In addition to rejecting the escalation of U.S. aggression, the 15 heads of government present condemned the campaign against Cuban international medical cooperation, and recognized the benefits of such assistance over the years, which has helped to build health systems to benefit peoples. The group’s final declaration also rejected statements that, in providing assistance, Cuba engaged in a form of trafficking in persons.

Upon learning of this position, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla shared his gratitude on Twitter, on behalf of the Cuban people, for the support expressed by the Caribbean leaders.

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) outlined a regional integration agenda and measures to strengthen the organization, amidst continuing global challenges, during the closure of the 31st Inter-sessional meeting of heads of government, held in Barbados, February 18-19.

The Caribbean leaders exchanged views with representatives from the private sector and civil society in a discussion of public health in their countries; a regional strategy to address the Covid-19 virus; and the community bloc’s international relations as addressed by Canada’s Foreign Minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, Prensa Latina reported.

Caricom Secretary General Irwin LaRocque noted that the debates were taking place in a context of uncertainty, given growing threats to multilateralism, and tensions resulting from unresolved conflicts. In this regard, he called on those present to work collectively to overcome obstacles, to secure and promote the community’s interests.

(Granma)

During conclusions of a meeting, Caribbean leaders reiterated their concern over the sanctions announced by the US administration under Title III of Helms-Burton Act, which tightens the economic, commercial and financial blockade towards Cuba.

The regional presidents described the application of extraterritorial laws and measures contrary to international law as a violation.

They also thanked Cuba for the medical assistance provided to the CARICOM member states over the years for the benefit of their peoples.

Cuba and CARICOM are marking more than four decades of brotherhood ties, protected by exchange in sectors such as health, education, agriculture, sports and confronting natural disasters.

As an example of the excellent solidarity ties, Havana will host the 7th CARICOM-Cuba Summit in December this year.

(Prensa Latina)

In the preliminary report on the performance of Latin America and Caribbean economies in 2019, the United Nations agency indicates that in 2019 the region will grow only 0.1% on average, while growth projections for 2020 will remain low, around 1.3%. As a result, 2014-2020 would be the period of lowest growth for the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean in the last seven decades.

In terms of growth projections, according to the report, 23 out of 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (18 out of 20 in Latin America) will show a slowdown in their growth during 2019, while 14 nations will show an expansion of 1% or less by the end of the year.

Thus, the macroeconomic profile for recent years shows a trend toward decreasing economic activity, with a decline in per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), less investment, a drop in per capita consumption, lower exports and a sustained deterioration in the quality of employment.

Likewise, the report indicates that the region’s GDP per capita will have contracted by 4.0% between 2014 and 2019. Meanwhile, unemployment will increase from 8.0% in 2018 to 8.2% in 2019, which implies an increase of one million people without work, reaching a new high of 25.2 million.

For 2020, ECLAC projections indicate that Caribbean nations will continue to lead regional growth (with a sub-regional average of 5.6%).

According to the report, despite difficulties and constraints currently facing policy decision-making, most countries in the region are experiencing historically low inflation and maintain relatively high international reserves, while economies generally have access to international financial markets, and international interest rates are low. These conditions favor the implementation of macroeconomic policies directed toward reversing current low-growth rates, according to ECLAC.

(Granma)

What are the real interests of the U.S. and corporations in the region? Freedom, democracy, human rights? No. Their goal is to preserve imperialist domination of our natural resources

IS OUR AMERICA’S WEALTH ALSO OUR CURSE?

Since European empires first found important resources in the Americas, plundered and colonized our lands, the history of the region’s countries has been the theft of their natural wealth, a story similar to that of other geographical areas on the planet. In our case, Spain, France, Portugal and England came first, in the colonial period; later, the United States and giant transnational corporations. Once our formal independence was won, imperialist economic domination continued, and continues, in most nations in the hemisphere.

“Just like the first Spanish conquistadors, who gave Indians mirrors and trinkets for gold and silver, the United States trades with Latin America. To conserve that torrent of wealth, to seize more and more of America’s resources and exploit its suffering peoples: that is what is hidden behind Washington’s military pacts, military missions and diplomatic lobbies,” warned the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, in the Second Declaration of Havana, February 4, 1962.

Progressive governments challenged monopoly interests when they nationalized, and recovered for the people, a large portion of their natural resources. These economic emporiums, which see the world as a cake to be divvied up, cannot accept losing the “juicy slice” that is Latin America and the Caribbean.

Suffice it to say that several countries in the region hold a significant portion of the world’s mineral deposits: 68% of the world’s lithium (Chile, Argentina and Bolivia), 49% of silver (Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Mexico), 44% of copper (Chile, Peru and, to a lesser extent, Mexico), 33% of tin (Peru, Brazil and Bolivia), 26% of bauxite (Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela and Jamaica), 23% of nickel (Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba and Dominican Republic), and 22% of iron (Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico), according to the Natural Resources report: Situation and trends for a regional development agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

Hence the strategic importance to U.S. interests of this part of the world, also the region closest to its national borders. Any direct or indirect intervention, under any pretext, would be less costly as compared to others carried out in Africa or Asia, although these are not renounced either. A look back at regional history shows the astonishing clarity of the phrase expressed by Simón Bolívar in 1829: the United States “appears destined by providence to plague America with miseries in the name of freedom.”

WASHINGTON’S INTEREST IN VENEZUELA AND BRAZIL

The term petro-aggression refers to the tendency of oil-rich states to be targeted by foreign aggressors, using pretexts of all kinds. The recent wars in the Middle East (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria) promoted by the United States and its allies have this character.

According to data from the Venezuelan corporation Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), the Hugo Chávez Frías Orinoco Oil Belt is the largest oilfield in the world. On December 31, 2010, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) made official the certification of these reserves conducted by the country’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mining. In this way, OPEC “revealed the true situation of the oilfields that exist in the Hugo Chávez Frías Oil Orinoco Belt, with the certification of 270,976 million barrels (MMbls) of heavy and extra-heavy crude oil… With this certification, in addition to the certified reserves of 28,977 MMbls of light and medium crudes, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela totals 299,953 MMbls, attesting to the fact that the country holds the largest reserve of crude on the planet,” states PDVSA in its Oil Sovereignty Notebooks Collection.

According to the publication, Venezuela has 25% of OPEC’s reserves and 20% of those known on a world scale – oil that could provide for the country’s development over the next 300 years, at a recovery rate of 20%.

Likewise, in 2007, Petróleo Brasileiro S. A. (Petrobras) announced the discovery of substantial oil and natural gas resources in reservoirs located beneath an impermeable layer of salt on the country’s coastline, deposited 150 million years ago. The discoveries in Brazil’s pre-salt reserves are among the most important in the world, during the last decade. These reservoirs contain a large volume of excellent quality light oil, with significant commercial value, according to information from Petrobras.

The Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy highlights that the pre-salt field is currently one of the most important sources of oil and gas on the planet, and that around 70% of the nation’s reserves are located in these areas.

THE LITHIUM TRIANGLE IN SOUTH AMERICA

Who doubts that the recent coup in Bolivia, promoted by the United States, was motivated by economic and political interests? The nationalization of hydrocarbons and strategic companies led by President Evo Morales meant economic freedom for Bolivia, but also a blow to the energy monopolies. For imperialism it was intolerable that the Bolivian people recover earnings from oil and gas, or that U.S. companies lose out on the business of mining a coveted mineral like lithium, in the nation with 30% of the world’s deposits.

This metal is referred to as “white gold” or “the mineral of the future” for many reasons. Its chemical properties make it the lightest solid element known, with half the density of water, excelling as an efficient conductor of heat and electricity. These electrochemical properties make lithium ideal for electric batteries (Li-Ion batteries), essential to the manufacture of electronic devices (cell phones, tablets, etc.) and electric cars, among other uses.

Access to this mineral is now at the center of global disputes. “Coincidentally,” the world’s largest known reserves are located in the so-called Lithium Triangle, in the border region between Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. Some 68% of the global reserves are concentrated here, and Bolivia has 30%, with the largest deposit on the planet in the Uyuni salt flats; Chile has 21%, and Argentina 17% of the total, according to a study published in the Revista Latinoamericana Polis, quoted by RT.

Some analysts are already predicting future wars over lithium, as has occurred with oil. Another sign to alert those of us south of the Rio Bravo, all the way to Patagonia, as to the importance of defending the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, against the voracity of the United States and local oligarchies. Only regional unity can prevent a new predatory war and the balkanization in Our America.

(Granma)

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted: “Our congratulations, to the prime minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica. Roosevelt Skerrit, for his victory in the elections. We will continue to work to strengthen our relations of friendship and cooperation with this sister Caribbean nation.”

Likewise, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla posted: “Fraternal congratulations, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit, on your electoral victory. The government and people of this sister Caribbean nation have the support and solidarity of Cuba.”

Skerrit called on opposition leaders to reflect on their actions prior to the elections, which included violence and street barricades.

(Granma)

“The small nations of the Caribbean, with their honorable, sovereign policies, were pioneers in opening their arms to Cuba when the empire demanded isolating us,” the President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel, tweeted, recalling December 8, 1972, when Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago – the four independent countries of Caricom at that time – established diplomatic relations with our country.

That historic, courageous act strengthened fraternal ties with Caribbean states, which have been preserved to date. Today, Cuba and Caricom countries maintain excellent relations of brotherhood, solidarity and cooperation in multiple spheres, an example of relations between small, developing countries. Our nation has reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to its Caribbean neighbors in the face of common challenges. In this regard, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, at the Sixth Caricom-Cuba Summit, held in Antigua and Barbuda, stated, “The Caribbean will always be able to count on Cuba’s eternal friendship, gratitude and support”.

Cuba-Caricom relations:

- The ties that unite Cuba and the Caribbean are based on the principles of solidarity, friendship, brotherhood, gratitude and full support for the Caribbean, established by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz.

- Today Cuba has diplomatic missions in the 14 member states of Caricom and they are all represented in Havana. Cuba is accredited to Caricom, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, and the Association of Caribbean States.

- Cuba is the only Latin American country where all Caribbean countries are represented with their own diplomatic missions.

- The main areas of cooperation include health, education, human resources training, sport, culture, construction, agriculture, among other sectors.

- Cuba reiterates its gratitude to the Caricom countries for continuing to demand the lifting of the blockade imposed by the United States on our country and support for the United Nations resolution against this genocidal policy.

(Source:Minrex)

Regarding the meeting that brings together intellectuals and artists from several countries, the diplomat said that cultural horizons are expanded since Spaniards also arrived in the English-speaking Caribbean, recalling, “At one point, my country was under Spain’s governance.”

“Strengthening ties, joining forces is a 21st century way of thinking. I did not feel a visitor here; I noticed a real connection with shared histories. In the Caribbean there are many cultural ties relevant today,” said the man who has united a 30-year academic career in South American Studies with his diplomatic work.

“My books deal with all of Latin America. In them, and in the articles I write, the vision is always to bring the Caribbean closer,” he said after noting that the three years he has spent in Cuba promoting commercial and cultural ties, have served to enrich his intellectual heritage.

He said that one of the greatest satisfactions that his stay in this country has given him is participating in such academic forums.

With respect to the Holguin event, during which he made profound reflections on what identifies Caribbean and Latin American nations, he insisted that follow up is essential, and that ways of financing projects and agreements must be sought.

When he was asked about the presence of Cuban doctors in his nation, Cowie said that it is a strong agreement. “The entire Oncology departments of hospitals in my country are staffed by specialists from Cuba. We continue to request them given their high level of performance and humane conduct.”

Regarding the international campaign to discredit Cuba’s international medical collaboration, the diplomat referred to those who promote such misinformation, insisting that a single country or a ruler cannot make rules for the entire world.

(Granma)

These days will make a real contribution to confronting the current counterrevolutionary offensive of U.S. imperialism, to the search for the broadest possible unity of leftist forces in the region, and to the strengthening of militant solidarity with just causes defended by the peoples.

The necessary articulation between movements, organizations, and groups, whose axes of struggle involve confrontation with imperialism will be the center discussion at the gathering that brings together hundreds of social fighters, political leaders, intellectuals, campesinos, women, indigenous people, solidarity activists, and others.

The Havana conference, with the participation of the Cuban Revolution’s brothers and sisters from many parts of the world, encourages the heroic resistance of the Cuban people, determined to defeat the Helms-Burton Law and the blockade, intent upon advancing the updating of our economic and social development model, as the event’s convocation states.

The deep conviction that the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean will continue to march toward their second and definitive independence constitutes one of the pillars that will sustain debates.

According to the event’s program, work groups will meet to address topics such as Solidarity with Cuba and other just causes; Peoples in the face of free trade and transnational corporations; Decolonization and cultural warfare; in addition to Strategic communication and social struggle; Youth: strategies and continuity in struggles; Democracy, sovereignty and anti-imperialism; and Integration, identities, and common struggles.

(Granma)

Given the little importance afforded individual Caribbean countries, economic coordination among nations in the region has found a sport on the agendas of states struggling for the sustainable development, on which their very existence depends. The sea, seen as our first unique resource, has served as a unifying force, both geographic and cultural, including our shared history of resistance.

The Caribbean’s economic structure is heterogeneous in terms of natural resources and degree of industrialization, thus the need to join forces. A population of 42 million lives in the region, 86% of which reside on the Greater Antilles, with the strongest economies being those of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, which account for 76% of the regional GDP.

Some data speaks well for the region and promises a better future, for example, the Caribbean Human Development Index is relatively high, including a life expectancy of 72 years. What Cuba has achieved in 60 years of an alternative, anti-capitalist model has a significant impact on these statistics.

Nevertheless, other indicators justify the priority given to the economy by our nations, especially those related to inequality, inherited from the colonial era.

The most important body that has generated models of governance and solid proposals for the sovereignty of Caribbean nations is the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), which has managed to join countries of some economic weight with those needing to enter the international market and diversify their economies. The entity also functions as an effective network for international relations, at the service of our peoples and identities.

The Association of Caribbean States (ACS/AEC) emerged with the signing of a founding agreement on July 24, 1994, in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Its philosophy was to promote an economic environment of integration and prosperity in the region, a totally different alternative to the model advanced by hegemonic powers.

The ACS is an organization devoted to consultation, cooperation, and concerted action by its 25 member states and three associate members. Its focus areas are currently trade, transport, sustainable tourism, and natural disasters.

Special attention is afforded to the area’s ecological vulnerability in the face of climate change, a cause that does not have the approval of the world’s business lobbies or the Trump administration, and has been relegated on the agendas of many powerful nations.

The ACS works to ensure that the voices of countries, especially small island nations, are heard, demanding efforts to address rising sea levels and the increasing occurrence of devastating hurricanes and other extreme phenomena, due to the effects of global warming.

Protecting the very existence of these nations, a new model of non-invasive tourism is promoted, one that focuses on the vitality of communities and respect for original economic activities, which are the sustenance of many Caribbeans.

In short, the ACS is a model of integration that has remained firm on the Latin American stage, despite corporate and imperialist pressure, and various projects currently directed toward undermining the organization, on both the economic and political order.

Since 2008, the ACS has faced tremendous challenges as a result of the crisis of world capitalism. In this new scenario, countries are forced to seek a more regulated economies, based on common achievements and less subject to capitalism’s “invisible hand.”

Cuba’s search for an alternative world trade order favors the presence in the region of other economic actors and the diversification of development possibilities, avoiding the pitfall of being dependent a single trade partner.

The Petrocaribe program has been successful in promoting energy sovereignty for Caribbean nations, undoubtedly essential when the intentions of the United States are clear: to monopolize the region’s oil reserves and keep them under its exclusive management – the basic reason the U.S. has worked so hard to create a crisis in Venezuela.

Among the region’s most pressing issues are the tremendous weight of Puerto Rico and its dependence on Washington, which holds back a number of policies related to tourism and finance, and the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

So-called humanitarian crises, as in the case of Haiti, call for thinking about how to avoid the collapse of societies, looking for solutions within the Caribbean community that do not involve military or political intervention by world powers.

The ACS Summit held in Nicaragua likewise addressed the challenge of confronting the region’s militarization, which violates the Proclamation by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in this regard. This remains a key point of dialogue, to resist new imperial plans, which seek to deny the Caribbean respectful integration within diversity.

ASSOCIATION OF CARIBBEAN STATES

National Secretary: Her Excellency Dr. June Soomer

- Nicaragua hosted the VIII Summit of heads of state and government, March 29. Nicaragua was elected President of the Board, 2018-2019, and assumed the pro tempore Presidency in March of 2019.

STRUCTURE

Council of Ministers and General Secretariat

Five special committees

1. Development of trade and external economic relations

2. Sustainable tourism

3. Transport

4. Disaster risk reduction

5. Budget and administration

PRIORITIES

- The Caribbean as a sustainable tourism zone

- Facilitate language training

- The Caribbean Sea initiative

- Coordinate an annual Caribbean business forum

- Defend interests of small companies

- Update building codes

- Strengthen disaster agencies

(Council of State transcript / GI translation)

Compañero Comandante Daniel Ortega Saavedra, President of the sister Republic of Nicaragua and of the VIII Meeting of the Association of Caribbean States;

Compañera Rosario Murillo, Vice President of the Republic of Nicaragua;

Distinguished heads of state and government and heads of delegations;

Her Excellency Ambassador June Soomer, general secretary of the Association;

Dear delegates and guests:

Our national poet, Nicolás Guillén, a singular voice among the great voices of this region, dedicated a short poem to the sea that joins us, with which I would like to greet you. It is entitled “The Caribbean” and goes:

In the aquarium of the Great Zoo,

swims the Caribbean.

This enigmatic marine animal

has a crystal crest,

a blue back, a green tail,

a belly of compact coral,

gray hurricane fins.

In the aquarium, this inscription:

“Be careful: it bites.”

This verse of Guillen’s speaks of the crystal crest that makes our Caribbean fragile. And also of the fierce beast that lives here. Fragility and ferocity distinguish us. Fragility and ferocity unite us. And unity, we know well, makes us strong.

Born of this strength, sustained only by unity, is the very timely Managua Declaration adopted by this meeting, with the title: “Joining forces in the Caribbean to confront climate change,” an issue that has generated growing concern over the last few decades.

As the Comandante en Jefe of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, warned almost 30 years ago, during the Earth Summit held in Río de Janeiro, in 1992, “An important biological species is in danger of extinction as a result of the rapid and progressive elimination of its natural living conditions: man.”

The Caribbean knows this well since it often suffers the impact. Surely for this reason, since its Second Summit in Santo Domingo, in 1999, the Association of Caribbean States has included among its lines of work agreement and cooperation on climate change and disaster risk reduction.

The causes of climate change have been identified by the scientific community and recognized by practically all governments.

But neither efforts made or international commitments in environmental matters are sufficient to stop the alarming increase in global temperature and stabilize it in the area of 1.5ºC, as developing countries demand.

More developed nations, who are mainly responsible for today’s unsustainable situation, must honor the commitment to provide at least 100 billion USD a year to support the work of developing countries.

The global commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must prevail based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, within a framework of international cooperation that ensures the resources and necessary transfer of technologies to developing countries.

Required is the modification of patterns of production and consumption that have been imposed on us, and the promotion of a fair, democratic, and equitable international economic order, to confront climate change and achieve sustainable development.

Mr. President:

Each of us understands what is being talked about. The intensity and persistence of natural phenomena of various kinds in the Greater Caribbean constantly punish us with the adverse effects of climate change, particularly developing small island states.

Living with hurricanes has conditioned our lives; modifying our geographies and affecting migration. And it has also educated us in the need to devote more study to these phenomena that plague us and work to reverse the damage they cause. The Cuban Revolution was obliged to learn this lesson very early on, the hard way, during Hurricane Flora in 1963, which left the former province of Oriente under water and took the lives of more than a thousand people.

More recent history has shown that, in the worst moments, working together has saved us. We firmly believe that only our unity and mutual cooperation will allow us to face the dangers and effects of meteorological events and assume the subsequent recovery.

Solidarity must be a fundamental principle for the members of the Association of Caribbean States

Along this very line of thought, today, I would like to reiterate the unwavering support of Cuba, under all circumstances, to the right of small island states and developing nations to receive special and differential treatment in access to trade and investment.

We also support the just and necessary demand to receive cooperation according to a nation’s real situation and needs, and not on the basis of per capita income statistics that classify them as middle income countries and exclude them from access to financial resources, indispensable for development.

We welcome the election of Barbados as President of the Board of Directors of the Association’s Council of Ministers. We express our fraternal congratulations for this and for the country’s willingness to contribute during this period.

Dear delegates:

The President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the National Security Advisor declare that the Monroe Doctrine is as relevant today as the day it was written, and that it is the country’s formal policy, as in the time of expansion and intervention of the United States in our region, of military aggressions and impositions.

These statements and consequent actions challenge our Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by heads of state and government, in January 2014, in Havana, on the occasion of the Second CELAC Summit.

We declared then our permanent commitment to the peaceful settlement of disputes in order to banish forever the use of force, and threats to use force, in the region; to strictly comply with the obligation not to intervene, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of any other state; to foster relations of friendship and cooperation among ourselves and with other nations, regardless of differences in political, economic, and social systems or levels of development; to practice tolerance and coexist in peace as good neighbors; to the intention of Latin American and the Caribbean states to fully respect the inalienable right of all to choose their own political, economic, social, and cultural system, as an essential condition for ensuring peaceful coexistence among nations; to the promotion in the region of a culture of peace based, among others, on the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Culture of Peace.

The Proclamation also urges all member states of the international community to fully respect these purposes and principles in their relations with CELAC member states.

In this context, our nations must continue working together. It is our duty to protect peace, amongst us all, and preserve what has been achieved, confident that the current situation of confrontation and threats will be overcome.

Cuba, in particular, has been subject to an irrational and perverse tightening of the blockade by the United States, whose administration has unleashed, at the same time, a campaign of distortions, lies, and pretexts to sustain a policy of persecution and harassment that the international community openly rejects and condemns.

I would like to express our profound gratitude to all the countries of the region for their opposition to this irrational, illegal, and cruel policy against our people.

Beyond political or ideological differences, I call on all Caribbean governments to defend peace and oppose military aggression and the escalation of coercive economic measures against Venezuela that seriously damage its citizens and put the stability of the entire region at risk.

We also reiterate our solidarity and support for the government of Reconciliation and National Unity of the Republic of Nicaragua in the face of destabilization attempts, and we celebrate the negotiation process to ensure peace and preserve the social and economic gains achieved in this sister nation.

Faithful to our vision of defending unity within diversity, as on innumerable occasions the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Army General Raul Castro Ruz, has asserted in forums like this one, we call on you to continue working together, concentrating on all that unites us, incomparably superior to the little that separates us, and to prioritize the fulfillment of agreements reached by the XXIII Council of Ministers regarding the strengthening and revitalization of the Association.

The Association of Caribbean States must continue to be the mainstay of Greater Caribbean unity, which is the only alternative given the enormous challenges we face.

Member states of this organization share the responsibility to avoid damaging the consensus that we have built together over the years, and to continue fostering solidarity, as an indispensable premise to develop actions on all the issues that are part of the organization’s mandate.

Cuba will continue working in favor of this unity and for the consolidation of our Association, and hope that this important meeting will contribute decisively to the effort.

Thank you very much!