MEXICO CITY — The killing of Osama bin Laden brought immediate expressions of support from U.S. allies across the Spanish-speaking world.
Spain hailed the U.S. commando action as "a decisive step in the fight against international terrorism" while both Peru and Mexico said bin Laden's death makes the world safer.
Within hours of President Barack Obama's White House announcement, Mexico's Secretariat of Foreign Relations noted that many foreigners were among the fatalities in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, including its own citizens, making bin Laden's death of global importance.
"It is an event of great transcendence in the efforts to free to world of the curse of terrorism," the Mexican statement said.
Al Qaida, it added, is "one of the cruelest and bloodiest terrorist organizations in the world" and its actions represent "a serious threat to global peace and stability."
"The world is a safer place now," Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde said in a late night statement. The U.S. commando operation "crowns a years-long effort to locate the al Qaida chief and remove the head of international global terrorism."
Spain's socialist government congratulated Obama "and his government and armed forces" and vowed to help all worldwide efforts to fight terrorism "wherever it develops or operates."
An al Qaida terrorist attack in Madrid on four packed passenger trains on March 11, 2004, left 191 people dead and nearly 2,000 injured.