“As we were 17 years ago, Cuba is among you,” Communist Party of Cuba First Secretary and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in a message posted on Twitter, on the occasion of the 19th Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Treaty (ALBA-TCP), which is in underway in the Venezuelan city of Caracas.
“200 years after the legendary Battle of Carabobo, Our America continues to bet on integration,” he wrote, and congratulated President Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian army for the anniversary of the historic event, which sealed the emancipation of Venezuela. “Cuba shares your passion for the historic project that was forged in the Battle of Carabobo,” he added.
In other messages, the Cuban leader recalled that Cuban blood was shed in Carabobo, and that “there will always be Cuban blood whenever the fate of our Venezuelan brothers and sisters is endangered.”
Cuba was represented at the summit by Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, who stated, “Cuba maintains its commitment to solidarity and international cooperation for the benefit of the region’s peoples, and this will be the case in confronting the pandemic and the provision of vaccines, to the extent of our possibilities.”
He also thanked ALBA-TCP member states for their support to the Cuban resolution against the blockade, recently approved by the United Nations General Assembly.
“Our strong system of science and technological innovation made possible the results that Cuba and ALBA have obtained in the fight against the pandemic. This was accomplished, although Cuba’s capacity to import supplies to guarantee basic medicines was affected (by the blockade),” Rodríguez Parrilla explained, calling for the U.S. to eliminate unilateral coercive measures against ALBA nations and renounce the neoliberal paradigm that has brought so much hadship to the region.
“The will of the sister nations of ALBA to continue advancing cannot be stopped,” he insisted, and reaffirming the Cuban people’s solidarity, he stated that the bloc will always be able to count on us “on the front linea of this battle for life, dignity, peace and justice.”
On the bicentenary of the Battle of Carabobo, and Bolivarian Army Day, an impressive military parade, held at the very site of the battle, served as the preamble to the Summit.
There could not have been a better place for the regional meeting to reaffirm its commitment to move forward in a present full of challenges and threats from the United States, possible only with the unity of our peoples.
(Taken from Granma)