A
man at the People’s Summit of the America’s, April 14.
People’s Summit
of the Americas Condemns Imposition of ‘U.S. Agenda’ (El Espectador, Colombia)
“Progress
toward integration should tend toward overcoming the extractive and
agro-export-based model of development, which is creating enormous social,
environmental and political conflict on this continent. … The rights of
investors cannot be held as more significant than those of peoples and
nature.”
With a demonstration involving about 8,000 people, the Fifth
People’s Summit: The True Voice of the Americas, met for three days in
Cartagena de Indias.
The representatives of social movements and the continent’s political
sectors debated the hemisphere’s socioeconomic and political reality and
decided to solidify their joint social struggle by asserting their rights and creating
real hemispheric integration sustained by unity.
The Final Declaration issued by the 2012 People’s Summit criticizes
the fact that the U.S. insists on imposing its own global agenda on the
hemisphere, and that it depicts itself as a nation that defends human rights
even while it played the lead role in the coup in Honduras against constitutional
President Manuel Zelaya; continues to maintain an iniquitous economic and trade
embargo against Cuba; is betting on the destabilization of Haiti; and despite
its propaganda, has yet to dismantle its concentration camp at Guantanamo.
This statement also critics President Obama, who failed to
keep the promise he made at the previous Summit of the Americas to build a new
relationship with Latin America, while persisting in his opposition to having
Argentina exercise its legitimate territorial sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands.
The People’s Summit also considers the free trade agreement
promoted by the Washington government an obstacle to regional integration.
The summit also brought attention to the irreversible social
and environmental damage caused by several Canadian multinational corporations that
pursue exploratory mega-mining, violating the rights of peoples and their
territories.
Protesters dressed as a Guantanamo detainees hold a sign
that
says, ‘Close Guantanamo!’ at the ‘People’s Summit’ which
was
held alongside the OAS’ Summit of the Americas, in
Cartegena,
Colombia, April 14.
Another aspect of the continental summit of social movements
was to address the land grab that threatens hemispheric food security and ends
up violating their sovereignty.
In terms of progress, the final declaration of the People’s
Summit highlighted the ongoing process of integration, such as the
consolidation of organizations like the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of
Our America [ALBA], the Union
of South American Nations [UNASUR]
and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States [CELAC], which foster
international relations based on solidarity and not free trade.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
This People’s Summit also suggested that this progress
toward integration should tend toward overcoming the extractive and agro-export
based model of development, which is creating enormous social, environmental
and political conflict on this continent.
The declaration also appeals to Latin American social
movements and progressive political sectors to contest the free trade model and
articulate the struggle to overthrow a system that produces such great social
injustice.
At the same time, the People’s Summit demands the removal of
North American military bases in the region, the closure of the School of the
Americas and the suspension of the Inter-American
Defense Board.
The summit also considers the indiscriminate promotion of
foreign investment and declares, “The rights of investors cannot be held as
more significant than those of peoples and nature.” In that sense, it condemns
the interests of the multinational corporations on the continent which are the central
actors of the extractive model of natural resources.
Finally, with the emergence of the Bank of the South and
the Latin
American Reserve Fund, it welcomes the new regional financial architecture,
and it demands that Cuba’s right to be a member of the multilateral system be
restored, starting with an end to the trade embargo imposed by the United
States more than half a century ago, which the declaration says constitutes a clear
violation of the human rights and self-determination of peoples.
