Caracas, November 5 (RHC)-- The World Anti-Fascist Parliamentary Forum has concluded in Caracas on Tuesday. During the two-day gathering in the Venezuelan capital, lawmakers from around the world discussed the struggle against fascism.
Held at the Caracas Convention Center, more than 300 legislators from 70 countries took part in the World Anti-Fascist Parliamentary Forum.
Representatives from Algeria, Mexico, Belize, the Netherlands, Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Panama and Colombia, Cuba, China, Russia, Iran, Palestine, and other nations from Africa, Latin America and Europe participated.
The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly (AN), Deputy Jorge Rodríguez, highlighted the importance of the meeting and stressed: “The first voice of this forum must be to stop the genocide in Palestine.”
One of the most important activities of the forum was the meeting for the formation of an ALBA-TCP Parliamentary Network, in which numerous parliamentarians from the region participated, who agreed on the need to incorporate into parliaments the relevant discussions to confront the rise of neo-fascism.
The meeting took place in seven committees, where participants discussed the issues of confronting fascism and shared the different strategies that nations have adopted to confront all forms of domination and aggression experienced through colonialism and the direct extermination of peoples.
Latin American participants and ALBA-TCP parliamentarians reiterated the struggle of the people against imperialism.
Jorge Arreaza, executive secretary of ALBA-TCP, an organization that brings together ten countries in the region and Honduras as a permanent guest, participated in the installation meeting of the ALBA-TCP Parliamentary Network. Arreaza called for a clear understanding of the enemy: fascism. “This neo-fascism is the highest phase of imperialism, and that is the common enemy. Let us not look for enemies between our countries and the differences that we may have,” the Venezuelan politician said.
“Our leaders ask us to prepare for a new era, in which ALBA will be at the heart of an anti-fascist world. The parliamentary world is fundamental because it creates laws, it is the one that listens to the bases in order to build the new era,” said Arreaza.
For her part, Ana María Mari Machado, vice president of the National Assembly of Cuba, said: “This parliamentary network is something that we owed ourselves, from the parliaments, to be able to talk about integration and support for our foreign policies.”
The parliamentary secretary of the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ashley Gorman, also intervened, stating: “historically we have all participated in the fight against colonialism, imperialism and fascism.”
She added that there are no fights with a single objective: sovereignty, self-determination of peoples and autonomy have become issues of life or death. For this reason she thanked the people and the Government of Venezuela for establishing a forum like the one that is being held.
Silvia Ayala, second secretary of the Legislative Council of Honduras, thanked Cuba and Venezuela for the support given to her country during the coup d'état of 2009. She stated that there have been multiple attempts to overthrow President Xiomara Castro, always with the total complicity of the United States. For this reason, Ayala asserted that Honduras knows the need for articulations such as the one proposed by a Parliamentary Network.
"We were in resistance for 12 years, enduring a narco-dictatorship that we just defeated and today we have in the Government of the Republic the first female president in the history of Honduras" (...) Now Honduras is received with respect in all international spaces" because they no longer await convictions for drug trafficking crimes and have recovered their dignity, said the Honduran parliamentarian.
