Entrevista de Semana.com al doctor Carlos Gaviria Díaz, 22 de abril de 2010

Luego de varias semanas en su ‘cuartel de invierno’ tras la derrota en la consulta popular de su partido, el ex presidente del Polo Democrático Carlos Gaviria Díaz volvió a la arena política. El 13 de abril pasado, en el ‘Encuentro de Unidad’ organizado por esa colectividad, se estrechó en un abrazo con el candidato de la organización, Gustavo Petro, y saldó su distanciamiento con la campaña.

Jorge Enrique Robledo, Bogotá, 11 de abril de 2010.

Además de las valiosas razones éticas, hay que repudiar por contrarias a la democracia todas las formas de corrupción y coacción a los electores, entre ellas el clientelismo. Y deben rechazarse también los mecanismos extorsivos y corruptos con los que se conforman las mayorías parlamentarias, porque esos métodos también violan la moral y el carácter democrático de las decisiones políticas. Que esto se refiera a la forma de hacer política a la hora de votar y gobernar no le quita su importancia decisiva, porque la democracia trata, en primera instancia, sobre la manera de tomar las decisiones. Lo ocurrido en los pasados comicios, ganados en mucho por la corrupción y el delito, nos avergüenza ante el mundo y confirma cómo es de poco democrática la llamada “democracia” colombiana.

By Noam Chomsky

Source: Orinoco International, March 24, 2010

The United States was founded as an "infant empire," in George Washington's words. The conquest of the national territory was a grand imperial venture, much like the vast expansion of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. From the earliest days, control over the Western Hemisphere was a critical goal. Ambitions expanded during World War II, as the US displaced Britain and lesser imperial powers. High-level planners concluded that the US should "hold unquestioned power" in a world system including not only the Western Hemisphere, but also the former British Empire and the Far East, and later, as much of Eurasia as possible. A primary goal of NATO was to block moves towards European independence, along Gaullist lines. That became still more clear when the USSR collapsed, and with it the Russian threat that was the formal justification of NATO. NATO was not disbanded, but rather expanded, in violation of promises to Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not even fully extend to East Germany, let alone beyond, and that "NATO would be transforming itself into a more political organization." By now it is virtually an international intervention force under US command, its self-defined jurisdiction reaching to control energy sources, pipelines, and sea lanes. And Europe is a well-disciplined junior partner.

By Benjamin Dangl

Source: The Progressive, March 2010 issue

On the shores of the Magdalena River, in a lush green valley dotted with cattle ranches and farms, sits the Palanquero military base, an outpost equipped with Colombia’s longest runway, housing for 2,000 troops, a theater, a supermarket, and a casino.

Manuel Rozental on Resistance and the Consolidation of Fascism in Colombia

March 21, 2010

Source: Vancouver Media Co-op

Interview conducted by Dawn Paley

In an interview on a busy Toronto street, the Vancouver Media Co-op caught up with activist and physician Manuel Rozental to ask about the outcome and importance of the March 14 legislative elections in Colombia. He explains that while party representation has changed, Alvaro Uribe's ideas have remained in power. Paramilitary-death squad connected parties retained a stranglehold on the parliament, and leftist opposition Polo Democratico was weakened by a proposed alliance with the right.

Dear friends:

Nearly 100 grassroots organizations from the U.S. and Canada signed the
letter initiated by the Mingas Network asking President Obama to
withdraw the agreement for U.S. use of seven military bases in Colombia.

Attached you will find a pdf file with the letter and signatures, as it
was delivered on Tuesday February 9. Warm thanks to those that signed
and encouraged others to do so.

Now it is time for you to take further action and forward this letter to
your U.S. senators and House member. Make sure they know of your
opposition to the U.S.-Colombia military base agreement!

For peace,

Raul Fernandez
Member of Executive Committee
The Mingas Network
http://mingas.info

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."