Central America and Caribbean

July 3, 2008

Pastors for Peace Caravan Threatened With Arrest for Exercising Their Right to Protest

Despite previous agreements, federal agents seized 31 computers from the
Pastors for Peace as they attempted to cross Pharr International Bridge
early this morning at the US-Mexico border.

The U.S. government has forced the issue by turning back on previous
actions and agreements" said Rev. Lucius Walker, Executive Director of
IFCO/Pastors for Peace. " They have intentionally provoked and harass us
he continued.

"We will not be intimidated. We have made every effort to be cooperative
and they have responded with aggression. These computers are the same  read more »

On June 4, 2008 some 200 Mexican troops and police engaged in aggressive actions against Zapatistas in the Patiwitz Canyon of the Lacandon Jungle. Specifically the heavily armed military / police convoy entered the corn and banana fields surrounding Zapatista communities. This threat to the communities' only food supplies provoked a desperate response by Mayan boys and girls, women, and men.  read more »

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press June 6, 2008

HAVANA - Cuba has authorized sex-change operations and will offer them free for qualifying citizens, an official said Friday.  read more »

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press April 9, 2008

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A desperate appeal from the president Wednesday failed to restore order to Haiti's shattered capital, and bands of looters sacked stores, warehouses and government offices.  read more »

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press April 8, 2008

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.N. peacekeepers fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a crowd that gathered outside the presidential palace Tuesday during the second consecutive day of protests over soaring food prices.

Fritz Longchamp, chief of staff to President Rene Preval, said some protesters were trying to break down the palace gates before the U.N. troops moved to establish a security perimeter around the building.  read more »

Start: Mar 21 2008 - 6:00pm

On March 21, Olympia gets the opportunity to see Gloria La Riva. She is the coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five and presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. She will speak at Media Island (816 Adams St., across from the downtown Timberland library) on the current economic and political situation in Cuba and to update the community of the struggle to Free the Cuban Five, serving unjust sentences in U.S. prisons.  read more »

SUPPORT THE TEACHERS OF PUERTO RICO,

WHO FIGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OF US ALL!  read more »

Dear comrades,

We are writing to introduce the Solidarity Without Borders Campaign, a
coordinated, sustained, three-pronged campaign in solidarity with
immigrant and indigenous struggles across North and Latin America.

Anti-authoritarian groups from across the Northeast and Midwest USA have
come together to form the Solidarity Without Borders Group.

This working group came out of the recent Consulta of the Northeast
Anarchist Network (NEAN) and Midwest Action Network (MAN). The proposal
was initiated by the Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement (BAAM) and NYC
Local Union of the North East Federation of Anarchist Communists (NEFAC),
and has been joined by anarchists from over a dozen other towns and cities.  read more »

By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA | Associated Press February 22, 2008

GUATEMALA CITY - An angry mob in Guatemala that took 29 policemen
hostage released the officers Friday in exchange for talks with the
government on legalizing their lands and possibly dropping charges
against a jailed farm leader, a human rights official said.

The standoff began late Thursday when a crowd surrounded the police
station in the Caribbean coastal town of Livingston, disarmed the
agents and took them in boats to their remote village of Maya Creek.

The mob of hundreds threatened to kill the officers unless
authorities agreed to release a jailed farm leader accused of leading
land seizures.  read more »

Film Screening at Media Island March 5 at 7pm

A timely examination of human values and the health issues that affect us all, ¡Salud!looks at the curious case of Cuba, a cash-strapped country with what the BBC calls ‘one of the world’s best health systems.’ From the shores of Africa to the Americas, !Salud!hits the road with some of the 28,000 Cuban health professionals serving in 68 countries, and explores the hearts and minds of international medical students in Cuba -- now numbering 30,000, including nearly 100 from the USA.  read more »

By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Feb. 19, 2008

HAVANA - Fidel Castro, ailing and 81, announced Tuesday he was resigning as Cuba's president, ending a half-century of autocratic rule which made him a communist icon and a relentless opponent of U.S. policy around the globe.  read more »

 Come See: UN POQUITO DE TANTA VERDAD (a little bit of so much truth)

This is a great documentary about the events in Oaxaca Mexico in the summer of 2006. It focuses on the role of community radio in coordinating the mobilizations of the people. In doing so it also gives a flavor of the spirit of the people in this largely indigenous region of Mexico. THIS IS A FREE EVENT! We think people should see it if they haven't.

Wednesday February 6th, 7pm @ TRADITIONS Fair Trade Cafe, 5th & Water St.

December 22. 2007 Daily Comet

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Residents on the tiny Bahamian island of Bimini set fire to a police station and several patrol boats to protest a fatal overnight shooting, a top police official said Saturday.

Protesters marched through the streets around midnight on Friday, after a policeman shot and killed an unidentified man, said Hulan Hanna, chief superintendent of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

Hanna declined to give details about the police shooting, or detail damages caused by the protest. No one was injured in the march, he said.  read more »

Following the November Vigil to Close the SOA (see
http://www.soaw.org ), our friends in Immokalee, Florida are going to
organize a major mobilization to take place in Miami at the Burger
King headquarters on Friday, November 30. They are mobilizing folks
from across the state of Florida, the southeast US, and the rest of
the country to take a stand for fair wages and working conditions,
fundamental human rights and an end to modern-day slavery in the
agricultural industry. Click here for more information:
http://www.ciw-online.org/2007_BK_March/index.html  read more »

Managua, Sept 1 (Prensa Latina) The first of two eye centers to open as part of Cuban aid to Nicaragua. The center will be located on the Atlantic coast and be inaugurated this month, said Maritza Cuan, Public Health minister.

The center is located in Bluefield, administrative center of the Autonomous Region of the South Atlantic. The other center will be constructed in Puerto Cabezas, capital of the Autonomous Region of the North Atlantic.

Each clinic, attended by Cuban physicians, will have capacity for 20 operations daily for cataracts and other afflictions.

These centers complement the work being done since May by Cuban specialists in the Ciudad Sandino clinic, 15 kilometers northwest of Managua.  read more »

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Costa Ricans, some dressed as skeletons and holding banners, protested on Sunday against a U.S. trade pact they say will flood the country with cheap farm goods and cause big job losses.

Chanting "No to the free-trade pact!" and "Costa Rica is not for sale!" protesters ranging from farmers to housewives filled one of San Jose's main boulevards to demonstrate against the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

Costa Rica is the only country that has not ratified CAFTA -- which includes Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic -- and will be on October 7 the only nation to decide the issue by referendum.  read more »

Fri Sep 28, 2007 HAVANA (AFP) - Cuban dissident leaders denounced Friday the police detention of 47 activists attempting to hold a street protest in Havana on behalf of political prisoners.

But prominent dissident Martha Beatriz Roque told AFP the government had detained and then released the activists to "minimize the international political cost" of its actions.  read more »

By Cyril Mychalejko
www.UpsideDownWorld.org

The September 9 election to replace Guatemalan President Oscar Berger featured more body bags than tangible ideas to improve the country. Now facing a runoff election, voters are left with the tired choice between a military strongman and an oligarch.

The last time Guatemala was a functioning democracy was during Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán's administration, which ended prematurely as a result of a CIA orchestrated coup in June of 1954. In the decades that followed the country suffered under military dictatorships, death squads, genocide and a 36-year civil war that left hundreds of thousands murdered, tortured and disappeared.  read more »

Tue Jul 24, 2007

HAVANA (Reuters) - Eight Americans graduated on Tuesday from a Cuban medical school after six years of studies fully funded by Fidel Castro's government. 

They plan to return home, take board exams for licenses to practice and provide cheap health care in poor neighborhoods.  read more »

July 19, 2007 Trinidad and Tobago Express

THE NORTH Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) yesterday attempted to file an injunction with the Industrial Court compelling protesting workers of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) to return to work, but their motion was blocked by a counter-injunction from the Public Services Association (PSA).  read more »

LATEST CARAVAN NEWS - PRESS RELEASE
July 17, 2007, 8:30am - for immediate release

CONTACTS: IFCO/Pastors for Peace
McAllen: Ellen Bernstein 646/319-5902
New York: Lucia Bruno 212/926-5757, 347/423-4330

PASTORS FOR PEACE CUBA CARAVAN DETAINED BY HOMELAND SECURITY:
OFFICERS CURRENTLY SEARCHING VEHICLES, 'DETAINING' COMPUTERS

126 U.S. Citizens and International Activists Challenging Immoral U.S. Blockade of Cuba  read more »

July 17, 2007 BBC

Watch Video

Police in the Mexican state of Oaxaca have fired tear gas at protesters in the state capital in the worst outbreak of violence there since last November.

Demonstrators set fire to buses and threw rocks as they tried to march to a stadium due to stage a major cultural festival from next week.  read more »

Download this Public Service Announcement and post it on your own website to help us spread the word about the SOA and close this terrorist training school. It's free and easy! Contact us to receive VHS, Betacam copies.

Closing the School of Assassins (School of the Americas)  read more »

Saturday, June 30, 2007

IFCO/Pastors for Peace Action Alert

Call your Senators and Representatives (202- 224-3121) and
Email Your Senators http://www.senate.gov/ and
Representatives http://www.house.gov/writerep/ Now and Monday!

Please pass this on to your email lists and phone trees!

Homeland Security Officials "Detain" Medical Supplies Destined for Cuba at Maine/Québec Border Despite Earlier Successful Crossings Today With Five Tons of Medical Aid Collected by Canadians for Cuba.  read more »

Gas prices, the rapidly evolving power crunch, climate disruption getting you down?

Come see a film that explores how Cuba is dealing with these challenges!

Monday June 11th
Traditions Fair Trade Cafe
300 5th Ave & Water St
Downtown Olympia

Special screening of the documentary

"The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil"

Doors: 7:15pm
Event: begins at 7:30pm
Donations gratefully accepted

Afterwards there will be a brief Q&A and Rick Fellows will talk about his upcoming Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba . The kick off for that is July 3rd.  read more »

This July we will again collectively break the US blockade and travel ban by taking humanitarian aid, and ourselves, to Cuba without asking for a US government license.  read more »