“It fills us with pride that ALBA-TCP places itself at the forefront in denouncing the continuous imperial threats and projects itself as a firm voice against US designs. This Alliance is our first shield against the dangers that threaten the peace and security of the region.”

These words were part of the speech given on 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 – Peoples’ Trade Treaty), moderated from Venezuela and in a 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, aircraft, a submarine and thousands of US personnel are deployed in the region, this time under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking and criminal groups that put US security at risk.”

“It would seem a worn-out farce if it were not for the fact that it could lead to tragedy. The news circulates at the same time that the government of that country, shamelessly, violating all norms of international coexistence, puts a price on the head of the legitimate president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

The Head of State stated that what had just been read and pronounced was “a fragment, brief but forceful, and at the same time laden with painful memory, from a declaration by Casa de las Américas which, as we all know, is an institution of the progressive intelligentsia of Our America that also maintains strong ties with creators from North America.”

He assessed 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 remarks, the dignitary stated: “We live in times of enormous challenges and exceptional risks.” And then he denounced that “imperialism, in the deployment of its hegemonic and aggressive offensive, makes it clear 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, threat, interference in the internal affairs of other States, and intervention.”

The Cuban President reflected that “the announced prerogative that the US government intends to grant to its law enforcement agencies to act against criminal organisations within the borders of other States constitutes an unacceptable threat of aggression, a violation of the sovereignty of nations in the region and a further alteration of the regime of peace and cooperation that Latin American and Caribbean countries have striven so hard to guarantee.”

“The aforementioned deployment – he stressed – of naval military units to the southern Caribbean, under the command of the Southern Command, reportedly involves up to 4,000 personnel and is presented as a deterrent act, under the false and disproportionate argument of combating drug trafficking cartels.”

The Head of State underlined that, “given the characteristics of the units deployed, this is a strategic movement that could facilitate actions under the cover of US law, specifically Title 50 of the US Code (on War and National Defense), which grants the president of that country the capacity to execute military or clandestine operations, sanctions and asset confiscations without prior reporting to Congress.”

“Cuba firmly denounces this new demonstration of imperial force and calls from 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 expressed: “We denounce with equal firmness the encouragement and financing of terrorist plans against Venezuela, as well as the mendacious accusation launched by the US government against President Nicolás Maduro, which attempts to associate him, without basis or proof, with criminal organisations linked to illicit drug trafficking. It is, once again, the type of manoeuvre to which imperialism resorts when it harbours aggressive intentions against sovereign States, when it is incapable of suffocating the spirit of resistance of the peoples and then needs a fraudulent pretext to justify its actions.”

This regional meeting on Wednesday brought together Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Grenada and Saint Lucia. Honduras also took part as an invited country.

UNITE IN CONVICTION AND IN ACTION

“The grave threats uttered from that ‘turbulent and brutal North that despises us’, as José Martí called it, are part of a debased scheme of domination, intent on reactivating the Monroe Doctrine, the key to US interventionism in our hemisphere,” stated the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

And further on, in his intervention 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 it firmly united in conviction and in action. With that spirit of historical commitment in the unwavering defence of our common destiny, we have convened in ALBA-TCP.”

The president stressed that “the peace, and the peaceful coexistence among States, to which we aspire, cannot be based on naivety nor let us forget the dangers. It falls 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 all of you know, on past 13th August we celebrated, not only in Cuba, but also in other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and the world, the 99th birthday of he who, from his enormous legacy of ideas and action, remains the Commander-in-Chief and the supreme Historic Leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz. In these days, we have begun a commemorative year, of international reach, 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 that Fidelista legacy their own, which, united with that of the unforgettable Commander Hugo Chávez and other undisputed leaders of the unifying endeavours of Our America, today more than ever continue to be a compass for action, in line with the Bolivarian and Martían ideals.”

“A zealous guardian of diversity, Fidel was also a tireless articulator of the unity of our peoples, based on a profound anti-imperialist sentiment. He taught us that the battle is not only political or economic, but also cultural and moral.”

“With that arsenal of experiences and ideas – expressed the Head of State – we are called upon to confront the threats that loom not only over a group of our countries, like Venezuela, Nicaragua and also Cuba, which have lately become the favourite target of the siege and unilateral coercive economic measures of the US government.” The dignitary underlined that the threats weigh upon all peoples willing to decide their own destiny. And he emphasised:

“The defence of the right to self-determination and unwavering solidarity among brother nations is a mandate of history that has brought us here.”

“The United States, what does it intend?: It intends to divide us with its policy of pressures and blockades; it aims to weaken us with discourses of hate and destabilising actions. But our history -and let us not forget it- is marked, from the indigenous ancestors, and also from the best and most popular legacy from Africa, Asia and Europe itself, by the resistance and victory of cohesive peoples.”

The Cuban President commented that, from that accumulated knowledge and feelings bequeathed by our ancestors, we also cannot fail to demand, in every tribune, in every space, in every expression of rejection of imperialism, that the genocide in Gaza cease.

“The threats, he said, that today hang 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 to be sustained over time. Israeli Zionism and Yankee imperialism exchange roles in their criminal exercises. Cuba knows this well, because in its genocidal blockade, the empire has always counted on the unwavering support of the genocidal Israeli.”

MOBILISE AGAINST THE NEW COLONISING ATTEMPT

“We resolutely support the Special Communiqué adopted by the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, through which member countries expressed their concern about the declared intentions of the US government to initiate military actions in Latin America and the Caribbean,” declared Díaz-Canel Bermúdez. And he highlighted:

“In accordance with the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, we consider it necessary to mobilise the denunciation by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States against this new colonising attempt, for which we support the holding of an extraordinary meeting of CELAC Foreign Ministers.”

Later the dignitary recalled that on 23rd January 1959 “the Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, speaking at a mass rally, in the Plaza del Silencio, in Caracas, expressed: ‘These peoples have acquired too great a consciousness of their destiny to resign themselves again to the submission 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 that conviction. The blood of our heroes was not shed in vain. And, if the moment arrives to defend with our own lives the sacred soil of the Homeland, we will fulfil that duty as the highest honour.”

To the “dear friends” who were listening, the president expressed: “Neither the bravado of intervention, nor political and economic pressures, nor disinformation campaigns are enough to break the essences and surrender Latin American and Caribbean dignity, if we remain cohesive.”

“Our strength is the strength of history and shared ideals and is rooted in 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 call 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 combated by all means, without losing ourselves in discussions that pave the way for the mission of ships, aircraft, submarines and the thousands of personnel that threaten us’.”

Other cardinal calls from the Head of State: May the voice of our founding 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 unwavering solidarity and unity be our shields.

“Only together, united by hope and love for our land, will we be able to build the future that present and future generations deserve,” emphasised the Head of State, accompanied in this space by the member of the Political Bureau and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, and the member of the Central Committee and head of its Department of International Relations, Emilio Lozada García.

A PORTICO OF BROTHERHOOD

Upon opening the reflection space of the Extraordinary Summit, President Nicolás Maduro extended a solidary, affectionate, caring greeting to all the member peoples of ALBA-TCP. “My solidary and revolutionary greetings,” he said. And he subsequently commented that the regional meeting was being held to update everything related to the permanent cooperation plans, and to review the turbulent “circumstances we have today on the continent.”

The Bolivarian leader described Latin America and the Caribbean as a territory in dispute between the forces of the people – independentist forces, of advancement and struggle – and the obscurantist forces of the US empire. He said that it is a “permanent pulse”, and that ALBA was born in the heat of that pulse.

Maduro highlighted: “We will turn 21 in December.” And he recalled that the Alliance was born as an alternative to the colonial economic model that they wanted to impose with the FTAA. The president recalled that there was even a struggle in the streets in the 90s and in the first moments of the 21st century, and that, in the heat of that struggle, a proper, humanist project entered: “The Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America was born.”

He recalled fruits of ALBA such as the massive literacy processes, or like Operation Miracle -which restored sight to peasants, to workers-, or like the extraordinary Health missions. Our people are profoundly 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 was always first in solidarity, in union, and has been first, accompanying the people of Palestine.

He reflected that, if something characterises this era we are going through, it is the cruel character and the normalisation of crime in all its expression, like those bombings against noble, unarmed and defenceless peoples like the Palestinian people.

“ALBA is the Alliance of the brave,” said Maduro, who assessed that this regional tool is shedding light for the rebellious peoples who fight for their own project.

Regarding the imperial threats, he described them as a “mad frenzy of threats” by those who believe that Monroe can return and that Bolívar will do nothing. What is our path?, asked Nicolás Maduro to then stress that the path is in peace, in union, in our own economic, social and cultural models; the path is Latin Americanist and Caribbean, he stated.

Union is what has made us strong, and union is the great lesson we take from giants like Fidel, like Chávez, like ALBA, whom no one can take away what they lived and did, conceptualised the dignitary.

MORE VOICES FROM THE REGION

Other voices joined the Summit, such as that of the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Luis Alberto Arce Catacora, who affirmed that “we participate urged to make effective our solidarity with Venezuela”, threatened by the empire.

Fascism stalks us and the peoples must prepare to resist and overcome, he said; and he commented, among other ideas, that the true security of our peoples is not resolved with ships, that those peoples will not accept impositions or threats, and that peace is not militarised.

For his part, the Nicaraguan dignitary Daniel Ortega denounced the events in Gaza, and recalled that the empire has always acted with the force of violence, dropping atomic bombs, like those on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The incredible thing, he said, is how submissively the international community reacts.

Of unity, “of identifying the ways in which we can be more productive and improve the life of our nations” spoke Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, who when referring to US imperialism said that “there will always be a threat over us.” Therefore, he stressed, “we have to work together, based on solidarity, and protect ourselves as much as possible in practice.”

A DECLARATION FOR THE SOVEREIGNTY OF OUR PEOPLES

By unanimity, the Extraordinary Summit approved a final Declaration that expresses the firmest and most absolute support for the constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, who once again faces a nefarious offensive of political and judicial persecution promoted from the United States.

Likewise, the text denounces that the unfounded accusations, used as instruments of media and diplomatic harassment, are part of the strategy of judicialisation of politics that seeks to delegitimise sovereign governments and open the path to foreign intervention: “These manoeuvres not only constitute a direct attack on the independence of Venezuela, but also a threat against the stability and self-determination of all the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

The Declaration categorically rejects the orders of the US government to deploy military forces under false pretexts; denounces that the US military deployment in Caribbean waters, disguised as anti-drug operations, represents a threat to the peace and stability of the region and constitutes a flagrant violation of International Law and of the United Nations Charter, which enshrine respect for sovereignty, the equality of States and the self-determination of peoples; and demands the immediate cessation of any threat or military action that violates the territorial integrity and political independence of the States of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The text also denounces “the measures of extreme reinforcement of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the government of the United States of America against Cuba, which, besides being contrary to International Law, cause serious harm to the well-being of the Cuban people.”

The Declaration, among other ideas, condemns the imperialist policy of harassment and destabilisation; reaffirms the anti-imperialist and solidary character of ALBA-TCP; and highlights the decision to defend peace, unity and regional security, free from all forms of foreign intervention.

“As the vanguard of free peoples – the Declaration states – we declare that true peace can only be born from social justice, from respect for the sovereignty of nations and the self-determination of Peoples. Faced with imperialism that threatens with wars and blockades, Latin America and the Caribbean reaffirm that they will follow the path of Bolívar, Martí, Chávez and Fidel, and ratify their irrevocable condition to protect the region so that we continue to be a Zone of Peace.”