Latin America left-wing parties support Catalonia's self-determination vote scheduled in November

Barcelona (ACN).- The final declaration of the 2014 São Paulo Forum, which brings together around 100 left-wing parties from Central and South America, has demonstrated explicit support for Catalonia's self-determination vote, which is foreseen for the 9th of November. The 20^th edition of the Encuentro del Foro de São Paulo, which took place in La Paz (Bolivia) between the 25^th and the 29^th of August, gathered together most of the parties that are now running the governments of Spain and Portugal's former colonies in Latin America. Some of the parties that have signed the Declaration are Chile's Socialist Party, Brazil's Party of the Workers, Equador's Alianza País and Bolivia's Socialist Movement, who run their respective national governments.  The support statement was proposed to be included by 3 Catalan parties: the left-wing independence party ERC, the Catalan green socialist party ICV and the radical left and independence party CUP. Other political families have previously given their support to such a vote, such as the International Liberal and the European Greens. The two big political families that have not backed Catalonia's self-determination process yet are precisely those where Spain's two main parties have a significant presence: the European People's Party and the European Socialist Party.

The main left-wing parties in Latin America have approved a point, included in the final report of the Forum, which explicitly backs Catalonia's right to self-determination and the independence vote scheduled for the 9^th of November. The Foro de São Paulo "expresses its support to the Catalan democratic process for Catalonia's citizenry to be able to exercise their right to decide [on their collective future] as a people". In addition they "applaud the consensus reached among a majority of representatives of the Catalan Parliament and Catalan civil society to hold a consultation vote on Catalonia's political future, which is foreseen for the 9^th of November 2014".

The agreement to hold such a vote was backed by a two third majority of the Catalan Parliament and is also backed by Catalonia's National Alliance for Self-determination, which brings together more than 3,000 political parties, institutions, trade unions, employers' associations, chambers of commerce, cultural and social NGOs, etc.

In addition, the resolution backed by 100 left-wing parties from Latin America "asks for setting up negotiations between the institutions and the Spanish State and the Catalan institutions with the aim to identify the conditions that will guarantee the exercise of the Catalan people's democratic right to self-determination".