Declaration of the Fifteenth Political Council of ALBA-TPC
Havana, Cuba
April 10, 2017

Translated by Charles McKelvey

We, the Ministers of Foreign Relations of the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Treaty of Commerce of the Peoples (ALBA-TPC), meeting in Havana on the occasion of its Fifteenth Political Council:

Reject the concerted aggressions and manipulations against the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as well as the deceptions and lies that threaten its sovereignty, independence and stability and that of the entire region.  

We condemn the interfering, illegal and pro-imperialist conduct of the Secretary General of OAS as well as his attempts to impede the exercise of the sovereign right of Venezuela to participatory democracy, endorsed by its Bolivarian Constitution, and fully consistent with the Charter of the United Nations and the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

We demand that the OAS, which presumes to support democracy in the region, explain its political selectivity, protecting coups d’état and subversion against progressive and revolutionary governments elected by popular vote, as well as its silence with respect to forced disappearances and assassinations of journalists and political and social leaders.

We demand the end of the complicit silence of OAS before the construction of a wall against Mexico and Our America and the massive deportations of Latin American and Caribbean immigrants that flee from the poverty and lack of safety in their countries, especially the deportations that disrupt families and leave minors without protection.

We repudiate the attempts of the OAS, under false accusations of “threats to peace and collective stability” and with politicized and biased criteria, to resurrect against Venezuela the interventionist practices and discourses that in the past led to aggressions, invasions and military occupations of countries and to cruel dictatorships in the hemisphere.  

We back the Bolivarian Republic, which has restored the rights and dignity of millions of human beings within and outside its borders.  We appreciate its generous solidarity and its efforts in support of the unity and integration of our region.  And we share its ideals of democracy, social justice and support for the oppressed everywhere in the world.

We support the efforts of the government of Venezuela for the development and prosperity of its nation, with the cooperation of all the sectors of the society; as well as its will to conduct an ample, inclusive, constructive and respectful dialogue, without external interference or conditions, in order to search for solutions to the principal problems that affect the lives of its citizens.

We recognize the tireless efforts of the government of President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his personal efforts to promote national dialogue and overcome differences.
  
We appreciate the capacity of resistance of the brave Venezuelan people and the civic-military union, bastions of Bolivarian emancipatory ideals.

We reaffirm that unity and united efforts enable us to better confront challenges of any kind that threaten the region.  We cannot delay in struggling for and defending a Latin American and Caribbean unity in diversity that gives priority to respect, friendship and cooperation, as the Proclamation of Latin American and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace maintains.

We reaffirm our deep conviction that to preserve the independence of Venezuela is to preserve the independence, unity, stability and development of the region.