Sputnik
Bolivia’s proposal to make Palestine a member of ALBA seeks to soften “the injustice” that the US is committing by vetoing its entry into the UN, explains President Luis Arce, in an interview with Sputnik. The president also discussed the issue of recent tensions with Argentina and the break-in at the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador.
— Regarding your assessment of this Bolivian proposal to convert Palestine into a full member state of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), what has been the objective of said proposal and what message does Bolivia give by making this proposal to ALBA to the entire world?
Arce: Well, first I want to thank you for the interview with all of you. Bolivia understands that an injustice has been committed with Palestine in New York, when the Security Council was discussing Palestine’s entry as a member country of the United Nations. And the veto applied by the US prevents this country from having, like all countries on the planet, its own participation in this international organization.
We do not agree with the genocide that is being committed against the Palestinian people and everything that the world has been able to observe with the bombings, where it is children, it is the elderly who are being victims of everything that [hacen] the bombing and aggression of Israel. We cannot, as humans, be outside of it. And if the United Nations does not want to recognize it through a veto, I have stated that here in the ALBA-TCP, which is a group of countries that think differently, that knows how to respect the sovereignty of countries, that knows how to respect the self-determination of peoples, that we have it within us in a way, even if nominal, but that the Palestinian brothers feel that there are countries that recognize them and that of course we would like to have all types of economic and international relations with this country.
Therefore, this is the motivation, to give a message to the world that there are countries that are willing to establish relations and consider Palestine as one more, like so many countries with which our countries in the region especially have relations.
— Regarding the break-in suffered by the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador, were Ecuador’s actions justified? Really, what does this incident mean for the region? What is your assessment?
Arce: Well, this could become a disastrous precedent. Never in the history of our region, not even in the times of the military dictatorships that we have suffered in the sixties, seventies and even eighties, in several countries in the region, dictatorships that I am talking about like Pinochet, the Videla dictatorship, During the Banzer dictatorship in Bolivia, we had never had this type of aggression and violation of international treaties.
Like never before, the Ecuadorian Government invades an embassy and sets a disastrous precedent, because it has violated and put at risk the right to asylum that is recognized in international regulations. Therefore, this is extremely delicate, which is calling into question whether or not our international organizations are going to enforce what we approved in the councils, different United Nations councils that have been given.
If an exemplary sanction is not generated and if the right to asylum is not returned to those who were enjoying this benefit there at the time, this issue of asylum is really going to be variable, vulnerable, for anyone who wants asylum anywhere. of the world. Therefore, this is the delicate thing about this topic.
We have been beneficiaries of that asylum, that is why we know it perfectly and we also know and value how the Mexican Government is an exemplary Government in matters of asylum. León Trotsky was exiled there in Mexico, when no country wanted to receive him, Mexico opened its doors to him, which demonstrates the quality of a country that Mexico is in understanding and respecting people’s human rights. Therefore, here we are always going to talk about this issue and in total disagreement with what has happened, of course, and we agree with the Mexican people who have protested on this issue.
We know that it is not an issue of the Ecuadorian people, it is an issue of the Ecuadorian Government that is very different, but it has occurred and the United Nations, through these mechanisms, has to take action in this regard. And we have said it in several forums that have occurred through CELAC, that Bolivia is going to support the actions that Mexico is going to take as long as the beneficiary’s right to asylum is restored. And of course, exemplary sanctions are given to those who commit these violations of the statutes and international regulations.
— Recently, the Argentine Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, declared that they have reinforced the border with Bolivia because they consider it to be dangerous for the region, because they have identified Iranian fighters on said border. So, in that sense, how does the Argentine Government’s desire to become a global partner of NATO affect the region? How do you evaluate that desire?
Arce: It is putting the peace of the region at risk because we know what NATO is up to in different countries. Look at what is happening in the war between Ukraine and Russia. NATO plays a fundamental role in explaining what is happening in that part of the planet.
We totally reject the statements of the Argentine minister because they are unfounded, they do not have any evidence and [ella] He has only tried to distract attention from the crisis that Argentina is experiencing. They have 53% inflation in three months. They don’t know how to hide such inflation.
It is evident that there are no results from the policies applied by the Argentine Government in its country. The truth is that for the Bolivian case we have absolutely nothing, it is an absolutely false accusation. And that type of accusation has received a response from our Foreign Ministry, no, like a statement, because it is the level that must be responded to in the face of such baseness and irresponsibility in making statements about our country.
— Following the previous question, the head of the US Southern Command, Laura Richardson, has also practically said that she needs her country to exercise guardianship over lithium, over the lithium triangle in Latin America, in which Bolivia has a priority role . How could she comment on it?
Arce: Of course, for a long time the US has had its eyes on what we were building, which was called the Lithium Triangle, between Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, where we wanted to form a kind of OPEC to be able to regulate the price of lithium in its moment. It was a job that was done with three governments, but hey, now the situation has changed.
But without a doubt, Bolivia continues to be the world’s first lithium reserve; that has not changed. And in that sense we know that there are many interests about our country, about our lithium. We have already experienced it in the past, there are many interests, that is why we have opened ourselves up for several countries to come in a kind of competition to come healthily to invest in the direct extraction of lithium, a method to accelerate the exploitation and industrialization of Bolivian lithium .
That has happily been consolidated, there are two Chinese companies that are working adequately and the Russian company is also on the way, which has to meet some more requirements to be able to benefit from the contract that will allow it to work in the Uyuni salt flats, which is a lithium power, to be able to exploit and produce lithium carbonate and its derivatives.
Therefore, for us the issue of lithium has always worried us when there are countries that believe that a country’s reserves are their reserves. Already at the time, the lady from the Southern Command stated that there are three things that interest her: rare earths, fresh water and lithium. These three natural resources are what we have in Bolivia, so we are very attentive to be able to respond because we have to defend our sovereignty and our natural resources in Bolivia.
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