"We are proud that ALBA-TCP is at the forefront in denouncing the continued imperialist assaults and projecting itself as a strong voice in the face of U.S. designs. This Alliance is our first shield against the dangers that threaten peace and security in the region".
These words were part of the speech delivered this Wednesday afternoon from Havana by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, during the XIII Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of ALBA-TCP (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People's Trade Agreement), moderated from Venezuela and in virtual format.
After conveying to the brothers of Our America "a cordial greeting from Army General Raúl Castro Ruz", the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez -the first dignitary to whom President Nicolás Maduro offered the right to speak- expressed to all: "Gunboat diplomacy returns to the Caribbean. Ships, planes, a submarine and thousands of U.S. troops are deployed in the region, this time under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking and criminal groups that put the security of the United States at risk".
"It would seem to be a worn-out farce if it were not for the fact that it could lead to tragedy. The news is circulating at the same time that the government of that country, in an impudent manner, violating all the norms of international coexistence, is putting a price on the head of the legitimate president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela".
The Head of State referred that what was just read and pronounced was "a fragment, brief but forceful, and at the same time loaded with painful memory, of a declaration of Casa de las Americas which, as we all know, is an institution of the progressive intellectuality of Our America that also maintains strong links with creators of North America".
He valued that "the denunciation, issued from its headquarters in Havana, is a cry of urgency from our thinkers, aware of the significance of these acts of imperial arrogance, but also of the power of unity to stop them".
Further on in his words, the dignitary affirmed: "We are living in times of enormous challenges and exceptional risks". And then he denounced that "imperialism, in the deployment of its hegemonist and aggressive offensive, shows that it has no intention of stopping before the limits imposed by International Law, the United Nations Charter, and decades of regional and universal resolutions and declarations against coercion, threats, interference in the internal affairs of other States, and intervention".
The Cuban President reflected that "the announced prerogative that the government of the United States intends to grant to its law enforcement agencies to act against criminal organizations within the borders of other States constitutes an unacceptable threat of aggression, a violation of the sovereignty of nations in the region and an additional alteration of the regime of peace and cooperation that Latin American and Caribbean countries have worked so hard to guarantee".
"The aforementioned deployment -he stressed- of military naval units to the southern Caribbean, under the command of the Southern Command, reportedly involves up to 4 thousand troops and is presented as a dissuasive act, under the false and disproportionate argument of combating drug trafficking cartels".
The Head of State stressed that, "given the characteristics of the units deployed, this is a strategic move that could facilitate actions under U.S. law, specifically Title 50 of the U.S. Code (on War and National Defense), which grants the president of that country the ability to execute military or clandestine operations, sanctions and confiscation of assets without previously informing Congress".
"Cuba firmly denounces this new demonstration of imperial force and calls on ALBA-TCP and from here to all the peoples of the world, to condemn this irrational onslaught by the Trump Administration."
With emphasis, the president said: "We denounce with equal firmness the encouragement and financing of terrorist plans against Venezuela, as well as the mendacious accusation launched by the U.S. government against President Nicolás Maduro, which seeks to associate him, without any basis or evidence, to criminal organizations linked to illicit drug trafficking. This is, once again, the kind of maneuvers to which imperialism resorts when it harbors aggressive intentions against sovereign states, when it is unable to stifle the spirit of resistance of the peoples and needs a fraudulent pretext to justify its actions".
The regional meeting was attended on Wednesday by Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Grenada and St. Lucia. Honduras also took part as a guest country.
UNITED IN CONVICTION AND ACTION
"The serious threats that are being made from that "revolted and brutal North that despises us", as José Martí called it, are part of a debased scheme of domination, bent on reactivating the Monroe Doctrine, the key to U.S. interventionism in our hemisphere", stated the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.
And later, in his speech during the Extraordinary Summit, Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said: "We have no other alternative but to confront the empire that seeks to subordinate us to its interests. And we must do so firmly united in conviction and action. In that spirit of historic commitment to the unwavering defense of our common destiny, we have convened in ALBA-TCP".
The head of state stressed that "peace and peaceful coexistence among States, to which we aspire, cannot be based on naivety or allow us to forget the dangers. It is up to us to defend it as an inalienable right, and from realistic positions".
FIDEL AND THE LEGACY OF UNITY
Díaz-Canel Bermúdez stated in his speech: "As you all know, last August 13 we celebrated, not only in Cuba, but also in other countries of Latin America, the Caribbean and the world, the 99th birthday of Fidel Castro Ruz, who, from his enormous legacy of ideas and actions, continues to be the Commander-in-Chief and the greatest historical leader of the Cuban Revolution. In these days, we have started a commemorative year, of international scope, for his Centenary".
"Fidel's multifaceted contribution to history and to the efforts for the integration and unity of our region is immeasurable. New generations of Latin American and Caribbean leaders and social activists make Fidel's legacy their own, which, together with that of the unforgettable Commander Hugo Chávez and other undisputed leaders of the united efforts of Our America, today more than ever continue to be a compass for action, in line with the Bolivarian and Marti's ideology".
"Zealous caretaker of diversity, Fidel was also a tireless articulator of the unity of our peoples, based on a deep anti-imperialist sentiment. He taught us that the battle is not only political or economic, but also cultural and moral."
"With this arsenal of experiences and ideas -the Head of State said- we are called upon to face the threats that loom not only over a group of our countries, such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and also Cuba, which have lately become the favorite target of the siege and the unilateral coercive economic measures of the government of the United States". The dignitary underlined that the threats gravitate on all peoples willing to decide their own destiny. And he emphasized:
"The defense of the right to self-determination and unwavering solidarity among sister nations, is a mandate of history that has brought us this far."
"The United States is trying to divide us with its policy of pressures and blockades; it intends to weaken us with hate speeches and destabilizing actions. But our history -and let us not forget it- is marked, from our indigenous ancestors, and also from the best and most popular that Africa, Asia and Europe itself bequeathed to us, by the resistance and victory of cohesive peoples".
The Cuban President commented that, from this accumulated knowledge and feelings bequeathed to us by our ancestors, we cannot fail to demand, in every tribune, in every space, in every expression of rejection to imperialism, that the genocide in Gaza cease.
"The threats, he said, that today hover over Venezuela are based on the same philosophy of dispossession that has turned a small strip of land into the hell of this world, Enough of Zionist impunity. Enough of imperial complicity. Or vice versa. All crimes have perpetrators and accomplices in order to be sustained in time. Israeli Zionism and Yankee imperialism exchange roles in their criminal exercises. Cuba knows it well, because in its genocidal blockade, the empire has always counted on the invariable support of the Israeli genocide".
TO MOBILIZE AGAINST THE NEW COLONIZATION ATTEMPT
"We resolutely support the Special Communiqué adopted by the Group of Friends in Defense of the United Nations Charter, through which the member countries expressed their concern over the declared intentions of the United States government to initiate military actions in Latin America and the Caribbean," declared Díaz-Canel Bermúdez. And he highlighted:
"In line with the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, we consider it necessary to mobilize the denunciation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States against this new colonizing attempt, for which reason we support the holding of an extraordinary meeting of CELAC Foreign Ministers."
Further on, the dignitary recalled that on January 23, 1959 "the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, speaking in a multitudinous act in the Plaza del Silencio, in Caracas, expressed: "These peoples have acquired too great an awareness of their destiny for them to resign themselves once again to the subjugation and miserable abjection in which we have been living for more than a century".
Díaz-Canel detailed that the Commander-in-Chief added to the previous expression: "These peoples of America know that their internal strength is in union and that their continental strength is also in union".
The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba affirmed: "We Cubans share this conviction. The blood of our heroes was not shed in vain. And, if the time should come to defend with our own lives the sacred soil of the Homeland, we will fulfill that duty as the highest honor".
To the "dear friends" who were listening, the President said: "Neither the bluster of intervention, nor the political and economic pressures, nor the disinformation campaigns, are enough to break the essence and surrender the Latin American and Caribbean dignity, if we remain united".
"Our strength is the strength of history and shared ideals and is based on the firm conviction that the freedom and sovereignty of each people is the freedom and sovereignty of all".
Díaz-Canel Bermúdez returned, in his words, to the appeal of the Casa de las Américas: "As its intellectuals warn and I quote: "if something is clear, and imperialism itself prevents us from forgetting it, it is who has embodied for at least two hundred years the main enemy of the ideals of Bolívar and Martí. That enemy, the giant of the seven leagues, must be fought by all means, without getting lost in discussions that would smooth out the mission of ships, planes, submarines and the thousands of troops that threaten us".
Other cardinal calls son the Chief of State: May the voice of our heroes and the spirit of Chávez and Fidel at the gates of the year of the Commander in Chief's Centenary guide us in this joint struggle; may unbreakable solidarity and unity be our shields.
"Only together, united by hope and love for our land, we will be able to build the future that present and future generations deserve", stressed the Head of State, accompanied in this space by the member of the Political Bureau and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, and the member of the Central Committee and head of its International Relations Department, Emilio Lozada Garcia.
A PORTICO OF BROTHERHOOD
Opening the space for reflections of the Extraordinary Summit, President Nicolás Maduro extended a solidary, affectionate, affectionate greeting to all the member peoples of ALBA-TCP. "My solidarity and revolutionary greetings," he said. And then he commented that the regional meeting was held to update everything related to the permanent cooperation plans, and to review the changing circumstances "we have today in the continent".
The Bolivarian leader described Latin America and the Caribbean as a territory in dispute between the forces of the people -the forces of independence, advancement and struggle- and the obscurantist forces of the U.S. empire. He said that this is a "permanent pulse", and that ALBA was born in the heat of that pulse.
Maduro stressed: "We are going to be 21 years old in December". He recalled that the Alliance was born as an alternative to the colonial economic model that the FTAA sought to impose. The President recalled that there was even a struggle in the streets in the 1990s and in the early stages of the 21st century, and that, in the heat of that struggle, a humanist project of its own was born: "The Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America was born".
He recalled the fruits of ALBA, such as the massive literacy processes, or the Miracle Mission -which restored sight to peasants and workers-, or the extraordinary health missions. Our people are deeply grateful, he said, for the Cuban medical mission that is among the humble.
"We are an Alliance of warriors for peace," said the Venezuelan President, who stressed that ALBA has always been at the forefront of solidarity and union, and has been at the forefront of accompanying the people of Palestine.
He reflected that, if anything characterizes these times we are going through, it is the cruel nature and the normalization of crime in all its expressions, such as those bombings against noble, unarmed and defenseless peoples like the Palestinian people.
"ALBA is the Alliance of the brave," said Maduro, who valued that this regional tool is shedding light on the rebellious peoples fighting for their own project.
Regarding the imperial threats, he qualified them as a "mad frenzy of threats" by those who believe that Monroe can come back and that Bolivar is not going to do anything. What is our path, Nicolás Maduro asked and then emphasized that the path is in peace, in union, in our own economic, social and cultural models; the path is Latin American and Caribbean, he enunciated.
