By Eliane Portillo

Latin America will become the great new economic, political and social bloc of the century, stated Rodrigo Cabezas, president of the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) Venezuela Chapter.

That is the mission that we, Latin Americans, have in this historic time we are living, said Cabezas, who gave a lecture titled The Challenge of Integration: CELAC and UNASUR. In his speech, which took place at the headquarters of General Ibero- American Secretariat, the former Venezuelan minister of Finance and Economy highlighted the transcendental leap taken by the region over the past 12 years.

We stopped being an indebted continent, which disallowed growth and generated huge economic and political dependence to the industrialized countries, emphasized the top Venezuelan representative in PARLATINO.

Latin America today is significantly different from the one in the 1980s and 1990s, and not seeing this means not wanting to adjust to the deep changes that are taking place in our area, he remarked.

We no longer carry the weight of an exorbitant external debt on our shoulders, our levels of debt are moderate and easy to handle, and we have freed resources for the national economy and not for the financial world, he stressed.

Cabezas noted the change that occurred in the structure of foreign trade, with diversification of trade with Asia and Europe and without overwhelming hegemonies.

In his opinion, this trend has a higher value added in the background, as we do not want to continue being suppliers of raw materials only.

CELAC will be the great political space to promote Latin American integration, based on three pillars: cooperation, complementariness and solidarity, he said