MAK urges Marco Rubio to pressure Algeria over Kabylie
Feeling the winds blowing in its favor from the United States, the Movement for Self-Determination in Kabylia (MAK) is seeking to make the Trump administration aware of its demands. MAK advisor Elizabeth Myers, an American who heads the Marrakech-based firm Strategix Legal, sent a letter to Marco Rubio to this effect.
She reminded the United States secretary of state of the letter he himself had sent in September 2022, when he was a senator, to his predecessor, Antony Blinken, regarding the $7 billion Algeria had earmarked for the purchase of Russian weapons. «Since then, the situation has only worsened. Algeria's defense budget is currently the largest in Africa, with $25 billion allocated for 2025—more than three times the $7 billion you were concerned about on September 14, 2022», she pointed out.
Myers asserts that the MAK and the Kabyle government-in-exile (known as Anavad) are the principal opponents of Algeria's authoritarian regime and enjoy growing support among the 12 million Kabyles living at home and abroad.
«The MAK continues to peacefully and relentlessly defend its oppressed people and march toward the establishment of a pluralist and democratic state, unlike Algeria's anti-democratic and demagogic military-religious oligarchy, which in no way represents the voice of the people».
Elizabeth Myers : MAK draws inspiration from the U.S. Declaration of Independence
To back up her indictment of the Algerian government, the Strategix Legal director referenced the latest report, published on January 30, 2025, by UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor on the human rights situation in Algeria.
«She expressed dismay that more than a year after her visit to Algeria, human rights defenders, including lawyers, are 'still arbitrarily arrested, judicially harassed, intimidated, and criminalized for their peaceful activities' under Article 87 bis of the Algerian Penal Code, 'a vaguely worded anti-terrorism provision that is often misused to repress freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly'», wrote the MAK adviser.
On the other hand, she notes that her client «is committed to democratic values such as free elections, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion, and to respecting a constitution that is largely based on the U.S. Constitution. The Kabyle constitution cites as its authority the U.S. Declaration of Independence» of July 4, 1776.
Myers concluded her letter by requesting, on behalf of MAK President Ferhat Mehenni, a meeting with Marco Rubio or one of his representatives to «discuss how Kabylia can work with the United States to stabilize Africa and promote democratic principles and prosperity».
In her letter, Elizabeth Myers also pointed to Algeria's support for the Polisario and its relations with Cuba and Venezuela. In its latest report on terrorism, published in December 2024, the Biden administration rejected Algeria's designation of the MAK as a terrorist organization.
As a reminder, on April 20, 2024, from New York, the MAK declared the creation of the Kabyle state.
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