Ecuadorean General René Vargas Pazzos delivered his speech at the International Conference Axis for Peace, held in Brussels on November 17 and 18, 2005 by Voltaire Network and he made an analysis of the international situation. “During the Cold War, the United States supported Latin American dictatorships to contain communism”, explained the former Chief of Staff of the Army and former Minister of Energy of Ecuador. “That war was cruel and violent. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States monopolized power and encouraged its great companies to see themselves as a conquering army. The purpose was to get the monopoly of resources and raw materials. They have fabricated pretexts to launch a military attack against Iraq and perhaps, very soon, against Iran.”
A member in his country of the Group that studies the effects of Plan Colombia along with the Human Rights Defense Movements, General Vargas denounced the myth of the “war on terrorism.” By refusing to describe the peoples and the groups that resist as “terrorists”, Mr. Vargas Pazzos affirmed: “If they are described as ‘terrorists’, then we have to say that all wars are ‘terrorism’.”
“At the end of the Cold War, he explained, and with the emergence of a unipolar world, we began WW IV”, a predatory war promoted and globalized to control energy resources, raw materials and water. “States like Russia and China, which have nuclear weapons, withdrew to let the United States emerge as a victorious force,” he regretted.
General Vargas Pazzos particularly demanded stronger solidarity among countries and the peoples with the purpose of containing that hegemonic project by adding that in Latin America such an initiative has been reflected in the need to go ahead with the current continental integration process. “This great event organized by Voltaire Network allows us to speak freely and to come together. Because united we stand!” concluded the former Ecuadorean Army Chief of Staff in his speech.