President Chavez and Cuban Foreign Minister Discuss Bilateral Issues

Caracas, Apr 28. -Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez received Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez in the Palacio de Miraflores, where they discussed bilateral and regional integration issues, announced the Venezuelan government.

A note by the Presidential Press, posted on the website of the Ministry of Communication and Information, noted that the meeting took place on Tuesday night.

Earlier, both leaders were at a meeting of foreign ministers and senior officials from the region in preparation for the foundation in July of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States(CELAC).

Cuba and Venezuela are promoting dozens of conventions focused on socioeconomic development, based on the principles of solidarity and complementarity that characterize the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), founded in December 2004.

At the regional level, they agreed on the defense of integration, which their foreign ministers ratified, speaking at the forum at Meliá Caracas attended by delegations from 30 countries.

For Rodriguez the foundation of CELAC represents a historic and transcendental event for Latin American and Caribbean nations.

For his part, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro considered the community an organization to match the times.

The CELAC embodies the future of peace, sovereignty and regional integration, while mechanisms such as the Organization of American States represent past coups and interference, he said. (Prensa Latina)