Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza

Caracas, May 11 (RHC)-- Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza highlighted on Monday, in the framework of the first meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA-TCP) with Think Tanks of the Global South, the need to revitalize the battle of ideas based on investigative thinking.

During the virtual meeting, the foreign minister proposed the creation of a research network to generate strategic policies to support this battle, "so that the fight is organic and well thought out."

Arreaza asserted the need to coordinate regional thinking within the framework of the socio-political situation arising in Latin America and the Caribbean.   "We must think together and in a coordinated manner."

Referring to the cases of repression by the security forces in Colombia against the massive mobilizations that have been taking place since April 28, the Venezuelan foreign minister emphasized that the situation affects the region. 

Finally, Arreaza described the meeting between ALBA-TCP and the Center for Thought of the Global South as an example to be followed by other mechanisms of regional articulation.  "It allows us to coordinate lines of research for liberation and thus advance towards post-capitalism, generating theory from the peoples, their knowledge and feelings."

The executive secretary of ALBA TCP, Sacha Llorenti, supported Arreaza's proposals and ratified the importance of the association between movements and organizations of the regional organization with the centers of thought.

Llorenti pointed out that the meeting was held with the purpose of "promoting and strengthening spaces for dialogue and creation of knowledge (...) to contribute to the urgent challenges of today."

The meeting also served as a platform to reiterate ALBA-TCP's condemnation of the excessive use of public force by the Colombian government in the face of the popular demonstrations that have been taking place in that country since April 28.

"In Colombia, there have been acts of extremely serious violence and ALBA-TCP expresses its deep concern about this situation in the sister Republic of Colombia, where there are victims of physical violence, arbitrary detentions, reports of disappearances, sexual abuse, about 31 people dead and more than 1,000 injured," concluded Llorenti.