Resolution - : TO SUPPORT THE DAMAS DE BLANCO FOR THE 2011 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

WHEREAS, LULAC is our nation’s oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organization addressing education, employment and civil rights issues in the United States of America since 1929; and

WHEREAS, The League of United Latin American Citizens works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans from every region looking for freedom and an honest way of life; and

WHEREAS, The Damas de Blanco are Cuban women who claim from the last dictatorship in Latin America the freedom of their spouses, fathers, sons, brother or nephews. The Damas de Blanco are heroic women who with love, dignity and courage are winning the Cuban streets to the cowardice, vileness and hate, like many other women have done under other dictatorships. Like Jose Marti wrote: “The campaigns of the people are weak when they do not enlist the heart of the woman, but when the woman shivers and help, work is invincible.”; and

WHEREAS, every week, the Damas de Blanco dressed in white and with a gladiolus in their hands, continue peacefully protesting the unjust incarceration of their relatives in spite of the harassment and intimidation they are subjected by group of people controlled by the government, and physically abused and arrested by Cuban authorities; and

WHEREAS, the Damas de Blanco’s dedication to human rights has not gone unnoticed as demonstrated by the number of awards and recognition they have received. Among them, in 2005 the Damas de Blanco received the European Parliament highly regarded Sakharov Price; in 2006 the Human Rights First Prize, and in 2010 the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, publicly acknowledged them.; and

WHEREAS, there is now an international effort to gather support to nominate the Damas de Blanco for the 2011 Noble Peace Prize; and the increasing number of supporters including a group of Cuban dissident exiles, several former political prisoners, international personalities such as the singer/song writer, Juanes, and international organizations such as Solidaridad Española con Cuba; and

WHEREAS, nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize can ONLY be made by members of national assemblies, governments of states; members of international courts; university rectors; professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology; directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes; persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; board members of organizations who have who have awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; active and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; and former advisors appointed by the Norwegian Institute; and

WHEREAS, LULAC Civil Rights Council #7115 and its president Victor A. Valdes, LULAC National Civil Rights Commissioner Florida Member are in support of the Damas de Blanco being nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize ; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the League of United Latin American Citizens will continue to fully and actively support the LULAC Assembly to approve this resolution via a press release publicly supporting the nomination to major English and Spanish media and contact individuals and institutions qualified to submit nominations asking them to also nominate the Damas de Blanco for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Including but not limited to; President Jimmy Carter (2002), Rigoberta Menchu Tum (1992), President Oscar Arias Sanchez (1987), President Lech Walesa (1983), Amnesty International (1977), and the European Parliament.

Approved this 17th day of July 2010.

Margaret Moran
LULAC National President