Thousands Rise Up Against New Era of Corporate Colonialism

Thousands Rise Up Against New Era of Corporate Colonialism

This Saturday, October 12th, dozens of demonstrations will be held all over the US, Mexico and Central America to protest the 510th anniversary of Columbus day. Thousands of indigenous activists and supporters from Canada to Panama, will block borders, close highways and conduct various direct actions to demand basic human rights for all native peoples. They will call for an end to the new era of corporate colonialism driven by the forces of the free market and imposed on indigenous communities throughout the Americas.

Teodosio Angel of the Union of Indigenous Communities in the Northern Zone of the Isthmus (UCIZONI), in Oaxaca, Mexico says, "We will block roads, ports and borders and even dump the trash produced in multinationals like Coca Cola back on their doorsteps to demand that corporations and governments stop robbing our natural resources and basic rights. For 510 years, governments and corporations have ignored indigenous peoples and it continues today with industrial megaprojects like the Plan Puebla Panama."

In Panama, indigenous activists are marching from Costa Rica to Panama City, a distance of over 200 miles, to protest the ecological destruction caused by mining on their lands. In Managua, Nicaragua, actions against the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will expose their role as a corporate welfare institution with activists their arguing that the IDB has never been interested in supporting grassroots initiatives for economic, environmental and social justice.

Demands of the U.S.-based Latin American Solidarity Coalition ( LASC) and AIM co-sponsors of many of the U.S. based October 12th actions, are to end U.S. sponsored economic and military violence in the Americas including halting the U.S. Navy's bombing of Vieques, Puerto Rico, shutting down the School of the Americas, and stopping the FTAA. Furthermore, these LASC actions will occur simultaneously and are in solidarity with Central America and Mexico-wide actions against the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

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Learn more about the Plan Puebla Panama

Arizona IMC article with links to actions

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