St. Paul, MN – The Salvadoran community and supporters gathered here on the evening of March 15 to watch election results and celebrate a historic victory for the left in El Salvador. On March 15, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez-Ceren were elected president and vice-president of the small Central American country. Funes and Sanchez-Ceren are from the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist political party that led an armed liberation struggle in the 1980s, and became an electoral political party after the Peace Accords ended El Salvador's civil war in 1992.
In recent months the U.S. Department of Justice has sent threatening letters to the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which works in solidarity with grassroots social justice movements and the left in El Salvador. The government is accusing CISPES of being an 'agent of a foreign power' – specifically of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist political party in El Salvador. This echoes the FBI's groundless accusations against CISPES in the 1980s, which led to a seven-year campaign of illegal U.S. government harassment against CISPES that the FBI later had to apologize for.
San Salvador, El Salvador – About 20,000 people marched in San Salvador on Saturday, July 7 protesting against the arrest and detention of 13 political activists in Suchitoto, a town in El Salvador’s rural department of Cuzcatlán.
On the same day that George W. Bush declared, “I have earned political capital in the campaign, and I intend to spend it,” high-ranking administration officials said that Bush’s second term would bring a refocusing of energies on Latin America. In the first year of his second term, Bush hopes to pass the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or DR-CAFTA, in an effort to gain passage of the full Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2006.
Less than a week after the U.S. elections, labor leader Gilberto Soto was assassinated in Usulutan, El Salvador. Soto, a Salvadoran who emigrated to the U.S. in 1975, was a Teamster organizer in New Jersey, an activist with CISPES – the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador – and a long-time member of the FMLN, El Salvador’s left political party. The FMLN has actively opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, both in the legislature, where they hold a plurality of the seats, and in the streets, where they have led tens of thousands of people marching against CAFTA and against the war in Iraq.
Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide was forcibly removed from office by U.S. military personnel Feb. 29 and flown to the Central African Republic. U.S. troops, with assistance from France, now occupy the country. Supporters of President Aristide are hunted, murdered and jailed.
On May 22, 70,000 teachers went on strike in Oaxaca, Mexico, occupying the center of the city and a large area around it. Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico and has more indigenous people than any other Mexican state. The strikers took over the center of Oaxaca’s capital city, setting up hundreds of barricades. They demanded a raise for teachers, improved school facilities and meeting students’ needs. They also demanded an increase of the overall minimum wage in Oaxaca.
San Jose, CA – In late September, people turned off their lights in Argentina's capital city, Buenos Aires, and in much of the rest of the country. This latest protest was aimed at the foreign-owned utility companies that want to raise energy prices by 35 to 50%, and the telephone rates by as much at 275%. While the national government would like to let the utilities hike their prices, many people are calling for returning the utilities to public ownership, since there has been no improvement in service since they were privatized.
Minneapolis, MN - An emergency response protest here, June 29, condemned the military coup that happened on June 28 in Honduras. The protest also expressed solidarity with the Honduran people's resistance to the right-wing military coup and demanded that the U.S. government cut off aid to Honduras. This was one of many emergency protests that happened in the U.S. and throughout the world.
Venezuelan socialists netted another electoral victory, Feb. 15, winning a popular referendum on constitutional changes. The changes will remove the two-term limit on elected office.
The Colombia Action Network is organizing events in six cities to honor and remember those killed by the U.S.-backed war in Colombia. March 1 is significant because one year ago the U.S. government directed an attack inside Ecuador that killed Raul Reyes and 25 others. Raul Reyes was a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP). Angela Denio who will be speaking in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said, “We will remember the brave Colombian rebels, Ecuadorian supporters and Mexican students who died at the hands of the U.S.-sponsored attack in Ecuador, especially FARC leader Raul Reyes who gave his life for the freedom of the Colombian people.”
La Organización Socialista Camino de la Libertad (FRSO) está de luto por la muerte del revolucionario colombiano Raul Reyes. El ataque que mató al Cdte. Raul Reyes y a 17 otros de sus camaradas cuando dormían en un campamento temporal dentro del territorio de Ecuador. Sucedió el 1o. de marzo y fue llevado a cabo por los militares colombianos y dirigido por el gobierno de Estados Unidos (EE.UU ). Esto fue un asesinato a sangre fría.
Servicio de noticias de Fight Back / Lucha y Resiste, está circulando esta declaración del Comité Nacional para la Libertad de Ricardo Palmera (Simón Trinidad).
San Salvador, El Salvador – Cerca de 20,000 personas marcharon en San Salvador el sábado 7 de julio protestando en contra del arresto y detención de 13 activistas políticos en Suchitoto, departamento de Cuzcatlán en la zona rural de El Salvador.
Washington D.C. – Sonia, una revolucionaria colombiana y prisionera política del gobierno norteamericano, fue condenada aquí el 20 de febrero en un Tribunal Federal de los EE.UU. El juicio de Sonia es parte del plan de la administración Bush a criminalizar a los revolucionarios colombianos.
Washington, D.C. – En un comienzo fuerte al segundo juicio del revolucionario colombiano Ricardo Palmera, el juez nombrado al caso, Thomas F. Hogan, tuvo que renunciar su posición el 26 de marzo y terminar su participación en el caso de Palmera. Participantes en el Día Internacional de Acción para Liberar a Ricardo Palmera estuvieron presentes en el tribunal y celebraron esta verdadera victoria.
