Forum discusses Latin America

Issue 
Speakers at the forum.

The Latin American Social Forum held a forum on February 7 in Sydney. About 80 people attended.

We were welcomed by the Ecuadorian indigenous folksinger Manuel with a ceremonial greeting in Quechua to Pachamama and soulful pipe playing. The evening began with a video conference with Pablo Fajardo, representing the 30,000 indigenous Ecuadorians fighting against the ecological disaster caused by Chevron-Texaco.

Ecuadorian lawyer from Melbourne University, Maria del Mar Gallegos, elaborated on the legal case and took up the theme that the giant multinationals are the cause of poverty, backwardness, mass immigration, dependency and violation of their sovereignty as well as ecological destruction.

Venezuelan ambassador Nelson Davila denounced of the US government for orchestrating the interference in Venezuelan affairs with the complicity of the right-wing. Sonia Peralto, a youth activist from Columbia gave a talk on the situation with the Peace Accords taking place in Cuba between the Colombian government and the FARC.

Lastly, Uruguayan Gonzalo Abella, said that it will be the people who are united and organised who will fight any future imperialist aggressions, coming from the United States. Abella called on the migrant Latin American community, living in Australia, to give economic, technical and academic support to Latin America to increase the development and progress in the region.

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