More than 30 Latin American leaders, among them former presidents, former foreign ministers and political leaders, spoke out against the “interference in internal affairs” of Bolivia by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, who raised The Need for Reforms in the Bolivian Judicial System, as well as a commission to investigate corruption cases, reported Página 12 on its website.
“The undersigned express our concern and rejection of the communications of the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro Lemes, which sets a dangerous precedent for an organization created with the purpose of seeking consensus, promoting inter-American dialogue and the peaceful solution of controversies in the hemisphere ”, affirmed, among others, Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, from Brazil; Fernando Lugo, from Paraguay; Rafael Correa, from Ecuador; José Mujica, from Uruguay; Evo Morales himself, from Bolivia; the Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; former Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana; and the president of the Parlasur Democracy Observatory, Oscar Laborde.
The signatories held a virtual meeting today, in which they agreed on the declaration. The former presidents Ernesto Samper, from Colombia; Leonel Fernández, from the Dominican Republic; Manuel Zelaya, from Honduras; Salvador Sánchez Cerén, from El Salvador; and Álvaro Colom and Vinicio Cerezo, from Guatemala.
“Luis Almagro manifests an interference in internal affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia by proposing, among other things, the creation of an international commission to investigate alleged allegations of corruption and to reform the Justice System,” they said in the statement. They stressed that “these statements go far beyond his mission as secretary general of the regional body and ignore the functioning of the inter-American system.”
They also warned that “the Secretary General must refrain from making unilateral pronouncements involving all members of the organization, without respecting the collegiate nature of his mandate and must not intervene in the internal affairs of the OAS member states.”
The letter was added to the rejection of Almagro’s role expressed last week by the Andean Parliament and also by the president of Mexico, Andrés López Obrador.
“We cannot ignore or forget the responsibility of the OAS, especially that of its Secretary General, Luis Almagro, with the report on the 2019 electoral process – the content of which must be audited – which ended in a coup d’état with regrettable consequences for Bolivia, breaking democracy and the rule of law, with serious human rights violations, with massacres and assassinations, with political persecution and proscriptions”, stated the Latin American leaders in the document.
Below, the full text of the declaration, with all its signatories:
Rejection of interference in Bolivia
The undersigned express our concern and rejection of the communications of the OAS Secretary General, Luis Almagro Lemes, which sets a dangerous precedent for an organization created with the purpose of seeking consensus, promoting inter-American dialogue and the peaceful settlement of disputes. in the hemisphere.
In said statement, Luis Almagro manifests interference in the internal affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia by proposing, among other things, the creation of an international commission to investigate alleged allegations of corruption and to reform the Justice System. These statements far exceed his mission as Secretary General of the regional organization and ignore the functioning of the inter-American system.
The Secretary General must refrain from making unilateral pronouncements involving all members of the organization, without respecting the collegiate nature of his mandate, and must not intervene in the internal affairs of the OAS member states.
We cannot ignore or forget the responsibility of the OAS, especially that of its Secretary General, Luis Almagro with the report on the 2019 electoral process, whose content must be audited, which ended in a coup d’état with regrettable consequences for Bolivia, breaking democracy and the rule of law, with serious human rights violations, with massacres and assassinations, with political persecution and proscriptions.
That is why we vehemently denounce and reject this new maneuver against a democratically elected government. A simple and straightforward intervention, similar to what our peoples have suffered in the past. In this case, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, overwhelms Bolivian institutions and does not know the results of the elections held in October 2020 that allowed our brother country to return to the democratic path.
We ask the OAS Member States to reject this type of action that damages Latin American and Caribbean democracy, puts peaceful coexistence at risk and violates the sovereignty of independent States.
At the same time, we ratify the importance of respect for the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples, it is essential for peaceful coexistence between States, within the framework of the principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.
In this context, we express our deepest concerns regarding the recent statements by the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, who is unaware of the institutional democratic recovery and intervenes in matters that are specific to Bolivians.
Sign:
Former presidents
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil
Fernando Lugo. Paraguay
Dilma Rousseff, Brazil
Rafael Correa, Ecuador
José Pepe Mujica, Uruguay
Evo Morales Ayma, Bolivia
Ernesto Samper, Colombia
Leonel Fernández, Dominican Republic
Manuel Zelaya, Honduras
Salvador Sánchez Cerén, El Salvador
Álvaro Colom, Guatemala
Vinicio Cerezo, Guatemala
Former chancellors
Jorge Taiana, Argentina
Celso Amorim, Brazil
Jorge Lara Castro, Paraguay
Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Uruguay
Diego Pary, Bolivia
Ricardo Patiño, Ecuador
Guillaume Long, Ecuador
Hugo Martínez Bonilla, El Salvador
Latin American personalities and authorities
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize
Oscar Laborde, Observatory of Democracy of Parlasur, Argentina
Alberto Grillon, Senator (MC), Paraguay
Eduardo Valdes, Foreign Relations Commission, Chamber of Deputies, Argentina
Gleisi Hoffmann, Federal Deputy and President of the PT, Brazil
Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas, President of COPPPAL
Oscar Parrilli, National Senator, Argentina
Daniel Caggiani, National Deputy and Vice President of Parlasur, Uruguay
Adolfo Mendoza, President of the Andean Parliament, Bolivia
Carlos Filizzola, National Senator, Paraguay
Mónica Valente, Executive Secretary of the São Paulo Forum
Juan Pablo Letelier, Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate of Chile
Esperanza Martínez, National Senator, Paraguay
Iván Cepeda, National Senator, Colombia
Jorge Querey Rojas, National Senator, Paraguay
Fernando Haddad, Former candidate for the Presidency for the PT, Brazil
Citatli Hernández, Secretary General MORENA, Mexico
Paulo Rocha, Senator, Brazil
Víctor Santa María, Mercosur Parliamentarian, Argentina
Marco Enriquez Ominami, Puebla Group
Elvino Bohn Gass, Federal Deputy, Brazil
Dolores Gandulfo, Electoral Observatory of COPPPAL
(https://en.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/news/politics/Latin-American-leaders-reject-Almagro%27s-interference-in-Bolivia/)
