▲ With the image of the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the background, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro inaugurates the 24th ALBA-TCP Summit in Caracas.Photo Afp
AFP, Sputnik and Prensa Latina
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, December 15, 2024, p. 17
Caracas. The block of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), created on December 14, 2004 by Fidel Castro (1926-2016) and Hugo Chávez (1954-2013), closed yesterday the summit for its 20th anniversary with the promise to create new political and economic offensives.
During the commemorative session, the leaders, prime ministers, as well as other member authorities of the bloc approved multiple documents, especially the Special Declaration of the 24th summit: Reaffirmation of the principles, objectives, commitments and flags of struggle of the ALBA-TCP.
The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, host of the summit, assured that the agreed text ratifies the path begun two decades ago under the principles of respect for independence and sovereignty, in addition to integration, solidarity cooperation and complementarity, which was established a hug that marks the course of our history.
The meeting took place at the Parque Simón Bolívar Convention Center, La Carlota, in Caracas, with the attendance of the 10 members that make up the regional bloc: Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as Grenada. In addition, representatives from Honduras and Palestine attended as special guests.
They integrate Palestine
In a declaration, they approved permanently inviting Palestine to their meetings.
The summit was held here, after a change of venue due to the economic crisis affecting Cuba. It began with a private meeting between the leaders of the member countries: Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and the Caribbean islands.
With the ALBA agenda document, which will be approved in its 20th year, we are considering substantial progress in the most current issues in new political, economic and social offensives with new programs that the regional bloc will activate from this moment for a new spring of advancement and unionMaduro stated at the opening.
The summit seeks to support projects such as agri-food treaties, another modality for the hydrocarbon sales program with Petrocaribe financial facilities; science and technology challenges, such as the management of artificial intelligence and social networks, as well as the call to respect of the currents of Latin America.
The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, described the founding of ALBA as milestone in the battle for the freedom of our Americaand maintained: Imperialism and oligarchies have never renounced the perverse objective of dividing people by sowing enmity between the governments of the region.. Furthermore, he called again to respect the sovereignty of the states and denounced that the blockade of his country has escalated to an extreme dimension.
Luis Arce, president of Bolivia, pointed out that his government has been besieged and subjected to attacks of various nature on the right. In nearly two decades there has not been a political, economic, legislative and media war as intense as today..
He added that the world cannot be allowed to continue tolerating blockades that suffocate entire nationssanctions that punish the most vulnerable and wars that strip people of their right to life.
The Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, noted that ALBA is the soul of Latin America and the Caribbean and condemned the destabilizing attempts of the United States sanctions policy against Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, regarding which he assured that it is necessary to maintain systematic denunciation.
The summit also addressed the situation in Haiti, whose president of the Presidential Transition Council, Leslie Voltaire, asked in a video for food and security assistance to confront the crisis of violence in his country.
In addition, Maduro presented the document approved in the integration mechanism, which gave rise to the birth of the AgroAlba economic productive project. He pointed out that this new instrument promotes food sovereignty and that it is about producing organic and healthy food. for all the people of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and beyond.
