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)

“I want the concept of homeland to have a greater scope, that on referring to our country we are referring to the great America that our small homelands make up.”

It was very clear that the visionary Fidel was thinking and planning to build that great homeland, a dream frustrated over a hundred years of colonialism and an annexed Republic.

The founding of ALBA, in December 2004, was undoubtedly one of the greatest expressions of unity and solidarity in Latin American and Caribbean history.

ALBA is an institution as inspiring as it is necessary, and represents a unique legacy, which must be taken care of, strengthened and defended. To renounce unity in these times is the worst act that individuals and governments can commit, as it would be to play into the hands of the imperialist forces that threaten, attack, and want to reconquer us by applying colonialist recipes like the Monroe Doctrine.

That moment when two of the most outstanding men of the 20th and 21st centuries, Fidel and Chávez, signed in Cuba the declaration that founded ALBA, on December 14, 2004, soon began to bear fruit.

Five years later, on October 19, 2009, Fidel wrote in one of his reflections: “ALBA, created by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Cuba, inspired by the ideas of Bolívar and Martí, as an unprecedented example of revolutionary solidarity, has shown how much can be achieved in just five years of peaceful cooperation.”

Thus emerged the medical missions of hundreds of thousands of Cuban doctors who have offered their valuable services in the most remote geographical spaces of Latin America, the Caribbean, and also Africa and Asia.

The Ecuadorian, Nicaraguan and other peoples will forever remember those Cuban specialists who undertook genetic studies to then embark on the major battle to rehabilitate disabled persons, or improve the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of children of the world’s most deprived

Before the impressive progress of plans and programs in health, education, culture, sport and others, Fidel, during the Latin American School of Medicine’s first graduation ceremony, on August 20, 2005, expressed: “However, everything that I have said so far pales in comparison with the colossal movement that is being promoted by Venezuela and Cuba to train doctors ready to march in the front line of the Bolivarian dawn. Thanks to this, and as part of the Barrio Adentro Mission devised by President Hugo Chávez, 22,043 Venezuelan undergraduates have now embarked on their pre-med studies in the 7,898 Barrio Adentro surgeries, in close cooperation with the Venezuelan Ministries of Higher Education and Public Health. On October 3, they will begin their first year studies in Medicine. In only ten years time, 40,000 will be graduating.”

As of September 2018, the Miracle Mission had carried out 5,600,000 eye operations in 37 countries.

Through the Cuban Yo sí puedo (Yes, I Can) literacy program, up until February 2019, more than 10 million people in 32 countries had been taught to read and write, and three nations have already been declared free of illiteracy.

ALBA, despite ups and downs, is the heart of unity and solidarity among our peoples, and as such we must defend and consolidate it.

MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS:

- High level of political coordination in regional and multilateral organizations, in defense of the principles of international law, the postulates of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, and mutual solidarity.

- Three countries of Our America were declared “Territories Free of Illiteracy”: Venezuela (2005), Bolivia (2008) and Nicaragua (2009).

- The Miracle Mission has returned eyesight, free of charge, to more than five million people. Additionally, it has offered more than 27 million ophthalmological consultations, and provided more than 41 million pairs of glasses.

- The Miracle Mission has privileged mainly low-income people who never received medical attention for their ophthalmological conditions.

- As part of the Genetic and Psychosocial Clinical Study of People with Disabilities, more than one million people in six countries have been identified as in need of support. More than two million consultations have been carried out, and more than 1 million technical aids such as prosthetics provided.

- The Genetic and Psychosocial Clinical Study of People with Disabilities, as a program, has also helped integrate patients into society, without discrimination, while promoting their individual potential.

- More than 2,000 young people from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa are being trained as community doctors, with a profound social vocation and high level of scientific, technical, ethical and humanistic education, at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), with campuses in Cuba and Venezuela.

- Four editions of the ALBA Games were held, with the participation of more than 10,000 athletes from 31 nations.

- As a consequence of the earthquake of January 12, 2010, in Haiti, ALBA-TCP member countries approved an action plan and contributed to the reconstruction and promotion of the development of this sister Caribbean nation, in the fields of health, finance, energy, agriculture and food sovereignty, education, construction, security, transport and logistics.

- The organization has proposed the construction and consolidation of a Space for Interdependence, Sovereignty and Economic Solidarity through the People’s Trade Agreement, the SUCRE currency, and the Bank of ALBA.

ALBA staunchly condemns the United States’ genocidal economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba.

Cuba’s Foreign Ministry shared an excerpt from the Summit’s Final Declaration on Twitter: We reiterate our willingness to continue promoting the construction of a new international order, democratic, fair, inclusive and equitable, in which sovereign equality between states is the norm.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega noted that U.S. interventionist policies toward Venezuela, Bolivia, and Cuba are criminal acts against humanity.

In particular, he mentioned the intensification of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade of Cuba, despite the many resolutions approved by the vast majority of members of the United Nations General Assembly demanding its elimination.

He said that the celebration of this Summit on the 14th anniversary of ALBA-TCP reaffirms the value of solidarity throughout the years of struggle for justice and peace.

He insisted that the Nicaraguan people “have the strength and dignity to overcome the sanctions they face, despite the threats. We are sure that the Venezuelan and Cuban revolutions will remain undefeated in this difficult conjuncture, with the accompaniment of the peoples of ALBA-TCP and the world.”He concluded paying tribute to Fidel and Chávez, “to those two great gladiators of peace and justice.”

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel adjourns the meeting.

A gala event is scheduled this evening to commemorate the 14th anniversary of ALBA’s founding.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra is the final leader to address the Summit this afternoon.

Speaking next was José Luis Merino, El Salvador’s deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, who said that ALBA has been the most vigorous, energetic alliance seen in the region over the last 14 years.

“Without the ALBA, our people would be facing a huge social battle, in which thousands of Latin American patriots would be dying.

“We are living amidst U.S. attacks meant to prevent the Salvadoran people from advancing.”

David Choquehuanca Céspedes, ALBA-TCP secretary, speaks, saying, “At heart all human beings are integrationists.

“That is what we must awaken in ALBA member countries, communal energy to defend our sovereignty, our dignity, and our identity, necessary to strengthen our joint work.

“We need to bring light to international spaces, express our ideas and proposals, work on the rights of Mother Earth, on the protection of the environment.

“We need to activate mechanisms of our alliance, strengthen missions and social exchange, consolidate the Economic Council, designate the country that will coordinate this mechanism, work on a new financial architecture, build new economic thinking, work on a meeting of intellectuals, of communication ministers.

“Work on mechanisms of cooperation, ALBA has served as a cooperation mechanism with Russia, China, Iran, and Turkey. There is interest on the part of governments to work with ALBA. Social movements are also interested in working with us.

“We must become the spirit of integration of the peoples of the world,” he insisted.

A representative from St. Kitts and Nieves and Suriname’s ambassador in Cuba, Marciano Edgar, addressed the Summit.

Chet Greene, Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Immigration, took the floor, sharing remarks from the country’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, who expressed gratitude to ALBA, President Maduro and Venezuela, and noted that many of the integration objectives formulated in the Managua declaration have been met.

The issue of protecting our sovereignty and self-determination remains relevant today, he said, adding that all countries of the region are being besieged and threatened with economic terrorism.

Grenada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter David, spoke and expressed his solidarity with Venezuela.

“Grenada will always appreciate the support it has received from the people and government of Cuba.”

(Granma)

“First I want to recall that 24 years ago, at this very same time that I am landing, Comandante Chávez arrived with all his dreams and energy. It was 1994, and also a December 13, and Fidel was waiting for him here,” Maduro noted.

“No one knew, nor did anyone imagine, the story that was to be written, for our continent,” he added, moments after being greeted on the tarmac by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla.

Arriving yesterday, as well, during the day, were Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit; Foreign Minister Chet Greene of Antigua and Barbuda; the ambassador of Haiti in Venezuela, Lesly David; and Raúl Licausi, Venezuelan deputy foreign minister. All were received by José Ramón Saborido, Cuba’s Minister of Higher Education.

(Granma)

The Second Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) proclaimed the region a Zone of Peace in January 2014, but the U.S. is set on undermining this consensus.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson toured the region in February this year and Vice President Mike Pence in June, promoting the U.S. agenda.

Now it is Defense Secretary James Mattis has toured Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia, seeking military and diplomatic allies.

Recent events confirm the escalation:

- The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, recently denounced a “covert invasion” of Latin America with the deployment of a vessel capable of transporting combat helicopters. The excuse: humanitarian aid to Venezuelans living in Colombia.

- The capabilities of the Southern Command, with its network of military bases and the Fourth Fleet, have been strengthened.

- On the cultural front, big capital moves its media, churches, and technological resources, to demobilize youth, promoting the idea that socialism is not viable and social justice not the state’s responsibility.

- In official statements by the Trump administration, the Monroe Doctrine is proudly presented as more relevant than ever.

- The United States continues to promote non-governmental initiatives, aggressive media campaigns, and cooperation between judicial powers and Washington-controlled organizations, to carry out a targeted, brutal war against the left in the region.

These strategies are in line with “regime change” schemes, which claim millions of victims around the world and promote violence, war, humanitarian crises, and instability, at any cost.

(Granma)

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)

Regarding the conference, and from within the very jaws of the beast, in his condition as Consul of Uruguay, José Martí, key witness to the emergence of this imperialist monster, stated in Argentine newspaper La Nación that: “Never in America, of independence here, was there an issue that required more careful consideration, more attention, a more detailed and clear examination, than the invitation being offered by the powerful United States, replete with unsellable products, and determined to extend its control over America, to weaker nations, bound by free and useful trade to the people of Europe, to tighten a cord around Europe and close off deals with the rest of the word. Spanish America was able to save itself from the tyranny of Spain, and now, after witnessing with perceptive eyes the history, causes, and facets of this invitation, it must be said, because it is the truth, that the time for Spanish America to declare its second independence has arrived.”

Of course, Martí’s astute political analysis and sharp mind proved to be right.

From 1899 through 1945, over the course of eight similar conferences, three consultative meetings and various conferences on specific issues, the U.S. began to gradually cement its political, economic, and military dominance throughout Latin America, until the OAS was founded in 1948, as part of the International Conference of American States in Bogotá, March 30-May 2, during which popular Liberal Party leader Jorge E. Gaitán was murdered.

The event sparked massive riots known as the Bogotazo, which were brutally repressed and significantly impacted the direction and outcomes of the conference. The U.S. cited the unrest as proof of the threat posed to democracy by the rise of the Soviet Union and communism.

History shows that the Organization of American States was created to become a key legal tool in the efforts of the United States to assert its control of the continent. This was recently demonstrated during U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech on June 4 during the 48th session of the organization’s General Assembly, which Raúl Roa, former Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, affectionately known as the Foreign Minister of Dignity – referred to as the empire’s colonial ministry.

With his interventionist remarks, Pompeo called on member states to isolate Venezuela, instructing the region to sever ties with the legitimate government of Nicolás Maduro, just as it had done with Cuba in the early 1960s. He also demanded “democratic reforms” be implemented in Nicaragua, blaming the government of Daniel Ortega for those killed in acts of violence orchestrated by opposition groups.

Regarding Cuba, Pompeo said that: “As democratic societies, we must support young people in Cuba and elsewhere in the hemisphere in their hopes for democratic change.”

But Cuba, which stood up against the OAS and with her all the peoples of America, led by its youth, responded just as Martí did in 1889: “Why should we young nations of Latin America join the battle the United States is preparing to wage with the rest of the world?”

U.S. rhetoric on independence, sovereignty, the rights of the individual and the peoples – even supporting non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states – is dead letter in the face of its extensive and violent record.

The United States needs the OAS to influence and divide the region and to prevent the fulfillment of its only, inevitable, and true historic destiny: the integration of the peoples as Martí and Bolivar dreamed.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OAS IN THE AMERICAS

- In 1954 Guatemala was invaded by mercenaries trained and organized by the CIA, overthrowing the government of Jacobo Arbenz. Before the coup, the OAS had approved a resolution authorizing “collective regional intervention,” in blatant violation of its own Charter and that of the United Nations.

- The OAS was silent following the1961 mercenary invasion of Cuba at Playa Girón.

- April 1965: U.S. marines landed in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, to stop the popular uprising from claiming victory over the country’s military. This was the first collective intervention in a country of the region orchestrated by the OAS.

- The OAS remained silent following the death of Salvador Allende, and murder and disappearance of hundreds of thousands of South Americans during Plan Condor.

- It did nothing to combat violence in Central America during the 1980s, which cost the lives of 100,000 people.

- The organization did nothing to support investigations into the death of General Torrijos in Panama.

- March 1982: British intervention leads to the Guerra de las Malvinas (Falklands War), the first armed conflict between an OAS member state (Argentina) and foreign power. Under the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (commonly known as the Rio Pact; another U.S. tool of control disguised as continental solidarity) nations of the region should have showed support and solidarity with the aggrieved nation. However, the United States provided military and political support to Britain and imposed economic sanction on Argentina.

- October 1983: Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop is assassinated and his government overthrown by a U.S-backed military coup, aided by 1,900 marines, once again violating the principle of non-intervention.

- The OAS didn’t even react to the invasion of Panama, in 1989.

- In 1992 the Inter-American Democratic Charter cemented U.S. domination over the OAS. The organization showed the same level of passivity and contempt as it had always done, following the military coup in Haiti, which overthrew President Jean Bertrand Arístides in February 2004.

- The OAS participated in the unsuccessful April 2002 coup against Comandante Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.

- The U.S. helps plan the coup against the government of Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, 2009.

- In 2010 the U.S. turned a blind eye to another coup attempt, this time against Rafael Correa in Ecuador.

- The OAS and its Secretary General Luis Almagro actively support and promote U.S. policies against Cuba and Venezuela.

(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.

“Don’t mess with Cuba,” insisted the Cuban diplomat, referring to the offensive comments of Jorge Luis Vallejo, a member of the so-called Latin American Network of Youth for Democracy and representative of coalition number 26 to the Hemispheric Dialogue, which took place yesterday in the Peruvian capital, prior to the upcoming 8th Summit of the Americas.

The event’s proceedings were followed live in Havana, on screens in the Cuban Workers Federation theater, where the 2nd Cuban Civil Society Forum was held simultaneously.

The gathering in Lima consisted of an exchange among representatives from countries in the region and members of 28 thematic coalitions which will be meeting in a civil society forum, during the Summit of the Americas, April 10-11 in Lima.

In his comments, Juan Antonio Fernández denounced the composition of coalition 26, which includes among its coordinators “persons and organizations with dubious histories, and political agendas of provocation and subversion.”

The Latin American Network of Youth for Democracy is a project financed by Washington, and includes a selection of members from the Cuban counterrevolution and the regional ultra-right, all ready to participate in any aggression undertaken by the Organization of American States (OAS)

Vallejo, one of the Network’s leaders, addressed coalition number 26 to offend Cuba and recall the provocation recently attempted in Havana, involving a prize awarded to a pair of former Latin American Presidents, whose only merit is having attacked progressive governments.

After his official remarks, Juan Antonio Fernández stated, “Cuba profoundly laments the exclusion of the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and would like to register our inconformity.

“Our America is mutilated by the absence of one the countries on the continent which has contributed the most to liberatory and integrationist ideas in Latin America and the Caribbean,” he continued.

Also followed closely onscreen in Havana were the comments in Lima by Yamila González Ferrer, vice president of the Union of Cuba Jurists, who was representing coalition number 15, which has as its theme, “For an inclusive, respectful world,” on which the majority of Cuba’s delegation participated.

THINKING THE AMERICAS

The meeting of Cuban civil society, parallel with the event in Lima, served to chart a course for participation in activities associated with the Summit of the Americas next month.

Some 30 speakers agreed in emphasizing that Cuba is not a perfect society, but has achieved many successes that should be shared with peers on the continent.

Those commenting included Yuri Pérez, deputy dean at the University of Havana Law School, Marisol Pérez, representing the Federation of Cuban Women, and Fermín Quiñones, president of the Cuban United Nations Association, which organized the forum.

He told Granma that expectations for the event had been surpassed, with the vitality and diversity of Cuban civil society made clear.

“With the outcomes of this Forum, the Cuban delegation is going to Lima strengthened, and will be able to give timely, well-reasoned responses to any counterrevolutionary provocation or attempt to legitimize those with no legitimacy whatsoever to represent our people,” Quiñones said.

Cuba attended the Summit of the Americas for the first time in 2015, for the 7th edition held in Panama. Our inclusion was demanded by the majority of Latin American and the Caribbean countries, clearly demonstrating a lack of support for the aggressive policies toward Cuba of the United States, where the idea of these gatherings emerged in 1994.

(Granma)