 Latin America is no longer the backyard of the empire, it is the front yard of a world movement for social justice and peace. From Mexico to Honduras, from Cuba to Venezuela and Nicaragua, from Colombia to Brazil and Chile, from Bolivia to Argentina, the governments and peoples of Latin America are charting their own future. Latin America no longer fears the CIA, the IMF, and their own right wing elites determined to live in a multi-pole world, to sell their goods and build alliances with whoever treats them with respect, whether it is via European power or Russia, or China, or the U.S. They are tired of Washington demanding obedience to its version of democracy and reacting only with sanctions, arrogance, and regime change to all who dare challenge its hegemony. We are here today to say those days are over. It's time the American people learned the truth about the U.S. role in Latin America. Time that Congress, the White House, and all Americans of good will demand an end once and for all to the heinous Monroe Doctrine and the ideology behind it. Let's get to work and as we used to say in the Young Lords, Palante siempre Palante hasta la victoria.