President of Cuba Raúl Castro has warned against the «foreign interference» suffered by Latin America and the Caribbean region, at the opening of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit in Havana.
Castro criticised the «long history of intervention in external affairs, military invasions and bloody coups d’etat,» which in his opinion were carried out by «the centres of power who will not give up control of the region.»
The meeting in Cuba brings together the 33 member nations who make up the CELAC, an initiative spearheaded by late Venezuela president Hugo Chávez and which does not include the United States or Canada.
Chávez was honoured today at the conference by a minute’s silence observed by those present.
«We are still living in a world ruled by an injust, exclusive international order, in which threats to peace and foreign interference in the region continue,» Castro added, before calling for the construction of a new model based on the region’s needs.
One of the final resolutions of the Havana Declaration, negotiated yesterday by foreign ministers and which will be passed over for approval by heads of states, will be to consider the region as a peace zone.
«The dangers to peace continue in several areas of the world and fellow nations have been the object of threats, unilateral measures of coercion and legal action for the lawful actions they have adopted in defence of their sovereignty,» Castro fired.
Tomorrow, participants will sign a more than 80-point declaration covering issues from the fight against povert to the solution of conflicts by peaceful means.
Data from the Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL) reveals that the regional poverty rate in 2012 reached 28.2 percent of the population, affecting 164 million people.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald