“We can rightly say that it was the cradle of South African liberation; but one day it will also be considered the cradle of African dignity. And it’s not that Africa has not fought, or that Africa has not carried out thousands and tens of thousands of heroic deeds but this was the most painful stronghold of a system of slavery and injustice that has existed for thousands of years, and particularly in the of Africa, Latin America and the Third World, it prevailed hundreds of years.”
“A year ago already, as expression of our sovereign political will, we decided to constitute the Association of Caribbean States. We have before us a great challenge. It is a matter of forging a mutual destiny for nations that are remarkably dissimilar in terms of size, population and development […] The region understands, ultimately, that the future path for our peoples lies in unity.”