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Respect the rights of each and every nation

FeaturesRespect the rights of each and every nation

For a long time, Belize has been at a crossroad, where in reality we do not know what is going to be the country’s future, since we have a pending dispute which is at the International Court of Justice. There are those who may say whatever they wish, but no one knows the end until the ruling has been issued by the judges of the Hague. So we may speak about independence, nation, sovereignty; that is all we can do. We can ask the international leaders to respect the 8867 square miles that are supposed to be the nation state of Belize, but they don’t have to. Similarly, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, can, with all the strength that he has, demand that the international leaders that control the socio-political and economic system of the western world respect his country as an independent nation. It is assumed, since it is part of the laws and principles of the United Nations, that the first world countries should respect the decision of a people that wishes to live under whichever system of government they choose and that they would purchase the goods produced from the developing countries at a fair price, since the people also have the right to live a dignified life and to be happy, to live in peace and not in war, to respect the rights of each and every one and not that of a privileged few who obey the dictates of the imperial master. With that being said, permit me, our dear readers of this column, to present to you the following statements of President Bukele that were posted on Facebook on May 5, 2021:

They gave us independence — “go, here it is, you are now going to be a country. Not a colony, not a protectorate, you are going to be a country.” Then I believed it, well….

Nayib Bukele exposes the hypocrisy of the international community and points to the United States

100% of our diplomatic representatives are here, except for the one in charge of US affairs. I don’t know why he didn’t come; I didn’t ask him. It worries me because when you only have information on one side, well… most likely, the thing is that you will be wrong in your conclusion and that is a fact, that is, not because of whoever it is, it is simply a fact. There is no human being that can see only one side of the coin, and that can describe the coin. And it seemed to me something very strange. That there were convictions about what happened on Saturday. Very strange indeed; we did not expect an international condemnation at any time, and not because we were naive, but because there was nothing to condemn. In the US, it is a pity that he did not come, Obama did not leave the Bush fiscal system; he arrived and put his own. Trump arrived and did not leave Obama’s fiscal system either, he put his own. After a while he was not satisfied; he removed what was there and put another. And then Biden came and he did not leave Trump’s fiscal system, and nobody is demanding that he leave it, and I have not seen any international condemnation that calls for a balance of power and that Biden put in a Republican system.

Because it would be absurd to ask Biden to appoint a Republican fiscal body when it is his constitutional prerogative to appoint a Democratic fiscal body. So it would be a contradiction on our part to demand that the Democrats not exploit their triumph. So, it surprises me that when I talk to countries that have done exactly the same and they tell me that what we are doing is wrong. We envy a lot of you, your countries. We envy the development they have. We would like to be like Canada. We would like to have such an enviable health system and a social coverage system like Canada’s, we would like to be like Canada. We would like to be like Japan. I recently went to Japan, and it is an amazing country. Clean, tidy, it’s a regular thing. There, people walk at 3:00 in the morning on the street, and I think they drop their wallet and the one in the back runs out and picks it up and gives it to the owner. If they have police, it’s because they have to, but they hardly need them. It is an incredible thing, it is a developed society in every sense, not only in buildings. We would love to be like Japan. I see France here, for example; to walk through Paris, it is one thing; it is a walk by itself, we would love to have that type of infrastructure, buildings, history. Everything.

And so many countries, well I am not going to mention all of them, obviously there are many countries here that have many more things that we would like to have. But, we want to be like you, obviously a thousand times smaller, we are small, we are the size of Delaware, as I told Secretary Blinken. We know that we are small, we know our limitations, but we want to be like you. But, in order to be like you, we have to behave like you, and do what you do, not do what you say. Because then we will never be like you but only a colony, or an underdeveloped country, because we want to be friends of Spain, as we are, not a colony of Spain. Because that way we will never develop. It is that, the document that we signed that we are celebrating 200 years in 1821. I hope it was not on dead paper. They gave us independence— “go here it is, from now on you are going to be a country. Not a colony, not a protectorate, you are going to be a country.” Then I believed it, well. And I said, “Are we a country?” Yes. And sovereign? Yes, and then I said, OK.

When the United States Special Envoy for the “Northern Triangle” came here, as they have decided to call us, I always say that I don’t like being called “Northern Triangle,” although I love Guatemala and Honduras and all the Central American countries, and I think we should be the same country. But I do not agree that they call us the Northern Triangle, because in the first place we are not a triangle, and we are not north. North of what? … north of Nicaragua, but south of Mexico. But they have decided to call us that, unilaterally. One day we are going to call it the North American square. So, they tell us the Northern Triangle. And they send the special envoy, and the special envoy meets with “Ten organizations of civil society.” You did not meet with civil society, you met with the opposition! Now, is that valid? Of course it is valid. Of course it is valid here, this country is free, there is opposition here, there is no problem, but all with their just word and their just definition, they met with the opposition. That you have the right to meet with the opposition? Man, meet one hundred times with the opposition, but know that it is the opposition, it is not civil society, and that was demonstrated yesterday: “26 organizations call a demonstration”; the leaders of the 26 organizations left and 100 people came to the demonstration.

Each social organization represents 4. Do they have the right to demonstrate? Yes. Did you see people being repressed? We hit them? Did we throw tear gas at them? As is done in other countries, because I see the videos. Where the water tanks are, they throw tear gas at them, they beat them, people die demonstrating and in El Salvador we have been in government for two years and we have not used a can of tear gas. Let us develop, complying with the law, respecting the people, and one day we will never do like Canada, because we don’t have that territory, but we will do little like Canada. And our people are going to be happy and we are going to remain friends. As we have always been. But good friends let their friends develop as well. Not only … It is to say, we do not want you to feed us all the time. Thank you then, but we also want to be able to buy our food. We need them to help us to develop and to be able to buy our food or produce it or both. Not only that they give us from time to time so that we eat a little.

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December 19, 2021
Finca Solana
Corozal Town

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