More than 80 politicians, civic leaders and academics from eight Latin American nations have signed a letter supporting Taiwan in the face of the “climate of terror” created by the regime of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The letter of support was endorsed via videoconference in San Jose, Costa Rica, on Monday last week and since then there have been a growing number of people signing it.
The letter was presented on Monday to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Miami by Orlando Gutierrez, secretary-general of the Cuban Democratic Directorate non-governmental organization.
The significance of the declaration is that political leaders of former diplomatic allies have given their support to Taiwan and expressed opposition to China’s military threats, Gutierrez said.
It proves that “virtue is not left to stand alone,” he said. “Taiwan, which practices [virtue], will definitely have friends.”
The nations represented by those who signed the declaration were the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba.
None of have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, with the Dominican Republic the most recent to cut ties in 2018.
The declaration, in Spanish, is an “urgent call to the world and especially to the leaders of democratic nations to deplore the climate of terror promoted by the Xi Jinping regime against [Taiwan] and its President Tsai Ing-wen [蔡英文].”
It appeals to the international community to reject China’s new offensive that has arisen from closer relations between the US and Taiwan, two nations with a democratic spirit and friends of freedom.
Among those to have signed the letter are Costa Rican lawmaker Dragos Dolanescu, former Dominican Republic minister of energy and mining Pelegrin Castillo, former Mexican prosecutor Rene Bolio and Colombian Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal.
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