FOR Latin America Update, March 2, 2012
By Susana Pimiento, FOR
In April 2009, just a dozen weeks after his inauguration, President Obama gathered in Trinidad with the hemisphere’s other heads of state and vowed to open a new chapter in U.S. relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. He promised these relations would be founded on “mutual respect and equality,” promises that, unfortunately, were not kept. This coming April, in the Caribbean city of Cartagena, thirty-four heads of state, including President Obama, will get together again in the VI Americas Summit. This time, social movements from across the entire region have called for a People’s Summit. Read more.
Our Colombian partners need our help. This Tuesday, March 6, the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE) will lead rallies across Colombia demanding protection, respect, and complete return of lands to those who have had to flee their homes due to paramilitary, guerrilla and army violence in Colombia. Will you add your name to our letter supporting their march and calling for their protection? Sign our petition now.
By John Lindsay-Poland, FOR
Despite persistent reports of serious corruption and human rights abuses by the Honduran army and police, the Pentagon increased its contract spending in Honduras to $53.8 million in Fiscal Year 2011, up by 71% from the previous year. A U.S. exercise scheduled to begin March 12 will fund “Exercise Related Construction” on a Honduran infantry battalion base in Naco, Cortes, while fuel deliveries to the U.S. Air Force are planned to sites in Naco, Aguacate, and Mocorón, according to recent contract solicitations. Pentagon contracts in the Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole increased by $31.5 million in 2011, to $417 million. Read more.
By Rachel Glickhouse, Council of the Americas
As May presidential elections approach, a proposed naval base in the Dominican Republic has much of the country up in arms. The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) will finance the construction of a naval base and dock on Saona Island. With a population of only 300, Saona Island is a 42 square-mile national park and protected nature reserve off the southeast coast of the country. It’s also a popular tourist destination that receives around 300,000 visitors a year. Environmentalists believe the base would violate environmental laws, given the island’s protected status, and local activists are pushing back. Read more.
 By Charlotte Melly, FOR
February brought two important dates for the San José de Apartadó Peace Community and FOR. February 7 marked a decade of FOR´s permanent peace presence: ten years since community members greeted the first volunteers and hiked with them up to La Unión, ten years of opening space for nonviolent resistance to the Colombian conflict. February 21 saw the commemoration of one of the many arduous, painful moments the community endured in its long struggle for survival. It marks seven years since Luis Eduardo Guerra, one of the Peace Community´s founders and strongest leaders, was brutally murdered, along with seven others, including a five-year-old and an 18-month-old. Read more.
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Honduras Grows as Pentagon Hub in Central America
