O R 161718Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY PRAIA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1756
INFO AMEMBASSY PRAIA

UNCLAS PRAIA 000106 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR S/ES-CR, S/ES-O, FOR AF/FO, AF/EX AND AF/W 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SCUL OPDC CV
SUBJECT: CAPE VERDEAN PM REQUESTS PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SUPPORT OF CIDADE 
VELHA AS UNESCO'S WORLD HERITAGE 
 
¶1.  (U)  Post received a letter from Cape Verdean Prime Minister 
Jose Maria Pereira Neves to President Obama, dated June 10.  The 
original letter, which was received yesterday June 15, will be 
sent via diplomatic pouch to S/ES-CR.  Text as follows: 
 
Begin Text 
---------- 
Praia, June 10, 2009 
 
Excellency, 
 
Cape Verde is the result of the mixture of cultures between 
Africans and Europeans, dating back to the 15th Century.  Later, 
the "Crioulism" resulting from this first miscegenation, entails 
a great capacity for dialogue and tolerance in its genetic code; 
this was and is still being strengthened by the planet's rich 
cultural diversity, particularly through the Capeverdean 
Diaspora scattered throughout the world and our country's 
conscientious and humanistic values. 
 
The City of Santiago of Cabo Verde, most commonly known as 
"Cidade Velha" (The Old City) is the birthplace of the 
Capeverdean Nation; it is where it all began. 
In fact, "Cidade Velha" was not only the anthropological and 
environmental laboratory of the Capeverdean world but it was 
also the bridge linking four continents and two oceans:  Africa, 
Europe, Americas and Asia, as well as the Atlantic and Indian 
Oceans.  During the International Meeting on "Cidade Velha - o 
Futuro do Passado"  (The Old City - the Future of the Past) held 
in October 2007, held in the ancient and renovated San Francisco 
Convent, historians and scientists from over sixteen countries 
at the event concluded that the Atlantic world, in its cultural, 
social, historical, environmental, political and economic 
aspects still has an enormous complicity with the Old City.  To 
support their conclusion, they pointed to several facts: Cidade 
Velha served as an experimental laboratory of human, animal and 
vegetal species that were later shipped to the Atlantic world; 
it was the first slave trade center in the world; it was the 
first city established by the Europeans in Africa; and it was a 
mandatory port of call for water and food supply for all 
navigations to and from the African, American and Asian 
continents in the 15th 16th and 17th Centuries. 
 
Cidade Velha is renowned for having hosted important vessels 
such as those belonging to Antonio da Noli and Diogo Gomes, 
Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama, among others.  It was 
also an important mark in the division of the world discovered 
by the Portuguese and Spaniards, through the Treaty of 
Tordesillas.  "Cidade Velha" also preserved the historical and 
cultural traces of the African continent, Portugal and Spain, 
both in terms of intangible culture and of various military, 
religious and civil monuments, some which are in ruins, and 
others rehabilitated.  Importantly, it was the soil that 
produced and informed the oldest "crioulo" culture (the mixed 
language and the people) in the world. 
 
For all the above and also because it is a "space of memory", 
which houses the oldest Cathedral in south of the Sahara Africa; 
for having attracted the attention of several European corsairs, 
particularly the English, French and Dutch during the early 
period of their development (in the 16th and 17th Centuries) 
based on a slavery economy; for maintaining intact the Royal 
Fort of Sco Filipe and various other forts in ruins, which bear 
witness to the Spanish domination over the City and their 
entrenched defense system in the 16th and 17th Centuries; for 
still maintaining in good state the Pillory, a remembrance of 
the hardship and horrors of the slavery period, Cidade Velha 
maintains a unique position in history. 
 
For all this - but above all for having been the birthplace of a 
new anthropology, resulting from the interbreeding of various 
peoples and various ecologies since the 15th Century and 
incorporated in what today we call the Capeverdean Nation, 
"Cidade Velha" is already a World Heritage.  The formal 
acknowledgement and recognition of this status by the 
international Community, through the verdict to be decided by 
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, would greatly allow us to 
preserve this unique heritage that belongs to all mankind. 
 
Our candidacy was prepared by a Capeverdean technical 
commission, with assistance from UNESCO itself, and was 
submitted to the World Heritage Committee on January 28, 2008. 
In July 2008, UNESCO sent a mission to Cape Verde to assess the 
candidacy and the World Heritage Committee will announce its 
decision to the month of June 2009. 
 
Our nation would be very grateful and would like to count on 
your support and that of your Government.  The support from your 
country and Government will certainly be very helpful and much 
appreciated. 
 
Hence, we are looking forward to your valuable collaboration. 
 
Kindly accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest 
consideration and esteem. 
//s// 
Josi Maria Pereira Neves 
Prime Minister Republic of Cape Verde 
 
END TEXT 
 
 
MYLES