Venezuela, US Sanctions, and Indigenous People 6/25
Saturday, June 25th, 2011
10 AM to 11:45 AM
La Conexión de las Américas
3019 Minnehaha Ave, Suite 20 Minneapolis, MN 55406
Venezuela, US Sanctions, and Indigenous People
The Presentation will be in English
Our Presentation
Richard will be discussing his trip to Caracas, Venezuela, that was taken following the announcement of sanctions against PDVSA Venezuela (Venezuela’s state owned petroluem corporation) by the US State Department the previous week. He will be talking about how approximately 10 people from the US, including peace and social justice activist Cindy Sheehan, learned first-hand more about the potential impacts of sanctions against an impoverished nation that is broadly redistributing its wealth for the first time in memory. Additionally he will highlight how the proposed US sanctions have been loudly criticized by both the left and the right; by both The Wall Street Journal, as well as by economic justice activists.
Our Speaker
Richard LaFortune; Anguksuar (Richard LaFortune), Yupik, Eskimo, is a longtime activist in Native American issues. He helped launch the International Two Spirit Gatherings in 1988, and served as director of training with the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center; he was appointed to the Governor’s Taskforce for Gay and Lesbian Minnesotans in 1990, and served on the founding board of directors of the OUT Fund of the Funding Exchange in New York, as well as many other philanthropies, with particular interest in Native language revitalization. He was executive director with Honor the Earth, working on international environmental justice issues, and has served for six years as national director of Two Spirit Press Room, a media and cultural literacy program in Minneapolis. Richard is a poet and author, and has worked on national documentary film projects in the US and Canada. He is a public affairs radio producer and host, and was recently approved as a UN delegate.
