Greece’s prime minister Alexis Tsipras warmly welcomed Bolivian president Evo Morales to Athens on Thursday, declaring that his efforts are inspiring to the Left throughout the world.
“Evo Morales continues, from his position of governmental responsibility, to realize true social change and popular, national sovereignty,” noted Tsipras.
“Latin America, which is where Evo Morales comes from, despite the challenges and difficulties, has always been and still is a great workshop of these changes and transformations,” the Greek PM added.
“This is why, since the beginnings of the so-called Bolivian ‘process of change’, we are watching and following this particular undertaking with great interest and strong feelings of solidarity,” he said.
Tsipras continued, “Over the last thirteen years, the Left in Bolivia led an economic miracle that prompted even the most hardline IMF executives – whom we too know here in Greece — to admit that Bolivia is a clear-cut success story.”
Tsipras’ SYRIZA party has friendly ties with left-wing parties in South America.
In late January, the party expressed “full support and solidarity” with embattled Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. The move was in contrast to the major European Union members and the U.S. and Canada, which are among the fifty nations to have thrown their support behind opposition leader Juan Guaido.
For his part, Morales compared Guaido to an erstwhile colonial viceroy and spoke out against any military intervention in the troubled country.
“Any armed intervention won’t solve social or political problems,” Morales said of Venezuela, which has been battered by hyperinflation (currently at 2.69 million percent) and widespread shortages of food and medicine.
“I salute the resistance of the Venezuelan people, despite the economic blockade, the energy blackouts, the threats of intervention,” Morales added.
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