 It's Peace Action and Code Pink Congress. With me tonight co-hosting is Nadia Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink with Jodi Evans, who's also with us and is helping to organize the People Summit, but we'll be talking about that. We also have Brian Garvey with Massachusetts Peace Action and Hania Jodat, who is with Code Pink Congress and many other organizations. So with that, I would like to welcome all of you. We will be looking at the Progressive Wave Sweeping Latin America and talking about the People Summit coming up in Los Angeles. That's a counter narrative to the Summit of the Americas hosted by the United States and will be a huddle of arms dealers and free marketeers. So tonight we're gonna hear from Manola De Los Santos and organizer for the People Summit as well as Francesca Emanuel, who's coming to us from Columbia. She'll be talking about the elections there. We'll hear from our speakers. We'll take action. We always take action on Code Pink Congress. We'll have a Q&A, but before we get to that, we're gonna do a few updates. So let's go first to Hania. Thank you so much, Marcy. I'm very happy and excited to be sharing with everyone that tomorrow there will be a Yemen War Powers Resolution introduced. Just to kind of go over a quick background and give a quick background to our audience. A very fragile UN broker, Tru Sin Yemen, has temporarily succeeded in pausing the Saudi airstrikes, which had escalated dramatically in the late 2021 and early 2022. However, efforts to ease the Saudi aerial and naval blockade on food, fuel, medicine, and travel remains very weak. And so the passage of this particular war powers resolution, which is bipartisan, will send a very powerful signal that Congress will not allow the resumption of Saudi airstrikes when the truce is set to expire in early June, which, and we know that resumptions of airstrikes have occurred after previous ceasefires collapsed. The legislation will do a few things I'll mention. It has about 39 co-sponsors thus far. It will create an additional incentive for the Saudi-led coalition to arrive at a broader negotiated settlement for a lasting peace. The bill will also assist President Biden in fulfilling his key campaign promise and his administration's promise to end the US support for this disastrous war in Yemen, which has now resulted in about 377,000 deaths, as well as it has triggered one of world's worst humanitarian crises, according to the UN, with about 73% of Yemeni people now starving and the population in need of aid. The resolution will end US intelligence sharing for the purpose of enabling defensive Saudi-led coalition strikes, as well as end the US statistical support for offensive Saudi-led coalition strikes, including the providing of maintenance and spare parts to coalition members flying warplanes, engaging in anti-Houthi bombings in Yemen, in addition to prohibiting any US personnel from being assigned to command, coordinate, participate in the movement of or accompany Saudi-led coalition forces engaging in any hostilities without specific statutory authorization in accordance with the Section 8 of the War Powers Resolution of 1973. So again, as I mentioned, we have about 39 members of Congress who've co-sponsored this bill that's supposed to drop tomorrow. Very excited about it. And yeah, we look forward to seeing what happens, passing it on. Thank you very much, Hania. And in the coming days, we'll share the number of that bill and look at who is co-sponsoring. And we urge all of you to make sure that your rep is being asked to co-sponsor as well. Let's go to Brian Garvey now of Massachusetts Peace Action for an update, Brian. And that's absolute, absolutely right. It's extremely exciting that this Yemen War Powers Resolution is being introduced. This really is the culmination of a couple of years of activism, really pressuring the Biden administration simply to live up to its promise to stop facilitating the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. So we need you all to get involved. This is absolutely crucial. It's a crucial moment because right now the Biden administration is also trying to make nice with Saudi Arabia while they continue this brutal war. And it's fur oil, as I'm sure you all know. So that's something that we need to push back against. We continue to work on Yemen and so many other issues through our Raytheon anti-war campaign. One of the biggest weapons manufacturers right around the corner from where I am. And we continue to partner with groups across the country through the new war industry resistors network. They're actually putting on a webinar right now with Liz Dio Harris. And you can go to Mass Peace Action's YouTube page to check it out later. It'll live there forever. So don't worry, you're not missing anything. I'm really proud of a bunch of Harvard kids who over the weekend put out a great action at the Harvard commencement. Attorney General Merrick Garland was there and the Harvard kids partnered with a group called Boston Assange Defense to make a demand of the attorney general to stop the illegal and unconstitutional prosecution of Julian Assange. It's reporting and the free press that gives us so much of our information that allows activists to do their work. So I was honored to be able to stand with them and demand that the highest law enforcement official in the attorney general stop his assault on the constitution. So we reached a lot of students, a lot of their families, it was an excellent action. On Friday, we have a great Palestine Solidarity concert coming up. I'm really looking forward to that. That'll be more rock and roll. And then the next night we're gonna do a classical 22 piece chamber orchestra. I still don't know how we're gonna pull it off but that's gonna be a benefit for both refugees from Yemen and Ukraine. Because Ukraine is getting so much attention in the news we can't forget about Yemen. So a busy week, but all good stuff. Thank you so much. Brian Garvey of Massachusetts Peace Action and on the subject of Ukraine, I was on a call today with the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center which supports the work of the Congressional Progressive Caucus 93 members. And there was talk today to Jayapal, Rumela Jayapal, the chair will soon be circulating a colleague, a dear colleague letter to urge negotiations, not escalation in Ukraine. Nadia, you're on. Let's hear an update from you. Well, we'll hear a lot more about Cuba tonight. I just wanted to mention two things. We've been doing some really great humanitarian aid and we've been doing a lot of you joined us in the campaign to send six million syringes, then food, then powdered milk. Right now we're trying to raise $25,000 quickly for medicine that's needed in the liver transplants for eight children and they cannot get this medicine. So we're going to put in the chat the connection there where you can make a donation, whatever you can do, $10, $100, $500, whatever it is, it's much appreciated and will get us closer to the goal. And then we're gonna talk tonight about our action which will be the letter that the Congresswoman Ayanna Presley is doing to try to stop the US from blocking efforts by Cuba to send its COVID vaccine around the world and other medical cooperation. But we also have a letter that's going to come out soon from the desk of Cory Bush, that's to get Cuba off of the terrorist list. So we're waiting for that to get out and get you all involved with us on getting signups for that one. Thank you. Terrific, thank you for all of your work, Medea. Now I'd like to introduce a co-chair of our Latin America campaign at Code Pink, Leo Flores who is deeply involved in the People Summit. He's gonna give us some information about that. Tell us about other events in Latin America. Leo, welcome. I thought he was with us. I think we're supposed to go to Manolo. All right, go ahead and introduce Manolo, please. Manolo. So our first speaker is Manolo de Los Santos. He is the co-executive director of a rockin' center in New York City that's taken the progressive world by storm and it's called the People's Forum. Great events there, check it out. There's always something wonderful happening there. And he's one of the main organizers of this People Summit that's gonna be happening in LA June 8th to 10th. He's a popular educator and an organizer from the Caribbean. I've had the pleasure of working with him for many years and most recently we've traveled to Cuba together taking lots and lots of powdered milk. It's great to have you with us, Manolo. It's exciting to be here with you, Medea and all our progressive friends in the US. We've already done so much in defense, not just of Cuba but of all the just causes in Latin America. But now we have many more hurdles to keep fighting and we know we can win because we have the power of the people here in the US with us. So if you will tell us about anything you wanna say about Latin America in general and the wave of progressive governments that are coming in and then, you know, what's happening around the Summit of the Americas and why the People Summit? How long do I have to go to talk about my people as my customers? About eight minutes or 10 minutes. Okay, well, again, thank you for the honor to share with all of you tonight. I think that what's happening in Latin America right now in relation to the official Summit of the Americas is indicative of a deep transformation that is taking place. Many people refer to this pink tide to explain the series of progressive, but I would say even people's governments that have come into power in different parts of a region. I don't like the term pink tide very much. I love code pink, but I don't like the pink tide concept because it doesn't give full sense of the diversity in the character of the diversity across our political spectrum, even in the left in Latin America that has come to power in different places. Also that it doesn't fully account for, I would say a period of setbacks and counter-revolution that we have faced in the region sponsored finance organized by the United States government for as much as our people's governments advance in a period between 1999 and 2009. In 2004, we saw a coup in Haiti sponsored by the Bush administration. In 2009, right after President Obama had began talking about a new type of foreign policy towards the Latin America, he went to the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, Tobago and talked about having to turn a new page in US relations with Latin America. A few months later, a coup is sponsored in Honduras that opened fully the door to a return, a scary return in our continent to a period of military coups, of lawfare to overthrow democratically like the governments, to persecute every press, activists and leaders, not just of the left, but of movements of the people across our region. 10 years of that, which led to a nasty coup in Bolivia just in 2019 has demonstrated that the United States to this day continues to see Latin America, they now, a Biden wants to call it the front yard, but we are still the yard of the United States, whether it's the back or the front. They see us as nothing more than that, but the continent has been changing. Our people through struggle, through active resistance, through a lot of creativity have begun to make a realignment of the forces in our region. And the main realignment actually in this region is not just of the left, but even in governments who are not considering themselves left, that we cannot continue to bow down always to the interests of the US empire. That has led a positive mobilization of our countries against the exclusion of Cuba, of Venezuela and Nicaragua from the summit of the Americas. Countries across the spectrum have said, who gives the United States the right to determine what countries qualify as democracies in which stones? Even the far right government in Guatemala has questioned the US policy at play when it comes to organizing the summit of the Americas. And we have to be very clear, the summit hasn't even started, but it has already failed because it took on the right, the exclusive right, of being a democratic forum without being actually a democratic space. Cuba, which under deep constraints, facing a blockade, facing 243 sanctions, being limited from its national development, was able to generate and develop not one vaccine, not two vaccines, but five vaccines to treat COVID-19. We have a budget of under less than $50 million, which is minimal compared to what the pharmaceuticals in the United States spent on many vaccines that didn't even come to see the light of day. It's important that Cuba be part of the conversation on how to face COVID-19 on our continent. We face a vaccine apartheid in the Americas. Biden says he wants to talk about this in the summit, but he refuses to invite the people who have done the most to attack that vaccine apartheid. And that is symptomatic of so many conversations when it comes to immigration, when it comes to workers' rights, when it comes to just the basic decent human rights for dignity in our continent, leading countries are being excluded from the conversation. And not just countries, the people of this continent are being excluded from the summit of the Americas. That is something that must concern us. It's the millions of peasants in Latin America who still have to struggle for access to land. It's the millions of people in this continent, including the United States, who have no access to housing. It's the millions of children in our continent who still suffer from malnutrition. Who will speak for them? What summit will they be invited to? It's clear that the summit of the Americas, this failed summit, which has become a summit of Biden's friends, of the people who agree with Biden is a failure. And it's not the summit for the people. That's why we have organized, alongside the movements of Latin America, a People Summit for Democracy. We have convened this summit right here in LA only a mile away from where the official summit will be. We will be there with Code Pink and another 200 organizations of the people from across our continent, with people who are being loud and clear. We are not voiceless. We have voices and we're going to use them loud and clear in LA. When they want to talk to us about a foreign policy that is focused on democracy and human rights encouragement in Latin America, we are going to question that because we don't see the US promoting democracy or human rights in Latin America. When they continue to finance death and terror, when they continue to finance campaigns against progressive forces, when they continue to position themselves consistently against the best interests of the people of Latin America, and why not? We have to say it loud and clear the Biden administration positions itself against the best interests of the American people as well. Because what government would, in the light of everything that's happened in the last few weeks, mass shootings, scarcity of baby formula and other things, not say it loud that we have to change the society we live in? No, the Biden administration is saying more and more the money that exists in this country has to go to war. Billions and billions continue to go to fund the war in Ukraine to bleed out Russia, to build out new enemies instead of dealing with the needs of poor people and working people in the United States. That is what we're coming to a late to talk about. And I'm so excited that I'm going to see many of you in person that we're gonna be both dancing salsa with media and protesting and mobilizing and going up and down halls with Jodi Evans talking about all these issues that matter to us and matter to our people. So looking forward to seeing you all there, looking forward to seeing you even beyond the People Summit because this is only a first step to bring our movements closer together, to bring our struggles in closer unity. Because if anything that we've learned from Latin America is that in order to change that correlation of forces, in order to change and shake up our enemies, we have to come together. We have no other choice. We have to come together. Thank you. Thank you, Manolo. So wonderful to have you with us and we're all very excited about the People Summit. I know Jodi Evans is with us tonight too, Jodi. Are there any highlights you'd like to mention, speakers or topics that will be underway at the Discussed at the Summit? Oh, sure. What's great is also the cultural part, which is where I've been working. And so we have artists who are sharing their works. There's a whole section to talk about how we use art as part of revolution and honor those who have. There'll be a place to actually be creating art during the whole Summit. And we're gonna hear from Danika who just came back from Cuba. She'll be on opening day. And we also have Indigenous leaders who are coming from the Amazon and will be speaking at the beginning to talk about why we need to be protecting the Amazon and our planet and how sacred and necessary Latin America is literally to the lives of everyone on the planet. It's the lungs of the planet. So yes. Thank you, Jodi. And I know somebody mentioned in the chat, will any of us be recorded or shared for those who can't be in Los Angeles? Or live stream. Great, great. So Manolo, did you wanna respond to that? Yeah, that we will be live streaming all our events and all our panels. I encourage folks, even if you're not in LA, you can still register online to make sure you get the links on time so you can follow us on social media. And also that this is a unique opportunity. We have been able to bring artists, cultural workers, movement leaders, local politician, economists, intellectuals from across Latin America to join us. We weren't able to bring our Cuban friends but we will have comrades coming from Venezuela, from Bolivia, from ID, from Argentina, from Colombia, from Brazil, from across our region, from Mexico. So it will be a treat to be engaging with so many beautiful comrades and people in struggle. Sounds wonderful, thank you so much. Our next guest is Francesca Emanuel. She's a researcher with the Center for Economic Policy Research, which is a progressive think tank founded by economists. You may be familiar with Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot. Francesca is also a Peruvian journalist, Columbia election observer. She'll talk about that. And a PhD student of anthropology at American University in Washington DC. Welcome, Francesca. Coming to us from Columbia. Thank you so much for having me here. Yeah, yeah, I'm here in Bogota. I was an electoral observer. So let's start with the good news for the... And in America. The most votes in the first round of Columbia's presidential elections for the... Francesca, you're breaking up. I wonder if you'd take your... Francesca, maybe if you take a video off, we can hear you better. Okay, yeah, yeah, definitely. Because the internet here is not good. So what I was saying is that Colombians mobilized in 2021. They led massive demonstrations against this repressive government led by Iván Duque. The fact that Petro got 40% of the vote in this election shows that Colombians are sick of the status quo and want to change. The nuts of the news is that Petro didn't win in the first round as his campaign was suspecting. And he will lead to a runoff with a right-wing populist businessman called Rodolfo Hernandez. And who is this guy? He's a former mayor and wealthy businessman with a populist anti-corruption platform. Despite the fact that he's actually been investigated for corruption. And he's a misogynist, a Senate vote. He earned actually comparisons to Donald Trump, to Bolsonaro. He praised Adolf Hitler. It's sad to say it, but he's the result of a phenomenon of political disaffection. So because he is running as an anti-establishment candidate that actually he's not because in fact the right-wing just endorse him the same data of the election. So the fact that Rodolfo Hernandez reached the runoff shifted Colombia's political landscape. For months, Paul predicted that Petro would head to the runoff against the Ivista candidate, the one that I mentioned, the right-wing conservative from the establishment Fico Gutiérrez. If that had been the case, I think Petro would have easily win against Fico Gutiérrez in the runoff that will take place on June 19th. But as I said, Colombia's want to change. However, now they have a populist candidate who claims to also represent the change, who is creating a fake narrative that he is the change. And winning him will be difficult, not impossible but difficult. And I would like to see you right now because I'm going to try to do some math with you just to give you some details of why it will be difficult. So let's do some math. Bear with me. Petro got 8.5 million votes while Rodolfo Hernandez, the one who will go to the runoff, received almost 6 million votes. And the third candidate, the right-wing, the Fico candidate who endorsed Hernandez got 5 million votes. So if we add the votes of Hernandez and Fico, let's say the anti-establishment, which is a lie and establishment one, it gives us 11 million votes versus Petro who got 8.5 million votes. So Petro would need 1.5 million votes to beat Hernandez. And unfortunately, there are no many places where he can get those votes unless he convinces people who voted for this anti-establishment Rodolfo. And because convincing Fico voters would be almost impossible, he voted against Petro too. To win, Petro will need more participation in huge creative actions. These elections will need international solidarity, actions by you too. Colombia has gone through so much violence, actually violence that has increased, which is a contradiction. It has increased since the signing of the peace agreements in 2016. For example, since the signing of this peace agreements, the calling of environmental and community leaders has increased by 70%. But again, to finish with a good note tone, we have to remember that if Petro prevails in the June 19 run-off elections, he will become Colombia's first left-wing president in its modern history. And he's running mate who was two weeks ago in Washington D.C., Francia Marques, who is an environmental and feminist activist of humble origins. And she will become the first Afro-Colombian vice president. Also, Petro and Marques run on the Pacto Historical Coalition. This is the name of the Coalition of the Party. And they had a great platform to increase the life standards of Colombians, increasing taxes on the world, moving away from fossil fuels, moving Colombia's approach to the US-led war on drugs, and resuming relations with the Venezuelan government. So it would be such a positive check for Colombians. So I want to leave it in that note. Yeah, I have hope, because we have to look at the situation with hope, but there is a big challenge in the next run-off. Thank you very much. Francesca Manuel, a researcher who's there on the scene in Colombia for the upcoming run-off. Hania is going to introduce our next speaker. Thank you so much, Marcy. It brings me absolute joy to introduce Leonardo Flores, who I've had the pleasure and honor of working with on a number of different projects in terms of sanctions, me combating sanctions on Iran, Leo with Venezuela. So, and I'm very much looking forward to now seeing you in person and meeting you for the first time in person at the summit, Leo, and not through Google Doc. But he is a Latin America campaign coordinator for Code Pink. He is from Venezuela and was a political analyst for the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, DC. My mentor, a dear friend. Take it away, please. Thank you so much, Hania. I don't know about mentor. I think I've learned just as much from you as you have from me, if not more. But, you know, it's really interesting to hear from both Francesca and Manolo their analysis of the situation. And, you know, today, I'm sorry I'm on my phone, but I actually just picked up from the train station, a delegation of three Venezuelan women who have just come to the United States to do a two-week tour of the U.S. They're going to be in, I think, seven cities. And they're going to finish their stay at the People's Summit in LA in one of the panels. And they're going to be here to talk about how sanctions are disproportionately affecting women and children in Venezuela. And it's an interesting time, right? Because we've seen in the news that the Biden administration is considering lifting some sanctions on Venezuela. He hasn't quite done anything yet. There's been a bit of confusion in the news because although he has lifted, you know, he lifted the ban on Chevron and on Haliburton from negotiating with Venezuela. So it got to the point that even oil companies couldn't negotiate and even talk to their counterparts in Venezuela. And he lifted that ban. And he just announced, I think, four or five days ago, the Treasury Department announced that he would allow these oil companies that include Chevron and Haliburton and Shalomberg, I think is the name of another one, all based in the U.S., to, you know, do maintenance on their oil wells, but not to resume operations fully. So there's a lot of pressure on the Biden administration right now coming from the oil companies because of high gas prices, because of the war in Ukraine. And I was just talking with these Venezuelan women about that and they say, you know, it's a real shame that I took a war in Europe for the Biden administration to realize that, you know, Venezuela has a lot to offer. And for the Biden administration to really start taking their, you know, the foot off the throats of the Venezuelan people. So it's, yeah, so, I mean, it's a very difficult time still in Venezuela while we have, you know, there are some positive signs. So for example, the economy is scheduled as looking like it's growing. In fact, Credit Suisse, Swiss financial firm was estimating 22% growth for Venezuela this year, which is amazing. Right. And then another financial institution, I think just last week said there, they think it's going to be about 15% growth. So we're talking double digit growth in the face of these sanctions that have been designed to destroy the Venezuelan economy. So the Venezuelan government and the people have found a way around the sanctions to some extent, but things are never going to be normal again in Venezuela until the Biden administration or the US government really lifts these sanctions. It's the same situation with Cuba, right, where we have 60 plus years of the horrible blockade, strangling Cuban people in the hopes that the Cubans will rise up and overthrow their government. And that's not my opinion. That's exactly what the policy is. There's a memo from I think maybe two months before the embargo started where they basically said just that, that they need to up the pressure on the people. And it's, and of course the rhetoric is all about how these sanctions are on the government and not the people, but the reality is totally the opposite. And I think that's why I think it's so important that the people who are suffering are ordinary people, working people like you and I. And so, you know, I'm very excited to hear what the women will say at the delegation of Venezuelan women will say at this, at the people summit. And I'm really excited to be there because it is going to be amazing and strongly urge folks who can go out there in LA. And of course, I know that times are tough right now and prices are going like crazy. So if you can't go out there, I do strongly encourage you to watch as much as you can on the internet. And I think it's an opportunity to listen to people from all over the continent and some people here at home who have kind of, we're working on the ground on issues from, you know, immigration to housing to your productive rights to LGBTQ rights, but it's also going to be an opportunity for to build kind of people to people relations to engaging people, to people diplomacy. And that is particularly important for people who are progressive because the right wing has been doing the same exact thing, you know, you know, you know, dark money and, you know, corporations for the past 20 plus years, if not longer, and it's through that sort of coordination between, you know, business sectors and oligarchs and the US government that they've managed to overturn or reverse some of the massive gains that we've had during the pink tide. And I use it as shorthand because I share some of the concerns that Manolo addressed earlier. And so the only way to combat combat this kind of coordination from the right is for us to coordinate as well from the left and to build these people to put people connections. So looking forward to seeing folks in LA. And of course, if you want to keep up with the delegation of Venezuelan women, please go to coat pink.org slash. Venezuela delegation to see where they're going to be next, you know, they have an event tomorrow in DC. So if you're in DC, meet us at the Mount Pleasant library will next be in North Carolina, followed by Portland, San Francisco, finishing up an LA urge you all to turn out for them if you're in one of those cities because their event in New York at the people's forum was interrupted by a bunch of Venezuelan fascists who were not only incredibly rude to them, but have started an online harassment campaign and they they're feeling kind of lonely. So let's show them some love when we when we see them in person and when we see them at the summit. Thank you so much Leo. I do want to hand it off to Marcy and Medea. I know we have a number of questions in the chat and Manolo, if you do wish to share the information about the summit, please go ahead and drop the links in the chat for our attendees. Hand it over to Medea and Marcy. Before we thank you so much, honey. Before we go to the Q&A, let's take some action. People have been listening for a while and Brian Garvey is with us. He's created a terrific action and Code Pink has a petition as well. So Brian, tell us what can we do? Well, let's get back to something that Manolo was talking about earlier because that's what this action is concerning and that's the issue of vaccine apartheid. And this is specifically regarding Cuba, but it doesn't just affect Cuba. It affects countries all across Latin America and really countries that aren't rich everywhere in the world, mostly in the global south. Because as many of you might know, recently there was some good news out of the Biden administration that they were going to remove some of the sanctions. Some of the sanctions against Cuba, not nearly enough, but some real steps in the right direction, but not as much as we would like to see. And my own congresswoman, Ayauna Presley, who we've been very impressed with, her foreign policy record, has introduced a letter. She's leading on this issue to encourage the Biden administration to go further and also to reduce sanctions specifically on the vaccine that they created. Manolo was talking about that too. And because the vaccines that are produced here in the United States and in Europe are incredibly expensive and they need deep freezing, they've been very hard for people in poor countries to get. And I think the figures are, it's about 75% of people in countries like the United States and the UK have received at least one dose of the vaccine. That's less than 10% in a lot of the countries of the global south, especially Africa. So these folks really need access. And Cuba's vaccine, which is different from the others, it's cheaper, it's easier to produce. It can help alleviate this problem. And the Biden administration, which at least in the early part of the administration really made COVID-19 public enemy number one, there's something that the president can do to stop the continued spread of COVID-19. And that is to ease sanctions and allow Cuba to continue to vaccinate its own people and continue to give this inexpensive, easier to make vaccine to countries all around the world. And it doesn't just affect people in poor countries because the more the spread of COVID continues, the more likely there are to be more variants and for this thing to just go on and on and on. This is a global problem, right? It's not, you can't just solve it here in the United States and it's going to go away. And we've had a million of our citizens perish because of this thing. So, you know, if people want access to the vaccine, they should be able to get it. Just like in rich countries. So, Shay, yeah, you pop the link in the chat. It's really easy. All you have to do is put your zip code in and it'll tell you who your representative in the house is and send them a message. Please join Eonna Pressley's letter to the Biden administration saying, hey, you did something good, but we need you to step it up. It's time to end this embargo once and for all, especially on things like vaccines. That's a good place to start. So we have 144 people on the chat. Brian can come back later and tell us how many of us took action. Exactly, I can tell. Look on that link. And we also have a Code Pink petition that Shay is posting to urge the Biden administration to allow Cubans who want to attend the People's Summit to enter the United States. Pretty basic request. So thank you all in advance for taking action with us on Code Pink Congress. Now it's time for a Q&A with our speakers, with Manola, Francesca, and with Leo. So, Medea, why don't you ask the first question. I know if you've been posted in the chat. Yes. So Leo, perhaps you can answer this one. It's about the upcoming elections in Brazil. How do you see Lula's chance of winning that? I mean, I think it's really good. It's similar to Columbia. They have two rounds of elections. And in the first round, the, you know, the way to avoid our second round is for Canada to take over 50% of the vote. The last few polls I've seen have Lula right right near that threshold of 50%, if not just above it. We're talking about a government in Bolsonaro. He's wildly unpopular to a certain extent. But similar, again, to dynamics we've seen, not just in Columbia, but also in Ecuador. There is a big scare campaign in terms of, you know, red-baiting and anti-communism and trying to link, you know, Lula's potential presidency with, you know, with the worst of the worst in terms of what we've seen of scaremongering about communism. And we'll see how that affects turnout. But I do think that Lula is very well positioned to win. It's going to be difficult, though, because again, we're seeing threats to the integrity of those elections and to the integrity of Brazilian democracy coming from all sorts of actors, including from some who were former military. And I'm sure that there are going to be, there are going to be in coordination with the state department who will definitely, even though Biden doesn't particularly like Bolsonaro, he definitely will link, they're much more aligned politically and policy-wise than Biden would be with Lula. So I think it's going to be difficult, but Lula is very well positioned to win. And if he does win, I think that could really help transform the dynamics that Latin America and the Caribbean have with the United States, because Brazil's a big heavyweight. Thank you very much, Leo. Now there's been talk about Mexico, the president of Mexico saying he's not going to participate, he's not going to come, given the failure of the Biden administration to include his Latin American counterparts. So what is happening with Mexico and some of the Americans? Maybe, Manolo, you could take that. Well, I think Mexico deserves a lot of credit for initiating a large political debate in the region on this topic. Immediately, I think the first point that Mexico and Topes Obrador made was that there could be no summit that excluded certain countries. And that if Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua categorically were not invited, he as president would not be participating in the official summit. He left open the possibility that still his foreign minister or other representation of Mexico would participate in the official summit. Just having said that, just having made that I think that position, taking that position of dignity, of Latin American dignity, already sort of opened up the space for other presidents in the region at different levels to take on this question as well. And we've seen a variety of responses from governments that have said we are in disagreement with the US lack of invitations to these countries, but we might still participate. But the consensus in the region is that no one sees with good eyes the level of exclusion proposed by the United States government. At this point, essentially what Obrador also pushed the United States to do was to scramble. Immediately, the US government was forced to send emissaries to other capitals in the region to try to convince people, please, please, you have to come to our official summit. It also forced the US hands to have to show that we are not that cruel. Biden is not that evil. He is willing to make some concessions to Cuba and Venezuela, even though they're not concessions at all. Optimally, the US is sort of being pushed against the wall. And this is positive. Regardless of who actually ends up coming to the summit at this point, we now know that the only topic in discussion that will happen at the official summit will be why certain countries are not there. They will not be able to discuss anything else. They will not be able to discuss COVID-19, immigration, labor, free trade or anything. Biden's agenda has been startled. And I would say again that a lot of that has to do with Mexico's firm position in defiance of US foreign policy. Excellent. I have a question here for Francesca. You've been studying the organization of American states, which has been really dominated by the US. And I wonder if this, all of this controversy around Summit of the Americas is going to have repercussions to weaken the organization of American states and might there be an alternative that has some power to take over the place of the OAS? Well, I hope so. The Organization of American States is one of the oldest international organization in the world. And despite the fact that has committed horrendous actions, the one that Manolo and Leonardo mentioned, it is still there. So there is a need for more actions. Of course, the fact that many presidents said that won't attend the Summit of the Americas, it's also a very important and it's also an attack or, let's say, it reduces the legitimacy of the Organization of American States. But it is still there. 60% of the Organization of American States come from the United States, despite the fact that there are 34 countries there. So that shows you that this organization, it's a tool for the US foreign policy. Non-organization that wants to protect sovereignty of countries in Latin America can have this kind of funding because it shows how unbalanced it is. And definitely it's needed more actions also against the Secretary General of the Organization of American States. He hasn't acknowledged that this organization had a huge role in Bolivia in 2019. The coup that you know led to an authoritarian government, coup d'etat, and then two massacres. There has been a lot of action to push the organization to acknowledge that they said that there was fraud when there was not, but Almagra keeps saying that there was. So probably this summit, and I'm sure actually you will do it, will be a good space to point out that because it is incredible. It is horrendous that this organization keeps acting as observers, they send 93 people here, and you don't know what's going to happen next. I think for example in my country, even though the right wing politicians in last election when Pedro Castillo won said that they needed an audit of the elections despite the fact that there was no evidence of fraud, I think the Organization of American States stayed far away from doing that audit that the right wing politicians were requesting because they knew that they already had no legitimacy because of the actions that they committed in Bolivia. So it is important to continue bringing awareness of what this organization has been doing not only in the past years, but since it was funded. Thank you, Francesca. There's a question in the chat asking if you could share the perspective of some of the organizations that you are working with in Latin America on the crisis in Ukraine. I know that's a broad question. Who would you like to answer that? Why don't you go, Leo? Sure. I think it's very complicated because one of the things that we see in Latin America is that the war in Donbass that had been going on for eight years prior to the Russian invasion had a lot more coverage in Latin America than it did in the United States. And so there's a lot more sympathy for the fact that you've had all of these victims for many years now. I don't know that necessarily excuses for people in Latin America or justifies rather the Russia's actions. But certainly I think Latin America in general you'll find obviously a large diversity of views but also I think those views are going to be much more nuanced because there is less propaganda pushing this kind of anti-Russian narrative in Latin America than there has been in the U.S. And when I say that, we also should keep in mind that there is a very kind of severe polarization in the media in Latin America where right-wing media basically parrots U.S. talking points. And so right-wing media, for example, was talking about Russian interference in Colombia's elections, which is totally absurd. I mean, I think the point is that people in Latin America have a much more nuanced position on this. I also saw in the chat specifically about Venezuela and Russia regarding the sanctions. And I think one thing to keep in mind is that while the U.S. sanctions were killing 100,000 Venezuelans, Russia was not only sending vaccines but also diabetes, medicine, dialysis, machines, things to keep Venezuelan people alive and that's not something they're going to forget. They're doing similar things throughout the hemisphere in response to COVID-19. So there's a lot more sympathy there for the Russian people than there might be here in the U.S. So there was a question in the chat and maybe, Manole, you could answer this about Chile, its role given that it's not as progressive as other governments. Where do you see Chile in that spectrum do you consider it part of countries that can challenge the U.S.? Chile is a great example of why we can't generalize and talk about a simple thing tied. I think in Chile, the victory of the left candidate, Morish, was a momentous and tremendous step for the people's movements of that country because simply to propose, to undo a fascist constitution that had been imposed on the people of Chile by the dictator Pinochet, simply to fight against that is already an enormous step towards the left and towards even creating the basis of even just a bourgeois democracy at its basic level. That is already a huge step for the Chilean people. Sadly, there are a lot of things where I disagree with and I think many people in Chile disagree with Morish and his approach to understanding democracy and human rights, which he feels means critiquing Cuba and Venezuela and Nicaragua in particular. But I think it was important to see that even in light of that, he did speak against the exclusion of these countries from the Summit for the Americas and in fact insisted that despite having political disagreements these summits should serve as a space for dialogue and discussion and debate between all countries involved, not just those who agree with the U.S. Is he going to be able to challenge U.S. foreign policy more than that? I don't think so, but we have to really be aware that in the complexity of the local struggles in Latin America what Bodhis represents for the people of Chile is something tremendous. It would be a huge transformation to end and actually build a constitution that meets the needs of the people of Chile. Yes, it's a very very inspiring prospect. I was in college at the time that Pinochet came to power and I can remember how horrific that whole chapter was, so there's light at the end. I'd like to know if there are concerns, I'll wrap up the questions in a minute, but are there concerns about U.S. interference in the election in Colombia? Oh, definitely. Let's say Colombia is the country that gets the most aid in Latin America from the U.S. So, for example, Victoria Nullan who is in the third position in the hierarchy in the State Department came to Colombia a year and a half ago and she met with all the parties but she didn't meet with the Pacto Historico Party of Gustavo Petro Party which shows you what the U.S. thinks about Gustavo Petro. Also, they were spreading rumors that there was probably intervention of Russia in these elections which is completely insane and yeah, that shows that the U.S. or at least certain parts of the State Department are not happy with Gustavo Petro. I don't know at this point as I told you the landscape, the political landscape changed before we thought that Gustavo Petro could go to the run-off with Fico Gutierrez who is the candidate of the establishment and now the challenges for Gustavo Petro are more difficult. So I don't know how the U.S. will intervene directly but I can tell you that they are showing how close they are to Colombia. A couple weeks ago the Minister of Defense of Colombia who ran a whole operation to repress hundreds of protesters in 2021 where 80 people died because of the repression of the State. He, this Minister went to the U.S. and met with officers of the State of the Defense and they signed this agreement for Colombia to be a non-member of the how is it called? It's like an ally member, sorry if you know exactly the term partner. Yeah, so Colombia is not a member of NATO but it's an ally so they wanted to show how close these two countries in military issues they are also the Department issue and statement saying that they were talking about how this Minister of Defense who was horrendous against these demonstrators in 2021 was going to have a strategy to reduce violence during elections. I mean how can this Minister of Defense of Colombia is discussing with the U.S. what they are going to do here during the elections that shows that this government doesn't want to have sovereignty and that shows also to the world that the U.S. wants to keep it that way so I don't know exactly how the U.S. will intervene but I know that they would be happy of having Rodolfo Hernandez as the winner and not Pedro. Thank you so much for that analysis you know my ears perked up when you said that Victoria Nuland had gone to Colombia we know that she went to Ukraine and passed out pastries and then soon thereafter there was a coup so we've got to watch this situation very closely. Medea your thoughts? Well why don't we ask Brian once more to mention the action and because I think we need some more people to take it it's really easy Brian. Absolutely it's incredibly simple it'll take you if you're quick it'll take you 30 seconds if you're slow it'll take you a minute and I gotta tell you it's incredibly easy to do and it's worthwhile Medea was pointing out in the chat earlier that it covers more than just vaccines too I ran on and on and on about that because it's just so egregious but it also promotes medical cooperation it also it does call for Cuba to be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism I know there's going to be another letter that focuses on that but there's a lot of good stuff in this letter and it's also an initiative that a young progressive member of Congress in A.I. is leading on this is a very good development so do take that action we're in the 50s right now I think we can do better we got 130 people here so Can you tell them once again how to do it? Yeah absolutely Shay can you put the link in the chat what you do is you click this link that Shay is about to put in the chat and it just asks you where you live and then it automatically finds your representative in Congress and free writes a letter which you can change and make your own but it's just a couple of clicks and the idea is we want to flood their inboxes you want to pressure them and this kind of pressure works perfect example and I wanted to mention this earlier the Boston City Council is now going to issue a statement calling for an end to the embargo that was because of pressure the the city of Cambridge did so earlier this year so you know it does matter if they hear from constituents that this is an issue that you care about and that you vote on their years start to perk up that's right I've noticed that in my own district when there are a lot of letters going in a campaign such as this one I get a response from my congress person whereas if I just write myself sometimes I don't hear anything so they do pay attention thank you so much Brian for that and at this point let's unmute and thank our guests thank you yes thank you everybody Manolo thank you see you next week bye good job good job thank you so much live stream yes thank you