CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM) Heads of Government, who are signatories to the PetroCaribe Agreement, are set to meet in Montego Bay on September 6, to commemorate the legacy and vision of South American liberator Simon Bolivar.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson made the announcement during a press briefing at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Rose Hall, Montego Bay, last week.
'LETTER FROM JAMAICA'
After a series of bilateral talks with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Mr. Patterson said the event would commemorate the 190th year since the liberator penned the now famous 'Letter from Jamaica'.
The Prime Minister said the meeting, which would include heads of all countries which signed the PetroCaribe Agreement at Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela in June, would facilitate a range of discussions on matters of regional concern and reaffirm the commitment to self reliance and regional integration.
During the briefing, President Chavez paid homage to the vision of the South American liberator.
Born in 1793 in Caracas, Venezuela, to wealthy parents who died when he was nine years old, Simon Bolivar dedicated his life to the independence of the then Spanish colonies and the dream of Latin American unity.
In 1810, Bolivar, as a 27-year-old military officer, joined with a group who inspired revolts against Spanish rule in Venezuela. Together they seized Caracas and declared independence from Spain.
They were, however, overthrown by royalist forces in 1814 and Bolivar went into exile in Jamaica for close to one year. While in Jamaica, he wrote the famous letter in which he expressed his ideas for republican government and Latin American unity.
POLITICAL DOCTRINE
Widely recognised as an important political doctrine, the letter was actually titled, 'Reply of a South American to a Gentleman of this Island'. It was Bolivar's lengthy response to a letter he had received from an unnamed Jamaican, who empathised with Bolivar's struggle for South American liberation and indicated a desire to learn more about the politics and people of each South American province.
Today, he is heralded as El Libertador, South America's greatest hero. Streets, towns, cities, and countries such as Bolivia and Venezuela, now called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, bear his name.
In Jamaica, a statue of Bolivar stands in the vicinity of Jamaica's National Heroes Park in Kingston, to commemorate the time he spent on the island.
