Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1073, March 27, 2011
1. Mexico: 230,000 Are Displaced by the “Drug War”
2. Colombia: Judicial Workers Strike After Judge’s Murder
3. Honduras: Journalists Attacked in Teachers’ Strike
4. Haiti: Earthquake Victims Remain Homeless
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Mexico: 230,000 Are Displaced by the “Drug War”
Some 115,000 Mexicans fled their homes last year because of drug-related crime, according to a report released on Mar. 23 by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). The Geneva-based group, which was established by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in 1998 at the United Nations’ request, estimated that the total number of people displaced by drug violence in Mexico since 2007 has reached about 230,000. Some 35,000 people have died in fighting among drug gangs and between the gangs and the authorities in the four years since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa militarized the fight against drug traffickers shortly after taking office in December 2006.
The refugees are largely from the northern states of Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, but the violence has also affected residents of Nuevo León, Baja California Norte, Sinaloa and Michoacán. Ciudad Juárez and Valle de Juárez, in Chihuahua near the US border, are the areas that have been hit hardest. According to statistics from local authorities, up to 116,000 houses have been left vacant there, 11,000 businesses have closed and 11,000 students have dropped out of school. Of the 230,000 displaced, about half have moved to the US; the rest are mostly living in Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila and Veracruz.
Colombia was the country with the highest number of displaced people in the world last year--3.6 million to 5.2 million, according to the report. The country has experienced decades of fighting between government troops and leftist guerrillas; more recently, it has undergone a US-backed “war on drugs” similar to Mexico’s. After Colombia, Sudan, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Pakistan had the largest displaced populations. (IDMC press release 3/23/11; Fox News Latino 3/25/11; La Jornada (Mexico) 3/26/11)
As the toll mounted in Mexico, anger continued over Operation Fast and Furious, a US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) program that allowed some 2,000 firearms to enter Mexico illegally in what appeared to be a bungled effort to trace the activities of US gun smugglers in the US Southwest. Many of the weapons presumably ended up being used by Mexican drug traffickers [see Update #1070]. In a Mar. 22 interview with the Spanish-language Univision television network, US president Barack Obama told correspondent Jorge Ramos: “Well, first of all, I did not authorize it. Eric Holder the attorney general did not authorize it. He's been very clear that our policy is to catch gun runners and put them into jail.” Ramos asked Obama if he had been informed. “Absolutely not,” the president answered. “There may be a situation here which a serious mistake was made, and if that's the case, then we'll find out and we’ll hold somebody accountable.”
But a number of top US officials certainly knew about Fast and Furious. Darren Gil, the lead ATF official in Mexico at the time of the operation, said to CBS News on Mar. 25 that his supervisor told him that ATF director Kenneth Melson was aware of the program and that knowledge of the program wasn’t limited to the Treasury Department, which operates the ATF. “Not only is the [ATF] director aware of it, DOJ's aware of it,” the supervisor said, referring to the US Department of Justice.
Gil, who retired from the ATF in December, said he was instructed not to tell his Mexican counterparts about Fast and Furious. Gil says he warned his supervisor: “When is this case going to shut down? The Mexicans are going to have a fit when they find out about it.” (CBS News 3/25/11; LJ 3/26/11)
*2. Colombia: Judicial Workers Strike After Judge’s Murder
Over 41,000 Colombian judicial workers demonstrated at the Paloquemao Judicial Complex in downtown Bogotá on Mar. 25 to protest the murders of judicial officers. The protest was part of a one-day national strike that the National Association of Employees of the Judicial Branch (Asonal Judicial) had called after the murder of Judge Gloria Constanza Gaona. The judged was shot dead on Mar. 22 while on her way to a municipal court in the town of Saravena in the northeastern department of Arauca department.
According to Asonal Judicial, 287 Colombian judicial officers have been murdered over the past 20 years, 750 have been threatened, 42 have been kidnapped, 39 are missing, 39 have been forced into exile and 31 have been forced to relocate. The association’s president, Nelson Cantillo, noted that the murders of judicial officials over the two decades averaged out to one a month.
Judge Gaona was in charge of a case in which army members are suspected of murdering a girl and two of her two brothers last October in Tame municipality in Arauca department. The girl was raped before being killed; another girl was also raped but survived. Sixty members of the army's 5th Mobile Brigade were investigated for the crimes, which took place 254 meters from a military encampment; one of the suspects is an officer, 2nd Lt. Raúl Muñoz Linares. After several delays, the case against Muñoz was suspended on Feb. 23; it was scheduled to resume on Mar. 31. Human rights organizations say the surviving girl’s life is in danger, since she is a key witness, and they are asking for the case to be transferred to Bogotá. Earlier in March the authorities arrested José Antonio Toroca, a Tame community leader who led protests over the crimes against the children; he was charged with “rebellion.” (Colombia Reports 3/22/11, 3/25/11; Adital (Brazil) 3/25/11)
*3. Honduras: Journalists Attacked in Teachers’ Strike
Honduran riot police threw a tear gas canister at journalists Lidieth Díaz and Adolfo Sierra from TV Cholusat Sur (Channel 36) as they were trying to film a protest by striking teachers on Mar. 21 in Tegucigalpa, according to Channel 36 owner Esdras Amado López and other sources. Two other journalists, Radio Gualcho director Sandra Maribel Sánchez and Globo TV camera operator Uriel Rodríguez, also reported being assaulted by the police. “I was filming the military and the police when one of them fired rubber bullets, injuring both of my legs,” Rodríguez said. “Then another group of police rushed at Sandra Maribel Sánchez to take her camera.”
Some 60,000 teachers have been on strike since Mar. 7 over pension issues and in opposition to a decentralization plan that they say will lead to privatization of the schools. An assistant principal, Ilse Ivana (or Ivania) Velásquez Rodríguez, was killed during a demonstration on Mar. 18, apparently struck by a television station’s vehicle in the confusion when police attempted to break up the protest [see Update #1072]. Both Cholusat Sur and Globo TV were shut down at various times in 2009 by the de facto government that took power in June 2009 when a coup removed then-president José Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya Rosales from office. Cholusat Sur reporter Lidieth Díaz was assaulted, along with other reporters, by the Supreme Court chief justice’s bodyguards earlier this year. (Journalism in the Americas blog 3/23/11; Prensa Latina 3/22/11 via Adital (Brazil))
Police repression of the teachers’ demonstrations triggered a debate between ministers at a cabinet meeting on Mar. 22. Justice and Human Rights Minister Ana Pineda said Honduras’ image abroad could be injured by the death of Velásquez Rodríguez and by the aggression against Lidieth Díaz, who was “directly affected by the use of toxic gases while she was carrying out work for her media outlet.” This “weakens our level of credibility which we had obtained with the members of the UN and other human rights forums,” Pineda warned. Security Minister Óscar Álvarez insisted that all the police actions were justified because of the constitutional right to travel; the teachers had been blocking roads. (La Tribuna (Tegucigalpa) 3/23/11; Honduras and Culture blog 3/23/22)
On Mar. 27 President Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo Sosa officially declared the teachers’ strike illegal and announced plans for docking strikers’ pay and suspending or firing teachers that don’t return to work. (Reuters 3/27/11; Vos el Soberano (Honduras) 3/27/11)
*4. Haiti: Earthquake Victims Remain Homeless
The number of displaced Haitians living in camps in the Port-au-Prince area after the destruction of their homes in a January 2010 earthquake has now fallen to about 680,000, according to estimates by the International Organization for Migration (IOM, or OIM in French). In July about 1.5 million people were living in 1,555 camps in the metropolitan area, the IOM reported; the number of camps has come down to 1,061.
But a survey of 1,033 heads of households found that the people who left the camps haven’t necessarily found better shelter: about 50% are still living in inadequate housing. Most are staying in tents in their old neighborhoods, while some are staying with relatives or friends. Others have gone back to their damaged homes, despite the risks involved. An IOM report found that while some people moved out of the camps because they managed to get transitional housing, many left because of forced expulsions, the deterioration of sanitary conditions, the high rate of crime in the camps or the reduction of services there.
Most of the organizations responsible for managing the camps expect to withdraw between April and June, just as the rainy season is starting, due to lack of funds. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 3/24/11) Adding to the problems for Port-au-Prince residents, access to drinking water has become more difficult, the National Potable Water and Sanitation Directorate (DINEPA) reported on Mar. 22, World Water Day. (Radio Métropole (Haiti) 3/25/11) Haiti continues to suffer from a cholera epidemic that began last October; access to clean drinking water is crucial to preventing the spread of the disease.
The nongovernmental Haitian Platform Advocating an Alternative Development (PAPDA) reports that only 30% of the $5 billion that various donor nations promised for 2010 has arrived in the country. The promises of financial aid were made to reinforce control by certain countries and international institutions and to define policies in Haiti, according to PAPDA’s analysis. “It’s clear: nothing has gone forward,” the groups says. “Because of the crisis of capitalism, it’s utopian to believe that they are going to unblock $11 billion to carry out reconstruction…. There is no way this can happen.” PAPDA and other groups are planning a conference on April 28 and 29--entitled ”What Financing for What Reconstruction?”—bringing together national and international experts to develop proposals for internal mechanisms capable of mobilizing internal resources for reconstruction, according to PAPDA program director Ricot Jean Pierre. (AlterPresse 3/25/11)
Correction: The title of the April conference has been corrected.
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
Wikileaks Cables of Interest on Latin America, March 14-20, 2011
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2961-wikileaks-cables-of-interest-on-latin-america-march-14-20-2011
Obama says Latin America ready for new challenges
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7484929.html
Obama in Latin America: Brazilian Ethanol, Washington Bombs and Venezuelan Nukes
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6082
Obama Praises Latin American Growth and Dynamism During Speech In Chile
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/22/obama-praises-latin-american-growth-and-dynamism-during-speech-in-chile/
US signs nuclear development deal with Chile —amid Fukushima disaster
http://ww4report.com/node/9686
Brazil: Libya Attack Sours Obama-Rousseff Meeting
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2966-brazil-libya-attack-sours-obama-rousseff-meeting
Bolivia After the Storm
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4189
Bolivia: Cochabamba Still Thirsty
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2968-bolivia-cochabamba-still-thirsty
Peru national first to be arrested under new UK genocide law
http://ww4report.com/node/9687
100th anniversary of Casement report on Amazon genocide noted (Peru)
http://ww4report.com/node/9688
Paras torch land returned to Afro-Colombians
http://ww4report.com/node/9689
Venezuela "keeps the heat on" in The Bronx
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6091
Obama Pledges Drug-Fighting Assistance to El Salavdor; Ends Latin American Visit Early
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/23/obama-pledges-drug-fighting-assitance-to-el-salavdor-ends-latin-american-visit-early/
Obama in El Salvador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/2964-obama-in-el-salvador
CODEMUH: Women's Resistance in Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2963-codemuh-womens-resistance-in-honduras
Biofuels, Mass Evictions and Violence Build on the Legacy of the 1978 Panzos Massacre in Guatemala
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/2965-biofuels-mass-evictions-and-violence-build-on-the-legacy-of-the-1978-panzos-massacre-in-guatemala-
Solidarity and Rebellion in Chiapas: Reviewing Zapatista Spring
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2969-solidarity-and-rebellion-in-chiapas-reviewing-zapatista-spring
High Noon in Ciudad Juárez?
http://ww4report.com/node/9690
Mexican Media Outlets Set Drug War Reporting Guidelines: Calderón Praises Effort
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/25/mexican-media-outlets-set-drug-war-reporting-guidelines-calderon-praises-effort/
Mexican Women Activists at Risk After Fleeing Death Threats
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2962-mexican-women-activists-at-risk-after-fleeing-death-threats
Cuba Releases Last 2 Dissidents From Group Of 75
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/24/cuba-releases-last-2-dissidents-from-group-of-75/
'Killing Democracy' in Haiti, Canadian-Style
https://nacla.org/node/6926
Former President Aristide on His Party’s Exclusion from Haiti’s Election
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/21/former_president_aristide_on_his_partys
Jean-Bertrand Aristide's return: homecoming or comeback?
http://www.haitisupportgroup.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=472:jean-bertrand-aristides-return-homecoming-or-comeback&catid=99:analysis&Itemid=256
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
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Monday, 28 March 2011
Monday, 21 March 2011
WNU #1072: US Envoy Canned After Mexican “Drug War” Revelations
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1072, March 20, 2011
1. Mexico: US Ambassador Canned After “Drug War” Revelations
2. Haiti: Aristide Returns, Two Killed in “Calm” Vote
3. Honduras: Striking Teacher Dies in Police Attack
4. Puerto Rico: ACLU Calls on US to Probe Abuses
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Central America, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Mexico: US Ambassador Canned After “Drug War” Revelations
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced on Mar. 19 that the US ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, had resigned. Pascual, who has only been at the post for a year and five months, will remain in Mexico to organize an “orderly transition,” Clinton said.
Pascual’s resignation came after a number of embarrassing revelations about US-Mexican relations, starting with the WikiLeaks group’s publication of diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Mexico. Some cables showed US diplomats losing confidence in the militarized “war on drugs” that President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa ordered shortly after taking office in December 2006 [see Update #1059]. Calderón made it clear during a visit to Washington on Mar. 3 this year that he wanted Pascual replaced, but State Department officials said at the time that they had no plans to remove the ambassador. (La Jornada (Mexico) 3/20/11)
In late February US media started reporting that the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) had allowed some 2,000 firearms to enter Mexico illegally in what appeared to be a bungled effort, codenamed Operation Fast and Furious, to trace the activities of US gun smugglers in the US Southwest [see Update #1070].
The embarrassments continued on Mar. 16 when the New York Times revealed that the US had been flying Global Hawk drones—crewless spy planes—over Mexican airspace for about a month to carry out surveillance of suspected drug traffickers. Two days later, on Mar. 18, the Associated Press wire service reported that the US had been sending Predator B drones over Mexico since early in 2009, when US president Barack Obama took office, apparently at a rate of about one flight a week. The Predator flights involve four drones operated by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the Mexico-US border.
The Air Force's $38 million Global Hawk can fly higher than 60,000 feet; the smaller $4 million Predator B drones fly at about 18,000 feet. These are similar to the drones the US uses to kill suspected terrorists in Pakistan but are not armed, according to US sources. (NYT 3/16/11; AP 3/18/11 via Sify news service)
Opposition senators grilled Mexican foreign relations secretary Patricia Espinosa Cantellano about relations with the US for almost four hours in Mexico City on Mar. 17. Espinosa downplayed the importance of the criticism in the leaked cables and said that the drone flights were requested and “controlados”—which in Spanish can mean either “monitored” or “controlled”--by the Mexican government. Senator Pablo Gómez of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) dismissed as “laughable and absolutely incredible” the idea that the US would let a foreign government “have control over” its aircraft. Espinosa said the Mexican government had known about Operation Fast and Furious, but not that illegal weapons had come across the border. Mexican authorities had initially denied knowing anything about the operation. (LJ 3/18/11)
The drone flights violate Article 42 of the Mexican Constitution, according to retired Supreme Court justice Juventino Castro y Castro, who told the left-leaning daily La Jornada that “the US authorities can’t order any administrative or military-type action in Mexico, and in addition, the president of the Republic is the one charged with guarding against this.” (LJ 3/19/11)
Some 35,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related incidents since the start of President Calderón’s drug war. One well-known case involved Josefina Reyes Salazar, an activist living near Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, who was murdered on Jan. 3, 2010; as of this February, five of her relatives have also been murdered [see Update #1071]. According to a diplomatic cable dated Jan. 28, 2010 and released by WikiLeaks, the US embassy shared the view promoted by some Mexican officials that Josefina Reyes Salazar’s murder resulted from connections to drug traffickers, not from her opposition to the drug war policy. In the cable, which isn’t classified but is marked “for official use only,” US embassy deputy chief of mission John Feeley, a former US Marine, wrote that “Reyes was the mother of purported Juárez Cartel hit-man and drug trafficker Miguel Angel ‘El Sapo’ Reyes Salazar” and that “information available to the consulate in Ciudad Juárez suggests that Reyes' murder had more to do with her ties to organized crime than her work with human rights organizations.”
Feeley noted that the Mexican press, the government National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and London-based Amnesty International (IA) had all treated the murder as an attack on human rights activists. On Mar. 15 Alberto Herrera Aragón, executive director of AI in Mexico, said there was no doubt that Reyes Salazar was a human rights activist and that it had not been proven that her son, who is in prison in Tamaulipas, is linked to the Juárez drug cartel. (LJ 3/15/11, 3/16/11)
*2. Haiti: Aristide Returns, Two Killed in “Calm” Vote
Observers said Haiti’s Mar. 20 presidential and legislative runoff elections were relatively calm, at least in comparison to the chaotic first round on Nov. 28 [see Update #1058]. A number of polling places in the capital opened hours late, apparently because the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 13,000-member military and police occupation force, failed to get voting materials to them on time. In some cases voters held spontaneous protests over the delays. There were also a few armed confrontations: two people were killed and three were wounded in electoral disputes, one at Marre Rouge, Northwest department, and the other at Marchand Dessalines, in the North department’s Artibonite region.
There were no official estimates of the turnout, but Guatemalan diplomat Edmond Mulet, who temporarily heads United Nations operations in Haiti, said it was higher than in the first round, and some other observers agreed. Turnout in the first round was just 22.87%, according to official figures [see Update #1060].
The presidential runoff was between two conservatives, Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP) and popular singer Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky,” Peasant Response). At stake in the legislative runoff were 79 of the 99 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and seven of the 27 seats in the Senate. Preliminary results aren’t expected until Mar. 31, with the final results to be announced on Apr. 16. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 3/20/11; Radio France Internationale (3/20/11); AlterPresse (Haiti) 3/20/11, ____)
Former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004) returned to Haiti from exile in South Africa two days before the elections, on Mar. 18, ignoring a US request to wait until after the vote. Thousands of supporters greeted him, and many were still gathered around his house in the Tabarre suburb northeast of the capital as of Mar. 19. In a speech he made shortly after arriving, Aristide said he was planning to devote himself to education. He made no direct reference to the elections, although his call for “inclusion” rather than “exclusion” was generally interpreted as a reference to the exclusion of his party, Lavalas Family (FL) from the ballot. (Agence Haïtienne de Presse (Haiti) 3/18/11)
Although he remains quite popular, it isn’t clear how much influence Aristide will have on the political situation. He has served two terms as president, although both were cut short, and under the 1987 Constitution he cannot run for a third term. “In the current context, he’s not the same person” as he was before his exile, former Port-au-Prince mayor Evans Paul told the AlterPresse internet news service. “He can’t have a personal political agenda… and I doubt he can orient things the way he wants,” said Paul, who was once an ally of Aristide and later a bitter opponent. Paul questioned Aristide’s ability to pull together the FL, which has been divided by struggles between factions [see Update #1052]. (AlterPresse 3/19/11)
*3. Honduras: Striking Teacher Dies in Police Attack
Honduran teacher Ilse Ivana Velásquez Rodríguez died around noon on Mar. 18 in a Tegucigalpa hospital from injuries she received that day when riot police and the special Comando Cobra unit attacked a demonstration of thousands of teachers in front of the National Institute of Teachers’ Social Security (Inprema). Protesters initially said Velásquez was hit in the face by a tear gas grenade and was then run over by a police vehicle. The Spanish wire service EFE later reported that she fell in the confusion when the police attacked and was hit by a vehicle belonging to a local television station; EFE said the driver, Carlos Eduardo Zelaya Ríos, turned himself in to the police that evening.
Deputy National Police Director René Maradiaga Panchamé told the media that the police were investigating the death. Maradiaga Panchamé led a unit in the notorious Battalion 3-16, a death squad active in the 1980s [see Update #1046].
Velásquez was the assistant principal at the República de Argentina school and a founding member of the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH) human rights organization. Her brother, Manfredo Velásquez Rodríguez, was disappeared in the 1980s; her sister, Zenaida Velásquez Rodríguez, is said to have been COFADEH’s first president.
The demonstration come on the third day of a strike by some 60,000 education workers who say 5,000 teachers haven’t been paid in 18 months and that the government of President Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo Sosa hasn’t complied with an agreement Lobo signed on Oct. 1 after a strike over the Inprema pension fund [see Update #1047]. The teachers also oppose a decentralization plan that they say will lead to the privatization of the public schools. Lobo has threatened to replace the strikers with temporary teachers. (National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) website 3/18/11, 3/19/11; Honduras Culture and Politics blog 3/18/11, 3/19/11; EFE 3/19/11 via La Tribuna (Tegucigalpa))
*4. Puerto Rico: ACLU Calls on US to Probe Abuses
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a US civil and human rights organization, wrote the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on Mar. 10 asking the agency to conclude an ongoing investigation of alleged abuses by the Puerto Rican police and to publish its findings. The ACLU said that its Puerto Rican branch has been reporting these allegations to the Justice Department since around May 2008. The letter, signed by ACLU executive director Anthony Romero and addressed to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, follows through on the organization’s decision in February to make the situation in Puerto Rico “a high priority” [see Update #1069].
Abuses cited in the letter include “racially motivated beatings of members of minority communities by police officers; the execution of a man lying on the ground following an argument with a police officer over a traffic violation; the unsolved murder of a man of African-Puerto Rican descent, suspected to be an extrajudicial killing by police officers; the fabrication of drug-related charges against over 100 residents of a housing project in the city of Mayagüez; the violent and inhumane eviction of members of the Villas del Sol squatter community [see Update #1006], including the denial of fresh water to the community for eight months; numerous incidents of abuse of the homeless by police officers.”
“[P]olice abuse has escalated” since the conservative Gov. Luis Fortuño took office in January 2009, Romero says, “and now free expression is under great threat.” As examples, Romero cites the Puerto Rico government’s legal actions against the local bar association and “extreme police brutality” used against protesting students at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), including “torture techniques on immobilized student protesters” and the targeting of young women, who “have also been sexually harassed, groped and touched by police.” An ACLU press release quoted Romero as saying that “the horrific abuses reported to be taking place in Puerto Rico have flown too far under the radar.” (ACLU press release and letter 3/10/11; El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 3/10/11)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Central America, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
Obama To Begin Trip To Latin America Despite Turmoil In Japan And Libya
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/16/obama-to-begin-trip-to-latin-america-despite-turmoil-in-japan-and-libya/
Obama's Latin America Policy: Renewal or Further Decline?
http://www.thenation.com/blog/159256/obamas-latin-america-policy-renewal-or-further-decline?rel=emailNation
Wikileaks Cables of Interest on Latin America, March 7-13, 2011
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2950-wikileaks-cables-of-interest-on-latin-america-march-7-13-2011
Free Trade's Winners and Losers in Latin America
http://www.otherwords.org/articles/free_trades_winners_and_losers_in_latin_america
Argentina: Rural Slavery at Time of Record Earnings
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/2957-argentina-rural-slavery-at-time-of-record-earnings
A Realigned Bolivian Right: New ‘Democratic’ Destabilizations
https://nacla.org/node/6916
Federal judge blocks damages in Chevron Ecuador pollution case
http://ww4report.com/node/9612
RT TV: 'Rigging the System?' Chevron's Latest Legal Tactics in Ecuador Case
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dH4tCLYP7w&feature=player_embedded
Venezuela’s Chavez Halts Nuclear Energy Program following Japan Crisis
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6070
Indigenous Leader Sabino Romero Secures Conditional Release (Venezuela)
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6075
Hip-Hop Lives on in Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/2953-hip-hop-lives-on-in-venezuela
Ban Ki-moon Meets With Central American Leaders To Discuss Regional Security
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/17/ban-ki-moon-meets-with-central-american-leaders-to-discuss-regional-security/
Leaked U.S. Embassy Cables Document Efforts to Counter SOA Watch (Costa Rica)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2952-leaked-us-embassy-cables-document-efforts-to-counter-soa-watch-
Violent Development: Communities Defending Lands and Resources Face Ongoing Repression in Guatemala
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/2959-violent-development-communities-defending-lands-and-resources-face-ongoing-repression-in-guatemala
General Advocates Extrajudicial Killings in Mexico’s Drug War
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4121
Mexican Youth Mobilize to Protest Drug War Violence
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4164
Wikileaks: Electoral Politics Drive Juarez Drug War Strategy
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4125
Electrical Workers Succeed in Pressuring Government to Meet Again; SME Women Roughed up on International Women’s Day (Mexico)
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=185#1260
Women Protest Against "Femicide" and Militarization
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=185#1261
Mexico: Cooperatives Offer an Alternative
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2954-mexico-cooperatives-offer-an-alternative
We Have Everything And Lack Everything: In Mexico, Community Police Resist Mining Companies
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2956-we-have-and-need-everything-in-mexico-community-police-resist-mining-companies
Public Debate on the Shape of Socialism in Cuba
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2951-public-debate-on-the-shape-of-socialism-in-cuba
US Tries to Block Aristide Return, Derail Democracy
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/415
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/*1. Mexico: US Ambassador Canned After “Drug War” Revelations
Issue #1072, March 20, 2011
1. Mexico: US Ambassador Canned After “Drug War” Revelations
2. Haiti: Aristide Returns, Two Killed in “Calm” Vote
3. Honduras: Striking Teacher Dies in Police Attack
4. Puerto Rico: ACLU Calls on US to Probe Abuses
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Central America, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Mexico: US Ambassador Canned After “Drug War” Revelations
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced on Mar. 19 that the US ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual, had resigned. Pascual, who has only been at the post for a year and five months, will remain in Mexico to organize an “orderly transition,” Clinton said.
Pascual’s resignation came after a number of embarrassing revelations about US-Mexican relations, starting with the WikiLeaks group’s publication of diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Mexico. Some cables showed US diplomats losing confidence in the militarized “war on drugs” that President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa ordered shortly after taking office in December 2006 [see Update #1059]. Calderón made it clear during a visit to Washington on Mar. 3 this year that he wanted Pascual replaced, but State Department officials said at the time that they had no plans to remove the ambassador. (La Jornada (Mexico) 3/20/11)
In late February US media started reporting that the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) had allowed some 2,000 firearms to enter Mexico illegally in what appeared to be a bungled effort, codenamed Operation Fast and Furious, to trace the activities of US gun smugglers in the US Southwest [see Update #1070].
The embarrassments continued on Mar. 16 when the New York Times revealed that the US had been flying Global Hawk drones—crewless spy planes—over Mexican airspace for about a month to carry out surveillance of suspected drug traffickers. Two days later, on Mar. 18, the Associated Press wire service reported that the US had been sending Predator B drones over Mexico since early in 2009, when US president Barack Obama took office, apparently at a rate of about one flight a week. The Predator flights involve four drones operated by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the Mexico-US border.
The Air Force's $38 million Global Hawk can fly higher than 60,000 feet; the smaller $4 million Predator B drones fly at about 18,000 feet. These are similar to the drones the US uses to kill suspected terrorists in Pakistan but are not armed, according to US sources. (NYT 3/16/11; AP 3/18/11 via Sify news service)
Opposition senators grilled Mexican foreign relations secretary Patricia Espinosa Cantellano about relations with the US for almost four hours in Mexico City on Mar. 17. Espinosa downplayed the importance of the criticism in the leaked cables and said that the drone flights were requested and “controlados”—which in Spanish can mean either “monitored” or “controlled”--by the Mexican government. Senator Pablo Gómez of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) dismissed as “laughable and absolutely incredible” the idea that the US would let a foreign government “have control over” its aircraft. Espinosa said the Mexican government had known about Operation Fast and Furious, but not that illegal weapons had come across the border. Mexican authorities had initially denied knowing anything about the operation. (LJ 3/18/11)
The drone flights violate Article 42 of the Mexican Constitution, according to retired Supreme Court justice Juventino Castro y Castro, who told the left-leaning daily La Jornada that “the US authorities can’t order any administrative or military-type action in Mexico, and in addition, the president of the Republic is the one charged with guarding against this.” (LJ 3/19/11)
Some 35,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related incidents since the start of President Calderón’s drug war. One well-known case involved Josefina Reyes Salazar, an activist living near Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, who was murdered on Jan. 3, 2010; as of this February, five of her relatives have also been murdered [see Update #1071]. According to a diplomatic cable dated Jan. 28, 2010 and released by WikiLeaks, the US embassy shared the view promoted by some Mexican officials that Josefina Reyes Salazar’s murder resulted from connections to drug traffickers, not from her opposition to the drug war policy. In the cable, which isn’t classified but is marked “for official use only,” US embassy deputy chief of mission John Feeley, a former US Marine, wrote that “Reyes was the mother of purported Juárez Cartel hit-man and drug trafficker Miguel Angel ‘El Sapo’ Reyes Salazar” and that “information available to the consulate in Ciudad Juárez suggests that Reyes' murder had more to do with her ties to organized crime than her work with human rights organizations.”
Feeley noted that the Mexican press, the government National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and London-based Amnesty International (IA) had all treated the murder as an attack on human rights activists. On Mar. 15 Alberto Herrera Aragón, executive director of AI in Mexico, said there was no doubt that Reyes Salazar was a human rights activist and that it had not been proven that her son, who is in prison in Tamaulipas, is linked to the Juárez drug cartel. (LJ 3/15/11, 3/16/11)
*2. Haiti: Aristide Returns, Two Killed in “Calm” Vote
Observers said Haiti’s Mar. 20 presidential and legislative runoff elections were relatively calm, at least in comparison to the chaotic first round on Nov. 28 [see Update #1058]. A number of polling places in the capital opened hours late, apparently because the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 13,000-member military and police occupation force, failed to get voting materials to them on time. In some cases voters held spontaneous protests over the delays. There were also a few armed confrontations: two people were killed and three were wounded in electoral disputes, one at Marre Rouge, Northwest department, and the other at Marchand Dessalines, in the North department’s Artibonite region.
There were no official estimates of the turnout, but Guatemalan diplomat Edmond Mulet, who temporarily heads United Nations operations in Haiti, said it was higher than in the first round, and some other observers agreed. Turnout in the first round was just 22.87%, according to official figures [see Update #1060].
The presidential runoff was between two conservatives, Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP) and popular singer Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky,” Peasant Response). At stake in the legislative runoff were 79 of the 99 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and seven of the 27 seats in the Senate. Preliminary results aren’t expected until Mar. 31, with the final results to be announced on Apr. 16. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 3/20/11; Radio France Internationale (3/20/11); AlterPresse (Haiti) 3/20/11, ____)
Former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004) returned to Haiti from exile in South Africa two days before the elections, on Mar. 18, ignoring a US request to wait until after the vote. Thousands of supporters greeted him, and many were still gathered around his house in the Tabarre suburb northeast of the capital as of Mar. 19. In a speech he made shortly after arriving, Aristide said he was planning to devote himself to education. He made no direct reference to the elections, although his call for “inclusion” rather than “exclusion” was generally interpreted as a reference to the exclusion of his party, Lavalas Family (FL) from the ballot. (Agence Haïtienne de Presse (Haiti) 3/18/11)
Although he remains quite popular, it isn’t clear how much influence Aristide will have on the political situation. He has served two terms as president, although both were cut short, and under the 1987 Constitution he cannot run for a third term. “In the current context, he’s not the same person” as he was before his exile, former Port-au-Prince mayor Evans Paul told the AlterPresse internet news service. “He can’t have a personal political agenda… and I doubt he can orient things the way he wants,” said Paul, who was once an ally of Aristide and later a bitter opponent. Paul questioned Aristide’s ability to pull together the FL, which has been divided by struggles between factions [see Update #1052]. (AlterPresse 3/19/11)
*3. Honduras: Striking Teacher Dies in Police Attack
Honduran teacher Ilse Ivana Velásquez Rodríguez died around noon on Mar. 18 in a Tegucigalpa hospital from injuries she received that day when riot police and the special Comando Cobra unit attacked a demonstration of thousands of teachers in front of the National Institute of Teachers’ Social Security (Inprema). Protesters initially said Velásquez was hit in the face by a tear gas grenade and was then run over by a police vehicle. The Spanish wire service EFE later reported that she fell in the confusion when the police attacked and was hit by a vehicle belonging to a local television station; EFE said the driver, Carlos Eduardo Zelaya Ríos, turned himself in to the police that evening.
Deputy National Police Director René Maradiaga Panchamé told the media that the police were investigating the death. Maradiaga Panchamé led a unit in the notorious Battalion 3-16, a death squad active in the 1980s [see Update #1046].
Velásquez was the assistant principal at the República de Argentina school and a founding member of the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH) human rights organization. Her brother, Manfredo Velásquez Rodríguez, was disappeared in the 1980s; her sister, Zenaida Velásquez Rodríguez, is said to have been COFADEH’s first president.
The demonstration come on the third day of a strike by some 60,000 education workers who say 5,000 teachers haven’t been paid in 18 months and that the government of President Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo Sosa hasn’t complied with an agreement Lobo signed on Oct. 1 after a strike over the Inprema pension fund [see Update #1047]. The teachers also oppose a decentralization plan that they say will lead to the privatization of the public schools. Lobo has threatened to replace the strikers with temporary teachers. (National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) website 3/18/11, 3/19/11; Honduras Culture and Politics blog 3/18/11, 3/19/11; EFE 3/19/11 via La Tribuna (Tegucigalpa))
*4. Puerto Rico: ACLU Calls on US to Probe Abuses
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a US civil and human rights organization, wrote the US Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division on Mar. 10 asking the agency to conclude an ongoing investigation of alleged abuses by the Puerto Rican police and to publish its findings. The ACLU said that its Puerto Rican branch has been reporting these allegations to the Justice Department since around May 2008. The letter, signed by ACLU executive director Anthony Romero and addressed to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, follows through on the organization’s decision in February to make the situation in Puerto Rico “a high priority” [see Update #1069].
Abuses cited in the letter include “racially motivated beatings of members of minority communities by police officers; the execution of a man lying on the ground following an argument with a police officer over a traffic violation; the unsolved murder of a man of African-Puerto Rican descent, suspected to be an extrajudicial killing by police officers; the fabrication of drug-related charges against over 100 residents of a housing project in the city of Mayagüez; the violent and inhumane eviction of members of the Villas del Sol squatter community [see Update #1006], including the denial of fresh water to the community for eight months; numerous incidents of abuse of the homeless by police officers.”
“[P]olice abuse has escalated” since the conservative Gov. Luis Fortuño took office in January 2009, Romero says, “and now free expression is under great threat.” As examples, Romero cites the Puerto Rico government’s legal actions against the local bar association and “extreme police brutality” used against protesting students at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), including “torture techniques on immobilized student protesters” and the targeting of young women, who “have also been sexually harassed, groped and touched by police.” An ACLU press release quoted Romero as saying that “the horrific abuses reported to be taking place in Puerto Rico have flown too far under the radar.” (ACLU press release and letter 3/10/11; El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 3/10/11)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Central America, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
Obama To Begin Trip To Latin America Despite Turmoil In Japan And Libya
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/16/obama-to-begin-trip-to-latin-america-despite-turmoil-in-japan-and-libya/
Obama's Latin America Policy: Renewal or Further Decline?
http://www.thenation.com/blog/159256/obamas-latin-america-policy-renewal-or-further-decline?rel=emailNation
Wikileaks Cables of Interest on Latin America, March 7-13, 2011
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2950-wikileaks-cables-of-interest-on-latin-america-march-7-13-2011
Free Trade's Winners and Losers in Latin America
http://www.otherwords.org/articles/free_trades_winners_and_losers_in_latin_america
Argentina: Rural Slavery at Time of Record Earnings
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/2957-argentina-rural-slavery-at-time-of-record-earnings
A Realigned Bolivian Right: New ‘Democratic’ Destabilizations
https://nacla.org/node/6916
Federal judge blocks damages in Chevron Ecuador pollution case
http://ww4report.com/node/9612
RT TV: 'Rigging the System?' Chevron's Latest Legal Tactics in Ecuador Case
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dH4tCLYP7w&feature=player_embedded
Venezuela’s Chavez Halts Nuclear Energy Program following Japan Crisis
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6070
Indigenous Leader Sabino Romero Secures Conditional Release (Venezuela)
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6075
Hip-Hop Lives on in Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/2953-hip-hop-lives-on-in-venezuela
Ban Ki-moon Meets With Central American Leaders To Discuss Regional Security
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/17/ban-ki-moon-meets-with-central-american-leaders-to-discuss-regional-security/
Leaked U.S. Embassy Cables Document Efforts to Counter SOA Watch (Costa Rica)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2952-leaked-us-embassy-cables-document-efforts-to-counter-soa-watch-
Violent Development: Communities Defending Lands and Resources Face Ongoing Repression in Guatemala
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/2959-violent-development-communities-defending-lands-and-resources-face-ongoing-repression-in-guatemala
General Advocates Extrajudicial Killings in Mexico’s Drug War
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4121
Mexican Youth Mobilize to Protest Drug War Violence
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4164
Wikileaks: Electoral Politics Drive Juarez Drug War Strategy
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4125
Electrical Workers Succeed in Pressuring Government to Meet Again; SME Women Roughed up on International Women’s Day (Mexico)
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=185#1260
Women Protest Against "Femicide" and Militarization
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=185#1261
Mexico: Cooperatives Offer an Alternative
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2954-mexico-cooperatives-offer-an-alternative
We Have Everything And Lack Everything: In Mexico, Community Police Resist Mining Companies
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2956-we-have-and-need-everything-in-mexico-community-police-resist-mining-companies
Public Debate on the Shape of Socialism in Cuba
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2951-public-debate-on-the-shape-of-socialism-in-cuba
US Tries to Block Aristide Return, Derail Democracy
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/415
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/*1. Mexico: US Ambassador Canned After “Drug War” Revelations
Friday, 18 March 2011
Panels on the Americas at Left Forum in New York City, Mar. 18-20, 2011
If you are able to attend the Left Forum conference in New York City this weekend, you might be interested in these panels dealing with Latin America and the Caribbean or related subjects. Where the connection might not be clear, I added the name of a country in parentheses. If I missed any panels, please tell me.
For more information on the Left Forum go to:
http://www.leftforum.org/
David Wilson/Weekly News Update on the Americas
==================
SATURDAY, March 19
==================
======================
12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
======================
U.S. Imperialist Wars, Political Prisoners, Past & Present and the Anti-War Struggle (Puerto Rico)
E. Panel Session 2—Saturday 12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m., W511
Anne Lamb—NYC Chapter of the Jericho Movement for Recognition & Amnesty for US Political Prisoners
Matthis Chiroux—Disobedient
Pam Africa—Free Mumia Coalition, MOVE
Ralph K. Poynter—Lynne Stewart Defense Committee, New Abolitionist Movement, Green Party
Ralph Schoenman—Take Back WBAI
Ramsey Clark—Former Attorney General of the US
Suzanne Ross—Free Mumia Coalition
=====================
3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.
=====================
Against Capitalism and Imperialism (Haiti)
G. Panel Session 3—Saturday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W504
Mario Kawonabo—Batay Ouvriye Solidarity Network
Stephanie McMillan—One Struggle South Florida
Ted Rall—Anti-American Manifesto
Latin America after the Neoliberal Debacle
G. Panel Session 3—Saturday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W605
Sponsored by: Critical Sociology
Jim Russell—Eastern Connecticut State University
Jose Keppis—New School for Social Research, NY
Ricardo Dello Buono—Manhattan College
Ximena de la Barra—South American Dialogue
Puerto Rico: Colonialism & the Struggle Against the Privatization of Education
G. Panel Session 3—Saturday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W616
Sponsored by: Puerto Rico Solidarity Network
Ateo Laureano Peruyero—Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Ian Camilo Cintrón Moya—Union de Juventud Socialista, University of PR Student Leader
Normahiram Pérez—Puerto Rico Solidarity Network
Pedro Colon Almenas—Puerto Rico Solidarity Network
The Betrayal of Haiti
G. Panel Session 3—Saturday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W615
Sponsored by: Haiti Liberte and The International Socialist Review
Ashley Smith—International Socialist Review, UNAC
Edna Bonhomme—International Socialist Organization,
Kim Ives—Haiti Liberte
Ray Laforest—Union organizer
Roger Leduc—Haitian Coalition to Support the Struggle KAKOLA
University of London–Goldsmiths
The role of Brazil in Geopolitics Today
G. Panel Session 3—Saturday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W606
Ana Garcia—International Relations Institute -PUC-Rio, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
Karina Kato—Institute for Public Policies in the South Cone
Maria Luisa Mendonça—University of São Paulo, Network for Social Justice and Human Rights
Matio Murillo—Hofstra University
=====================
5:00 p.m. – 6:50 p.m.
=====================
Free Puerto Rican Political Prisoners
H. Panel Session 4—Saturday 5:00 p.m. – 6:50 p.m, W621
Anthony Martinez—Intikana, Hip Hop artist/poet
Benjamin Ramos—Pro-Libertad
Graciano Matos—National Boricua Human Rights Network-NY chapter
Professor Ana M. Lopez—Humanities, Hostos Community College
Ricardo Jimenez—Chicago National Boricua Human Rights Network
================
SUNDAY, March 20
================
=======================
10:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.
=======================
Puerto Rico Can't Wait to be Free
L. Panel Session 5—Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m., W621
Antonio Cruz Colon—Puerto Rico Nationalist Party
Julio Rosado Ayala
Professor Ana M. Lopez—Humanities, Hostos Community College
Ricardo Jimenez—National Boricua Human Rights Network
Richard Lopez Rodriguez—Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance Movement
E330, L. Panel Session 5—Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.
Alfredo Lopez—OFRANEH, the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras
Annie Bird—Rights Action
Laura Raymond—Center for Constitutional Rights
Venezuela and the Chavez Government: Advances and Shortcomings
L. Panel Session 5—Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m., LHS
Sponsored by: VenezuelAnalysis.com
Dario Azzellini—Johannes Kepler Universität, Austria
Isabel Delgado—Ministry of Basic Industries and Mines, Venezuela
Mark Weisbrot—Center for Economic and Policy Research
Steve Ellner—Universidad del Oriente
T.M. Scruggs - University of Iowa / Independent Scholar
======================
12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
======================
Cuba Update
M. Panel Session 6—Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m., W621
Sponsored by: Socialism and Democracy
Hobart Spalding—Left Forum
Keith Bolender—Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA); University of Toronto
Leonard Weinglass—Attorney
N. Michel Hernández Valdés-Portela—Hostos Community College
Peter Roman—Hostos Community College, CUNY Graduate Center; Socialism and Democracy
Helping Haiti rebuild with dignity, sovereignty and justice
M. Panel Session 6—Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m., W609
Alexander Main—Center for Economic and Policy Research
Manolia Charlotin—co-founder of Haiti 2015
Mark Schuller—York College (CUNY)
Mark Weisbrot—Center for Economic and Policy Research
Theon Gruber—Graduate Fellow at TransAfrica Forum
Power and Politics in Latin America
E311, M. Panel Session 6—Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
Sponsored by: Socialism & Democracy / Brecht Forum
Carlos M. Vilas—Sociology, Universidad Nacional de Lanus, Argentina
Emelio Betances—Sociology, Gettysburg College
Gerardo Renique—Socialism and Democracy/Brecht Forum
Gregory Wilpert—Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Venezuela Analysis
Marc Becker—Professor of History, Truman State University, Missouri
Maria Luisa Mendonca—Journalist and Coordinator, Network of Social Justice & Human Rights, Brazil
The Resistance Dilemma in Latin America: Relationships Between Social Movements and States
E329, M. Panel Session 6—Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
Sponsored by: Toward Freedom
Adrienne Pine—American University
April Howard—Upside Down World
Ben Dangl—Toward Freedom
Gabriela Uassouf—School of the Americas Watch
Marina Sitrin—Writer, Lawyer, Teacher
=====================
3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.
=====================
Pass the Dream Act: How the student immigrant youth is leading the immigration debate
O. Panel Session 7—Sunday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W621
Kiran Sangwan–National Immigrant Youth Alliance, Education Not Deportation (END)
Monica Novoa–ARC/Colorlines - Drop the I-Word Campaign Coordinator
Sonia Guinansaca—New York State Youth Leadership Council, Hunter College
Tania Mattos—New York State Youth Leadership Council
For more information on the Left Forum go to:
http://www.leftforum.org/
David Wilson/Weekly News Update on the Americas
==================
SATURDAY, March 19
==================
======================
12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
======================
U.S. Imperialist Wars, Political Prisoners, Past & Present and the Anti-War Struggle (Puerto Rico)
E. Panel Session 2—Saturday 12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m., W511
Anne Lamb—NYC Chapter of the Jericho Movement for Recognition & Amnesty for US Political Prisoners
Matthis Chiroux—Disobedient
Pam Africa—Free Mumia Coalition, MOVE
Ralph K. Poynter—Lynne Stewart Defense Committee, New Abolitionist Movement, Green Party
Ralph Schoenman—Take Back WBAI
Ramsey Clark—Former Attorney General of the US
Suzanne Ross—Free Mumia Coalition
=====================
3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.
=====================
Against Capitalism and Imperialism (Haiti)
G. Panel Session 3—Saturday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W504
Mario Kawonabo—Batay Ouvriye Solidarity Network
Stephanie McMillan—One Struggle South Florida
Ted Rall—Anti-American Manifesto
Latin America after the Neoliberal Debacle
G. Panel Session 3—Saturday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W605
Sponsored by: Critical Sociology
Jim Russell—Eastern Connecticut State University
Jose Keppis—New School for Social Research, NY
Ricardo Dello Buono—Manhattan College
Ximena de la Barra—South American Dialogue
Puerto Rico: Colonialism & the Struggle Against the Privatization of Education
G. Panel Session 3—Saturday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W616
Sponsored by: Puerto Rico Solidarity Network
Ateo Laureano Peruyero—Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Ian Camilo Cintrón Moya—Union de Juventud Socialista, University of PR Student Leader
Normahiram Pérez—Puerto Rico Solidarity Network
Pedro Colon Almenas—Puerto Rico Solidarity Network
The Betrayal of Haiti
G. Panel Session 3—Saturday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W615
Sponsored by: Haiti Liberte and The International Socialist Review
Ashley Smith—International Socialist Review, UNAC
Edna Bonhomme—International Socialist Organization,
Kim Ives—Haiti Liberte
Ray Laforest—Union organizer
Roger Leduc—Haitian Coalition to Support the Struggle KAKOLA
University of London–Goldsmiths
The role of Brazil in Geopolitics Today
G. Panel Session 3—Saturday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W606
Ana Garcia—International Relations Institute -PUC-Rio, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
Karina Kato—Institute for Public Policies in the South Cone
Maria Luisa Mendonça—University of São Paulo, Network for Social Justice and Human Rights
Matio Murillo—Hofstra University
=====================
5:00 p.m. – 6:50 p.m.
=====================
Free Puerto Rican Political Prisoners
H. Panel Session 4—Saturday 5:00 p.m. – 6:50 p.m, W621
Anthony Martinez—Intikana, Hip Hop artist/poet
Benjamin Ramos—Pro-Libertad
Graciano Matos—National Boricua Human Rights Network-NY chapter
Professor Ana M. Lopez—Humanities, Hostos Community College
Ricardo Jimenez—Chicago National Boricua Human Rights Network
================
SUNDAY, March 20
================
=======================
10:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.
=======================
Puerto Rico Can't Wait to be Free
L. Panel Session 5—Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m., W621
Antonio Cruz Colon—Puerto Rico Nationalist Party
Julio Rosado Ayala
Professor Ana M. Lopez—Humanities, Hostos Community College
Ricardo Jimenez—National Boricua Human Rights Network
Richard Lopez Rodriguez—Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Solidarity with the Honduran Resistance Movement
E330, L. Panel Session 5—Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.
Alfredo Lopez—OFRANEH, the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras
Annie Bird—Rights Action
Laura Raymond—Center for Constitutional Rights
Venezuela and the Chavez Government: Advances and Shortcomings
L. Panel Session 5—Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m., LHS
Sponsored by: VenezuelAnalysis.com
Dario Azzellini—Johannes Kepler Universität, Austria
Isabel Delgado—Ministry of Basic Industries and Mines, Venezuela
Mark Weisbrot—Center for Economic and Policy Research
Steve Ellner—Universidad del Oriente
T.M. Scruggs - University of Iowa / Independent Scholar
======================
12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
======================
Cuba Update
M. Panel Session 6—Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m., W621
Sponsored by: Socialism and Democracy
Hobart Spalding—Left Forum
Keith Bolender—Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA); University of Toronto
Leonard Weinglass—Attorney
N. Michel Hernández Valdés-Portela—Hostos Community College
Peter Roman—Hostos Community College, CUNY Graduate Center; Socialism and Democracy
Helping Haiti rebuild with dignity, sovereignty and justice
M. Panel Session 6—Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m., W609
Alexander Main—Center for Economic and Policy Research
Manolia Charlotin—co-founder of Haiti 2015
Mark Schuller—York College (CUNY)
Mark Weisbrot—Center for Economic and Policy Research
Theon Gruber—Graduate Fellow at TransAfrica Forum
Power and Politics in Latin America
E311, M. Panel Session 6—Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
Sponsored by: Socialism & Democracy / Brecht Forum
Carlos M. Vilas—Sociology, Universidad Nacional de Lanus, Argentina
Emelio Betances—Sociology, Gettysburg College
Gerardo Renique—Socialism and Democracy/Brecht Forum
Gregory Wilpert—Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Venezuela Analysis
Marc Becker—Professor of History, Truman State University, Missouri
Maria Luisa Mendonca—Journalist and Coordinator, Network of Social Justice & Human Rights, Brazil
The Resistance Dilemma in Latin America: Relationships Between Social Movements and States
E329, M. Panel Session 6—Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m.
Sponsored by: Toward Freedom
Adrienne Pine—American University
April Howard—Upside Down World
Ben Dangl—Toward Freedom
Gabriela Uassouf—School of the Americas Watch
Marina Sitrin—Writer, Lawyer, Teacher
=====================
3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m.
=====================
Pass the Dream Act: How the student immigrant youth is leading the immigration debate
O. Panel Session 7—Sunday 3:00 p.m. – 4:50 p.m., W621
Kiran Sangwan–National Immigrant Youth Alliance, Education Not Deportation (END)
Monica Novoa–ARC/Colorlines - Drop the I-Word Campaign Coordinator
Sonia Guinansaca—New York State Youth Leadership Council, Hunter College
Tania Mattos—New York State Youth Leadership Council
Monday, 14 March 2011
WNU #1071: Women Protest Violence and Discrimination
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1071, March 13, 2011
1. South America: Women’s Day Events Focus on Violence, Poverty
2. Central America: Women Protest Rise in Femicides
3. Mexico: Demos Target Murders of Women Activists
4. Caribbean: Cuban Women Dance, Dominicans March Backwards
5. Puerto Rico: Students’ Aggression Clouds Women’s Day Events
6. Argentina: Mapuche Win One, Lose One in Land Disputes
7. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. South America: Women’s Day Events Focus on Violence, Poverty
South Americans celebrated International Women’s Day on Mar. 8, the holiday’s 100th anniversary, with actions calling attention to the murders of women, along with other forms of violence against women and failures by the region’s governments to provide security from these crimes.
In Argentina, unions and social and human rights organizations held marches in the main cities to demand an end to violence against women; some also called for approval of a law decriminalizing abortion. Meeting House (Casa del Encuentro), a women’s support organization, scheduled a sit-in in front of the National Congress with the slogan “No one listened to them,” referring to women who report family violence of which they are victims but are ignored by the police. “We’re witnessing alarming numbers of women being burned by their partners,” Leonor Arrigo, the director of the Abused Woman’s Aid Center, said on local radio stations. Women’s organizations have recorded 50 cases of gender-based violence so far this year, according to Arrigo, but she noted that the lack of reliable official statistics on this sort of violence forces nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to depend on accounts in the media.
Dilma Rousseff, the first woman to be president of Brazil, marked the day with a message calling the “elimination of gender discrimination and the valuing of women and girls...indispensable strategies for bringing about the struggle against poverty.” “In Brazil poverty has a face—it is feminine,” she explained. Rousseff has called the eradication of poverty the “fundamental” objective of her administration. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru); La Raza (Chicago) 3/9/11 from EFE)
Some 70 Peruvian organizations held a sit-in in front of the Judicial Branch in Lima and delivered a letter to its president, César San Martín, demanding that justice be accessible to women who are victims of violence. According to the Judicial Branch, at least 123 women were murdered by their partners or ex-partners in 2010. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru)) In Ayacucho, capital of the southern province of Huamanga, dozens of women from the National Association of Relatives of the Kidnapped, Detained and Disappeared of Peru (Anfasep) marched through the main streets with signs referring to the political violence of the 1980s and the failure of the government to pay attention to the victims. Protester Mercedes Gutiérrez Ochoa’s two children disappeared in 1983. “Maybe my children are alive,” she said. “At least I’d be resigned if I could bury their bodies, but now I know nothing.” She said she’d come from Arizona community in Vinchos. “I got soaked by the rain, but I have to come to make my voice heard,” she said. (Correo Perú 3/9/11)
The United Nations agency for women, UN Women, opened its office for Colombia on Mar. 8 in Bogotá. Local director Margarita Bueso said women are “without doubt the ones most hurt” by the country’s armed conflict. Guests for the opening reception included women in the government of rightwing president Juan Manuel Santos--Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín, Attorney General Viviane Morales and others--and the director of the Women for Peace Initiative (IMP), Angela Cerón. Created last July, UN Women is headed by former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru); Radio Santa Fe (Bogotá) 3/8/11)
International Women’s Day coincided with traditional Carnaval (Mardi Gras) celebrations on the last day before Lent. In Venezuela, a group of women participated in a Carnaval parade in a float celebrating the women heroes of the country’s struggle for independence. The government of President Hugo Chávez reportedly promoted this activity. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru))
*2. Central America: Women Protest Rise in Femicides
Central America is said to have the highest rate of femicides—misogynist murders—in Latin America, and many women’s rights organizations marked International Women’s Day on Mar. 8 with street protests demanding that the region’s governments take measures to stop the killings.
In Nicaragua, hundreds of women participated in a cultural event in which they defended their right to live free of violence and called for more opportunities to win public offices. Elections for the presidency and the National Assembly are scheduled for Nov. 6.
Various Salvadoran organizations demonstrated in El Salvador in favor of a gender equality law that would guarantee the dignity of women.
Dozens of Honduran women demonstrated on Mar. 7, the day before International Women’s Day, carrying candles in memory of murdered women and charging that “the crimes remain in the most absolute impunity.” The conservative government’s National Human Rights Commission (Conadeh) reported that the number of violent deaths continues to rise, reaching 343 in 2010, with at least 60 so far this year.
In Guatemala thousands of women marched through Guatemala City’s historic center to demand greater political participation and an end to impunity for violence against women. According to human rights organizations, there are an average of two murders of women every day in Guatemala, with at least 700 in 2010. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru))
*3. Mexico: Demos Target Murders of Women Activists
Mexican social organizations and human rights groups carried out actions in at least eight states on Mar. 8, International Women’s Day, to demand that the authorities end the murders of women, categorize femicide as a special crime, and pay attention to women’s demands.
Much of the focus was on the recent murders of women activists in the northern state of Chihuahua. Dozens of people marched outside the state prosecutor’s local office in Ciudad Juárez to demand action on the murders of Juárez-based activists, including Marisela Escobedo, six members of the Reyes Salazar family and Susana Chávez, a poet and activist who was strangled on Jan. 5. Demonstrators also demanded investigations of the disappearances of many area women, such as Silvia Arce, who was reportedly taken away by ex-federal judicial police agents 13 years ago [see Updates #1061, 1067, 1069]. So far this year, 87 women have been killed in the state, 57 of them in Juárez.
The center-left government of the Federal District (DF, Mexico City) is currently providing police protection and medical and psychological services for 12 members of the Reyes Salazar family. Violence against the family started after activist Josefina Reyes Salazar began denouncing the federal government’s militarized “war against drugs,” including the arrest of one of her sons. The family is in Mexico City while it considers seeking political asylum in another country.
In Nuevo León, another northern state suffering from “drug war” violence, dozens of activists demonstrated in front of the state government building in Monterrey calling for an end to the murders of women and for respect for gender equality. They lit candles in memory of murdered women and carried three crosses spelling out the slogan: “Not one more.”
Some 5,000 people demonstrated and blocked four highways in the largely indigenous southeastern state of Chiapas to protest violence against women. The actions took place in 15 municipalities, including San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chenalhó, Ixtapa, Pueblo Nuevo, Frontera Comalapa and Ocosingo. Some 500 women from the Civil Society Organization Las Abejas (“The Bees”), marched 3 km from Majomut community, Chenalhó, to protest at a military base. Soldiers blocked the way when the women tried to enter the base to pray. The 45 indigenous people massacred in Acteal on Dec. 22, 1997, were members of the organization [see Update #427].
In the southern state of Oaxaca, teachers from the militant Section 22 of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) suspended classes and marched through the state capital, Oaxaca city, for a rally; organizers said there were 40,000 people at the demonstration, while state police put attendance at 20,000. (La Jornada (Mexico) 3/8/11, 3/9/11)
Also on Mar. 8, women’s rights activists said they were taking seriously an announcement by Humberto Moreira Valdés, president of the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), that he would hold a consultation to establish his party’s position on abortion. Currently abortion is legal only in the DF, while 16 states have toughened their anti-abortion laws recently, often with the votes of PRI legislators [see Update #1047]. Both Moreira and former PRI president Beatriz Paredes have said they support a woman’s right to choose. (LJ 3/9/11)
*4. Caribbean: Cuban Women Dance, Dominicans March Backwards
The National Ballet of Cuba, under the direction of the renowned Alicia Alonso, marked International Women’s Day with a special performance on the evening of Mar. 7, honoring women heroes of the 1959 Revolution, including the late Vilma Espín, wife of current president Raúl Castro. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru))
In Santo Domingo a group of Dominican women dressed in black celebrated Mar. 8 with a backwards march. Women are “those most affected by the great evils the country is experiencing,” organizers said, “since they are the ones who do the most purchasing, who suffer the most from the blackouts in the home, the lack of employment, the lack of security, among many other evils.” With signs reading “Today women are in mourning,” “No to corruption in the government,” “No to the high cost of food,” “No to the blackouts,” the women walked backwards to the music of “The Bus Is in Reverse,” a song by Dominican singer Juan Luis Guerra. The protest was organized by the women of the Democratic Institutional Party (PDI), which appears be a spit-off from the social democratic Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). (La Raza (Chicago) 3/9/11 from EFE)
Correction: This paragraph originally gave an incorrect acronym for the Democratic Institutional Party.
*5. Puerto Rico: Students’ Aggression Clouds Women’s Day Events
A coalition of Puerto Rican feminist organizations held a march in San Juan on Mar. 8, International Women’s Day, from the Labor Department building to the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), the site of months of student protests against an $800 tuition surcharge [see Update #1068]. The marchers held a rally when they reached the campus, with an artistic presentation and various speeches. Adriana Mulero, a leader in the student protests, charged that conservative governor Luis Fortuño had worked against women’s rights with his austerity program, which she had left many women heads of households without jobs. She also dismissed “Man’s Promise,” a program Fortuño has promoted as a way to end domestic violence, as reinforcing male stereotypes.
Mulero was questioned about an incident the day before in which a group of student protesters disrupted a meeting UPR rector Ana Guadalupe was attending at the Architecture School and physically attacked Guadalupe and the dozen campus guards accompanying her. Mulero said this was not the time to discuss the incident. However, other speakers denounced the students’ actions.
On the day of the attack, the Student Representative Committee (CRE), which has led the protests against the surcharge, qualified the attitude of the students involved as “reactionary,” although the CRE said the campus guards had partly provoked the violence. (El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 3/8/11; NCM 3/9/11 via Puerto Rico Indymedia)
Supporters of the student protesters held a World Day of Solidarity with the University of Puerto Rico on Mar. 11, the 40th anniversary of a violent confrontation between police and student protesters at Río Piedras, and one day before the anniversary of the UPR’s founding on Mar. 12, 1903. Activists organized events in a number of countries, including the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. In the United Kingdom, where students have been protesting similar education cutbacks, University of Manchester students joined with solidarity activists for a march against the surcharge. (Adital (Brazil) 3/11/11)
*6. Argentina: Mapuche Win One, Lose One in Land Disputes
Indigenous Mapuche-Tehuelche organizations and allied groups marched in Esquel, in the western Argentine province of Chubut, on Mar. 10 to support Santa Rosa Leleque community members as they filed an appeal in a land dispute with Compañía Tierras Sur Argentino S A, a subsidiary of the Italian multinational Benetton. A decision by Judge Omar Magallanes favoring Benetton had been announced on Mar. 1; Magallanes conceded the multinational 500 hectares where the community is located and ordered the Mapuche residents to leave within 10 days.
A judicial order first awarded the land to Benetton in 2002, but community members reoccupied it in 2008. They base their claim to the land on provisions of the Argentine Constitution and International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169. The community argues that it is “resisting and fighting in 534 hectares, while Benetton owns more than 1.5 million hectares” in Argentina’s Patagonian region. (Adital (Brazil) 3/9/11; Organización Periodística Independiente Santa Cruz (Argentina) 3/11/11)
At almost the same time, the Cutral-Có Civil Court 2 in the western province of Neuquén ruled in favor of a Mapuche group and against an oil company, basing its decision on the same provisions of the Argentine Constitution and ILO Convention 169 that the Santa Rosa Leleque community is citing in its appeal. The Neuquén ruling, made on Feb. 16 but not announced until early March, found that the Mapuche Wentru Trawel Leufu community had rights regarding the land it occupied and needed to be consulted in any exploitation of its resources. Analysts say the decision could be an important precedent for indigenous rights both in the province and in the country.
The Neuquén government granted the Piedra del Aguila oil company a concession of 3,800 hectares in the Picún Leufú region in January 2007. When the Wentru Trawel Leufu community resisted, the company contracted 40 people to drive the residents away, killing almost 100 animals and setting fire to two houses and one vehicle. The company also got a court order backing its claims to the land, but in 2008 the community filed the appeal that led the higher court to overturn the earlier ruling. (Página 12 (Argentina) 3/9/11)
*7. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
Wikileaks Cables of Interest on Latin America, February 27 to March 6, 2011
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2941-wikileaks-cables-of-interest-on-latin-america-february-27-to-march-6-2011
Moving to the Latin Beat: Dancing with Dynamite in Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/2943-moving-to-the-latin-beat
Independence is Another Name for Dignity (Uruguay)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/2946-independence-is-another-name-for-dignity
Brazilian-U.S. Overtures Bode Well for U.S. Companies
https://nacla.org/node/6911
Land Clearing Begins for Destructive Amazon Dam in Brazil
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2947-land-clearing-begins-for-destructive-amazon-dam-in-brazil
Rural Women Protest Use of Toxic Agrochemicals (Brazil)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54709
From Red October to Evo Morales: The Politics of Rebellion and Reform in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2939-from-red-october-to-evo-morales-the-politics-of-rebellion-and-reform-in-bolivia
Colombia Slips Into the Abyss as FTA Threatens Further Havoc
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/colombia-slips-into-the-a_b_833086.html
Chavez Gambles on Gaddafi Diplomacy
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2940-chavez-gambles-on-gaddafi-diplomacy
Venezuela Hosts Global Grassroots Women’s Conference to Mark 100-year Anniversary of International Women’s Day
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/2948-venezuela-hosts-global-grassroots-womens-conference-to-mark-100-year-anniversary-of-international-womens-day
U.S. Feels Threatened by MERCOSUR Consolidation and Venezuela’s “Generosity” in the Region
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6052
Court In El Salvador Sentences 10 Gang Members to Prison For Killing Of Journalist Christian Poveda
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/11/court-in-el-salvador-sentences-10-gang-members-to-prison-for-killing-of-journalist-christian-poveda/
Military Coups are Good for Canadian Business: The Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/474.php
Guatemalan First Lady Sandra Torres de Colom Announces Bid For Presidency
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/09/guatemalan-first-lady-sandra-torres-de-colom-announces-bid-for-presidency/
Ciudad Juárez: the silencing of women’s voices
http://ww4report.com/node/9611
Women Human Rights Defenders Risk Death, Discrimination (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4075
Mexico Arrests Alleged Zeta Financier In Killing of ICE Agent
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/10/mexico-arrests-alleged-zeta-financier-in-killing-of-ice-agent/
Day 23 in the Trial of Posada Carriles (Cuba)
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6051
Haiti Election Boycott Takes Shape: World Intellectuals and Activists Call to Annul Elections
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2949-haiti-election-boycott-takes-shape-world-intellectuals-and-activists-call-to-annul-elections
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #1071, March 13, 2011
1. South America: Women’s Day Events Focus on Violence, Poverty
2. Central America: Women Protest Rise in Femicides
3. Mexico: Demos Target Murders of Women Activists
4. Caribbean: Cuban Women Dance, Dominicans March Backwards
5. Puerto Rico: Students’ Aggression Clouds Women’s Day Events
6. Argentina: Mapuche Win One, Lose One in Land Disputes
7. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. South America: Women’s Day Events Focus on Violence, Poverty
South Americans celebrated International Women’s Day on Mar. 8, the holiday’s 100th anniversary, with actions calling attention to the murders of women, along with other forms of violence against women and failures by the region’s governments to provide security from these crimes.
In Argentina, unions and social and human rights organizations held marches in the main cities to demand an end to violence against women; some also called for approval of a law decriminalizing abortion. Meeting House (Casa del Encuentro), a women’s support organization, scheduled a sit-in in front of the National Congress with the slogan “No one listened to them,” referring to women who report family violence of which they are victims but are ignored by the police. “We’re witnessing alarming numbers of women being burned by their partners,” Leonor Arrigo, the director of the Abused Woman’s Aid Center, said on local radio stations. Women’s organizations have recorded 50 cases of gender-based violence so far this year, according to Arrigo, but she noted that the lack of reliable official statistics on this sort of violence forces nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to depend on accounts in the media.
Dilma Rousseff, the first woman to be president of Brazil, marked the day with a message calling the “elimination of gender discrimination and the valuing of women and girls...indispensable strategies for bringing about the struggle against poverty.” “In Brazil poverty has a face—it is feminine,” she explained. Rousseff has called the eradication of poverty the “fundamental” objective of her administration. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru); La Raza (Chicago) 3/9/11 from EFE)
Some 70 Peruvian organizations held a sit-in in front of the Judicial Branch in Lima and delivered a letter to its president, César San Martín, demanding that justice be accessible to women who are victims of violence. According to the Judicial Branch, at least 123 women were murdered by their partners or ex-partners in 2010. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru)) In Ayacucho, capital of the southern province of Huamanga, dozens of women from the National Association of Relatives of the Kidnapped, Detained and Disappeared of Peru (Anfasep) marched through the main streets with signs referring to the political violence of the 1980s and the failure of the government to pay attention to the victims. Protester Mercedes Gutiérrez Ochoa’s two children disappeared in 1983. “Maybe my children are alive,” she said. “At least I’d be resigned if I could bury their bodies, but now I know nothing.” She said she’d come from Arizona community in Vinchos. “I got soaked by the rain, but I have to come to make my voice heard,” she said. (Correo Perú 3/9/11)
The United Nations agency for women, UN Women, opened its office for Colombia on Mar. 8 in Bogotá. Local director Margarita Bueso said women are “without doubt the ones most hurt” by the country’s armed conflict. Guests for the opening reception included women in the government of rightwing president Juan Manuel Santos--Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín, Attorney General Viviane Morales and others--and the director of the Women for Peace Initiative (IMP), Angela Cerón. Created last July, UN Women is headed by former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru); Radio Santa Fe (Bogotá) 3/8/11)
International Women’s Day coincided with traditional Carnaval (Mardi Gras) celebrations on the last day before Lent. In Venezuela, a group of women participated in a Carnaval parade in a float celebrating the women heroes of the country’s struggle for independence. The government of President Hugo Chávez reportedly promoted this activity. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru))
*2. Central America: Women Protest Rise in Femicides
Central America is said to have the highest rate of femicides—misogynist murders—in Latin America, and many women’s rights organizations marked International Women’s Day on Mar. 8 with street protests demanding that the region’s governments take measures to stop the killings.
In Nicaragua, hundreds of women participated in a cultural event in which they defended their right to live free of violence and called for more opportunities to win public offices. Elections for the presidency and the National Assembly are scheduled for Nov. 6.
Various Salvadoran organizations demonstrated in El Salvador in favor of a gender equality law that would guarantee the dignity of women.
Dozens of Honduran women demonstrated on Mar. 7, the day before International Women’s Day, carrying candles in memory of murdered women and charging that “the crimes remain in the most absolute impunity.” The conservative government’s National Human Rights Commission (Conadeh) reported that the number of violent deaths continues to rise, reaching 343 in 2010, with at least 60 so far this year.
In Guatemala thousands of women marched through Guatemala City’s historic center to demand greater political participation and an end to impunity for violence against women. According to human rights organizations, there are an average of two murders of women every day in Guatemala, with at least 700 in 2010. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru))
*3. Mexico: Demos Target Murders of Women Activists
Mexican social organizations and human rights groups carried out actions in at least eight states on Mar. 8, International Women’s Day, to demand that the authorities end the murders of women, categorize femicide as a special crime, and pay attention to women’s demands.
Much of the focus was on the recent murders of women activists in the northern state of Chihuahua. Dozens of people marched outside the state prosecutor’s local office in Ciudad Juárez to demand action on the murders of Juárez-based activists, including Marisela Escobedo, six members of the Reyes Salazar family and Susana Chávez, a poet and activist who was strangled on Jan. 5. Demonstrators also demanded investigations of the disappearances of many area women, such as Silvia Arce, who was reportedly taken away by ex-federal judicial police agents 13 years ago [see Updates #1061, 1067, 1069]. So far this year, 87 women have been killed in the state, 57 of them in Juárez.
The center-left government of the Federal District (DF, Mexico City) is currently providing police protection and medical and psychological services for 12 members of the Reyes Salazar family. Violence against the family started after activist Josefina Reyes Salazar began denouncing the federal government’s militarized “war against drugs,” including the arrest of one of her sons. The family is in Mexico City while it considers seeking political asylum in another country.
In Nuevo León, another northern state suffering from “drug war” violence, dozens of activists demonstrated in front of the state government building in Monterrey calling for an end to the murders of women and for respect for gender equality. They lit candles in memory of murdered women and carried three crosses spelling out the slogan: “Not one more.”
Some 5,000 people demonstrated and blocked four highways in the largely indigenous southeastern state of Chiapas to protest violence against women. The actions took place in 15 municipalities, including San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chenalhó, Ixtapa, Pueblo Nuevo, Frontera Comalapa and Ocosingo. Some 500 women from the Civil Society Organization Las Abejas (“The Bees”), marched 3 km from Majomut community, Chenalhó, to protest at a military base. Soldiers blocked the way when the women tried to enter the base to pray. The 45 indigenous people massacred in Acteal on Dec. 22, 1997, were members of the organization [see Update #427].
In the southern state of Oaxaca, teachers from the militant Section 22 of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) suspended classes and marched through the state capital, Oaxaca city, for a rally; organizers said there were 40,000 people at the demonstration, while state police put attendance at 20,000. (La Jornada (Mexico) 3/8/11, 3/9/11)
Also on Mar. 8, women’s rights activists said they were taking seriously an announcement by Humberto Moreira Valdés, president of the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), that he would hold a consultation to establish his party’s position on abortion. Currently abortion is legal only in the DF, while 16 states have toughened their anti-abortion laws recently, often with the votes of PRI legislators [see Update #1047]. Both Moreira and former PRI president Beatriz Paredes have said they support a woman’s right to choose. (LJ 3/9/11)
*4. Caribbean: Cuban Women Dance, Dominicans March Backwards
The National Ballet of Cuba, under the direction of the renowned Alicia Alonso, marked International Women’s Day with a special performance on the evening of Mar. 7, honoring women heroes of the 1959 Revolution, including the late Vilma Espín, wife of current president Raúl Castro. (AFP 3/8/11 via Terra (Peru))
In Santo Domingo a group of Dominican women dressed in black celebrated Mar. 8 with a backwards march. Women are “those most affected by the great evils the country is experiencing,” organizers said, “since they are the ones who do the most purchasing, who suffer the most from the blackouts in the home, the lack of employment, the lack of security, among many other evils.” With signs reading “Today women are in mourning,” “No to corruption in the government,” “No to the high cost of food,” “No to the blackouts,” the women walked backwards to the music of “The Bus Is in Reverse,” a song by Dominican singer Juan Luis Guerra. The protest was organized by the women of the Democratic Institutional Party (PDI), which appears be a spit-off from the social democratic Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). (La Raza (Chicago) 3/9/11 from EFE)
Correction: This paragraph originally gave an incorrect acronym for the Democratic Institutional Party.
*5. Puerto Rico: Students’ Aggression Clouds Women’s Day Events
A coalition of Puerto Rican feminist organizations held a march in San Juan on Mar. 8, International Women’s Day, from the Labor Department building to the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), the site of months of student protests against an $800 tuition surcharge [see Update #1068]. The marchers held a rally when they reached the campus, with an artistic presentation and various speeches. Adriana Mulero, a leader in the student protests, charged that conservative governor Luis Fortuño had worked against women’s rights with his austerity program, which she had left many women heads of households without jobs. She also dismissed “Man’s Promise,” a program Fortuño has promoted as a way to end domestic violence, as reinforcing male stereotypes.
Mulero was questioned about an incident the day before in which a group of student protesters disrupted a meeting UPR rector Ana Guadalupe was attending at the Architecture School and physically attacked Guadalupe and the dozen campus guards accompanying her. Mulero said this was not the time to discuss the incident. However, other speakers denounced the students’ actions.
On the day of the attack, the Student Representative Committee (CRE), which has led the protests against the surcharge, qualified the attitude of the students involved as “reactionary,” although the CRE said the campus guards had partly provoked the violence. (El Nuevo Día (Guaynabo) 3/8/11; NCM 3/9/11 via Puerto Rico Indymedia)
Supporters of the student protesters held a World Day of Solidarity with the University of Puerto Rico on Mar. 11, the 40th anniversary of a violent confrontation between police and student protesters at Río Piedras, and one day before the anniversary of the UPR’s founding on Mar. 12, 1903. Activists organized events in a number of countries, including the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. In the United Kingdom, where students have been protesting similar education cutbacks, University of Manchester students joined with solidarity activists for a march against the surcharge. (Adital (Brazil) 3/11/11)
*6. Argentina: Mapuche Win One, Lose One in Land Disputes
Indigenous Mapuche-Tehuelche organizations and allied groups marched in Esquel, in the western Argentine province of Chubut, on Mar. 10 to support Santa Rosa Leleque community members as they filed an appeal in a land dispute with Compañía Tierras Sur Argentino S A, a subsidiary of the Italian multinational Benetton. A decision by Judge Omar Magallanes favoring Benetton had been announced on Mar. 1; Magallanes conceded the multinational 500 hectares where the community is located and ordered the Mapuche residents to leave within 10 days.
A judicial order first awarded the land to Benetton in 2002, but community members reoccupied it in 2008. They base their claim to the land on provisions of the Argentine Constitution and International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169. The community argues that it is “resisting and fighting in 534 hectares, while Benetton owns more than 1.5 million hectares” in Argentina’s Patagonian region. (Adital (Brazil) 3/9/11; Organización Periodística Independiente Santa Cruz (Argentina) 3/11/11)
At almost the same time, the Cutral-Có Civil Court 2 in the western province of Neuquén ruled in favor of a Mapuche group and against an oil company, basing its decision on the same provisions of the Argentine Constitution and ILO Convention 169 that the Santa Rosa Leleque community is citing in its appeal. The Neuquén ruling, made on Feb. 16 but not announced until early March, found that the Mapuche Wentru Trawel Leufu community had rights regarding the land it occupied and needed to be consulted in any exploitation of its resources. Analysts say the decision could be an important precedent for indigenous rights both in the province and in the country.
The Neuquén government granted the Piedra del Aguila oil company a concession of 3,800 hectares in the Picún Leufú region in January 2007. When the Wentru Trawel Leufu community resisted, the company contracted 40 people to drive the residents away, killing almost 100 animals and setting fire to two houses and one vehicle. The company also got a court order backing its claims to the land, but in 2008 the community filed the appeal that led the higher court to overturn the earlier ruling. (Página 12 (Argentina) 3/9/11)
*7. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
Wikileaks Cables of Interest on Latin America, February 27 to March 6, 2011
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2941-wikileaks-cables-of-interest-on-latin-america-february-27-to-march-6-2011
Moving to the Latin Beat: Dancing with Dynamite in Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/2943-moving-to-the-latin-beat
Independence is Another Name for Dignity (Uruguay)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/2946-independence-is-another-name-for-dignity
Brazilian-U.S. Overtures Bode Well for U.S. Companies
https://nacla.org/node/6911
Land Clearing Begins for Destructive Amazon Dam in Brazil
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2947-land-clearing-begins-for-destructive-amazon-dam-in-brazil
Rural Women Protest Use of Toxic Agrochemicals (Brazil)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54709
From Red October to Evo Morales: The Politics of Rebellion and Reform in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2939-from-red-october-to-evo-morales-the-politics-of-rebellion-and-reform-in-bolivia
Colombia Slips Into the Abyss as FTA Threatens Further Havoc
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/colombia-slips-into-the-a_b_833086.html
Chavez Gambles on Gaddafi Diplomacy
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2940-chavez-gambles-on-gaddafi-diplomacy
Venezuela Hosts Global Grassroots Women’s Conference to Mark 100-year Anniversary of International Women’s Day
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/2948-venezuela-hosts-global-grassroots-womens-conference-to-mark-100-year-anniversary-of-international-womens-day
U.S. Feels Threatened by MERCOSUR Consolidation and Venezuela’s “Generosity” in the Region
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6052
Court In El Salvador Sentences 10 Gang Members to Prison For Killing Of Journalist Christian Poveda
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/11/court-in-el-salvador-sentences-10-gang-members-to-prison-for-killing-of-journalist-christian-poveda/
Military Coups are Good for Canadian Business: The Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/474.php
Guatemalan First Lady Sandra Torres de Colom Announces Bid For Presidency
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/09/guatemalan-first-lady-sandra-torres-de-colom-announces-bid-for-presidency/
Ciudad Juárez: the silencing of women’s voices
http://ww4report.com/node/9611
Women Human Rights Defenders Risk Death, Discrimination (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4075
Mexico Arrests Alleged Zeta Financier In Killing of ICE Agent
http://latindispatch.com/2011/03/10/mexico-arrests-alleged-zeta-financier-in-killing-of-ice-agent/
Day 23 in the Trial of Posada Carriles (Cuba)
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6051
Haiti Election Boycott Takes Shape: World Intellectuals and Activists Call to Annul Elections
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2949-haiti-election-boycott-takes-shape-world-intellectuals-and-activists-call-to-annul-elections
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Monday, 7 March 2011
WNU #1070: Panama President Backs Down on Open-Pit Mining
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1070, March 6, 2011
1. Panama: Martinelli Backs Down on Open-Pit Mining
2. Mexico: Did US Let Guns “Walk” to Drug Cartels?
3. Mexico: Calderón Fights WikiLeaks Fallout in DC
4. Venezuela: Jailed Unionist Convicted, Then Released
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Panama: Martinelli Backs Down on Open-Pit MiningRightwing Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli announced in San Félix, Chiriquí, on Mar. 3 that he would ask the National Assembly to rescind a mining law that opponents said would encourage open-pit mining for metals by foreign companies and endanger the environment. “A president like me will always listen to his people,” Martinelli wrote in his Twitter account, following nearly a month of demonstrations led by the Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous group [see Update #1068]. Polls reportedly showed 75% of Panamanians opposing the mining industry. (Adital (Brazil) 3/3/11)
On Mar. 4 Martinelli’s government sent the National Assembly the formal request for rescinding the law, which was passed less than a month earlier, on Feb. 11. Discussions are to start after the conclusion of Carnaval (Mardi Gras) festivities on Mar. 8. (Prensa Latina 3/4/11) The main beneficiary of the law would have been the Canadian firm Inmet Mining, which planned to get financing from foreign state-owned financial firms like Korea Resources Corp to construct a copper mine worth some $4.3 billion. Inmet president Jochen Tilks said on Mar. 4 that his company would be able to proceed with the mine despite the overturning of the law, which he called “the correct decision.” (Reuters 3/4/11)
Martinelli’s about-face on the mining law came after indigenous Panamanians intensified their protests for four days, culminating in blockades of the Pan American Highway at various points in Veraguas and Chiriquí provinces on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. Confrontations broke out between protesters and police agents during the blockades, with injuries reported on both sides; the Front for the Defense of Economic and Social Rights (Frenadesco) said 10 indigenous people were wounded. (Adital 2/28/11, some from AFP and Prensa Latina) The Spanish journalists Paco Gómez Nadal and Pilar Chato were arrested while covering one of the demonstrations on Feb. 26, on charges that Gómez Nadal, a freelancer for Spanish daily El País and Panama's La Prensa, was inciting the demonstration. The two were deported on Feb. 28. (EFE 3/1/11 via Latin American Herald Tribune)
This is the second time in less than a year that grassroots protests have forced Martinelli to withdraw major legislation. On Oct. 10 the government agreed to rescind Law 30—known as the “sausage law” (“ley chorizo”) because of the various elements stuffed into it, including anti-union measures and the weakening of environmental safeguards. The law had provoked militant protests in July [see Update #1053].
*2. Mexico: Did US Let Guns “Walk” to Drug Cartels?Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretariat (SRE) said on Mar. 5 that it had requested “detailed information” from the US government on Operation Fast and Furious, in which the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) reportedly allowed some 2,000 firearms to enter Mexico illegally in an effort to trace the activities of gun smugglers. The operation was said to be carried out without the knowledge of the Mexican government. (La Jornada (Mexico) 3/6/11) Gun running from the US is considered a major source of weapons for drug cartels in Mexico, which has stricter gun control laws than several US states near the border.
The first report about Fast and Furious--part of Project Gunrunner, an ATF program intended to stop the flow of weapons to Mexico--appeared on CBS News on Feb. 23. According to unnamed sources, including six veteran ATF agents and executives, in late 2009 the bureau learned about cash purchases of semi-automatic versions of military-type rifles and pistols at seven gun stores in the Phoenix, Arizona area; these are weapons favored by Mexican drug traffickers. The sources told CBS News that several gun shops wanted to stop the sales but ATF managers decided instead to use a tactic known as “letting the guns walk”—allowing the weapons to be bought so that agents can gather intelligence on their use. “The numbers are over 2,500 on that case, by the way,” one source said. “That's how many guns were sold--including some 50-calibers they let walk.”
The operation unraveled on Dec. 14, 2010, when US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent Brian Terry was killed in a shootout with bandits near Rio Rico, Arizona. Two assault rifles found at the scene were among the weapons that suspected gun smuggler Jaime Avila of Glendale, Arizona bought a year earlier, at a time when the ATF was keeping an eye on Avila but allowing him to make purchases. Avila and 33 others were arrested after Terry’s death. (CBS 2/23/11)
After further investigation, the Washington, DC-based Center for Public Integrity and the Los Angeles Times reported that “1,765 guns were sold to suspected smugglers during a 15-month period of the investigation. Of those, 797 were recovered on both sides of the border, including 195 in Mexico after they were used in crimes, collected during arrests or intercepted through other law enforcement operations.”
Several agents objected vehemently to the practice. "With the number of guns we let walk, we'll never know how many people were killed, raped, robbed,” Agent John Dodson told the Center for Public Integrity. “There is nothing we can do to round up those guns. They are gone.” The dissent reached a point in March 2010 where the operational supervisor, David J. Voth, warned the agents in an email against “petty arguing, rumors or other adolescent behavior.” “Whether you care or not, people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case, and they also believe we…are doing what they envisioned the Southwest Border Groups doing,” Voth wrote. He suggested that if they didn’t like the program, the ATF agents might prefer working at the Maricopa County Jail, where “you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day.”
Agent Dodson gave an example of the ATF’s attitude to possible victims of the operation when the guns circulated in Mexico. “If you're going to make an omelet, you've got to scramble some eggs,” a supervisor said, according to Dodson. “I took it to mean that whatever crimes these guns were going to be involved in, those were the eggs, those were acceptable,” Dodson explained.
On Mar. 3 US attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. asked Justice Department officials to look into the possibility of an investigation of Fast and Furious. Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the leading Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has started his own inquiry. (LAT 3/3/11) It should be noted that Grassley is an opponent of gun control, with an “A” rating from the National Rife Association (NRA). (On the Issues website, accessed 3/6/11)
*3. Mexico: Calderón Fights WikiLeaks Fallout in DCUS president Barack Obama expressed strong support for Mexico’s “war on drugs” during a joint press conference in Washington, DC on Mar. 3 with Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinijosa. “I have nothing but admiration for President Calderón and his willingness to take this on,” Obama said, referring to Calderón’s militarization of the fight against drug trafficking since he took office in December 2006. Some 35,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related violence since then, and many Mexicans reject the militarization strategy [see Update #1068].
The US “will support [Calderón] in any ways we can to help him achieve his goals, because his goals are our goals as well,” Obama said, promising that the US would speed up the delivery of military assistance under the Mérida Initiative program [see Update #1065], do more to stop the flow of weapons from the US to Mexican drug traffickers, and focus more on using education, prevention and treatment to cut down the demand for drugs in the US. However, the only substantive agreements that came out of the meeting were aimed at ending a longstanding dispute over access to the US by Mexican truckers. Negotiators are expected to come up with a draft agreement soon to allow trucking by Mexican carriers—as provided for in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which went into effect in 1994. (New York Times 3/3/11)
When the Mexican government announced on Feb. 23 that Calderón would be visiting Washington a week later, the left-leaning Mexican daily La Jornada speculated that the purpose was damage control after several embarrassments for the Mexican president. One was the killing of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata on Feb. 14 while he and another US immigration agent were driving from Monterrey, Nuevo León, to Mexico City. Another problem for Calderón was La Jornada’s publication, starting on Feb. 10, of a series of secret US diplomatic cables from the WikiLeaks group. A number of the cables showed growing doubts among US diplomats over the efficacy of the same “drug war” that Obama praised on Mar. 3, as did cables published by the Spanish daily El País in December [see Updates #1059, 1067]. (LJ 2/24/11)
Adding to Calderón’s difficulties, three US cables from 2006 suggested a remarkably close relationship between US diplomats and Calderón as he was running for the presidency. A classified Jan. 18 cable describes a meeting of Calderón with then-US ambassador Antonio O. Garza, Jr. and others on Jan. 10, shortly before Calderón’s campaign officially started. The future president was concerned that the “negative spin on migration in the Mexican press”—Mexican anger over plans to extend a fence on the US side of the border and a harsh anti-immigrant bill sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI)—would help the center-left coalition candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, widely known as “AMLO.” Calderón explained that “[h]e couldn't allow AMLO to take one vote on the migration issue, and would have to speak out against a ‘border wall’ as well.” Garza agreed that “[c]ertainly it was politic to reject the border fence.” (LJ 2/21/11)
The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) declared Calderón the winner in the July 2 election by a minuscule margin; López Obrador promptly denounced the results as fraudulent and led massive protests in Mexico City. Calderón and Garza met on Aug. 2 at Calderón’s request, “primarily to express thanks for President [George W.] Bush's early and friendly congratulatory call,” according to a confidential Aug. 4 cable. “Calderon expressed his regret about the ongoing PRD protests (which have blocked key arteries leading to the embassy's neighborhood).”
When Calderón and Garza met again on Aug. 29, there was little question that the electoral court, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Republic (TEPJF), would uphold the IFE’s declaration of Calderón’s victory, but Garza’s classified Sept. 1 cable shows his concern about Calderón’s situation. “Calderón will come into office Dec. 1 in the weakest possible situation politically,” Garza wrote. “We risk stagnation on our highest-profile issues unless we can send a strong signal of support, prompt the Calderón team into a vigorous transition, and reinforce Calderón's agenda and leadership…. I recommend that President Bush make a second call to Calderón once the TEPJF results are released, offering formal congratulations on his victory. At that point my mission team will engage energetically with Calderón's transition team to invigorate progress on our priority areas.”
Garza didn’t try to hide his contempt for López Obrador and the Mexican left. He referred to the protests against suspected electoral fraud as “AMLO’s harassment,” “AMLO's dramatic gesticulations” and “his constant barrage of attacks.” The leftist candidate was “increasingly inconsiderate and obstructive,” Garza wrote. (LJ 2/21/11)
*4. Venezuela: Jailed Unionist Convicted, Then ReleasedOn Mar. 3 Venezuela’s highest court, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), ordered the conditional release of union leader Rubén González, who had been in prison since Sept. 29, 2009 [see Update #1037]. Just two days before the TSJ order, Bolívar state judge Magda Hidalgo sentenced González to seven and a half years in prison for instigating a job action and blocking a highway in Ciudad Guayana at the government-owned Ferrominera Orinoco (FMO), an iron ore mining subsidiary of CVG, the national heavy industry holding company. González is general secretary of the Ferrominera Workers Union (Sintraferrominera). Under the terms of the conditional release, he is required to report every 15 days to the authorities in Ciudad Guayana.
González’s release followed two days of protests by students and unionists representing both opponents and supporters of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez Frías, including sections of the pro-Chávez National Workers Union (UNT) and of the anti-Chávez Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV). When he was freed, González expressed his thanks “to all the labor forces of Guayana, to all those who have supported me and have been in solidarity with this struggle.” He called for unity in the workers’ movement, despite its differences and particular interests. (EFE 3/3/11 via Venezuelasite.com; El Universal (Caracas) 3/6/11; Aporrea.org (Venezuela) 3/5/11)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico
From Latin America to the Arab World – What’s going on in Libya?
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6035
Argentina: trial begins over "Dirty War" baby thefts
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9557
Brazil: judge blocks construction of Belo Monte dam
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9549
Amazon Indians Protest in London as Judge Blocks Brazil Dam
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2935-amazon-indians-protest-in-london-as-judge-blocks-brazil-dam
Motorist mows down Porto Alegre Critical Mass (Brazil)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9572
Transport strike, floods paralyze Bolivia
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9550
Ongoing, Unresolved Issues Likely to Perpetuate Tension in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2937-ongoing-unresolved-issues-likely-to-perpetuate-tension-in-bolivia
Gasolinazo Challenges Bolivia’s 'Process of Change'
https://nacla.org/node/6903
Peru: government cracks down on illegal Amazon gold miners
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9552
Peru: WikiLeaks impact seen on elections
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9551
WikiLeaks Peru: secret cable reveals timber certificates faked
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9570
Peru: violence and protest sweep Amazon regions
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9569
Colombian "gold rush" funds conflict, threatens environment
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9575
Colombia, Venezuela sign pacts to mend relations —amid borderlands unrest
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9574
WikiLeaks Colombia: cable documents armed forces collaboration with paras
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9573
WikiLeaks: Colombia’s Uribe Authorized “Clandestine Cross Border Operations” into Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2932-wikileaks-colombias-uribe-authorized-clandestine-cross-border-operations-into-venezuela
Adios, Uribe (Colombia)
https://nacla.org/node/6905
Hugo Chávez to mediate in Libya crisis? (Venezuela)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9568
Women at the Forefront of Grassroots Organising in El Salvador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/2933-women-at-the-forefront-of-grassroots-organising-in-el-salvador
Military Coups are Good for Canadian Business: The Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2930-military-coups-are-good-for-canadian-business-the-canada-honduras-free-trade-agreement
Honduras: right marches against crime, left to boycott elections
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9548
Ciudad Juárez: slaughter of the children
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9571
The Reyes Salazar Family and the Hidden Toll Behind Mexico's Execution-meter
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2934-the-reyes-salazar-family-and-the-hidden-toll-behind-mexicos-execution-meter
Presidential Meeting Puts US-Mexico Relations Back on Track–In the Wrong Direction
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4068
On the Puerto Rican People: 'You Will Not Silence Them and You Will Not Silence Me'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-luis-gutierrez/on-the-puerto-rican-peopl_b_830307.html
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #1070, March 6, 2011
1. Panama: Martinelli Backs Down on Open-Pit Mining
2. Mexico: Did US Let Guns “Walk” to Drug Cartels?
3. Mexico: Calderón Fights WikiLeaks Fallout in DC
4. Venezuela: Jailed Unionist Convicted, Then Released
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Panama: Martinelli Backs Down on Open-Pit MiningRightwing Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli announced in San Félix, Chiriquí, on Mar. 3 that he would ask the National Assembly to rescind a mining law that opponents said would encourage open-pit mining for metals by foreign companies and endanger the environment. “A president like me will always listen to his people,” Martinelli wrote in his Twitter account, following nearly a month of demonstrations led by the Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous group [see Update #1068]. Polls reportedly showed 75% of Panamanians opposing the mining industry. (Adital (Brazil) 3/3/11)
On Mar. 4 Martinelli’s government sent the National Assembly the formal request for rescinding the law, which was passed less than a month earlier, on Feb. 11. Discussions are to start after the conclusion of Carnaval (Mardi Gras) festivities on Mar. 8. (Prensa Latina 3/4/11) The main beneficiary of the law would have been the Canadian firm Inmet Mining, which planned to get financing from foreign state-owned financial firms like Korea Resources Corp to construct a copper mine worth some $4.3 billion. Inmet president Jochen Tilks said on Mar. 4 that his company would be able to proceed with the mine despite the overturning of the law, which he called “the correct decision.” (Reuters 3/4/11)
Martinelli’s about-face on the mining law came after indigenous Panamanians intensified their protests for four days, culminating in blockades of the Pan American Highway at various points in Veraguas and Chiriquí provinces on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. Confrontations broke out between protesters and police agents during the blockades, with injuries reported on both sides; the Front for the Defense of Economic and Social Rights (Frenadesco) said 10 indigenous people were wounded. (Adital 2/28/11, some from AFP and Prensa Latina) The Spanish journalists Paco Gómez Nadal and Pilar Chato were arrested while covering one of the demonstrations on Feb. 26, on charges that Gómez Nadal, a freelancer for Spanish daily El País and Panama's La Prensa, was inciting the demonstration. The two were deported on Feb. 28. (EFE 3/1/11 via Latin American Herald Tribune)
This is the second time in less than a year that grassroots protests have forced Martinelli to withdraw major legislation. On Oct. 10 the government agreed to rescind Law 30—known as the “sausage law” (“ley chorizo”) because of the various elements stuffed into it, including anti-union measures and the weakening of environmental safeguards. The law had provoked militant protests in July [see Update #1053].
*2. Mexico: Did US Let Guns “Walk” to Drug Cartels?Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretariat (SRE) said on Mar. 5 that it had requested “detailed information” from the US government on Operation Fast and Furious, in which the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) reportedly allowed some 2,000 firearms to enter Mexico illegally in an effort to trace the activities of gun smugglers. The operation was said to be carried out without the knowledge of the Mexican government. (La Jornada (Mexico) 3/6/11) Gun running from the US is considered a major source of weapons for drug cartels in Mexico, which has stricter gun control laws than several US states near the border.
The first report about Fast and Furious--part of Project Gunrunner, an ATF program intended to stop the flow of weapons to Mexico--appeared on CBS News on Feb. 23. According to unnamed sources, including six veteran ATF agents and executives, in late 2009 the bureau learned about cash purchases of semi-automatic versions of military-type rifles and pistols at seven gun stores in the Phoenix, Arizona area; these are weapons favored by Mexican drug traffickers. The sources told CBS News that several gun shops wanted to stop the sales but ATF managers decided instead to use a tactic known as “letting the guns walk”—allowing the weapons to be bought so that agents can gather intelligence on their use. “The numbers are over 2,500 on that case, by the way,” one source said. “That's how many guns were sold--including some 50-calibers they let walk.”
The operation unraveled on Dec. 14, 2010, when US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent Brian Terry was killed in a shootout with bandits near Rio Rico, Arizona. Two assault rifles found at the scene were among the weapons that suspected gun smuggler Jaime Avila of Glendale, Arizona bought a year earlier, at a time when the ATF was keeping an eye on Avila but allowing him to make purchases. Avila and 33 others were arrested after Terry’s death. (CBS 2/23/11)
After further investigation, the Washington, DC-based Center for Public Integrity and the Los Angeles Times reported that “1,765 guns were sold to suspected smugglers during a 15-month period of the investigation. Of those, 797 were recovered on both sides of the border, including 195 in Mexico after they were used in crimes, collected during arrests or intercepted through other law enforcement operations.”
Several agents objected vehemently to the practice. "With the number of guns we let walk, we'll never know how many people were killed, raped, robbed,” Agent John Dodson told the Center for Public Integrity. “There is nothing we can do to round up those guns. They are gone.” The dissent reached a point in March 2010 where the operational supervisor, David J. Voth, warned the agents in an email against “petty arguing, rumors or other adolescent behavior.” “Whether you care or not, people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case, and they also believe we…are doing what they envisioned the Southwest Border Groups doing,” Voth wrote. He suggested that if they didn’t like the program, the ATF agents might prefer working at the Maricopa County Jail, where “you can get paid $30,000 (instead of $100,000) to serve lunch to inmates all day.”
Agent Dodson gave an example of the ATF’s attitude to possible victims of the operation when the guns circulated in Mexico. “If you're going to make an omelet, you've got to scramble some eggs,” a supervisor said, according to Dodson. “I took it to mean that whatever crimes these guns were going to be involved in, those were the eggs, those were acceptable,” Dodson explained.
On Mar. 3 US attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. asked Justice Department officials to look into the possibility of an investigation of Fast and Furious. Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the leading Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has started his own inquiry. (LAT 3/3/11) It should be noted that Grassley is an opponent of gun control, with an “A” rating from the National Rife Association (NRA). (On the Issues website, accessed 3/6/11)
*3. Mexico: Calderón Fights WikiLeaks Fallout in DCUS president Barack Obama expressed strong support for Mexico’s “war on drugs” during a joint press conference in Washington, DC on Mar. 3 with Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinijosa. “I have nothing but admiration for President Calderón and his willingness to take this on,” Obama said, referring to Calderón’s militarization of the fight against drug trafficking since he took office in December 2006. Some 35,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related violence since then, and many Mexicans reject the militarization strategy [see Update #1068].
The US “will support [Calderón] in any ways we can to help him achieve his goals, because his goals are our goals as well,” Obama said, promising that the US would speed up the delivery of military assistance under the Mérida Initiative program [see Update #1065], do more to stop the flow of weapons from the US to Mexican drug traffickers, and focus more on using education, prevention and treatment to cut down the demand for drugs in the US. However, the only substantive agreements that came out of the meeting were aimed at ending a longstanding dispute over access to the US by Mexican truckers. Negotiators are expected to come up with a draft agreement soon to allow trucking by Mexican carriers—as provided for in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which went into effect in 1994. (New York Times 3/3/11)
When the Mexican government announced on Feb. 23 that Calderón would be visiting Washington a week later, the left-leaning Mexican daily La Jornada speculated that the purpose was damage control after several embarrassments for the Mexican president. One was the killing of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata on Feb. 14 while he and another US immigration agent were driving from Monterrey, Nuevo León, to Mexico City. Another problem for Calderón was La Jornada’s publication, starting on Feb. 10, of a series of secret US diplomatic cables from the WikiLeaks group. A number of the cables showed growing doubts among US diplomats over the efficacy of the same “drug war” that Obama praised on Mar. 3, as did cables published by the Spanish daily El País in December [see Updates #1059, 1067]. (LJ 2/24/11)
Adding to Calderón’s difficulties, three US cables from 2006 suggested a remarkably close relationship between US diplomats and Calderón as he was running for the presidency. A classified Jan. 18 cable describes a meeting of Calderón with then-US ambassador Antonio O. Garza, Jr. and others on Jan. 10, shortly before Calderón’s campaign officially started. The future president was concerned that the “negative spin on migration in the Mexican press”—Mexican anger over plans to extend a fence on the US side of the border and a harsh anti-immigrant bill sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI)—would help the center-left coalition candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, widely known as “AMLO.” Calderón explained that “[h]e couldn't allow AMLO to take one vote on the migration issue, and would have to speak out against a ‘border wall’ as well.” Garza agreed that “[c]ertainly it was politic to reject the border fence.” (LJ 2/21/11)
The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) declared Calderón the winner in the July 2 election by a minuscule margin; López Obrador promptly denounced the results as fraudulent and led massive protests in Mexico City. Calderón and Garza met on Aug. 2 at Calderón’s request, “primarily to express thanks for President [George W.] Bush's early and friendly congratulatory call,” according to a confidential Aug. 4 cable. “Calderon expressed his regret about the ongoing PRD protests (which have blocked key arteries leading to the embassy's neighborhood).”
When Calderón and Garza met again on Aug. 29, there was little question that the electoral court, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Republic (TEPJF), would uphold the IFE’s declaration of Calderón’s victory, but Garza’s classified Sept. 1 cable shows his concern about Calderón’s situation. “Calderón will come into office Dec. 1 in the weakest possible situation politically,” Garza wrote. “We risk stagnation on our highest-profile issues unless we can send a strong signal of support, prompt the Calderón team into a vigorous transition, and reinforce Calderón's agenda and leadership…. I recommend that President Bush make a second call to Calderón once the TEPJF results are released, offering formal congratulations on his victory. At that point my mission team will engage energetically with Calderón's transition team to invigorate progress on our priority areas.”
Garza didn’t try to hide his contempt for López Obrador and the Mexican left. He referred to the protests against suspected electoral fraud as “AMLO’s harassment,” “AMLO's dramatic gesticulations” and “his constant barrage of attacks.” The leftist candidate was “increasingly inconsiderate and obstructive,” Garza wrote. (LJ 2/21/11)
*4. Venezuela: Jailed Unionist Convicted, Then ReleasedOn Mar. 3 Venezuela’s highest court, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), ordered the conditional release of union leader Rubén González, who had been in prison since Sept. 29, 2009 [see Update #1037]. Just two days before the TSJ order, Bolívar state judge Magda Hidalgo sentenced González to seven and a half years in prison for instigating a job action and blocking a highway in Ciudad Guayana at the government-owned Ferrominera Orinoco (FMO), an iron ore mining subsidiary of CVG, the national heavy industry holding company. González is general secretary of the Ferrominera Workers Union (Sintraferrominera). Under the terms of the conditional release, he is required to report every 15 days to the authorities in Ciudad Guayana.
González’s release followed two days of protests by students and unionists representing both opponents and supporters of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez Frías, including sections of the pro-Chávez National Workers Union (UNT) and of the anti-Chávez Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV). When he was freed, González expressed his thanks “to all the labor forces of Guayana, to all those who have supported me and have been in solidarity with this struggle.” He called for unity in the workers’ movement, despite its differences and particular interests. (EFE 3/3/11 via Venezuelasite.com; El Universal (Caracas) 3/6/11; Aporrea.org (Venezuela) 3/5/11)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico
From Latin America to the Arab World – What’s going on in Libya?
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6035
Argentina: trial begins over "Dirty War" baby thefts
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9557
Brazil: judge blocks construction of Belo Monte dam
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9549
Amazon Indians Protest in London as Judge Blocks Brazil Dam
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2935-amazon-indians-protest-in-london-as-judge-blocks-brazil-dam
Motorist mows down Porto Alegre Critical Mass (Brazil)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9572
Transport strike, floods paralyze Bolivia
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9550
Ongoing, Unresolved Issues Likely to Perpetuate Tension in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2937-ongoing-unresolved-issues-likely-to-perpetuate-tension-in-bolivia
Gasolinazo Challenges Bolivia’s 'Process of Change'
https://nacla.org/node/6903
Peru: government cracks down on illegal Amazon gold miners
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9552
Peru: WikiLeaks impact seen on elections
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9551
WikiLeaks Peru: secret cable reveals timber certificates faked
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9570
Peru: violence and protest sweep Amazon regions
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9569
Colombian "gold rush" funds conflict, threatens environment
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9575
Colombia, Venezuela sign pacts to mend relations —amid borderlands unrest
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9574
WikiLeaks Colombia: cable documents armed forces collaboration with paras
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9573
WikiLeaks: Colombia’s Uribe Authorized “Clandestine Cross Border Operations” into Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2932-wikileaks-colombias-uribe-authorized-clandestine-cross-border-operations-into-venezuela
Adios, Uribe (Colombia)
https://nacla.org/node/6905
Hugo Chávez to mediate in Libya crisis? (Venezuela)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9568
Women at the Forefront of Grassroots Organising in El Salvador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/2933-women-at-the-forefront-of-grassroots-organising-in-el-salvador
Military Coups are Good for Canadian Business: The Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2930-military-coups-are-good-for-canadian-business-the-canada-honduras-free-trade-agreement
Honduras: right marches against crime, left to boycott elections
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9548
Ciudad Juárez: slaughter of the children
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9571
The Reyes Salazar Family and the Hidden Toll Behind Mexico's Execution-meter
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2934-the-reyes-salazar-family-and-the-hidden-toll-behind-mexicos-execution-meter
Presidential Meeting Puts US-Mexico Relations Back on Track–In the Wrong Direction
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4068
On the Puerto Rican People: 'You Will Not Silence Them and You Will Not Silence Me'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-luis-gutierrez/on-the-puerto-rican-peopl_b_830307.html
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
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