Andres Thomas Conteris
Encyclopedia
Andrés Thomas Conteris (born September 5, 1961) is Founder of Democracy Now! en Español, serves as the Director of the Program on the Americas of Nonviolence International
and is active with the 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 “Hidden in Plain Sight.” Since 2005 he has been taking Ph.D. level courses at Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program of the California Institute of Integral Studies
.
and grew up in the U.S. and Uruguay
. 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 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 Reframing the Issues: Contemporary Essays in Peace Studies for Tony Bing (2004).
Since initiating 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 Resumen Semanal. There are tens of thousands of subscribers to the daily email of the Boletín de los Titulares de Hoy, and many have become regular readers of the 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 interviewed. In January 2007 he joined other Democracy Now! team members at the National Conference for Media Reform. He was interviewed on subjects concerning big media and filmmaking.
In 2004 Andrés helped organize the 30-year anniversary celebration of the Peace and Global Studies Department at Earlham College
(PAGS). He helped found the 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 United States Social Forum in Atlanta, Georgia
, United States
(2007).
From 2001-03 he worked as a founding coordinator of 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 Grantmakers without Borders, the 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 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 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
, Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas, the Atlantic Life Community, and Jonah House. In 2004 he presented on a panel titled Social movement responses to the evolving structure of U.S. military bases at Brown University. He led a 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 helped organize the inaugural conference of the 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 permit an Ecuadoran base in Miami! He currently serves on the search committee charged with finding a new 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 "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 University of Detroit Mercy, Earlham College, and the 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 Christian Commission of Development. His work was sponsored by the Mission Personnel Division of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church
and included leading educational delegations, supporting relief efforts for Hurricane Mitch, and working with groups such as the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras, the Honduran Human Rights Commission, and the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras
.
He also served as the president of the board for many years of the 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 Fundacion Acceso, ExpreSo, and NICARAO, the Peacenet network in Central America part of IGC, the Institute for Global Communications. This Special Report from 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 Commission of Guarantors, described on pages 163-4 of this Interamerican Human Rights Institute document, assigned to monitor compliance of the 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 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 Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries and the General Board of Church and Society
. In 1992, he served as chair of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
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 national human rights referendum, in Montevideo, Uruguay. From 1981 to 1985 he coordinated the International Campaign to Free Hiber Conteris and All Uruguayan Political Prisoners.
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 fasted first on liquids for 20 days then on water-only for over 7 weeks in front of the White House http://google.com/search?q=cache:I_iL3SHiUsUJ:www.iacenter.org/puertorico/vieques_updates.htm to 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." 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 groundswell of support and a direct request by the viequenses, he ended his water-only fast after 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 to various positions as an ambassador.
Thomas was detained by police for his disruptive behavior during all the hearings.
Thomas Conteris helped in the production of the film "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
Then after a lengthy spread depicting Negroponte's long diplomatic career the piece closes with:
Democracy Now! interviewed Andrés about his speaking up at these hearings on April 28, 2004
On February 18, 2005 Andrés said in the phone interview from Chile,
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:
Nonviolence International
Nonviolence International describes itself as a decentralized network of resource centers that promote the use of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance.-History:...
and is active with the 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 “Hidden in Plain Sight.” Since 2005 he has been taking Ph.D. level courses at Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program of the California Institute of Integral Studies
California Institute of Integral Studies
California Institute of Integral Studies is a private institution of higher education founded in 1968 and based in San Francisco, California. It currently operates in three locations just south of the Civic Center district...
.
Background and bio
Andrés Thomas was born in Green Bay, WisconsinGreen Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
and grew up in the U.S. and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
. 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.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in Peace and Global Studies from Earlham College
Earlham College
Earlham College is a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 by Quakers and has approximately 1,200 students.The president is John David Dawson...
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.
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in religious studies from the Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
Divinity School 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 Reframing the Issues: Contemporary Essays in Peace Studies for Tony Bing (2004).
Since initiating 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 Resumen Semanal. There are tens of thousands of subscribers to the daily email of the Boletín de los Titulares de Hoy, and many have become regular readers of the weekly column in Spanish by Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is an American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet.-Early life:Goodman was born in Bay Shore, New York...
, host of Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
In October 2006 Andrés travelled to San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
for a speaking event with Amy Goodman and was interviewed. In January 2007 he joined other Democracy Now! team members at the National Conference for Media Reform. He was interviewed on subjects concerning big media and filmmaking.
In 2004 Andrés helped organize the 30-year anniversary celebration of the Peace and Global Studies Department at Earlham College
Earlham College
Earlham College is a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 by Quakers and has approximately 1,200 students.The president is John David Dawson...
(PAGS). He helped found the 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
Peace and Justice Studies Association
The Peace and Justice Studies Association is a non-profit organization headquartered at Prescott College and based in Prescott, Arizona; its current Executive Director is Randall Amster. It was formed in 2001 as a result of a merger of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development ...
.
Andrés Thomas Conteris is an active participant with the World Social Forum
World Social Forum
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization...
, attending all the worldwide gatherings in Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(2001, 02, 03, 05); Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
(2004); Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
(2006); and Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
(2007) and the United States Social Forum in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(2007).
From 2001-03 he worked as a founding coordinator of 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 Grantmakers without Borders, the 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 Clínica del Pueblo in Washington, DC.
Since 2001, Thomas Conteris has directed the Program on the Americas of Nonviolence International
Nonviolence International
Nonviolence International describes itself as a decentralized network of resource centers that promote the use of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance.-History:...
in Washington, DC. Over the years he has led educational and action delegations throughout the Americas to countries such as Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. In Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
he led one called 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
Witness for Peace
Witness for Peace is an United States-based activist organization founded in 1983 that opposed the Reagan administration's support of the Nicaraguan Contras, alleging widespread atrocities by these counterrevolutionary groups. Witness for Peace brought U.S. citizens to Nicaragua to see the effects...
, Global Exchange
Global Exchange
Global Exchange is an advocacy group and non-governmental organization , based in San Francisco, California, United States. The group's mission is to promote human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice around the world.-History:...
, School of the Americas Watch
School of the Americas Watch
School of the Americas Watch is an advocacy organization founded by Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois and a small group of supporters in 1990 to protest the training of mainly Latin American military officers, by the United States Department of Defense, at the School of the Americas...
, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Fellowship of Reconciliation
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries...
, Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas, the Atlantic Life Community, and Jonah House. In 2004 he presented on a panel titled Social movement responses to the evolving structure of U.S. military bases at Brown University. He led a 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 helped organize the inaugural conference of the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases in Quito, and Manta, Ecuador. Manta
Manta
Manta is a mid-sized city in Manabí Province, Ecuador. It is the second most populous city in the province, the fifth most populous in the country and, economically, the third most important city of Ecuador. Manta has existed since Pre-Columbian times. It was a trading post for the Mantas....
is the home of the largest U.S. military base in South America. The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa
Rafael Correa
Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado born is the President of the Republic of Ecuador and was the president pro tempore of the Union of South American Nations. An economist educated in Ecuador, Belgium and the United States, he was elected President in late 2006 and took office in January 2007...
, said the only way for the U.S. military base to remain in Ecuador after 2009 is for the U.S. to permit an Ecuadoran base in Miami! He currently serves on the search committee charged with finding a new 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 "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
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation , formerly the United States Army School of the Americas is a United States Department of Defense educational and training facility at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia in the United States...
.) 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
Latin American Studies Association
The Latin American Studies Association is the largest association for scholars of Latin American studies. Founded in 1966, it has over 6,000 members, forty-five percent of whom reside outside the United States, LASA brings together experts on Latin America from all disciplines and diverse...
honored the documentary with the Merit in Film Award in 2003. Thomas Conteris has spoken at many screenings of the film, including at the University of Detroit Mercy, Earlham College, and the 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
Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa , and commonly referred as Tegus , is the capital of Honduras and seat of government of the Republic, along with its twin sister Comayagüela. Founded on September 29, 1578 by the Spanish, it became the country's capital on October 30, 1880 under President Marco Aurelio Soto...
and other cities in Honduras with the Christian Commission of Development. His work was sponsored by the Mission Personnel Division of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
and included leading educational delegations, supporting relief efforts for Hurricane Mitch, and working with groups such as the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras, the Honduran Human Rights Commission, and the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras
The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras is a human rights NGO in Honduras founded in 1981 by medical doctor Ramón Custodio Lopez.-Background:...
.
He also served as the president of the board for many years of the Sustainable Development Networking Program(SDNP) in Honduras, an electronic communication network initiated by the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. In the mid-1990s, he worked to promote connectivity to the internet with the Fundacion Acceso, ExpreSo, and NICARAO, the Peacenet network in Central America part of IGC, the Institute for Global Communications. This Special Report from 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 Commission of Guarantors, described on pages 163-4 of this Interamerican Human Rights Institute document, assigned to monitor compliance of the 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
Earlham College
Earlham College is a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 by Quakers and has approximately 1,200 students.The president is John David Dawson...
, honored him in 1997 as recipient of its prestigious 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 Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries and the General Board of Church and Society
General Board of Church and Society
The United Methodist Board of Church and Society is a general agency of the United Methodist Church. It is one of four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church as set out the UMC Book of Discipline. The General Board has headquarters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C....
. In 1992, he served as chair of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
Fellowship of Reconciliation
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries...
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 national human rights referendum, in Montevideo, Uruguay. From 1981 to 1985 he coordinated the 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 Veteran´s Fast for Life (1986)http://www.brianwillson.com/evrafast.html; 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. 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
Vieques, Puerto Rico
Vieques , in full Isla de Vieques, is an island–municipality of Puerto Rico in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands...
(2000–03), from July to October 2000, he fasted first on liquids for 20 days then on water-only for over 7 weeks in front of the White House http://google.com/search?q=cache:I_iL3SHiUsUJ:www.iacenter.org/puertorico/vieques_updates.htm to 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." 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 groundswell of support and a direct request by the viequenses, he ended his water-only fast after 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 to various positions as an ambassador.
Thomas was detained by police for his disruptive behavior during all the hearings.
Thomas Conteris helped in the production of the film "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
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
.
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 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 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 GhraibAbu GhraibThe city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through 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." Accuracy.org pressrelease