Hands Off Venezuela and Cuba Demonstration in Washington, DC MAY 20, 2006

WHEREAS, Washington, under the Bush Administration, with bipartisan support in the US Congress, has an open policy of overturning the Cuban government and destroying the Cuban Revolution.
WHEREAS, the US government has openly allocated millions of dollars towards that end, including direct payments to its clients and agents inside Cuba, the so-called dissidents.
WHEREAS, US citizens and legal residents continue to be deprived of our Constitutional right to travel to Cuba to learn the truth about its reality and forge ties of friendship with the Cuban people. The US government continues to hunt down and threaten people who exercise their right to travel, including members of the Venceremos Brigade, IFCO/Pastors for Peace, and the US/Cuba Labor Exchange.
WHEREAS, Washington, under the Bush Administration, with bipartisan support in the US Congress, has engaged for a number of years in an escalating campaign of hostile propaganda and action to undermine and overturn the democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
WHEREAS, this policy has included support for the April 2002 military coup in Venezuela and the 2003 employers �strike� and sabotage of the oil industry, both of which were defeated by the massive mobilization of Venezuela�s working people in defense of their government.
WHEREAS, Washington�s pressure on the Venezuelan government to organize a recall referendum backfired in August 2004 when 60% of Venezuelans voted to support the Chavez government.
WHEREAS, the US government has an open policy of dispersing millions of dollars to its clients and agents in Venezuela in order to weaken and overturn the Venezuelan government.
WHEREAS, the Bush Administration refuses to extradite the notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carilles, a main author of the 1976 destruction of a Cubana airliner, killing 73 civilian passengers, to Venezuela under a binding extradition treaty, where he would face justice.
WHEREAS, the US Justice Department refuses to release from prison after 7 years the Cuban 5�Fernando
Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez, and Ramon Labanino�heroic fighters against terrorism, despite the August 2005 decision of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversing their convictions and ordering a new trial. Additionally, in May 2005, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations issued an opinion that the five had been arbitrarily deprived of liberty based on failure to guarantee the right to a fair trial in a number of key areas.
WHEREAS, the government of Cuba offered to send over 1500 doctors to Louisiana and Mississippi to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the government of Venezuela has provided discounted energy supplies to impoverished US communities which, along with many other examples, shows the desire for fraternal relations between the peoples of our countries.
THEREBY, BE IT RESOLVED

Participant Organizations (list in formation):
Sponsoring Organizations: Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle (NY,); Alliance for Global Justice; A.N.S.W.E.R; Casa de las Americas; Bolivarian Youth of Miami; Circulo Bolivariano (Minneapolis); Circulo Bolivariano Al� Primera (Con.);
Circulo Bolivariano Amada Libertad (Chicago); Circulo Bolivariano Cyber Solidarity; Circulo Bolivariano Eugene V. Debs (Detroit); Circulo Bolivariano Tnte. (f) Alberto Jos� Carregal Cruz de Miami; Circulo Bolivariano Manuelita S�enz (Los Angeles); Circulo Bolivariano de Oregon; Circulo Bolivariano Martin Luther King (Boston); Circulo Bolivariano Negra Hip�lita (Miami); Circulo Bolivariano Toronto (Canad�); Circulo Bolivariano Vancouver (Canad�); Circulo Bolivariano Milano (Italia); Circulo Bolivariano N�poles (Italia); Circulo Bolivariano Roma (Italia); 1199 SEIU East; Casa de Las Am�ricas; CISPES; Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism; Communist Party USA; Congress for Korean, Reunification; Corean Action Network for Unification; Covert Action Quarterly; Cuba Solidarity New York; Detroit Justice for Cuba Coalition; Dominican Friends of Cuba; FMLN� New York; FSLN� New York; Freedom Socialist Party; Frente Socialista de Puerto Rico, Nueva York; Fuerza de la Revoluci�n; Global Coalition.for Peace; Haiti Progress; Hait� Support Network; Haitian In New York; Haitian Initiative for Democracy; Hands Off Venezuela!; Harlem Tenants Council; IFCO-Pastors for Peace; Iglesia San Romero de las Am�ricas; International Action Center; International Socialist Organization; Jane Franklin; Jose Pertierra; Latino Movement USA; La Voz Latina; Monthly Review; Movimiento Nuevo Rumbo; Movimiento Popular Dominicano; Movimiento Revolucionario Nueva Patria; National Network on Cuba; National People�s Party; Nicaragua Network; Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York; New York Committee to Free the Cuban Five; Ocean Press; Pan African Groups; Party for Socialism & Liberation; Partido Nacionalista Puertoricania �Junta de Nueva York; Peter Camejo; Philadelphia Africans for Cuba; Philadelphia Cuba Solidarity Coalition; Popular Education Project to Free the Cuban Five; Pro-Libertad; Queers United In Solidarity with Latin America & Caribbean; September 30 Foundation; Radical Women; Socialist Workers Party; US/Cuba Labor Exchange; US Troops Out Coalition; Venceremos Brigade; Venezuelan Minnesota Committee; William Blum; Workers International League; Workers World Party; Young Socialists

issue a call to all solidarity, anti-war, labor, and progressive organizations to support a national mobilization in Washington,
DC on Saturday, May20, 2006 around the following main slogans:


Stop US intervention and hostile campaigns against Venezuela; Defend Venezuela�s sovereignty

Stop Washington�s economic and political war against Cuba; End the blockade of Cuba

Allow US citizens and legal residents to travel freely to Cuba; Normalize US-Cuban relations

Extradite the terrorist Luis Posada Carilles to Venezuela; Free the Cuban Five anti-terrorist prisoners

MAY 20 HANDS OFF VENEZUELA AND CUBA COALITION

To endorse email: endorseMay20@yahoo.com. To find out to get
involved or for more information email May20@yahoo.com

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