We, the participants of the Fourth International Seminar on Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, representatives of popular and anticolonialist organizations from Barbados, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Palestine, Honduras, Grenada, Martinique, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, gathered in the city of Kingstown on the 23rdand  24th of November 2012, submitted the following Declaration:

1.- Based on the 1514 (XV) Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations on colonialism  which declares the submission of nations to foreign dependency, domination and exploitation are contrary to human rights and the United Nations Charter,  and Resolution 65/119 which declares the  period 2011-2020 as the “Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism”, we express our firm opposition to this aberrant practice of the governments, political and military elites of the colonial States against the nations submitted to the colonial regimes, which are fed and sustained by transnational capitalist countries.

2.- We gathered at a time when the  general crisis of Capitalism and its perverse effects on the entire world economy deepens, in particular on the economies of the countries with low and medium development, including those upon which a colonial and neocolonial regime have been imposed and, on the other hand, the neoliberal globalization which is directly responsible for the current crisis and was triumphant and domineering in the entire planet, is facing and being defeated in Our America, which opens new perspectives to achieve significant victories in the total and absolute eradication of the outrageous colonial system in our region and the world.

3.- We consider that the only political independence of the States proves to be insufficient for the full exercise of sovereignty and rights of the nations, because the colonial States and Imperialism maintain and reinforce the neocolonial control over the fundamental decisions of governments with small and medium-sized sovereign States, by means of which the same economic, financial, cultural and military subjection practice is applied and which characterizes the colonial regimes, but with  no need for a formal judicial and political colonial situation nor a military presence by such powers in the territory of other States. Hence the reason why we call on the progressive nations and governments of the planet, to face this new form of colonial domination which deprives the nations of their right to sovereignty and their right to decide their own destiny and encourages the dominant interference of the monopolistic financial and economic powers in the life of the nations.

4. - We find it necessary to strengthen the ties of the Caribbean nations in favour of integration in order to create the most effective political mechanism in the fight against colonialism and the reaffirmation of sovereignty of these brotherly nations. In this respect, we embrace agreements like the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) and the PetroCaribe Pact, which have been converted into integration spaces with norms that respect and strengthen the sovereignty of nations and which are contrary to those imposed by the colonial powers.

5.- The fight against colonialism must be constant and relentless, therefore we propose the creation of a coordinating body for popular and anti-colonial organizations which aims at promoting within the governments and organizations of the United Nations concerned with the issue of colonialism in order to achieve the objectives stipulated in the 65/119 Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations which declares the  period 2011-2020 as the “Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism”, in order to promote  the participation of popular organizations in this historic task that cannot be of the governments only but  fundamentally of the peoples.

6.- We propose that the institutions and governments of the Caribbean region take on the fight for the total and absolute eradication of colonialism, the creation of a University in the Eastern Caribbean for young people of the region with the objective of contributing to the production and diffusion of knowledge about the reality of our peoples together with the affirmation and the defense of their cultural identity and  professionalism  at the service of the autonomous and sustainable development and the formation of new generations with sovereignty and national identity awareness.

7. - We emphasize that in Our America, this great continent of dreams and libertarian fights, that extends from the south of the Bravo river to Patagonia and the entire area of the Caribbean Sea,  the ignominious colonial presence of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Wales persists in the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and their surrounding maritime areas, snatched the exercise of sovereignty from the sister Republic of Argentina, as well as the colonial situation of Puerto Rico, crudely hidden under the mask of “ Free Associated State”.

8.- Equally, geographically far but very close to our hearts, we express our categorical condemnation of the criminal aggression of the Israeli Government against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip and we declare our solidarity with its just cause for the reclamation of its territory and the creation of its own independent State. In the same way, we declare our brotherly support to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in its fight against the colonial occupation of its territory by the Kingdom of Morocco and for its right to the exercise of national sovereignty.

9.- We support the right of the people of Martinique in its fight against the colonial incorporation of its territory to the Republic of France and in the exercise of its right to independence and full sovereignty, with no interference whatsoever from the occupying power.

10.- We call on the governments and non-governmental organizations in the countries formerly subjected to the colonial regime and those that are currently subjected to this system of domination to apply measures to guarantee the cultural autonomy of all the nations that have suffered or continue to suffer from the cultural aggression of the colonial domination.

11.- We support the objectives stipulated in the United Nations Resolution which declares the International Decade  of the Afro-Descendants and we ask the member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA)  to finally create the Afro-Descendant Fund. In the same way, we exhort the government of the Republic of Chile, in the exercise of the pro-Tempore presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), to promote the setting of a Forum and the Afro-Descendant Parliament of this organization of Our America.

12.- We express our solidarity with and support for the five Cuban anti-terrorists who are unjustly and illegally imprisoned in the United States of America and we call on all the governments, social progressive movements and groups of Our America and of the planet to renew our efforts  to gain the freedom of these heroes of Our America.

13.- We, the participants of the Fourth International Seminar on Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, convoked to pay tribute to the famous Grenadian anti-colonial and anti- imperialist fighter  Maurice Bishop, call on the anti-colonial people and governments of Latin America and the Caribbean to commemorate next year 2013, the 30th anniversary of his sacrifice for the Sovereignty, Independence, Democracy, Social Justice and Freedom of Grenada and other Caribbean nations.

14.- The Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as host and the participants of this International Seminar on Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America cherish the hospitality of the Vincentian people and thank the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for its solidarity, collaboration and support towards the realization of the event in this brotherly country of Our America.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines, November 24th, 2012.

Translated from Spanish to English by Miché Paul
Linguist, Translator and Interpreter
Trince Services, St. Vincent and the Grenadines