We should feel ashamed, he said, because an enormous debt of justice in terms of human rights has not yet been paid to those who centuries ago were torn from their lands by blood and fire by the colonizers.

The head of Parlatino stressed that he comes from an island, Cuba, where there was an early struggle to abolish slavery and inequality; and today it can show achievements in terms of gender equality with more than 55 percent of female legislators in its National Assembly and more than 40 percent of Afro-descendant deputies, but it is not enough.

Cuba is also proud today, he said, that a humble, black athlete from the town of Herradura, Pinar del Río, Mijain López, who yesterday entered the history of Olympic Games, by obtaining his fifth consecutive gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling.

González quoted the National Hero of the largest of the Antilles, José Martí, when he stated that “Man is more than white, more than mulatto, more than black…”, a fragment of the article “My race”, published by the hero in 1893 in the newspaper Patria, to advance the purpose that more than a commission of Afro-descendants, indigenous people and ethnic groups, the Parlatino should focus on this issue in an integral manner in all its work.

In the session, the member of the Permanent Forum of Afro-descendants of the United Nations and former vice president of Costa Rica, Epsy Campbell, also spoke, urging to strengthen this type of political space in defense of democracy and for the benefit of the more than 200 million people in the world who represent this sector.

The Parlatino Conference, under the motto “Building an agenda for the realization of the aspirations of Afro-descendants and a proposal for the establishment of the “Sixth Region of Africa” will discuss key issues of future legislation to position this community in the region and combat racism and exclusion, among other scourges.

This forum takes place weeks before the World Day of Afro-descendants, which is commemorated every August 31, and reflects Parlatino’s renewed commitment 60 years after its creation to the rights and equality of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.

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