AS BUSH PREPARES TO ATTACK IRAQ TO PROTECT CORPORATE INTETESTS, HEMISPHERE-WIDE DEMONSTRATIONS PROTEST CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION IN THE AMERICAS. THOUSANDS OF ORGANIZATIONS FROM CANADA TO CHILE RISE UP FOR INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND AGAINST FREE TRADE

Saturday, 12 October--Over twenty U.S. cities held protests today on the 510th anniversary of the first invasion of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. These actions, called for by the Latin American Solidarity Coalition (LASC) and the American Indian Movement (AIM), occurred in solidarity with simultaneous demonstrations from Mexico to Panama.

Thousands of indigenous activists, community organizations and supporters from Canada to Chile, demanded basic human rights for all native peoples and an end to free trade agreements like the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and corporate interests that exploit native communities and their lands. They also called for an end to the militarization that accompanies free trade. Some of these actions are still in progress.

Protests from Mexico to Panama called for the total rejection of the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) and the FTAA. Solidarity statements were read at protests in the U.S., Mexico and Central America.

Demonstrators blocked roads, borders, ports and bridges in some areas while others held marches, cultural celebrations, rallies, and other direct actions.

Brief Highlights:

• In Washington, D.C, Vernon Bellecourt of the American Indian Movement broke a vile of his own blood on a statue of Christopher Columbus demanding the immediate release of AIM's Leonard Peltier, wrongfully imprisoned for the deaths of two FBI agents.
• Hundreds from the Southwest Network for Environmental & Economic Justice took over two bridges as activists converged from both sides of the U.S./Mexico border at El Paso, TX and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
• One focus of the San Francisco, CA protest today connected the effects of global capitalism on indigenous and immigrant communities. "Both groups are negatively effected by globalization" said Alicia Grogan-Brown of the Bay Area CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). She continued, "Immigrants are forced to leave their jobs and homes in the south to find work in US and when they get here they are subject to discrimination, restricted access to social services and starvation wages."
• The Pan-American Highway is currently being blockaded by activists in Mexico near San Cristobal, Chiapas, and also in Jalapa de Marques in Oaxaca.
• Also in Mexico, over one thousand citizens from the indigenous rights group UCIZONI blocked the Trans-Isthmus Highway in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the highway was also blockaded in Veracruz. UCIZONI coordinator, Carlos Beas Torres said, " Plan Puebla Panama means the construction of dams, highways and port expansion. In other words, things that advance the expansion of transnational corporations in the region and this means the immediate expulsion of our communities from our lands."
• A network of over thirty organizations and 4000 people blockaded the Honduran borders of Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua and protested various governmental institutions.
• In Managua, Nicaragua, actions occurred against the Inter-American Development Bank, a major institution that funds development schemes that opponents say benefits only transnational corporations. The Pan American Highway was also blocked in Esteli.
• Indigenous activists from Panama are reported to be marching from Costa Rica to Panama City, a distance of over 200 miles, to protest the ecological destruction caused by mining on their lands.

Other demonstrations happened today in New York City, Minneapolis, Chicago, Boston, Burlington, VT and Columbus, OH among other cities.

LASC and AIM called for the actions in the U.S. today to focus on the institutions of U.S. government and corporate colonization, demanding: *No to the Free Trade Area of the Americas *No to Plan Colombia/Andean Initiative *Close the School of the Americas (WHISC) *Close US military bases in Vieques and throughout Latin America *End the Drug War's assault on people of color and the poor *Free Leonard Peltier and all indigenous political prisoners *Respect indigenous treaty, land, and cultural rights *Bring to justice those responsible for the genocide in Guatemala.

For updates or to reach local organizers in cities from Panama to Canada please contact ACERCA (Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America) at 802-863-0571 or 202-285-5977. For more information and to see a list of U.S. based actions visit www.lasolidarity.org and www.aimovement.org.