The Global South, with the support of Guterres, raises the voltage ahead of the United Nations General Assembly

The G-77+China Summit, which closed this Saturday in Havana, was a kind of dress rehearsal for what is intended to be a coordinated action by several countries at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly next week.. All, in the presence and in many aspects the support of the organization's secretary general, the Portuguese Antonio Guterres.

“At this moment the voice of the Global South is essential for the necessary profound reforms to be made in the international financial architecture. We have institutions that were created after World War II. “Many of the countries that are here did not exist at that time and did not have a voice,” Guterres said in an interview with Prensa Latina, the official news agency of the Cuban regime.

The Summit led by the Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, had as its motto Science, technology and innovation at the service of development, something that Guterres, former head of the Portuguese Government, considers extremely important.

“If we look at the digital divide, in northern countries everyone has access to the Internet, while in southern countries there are many people who do not have it.. In the case of vaccines (against Covid), technological innovation was in the Great North and the vaccines were not distributed equally throughout the world. When we look at Artificial Intelligence, investment is concentrated in a small group of countries, especially those in the north, and the very important benefits that can come from science and technology in those areas can dramatically increase inequalities,” added the secretary. General of the UN.

Anti-imperialist rhetoric abounded at the Summit, in a revival of the years of the Non-Aligned Movement, with the paradox of a country with imperial ambitions, China, as a special guest. The representative of Burkina Faso, for example, ended his speech with “Homeland or Death, we will win!”

Even so, the G-77 is a dialogue and cooperation mechanism endorsed by the UN, at the same level as the G-7 or the G-20.. It brings together 134 developing and underdeveloped countries from Latin America, Africa and Asia, although the 'Global South' label, very much in vogue today, is the one that prevails.. And, with the presence of China, it brings together three quarters of the world's population.

On the first day of the Summit, Guterres held a meeting with the leader of the Venezuelan regime, Nicolás Maduro, who asked the Portuguese for support to “denounce the financial persecution, pressures and imposition of unilateral coercive measures against the Bolivarian Republic,” according to Prensa. Latina.

“Enough of persecution against the people of the world who want their independence and build their own models!” emphasized Maduro, who asked the G-77 and China for more strength in their positions: “Much more must be done.”

Maduro made a state visit to China this week and signed with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, a “strategic partnership” agreement between both countries, which raises the level of bilateral relations.. “China will continue to support Venezuela in its efforts to defend its sovereignty,” highlighted the Chinese head of state.

Telesur, the Pan-American news channel based in Caracas, defined China as “the capital of the BRICS, a place where the new multipolar world is being created.”

In Havana, the rejection of the United States “blockade” on Cuba was unanimous, and united three leaders of large economies in Latin America, the Brazilian Lula da Silva, the Argentine Alberto Fernández and the Colombian Gustavo Petro.

“Until today, Cuba is the victim of an illegal economic blockade,” criticized Lula, who emphasized that his country “is against any coercive measure of a unilateral nature” and rejected that Cuba remains on the “list of States sponsoring terrorism.”. That is why climate finance must be guaranteed to all developing countries according to their needs and priorities,” he added.

Lula recalled the cooperation agreement for the peaceful use of nuclear energy that Argentina and Brazil signed in the 1980s, which involved deactivating a problematic hypothesis in the South Atlantic, as well as space cooperation with China.. Fernández, on Friday, had emphasized Argentina's technological capacity: “I come from a country that puts satellites in space and manufactures nuclear reactors.”

Lula agrees with the tenant of the Casa Rosada: “Southern countries have full conditions to occupy the vanguard of science, technology and innovation”. This is what Guterres also says, and it is what will be heard next week in New York. “I am counting on this group, which has long been a champion of multilateralism, to step forward, use its power and fight to defend a system based on equality,” said the UN secretary general.