The significance of the Green March: 50 years later
This Thursday, November 6, marks the 50th anniversary of the historic Green March (1975-2025), that is, the enormous voluntary and peaceful mobilization of Moroccans toward Western Sahara, their Sahara, in response to the call of their king—at that time His Majesty Hassan II, father of the current monarch, Mohammed VI—joining with their brothers in the south of the country, that is, the Sahrawi populations who inhabit that territorial space, the southernmost part of the kingdom, and forming, together with the inhabitants of other parts of the country, a single homeland: Morocco.
Thus, the Green March is a unique, sui generis event of national significance, absolutely inclusive, which is inscribed in the psychic and volitional structure of every inhabitant of Morocco, finding itself transcendentally and indelibly sealed in the collective imagination of the Moroccan nation, constituting one of the greatest and most sublime moments of civic achievement, where the enormous weight of history has been decisive in sustaining the strong Moroccan national identity, reinforced by the categorical affirmation of the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion of October 16, 1975—in my opinion, the greatest immediate incentive for Moroccans to undertake the Green March — on the one hand, the recognition of the relationship of subordination that existed between the Sultan (now King of Morocco) and the Sahrawi populations, and on the other, the categorical affirmation that Western Sahara was not “Terra Nullius,” that is, it was not no man's land because it was someone's land, namely Morocco's.
Looking back over the past half-century, then, the aforementioned celebration of the Green March could not have had a better and greater framework for the Alawite kingdom than Resolution 2797 (2025) of the United Nations Security Council, of Friday, October 31, 2025, which enshrined the proposal for autonomy for the Moroccan Sahara, presented to the United Nations by King Mohammed VI in 2007, as the only, exclusive, and exclusive framework for the solution of the Sahara issue.
Today, the Moroccans of the so-called Southern Provinces, that is, the Sahrawis, live and enjoy the fruits of the historic Green March and the results of the efforts and visionary and statesmanlike character of their monarch, who has been decisively promoting an enviable context of infrastructure development through enormous strategic projects -the port of Dahla will be one of the most important in the West African Atlantic-, so that the Sahrawi populations can live happily, fulfilling themselves to the fullest in their proud Moroccan citizenship.
If the ICJ advisory opinion and the Green March served to affirm the Moroccan nature of the Sahara, the autonomy recently decided by the UN for the definitive solution of the problem also serves to enshrine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Morocco,sealing, today more than ever, the enormous value of this part of the country, remaining etched in the minds of every Moroccan thanks to the remarkable words of King Mohammed VI, who stated that “the Sahara issue is the prism through which Morocco views the world.”
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Mackay. Former Foreign Minister of Peru and Internationalist
Article published in the Peruvian newspaper Expreso.