2009 Delegates to Venezuela:

Benji Lewis -The exciting part of this trip for me is not only cultivating international ties with other anti-war veterans, but also seeing community cooperation such as worker controlled factories first hand.  Currently I live in Corvallis, OR and live as a student, worker and activist.  I have deployed to Iraq twice on combat tours and currently resisting Involuntary Activation by the Marine Corps.

Angela Parada - My name is Angela Parada.  I’m a student Portland State University and a seeker of global peace.  My interest in this delegation is to learn more about anti-war movements abroad.  I believe that my activities as a student organizer working for peace and social justice will be greatly enriched by this experience.

Jaclyn Brown - Hello, my name is Jaclyn Brown.  I am a student PCC and I plan on studying social work and Latin American studies.  I am very excited to go to Venezuela to witness how people have been empowered by the revolution.  I am also excited to learn about how the worker controlled factories are run and how to bring the skills I learn from Venezuelan social movements back to Portland.

Mike Tabor – I am a Portland peace and justice media activist. I am interested in documenting the peace and solidarity delegation that is going to Venezuela this summer. I am interested in exposing and sharing what I learn from the Venezuelan people and their struggles with the people here in America, through video taping and interviews.

Mark Vorpahl – My name is Mark Vorpahl.  I have been active in the anti-war movement from the beginning, first in Detroit, Michigan, and now in Portland, Oregon.  I have also been involved in Venezuela solidarity work for a few years.  I’m very much looking forward to going on this delegation because I think there is much anti-war activists can learn from what is going on in Venezuela.

Andrew Nealon – My name is Andrew Nealon.  I am a 27 year old graduate student at PSU, a waiter, a writer, and a video producer.  I am a human rights activist above all else.  I worked on a grass roots political documentary during the 2004 presidential election which took me all over the country to meet and interview US citizens, so now I am looking forward to doing the same in Venezuela. 

Sasha Burchuk – My name is Sasha Burchuk. I am a Social Sciences/Latin American Studies student at Portland State University and an aspiring journalist. I’ve recently returned from a year abroad in Mexico where I wrote extensively about migration and the narcotics war and am very excited to be embarking on this trip to Venezuela. I am dedicated to journalism as a form of truth and exposure and I look forward to being a part of an alternative media campaign that will be covering the Bolivarian Revolution from a human rights perspective.  

Nat Needham – I am very excited to be a part of the Venezuela delegation, I think it will create a great opportunity for us to reach out, engage and create new dialogue at this critical juncture.  I am interested in increasing awareness of transnational issues surrounding the war and underlying social justice issues that have been created by empire.  I look forward to documenting, and sharing our trip and findings when we return.

Become A Delegation Sponsor!

Dear community partner,

For more than 20 years, PCASC has organized student, labor, and community activists to oppose
US military and economic intervention in Latin America and support movements for social justice. One of
the most powerful tools that PCASC has used in this work has been to organize international delegations
to Latin America. Through them, delegates have experienced firsthand the effects of US intervention
and the work of organized people toward social justice. US delegates have forged ties with Latin
American activists to mobilize at an international level against intervention and for peace. PCASC is
planning an anti-war delegation to Venezuela this summer and we are writing to ask for your support.

Venezuela has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Iraq war and more generally, of US
military and economic intervention in the world. Recently, it was one of the only countries to cut
diplomatic ties with Israel in protest of its disproportionate attack on Gaza and its killing of Palestinian
civilians. Masses of Venezuelans have protested against the war and for a global economy based on
peace, sovereignty, and social justice. Yet the international corporate media has continuously framed
Venezuela in a negative light, attempting to prevent Americans and Venezuelans from seeing each other
as allies in the fight for global peace, social justice, and democratic reform.

PCASC’s anti-war delegation is an effort to cultivate ties of international solidarity between activists for peace and social justice in the US and Venezuela. Delegates include Iraq war veterans, student organizers, community media and peace activists. During the delegation, they will have the opportunity to find out how Venezuelan social movements are organizing to create a society based on the values of peace with social justice. What does this mean for workers, students, and
campesinos? What does this mean for health care and land reform? What is the role of the military in
forging such a society? What are the challenges? What can we learn from these experiences as we
pressure a new US administration for peace and social reform?

On the Venezuelan side, people and organziations are eager to learn how social movements in the US are organizing against military intervention and for social justice. Venezuelans are planning events for the delegation to participate in while in Venezuela, including a Winter Soldier Hearing, to mobilize their communities for the international effort against the war. This delegation will be an opportunity for US peace activists and Venezuelan social movements to coordinate their work, especially in pressuring the new administration to end the war in Iraq and US intervention in Latin America.

This delegation represents an important opportunity to advance our common mission of international peace and solidarity. We are asking for you to be part of this anti-war effort by donating $5 - 50 towards the delegation costs.  If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact me or the PCASC staff person, Shizuko Hashimoto.  Alternatively, you could attend one of the many upcoming delegation fundraising events, which we will post on the "news" section of this site. We hope that you will consider this opportunity. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. Ask us about our pre-sale DVD offer, by donating in advance you will be the first to get our DVD "Caracas to Cascadia" video when the delegation returns.

In solidarity,

ANDREINA VELASCO, Board Member
andreinavelasco@riseup.net, 503-230-7916

SHIZUKO HASHIMOTO, PCASC Staff
info@pcasc.net, 503-515-5456