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!

Managua, Nicaragua.- Bearing greetings from the Cuban people, and especially Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, to the sister people of Nicaragua and the Sandinista government, President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez arrived in Managua, yesterday, to attend the VIII Summit if the Association of Caribbean States.

He was received on the tarmac of Augusto C. Sandino International Airport, by government leaders Sidartha Marín, Presidential advisor for international affairs, and Minister of Defense Martha Elena Ruiz Sevilla.

Díaz-Canel commented to the press that Cuba was attending the event “to confirm our support to the revitalization of the Association of Caribbean States, and of course continue defending the conviction that it is an important space for reaching political consensus, dialogue, and communication among peoples of the Caribbean.

“We are in a country of friends,” he emphasized.

The Cuban delegation additionally includes Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla; Ileana Núñez Mordoche, deputy minister of Foreign Trade and Investment; Cuba’s ambassador in Nicaragua, Juan Carlos Hernández Padrón; and Tania Diego Olite, Cuban ambassador in Trinidad and Tobago and the ACS.

The Summit has as its timely maxim on this occasion: “Joining forces in the Caribbean to confront the consequences of climate change.”

Very early on, Brazilian anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro warned that with the arrival of revolutionary technologies, “A true colonization is unfolding. The United States is playing its role with great efficiency, seeking complementarities that will make us permanently dependent on them,” adding, “Seeing this new civilization and all its threats, I fear that once again we will be peoples that do not gel – peoples that despite all our potential remain in second place.”

This scenario is linked to a program for Latin America and the Caribbean to control contents and the citizenry’s environments of participation, which is being implemented with total impunity, without the left paying even the slightest attention. In 2011, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved what is known in academic circles as an operation of “effective connectivity” – a plan outlined in a public Congressional document to expand use of new social media on the continent to promote U.S. interest in the region.

The document explains the interest in the continent’s social networks, “With more than 50% of the world’s population under 30 years of age, the new social media and technology resources that are so popular within this demographic group will continue to revolutionize communications in the future… Social media and technological initiatives based on political, economic, and social realities in Latin America will be crucial to the success of associated U.S. government efforts in the future.”

The plan summarizes the visit of a group of experts from several Latin American countries to the U.S. capitol to learn about policies and funding available in this arena, and concludes with specific recommendations for each of our countries that imply “minimizing critical risks of increased connectivity” for the United States, the leading government investing in infrastructure. The report noted that the number of social media users is growing exponentially, and that opportunities to influence political discourse and future policies are there for the taking.

What is behind this model of “effective” connectivity for Latin America? The vision of a human being as susceptible to domination via digital technology, and the clarity that so called social platforms are in no way neutral or providing a generic service, but are rather institutionalized and automated systems that design and manipulate connections, based on technological and ideological foundations.

What the U.S. government is projecting with its “operation” is the possibility that these tools create a simulated base and overthrow political systems that are not “convenient.” What role has it played in social media in the situations being faced today in Venezuela and Nicaragua, and in those we have seen previously in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Argentina?

Only large corporations have the computing capacity to process the colossal volume of data we put onto social media, with every clic on a search engine, via our cell phones, debit cards, electronic chats, and emails. The accumulated tranches and data processed permit them to create value. More connections equal more social capital. But the fundamental interests behind open data and the invitations to “share,” “like,” or retweet, etc, are not those of users, but rather those of the corporations.

This power gives the proprietors an enormous advantage over users in the battle to control information. Cambridge Analytica, the London branch of a U.S. contractor devoted to active military operations online for more 25 years, has intervened in some 200 elections around the world. Psychological operations were its modus operandi. Its objective: change public opinion and influence not through persuasion, but via information control. The novelty is not the use of flyers, Radio Free Europe, or TV Martí, but rather Big Data and artificial intelligence to entrap every citizen who leaves traces of information on the web in a bubble that is observable, parametrically designed, and predictable.

Cambridge Analytica was involved in electoral processes in Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico, working against left-wing leaders. In Argentina, for example, the company participated in Mauricio Macri’s 2015 campaign, creating detailed psychological profiles and identifying persons open to a change of opinion, with the goal of influencing them with fake news and partial selections of information. As soon as he took office, Macri approved a decree which allowed him to keep official bodies’ data bases for use in campaigns in his favor, one among many which allowed him to undermine the legal and institutional base of communications established by left governments in the country.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, politics have become techno-politics, their most cynical variant. Alexander Nix himself, Cambridge Analytica CEO, boasted to clients that things “don’t necessarily need to be true as long as they’re believed,” and emphasized an unquestionable, empirical fact: the decreasing credibility of commercial advertising is directly proportionate to the increase of publicity on social media, highly personalized and brutally effective.

Anyone who visits the webpage of Facebook’s associates (Facebook Marketing Partners) can discover hundreds of companies devoted to buying and selling data, and interacting with the blue thumbs-up company. Some have even specialized in geographical areas and countries, like the Cisneros Group, that participated in the 2002 coup against President Chávez in Venezuela, a reseller of Facebook that controls the advertizing market in 17 countries of the region.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

These topics are still far removed from professional debates and the programs of progressive movements on the continent. Speeches demonizing or enamored of the new technology civilization abound, but missing are strategies and programs leading to action to construct a truly sovereign information and communications model, and make new technologies our own.

We have not been able to concretize a fiber optic channel of our own, a dream of Unasur. Neither a systematic strategy or a consistent, reliable legal framework exist to minimize U.S. control; assure that traffic on the web flows between neighboring countries; promote the use of technologies that guarantee confidentiality of communications; protect the region’s human resources; and overcome obstacles to the commercialization of tools, content, and digital services produced in our back yard.

Nor has much progress been made on a common, supranational communicational agenda or platforms where it might be implemented. We need networks of observatories, which – in addition to gathering basic statistics and issuing alerts on the colonization of our digital space – would allow for the recovery and promotion of best practices in the use of these technologies and of resistance efforts in the region, on the basis of the understanding that the success or failure of challenges to these new inequalities depends on political decisions.

No country of the South by itself – and much less an isolated organization – can find the resources to challenge the power of the right that is mobilized with one click.

The debate over catastrophes and popular culture was transcended some time ago. The stable world described by Umberto Eco no longer exists.

There are several solutions on the horizon and one might be that of creating our own liberatory tools, but the search for and construction of such alternatives present more than technical-scientific problems. This route depends above all on collective action, in the medium and long run with both a tactical and strategic point of view, in favor of face-to-face and virtual communication that facilitates a change in social relations and technology to serve our peoples. Let’s do it, we don’t have much time.

( Por Rosa Miriam Elizalde)

Your Most Honorable Andrew Michael Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica;
Honorable Heads of State and Government of CARICOM member states;

His Excellency Ambassador Irwin La Rocque, CARICOM Secretary-General;

Distinguished heads of delegations, ministers and special guests:

It is an honor to greet the leaders of our Caribbean, a sea that we share as a cradle and a challenging home, where we count the hours with more haste, due to the passion that derives from its heat and its strength that stops hurricanes, increasingly frequent and destructive, and also due to the rise in sea level, as a consequence of climate change, which we ourselves did not even cause.

I follow the spirit of my people, who first send enthused gratitude to the hosts, as we are in Jamaica, where, in the late nineteenth century, far from the hatred of the Spanish metropolis, Mariana Grajales found refuge, the bravest of our women and Mother of the Nation, whom “God has invested with the rank of General,” in the words of another front-line fighter, the wife of her son Antonio, the unsurpassable Maceo.

Here our Mariana, who died on Jamaican land 125 years ago, and today rests in the patrimonial cemetery in Santiago de Cuba, found refuge and received José Martí.

Jamaica is very close, geographically, historically, and humanly.

I wish, therefore, to express our gratitude to the people and government authorities of Jamaica, especially to Prime Minister Andrew Holness, for kindly organizing this meeting and offering us the possibility to share in this moment of Caribbean brotherhood.

I also interpret this invitation and the welcome that we have received, as an unequivocal demonstration of the excellent state of relations between the member nations of CARICOM and Cuba, whose solid foundations are built on an infallible friendship and the mutual recognition that we share challenges, so enormous that only united and cooperatively will we be able to face them successfully.

I am honored to convey the fraternal message of friendship and solidarity of compañero Raúl Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee, and to reiterate the unwavering commitment that he made to you last December, at the 6th CARICOM-Cuba Summit, held in Antigua and Barbuda, stating that, “The Caribbean can always count on the eternal friendship, gratitude, and support of Cuba.”

“Cuba does not wander around the world cadging: she is a sister and works with such authority. On saving herself, she saves,” warned José Martí when he organized the Necessary War. And the Cuban Revolution, which turned his legacy into law, has not hesitated to share what we have; offer what we know; support where we can; more so at difficult times than in fortunate moments, but simply always. With a single priority: firstly he who suffers the most, and if he is a brother all the more reason.

Esteemed Heads of State and Government and guests:

The challenge facing our small states to achieve sustainable development is not new, although it is intensifying, because the obstacles and dangers derived from an unjust international order, that has lasted too long, are even greater and more complex

An increasingly unequal world, in which the access of our products to markets is obstructed, and we are deprived of the essential technological and financial resources for development, while rivers of money and resources are squandered on military spending and endless wars beyond the borders of their promoters, where there is little room for the hopes of the nations that lost out on centuries of progress, fuelling that of our metropolises.

This is why Cuba will always support the just demands of the Caribbean to receive fair and differential treatment in access to trade and investment. And we will support, without hesitation, the legitimate demand for reparations for the horrors of slavery and human trafficking, while rejecting the inclusion of CARICOM member states on unilateral lists of alleged non-cooperative tax jurisdictions drawn up by international financial capital centers.

We also reiterate that the demand to foster cooperation based on the needs of developing countries, and on the basis of the historic debt as a result of colonialism, and not a mechanical and incomplete measurement of national income, is necessary and just.

As mentioned earlier, the effects of climate change and the progressive destruction of the environment threaten human survival, and cause natural disasters and phenomena to affect more intensely small island states. As such, we urgently need to find joint responses to face them and demand a fair, special and differential treatment.

Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations, such as the peaceful settlement of disputes, the prohibition of threat or use of force, the respect for self-determination, territorial integrity, the sovereign equality of states, and non-interference in their internal affairs, are continuously violated, which constitutes a real danger that demands our strictest observance and will to uphold the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, a commitment signed in Havana in 2014 by the heads of state and government of the region.

We cannot ignore the serious and alarming messages of arrogance and contempt with which United States authorities address our nations.

The declared intention of a return to the Monroe Doctrine, a direct expression of its ambitions of domination, together with acts of intervention, which provoke violence, humanitarian crises, and instability, merit strong condemnation, just as the application of unilateral coercive measures and non-conventional war tactics, that have become a direct threat to the stability and true integration of our nations.

Esteemed Heads of State and Government:

Now 45 years ago, in a historic decision, the first four independent nations of the Caribbean reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba.

That act would be described by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, as an “unquestionably courageous political decision… [insofar as it] was a fundamental step toward breaking the diplomatic and trade blockade of Cuba in the region… Cuba will never forget this noble gesture on the part of its Caribbean brothers,” Fidel said then and we reiterate today.

We will continue, with our modest resources and in spite of the current difficulties, joint cooperation projects.

We have the opportunity to further deepen our ties.

We will pursue efforts to start the activities of the Regional Arts School, whose conception is the result of common interest and political will.

We must, at the same time, make sustainable the advance of the Centre to Stimulate the Development of Children, Adolescents and Youth with Special Education Needs, located in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.

Cuba ratifies the decision to continue cooperating in the training of human resources, in particular the possibility of pursuing specialization studies in the health field.

We maintain the will to exchange experiences and best practices in comprehensive disaster risk management, and in confronting the effects of climate change, and to explore other spheres of common interest.

We also have novel instruments that we must continue to strengthen, such as the expansion of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement between the Caribbean Community and Cuba, which supports the promotion of trade and investment development; the possibility of working on multi-destination tourism and cultural exchange development. In other words: to make more systematic and constructive use of all of our scarce, but powerful, shared advantages.

Esteemed Presidents and Prime Ministers:

In Cuba we are advancing in a process of perfecting our socialist model of economic and social development, and working on the reform of our Constitution. We do so in the midst of economic difficulties and enormous financial tensions, exacerbated by the tightening of the economic, commercial and financial blockade, and the setback in bilateral relations with the United States.

Despite these enormous obstacles, the Cuban people persevere in building a sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous, and sustainable nation, without abandoning any of the principles that have guided the honorable history of their Revolution.

In this context, Cuba would like to express its appreciation for the permanent support and friendship of the Caribbean peoples.

And before you, I wish to reiterate, in the name of our common history, of the present and future generations of Cuban men and women, the invariable solidarity, eternal gratitude, and irrevocable commitment of Cuba to its closest brothers, its equals in need and hope, given the good fortune and the challenge of sharing the Caribbean that embraces us.

Thank you very much!

It includes countries considered to be “developing,” and all members and associate members are island states, with the exception of Belize in Central America, and Guyana and Surinam in South America.

The organization emerged as a product of 15 years of efforts to promote regional integration and was constituted with the fundamental objectives of raising the standard of living and working conditions in the region’s nations; reducing unemployment; accelerating, coordinating, and supporting economic development; and promoting trade and economic relations with third countries and blocs of nations.

Caricom’s principal governing bodies are its Conference and Council. The Conference is the highest authority of the regional organization and includes the heads of state and government of member countries. It is responsible for establishing policy and authorizing the signing of treaties within the Caribbean Community and with other integration organizations.

The Council, for its part, is composed of Foreign Ministers and responsible for the implementation of strategic plans, coordinating the integration of different sectors, and promoting cooperation among members.
Caricom is the world’s oldest regional integration movement, and although often unrecognized, its accomplishments have been many, especially in concrete cooperation in the areas of education, health, culture, and security.
CUBA- CARICOM

On December 8, 1972, four English-speaking Caribbean countries won their independence and established diplomatic relations with Cuba, in an act of unquestionable political courage: Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana, and Jamaica. This historic decision constituted the first step in breaking the diplomatic blockade mounted by the United States against Cuba, opening a door to reduce the isolation to which the country had been subjected in the region because of U.S. pressure.

Cuba and Caricom countries share deep historical and cultural roots that date back to the formation of our national identities, which have been gradually strengthened as the young states of the Community gained independence.

The first Cuba-Caricom Summit was held in Havana in 2002, initially as a meeting of heads of state and government to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the aforementioned event. The second meeting took place in
Bridgetown, Barbados, in 2005; and the third in Santiago de Cuba, in 2008.

It was during the second gathering that Fidel stated: “We must respond to neoliberal, self-interested globalization, to the anti-democratic international political and economic order, with unity and the globalization of solidarity and the promotion of dialogue, integration, and genuine cooperation.”

During this same Summit, Caricom governments awarded the leader of the Cuban Revolution the organization’s Honorary Order, recognizing his unblemished, human conduct, and his unconditional support of efforts to achieve progress and wellbeing in the region.

These gatherings are now approaching their 39th edition, providing an opportunity for reflection and decision-making by high-level leaders to strengthen and broaden relations of cooperation and solidarity.

Over the years, Caricom member countries and Cuba have constructed a relationship based on cooperation, solidarity, and mutual respect. Cuban collaborators are currently working in 1,644 Community nations, and more than 98,901 persons in the region have regained their eyesight via Operation Miracle.

Through May of 2018, more than 5,780 Caribbean youth have graduated from Cuban educational institutions, the vast majority with university degrees. These are young men and women who have returned to their countries and communities with a deep commitment to contributing to the development of their peoples. Currently studying in Cuba on scholarship are 740.

At a time when the region urgently needs to advance toward new and improved forms of integration, Caricom, based on the relations of friendship and respect shared by its members, has organizational and work experience that can serve to support the process of consolidation and strengthening of Caribbean and Latin American unity and cooperation.

(Granma)

During the encounter Cabrisas highlighted the positive state of bilateral relations between Cuba and Spain, one of the island’s top training partners and leader in international cooperation.

In this sense, he reaffirmed the willingness of both governments to work together in a new stage of cooperation which will commence with the negotiation, signing, and implementation of the new Country Partnership Framework with Spain, which lays out the bases for the development of bilateral cooperation over the next four years, taking into account the priorities established within Cuba’s Social and Economic Development Plan through 2030.

Also participating in the meeting were Cabinet Director Jorge Friend Mergelina, as well as Ambassador and Economic and Trade Advisor at the Spanish Embassy in Cuba, Juan José Buitrago de Benito and Federico Ferrer Delso, respectively. Participating on the Cuban side were Alba Soto Pimentel, director for Europe and Canada at the Cuban Foreign Ministry; and Inalvis Bonachea González, director of Trade Policy with Europe at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment.

(Granma)

Havana will host the forum for the first time since the triumph of the Revolution, in which crucial issues for the economic and social development of the countries of the region will be analyzed.

Cuba is an ECLAC founding member, and has participated in its activities since 1948. It hosted the second regular session in 1949.

Below, we outline some of the main topics that will be addressed this week in Havana’s International Conference Center.

1- CUBA ASSUMES PRESIDENCY PRO TEMPORE

Cuba will hold the ECLAC presidency pro tempore for a term of two years. In the 36th Session, held May 23 through 27, 2016, in Mexico City, the island was elected unanimously to take the reins of the regional body.

2- IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2030 AGENDA

Analyzing the development strategies of member states to meet the commitments of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals will also be one of the points of debate.

3- EQUALITY IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Latin America and the Caribbean continues to be one of the most unequal areas on the planet, so this issue is key. In February, ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena noted that the meeting will discuss the idea and need for equality in Latin America and the Caribbean, in line with what was worked on in its four previous sessions held in 2010 in Brasilia; in 2012 in San Salvador; in 2014 in Lima and in 2016 in Mexico City.

4- SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION

One of the themes proposed by Cuba as host state is South-South cooperation. The UN system on the island will offer a presentation on the opportunities and lessons learned from Cuban experiences.

A recent UNESCO report described Cuba as the most outstanding country in Latin America and the Caribbean, by a wide margin, in terms of its contributions to South-South technical cooperation with other developing nations.

5- FOREIGN INVESTMENT

The ECLAC Session will also see a seminar on foreign investment, business opportunities and sustainable development for Cuba, where representatives of the 46 ECLAC member countries and 13 associate members will be able to discover more about the island’s legislation in this regard.