The 24th annual meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum is held from July 15 to 17 in Havana, convened under the premise For Latin American and Caribbean Unity and Integration.

The meeting of representatives of political parties and leftist organizations coincide with a particularly complex and difficult time in the region, with the effects of a reactionary wave committed to dismantling progressive processes of recent years in several countries and restore neoliberalism.

The right remained crouched for some time before the push of the great social movements, fed up with so much inequality and ignominy, and was unable to stop the coming to power of governments that changed the political map of Our America.

But the onslaught of the reaction, the imperialist counter-offensive, is underway.

Unity: Urgency of These Times

For the leftist and progressive forces of Latin America and the Caribbean these are times of definitions, of regaining thrust, of reorienting strategies. Unit is essential to regain their initiative and breathe new airs into their ideological influence.

All these analyses emerge in the three days of reflections and debates in the context of the Sao Paulo Forum in Havana.

Today the right, supported by the monopoly of the media, strives to delegitimize the achievements of the progressive Governments of the region, conquered amid constant schemes and hostilities, and resorts to misinformation, deception, to demobilize the popular forces.

The left, with honesty, must draw its lessons and uphold its truths, because the future demands more just and solidarity societies.