The Latin America Front of the Hands Off Uhuru! Hands Off Africa! Fightback Coalition—under the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party—which leads the Uhuru Movement, condemns the violent and lethal massacre of 19 Filipino youth and activists known as the Negros 19 on April 19, 2026 in Negro Occidental province, and calls for a unified resistance against colonialism worldwide! 

The Communist Party of the Philippines reports that others were slain during this massacre labeling them as “combatants”: 10 New Peoples’ Army, 9 civilians, including human rights activists and two minors. The Hands Off Uhuru Fightback Coalition demands an end to U.S. government attacks on Mexican-Navajo and other Indigenous peoples, Occupied Palestinian people, the Filipino people, African people in Haiti; including President Nicolás Maduro and First Combatant Cilia Flores, and the people of Venezuela, and an end to the blockade on Cuba, the travel bans and the designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. [See Demands]

In this act of state terror, the Philippine military murdered 19 people including Lyle Prijoles and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem, two Filipinos in America—in San Diego, California and Seattle, Washington, respectively.  We send our condolences to the families and loved ones of Comrades Lyle and Kai and all the other martyrs.  We stand in unity with the demands put forward by BAYAN USA:

• Conduct a human rights investigation on the Negros 19 massacre.
• Justice for the Negros 19!
• Stop the killings and attacks on the colonized population!
• Abolish the NTF-ELCAC! Expose the lies of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) which fuels the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
• End U.S.-backed violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Philippines!
• Defend Negros!

The solidarity of the Uhuru Movement with the liberation of the Filipino people goes beyond well-wishing.  It is historically known that it was the initial assault on Africa, 600 years ago that gave rise to the global system of parasitic capitalism, and colonialism as the mode of production.

Named after the Spanish King, Felipe II, the Philippines is a result of colonial conquest and theft from the indigenous peoples as a consequence of imperialist wars between the U.S. and Spain, for control of the land and resources.  We denounce the neocolonial government of the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. regime, who upholds the nearly five centuries of colonial rule, and facilitates state terror and violence, looting of resources and counterinsurgency.  The Negro Occidental province is native to natural resources and mineral deposits, such as copper, gold, silver and mineral molybdenum.  Commonly known as the “Sugar Bowl of the Philippines,” workers produce and reproduce for the global sugar economy.

We denounce U.S. militarism such as RIMPAC, Balikatan and the waste it pollutes onto the environment and food sources of the local indigenous people.  We remember Africans like David Fagan, born in the United States and member of the U.S. Army, who was deployed to the Philippines during 1899, and united with the struggle of the Filipino people to be free.   

As African people, engaged in the struggle against colonialism, we unite with the Filipino people’s struggle for self-determination and national democracy and declare an end to the counterinsurgency campaign put forth by the colonial state to crush, demoralize and neutralize our movements.  From Palestine to Latina America to the Philippines, to Africa, colonized people of the world are standing up. 

Down with colonialism! Hands Off the Philippines! Hands Off Uhuru! Hands Off Africa! 
End RIMPAC!
U.S. Out of the Philippines!  
Justice for the Negros 19!
Luksang Bayan!  
Freedom in our lifetime!
Uhuru!