{"id":4661,"date":"2008-09-24T12:46:12","date_gmt":"2008-09-24T11:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=4661"},"modified":"2008-09-24T12:46:12","modified_gmt":"2008-09-24T11:46:12","slug":"london-protesters-demand-an-end-to-us-coups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/contributions\/london-protesters-demand-an-end-to-us-coups\/","title":{"rendered":"London Protesters Demand an End to US Coups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venezuela Analysis<\/a>\u00a0| Scores of solidarity campaigners picketed the US embassy in London on Wednesday night before a huge rally at the National Union of Journalists head office to demand an end to US interference in Latin America.<\/p>\n

Responding to ongoing coup attempts in Bolivia and Venezuela, NUJ<\/span> general secretary Jeremy Dear said that it was ironic that he was protesting outside the US embassy when its government had nationalised more of its economy in the last few days than Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had in the last decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US is standing up for privilege, for the interest of the few against the interest of the many and will go to any length to achieve it,\u201d he stormed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will go to the lengths that it did in Chile and will drown the revolution in blood if it gets the opportunity,\u201d referring to the CIA-orchestrated coup against Salvadore Allende 35 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is one big difference \u2014 we are prepared, we have learned the lessons and we are already organised.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 100-strong crowd chanted \u201cNo More Coups\u201d and waved colourful solidarity banners as embassy workers left for the day.<\/p>\n

Dozens of people made speeches in English and Spanish, with some making the point that, in the dying days of US President Bush\u2019s regime, many people thought that he would attack Iran \u2014 yet it was clear that Latin America was the real target.<\/p>\n

Loud cheers went up whenever speakers brought up the expulsion the US ambassador in Bolivia because of his links to coup-plotters and Venezuela doing the same in solidarity, with cries of \u201cYankee go home\u201d filling Grosvenor Square.<\/p>\n

At the NUJ<\/span> headquarters, Bolivian ambassador Maria Beatriz Souviron explained how the traditional political system in Bolivia had been swept away with the election of Evo Morales.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has given people hope for the first time. There has not just been a change in who controls the state, but also a change in culture in a country that has been racist for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bolivia Solidarity Campaign organiser Amancay Colque, who helped organise the actions with Hands Off Venezuela, brought harrowing news from the northern state of Pando, where the far-right governor threatened to split from Bolivia and had paid mercenaries to machine-gun rural workers loyal to Morales.<\/p>\n

She explained how the elite was fuelling racism to try to divide Bolivians and that, in the right\u2019s eastern stronghold of Santa Cruz, it was now impossible for an Aymara or Quechua indigenous Bolivian to walk down the street without being attacked.<\/p>\n

John McDonnell MP pointed out that \u201cwhat is happening is not a personal attack on Morales or Chavez but an attack on the seeds of socialism that they are spreading.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the US is terrified of is the prospect that socialism will catch light all across the Americas, so of course it has to go on the attack. But it is exactly for this moment that solidarity campaigns exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuelan charge d\u2019affaires Felix Plasencia said that he was \u201chonoured to stand with Bolivia as all Latin America struggles for dignity, sovereignty and independence. We have finally thrown off the US Monroe Doctrine that treated us as their \u2018backyard\u2019 for 200 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aim now is to extend this people\u2019s power throughout Latin America and the solidarity shown to Bolivia as it fights back against counter-revolutionaries is a significant step in uniting our countries,\u201d he added to great applause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venezuela Analysis\u00a0| Scores of solidarity campaigners picketed the US embassy in London on Wednesday night before a huge rally at the National Union of Journalists head office to demand an end to US interference in Latin America. Responding to ongoing coup attempts in Bolivia and Venezuela, NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said that it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1615],"tags":[55],"class_list":{"0":"post-4661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-contributions","7":"category-uk-news","8":"tag-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}