It’s springtime and discounts are in the air! Use the discount codes provided below by June 17th and save $200 on any of the following Reality ToursWe hope you can join us on one of these great trips!

 

Venezuela: Community Development & Populist Movements
July 18-27
$1,900
Discount code: VzGX15

Travel with Global Exchange to dig past the headlines and explore the changes occurring in Venezuela, Latin America and the hemisphere as a whole. You will meet with human rights activists, rural agricultural workers, labor unions, community activists, journalists, and government officials and opposition figures, and see for yourself the unprecedented social change that is occurring at this historic time in Venezuela and the region.

Costa Rica: Sustainability on the Caribbean Coast
July 18-27
$1,700
Discount code: CrGX15

Join use as we explore the advantages and disadvantages of a tourism-based economy. As we travel across this naturally rich and strikingly beautiful country, we will examine the social and environmental problems facing Costa Ricans and meet the important players who are creating sustainable solutions. The local solutions to these challenges will inspire our action and involvement with these issues.

Iran: Ancient and Contemporary Culture
September 19 – October 3
$3,600
Discount code: IranGX15

The Citizens Diplomacy Reality Tour to Iran will give participants a chance to see inside this much-maligned nation and gain first-hand experience of the effects of the political policies of both the United States and Iran. Participants will have a chance to put a human face on this ongoing political dispute and help facilitate understanding and respect between people of different nations.

 

It’s springtime and discounts are in the air! Use the discount codes provided below by June 17th and save $200 on any of the following Reality ToursWe hope you can join us on one of these great trips!

Venezuela: Community Development & Populist Movements
July 18-27
$1,900
Discount code: VzGX15

Travel with Global Exchange to dig past the headlines and explore the changes occurring in Venezuela, Latin America and the hemisphere as a whole. You will meet with human rights activists, rural agricultural workers, labor unions, community activists, journalists, government officials and opposition figures. See for yourself the unprecedented social change that is occurring at this historic time in Venezuela and the region.

Costa Rica: Sustainability on the Caribbean Coast
July 18-27
$1,700
Discount code: CrGX15

Join us as we explore the advantages and disadvantages of a tourism-based economy. As we travel across this naturally rich and strikingly beautiful country, we will examine the social and environmental problems facing Costa Ricans and meet the important players who are creating sustainable solutions. The local solutions to these challenges will inspire our action and involvement with these issues.

Iran: Ancient and Contemporary Culture
September 19 – October 3
$3,600
Discount code: IranGX15

The Citizens Diplomacy Reality Tour to Iran will give participants a chance to see inside this much-maligned nation and gain first-hand experience of the effects of the political policies of both the United States and Iran. Participants will have a chance to put a human face on this ongoing political dispute and help facilitate understanding and respect between people of different nations.

By Marta Sanchez, Global Exchange Costa Rica Program Officer

As you might know, Costa Rica, a country bound to its ideals of anti-militarism and pacifism, is ready to break its tradition of neutrality, which started after the army abolition in 1949. Our territory is now about to become virtually occupied by the US military, under the alleged reason of a war against drug dealing and the submissive approval of the Chinchilla administration.  It is obvious that the implications of this tragic decision jeopardize our peace, given the examples of Colombia and Mexico.


The most regrettable is that many Costa Ricans applaud this decision. No doubt, insecurity and fear have permeated Costa Rican society “successfully,” and the images of mutilated bodies and executions have become magnificent propaganda weapons to justify this occupation. So it is not surprising that many “ticos” are willing to sacrifice their sovereignty naively, ignoring that behind this shameful occupation lays a very different war…

We all know that the drug dealing business is immensely sophisticated and permeates all political and social spheres. So, suspiciously enough, neglect of the poor, for example, may also be part of macabre calculations by those in power. The truth is drug dealing has become a “solution” to poverty, in many cases.


So, there are reasons to suspect the so-called war against drug dealing is a farce, at least in countries like Colombia, Panama and now, Costa Rica. To start with, as far as the main market in the First World stays surreptitiously untouched, this war will never end. Therefore, to even think that US military occupation in our countries has something to do with this war is naïve. One thing is the previously agreed upon joint Coast Guard patrols between the US and Costa Rica, and another is the introduction of US military machinery, more adequate for military intervention than for fighting drug dealers.


So, isn’t it possible that the presence of the US military in Costa Rica under the pretext of the “war against drug trafficking” is just hiding another war, a more conventional one, one against those countries and peoples in South America that have dared to disobey and defy the Manifest Destiny?  Just in case, the Costa Rican government has submissively offered, once more, our territory, to ring a bell upon the subverted ones. I just hope us Costa Ricans are able to show more dignity.

Marta Sanchez serves as Global Exchange’s Program Officer in Costa Rica, where she is also a university professor and activist on issues of social justice and human rights. As a sustainable development advocate, Marta had campaigned against the Central American Free Trade Agreement and continues to speak out on issues of environmental justice. She also organized against the June 2009 coup d’etat in Honduras, and as of late, she has been working to increase awareness on the US militarization of Costa Rica.