Military Interventions

Archive for the ‘military interventions’ Category

9-11-09 : Random Pensamientos

11 Sep 2009

I almost feel like I’m obligated to write something today about 9-11 and frankly, I’m tired of the date. It’s exhausting on so many levels since the combination of numbers can be multiplied, added, subtracted and divided in so many ways. It’s a date that carries real physical weight and reaction in my muscles and bones. I can feel it settling, heavy in my gut.

I survived 9-11-01. Not in some abstract way but in a real sitting in a subway car underground in downtown Manhattan for houra as smoke and fire rose above. My mother survived 9-11-01, feeling the World Trade Center reverberate from the impact of a plane, she managed to lead all of her employees to safety. It was the second time she survived an attack on the WTC.

Pero I also have to sit down with my hijas, half Chilenas, and talk about their relatives that did not survive 9-11-73 or the 17 years of U.S. sponsored military dictatorship that followed. It is why the family of my younger daughter came to the United States. It is why the family of my older daughter remain active in Chilean politics in the southern part of that country.

U.S. to the Rescue in Latin America: The Drug War as Extended War of Terror

17 Aug 2009

I am working on an in depth post on how the issue of immigration was flowing through the Netroots Nation conference, pero it’s important to recognize that the way the United States chooses to “deal”/interact with Latin American countries is related to how the U.S. chooses to “deal”/interact with those who come from Latin America and their descendents.

This past weekend, the Colombian government announced that it had reached an agreement with the U.S. that allows the US military to move inside the country to tackle drug-trafficking and terrorism. Seven Colombian military bases will now become de facto U.S. military bases. Understandably, other countries in Latin America are none too pleased to have the grand gringo army within close shooting distance, and I’m not just talking about countries who are painted as far-left like Venezuela. I’m talking Argentina and Brazil as well.

We have already seen in Colombia and closer in Mexico, that U.S. intervention and support and presence in countries whose armed forces are already abusing their populations, creates (surprise!) more abuse. Then when gente trying to survive, attempt to escape that abuse, they are denied asylum/protection. For those that do make it through outside the “accepted” model, they have to live in fear either as shadows in first world countries like the U.S. and Canada, or inside detention centers.

The U.S. government, as usual, wants to have it both ways. They want to name something a war and bring war’s violence on populations, pero they are unwilling to deal with the casualties of war. The U.S. is pumping billions of dollars into Mexico on down through Central and South America. Perhaps a better way to look at this war in drugs is as an extension of the Bush war on (of) terror. You know, that whole fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here, except it seems that the targets, are potential brown migrants.

Government violence against Indigenous populations in Peru

1:11 pm By la Macha · Peru| Violence| military| military interventions · 1 Comment

6 Jun 2009

From Reuters comes the news of violence against indigenous populations in Peru that are protesting against the commercialization of their native lands.

The death toll rose on Saturday after Peruvian security forces battled native Indians in clashes that highlighted opposition to exploration in the Amazon and could threaten Peru’s investor-friendly government.

Up to 42 people have been killed in the escalating protests over mining and oil development in the region, which have interrupted food and fuel supplies and represent the worst violence of President Alan Garcia’s current government.

Thousands of Indians with wooden spears continued to block remote Amazon highways, vowing to keep protesting if police did not halt efforts to break up their demonstrations.

Makes me wonder where all the do-gooder Westerners are that buy acres of land to stop *indigenous* peoples from developing the land? Do those same people not care when it’s corporations looking to develop that land?

A way you can help:

Background

Early this morning (June 5th), Peruvian police launched a violent attack on a nonviolent road blockade held by Amazonian indigenous protesters opposing 10 laws that would open up their territory to increased mineral, oil, gas and timber exploitation. Police opened fire with live ammunition, killing at least 28 people.
Why Take Action?

The first reason to take action, of course, is simply out of solidarity with our fellow warriors in the struggle for a just and sustainable world. But why are we sending out this action alert as Root Force?

For nearly two months, thousands indigenous protesters have nearly paralyzed Peru’s Amazon region with blockades of critical transportation and mining infrastructure. They have sparked a national discourse over the limits to development and who owns nature, and have made it clear that they will not surrender any of their ancestral homelands.

At the heart of the issue are 10 laws passed by presidential decree that would greatly facilitate industrial exploitation of the Amazon. This is critical infrastructure, intended to supply new raw materials for the global market. This is one of those weak points of the system that we are always talking about.

The indigenous warriors fighting for their lives have pushed this issue into the global eye, and the Peruvian government has placed itself in a position of weakness by murdering unarmed protesters. Even before the recent killings, a congressional panel had already declared 2 of the laws unconstitutional, and only through procedural tricks has the president’s party been able to stall debate on repealing one of those laws.

This is one of those rare cases where sustained international pressure could tip the scales. If these laws are repealed, it will be a major setback for infrastructure expansion plans in a truly critical region of the hemisphere.
How to Take Action

You can email critical people in the Peruvian government through this page, provided by Amazon Watch.

You can also organize protests at Peruvian embassies or consulates, or take other actions that you think stand a good chance of making it back to the decision makers in Lima.

Make sure to express your outrage at the government’s strong arm tactics — even before the murders, the government had suspended civil liberties in 5 provinces and was calling indigenous people “terrorists” — and demand the repeal of the Free Trade laws and any law further opening the Amazon to mineral, oil, gas, timber, hydroelectric or agricultural exploitation.

In Solidarity,
Root Force

www.rootforce.org

Torture Sqads in Gitmo

21 May 2009

Several things have amused me (in a horribly ironic way) in the recent discussions about “Where will the Gitmo Detainees Stay? Not in My Back Yard!“–not the least of which includes the assumption that Cubans really want a bunch of detainees that hate the U.S. in *their* backyards.

But finding out about the torture thug group, The Immediate Reaction Force, has really topped everything. Democracy Now! has an excellent report up about the IRF’s–including descriptions of how these forces have gang beaten men for infractions like having two Styrofoam cups in their cells instead of one.

And while much of the focus has been on the tactical use of torture at Guantanamo, almost no attention had been paid to a parallel force that was torturing prisoners in a variety of ways, including waterboarding them, and that is this riot squad of sorts that you referred to called the Immediate Reaction Force. The prisoners and their lawyers at Guantanamo call it the “Extreme Repression Force.” Read more…

Junk VFA now!

12:08 pm By la Macha · military interventions · 1 Comment

16 Mar 2009

Seeing as there’s so many smaller South American nations that this could happen to and then Mexico is going to get increase military aid to fight drug cartels (why is it never increased money to fight drug addiction?) I think that the following is important to post.

Dear Friends:

Please visit : http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/JunkVFAnow/

In this new era of the Obama administration, I would like to direct your
attention to the deployment of US troops in the Philippines, under the
auspices of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a joint military agreement
between the US and Philippine governments signed in 1998. The Bush
administration abused the VFA in 2001 after launching the Global War on
Terror after the 9/11 attacks to justify the so-called anti-terrorism
exercises between US and Philippine troops known as the Balikatan (in
Filipino “shoulder-to-shoulder”) exercises. The Bush administration also
tagged the Philippines as the so-called “Second Front” to the War on Terror. Read more…

Nelson G.: Did Ruben show up? [...]

Transgender Day of Remembrance and Latin@s | VivirLatino: [...] America still painted as more transphobic than the good old U.S. of A, all we need to do is lo [...]

Maegan La Mala: intellectual jism....ja ja. I love you [...]

Maegan La Mala: Chip, Thanks for the info I will add this above. I don't have any other info about the Sunday vi [...]

dr3373: Please join "Justice for Jorge Steven López - End Hate Crimes" on facebook: http://www.facebook. [...]

VivirLatino