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<h2><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5 color="#008080"><b>Hemispheric
Conference against Militarization Says No to Merida Initiative, U.S.
Military Bases</b></font></h2><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>Laura
Carlsen | October 17, 2008<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
<a href="http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5605" eudora="autourl">
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5605<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><b>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
<a href="http://encuentro.desmilitarizacion.info/">conference</a> 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. <br><br>
</b>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
<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE2DD1E3AF935A35756C0A961948260&sec=&spon=">
operations in Guatemala</a> and El Salvador and
<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFD8163CF930A15750C0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1">
train U.S. forces</a> 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." <br><br>
The demilitarization conference also called for an immediate halt to the
recently launched
"<a href="http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5204">Merida
Initiative</a>," 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. <br><br>
The Merida Initiative was
<a href="http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4611">announced by President
Bush</a> 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
<a href="http://ciponline.org/colombia/cipanal.htm">proven in
Colombia</a> 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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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."
<br><br>
</font><h3><b>Final Declaration of the La Esperanza, Intibucá, Honduras,
October 3-6, 2008 </b></h3><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>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.<a name="_ftnref1"></a>1<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
Considering:
<ul>
<li>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;
<li>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;
<li>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;
<li>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;
<li>That militarization also expresses itself through violence,
repression, and intolerance to sexual diversity, blocking the creation of
an inclusive culture of peace without discrimination;
<li>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;
<li>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;
<li>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;
<li>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;
<li>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;
<li>That militarization is expanded through the so-called "War on
Drugs" as the perfect excuse to militarize society and state
structures;
<li>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;
<li>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;
<li>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.
</ul><br>
Therefore, we demand:
<ol>
<li>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;
<li>Cancellation of the IV Fleet that violates the sovereignty of our
peoples;
<li>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;
<li>Cancellation of infrastructure projects and megaprojects that violate
the right of Latin American, Indoamerican, and Caribbean populations over
their territories and ancestral resources;
<li>An end to Plan Colombia and the Merida Initiative that deepen U.S.
military intervention and contribute to the militarization of our
counties;
<li>The repeal of all anti-terrorist laws that harm our people and
criminalize grassroots protest;
<li>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;
<li>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;
<li>The substitution of the militarized model of "war on drugs"
with measures of citizen participation, community heath, etc.;
<li>Full respect for the rights of migrants and cancellation of the
"wall of shame" on the U.S.-Mexico border;
<li>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;
<li>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;
<li>Lift the embargo on Cuba, especially now when it suffers along with
Haiti the consequences of hurricanes Gustav and Ike;
<li>An end to the secessionist violence and the meddling of the U.S.
government in Bolivia.
</ol><br>
The participants of the II Conference Against Militarization
<ul>
<li>Salute the decision of the Ecuadorian people and government to
permanently close the military base in Manta in 2009;
<li>Express our solidarity with the Bolivian people and their struggle to
defend the integrity of their nation and its sovereignty;
<li>Salute the construction of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas
(ALBA) based on unlimited respect for human rights and equitable
relations.
</ul><br>
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. <br><br>
<b>"The People Speak Out to Silence the Weapons!" <br><br>
"With the ancestral force of Iselaca and Lempira, we raise our
voices for life, justice, dignity, liberty, and peace!" <br><br>
</font><h3><b>End Notes</b></h3>
<ol>
<li><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2><a name="_ftn1"></a>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<a name="_ftn1"></a> Altosinú, Zapotecos, and others.
</ol><br>
<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=1>To reprint this article,
please contact
<a href="mailto:americas@ciponline.org">americas@ciponline.org</a>.
<i>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.<br><br>
</i></font><font size=3> <br><br>
</font><h3><b>For More Information
</b></h3><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>All resources on the Merida
Initiative<br>
<a href="http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118">
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5118</a><br><br>
A Primer on Plan Mexico<br>
<a href="http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5204">
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5204</a><br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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