A man at the Peoples Summit of the Americas, April 14.

Peoples Summit of the Americas Condemns Imposition of U.S. Agenda (El Espectador, Colombia)

Progress toward integration should tend toward overcoming the extractive and agro-export-based model of development, which is creating enormous social, environmental and political conflict on this continent. The rights of investors cannot be held as more significant than those of peoples and nature.

Translated By Florizul Acosta-Perez

April 15, 2012

Colombia - El Espectador - Original Article (Spanish)

Colombia President Santos walks on to a stage with President Obama, at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, April 14. AL-JAZEERA NEWS VIDEO: Is it time to end America's 'war on drugs'?, April 17, 00:25:37

With a demonstration involving about 8,000 people, the Fifth Peoples Summit: The True Voice of the Americas, met for three days in Cartagena de Indias.

The representatives of social movements and the continents political sectors debated the hemispheres socioeconomic and political reality and decided to solidify their joint social struggle by asserting their rights and creating real hemispheric integration sustained by unity.

The Final Declaration issued by the 2012 Peoples Summit criticizes the fact that the U.S. insists on imposing its own global agenda on the hemisphere, and that it depicts itself as a nation that defends human rights even while it played the lead role in the coup in Honduras against constitutional President Manuel Zelaya; continues to maintain an iniquitous economic and trade embargo against Cuba; is betting on the destabilization of Haiti; and despite its propaganda, has yet to dismantle its concentration camp at Guantanamo.

This statement also critics President Obama, who failed to keep the promise he made at the previous Summit of the Americas to build a new relationship with Latin America, while persisting in his opposition to having Argentina exercise its legitimate territorial sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands.

The Peoples Summit also considers the free trade agreement promoted by the Washington government an obstacle to regional integration.

The summit also brought attention to the irreversible social and environmental damage caused by several Canadian multinational corporations that pursue exploratory mega-mining, violating the rights of peoples and their territories.

Protesters dressed as a Guantanamo detainees hold a sign that

says, Close Guantanamo! at the Peoples Summit which was

held alongside the OAS Summit of the Americas, in Cartegena,

Colombia, April 14.

Another aspect of the continental summit of social movements was to address the land grab that threatens hemispheric food security and ends up violating their sovereignty.

In terms of progress, the final declaration of the Peoples Summit highlighted the ongoing process of integration, such as the consolidation of organizations like the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America [ALBA], the Union of South American Nations [UNASUR] and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States [CELAC], which foster international relations based on solidarity and not free trade.

Posted by Worldmeets.US

This Peoples Summit also suggested that this progress toward integration should tend toward overcoming the extractive and agro-export based model of development, which is creating enormous social, environmental and political conflict on this continent.

The declaration also appeals to Latin American social movements and progressive political sectors to contest the free trade model and articulate the struggle to overthrow a system that produces such great social injustice.

At the same time, the Peoples Summit demands the removal of North American military bases in the region, the closure of the School of the Americas and the suspension of the Inter-American Defense Board.

SEE ALSO ON THIS:

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Globe & Mail, Canada: Canada Splits with Latin America on Cuba and Drug War

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La Jornada, Mexico: U.S. Consulate Deaths are No More Tragic than Our Own

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El Universal, Mexico: Hypocrite on Drugs, Obama Must 'Clean Own House'

El Heraldo, Honduras: Drug Busts in U.S. Belie the True Danger

La Jornada, Mexico: Calderon's Bush-Style Militarization of Mexican Politics

Excelsior, Mexico: Mexico Needs 'Deeds, Not Words' From Obama White House

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Excelsior, Mexico: As Blood Flows, U.S. Gets Serious About the Battle for Mexico

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The summit also considers the indiscriminate promotion of foreign investment and declares, The rights of investors cannot be held as more significant than those of peoples and nature. In that sense, it condemns the interests of the multinational corporations on the continent which are the central actors of the extractive model of natural resources.

Finally, with the emergence of the Bank of the South and the Latin American Reserve Fund, it welcomes the new regional financial architecture, and it demands that Cubas right to be a member of the multilateral system be restored, starting with an end to the trade embargo imposed by the United States more than half a century ago, which the declaration says constitutes a clear violation of the human rights and self-determination of peoples.

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