For Grassroots Movement-Building and Sharing of Resources Within the US-Latin America Solidarity Community
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As we go to press all of us are shaken to the core by the agony and suffering we see daily on our screens. It is in good part Western economic and political domination of Haiti that has left the people there completely vulnerable. How can we respond? Jubilee USA urges us to call on the Obama administration to take two specific steps to ensure a quick and just response to the crisis in Haiti: (1)Provide massive assistance for relief and reconstruction in the form of grants, not loans; (2) Cancel the rest of Haiti's debt. The World Bank announced that it is putting a moratorium on debt service for five years - a positive first step; and the IMF has announced a moratorium on debt service for two years. But it is essential to keep strong pressure on these institutions and our government..
Peter and Gail Mott,
Co-Editors
www.interconn.org
In this age of Obama are Latin America relations souring? In this issue we list many current problems and challenges for our movement. The urgent task for us is to persuade our government to change course, to see the democratic spirit that is sweeping Latin America not as a threat but an opportunity for true partnership.
US militarization of this continent is increasing. We know it is not simply because of “the drug war’ or “the war on terror.” It appears to be for US corporate/economic control – a preservation of the Monroe Doctrine, labeled as the neoliberal economic system. And at a time when the grassroots in Latin America favor, instead, a shift to increasing self-sufficiency, nationalism, regional organizing, increasing social programs and decreasing privatization.
For two decades we - as a movement – have worked in solidarity with the people of Latin America to RESIST corporate globalization/neoliberalism. And we have marched all over the US to stop REPRESSION. However, both RESISTANCE and REPRESSION persist.
Readers are aware that for several years Latin Americans have been electing presidents who are liberal, progressive, and independent of US domination. All of them have been elected democratically in Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and now Uruguay, running on platforms opposed to corporate globalization/neoliberalism and favoring the peoples’ rights to their own natural resources. For example:
The US role in repressing any challenge to corporate globalization by “leftist” governments is well known: ridding Guatemala of President Arbenz in 1954, and Chile of President Allende in 1973, the suspicious death in 1961 of Panama’s President Trujillos and the US invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965, the wars of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, the US invasion of Panama and Grenada, the US role in the military coups in Haiti and suspicious signs of involvement in the Honduras military coup (see INTERCONNECT News Alerts at www.interconn.org).
Honduras Most reports of the military coup in our corporate media have been misleading, although occasionally truth comes through. For example, the New Yorker’s article, “An Old-Fashioned Coup,” by William Finnegan (excerpted here. See the full article in the 11/30/09 issue).
Paraguay In the fall of 2009, after the military coup in Honduras, there was fear that other leftist presidents might be overthrown. Apparently the former “Bishop of the Poor,” President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, was afraid of such an event. (NY Times 11/5/09). [Ed. note: He replaced many military leaders and – as this newsletter goes to print – we have not been aware of any coup activity since.]
Ecuador The Cuban press (GRAMMA, 1/5/10) states: “President Correa 
reported today “discovery of a conspiracy aimed at destabilizing the government and preparing the floor for a coup d’etat,” and that “conspirators have been receiving help not just from the US government but from US right-wing organizations.”
Cuba An article published in the New York Times (12/12/09), by Eva Golinger, revealed the detention of a US government contract employee in Havana this past December 5th. The employee, whose name has not yet been disclosed, works for Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), one of the largest US government contractors providing services to the State Department, the Pentagon and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The employee was detained while distributing cellular telephones, computers and other communications equipment to Cuban dissident and counterrevolutionary groups that work to promote US agenda on the Caribbean island.
Last year, the US Congress approved $40 million to "promote transition to democracy" in Cuba. DAI was awarded the main contract, "The Cuba Democracy and Contingency Planning Program", with oversight by State and USAID (www.chavezcode.com/2009/12/cia-agent-capured-in-cuba-employee-of.html).
“The spectacular 1999 protests of the WTO in Seattle stopped a plan for massive WTO expansion…a decade later the question is whether the Obama administration will lead an effort to modernize the rules of the global economy…153 member countries remain bound to a full complement of neoliberal policies…extreme poverty in poor countries has increased…so has hunger. Corporate interests are putting enormous pressure on Obama to continue the failed model.
“On the other hand: in Congress the Trade Act (HR ) calls for renegotiation of the WTO, NAFTA and CAFTA. “Global justice activists worldwide have turned to permanent campaigning at home to make their governments better represent their interests.”
(Lori Wallach, Director of Global Trade Watch, Public Citizen, excerpted from the Nation, 12/21-28/09).
[Ed. note: “Permanent campaigning” as a strategy for our movement?]
An ongoing education/action campaign, and not just for the crises but the goal might be – over time – to get the public, our representatives and the administration to raise our level of understanding of the people of Latin America. And, why don’t we go for the soft underbelly of neoliberalism – IMF rules of “structural adjustment.”
We believe the majority of Americans – when polled with objectively-worded questions – are opposed to:
Extreme, unfettered capitalism;
Exporting jobs to cheap labor areas;
Really cheap labor itself;
Free trade agreements – especially NAFTA;
Extreme privatization;
Corporate domination;
Undemocratic aspects of the World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organization (WTO).
Coming off the great success of the 20th unlicensed Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba, we want to thank all of you for your support…
We want also to notify all of our network that…before my return to the office, the FBI had visited the IFCO/Pastors for Peace office…[Also] that Ignacio Meneses of the US/Cuba Labor Exchange, who travelled to Cuba along with the Venceremos Brigade, recently received a visit by the FBI at his home. Because now two persons who travelled to Cuba in August have received visits from the FBI, we thought it would be appropriate to share the information that we sent out to the Caravanistas on August 18th, 2009, with our whole network.[More...]
Save the date: Detroit June 22-26
What: The US Social Forum (USSF)
Where: Cobo Hall and Hart Plaza downtown and the Wayne State University downtown campus.
Objectives: Strategizing for our movements
Networking with folks from all over the US.
Helping the LASC plan Latin America workshops
Contact: Maureen Taylor or William Copeland, 877-515-USSF
Register: See website (http.//www.ussf2010.org/
How to Help: Call Chuck Kaufman at the Alliance for Global Justice, 202-256-8032, or Alexis Stoumbelis at CISPES, alexis@cispes.org.
[This first appeared in Fohla de São Paulo, 11/28/09]
Over the last decade an epoch-making political change has taken place in the Western Hemisphere: Latin America, a region that was once considered the United States’ “back yard,” is now more independent of Washington than Europe is.
But while Latin America has changed, U.S. foreign policy has not – even now, with the election of President Obama. Hence the region, including Brazil, finds itself increasingly at odds with Washington. The military coup in Honduras is just one recent and glaring example. [more...]
[Ed. note: In late December the LASC (Latin America Solidarity Coalition) sent its first delegation to Haiti to clarify the situation there. LASC members issued the following Press Release on 1/4/10. The delegation returned before the earthquake.]
The Latin American Solidarity Coalition from the United States, and the Canada Haiti Action Network wish to express our grave concern about human rights in Haiti.
Our delegation came to investigate human rights violations and, in particular, violations by the United Nations’ MINUSTAH forces. We will send a report of our delegation’s findings to the United Nations, to the United States Congress, to President Barack Obama, to the Canadian government, and to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. We will also circulate our findings to the media. [more...]
by Ben Dangl (excerpted from the Nation, 12/16/09, with permission.)
“During Morales's first four years in office, various indigenous, farmer and workers movements were pivotal in defeating right-wing destabilization efforts, passing land reform legislation, radicalizing government policy and ushering in a new progressive Constitution. At the same time, defending the MAS against the oligarchy and right wing often took precedence over self-criticism and internal debate; those who seriously questioned the MAS were sometimes labeled allies of the right and sidelined. [more...]
There will come a time
There will come a time we believe
When the shape of the planet
and the divisions of the land
Will be less important;
We will be caught in a glow of friendship
a red star of hope
will illuminate our lives
A star of hope
A star of joy
A star of freedom
Haiti: A devastating 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti on 1/12/10 – the first large earthquake in 240 years. On Day 3 Cuba had 30 medical doctors there (plus 400 who already were working there) and had opened a field hospital at the site of the one destroyed in Port au Prince (David Lindorff, 1/5 Common Dreams). On 1/15 Janet Napolitano, Director of Homeland Security, announced Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian refugees.
Venezuela: (a) On 1/9 the Cuban newspaper “GRANMA” reported that the National Institute of Statistics finds poverty down 3/3% this year. Daily lunches are provided to 4 million children. (b) The Counsel General, Jorge Velos, announced the donation of 4,000 energy-efficient light bulbs to the people of Jackson, Mississippi. (c) President Chavez has announced that 225,000 barrels of oil have been sent to devastated Haiti; anad that all the gasoline and diesel fuel that they need will be sent.
El Salvador: After years of struggle, the Oscar Romero University in El Salvador is going through a rebirth. The new government of Mauricio Funes has taken a courageous stand to support a new, independent university administration - one committed to Romero's vision of the preferential option for the poor (1/23, Peace International, peace.int@verizon.net).
United States: On 1/25 federal trials begin for four human rights advocates arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience in carrying the 11/19-21 protest against the School of the Americas/ Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation onto the Fort Benning military base in Georgia. Each defendant faces up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Their demand: A change in U.S.-Latin America foreign policy and the closure of the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC).
Mexico: (a) Ciudad Juarez, city of femicides, documented 2700 killings in 2009 and is called the world’s most violent city. (b) The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras” (CJM) is 20 years old.
Bolivia: The Obama administration cancelled Bolivia’s trade preferences after Bolivia expelled our Drug Enforcement Administration and some USAID staff for “spying and plotting with the oligarchy.” Growth in GDP will be the highest in Latin America.
El Salvador: (a) Recently declassified US intelligence documents, handed over to the Spanish courts, show that the US State Department, the CIA and Spanish intelligence knew in advance of the 1989 assassination of the Jesuit priests (Cuba News GRANMA). (b) CRISPAZ (Christians for Peace in El Salvador) is 25 years old.
Colombia: Congratulations to Peace Brigades International for 15 years of courageous accompaniment. .