"No More Foreign Military Bases"

Social Forum of the Americas

August 14, Asuncion, Paraguay

With the presence of more than 200 people representing numerous organizations, movements, continental and national networks, the second continental meeting of the campaign "America Latina, A Region of Peace: No More Foreign Military Bases" was held on August 14, 2010, in Asuncion, during the fourth Social Forum of the Americas.

Using case testimonies and stories of struggles in different countries, it was declared that the U.S. military presence in the region has been expanding, and that this military presence has been counter to the processes of progressive political changes in the region.

Those present at the plenary rejected the "war on drugs" as a justification for the use of machines of war and machines of death on our continent. The true interests of those controlling the machines of war lie elsewhere. These include the control of natural resources, including militarizing the solutions to climate change. Militarization was viewed as an integral part of strategies for control of markets and free trade.

Military bases have been used to give support to military coups and to destabilize the ongoing processes of change in the region. In numerous cases, social movements and their members have been characterized as terrorist organizations, thereby criminalizing any sort of social protest.

The struggle against the bases is intrinsically linked to the struggle to end colonialism on our continent. Imperialism has been using territories that still have "colonial" status as logistic support for its own operations. In the plenary it was stressed that our struggle is not simply against the U.S. presence but also of their allies and their military alliance, NATO.

Those present at the plenary stressed that the world remembers the nuclear bombings 65 years ago of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We must prevent another such crime against humanity from ever being repeated.

The rich exchange at the plenary indicated that the continental campaign will be working on multiple dimensions of the problem of militarization, including its connection to free trade, to colonialism, the control of natural resources, and the criminalization of protest.

The campaign will be built around a set of joint activities, in a coordinated series of actions based within the context analyzed. We will utilise the dates indicated below as a framework for strengthening the construction of a process of struggle.

The plenary of the Continental Campaign calls on everyone to join immediately in a response to the installation of military bases in Costa Rica, and also in solidarity with Encuentro Mujeres y Pueblos Against Militarization, which will conduct a vigil at the base of Palanquero, Colombia. For this, we call for August 23 to be a day of action, debates, and the delivery of letters to appropriate consulates and embassies.

Organization of the Campaign:

Coordination:

The campaign will follow the organizational model of the campaign against the FTAA, with coordinated actions but decentralized tasks. That is to say, a campaign of open coordination with decentralized control, made up of representatives of regional organizations and networks, selected by the campaign within each country.

Currently the coordination is composed of 14 regional networks and organizations in addition to national campaigns such as those of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba and the USA.

Facilitation:

An operating committee has been formed, with facilitators for the campaign's organization, and dissemination and communication of information about the campaign: ASC, Cebrapaz, CMLK, APDH, Mopassol and other organizations that wish to join.

Organizations should respond in 15 days indicating the person or persons who will have the organizational responsibility to address the issue.

Tasks and areas of work:

• The coordination of actions with decentralized tasks: we will try to decentralize activities such that the Campaign consists of a set of diverse but articulated events, convoked from all participants.

• Encouragement of new members and the creation of national benchmarks for the campaign.

• New organizations who joined the campaign at the Foro Social: Friends of the Earth, Confederation of Labor Unions of the Americas - CSA, School of the Americas Watch- SOAW, Colectivo Frontera Cero (No Borders Collective), Latin American Political Psychologists, Committee to Promote the Council of Social Movements ALBA in Venezuela.

Communication:

• During this phase of the campaign, the media will have a strategic and defining role for the consolidation of the initiative. There will be a communications committee, whose work will also be decentralized.

• Effective communication will be a priority of the campaign. Its goal is to give visibility to the campaign and to share statements, reports, information about regional and national agendas. The communication committee will also share analysis, research, observations of militarization, and communication products: posters, billboards, videos, teaching materials, a web page which links the sites created by participating organizations, chapters or national networks that make up the campaign.

Some tasks:

• Complete the establishment of the websitefuerabases.org , creating a tool that connects national campaigns, with pages from other organizations and which easily permits the uploading of information. The organization responsible for this: Codigo Sur.

• Translation of content: form a translation team for languages other than Spanish, including indigenous languages

• Work on a poster map indicating the presence of military bases (to make a comparison of changes from 2002 to 2010) - Put this on the website so that it can easily be downloaded.

• Responsible organizations: Codigo Sur, Cebrapaz, Martin Luther King, Jubileo Sur and others who join.

Plan of Action:

The campaign will be constructed from the articulation of a set of actions, activities, in a unity of actions growing from the context analyzed. We will use the dates agreed upon to continue to strengthen the campaign, giving visibility to the issue, building alliances, producing tools and subsidies, organizing the resistance, and giving our complete solidarity.

August

• August 23: Actions against the presence of military bases in Colombia and Costa Rica - Accompany vigil to be held in Puerto Salgar, (near the base in Palanquero, Colombia), organized by the Encuentro de Mujeres y Pueblos Against Militarization. Deliveries of letters to consulates and embassies, debates, actions in the streets.

October:

Promote and give visibility to the campaign, by taking part in various events organized during this month. Highlights include:

• October 12 - Demonstrations by Cry of the Excluded (Grito de los Excluidos), in opposition to wall between the United States and Mexico.

• October 15 - actions to defend the sovereignty of the Haitian people - No to "humanitarian" military interventions.

December:

• December 10 - Continental Journey against the presence of foreign military bases in Latin America - International Human Rights Day.

• Participate in activities around the debate on Climate Change - linking the issue militarization, natural resources and climate change.
January:

• January 12 - Actions to protest the militarization of Haiti after the earthquake.

May:

• International Seminar on foreign military bases - Guantanamo - Cuba