SICSAL Australia: Background

Secretariado Internacional Cristiano de Solidaridad con America Latina "Oscar A. Romero"

SICSAL AUSTRALIA

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Communique from the
February 1997 SICSAL Assembly in Panama:-

To: SICSAL Australia From: "Sean, Paul & Michelle in Panama" - sendwine@es.com.sv Subject: Latin America - Communique SICSAL Assembly Panama #1

THE OSCAR A. ROMERO INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN SECRETARIAT FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF LATIN AMERICA

- SECRETARIADO INTERNACIONAL CRISTIANO DE SOLIDARIDAD CON LOS PUEBLOS DE AMERICA LATINA, "MONSENOR OSCAR A. ROMERO" (S.I.C.S.A.L.) -

Panama City, Republic of Panama. 4th February 1997

PRESS RELEASE NO 1 Meeting in Panama City, 43 representatives of 28 countries that form part of the Oscar Romero Solidarity Network, today began their Sixth Annual Assembly with the aim of evaluating the journey of solidarity between the peoples of the world.

Presiding at this General Assembly are: Bishop Don Samuel Ruiz Garcia, of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico; Bishop Don Pedro Casaldaliga of Sao Felix do Araguaia, Brazil; and Bishop Don Heriberto Hermes, of Cristalandia, Brazil. The Assembly also counts on the presence of Pastor Miguel Tomas Castro of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in El Salvador; Auxilary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, MI, USA; Rev. Thomas Nielsen, of the United Church of Christ, New Glarus, WI, USA; and the members of the Council of Directors made up of representatives of the regions and organisms that form this Secretariat.

Women and men of solidarity, concerned for the great needs and causes of the Greater Motherland:

1) The effects of neo-liberal policies that lead to the objectivisation of the human being, bringing as a consequence exclusion, marginalisation, indebtedness, hunger, misery and death.
2) The presence of the United States military bases in Panama, and various countries of the world: amongst them Honduras, Cuba, Japan, Australia and Spain.
3) The increasing militarisation amongst our peoples.
4) The difficult processes to achieve true peace with justice and dignity in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador.
5) The problems that cause the increasing migration and the responses of the anti-solidarity of racial discrimination.
6) The use of violence and repression as responses to the just demands of the people that seek true democracy.
7) The blockade imposed on the people of Cuba by the Government of the United States.

We propose as tasks of this assembly: 1) Analyse profoundly these situations. 2) Propose actions of urgent responses. 3) Undertake short-term and long-term campaigns of work. 4) Invite women and men of solidarity throughout the world to join these efforts.

In the next days we will propose and make public the proposals that will help to concretize these tasks.

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