Venezuelan ambassador names conference room after Chatoyer

The outgoing ambassador of Venezuela to this country says that the naming of his embassy’s conference room after Vincentian National Hero Joseph Chatoyer is a dignified gesture.{{more}}

Last Friday, at the unveiling of a plaque, which bears Chatoyer’s name, Ambassador Yoel Perez Marcano told those gathered that naming the room after the Carib chief was a tribute to an individual who made the ultimate sacrifice for others.

“Today we would like to give homage to someone who was a very important part of the history of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“He would have given his blood to the people of Latin America and African descendants, and this mixture gave birth to the liberty and courage to fight for the interest of the people of Garifuna, to resist the invasion of the French, to resist the invasion of the English and he did this with a great sacrifice.

“We would like to acknowledge therefore, the contribution that was made by the Caribs; the fight of Joseph Chatoyer, that he is not only a part of this country, but to the Caribbean, but to all of the people of our continent, because his historic heroism has been planted in the sacrifice of all our people,” Marcano said.

Chatoyer died in battle against the British in 1795 at Dorsetshire Hill and was named national hero in 2001.

Marcano said even though Chatoyer was not an academic, a politician, or even a great military leader, it cannot be ignored that he led his Garifuna people with dignity and made the ultimate sacrifice for their freedom.

“For in this embassy, we meet with the highest dignitaries, and we have the different political discussions. We would like to give, with the permission of the people of St Vincent and the brothers of the Garifuna, the glorious name of Joseph Chatoyer to the conference room of our embassy,” Marcano said.

“Anytime a dignitary visits our embassy and passes the door of our conference room, he would know that he is entering the Joseph Chatoyer conference room, national hero of St Vincent Grenadines.

Due to leave for duties in Belize next week, the Ambassador also handed over copies of a book on the third seminar of the Caribbean, Africa and Latin America, which took place in St Vincent in 2011.

“It is special for me to present the intellectual efforts of a group of persons from the Caribbean and Latin America that met with the idea to study the identity of realities of the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa, and to try to understand the new realities with the base to take on the fight to unite three continents that needs a relationship of cooperation and unity, to be able to achieve, or to surpass the problems they have faced in these centuries of backwardness.

“We are a very fundamental part of the continent of Latin America,” Marcano said. “Our culture and our traditions are also a part of the cultures of the persons who live in these islands and Latin America, and to do this acknowledgement, we are convinced that the times are coming when we have to count on the history of Africa, of the history of our people, the history of our fore-parents, that we are going to construct their new freedom, that we are going to recover their history and we are going to reaffirm their destiny of freedom.”

Speaking at the function, former parliamentarians Rene Baptiste and Michael Browne, along with head of the Garifuna Heritage Foundation David “Darkie” Williams, thanked the Ambassador, saying that they were moved by the gesture.