Thug Life Army

On Saturday, April 8^th, thousands of people from cities up and down the East Coast and Midwest will travel by bus and car caravan to march on the White House.

This demonstration comes at a critical time as the Bush administration is moving aggressively to overthrow the democratically elected government of Venezuela, while it initiates new provocations against the people of Cuba.

The ANSWER Coalition has joined with many other organizations to form the April 8^th: Hands Off Venezuela and Cuba Coalition. We are urging progressive organizations and local organizing/transportation centers that have brought antiwar demonstrators to Washington, DC in the past years to mobilize.

Desperately bogged down in its war for Empire in Iraq, the Bush administration is escalating its threats and campaigns to undermine, subvert, provoke, and overthrow the government of Venezuela, while strengthening the economic blockade of Cuba, tightening the travel ban to Cuba, and refusing to extradite vicious anti-Cuba terrorist killers like Luis Posada Carriles.

All the signs that the U.S. is preparing for new aggression against Venezuela are there: Rumsfeld has likened Hugo Chavez to "Adolf Hitler," Condoleezza Rice has called the democratically elected government a "major threat to the region," and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte has made a special point to link Venezuela with countries in the U.S. government's so-called "axis of evil." Just this past week, a U.S. naval officer functioning as an attache in Caracas was expelled from the country for illegal espionage and attempting to recruit Venezuelan military officers to oppose Chavez. In retaliation, Washington expelled the Venezuelan Embassy's chief of staff.

In countless elections and a popular referendum, the people of Venezuela have voted for Chavez. With the country's social revolution deepening every day and Chavez up for re-election in December, violent subversive activities backed by Bush - like the failed 2002 coup - seem increasingly probable.

U.S. hostility towards Cuba is of course nothing new. For 44 years, the U.S. has imposed a criminal blockade on the island nation, preventing it from receiving essential goods and medicines. Last year the United Nations General Assembly condemned the blockade for the 14th time by a large margin. The U.S., which invaded Cuba in 1961, has spent four decades providing financial and political support to a network of anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based in Miami. It has undertaken scores of covert attacks on the people and the leaders of Cuba.

As it executes a so-called "war on terror" abroad, the U.S. government provides safe harbor to infamous, admitted terrorists like Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles in the United States. The U.S. has refused Venezuela's extradition request for Luis Posada Carriles who is charged with planning the 1976 deadly bombing of a Cuban plane departing from Venezuela. Meanwhile, it has kept actual anti-terrorists, the Cuban Five, languishing in jail for over seven years. Their crime: infiltrating anti-Cuba terrorist organizations.

As the U.S. escalates its aggressiveness and threats against the people of Venezuela and Cuba, it is critical that the antiwar movement step forward to say "No!"

Join the march on April 8^th in Washington DC, from Malcolm X Park to the White House, with a closing rally in Lafayette Park.

Stop U.S. intervention and hostile campaigns against Venezuela!

Stop Washington’s economic and political war against Cuba!

End the blockade of Cuba!

Allow U.S. citizens and legal residents to travel freely to Cuba!

Normalize U.S.-Cuban relations!

April 8 Endorsers include:

A.N.S.W.E.R, Casa de las Americas, Circulo Bolivariano Alberto Lovera (New York), Circulo Bolivariano (Minneapolis), Circulo Bolivariano Alí Primera (Connecticut), Circulo Bolivariano Amada Libertad (Chicago), Circulo Bolivariano Cyber Solidarity,Circulo Bolivariano Eugene V. Debs (Detroit), Circulo Bolivariano Tnte. (f) Alberto José Carregal Cruz de Miami, Circulo Bolivariano Manuelita Sáenz (Los Angeles), Circulo Bolivariano de Oregon, Circulo Bolivariano Martin Luther King (Boston), Circulo Bolivariano Negra Hiplita (Miami), Circulo Bolivariano Toronto (Canada), Circulo Bolivariano Vancouver (Canadá), Circulo Bolivariano Milano (Italia), Circulo Bolivariano Nápoles (Italia), Circulo Bolivariano Roma (Italia), 1199 SEIU East, Casa de Las Américas, CISPES, Committees of Correspondence, Communist Party USA,  Congress for Korean Reunification, Corean Action Network for Unification, Cuban Solidarity New York, FMLN NY, FSLN NY, Frente Socialista de Puerto Rico, New York, Fuerza de la Revolución, Haiti Progress, Haití Support Network, Haitian In New York, Haitian Initiative for Democracy, Harlem Tenants Council, IFCO-Pastors for Peace, Iglesia San Romero de las Américas, International Action Center, International Socialist Organization, Latinos USA, La Voz Latina, Movimiento Nuevo Rumbo, Movimiento Popular Dominicano, Movimiento Revolucionario Nueva Patria, National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, National Network on Cuba, National People's Party, Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, New York Committee to Free the Cuban Five, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Pro-Libertad, Queers United In Solidarity with Latin America & Caribbean, September 30 Foundation, Socialist Workers Party, US/Cuba Labor Exchange, US Troops Out Coalition, Venceremos Brigade, Venezuelan Minnesota Committee, Workers World Party, Young Socialists

For more information contact:

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition

Act Now to Stop War & End Racism

http://www.answercoalition.org/

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National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389

New York City: 212-694-8720

Los Angeles: 323-464-1636

San Francisco: 415-821-6545