50 Years After Caricom Unity in Answer to Challenges

50 Years After Caricom, Unity in Answer to Challenges

The meeting will last all week and kicked off this Monday with a symposium on the achievements and challenges of the Caribbean Union, attended by national and foreign figures as speakers, including the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves.

The latter spoke about the historical perspective, achievements and challenges half a century after the creation of Caricom and called in particular for mutual solidarity between Latin America and the Caribbean.

Without solidarity we cannot solve the challenges of war and peace, hunger and pandemics, he stressed.

The also interim president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) reflected on the present and the future, assuring that the only way not to wreak havoc tomorrow is to remain united and in solidarity with one another.

For his part, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil recalled that, inspired by the Haitian revolution, Latin America and the Caribbean had become a rebellious and revolutionary territory that had abandoned colonialism and imperialism to build a common destiny.

He explained that for the last 220 years our peoples have struggled to gain their independence, sovereignty and freedom and he stressed that the only way to achieve this is to be united.

Expressing that it had been shown that independent or solo projects were unlikely to be feasible, Gil noted that the “only alternative the region had was to march together,” and for that reason, he said , the advent of Celac and Caricom in their 50 years .

The head of Bolivarian diplomacy pointed out that Venezuela has had strong integration with the Caribbean since the liberator Simón Bolívar’s struggles for independence and that there is much to be thanked for in this region, mentioning recent episodes in the struggle against the common enemy, imperialism and neo-colonialism .

In his presentation on Caricom as part of the current regional concert, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Caribbean, Raúl Li Causi, explained the evolution of this bloc since its formation on July 4, 1973 and how the challenges have changed over time and are currently related to climate change and access to resources.

As part of the commemoration, a photo exhibition was opened this Monday in the Salvador Allende room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and two conferences are also planned on reparations for slavery and colonization and on the Caricom reparations campaign and its significance. World.

jha/jcd