He said that ALBA must be the great unifying factor. “It is a people’s alliance”, so any social movements of the continent and beyond can join, any local government can join, “we must be the force being peoples, which is the driving force of any process of humanity”.
He also stressed that ALBA-TCP has the “responsibility of engaging the rest of the integration mechanisms to build the definitive union, to gradually develop the CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) called for by Simón Bolívar through the Congress of Panama in 1826, but in these times we must (…) build the pole of our America within the framework of a multipolar world”.
Regarding the member countries under sanctions by imperialism, the Executive Secretary stated that Venezuela is emerging with 100% of its own effort. “Cuba with its historical lesson and Nicaragua, without a doubt, will succeed. Our continent has always been under dispute since the Europeans set foot here. This very century must be the century of the victory of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples, the century of Our America, for which ALBA-TCP is essential and that is why empires are attacking it.
BRICS and Southern Command
When asked about Venezuela’s intention to become a regular member of BRICS, Arreaza said that the platform of emerging countries represents the positive pole of alliances facing the G7, the G20. “It represents a different alternative. I believe that Venezuela has a very high probability of joining BRICS soon and acting as a bridge, at first, and then as a window for other ALBA countries, with enough economic capacity and demographic weight, to join BRICS and its Bank”.
Likewise, the official was asked about his opinion on the intention expressed by the Head of the U.S. Southern Command, Laura Richardson, to control the natural resources of the region and he replied that “imperialism is very arrogant. This lady has followed the same strategy of trying to subjugate by force, in this case, countries that sovereignly decide their own path and, on top of that, to say it with such impudence. We have to protect those natural resources, oil, gas, lithium, minerals”.
The Executive Secretary added that the recent protest in Cuba due to power service failures caused by the U.S. blockade was magnified in the media, since “they tried to create the idea that a people had rebelled and that was not the case. The virtual scenario of the media must be analyzed very critically, because they are usually lying to us through these channels”.
He also referred to the recent communiqué of the ALBA-TCP countries in rejection of new sanctions against Nicaragua, affirming that Sandinismo has the strength and the right to develop its internal process as they decide, “but this is not accepted in this hyper-imperialism”.
Venezuelan elections
The Venezuelan diplomat talked about the presidential elections in his country, scheduled for July 28 and that just concluded the process of registration of candidates.
“We are in the first step of an electoral campaign that people have to assess very well, because we come from the greatest aggression of our republican history, we are still suffering it, the 930 sanctions are intact”.
He remarked that President Nicolás Maduro and his supporters have always been faithful to the constitutional calendar of elections and, once again, people have the chance to choose.
