Anti-Israel Demonstrations in Latin America

http://www.mexidata.info/id2147.html

Monday, February 2, 2009

Anti-Israel Demonstrations in Latin America

Anti-Defamation League

Since Israel's operation in Gaza began, a series of demonstrations and anti-Israel rallies have been organized by left-wing groups and local Arab leaders across capitals of most Latin American countries.

Demonstrators used offensive Holocaust imagery and anti-Semitic rhetoric. The rallies were initially staged in front of Israeli Embassies but they have also occurred at local Jewish institutions.

The following is a selected list of anti-Israel protests occurring in Latin America in the wake of Israel's Gaza operation:

Argentina
Anti-Israel rallies have been held in Buenos Aires and in other cities such as Resistencia, Chaco. In Buenos Aires, these demonstrations have been well attended by a number of left-wing groups who used Nazi imagery and anti-Semitic slogans.

Brazil
There have been numerous anti-Israel rallies in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and in smaller cities in Brazil.

Sao Paulo, January 6, 2009
Approximately five hundred demonstrators gathered in Avenida Paulista to protest against Israel's military action in Gaza. Religious leaders and representatives of Arab-Brazilian civil entities had signs that read, "Holocaust in Palestine" and protesters shouted "the Israeli actions against the Palestinians are a crime against Humanity" and "We cannot accept that there is a Holocaust in the 20th Century".

Cinelândia, Rio de Janeiro, January 8, 2009
About a thousand people demonstrated their support for the Palestinians, and some banners read "Hamas Brazil," At this rally, protester burned the US and Israeli flags.

Colombia
Bogotá - There were three rallies in Bogota: One on December 31, 2008, one on January 2, 2009 and one on January 6, 2009. The rallies were held in front of the Embassy of Israel, to express support for the Palestinian cause and against Israel's operation in Gaza. One banner said "No more Genocide against the Palestinians" and protesters were chanting "Zionists Assassins." The majority of the demonstrators were young people and groups of them burned the Israeli flag.

Chile
Santiago There has been large and frequent rallies. The Palestinian community in Chile, one of the largest outside of the Arab world, has been joined by other Chileans demonstrating against the Israeli offensive in Gaza.  Demonstrators rallied around the Embassy of Israel and the presidential palace, La Moneda.

Ecuador
Quito, January 6, 2009
Dozens of Ecuadorians protested against Israel's operation in Gaza walking for several blocks towards the Israeli Embassy in Quito. Although the rally was peaceful, when they reached the Embassy of Israel the tone of their chants turned more virulent and the protesters threw black paint, eggs and shoes at the building.

Mexico
Mexico City, January 6, 2009
More than a hundred people protested at the Israeli Embassy in Mexico. Banners had messages like "No to the genocide in Palestine" and flags were burned the demonstrators, who were watched by more than 200 riot police officers.

Panama
Panama City, December 30, 2008
A small pro-Palestinian rally was held in front of the Embassy of Israel in Panama City. The organization FRENADESO, an umbrella organization for labor, leftist and civic groups in Panama, coordinated the rally. The organization demanded to "Stop the Holocaust in Palestine!, Stop Israel's state Terrorism!" and chanted "Hurray for Free Palestine."

Peru
Lima, December 30, 2008
Members of the Palestinian community and Peruvian organizations for the Defense of Human Rights protested in Lima against the Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

Venezuela
There have been several anti-Israel rallies in Venezuela. While the largest demonstrations have taken place in Caracas, protests were also staged in other large cities like Maracaibo, Maracay, San Felipe, Puerto La Cruz, Barquisimeto and Merida. All the rallies contained anti-Semitic references comparing Israel's military actions to those of the Nazis during the Holocaust and using Nazi imagery to portray Israel's policies.

Most of the demonstrations have been organized by social and political organizations with ties to President Chavez and religious Muslim leaders and Venezuelan-Arab leaders. Indeed, one protest in Caracas was co-sponsored by the political party of President Hugo Chavez (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela –PSUV). At such protests, other government officials including the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Foreign Affairs have made comparisons between the situation in Gaza and the horrors of the Holocaust. The President of the National Assembly made false claims that Israel was using chemical weapons against Palestinian civilians. None of the official statements made any reference to the daily barrage of rockets launched by Hamas to Israeli civilians.

——————————

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

 

Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

KeyLink: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

Video: Immigrant advocates say Latinos were unfairly targeted by agents: Baltimore

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/world/bal-md.immigrants30jan30,0,7974898.story

~LINK TO VIDEO ABOVE ~

February 2, 2009

7-Eleven video said to show racial profiling

Immigrant advocates say Latinos were unfairly targeted by agents

By Scott Calvert | scott.calvert@baltsun.com

January 30, 2009

Immigrant advocates released video footage yesterday that they say shows federal agents unfairly targeted Latinos in January 2007 outside a 7-Eleven in Southeast Baltimore.

The video, taken from store cameras, captured U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rounding up 24 men suspected of being illegal immigrants. Most have since been deported or left the country voluntarily.

In the video, agents can be seen ignoring black store patrons while focusing on Latino men. Advocates say a white man who had hired three Latinos for day labor was allowed to drive his pickup truck away from the 7-Eleven, while the three workers were taken into custody.

In addition, the advocates say, the video shows agents detaining a number of Latinos who had been waiting at a bus stop across the street from the 7-Eleven, a common hiring spot for day laborers..

"Today, with this video, we're fighting back," said Jessica Alvarez, chairwoman of the National Capital Immigration Coalition. "Today, we are showing everyone exactly what our community has been telling us about the abuses, about the racial profiling."

Alvarez spoke at a late-morning news conference at a Fells Point church a few blocks from the 7-Eleven on South Broadway.

Richard Rocha, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said he had not seen the footage. But he denied that agents engaged in racial profiling. "These allegations were thoroughly investigated in 2007 and were deemed to be unsubstantiated," he said.

CASA de Maryland, a Silver Spring-based immigrant advocacy group with a Baltimore office, released the footage. The group announced that it had filed a federal lawsuit last month against the Department of Homeland Security seeking internal documents on the roundup.

The group has received a partially blacked-out report by Homeland Security's Office of Professional Responsibility. The report is redacted after a statement noting that "some of the circumstances surrounding the presence of the officers at the 7-Eleven have come into question."

CASA also said it had filed wrongful-arrest claims for three of the detained men. One has since voluntarily returned to El Salvador. The two others are free on bond in Baltimore while fighting government attempts to deport them. The men are seeking $500,000 apiece.

CASA obtained the footage in 2007 but did not release it earlier because of pending immigration cases, said staff attorney Justin Cox. It also wanted to give the government a "fair shot" to investigate, but an independent accounting has not occurred, Cox said.

Rocha, of ICE, called the roundup proper. "In this case, our officers used their training and experience to respond to a developing situation as it unfolded. They were approached by individuals asking if they needed workers. Those workers were questioned, and ultimately it was determined they were in the country illegally."

The footage shows several Latinos approaching a car as it pulls into the 7-Eleven parking lot. But Cox said agents in that vehicle did not identify themselves and instead posed as contractors. The roundup began moments later as additional ICE agents arrived.
c/s

 

Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

KeyLink: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

Latino Officials Ask Gillibrand to Change Positions on Immigration

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/122647

Latino Officials Ask Gillibrand to Change Positions on Immigration

February 02, 2009

NEW YORK, NY February 01, 2009 —A group of Latino elected officials is refusing to back newly appointed US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand until she changes her positions on immigration.

REPORTER: The city and state officials, who met with Gillibrand Sunday, want her to renounce her earlier support for border enforcement and for making English the official language. Council member Melissa Mark Viverito said the group would wait for Gillibrand to commit to immigrant rights before backing her.

VIVERITO: There is a willingness, though, to really revisit it. But until specific commitments are made and specific actions are taken, we unfortunately will not be able to endorse her as of yet or support her.

REPORTER: The group says Gillibrand should ask President Obama to issue an executive order, ending deportations and immigration raids. Gillibrand, who's been an upstate Congresswoman, says she is likely to become more sensitive to the needs of immigrants, now that she represents the whole state. The Hispanic elected officials say if she doesn't, they'll support another Senate candidate next year when Gillibrand runs for election to the seat.

by Arun Venugopal Latino Officials Ask Gillibrand to Change Positions on Immigration

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Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

KeyLink: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com

Latin America Breaks Free: By Benjamin Dangl, February 2009 Issue + Comment

http://www.progressive.org/mag/dangl0209.html

Latin America Breaks Free

By Benjamin Dangl, February 2009 Issue

Five years ago, when Evo Morales was a rising political star as a congressman and coca farmer, I met him in his office in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He was drinking orange juice and sifting through the morning newspapers when I asked him about a meeting he just had with Brazilian President Lula. "The main issue that we spoke about was how we can construct a political instrument of liberation and unity for Latin America," Morales told me.

Now President Morales is one of many left-leaning South American leaders playing that instrument. This unified bloc is effectively replacing Washington's presence in the region, from military training grounds to diplomatic meetings. In varying degrees, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Venezuela are demonstrating that the days of U.S.-backed coups, gunship diplomacy, and Chicago Boys' neoliberalism may very well be over for South America. The election of Barack Obama also gave hope for a less cowboy approach from Washington.

While many of the current left-of-center leaders in Latin America were elected on anti-imperialist and anti-neoliberal platforms, the general scope of their policies varies widely. On the left side of the spectrum sit Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, and Rafael Correa of Ecuador. They have focused on nationalizing natural resources and redistributing the subsequent wealth to social programs to benefit the countries' poor majorities. They have also enacted constitutional changes aimed at redistributing land and increasing popular participation in government policy, decision-making, and budgeting. Chávez, Morales, and Correa were also more outspoken than other leaders in their critique of the Bush Administration.

Lula, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, and Nestor and Cristina Kirchner of Argentina have been more moderate in their approach toward confronting neoliberalism, but have been trailblazers in human rights and in their dealings with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization. Though they haven't been as radical in their economic and social policies, they have shown solidarity with Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

A conflict in Bolivia this past September proved to be a litmus test for the new regional unity. Just weeks after a recall vote invigorated Morales with 67 percent support across the country, a small group of thugs hired by the rightwing opposition led a wave of violence against Morales's supporters.. The worst of these days of road blockades, protests, and racist attacks took place on September 11 in the tropical state of Pando. A private militia allegedly funded by the rightwing governor, Leopoldo Fernández, fired on a thousand unarmed pro-Morales men, women, and children marching toward the state's capital. The attack left dozens dead and wounded.

Just before this violence hit a boiling point, Morales kicked U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg out of the country, accusing him of supporting the rightwing opposition. Morales said of Goldberg, "He is conspiring against democracy and seeking the division of Bolivia." Numerous interviews and declassified documents prove that the U.S. Embassy has supported the Bolivian opposition. Goldberg denies these charges. At a protest in which effigies of opposition governors and American flags were burned, Edgar Patana, the leader of the Regional Workers' Center of Bolivia, spoke to reporters of Morales's decision to kick out Goldberg: "If he hadn't expelled him we would be tearing down the U.S. Embassy today." Chávez followed Morales's lead and kicked out the U.S. ambassador in that country. The Bush Administration responded by ejecting both nations' ambassadors from Washington.

When Morales arrived at a meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in Santiago, Chile, following the conflict, he condemned the rightwing violence in his country as part of a "civic coup d'état." UNASUR is the most recent, and perhaps most effective, new coalition of South American nations. It emerged in its present form in 2007 to ensure, among other things, sovereignty, peace, and solidarity in the region. At the emergency meeting held to resolve the Bolivian conflict, the region's presidents unanimously backed Morales, condemned the opposition's violent tactics, and emphasized that they wouldn't recognize the separatists.

At the gathering, Bachelet took the leaders on a tour of the government palace, into the room where former president Salvador Allende committed suicide when a U.S.-backed coup against him took place in 1973. "The message was clear that this wasn't going to happen, that a democratically elected leader won't be forced from power in a violent coup while the rest of the region's leaders watch," says Laura Carlsen, a longtime Latin American political analyst and director of the Americas Program in Mexico City.

On September 16, just days after the U.S. ambassador was expelled from Bolivia, the Bush Administration announced that Bolivia had "failed demonstrably during the previous twelve months" to meet its "obligations under international counternarcotics agreements." On September 26, the Bush Administration made clear its plans to cancel Bolivia's participation in the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act because of its failure in counternarcotics efforts. The canceling of this trade act is expected to result in the unemployment of some 20,000 Bolivians. Ironically, many of these recently unemployment workers will now likely seek work in coca production as a way to make ends meet.

"As Bolivia's South American neighbors rallied in support of the Morales government at a crucial moment, the Bush Administration devoted its attention to castigating Bolivia for expelling the U.S. ambassador—and 'decertification' was the nearest weapon at hand," says a report from the Andean Information Network, a drug policy and human rights organization based in Cochabamba.

Morales responded by expelling the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency from the Chapare, a major coca-producing region in the country, and announcing plans to bolster trade with Venezuela to make up for the loss of the trade deal.

Other events over the past three years signal a shift away from Washington. The failure of neoliberalism in South America, and the subsequent rise of the new Latin American left, was clear at President George W. Bush's arrival at a regional summit for the Organization of American States in Mar de Plata, Argentina, in 2005, where soccer legend Diego Maradona told reporters, "I'm proud as an Argentine to repudiate the presence of this human trash, George Bush." The massive protests that greeted Bush were a physical manifestation of public sentiment bubbling under the surface of street protests and economic ministries across the hemisphere: that the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a plan promoted ardently by the Bush Administration, to extend NAFTA-style trade policy throughout the entire region, was dead.

In October of 2007, Ecuador's Correa announced that his administration would not renew Washington's lease on a U.S. airbase in Manta, Ecuador, unless Washington allowed Ecuador to open a military base in Miami (the U.S. refused). In March of 2008, when the Colombian military conducted a cross-border bombing into a camp of the guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in Ecuador, U.S. diplomats said Colombia was justified and should operate with flexibility in its "war on terrorism" across borders.. But regional leaders condemned Colombia's actions and solved the tense conflict diplomatically without U.S. involvement.

Last April, the U.S. Navy announced it would revive its Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean. Venezuela responded in September by announcing joint naval exercises with Russia in the same area. Venezuela and Brazil are also leading plans to develop a NATO-like South American Defense Council. "I once said that if NATO exists—the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—why couldn't SATO exist? The South Atlantic Treaty Organization," Chávez said in a speech.

Then in Brazil in December, thirty-one Latin American and Caribbean leaders welcomed Cuba to the Summit of the Americas, which pointedly excluded Washington. "Cuba returns to where it always belonged," said Chávez. "We're complete." For good measure, participants at the summit roundly denounced the U.S. embargo of Cuba.

The U.S. is also losing influence in Latin America due to the decline of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an institution through which the U.S. wielded significant power.

"In the last four years the IMF's total loan portfolio has shrunk from $105 billion to less than $10 billion," explains Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington D.C., explains in a recent report.. "The organization itself is currently running a $400 million annual deficit and has been forced to downsize."

The Bank of the South is a lending institution first advocated by Chávez, and now embraced by seven South American nations as a substitute for institutions such as the IMF and World Bank.

Other agreements involving trade with each other are in the works. And some South American nations, particularly Venezuela and Bolivia, are looking to Russia and China—rather than the U.S.—for new trade and military deals. According to the Associated Press, China's trade with Latin America jumped from $10 billion in 2000 to $102.6 billion in 2007. Recently, Bolivia signed a deal with Russia to purchase five new defense helicopters, and Venezuela announced plans to buy Russian tanks and reconnaissance vehicles. Meanwhile, Brazil inked an $11 billion deal with France in December for military items.

The current financial crisis in the U.S. may signal the end of thirty years of neoliberal trade policies pressed upon the region from the Global North. Some analysts believe the departure from such policies in South America will allow individual economies to better weather the U.S. crisis. Rather than trembling in fear, many Latin American leaders see the U.S. crisis as an opportunity to widen regional integration. "This is the straw that broke the camel's back," Carlsen explains. For his part, Chávez mocked Bush's sudden conversion to nationalizing banks, calling him "Comrade Bush."

It's unclear whether he'll be calling the new President "Comrade Obama." Last May, Obama labeled Chávez a "demagogue" and said, "His predictable yet perilous mix of anti-American rhetoric, authoritarian government, and checkbook diplomacy offers the same false promise as the tried and failed ideologies of the past." Obama also called Morales's and Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega's vision "stale."

Obama's national security spokesperson, Wendy Morigi, also said he was "very concerned" about Morales's expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Goldberg and that Morales was "attempting to lay blame on outsiders." She also commented that Obama was "profoundly troubled by President Hugo Chávez's unprovoked expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy."

But many people in Latin America are sick and tired of being so focused on Washington. As Ecuador's President Correa said upon receiving the news of Obama's victory: "The day will come when Latin America doesn't have to worry about who is in the presidency of the United States, because it will be sovereign and autonomous enough to stand on its own two feet."

Benjamin Dangl is the author of "The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia" (AK Press). He is the recipient of two Project Censored awards for his reporting from Latin America.

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Comment: Clearly the fresh winds of change are blowing and traveling throughout the world. Chicanos/Latinos should look to the progressive leaders of South/Latin America for social guidance in order to help us build up a solid Latino Liberation Movement here now inside the United States, a Latino Liberation Movement that is part of the global/worldwide liberation movement to help bring fundamental social change and a new socialist democracy that responds to the basic survival needs of the people in order to end hunger and poverty, ease our suffering, stop oppression and combat repression anywhere in the world.

We need to comprehend strategy as related to our aims in the general situation and tactics are the means and methods we utilize to achieve our end strategy. At times we will have to make temporary alliances with positive social-political elements, though we may have ideological and philosophical differences with them. Keep mind that our ultimate strategic aim is the SEIZURE OF POWER by any means mandatory, but our tactics should be fair, flexible and open to further analyzes.

Latinos living inside the United States must build bridges to the many progressive elements in Latin America, yet not lose sight of the work to be done in our own local communities: housing programs for the homeless that can at least provide safe havens for our domestic and alien refugees; advocating for a just humane immigration policy to be enacted by the Obama Administration; literacy and educational programs for those who have learning challenges; the prevention of AIDS and eradicating drug addiction among our people (including alcoholism); on-going voter education-registration programs so we are better prepared for the next round of elections; having more of a positive presence  on the Internet for those of us who are writers, photographes and video shooters and a host of other community survival programs that we can begin working on now with what limited resources we have. Our major limitation is our own fertile imagination.

We must plant seeds, nurture these seeds and help them grow with direct care, concern and compassion with our own hands and muscles. We must think in terms of a larger multi-dimensional comprehension of connected reality and not make artificial barriers between ourselves and others based upon so-called race, national origin, tribe or sexual differences. We should all strive to be true humane beings!

Education for Liberation!
Peter S. Lopez aka: Peta
Field Coordinator, Humane-Liberation-Party
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/

KeyLink: http://www.NetworkAztlan.com