WINDS OF CHANGE IN THE AMERICAS CONFERENCE

Why?
-Our keynote speaker, Leonida Zurita Vargas, is an indigenous woman from Bolivia, a coca farmer and powerful grassroots leader who will shed light on Bolivia’s strong and growing social movements and recent election of a new government under Aymara indigenous President Evo Morales. (See below update on Leonida who was, last week, denied entry to the US by the US embassy that has outrageously suggested that Leonida has ties to terrorist organziations! IF WE CAN’T GET LEONIDA HERE IN PERSON SHE’LL BE ON THE PHONE!) George Ann Potter, Zurita’s political advisor, will be talking at the conference as well as translating and introducing Leonida.

-Hear from Vermonters who recently participated in the World Social Forum in Venezuela and discuss how to build our own social movements in
Vermont!

When/Where?
-Sunday March 5th from 3-9pm at Unitarian Universalist Church in
Burlington, VT (corner of Church St. and Pearl St.).

Schedule? (March 5th, 3-9pm)
3-5  Panel: Strategies for Social Change from Latin America to Vermont

Speakers:
Laurie Lyon–Vermont Workers’ Center and participant in Grassroots
Global Justice delegation to World Social Forum
Ben Dangl–Journalist, activist and editor of TowardFreedom.com
(recently returned from World Social Forum and investigative journalism work in Bolivia)
Peter Lackowski- Vermonter Recently returned from Venezuela
Chris Riel–UVM student who will share UVM student organizing against Coca Cola
Luis Yat–Luis, indigenous activist from Guatemala living in VT, will
share his stories

5-6:45  Dinner and Discussions:
-This is meant to be an engaging dinnertime discussion in which
everyone will have the chance to share experiences, ideas and
strategies for social change…

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Friends:
As you may know, a group of us have been planning a conference for March 5th at the UU Church in Burlington called Winds of Change in the Americas (3-9pm).  We have just learned that a unpleasant gust of wind has blown our way from the Bush Administration:  the Embassy in Bolivia has revoked the passport of our keynote speaker, Leonida Zurita Vargas.

Leonida Zurita Vargas, a Bolivian coca farmer organizer and alternate Senator, was invited to talk at universities and communities across the US as part of a three week speaking tour. On Monday, February 20th, when she went to the airport to fly to the US, she was told her visa had been revoked. She has used this ten-year, multiple-entry visa she obtained in 1998 several times.

This tour would have taken her to Florida International University, the University of Florida, Stanford University, the University of Vermont, and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, among others. She has published an op-ed in the New York Times, spoken at Harvard University and several other U.S. schools, and is one of the leading women in Bolivian politics.

On this speaking tour she was to discuss issues pertaining to the new government of Evo Morales in Bolivia, the country’s social movements and the negative impact of US foreign policy in the "war on drugs".

On Thursday Zurita spoke to reporters in Bolivia: "When I deposited my tickets, my passport and the suitcase I was carrying, the secretary that worked for American Airlines told me "You cannot travel. It is an order of the ambassador (of the U.S.). What the letter that was presented to me said – I have read it – it talked about some articles – I don’t know which ones – and said that I could be involved with terrorism or associated with terrorism. I said if I was a terrorist then I should be in jail."

Actions such as this are a sign of the irrational political climate of the Bush administration’s "War on Terror." Zurita, as one of the leading voices for human rights and peace in her country, is anything but a terrorist. We invited her to speak at our conference to increase the dialogue between the two countries. Latin America is currently
going through enormous social and political change. Exchanges with people involved in the grassroots struggles in this region of the world are key to understanding what is going on on the ground, in spite of the US government’s foreign policy.

As such, the organizers of the "Winds of Change In The Americas" conference are continuing to pressure the US Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia to reinstate Leonida Zurita’s visa. We have also contacted the offices of VT Senator Patrick Leahy, Representative Bernie Sanders and Jim Jeffords to notify them of this situation and are awaiting responses from all three of them.