Head of the Department of International Relations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Emilio Lozada Grarcía makes a statement at the opening of the XXVI Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum
From various sources:
The XXVI Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum was held in the city of Brasilia from June 29 to July 2, 2023. The leftist and anti-imperialist Forum kicked off with 270 representatives from 57 social organizations advocating for Latin American integration and sovereignty.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended the opening ceremony of the forum. Created in the 1990s from a call by Lula and the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, the forum had as its first objective to reflect on the fall of the Berlin Wall and Socialist Bloc and the alternative and autonomous paths to follow by the left in Latin America and the Caribbean.
A delegation of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) paid a working visit to the forum.
According to Vietnam+ addressing "the forum’s plenary session, the delegation's head Le Hong Quang, who is a member of the CPV Central Committee and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, thanked communist parties, left-wing and workers' parties, and progressive forces for their valuable support for Vietnam during its struggles for national independence and reunification in the past, as well as in the cause of national construction and defence at present.
He spoke highly of the development and contributions of left-wing forces in Latin America in promoting regional integration and connectivity, as well as cooperation, development, and peace in the world, expressing his belief that discussions within the framework of the forum will further contribute to promoting integration and strengthening the capacity of nations, thus turning Latin America into a peaceful, united, stable, prosperous, and sustainable region."
Head of the Department of International Relations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Emilio Lozada Grarcía made a statement at the start of the forum that included: "In just a few hours we will commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the historic founding of the Forum, an idea born of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz and comrade Lula Da Silva, at the time of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the fall of the socialist camp, the deepening of the unilateral hegemony of the United States and the growing neoliberal economic wave in our continent.
The Sao Paulo Forum has been during all these years an essential space for consultation and the construction of the unity of the Latin American and Caribbean left to contribute to the definitive independence, sovereignty and integration of our region."
The meeting of the forum ended with a firm Resolution of Solidarity with Cuba:
The XXVI Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum, meeting in the city of Brasilia from June 29 to July 2, 2023, approved the following resolution of solidarity with Cuba based on the following considerations:
In view of the permanent and systematic hostility of the Government of the United States against Cuba, manifested in the unprecedented intensification of the economic, commercial and financial blockade and its extraterritorial nature with the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which constitute the main obstacle to the socio-economic development of the Cuban nation, an attack on its sovereignty and a flagrant violation of the principles of International Law,
AGREED:
Demand the unconditional lifting of the criminal and intensified economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the government of the United States for more than 6 decades,
Demand the exclusion of Cuba from the illegal and spurious list of countries sponsoring terrorism,
Reject the programs of subversion, destabilization and media war against Cuba,
Demand the return to the Cuban people of the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo Naval Base, usurped for more than 120 years by the United States government, violating Cuba's sovereignty,
Disseminate the truth about Cuba, in contrast to the media campaigns financed by the U.S. administration that systematically defame and distort the Cuban reality and hide the achievements of the Revolution,
Support the Cuban Revolution, which is based on the principles of solidarity, social justice, internationalism and the unity of our peoples,
Develop in a systematic and urgent way actions of mobilization, public and media, of condemnation of the aggressive escalation of US imperialism against the Cuban people,
To support all the efforts of Cuba for the unity, integration and achievement of peace of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples,
To recognize that, despite the limitations that the policy of economic encirclement has brought to Cuba, its Socialist Revolution, without resorting to neoliberal recipes, has succeeded so that its people enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms for the full development of all Cubans. In addition, its constant internationalist practice has contributed to the development of human rights in many countries of the world,
To ratify our firm solidarity and commitment to the Communist Party of Cuba, the revolutionary government and the Cuban people in their efforts to preserve the sovereignty and independence of the country and to maintain unchanged the decision to build socialism.
In the struggle against U.S. imperialism and its allies, let us unite our actions to the legacy of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz: "If the enemy is powerful in his resources, in his aggression, in his wickedness, we have to be more powerful than him in our dignity, in our revolutionary strength, in our conviction, in our faith, in our values!"
Brasilia, July 2, 2023.