The Coalition to Welcome President Hugo Chavez

We, the undersigned, condemn the US actions that prevented Venezuelan President Chavez from coming to the US to speak at the United Nations

While heads of states and the people of the world have been able to hear President Bush address the United Nations, they will not hear from the democratically elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.  His trip has been cancelled due to ‘security concerns’.  Not only is the US not offering protection, but has organized violence against him and the Venezuelan people.  It is totally unacceptable that a head of state would have to risk his life to meet with other heads of state at the UN in New York. 

Background: Venezuela is the world’s 5th largest oil supplier, yet 80% of its population lives in poverty. President Chavez was elected in a landslide in 1998, initiating a “peaceful and democratic process” aimed at making fundamental change, such as using the country’s oil revenue to end poverty & corruption, and tackling racism, sexism, & other forms of discrimination.  In April 2002 the US backed a coup which kidnapped Pres. Chavez and overthrew the new democratically constructed constitution.  But within three days, millions of people from the poorest areas took to the streets and, with the help of loyal soldiers, won both back.  The wealthy white racist coup leaders now reside in Florida, Colombia, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.

Days before President Chavez was forced to cancel his trip to New York, the US government sent a message when it refused to sign a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli threats to remove Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat by deportation or assassination: it wants us to accept its right to remove any head of state, democratically-elected or not, whom it does not want.  The US administration together with the President of Colombia have decided to give amnesty to paramilitary death squad leaders, as a condition for receiving aid.  Venezuelan airspace has been violated by 15 Black Hawk helicopters flying over the border from Colombia in a clear act of aggression. 

These events, along with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, another large oil-producing nation, and the violent overthrow of Chilean President Allende (that commemorated its 30th anniversary on Sept 11), are ever-present specters.  Now Venezuelan intelligence reports that the CIA was plotting to bring down Pres Chavez’s airplane.  No one who knows the CIA’s history will reject that possibility.

President Chavez represents the growing global movement for economic and social justice, against US domination and for self-determination - beginning in Latin America. The people in the United States have been deprived of truth and of information about the new Venezuelan process, by a corporate media which has vilified and censored Pres. Chavez, and the movement he spearheads.  Pres. Chavez has said he most regrets not being able to give a televised speech at Riverside Church where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., a year to the day before he was assassinated, declared “[the Vietnam] war is the enemy of the poor.”

We call on governments at the UN, Congress and people in the US in whose name these policies are carried out, to join us in:

Protesting US interference in the ability of a government to represent itself in the UN, and this attack on free speech;

Condemning the US refusal to protect President Chavez on its soil and, worse, its use of assassinations, deportations, illegal arrest, torture, overt and covert invasions and other methods to dispose of democratically-elected and social change leaders it doesn’t want us to have;

Demanding that the Bush administration stop its complicity with Venezuela’s discredited and corrupt elite, financing & sheltering their attempts to destabilize the economy, provoking violence and chaos, and imposing a dictatorship that would enable them again to steal, impoverish and exploit the Venezuelan people, on behalf of US multinationals and themselves. 

Add your Name:                                   Organization:                                       
Email:                                                                        

Return to Coalition to Welcome Chavez (a coalition of 15 Latino, Black, women’s and community organizations).  212-924-8585.  chavezinnewyork@yahoo.com

Can also be sent to: The Bolivarian Circle - Global Women's Strike/Philadelphia, member of
The Coalition to Welcome President Hugo Chavez.
Global Women's Strike/Philadelphia: 215-848-1120. P.O. Box 11795 Philadelphia PA 19101
Email: philly@crossroadswomen.net

Organizations that have endorsed so far
Agrupacion de Solidaridad con Pueb. Indigenas USA
Afrikaleidoscope (New York, US)
AFSCME 3506
ANSWER (Long Island, US)
Bolivarian Circle Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda (New Mexico, US)
Brecht Forum (New York, US)
Caribbean & Latin America Support Project
Casa de Las Americas
Chelsea Tenant Action Ctte (New York City, US)
Comite para la Justicia en Chile - Abogado Carlos Moreno
Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
Cuba In Focus, Monthly Radio News Magazine
Cuba Solidarity (New York, US)
December 12 Movement
Dominican Friends of Cuba
DUTV (Philadelphia, US)
Freedom Socialist Party
Friends of Zimbabwe (Brooklyn, US)
Fundacion Andres Figueroa Cordero
Global Women's Strike
Green Party (Bergen County NJ, US)
Haiti Support Network
Harlem Tenants Council (Harlem, US)
Hartford Coalition on Cuba (Hartford, US)
IFCO/Pastors For Peace
International Action Center
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Jericho Movement
Kangaroo Productions, Inc.
Movimiento la Pena del Bronx (Bronx, US)
National Committee To Free The Five
National Network On Cuba (NNOC)
New Jersey Network on Cuba (New Jersey, US)
New York Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (New York, US)
No War On Cuba Movement (Washington, DC)
PA Lesbian and Gay Task Force (Philadelphia, US)
ProLibertad Freedom Campaign
Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico (Nueva York, US)
Patrice Lumumba Coalition
Queers for Peace and Justice (New York City, US)
Radical Women
Red Indigena y Popular de Chile
School of the Americas Watch (New York City, US)
Socialist Workers Party
Trabajadoras por la Paz
Unidad del Pueblo Dominicano
U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange
U.S./Cuba Youth Exchange
Venceremos Brigade
Vieques Support Campaign
Welfare Warriors (Minnesota, US)
Where We Live Productions - Sally O'Brien
Workers World Party
Working Group of the Socialist Front of Puerto Rico
Working People's Voice (New York City, US)
World March of Women

Individuals
Patricia Alessandrini (New Jersey, US)
Susan Andres (Los Angeles, US)
Rosemary A. Barbera (Philadelphia, US)
Rev. Luis Barrios (New York, US)
Elias Bitar (New Jersey, US)
Elombe Brath – WBAI* (New York City, US)
Judith Brisson (Sutton, Quebec, Canada)
Ann Ceredo
Eduardo Hernandez Chavez (Albuquerque, US)
Nzogi Cole
Naomi Craine
Pablo Esturo
Frances Farrar (San Diego, US)
Sara Flounders
Jane Franklin
Brian Gallagher
Araceli Garcia (Madrid, Spain)
Gregory Giordano
Marsha Goldberg
Fred Goldstein
John Gracilieno
Deidre Griswald
Mary E. Hamilton (Philadelphia, US)
Marie Jay
Ellen Kadransky (Philadelphia, US)
Rev. Earl Koopercamp - Saint Mary's Episcopal Church* (New York City, US)
Anne Lomb
Selwyn McLean (Toronto, Canada)
Patrice McSweeney (Philadelphia, US)
Roberto J. Mercado
Rich Ober
Arthenio Perez
Lois Putzier
Rafael Reese
Ohydra Rivers
Don Rojas – General Mgr WBAI* (New York City, US)
Anita Rosenblithe
Gerald H. Sertz
Paul Sluzinich
Debby Smith – National Lawyers’ Guild*
Michael Smith – National Lawyers’ Guild*
Samantha Spenez
Dean Troxell
George Tselos
Estela Vazquez
Eduardo A. Villegas (Philadelphia, US)
Rev. Lucius Walker
Michael Tarif Warren
Evelyn Warren
Hannah Weinstock
Jerry Wharton
David L. Wilson (New York, US)

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