HAVANA.- The political declaration approved during the second forum of the Pensando Americas (Thinking about the Americas) Cuban civil society demanded on Wednesday in Havana for the US to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba for over five decades.

While reading the document, which was unanimously approved in the forum, the President of the Cuban Association of the United Nations (ACNU), Fermin Quinones Sanchez said that the blockade is a systematic violation of the human rights of the Cuban people.

The genocidal policy is an obstacle for the sustainable development of Cuba, he said.

The text demands for the US to return the illegally occupied US Naval Base in Guantanamo to Cuba and rejected the pretension of the conservative oligarchies of imposing the Monroe Doctrine and restoring its hegemony and neoliberalism that has plagued miseries to Latin American and Caribbean nations.

The Declaration also condemned the presence in Lima in the framework of preparations for the forums of the 8th Summit of the Americas of Cuban mercenaries at the service of foreign powers that lack recognition or legitimacy and attempts to revert the island’s internal order.

In the meeting of the Cuban NGO’s, the participants supported the principles and objectives of the consensus of Our America, formulated by the Forum of Sao Paulo as a practical guide towards the consolidation of a political program of the majority.

The representatives of over 2 thousand organizations of Cuban civil society denounced the imperial pretensions of economic, political or military intervention against any of the nations in the continent, in addition to the interference in the internal affairs of the countries, contrary to the objectives and principles of the UN Charter.

One important aspect in the political declaration is the support of the people and government of Venezuela in addition to the right to self-determination, independence and election of its own social system for the wellbeing of the nation.

The document ended with a call to respect the principles of the Latin American and Caribbean Proclamation as a Peace Zone, endorsed by the Heads of States and Government in the region in Havana. The document took into account the opinions of Cuban civil society during its second forum.

The event was held on Wednesday at the Cuban Workers Confederation (CTC), where the participants said that a true example of unity that Cuba can exhibit at the Summit of the Americas is the current electoral process that was held in two stages and with the support of the majority of the population.

The meeting in Havana coincided with the Hemispheric Dialog held in Lima between the spokespersons of the 28 approved thematic coalition and the representatives of the regional governments where a representation of the Caribbean island exposed experiences and achievements of the Revolution.

Cuban civil society met in its second forum, Pensando Americas (Thinking about the Americas), representing the people on the island where issues of the 8th Summit of the Americas were discussed.