Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean, Middle East & North Africa

IRAQ: Latin America Divided Over Prospect of Imminent War

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Mar 18 2003 (IPS) - The imminent United States-led attack on Iraq is opposed by the governments of the principal nations of Latin America, while non-governmental organisations in the region accuse President George W. Bush of demolishing ”multilateralism,” the guiding principle of the United Nations.

Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela spoke out against an invasion of Iraq that lacked UN support, while Argentina reiterated its decision not to take part in the military effort in any way.

Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, on the other hand, expressed their backing for Washington on Tuesday.

The 48-hour ultimatum that Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein Monday night to leave the country with his family opened the door to a military escalation that will have inevitable political and economic consequences for the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Iraqi government immediately rejected Bush’s ultimatum, which led to an acceleration of preparations for war among the U.S. and British military contingents in the Gulf region, which will be joined by Australian forces. The assault on Iraq is expected to start as soon as Thursday.

Mexico and Chile, the two Latin American nations currently sitting on the United Nations Security Council, regretted the failure of efforts to achieve Iraqi disarmament through diplomacy, and criticised the decision by the United States, Britain and Spain to resort to the use of force.

The Brazilian government of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Monday that it rejected any action against Iraq that was not backed by the UN, while Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckauf supported Chilean President Ricardo Lagos’ proposal to set a three-week deadline for Iraq to disarm.

In Cuba, Granma, the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, provided heavy coverage of the preparations for war in Iraq, to which the government of Fidel Castro is staunchly opposed.

In Venezuela, Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton expressed his government’s opposition to an armed conflict, especially in an area as vital to the oil market as the Middle East.

But the Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe adhered to the Azores Declaration that emerged from a brief summit Sunday between Bush and British, Spanish and Portuguese prime ministers Tony Blair, José María Aznar, and José Manuel Durao Barroso, who met at a military base in that Portuguese archipelago.

Presidents Francisco Flores of El Salvador, Ricardo Maduro of Honduras, Enrique Bolaños of Nicaragua, and Mireya Moscoso of Panama also expressed their support for Bush, in a joint declaration released Tuesday. ”The moment for the government of Iraq to disarm has arrived,” they said.

The declaration was issued by the four leaders in the framework of the Central American Integration System, whose other members are Belize, Costa Rica and Guatemala, which have not yet officially commented on the U.S. decision to attack Iraq.

Political, social and religious leaders as well as analysts highlighted the positions taken by Mexico and Chile, which defended multilateralism in the UN Security Council and withstood heavy U.S. pressure to line up behind the war effort.

”We share the goals, values and aims of the United States, Britain and Spain. However, we disagree on this occasion on the timing and procedures” for securing Iraq’s disarmament, said Mexican President Vicente Fox in a two-hour message to the nation after Bush’s speech in Washington.

”Mexico reiterates (its support for) the multilateral approach towards conflict resolution, and laments the route of war,” said Fox. ”The world must continue promoting solutions that live up to the letter and spirit of the UN charter.”

On Tuesday, Chile’s Foreign Ministry reiterated its rejection of a military intervention, and expressed ”profound disappointment that the members of the Security Council have not been able to come up with a response to this crisis in the multilateral arena.”

The coordinator of the environmental organisation Sustainable Chile and former presidential candidate Sara Larraín told IPS that Mexico and Chile had assumed a stance of great integrity ”that placed them on the same level as European countries like France and Germany, which have greater real autonomy vis-a-vis the United States.”

She pointed to ”a strengthening of Latin American diplomacy, because the positions taken by Chile and Mexico were not isolated, but included constant regional consultations, especially with Brazil.”

Former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castañeda said ”It was very fortunate for Latin America that the region’s two seats on the Security Council are held by countries with strong, clear positions, that are led by great statesmen.”

”Mexico and Chile more or less got off the hook in the Security Council because they didn’t have to vote on a resolution,” José Luis Piñeiro, a professor at the Autonomous Metropolitan University of Mexico, told IPS.

”But that won’t last long,” he added, ”because if they continue to act coherently with their positions and their discourses in favour of negotiations and peace, they will still have to confront Washington’s unilateral attitude against Iraq in the Council itself.”

”We are witnessing the imposition of a superpower,” said Larraín. ”Bush is demolishing 60 years of efforts by the global society. With this, there is no international governability possible in the future. There is only a unilateral approach (by Washington) keen on governing the UN.”

Daniel Camacho, the coordinator of the Commission for the Defence of Human Rights in Central America, commented to IPS that Bush was strengthening unilateralism, scorning international law, weakening the UN system, and ”arrogantly” exporting its own particular world view and vision of democracy.

The National Commission of Justice and Peace of Chile’s bishops’ conference stated its ”categorical rejection” of Bush’s ultimatum Tuesday.

”This unilateral measure is weakening the global forum (the UN), which, despite its obvious shortcomings, has been an expression of progress for humanity,” said the statement.

Larraín noted that unilateralism has been a constant factor of the Bush administration’s policies, as demonstrated by its rejection of international agreements on the environment like the Kyoto Protocol, the Convention on Climate Change, and the Biosafety Protocol.

The U.S. government is also rejecting a multilateral approach towards the defence of human rights by boycotting the International Criminal Court, the activist added.

Coral Pey, the head of the Chilean branch of the Alliance for Fair and Responsible Trade, told IPS that the United States was not likely to take reprisals against Chile, such as cancelling the free trade deal that the two countries finished negotiating in December 2002, since that would hurt U.S. credibility in the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).