Draft GPUS Platform Amendment Americas

SECTION TITLE: AMERICAS

OUR POSITION: Greens aim to remove the U.S. military presence from Latin America.

GREEN SOLUTIONS

(1) AMERICAS

(a) Remove the U.S. military presence from Latin America.

(b) Close the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas, based at Fort Benning, Georgia. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced to become refugees by School of the Americas graduates.

(2) COLOMBIA

(a) Oppose the growing U.S. military presence in Columbia.

(3) CUBA

(a) End the U.S. economic blockade and embargo of Cuba. Restore normal diplomatic relations with Cuba, respect its sovereignty, and end the U.S. veto of U.N. resolutions about Cuba.

(4) HAITI

(a) Help rebuild Haiti, but without strengthening neo-colonialism.

(b) Cancel all Haiti debt to international financial institutions.

(5) MEXICO

(a) Stop arms trafficking from the U.S. to Mexico.

(b) End the war on drugs in Mexico and elsewhere.

(c) Re-negotiate the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to include stronger protections for workers and the environment.

(6) PUERTO RICO

(a) Support the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence in conformity with United Nations Resolution 1514(XV) of 1960.

(b) Support discussion of the case by the U.N. General Assembly, the rights of Puerto Ricans in the United States and the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners being held in United States prisons.

(c) Support environmental protection efforts, sustainable development in Puerto Rico, and the call for the appropriate clean-up and development of Vieques and Culebra.

(d) Support the struggles to protect Puerto Rican culture and the struggles of Puerto Rican workers, women and communities against neo-liberal aggression.

(e) Oppose recruitment of the youth of Puerto Rico into the U.S. Armed Forces and their deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

(7) PERU

(a) Support the efforts of indigenous peoples in Peru and elsewhere to expel oil companies from their traditional lands. We call for an end to all police actions against indigenous people in Peru.

(8) URUGUAY

(a) Support Uruguay's new anti-smoking law requiring that 80% of each side of cigarette boxes must be covered with graphic images of the possible detrimental health effects of smoking. Oppose Philip Morris International's legal challenge to this law.