[HNA] U.S. Embassies Deny Visas to SOA Watch Vigil Speakers

[Brian O'Connell]

Act Now to bring our Latin American partners to the vigil

Featured Vigil Speakers from Honduras and Costa Rica Denied Visas to the U.S.



The two speakers named by the SOA Watch's Latin American partners to represent them at the SOA Watch vigil (Nov. 19-21, 2010) have been denied entrance to the United States.  Both Gerardo Brenes - a Costa Rican graduate of the SOA and activist with the Quaker Peace Center in San Jose, and Alejandro Ramirez - a university student and activist with the Youth Resistance movement in Honduras, had their visa applications rejected by the U.S. embassies in their countries last week.



Take Action Now!



Gerardo and Alejandro were among participants from 17 Latin American countries at the recent SOAW South-North Encuentro. They were tapped to bring the Encuentro’s major concerns about the SOA and U.S. militarization in Latin America to the gates of Ft. Benning.



 

Gerardo is a former Costa Rica police officer and would have been the first graduate of the SOA to speak out against the school in front of his Alma Mater. His experience of the  absolute disregard for human rights  in his SOA training led him to become a leading activist in pressuring his government to withdraw from the school (Click here to watch a video interview with Gerardo). Gerardo has also been a public voice in speaking out against 46 U.S. warships and thousands of marines that are scheduled to be sent to this Central American “country of peace”.



 

Alejandro became an active member of the Honduran Youth Resistance Movement after his country suffered a coup at the hands of two SOA graduates last year. Over 50 people – journalists, teachers, students and union leaders, have lost their lives for opposing the coup regime and its illegal successor . Alejandro is a history student at the National Autonomous University of Honduras and works with COFADEH (Committee of Family Members of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras) in their violence prevention program.



Generate Grassroots Pressure to Overturn the Visa Denial! Take Action Now:

Send a message to the U.S. State Department in Washington, San Jose and Tegucigalpa urging them to grant visitor visas to Gerardo Brenes and Alejandro Ramirez so that they can speak at the November Vigil (19-21, 2010) at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia:

 1.     Call State Department

 a.     re Gerardo Brenes of Costa Rica:
 Call Jennifer Bantrump of the Costa Rica Desk of the State Department at (202) 647-3519. Sample script below.

 b.     re Alejandro Ramirez of Honduras
 Call Gabriela Zambrano of the Honduras Desk of the State Department at 202-647-3482. Sample script below.

 2.     Send an email to Consul General

 a.     re Gerardo Brenes of Costa Rica:
 Write Consul General Paul Birdsall at the U.S. Embassy in San Jose,  at consultarsanjose at state.gov and copy Jennifer Bantrump of the Costa Rica Desk of the State Department at bantrumpjr at state.gov    Sample script below.

 b.     re Alejandro Ramirez of Honduras
 Write Consul General William Douglas of the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras at usahonduras at state.gov and copy Gabriela Zambrano of the Honduras Desk of the State Department at zambranomg at state.gov  Sample script below.

 (Sample email below)

 SAMPLE PHONE CALL regarding Gerardo Brenes:
 Hello, my name is ______________.  I am very troubled to learn that the U.S. Consulate in San Jose,  Costa Rica denied a travel visa to Mr. Gerardo Brenes who was invited by the School of the Americas Watch to speak about  human rights issues in Costa Rica at the annual vigil in Columbus Georgia from November 19-21, 2010.   Will you call Consul General Paul Birdsall in San Jose today and ask him to immediately authorize a travel visa to Mr. Brenes so he can travel to the U.S. on to participate in this event?  Thank you.

 SAMPLE PHONE CALL regarding Alejandro Ramirez:
 Hello, my name is ______________.  I am very troubled to learn that the U.S. Consulate in Tegucigalpa, Honduras denied a travel visa to Mr. Alejandro Ramirez who was invited by the School of the Americas Watch to speak about  human rights issues in Honduras at the annual vigil in Columbus Georgia from November 19-21, 2010.   Will you call Consul General William Douglas in Tegucigalpa today and ask him to immediately authorize a travel visa to Mr. Ramirez so he can travel to the U.S. on to participate in this event?  Thank you.


 SAMPLE EMAIL regarding Gerardo Brenes

 Dear Mr. Birdsall,

 Last week the U.S. Consulate in San Jose denied a travel visa to Mr. Gerardo Brenes.  Mr. Brenes was invited by School of the Americas Watch to speak about human rights in Costa Rica at the annual vigil in Columbus, Georgia, from November 19-21, 2010.

 I understand that Mr. Brenes presented an invitation from the School of the Americas during his interview, as well as sufficient evidence that he had strong ties that would bring him back to his country. 

 I am deeply concerned about this visa denial, and I ask you to immediately authorize a travel visa to Mr. Brenes so that he can travel to the United States to participate in the SOAW vigil from November 19-21, 2010. 

 Sincerely,
 [Your name and address]


 SAMPLE EMAIL regarding Alejandro Ramirez

 Dear Mr. Douglas,

 Last week the U.S. Consulate in Tegucigalpa denied a travel visa to Mr. Alejandro Ramirez.  Mr. Ramirez was invited by School of the Americas Watch to speak about human rights in Honduras at the annual vigil in Columbus, Georgia, from November 19-21, 2010.

 I understand that Mr. Ramirez presented an invitation from the School of the Americas during his interview, as well as sufficient evidence that he had strong ties that would bring him back to his country. 

 I am deeply concerned about this visa denial, and I ask you to immediately authorize a travel visa to Mr. Ramirez so that he can travel to the United States to participate in the SOA Watch vigil from November 19-21, 2010. 

 Sincerely,
 [Your name and address]



 

Stand up for justice: SOAW.org/take-action/november-vigil




Something to consider while voting:
 www.SOAW.org/docs/FameShameChart.pdf


 
  



SOA Watch Field Organizer Testifies to Colombian Attorney General’s Office in “False Positive” Case



SOA Watch Field Organizer, Nico Udu-gama traveled to Colombia to present his eye witness testimony against two soldiers investigated in the ongoing “false positive” scandal.



 

In October of 2005, Nico, then a member of the International Peace Observatory -IPO, which he helped found to accompany farming communities in the Magdalena Medio and Arauca regions (among others), arrived at a campesino’s home in the remote village of Dos Quebradas (Antioquia) after frightened neighbors alerted members of IPO in the region of the presence of the Colombian National Army.



 

Nico, along with two members of IPO and several campesinos, confronted the two officers in charge and demanded to speak with the owner of the home.  After some time, the soldiers – from the 14th Brigade, Calibio Batallion, Demoledores platoon – produced the 60-year-old farmer, whom they had retained in a forested area near to his home.  The farmer later told neighbors that the army had tried to dress him in military fatigues, put a bag over his head and were about to kill him when the members of IPO arrived.



 

Of the two commanding officers, one has since been detained pending investigation and another is being sought with an arrest warrant. 



 

Campesinos in the region had received a deadly threat earlier that year in August, when the Colombian Army, along with paid informants, murdered the farmer Luís Sigifredo Castaño, and presented him as a guerrilla killed in combat, provoking the displacement of hundreds of families in the region. 



 

The practice of killing civilians and presenting them as guerrilla fighters long pre-dated the famous “false positive scandal” that made international news at the end of 2008, when members of the Colombian Army were implicated in the killing of eleven young men from Soachá and dressing them in fatigues.  Under ex-president Álvaro Uribe Vélez’s “Democratic Security” policy, these murders increased as troops were given vacations and bonuses for high kill rates of supposed guerrilla fighters.

 

SOA Watch stands in solidarity with all the victims of Colombia’s civil war and demands an end to US-taxpayer funding of the Colombian Armed Forces continued atrocities.  We will continue to fight US militarization in the Americas and for a culture of peace.










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