Connecting the Struggles

Several members of CUSLAR just returned from the international Mobilization Against Military and Economic Intervention in Latin America and Across the Globe, which took place in Washington DC from April 10-15. The mobilization was billed as a way to educate ourselves and to connect the struggles for peace and justice around the world. The mobilization was a time to assure ourselves that, as the call to action stated, “our resistance is as global as their war”. It was an inspiring mobilization with workshops and speakers from around the Americas, and no matter which organization people represented (the Nicaragua Network, CISPES, SOA Watch, etc), everyone was talking about the same things: free trade agreements and megaprojects (like the CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement and the PPP, Plan Puebla Panama) and the militarization of the hemisphere.

We spent a lot of time at the conference discussing how military intervention in Latin America is deemed as necessary in order to implement free trade deals and development projects that are disapproved of by the local population. We’ve seen this trend over and over again throughout the Americas in many different forms from the SOA to Plan Colombia and back again. In this issue of the CUSLAR newsletter, we’ve attempted to gather relevant news and analysis that will allow you to begin to investigate many of these interconnected themes: the current struggles in Argentina and Bolivia, analysis of NAFTA and CAFTA, and commentary on the oil wars in Iraq and Colombia.  We’ve also included a “Resources” page at the end of the newsletter which points you towards some links for further information and ideas for action on all of the discussed topics. 

In this time of global war and domination, I think it essential that we educate ourselves about these connections. We have to start to see that the war in Iraq and the interventions in Latin America are the same because they are both driven by imperialist expansionism. We have to start to see all of these wars (The War on Terrorism, the War on Drugs, ongoing wars on poor people and people of color throughout the hemisphere) as part of the same overarching imperialist plan, so that our movements for peace and justice in Latin America, in the Middle East, in every part of the world, come together as movements for peace and justice and against neoliberalism.