Latin American Report

"The Current Bombings" by Noam Chomsky (4/4/1999)

The Left and Latin America

Mexico's Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN), the civilian support group for the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), stated on Apr. 20 that the bombing

"is not aimed at protecting the rights of the Kosovar people, reduced by the chauvinistic Greater Serbia policy of the government of [Yugoslav president Slobodan] Milosevic, but to advance a step further along the way of putting an end to the boundaries that previously existed, both in the sphere of national states and in the international community . . . .

The government of [US president Bill] Clinton, but above all the financial oligarchy, sends a message to the world: there is no problem, large or small, that is not under the aegis of the United States . . . .

The only way out the FZLN can propose as ethically and humanly correct is the non-intervention of external powers in the conflict. The ethnic groups that share the same territory in Kosovo are the only ones which, by means of dialogue, can and should protect their rights of self-determination and their forms of coexistence."
[FZLN statement 4/20/99]

Two leaders of Argentina's Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini and Hebe de Mascia, traveled to Belgrade, Yugoslavia's capital, in mid-April. The organization is composed of mothers whose children disappeared in the 1976-83 "dirty war" carried out by a US-backed military dictatorship against Argentine leftists and activists.

"[W]e are not here to support one sector against another, but to say to all of you that the only enemy is imperialism," the leaders said. "This Yugoslav land today is fragmented by the interests and the manipulations of the great powers. The United States and its allies are the worst enemy of humanity.... Beloved Yugoslav mothers, dear women who struggle: we are here together with you to struggle for peace and dignity. We, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, will carry our message to the world, because we don't believe that missiles and bombs are the way to build a peace. We believe in the word, in dialogue and in the love of life." [Message from Belgrade 4/17/99]

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