|
Not only fighting for justice, but
for
the survival of the species
●
Fidel's message to Chávez makes a
deep impression on
those attending the final session of the ALBA Summit
Juan Diego Nusa
Peñalver y Pedro de la Hoz
•
THE idea that humanity today has to fight not only
for justice but for the very survival of the
species, contained in the message from Commandante
en Jefe Fidel Castro to Hugo Chávez, had a profound
impression on those attending the final session of
the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our
America Summit, which came to a close on Monday,
December 14 in Havana in which, during his closing
speech, Cuban President Raúl Castro reiterated the
shared commitment of working toward the maxim that
"a better world is possible."
Fidel asked Chávez to read out a document entitled
"Message to the president of the Bolivarian
Revolution of Venezuela," which was handed to Chávez
during the final plenary session.
The
words of the leader of the Cuban Revolution and
footage from a documentary screened at the
International Conference Center on the 15th
anniversary of Chávez' first visit to Havana on
December 14, evoked for the Venezuelan leader the
tremendous personal significance of that meeting. "I
arrived in Cuba to stay for ever; I will never leave
Cuba," he stated emotionally.
"The
Alliance was born with that embrace," he confirmed
and described Fidel as a giant, the kind of leader
that appears every hundred years or so, a genuine
visionary who envisaged the tremendous possibilities
of integration currently being fostered by the ALBA
long before the signing of the constitutive
agreement, even when the yanki empire was still
seducing nations on the continent with its Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and Bolivarian
Venezuela was the only discordant voice at the
Americas Summit convened by the United States.
Today, ALBA is a promising reality and the FTAA has
been buried.
During this Summit commemorating the 5th anniversary
of the Alliance, the heads of state and governments
of the member countries signed a Final Declaration
encompassing 25 agreements and, in a special
communiqué, announced the positions that they re to
defend at the Climate Change Conference taking place
in Copenhagen, which has demonstrated that the
developed countries are those principally to blame
for climate change and its adverse consequences.
The
ALBA Summit condemned the current imperial offensive
taking place on our continent, demonstrated by the
installation of military bases in Colombia and the
coup d'état that destroyed constitutional order in
Honduras, and those present expressed their
solidarity with the popular resistance in that
Central American republic.
At
the start of the final plenary session and in an
informal manner, Raúl highlighted the composition of
the audience in the auditorium, which included
students from the Latin American School of Medicine
(ELAM) and the International Sports School,
educational projects that benefit not just the
member countries of ALBA but also other Latin
American, Caribbean and African nations.
Another highlight of the event was provided by
singer Omara Portuondo and the maestro Chucho Valdés,
outstanding figures of Cuban musical culture with
universal recognition.
The
next summit is scheduled for April 17-18, 2010 in
Caracas in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
within the framework of the 200th anniversary of the
beginning of the Venezuelan struggle for
independence.
|
