FINAL DECLARATION
WPC CONTINENTAL MEETING FOR THE AMERICAS AND THE CARIBBEAN
Moca, Dominican Republic – September 12-13, 2018
The Continental Meeting of Peace Organizations attached to the World Peace Council (WPC) in the region of the Americas and the Caribbean was held in Moca, Dominican Republic, on September 12 and 13 of 2018, under the presidency of Socorro Gomez, WPC President, and Regional Coordinator Silvio Platero with the participation of representatives of peace organizations from 10 countries of the continent.
This important biennial meeting was attended by peace leaders and fighters from the Dominican Union of Journalists for Peace (UDPP, the Spanish acronym), host organization of the meeting; the Canadian Peace Congress (CPC); the Movement for Peace, Solidarity and Sovereignty of Argentina (MOPASSOL); the Peace Council of Brazil (Cebrapaz); the Cuban Movement for Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples (Movpaz); the Peace Council of the United States (USPC); the Mexican Movement for Peace and Development (MOMPADE) and the Peace Council of Guyana. It was also recognized the presence of delegates from Chile and Puerto Rico.
The meeting approved the Report presented by the Regional Coordinator summarizing the work in promotion of peace in the continent since the last meeting, held in Toronto, Canada, in July 2016. It was appreciated that multiple and diverse actions and initiatives of denounce and social mobilization were carried out by the organizations in these two years of hard fight against the strategies of imperialism and its NATO allies that stubbornly try to impose their geopolitical and economic order in the world and particularly in this continent.
Each one of the peace organizations attending the meeting presented its Report on the work displayed during this period and informed in detail its actions in favor of peace in its own country and the continent as a whole.
The relevance of the WPC Meeting held in Sao Luis, state of Maranhao, Brazil, in November 2016 for the coordination of the struggle for peace at world and continental levels was also highlighted. Said meeting had an ample representation of organizations from several world regions that reiterated their condemnation of imperialism and its NATO allies and the imperialist aggressions in several parts of the planet.
That continental meeting approved with satisfaction the celebration of the Fourth Trilateral Conference of the peace organizations of North America attached to the WPC, which drew a fruitful balance of the actions undertaken since the past meeting, held in Toronto, Canada, in July, 2016.
In this context, the Canadian Congress for Peace, the Peace Council of the United States, and the Mexican Movement for Peace and Development again elaborated and approved the guidelines of their actions and mobilizing initiatives against the war and imperialism in a region of high geo-strategic importance for the destinies of humankind.
The participants in the continental meeting confirmed the complex international situation faced by the world because of the permanence and development of elements opposed to peace and global political stability. In the first place is the growing imperialist aggressiveness, today strengthened by an ultra-conservative Administration in Washington that persists in imposing its world dominion by means of strengthened intervention policies and meddling in other nations’ affairs. This new economic and commercial protectionism threatens with the outburst of a commercial war with China, and with aggravated chauvinism aims at increasing the hegemonic thought among U.S. citizens.
It was agreed that the existent model for economic development has either failed or proven ineffective and what it is needed is a scientific, realistic people centered development strategy based on sustainable economic development, equity, social and economic justice.
They likewise expressed their rejection to the growing and unceasing increase of the military budget of the United States and NATO, which are in search of military superiority, threaten to extend to the cyberspace, and insist on the proliferation and modernization of the nuclear arsenal.
In this context, the reorganization and opening of new foreign military bases and installations in several world regions is an essential element of the imperialist global strategy of dominion and violation of the sovereignty of the countries where they are located.
From that perspective, the permanent threat and imposition of sanctions against Russia and Iran is part of those aggressive policies that continue driving the world to the edge of a new world war.
The meeting showed sympathy and total endorsement to the creation of a Global Campaign against Foreign Military Bases and the WPC declaration of the World Day against Foreign Military Bases every February 23.
The first International Conference against US/NATO Military Bases sponsored by the WPC to be held in Dublin, next November will be a very significant moment for the global peace movement to wage a global struggle against the core foundation of the US/NATO imperialist domination and an important opportunity to mobilize the Global Campaign against these bases.
The participants likewise reiterated the demand to shut down NATO.
They also reiterated their strongest rejection to the imperialist policies in the Middle East aimed at the creation of a new geopolitical area in that territory in accordance with their interests to favor Israel and not propitiate the creation of a Palestine state with East Jerusalem as its capital, as well as to achieve the disarticulation of Syria and the Islamic revolution in Iran.
The leaders and peace fighters present at the meeting also stated their great concern regarding the extension and strengthening of the imperialist and oligarchic siege in Latin America and the Caribbean against the progressive political processes that for more than one decade have brought immeasurable social progress to their peoples and produced the notorious advancement of a favorable process of regional integration in solidarity without the participation of the United States.
The use of open or disguised methods of political, economic and media war, as well as the coarse political manipulation of justice are ever more present in the imperial intentions to disarticulate and revert those processes, including military threat and even the attempt of assassination of national leaders. The strengthening of the South Command capacity with its network of military bases, as well as the reactivation of the Fourth Fleet is part and parcel of this strategy.
The utmost solidarity was conveyed in this regard with the peoples of Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela that are currently facing the aggressive policies of imperialism and the national oligarchies temporarily heading the governments of several of those countries.
Particularly strong was the delegates’ demand for the release from prison of the leader of the Workers’ Party of Brazil, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, and their endorsement of support for his right to freely participate in the national elections next October.
They likewise demanded the cessation of aggressions against the Bolivarian nation and expressed their strongest rejection of the attempt to assassinate of the democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro Moros.
They also expressed their firm solidarity with the people and government of Nicaragua, and defended their right to peace and free determination without any foreign meddling.
The coming to power of a new conservative government in Colombia creates expectations as to the future of the peace agreements signed by the previous government and the FARC-EP at the time, in accordance with the declarations of the new ruler during the election campaign that took him to the presidency of the Republic. In this regard, the meeting issued a call to the new Colombian authorities to respect the achieved agreements, included Ethnic Agreement, and to stop brutal assassinations of community´s social leaders and former guerrilla members, as well as, strongly demanded the freedom of Jesus Santrich and to continue ahead with the negotiating process with the ELN in order to conclude with the establishment a definitive and lasting peace in that nation.
With regard to Cuba, the participants in the meeting reaffirmed the global dedmand for the cessation of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States against the Cuban people for more than 50 years, and once more demanded the return of the illegally occupied territory of Guantánamo to Cuba.
The regional meeting expressed solidarity with the people of Argentina in its legitimate right of sovereignty over the Falkland (Malvinas), South Georgias and South Sandwich Islands, and condemned the increased British military presence in that zone.
The representatives of the peace organizations at the meeting congratulated the Mexican people and showed their satisfaction with the victory obtained by the progressive political force MORENA headed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, elected President of the Aztec nation, which creates genuine hopes of social changes in favor of the large masses of that country.
It was also reiterated the denounce against the permanence of a colonial situation in the Caribbean sub-region and particularly in Puerto Rico, which continues to be submitted to a relation of subjection by the United States. At the same time they expressed their widest solidarity with the struggle of the Puerto Rican people to obtain their independence and sovereignty.
The dismantling of all foreign bases and military installations in the region was likewise demanded.
In its effort to preserve peace and security in the continent, the meeting called for the continuation of the celebration and deepening of the ongoing bilateral and multilateral negotiations about territorial and migratory differences existing in the region.
In the present situation of conservative restoration in Latin America and the Caribbean that imposes great risks for peace and political stability in the area, the participants reiterated the full validity of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as Zone of Peace approved by all the Heads of State and Government of the region at the 2nd Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in January, 2014. The principles of respect for the identity, independence and sovereignty of all nations, agreed upon at that meeting, continue to exist as essential political bastion for the defense and preservation of peace in our continent.
The meeting noted the upcoming celebration in Cuba of two international events of great importance for peace in the region in the present political context of confrontation with the new strategy of imperialist domination: the Second International Seminar “Realities and Challenges of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as Zone of Peace”, to be held in Havana on September 19th- 21st, 2018, and the 6th International Seminar for Peace and the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases, to take place in Guantánamo on May 4-6, 2019.
The participants in this peace meeting in the American continent received with satisfaction the intention expressed by the Mexican Movement for Peace and Solidarity to consider the possibility to host the next Continental Meeting in 2020 in Mexico what it will be conveniently confirmed to WPC, to the WPC Continental Coordinator and to WPC Organization.
At the end of the meeting, the representatives of the peace organizations of the continent expressed their acknowledgment and thankfulness to the Dominican Union of Journalists for Peace for its effective role as host of the meeting and the excellent facilities and courtesies that, together with the authorities and the people of Moca, were granted to the participants.
Moca, Dominican Republic, September 13, 2018