Summit of the Americas: meeting of Heads of State and of Government of America, sponsored by the Organization of the American States (OEA). In this VIIth edition Cuba will be present for the first time, under the motto: "Prosperity with Equity, the challenges of the cooperation in the Americas”.

These meetings have been developed in the United States (Miami) 1994; Chile (Santiago de Chile), 1998; Canada (Quebec), 2001; Argentina (Mar del Plata), 2005; Trinidad and Tobago (Port Spain), 2009 and Colombia (Cartagena of the Indies), 2012.

There were another two summits: one on Sustainable development in 1996, in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia and the Extraordinary one in 2004, in Monterrey, Mexico.

The exclusion of Cuba of the Summits of the Americas has been a polemic topic since 1994. In 2009 in the IVth Summit realized in Trinidad and Tobago the chiefs Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, Lula da Silva and Cristina Fernández denounced the exclusion of the island nation of these meetings.

In the VIth Summit (2012, Cartagena of the Indies) many nations claimed the presence of Cuba. The president of Ecuador Rafael Correa did not participate as protest, he was followed by his counterparts of Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Panama, in itscondition of head office of the VIIth Summit, invited formally the Cuban Government and it confirmed its participation.

Many will remember the images of the Fourth Pioneer Congress, in 2006, and especially those when one of the delegates, with eyes full of tears of happiness and of faith in the nobility of our Revolution, sent a hope message to the whole Cuban people. This child, bearer of an infantile cerebral palsy, that was embraced by Army General Raúl Castro, who also take a writing that the pioneer had done for his Commander Fidel, was Jorge Enrique Jerez Belisario.

The same young man who now, with 22 years, studies Journalism in the University of Camagüey, and who, in spite of his physical limitations, turned into one of the most persistent defenders of the return of the Five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters that fulfilled unjust condemnations in North American jails. There, in Camaguey, Jorgito -as everybody know him- has turned today into emergent journalist and recognized blogger, not only for what he did from his blog JorgitoxCuba for the cause of the Five, but also for spreading the real Cuban reality.

These are someone of the experiences that he will share with his contemporaries of Latin America and the Caribbean, in the IVth Forum of Young people of the Americas, which will take place prior to the VIIth hemispherical Summit, in Panama. Like him, the Cuban delegates show the reality of the Westernmost island of the Caribbean and its social victories for over 50 years. Jorgito shared his impressions on the continent that the young people dream, and on how it is necessary to contribute in this so necessary way.

“I wish the Americas united, where the just integration prevails and the domination mechanisms stay behind. We need a continent where, in spite of our differences, we could talk as equal, without the supremacy of any country. I dream of the Americas in which organisms of the region play their real roll and the disuse the politics that for years have applied.

“There will have to come the day in which the governing documents of the above mentioned organisms are respected and not manipulated to the whim of few ones. I dream with the day in which the Americas do not have illiterate, hungry, young unemployed men, where we have access to the culture, to the health and to the education, a continent where the right to life is respected and peoples coexist in peace.

- What we have to do like young people in this way?

- The youngest along the universal history have been change engines, today we have to keep on battling from any front for achieving an American continent better than the one our parents bequeathed us. We must demand from our governments to take decisions in which the interests of the majority do not turn out to be affected as well as to think and to propose actions to preserve the hemispherical peace.

"To fight for our rights and to fulfill our duties like citizens, to encourage the debate in each of our countries on how achieving the just and equitable integration beyond the discrepancies that could exist. The young people of the hemisphere have to use and demand that the TICs should be used to do good and not like instruments to destabilize governments.

“We still have a lot to do, but if we do not think and act united, then everything will be a defeat. Today young people will be the ones that tomorrow will occupy the different tasks that the society entrusts us, if we think and debate now how to improve the Americas we will save time and tomorrow everything will be easier”.

- Which topics will you debate on the Forum and how much the Cuban delegates can contribute to them?

- We have a lot to debate to build the continent that we need, one of the topics will have to be the peace in the hemisphere, without it there are neither debate nor dialogues to find solutions to common problems. The Cuban delegates also will have the mission of setting on the table topics that the Cuban society is interested in, as it is demanding in this tribune the cessation of the criminal blockade imposed by the United States to Cuba, a politics that affects the normal development of the Cuban youth.

“We will have to exhibit the outcomes of Cuba on the subject of Human Rights, Health, Education, Security, Democracy and other concepts that are manipulated by the big international press. In all of them the young people that inhabit the westernmost island of the Caribbean will be able to show personal experiences that will help to their comprehension.

“Particularly I will put on the table the topic of the inclusion of the disabled persons to achieve a real participation in the social life, this inclusion that goes beyond the proper word and creates the conditions for the full integration in the society. In these topics the Cuban have much to show, that does not exclude that we could hear the experiences of other models to enrich ours taking the positive elements. To Panama we will show the real Cuba”.

- What do you expect of the VIIth Summit of the Americas?

- We hope that this should be the summit of the dialogue, where in spite of our differences we could construct a better future for the Americans. We will live in Panama through historical moments, which I hope are not steamed up by the dominance of few ones, those who just look to be a part of a show and do not care for the criterion of the majority. The Cuban young people hope to contribute with our experiences to construct the lines of the continent that we need.

“The event will be historical, for the first time there will not be unjust exclusions and the 35 nations will look for the common good. We must be grateful to life to be protagonists of a moment for which we had to wait several years. Our principal intention will be to go to the VIIth Summit of the Americas to show a country that is not perfect but it is among the fairest of the world, we hope to be able to fulfill this mission”.

Translated by BA in English Language, Manuel Barrera Téllez

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