May 27, 2022
photo: EPA
During a regional meeting of Ministers of Education, Argentine President, Alberto Fernandez, called out on Thursday the persistence of inequality between North and South in a globalized world and the need to “unite voices”, a context in which he referred to Cuba by saying, “in our continent we have a country that has been blockaded for six decades” and added that “we should be ashamed that this is happening”.
Fernández was speaking at the opening of the Third Regional Meeting of Ministers of Education of Latin America and the Caribbean, in Buenos Aires.
He also recalled that “in our continent, a country has been blocked for five years because of a political dispute, and in the middle of the pandemic they blocked it, when solidarity was more necessary than ever”.
He then asked: “How much longer are we going to look at these situations as if they were not happening to us?
At another point in his speech, he addressed the current international situation and said “I will not shut up anymore. I pointed out to the European leaders that the war there is bringing hunger to the South. It would be wonderful if the countries suffering from this reality would join my voice”.
The President said that “education is a public service that must be guaranteed by the State, because we have unequal conditions to learn. It must be the guiding cause of all governments”.
Meanwhile the Foreign Ministers of Argentina and Mexico, Santiago Cafiero and Marcelo Ebrard, held a working meeting this Thursday in the Mexican capital.
In a press conference afterwards, held at the headquarters of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cafiero reiterated his government’s clear position that the Summit of the Americas should be “a summit without exclusions”.
Cafiero also highlighted that the bond between both nations “is not only political, but is also reflected in the different multilateral forums where Argentina and Mexico always raise the voice of the emerging countries, of the developing economies of Latin America and the Caribbean”.
He added that “there we always find ourselves in agreement. Our countries make a firm stand for a region that continues to be very unequal and that is striving to develop and improve the lives of all its inhabitants”.
Regarding the IX Summit of the Americas, to be held between June 6 and 10 in Los Angeles, he stated that “Argentina’s position is clear that all the countries of the region should participate in the same way. Exercising the position of Pro Tempore Presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), “our country has been raising the need for it to be a summit without exclusions and for all voices to be heard”.
“CELAC is a forum where all countries participate, are respected and all voices are heard. There may not not always be consensus, but from that diversity arises the strength that we have found in all these years to continue with a Latin American and Caribbean integration model based on respect for the other”, he said.
Cafiero and Ebrard presided over the fifth meeting of the Association Council of the Mexico-Argentina Strategic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the main mechanism for institutional dialogue.
The joint communiqué from both Foreign Ministries after the meeting states that the parties renewed their commitment to work jointly and in coordination to strengthen multilateralism, the fight against climate change, the defense of democratic institutions, human rights, and the promotion of an equitable, inclusive, sustainable and resilient economic and social recovery.
At the regional level, they recognized that the current geopolitical situation, as well as the international health contingency and the economic, social and humanitarian consequences that this generates have made it clear that dialogue and cooperation are indispensable tools for humanity to overcome these challenges.
In this context, the communiqué states, “Mexico and Argentina make a heartfelt and urgent call for the IX Summit of the Americas to consolidate itself as a space for plural, open and inclusive dialogue, in which all the countries of the region have the opportunity to contribute to building the consensus that the hemisphere needs”.
Source: Cuba en Resumen