HAVANA, Cuba, May 27 (ACN) New voices of representatives of governments of the region were raised today in Havana at the 21st Summit of Heads of State and Government of the ALBA-TCP, to condemn the exclusion of three of its member states to the 9th Summit of the Americas.
Evely Piul Chet Greene, minister of foreign affairs of Antigua and Barbuda, highlighted the timeliness and importance of the Latin American and Caribbean meeting in order to seek common actions to face the challenges of the pandemic, the world economic crisis and also the challenges of climate change, particularly the hurricane season affecting the Caribbean.
In this regard, he said he was in favor of proposing initiatives and lasting strategies to mitigate phenomena that affect the countries of the region, such as high inflation, with high prices of food, fuel and fertilizers, which, he said, cause them more hardships.
Caribbean FM expressed his opposition to the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States against Cuba and at the same time thanked the country for the medical services it provided to his country during the confrontation with the COVID-19 through a brigade of the Henry Reeve contingent.
At the same time, Nicholas Steele, minister of health from Grenada, described as unacceptable that some are dividing and separating prior to the 9th Summit of the Americas, when the pandemic demonstrated the importance of regional integration.
He congratulated Cuba for its handling of the health crisis in its territory and its support to the Caribbean nations by sending health personnel.
LFor his part, Lionel Sydney Osborne, ambassador of St. Kitts and Nevis to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, the Caribbean Community and ALBA-TCP, said that the decision not to invite Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the summit in the United States is contrary to the principles of equity, justice and inclusion for which this hemispheric space has been advocating.
He also recalled his country’s systematic rejection of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, which has been tightened with 243 measures.
Sydney Osborne underscored the relevance of today’s meeting in Havana of the ALBA-TCP Member States, which precedes the 50th anniversary of the CARICOM, which strengthens the relations created on the basis of a firm friendship and the political willingness to assume common positions and principles at the right time.
Since its foundation in 2004 by the Commander-in-Chief of the Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, and Hugo Chavez Frias, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, ALBA has pursued the fight against poverty and exclusion through a project of collaboration and political, social and economic complementation among its member states.
