Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega traveled to Cuba as a surprise on Wednesday to participate, along with another group of Latin American heads of state, in the XXII Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (ALBA), which celebrates the 18th anniversary of the organization.
Ortega, who returned to the presidency of Nicaragua in 2007 and since then has remained despite allegations of electoral fraud, assured in his speech that he hoped to obtain “strength and strength” from the deceased former rulers of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, and Cuba. , Fidel Castro, who did the “miracle” of creating ALBA in 2004.
“We hope they give us more strength and strength to continue waging the battle against aggressive imperialism,” he said. “They are here today, on this 18th anniversary of the foundation. We feel it in our veins, hearts and consciences.”
Ortega did not refer to the crisis that he is experiencing in Nicaragua, nor to the criticism for violations of human rights to which his government is subjected, due to the arbitrary arrests of his critics; the most recent, that of Bishop Rolando Álvarez.
Brian Nichols, the State Department’s Under Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs recently said on Twitter that the detention of “Álvarez is a cynical act by an authoritarian state.”
In addition to Ortega, Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, as well as Miguel Díaz-Canel, of Cuba; Luis Arce, from Bolivia; along with heads of state from Saint Vincent, Dominica, Saint Lucia, among others.
During his speech, Maduro defended Nicaragua against what he called “campaigns” against this country, which he compared to those that, according to him, Cuba suffers.
On the other hand, he highlighted the role of ALBA and said that the mechanism “goes forward as a moral, ideological and political vanguard organization.”
ALBA is made up of ten nations and was founded in 2004 by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro as the counterpart of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), promoted by the United States.
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