The Puebla Group; political and academic forum made up of figures identified with the left, after concluding its VIII meeting, in the Colombian city of Santa Marta, rejected in the document of its conclusions the implementation of unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela.
The Venezuelan ambassador to Colombia, Félix Plasencia, highlighted this aspect of the final declaration on Twitter, after referring to it in statements to the press at the end of the forum meeting in the Colombian city.
«The VIII meeting of the Puebla Group in Colombia concludes with the Declaration of Santa Marta where; The voice of this progressive forum reflects the rejection of the abusive imposition of unilateral coercive measures against our people; All good countries demand the end of unilateral coercive measures,” said the Venezuelan diplomat accredited in Colombia.
In the document signed by all the members of the forum, it is read on page 7 that «The Puebla Group condemns the imposition of coercive measures and unilateral sanctions that lead to economic blockades such as those suffered by Cuba and Venezuela. No country can claim the right to sanction another, much less affect the chances of survival of its peoples.
A currency for the region
The statement was presented in the context of the proposal for a common currency for Latin America and the Caribbean, explaining that there is a new political scenario with the decline of the radical right in government spaces, especially in countries like Colombia and Chile, where for For the first time, the most radical elites do not govern.
The text assures that “Latin America and the Caribbean need to relaunch a financial architecture, adapted to their needs and without impositions that threaten the sovereignty of the peoples and focus their gaze on the creation of a single Latin American currency”.
It is worth remembering that the proposal for a currency for the region was previously presented to the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), and it was proposed for the countries that make up that organization, for now suspended, the use of a currency called sucre.
It is also valid to note that this Monday it was announced that the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro received a letter in which several former presidents of the region, headed by the former Chilean president, Michel Bachelet, accompanied by Rafael Correa from Ecuador; Dilma Rouseff from Brazil; Eduardo Duhalde from Argentina; Ricardo Lagos from Chile; José ‘Pepe’ Mujica from Uruguay and Ernesto Samper from Colombia. They suggest that Venezuela help promote the reactivation of Unasur.
new winds
In section “New winds are blowing…» the Puebla Group, points out that «fortunately, in these months good news has arrived from the polls».
highlights that “for the first time in history, progressivism rules in Colombia with Gustavo Petro, after successful experiences of the left at the local or subnational level, which is more significant taking into account that, when the first cycle of progressive at the beginning of the century” in frank reference to the governments of Venezuela that have been maintained since the periods of Commander Chávez, continued by the governments of President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela being one of the few territories in which progressivism did not regress, as occurred in Brazil, Ecuador and other countries in the region.
The text also points out that during the wave of progress of the first decade of the century “Colombia was one of the few exceptions that kept neoliberal conservatism away from the discourses on income redistribution and consolidation of the integrationist vocation”, until the recent triumph of the president Gustavo Petro.
Health also the “triumphs of new progressive leaders” such as Xiomara Castro in Honduras and Luis Arce in Bolivia, who “add to the already consolidated leadership of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico and Alberto Fernández in Argentina.”
The forum also celebrates “the triumph of Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, after four disastrous years in which more than 688,000 Brazilians lost their lives due to the denialism of Jair Bolsonaro during the pandemic. Added to this are the constant verbal and discriminatory attacks against women, Afro-descendants and the LGBTI+ population by the current Brazilian president.
The text also states that “Lula opens wide paths of hope to resume the lost path of integration, freedom and social justice in the region.”
