It is time for the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean to stand together and say NO to coups and their sponsors in the Organization of American States (OAS).
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An organization created to protect the interests of the United States, funded and supported by its sponsor in Washington, it has shown its claws in the planning, organizing, and carrying out the coup in Bolivia. This is the OAS.
The organization has not said a word following President Evo Morales’s ousting. Condemning what happened would be too much to ask. Calling for dialogue would have been the appropriate step, but they never did it. Taking action to ensure the respect for human life, and the lives of the President, Vice President and other officials, was never on their agenda. Even worse, Secretary General Luis Almagro, and members of the OAS’s illegal appendage known as the Lima Group, have kept a conspiratorial silence, perhaps waiting for a sign from the U.S. State Department.
As difficult as it may be to understand, there are still some governments in Latin America, such as those in the Lima Group, who not only belong to this harmful organization but lend themselves to these malicious plans to overthrow governments and end social projects that benefit millions of poor citizens in our countries.
I must admit that I mistakenly thought I would come across a statement by the OAS on the internet condemning the events in Bolivia – if only for appearances – but to my frustration, I found nothing.
While the honorable and sympathetic government of Mexico, aware of the need to take a position in defense of peace in Bolivia, has called for an urgent meeting of the organization, on the other hand, the government of Peru only called for new elections in the neighboring nation and for the OAS to accompany the entire process.
I think the time has come – perhaps it should have been a long time ago – for Latin American peoples to all stand up and denounce the OAS, assert dignity, ethics and the desires of our nations, and condemn the maneuvers of an organization which serves its U.S. masters, disregarding the interests of the peoples it is supposed to represent.
I repeat: it is time to, one and for all, get rid of this obstacle that has caused so much damage to the independence and development of our peoples. It is time to unmask before the world characters such as OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, who organizes conspiracies to carry out coups, like the in Bolivia against a constitutional President, democratically elected, beloved by his people, a role model of work and dignity.
Moreover, this organization should be condemned for leaking information on its audit of the Bolivian elections, which should have gone public on November 12 and, suspiciously, appeared during the dawn hours of the 9th.
What was the purpose of this leak? Clearly to create uncertainty, and trigger chaos and violence.
These actions deserve punishment, if there are laws to judge such miserable people in this world.
Plus, the leaked information was written in ambiguous and unconvincing language.
I imagine that Evo, always honorable and dignified, soon realized what it meant for his country, Latin America, and the world to have trusted a discredited OAS to, first, observe the elections, and secondly, conduct the audit.
It is not too late though. Now is the time for the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean to stand together and say NO to coups and their sponsors in the OAS.
Let us not wait any longer to act. Those who have been beaten in Bolivia, those who have lost their eyes in Chile, indigenous peoples, former combatants and other people killed every day in Colombia; those who are murdered or wounded in the favelas of Brazil for the crime of demanding employment and food, and the millions driven to poverty and extreme poverty in the Argentine led by Macri, all of these people are calling for action and the only way to do so is together, with dignity and courage. These are key elements. And the OAS lacks all of them.
Fidel Castro on the OAS
“What do the Yankees want? Do they want to say that we defy the OAS? If they want to say it, wonderful, let them say what we say: that they have the OAS as an instrument to prevent revolutions in America.”- Speech by Fidel Castro in the closing session of the First Latin American Youth Congress, 6 August 1960.
“The Organization of American States completely lacks the moral authority and the right to judge and sanction Cuba.” – Speech by Fidel Castro on the 11th Anniversary of the Moncada assault, July 26, 1964.
“Our position is that this organization has been an instrument for imperialist penetration and dominion over Latin American.
Our position is that someday, we, the Latin American peoples, should stand united to become a human community worthy of respect in the world, to bring our forces together so we are no longer what we are today, the victims of aggression. Is it a sewer or not? Is it a cesspit or not? Is it the Ministry for Yankee colonies or not? Historically, this organization embodies the imperialist oppression of our peoples and when they are free, this organization will disappear. We won’t need an OAS when there is a community of Latin American peoples.” – Fidel Castro in a press interview, December 4, 1971
“Is there really a human rights commission within that rotten institution? Yes, there is, I answer myself. And just what is its mission? To evaluate the human rights situation in OAS member countries? Is the U.S. a member of this institution? Yes, it is one of the most honorable members. Has the government of the United States ever been condemned? No, never.
Not even the crimes of genocide that Bush committed, taking the lives of millions of people? No! Never! How could this injustice be committed? Not even the tortures at the Guantánamo Base? As far as we know, not a single word.” – Reflection by Fidel Castro, “Once again, the Rotten OAS,” May 8, 2009.
Raul Castro on the OAS
“We will never forget that the OAS – the Organization of American States – founded by the United States during the second half of the last century, at the beginning of the Cold War, has only served interests which contradict those of Our America.
This organization, rightly described as the “Ministry of colonies” of the United States by the Foreign Minister of Dignity, compañero Raúl Roa García, sanctioned Cuba, and was ready to offer support and recognition to a puppet government, if the mercenary invasion at Playa Girón had been successful. The list of actions it took against the nascent Cuban Revolution, and other revolutionary and progressive governments, is interminable.
Despite the fact that we have never encouraged other countries to abandon this organization, I must reiterate what was expressed in Brazil, some years ago now, paraphrasing José Martí, that before Cuba returns to the OAS, ‘the ocean of the North will join the ocean of the South, and a serpent will be born from the egg of an eagle.’” Central Report to the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, presented by the First Secretary of the Central Committee, Army General Raul Castro Ruz. Havana, April 16, 2016.
Diaz-Canel on the OAS
“The inter-American system has reactivated mechanisms of such odious memory for the region as the Reciprocal Assistance Treaty (TIAR) and the demoralized OAS, which has been consolidated as an instrument of political pressure for the United States and oligarchies that defend neoliberalism (…) Yes, the OAS is a very ugly thing. And very cynical.
Their “concerns” do not touch the depths of anger felt by the people rising up against neoliberalism, faced with pellet guns, gases, and lead bullets for protesting peacefully.” – Speech by President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in the closing session of the Anti-imperialist Meeting of Solidarity, for Democracy and Against Neoliberalism at the Havana Convention Center, November 3, 2019.
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Featured image: The people of Bolivia take to the streets to demand respect for their right to sovereignty. Photo: El País
