President Xiomara Castro’s Speech to CELAC
Below is a transcription of President of Honduras Xiomara Castro at the VII Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States on Tuesday, January 24th in Buenos Aires.
Distinguished President of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez. Thank you for the hospitality and especially for the hospitality we have received from the Argentine people.
Distinguished Presidents and Foreign Ministers of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean:
In this historic meeting, I would like to begin my words by acknowledging the enormous solidarity and unconditional support, which we received in those difficult moments during the coup d’état in Honduras, planned by the international right wing against the government of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.
Thank you Latin America, for your support!
After 12 years of resistance, thanks to the support of our people, of our martyrs, of the international community, with a resounding victory we reversed the coup d’état! Thank you Cristina, thank you President Lula, Correa, Leonel, Lugo, Evo, Ortega, Fidel, Raul, Diaz Canel, Nicolas and thanks to Commander Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias.
I attend this forum with great hope, at a critical moment for our region, in the face of the failure of the OAS, today CELAC is more necessary than ever.
The right wing does not rest, cynically, speaks of development and plans coups d’état. Through their media machinery, economic boycott and lawfare political persecution, they maintain a permanent aggression against our peoples.
They are the main ones responsible for the plundering of our natural resources and the accelerated deterioration of the environment and climate change.
From the Rio Bravo to Patagonia, we are fighting a common battle against neoliberalism, which in its wake has left only poverty, hunger and misery.
Only united can we shield ourselves from the ferocious attacks of neo-fascism, which seeks to impose the selfish interests of the great economic powers on our peoples.
Presidents, it is essential that we assume a leading role in multipolarity, and that we denounce the asymmetrical policies of globalization that drag us to suffer the consequences of war such as the one in Ukraine, subjecting our peoples to intolerable levels of injustice, poverty and corruption.
We combat neoliberalism, and denounce the policies of aggression and economic boycott against Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. No brother should risk his life migrating to countries that treat them as second-class citizens. Latin America is the great homeland, which embraces its sons and daughters without distinction of origin.
The power lies in our people, in the people. I myself am the expression of 12 years of resistance in the streets. I am the first woman president in the history of the Honduran people.
I have received a country in ruins, mired in poverty, drug trafficking and violence. The reconstruction of Honduras is underway.
Presidents, it is time for solidarity!
My congratulations on the recent triumph of President Lula da Silva in Brazil and President Gustavo Petro in Colombia. My full support to the Vice President of the Republic of Argentina, comrade Cristina Fernandez, victim of the relentless judicial persecution.
We condemn the coup d’état in Peru and the aggression to which the Peruvian people are subjected, our solidarity with the legitimately elected President, Pedro Castillo, we demand his immediate release.
There is much to do, we must continue tirelessly seeking the path of democratic and socialist unity.
My condolences to the family of the former president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom.
Receive fraternal greetings from the land of the Central American Unionist, General Francisco Morazán.
We are resistance!
Thank you very much.
By Kawsachun News
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