Bonaire, January 29, 2019
To: CARICOM and all Caribbean leaders
Subject: Ultimatum for Venezuela equals ultimatum for the
Caribbean to unify to maintain a peaceful democratic Caribbean
Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen:
With reference to our attached letter of June 11, 2018
urging the CARICOM and the Caribbean region to intervene and object to prevent
an armed conflict in the Caribbean, we herewith would like to bring the
following to your attention:
We regretfully took note that the Dutch government continued
on its path to destabilize the peaceful Caribbean region after serving a term last
year in the UN Security Council which primary objective is to prevent
conflicts.
After the UK and France launched an ultimatum against the
sovereign state of Venezuela recently, the Dutch Foreign Minister, Mr. Blok,
announced that the Netherlands will join them if Venezuela does not comply.
Yesterday, this provocation escalated when the Prime
Minister of Curacao Mr. Ruggenaath, whose government last week has been forced
by the Dutch government to surrender its limited autonomy back under Dutch
control and rule, declared the same.
Curacao, together with Aruba and our island Bonaire, being
the closest neighboring island to the Venezuelan coast, consider this a direct
escalation, provocation, and violation of UN Charter’s guiding principles of
non-interference and non-intervention, and respect for sovereignty and affairs
of states, is directed by the Dutch government from The Hague.
This is a highly hypocritical approach by the Dutch
government which has continued colonization of its Caribbean dependencies and
recently has erased the democratic rights of the Dutch Caribbean islands by:
- forcing
the democratically elected Curacao government to surrender its limited autonomy
and accept direct higher supervision from The Hague with control over the
budget and all judiciary powers and intervention powers remaining
unilaterally in the Dutch Parliament in The Hague;
- destabilizing
and forcing the democratically elected government of St. Maarten after the
natural disaster of hurricane Irma to surrender its limited autonomy and
border control, budgetary, judiciary and went as far as they will to
approve or who will be appointed in the government positions and are
completely backed under Dutch rule and control;
- forcing
the local government of Bonaire, which has surrendered already all the
tax-revenues and powers to the Dutch government, under threat to accept an
undemocratic program-manager above the locally elected government to
govern and only accountable to The Hague;
- undemocratically abusive actions of its unilateral legislative powers and military and police powers to depose the legitimate elected government of Sint Eustatius and appointing a non-elected ruler and depriving the citizens of St Eustatius of their democratic rights by blocking a free election.
Ironically all this is happening at this same moment, and is
kept under the radar where the Dutch government is taking the front-line in
this provocation towards an armed conflict where his re-colonized ABC islands
inhabitants, all innocent humble friendly Caribbean peoples would be in the first
line of retaliation and can easily be wiped out, and ethnically cleansed
meanwhile the command will remain safely in The Hague, in Europe.
It would be no coincidence, because the ABC islands, all
within eyesight's from each other, are all equipped with international military
standards airports and deep harbors. That could be the mayor reason behind this
war-campaign. The Dutch seem to be glancing back at their horrific colonial
past, and, via war-economics and military actions, look to enrich themselves to
become again one of world’s richest countries.
We would like this letter to be a serious warning to the
Caribbean as the colonizing powers headed by UK, France, and the Netherlands,
and backed by US, who all share the mayor colonial interests to remain in the
Caribbean region, to have finally shown their real intentions. They are back on
track to repossess their former colonies, and attempt to turn back the colonial
clock if possible.
The intentions and tactics are very clear, as the Dutch
promoted, supported and financed the division, destruction, and dissolution of
the Netherlands Antilles on October 10, 2010, and recolonized the Dutch
Antillean islands. The same tactics of destruction are carried forward to the
Caribbean level, to divide the Caribbean, and stop the unification and
integration process of the Caribbean.
We wish to make a dramatic call to all Caribbean leaders to
use this moment as a wake-up call, and to stand up for all Caribbean peoples.
As we all came in the same boats, we all are still in the
same boat. We all have the same common right to emancipation and freedom. We
must unite and fight together to maintain a peaceful Caribbean, and to actively
help to decolonize the Caribbean.
There is no free
Caribbean until all Caribbean peoples are truly free.
Sincerely yours,
James Finies, We want Bonaire Back
