The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People's Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) renewed its commitment to unity and cooperation in the face of threats to the stability of the region.
Caracas.- At the end of the XIX Summit of Heads of State and Government of ALBA-TCP, held in Caracas, the high authorities of the bloc ratified the will for a Latin American and Caribbean genuine integration which will make it possible to confront the pretensions of imperialist domination.
In this sense, the Alliance member countries highlighted the need to strengthen the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) as a mechanism for political coordination that brings together the states of the region, based on the principle of unity in diversity.
The Summit's final declaration also welcomed the return of constitutional order in Bolivia, and the efforts of President Luis Arce, both domestically and internationally, to move towards the economic reactivation of the South American country.
ALBA-TCP reiterated its recognition of the legitimate authorities of Venezuela and welcomed the forthcoming holding of regional and municipal elections, an expression of the solid participatory and protagonist democracy of the Venezuelan people.
Likewise, the integration mechanism underlined its support to the Government of Nicaragua. It condemned the repeated destabilizing attempts against the Central American nation by the United States to interfere in the development of the upcoming elections.
The Alliance also reaffirmed its condemnation of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by Washington against Cuba and its rejection of the discrediting campaign promoted by the U.S. government against Cuban medical cooperation amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the health field, the ALBA-TCP countries urged for universal immunization against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease and ensure an urgent, equitable, solidarity-based, and affordable distribution of vaccines, supplies, and equipment.
The integration mechanism also recognized the right of the Caribbean countries to receive fair, special, and differentiated treatment and reaffirmed the unconditional and necessary support for the defense and promotion of their just claims and reparations.
It also rejected the actions of the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, who has led that multilateral organization down a path of nonsense by legitimizing violent actions, interventions in internal affairs, and ruptures of the constitutional order in some countries of the region.
Finally, ALBA-TCP agreed to promote the ALBA-Petrocaribe complementary economic zone development as a productive and technological development model.
CUBA THANKS ALBA-TCP MEMBER COUNTRIES AT SUMMIT FOR THEIR SUPPORT
Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez thanked the ALBA-TCP member states for their support in the struggle against the U.S. blockade on Cuba, which has caused the island damages estimates at 147,853 million dollars for nearly six decades.
At the 19th Summit meeting in Caracas of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People's Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), the foreign minister recalled the more than 240 measures applied in recent years to hinder the development of the island, 50 in the most recent period.
Likewise, he reaffirmed Havana's support to Venezuela and Nicaragua, which defend their national sovereignty against Washington's threats.
On another matter, the head of Cuban diplomacy ratified his country's willingness to show solidarity and cooperation in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. He recalled the progress made in the national vaccination candidates against the disease.
He evoked the Alliance's strength and its founding principles, the intention to continue advancing, expand the exchange, and asserted that the group can always count on the island 'in the front line of the battle for life, dignity, peace, and justice.
The 19th Summit with the heads of state and government and other representatives of the member countries coincided with the 200th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Carabobo, led by the Liberator Simón Bolívar, an example of Latin American unity.
Founded in Havana on December 14, 2004, ALBA-TCP is a regional integration platform designed to fight poverty and social exclusion based on solidarity, complementarity, and cooperation. (RHC)