ALBA supports Peru’s Castillo against coup, denounces lawfare in Argentina
The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the left-wing economic and political bloc uniting countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, has forcefully opposed the coup d’etat in Peru and expressed its support for the country’s democratically elected President Pedro Castillo.
ALBA member states released a joint declaration stating that they “reject the political trap created by the right-wing forces of that country against the Constitutional President Pedro Castillo, forcing him to take measures that were later used by his adversaries in parliament to oust him from office.”
The alliance condemned the violent “repression by the law enforcement agencies against the Peruvian people who are defending a government democratically elected at the polls.”
ALBA likewise denounced “the politically motivated judicial actions” that led to a judicial coup in Argentina, showing solidarity with former President and current Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The alliance said that Kirchner, like Castillo, is victim of “unconventional warfare strategies against democratically elected governments and leaders in the region using the politically motivated and legally unsubstantiated judicial processes (lawfare).”
The members of ALBA include Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and the Caribbean nations Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Saint Lucia.
Representatives of ALBA members met in La Habana on December 14 for their 18th anniversary summit.
Attending the conference were Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega, Bolivia’s President Luis Arce, Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Grenada Dickon Mitchell, Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Everly Chet Greene, and Finance Minister of Saint Lucia Wayne Girard.
They published a joint declaration calling for the “defense of national sovereignty without any foreign interference.”
“We reject the colonialist and interfering postulates of the Monroe Doctrine, used to justify destabilizing and interventionist practices in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the Bolivarian Alliance wrote.
ALBA nations stated:
[We] express our solidarity with the brotherly Peruvian people that has been subjected to a continuous institutional crisis, resulting in a series of events that threaten the stability and the welfare of the majority.
We reject the political trap created by the right-wing forces of that country against the Constitutional President Pedro Castillo, forcing him to take measures that were later used by his adversaries in parliament to oust him from office; we repudiate the repression by the law enforcement agencies against the Peruvian people who are defending a government democratically elected at the polls and we call for dialogue, understanding and maturity of all political, economic, and social actors of the Republic of Peru, as well as we raise our voices to guarantee the fundamental rights of this brother people.
The alliance also declared that it rejects “the destabilizing plans and actions fueled by powerful external factors and national oligarchies that have managed or are attempting to disregard the will of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples, which has been democratically and legitimately expressed at the polls.”
In this vein, ALBA said:
[We] denounce the use of unconventional warfare strategies against democratically elected governments and leaders in the region using the politically motivated and legally unsubstantiated judicial processes (lawfare), to defeat political and ideological opponents while condemning manipulation for political and destabilizing purposes of human rights, the disinformation and propaganda campaigns; the malicious use of the information and communication technologies; and cyber attacks, among other methods undermining the sovereignty and will of the peoples.
In this regard, we express our firmest rejection of the politically motivated judicial actions against our fellow Vice President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a key leader of the integration processes in Latin America and the Caribbean.
ALBA also called for Caribbean nations to receive “reparations for the damages caused by native genocide, colonialism and slavery.”
In the joint statement, the Bolivarian Alliance urged “to increase international solidarity with the brotherly people of the Republic of Haiti.”
And the alliance praised the peace talks being held between Colombia and the armed socialist militia the ELN.
The ALBA was founded in 2004 by Cuba and Venezuela, under the leadership of Presidents Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez.
