By Eduardo Paz Rada on September 30, 2021
Bolivian President Luis Arce vs OAS and Almagro
The Bolivian government has become the main promoter of the recovery of the processes of sovereign and emancipatory integration of Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the strengthening of common policies among the countries of the region under the postulates of the unity of the Patria Grande which, in the first fifteen years of this century, made important leaps to place the region in conditions to acquire an important weight in world politics and suffered a setback in the last five years with several neoliberal and conservative governments.
The U.S. government administration, with the aim of recovering its regional hegemony in the face of its international geopolitical weakening, strengthened the Organization of American States (OAS) under its control and created the Lima Group to apply its interventionist policies and the blockade of Cuba and Venezuela and even support the breakdown of democratic order in several countries, including Bolivia.
In this context and in very strong terms, while fully supporting the empowerment of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) as a sovereign expression of the peoples of the region, the constitutional president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Luis Arce Catacora, emphatically denounced the interventionist role of the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, in supporting the Coup d’état that took place in Bolivia in November 2019 and developing a campaign against democracy in the country.
Likewise, in his participation in the Sixth Summit of Presidents and Heads of State of CELAC, held in Mexico City, he highlighted the tasks carried out by his government to face the economic and health crisis, after a year of the de facto government’s management which was characterized by corruption, The first results of the reactivation of the productive sectors, the reduction of unemployment and the redistribution of wealth, on the one hand, and the massive vaccination and improvement of infrastructure and medical equipment, on the other, are already being observed.
On that occasion, CELAC approved a document approving a regional plan to face the pandemic, rejected the U.S. blockade of Cuba and made declarations in favor of Argentina’s sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, the Independence of Puerto Rico and the Non-Intervention and Self-Determination of Peoples.
Similarly, at the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), the president expressed Bolivia’s commitment to continue with the deepening of democracy, respect for human rights, the fight against pandemics, the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals and the fight against climate change.
Bolivia from 2005 to 2019, during the government of Evo Morales Ayma, was an active international actor from the Bolivarian perspective and the Patria Grande in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples (ALBA), the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), and CELAC, in coordination with the presidents of Cuba, Fidel Castro, Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, Brazil, Lula da Silva, Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, among others; And now, after the coup d’état and the de facto government, Luis Arce is once again taking on this leading role, which is essential to advance the Bolivarian project of integration of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The importance of the current strengthening of CELAC lies in promoting a regional policy outside the impositions of the United States, with the inclusion of Cuba, advancing in more intense and sovereign relations with China, Russia, the European Union and other powers. In this regard, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message expressing his support to CELAC and valuing the potential of relations between his country and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Eduardo Paz Rada is a Bolivian sociologist and professor at UMSA
Source: Alainet