During the closing of the 21st Social Summit of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), held at the Unearte headquarters in Caracas, was read the final declaration of the summit.
The social movements requested to raise to the considerations of the corresponding instances a proposal for a norm that establishes that the organization of the social summits of Mercosur is a responsibility of the organized peoples.
The movements and social organizations of the Mercosur thanked the people and the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela for realizing this summit in Homeland soil.
Read the final statement here
Political Declaration of the 21st MERCOSUR Social Summit
Caracas, November 28 and 29, 2016
Gathered in the city of Caracas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, on November 28 and 29, 2016, the organizations and social movements of the member countries of MERCOSUR, we find ourselves in this land of union, of identity with our Indo-Americanism and of noble, joust and supportive actions as is Venezuela, with a sociopolitical, loving and humanistic process that has allowed us to find ourselves in our dreams, the hope of a good life for our peoples. With these premises and through historical analysis, using categories of critical, dialectic thinking, constructive collective reflection and social commitment to approach the poor, oppressed and excluded, we manifest:
1. First, we commemorate the Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, and express our deep regret at the death of one who represents the dignity of the peoples of the world in rebellion against imperialism, as well as a Historical referent of high socialist revolutionary ethical values; And with Marti we say: “Death is not true when the work of Life has been fulfilled.”
2. Our fraternal and combative support to the full right of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its Government represented by President Nicolás Maduro Moros to exercise the Pro-Tempore Presidency of MERCOSUR and to continue the outstanding work initiated by Presidents Chavez, Kirchner and Lula to build in a collective and participatory manner the true people’s power of MERCOSUR, and as the Venezuelan Foreign Minister said … “Venezuela neither leaves, nor will be ousted out of MERCOSUR, because Venezuela is to be respected.”
3. We denounce the pretensions of some MERCOSUR Governments, of wanting to apply illegal sanctions to Venezuela as a State Party to the bloc, which represents a serious danger to integration and which would leave open a wound of intolerable division between our sisterly nations.
4. In response to these possible sanctions, the South American Popular Movement will mobilize next December 1 to the Venezuelan Embassies in the MERCOSUR countries in solidarity with Venezuela and in repudiation of the actions of the new Triple Alliance of the South.
5. We express our unrestricted support for the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela and support the courage and intelligence of its people and Government to face the brutal economic and media war they are subjected to, and which it resists through the unity of its organizations and social movements In permanent action.
6. We endorse the legitimate claim of Venezuela on the Essequibo and demand the repeal of the United States Executive Order against Venezuela declaring it an unusual and extraordinary threat to its security. In the same way, we express our solidarity with Argentina’s legitimate claim to sovereignty over the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands, Antarctica and South Atlantic islands, as well as Bolivia’s right to access the sea. We also express our solidarity with the Palestinian and Syrian peoples.
7. We strongly reject the parliamentary coup d’ etat against the Constitutional President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, which violates the popular will of the Brazilian people, an experience already known by the peoples of Paraguay and Honduras, which give as a result the new implementation of the neoliberal model In Latin America with the pretension of returning to an open regional integration model led by corporations and economic groups.
8. We demand the cessation of persecution and extermination against popular movements and organizations in Colombia, as well as demanding the release of the political prisoners of Curuguaty, of MERCOSUR parliamentary companion Milagros Sala, and the immediate cessation of the criminalization of the social struggle In Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and all of our Latin America.
9. We ratify the commitment to continue fighting for the democratization of the social and political rights of our peoples, such as education, health, housing, culture and fair and dignified work. We demand the effective development of the right to free, compulsory, quality and secular education in the diverse MERCOSUR States.
Also, as a result of the critical reflection of our working boards, we urge:
10. To encourage community agricultural and livestock production in the region through networks of international solidarity and complementarity, taking into account the programs developed to boost local production and diversification for small and medium-scale self-sufficiency. In our path of food sovereignty we reject Monsanto and its attempt, along with Bayer, for the hegemonic control of the food of our peoples.
11. To establish a process of formation and mobilization that implies the social unity of peoples to achieve a class consciousness, to build a new political culture without privileges, to eradicate inequality, elites, bureaucracy, easy profit and corruption .
12. To promote and consolidate democratization and participatory forms of communication for sovereignty and good living, to reclaim our cultural heritage and avoid the temptation to reproduce hegemonic models that lead to domination and move away from the true sense of liberation they demand the villages. We propose the creation of a digital platform that consolidates all alternative means of social movements.
13. To promote the creation of a center for the production and marketing of preventive methods and contraceptives designed for female sexuality. To summon and group regional groups and propose a methodology that leads us to the construction of a plan that expresses the way in which communities need support and organization to promote a culture of life care.
14. To create a team of permanent coordination with the regional social, peasants, workers and unions movements, communal leaders, people with disabilities, indigenous people, sexual diversity (LGBTI), migrants, african-descendants, students, youth organizations, environmental movements, women, professionals and technicians, elderly adults, to denounce crimes against human rights in member and associate countries of Mercosur.
15. To create a Common Agenda for the work of social organizations and movements of MERCOSUR in order to discuss asymmetries and impediments that make impossible the trade integration, exchange of experiences, knowledge and information, allowing the harmonious use of our raw materials, their industrialization and distribution in a fair manner.
16. We acknowledge integration platforms such as ALBA-TCP, UNASUR, CELAC, Petrocaribe, the Andean Community, which together with MERCOSUR should open their doors to social movements to solve social problems in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the purpose to achieve a good living.
17. To create National Councils of Social Movements in each country with a regional presence to form a coordinating body of continental social movements with the priority task of convening the next Peoples’ Summits and continue with the permanent articulation and international solidarity to continue supporting the humanist peoples and Governments. Venezuela would assume the first call.
18. To recover the articulation of the Unit for Support of Social Participation of the MERCOSUR (UPS) and strongly support the social dimension of integration, through teams of permanent coordination among popular movements.
19. Finally, the social movements represented at this Social Summit thank the people and the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela for their hospitality to have hosted this 21st Social Summit of MERCOSUR and salute the unscathed memory of Commander Chavez.
20. We end with a thought of Commander Fidel Castro Ruz: “We have millions of arguments to defend ourselves; Capitalism is indefensible, imperialism is indefensible; Socialism, whatever mistakes men may make – and there will be no human work in which men make no mistakes – is the noblest, most joust and most worthy thing that can be done. ”
In the city of Caracas, on the twenty-ninth (29th) day of the month of November two thousand and sixteen (2016).
AHORA:
