SELA's 27 Member States voice their support
Venezuela ratifies its support and is working
to provide new headquarters
Caracas, 10th February. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Miguel Angel Burelli Rivas, took the opportunity today to reiterate the government's commitment to "provide a prompt and effective solution to meet the needs of the Latin American Economic System", whose installations were "completely destroyed" by the fire that broke out at its headquarters on the 5th and 6th of February.
Minister Burelli Rivas made this statement on the occasion of the meeting held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and which counted on the presence of the authorities of this international organization and the Ambassadors of the 27 SELA Member States, who also expressed their full support to this institution.
Further, Burelli Rivas expressed the "will of the Government of Venezuela, ratified by the President of the Republic, Rafael Caldera, who took a special interest in finding new headquarters for the SELA Permanent Secretariat. In this respect, Burelli Rivas stressed that conversations were already being held with the Fund for the Bank Deposits and Guarantees (FOGADE) for the relocation of SELA's offices.
The meeting focused on evaluating the situation currently faced by SELA in order to determine what measures were necessary to reestablish working conditions for SELA headquarters. The Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized the importance of "contributing in a timely manner and in every way possible to ensure the continuity of the organization's work without incurring in any delays."
The Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Carlos Moneta, submitted a preliminary report on the events that took place the morning of 5 February, which partially destroyed floors 4 and 5 of the Torre Europa, which housed SELA's headquarters. This same report details the damage caused by the second fire, on 6 February, which in fact completely destroyed all the installations, documents, and files.
Ambassador Moneta detailed the contributions made by SELA to push onward with the coordination of joint positions of the region vis-à-vis the rest of the globe as well as cooperation endeavours among the 27 SELA Member States over the course of the past 22 years since the time of SELA's creation. Moneta reasserted the institution's commitment to "transform this moment of crisis into an opportunity to push ahead with the restructuring process which was set to conclude before the year 2000."
The delegations of all the Member States ratified their support to SELA and agreed to prepare a strategic document encompassing a contingency plan detailing the Permanent Secretariat's requirements and medium- and long-term needs.
The agreements reached at the meeting were transmitted to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Central American countries, gathered in San José from 9 to 11 February. Additionally, while attending the meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Rio Group and European Union, the Permanent Secretary of SELA took the opportunity to provide details on SELA's situation as a result of the fire at Torre Europa.
The Permanent Secretary of SELA indicated that it was too early to measure the extent of the damages suffered and that extensive investigations were in process to determine the exact causes of the fire.
http://www.sela.org
sela@sela.org
SELA, Permanent Secretariat
Torre Europa, Fourth floor, Urb. Campo Alegre, Av Francisco de Miranda,
Caracas 1060- Venezuela
Tlf: (58) (212) 955.71.11 Fax: (58) (212) 951.52.92