Pretoria, December 16, 2024 - Last Friday, December 13, the Cuban and Venezuelan Embassies in South Africa celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas - Peoples' Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), with a heartfelt tribute to Martí, Bolívar, Sandino, as well as to Fidel and Chávez, the architects of this integration mechanism. The event was attended by members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Pretoria, as well as comrades and friends from Cuba and Venezuela.
The heads of mission of both countries laid a wreath in front of the bust of Simón Bolívar, which is located in the Pretoria Art Museum. They were accompanied by Mrs. Andrea Kuhn, Director for South America at the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
Afterwards, the Cuban Chargé d'Affaires a.i., Bryan Betancourt Brito, addressed the audience to explain the origins of ALBA, which go back to the ideas of unity and integration of Bolivar, Marti, Sucre, Sandino and many other heroes who gave their lives for the freedom of our peoples. He also pointed out that ALBA was born as a counter-proposal to ALCA, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which had the invisible hand of imperialism behind it to divide our region and pursue its objectives of turning it into its "backyard".
On December 14, 2004, 20 years ago, the leaders of Cuba and Venezuela, Fidel and Chávez, signed the Joint Declaration and Agreement for the Implementation of ALBA, creating a true alternative for the social, economic, political and cultural integration of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The First Secretary of the Venezuelan Embassy in Pretoria, Omar González, delighted the audience with revolutionary and Latin music, singing and playing the songs "Song for Latin American Unity" by Cuban singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés and "The Awakening of History" by Alí Primera, outstanding Venezuelan singer-songwriter.
(Cuban Embassy in South Africa)