Gonsalves warns of ‘Digital Colonialism’ at the ALBA summit
Representatives of the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) arrived in Venezuela on Thursday to participate in the XIX Summit of Heads of State and Government.
Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, warned that “there is a lot of noise when we talk about digital colonialism; they want to keep us atomized, to transform our societies into social laboratories.”
“ALBA-TCP as a whole, it is more than the sum of its parts; it is up to us to defend each other and not to be taken out of the way. Our duty is to defend the Cuban Revolution and the Bolivarian Revolution”, said Gonsalves.
“We have to make sure we are not possessed of a brightness which blinds, but a brightness that illuminates the path way, and that can only come through solidarity”.
The Summit ended with the following declaration
DECLARATION OF THE 19th ALBA-TCP SUMMIT OF HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT
“Alliance for Life and Independence”
The Heads of State and Government and Heads of Delegations of the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), as well as the invited delegations, met on June 24th 2021, on the occasion of the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Battle of Carabobo of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, by endorsing this Declaration, we renew our commitment to strengthen the integration and unity of our peoples as the founding ideology of Commanders Hugo Chávez Frías and Fidel Castro Ruz.
1. We vindicate the ideology of our Latin American and Caribbean independence heroes, Bolívar, Martí, San Martín, Sucre, O’Higgins, Petión, Morazán, Sandino, Maurice Bishop, Garvey, Túpac Katari, Bartolina Sisa, Chatoyer, among others, as a symbol of the historical and cultural unity, the independence struggles and the preservation of the most precious asset that is freedom.
2. We recognize the historical significance of the Battle of Carabobo, a milestone that sealed the independence of Venezuela under the leadership of Liberator Simón Bolívar, a struggle in which the fierce
character of the Venezuelan people was strengthened in defense of their right to self-determination, their moral heritage and the values of freedom, which transcended to Latin America, the Caribbean and the world.
3. We reaffirm our commitment to the Latin American and Caribbean integration, which will allow us to jointly face the attempts of imperialist domination and the growing threats to regional peace and stability; with multilateralism and in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and International Law, in line with the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.
4. We stress the need to strengthen the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) as a genuine mechanism for political agreement between the 33 States of Our America, based on the principle of unity in diversity.
5. We welcome the reestablishment of constitutional order in the Plurinational State of Bolivia, which thanks to the people’s consciousness and determination was able to dismantle the criminal and corrupt coup and open a process of national reconciliation, based on justice, self-determination and democracy. We are also pleased with its return to legitimate regional forums for political consultation and cooperation in pursuit of the welfare and development of our peoples.
6. We highlight the excellent efforts and initiatives of President Luis Arce Catacora, both domestically and internationally, to move forward towards economic reactivation, including debt financing and relief measures and the efficient control of the pandemic.
7. We welcome the installation of the new National Assembly of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, carried out with absolute compliance with the institutional framework and under peaceful conditions. At the same time, we also welcome the next regional and municipal elections, which will be the twenty-sixth in the last 21 years of the Bolivarian Revolution, an example of the solid participative and active democracy of the brotherly Venezuelan people.
8. We reiterate our unconditional support for the Sandinista government, President Daniel Ortega Saavedra and the people of Nicaragua in their decision to continue defending sovereignty, peace and the important social, economic, security and national unity advances achieved.
9. We condemn the attacks and repeated destabilizing attempts against the legitimate government of the sister Republic of Nicaragua by the United States of America, promoting unilateral coercive measures among other destabilizing actions, in an effort to interfere in its internal affairs.
10. We welcome the upcoming electoral process in the Republic of Nicaragua and we demand the non-intervention in these matters, which are exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Nicaraguan people and institutions.
11. We welcome and encourage the democratic forces in the election of Government throughout the ALBA-TCP Region and the efforts been made to achieve gender equality and the removal of discrimination against indigenous people.
12. We welcome the relationship between ALBA-TCP and the UN system, CELAC, CARICOM, ACS, SICA, African Union, Arab League, SELA, ECLAC, Eurasian Economic Community, ECOWAS, under the principles of respect and non-intervention in internal affairs, in order to guarantee greater equity and a greater commitment to social and economic policies.
13. We reiterate the right of the Caribbean countries to receive fair, special and differential conditions. We reaffirm the unconditional and necessary support for the defense and promotion of their just claims and reparations. We strongly reject the measures adopted against CARICOM brothers, which were considered non-cooperative jurisdictions.
14. We urge the review of the so-called graduation criteria that classify most Latin American and Caribbean States as “middle-income countries”, and which hinder our access to credit and international cooperation.
15. We express our sympathy for the fatalities that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused worldwide – particularly in our region – as well as recognize the commitment of the ALBA-TCP countries to fight its outbreak, and also the remarkable efforts of the health professionals to address the health crisis, especially the work done by the Henry Reeve Medical Contingent of the Republic of Cuba in the front line of the fight against the pandemic, as well as the development of five vaccine candidates, which is a clear demonstration of development, sovereignty and solidarity.
16. We reject the discredit campaign promoted by the government of the United States against Cuban medical cooperation, which is offensive and particularly immoral in the current context of the global health crisis.
17. We recognize the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the process of raising awareness, promoting prevention and fighting against COVID-19 and reiterate our support for the work carried out by WHO to provide effective and efficient responses to the international community in the face of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
18. We reaffirm the need for urgent universal vaccination against COVID-19 as well as to guarantee a prompt, equitable, supportive, non-discriminatory and affordable distribution of vaccines and medical supplies and equipment to protect all. We recognize the efforts of the COVAX global collaborative alliance under the auspices of WHO.
19. We endorse the calls to remove obstacles to access and distribution of vaccines against this disease, including any unilateral coercive measures aimed at hindering, limiting or increasing the cost of access to vaccines, so that all production capacities available on the planet can be used to meet the demand for vaccines as quickly as possible.
20. We welcome the implementation of the ALBA-TCP Vaccine Bank, agreed at the 18th ALBA-TCP Summit of Heads of State and Government, as well as the Medicines Bank, to contribute to improving access to medical supplies, rapid tests and PCR tests, for the benefit of all the countries of the Alliance.
21. We reiterate our strong rejection to the imposition of unilateral coercive measures which violate international law causing indiscriminate suffering to the peoples affected. Likewise, we condemn the intensification of such measures by the government of the United States of America against countries of the Alliance, whose impacts become more severe and cruel in the context of the pandemic.
22. We express our commitment to the promotion and protection of the human rights for the entire world, especially the right to life and health, and at the same time, we denounce the attempts of imperial powers to use them for political purposes. In this regard, we call for not tolerating any form of discrimination, racism or xenophobia, particularly regarding the response to the pandemic.
23. We renew our firmest condemnation against the genocidal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the government of the United States of America against Cuba and the more than 240 unilateral coercive measures adopted by the Trump administration, unchanged by the current administration and whose damages have caused losses of 17 billion dollars in the last five years.
24. We express our gratitude for the historic support of all the Member States of the Alliance to the Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”, adopted last June 23rd, 2021.
25. We express our categorical rejection to the absurd and inadmissible inclusion of the Republic of Cuba in the spurious list of State sponsors of terrorism by the United States Department of State. This unilateral decision, widely rejected inside and outside the United States, has a negative impact on every sector of Cuban society and increases the country’s difficulties in engaging in international trade, carrying out financial operations and purchasing basic inputs.
26. We express our deep concern for the massive violations of human rights against the Colombian people and demand respect for the dignity of the people, as well as their right to freedom of peaceful
assembly.
27. We reject the disgraceful behavior of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, who, overreaching his functions, has led that Organization into an endless path of nonsense, supporting violent actions, interfering in internal affairs and breaking the constitutional order in some countries of the region.
28. We recognize the remarkable work of the Alliance during the aftermath of the events in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines caused by the eruption of La Soufrière volcano, as a symbol of support and solidarity of the ALBA-TCP countries with the people and the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
29. We emphasize that climate change is one of the main threats to mankind, being Latin America and the Caribbean ones of the most vulnerable regions of the planet to the adverse effects of this phenomenon, and therefore, we demand coordinated and urgent concrete action against climate change and the full implementation of the commitments to the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change and its Paris Agreement, based on equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and in this sense, we stress the need for developed countries to comply with their historical responsibility in terms of mitigation and the provision of means of implementation for developing countries.
30. We reaffirm our commitment to the recognition and promotion of the unwavering rights of Mother Earth and her unbreakable relationship with human beings and we welcome the initiatives resulting from the “Re-establishing our Connection with the Mother Earth: Global Reflections for the Defense of Pachamama”, held in La Paz, Bolivia, last April 22nd and 23rd, 2021, to be promoted by the countries of
the Alliance in the scope of multilateral environmental diplomacy, such as the call for an Assembly within the United Nations Organization on the rights of Mother Earth and the right for water for life.
31. We reiterate our full support for the Caribbean countries in their claim for compensation for the genocide of the indigenous peoples and the crimes of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. We also express our commitment to the defense and promotion of Latin
American and Caribbean culture and the identity of the peoples of the region, with particular respect for and promotion of native and indigenous cultures.
32. We highlight the activities carried out to reactivate ALBA -TCP as a fighting mechanism for peace, democracy, stability and the welfare of the peoples of Our America. In this regard, we acknowledge the outcomes of the various meetings held in the first semester of the year, which contributed to strengthening the Alliance and its shared values of solidarity, cooperation and complementarity.
33. We support fostering the development of the ALBA-Petrocaribe Complementary Economic Zone as a true model of productive and technological development based on the values of the Alliance and the principles of the Peoples’ Trade Treaty.
Caracas, june 24th 2021
