The President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia communicated by telephone with the journalist Victor Hugo Morales. They spoke in a tone of respect and camaraderie.
The Indigenous leader spoke of the amazing reception his compatriots gave him in El Alto as well as the fast and decisive reaction by neighbouring countries. “Our sister Cristina, Jose Mujica of Uruguay, our brothers Maduro and Correa from Ecuador’ are some of the leaders with whom he will meet shortly to draft a note of repudiation to his arrest and the violation of international conventions.
“All together for our dignity, not only Bolivia’s but for the whole of Latin America, for the dignity of the peoples who historically fought for liberation against the various empires,” he said.
He added, referring to the decisions made by France, Portugal, Spain and Italy “I could not understand how Europe was previously considered a champion of democracy and human rights, but then they follow the instructions of the Government of the United States “.
He accused the U.S. of wanting to intimidate him and with it the entire continent, “What is my sin? What is my crime? Being Indian? Being anti-imperialist and questioning all policies that bring inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean? That’s our offence. They were probably using their people to silence the continent, we are a people in the process of liberation, we are social movements, politicians of this 21st century and we need to free ourselves. And that’s with our own policies, policies coming from the Latin American peoples in each country and not an imposition as always happened: economic impositions from the IMF and World Bank, U.S. military impositions to influence the armed forces of Latin America and political ones to ensure that the Embassies orchestrate coups to end democratically elected governments, also those with an anti-imperialist position.”
He also referred to these times as it is the people who dominate the scene in Latin America “We cannot understand, I say this from a human perspective, that in these times of peoples, empires are still trying to prevail. These are not times for monarchies, hierarchies, but for peoples, for social movements. They fought politically to bring about transformations in Latin America. Trying to silence us is not possible, they may never be able to.”
Evo Morales thanked the solidarity and the role of social movements in creating awareness “about Latin American, our politics and our sovereignty.”
He concluded by reaffirming the will of the continent “to repudiate those European countries still trying to intimidate and to silence us. The will never silence Latin America, it will never bow down, because, I repeat, we have rights, we are a continent, we will continue dignifying Latin America and the peoples of the world. “
