CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Latin American Integration Boosted in Havana

CUBA, 7 February, 2007.- The enormous importance of integration in Latin America rang clear Tuesday on the second day of the Ninth Conference on Globalization and the Problems of Development taking place at the Havana Convention Center with delegates from around the world.

Many participants voiced their interest in the Latin American experiences, above all after the creation of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), which promotes solidarity, social development and mutually beneficial trade and exchanges.

Numerous presentations covered the different Latin American efforts towards integration including the South Common Market (Mercosur), the Central American Common Market, the Andean Community of Nations, the ALBA and the proposed South American Community of Nations.

Jaime Fuchs and Maria Ines Chiotti from Argentina, Emine Tashin (Turkey), and other experts from Cuba, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Uruguay, passionately described the need for a continental-wide integration movement.

Later Didier Opertti, from the Latin American Association of Integration; Alain Fairlie, of Peru; Jaime Estay from Mexico; Ariela Ruiz, from the Economic Commission for Latin America, and Lourdes Regueiro of Cuba, analyzed in depth matters related to this topic, highlighting the importance of ALBA as a new alternative for the continent.

Another idea raised was that of making good use of the different existing forms of integration and linking them with the ALBA initiative, however, several noted that the free trade agreements with the US are incompatible with this new form of integration.

Such an analysis was not separated from the challenges and perspectives facing Mercosur, put forth by Argentineans Carlos Alvarez, president of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of Mercosur, and scholar Julio Gambina, both veterans of the Havana conferences on Globalization and the Problems of Development. By Joaquín Rivery Tur. (Cubaminrex-Granma).

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