Maduro Advocates for Greater Unity and Cooperation at XXV ALBA-TCP Summit

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro today called for increased unity and cooperation among member states of ALBA-TCP, marking 21 years since the integration bloc was founded by Commanders Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez.

Initiating the XXV Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Peoples' Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), held virtually, the leader urged trust in their own efforts, stating, "we have 'brains, eyes, ears, arms, intelligence, history, and wisdom.'"

Maduro emphasized that nothing is lacking for them to be free and independent and "to achieve, by any path we have, the perpetual peace of our entire region with development, stability, to confront problems and solve them, always united."

In this regard, he called for pooling both small and large available resources: "Let us unite to advance together in this stellar hour of Our America toward an independence that shines and is seen by the entire world."

He recalled the 21st anniversary of the birth of the Latin American and Caribbean integration bloc, established as a response to attempts to colonize their entire economy with the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

The dignitary noted that neoliberalism was defeated by the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, acknowledging that ALBA-TCP was a great engine of unity in the struggle to defeat that threat.

Reflecting that 21 years later a new colonizing project is now being attempted, no longer only against the Americas but against the entire world, he assured that this "colonizing project will not pass" through Latin America and the Caribbean.

"We will be free, entire peoples will be free, and with the experience we have and the love that moves us, we will go step by step uniting increasingly in action, with concrete results and the capacities of our countries," he underscored.

He specified that the dynamics must be toward the internal union of their countries, of the vanguard, the articulation of the peoples, and unity for permanent emancipation in all fields.

In this sense, he affirmed that mental, political, cultural, and economic emancipation is their path, and "we will achieve it," while also calling to continue "treading it with greater self-demand and concrete results."

The head of state called for greater self-demand from the teams, "beyond the 'nice documents,'" to produce more food, oil, gasoline, gas, and to develop tourism.

"It is on the ground where production happens, so that all approved documents, which are avant-garde in the world, become concrete results and fulfill the maxim of Cuban national hero José Martí that 'the best way to say, is to do,'" he stated.

"Let the empires do what they want to do, and we will do what we must do to see the marvelous results!" he expressed, assuring that this will be the best way to honor the giant of giants, the father of all revolutionaries in the 20th and 21st centuries, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro.