OPINION: Simon Bolivar and chemical weapons
ALBA or ALBA-TCP, formally the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America is an intergovernmental organization based on the idea of the social, political and economic integration of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. A socialist organization which is based in Marxist-Leninist ideals. The name “Bolivarian” refers to the ideology of Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century South American independence leader born in Caracas who wanted Hispanic America to unite as a single “Great Nation.
Simon Bolivar was a revolutionary but not a communist, and to use his name in this organization degrades his greatness. He was a Venezuelan military and political leader who played a leading role in the establishment of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama as sovereign states, independent of Spanish rule.
Bolíva and his family were an aristocratic Creole family. Educated in Spain when he was 16, later moving to France. While in Europe, he was introduced to ideas which later motivated him to overthrow the reigning Spanish in colonial South America. Taking advantage of the disorder in Spain prompted by the Peninsular War. The Peninsular War [1807–1814] was a military conflict between Napoleon’s empire [as well as the allied powers of the Spanish Empire], the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Portugal, for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when the French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807, and escalated in 1808 when France turned on Spain, previously its ally.
Bolívar began his campaign for independence in 1808, appealing to the wealthy Creole population through a conservative process, and established an organized national congress within three years. Despite a number of hindrances, including the arrival of an unprecedentedly large Spanish expeditionary force, the revolutionaries eventually prevailed, culminating in the patriot victory at the Battle of Carabobo in 1821, which effectively made Venezuela an independent country.
Following this triumph over the Spanish monarchy, Bolívar participated in the foundation of the first union of independent nations in Latin America, Gran Colombia, of which he was president from 1819 to 1830. Through further military campaigns, he ousted Spanish rulers from Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, the latter of which was named after him. He was simultaneously president of Gran Colombia (present-day Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador) and Peru, while his second-in-command, Antonio José de Sucre, was appointed president of Bolivia. Simon Bolívar aimed at a strong and united Spanish America able to cope not only with the threats emanating from Spain and the European Holy Alliance but also with the emerging power of the United States. At the peak of his power, Bolívar ruled over a vast territory from the Argentine border to the Caribbean Sea. Despite his military might and desire to be a dictator of a large territory Bolivar spent his own family fortune trying, but died a penniless loser.
Bolívar is viewed as a national icon in the ALBA organization, and is considered one of the great heroes of the Hispanic independence movements of the early 19th century.
ALBA was founded initially by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004, it is associated with socialist and some governments that wish to be known as social democratic governments whilst they actively try and convert to the form of socialism that Cuba uses based on a Marxist-Leninist communist one party state ruled by want to be dictators. They also have future intentions of becoming a union like the EU, but a socialist union with each state with dictator heads and family dynasties that will hold power for ever. Something more like a revised version of the old USSR.
ALBA’s intentions are to consolidate regional economic integration based on a vision of social welfare, bartering and mutual economic aid. The eleven member countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela. Suriname was admitted to ALBA as a guest country at a February 2012 summit. ALBA nations may conduct trade using a virtual regional currency known as the SUCRE, with the policy of that eventually being the only currency they will trade in between themselves, and ultimately hoping to make it an international currency to the detriment of the US dollar. Venezuela and Ecuador made the first bilateral trade deal using the Sucre, instead of the US dollar, on July 6, 2010. Most of the other states hope to follow suit when they have concluded their process of bankrupting their countries and driving out the upper and middle class’s to create a peasant class which are stupid enough to accept the ALBA intentions, along with a one party state dictator.
ALBA are without any doubt anti USA. The member states all vote in the United Nations in every way possible to undermine the US. They vote in favor of rogue states and sometimes abstain which sometimes can have the same or a similar effect on the outcome.
This last week Syria used chemical weapons on its citizens, not for the first time. Russia denied this had happened at all and claims there was no such happening and it is false news. It’s more than likely that Russia even supplied the chemicals in the first place. Days after alleged chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma, the United Nations Security Council failed to adopt two competing resolutions that would have established a mechanism to investigate use of such weapons in Syria, as well as another concerning a fact-finding mission in the war-torn country.
ALBA is represented on the UN Security Council by the ALBA member Bolivia. Three countries voted against the rest of the world to deny actions against Syria for killing hundreds of people with chemical weapons. Those countries were Russia, and Bolivia, with an abstention from China.
When Bolivian President Evo Morales first won election in 2005, he immediately became one of the harshest critics of U.S. hemispheric policy. His brand of anti-American rhetoric fitted in with that of then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, so it was not surprising that under Morales, Bolivia became a member of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the coalition of leftist governments conceived and created by Castro and Chavez in 2004 with the intent of not just curtailing the influence of the United States in the region but to inflict damage on them wherever they could. So it was also not surprising either that Bolivia voted with the Russians. The Russians have been capturing the Caribbean and Latin American countries and are in bed with both Cuba and Venezuela, therefore all the ALBA countries. Whilst most of the Caribbean countries pretend to be friends of America they are in fact stabbing them in the back at every opportunity, whilst smiling, hugging up, signing treaties and taking US aid.
A negative vote – or veto – from one of the Council’s five permanent members – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States – blocks passage of a resolution. So as Bolivia is not a permanent member their vote was not even needed, but it was a show of support for Russia and a direct slap in the face of the US, and ultimately the whole world.
This really should not be about inflicting damage on the US; should not be about supporting Russia, it should be about protecting the lives of Syrians from chemical weapons.
Every prime minister and President of the ALBA member nations is as culpable as Bolivia’s president Evo Morales. Dr Ralph E Gonsalves, Castro, Maduro and all the others are full of blame, they all, every one of them, are responsible for the murders of those Syrian babies, children and women. They are responsible for the act of crime against humanity as if they did it themselves.
The ALBA action at the UN proves that the members are political and bought supporters of Russia and China. ALBA also obviously approves of using chemical weapons on Syrian citizens, the danger is unless Syria is punished then the ALBA group may at some time in the future use it on their own citizens. Nothing should be put past such an immoral organization, and such immoral leaders.
It’s time long overdue for the US to stop giving funds to the enemy. If the US want to give them anything give them what they deserve, sanctions.
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IMAGE: 1895 portrait by Arturo Michelena
President of the Second Republic of Venezuela – WIKIPEDIA