Cuba 5 outreach work at the School of Americas protest

_   Representatives from the Chicago and Louisville Committees to Free the Cuban 5 teamed up at the School of  Americas Watch protest this November 18-20, in Columbus, Georgia. This is the four year the case of the Cuban 5 has been presented at the SOA protest. The School of Americas is a US military training center for Latin American military personnel. Many of the Latin American coup plotters, military torturers, and perpetrators of civilian massacres have been SOA graduates. The protests at the SOA began after the murder of Jesuit priests in El Salvador by soldiers trained at the SOA. This year about 4000 attended the protest.

   We shared a literature table with the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, Charlie Hardy of Venezuela, as well as those working on the NATO/G8 Summit protests to be held in Chicago in May 2011. We were able to distribute a good amount of literature about the Cuban 5, and sold some copies of the new book by Steve Brouwer, "Revolutionary Doctors, How Venezuela and Cuba are Changing the World's Conception of Health Care."

   We organized a workshop on the US blockade of Cuba and the case of the Cuban 5. We were especially fortunate to have as a speaker Dr. Luther Castillo of Honduras, a graduate of the Latin America School of Medecine in Havana. He has appeared on DemocracyNow.org, and is interviewed in the film "Salud."

    He gave an inspiring speech on the example of Cuba in creating the School of Medecine, the role of Cuba and Venezuela in sending doctors to Haiti after its devastating earthquake. Luther Castillo was one of these volunteers. Luther Castillo also gave an overview of the medical work he is pursuing among the Garifuna community of Honduras, and the struggle of Honduran civil society against the coup-maker government in power in that country.