opinion

Anti-US sentiment is running high in Latin America against the unjust interference of the US in its internal affairs.

The Mexican president criticized the US government institutions for interfering in the internal affairs of Mexico in his recent letter to the US president. Referring to the fact that the US Agency for International Development (AID), in particular, is giving financial support to a Mexican NGO for ulterior purposes, he denounced it as an act contrary to the principle of respect for sovereignty and strongly urged the US to take a step to stop such activities. Earlier, in June and August he derided the US, saying it “has a bad habit of poking its nose into anything” as its foreign policy was established in the era of Monroe Doctrine. He noted that the Mexican government is not a subordinate one and branded the US attempt to never recognize the presidential election results in Venezuela as reckless, appealing to the international community not to accept such interventionism.

In May the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, in a statement strongly rejecting the US application of new sanctions against the objects based in Nicaragua, condemned the continuous attempts of the US and its western allies, which resort to all means and methods to break the anti-imperialist and independent stand and patriotic will of the Nicaraguan government.

The voices of protest against the US interference is rising in Latin America, which is a reflection of the reality aspiring after independence.

The US moves for aggression and intervention to turn Latin America into its "quiet backyard" on the basis of the Monroe Doctrine and "a big stick" policy have continued persistently century after century and today they get craftier as the regional aspirations to independence grow stronger.

The more persistently and viciously the US attempts to dominate Latin America, the harder the regional countries work with their concerted efforts to reject it and achieve independent development.

In 1973 the Caribbean countries established the Caribbean Community, followed by the establishment of the South American common Market (MERCOSUR) in 1991 and the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americans (ALBA) (later renamed the Bolivar Union for the Americans-People Trade Agreement) for America rejecting the US plan for the establishment of the American Free Trade Zone in 2004, and the South American National Union (UNASUR) was formed on the basis of the Mercosur and Andes Community in 2008.

In 2011, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, comprising a total of 33 countries in the American continent, except the US and Canada, was founded, weakening the monopolistic influence and position of the US-led Organization of American States and providing a favourable condition for the independent integration and development of the region.

As the US decided to exclude some countries including Venezuela and Nicaragua from the summit of the Organization of American States on the pretext of “concern over human rights and lack of democracy”, the 21st ALBA-TCT(La Alianza Bolivariana Tara Los Tueblos De Nuestra America-Tratado De Conercio De Los Tueblos) summit meeting in 2022 announced a declaration to censure the US moves for dividing and encouraging feuds among them.

Many countries showed positive response to the plan for reducing dependence on US dollar and promoting the integration of the regional economy by issuing a South American common currency at the seventh summit meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States held in January last year.

The public sentiment of Latin America is turning its back on the US not simply because of the historical, national and cultural differences existing between Anglo-Saxon North America and Latins-centered Latin America. It is because that the US, steeped in its anachronistic thought of domination that Latin America is its “quiet backyard”, is suppressing the aspirations of Latin American countries for independent development by all means of sanctions, pressure and interference in their internal affairs.

The growing aspirations for independence against the US eloquently proves that the US policy for domination and its wild ambition for hegemony, which originate in the Monroe Doctrine, are confronted with final ruin.