The President did not travel to Argentina due to a plan of aggressions against him by neo-fascist right-wing groups, and for this reason he sent Foreign Minister Yván Gil to represent him. | Photo: Presidency

Caracas, January 25 (RHC)-- The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, issued a call from Caracas to the heads of state participating in the VII Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), in Buenos Aires, to "join forces" against foreign interventionism, especially that coming from the United States.

With the words "Let's unite our voice for sovereignty and independence!", President Maduro called on CELAC members to demand the end of interventionism against free countries of the continent.  During his speech, the Venezuelan head of state stressed that it is imperative that we raise "a single voice and that Latin America and the Caribbean tell the United States of America no more coups, no more sanctions against free and sovereign countries".

Noting that "there are many tasks in the field of politics", linked to the defense of Latin America and the Caribbean as an independent territory, the President reiterated the need to "join forces and efforts to reject any kind of interventionism of forces or powers outside our region."

He explained that, among the expressions of U.S. interventionism in Latin America and the Caribbean, are maneuvers to destabilize society, as well as attempts to fuel coup d'état practices and assaults on power.

"The greatest interventionism is to threaten countries with military interventions, the greatest interventionism as they have done with Venezuela, as they have done with Cuba for 60 years and with Nicaragua, to impose unilateral, illegal and immoral coercive measures, to impose criminal sanctions as they have imposed on the people of Venezuela to try to lead us to a collapse, to an implosion of society," the Venezuelan leader pointed out.

In relation to the situation in Venezuela, President Maduro pointed out that as a result of the more than 920 illegal sanctions imposed on the economy, the South American nation registered the loss of 99% of its oil revenues, going from 56 billion dollars in direct revenues to 700 million dollars.

However, he stressed that Venezuela "has been finding our way, our path of growth, development and inclusion", the results of which are beginning to be felt in the integral recovery of the economy.

The President also proposed the creation of the General Secretariat of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).  The proposal, which aims at consolidating "an organizational architecture of its own" like the one that operates in the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU), is based on the need to have "an organization that articulates all the initiatives of our countries on a daily basis, 365 days a year."

While reiterating that "our organization must discuss and decide in due time the creation of a powerful General Secretariat", the national leader pointed out that the organization must play with dignity its role as an articulating entity in favor of the integral development of CELAC.

"A powerful General Secretariat of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, an organization that truly occupies with dignity the need to articulate ourselves more and more", he added by way of ratifying the proposal presented in private conversations to his Argentinean counterpart, Alberto Fernández.