About OOA
Office of the Americas at twenty five years
The Office of the Americas is a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the cause of justice and peace through broad based educational programs. Through its blend of scholarship, activism and experience the Office of the Americas provides reliable facts and humane perspectives on global issues. Through its public education program, Office of the Americas works to reach key constituencies: students, church, temple and mosquemembers, civil and human rights workers and all others concerned with international peace and justice issues with the goal of ending the culture of militarism throughout the world. Incorporated as a non-profit educational corporation in April of 1983, the Office of the Americas has confronted areas of U.S. foreign policy which its board of directors considers illegal and/or immoral.
Delegations
Theresa and Blase Bonpane and the board of directors founded the Office of theAmericas and have led the organization for these two decades. Theresa and Blase began frequent fact-finding delegations to Central America in 1979, prior to incorporation as a non-profit. Thousands of people who went on these and later delegations came home to write op-ed pieces for their newspapers, speak to their churches and civic groups and to their legislators regarding the impact of the Contra War in Nicaragua, U.S. direction of the Guatemalan and Salvadoran military and the coordination of the Central American Wars from the U.S. Embassy in Honduras during the ambassadorship of John Negroponte.
International Peace March
In 1985-86 the Office of the Americas led the U.S. delegation of the International March for Peace in Central America. Four-hundred marchers from thirty countries proceeded from Panama City to Mexico City in support of the Contadora Peace Process and assisting in the identification of the Iran/Contra scandal. Our on-the-ground fact finding continued in Guatemala, El Salvador and Cuba.
OOA in Iraq, 1991
In keeping with the OOA mission, as the Gulf War began we went to Baghdad in 1991 to evaluate the situation and considered any such war as unnecessary and counterproductive. On the day the U.S. bombing began, the leadership of OOA was jailed for civil disobedience at the Los Angeles Federal Building. OOA had met with the Iraq Peace Team while in Baghdad and remained in close touch with them as Voices in the Wilderness was formed to call attention to the murderous embargo imposed on Iraqi civilians.
Chiapas
In January of 1994 OOA went to San Cristobal de Las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico to analyze the Zapatista conflict. We began working directly with the mediator of the conflict, Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia and continue to serve on the board of Secretariado International en Solidaridad con el Pueblo de America Latina (SICSAL) a hemispheric solidarity movement presided over by the bishop. We were present at the historic peace talks between the Mexican government and the Zapatistas at San Andres Larrainzar in 1995. OOA has had a frequent presence in the militarized zones of Chiapas during this conflict.
Peru
OOA led a delegation to Arequipa, Peru to visit wrongfully imprisoned Lori Berenson. We were able to enter Socabaya Prison and delegate Amy Goodman did the first extensive interview with Lori since her imprisonment. The interview aired nationally on Amy's program, "Democracy Now." We have worked with the Rhoda and Mark Berenson on the matter of their daughter's wrongful imprisonment for over seven years.
Colombia
OOA began its focus on Colombia by a visit in 1983. As the United States increased its presence and military aid through Plan Colombia we returned in 1997 interviewing all sides in the conflict; people living in the war zones of Uraba as well as government officials, military leaders and the paramilitary. We left Colombia with the conviction that the U.S. had learned nothing from its conflicts in Central America and was to repeat each and every failed policy. The War On Drugs clearly served to escalate the drug business internationally to the point that drugs now make up 8% of international business.
Peace Movement: Post September 11, 2001
On the day after the Twin Towers were attacked in New York City, September 12, 2001, Executive Director Theresa Bonpane, Lisa Smithline and others formed the Coalition for World Peace. Peace Vigils began immediately and we were overjoyed to find that even people who had lost family members in the attack were opposed to our country starting a war in Afghanistan. On the contrary, they favored an internationally coordinated police search for those responsible. The Coalition for World Peace further coalesced with other coalitions and as a result of such coordiation the largest demonstrations for peace in world history took place. By February 15, 2003, tens of millions of people throughout the world met in a united global outpouring against Washington's rush to war.
Media
The Office of the Americas has worked instensely with media
Speaking Engagements
OOA has given hundreds of presentations at universities, high schools, civic organizations and religious groups.
Archives
OWe are especially pleased that our work over these twenty-five years has been recognized by the Department of Special Collections of the U.C.L.A. Research Library (collection 1590). Over one hundred boxes of files make up that collection of OOA materials, tapes of lectures, published an unpublished writings together with our programs from radio and television. Office of the Amereicas has four thousand members and seventy volunteers. Our mission is to continue working with the thousands of people and organizations throughout the world to abolish the war system and to build a functional peace system. The year 2008 has brought us closer to that objective than we could have ever hoped or imagined.
Learn More About Our Program History Below
Call To Action
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