For Grassroots Movement-Building and Sharing of Resources Within the US-Latin America Solidarity Community

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National Haiti Campaign to be launched by LASC and the HAC

by Diane Bohn, Dave Welch and Ben Terrell

Haiti’s crisis worsens; and the UN Peacekeepers are being pushed by the US, Canada and France to crack down on the poor, who still protest the military coup against former President Aristide. The Latin America Solidarity Coalition has asked the Bay Area’s Haiti Action Committee to help start a national campaign to plan corrective action. [more...]

Editorial- Four in one

“Iraq has occupied the US so completely the last five years that the Latin American people have been free to express themselves democratically and politically.” Thus spoke Curt Cadorette, for 27 years a liberation theology priest in rural Peru, now a professor at the University of Rochester. In six nations the people have elected presidents who oppose neoliberalism/the Washington Consensus/corporate globalization.

Just in time! In Harper’s (3/08) Steven Stoll describes the approaching end of economic growth and what will happen as the world reaches a “stationary state” of economies, as more nations take control of their own natural resources, as “progress” will depend on efficiency – not more productivity, and as the US will turn full attention again to all those natural resources in “our own back yard.” Will we allow our neighbors to try their own ways to make progress despite being in a stationary state (e.g., as is being tried by Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba)?

Herman Daly (Beyond Growth, For the Common Good) is one of the authors Stoll reviews. INTERCONNECT has referred to economist Daly many times over the past 14 years. We interviewed him in our 4/03 issue where he stated that continuous economic growth is impossible when the world’s ecological makeup is finite, and when the people refuse to just starve. He said that corporate globalization already has failed, that we should close down the World Bank, IMF, “free” trade and, instead, organize “federated internationalization” as a basis for trade which respects national sovereignty.

As our Iraq and Afghan wars fail to bring us more oil, will US governments try again to dominate Latin America? In this issue are reports of newly increasing repression – and on efforts of the LASC and our allies to “organize, organize, organize.”

Join us! Let’s build this movement more rapidly! (www.interconn.org)

Aristide letter

A letter to all of us from democratically-elected President Aristide, who was removed one night in 2002 by the US Marines and taken on a US plane to the Central African Republic as a mob of his opponents took over the country. [more...]

From the Literature: Paraguay moves left

A Liberation Theology priest, “Bishop of the Poor,” elected President 4/24/08. [more...]

Updates: Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and UNASUR

by Tom Loudon - Crucial events are outlined: 12 countries of South America form UNASUR; Bolivia’s President Evo Morales and others are required to campaign in a recall election; Ecuador re-evaluates all debts and refuses to join ALBA; the US Navy will patrol Central and South American waters; Venezuela and Ecuador have called for the Colombian FARC rebels to disarm. [more...]

Respect for Democracy Campaign (RDC)

James Jordan reviews the need for the LASC Working Group and Campaign for the RDC, including a proposal to close the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). [more...]

From the Literature
US Political Prisoners: The Cuban Five

Attorney Leonard Weinglass reviews the latest court findings and next steps, including taking the case to the US Supreme Court. [more...]

Justice Department Targets El Salvador Activists

- by Burke Stansbury. The Washington-based Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) was harassed in the 1980’s by an FBI that wrongly saw the FMLN as the enemy and linked to CISPES. In 2004 the US State Department interfered with a national election that the FMLN might have won. Now the US Department of Justice is threatening CISPES, which is resisting. [more...]

"El Agua es un Derecho" The Work of the Observatorio Ciudadano de Servicios Públicos in Ecuador

- by Emily Joiner. Ecuador is making water a human right. The Inter-American Development Bank pressed for privatization. Bechtel Corporation vs. the people is the subject here. Also: How a non-profit group is helping the new government of Ecuador. [more...]

Seeking Straight Stories

Malcolm Bell reviews untruths in our media, especially concerning Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, and lists more reliable international news sources. [more...]

Organizing the Movement: LASC-COHA Interactions

Many have said that the rapid growth of the right wing in the US is due to its think tanks. Can we link our organizing to alternative “think tanks,” especially as we note an increasing tendency in the US “war on terror” to criminalize civil dissent. [more...]

Photos by Orin Langelle

Photo 1: An Indigenous man from the Amazon observes the UN Convention  proceedings where the fate of his territory is being discussed.
Photo 2. During a protest at the Convention, a "Frankentree" (genetically engineered tree) looks to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest for a new home.

Photos by Orin Langelle, Global Justice Ecology Project  http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

RESOURCES: Major Events - Campaigns - Special Studies - Books - Videos/Movies - Newsletter - Travel [more...]

Movement News in Brief

Nicaragua:

1. Miguel D’Escoto Brockman, former Sandinista foreign minister, sharp US critic, was elected (6/4/08) to be the next President of the UN General Assembly (CLASP, 6/08).
2. President Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have proposed the formation of a joint military force for Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Dominica and Cuba to defend against outside intervention (CLASP, 2/08).

Guantanamo: The US Supreme Court decided (6/12/08) for the third time to uphold the rights of detainees, the right to habeas corpus (Center for Constitutional Rights).
Migrant workers: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and Burger King Corp. announced plans to work together to improve wages and working conditions for the farmworkers who harvest tomatoes for Burger King in Florida. (CIW Online Hdqtrs, 5/23/08).
Colombia:

1. The US House of Representatives voted 224-195 to delay voting on the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, likely killing it for this year (AP 4/11/08).
2. The coca crop has increased 27% over the past year despite the US Plan Colombia.
3. After Colombia’s 3/1/08 attack on the rebel FARC camp in Ecuador, Colombia leaked supposed FARC e-mails to the press which linked FARC with Venezuela and Ecuador. Interpol investigated (invited by Colombia) and reports that the eight FARC computers showed 48,055 files had been manipulated (Venezuela Solidarity Network).

Haiti: The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (ijdh) and its affiliate, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI)  took to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica the case of the Raboteau Massacre victims. The Court awarded $430,000 to the victims’ families who, in turn, donated 10% to the BAI for further work (ijdh.org).

Ecuador: Indigenous groups have sued Chevron for $16 billion for environmental damages for dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into rivers, according to a court-appointed Ecuadoran geological engineer.

Guatemalan Genocide Case: Spanish and German courts have asserted universal jurisdiction over cases first brought by Nobel Peace Prize winter, Rigoberta Menchu (Human Rights Action Service, 1/08).

Venezuela:

1. A British court has overturned the freeze on $12 billion in Venezuela assets requested by ExxonMobil and ordered the corporation to pay $767,000 in Venezuela’s legal expenses (Christian Science Monitor [CSM]3/19/08).
2. The Venezuela Solidarity Network (VSN) held a successful symposium in Washington 4/18-20/08 with over 200 participants (VSN@afgj.org).
3. President Chavez ordered the nationalization of the cement industry (CSM 4/16/08).
4. The Washington-based CATO Institute has awarded a $500,000 prize to a Venezuelan law student who poses a potent challenge to President Chavez.

Mexico:

1. Mexico’s Human Rights Commission reports that the military was involved in serious human rights violations including rape, torture and homicide while executing counter-narcotics operations in 2007 (Amnesty International magazine, Spring 08).
2. Mexico may refuse the Merida Initiative, a Bush proposal for $1.6 billion in US weapons ostensibly to fight the “Drug War” (Mexico Solidarity Network 5/27/08).
3. Under a new amendment signed by President Calderon, Mexico’s judicial system now allows public trials and a presumption of innocence. (CSM 6/19/08.)

Bolivia: President Evo Morales has handed over 38 land titles to the Guarani Indians (CSM 1/30/08).

El Salvador: One hundred international organizations have joined a coalition of 40 Salvadoran groups calling for the investigation of escalating political killings, including the 5/2 assassination of activist Hector Antonio Ventura Vasquez and 15 other politically-related deaths (CLASP, Spring 08).

Chile: A Chilean judge has ordered the arrest of 100 former secret police and soldiers over human rights abuses under Pinochet’s military rule 1973-1990 (CLASP, Spring 08).

Trade: On 4/21-22 the leaders of Mexico, Canada and the US met for the 4th secret Summit on the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)/the “NAFTA superhighway” (Campaign for Labor Rights, 202-550-7025, www.clrlabor.org).

Quotes

tHANK YOU