PRESIDENT Raúl Castro Ruz is leading the Cuban delegation to the 7th ALBA Presidential Summit (Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America), which began yesterday in Camaná, capital of the state of Sucre, Venezuela.

Chávez opened the meeting by greeting all the delegations present and moved on give a sound analysis of the current international economic crisis, the illegal and unjust blockade of Cuba and its absurd exclusion from the inter-American system.
He immediately gave the floor to the Cuban leader. Raúl used the fewest words possible to set out the causes and consequences of the current crisis and the absurdity of trying to overcome it via mechanisms that, like the IMF, contributed to accentuating its effects.
He emphasized the importance of solutions being based on the widest world consensus possible and not on agreements between a few powerful countries.
The Cuban president highlighted the contribution that Unified Regional Compensation System (SUCRE) could make in the search for greater economic independence.
"Our nations so not have the capacity on their own to transform the international world order, but we do have the power to lay down new bases and construct our own economic relations," he affirmed.
He likewise ratified Cuba’s vocation of solidarity with the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The presidents of Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay then spoke, as did the prime ministers of Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines; the latter has officially applied for entry into the ALBA.
The Ecuadorian foreign minister and Miguel D’Escoto, president of the UN General Assembly likewise addressed the meeting. All of them confirmed their agreement with the documents presented to the Summit for consideration, their support of Cuba and their rejection of the blockade.
On behalf of the Cuban people and Fidel, Raúl expressed thanks for those sincere manifestations of solidarity toward Cuba, an idea shared by the overwhelming majority of nations, apart from a few well-known exceptions.
In relation to the OAS, he said that he was not going to respond to its secretary general’s statement, given that Fidel had already done so in his Reflections. He noted that the history of that organization oozed blood in all parts.
He recalled the ignominious role of the OAS in acts of aggression against the people of Guatemala in the 1950s and its subsequent complicity in attacks on and acts of terrorism against Cuba, which resulted in thousands of victims.
As examples of that, he noted the epidemic provoked by the hemorrhagic dengue virus, the sabotage of the Cuban passenger plane off the coast of Barbados that killed 73 people, and the mercenary Bay of Pigs invasion.
"They didn’t expel us from the OAS at the beginning of 1961," he stated, "so that the organization could recognize the puppet government which it intended to bring from the United States to the beachhead it wanted to occupy in Cuba. That puppet government would immediately ask for an invasion by the U.S. armed forces, an action that would have cost hundreds of thousands of our people’s lives, as was the case in Guatemala, without the slightest complaint from the OAS.
Raúl clarified that Cuba was expelled in January 1962, because a direct invasion by the US army was planned. "That is the sad reality that led to the so-called Missile Crisis in October 1962," he concluded.
He recalled that the Cuban government has publicly expressed his disposition to talk with the U.S. authorities on any issue, on a basis of absolute respect for sovereignty and self-determination.
In relation to accusations concerning the sentences handed down to mercenaries on the U.S. payroll and terrorists sanctioned by Cuban laws, the Cuban president ratified a will to set them free "if they release our five heroes imprisoned in U.S. jails.
In response to Raúl’s apologies for having spoken again, Chávez stated: "Cuba has spoken!" followed by an embrace and an ovation from those present.
After the session the leaders moved on to Ayacucho Park in the city’s historic quarter to lay a wreath at the statue of the Grand Marshall Sucre. A large crowd of enthusiastic Cumaná residents awaited them there.
The high point of the day was a visit to the Sucre Garrison, where Chávez was stationed as a young lieutenant. It was there where his political concerns began to arise.
"¡Viva Cuba! ¡Viva Fidel! ¡Viva Raúl!"
That was how Chávez received the Cuban president on the forecourt of Cumaná airport, in the burning sun of this city, whose climate is similar to the eastern region of Cuba.
In an improvised meeting with the press, the two leaders spoke of the recent advances of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples and underlined that April is historically a month of great popular victories, like those of Cuba in 1961 over the mercenary invasion and the Venezuelan response to the reactionary coup d’état in 2002.