Violence Cannot Generate Peace

by Ligia Montano, Director of Education and Partnerships

The world is in turmoil due to the normalization of violence. As a Latin American, I am deeply concerned that diplomacy is not being given a chance to stabilize the political situation we are facing. We view with alarm the events in the Caribbean Sea and the recent events in Venezuela. The aggression against Venezuela is not only illegal, but constitutes an attack on all of Latin America. 

People are uniting in a voice of protest against the abuses of a powerful country that arrogates to itself the right to approve or reject the rulers of other countries who have been elected by their people. I'm referring to the United States, in case anyone hasn't guessed.

Unfortunately, the United States of America seems unstoppable. Diplomacy is not one of the tools that can be used with their war machine. The revitalization of the Monroe Doctrine is nothing more than the continuation of an interventionist policy that is intensifying its attacks against Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Despite the blatant violations of international law and the frontal attacks against the people, citizens are taking to the streets to empower themselves and demand respect for their constitution, their leaders, and their supreme right to choose their own rulers.

The international community views with concern the assault on the rights of a president elected by his people. Whether or not they are supporters of Nicolás Maduro is irrelevant. What is relevant is knowing that a power acts with impunity, imposing sanctions that strangle economies, creating fantastic narratives of criminal gangs, and murdering those they designate as criminals from those gangs without even presenting credible evidence of such crimes.

Now, the US president plans to continue his aggressions against Latin America, targeting Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, or Nicaragua. But this didn't start here, nor will it end here. For decades, the United States has intervened in those countries that dare to assert their sovereignty. Coups d'état, invasions, assassinations, and imprisonments have been rampant in Latin America. I've heard people say they don't sympathize with President Maduro, and that's normal; we all have different affinities, and we're not all going to agree with the initiatives or political platforms of those elected by the majority. What I find unacceptable is that those who don't live in a particular country decide to call for invasions and wars against their compatriots simply because they disagree with their political positions. So far, we haven't seen any country that, after being intervened in by the United States, hasn't become a failed state. I don't want that fate for any country, and even less so for our countries in Latin America, which have never stopped paying the price for being in what the Americans call their backyard.

I urge you to learn the truth by following alternative media. I'm not expecting you to become supporters of Maduro or of governments that don't align with the US. What I ask is that you become defenders of the peace that the people of the Caribbean demand, that you uphold justice, and above all, I urge you not to give up and to continue fighting for a world where genocide is a relic of the past, and where aggression and intervention do not represent an economic incentive but rather ruin and social isolation.