“Empire” and “blockade” were two of the most heard words this Friday at the opening of the G-77 Summit, which is based in Havana. Two words that were especially reiterated in the speech of the Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega, which in the Cuban capital was more than clear: “Don’t mess with my country, don’t insist on the issue of human rights violations.”
“We cannot go looking for the speck in our neighbor’s eye, because we all have problems, we all have difficulties in our countries. As a matter of principle, we do not get involved in the situations that arise in sister nations,” declared Ortega during a speech of tone slow and monotonous in the Havana Convention Palace, although with a lot of political background.
“Today marks 202 years of the independence of Central America and not even eight years had passed when the Yankee imperialists were invading Nicaragua,” recalled the Nicaraguan president, head of one of the three dictatorships in Latin America, along with those of Cuba and Venezuela.
“We are three countries that are targets of the North American rulers who have been succeeding each other and of the governments of the European Union: Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. They even discuss whether or not President Nicolás Maduro will be able to attend such a meeting. “.
Ortega insisted that they not interfere in his affairs and warned Washington and Brussels: “We react only when they are attitudes that we have known only from the North American rulers and the European Community.”
“Leave us in peace, we must tell the powers to leave us in peace and they will see how we are going to make what we are announcing a reality (…). The socialist model is infinitely fair with its people and with the peoples of the world. The president of the United States has approved one more year of blockade,” Ortega highlighted.
“Commander Fidel Castro is here among us. The path is to resist and resist in the midst of the harsh conditions of the damage that is suffered from the point of view of the human rights of an entire people. Damage is being done to the Cuban people with this criminal blockade”.
The G-77 is a group made up of 134 countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America, to which China has recently joined as a guest country. Like the G-7 or the G-20, the G-77 has the recognition of the United Nations, whose Secretary General, the Portuguese Antonio Guterres, spoke this Friday at the opening of the Summit.
Venezuelan television station Telesur noted that “Havana is currently the capital of the global south” and insisted that the G-77 is an effective counterweight to the G-7, although one of its own analysts said the comparison makes no sense. .
Miguel Díaz-Canel, president of Cuba, gave the floor to Mahmoud Abbas, introducing him as “president of the State of Palestine.” “The increase in inequalities is a worrying trend that especially affects southern countries. Our economy cannot be sustainable or viable under a continuous occupation,” warned Abbas, in an afternoon in which Nicolás Maduro also spoke.
“Enough of the persecution against the people of the world who want their independence and build their own models!” Maduro exalted, asking the G-77 and China to raise their voices louder: “Much more must be done.” .
In one of his last appearances on an international stage, the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, pointed out that “American hegemony is no longer what it was” and that Europe is “in a crisis that began with Brexit and continues with the invasion of “Russia to Ukraine.”
“And the appearance of two enormous powers like China and India, which diametrically changes international trade. In this scheme appear the BRICS, a new group of nations that represent 44 percent of humanity and 36 percent of the GDP. A group of nations that are more than the G-7,” warned Fernández, who has just achieved the incorporation of Argentina into the group that until now brought together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“We must change the international financial system, how much longer are we going to put up with this? How much longer are we going to put up with the IMF following the rates imposed by the US Federal Reserve? Are they so worried about Ukraine and charging them such an extortion? “The United States has punished this island for 60 consecutive years. We are facing a WTO that sees how food becomes commodities and does nothing, while the FAO announces a famine of 400 million people.”