Latin America Revolt US Violations

Argentina and Brazil are planning a coordinated response to US spying in Latin America, officials said Thursday.

The two countries’ foreign ministers met in Buenos Aires to discuss US cyber-spying on Brazil and other Latin American allies, amid a diplomatic row over the practice.

Argentina’s Hector Timerman and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado noted the need to “advance the development of cyber tools to protect communications and strategic information storage,” a statement said.
The two countries need to “coordinate positions and joint actions” in their response to the espionage, it added.

Earlier this month, Brazilian daily O Globo, citing documents provided by fugitive US leaker Edward Snowden, reported widespread spying by the US National Security Agency, including on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s email communications and on the state-run energy giant Petrobras.

Following the revelations, Rousseff postponed a long-planned state visit to Washington — an embarrassment for President Barack Obama and a blow to his efforts to improve ties with the key Latin American power.
“Brazil reflected the sentiments of the whole region,” in her decision the defer the visit, Timerman told reporters at a joint press conference with Figueiredo.

For his part, Bolivian President Evo Morales will file a lawsuit against the US government for crimes against humanity. He decried the US for its intimidation tactics and fear-mongering after the Venezuelan presidential jet was blocked from entering US airspace.
“I would like to announce that we are preparing a lawsuit against Barack Obama to condemn him for crimes against humanity,” said President Morales at a press conference in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. He branded the US president as a “criminal” who violates international law.

In solidarity with Venezuela, Bolivia will begin preparing a lawsuit against the US head of state to be taken to the international court. Furthermore, Morales has called an emergency meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States [CELAC] to discuss what has been condemned by Venezuela as “an act of intimidation by North American imperialism.”

The Bolivian president suggested that the members of CELAC withdraw their ambassadors from the US to send a message to the Obama Administration.
As an additional measure he will call on the member nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas to boycott the next meeting of the UN Members of the Alliance include Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Saint Lucia.
The US cannot be allowed to continue with its policy of intimidation and blockading presidential flights,” stressed Morales.

The Venezuelan government announced on Thursday that President Nicolas Maduro’s plane had been denied entry into Puerto Rican [US] airspace.
“We have received the information from American officials that we have been denied travel over its airspace,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said, speaking to reporters during an official meeting with his South African counterpart. Jaua decried the move “as yet another act of aggression on the part of North American imperialism against the government of the Bolivarian Republic.”