ALBA countries join chorus condemning “Contras” interference in Syria

ALBA countries join chorus condemning “Contras” interference in Syria
Voltaire Network – 7 February 2012

In a statement issued during the eleventh summit of the organization, the nine members of the ALBA bloc (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) rejected on Sunday the “systematic policy of interference and destabilization” that seeks to “impose by force on the Syrian people a regime change.”

The ALBA resolution condemns the “acts of armed violence that paramilitary groups supported by foreign powers have unleashed against the Syrian people.”

The heads of States members of the organization for Latin American integration have further lent support to the “national reform process initiated by the government of President Bashar al-Assad,” who seeks a “political solution to the current crisis respectful of the Syrian people’s sovereignty and the territorial integrity of that Arab country.”

The Atlanticist and Gulf States, and their communication relays, accuse the Syrian government of brutally quelling peaceful protests. On the other hand, the Syrian government maintains that these same countries have been sponsoring the armed groups responsible for the sabotage operations occurring in the country, which have killed several thousand citizens, both civilian and military. The Arab League monitors have disqualified their own governments’s accusations and to a large extent validated the Syrian’s Governments version of events.

While the cynicism underpinning the destabilization strategy underway may leave many Europeans incredulous, the same does not apply in the case of Latin America. There, the role of the “Contras” is still fresh people’s minds, and the parallel with the Syrian situation is made immediately.

These armed groups (in Spanish: “Counter-Revolutionary”) were sponsored and trained first by the Argentinian dictatorship, acting as a sub-contractor, then directly by the Carter and Reagan administrations to overthrow the socialist government of Nicaragua during the 1980’s. They launched raids targeting the economy and the population of Nicaragua from rear bases located in Honduras.

This phony civil war, orchestrated by the United States against a sovereign state and a people, is estimated to have caused 57 000 casualties, including 29,000 dead. …more