by the El Reportero’s wire services
Francisco Flores Pérez
‘INDEFENSIBLE’: Former El Salvadoran president Francisco Flores Perez said that Beijing had no right to insist that its allies sever relations with Taipei.
Countries that have turned their backs on Taiwan will one day face the consequences of their actions, former El Salvadoran president Francisco Flores Perez said in Taipei.
Flores also said that China had no right to force its allies to sever relations with Taiwan as a condition to establishing ties with Beijing.
In an interview with the Taipei Times conducted on Friday, Flores, who led the Central American country from 1999 to 2004, said it was “morally indefensible” for China to require countries to dump Taiwan in order to become China’s ally.
“The request is morally indefensible because it is an intervention in another country’s sovereignty and China has no right to make such demands,” he said.
Flores asserted that, in the era of globalization, countries benefit where there is a diversity in their foreign relations. However, the diversity should not come at the expense of another sovereign nation, he said.
When asked if he believed Costa Rica’s abrupt break-up with Taiwan last June could trigger a domino effect in Central America, Perez declined to comment, except to say that countries that snuggle up with Beijing, thinking that they would profit from an economic boom, are suffering from an “illusion.”
(The Miami Herald and Taipei Times contributed with this report).
Bolivia back at brink of institutional breakdown
Bolivia has been taken again to the brink of institutional breakdown, with the opposition rejecting the new constitution approved by the constituent assembly as illegal, and four departments approving statutes of unilateral autonomy which clash openly with the new draft constitution. The government accuses them of promoting secession and plotting a coup, and has said that it will use the military against any attempt to ‘divide’ Bolivia.
Nebot leads massive protest in Ecuador
Around 120,000 people joined the protest march led by Jaime Nebot, the mayor of Guayaquil, on 24 January. The size of the anti-government demonstration, in which all the protesters wore white, was bigger than either the government or Nebot had expected. The demonstration reinforces Nebot’s role as the leader of the opposition to the government of President Rafael Correa. The big question for him is whether he can expand his support beyond Guayaquil.
Chávez pushes for withdrawal of international reserves from U.S. banks
CARACAS: The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, urged his Latin American allies to begin withdrawing billions of dollars in international reserves from U.S. banks, warning of a looming U.S. economic crisis.
Chávez made the suggestion Saturday as he hosted a summit aimed at increasing Latin American integration and countering U.S. infl uence.
“We should start to bring our reserves here,” Chávez said. “Why does that money have to be in the north? You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
To help pool resources within the region, Chávez and other leaders launched a new development bank at the summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA.
The left-leaning regional trade alliance supported by Chávez is intended to offer an alternative, socialist path to integration while snubbing U.S.-backed freetrade deals.
Chávez pushes for withdrawal of international reserves from U.S. banks Chávez noted that the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, visited Colombia in recent days, saying “that has to do with this summit.”
“The empire doesn’t accept alternatives,” Chávez told the gathering, attended by the presidents of Bolivia and Nicaragua, the vice president of Cuba, Carlos Lage, and other leaders. Chávez warned that U.S. “imperialism is entering into a crisis that can affect all of us” and said Latin America “will save itself alone.”
