[News] Latin America Conference against Militarization Says No to US Bases
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Fri Oct 17 19:02:42 EDT 2008
Hemispheric Conference against Militarization
Says No to Merida Initiative, U.S. Military Bases
Laura Carlsen | October 17, 2008
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5605
More than 800 representatives from organizations
throughout the Americas made their way to the
northern city of La Esperanza, Honduras to take a
strong stand against the militarization of their
nations and communities. Following three days of
workshops, the participants read their final
declaration in front of the gates of the U.S.
Army Base at Palmerola, Honduras, just hours from
the
<http://encuentro.desmilitarizacion.info/>conference
site. The first demand on the list was to close
down this and all U.S. military bases in Latin
America and the Caribbean. By the end of the
demonstration, the walls of the base sported
hundreds of spray-painted messages and demands
that contrasted sharply with their prison-like austerity.
Palmerola, formally called the Soto Cano Air
Base, brought back some very bad memories among
the hundreds of Central American participants.
The U.S. government installed the base in 1981
and used it to launch the illegal contra
operations against the Nicaraguan government. The
base was also used to airlift support to
counterinsurgency
<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE2DD1E3AF935A35756C0A961948260&sec=&spon=>operations
in Guatemala and El Salvador and
<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFD8163CF930A15750C0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1>train
U.S. forces in counterinsurgency techniques
during the dirty wars that left over 100,000
dead, and is now used as a base for the U.S.-sponsored "war on drugs."
The demilitarization conference also called for
an immediate halt to the recently launched
"<http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5204>Merida
Initiative," the Bush administration's new Trojan
horse for remilitarization of the region. The
resolution asserts that the measure "expands U.S.
military intervention and contributes to the
militarization of our countries" and
representatives from the Central American nations
and Mexico included in the military aid package
committed to a process of monitoring the funds
and defeating further appropriations.
The Merida Initiative was
<http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4611>announced
by President Bush as a "counter-narcotics,
counter-terrorism, and border security"
cooperation initiative in October 2007. The model
extends the Bush administration's infamous
national security strategy of 2002 to impose it
as the U.S.-led security model for the
hemisphere. The approach relies on huge defense
contracts to U.S. corporations, and military and
police deployment to deal with issues ranging
from drug trafficking to illegal immigration and
seeks to extend U.S. military hegemony in foreign
lands. It has been
<http://ciponline.org/colombia/cipanal.htm>proven
in Colombia and other areas where it has been
applied to have the effect of increasing
violence, failing to decrease drug flows, and
leading to extensive human rights violations.
Among the 14 resolutions of the conference, three
others reject aspects of the Initiative: the
repeal of anti-terrorist laws that criminalize
social protest and are a direct result of U.S.
pressure to impose the disastrous Bush
counter-terrorism paradigm; the demand to replace
the militarized "war on drugs" model with
measures of citizen participation, community
heath, etc.; and the demand for full respect for the rights of migrants.
Although on the surface, Latin America is
experiencing a period of relative calm after the
brutality of the military dictatorships and the
dirty wars, grassroots movement leaders from all
over the continent described a context of
increasing aggression. The indigenous and farm
organizations that occupy territories coveted by
transnational corporations have become targets of
forced displacement. Social movements that
protest privatization and free trade agreements
have been dubbed terrorists and attacked and
imprisoned under new anti-terrorist laws that are
a poor legal facade for outright repression. The
use of the military troops in counter-narcotic
activities has become commonplace and often hides
other agendas of the powerful. Police forces have
come to deal with youth as if being young itself were a crime.
In viewing the threats of militarization in their
societies, participants use a broader definition
than just the presence of army bases and troops.
"Militarism," states the Campaign for
Demilitarization of the Americas, is " the daily
presence of the military logic in our society, in
our economic forms, in our social links, and in
the logic of gender domination and the supposed
natural superiority of men over women." Using
this concept, the conference covered the profound
need to change the educational system and social
norms, to work from within communities, as well
as making demands for changes in the external conditions that affect them.
Despite days of testimonies that sometimes
included tears and anger, delegates to the
conference expressed hope above all else.
Ecuador's new constitution and decision to kick
out the U.S. army base at Manta was cited as proof of progress.
Both concrete plans for action and an encouraging
consensus emerged: the breadth of the challenge
can be overwhelming but the dream of lasting
peace provides an irresistible light at the end of the tunnel.
The declaration concludes on this note: "...
through these campaigns and actions on the
grassroots level, organized within each nation
and throughout the continent, we can reach a day
not long from now when we fulfill the dream of
living free of violence, exclusion, and war."
Final Declaration of the La Esperanza, Intibucá, Honduras, October 3-6, 2008
From Oct. 3-6 the II Hemispheric Conference
Against Militarization took place in La
Esperanza, Intibucá, Honduras. Over 800 delegates
from social movements met. We represented 175
organizations from 27 countries, as well as Original Peoples of Indoamerica.1
As the capitalist system enters perhaps its worst
crisis in history, the world faces crises on many
fronts: financial, energy, food, environmental,
social, and political. Militarization has
increased and its effects become more violent in
an attempt of the system to control spaces and markets and natural resources.
In our hemisphere, militarization takes many
forms. In the broad sense, military,
institutional, and police violence are part of a
continuous escalation of repression, occupation,
and looting of natural resources that accompanies
the neoliberal economic model.
Social movements have responded by fighting for
our rights, lands, and territories. Diverse
networks and organizations of the continent have
come together again in a strategic and urgent
effort with a common purpose to define lines of
action that allow us to advance in a more
coordinated and effective way before the
continental and global threats presented by
militarization, wars, and repression.
Considering:
* That militarization is the main factor in
the violation of fundamental human rights, such
as the right to housing, health, education, etc.,
and especially of the general and particular
rights of indigenous and black peoples;
* That militarization leads to an increase in
political prisoners, torture, and forced
disappearances, the criminalization of the young
and maras, and affects us individually and collectively;
* That militarization is a maximum expression
of patriarchy, where women are not only the
principle victims of violence, but their bodies
become a battleground as they are seen as the
spoils of war and vehicles of terror and domination;
* That militarization relies on forced
recruitment and/or deceptive practices that
violate rights and destroy the futures of young
people, especially the poor and people of color;
* That militarization also expresses itself
through violence, repression, and intolerance to
sexual diversity, blocking the creation of an
inclusive culture of peace without discrimination;
* That militarization forces people to
migrate and then applies anti-migrant laws in the
United States and the European Union to
criminalize them and make them victims of
multiple human rights violations; militarization
of the borders causes the death of thousands of
men, women, and children a year;
* That militarization constitutes a threat to
small farmer movements since their demands for
agrarian reform, food sovereignty, and access to
land are put down with violence;
* That militarization is the mechanism of
control of capital over strategic resources and
energy and violates the rights of communities to
exercise control over their resources and make
decisions on their own land and territory;
* That the military structure of domination
in our hemisphere is currently expressed in the
presence of U.S. military bases, the Merida
Initiative, Plan Colombia, the IV Fleet the
Security and Prosperity Partnership of NAFTA, the
School of the Americas (WHINSEC), the Delta Force and South Com;
* That militarization is accompanied by
terrorism of the media, a strategy of
manipulation and fear, a military ideology
characterized by media colonialism, among other
forms, of domination and alienation;
* That militarization is expanded through the
so-called "War on Drugs" as the perfect excuse to
militarize society and state structures;
* That militarization is the response to
criminalization of social protest conceived of as
a threat to the system of domination under the
so-called anti-terrorist laws that follow the model of the U.S. Patriot Act;
* That militarization encourages the growth
of the military budget, benefiting the war
industry in the public and private sectors,
generating foreign debt, and diverting resources
that could be destined to satisfy economic, social, and cultural rights;
* That militarization is the means of
implementing and securing infrastructure
megaprojects and investment of large
transnational capital, such as Plan Puebla
Panama, the Regional Initiative for South
American Infrastructure (IIRSA), Free Trade
Agreements, and Agreements of Association.
Therefore, we demand:
* Immediate and definitive closure of all
U.S. military bases and of any other foreign
nation in Latin American and the Caribbean, and a
prohibition on transporting or opening new bases on our continent;
* Cancellation of the IV Fleet that violates
the sovereignty of our peoples;
* Immediate withdrawal of the MINUSTAH in
Haiti and its replacement with delegations of
solidarity, cooperation, and reconstruction;
immediate cancellation of the unjust foreign debt that is choking the country;
* Cancellation of infrastructure projects and
megaprojects that violate the right of Latin
American, Indoamerican, and Caribbean populations
over their territories and ancestral resources;
* An end to Plan Colombia and the Merida
Initiative that deepen U.S. military intervention
and contribute to the militarization of our counties;
* The repeal of all anti-terrorist laws that
harm our people and criminalize grassroots protest;
* Full respect for the rights of women and an
immediate end to sexual violence, and the
prostitution and trafficking of women where
military bases are located and in conflict zones;
* Withdrawal of U.S. troops and all attempts
to militarize the Triple Border and respect for
the territories and sovereignty of the people of the south;
* The substitution of the militarized model
of "war on drugs" with measures of citizen
participation, community heath, etc.;
* Full respect for the rights of migrants and
cancellation of the "wall of shame" on the U.S.-Mexico border;
* Respect for our right to have, manage, and
operate our own means of communication,
strengthening and creation of networks of our own
media, indigenous, popular community, and
alternative, and to recuperate public spaces for direct communication;
* Access to immediate and accurate
information on the national budget assigned to
finance militarization to disarm these budgets
and demand that the resources be used for the
wellbeing of the entire population;
* Lift the embargo on Cuba, especially now
when it suffers along with Haiti the consequences
of hurricanes Gustav and Ike;
* An end to the secessionist violence and the
meddling of the U.S. government in Bolivia.
The participants of the II Conference Against Militarization
* Salute the decision of the Ecuadorian
people and government to permanently close the military base in Manta in 2009;
* Express our solidarity with the Bolivian
people and their struggle to defend the integrity
of their nation and its sovereignty;
* Salute the construction of the Bolivarian
Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) based on
unlimited respect for human rights and equitable relations.
Considering the above, we reaffirm our commitment
to struggle for a world and a continent
demilitarized, disarmed, free of war, poverty,
and violence. These days have allowed us to
deepen the knowledge of the shared reality we
confront, and to identify and formulate lines of
strategic action that enable our popular
movements to confront the permanent aggression
and criminalization that our peoples and
movements suffer. This is reflected in our
continental plan of action against
militarization, and through these Campaigns and
Actions on the grassroots level organized within
each nation and throughout the continent, we can
reach a day not long from now when we fulfill the
dream of living free of violence, exclusion, and war.
"The People Speak Out to Silence the Weapons!"
"With the ancestral force of Iselaca and Lempira,
we raise our voices for life, justice, dignity, liberty, and peace!"
End Notes
* Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican
Republic, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador,
Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Venezuela,
Brazil, Puerto Rico, United States, Canada, and
guests from other regions. Indigenous peoples of
Indoamerica included Mapuche, Aymara, Mayas,
Lencas, Garífunas, Chorotegas, Emberá katíos del
Altosinú, Zapotecos, and others.
To reprint this article, please contact
<mailto:americas at ciponline.org>americas at ciponline.org.
The opinions expressed here are the author's and
do not necessarily represent the views of the CIP
Americas Policy Program or the Center for International Policy.
For More Information
All resources on the Merida Initiative
<http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118>http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118
A Primer on Plan Mexico
<http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5204>http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5204
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