He cites the example of 19th-century Spanish colonialism as a precedent for the “subordination” that Washington now seeks to impose.
MADRID, November 9 (Europe Press) – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has written to attendees of the EU-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit, urging them to use the meeting to declare “decisive action” against systematic intervention policies by the United States. A “revival” of the Monroe Doctrine, which guided North American foreign policy during the 19th and much of the 20th century.
This Sunday’s summit in Santa Marta (Colombia) will be marked by the struggle of those present to find common ground to condemn the US military’s attacks on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean, which have already killed 70 people and been condemned by NGOs as “extrajudicial executions”, and by the threats made against Venezuela by President Donald Trump, who has clearly threatened to remove President Maduro from office and order military intervention against his regime. country.
In a letter released by Foreign Minister Ivan Gil, President Maduro, who was absent from the summit, lamented that “when armed or deadly acts occur in the name of ‘security’ or ‘fighting crime’ and are accompanied by executions at sea, they constitute a violation of international law and a violation of human life.”
“We cannot accept that, under euphemisms such as ‘security’ and ‘fighting drug trafficking,’ there are attempts to impose the old Monroe Doctrine, which seeks to turn our country into a stage for ‘regime change’ invasions and coups, in order to steal our vast wealth and natural resources. We strongly reject the revival of the Monroe Doctrine,” President Maduro said.
The Venezuelan president has drawn on history, citing General Pablo Morillo’s 1815 expedition and the siege of Cartagena de Indias at Colombia’s independence as “a lesson in imperial violence against American freedom,” and using Spanish colonialism as a precedent for the situation he is currently condemning.
“Today, two centuries later, the form of the siege has changed, but its essence remains the same,” President Maduro wrote in the letter, warning that the summit must therefore be “not a ceremonial exercise but a decisive act. Let us declare the unconditional defense of the United States as a zone of peace.”
President Maduro called for “resolutely rejecting any militarization of the Caribbean, calling for an independent investigation into the executions reported by the United Nations Human Rights Mechanism, and establishing regional mechanisms for humanitarian cooperation and collective defense that guarantee the protection of our waters, coasts and communities.”
Finally, the President of Venezuela withdrew his condemnation of the “criminal and inhumane blockade imposed against the people and the government of the Republic of Cuba, a sustained invasion in gross violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations,” as well as the addition by the United States to the “false list of countries allegedly supporting terrorism.”
About The Author
