Let's stop them turning Latin America into a new Middle East!

The enemies of the Palestinian people – with Trump, Netanyahu and Bolsonaro at their head – and the powers that for 25 years have bloodied the Middle East with aggressive and destructive wars are on the attack in Latin America.

The facts are multiplying and cannot be ignored by the friends of the Palestinian people: among others, Bolsonaro's close ties to Israel; Netanyahu's presence in Brazil at the time of Bolsonaro's inauguration; the proclaimed intention of the Brazilian government to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem – on the heels of Trump's illegal decision –, while devaluing the official Palestinian presence in Brazil; Israel's support for the coup in Venezuela, triggered by the US proclamation of a “president” who was never voted for by the popular vote; the Israeli military presence in Brazil, under the pretext of humanitarian assistance to the victims of the Brumadinho dam catastrophe and in violation of Brazilian legality.

The executioners of the Palestinian people – who continue the massacre of thousands of Palestinian protesters in the Great March of Return and persist in violating all international legality, in matters as crucial as the construction of the apartheid Wall or the systematic alteration of the demographic reality in the territory occupied in 1967, through the settlements and expulsions of the Palestinian population – are now extending their permanent destabilization and warmongering to the American continent. This is a warning sign that all friends of the Palestinian cause cannot ignore.

MPPM warns that the implementation of the putschist plans meant yesterday in Brazil, and would certainly mean in Venezuela, a severe setback for the cause of the Palestinian people, depriving it of important allies at the international level. The statements by the Palestinian Authority and most Palestinian political organizations in support of President Nicolás Maduro, who at the start of his second term reiterated Venezuela's solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence, are along these lines. It would also mean a dangerous strengthening of Israel on the international stage, which would encourage its criminal oppression of the Palestinian people and the realization of its threats of  a military attack on Iran, in the wake of its increasingly frequent incursions against Syria.

The governments of the USA, of some NATO European powers and of Israel are active promoters of the destabilizing “regime change” operations aimed at reversing the processes of sovereign affirmation of Latin America and reverting that region to its traditional subordinate position — with the same contempt for the sovereignty of peoples, international law, peace and truth that they revealed in Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries. What drives this offensive are not humanitarian or democratic concerns – which even sound grotesque in the mouths of Trump, Bolsonaro or Netanyahu. They are ambitions to dominate and control gigantic wealth (such as Venezuela's huge reserves of oil, gold and other minerals) and to crush governments that assert independent and sovereign policies, particularly in terms of energy and finance —, the same ambitions already revealed by a quarter century of wars and interference in the Middle East.

The open threats of US military intervention in Venezuela – which Juan Guaidó has already publicly endorsed – and the bravado of the US National Security Adviser, Bolton, to imprison President Maduro in Guantánamo, are ample proof of the warmongering nature of the artisans of this operation and of the real dangers of war in Latin America. A war that, as the experience of a quarter of a century in the Middle East proves, would only bring death, destruction and fragmentation of countries, chaos. A tragedy for the peoples of the region, which would open the door to the plundering of Venezuela's natural resources by the large multinationals based in the countries that promote the aggression. But it would also be a tragedy for other peoples and countries – and as the reality in the Middle East also dramatically proves –, causing new flows of fugitives and refugees, which might affect the important Portuguese-descendant community of Venezuela and Brazil, with direct impact in Portugal.

MPPM draws attention to the fact that in the case of Venezuela, the argument always invoked by the Portuguese government for not recognizing the State of Palestine, as recommended by the Assembly of the Republic [Parliament] and required by the most elementary historical justice – not wanting to take decisions that were not consensual within the European Union –, has been shamelessly ignored. The Portuguese government's decision to go along with the operation launched by Trump was not approved at the EU level, where it encountered opposition or reservations from countries such as Italy, Greece and Ireland. The Portuguese government chose to exchange the proclaimed European solidarity for the undignified submission to Donald Trump and Netanyahu. This position is all the more reprehensible given the contempt and arrogance they show in their relations with the EU and the United Nations.

In this context, MPPM can only strongly condemn the Portuguese government's position of involving Portugal in strategies of aggression and interference that marginalise the UN and violate international law, the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and the UN Charter, namely the principles of peace, respect for the sovereignty of countries and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, strategies that will further strengthen the growth of the most violent extreme right-wing that disrespects the rights of peoples and international law, as well as terrorist forces, as proven in the Middle East. The media campaigns accompanying events in Latin America are intense and frightening. But we know, from the experience of 25 years of destruction in the Middle East, that they are also monumentally false and have catastrophic consequences.

MPPM appeals to the friends of the Palestinian cause and of the peoples of the Middle East, to all the Portuguese who wish to live in a world of peace and respect for the sovereignty of peoples, to condemn the alignment of the Portuguese authorities with the dangerous warmongering and putschist operations of the United States of America, Israel and NATO countries and to demand that the Portuguese government – freed from the self-imposed commitment to consensualise its decisions with the European Union – recognize the State of Palestine within the borders of 1967 and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

It is time to demand peace, respect for the rights and sovereignty of peoples and the UN Charter. Let us not let them turn Latin America into a new Middle East!

10 February 2019

The National Directorate of MPPM