Bolivian, Ecuadoran, and Cuban Foreign Ministers David Choquehuanca, Ricardo Patiño and Bruno Rodríguez, and Nicaraguan Vice Minister of Economic Relations and External Cooperation Valdrack Jaentschke, all say that their governments support Venezuela’s initiative to create an international commission to seek a negotiated solution to the internal conflict in Libya.
The officials made their position public in the context of the summit of the foreign ministers of ALBA, held in the “Antonio José de Sucre” Building (the Casa Amarilla), the seat of the Foreign Ministry of Venezuela.
Minister Choquehuanca says that the ALBA member states cannot remain silent before the threat of a military intervention in Libya, and he wholeheartedly supports the initiative launched by Comandante Hugo Chávez to organize an international commission, including Latin American, European, and Asian countries, which can find an acceptable solution to the internal conflict in Libya. He adds that it is necessary to create an international movement that defends peace, human rights, and Libya’s territorial integrity.
For his part, Minister Patiño condemns the international campaign to instigate a military intervention in Libya, organized by the Western powers, with the sole objective of appropriating its oil. He stresses that the world is “undergoing a process of renovation and that international relations are changing through this process which has to be respected by all the countries — the changes that are being made in the Arab world as well as in Latin America must be respected.”
Similarly, Cuban Minister Bruno Rodríguez, too, declares support for the Venezuelan leader’s proposal and criticizes the “obvious interventionist stance of the United States,” which only seeks to appropriate the energy resources of Libya.
The Nicaraguan representative also says that his government, too, supports the peace proposal. He explains that a NATO intervention, backed by US troops, only aims to control Libya’s oil wealth, so “we demand respect for the geographical integrity of Libya and condemn interventionism.”
The orirignal article “Países del ALBA apoyan iniciativa venezolana para buscar la paz en Libia” was published in the Web site of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry on 4 March 2011. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). H/T Max Ajl.
| Print