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Adolfo Perez Esquivel, an Argentine who won the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize urged students and others who gathered to hear his lecture Wednesday afternoon at Stephens Hall in UC Berkeley to be active in seeking alternatives to war. 

“It’s hard to talk about peace when it seems the world is falling apart,” Esquivel said in Spanish with a translator working at his side. 

“Let’s be realists. We should demand the impossible. We have to make possible what seems impossible.” 

Esquivel, who was invited by the Center for Latin America Studies and others, was originally to give a global view of human rights but instead talked about the U.S. attacks against Afghanistan. 

Expressing his solidarity with the United States, Esquivel emphasized theneed to reflect on the causes of this conflict. 

On the same day as the attacks in New York and Washington DC , 35,650 children died of hunger and nutrition.  

“But with that action nobody got upset,” he said. “None of the countries had moved, the [United Nations] didn’t set a resolution, the Pope didn’t say anything. What’s happening in our society, what happening to us human being?” 

Following his own tradition, Esquivel joined other Latin American’s Nobel Laureates earlier this week at a session of meetings with UN officials, including Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the president of the UN assembly Dr. Han Seung-Soo in New York. 

“I woke up in the middle of the night from the sound of helicopters and I was wondering whether I was in Latin America or New York,” he said, referring to the new security measures in New York. 

Esquivel, a sculptor and painter by profession, devoted his life to promoting human rights, peace and justice. The 70-year-old activist became active in Latin America nonviolence movements in the 60s as a member of Christian non-violence movement. In 1974 he founded an ecumenical human rights organization called the Service for Peace and Justice. 

When the Argentine military began a policy of systematic repression in the 1970s Esquivel supported the families of victims and contributed to the formation and strengthening of ties between popular human rights organizations. 

Esquivel paid a high price for his actions. He was detained twice, first by the Brazilian military police and again in 1976 in Ecuador. In 1977, Esquivel was held and tortured at the Buenos Aires Federal police headquarters for 14 months. 

The Nobel Laureates in New York urged UN officials to strengthen the role of the UN in the recent conflict. ”In the work that has been done for the last 50 years, important mechanisms were founded which can be implement also over super powers like the US,” he said. 

The Nobel winners also asked UN officials to call a special session of the general assembly on terrorism. 

“What we need to find is the different kinds of terrorism,” he said. “In Latin America we suffered military dictatorships, wasn’t it terror? But there are other forms of terrorism — market terrorism, economic terrorism. Those 35,650 children who died, what kind of terror are they are victims of? When we look on the silence terrorism of poverty, we have to understand it’s also terrorism.” 

“The U.S. government needs to change its policies to the rest of the world, to other countries,” he said. “Now bin Laden who use to be an ally is enemy number one. He was prepared and trained (by the U.S.) to fight the Soviets. Saddam Hussein was also prepared and trained and equipped to war against Iran, Now number two enemy who used to be number one but was lowered. Noriega in Panama, another creation of the CIA, once the U.S. changed its opinion about him, it started to bomb Panama.” 

According to Esquivel, more than 80,000 Latin American military officers were trained in US camps in Latin America or in the United States. Many later become part of repressive military regimes. 

“Latin America is remilitarizing,” he said, “The US put new bases almost in every country around Latin America. What are they are there for? To protect the interests of the people? No. They are there to protect he economic interests of the States.” 

When asked for proposals for action, Esquivel focused on the need of information.  

“Be sure you have good information, accurate information and spread that around,” he said. “You can join other universities and communities to see how you can join actions. The notion that the war is unavoidable is out there and it doesn’t leave any space to other ideas.”