Andres Thomas Conteris

Andrés Thomas Conteris is Founder of [http://www.democracynow.org/es Democracy Now! en Español] , serves as the Director of the [http://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/latin.htm Program on the Americas] of Nonviolence International and is active with the [http://www.no-bases.net International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases] . He is a filmmaker with Raven’s Call Productions and Co-Producer of the award-winning documentary “ [http://www.hiddeninplainsight.org Hidden in Plain Sight] .” Since 2005 he has been taking Ph.D. level courses at [http://www.ciis.edu/pcc/ Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness] program of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Background and bio

Andrés Thomas was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, on September 5, 1961. His parents were the Rev. Fred Thomas and Ilda (Conteris) Thomas. He legally added his mother's maiden name to his own following the Latin American tradition of using both paternal and maternal last names. Thomas Conteris earned a B.A. in Peace and Global Studies from Earlham College in 1984 graduating with college honors and departmental honors. His peace studies degree focused on Gandhian Nonviolence, Human Rights Advocacy, Intentional Faith-based communities of Justice and Peace, and the Worldwide Ecumenical Movement as an Agent of Social Change. After college he was awarded the Watson Fellowship pursuing "Theology of Resistance". He also holds an M.A. in religious studies from the Howard University Divinity School [ [http://www.howard.edu/divinity/ School of Divinity] ] in Washington, D.C (1992). He authored “Think Cosmically, Act Quantumly: Vignettes on Peace and Justicemaking in a Time of Orange Alerts,” a chapter in [http://www.earlham.edu/pags/tony_bing.html Reframing the Issues: Contemporary Essays in Peace Studies for Tony Bing] (2004).

Since initiating [http://www.democracynow.org/es Democracy Now! in Spanish] (DN!es) in May, 2005, Andrés has worked to build a network of over 200 radio stations around the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Australia, and Europe airing the Spanish headline news of the War and Peace Report, a daily, grassroots, global, unembedded, international, independent news program. The Spanish version of Democracy Now! includes the daily headlines, as well as a weekly summary of the news: the [http://audio.urcm.net/spip.php?rubrique64 Resumen Semanal] . There are tens of thousands of subscribers to the daily email of the [http://www.democracynow.org/es/suscribase Boletín de los Titulares de Hoy] , and many have become regular readers of the [http://www.democracynow.org/es/blog weekly column] in Spanish by Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! In October 2006 Andrés travelled to San Antonio, Texas for a speaking event with Amy Goodman and was [http://411_show.blip.tv/file/101824/ interviewed] . In January 2007 he joined other Democracy Now! team members at the National Conference for Media Reform. [ [http://www.freepress.net/conference/ National Conference for Media Reform] ] He was interviewed on subjects concerning big media and filmmaking. [ [http://blip.tv/file/149863/ big media] ] [ [http://blip.tv/file/151694/ filmmaking] ] .

In 2004 Andrés helped organize the 30-year anniversary celebration of the [http://www.earlham.edu/~pags Peace and Global Studies] Department at Earlham College (PAGS). He helped found the [http://www.earlham.edu/pags/PACE.html PACE, the PAGS Alum Collective of Earlham] which seeks to build community among the alumni, and links alumni with current PAGS students making use of its mentoring program. PAGS at Earlham has more Peace Studies graduates than any other undergraduate institution in the United States, and it is part of the Peace and Justice Studies Association.

Andrés Thomas Conteris is an active participant with the World Social Forum, attending all the worldwide gatherings in Porto Alegre, Brazil (2001, 02, 03, 05); Mumbai, India (2004); Caracas, Venezuela (2006); and Nairobi, Kenya (2007) and the [http://www.ussf2007.org/es United States Social Forum] in Atlanta, Georgia, United States (2007).

From 2001-03 he worked as a founding coordinator of [http://www.for-al.org Forging Alliances South and North] (For-Al) which seeks to build bridges between grantmakers and grantseekers in the Americas. He paved the way to build ties between For-Al and [http://www.gwob.net Grantmakers without Borders,] the [http://www.nng.org National Network of Grantmakers] , and numerous networks and community-based and popular organizations in Latin America. From 2001-02 he also worked as a Spanish/English medical interpreter with the [http://www.lcdp.org/English/Interpretation.html Clínica del Pueblo] in Washington, DC.

Since 2001, Thomas Conteris has directed the Program on the Americas of Nonviolence International in Washington, DC. Over the years he has led educational and action delegations throughout the Americas to countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Argentina. In Uruguay he led one called [http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/lasolidarity/2004-October/000498.html The Emergence of Progressive Politics in Latin America's Southern Cone] . These travel seminars have been co-sponsored by Nonviolence International, as well as numerous other human rights organizations such as: Witness for Peace, Global Exchange, School of the Americas Watch, Fellowship of Reconciliation, [http://www.mitfamericas.org/ Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas] , the [http://www.serve.com/nukeresister/134atlantic.html Atlantic Life Community] , and [http://www.jonahhouse.org Jonah House] . In 2004 he presented on a panel titled [http://www.watsoninstitute.org/pci/usmilglobal/ Social movement responses to the evolving structure of U.S. military bases] at Brown University. He led a [http://www.soaw.org/presente/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=74 delegation] in 2006 which met with the defense ministers of Uruguay and Argentina when they announced they would no longer send military officials to be trained at the School of the Americas. In March 2007 he [http://www.wnpj.org/node/6110 helped organize] the [http://www.tni.org/acts/wsf5bases.pdf inaugural conference] of the [http://www.no-baes.net International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases] in Quito, and Manta, Ecuador. Manta is the home of the largest U.S. military base in South America. The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, said the only way for the U.S. military base to remain in Ecuador after 2009 is for the U.S. to [http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20071023/FOREIGN01/110230068/1003 permit an Ecuadoran base in Miami!] He currently serves on the search committee charged with finding a new [http://www.nobasesnetwork.org/aboutthenetwork Executive Coordinator for the global network as well as an International Secretariat] .

In 2000 he began work with Raven’s Call Productions and was Co-Producer of [http://www.hiddeninplainsight.org "Hidden in Plain Sight"] . The feature-length documentary looks at the nature of U.S. policy in Latin American through the prism of the School of the Americas, the controversial military school that trains Latin American soldiers in the United States. (The School of the Americas changed its name in 2001 to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.) The film presents different points of view on the school. It includes interviews with a variety of scholars, legislators, military officials, and activists, including victims of U.S.-sponsored torture and repression in Latin America. The Latin American Studies Association honored the documentary with the Merit in Film Award in 2003. Thomas Conteris has spoken at many screenings of the film, including at the [http://liberalarts.udmercy.edu/clasa/pastevents.html University of Detroit Mercy,] [http://www.plowsharesproject.org/php/colleges/earlham/activities.event.archive.php Earlham College] , and the [http://www.worldpeaceforum.ca/themes/program/latin-america World Peace Forum] in Vancouver, Canada.

From 1994 to 1999 Andrés Thomas Conteris worked as a community development consultant and human rights advocate in Tegucigalpa and other cities in Honduras with the [http://www.ccdhonduras.org/ Christian Commission of Development] . His work was sponsored by the Mission Personnel Division of the [http://www.gbgm-umc.org/ General Board of Global Ministries] of the United Methodist Church and included [http://www.nonviolentways.org/hondbro.htm leading educational delegations,] [http://gbgm-umc.org/umcor/emergency/hurricanemitch/mitchond.cfm supporting relief efforts for Hurricane Mitch] , and working with groups such as the [http://www.cofadeh.org/ Committee of Family Members of the Disappeared] , the [http://www.conadeh.hn/ Honduran Human Rights Commission] , and the [http://fiat.gslis.utexas.edu/~gpasch/tesis/pages/honduras/hum02/www_codeh_hondunet_net.html Committee for the Protection of Human Rights in Honduras.] He also served as the president of the board for many years of the [http://www.rds.hn Sustainable Development Networking Program(SDNP)] in Honduras, an electronic communication network initiated by the United Nations. In the mid-1990s, he worked to promote connectivity to the internet with the [http://www.acceso.or.cr Fundacion Acceso] , ExpreSo, and [http://funredes.org/apc/about_apc_membership.doc NICARAO] , the Peacenet network in Central America part of [http://www.igc.org/ IGC, the Institute for Global Communications] . This [http://www.marrder.com/htw/special/internet.htm Special Report] from [http://www.hondurasthisweek.com/ Honduras This Week] details some of his early efforts to bring Internet access to this Central American nation.

Andrés Thomas Conteris was an active member of the [http://hartford-hwp.com/archives/47/079.html Commission of Guarantors] , described on pages 163-4 of this [http://www.iidh.ed.cr/comunidades/diversidades/campana%20indigena/indigenas%20modulos%20tematicos.pdf Interamerican Human Rights Institute document,] assigned to monitor compliance of the [http://www.ibw.com.ni/~cgenica/accord.htm 1997 accord between the Honduras government and indigenous leaders] of the country. The objective of this accord was to grant land, protect human rights, provide social services, and initiate a comprehensive legislative plan on behalf of the indigenous peoples of Honduras. For his efforts, Earlham College, honored him in 1997 as recipient of its prestigious [http://word.cs.earlham.edu/issues/XII/103197/news1022907a.html Sesquicentennial Alumni Peacemaker Award] .

He was formerly employed from 1986 to 1991 as a seminar designer with the United Methodist Seminar Program on National and International Affairs sponsored by the [http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/ Women's Division] of the [http://new.gbgm-umc.org/ General Board of Global Ministries] and the General Board of Church and Society. In 1992, he served as chair of the Fellowship of Reconciliation [http://www.forusa.org/programs/tflac/tflac.html Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean.] From 1989-90 he was national co-coordinator of EFFECT, the Ecumenical Fast for El Salvador in Churches and Temples.

In 1989 he was an international observer of a [http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_de_Caducidad_de_la_Pretensi%C3%B3n_Punitiva_de_Estado national human rights referendum] , in Montevideo, Uruguay. From 1981 to 1985 he coordinated the [http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/lasolidarity/2004-October/000498.html International Campaign to Free Hiber Conteris and All Uruguayan Political Prisoners] .

Notoriety -- Bearing witness to "the ghosts, the dead, the missing"

Over the years, Andrés has participated in countless nonviolent direct actions including the [http://www.brianwillson.com/evrafast.html Veteran´s Fast for Life] (1986); protests at U.S. Embassies and a military base in Central America in the late 1980s to protest U.S.-sponsored wars in the region; and, the Atlantic Life Community's yearly protests at the White House, the Pentagon and elsewhere. [http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/04/16/dc.protests.01/ CNN broadcast worldwide] how he blocaked two National Guard trucks on April 15, 2000; AP reported it as his "Tiananmen moment".

As part of the campaign to end the U.S. Navy's military maneuvers on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico (2000-03), from July to October 2000, he [http://www.washingtonpeacecenter.org/articles/viequesbombing.html fasted first on liquids for 20 days then on water-only for over 7 weeks in front of the White House] [http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:I_iL3SHiUsUJ:www.iacenter.org/puertorico/vieques_updates.htm] to [http://www.cosmos.ne.jp/~miyagawa/nagocnet/data/viequeshe.html appeal to the conscience of President Bill Clinton] to meet with religious leaders to learn firsthand about the impact of the bombing on the people and environment of the island known as "Isla Nena." The Washington Post wrote a piece on September 8, 2000, Hunger Striker Wants U.S. to Halt Naval Exercises on Island off Puerto Rico stating that Thomas Conteris, "opposed to the U.S. Navy's use of a bombing range on Vieques has been on a hunger strike for six weeks and says he will continue his protest until President Clinton meets with Puerto Rican activists seeking an immediate end to the test bombing." [http://www.agrnews.org/issues/89/nationalnews.html On September 24, 2000 he was arrested] while in a wheel chair in front of the White House along with over 70 others. After a [http://nucnews.net/nucnews/2000nn/0010nn/001001nn.htm groundswell of support] and a direct request by the "viequenses", he [http://ccci.umc.org/umns/news_synd.asp?ptid=&story={34E1B9DE-59AD-41D8-B25F-CE1E5A087CCD}&mid=2912 ended] his [http://nucnews.net/nucnews/2000nn/0010nn/001007nn.htm water-only fast] after [http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0620-02.htm 50 days] in Vieques on October 2, 2000, the birthday of Mohandas K. Gandhi.

He gained notoriety through his demonstrations during three different U.S. Senate hearings to confirm John Dimitri Negroponte [ [http://eyeball-series.org/negro-eyeball.htm] ] to various positions as an ambassador.

Thomas was detained by police for his disruptive behavior during all the hearings. [ [http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:kDMYfMjUPlcJ:www.judgewatch.org/disruption-of-congress/paper-trail-from-jail/re-Ex-E-conteris.pdf+%22andres+thomas+conteris%22+-%22411+show%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=67&gl=us&lr=lang_en detained] ]

Thomas Conteris helped in the production of the film [http://www.erlingborgen.com/theamb.html "The Ambassador"] by arranging most of the interviews with human rights leaders in Honduras and Nicaragua. This feature length documentary film portrays how Negroponte was running brutal civil wars in Central America in the 1980s as ambassador to Honduras designated by president Ronald Reagan.Human rights organizations throughout the region say this U.S. ambassador covered up grave human rights violations in close cooperation with death squad leaders such as School of the Americas graduate Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez.

Two days after September 11, 2001 Andrés exclaimed in the hearing held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, "Mr. Negroponte, the people of Honduras consider you to be a state terrorist!"

In 2004, the Washington Post reported that at his confirmation hearing, Negroponte received

"words of praise and encouragement. Then a bearded man popped up, jack-in-the-box-like, and began shouting at the seated senators: 'Ask him about his involvement with a death squad in Honduras that he supported!' Heads swiveled, shoulders twisted. 'What about death squad 316, Mr. Negroponte?' The man was Andrés Thomas Conteris, a human rights activist who spent five years in Honduras. Security officers escorted him out. Negroponte didn't flinch during the outburst, didn't even turn around to eyeball his critic. Those who've known him for years -- family and friends, fellow ambassadors -- have long attested to his cool demeanor."

Then after a lengthy spread depicting Negroponte's long diplomatic career the piece closes with:

"At the end of his confirmation hearing in April, Negroponte rose and shook hands all around. A couple of his daughters were in attendance, along with his wife. Family friends and well-wishers hovered. Then Negroponte turned, swinging his umbrella in one hand and, in the other, his lovely brown leather briefcase. Heading for the door, bound for Iraq. He glided right by Andrés Thomas Conteris, back inside the room now, glowering in silence, the bearded man who had yelled, who had come to represent the ghosts, the dead, the missing." [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A56555-2004Jun20?language=printer]

Democracy Now! interviewed Andrés about his speaking up at these hearings on [http://www.democracynow.org/2004/4/28/dems_ignore_negropontes_death_squad_past April 28, 2004]

AMY GOODMAN: Connecticut Senator, Christopher Dodd, speaking yesterday at the senate foreign relations hearings yesterday. Most democrats either praised Negroponte or refused to raise his past record, some of the toughest questioning come from republican Senator, Chuck Hagel, of Nebraska. He didn’t question Negroponte on Central America, but rather on Iraq. Negroponte responded to Hagel, he was interrupted by an activist and filmmaker, Andres Conteris of the non-violence international.

CHUCK HAGEL: If they have sovereignty, Mr. Ambassador what does that mean? Do they or don’t they have sovereignty on a specific issue like that, which obviously could widen and be applied to any military exercise or national security issue?

JOHN NEGROPONTE: And that is why I used the term exercise of sovereignty. I think in the case of military activity, they will—their forces will come under the unified command of the multinational force. That is the plan, and I—I think that as far 58s American forces are concerned, coalition forces, I think they’re going to have the freedom to act in their self-defense and are going to be free to operate in Iraq, as they best see fit, but when it comes to issues like Fallujah, as I discussed earlier, I think that that is going to be the kind of situation that is going to have to in addition to everything else be the subject of real dialogue between our military commanders, the new Iraqi government, and I think the United States mission as well.

CHUCK HAGEL: Well—

ANDRES THOMAS CONTERIS: Mr. Ambassador, there can be no dialogue if the United States—

SPEAKER: Please. Let’s have order in the hearing. Please. Please.

ANDRES THOMAS CONTERIS: Mr. Ambassador, please—

SPEAKER: Please, let the ambassador testify. Appreciate the comments from the audience.

ANDRES THOMAS CONTERIS: There is no sovereignty, Mr. Ambassador. There is no sovereignty if the United States continues to exercise security in Iraq. Senators, please ask the ambassadors about the Battalion 316. He had involvement with a death squad in Honduras that he supported.

AMY GOODMAN: Andres Conteris for the human rights group, non-violence international interrupting the hearings for John Negroponte. It was hard to understand what you were saying. What did you say, and why did you feel the need to interrupt this nomination confirmation hearing?

ANDRES THOMAS CONTERIS: Amy, I felt it was imperative for those of us who support peace and non-violence to be at this hearing where this—where this man who we considered to be a state terrorist is about to be confirmed to the largest diplomatic post in U.S. history. What Negroponte was saying at the time is that when it comes to issues like Fallujah, there—we need to engage in real dialogue, and I could not believe that he would use such words. I rose and spoke and said that there could be—can be no dialogue as long as the U.S. continues to commit war on Iraq. I then went on to say that the people of Honduras consider him to be a state terrorist, and that we need to be pursuing non-violence in the Middle East instead of the—the way that we are committing violence there with the war. I went on to then emphasize that the senators need to ask the ambassador—about his involvement in human rights violations and particularly his support for a depth squad called Battalion 316 while he was ambassador in the early 1980’s in Honduras.

On [http://www.democracynow.org/2005/2/18/promoting_the_ambassador_of_torture_bush February 18, 2005] Andrés said in the phone interview from Chile,

ANDRES THOMAS CONTERIS Amy it’s really good to be with you, and I’m glad that you’re really focusing on this very, very important issue. I not only disrupted Negroponte last year in April, but also in September 2001 when he was having his hearing to become Ambassador to the United Nations. The reason that I stood up on both of those occasions is because I was trying to be a voice for the voiceless in Honduras. The sister of Manfredo Velazquez whose name is Zenaida Velazquez, she was the founder of the Committee of the Family Members of the Disappeared in Honduras. She asked me to go to the hearing when Negroponte was to be confirmed to be Ambassador to the United Nations, and to be a presence there on his behalf. I did not plan to do anything at that time, but when Negroponte said in sworn testimony that he had never even heard of Battalion 316 until years after he left the post in Honduras, I couldn’t believe this incredible lie that he was committing, which is a crime, and I decided to risk arrest by standing up and telling him that the people of Honduras consider him to be a state terrorist. This was two days after September 11. I was whisked out of the room at that time. Then last year in April, when he was being—in the hearing to be confirmed to be Ambassador to Iraq, I also returned at that time because it just seems incredible that this man, who we consider to be a promoter of torture, knowing that that’s what was going on in Honduras and Central America, this is the man who just before the Abu Ghraib scandal was breaking—he was being—he was under testimony then in the Senate, and he clearly went to Iraq having had the experience of covering up U.S. involvement in torture in Central America. So, this is a state terrorist that needs to be confronted. He needs to be accused of war crimes. He needs to be taken to trial.

AMY GOODMAN: If I recall correctly, Democratic Senator Dodd of Connecticut opposed the confirmation of John Negroponte as Ambassador to the U.N. on the grounds of what he had done in Central America, but when it came to his being nominated and confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Senator Dodd backed off the protest he had made earlier. When you heard Andres Contreris, about this nomination yesterday while you were in Chile, what was your response, and do you think that there will be Democrats who will raise the kinds of issues that you are raising, Andres?

ANDRES THOMAS CONTERIS In terms of democratic protest, it seems like what they will probably do again is have another “love-fest,” which was the description of the last Senate committee hearing when he was to become Ambassador to Iraq. Here in Chile, they’re very mindful of the role that the United States and C.I.A. had in the coup of 1973, and as Sister Laetitia is talking, it seems in some ways that our country is—is practically a Chile in 1972, and we are approaching more and more what could become an overt military dictatorship with folks like Negroponte in power, with Elliot Abrams being promoted, and all of the ones who have committed human rights crimes are the ones who are being rewarded. Those who are the most experts in what the C.I.A. engages in constantly as “plausible deniability,” they are the experts in this horrendous kind of policy, and they’re the ones who are really going to be pushing the buttons in terms of U.S. war making around the world. A month ago, Amy, we heard that from Newsweek that Salvador option was being implemented in Iraq. What we’re seeing is that the U.S. military is losing the war there, and so the Salvador option was really a policy of death squads. And it’s no coincidence that Negroponte, having been the Ambassador in Honduras where he was very much engaged in this kind of support for death squads was the Ambassador in Iraq and this is the kind of policy that was starting to be implemented there, which is not just going after the resistance itself, but targeting for repression and torture and assassination the underlying support base, the family members, and those in the communities where the resistance is. These kinds of policies are war crimes, and these officials need to be called to accountability.

Following the most recent protest at the Negroponte's confirmation hearing to be the first-ever intelligence czar, Director of National Intelligence in April 2005, Andrés explained his actions:

"John Negroponte is an expert at covering up for torture. He did it while he was ambassador to Honduras, he did it as torture in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere continued while he was ambassador to Iraq. Now, if he is confirmed he will be in charge of the most massive intelligence apparatus in the world. It's an apparatus that produces torture manuals and engages in torture -- that trains people from other countries on how to torture, as we have seen from the School of the Americas.Negroponte is a death squad diplomat. He is associated, rightly, around the world with human rights violations. He supported death squads in Honduras, like Battalion 316. I lived in Honduras for five years, I know the impact Negroponte's policies had there in the early 1980s." [http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1021 Accuracy.org pressrelease]

References