By: Kayhan International

Better late than never. Although the people of Latin America have long been the target of the illegal Zionist entity’s crimes against humanity through its supply of weapons, instruments of torture, and torturers to pro-US regimes for the brutal persecution of the masses, the awakening against Tel Aviv’s network of terrorism has now begun to be felt more clearly.
The governments of Central and South America have at last realized the genocidal nature of Israel in the wake of the ongoing holocaust of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for more than a year.
Recently Nicaragua broke diplomatic relations with Israel by calling it “the enemy of humanity.”
The resolution passed in Managua added: “Nicaragua stands against genocide, occupation and permanent aggression against the life and dignity of the Palestinian people, which is now spreading to the people of Lebanon and seriously threatening Syria, Yemen, and Iran, endangering peace and security in the region and the world.”
The decision by President Daniel Ortega to cut ties with the Zionist entity over the war in Gaza follows similar decisions by Bolivia in November and Colombia in May – the latter’s break in relations marked the end to seven decades of the brutal suppression of the Colombian people by the various pro-US regimes in Bogota with Israeli and American weapons.
Human rights advocates note the supply of Israeli weapons, along with torturers, to some of the most hated military regimes in Latin America, such as those that used to rule Chile, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.
This resulted in Israeli-directed scorched earth campaigns, the bombing, burning and bulldozing of entire villages in the countryside, and death squad killings in the cities, leading to the deaths of 200,000 people in Guatemala alone.
The unabated genocide in Gaza that has so far slaughtered 43,000 men, women, and children, the aerial attacks on Syria that continue to claim innocent lives, the assassination of Iranian scientists and military advisers coupled with threats to attack the Islamic Republic, and plot to unleash a holocaust on Lebanon, do not come as a surprise.
It were these US-supported Israeli crimes against humanity that made Hugo Chavez the late president of Venezuela break diplomatic ties with Israel in April 2009 in the wake of the 2008-2009 22-day Israeli atrocities in Gaza, and establishment of formal diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority by the then foreign minister and now president, Nicolás Maduro.
According to estimates, the number of Latin American citizens of Palestinian descent in various countries are almost one million, with Chile having around half-a-million nationals of Palestinian origin (Christians and Muslims).
Chilean Palestinians have been at the forefront of rallies in Santiago against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and this explains Chile’s request, along with Mexico to the International Criminal Court’s board of juries investigating Israel’s crimes in Gaza.
Latin America also has large populations of citizens of Arab origin from Lebanon and Syria as well who have associations of their own and who lobby their governments to support the rights of the Palestinian people.
This growing conscientiousness in Latin America augurs well for promotion of human rights in West Asia and the swiftly approaching end of US-Israeli brutalities in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and all over the world.