AUGUST 30: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE DISAPPEARED

AUGUST 30: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE DISAPPEARED

In Your Community and Everywhere
A Day to Remember, A Day to Take Action

FREEDOM TO POLITICAL PRISONERS - APPEARANCE OF THE DISAPPEARED!

In solidarity with the international call from the Association of Families of the Disappeared and Victims of Violations of Human Rights in Mexico (AFADEM), and by the Latin American Federation of Associations of Families of Disappeared Detainees (FEDEFAM)...

We of the Solidarity Without Borders Delegation call upon groups in the United States to participate in August 30, as a day of remembrance and a day of action for those disappeared and those detained.

As repression rises across the United States against immigrant communities and communities of color...

As political prisoners continue to struggle for freedom behind bars, and as more dissidents are taken captive as "terrorists" under the pretext of homeland security...

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) imposes a reign of terror with raids, roundups, deportations, detentions and disappearances...

As the government strips detainees of their rights from Guantanamo to Iraq to Black Sites across the globe...

As private corporations, multinationals and security contractors profit from every detention, disappearance, and incarceration, from our communities to occupied territories abroad...

MAKE AUGUST 30 A DAY FOR MEMORY AGAINST FORGETTING. A DAY FOR STRUGGLE AGAINST SILENCE.

As the US exports this repression globally to serve and protect its corporate interests, to enforce its capitalist agenda on the world...

As the US sponsors state and paramilitary violence against people's movements in Mexico, such as the Zapatistas in Chiapas and the popular struggles in Oaxaca...

As the US continues its 30-year campaign to silence those who resist in Latin America, from Plan Colombia to Plan Mexico and on to the Security and Prosperity Partnership...

As occupying forces continue to disappear thousands of people from their homes and streets in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti, and beyond...

As those who commit these crimes against humanity have never been brought to
justice, and as impunity reigns in the halls of power...

MAKE AUGUST 30 A DAY TO GLOBALIZE OUR REMEMBRANCE, A DAY TO GLOBALIZE OUR RESISTANCE.

ON AUGUST 30 WE ALSO STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH...

Those commemorating Black August, in memory of the freedom fighters.
Those still struggling in New Orleans and beyond on the anniversary of Katrina.
Those mobilizing for political prisoners and for immigrant rights at the DNC and those mobilizing against the RNC.
Those struggling every day in their communities and behind bars.

THIS AUGUST 30 AND BEYOND, WE UNITE WITH OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS IN AFFECTED COMMUNITIES TO DEMAND...

Freedom to All Political Prisoners!
Appearance of the Disappeared!
Not One More Raid! Not One More Deportation!
Not One More Detention! Not One More Murder!

WHAT SHAPE COULD THE AUGUST 30 DAY OF ACTION TAKE IN YOUR COMMUNITY?

A March of Silence?
A Disappear-In? Direct Action Street Theatre?
An action at your local Detention Center?
An act of solidarity around the DNC or RNC?
A display of the faces and names of those disappeared or detained in your community?
A dialogue or forum with the families and communities hit hardest by repression?
Building local coalitions, supporting existing movements of resistance in your community?
It´s up to you...

EDUCATE. AGITATE. ORGANIZE.

For Our Dead and Disappeared
Not a Moment of Silence But a Lifetime of Struggle!

From Oaxaca, Mexico in struggle,

Solidarity Without Borders Delegation


ORIGINAL CALL TO ACTION FROM AFADEM/FEDEFAM

International Day of the Disappeared Detainee

Since 1981, we have commemorated the International Day of the Disappeared Detainee in Latin America. The purpose of this day is to remember men and women who were taken from their homes by criminal hands. They were beings who did not hesitate to offer their life to construct a world where peace with justice predominates.

They were taken prisoner by those who thought themselves lords of their lives, who applied the doctrine of national security through the most ferocious terrorism of the State, commiting grave violations of human rights, excelling by their cruelty to the forced disappearance.

Throughout these years, families have been added to the commemoration of the disappeared in Asia, Africa, and the European Continent. Various governments of these continents have recognized the proposal pushed by the Latin American Federation of Associations of Families of Disappeared Detainees (FEDEFAM), the establishment of the 30th of August as the International Day of the Disappeared Detainee, among them the Bolivarian of Venezuela.

Sadly, in Colombia, the forced disappearance is still practiced. Every day many Colombians are victims of disappearance and other violations of human rights, they are assassinated and tortured. But also in other countries of our Latin America, repression and the perpetual violation of rights live on, above all those that apply the economic project designed by the government of the USA. For this reason we demand the termination of any attempt to continue training soldiers to repress and murder the peoples.

Impunity is a grave problem that we confront day to day in many of our countries, thanks to which those who committed crimes against humanity have never even been brought to justice nor punished. This is leaving grave consequences among our people. Human life is devalorized, confidence in justice is lost, and democracy is degraded.

We, FEDEFAM, together with social organizations, will continue pushing preventative actions so that the forced disappearance will be definitively eradicated in Latin America and in the world.

FEDEFAM:
25 Years of Struggle for Truth
For Justice and Against Impunity!
For the Right Not to Be Disappeared!
Association of Families of Disappeared Detainees and Victims of Violations of Human Rights in Mexico, AFADEM-FEDEFAM
FEDEFAM: 20 years of struggle against impunity
AFADEM: 30 years of struggle against impunity

FREEDOM TO POLITICAL PRISONERS - APPEARANCE OF THE DISAPPEARED