CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Managua Hosts 17th Sao Paulo Forum   
    
By Ileana Ferrer Fonte    
NICARAGUA, May 18, 2011.- The 17th edition of the Sao Paulo Forum opens Wednesday in this capital with representatives from more than 50 political parties and leftist organizations from South America and other countries.

  The focus of the event, as at previous meetings, is Latin American and Caribbean unity, but this time it holds greater significance given the upcoming founding meeting in July, in Caracas, of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

Before the forum opens this afternoon, its three regional secretaries will meet: from the Andes-Amazon, Southern Cone, and Mesoamerica-Caribbean.

Tonight, participants will attend the screening of a documentary about the history of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), according to the agenda.

Thursday’s agenda will be dedicated to the debate in the 13 working groups, with issues such as local, state and national authorities; environment and climate change; art and culture workers; democratization of information and communication; women; legislators, and social movements.

The remaining six groups will analyze foundations and schools and training centers; national sovereignty and decolonization; immigration; security and drug trafficking; defense, and racial issues, after which the forum’s Special Session is to be held.

The event will conclude on Friday with a plenary session that will discuss a single issue, "Building a new era: the alternative project of popular, progressive sectors and the Latin American left."

Reports of each working groups will be presented in the afternoon and participants will approve the final declaration of the 17th Forum, after which the meeting will be closed.

The president of the Cuban parliament, Ricardo Alarcon; the vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Ana Elisa Osorio; and the vice president of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Manh Hung, arrived in this capital on Tuesday.

Marta Perez, from the Dominican Republic’s United Left Movement, also arrived on Tuesday. Others included delegates from the Workers' Party of Brazil, the Farabundo Marti Front (FMLN) of El Salvador, the Honduran Resistance, and the Dominican Revolutionary Party, among others.

Former Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, and indigenous Guatemalan leader and Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberto Menchu are also expected to arrive in this capital. (Cubaminrex-PL)