Bridgetown, Dec 8, 2005. (Prensa Latina) Cuban President Fidel Castro highly appreciated Caribbean states´ solidarity with Cuba and ratified his support for regional integration.
"We once more express our appreciation for the Caribbean nations solidarity that reached its latest highest point in the UN General Assembly as they unanimously voted against the over 45-year US blockade of our people," stated Fidel.
Addressing the 2nd Cuba-CARICOM Summit, the Cuban president said his nation was willing to cooperate in any field necessary.
"CARICOM nations will always have Cuba´s respect and friendship," noted the leader of the Cuban Revolution, saying that 10,502 Caribbean people with eye afflictions have been operated in four months and two weeks as part of the Miracle Operation.
Fidel Castro asserted that 1,142 Cuban collaborators are currently working in the Caribbean, 9,957 youths have graduated in Cuba and 3,318 are presently studying in universities there.
He said the European Union forgot its debt as former colonial mother country, as well as bilateral agreements, and has taken on a profound unilateral reform that affects the Caribbean sugar and banana sectors.
The Cuban leader supported the Caribbean and demanded that the EU rectify the policy that drives tens of thousand regional families to poverty and exclusion.
"I believe people are well aware today that neoliberal globalization threatens the independence of our countries," added Fidel Castro.
"The divide between the increasingly rich North and the increasing poor South is spiraling and constitutes a permanent threat to international stability," he contended.
The 2nd Cuba-CARICOM Summit kicked off at the Hilton Hotel in Bridgetown with addresses by Prime Ministers Owen Arthur (Barbados), Kenny Anthony (Saint Lucia), and CARICOM Secretary General (Trinidad and Tobago) Edwin Carrington.