Roundup: LatAm reacts to Greek vote against continued austerity

Latin American governments celebrated Greece's landslide rejection of a European Union (EU) bailout offer in exchange for continued austerity measures.

The austerity-weary Greeks overwhelmingly voted against the EU plan in a referendum Sunday that Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina and Nicaragua hailed as a clear protest against neo-liberal financial policies and the developing world's resulting debt burden.

Cuban President Raul Castro congratulated Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in a brief letter dated July 5, saying "the result shows the majority of the Greek people support the brave policy of the government that you lead."

Argentina's government, which has been wrangling with creditors for years over debts run up by prior administrations, welcomed that six out of 10 Greek voters refused to accept the European Central Bank package of more loans in return for further cuts in public spending, pensions, wages and more.

"Greece stood up to the vulture funds," Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said Monday, adding "in Greece, the dignity and sovereignty of a nation triumphed."

"Today, what is happening in Greece reminds us of what was happening in Argentina when the International Monetary Fund wanted to tell us what to do," Kicillof told the C5N TV news channel.

Greece has already been living under a regimen of austerity measures for the past five years that have slashed public spending, brought the economy to a standstill and increased unemployment, spiking suicide rates.

In Caracas, Diosdado Cabello, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, said Monday "Greece is giving the world a lesson in dignity."

Speaking at a public event, Cabello said "the financial terrorism applied by the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank was defeated by the decision of the Greek people, and I'm sure that what happened will serve as an example for other nations to defend their sovereignty."

Rodrigo Cabezas, a member of Venezuela's ruling socialist party, said European leaders "will have to present Greece not with an ultimatum, but with a new proposal that will make it feasible to pay the debt, which even the IMF has acknowledged as unsustainable."

If Greece left the eurozone, he warned, "it would transfer the financial crisis sparked by its failure to pay the debt to the economies of Germany and France, whose growth rates have been very weak in the past five years."

After the vote Sunday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro congratulated the Greek government on its resistance to the global financial powers.

"Today Greece has taken a historic step ... congratulations to the Greek people for saying 'No' to the International Monetary Fund and the vampires of world banking," Maduro said at an event.

In a letter Monday addressed to the Greek government, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega expressed his country's solidarity with Greece in "facing new challenges."

The "No" camp garnered 61.3 percent of the votes in the referendum called by Tsipras to allow Greeks to decide their future.

In negotiations preceding the vote, Greece was asking for a 30 percent cut in its debt (95 billion euros) and a 20-year grace period to get its economy back on track.

Tsipras hoped the vote will strengthen his government's role in negotiating with the banks.

Greeks' "no" to austerity in Sunday's referendum further challenged the other eurozone states and the EU institutions. As time is running out, a "good" agreement is in urgent need to save the debt-torn Greece. Endi