The founder and president of the Peruvian Council of Solidarity with the Sahrawi People (COPESA), Ricardo Sanchez Serra has decided to comments on critics, after announcing that he has changed his position on the Western Sahara dispute. On Wednesday, February the 27th, in an article published by Peruvian newspaper La Razon, COPESA founder decided to respond to those who criticized his new updated position. His answer comes after he wrote last week that Morocco's national autonomy plan, proposed by Rabat in 2007, is a «serious, credible and realistic» solution to the territorial conflict In his article, Serra admitted that he has been «committed to the Front's cause for more than ten years», before realizing that he «should be honest with [his] friends in the Polisario». In his new reaction to the topic, Ricardo Sánchez Serra stressed that the separatist thesis is an «unrealistic» one, hailing the Moroccan proposal. «What should be done now is speed up the political solution led by the UN political process», he wrote, criticizing the thesis promoted by the Polisario and citing the support of Maduro's government, the former Libyan regime and Algeria's political and economic backing. The Peruvian activist also referred to the tensions in the Tindouf camps. «44 years have passed since the beginning of the conflict. It is silly and naive to think that Morocco would give up on the territory of the Sahara», he explained. For the record, COPESA's founder was dedicated in the past to his former opinions about the territorial dispute. Indeed, Serra's blog featured a series of articles, in the past few years, that hailed the position of the Polisario Front. In unprecedented move, a pro-Polisario Peruvian council changes its position on the conflict In fact, the Peruvian Council of Solidarity with the Sahrawi People had even called, in December 2015, the Peruvian government to «restore diplomatic relations with the Sahrawi Democratic Republic», reports All Africa. The Council urged the Latin American country to normalize relations with the Polisario, which were frozen in 1996. COPESA's «initiative» was relayed by the pro-Polisario outlets and the Algerian press agency. In 2017, COPESA's president was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Polisario Front, which hailed its commitment of the «Saharawi struggle».
