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Ogata in Brazil speaks with foreign guests attending PT congress

 

   Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Ogata Yasuo in Sao Paulo exchanged views with many foreign guests attending the third national congress of the Workersf Party (PT) held for three days from August 31.

 

   Reflecting on the political upheaval in Latin America, the meetings with representatives of political parties from the region were particularly useful in exchanging valuable information.

 

   Former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel Descoto, who was representing the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) that came back to power this year after an interval of 17 years, recalled past exchanges with the JCP and expressed his hope to develop anew relations between the two parties.

 

   Representing the Paraguay Tekojoja Movement, with which the JCP came into contact for the first time, former Bishop Fernando Lugo who is expected to win in the Paraguayan presidential election to be held in April 2008 asked Ogata to visit his country as part of the election observation mission.

 

   From Venezuela, Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) member Vidal Cisneros with whom Ogata met before in Caracas attended the PT congress. Cisneros, the representative of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, the new party in support of the Ch?vez administration that is still in the founding process, explained to Ogata the process of establishing his party as well as the constitutional revision in Venezuela.

 

   Ogata spoke with Santos Ramirez, head of the Senators group of Bolivia Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), the governing party of the Morales administration established in 2006, and representatives of parties forming the Uruguay Broad Front (FA) coalition that supports the Vasquez administration established in 2004.

 

   Ogata met with Sigfrido Reyes, Parliamentarian and Political Commission member of the El Salvador Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). Reyes attended a JCP Congress before, and they were pleased to see each other again.

 

   Ogata also spoke with representatives of the Mexico Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and the Colombia Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA) that are governing their respective capitals as well as representatives of parties from Argentina, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.

 

Talks with Cuban representative

 

   Ogata on September 2 held talks with Fernando Remirez, International Relations Department Chief of the Communist Party of Cuba. They talked about the situations in Japan, Cuba, and Latin America, and exchanged views on further development of relations between the two parties.

 

With representatives from Asia, Africa, and Europe

 

   Ogata also spoke with representatives from countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe.

 

   With Pham Van Tho, Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee member who visited Japan this year as the head of a CPV delegation and held talks with Ogata at the JCP headquarters, Ogata exchanged views on the relations between the two parties and the situations in Asia.

 

   Former Angolan Foreign Minister Paulo Jorge, representative of the governing Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), attended the 1968 World Conference against A and H Bombs in Japan. Ogata met with Jorge in Angola in the early 1980s as well as in an international meeting in Portugal, a Non-Aligned Movement Foreign Ministerial conference, and other occasions. They renewed their friendship.

 

   Ogata and Jacques Fath, French Communist Party official in charge of International Relations, exchanged views on the activities of their parties.

 

   With Helmut Scholz, representative of the German Party of Democratic Socialism who visited Japan at the invitation of the JCP, Ogata shared views on recent moves of leftist parties in Europe.

 

   Ogata met with Fabio Amato, Italyfs Communist Refoundation Party Foreign Section head as well as with a representative of the Democrats of the Left.

 

   Ogata also spoke with labor union representatives, including Giacomo Barbieri of the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL).

- Akahata, September 4 & 5, 2007

 

 




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