On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the creation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People's Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), the XXIV Summit of Heads of State and Government of that integrationist platform began this Saturday in the Venezuelan capital.
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00:00Such a beautiful way we have conceived the public startup of this historic and powerful
00:13summit to commemorate 20 years of battles, of victories, and of hopes of the peoples
00:22of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples for our America, from our America, with our
00:28America.
00:31I would like to thank for the cultural expressions, beautiful expressions, from the Sinfonica
00:41Orchestra of the Sistema de Miranda, from the San Juan Bolivar orchestra system, to
00:47the boys, girls present here, all of the musicians.
00:51Great applause for them.
00:54They are the golden generation of culture, of music, of America.
01:03I would also like to thank the composers of the two songs that were played, and the executors
01:10as well, the composers, of these very beautiful songs that need to be translated in every
01:17language, to English, to French, Portuguese, to every language, because this song has
01:33the force of universal language, the language of love among the people.
01:39Thank you, Francisco Pacheco, Andres Nieves, Javier Marín, Armando Moreno, and the whole
01:51body of dancers, the drums.
02:02Those drums came to Muni, they came to Ayacucho, so when the drums sound of our people, of
02:12the African people, these are the drums of freedom, the drums of hope, of life, and peace.
02:25It had to be this way.
02:32And that beautiful video, I think it should be shared via social media, so everybody can
02:38like it and share it.
02:41In all the social media that we have today, which are ever-present, they are hegemonic,
02:49and we have to wage a battle of life, and not only wage that battle, but win that battle
02:58every single day.
03:01The battle on the streets, on the social media, the traditional media, on the walls, and especially
03:13in the consciousness and the spirituality of our peoples.
03:20I would also like to greet all of the delegations, presidents, prime ministers, heads of delegations
03:29of the sister republic of Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, San Vicente,
03:37San Cristobal y Nieves, Granada, Granada, Santa Lucia, that with Venezuela have integrated
03:51its powerful alliance of life, of cooperation, of hope, of present, but especially future.
03:59And our special guest, very special guest, our sister nation of Haiti, raised to Haiti.
04:08Haiti will be reborn from the ashes.
04:11Special greetings to the delegation of Honduras led by the deputy foreign minister.
04:19Greetings to the president, Xiomara Castro, and to the great leader, Mel Zelaya.
04:28As well, we have the president of the delegation of Palestine, Riyad Maliki, international
04:37advisor.
04:38He is the foreign minister of Palestine.
04:45Greetings to the executive secretary of ALBA, Jorge Arreaza.
04:50I have also invited a group of ambassadors present today.
04:58The vice president of government, Héctor Rodríguez, general in chief, Ricardo Menéndez,
05:11vice president of the revolutionary government of Venezuela, professor Gabriela Jiménez,
05:20general Jorge Márquez.
05:24Vice president Delcy could not attend because she's traveling nonstop.
05:32She's restless.
05:33So she is going through oil fields in the eastern area of the country.
05:41So we send greetings to Delcy Heloína Rodríguez Gómez.
05:51A very special greeting, as well, to the men and women leaders of over 80 social movements
06:01from over 30 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean present here today.
06:06Leaders of the working class, farmers, fishermen, youth, women, neighborhoods.
06:17We see all of their flags, all of their flags united, all of the peoples united.
06:23They have developed very important discussions and deliberations in preparation for the issues
06:41that will be decided today in this 24th summit of ALBA-PCP.
06:47I have also invited the higher state of the National Bolivarian Army Forces,
06:53General Padrino, General Hernández-Clares, the commanders of the army, the navy, aviation,
07:02national guard, national militia, the chiefs of the National Bolivarian Police in the powerful
07:13division of the people, the military, and the police in Venezuela.
07:23For us, it is a reason of happiness to hold this summit in which we commemorate
07:35the 20th anniversary of that giant step that was taken in Havana on December 14, 2004.
07:55The 21st century was only starting.
08:05In Havana, Fidel Castro Ruz and Hugo Rafael Chavez-Frias had an encounter because they were celebrating 10 exact years
08:26from the first embrace that took place on a very cold night on December in Havana,
08:41December 13, 1994, in a very long morning and the sunrise on December 14,
08:52of 1994, when these two giants who incarnated and still incarnate the historic dreams of the
09:03legacy of the liberators and our people, they met to be united forever and united the dreams
09:13against imperialism and against colonialism of all of our peoples.
09:19We have been in times of commemoration.
09:27We have one of the witnesses of that embrace, that encounter on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of December,
09:37where the young brave revolutionary commander was fulfilling his dream
09:45of traveling for the first time to Cuba,
09:51although, as he said, he had been there many times in his dreams to Sierra Maestra, to Havana, to Santiago, to Pinar del Río.
10:02So he realized his dream thanks to an invitation made by the historian of Havana, Eusebio Leal,
10:21and Commander Chavez would always say that when the plane landed in Havana,
10:29he was going to get off the plane, and they called him, please come with us, and nobody told him why,
10:38and he said, why? So you can leave the plane first, and when he looked out the window
10:44of the plane, he saw right at the door the giant one, dressed in olive green. He was Fidel Castro,
10:54waiting for him in Cuban soil. So the first time our commander touched Cuban soil, he received
11:01the embrace of the giants of the centuries, that man who incarnated the dream, the ideas,
11:10of the immortal spirit of José Martí, of Antonio Baseo, of Céspedes,
11:21the man who was raising the flag of dignity and bravery all across Latin America.
11:29They were there together, and they talked about their commitments, their dreams,
11:36and with the passing of time, 10 years later,
11:45the idea of driving new processes for unity of our America had already matured.
11:55So this is how it happened, exactly on December 14, 2004, at the rise of the 21st century,
12:09Cuba and Venezuela. Fidel and Chavez signed the foundational document of the Bolivarian
12:17Alliance for the Peoples of our America.
12:24We had a meeting, as we usually do, we have a private meeting
12:34for an hour and a half, two hours, to share our impressions, our reflections, our criteria
12:43about the evolution of everything that is happening, about the development of our
12:51struggles, about the geopolitical changes since the birth of the new world,
12:58as Bolivar said, as Chavez said, the new world.
13:01We have agreed in the vision that there is an opportunity for humanity as a whole
13:16to live for the first time in its millennial history,
13:21a time without hegemonism, without empires, without colonialism.
13:30The forces of the old imperial colonial civilization from the West
13:38refused to accept the rights of the peoples to live in independence, in sovereignty,
13:47to build their own models of equality, of justice, of democracy, of freedom.
13:54This is not new. They have always refused. It is in their essence.
14:10But the dawn of hope and of a new world is already a reality.
14:16The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the World was born 20 years ago.
14:26This historic time for the construction of a multi-polar, multi-centric world without hegemonism,
14:32with equality, respect, the balance of the world, to build this world.
14:41And how we have moved forward. We had a first stage that was wonderful
14:57for the completion of the path of justice, of equality, balance, and stability.
15:04The birth of ALBA meant the creation of the most powerful programs and social and economic missions
15:21that, as President Díaz-Canel said in our private meeting,
15:25that the world never saw in any mechanism of integration, sub-regional or regional.
15:41Not in our America, and I would add, if the President allows me, not even in the world.
15:48Uniting ourselves to give literacy to our America, nobody did this. But ALBA did it.
16:00With the Cuban program, I can do it. Uniting ourselves to provide health, to multiply doctors
16:11in the neighborhood, to recover the sights of millions of Latin American Caribbean brothers
16:19and sisters with the miracle mission, only ALBA did it. And it will do it again.
16:29Over 9 million people from Latin America and the Caribbean, from humble origins,
16:37have recovered their sights thanks to the miracle mission created by Fidel and Chávez.
16:50In ALBA, we also created, in that wonderful stage of the Bolivarian spring of the 21st century,
16:58it also created the program for energy safety, for financial stability,
17:14for economic support, the most powerful one ever seen in the world, the Great Petro-Caribbean.
17:28It lifted the whole region of the Caribbean and Latin America.
17:35Here we have our brothers and sisters of Haiti. When Petro-Caribbean was not attacked and
17:43sanctioned by the American empire, we can remember the role that Petro-Caribbean played in all of
17:50the Caribbean, but particularly in Haiti. Dear President, Prime Minister, I was a witness as
17:56the foreign minister of Commander Chávez. I went to Haiti, and I knew Haiti in depth.
18:06I went there several times. And the Haitian people love us. I can tell you that. They love us,
18:16and we love the people of Alexander Petion. We gave them four ships, 6,000 weapons, and soldiers
18:30so that Bolivia could return to found the Second Republic that from the island of Margarita and
18:36from the Orinoco River built the armies that 200 years ago liberated South America.
18:43Our gratitude and love for Haiti is absolute, is total.
18:52And I can tell you that our brothers of the Caribbean will return. The times of peace,
19:00work, and prosperity for Haiti will return. This is one of the big commitments of ALBA today,
19:05to support Haiti beyond our limitations so that Haiti can recover its path of peace,
19:16stability, democracy, and can recover the levels of social and economic development that were
19:23achieved with the support of Petro-Caribbean from 2004 to 2014.
19:27Apparently, we have a message from the President of Haiti.
19:49The President of the Presidential Council has sent the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
19:56and they have also sent a very beautiful message of commitment with the struggles of the people
20:03of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of America. Do we have that message? Let's play
20:08the video. Today, December 14th of 2024, we want to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ALBA-TCP.
20:20And we also would like to salute all of the heads of state and government, without exception,
20:28who participated in the creation of ALBA-TCP. We, Haitians, want to thank for the help
20:41that was provided during the earthquake of 2010 in the social, agricultural areas,
20:49as well in case of disasters and rest. In Haiti, we have a problem of violence,
20:58of armed gangs that are terrifying the population. For this reason,
21:06we are calling upon our brothers of ALBA to help us to provide security and food assistance,
21:17because we have 6 million Haitians that are going hungry in this time of life. Thank you very much.
21:27Thank you, President Leslie Voltaire of the Presidential Council of Transition.
21:40ALBA has already very precise instructions to make all the possible progress to support Haiti,
21:49that has been a victim for centuries of the aggression and invasion, mistreatment
21:58of colonialism in all its forms. It is like a vengeance of the imperial superpowers
22:07against the Jacobin blacks, who made possible that great Haitian revolution
22:15at the end of the 17th century, the beginning of the 18th century. That was an example,
22:21an inspiration, and a refuge for our liberators. Francisco Miranda was there. This flag that you
22:31see here, yellow, blue, and red, Ambassador, President, Prime Minister,
22:41heads of delegation, this flag was designed by the great liberator Francisco Miranda,
22:51and he was also the creator of the concept of Colombia as a construction of a South American
22:59superpower, free and independent superpower. And the first time this flag was raised
23:07was on March 12, 1806, in a Haitian harbor, because Francisco Miranda made it
23:21the standard of the armed group, the army that came from Haiti,
23:28supported by the Haitian revolution, armed by the Haitian revolution.
23:41That first feat of Francisco Miranda was not successful, but after this, Bolivar took this flag
23:48to use it as the flag of the United Liberator Army that went through the battlefields of Venezuela,
23:56Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and beyond. Today, it is the flag of Ecuador,
24:08our sister nation of Ecuador, the Ecuador of Manuelita Sáenz,
24:14Libertarian Ecuador, that will recorner its path, and the sister nation of Colombia,
24:22Nariño, Ricardo, Bolivar, the founder, and of Venezuela. We share this flag,
24:32as Central America shares the colors of their flags as well.
24:35Libertarian inheritance. So ALBA had a spring stage with educational programs, health care programs,
24:53the creation of a common currency. It was a monetary essay, very ambitious.
24:58It was successful.
25:07Among other achievements and advancements,
25:13we saw progress in culture. Ernesto Villegas, I saw you arrive, you just arrived.
25:19Advancements in the culture of our people to rescue our identity.
25:32Many, many other achievements.
25:38And then, they were missiles from the criminal sanctions, but we stood firmly,
25:46even though we were harmed. There is no doubt. But today, with this document
25:57of the ALBA agenda that is going to be approved in this 20th anniversary,
26:03we are thinking about the most current issues to make a substantial progress in new political,
26:11economic, social offensive with new programs that ALBA is going to activate from now on
26:18for a new spring of progress and unity. We need to conduct a major communication,
26:29a communication program scheme. The first one in this new stage is a wonderful program that's been
26:44signed and triggered by ALBA countries,
26:48countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and even a wonderful
26:58experience of having African nations adopting this new program, AgroALBA, to improve
27:09food production and to ensure food security. And I would like to take this opportunity to
27:16congratulate the President of the Venezuelan Center for International Investment, Alex Saab,
27:28Minister Merin Fernandez, and Jorge Arreaza, that along with the ministers of the ALBA-TCP
27:38countries have been the driving force behind this program. We will spell out this program
27:49and to see how this is going to function using the productive land of various ALBA nations in order
27:58to produce beans, lentils, black beans, rice, beef, milk, eggs, okumo, batata,
28:13chicken, manioc, to improve fishing, aquaculture, using our wonderful resources. So, we break
28:32food dependence and we were talking about the importance of growing organic food
28:40and then remove all the poison from our daily diet. So, healthy food and long life,
28:55this is our new philosophy. Also, a new modality for PetroCaribe.
29:03And it is being headed by the Vice President, a new productive method. So, together we can
29:17invest and produce oil, gas, and by-products in joint ventures. So, the large oil fields
29:31of the Faja will become the epicenter of the development of a new stage of productive
29:42PetroCaribe, preserving, of course, the basic elements of PetroCaribe that we will be able
29:53to rescue from the attacks of the missiles that we received. So, we need to increase to protect,
30:05consolidate what has remained, and then proceed with more investments, technologies. That is
30:12going to be a wonderful project and we will continue being a common of the great homeland
30:18that we are. Also, we are moving forward on the basic elements to sign the People's Commerce
30:31Treaty and to improve the intra-American commerce process. We discussed the need
30:47as proposed in the documents that have been presented for this summit to go back to the
30:55platforms for currency and financial commercial exchange based on the Sucre idea. Our monetary
31:05authorities and financial authorities should implement this idea. As Lucho Arce said,
31:13we as Canel said, we could have a compensated trade. Also, we have discussed the challenges
31:21of science and technology, artificial intelligence, social media. It has to do
31:34with the impact on our daily life, communications, telecommunications.
31:40And next to Ernesto, I can see one of a dear daughter of Hugo Chavez, Rosa Virginia Colmenares.
31:54Yes, she is there. Rosa, is that you, Rosa? No, it's not you. Of course, you are. So, welcome,
32:02Rosa. Also, member of the orchestra system.
32:11AI. ALBA is then entering in a specific project in order to build the capabilities for AI and
32:25social network of ALBA for Latin America and the world. We need to really address this issue
32:34forcefully. And my dear professor, scientist, Gabriela Jimenez, that precisely we already
32:45have to inaugurate something that we discussed during the last summit in Havana a year ago.
32:53And it is ready. The structure is there to inaugurate
33:07with the technological tools to improve in an accelerated fashion the AI capabilities and the
33:17handling of social network, the innovation center, scientific and innovation center for ALBA-TCP.
33:28This building is ready. And I know that my fellow heads are passionate about this topic.
33:38AI is here to stay. And we are even talking about super AI.
33:51As ALBA peoples, independent, sovereign and revolutionary governments,
33:57we are luckily very close and we have excellent cooperation with brothers and sisters in the world
34:06who are one, two or three steps ahead in the field of AI. From here, I take this opportunity to
34:18greet these friends, the people of China, the Russian Federation,
34:23the Islamic Republic of Iran.
34:32They have wonderfully developed these technologies and they are sharing these
34:40technologies and capabilities today. AI is decisive in the handling of social media.
34:50We need to be clear about these topics. We need to be well-versed on these topics.
35:00Our leaders should know these topics and we need to discuss this with our children, with the youth.
35:09How we went from big data to AI, first generation, and we are starting the second
35:18generation and super intelligency. Have you heard about this? Raise the hand of those who didn't
35:24know about this. You didn't know about this. Don't lie. No one knew about this. This is brand new.
35:32And countries have already been characterised and segmented through WhatsApp, for instance.
35:51They have segmented all the countries, of course, on top of espionage. If you want to be spied
36:01and listen to your messages, continue using WhatsApp. Go ahead. You will be spied on if you
36:09continue using WhatsApp. Send your videos, send your emotions. Go ahead. Continue using WhatsApp.
36:16Good for you. I'm going to give you a decoration and a special bond, a special chance for you to
36:26continue using WhatsApp to be spied on. Brother Maliki, they did it already in Gaza. They did.
36:35The attacks are done through intelligent missiles, and they go straight to the WhatsApp of men,
36:46women, to destroy, to kill this population using this state-of-the-art technologies.
36:58It is in this fashion that the annihilation of more than 45,000 people, men, women, children,
37:06have been killed using artificial intelligence. And what is the response? What is the reaction
37:13of the UN and the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court? What do
37:20they say? And that the bombs continue dropping, intelligent bombs, criminal bombs,
37:32that annihilate and destroy the mosques, schools, refugees of innocent people.
37:40And each bomb killing one Palestinian, one girl, one boy, those bombs are also falling
37:49on the UN. They fall on the absurd theater of the diplomacy handled by the main organs
38:02of the United Nations, the UN, deemed condemned at Hitler's birth to disappear. It is doomed to
38:13disappear. We will never disappear. It is their right. Peoples have to face life, international
38:21law, and the struggle of our peoples to ensure the respect of our lives and our future. That
38:30will not disappear, ever, contrary to what happened a century ago. But we are indignant
38:39to see that this technology, and it happened to Einstein, those well-versed in Einstein's life,
38:48they know what he suffered when he saw how his formulas were used to manufacture bombs, atomic
39:00bombs, to exterminate people such as Nagasaki and Hiroshima, to threaten the peoples of the world.
39:11Now, those who created AI, what do they think about the use of this technology to kill
39:20innocent Palestinians in Gaza? So let's move forward with science, technology, innovation,
39:27a new center that will be inaugurated very soon in the mountains of the Miranda state
39:37so that our scientists, our technologists, mathematicians, physicians, start working
39:52on these new technologies. And sooner than later, and I'm certain about this,
39:56sooner than later, ALBA will also be empowered in the use of artificial intelligence and new
40:04social media of respect, solidarity for a new civilization of peace. Some people might say,
40:13those are impossible dreams.
40:20Just wait and see. Just wait and see. Very well, there are many topics,
40:27hot topics, that are boiling topics, connections, the air and maritime connections. We have made
40:38progress, but we still need to do more to connect better our countries. And we call upon
40:48our leaders to create the Visa ALBA Turismo, to consolidate tourism routes in ALBA. We have moved
41:01forward. We have made some progress, but we need to do more to foster tourism among us.
41:08We have talked about unity of a hemisphere of diversity. We founded PetroCaribe,
41:28and we also had the wonderful responsibility
41:32of uniting Latin America and the Caribbean from these efforts conducted by Commander Chavez.
41:46And I remember vividly, as it was yesterday, the effort made by another giant, Raul Castro Ruz.
41:57Greetings for him in Cuba. The huge effort made by our Commander-in-President,
42:06Daniel Ortega, who remembers vividly the summit in Cancun and the foundational
42:17summit of Caracas, that major effort. Mrs. President Omara Castro, the chair of SALACA,
42:27that effort resulted in SALACA. And ALBA's responsibility today is to work
42:36to ensure the success and progress of SALACA.
42:42We always say, and I would like to reiterate this, we dream with Bolivar, Sucre, Morazan,
42:57Ortega, Sandino, Marti. We dream with the giants, Fidel, Chavez, in true union,
43:13union and liberation of our continent, union and liberation, two parallel processes
43:23to achieve liberation of all the Latin American and Caribbean countries and the union
43:31of our countries in common development projects, in brotherhood and cooperation.
43:38There is no other choice.
43:41To be a colony is not an option. To become slaves again is not an option.
43:56To kneel down, to be crushed, blackmailed, to be kowtowed is not an option. That is not an option
44:06for the global south. It is not an option for Latin America and the Caribbean. Therefore,
44:12we need to go hand in hand in the liberation process. Good governments,
44:20Latin American and Caribbean union, it is a common destiny that we cannot postpone.
44:30Therefore, if you allow me, brothers and sisters, to call for respect,
44:42unity of all the political currents of Latin America and the Caribbean,
44:48to be able to move forward and meeting again. We have always insisted on the
44:59respect of the sovereign processes of each one, each country.
45:07You are not the owner of the barometer of democracy and freedom. It is like in Venezuela.
45:17Or any other country. We take a barometer to measure. Oh, you failed. You are not democratic
45:28enough. You are authoritarian. That is the vision of the imperialists. They think they are the
45:35owners of truth, the owners of the world. But us, the rebellious, the children of a courageous
45:50history of 200 years of resistance, we cannot adopt the ideologies and the cultural behavior
46:00of the empire. Those adopting those behaviors, what will they win? Well, the despise, the
46:11rejection of our people. So, it is based on mutual respect to the life of each country.
46:19The peculiarities of social, economic, and political, and social, and cultural models.
46:25We need to go beyond differences. We need to attain union to develop our region.
46:33Union of the more revolutionary sectors, of the more independentist movements,
46:47with the ALBA, the government, and
46:53heads with the rest of the progressive forces of Latin America and the Caribbean, in a wide front
47:02of peace, of collective construction, a wide front
47:08to solve the problems of our countries and region. Union of this major force that ALBA is,
47:21the moral, political, governmental, and social strength of our organization.
47:29I work with all the political and progressive political and social groups,
47:35the entities that exist in the region, in order to create a major front to defend
47:42peace, justice, liberty, equality of the region. 20 years after the creation of this wonderful,
47:55this wonderful girl called ALBA-TCP, I think this is the path.
48:05Ahead of us, we will face more intense situations, but they will be wonderful moments.
48:13But I'm certain that we go down the path of triumph of the ALBA government and
48:21government groups. So I declared open this ALBA Summit alongside the grassroots movement,
48:32and now I start giving the floor to the various heads, the President of the Republic of Cuba,
48:43Miguel Marios Díaz-García Bermúdez. Welcome, Cuba. You have the floor.
48:52Dear President Nicolás Maduro, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,
48:58dear Nicolás, it is always great and exciting to be