Samper, together with former Uruguayan President José Mujica, led the opening of the Latin American and Caribbean Day of Integration of Peoples from this capital.
“We want to raise our voice of protest against the new FTAA, which is being forced upon us by confusing integration with simply signing free trade agreements,” Samper said.
Unlike others who believe that integration means signing free trade agreements, for us integration does not mean the ability to sell and buy services and goods or to circulate capital. “For us, the common goal is to build a region,” emphasized Mujica.
The Uruguayan politician pointed out that the fight for integration is a fight for cultural change that goes beyond the present.
“We have spent two centuries building our nationality and this is a tool not to attack and bury our sovereignty, but to maintain it and defend ourselves in the world that comes our way,” he stressed.
At the same time, Samper warned that democracy on the continent “remains under threat” and that there are some de facto powers that have no interest in making it work. “We must not let our guard down. We must continue to defend democracy, and one of those is equality.”
The Latin American Day of Integration of Peoples in the Caribbean in Defense of Democracy and Sovereignty is convened by popular movements, academics and intellectuals of the continent. It will take place from December 7th to 9th in the Brazilian city of Foz de Iguazú on the border between Argentina and Paraguay.
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