The Cuban president’s aircraft landed on ramp four of the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, La Guaira state, where he was welcome by the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil, the Cuban ambassador here, Dagoberto Rodríguez, and other authorities.
Díaz-Canel is the first of the dignitaries to arrive in the Bolivarian Republic to attend the ALBA-TCP summit meeting, which will commemorate Saturday the 20th anniversary of the constitution of the Latin American and Caribbean integration bloc, created by commanders Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro.
Recalling the date on Friday, Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, said “Fidel and Chávez, Chávez and Fidel, Cuba Venezuela, Venezuela Cuba, united in all circumstances,” and went on to describe as glorious the times lived since “we decided to unite our destinies and go through the construction of the 21st century together”.
The Bolivarian Alliance was born out of agreements reached between Chávez and Fidel in Havana, Cuba, on December 14, 2004, and is made up of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Grenada and Saint Lucia.
Syria, Haiti and Suriname are special guests to the Alliance, which is based on principles of economic complementarity, cooperation and the defense of Latin American and Caribbean identity and culture, among others.
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