I AM VERY proud to be attending and speaking at this year’s Latin America Conference. It is difficult to think of a more pertinent time for us to come together to strengthen our solidarity with the peoples of Latin America.

It has been one month since the United States bombed Venezuela and kidnapped its president. The British Prime Minister has still not been able to acknowledge a fact that was obvious to us all: invading a sovereign nation and abducting its head of state is illegal.

It’s not that the former human rights lawyer didn’t understand. He understood full well — and chose to desecrate the meaning of international law to protect the vanity of Donald J Trump.

Even though Nicolas Maduro is still imprisoned in a United States jail, much of our political and media class have chosen to forgive and forget. For many of them, there was nothing to forgive to begin with.

Last week, the United States declared an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” authorising new sanctions and tightening its illegal blockade. Cuba has been enduring United States sanctions since 1962.

Today, Cuba already faces severe fuel shortages, with blackouts stretching daily and essential services collapsing under the weight of sanctions and depleted imports. Many people wake up in homes without electricity or running water. With these new, deepened sanctions, Cuba’s remaining oil stocks could run out within weeks. This is economic warfare, plain and simple — and millions of people will suffer.

This harm will not just befall the people of Cuba, but millions more across the wider region. Mexico, for example, is a key trading partner of both the United States and Cuba. If it continues its shipments to Cuba, it will be hit hard by the United States, which has warned that continued support could trigger tariffs on its economy. Venezuela, too, finds itself backed into a corner, forced to choose between the interests of its own people and the dictates of an empire.

Trump’s aim is so obvious: he is trying to starve Cuba into submission. Just as he confessed after the invasion of Venezuela, Trump has been clear: this siege is about regime change and — ultimately — for the theft of natural resources. It is a mistake to view Trump as a crazed madman acting with no rhyme or reason.

From the illegal kidnapping in Venezuela to the sanctions on Cuba, Trump’s actions are not the signs of lunatic. They are signs of determined and dangerous individual, driven by an unending desire to seize control and resources across the globe.

As Trump declared back in April last year, “I run the country and the world.”

Once we understand the imperial ideology behind Trump’s fantasies, it is easier to connect our solidarity with the peoples of Latin America with oppressed peoples around the world.

Take Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” in Gaza. I call it a Board of Thieves, a Board of Rogues, and a Board of Occupation. I can’t think of anything more sickening than using genocide as a real estate opportunity.

First, the US sponsored crimes against humanity in Gaza. Now, the president wants to build luxury resorts on the mass graves of Palestinians. The future of Gaza is not up to Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu or Tony Blair. That is up to the Palestinian people — and only the Palestinian people.

Deep beneath the rubble of Gaza is international law, buried by the US and Britain together. It is the same debris that allowed Donald Trump to bomb Venezuela with impunity. When the powerful speak of a “rules-based international order” — they mean rules for others, and impunity for themselves.

This weekend’s conference is an opportunity for us to, above all, strengthen our solidarity with the people of Latin America. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the kind of foreign policy we should be defending. Unlike Reform, Labour and the Tories, I think Britain’s foreign policy should be decided by Britain, not the United States.

For too long, Britain has blindly followed the United States as it indulges in disastrous imperial fantasies around the world. It’s time to forge a different path. Now is not to the time to try and rescue a “special relationship” characterised by impunity, genocide and war.

Now is the time to forge an independent foreign policy based on international law and peace.

An independent foreign policy isn’t the same as an isolationist one. Far from it. It means understanding the changing nature of our multipolar world. When I was Labour leader, I wanted to develop an entirely new foreign policy that broke with principles of domination and imperialism. One that empowers nations in the global South — not the IMF and the World Bank — to decide their own economic future. One that forges a​ partnership of equals, based on co-operation and mutual respect.

A partnership of equals will not emerge without significant reform of the United Nations — starting with abolishing the veto of the five permanent members of the security council: the US, Britain, France, China and Russia. An expanded, rolling membership would help to build a more equal, responsive and democratic application of international law. If Britain wanted to be a leader on the world stage, it should have the moral courage to advocate for a system of equals, not one that allows a few powerful nations to hijack global peace.

An independent foreign policy is one that understands all of the challenges we face: global inequality, displacement and environmental disaster. Last month, the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, declared a “state of catastrophe” after wildfires tore through the Nuble and Biobio regions. Eighteen people have been killed. Imagine if we spent as much time talking about climate alliances — and how to empower them — as military alliances. Imagine if the money we spent on killing people overseas was spent protecting the planet upon which we all survive.

We need an international strategy that unites people, working-class organisations and left parties all over the world by developing a policy which fundamentally redistributes wealth and power in order to redress the grotesque levels of inequality that reflect centuries of colonialism and imperialism.

This conference in London on Latin America is part of that process to forge a serious international strategy for peace and for justice. One that sees the Earth as something to care for, not carve up. One that builds a world for the many, not the few.

Jeremy Corbyn is independent MP for Islington North.