November 30, 2023
With the purpose of exposing and rejecting the content of the Monroe Doctrine, proclaimed 2 centuries ago by U.S. President James Monroe with the phrase “America for the Americans”, the International Anti-Imperialist Bolivarianism vs. Monroism -200 years after the Monroe Doctrine Forum, initiated by the Network in Defense of Humanity, began today in Caracas. The activity will last until December 2 in the facilities of the Theater of the Bolivarian National Guard of the Military Academy.
During his speech, historian Pedro Calzadilla warmly welcomed the national and foreign guests participating in the Anti-imperialist Forum. The historian contrasted how both doctrines, the Bolivarian and the Monroe doctrines emerged in 1823. “They were two projects, two models of country and republics, of continent, of humanity, which began a historic dispute that has continued throughout these 200 years”, said Calzadilla, who added that the content of the current Forum is focused on debating about the challenges and proposals that must arise in the Latin American and Caribbean region to overcome the US doctrine that endorses and perpetuates the plundering of our peoples.
For his part, the Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, considered it important to keep in mind the battle of ideas on this issue, “because they are creating a force, and it is not the coercive force exercised by imperialism today. It is a force that generates emotion and movement. These ideas are taking on a particular force that today is confronting the doctrine of Monroism”. Minister Padrino López also highlighted the work of Commander Hugo Chávez, to promote the doctrine of Bolivarianism opposed to imperialism, as well as his legacy and the way to make this history reach the Venezuelan people.
Rafael Correa
During his intervention, the former President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, offered a historical context regarding the Monroe Doctrine. He pointed out that at the beginning the doctrine was widely supported because it was a call to prevent the reconquest of European powers over newly independent nations throughout the region. However, as time went by, the so-called “manifest destiny” appeared, which led the United States to expand territorially and begin to treat Latin American countries as its backyard.
Correa went on to explain that the United States imposed its hegemony even more at the beginning of the 20th century, through a corollary of President Theodore Roosevelt, where he summarized, “if US interests are in danger in any Latin American country, because that country has behaved badly (…) the United States has the right to invade it”.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez
Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, described through historical examples, the way in which the United States has underestimated the sovereign vision of the peoples of the Latin American and Caribbean region, starting with Venezuela. She referenced to the administration of the Panama Canal, with its geoeconomic and geopolitical management by the U.S. government. She also stressed that from the beginning, the Liberator Simón Bolívar broke with the Monroe Doctrine, and “understood what it meant for our Republics, with its expansionism and domination direction”.
The Vice President added that, when the Treaty of Washington was signed in 1897, the foundations were laid to establish the theft of the Venezuelan territory of the Guayana Esequiba, which was ratified in the 1899 Paris arbitration award without the presence of the Venezuelan government. “There, was the first consensus was reached between the Monroe Doctrine and Great Britain to snatch, dispossess and steal the territory that represents practically 15 percent of Venezuela’s area”, Rodriguez emphasized. She also denounced that such theft continues in 2023 with the delivery of the oil concessions to the U.S. company ExxonMobil.
Source: Network in Defense of Humanity, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – US