Declaration by the Continental Coordinating Committee of Social Movements in ALBA in solidarity with Snowden, Manning and Assange
To the Governments of Europe
To the Latin American People
To the United States Government
To our friends Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden,
With the aim of building a popular project for our nations, Latin American social movements fight all forms of oppression of, and imperialist domination over, people and nations. We are following with great interest what is happening to our comrades Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. Risking their own lives, they have reported from within the empire on how the military and economic complex takes advantage of communication systems and infrastructures, including the Internet, to spy, persecute and oppress people, governments and popular organisations.
We are very proud of the courage and altruism they have shown in confronting the interests of the empire.
We are concerned about their lives and their safety.
We ask the International Community to guarantee their security and that of their families.
On a different note, we would like to salute and to express our solid support for the governments of Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela which have put into practice the solidarity principle that we defend in ALBA, by offering political asylum first to Assange and now to Snowden. These governments have represented the popular will of the Latin-American people and for this reason we congratulate them. The people of Latin America offer a warm welcome to Snowden and Assange.
At the same time, we would like to ask the people of United States and the world in general to press for the immediate release of the soldier Bradley Manning, detained by the US military forces. His only crime has been to follow his conscience and to reveal the hidden methods used by the empire, such as using drones and the intelligence services, to oppress and kill.
We would like to remind the international community that in the last five year – and in only four Arab countries – the United States has killed more than 2,000 people using unmanned drones. They use their communication systems, including the Internet, to locate the “targets” for assassination, without giving their victims the right of defence in front of a jury.
To sum up:
-
We offer our solidarity and support for the governments of Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela
-
We offer our solidarity and support to Bradley, Assange and Snowden
Continental Coordinating Committee of Social Movements in ALBA
Original letter can be read here (in Spanish).