CÚPULA DA AMÉRICA LATINA E DO CARIBE SOBRE ... - Funag

INTERVENÇÕES DO PRESIDENTE LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA
to revive relations with countries that have mostly independent economies.
How can the largest economy on earth, with a US$ 13 trillion GDP, cut US$
50 million in purchases from Bolivia? I hope Obama makes a decision to
reestablish relations with Cuba. There is not political, sociological explanation,
no possible analysis that a psychologist or anyone could understand for the
continuing blockade of Cuba. Might it be revenge?
I believe, my fellow Presidents, that events are moving very quickly. I
sometimes hear rhetoric that seems headed nowhere, but, Chávez, one day I
went for a walk on that Wall in China, and I was thinking that as they built that
Wall it must have seemed interminable, that every time they set another stone
in place they must have peered ahead only to see how much further they had
to go. But at the same time they must have looked back to gaze on what they
had built, and I believe we, in these few years, have built a lot, quite a lot.
To be sure, we traversed the centuries without building much, without talking.
And the centuries passed! It has been two hundred since we secured our
independence, and this is our first meeting. In other words, our continent was
blind and deaf. So what I want to say to you is that this meeting will most certainly
generate lasting effects. I leave here convince that we will take a major step when
we meet in Mexico and an even larger one when we convene in Venezuela. I
believe we will take these steps because progress takes time, but things have to
be done carefully, even if sometimes we complain, and I’m the first to complain
that things between us take time, but it is important that we all understand
Although I received 62% of the votes cast for president, my party has
only 80 of 513 deputies, and 13 of 81 senators. Building majority in
congressional votes is more difficult than winning elections. Each issue is a
torturous process, but we do this because it is a democratic exercise in a
country that for 23 years denied the opportunity to savor democracy, subjected
to an authoritarian regime which all you know about. To conclude, my fellow
colleagues, I would like to thank you for your participation from the bottom
of my heart. When we leave, we will address the media, and, without question,
they will want to know what the meeting accomplished, and I have only one
reply, given everything I know of meetings in which I have taken part, I can
only say it has been worth the effort. If we had achieved nothing else, the
mere readmission of Cuba into the Rio Group is accomplishment enough,
because those who led our countries before us lacked the courage to admit
Cuba to the Rio Group. Therefore, I want to offer my sincere thanks to you,
the Presidents, Ministers, advisers, and I let me close by inviting you to lunch.
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