Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Dominica participated in the XXIII Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples' Trade Treaty held in Caracas, Venezuela. teleSUR
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00:00 to be in the SILAC, Prime Minister Rufus Kerry.
00:05 Welcome.
00:06 (Applause.)
00:07 PRIME MINISTER RUFUS KERRY (Through translator):
00:08 Thank you, Mr. President.
00:09 I will try to be as brief as possible.
00:10 I want to recognize the President of Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, my colleague, Prime Minister
00:11 Francois.
00:32 I'm really happy to be here to give homage to the founders of the ALBA, President Hugo
00:48 Chavez, President Fidel Castro.
00:50 These are two gentlemen who have been pioneers of the development in this world.
01:05 It is through this vision that ALBA was created, also PRETO CARIBE was created, and were the
01:16 main proposals of SILAC, we can see this institution as a reality and being possible to help all
01:26 the citizens, not only in our hemisphere but in the global term.
01:33 So I want to honor these two titans of the political leadership in this world.
01:42 I consider myself to be fortunate as a young person to be set among these two distinguished
01:55 people and to assist the advancement of the progress of the structures of ALBA and to
02:04 extend it towards the English speaker because a bridge is created upon the countries.
02:15 I can say this to the rest of the world without any contradiction.
02:20 In our time in history, Latin America and the Caribbean never became so close and had
02:27 so much solidarity as we have now.
02:30 We are making a tribute and a homage to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez in these 20 years of
02:37 ALBA.
02:41 A lot of you say that ALBA wouldn't last two years, but here we are.
02:49 Twenty years of solidarity, twenty years of strength, twenty years of complementary among
02:58 all of us Caribbean nations.
03:02 The main thing about ALBA is that it is speaking to the center, to the most important of the
03:11 human survival, from the humankind challenges and it has formulated solutions to these challenges.
03:21 There is no other organization in the world that in such a short time had achieved so
03:28 much for so many countries and for so many people as ALBA-TCP.
03:42 There's not only a small group of friends, but a solidarity group that is standing strong
03:52 in the defense of our brothers and sisters and is assuring that the strength of the capitalism
03:59 and the new capitalism won't be defeating us, won't defeat our solidarity and our sovereignty
04:10 as nations.
04:11 As a matter of fact, the current situation of the world leads us to be more united.
04:30 In the meeting, I suggest that in today's we need to move forward and to make progress
04:39 and this is a characteristic of the ALBA summit because in a transparent way we've been discussing
04:46 subjects that are an agenda from every single one of our countries.
04:52 Our brother of Bolivia shared with us some important aspects and listening to him, we
05:00 can see that we need to strengthen the determination to express our solidarity with the government
05:07 of Bolivia.
05:09 We've been hearing the struggle from all the countries of Nicaragua, by example, in this
05:14 private meeting that we held.
05:20 And I say to our friends that we stand still with the determination to help in the fight
05:26 of Nicaragua.
05:28 You can be sure that we are supporting you and then our country will be in solidarity
05:35 with all of you.
05:43 We can't come with such engagement without speaking about the blockade against the Cuban
05:50 people.
05:52 Cuba has not only good things for the world, only gave good things to the world.
06:00 The blockade against Cuba had affected millions of lives.
06:13 And us as a world, we've got to sit still and allow that only one country impose these
06:19 actions, terrible actions upon the nation.
06:27 And I say to the president that there's nothing that can avoid us from strengthening and deepen
06:34 our relationships and our solidarity and our love by the Cuban people and the Cuban revolution.
06:42 And I speak for myself personally, but I also speak for all my brothers and sisters that
06:53 are standing still in solidarity with the Cuban people.
06:59 We have any doubt in our minds, not even a single doubt that Cuba will be victorious.
07:07 And we will see it rising against the blockade.
07:12 We need to continue our fight.
07:15 We need to know that from where is justice, we will continue fighting.
07:20 And Cuba is not alone.
07:22 We are Cuba, all this Cuba.
07:31 We are here in Caracas, Venezuela.
07:38 There is a movement in the world currently where the opposition parties or in the social
07:46 media want to connect with the voters of this country, but only are dependent on the external
07:58 influence to make a change in the elections of the country.
08:02 In Venezuela, of course, we've been seeing how they've been suffering from this.
08:10 The opposition parties are losing, and in the case of Venezuela, the United Socialist
08:17 Party of Venezuela obtains the victory.
08:20 We can see that the sanctions are increasing upon Venezuela, but how can we face this as
08:27 citizens of the world?
08:29 This is not a geological subject.
08:30 It's a principal subject of justice and equity.
08:35 The world needs to be standing in solidarity and to defend the Venezuelan people.
08:42 Why should we allow that only one country impose suffering upon a country?
08:49 And we continue with our life with the same path, to have solidarity with Venezuela, to
08:58 defend the democracy of Venezuela.
09:01 It's not to say that we are opposing to the United States.
09:04 It's saying that we support justice.
09:09 And I say to President Maduro, I appreciate the highest appreciation, Mr. President, and
09:21 I want to thank you for the way that you have conducted this nation.
09:29 You've done extraordinary work to unite the Venezuelan people through these difficult
09:35 times.
09:39 And I know that President Hugo Chavez is very pleased in the manner in which you have conducted
09:51 the affairs of Venezuela, but sometimes you have someone who in this life that is a student,
10:03 and at the moment that you deport this world, the student takes our place.
10:13 But that wasn't the case of President Maduro, because you have stood still and faithful
10:19 to the Bolivarian revolution, and we know that the Venezuelan people will continue to
10:25 harvest the fruits of the Bolivarian revolution, thanks to this spirit and this fight of the
10:32 Bolivarian revolution.
10:34 And we, Dominica, stand in solidarity with the people and the revolution of Venezuela,
10:42 and do not believe that we won't be in solidarity with the Venezuelan people.
10:47 We will always be in solidarity with the Venezuelan people.
10:52 There's too much job to do in the ALBA, and we have to create the time to do it.
10:59 We need the time to participate in the political dialogue.
11:04 We need to define the current challenges and also the solutions to these challenges, but
11:11 there is no organization really in this hemisphere that is focused and is so practical as the
11:21 ALBA-TCP, who would have thought that we would celebrate the 20th anniversary of the solidarity
11:29 and to go upon the poverty subject or the education subject, the economical development,
11:39 the agriculture.
11:41 We continue together in this fight.
11:51 We will always continue to fight with ALBA-TCP, and of course, we hope to celebrate our success
12:01 when we come closer to the 20th anniversary of the ALBA-TCP.
12:05 And I'm sure that we will see that in the future generations, because we planted the
12:10 seeds and they're growing, they're blooming.
12:14 And it's up to us, this generation, to pass this fight, to solve the South Hemisphere,
12:25 to abort these subjects without compromising our principles, because the people who run
12:33 the opposition that is progressive, they can be against the government, but a lot of them
12:45 are supporting subjects that are helping to develop the region.
12:57 In the solidarity with the rest of the region, Dominica is pleased to be a part of the ALBA.
13:05 We will continue to be, because we do believe that it is in service of the greatest goals
13:15 and objectives.
13:16 That's why, Mr. President, we wish you well in the upcoming elections.
13:26 I'm not here to interfere in the domestic affairs of any country, but I want to say
13:34 from where I sit, I want to say that the world needs men like Nicolás Maduro in this position,
13:44 in this charge.
13:47 The region needs the voices, the brave voices and the brave actions of someone like Nicolás
13:54 Maduro to continue in the head of this country.
14:02 We're not going to make a campaign in Venezuela, but we're going to be really aware and we
14:10 will hope that the victory is ours and the victory will be for the people of Venezuela
14:16 and the victory will be for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and you will continue to
14:21 be the president of Venezuela.
14:23 Thank you very much.
14:40 I appreciate and I thank the generous words of this young man, but already strong and
14:50 experimental leader from the Caribbean, Russel Skerry, and all the strength of 20 years,
15:00 all by seeking practical solutions to the subjects of energy and food and health and
15:09 education technology and science.
15:13 And with all this experience, the 2030 Agenda, from now forward, the Articularity Agenda
15:21 2013 with the United Nations Agenda 2030, to move forward with faith and confidence
15:31 that the Venezuelan people will transcend the history and will continue to be the winner.
15:40 We will see the stand to a great comrade from Alba that is on his wedding anniversary.