PRESS STATEMENTLATIN AMERICA SOLIDARITY CONFERENCEAUGUST 20, 2001See new LASC webpage at http://www.americas.org/lascThe Latin America Solidarity Conference is a coalition of more than 40 national and local Latin America and Caribbean Solidarity organizations, many of have more than a 20 year history of working closely with grassroots movements for social justice in Latin America and the Caribbean. The LASC is organizing an I nternational Day of Action Against US Military and Economic Intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean. This demonstration will take place on September 29 and is part of the week of activities being organized under the banner, " Another World is Possible". This week of educational and cultural events and demonstrations is being organized in opposition to the World Bank and IMF meetings taking place in late September in Washington DC.The US government is the main shareholder and thus decision-maker in the Banks. The corporate globalization policies being advocated by the International Financial Institutions are in partnership with the economic, social, and military policies of the US government. Policy makers are placing corporate profit before human need, and using military and police repression to guarantee compliance. The International Day of Action Against US Military and Economic Intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean has been organized to let the world know our opposition to these Policies being designed and perpetuated by the International Banks and the US government.In Washington DC, we have applied for permits to rally and march to a number of targets in the downtown Washington area. Our opening rally will be at Upper Senate Park at 10:30am. We will then march to the Columbus Monument at Union Station, then on to the Navy Memorial and US Justice Department. We will then finish up at the White House. The police have informed us that they are unable to grant permits for our action at this time - in violation of our first amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Therefore, we are filing a lawsuit today.Using the excuse of violence and the need for security, the police are planning to completely disregard our first amendment rights. Police agencies are talking about potentially violent acts on the streets of DC. They talk about erecting 9 foot fences to keep demonstrators from exercising their right to free expression, and they talk about using tear gas to disperse crowds. We understand how frightening this vision can seem and it is not a vision that we share. We would like to talk about another kind of violence, however, which is far more widespread, and far more damaging. On September 29th, we will march on the streets of DC to spread the word about the structural and direct violence carried out by the World Bank, the IMF, and the U.S. government directed against our brothers and sisters in the South. We will march in solidarity with people who are often not allowed a voice on their own.The people of Puerto Rico have overwhelmingly opposed U.S. military bombing in Vieques yet the bombings go on, and non-violent protesters, including U.S. members of congress, are mistreated and jailed. The people of Colombia have drawn up alternative plans for coca-production eradication – plans that do not include crop fumigation and forced relocation. Yet their views have systematically been disregarded.Throughout the Americas, people have voiced their opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Yet President Bush and US policy makers want Fast-Track authority to determine trade treaties without debate and without input. In these, and many other examples, the U.S. government is using its political, economic, and military leverage to implement policies that maintain unequal wealth distribution within and between countries. They speak under the banner of democracy and freedom, but in reality, they are not listening to the people that have to live with the consequences of the policy-makers decisions.We are marching on September 29th to protest the most blatant example of this: U.S. military aid to foreign countries. Independent reports show that U.S. military aid to Latin America over the last decade has led to increased human rights abuses, including torture and inhumane treatment of civilians. We, who work and pay taxes in the United States, are paying for the torture and human rights abuses. Our taxes pay for violence in Latin America. And now, it seems, with the proposed $38 million police budget for the weekend of September 29 and 30, our taxes will be used to silence us on the topic. This is why we are launching this law-suit.The LASC mobilization is an International Day of Action. There are currently demonstrations being planned in the US, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Spain, and Germany, with more places joining daily. This is a global movement for social justice - working to end the injustice of corporate globalization being forced on the people's of the world by the Banks and the US government.
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