friendsoflatinamerica

No to Torture !

SPEAKER: Fr.Louie Vitale

Monday, June 15, 2009
7:00 – 7:30 PM Refreshments
7:30 – 9:00 PM Program
Owen Brown Community Center
6800 Cradlerock Way , Columbia ,MD21045

How do we relate to individuals and countries that believe differently than we do? How do we deal with our so-called enemies? Is torture ever morally acceptable? How do we respond to terrorism?

Father Louie Vitale has been grappling with these and related questions for nearly half a century - ever since he converted to nonviolence after leaving the air force. He has served a 3 and a 6-month sentence for crossing the line twice at the School of Americas in Fort Benning ,GA. That is where the US trains Latin American soldiers in torture techniques. Then Louie served another 5 months for crossing the line and praying at Fort Huachuca (the military installation in Arizona where the U.S. trains American Intelligence Officers in “Enhanced Interrogation” tactics such as the much-publicized water boarding).

In this talk, Fr.Louie discusses how we are training Latin American military (at the School ofAmericas ) and our own military (at Fort Huachuca ) to torture others and how this is both morally wrong and ineffective. He speaks about how torture harms both those who are tortured as well as the torturers, and he proposes alternatives to torture.

Since his release from jail in the Spring of 2008, Father Louie has given more than 50 talks at universities, communities, and church groups across the United States and in Canada . Earlier this year, Fr. Louie traveled to Iran with the Fellowship of Reconciliation as part of anIran Civilian Diplomacy Delegation to dialogue with the government and people of Iran , our supposed “enemy.”

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. HOWEVER,DONATIONS ARE WELCOME AT THE EVENT.

For more info go to: http://www.friendsoflatinamerica.org or call 410-381-4899

Co-Sponsored by: Columbia United Christian Church, Howard County Friends of Latin America , Just Peace Circles, Inc., Metro DC Pax Christi and Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service.

Event to benefit Children

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when: May15, 2009
Lite Refreshments & Music from 6:30 p.m.
Speakers, Discussion & Ideas for Allies
7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Wilde Lake Interfaith Center, 10431 Twin Rivers Rd , Columbia , MD
Donation at the door:minimum $10.00

In Ecuador, High Stakes in Case Against Chevron

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By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 28, 2009

LAGO AGRIO, Ecuador -- Deep in the northern Ecuadoran rain forest, next to pits filled with noxious sludge, a lawyer on his very first case argued that a U.S. oil company had deliberately fouled a swath of jungle nearly the size of Delaware during two decades of production.

Wearing a straw hat for the recent outdoor hearing, Pablo Fajardo was delivering the final arguments in a lawsuit that began in New York in 1993 against Texaco but is wrapping up here against Chevron, which bought Texaco in 2001. The stakes are high -- and so tinged with nationalism that Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has openly sided with the plaintiffs, 48 individuals representing tens of thousands of people in the region.

If the judge rules against Chevron, the company could face the largest damages award ever handed down in an environmental case, dwarfing the $3.9 billion awarded against ExxonMobil for the 1989 spill in Alaska.

A report by a court-appointed team last year concluded that pollution caused mainly by Texaco's Ecuadoran affiliate, Texaco Petroleum, had led to 1,401 cancer deaths in this stretch of Amazonian jungle. The team's leader, Ecuadoran geologist Richard Cabrera, reported finding high levels of toxins in soil and water samples near Texaco's production sites and assessed damages at up to $27.3 billion.

"This is a simple case," said Fajardo, 37, a former oil worker. "We ask, is there damage or not? If there is damage, who pays? And if there is payment, how much and to whom?"

Women in Action- A Newsletter

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