Havana, February 1, 2025 - With a call to continue defending the just causes of the peoples and the need to build a new world order, the VI International Conference for the Balance of the World closed today at the Palace of Conventions in Havana, where a South African delegation also participated.
"We are grateful to be able to participate in an event convened by a 172-year-old man who is already an eternal man: José Martí", said the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in his closing speech. "Thank you for your personal support for Cuba", he told the more than 1,000 people present.
The President thanked them for their solidarity with the people of the largest of the Antilles, who "for 66 years have paid the very high price of being priceless".
"Martí, defined by Lezama Lima as the mystery that accompanies us, is with citizens who firmly believe in the balance of the world. For Cubans, the Apostle guides us constantly, and his presence is felt from a bust in a school or a workplace to the dazzling effect his verses have on those of us who read them", he said.
Díaz-Canel referred to the Palestinian holocaust at the hands of Israel, the persecution of thousands of migrants in the United States and condemned the sending of deportees to the illegal Guantánamo naval base on Cuban soil. "We will not remain silent in the face of shame, nor will we lose hope for the betterment of humanity", he said.
"The aggressive behaviour of the United States threatens international peace. This reality cannot be ignored. The dominant political forces embrace fascist ideas that humanity has been trying to eliminate since the last century. These currents are the fruit of capitalism", he stated.
The President said that the international order established after the end of the Second World War is the heir of colonialism, which seeks to enrich itself at the expense of the underdevelopment of the colonised. It is no longer a question of direct territorial occupation, but of control over markets, natural resources, technology and information.
According to the President, the elites are not only seeking to maximise their profits, but also to consolidate their hegemony. This is the essence of an international order in which the gap between the richest and the poorest is widening rather than narrowing.
Nevertheless, he expressed his conviction that a better world is possible, where all nations contribute and are represented on an equal footing. "An order in which the right of each country to choose a system without interference is respected. This requires unity, the sowing of ideas and the sowing of consciences", he said.
At the closing ceremony, the representatives of the participating forums read out the statements made by each group and agreed to meet again in January 2027.
(Cubadebate - Cuban Embassy in South Africa)