Interview with the Cuban Foreign Minister. Photo: Presidency of Cuba.
"It has been an excellent Summit." Thus, with brief and forceful words, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla described the VII Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which took place this Tuesday in the southern city, with the participation of the 33 countries of Our America.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs spoke about these and other evaluations with the Press team of the Presidency of the Republic shortly after the conclusion of the meeting in the South American nation, where common postulates converged for our peoples that are essential to strengthen the process of revitalization and strengthening of the Community.
It is a historic Summit, Rodriguez Parrilla emphasized, "of continuity of the revitalization process, to which Mexico gave a considerable impulse, which Argentina continued, and which is now placed in the hands of the Caribbean, particularly under the leadership of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the beloved Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, to give continuity to that effort".
"It has been a Summit of compromise, of unity in diversity, of proposals in terms of attention to fundamental problems, such as climate change, the situation of the post-cool world, initiatives on epidemics and their prevention, as well as issues related to development, the exercise of human rights and democracy", the Chancellor said.
Asked by the press team about the importance of the debates, Rodríguez Parrillas described them as "excellent", in which President Miguel Díaz-Canel's speech "shone", which was "very well received", and where a dozen countries emphatically pronounced themselves against the blockade against Cuba.
Referring to the main documents approved during the meeting, he commented that they were, fundamentally, the Declaration of Buenos Aires and a dozen special declarations.
He detailed that in the main Declaration there are two paragraphs referring to Cuba: one is forceful, in relation to the need to put an end to the blockade, and the other is associated with the presence of the largest of the Antilles in the spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism. In addition, he said, other communiqués referring to the blockade itself, the scourge of terrorism and disarmament were presented at Cuba's initiative.
"The balance is very positive, promising", reiterated the Foreign Minister, who also commented on the significance of St. Vincent and the Grenadines being elected to the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Community. For the first time, he emphasized, an English-speaking Caribbean country occupies this responsibility, and recalled that Cuba, representing the Caribbean, had previously assumed the Presidency.
I am sure, he said, that with the support of the entire Caribbean, St. Vincent and the Grenadines "will have a memorable presidency".
Could you affirm that this Summit consolidates the path towards the revitalization of CELAC that began in Mexico two years ago, our press team asked the Cuban Foreign Minister, who categorically expressed his conviction that there is continuity in all the work carried out during the last few years, which gives strength to the Community.
CELAC, he said, has been "an extraordinary, autochthonous and sovereign creation, for the first time after two hundred years of independence of what Martí called Our America".
While acknowledging the various challenges that the Community has had to face in the last period, where "the vicissitudes of the pendulum swings and the sabotage of right-wing governments interested in weakening it" have been present, Rodríguez Parrilla stressed that "fortunately the best causes have been overcome, and currently there is a favorable political correlation in the region, similar to the one that gave rise to the creation of Celac".
I feel, he said, that there is a very promising outlook.
According to the Cuban Foreign Minister, a sign of this strengthening and revitalization of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States was also "the opportunity to listen in the context of the Summit to leaders of other countries that do not belong to our region" and were summoned to the meeting.
A memorable intervention, he said, was that of Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this regard, Rodríguez Parrillas recalled that it was precisely in Brazil where the founding of the Celac-China forum took place. The emphasis on resuming this space, he said, offers the region the possibility of "participating more actively in Chinese initiatives for global security, for development, for the creation of a community of shared destiny".
