01/04/2020
The ABJD repudiates the US military action against Cuba and Venezuela
The BRAZILIAN ASSOCIATION OF JURISTS FOR DEMOCRACY - ABJD - through its Secretariat of International Relations, publicly expresses its vehement condemnation of the measures taken by the U.S. government on April 1st, 2020, classified as a "counter-narco-terrorism operation," but which, in fact, are directed against the governments of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of Cuba:
1 - on March 26th , 2020, the U.S. government launched a "plan" for a "peaceful transition" in Venezuela, in which no other government was consulted; in the same "plan," the U.S. offered a reward for the arrest of the President of Venezuela for his alleged involvement in international drug trafficking;
2 - on April 1st , 2020, the U.S. announced military activities in the South Atlantic and Caribbean, with the clear intention of blocking the arrival of any humanitarian and medical aid to Cuba and Venezuela, whose objective is to exert more pressure on these Caribbean and South American countries to change their governments in favour of the same U.S;
3 - the U.S. decision violates international treaties, especially the United Nations Charter, when it recognizes in its Article 2 the sovereign equality of all members of the United Nations and the peaceful resolution of disputes;
4 - the U.S. decision violates the humanitarian right to medical assistance, whether in times of epidemics, pandemics or armed conflicts, configured in the Geneva Convention and its Additional Protocols since 1949;
5 - the decision, which is in line with the Covid-19 crisis, is even more unacceptable, given the international effort to contain the advances of a pandemic of planetary proportions, inspiring the UN Secretary General to call for a "global truce" to conflicts around the world.
For all these objective reasons of International Law, and in the name of respect for the self-determination of all peoples, which is the principle of Brazilian international relations, the ABJD repudiates the US military action against Cuba and Venezuela. What the U.S. qualifies as the fight against international drug trafficking is the disguise for the attack on the legitimate governments of other countries, at a time of global health fragility, with the pandemic unleashed by CONVID-19, and which demands, contrary to the U.S. position, solidarity and unity of effort and peoples.
