian populations in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the economic blockade of Cuba and the
unjust incarceration of the five Cuban heroes in
American jails while real terrorists like Luis
Posada Carriles are at liberty in that country. “The
head of terrorism is in the North and not in the
South,” he stated.
Hugo
Chávez spoke before Cuban President Raúl Castro. The
Venezuelan leader expressed his conviction that even
if the United States was to deploy a thousand
military bases it would not be able to set back the
social changes being undertaken in Latin America.
“We
must continue consolidating the ALBA,” he
emphasized, proposing the need to draw up a plan of
action covering the next five years. “We are obliged
to win, because, to a large extent, the future of
humanity, which is socialism, is dependent on our
victory.”
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