Bolivian president accuses US and Israel of 'practicing genocide'

Bolivian President Luis Arce addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, launching a harsh critique of the US. He accused Washington of causing pain and death globally and said that a "genocide is currently being practiced by the decision of two countries," referring to Israel and the US, in Gaza.

"Today, the echoes of war drums are sounding," Arce said, specifically targeting Washington. He argued that Donald Trump and other powerful sectors in the US have an "obsessive desire" to cause pain and death around the world.

The Bolivian president asserted that the "threat of death stalks Latin America and the Caribbean." He said the US Southern Command has mobilized in the region with "war potential," including missiles, planes, helicopters, and submarines.

According to Arce, the US argues it is in the region to "fight drug trafficking and organized crime," but claimed that, "if it were true, it would begin to confront both of these issues in its own country." He said that the deployment is actually a pretext to promote the "militarization of a region" and to carry out an "intervention in Venezuela ... which possesses extremely important natural resources, especially oil, which the North intends to control."

He said the US military operations seek to "attempt to regain control of Latin America and the Caribbean, based on undermining democracy, promoting militarization, and employing other colonialist tactics."

Arce said that the world continues to bear the consequences of wars, blockades, and unilaterally imposed sanctions, which he believes contradict the UN's founding principles.

He cited the economic blockade against Cuba as a prime example, referring to the millions in losses caused by the six-decade-long unilateral action by the US government. Arce said the blockade stemmed from "imperialism's rejection of the region's first socialist revolution."

"The threat of death also runs through the Middle East," Arce said, referring to the violence in the Gaza Strip, with the participation of Israel and the US, "which want to accelerate the displacement of the Palestinian people in the shortest possible time."