Colombian Action Network in Response to Free Trade
(Red Colombiana de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio, Recalca)

Website: http://www.recalca.org.co E-mail: recalca@etb.net.co

[en español a continuación]

The Mingas Network is a group of individuals from across the United States, Canada and Colombia who are concerned with promoting sovereignty, strengthening democracy and improving labor conditions in Colombia. We are integrated within the Hemispheric Social Alliance and are active in North America. We are united in our support for social movements and our rejection of all acts of violence in Colombia, regardless of their source. We oppose the imposition of neoliberal economic policies and Free Trade Agreements, as they negatively affect the majority of people not only in Colombia but also in the United States. Our position with respect to the U.S. elections of November 2, 2010, reflects these concerns; we favor candidates:

Un estudio científico muestra altos niveles de Arsénico en el agua subterránea de San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala, donde la mina de oro y plata Marlin "fue desarrollada por Montana Exploradora de Guatemala S.A.

[En español a continuación]

October 12, 2010

Dr. Roberto Pombo
Editor in Chief, El Tiempo
Bogotá, Colombia

The statement by El Tiempo’s special correspondent in Marmato, Caldas, to the effect that in 2006 “an avalanche wiped out City Hall, the main plaza, the church and 92 houses,” is extremely exaggerated as well as plainly false.

For Immediate Release: September 29, 2010
Contact: Lesley Gill, (615) 343-6120; (732) 979-8509 (cell)
Joanne Rappaport, (202) 537-1382; (202) 687-7170
Monica Gonzalez (Georgetown student), (914) 661-2643

The world watches the US military escalation with concern. In addition to approximately 650 military bases worldwide, there is the invasion of Afghanistan; the false withdrawal from Iraq; the transfer of weapons, ships and the announcement of $60 billion to prepare Saudi Arabia militarily to maintain its hegemony in the region; unconditional support for Israel; the intensification of the conflict in the Korean peninsula; and the exploitation of religious and ethnic feuds in Central Asia to acquire strategic gains that threaten China and Russia. The situation in Latin America is just as worrisome: The arrival of 13,000 marines and 48 war ships in Costa Rica; the building of new military bases to support US troops in Honduras, Panama, and probably Peru; the military occupation in Haiti; and the reactivation of the Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean. In the midst of a relative decrease in US global influence, the economic crisis enters a new phase in which the United States attempts to maintain its global hegemony and the neoliberal economic model by strengthening its war machine to ensure control of land and resources on a global scale.

El mundo observa con preocupación la escalada militar que el ejército de Estados Unidos viene desarrollando. A las aproximadamente 650 bases militares para sus tropas alrededor del mundo se les agregan, la invasión a Afganistán, el falso retiro de Irak, el traslado de armamento, buques y el anuncio de 60.000 millones de dólares para dotar militarmente a Arabia Saudita con el objetivo de mantener su hegemonía en la región, el apoyo militar irrestricto a Israel, el estímulo del conflicto en la península coreana, la utilización de enfrentamientos religiosos y étnicos del Asia central que le garanticen puntos estratégicos que amenazan a China y Rusia. En Latinoamérica la situación no es menos preocupante, la llegada de 13.000 marines y 48 buques de guerra a Costa Rica, la construcción de nuevas bases militares al servicio de sus tropas en Honduras, Panamá, y probablemente Perú, la ocupación militar de Haití, el tránsito de la IV flota en el Caribe. En medio de una pérdida relativa de su influencia mundial, la crisis económica que entra en una nueva fase en la cual el sostenimiento de su hegemonía mundial y mantenimiento del modelo económico neoliberal encuentra una respuesta en el fortalecimiento de su aparato de guerra, garantizando el control sobre territorios y recursos a escala global.

"No More Foreign Military Bases"

Social Forum of the Americas

August 14, Asuncion, Paraguay

With the presence of more than 200 people representing numerous organizations, movements, continental and national networks, the second continental meeting of the campaign "America Latina, A Region of Peace: No More Foreign Military Bases" was held on August 14, 2010, in Asuncion, during the fourth Social Forum of the Americas.

Por Raúl Fernández

Uno: En el primer discurso sobre el Estado de la Unión en enero de 2010, el presidente Obama prometió doblar las exportaciones de Estados Unidos durante los próximos cinco años.

Raul Fernandez

One: In his first State of the Union message in January, 2010, President Obama vowed to double U.S. exports over the next 5 years.

Two: A few weeks later on March 11 he inaugurated by Executive Order the National Export Initiative (NEI) The NEI is designed “to enhance and coordinate Federal efforts to facilitate the creation of jobs in the United States through the promotion of exports and to ensure the effective use of Federal resources in support of these goals…” The NEI will receive funding for export promotion and will make exporting US-made products a government wide objective.