Santa Elena de Uairen, August 26th 2014. (venezuelanalysis.com) - Last Thursday, the second annual meeting of the cultural ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) was held in Caracas. 33 member states met to discuss their objective of fomenting cultural activity as a medium for social development.
Elizabeth Fonseca, cultural minister of Costa Rica and pro tempore president of the Celac, opened the discussion by insisting that governments no longer think of culture as a “decoration”, when it has proven itself to be an important tool for “social inclusion.”
“We will create a [new] vision for the role that culture can play in our countries,” she said, also indicating that the preservation of material and immaterial cultural patrimony is an essential part of democratic sovereignty.
Fidel Barbito, Venezuela’s cultural minister, affirmed that the Latin American region has become a fundamental block of alternative solutions for advancing different forms of producing common wellbeing.
“Our beloved Hugo Chavez told us that the Celac made of us a single nation, as Simon Bolivar had dreamed of… we can eradicate poverty together through the communal culture of enriched lives.”
The first of these meetings took place in March of last year in Paramaribo, Surinam.
