The Boycott of ALBA

The Boycott of ALBA / Juan Juan Almeida
Posted on October 23, 2013

As part of the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the discovery
of the South Sea (Pacific Ocean) by Spanish explorer and conquistador
Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the leaders of 22 Latin America countries plus
Spain, Portugal and Andorra gathered in Panama October 18-19.

They held, there, the XXIII Iberoamerican Summit, for this occasion,
taking as the central theme "The political, economic, social and
cultural role of the Iberoamerican Community in a new global context,"
with a primary interest in the desire to re-evaluate this inclusive
meeting and, as a marvelous irony, a substantial number of absences.

His Majesty King Juan Carlos did not attend, he is recovering from a
recent hip operation. However, in the ultimate gesture of respect and
elegance, worthy of royal protocol, he addressed the audience by a video
message that was viewed in the opening session.

Nor did the President of Argentina, the lady Cristina Fernández de
Kirchner come to the great event , she was also recovering from surgery
a few days earlier to remove a hematoma from her skull, and now must
keep what he doctors call "strict bedrest."

What is peculiar is that, in a defiant and obviously premeditated act to
reduce the reputation of and tarnish the event, also absent were the
illustrious leaders of the Bolivarian axis. A reaction expected and
typical from unenlightened people.

It is not a blessed coincidence that in the digital version of the
Sunday edition of Gramna they published, and I quote, " It is
symptomatic, for example, that from the South American region only two
leaders attended, Colombia's Juan Manuel Santos and from Paragua,
Horacio Cartes , while no one attended from the Bolivarian Alliance for
the Peoples of Our America (ALBA)."

It is rational to expect this manner of behavior from the members of
ALBA. Boycotting the event is nothing more than a show of force to
promote the culture of fragmentation and also to show their disagreement
as a bloc with the fact that Costa Rica and Panama are about to enter
the newly proposed Latin American alliance in which Peru, Chile,
Colombia and Mexico merge their economies and define joint actions to
develop Asia-Pacific ties based solely on respect for bilateral trade.

For this, and other reasons, none of the leaders of the Bolivarian gang
attended the meeting, rather, offering false internal commitments, they
sent their representatives.

But on the case of Cuba, General Raul Castro, knowing ahead of time that
the first document to be signed refers to counteracting, jointly, the
application of unilateral measures that violate the principles of
international rights and that could affect regional peace and
international security, decided to send a special emissary in his place
(the CEO of "who knows") who, judging by his aspect, behavior and dress,
it's easy to come to the conclusion that he's the director of
"Whatchamacallit," a grand prize winner for business excellence, in the
vanguard producing breaded croquettes made out of God-knows-what, or the
administrator of those FAR (Revolutionary Armed Forces) homemade schemes
to exceed their planned sales of crates of festering fruits, rotted
roots and wilted vegetables.

Who could expect more, after the resounding success of the Chong Chon
Gang carrier ship, the sweetened armaments and the diabetic crew.

22 October 2013

Source: "The Boycott of ALBA / Juan Juan Almeida | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/the-boycott-of-alba-juan-juan-almeida/