ACTION ALERT: Press Conference and Rally:
PCASC Condemns Coup d'état in Honduras
MONDAY June 29, 2009 12:30pm Federal Building ( 1220 SW Third Avenue, Portland) Bring signs if you can! Our intention is to draw media attention to the coup and pressure the Obama Adminstration to changes decades of policies directed at supporting puppet governments and military dictatorships in Latin America. PCASC will be joined by a representative from SOA Watch and Honduran immigrant and former PCASC Board member Angie Mejia, who has family in Honduras. Early Sunday morning, a military coup took place in Honduras, led by School of the Americas graduate Romeo Vasquez. In the early hours of the day, members of the Honduran military surrounded the presidential palace and forced the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, into custody. He was immediately flown to Costa Rica.
The Honduran state television was taken off the air. The electricity supply to the capital Tegucigalpa, as well telephone and cellphone lines were cut. The people of Honduras are going into the streets. From Costa Rica, President Zelaya has called for a non-violent response from the people of Honduras, and for international solidarity for the Honduran democracy.
Please join PCASC in condemning the coup d'etat in Honduras and calling for President Obama to:
condemn the coup d'état in Honduras
demand the immediate return of President Jose Manuel Zelaya to office and
follow the lead of the European Union, Organization of American States and to declare that no government arising from the coup d'etat will be recognized by the US government and that all assistance will be suspended until President Zelaya is re-instated.
With the Honduran military surrounding the building, the national congress voted yesterday to appoint congressional president Roberto Micheletti as “interim president” until possible elections in November. However, in a resolution adopted yesterday, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States has declared that “no government arising from this unconstitutional interruption will be recognized.”
Coup leader Romeo Vasquez was trained at the infamous School of the Americas. Earlier this month the US House of Representatives approved a bill to close the school.
The United States has long played a decisive role in the internal politics of Honduras, using the country as an operations base in order to intervene in the Civil wars that occurred in Central America in the 1980s. The Contras—a US-backed counterinsurgency force that terrorized Nicaragua during the leftist Sandinista government—were based out of the country.
Pro-democracy social movements in Honduras have called on the international community to hold protests outside Honduran embassies and consulates.
President Obama, I urge you to condemn in no uncertain terms the coup d'état in Honduras. Please demand the immediate return of President Manuel Zelaya to office.
Please state that you will not recognize any new illegal government and would suspend all assistance to such illegal government.
President Zelaya is supported by Honduras poor majority, including members of labor and social movements, tens of thousands of whom have come out in the streets to support his return. If you do not condemn the coup, people around the world will assume that the U.S. government supports the coup or, worse yet, was involved in its planning.
Not only has the president been beaten and taken hostage but the foreign minister and ambassadors of Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua were also taken hostage and beaten as well.
The leader of the military coup General Romeo Vasquez, was trained here in the US at the School of Americas. He has been involved in the violent repression of social movement leaders and members in the past. A bill just passed the house (HR 2567) and is in the Senate to close the SOA. This school has historically trained military and paramilitary who have been responsible for the deaths of many innocent civilizans and organizers through out Latin America.
BUY TICKETS FOR PCASC'S 30th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
The easiest people for a government to oppress are the groups most vilified by society and the press: gangs, prostitutes, street vendors, gays, lesbians, community activists. Once a government knows it can repress those of us who have been marginalized, they will begin oppressing the rest of society.
-Magdaleno Rose-Avila, gang non-violence organizer, Los Angeles UPCOMING EVENTS (Scroll down for full descriptions)
TAKE ACTION Below is a letter written by PCASC member & volunteer, Jerry Kohler. Please take the time to cut and paste the letter and send it to Earl Blumenauer. If you have time, use this letter as a template and write your own!
Give Earl a call at: (503)231-2300 (Portland office) or in Washington D.C. (202) 225-4811
June 18, 2009
Congressman Earl Blumenauer
RE: The recent conflict and deaths in Peru regarding mineral exploitation in the Amazon region.
Dear Representative Blumenauer:
We are writing to express our deep concern over the recent police attack on peaceful indigenous protester in Bagua, Northern Peru. Police attacked these protesters using live bullets and tear gas. The result was the deaths of indigenous protestors and the deaths of police forces.
In fact, the violence directly affected two individuals in your congressional district. These are two Peruvian exchange students at Mt. Hood Community College. One student lost his father and uncle. Another lost his uncle.
The deaths came about because of a violent response to indigenous protest over the incursion of multi-national corporations in the exploitation of natural resources of the Amazon area.
This is direct result of the Peru-United States Free Trade Agreement that you supported and cast your Yes vote.
A central part of the conflict are the provisions of C169, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, set up by the International Labor Organization and ratified by Peru in 1994. This convention obliges Peru to consult indigenous people in cases in which the State or a company plans to exploit the natural resources in the land that the indigenous people occupy.
The government of Peru, however, chose to circumvent these provisions and failed to properly consult the indigenous community in this area by issuing 99 decrees approximately one year ago. These decrees were designed to speed the implementation of the free trade agreement with the United States.
What has happened in Peru is very similar to what has been found in other Latin American countries that are signatories to the Free Trade Agreements such as CAFTA and NAFTA.
These effects are:
Disregard for the rights of the indigenous.
Use of armed force to push indigenous off their lands.
Disregard of environmental standards. Documented cases in Latin America of many mega-projects such as mining and oil have resulted in the devastation to the environment, to the people, and to the surrounding communities because of disregard of environmental standards and use of toxic chemicals.
Increased poverty of the rural: Small farmers are forced off their land because they cannot compete with U.S. subsidized farm imports.
Forced migration of the rural: Due to the inability to make a living from farming, the rural population is forced to flee to city slums or migrate to the U. S. just to survive.
So, as in many other cases in Latin America, we see that free-trade agreements have become an on-ramp to indigenous lands for the enrichment multi-national corporations that blatantly disregard the rights of the indigenous people who inhabit the land.
The violence in Peru is just the latest in a very long history of abuse of human rights and the impoverishment of people in Latin America with the implementation of the United States free trade agreements.
We are outraged. We say enough is enough. How many more people must die just standing for their basic rights?
It is time to acknowledge the sad history of these agreements. It is time to take a stand, stop the violence and acknowledge the truth.
The truth is that many people are suffering and dying as just the few benefit from the riches gained.
Congressman Blumenauer, we now have had several years to examine the effects of the free trade agreements. The record is a sordid record.
We are asking that you go on record to oppose similar free trade agreements in Columbia and Panama.
As a United States representative, you and the people you represent cannot continue to justify the enrichment of a few while the human rights of many suffer, violence results, and people are killed.
Sincerely,
SEND A MESSAGE TO CONGRESS: OPPOSE THE PANAMA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT! The office of the U.S. Trade Representative has said it wants to move forward this year with the Panama Free Trade Agreement -- a trade deal negotiated by the Bush administration that repeats most of the same major problems found in NAFTA and CAFTA. Bush's Panama FTA represents business-as-usual on trade, and is not the type of change that voters were promised.
Now is the time to let our elected officials know that a Bush-negotiated, NAFTA-style trade deal is not only bad economic policy, but also bad politics. Let your Members of Congress know you oppose the Panama FTA before they box themselves into corner by speaking publicly on its behalf. Write to Congress and the President at: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1034/t/539/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26873
Also, check out this HILARIOUS and damning video about just how easy it is to set up a shell corporation in Panama (even a 20 year old intern can do it!)
1. Hip Hop Against Hate This event has been postponed! Details TBA. Community organizations are teaming up with conscious hip hop artists and youth advocates, to say NO TO RACIAL PROFILING, here in Portland, and across the nation. Immigrant-led and ally organizations will share information about the increasing trend to criminalize immigrants, and the danger of collaborations between local law enforcement and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
The conscious Hip Hop community has continually spoken out against the criminalization of their communities. This multi cultural gathering will emphasize unity, conscious action, and community control.
Hip Hop Against Hate is the first in a series of youth focused gatherings, sponsored by Portland Parks and Recreation. VOZ Workers' Rights Education Project, The Portland Central America Solidarity Committee, Global Fam, Universal Zulu Nation, and Portland Jobs with Justice are co-sponsors of Hip Hop Against Hate.
2. THE CUBA CARAVAN
20 Years of Friendship and Resistance!
We invite you to share food, music, and friendship, as we launch the Cuba Caravan from Liberty Hall! We’ll hear from speakers Alicia Jrapko, and Nita Palmer, both former Caravan-istas. We’ll enjoy music by David Rovics, and Bajo Salario.
When: Sunday, July 5th 2009
6pm until 9pm
Where: Liberty Hall
311 N. Ivy St.
Guest speaker Alicia Jrapko is a Bay Area human rights activist who was born in Argentina and left during the brutal military dictatorship of the seventies. She has been working to change US policy toward Cuba and is a member of the International Committee for Freedom for the Cuban Five, who for more than ten years have been political prisoners in the US.
We’ll also be joined by Nita Palmer, a solidarity and social justice activist from Vancouver, B.C. Nita is active with Free the Cuban Five Committee – Vancouver, and writes for the internationally distributed newspaper, Fire this Time http://www.firethistime.net/
3. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY PCASC!
Come celebrate 30 years of fighting for justice and resisting
US intervention in Latin America.
Enjoy food, music, and the chance to meet and reconnect with PCASC activists from the past thirty years. Also, be the first to watch our new documentary about PCASC's long and exciting history of solidarity!
When: Sunday, July 19th, 2009 6-9pm
Where: Liberty Hall (311 N. Ivy St. Portland, OR)
Cost: $35 a ticket
On July 19th 1979, the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in
Nicaragua, ending over 40 years of US-backed dictatorship in that country. The Sandinistas were a popular movement comprised of workers,
peasants, students, and guerrillas with an aim to create a truly
democratic and revolutionary socialism.
In 1979, PCASC was founded in solidarity with that
revolutionary movement.
