Education: Bolivarian Resistance – Viva Chavez ADIOS: US MILITARY BASES Si… Resistance is Everywhere From Japan to the 2004 Mumbai, India World Social Forum and the streets of Quito, Ecuador 100s of millions of people are calling for an end to US militarism and an end to US economic domination. In Latin America we have a long history of Yankee (Gr!!!ngo) meddling and terrorism. There have been very few wars in the Americas and the people who share the hemisphere with the US have never been any kind of threat and yet the US has intervened, backed dictators or overthrown governments in every country in the region -- some many times (Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil…Haiti come to mind). Somehow the US kept this up despite rulings by the World Court and condemnations from Europe and the UN. P H O T O L I N K S - - - Fumigation and State Terrorism http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/1682845.php http://www.rebelion.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=Cecilia_Areito&id=Fumigaciones_del_plan_Colombia So why revolutions everywhere now? Why will Wal-Marts and Monsantos soon be burning or taken away? The US is one very tricky salesman. In cahoots with the Latin American elite the US imported US products, US marketing and US culture: glamour, adoration of the rich and beautiful and greed. We already had some weaknesses in these areas and in most regions the church, the Catholic Church, went along with the program… in Colombia and Guatemala they still bless the Death Squads. Latin America continues to be the only region where the US maintains a trade surplus. Capitalism creates crisis. Corruption. Free trade neoliberalism has been an orgy of privatizations and foreign investments. Selling off the national treasures to giant corporations kept our economies going for a few years, but now the debts are pilling up and the promised jobs don’t exist. Most of the people in Latin America no longer believe that US-IMF-World Bank policies can work. More ominous for the US is that people are rejecting liberal (representative) democratic politics and even US culture, materialism and hype. Now we have Bolivar, Chavez, the Amayra, the Andes, Piqueteros, Sandino, Zapata and we still have Che. Each of these names represents tens of millions of people who won’t listen anymore to the foreign bankers, the White House or the Miami-based elite of Latin America. We make our own future. As a Bolivian urbanized peasant said during the recent overthrow of President Goni Lozado “We just want to move from slavery to poverty.” The US has military programs, bases or spies in every country in Latin America Only Cuba and Venezuela restrict US official activities. We want this entire military-espionage regime out! We won’t pay you anymore debt peonage and we take back all of our resources, our industries and our power. The Venezuelan military just quit – dropped out – of the US SOA-Wisk military torture training school where 60,000 Latin American officers have been trained and embedded in US plans. Many thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred, and forced into refuge by those trained at the SOA. This magazine – Adios: US MILITARY BASES; brings you frontline reporting about the people struggling to make a new world in the Americas. You can make this happen, you can be a Bolivarian Circle, and you can spread the word about what we need to make this a useful tool to understanding and mobilization. Photos, inside stories and secret documents from US military activities in Latin America can create interest and inspire other whistle-blowers. Seek out Interviews, photos and research on the insurgents, the fighting women and the strategies that can win the war: the war for hearts and minds… and the war for land and opportunity. I. A. VENEZUELA: March 1, 2004 Dear Senor Hugo Chavez: Teach GW Bush a Lesson “George Jr. thinks coca is an evil bush. Most people know an evil Bush when they see one.” At the beginning of the year, President Chavez declared this the year that the Bolivarian Revolution would take the offensive. In the realm of social policy great strides were made. The economy is the fastest growing in Latin America and high oil prices guarantee that the government will have enough money to fund expansion of the agrarian reform, urban land reforms, education and investments in state-owned and local businesses. In foreign policy Chavez has been a beacon for the whole hemisphere, championing South American integration and his ALBA plan to replace the FTAA and dependence on the US. Despite the odious involvement of the US in Venezuelan, Bolivian, Colombia, Ecuador and Curacao, Chavez has been polite to Bush and his foreign policy mouthpieces. With increasing evidence of past and present US collaboration and funding of the opposition – AND the US kidnapping of Haitian President Aristide, Chavez is forced to act strongly. First he should continue to replace unreliable military and diplomatic employees. Good riddance to Venezuela's Ambassador to the UN, Milos Alcalay, who tendered his resignation in protest over what he termed Chavez’s conflict diplomacy. http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16221 Other actions that Chavez could enact: 1. The Venezuelan National Assembly , where the government maintains a majority, is about to petition the Supreme Tribunal of Justice to immediately dismiss Chacao Mayor Leopoldo Lopez, Baruta's Enrique Capriles Radonsky, El Hatillo's Alfredo Catala and the Governor of Miranda State Enrique Mendoza, among others, for having abandoned their constitutional obligations as elected-officers. Opposition protesters rioted and committed acts of violence in recent weeks while the local police did nothing. http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16220 2. Increase regulation and monitoring of private news media and require them to run more public service announcements. Investigate the Cisneros Group. 3. Release information on US-CIA involvement in drug trafficking and weapons smuggling. 4. Release information and continue investigations of White House dirty tricks experts Otto Reich, Roger Noriega and the other ex-Cuban Miami terrorists. 5. Increase efforts to interdict and arrest drug organizations related to the Colombian death squads (AUC) and the Colombian government. Increase border patrols with Colombia and set up listening devices to record communications between the Colombian armed forces, the death squads and their US advisers. 6. Restrict travel by wealthy Venezuelans and require background investigations of US, Colombian and Haitian citizens entering the country. 7. Maintain currency controls and investigations of tax paying by opposition and US connected businesses and organizations. 8. Phase out the US embassy and all US governmental offices in Venezuela. Post guards and restrict entry and exit from these buildings. 9. Accept only Euro currency for oil, institute a surcharge on all exports to the US and all US ships and planes entering or leaving the country. http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16154 10. Stop oil and other exports to US client regimes in the region starting with the Dominican Republic and Haiti and aimed at Colombia. 11. Form closer relations with Andean Indigenous groups, campesino organizations, Cuba, Trinidad, Bolivia and Colombian departments on the Venezuelan border. B. VENEZUELA: February 9, 2004. Chavez continues Solidarity Economics program of Cooperatives and Bolivarian Circles http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1103 Civil Society, Social Movements, and Participation in Venezuela's Fifth Republic; By: Dawn Gable # See also, a booklet on combining the policies of Chavez and the Brazilian MST; SolidarityEconomics: http://www.solidarityeconomics.blogspot.com The most notable social movement in Venezuela since the beginning of the Fifth Republic is that of cooperatives. Cooperatives are forming in every sector of society and within every social movement. There are artisan, security, cultivation, sanitation, community media, and women’s cooperatives to name a few (PROVEA). According to the National Superintendency of Cooperatives (SUNACOOP) there were 1900 cooperatives in 2001. By July 2003 this number has risen to 10,000 representing 659,000 individuals. SUNACOOP lists 34 percent of all coops in the category of goods and services, 31 percent in food production, and 23 percent in transportation (Gov. pub. 2003) For More See: http://www.movimientobolivariano.org/revista/revistanuevacolombianr1/silencios.html