Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, seated in the center. Photo: Archive.
The prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines participated in CARICOM’s 5oth anniversary celebration.
Referring to the potential of the Caribbean community, Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, said on Monday that CARICOM will be the bridge between Africa and Latin America.
Gonsalves made the comments during a presentation titled “Historical Perspective of CARICOM’s Achievements and Challenges 50 Years after its Foundation” at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) 50th Anniversary Symposium, which took place at the Casa Amarilla, headquarters of the Foreign Ministry in Caracas, Venezuela.
“CARICOM will be the bridge between Africa and Latin America and the rest of the diasporas”, said Gonsalves, specifying that there is still a lot of work to be done, and noting the importance of solidarity between peoples.
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“In the developing world, we must have solidarity among ourselves, especially between the Caribbean and Latin America, and especially before those who suffer from imperialism and hegemony,” said Gonsalves. “We cannot solve the challenges of war and peace, hunger, and pandemics without solidarity.”
The creation of institutions
Gonsalves encouraged the creation of institutions capable of transform shared interests into agreements that will improve quality of life for citizens in the future.
“We must transform these experiences into shared expressions so that these expressions are manifested in institutional, political, economic, and social agreements,” he said during his presentation. “We are a group of islands and territories that share common experiences and we must accept our own challenges, our own limitations, and our own weaknesses—but we also have strengths and possibilities… We must move towards making decisions that improve the way of life of our population.”
Gonsalves recalled that 20 million people live in CARICOM, constituted by 14 independent countries characterized by a particular historical evolution.
“The United States and Europe have not yet discovered what the Caribbean can do,” said Gonsalves. “Europe and the United States cannot understand that Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa and India and other parts of the world are being renewed.”
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A work in progress
Gonsalves praised Hugo Chávez, former president of Venezuela who laid the foundations for Petrocaribe and ALBA. Chávez, noted Gonsalves, along with Fidel Castro and Lula da Silva, also helped conceive of CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) and found it in 2008.
Gonsalves recalled that CARICOM has four main pillars: economic integration, functional cooperation in public policies, the coordination of foreign policies, and security coordination.
“We have had many successes in each of our eras but we have not moved as quickly as we should, nor has the integration been as close as many of us would have wanted it to be,” said Gonsalves. “It continues to be a work in progress.”
(Últimas Noticias) by Degnis Merlo
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/KW/SL
