During the meeting, agreements are sought regarding a work agenda for the coming years, which will strengthen ALBA-TCP and social movements in the face of future challenges. Photo: ALBA-TCP

Caracas, December 13 (RHC)-- Within the framework of the twentieth anniversary of the creation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People's Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), the meeting of the Council of Social Movements of this integration mechanism is taking place in Caracas, a space in which actions are discussed to expand solidarity with the peoples of Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti.

In statements to the multinational teleSUR, a member of the Political Coordinator of ALBA Movements, Manuel Bertoldi, specified that a group of popular movements from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia are participating in the meeting.

We want to agree on a work agenda for the coming years, which will strengthen us in the face of the challenges we will face.

"This is an urgent task," said Bertoldi, "because U.S. imperialism is reinforcing its strategy of domination for our continent," which demands that we "build a strategy to strengthen ourselves from the perspective of sovereignty, economic independence and social justice in our region, both ideological and conceptual."

He added that the social movements developed "proposals to build permanent work brigades in the areas of literacy, agroecological production, reforestation... We believe that together with the governments we can do very strong work in the different regions of the continent to strengthen this work."

He considered that it is necessary to "make great progress in political training, so we come with proposals to strengthen educational processes and the formation of schools in different regions of our continent and in terms of solidarity."

In addition, they designed an agenda to "collaborate with the resistance that the Cuban people are carrying out (...), to build an active and permanent solidarity with the Haitian people and continue defending the Bolivarian Revolution."

He asserted that the homeland of Bolívar and Chávez is "the main trench of confrontation against imperialism, that is why we are also working very hard in view of the assumption of President Nicolás Maduro on January 10.

Another priority - Bertoldi pointed out - is to counteract the narrative that has been built since last July that democracy has been eroded in Venezuela, when we know that the popular participatory democracy of the people has deepened, he said.

Regarding the work of the popular movements in the context of ALBA-TCP, he said that "we are materializing a dream of Commander Hugo Chávez 20 years ago (...) to build an integration mechanism where popular movements, social movements, have a leading role in the construction of the integration strategy at a continental level."

He said that "Chávez always told us that the leading role of the people is fundamental to think about continental integration and emancipation."

Regarding various threats that come from imperialism, such as the expansion of warmongering and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), he stated that "it is essential to strengthen the integration mechanism. In the region we have ALBA-TCP as an anti-imperialist mechanism," which he considered to have the greatest strategic perspective.

"From there we also have to strengthen another integration mechanism, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which brings together all the countries of the continent except the United States and Canada," he said.

He recalled that a key idea of ​​Commanders Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro was to develop the potential of the peoples and complementarity.

Delegates from around 30 countries from almost all continents participate in the meeting of social movements.  Later, the 25th Political Council will be held with the Foreign Ministers of the ten nations that make up ALBA-TCP, while this Saturday the 24th Summit of Heads of State and Government will take place.