'Imperial Nations' Make Mockery of International Law (El Nuevo Diario, Nicaragua)
"Among these countries are Spain, Portugal, France, Italy,
and of course, the North American empire of the United States. ... The imperial
nations, which consider themselves exempt from international law, knew full well
that Evo Morales was on that plane, and knowingly took
these actions hoping tragedy would occur, i.e.: the plane would go down and the
leader of Bolivia would perish. The event was undoubtedly a criminal act with
malice aforethought, with the clear intention of assassinating a Latin American
head of state."
Bolivia President Evo Morales after his plane, outbound from Russia, was forced to land in Vienna. A number of countries refused to allow it to fly through their air space when suspicions arouse that Edward Snowden might be on board. His treatment has enraged Latin America.
Imperialist
nations, old and new, have a sad history of plundering, genocide and domination
at the expense of the peoples of the third world. Such nations often utter fine
words, posing as examples of respect for international law.
Among
these countries are Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and of course, the North
American empire of the United States. For years, these countries have held
themselves out as exemplars of respect for human rights. Representatives of
those countries travel the entire world giving speeches and lecturing poor
countries about tailoring their behavior in line with the various international
conventions that regulate the conduct of nations.
However,
the fiery speeches imperial nations deliver at the U.N. General Assembly every
year in which they exhort their audiences to respect international law are nothing
but empty words. The message of submission to international legal norms such as
working for peace, preferring dialog for resolving conflict, non-intervention
in other affairs of other nations, respect for the resolutions of the U.N. Security
Council and verdicts of the International
Court of Justice - none of this ranting applies to them, because empires
don't recognize laws other than those based on their own hegemonic interests.
Recent
history has given us clear examples of how empires trample international law,
disregard Security Council resolutions, don't comply with the verdicts of the
International Court of Justice, do not promote peace, incite war and directly
or covertly intervene in the affairs of other peoples.
In
the 1980s, when it was ordered to pay
damages to Nicaragua for executing terrorist acts against it, the United
States refused to submit to the judgment. Security Council resolutions
concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not complied with. The U.N.
Security Council was similarly disregarded when the U.S. unilaterally invading
Iraq. NATO, the military shield of empire, played a major role toppling the government
of Libya. In Syria as well, the clumsy hands of the Europeans and U.S. are also
felt - but they haven't ventured further because they know that Mainland China
and Russia stand against them. And in 1982, the United Kingdom sent its
military machine to the southern
cone of the Americas to take the Malvinas by force.
The
most recent scandal involving the violation of International Law and the Vienna
Conventions implicated Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and the United States, when
the Europeans, acting at the directive of the U.S. empire, decided to forbid
the passage of an aircraft carrying the president of Bolivia. President Evo Morales was returning from a meeting with his
counterpart in Moscow, and his plane was forbidden to land for re-fueling. This
violation of diplomatic immunity, which is due every dignitary, endangered the
leader of the Bolivian government and the crew of his aircraft. Indeed, if its
fuel has become exhausted, an assassination would certainly have occurred.
The
imperial nations, which consider themselves exempt from international law, knew
full well that Evo Morales was on that plane, and knowingly
took these actions hoping tragedy would occur, i.e.: the plane would go down
and the leader of Bolivia would perish. The event was undoubtedly a criminal act
with malice aforethought, with the clear intention of assassinating a Latin
American head of state.
This
shameful and immoral precedent should by no means go unpunished. Latin American
nations must rise like one to demand and require not just insipid apologies
(France has already issued one) from the countries that violated international
law, but the case should be brought before all international fora (O.A.S, U.N.) to demand
strong sanctions: economic, diplomatic, and of all kinds, against the
delinquent nations, in order to redress the damage suffered, not only by the
Bolivian people, but by all the peoples of our Latin America. Let the
punishment and sanctions serve as an example so that in future, no one dares so
flagrantly violate international law.
