Tegucigalpa, June 28. — The second social forum of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) continues this Friday in this city after a first day in which the debates focused on the importance of unity and integration, Prensa reported Latina.
The Celac Social was inaugurated yesterday Thursday in an event that brings together more than 300 international delegates in this capital who, in addition, participate in the scheduled activities of the XXVII meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum.
During the first day of work, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Honduras and coordinator of the pro tempore presidency of Celac, Gerardo Torres, presented the Tegucigalpa Declaration, the official document of the conclave.
The text expressed its support for Honduran President Xiomara Castro and extended its revolutionary support to the Liberty and Restoration Party (Libre) and its main coordinator, Manuel Zelaya, whom it described as the vanguard of the Honduran people.
The document also pays tribute to the peaceful struggle of the people against the 2009 coup, until defeating the drug dictatorship that oppressed the Central American country for 12 years and seven months.
He added that this coup was condemned internationally and represented not only a crime against humanity, but also the largest act of corruption in the country’s history, which “led to a narco-dictatorship that plundered the political coffers and increased poverty, marginalization and social inequality.”
“Xiomara Castro’s government launched a comprehensive program of social and political reforms to restore the Honduran State, restore its power, reactivate the economy, promote education and guarantee life, liberty and peace,” he emphasized.
He recognized the bravery of the Hondurans and affirmed that the people withstood all the tests with strength, courage, honesty, and never abandoned the ideal of protecting the dignity of their homeland “against the economic invaders and colonialists who with their power, destroyed national unity through their crimes.”
“Democratic socialism is the political, economic and social model necessary to protect the human species and the planet against the terrible consequences of neoliberal sanctions and global capitalism, against which we fight by strengthening our independence and sovereignty,” he emphasized.
He also condemned the recent failed coup attempt by General Juan José Zúñiga against Bolivian President Luis Arce.
On the other hand, the letter from Celac Social expressed its solidarity with the Palestinian people and strongly condemned the genocide in the Gaza Strip caused by the Israeli military attack, which killed thousands of civilians, mostly children.
In this sense, the declaration condemned all forms of terrorism and called on the United Nations to implement Security Council resolutions to achieve a definitive ceasefire and end the suffering of thousands of people.
He referred to and condemned the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba for more than six decades, which the majority of the member states of the multilateral organization reject every year at the United Nations.
He repudiated the “unjust sanctions against the people of Nicaragua and Venezuela, victims of the imperial voracity of US geopolitical plans,” calling the actions criminal, senseless and disturbing.
The CELAC Social will take place until next Saturday in the framework of the commemoration of the 15 years of the coup d’état against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and has among the agenda items the holding of seminars on women and youth, among others.
