Regional leaders gather for the XXIV Summit of Heads of State and Government in Caracas, Venezuela.
The official communiqué reaffirmed the member states’ commitment to Latin American and Caribbean integration, solidarity, and peace.
By Jose Luis Granados on December 17, 2024
The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) held Saturday the XXIV Summit of Heads of State and Government in Caracas, Venezuela, commemorating the alliance’s twentieth anniversary and reaffirming the commitment to its founding principles of peace, development, and sovereignty.
“Ambushes and attacks have occurred and will continue to occur against our rights to freedom and independence, but there will also be brave popular advances, for all the hours, days, weeks, months, and years to come. The course of our history is set,” said Venezuelan President and summit host Nicolás Maduro.
Special mention was made of the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Latin American and Caribbean integration bloc by the late former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the late leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro, who signed the founding agreement on December 14, 2004. The gathering likewise recalled Chávez and Castro’s first meeting in December 1994.
“We owe it to Fidel, to Chavez and to our people, for these 20 years of solidarity and friendship. Long live ALBA-TCP!” said Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
ALBA-TCP is currently made up of 10 member-states: Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela.
The XXIV Summit also highlighted the struggle of the people of Palestine, welcoming the State of Palestine as an honorary member of the bloc with “brotherly country” status. In addition to the official communiqué condemning the “terrorist actions” by Israel that have led to a “cycle of violence and destabilization” in the region, ALBA-TCP also unanimously approved a special declaration that condemned the “terrible crimes against humanity” and the “ruthless and inhumane genocide committed by the State of Israel.”
“History will remember those who stood on the side of justice, ALBA’s lasting solidarity with Palestine is a testimony of freedom and collective resistance,” Riyad al-Malki, advisor to the President of State for International Affairs of Palestine, told those present. The ALBA bloc likewise pledged to hold a future summit of the regional alliance in Palestine.
The final statement went on to reaffirm the member states’ commitment to Latin American and Caribbean integration, solidarity, and peace while reiterating the demand to remove Cuba from the US’ “spurious, arbitrary and unilateral” list of sponsors of terrorism and to end the blockade of the Caribbean island nation.
The ALBA-TCP summit expressed its solidarity with Venezuela, condemning the unilateral coercive measures, also known as sanctions, imposed by the United States on the country. The declaration described these measures as a violation of international law, emphasizing their detrimental impact on Venezuela’s economy and citizens’ human rights.
In addition, the bloc expressed its support for a multipolar world led by cooperation and respect, highlighting the role of BRICS, calling for the “fall of imperialism and the emergence of a new multipolar order” while backing calls for reparations for colonialism and slavery.
“A profound reform of the current international order is therefore necessary, so that solidarity and cooperation may finally prevail over differences,” said Díaz-Canel. “It is imperative to recover multilateralism in order to advance towards a new order in which the countries of the South participate on an equal footing in global decision-making.”
Finally, the regional bloc laid out plans to boost cooperation, with plans including the relaunch of Petrocaribe, a program that provided subsidized oil and fuel to Caribbean nations, and a program to boost food security.
Regional leaders gather for the XXIV Summit of Heads of State and Government in Caracas, Venezuela. (Prensa Presidencial)
Source: Venezuela Analysis