October 2011: March on the U.S. Southern Command
Written by Ray Del Papa, SOA Watch South Florida / SOUTHCOM Watch
Join us on October 8-9, 2011 in Florida and converge on the new headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command outside of Miami, Florida.
For over 200 years the United States, with its military, has been interfering in the internal affairs of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. We want that to end! So on Invasion Day (Columbus) Weekend, SOA Watch South Florida / SouthCom Watch will hold a series of events centering around the U.S Southern Command in Doral Florida, just to the west of Miami, Florida.
We are inviting groups and organizations to co-sponsor and participate in this regional event. This weekend of education, entertainment, and protest, with groups from all over the country, grew out of last April’s conference on Latin America that was held in Washington DC.
People from all over the Americas know the role the U.S. Southern Command has played in the U.S. intervention, militarism, and economic domination of the region. It is time to show the U.S. government and the military that people in the United States will no longer tolerate a boot to the neck foreign policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean. From Free Trade agreements to immigration, U.S. policy has had a devastating effect on the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. This must end!
The weekend of October 8-9, Invasion Day (Columbus Day), we will gather in South Florida to demand an end to repressive U.S. polices!
Our demands include:
* an end to U.S. militarization of Latin America & the Caribbean (close all U.S. bases and deactivate the 4th fleet),
* stop the criminalization of immigrants and people of color,
* close the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC), and
* abolish the economic embargo of Cuba.
“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for glass beads and hawk’s bells. They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (From Howard Zinn’s, People’s History Of The United States; a log entry by Christopher Columbus, on his first encounter with the native peoples of this hemisphere.)
The U.S. Southern Command, located outside of Miami, Florida, is the brains behind the U.S. military domination of Latin America and the Caribbean. We would like to close it. Reclaim the sacred land for the peoples of the Americas. Bring an offering from your part of the Americas to inaugurate a new spirit of peace and justice and end U.S. military, economic and political intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Close the SOA/WHINSEC, de-activate the 4th Fleet.
Tentative Schedule of Events
Saturday, October 8
Panel on U.S. Militarization and Resistance in the Americas, Saint Maurice Catholic Church, Daina Beach, Florida
Sunday, October 9
Rally & March to the gates of the U.S. Southern Command, Doral, Florida
Contact the organizers to get involved:
Linda Belgrave, cell 305-801-0245, email lindaannie@gmail.com,
Ray Del Papa, cell 754-423-0051, email mrrratpp@aol.com
To learn more about the action, click here.
