The Board of Directors of the Latin American Cooperativism Network (RELCOOP) re-elected the Republic of Cuba to chair that organization during its next mandate period, which runs until 2013.

In its most recent meeting at the Havana Riviera Hotel, Doctor Claudio Rivera was ratified as president of the regional organization, which brings together thousands of cooperatives in 15 countries, and which emerged as an alternative to globalization.

Rivera is the director of Centre for Studies on Cooperative and Community Development at the University of Pinar del Rio, president of the Cuban  Society of Cooperativism with the  Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba (ANEC).
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In an emotional speech, general manager of the “16 de Junio”  Savings and Credit Cooperative, Ecuadorean Raul Ortiz stressed the relations of friendship and brotherhood uniting his country and Cuba, two nations with common  history and challenges.

Prior to the meeting, the Habana Riviera hotel also hosted the X International Convention on Cooperativism and Development Problems, COOPERAT 2011, attended by 180 specialists, academics and farmers from Germany, Ecuador, Haiti, Mexico, Costa Rica, Curacao , Honduras, The Dominican Republic, Italy, Norway, Peru, Puerto Rico, Panama, Venezuela and the host country.

For Rivera Martinez, "the cooperative movement in Latin America and the Caribbean today is not only an alternative for development, a path to enhance  economic, social and productive development,  which reinforces the social management model and the changes being promoted in many countries of this region”.

Speaking to reporters, Rivera said that despite the weaknesses and problems facing the model of cooperative production and marketing developed in Cuba, the island is now a paradigm for the region.

Translated by: Daysi Olano

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