Maravi

Cuba is a point of honour for Latin America, says Chavez

Cuba is a point of honour for Latin America, says Chavez
Written by Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Saturday, April 11, 2009 5:56:01 AM

CUBA is a point of honour for the peoples of Latin America, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said. And on Monday, Venezuela and Japan signed 12 agreements on energy cooperation during President Chavez's visit to Tokyo.

In a telephone message to the Venezuelan National Radio from Japan, also publicised by TeleSur and Prensa-Latina, President Chavez disclosed that Caracas would hold a presidential summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA)

states two days before the 5th Summit of the Americas to frame a common position on Cuba.

Cuba is excluded from the Summit of the Americas just as the island is suspended from the Organisation of American States (OAS).

"Cuba is a point of honour for the peoples of Latin America," President Chavez said. "We cannot accept that the United States should continue trampling over the nations of our America. To trample over Cuba is to trample over Venezuela and this will have to be said in Trinidad and Tobago. Nobody can make us keep our mouths shut."

President Chavez said the ALBA Summit would be held from April 14 to 15 in Venezuela.

He said Presidents Daniel Ortega [Nicaragua], Manuel Zelaya [Honduras], President Evo Morales [Bolivia], Prime Minster Roosevelt Skerrit [Dominican], a representative from the Cuban government would attend, including Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo who would attend as a special guest.

President Chavez said the ALBA meeting would be very crucial as it would be held two days prior to the 5th Americas Summit.

"It will thus provide an opportunity to discuss and bring common positions to Trinidad and Tobago," he said.

President Chavez said a discussion on Cuba's isolation as a consequence of the US blockade was to be suggested as an addition to the agenda.

"If they want to come with the same excluding discourse of the empire [US] 'on the blockade,' then the result [of the Summit of the Americas] will be that nothing has changed. Everything will stay the same."

And President Chavez met Japanese premier Taro Aso leading to the two countries signing 12 energy agreements involving operations in the Venezuelan oil-rich Orinoco Belt.

Among the agreements include four memoranda of understanding involving Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) for a joint venture on the Gran Mariscal Sucre project with Marubeni, Itochu, Mitsubishi and Mitsui.

Labels: CUBA, HUGO CHAVEZ

posted by MrK @ 4:57 AM