CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Cindy Sheehan Denounces U.S. Imperial Policy

She acknowledged and saluted the courage of the Cuban Five and their families, and highlighted the importance of Latin America unity

VENEZUELA, March 2, 2010.— Cindy Sheehan, the American activist who was detained more than a dozen times under Bush for leading anti-war protests, and who continues to do so under the new administration—Obama betrayed Americans who believed in his electoral promises, she says—spoke Friday afternoon at the Empire in Decay Forum going on here.

"I have my views on everything," Sheehan told reporters, accompanied by Venezuelan-American lawyer and researcher Eva Golinger, shortly before her presentation at La Estancia Cultural Center. Those opinions extended to a condemnation of the imperialist policy of the United States and a denunciation of the continued violation of human rights and the protracted war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Many people in my country are realizing that Obama has continued the policy of Bush,” she said. Sheehan, who lost her son in April 2004 in Iraq and is now part of the Peace Action movement, said that the number of U.S. casualties is much higher than the official figures released by the Pentagon, and is on the rise in Afghanistan.

Cindy Sheehan considered Latin American unity as very important, both at the level of the popular movements and of integration. She lashed out at the policy of provocations against Venezuela and the media campaign against that nation, “which not only hides the reality of what’s going on regarding the Bolivarian Revolution but particularly attacks and lies about President Hugo Chávez.”

“We are for revealing the lies and educating the people in my country, where there is misunderstanding regarding Venezuela. How could the U.S. accuse Venezuela when the U.S. has the largest prison population in the world and executes people,” she charged. “Venezuela has never invaded any country and U.S. troops are all over the world.”

In conversation with Juventud Rebelde, Cindy Sheehan recalled her trip to Cuba and her visit to Guantanamo Naval Base to demand the closing of the illegal prison there and an end of the U.S. military occupation of that stretch of Cuban territory.

She noted that when Barack Obama came into office in January of last year, he said he would close the prison at Guantanamo. “Of course it was a broken promise, as was his pledge to bring the troops home from Iraq”. What he has done, she said, is to send more troops to Afghanistan.

“People believed in those promises, and the Democratic Party has betrayed the American people. I never believed in Obama, my support was always for the Green Party,” she said.

Cindy Sheehan saluted the Cuban Five and their families for the courage shown. “My country puts so many people in jail unjustly, and that is unfortunate. But we are many fighting for their freedom. To the mothers and the wives of the Five, my greetings.” (Cubaminrex – Juventud Rebelde)

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