We, the social and popular movements, organizations and networks from the entire hemisphere gathered together in Porto Alegre, Brazil, as participants in the 10th anniversary of the World Social Forum, are hereby launching a campaign similar to the one carried out against the FTAA. We proclaim Latin America a region of peace and insist that the foreign military bases be removed!

[Alianza Social Continental: http://asc-hsa.org/node/772]

Reunidos en Porto Alegre, Brasil, en el marco de los eventos celebrados durante el 10º aniversario del Foro Social Mundial, frente a una nueva escalada agresiva del imperialismo, nosotros los movimientos sociales y populares, redes, organizaciones, de las más diversas latitudes, nos encontramos nuevamente al frente de una campaña como la que realizamos contra el ALCA, para decir que América Latina es una región de paz, para decir fuera las bases militares extranjeras!

La IV Flota en acción

Un portaaviones llamado Haití

Raúl Zibechi

[ALAI, América Latina en Movimiento, 2010-02-01]

La reacción de Estados Unidos de militarizar la parte haitiana de la isla luego del devastador terremoto del 12 de enero, debería enmarcarse dentro del contexto generado a raíz de la crisis financiera y económica y el ascenso de Barack Obama a la presidencia. Las tendencias de fondo ya estaban presentes pero la crisis las ha acelerado de modo que han ganado visibilidad. Se trata de la primera intervención de envergadura de la IV Flota, restablecida poco tiempo atrás.

by Greg Grandin

January 21, 2010

[This article appeared in the February 8, 2010 edition of The Nation:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100208/grandin]

In September Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, delivered on an electoral promise and refused to renew Washington's decade-old, rent-free lease on an air base outside the Pacific coast town of Manta, which for the past ten years has served as the Pentagon's main South American outpost. The eviction was a serious effort to fulfill the call of Ecuador's new Constitution to promote "universal disarmament" and oppose the "imposition" of military bases of "some states in the territory of others." It was also one of the most important victories for the global demilitarization movement, loosely organized around the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases, since protests forced the US Navy to withdraw from Vieques, Puerto Rico, in 2003. Correa, though, couldn't resist an easy joke. "We'll renew the lease," he quipped, "if the US lets us set up a base in Miami."

Dear friends:

We of the Mingas network are deeply concerned about the recently signed military agreement between the governments of Colombia and the United States. Under its terms, the U.S. is permitted to upgrade, expand and use seven Colombian military bases for the purpose of increasing the operational capabilities of U.S. armed forces throughout South America. We believe the agreement will further exacerbate tensions across the entire region and aggravate armed conflict within Colombia.

The Mingas network joins the voices of protest and repudiation of the murder of the governor of Caquetá, Colombia, Luis Francisco Cuéllar on December 22, 2009 and of a police guard who was killed at the governor's house on December 21. This event calls into question President Uribe's policy of Democratic Security.

No murder should remain in impunity, and for this reason, we demand that the Colombian judicial authorities investigate, prosecute and punish the authors of this crime. "There is no cause whether noble or vile" that justifies these atrocities.

Also, we would like to express to the families of the victims our deepest condolences. We reaffirm our support for social movements and our rejection of all forms of violence, regardless of their source.

Mingas FTA se une a las voces de protesta y repudio del asesinato del gobernador de Caquetá Luis Francisco Cuéllar el 22 de diciembre de 2009 y del de un policía que lo acompañaba el 21 de diciembre, hecho que pone en duda la política de Seguridad Democrática del Presidente Uribe.

Jorge Enrique Robledo
Senator, Republic of Colombia
December 20, 2009

1. I will accuse Colombia’s Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez of Perversion of the Justice System both as a criminal offense, before the Colombian Office of the Attorney General, and as a disciplinary violation, before the Colombian Supreme Court, because of his decision on December 14, 2009, to turn the “preliminary inquiry” he initiated against me on June 10, 2009, into the “opening of a disciplinary investigation.” In addition I will ask the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to investigate the aggression being perpetrated against me.

Jorge Enrique Robledo, Senador de la República de Colombia, Bogotá, diciembre 19 de 2009

1. Acusaré por el delito de prevaricato a Alejandro Ordóñez, Procurador General de la Nación. En lo penal, lo haré ante la Fiscalía, y en lo disciplinario, ante la Corte Suprema de Justicia, porque este funcionario, el 14 de diciembre pasado, convirtió en “apertura de investigación disciplinaria” la “indagación preliminar” que en contra mía inició el 10 de junio de 2009. Además, le solicitaré a la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos que investigue la agresión de la que estoy siendo víctima.

Written by Michèal Ó Tuathail and Manuel Rozental

November 5, 2009

Last fall, Colombia’s social and popular movements captured the world’s attention. Emerging initially from the indigenous territories in Northern Cauca and expanding to unite diverse sectors, the Social and Community Minga [1] burst onto the national and international scene with a popular agenda for radical change, a “country of the peoples without owners” [2]. The collective screams of the indigenous movement, Afro-Colombian communities, women’s, worker, student and other social organizations across the country reached a fever pitch, garnering much attention from abroad. A year later, the Minga appears to have arrived at a crossroads, where a once powerful popular agenda risks being manipulated in favour of a narrow and domesticating one. While its capacity to mobilize remains strong, the Minga’s direction is increasingly contested.