Integración de los Pueblos

Cumana, April 17, 2009
Document of the countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) for the V Americas Summit
The heads of state and of government of Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela, member countries of ALBA, consider that the proposed Declaration of the V Americas Summit is insufficient and unacceptable for the following reasons:
* It does not give answers to the issue of the Global Economic Crisis, in spite of this being the greatest challenge that humanity has faced in decades and the most serious threat of the present era to the well being of our peoples
* It unjustifiably excludes Cuba, without mentioning the general consensus that exists in the region to condemn the blockade and the attempts at isolation of which its people and its government have been incessantly the object, in a criminal manner.
For this reason, the member countries of ALBA consider that there is no consensus to adopt this proposed declaration and based on the above, we propose an in-depth debate on the following issues:
1. Capitalism is doing away with humanity and the planet. What we are living through is a global economic20crisis of a systemic and structural character and not one more cyclical crisis. Whoever thinks that this crisis will be resolved with an injection of fiscal money and some regulatory measures is very mistaken. The financial system is in crisis because it prices paper assets [stocks] at six times the real value of goods and services produced in the world. This is not a "failure of regulation of the system" but a constitutional part of the capitalist system which speculates with goods and stocks in order to obtain the highest possible profits. Up until now, the economic crisis has provoked 100 million more hungry and more than 50 million new unemployed and these figures tend to increase.
2. Capitalism has provoked the ecological crisis by subjecting the necessary conditions for life on the planet to the domination of the market and profits. Every year one-third more is consumed than the planet is capable of regenerating. At this pace of waste of the capitalist system, we are going to need two Earths by the year 2030.
3. The global economic crisis, the crisis of climate change, the food crisis and the energy crisis are a product of the decline of capitalism which threatens to do away with the existence of life itself and the planet. To avoid this end it is necessary to develop an alternative model to the capitalist system. A system of:
* solidarity and complementarity and not of competition; * a system of harmony with20our mother earth and not of pillage of natural resources; * a system of cultural diversity and not of crushing of cultures and imposition of cultural values and life styles foreign to the realities of our countries; * a system of peace based on social justice and not on imperialist policies and wars; * in synthesis, a system that recovers the human condition of our societies and peoples and does not reduce them to being simple consumers or commodities.
4. As a concrete expression of the new reality of the continent, the Latin American and Caribbean countries have begun to build our own institutionality, which is rooted in our common history that goes back to our Revolution for independence, and constitutes a concrete tool of deepening the processes of social, economic and cultural transformation that must consolidate our full sovereignty. ALBA-TCP, Petrocaribe or UNASUR, just to name those created most recently, are mechanisms of solidary union created in the heat of these transformation, with the explicit intention of empowering the effort of our Peoples to reach their own liberation. In order to confront the grave effects of the global economic crisis, the countries of ALBA-TCP have taken innovative and transformative measures, that seek real alternatives to the deficient international economic order and not to empower its failed institutions. Therefore, we have launched a Single Regional Compensation System, SUCRE, that includes a Common Account Unit, a Chamber of Compensation of Payments and a Single Reserves System. Equally, we have begun the founding of Grand-National enterprises to satisfy the fundamental needs of our peoples, establishing fair and complementary trade mechanisms, which leave behind the absurd logic of unbridles competition.
5. We question the G20 for tripling the resources of the IMF, when what is really necessary is a new world economic order that includes the total transformation of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, that have contributed to this crisis with their neoliberal conditionings.
6. The solutions to the global economic crisis and the definition of a new international financial architecture should be adopted with the participation of the 192 countries that between June 1 and 3 will meet at the UN Conference on the international financial crisis, to propose the creation of a new international economic order.
7. Regarding the crisis of climate change, the developed countries have an ecological debt to the world since they are responsible for 70% of the historic emissions of accumulated carbon in the atmosphere since 1750. The developed countries, debtors to humanity and the planet, should provide significant resources to a fund so that developing countries can follow a model of growth that does not repeat the grave impacts of capitalist industrialization.
8. The solutions to the energy, food and climate change crises have to be integral and interdependent.20We cannot solve one problem creating others in areas fundamental to life. For example, generalizing the use of biofuels can only have negative effects on the prices of food and in the use of essential resources such as water, soil and forests.
9. We condemn discrimination against migrants in any of its forms. Migration is a Human Right, not a crime. Because of this, we demand an urgent reform in the migratory policies of the U.S. government, with the objective of stopping deportations and mass raids, permitting the reunification of families, and we call for the elimination of the wall that separates and divides us. In this sense, we demand the repeal of the Cuban Adjustment Act and the elimination of the Wet Foot-Dry Foot policy, which are selective and discriminatory and the causes of the loss of human lives. The true culprits for the financial crisis are the bankers who stole the money and resources of our countries and not migrant workers. Human rights come first, and in particular the human rights of the most vulnerable and marginalized sector of our society who are the undocumented migrants. In order for there to be integration there must be free movement of people regardless of who they are regardless of their migratory status. The brain drain constitutes a form of pillage of qualified human resources exercised by rich countries.
10. Basic services of education, health, water, energy and telecommunication must be declared human rig hts and cannot be the object of private business nor be traded by the World Trade Organization. These services are and must be essentially public services with universal access.
11. We want a world where all countries, large and small, have the same rights and where no empires exist. We advocate no intervention. To fortify, as the only legitimate channel for discussion and analysis of bilateral and multilateral agendas of the Continent, the base of mutual respect between States and government, under the principal of non-interference of one State over another and the inviolability of the sovereignty and self-determination of the people. We demand that the new government of the United States, whose arrival has generated some expectations in the region and the world, put an end to the long and nefarious tradition of interventionism and aggression that has characterized the conduct of the governments of that country throughout history, especially heightened during the government of George W. Bush. In the same manner, that it eliminate interventionist practices such as the covert operations, parallel diplomacies, media wars to destabilize States and government, and the financing of destabilizing groups. It is fundamental to build a world where the diversity of economic, political and cultural focuses is recognized and respected.
12. Regarding the blockade of the United States against Cuba and the exclusion of this country from the Americas Summit, the countries of t he Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America reiterate the Declaration that all of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean adopted last December 16, 2008, about the need to put an end to the economic, trade and financial blockade imposed by the government of the United States on Cuba, including the application of the Helms-Burton law ...
13. The developed countries have destined no less than 8 trillion dollars to rescue the financial structure that has crumbled. These are the same who don't comply with promises of small amounts to meet the Millenium Goals or .7% of the budget for Official Development Assistance. Never before has the hypocrisy of the discourse of the rich countries been plainer. Cooperation should be established without conditions and adjusted to the agendas of the receiving countries by simplifying the process, making resources accessible and privileging issues of social inclusion.
14. The legitimate fight against narcotrafficking and organized crime, and whatever other manifestation of so-called "new threats" should not be used as an excuse to carry out activities of interference and intervention against our countries.
15. We are firmly convinced that change, in which the whole world has hope, can only come from organization, mobilization and unity of our peoples.
As the Liberator well claimed,
"The unity of our peoples is not a simple chimera of men, but an inexorable decree of destiny" Simon Bolivar
(Translation by Diana Barahona.)