John Bolton's coup confession reveals level of U.S. interference abroad: expert

QUITO, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The coup-planning confession of former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton revealed the level of U.S. interference in other countries' domestic affairs, said an international political analyst on Wednesday.

"What the statements of the former adviser to the former U.S. President Donald Trump reveal is something notorious and vox populi at the international level and we all reliably know the level of interference that the United States government has done in the countries of the region (Latin America)," Decio Machado told Xinhua in an interview.

Bolton, in an interview with CNN on Tuesday, admitted that he has helped plot coups abroad.

Machado, a geopolitical research coordinator, said the world has known about the U.S. interference in foreign countries in recent decades since the revelations of the diplomatic cables in 2010 by WikiLeaks website founded by Julian Assange.

"We have seen how the cables of the U.S. State Department themselves clarified the level of interference that U.S. diplomacy and U.S. interests have in the matters of national politics in different countries of the region, which is obviously a violation of the norms of international law," said Machado, a Spanish citizen who has been living in Ecuador for years.

"We have seen many situations of this type throughout history and in recent years that we continue to see in Latin America," said the geopolitical analyst.

Machado, who is also a sociologist and political consultant, said that in this sense, "there is nothing new" in the statements made by Bolton.

"In any case, what it does show is the level of shamelessness that the Trump administration had at the time. In other words, his own advisers do not have the slightest shame in publicly expressing that they have been part of coup plots in different Latin American countries, which I believe not only in Venezuela," Machado said.

The expert said that the attitude the United States adopts is "reprehensible" and that everyone should reject interference.

"Obviously, it is a reprehensible fact. Some governments have publicly rejected it, but this is a reality that exists and on which measures must be taken. It seems to me that the Latin American countries should have a joint position in the face of this reality," Machado said.

According to Machado, the United States has interfered in Latin American countries through the coups in Guatemala, the invasion of Granada and Panama, the 1973 coup against former Chilean President Salvador Allende, as well as the atrocities that were committed in the war in Iraq.

In addition, there were more recent events involving the United States and even some attempts by it to destabilize governments like the one in Venezuela, said Machado.

"What is clear is that the United States is disrupting international order and law with this type of interference," Machado said.