The Post-American Hemisphere Has Arrived

            Russell Crandall, associate professor of International Politics at Davidson College and recently Director for Andean Affairs at the National Security Council from 2010-2011, writes in the current (May-June) edition of Foreign Affairs that Washington is rapidly and surely losing its leverage in Latin America. His article, “The Post-American Hemisphere: Power and Politics in an Autonomous Latin America,” explains that as U.S. influence in Latin America has faded, Latin America’s own capabilities have grown. “The region has grown into an era of unprecedented economic, political, and diplomatic success,” Crandall writes.

            While there have been impressive success stories – economic growth has been a steady reality in Brazil and Chile, as most recent examples – there still remain problem areas. Crandall cites one example in Guatemala, which “ranks among the world’s poorest countries,” and has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with 6,000 people killed each year in a nation of 13 million.

            To be sure, Central and South America continue to look northwards to the United States at critical moments: during the crisis in Honduras, in spite of wobbly moments on the world stage there, Crandall notes that leaders in the region were grateful for the role, limited that it was, the U.S. played in diffusing what could have been a more violent outcome to Honduras.

            “Over the past decade or so, the United States’ willingness and ability to excert control in the region have diminished,” Crandall writes. This has occurred in part because more important issues, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, have forced Latin America down the policymaking food chain.”

            And that has led to bold actions and words by leaders in Latin America speaking out against the U.S., witnessed by diatribes from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia. Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2008, and he shut down U.S. funded democracy programs in 2009. Because our hands were tied with the wars we were waging in the Middle East, Crandall noted that George W. Bush, normally not at a loss for words to those who operated “against him,” was strangely silent about Morales’ actions.

            The real power shift in Latin America seems to be a move to more coordination among neighbors. Brazil will continue to play a crucial role in the economic vitality of the region, a result, Crandall notes, that is due to a lack of play by the United States. “As one diplomat recently put it, ‘The new imperialists have arrived, and they speak Portuguese.’”

            Is there good news for our relations? Crandall says yes. In his second term as president, George W. Bush tempered his rhetoric focused on Latin America and began a conciliatory course that the Obama administration has continued today. And the United States “enjoys robust partnerships with governments of all political stripes in the region – with conservative governments in Chile, Mexico and Peru as well as more leftist ones in Brazil, El Salvador, and Uruguay.”

            It remains to be seen how well we do in the remainder of the Obama adminstration’s watch of our neighbors to the south.

Drug wars work their way into El Salvador

This latest from McClatchy News Service about the drug wars infiltrating El Salvador and Central America, forwarded to our blog by Father Peter Hinde:

Washington has spent billions of dollars to help push drug cartels out of Colombia, and to confront them in Mexico. Now they've muscled their way into Central America, opening a new chapter in the drug war that almost certainly will exact further cost on U.S. taxpayers as American authorities confront drug gangs on a new frontier.The extent of the infiltration is breathtaking. Drug cartels now control large parts of the countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America. They've bought off politicians and police, moved cocaine processing laboratories up from the Andes, and are obtaining rockets and other heavy armament that make them more than a match for Central America's weak militaries.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/04/21/112617/drug-gangs-muscle-into-new-territory.html#ixzz1KGUcdZzj

Good Friday in El Salvador

Santa Semana, Holy Week, is a time for contemplation in El Salvador. Offices across the country shut down to allow workers to join their families in worship. Today, Good Friday, El Salvador will join many lands of the faithful with celebrations that mark the Way of the Cross as a cornerstone event. Today, the faithful in San Salvador, for example, begin a walk from the Hospital Zone to the Metropolitan Cathedral in the center of the city. Similar solemn events will be carried across the nation as well. You can view a video from El Salvador.com of Palm Sunday celebrations by clicking here.

More Justice for Four Churchwomen?

            Justice for the Four U.S. Churchwomen killed in December 1980 may be at hand, as this week, a deportation trial against former Salvadoran General Eugenio Vides Casanova is under way in Orlando, FL. According to the Associated Press reports from April 18, Casanova was a close ally of the U.S. when he was El Salvador's top military official during the 1980s as the country fought Marxist guerrillas. He moved to South Florida when he left his post and has been living here ever since. Vides Casanova is the highest ranking military member to face possible deportation based on the alleged human rights abuses. He was acquitted of civil charges involving the Four Churchwomen murders in 2000.

            The case against Vides Casanova marks a turnaround in policy by the United States government towards the former defense minister, according to a report in the April 18 New York Times. Previous to the current case against the former general, who retired from his postings in the late 1980s, the U.S. government had enacted a hands-off policy that allowed him and other former Salvadoran officers safe haven in the U.S. Vides Casanova has been living in Florida.

            The New York Times report notes that the trial, which could result in the former general being deported to El Salvador, is expected to last about a week.

Jobs for Salvadorans...In Ohio

We’ve noticed this before, but when you visit the website of one of the daily newspapers in San Salvador, El Diario de Hoy (find it at http://www.elsalvador.com/) you will come across a banner advertisement throughout the pages of the news portal promoting “Ohio Means Jobs.” A click-through on the ad brings you to a jobs listing by the state of Ohio (Ohio.gov) showing what appears to be dozens of positions available throughout the state. We have a query via email going through the government agency to see if we can get to the bottom of this advert, but regardless, several interesting points are raised here. During the most recent election last November, in which Ted Strickland was defeated by John Kasich for the governor’s post in the Buckeye State, a major television ad complained about Ohio jobs going to Salvadorans. Strickland’s demise was surely not tied to this one attack, but it’s interesting that it made the campaign. Meanwhile, Kasich has been busy cutting the Ohio budget, a process that is happening throughout the United States these days as we try to work our way out of the previous decade’s economic woes. But what of the jobs for Salvadorans? If the new Ohio administration was so opposed to hiring Salvadorans in the first place, why are they still inviting them to come up north to apply for work in Cincinnati, Canton, Columbus and Cleveland? We would like to think that the doors in Ohio are open for Salvadorans and other Central Americans, but the reality is that there are many parts of the state that seem hostile to new immigration from that part of the world. And back in March, Kasich unveiled a nearly 800-page document showcasing his program, “The Jobs Budget,” demonstrating how he was going to put more Ohioans to work.

            We are excited that the State of Ohio is looking to El Salvador for workers in these new jobs. We hope that this is not some kind of goofed-up administrative error in which somebody in Ohio has forgotten to pull the plug on this advertising campaign; that would not only be an embarrassment for the new governor, but it would be a slap in the face to our Salvadoran brothers and sisters who saw this promotion and saw a legal way to enter the states and find good employment in the heartland of America.

            We will pass on the reply from the state of Ohio about the advertising, if and when we get a response.

     -- The Crispaz Team

Soldiers of Fortune

     “Let there not be so many crimes and abuses with impunity, and, even though they may wear military uniforms, they must face justice and give an accounting for what they have done and receive appropriate punishment if it has to do with common crimes.”
     --  Archbishop Oscar A. Romero, Feb. 18, 1979 (from Through the Year with Oscar Romero, translated to the English by Irene B. Hogdson. St. Anthony Messenger Press.)

     The future of military intervention, at least in part, is going to come in the form of independent contractors, civilians dressed in non-descript clothing and bearing the latest arms in the military marketplace provided by weapons providers from the United States, France, Germany and other “first-world” manufacturers. Dan Kenney, a presenter at the School of the Americas Watch/Latin American Solidarity conference at the American University over the weekend, underscored time and again the changing landscape of military intervention, predicting a sea-change in how military actions are carried out in the future. These interventions will look much like the shadow war that has been raged in Iraq and Afghanistan the past decade, in which groups like Blackwater and Triple Canopy Security will take on much of the role that uniformed military has held in the past. Lately warfare has taken on a new, more sinister form in Predator unmanned aircraft that are operated by Air Force pilots flying these drones from the deserts of Nevada, bombing targets in Pakistan, Afghanistan and wherever else our so-called enemies lurk. High tech gadgets being developed for communications also are being used for new surveillance purposes. A dangerous world is getting even more dangerous, and the culprit is us.
     The growth of this phenomenon of mercenaries as soldiers isn’t a surprise for those of us who watched the administration of George W. Bush privatize as much of the government as it could, sending high-paying contracts to the likes of Haliburton and KBR to carry out combat support services so that American troops could be free to pull the trigger in combat situations. But while that was happening, the Blackwaters of the country also bubbled up on the scene. They provided security services to the State Department, and in many cases were able to move about without any accountability for the actions of their personnel, largely former U.S. military men and women who were doubling or tripling their former Army paychecks. Blackwater was punished for some if its impunity, but the mercs returned to work under a different name.
     One of the clear dangers of opening the door to these military contracts is the economic growth engine it can provide to countries like El Salvador, where security firms represent somewhere around 10 percent of the jobs there. One gets a sense of the impact the gun-for-hire business has in the capital, where at every pharmacy or restaurant or grocery store has at least one guard toting a sawed-off shotgun and a nondescript number where a nametag should go (to preserve the safety of the guard, we’re told).
     Something I worry about is less evident, though. When firms like Blackwater (now known as Xe, under new ownership), become acceptable by ordinary folks in the U.S. (hey, they’re just doing their job, aren’t they?), then the situation worsens for people in El Salvador and other countries that have had a history of non-uniformed militia engaging in counter-insurgency, black ops and assassinations. They have been there before; why can’t they re-emerge under the aegis of some future, conservative government?
     Whether dressed in uniform or not, if the work of these contractors is inherently evil, if they are committing crimes, then these people and organizations must be made to account for their actions. The message from Msgr. Romero rings true again, now 30 years later, long after peace accords have been signed and everyone has “moved on” with their lives. The lesson, again, is that we must remain vigilant about all forms of militarism, especially the camouflaged warriors dressed to hide their real intent.
     (CRISPAZ Executive Director Dennis O’Connor is blogging from the School of the Americas Watch/Latin American Solidarity Conference on anti-militarism in Washington, D.C.)

A Day at the White House

     The fountain at Washington D.C.’s Dupont Circle was overflowing with people dressed as peasant women from El Salvador, their scarves covering half their faces like abuelas – grandmotherly figures mourning sons and husbands who have disappeared or worse. Men dressed in Army garb were “strung’ like puppets, long pipes extending up their backs to hold frames from which their strings were hung. Women on stilts had wrapped around them cardboard horses, giving them the appearance of a small contingent of cavalry meant to accompany a giant grandmother trailed by ghostly babushkas strung behind her to represent thousands of women who had lost loved ones to men trained at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas. Still others held up cloth signs, like gossamer that seemed to float on the cool spring breeze. And finally there were perhaps a hundred or so more people waiting in line to follow this parade that would weave its way to the White House in a few minutes.
     Roy Bourgeois, the former Maryknoll priest who founded School of the Americas Watch 20 years ago, energized the 300 or so who had gathered to join the peaceful action at the White House, with words of encouragement, asking everyone follow in the footsteps of Dorothy Day and Cesar Chavez, helping to call “attention to something that’s very wrong, that causes suffering and repression to others. For that reason, on last Monday many of us here started a liquid only fast” to protest the continued operation of the School of the Americas, “and we are going to end the fast today.” Today, this group would set foot before the White House in an effort to force awareness to the SOA, and persuade President Barack Obama to shut the school down.
     With the fast complete, the group lined up and began its march up and around Dupont Circle, finally snaked onto Connecticut Avenue, where we began our march towards the White House.
     It was a beautiful day, and crowds happened to be gathered all along the protester’s route – tourists in town to enjoy the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. I heard one woman telling her young son that the group was part of the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, which had been curtailed for fear of the government shutting down over the weekend as Congressional leaders and the President haggled about details of the government’s budget.
     When we finally reached the center point in front of the White House along Lafayette Park, the actors in our entourage executed a bit of street theater meant to illustrate the struggle that tens of thousands of poor people in the Americas suffered at the hands of SOA-trained soldiers.
     And then in a very somber moment, Roy Bourgeois and maybe 20 others walked in a procession to the fence surrounding the White House, and they all laid prostrate. The scene reminded me of some of the pen-and-ink drawings at the back of the Chapel at the University of Central America in San Salvador, where victims of violence lie akimbo in various positions of repose, their bodies riddled with bullets. It was no accident that the protesters who were about to be arrested were representing the same gruesome scenario.
     As each person was processed and hauled into a paddy wagon, speakers from our group recalled the passing of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the Four Churchwomen and the Six Jesuits and two women at the UCA, and cried “shame” to the arresting officers as our friends were hauled away. As Bourgeois had said earlier, he and his companions suffered arrests to remember those who had suffered at the hands of SOA graduates.
     After some time had passed, I walked away from the White House to the center of the park, where a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette was perched above a granite pedestal on a bronze horse, surrounded by a battery of canons. How ironic, I thought, that we had just gathered the past two days to discuss the perils of militarization in the United States, and here was an effigy of one of our revolutionary heroes in view of the presidential palace. How difficult this task will be, educating people about militarization, when it is a belief that is coded into our DNA.
     As I looked across the park to our entourage, thinning now as all the arrests had been made, a young man and woman walked up to me, glanced at the group and to me and asked, “What’s going on there?” A protest against the School of the Americas. “What is that?” And I told them the story about the school, with its roots in Panama, then Ft. Benning; its name change to WHINSEC, and the martyrs of El Salvador and the rest of Central and South America.
     “I didn’t know,” the young man said. “How horrible,” the girl added. They watched for a minute or two, and then spotting a Haagen-Dazs cart, they shuffled off to get an ice cream.
     (CRISPAZ Executive Director Dennis O’Connor is attending he SOA Watch/Latin American Solidarity Days of Action in Washington, D.C., and he will be reporting on each day’s activities in The CRISPAZ Blog.)

Naming the names

     And so we begin by naming the names: Luis Abad, Gonzalo Achupallias, Segundo Acordones, Briones Acosta, Elicio Aguilar Carrion, Francisco Aguirre …

     In El Salvador, you will find lists of names, names of the dead. Names of the disappeared. Names of those who were innocents …

    … Wilfredo Almeida, A. Cesar Cruz Almeida, Rene Galo Nieto Almeida, Miguel Perez Almendariz, Luis Alomoto, Arcos Bolivas Bastidas …

     The most famous list of names can be found in the capital city, in Cuscatlan Park, where more than 35,000 names are carved into horizontal granite slabs, logging some of those who lost their lives or disappeared in the 12-year civil war that has come to define El Salvador …

     … Jose Domingo Monterrosa Barrios, Julio Valencia Gonzalez, Joaquin Valdez Gomez, Jose R. Garcia, Napoleon Garcia, Wilfredo Canales, Jorge L. Callejas …

     But the names above are not from the wall at Cuscatlan Park, and they are not victims of the war. These are among the 2,500-plus graduates of the School of the Americas from El Salvador. They took courses such as Commando Training OE-4; Combat Arms Basic Course; Patrolling Operations; Jungle Operations; Psychological Operations; and Counter-Insurgency Training.
     The great theory behind the development of the School of the Americas, from the U.S. military’s "unofficial" point of view, was that they were not only providing technical training for soldiers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua – among many others – the U.S. military also was investing in developing friendships that would last for many years. The cadets attending the SOA programs would always have ties to SOA instructors, and military personnel from the States in turn would be able to contact the young officers trained at the school when they reached the rank of Colonel or General. We always would have a handle on what was going on with the military organizations of our neighboring countries because these were our “buddies.”
     The Salvadoran graduates of the SOA who were trained in the late 1970s and early 1980s were the understudies of U.S. trainers who had cut their teeth on truly nasty operations in Vietnam. These were the guys engaged in “black ops” that involved murdering “insurgents” in the middle of the night, razing entire villages (drain the water, and the fish will die – a tactic developed in Southeast Asia), and as we all know, Salvadoran graduates used the techniques to the extreme, costing upwards of 75,000 lives in the process.
     It is because those lives were lost, at the hands of men trained by our own military, that we gather in Washington, D.C. this weekend. We are remembering the names of the victims. We are recalling the names of the perpetrators in these killings. And we are asking our own government to stop this insidious repression that we continue to foment on the innocents of Central and South America in the name of security. Shut the school down. Shut it down!
     It was a learning point for me that nearly everyone I spoke with or listened to today when discussing the SOA made reference to the atrocities that occurred in El Salvador as being the birth of a movement against the SOA. Everyone in this “community” knew of Romero’s plea for help, and they can all recite the martyrs: Msgr. Romero, the Four Churchwomen; the Jesuits.
     I have been to the wall at Cuscutlan Park many, many times. Each visit brings a new observation. I see names I’ve never noticed before. I see flowers and notes left behind by loved ones remembering their father or mother or a sibling. And now in my mind’s eye, I see the wall; I look at it from an angle, the horizontal lines fading off in the distance and almost joining at its end. So many victims. So many killed. The last time I was there, in December, I walked along the wall with my daughter, both of us stopping to touch the carved name of a family member who had been tortured and then murdered. It was a horrible moment, and I couldn't bring myself to tell her that this was our fault.
     What a legacy for us. What shame.


(Crispas Executive Director Dennis O'Connor is blogging from Washington, D.C. during the Latin American Solidarity Conference held at American University.)

SOA Watch members fast to close School of the Americas

     It was a remarkable scene: a group of protestors standing in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., holding up a sign urging the closing of the notorious School of the Americas, chatting with youths who ask “What’s the SOA,” and “Are you a protester?”
     Such was the afternoon of April 7, the fourth day in a weeklong celebration of joint activities meant to bring pressure upon President Barack Obama to shut down the military institution that over the course of more than 30 years has trained army officers and enlisted men in the ways of torture, hunt and kill techniques, and destruction.
     Roy Bourgeois, the former Maryknoll priest and founder of School of the Americas Watch, told a crowd of about 80 people at George Washington University later that day that the cornerstone of the efforts made by SOAW and Latin America Solidarity, which was a co-sponsor of the educational and legislative conference in Washington, was to find a good stride and “not get burned out.”
     “The media in Washington has told us that they’ve covered the story” about the SOA Watch protests, underscoring the importance of the gatherings at the school’s home base, Ft. Benning, Ga., where 20,000 protesters make a mark, unlike the streets of the nation’s capital. Bourgeois also noted that there is hope for a younger generation of engaged leaders who already asking questions about the United States’ role in the roiling political and military era of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
     The School of the Americas has been an important component of El Salvador’s checkered history in recent years. More than 200 officers and noncommissioned officers have graduated from the program, which originally was located in Panama prior to moving to its current home at Ft. Benning. Now known as WHINSEC (the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), the institution continues to train military ranks in the not-so-subtle ways of warfare, with the real aim of developing relationships with officers as they move up in the ranks over the years.
      CRISPAZ has always maintained a keen interest in shutting down the school, especially in light of the hundreds – if not thousands – of friends who were affected by the bloody encounters with SOA-trained personnel.
     About a dozen of the protesters at this year’s Washington event volunteered to take part in a weeklong fast, limiting their intake to water and fruit juices, to show a commitment to the movement and to help raise awareness of the issue by hearkening back to the early days of the SOA Watch, when fasts would last up to a month, Bourgeois said.
     Events for Friday, April 8, include a gathering at the Embassy of Honduras to protest a coup in 2010; and an open house at the Embassy of Venezuela. In the evening, the first plenary session of the gathering will be held at American University,  featuring Chuck Kaufman, the national co-coordinator of the Alliance for Global Justice; Perla de la Rosa, an activist in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; and Gerardo Torres, who represents the National Front of Popular Resistance of Honduras.

     (CRISPAZ Executive Director Dennis O’Connor is attending the SOA Watch/Latin American Solidarity Days of Action in Washington, D.C., and he will be reporting on each day’s activities in The CRISPAZ Blog.)

SOA/Latin American Solidarity Schedule of Events for April 8-11 conference

SOA/LASC Anti-Militarism Conference at a Glance

Below is the full conference schedule including plenary speakers and workshops for the School of the Americas/Latin America Solidarity conference on Anti Militarism in Washington, D.C. from April 8-11. Check back at The CRISPAZ Blog each day during the conference for updates from CRISPAZ Executive Director Dennis O'Connor, who will be attending the conference as CRISPAZ's representative.

Some workshop titles may change. Visit www.lasolidarity before the conference to see any last minute changes. Addresses and directions to all locations are also posted on the LASC web page. 

Conference Schedule

Friday, April 8

3-5pm Special delegate reception hosted by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (RSVP required to Chuck@AFGJ.org)

6-9pm Opening Plenary, American University Ward Circle Bldg.

Live Music

Plenary Speakers

Chuck Kaufman is National Co-Coordinator of the Alliance for Global Justice.

Perla de la Rosa is an activist in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

Jesús Emilio Tuberquia is a co-founder and the legal representative of the Peace Community of

 San José de Apartadó, Colombia.

Gerardo Torres is responsible for relations with the people of the United States and Canada for

the National Front of Popular Resistance of Honduras.

Pierre Labossiere is co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee.

Saturday, April 9

8:30-10am, Registration, tabling American University Ward Circle Bldg.

10-11am Welcome Plenary

11-12:30pm Workshops 1

1.      From SouthCom to San Diego's Naval Port: Being part of the Larger Movement Against Militarization, Ray del Papa (SOA Watch) and Susana Pimiento (FOR)

2.      When Threats and Economic Blackmail Fail, US Sponsored Coups Follow: Gerardo Torres, Pierre Lebossiere, Lisa Sullivan, (FNRP, Haiti Action Committee, and SOAW

3.      Megaprojects and the Militarization of Mexico; a quest for land and resources: Carolina Dutton and Jose Placencia (Chiapas Support Committee)

4.      Cuban Sovereignty and the struggle to free the Cuban Five: Banbose Shango, Nalda Vigezzi, Juan Jacomino and Alicia Jrapko, International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5 and the National Network on Cuba

5.      The School of the Americas and the Movement to Shut it Down!, Hendrik Voss, SOA Watch

6.      Community Building as Resistance and an Alternative to Neoliberalism: Tony Nelson and Luz Rivera, Mexico Solidarity Network

7.      Confronting Media Disinformation: Greg Wilpert, Mike Fox, Alex Main, James Suggett, Venezuelanalysis.com, CEPR

8.      The Ecological Effects of a Wars and A Militarized World (and possibilities from Bolivarian Central and South America): Beth Adams, MSW(BU)

9.      Costa Rica: How Militarization Threatens the Tradition of Peace: Roberto Zamora, Nicole Sault, Centro de Amigos Para la Paz

10.   Invest in Caring Not Killing – Women Organizing against Militarization: Global Women's Strike, Phoebe Jones, Jazmin Banks, Amanda Clark, Margaret Prescod

11.   FBI Repression from Latin America to Your Front Door: Committee to Stop FBI Repression

12.   Spies and Guns for Hire / A U.S. Shadow Military: The Increased Role of Blackwater and Other Mercenary Companies in U.S. Foreign Policy: Dan Kenney

12:30-1:30pm Lunch

1:30-3:00pm Workshops 2

1. Militarization and Counter-Militarization of the American Education System: Anthony Ramierez, Jesse Graves, Ya-Ya Network (Youth Activists-Youth Allies)

2. U.S. Trade Union solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba: Dan Kovalik (United Steelworkers) and others

3. Making Space for Peace: Protective Accompaniment as a Means of Confronting Militarization in Latin America: Peace Brigades International, Emily Nelson and Katherine Hughes-Fraitekh

4. Activist Education: Deconstructing Militarism & Training to Build Our Movement: Jamie Way and Becca Polk, AFGJ and SOA Watch

5. Venezuela: A Major Reason for the Increase in US Militarization in Latin America Lisa Sullivan (SOA Watch- Venezuela), Charlie Hardy

6. Honduras: The Popular Struggle for Democracy: Gerardo Torres

7. Film: Return to El Salvador and Q&A with filmmaker Jamie Moffet

8. Film: The Covert US War Against Cuba: Bernie Dwyer, director of Mission Against Terror: Case of the Cuban 5,  Philip Agee, Cuba and the CIA, Radio Havana Radio

9. "Secure Communities"  - Secure for Whom?!:  What the Program  means and what to do about it!: Diana Bohn & others

10. From Fear to Understanding: How can we better address Fear in our communities?: Joe Nangle, Marie Dennis

11. The Crisis in Ciudad Juarez and US Militarization in Mexico with Perla de la Rosa

12. Haiti’s Grassroots resisting Military and Non-Profit Occupation: Haiti Action, Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike, Pierre Labossiere, Margaret Prescod, James Jordan

3:00-3:30pm Break/Music

3:30-5:00 Workshops 3

1.      Research for Anti-Militarism Campaigns: John Lindsay-Poland, FOR

2.      Grassroots Congressional Lobbying to Close the SOA and Resist Militarization, Alison Snow, SOA Watch

3.      Serving God in a Culture of Militarism: E. Daniel Riehl

4.      Using Human Rights Law in International Solidarity Work: Laura Raymond, Anjana Samant, Laura Carey, Legal Fellow, Tamara Brown, Center for Constitutional Rights and Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti

5.      Film, “We must Kill the Bandits”  by Kevin Pina

6.      Supporting Refuseniks and Their Families Internationally: Eric Gjertsen (Payday men’s network), Sam Weinstein (Utility Workers Union of America)

7.      Prisoners of Empire:  How the US Uses Jails for Repression at Home and Abroad: Camilo Matos, Jasmine Kramer, Stan Smith, James Jordan, Phoebe Jones, Helen Jaccard, Alliance for Global Justice, Boricua Human Rights Network, Global Women's Strike, Payday, Veterans for Peace

8.      Changing the Security Discourse; Moving the Money From the Pentagon to the People: Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation/New Priorities Network, Blasé Bonpane, Office of the Americas, Judith LeBlanc, Peace Action/New Priorities Network

9.      The Drug War and the Merida Initiative – Laura Carlsen, Americas Program and Daniel Brito Drug Policy Alliance

10.   Film, "Quien Dijo Miedo," a Katia Lara film, presented by Gerardo Torres, FNRP

11.   Mesoamerica Resiste!, Beehive Collective

12.   Adios Uribe: Jeremy John and Charity Ryerson

5:15-6:30 Plenary

Plenary Speakers

Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Margaret Prescod is author of “Black Women Bringing it All Back Home” and hosts “Sojourner

 Truth” on Pacifica Radio’s KPFK.

Dan Kovalik is the Senior Assistant General Counsel to United Steelworkers.

John Lindsay-Poland is Research and Advocacy Director of the national interfaith organization

 Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR).

8-11:30pm Concert at St. Stephens Church

    

Sunday, April 10

9-10am Registration, coffee & tabling

10-11:30am: Workshops 4

1.      How to build a strategic, grassroots campaign against US militarism: CISPES

2.      Mining and Women's Rights: Criminalization of Peaceful Resistance in Guatemala AND Organizing Against the Repression of Q’eqchi’ Communities in Guatemala: NISGUA

3.      Bring Our War $$ Home: Lisa Savage, CODEPINK

4.      Language Justice: Building multilingual movements to confront militarization: Josh Diamond, Wayside Center for Popular Education

5.      Using Multimedia in Anti-Militarization/Solidarity Work: Michael Fox, Silvia Leindecker, NACLA, Estreito Medios Productions

6.      Youth, Student & Academia Strategy Caucus: Jamie Way, Bruce Wilkinson

7.      Women’s Strategy Caucus: Barbara Larcom

8.      Labor Strategy Caucus: Dan Kovalik, Stan Smith

9.      Veterans Strategy Caucus: Helen Jaccard and others

10.   Environmental Strategy Caucus: James Jordan

11.   Faith-based Strategy Caucus: Daniel Riehl, Dave Kane

11:30-1pm Closing Plenary

Simón Sedillo is a community rights defense organizer in Mexico and film maker.

Laura Carlsen is the director of the Americas Program of the Center for International Policy,

 based in Mexico City.

Lisa Sullivan is the SOAW Latin America Coordinator.

2:45pm SOA Watch White House Action gather at Dupont Circle - march to White House

Monday, April 11

8:30-10am Orientation for SOAW White House action - Lobby Day

Place: Parish Hall, Lutheran Church of the Reformation

212 East Capitol Street

Washington, DC 20003