CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Unity, Firmness, Solidarity Mark Seventh ALBA Summit

VENEZUELA, April 17th, 2009. Cuban president Raul Castro headed the Cuban delegation attending the Seventh Presidential Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) that took place yesterday in the Venezuelan city of Cumana. 

Raul and Chavez receive evo
Chavez began the meeting greeting all the delegations. Then he went on to analyze the current international economic crisis, the US blockade against Cuba and the policy of isolation of Cuba followed by the inter-American system, an effort that he termed ridiculous.
Chavez then gave the floor to President Raul Castro, who addressed the causes and effects of the current international economic crisis. He said trying to overcome the crisis by using economic mechanisms such as the International Monetary Fund was absurd, since these mechanisms are the ones that have caused the crisis to be more severe. 
raul castro addresses the summit.
Raul said it was important for solutions to be based on the greatest possible world consensus and not on agreements among a few powerful countries.

The Cuban president pointed to the contribution that the Single Regional Compensation System (SUCRE for its acronym in Spanish) could make in the search for greater economic independence.

"Our nations cannot, on their own, transform the international economic order,” said Raul, “but our nations can lay new foundations and can build their own economic relations.”

Raul Castro also ratified Cuba’s willingness to continue helping the Latin American and Caribbean peoples.

Official Photo  of the Summit

Raul’s address was followed by those of the presidents of Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay, and the prime ministers of Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The latter formally requested his country’s admission to ALBA.

Others who also spoke at the summit were the Foreign minister of Ecuador and Miguel D’Escoto, president of the UN General Assembly. They all expressed agreement with the documents presented for consideration at the gathering, voicing support for Cuba, and rejecting the US blockade against the island.
Meeting with  Miguel D’escoto, President of the UN General Assembly 

On behalf of the Cuban people and of Fidel, Raul Castro thanked the participating countries for their sincere expressions of support for Cuba.

In connection with the Organization of American States (OAS), Raul said that he was not going to answer the statements made by its general secretary, as Fidel has already replied to them in one of his recent Reflections. He said the history of that organization is marked by bloodshed.

Raul recalled the shameful role played by the OAS in the aggression against the Guatemalan people in the 1950s and its subsequent complicity in the attacks and the terrorist acts against Cuba, which caused thousands of victims.

Signing of the Agreement for the Single Regional Payment

COMPENSATION SYSTEM (Sucre)
The Cuban leader pointed out, as examples of these aggressions, the epidemic of hemorrhagic dengue fever, the sabotage of a Cuban airplane off Barbados that killed 73 people and the mercenary invasion of Bay of Pigs.

”We were not expelled from the OAS in 1961,” said Raul, “so that the organization could recognise as legitimate a puppet government that the United States wanted to establish in Cuba, which was to immediately seek a US armed invasion, an action that would have claimed hundreds of thousands of victims in Cuba, as had happened in Guatemala earlier, without the slightest protest from the OAS.”

CEREMONY IN AYACUCHO PARK TO PAY HOMAGE TO MARSHAL SUCRE
Raul went on to explain that in January of 1962 they did expel Cuba, because a direct invasion by the US army was being planned. “That is the sad reality that led to the so-called Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962,” he noted.

He said the Cuban government has openly expressed its readiness to discuss any topic with the US authorities, on the basis of absolute respect for the sovereignty and the self-determination of the Cuban people.

Raul also said that Cuba was ready to release mercenaries paid for by the United States and terrorists sentenced by the Cuban laws, provided that the five Cuban anti-terrorists held prisoner in the US, were freed.

When Raul excused himself for taking the floor again, Chávez answered:”Cuba has spoken!", and followed it with an embrace and an ovation from all present.

Once the session concluded, the regional leaders moved to Ayacucho Park, located in the historic area of the city, to place a floral offering at the foot of the statue of Grand Marshal Jose de Sucre. An enthusiastic crowd of Cumana residents awaited them here.

The day ended with the visit to the Sucre Barracks, the military camp where Chávez served when he was a young lieutenant. “This is where my political awareness began,” Chavez told the soldiers gathered on parade.(Cubaminrex- Granma)

<< Back