Sacha Llorenti. Fuente: El Deber

Caracas, December 14 (RHC) The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People's Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) ratified its commitment to strengthening this integration mechanism.

Reading the declaration of the 18th ALBA-TCP Summit, held by video conference, the new Secretary-General of the Alliance, Bolivian diplomat Sacha Llorenti, underlined the relevance of the integrationist block, based on dialogue, cooperation, solidarity, and complementarity.

In this sense,  Llorenti highlighted the need to strengthen the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) as a genuine mechanism for regional political coordination based on the principle of unity in diversity.

The ALBA-TCP countries welcomed Bolivia's return to the organization and celebrated the return of democracy to the South American nation, and expressed support for President Luis Arce and Vice President David Choquehuanca.

Likewise, they congratulated Venezuela's people and institutions for the successful development of the parliamentary elections and supporting the government of Nicolás Maduro, and rejecting the imposition of unilateral coercive measures against the country by the United States.

The Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, affirmed that the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People's Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) is once again being strengthened after 16 years of its foundation.

We are coming out of a dark period, but we already see the light, and this tells us that a better world is possible," declared the Caribbean leader during the 18th Summit of the organization, in allusion to its current recovery after moments such as the coup d'état of 2019 in Bolivia.

"We are in a new commitment and a renewal to face the challenges of the future," added Gonsalves in his virtual speech before representatives of member countries such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, and Antigua and Barbuda.

Our peoples know what ALBA does and can do for us. We must be alert to 'colonialist and imperialist policies,' said the San Vicente Prime Minister.

Gonsalves remembered 'two iconic leaders, Fidel (Castro) and (Hugo) Chavez, founders of this great political alliance of visionary countries dedicated to cooperation and united in solidarity and complementarity'.

The Caribbean leader highlighted purposes that unite the ALBA-TCP as the defense of justice, sovereignty, and independence of its peoples, resistance "against colonialism and imperialism.

The President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, emphasized today at the 18th Summit of ALBA-TCP the recent electoral victories in three countries of the integration bloc: Venezuela, Bolivia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The high-level meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People's Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP) met remotely in the context of the 16th anniversary of its constitution, an initiative of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez.

He highlighted that these victories at the polls took place at the most critical moment when the colonialists of our region were already feeling the advance'.

These victories tell us very clearly that the enemy, however powerful it may be when it does not have the historical reason nor the right, only the force, can only achieve temporary victories. Still, the definitive ones are won by the peoples, emphasized the Nicaraguan President.

Ortega pointed out the United States, the European Parliament, and the Organization of American States as responsible for and accomplices in the coup d'état against Bolivia's constitutional President, Evo Morales, in November 2019.

All were accomplices to the coup in Bolivia. They were against Commander Hugo Chávez in Venezuela when they tried to remove him from power in April 2002, he denounced.

Ortega showed his joy at having Bolivia back in the ALBA-TCP and greeted the words of the new President of the Andean-Amazon country, Luis Arce.