Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1099, October 2, 2011
1. Haiti: Garment Bosses Fight New Unionization Drive
2. Haiti: Martelly Backs Clinton Aide, Army Restoration
3. Honduras: Police Find Shipment of Arms From US
4. Trade: US Unions Fight Colombia and Panama FTAs
5. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, 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. Haiti: Garment Bosses Fight New Unionization Drive
The management of two Port-au-Prince apparel factories owned by wealthy and powerful Haitians--Gerald Apaid and former presidential candidate Charles Henri Baker--fired a total of five officers of a new garment workers union between Sept. 23 and Sept. 25, a little more than a week after the union announced its formation.
Johny Deshommes, a spokesperson for the Textile and Garment Workers Union (SOTA), lost his job at Apaid’s Genesis S.A. factory on Sept. 23 when he asked to be allowed to go home because of a fever. Three other members of SOTA’s executive committee, Brevil Claude, Wilner Eliacint and Cénatus Vilaire, were fired on Sept. 25 when they tried to meet with the human resources director to discuss Deshommes’ firing; Genesis management brought in two police agents to intimidate and threaten the unionists before they were allowed to leave. SOTA’s secretary, Mitial Rubin, was fired from Baker’s One World Apparel after he had leafleted workers outside the factory.
A third apparel company in the capital, Richard Coles’ Multiwear SA, fired union member Hilaire Jean-François on Sept. 30, and there are reports of harassment of other unionists.
The factories, located in the National Industrial Parks Company (Sonapi) facility near the Port-au-Prince airport, are tax-exempt assembly plants producing largely for export (known in Spanish as maquiladoras). None of the Sonapi factories are unionized, and unions have been kept out of most Haitian assembly plants, although the leftist group Batay Ouvriye (“Workers’ Struggle”) succeeded in organizing a union in 2004 at the assembly plants in Ouanaminthe at the Dominican border in the Northeast department [see Update #829].
SOTA’s formation was announced on Sept. 15 at a press conference in Port-au-Prince with representatives of Batay Ouvriye. Representatives of Haitian and international organizations also attended, including Camille Charlmers, executive secretary of the Haitian Platform Advocating an Alternative Development (PAPDA), and Víctor Báez Mosqueira, secretary general of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (CSA-TUCA). The union has registered with Haiti’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MAST).
The firings have received some international attention: the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG), which led a 44-day general strike in the French Caribbean colony of Guadaloupe in 2008 [see Update #988], denounced the companies’ actions and declared its solidarity with SOTA. Batay Ouvriye has announced plans to file complaints with the Haitian authorities about the situation, and the group is asking solidarity activists to email the factory owners and the Association des Industries d’Haïti (ADIH, a factory owners’ group) demanding the reinstatement of the unionists and full collective bargaining rights for assembly plant workers. The emails can be sent to Mr. Gerard Apaid/Genesis at gapaid33166@yahoo.com; Mr. Charles Henry Baker/One World Apparel at chbaker@pbapparel.com; Mr. Richard Coles/Multiwear at rcoles@multitex.com; and ADIH at administration@adih.ht, with copies to Batay Ouvriye at batay@batayouvriye.org. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 9/16/11, 9/29/11, 9/30/11; Batay Ouvriye press release 9/27/11 via anarkismo.net 9/28/11, press release 10/1/11 via email)
In other labor news, the Association of Elementary School Teachers of Port-au-Prince Municipal Schools (ASIEMP) threatened to start an open-ended strike in the capital on Oct. 4, the day after schools open for the fall, to demand five months’ back pay the union says is owed to a group of 800 teachers. The week before, on Sept. 28, some 30 members and supporters of the National Union of Haitian Teachers (UNNOH) marched in Port-au-Prince to demand that President Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky”) promulgate a law regulating school fees. Parliament passed the law in 2009, but it has never gone into effect. The marchers also demanded reinstatement of laid-off teachers and restoration of a bonus; they expressed doubts that the president really intends to carry out a plan he has announced for free public education. (AlterPresse 9/29/11, ___; Haïti Libre (Haiti) 9/30/11)
*2. Haiti: Martelly Backs Clinton Aide, Army Restoration
The Haitian Senate was scheduled to start discussions on President Michel Martelly’s latest nominee for prime minister, Garry Conille, on Oct. 3. The Chamber of Deputies voted 89-0 on Sept. 16 in favor of the nomination after Parliament rejected Martelly’s two previous choices. The government has been administered by acting prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive, a holdover from the previous administration, ever since Martelly took office in May.
Garry Conille is the resident coordinator for the United Nations Development Program in Niger and has been an assistant to former US president Bill Clinton (1993-2001), the United Nations’ special envoy for Haiti and the co-president of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC, or CIRH in French and Spanish). The choice of Conille has been controversial because of his long association with Clinton, who was already being referred to in political circles as the de facto “governor of Haiti” [see Update #1096]. According to the Miami Herald, Conille insists “that he’s not the international community’s candidate.” (MH 9/17/11 from correspondent; Haïti Libre (Haiti) 10/1/11)
In another controversial move, Martelly is apparently planning to reinstitute the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd’H), which was abolished on Jan. 6, 1995 by then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004). A document entitled “Haiti Security: All the Details on the Project for the New National Force,” not yet released officially, describes a plan for an initial force with 3,500 members; recruitment would begin in October or November.
Grassroots movements strongly oppose the plan. Osnel Jean-Baptiste, spokesperson for Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen ("Small Haitian Peasants Unity"), said that if the army returns, it “will only work for one part” of the population and that the wounds from the old military’s acts of repression have not yet healed. Yanick Étienne, a spokesperson for the leftist group Batay Ouvriye (“Workers’ Struggle”), called the proposed army “one more force against the people. This won’t be an army that will defend the nation’s interests.” (AlterPresse (Haiti) 9/29/11)
*3. Honduras: Police Find Shipment of Arms From US
Honduran police spokesperson Julián Hernández announced on Sept. 30 that agents had discovered an illegal shipment of arms from the US in Puerto Cortés, the country’s main port, in the northern department of Cortés. The arms, hidden in several boxes containing garments, included five rifles, an Uzi submachine gun, a pistol and a supply of ammunition. It was sent via Guatemala from a “Héctor Figueroa” in the US to a “Concepción Duarte,” who reportedly lives in San Francisco de la Paz in eastern Honduras.
The authorities reported discovering another shipment of arms from the US on Sept. 8; this one was sent to a man identified as “Pablo Flores,” who was said to have died in a confrontation with the police in northern Honduras. (EFE 9/30/11 via Terra (Spain))
Northern Honduras, especially the Lower Aguán Valley area, has been the site of violent struggles over land over the past two years and has also seen increased activity by drug smugglers and other criminals [see Updates #1094, 1096]. The government has responded to growing violence by militarizing the region, but local grassroots organizations say that while the military presence has done little to end killings and other criminal activity, it has increased the repression of campesino groups. On Sept. 30, the same day the latest arms discovery was announced, Honduran and international organizations opened a four-day conference in Tocoa, Colón department, entitled “Gathering Against Militarization, Occupation and Repression in Honduras: Militant Solidarity With the Lower Aguán.” (Vos el Soberano (Honduras) 9/30/11; Adital (Brazil) 9/30/11)
*4. Trade: US Unions Fight Colombia and Panama FTAs
Richard Trumka, president of the US’s AFL-CIO labor federation, sent a letter to US president Barack Obama on Sept. 26 opposing any immediate action on a proposed free trade agreement (FTA, TLC in Spanish) with Colombia. Obama is expected to send the Colombia-US FTA for approval to Congress in the next few weeks. Trumka, whose federation is the largest union group in the US, said a labor action plan that Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos agreed to in April has proven ineffective. According to the AFL-CIO, Colombian workers are still forced to sign pactos colectivos--salary and benefit agreements imposed by employers--or to join cooperatives that act as company unions. So far this year, 22 unionists have been murdered in Colombia, including 15 since the labor action plan went into effect, Trumka wrote. (AFL-CIO Now blog 9/26/11)
The AFL-CIO has initiated a “call-in day” on Oct. 4 against the Colombia-US FTA and against similar deals with South Korea and Panama. The federation says that the Korea FTA, “is the biggest trade deal since NAFTA” (the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993) and “would displace an estimated 159,000 net US jobs, mostly in manufacturing.” The AFL-CIO described Panama as a “tax haven for money launderers and tax dodgers” with “a history of failing to protect workers’ rights.” Activists can call US representatives at 800-718-1008 to oppose the agreements. (Alliance for Global Justice 9/28/11)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti
Long Live the Students! (Chile)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/5516
Photo Essay - A Clash of Classes: Chilean Students Fight for a Better Education System
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/chile-archives-34/3235-photo-essay-a-clash-of-classes-chilean-students-fight-for-a-better-education-system
Chile: police attack Mapuche community after clash at timber camp
http://www.ww4report.com/node/10386
Brazil: Judge Suspends Belo Monte Dam Construction In Amazon
http://latindispatch.com/2011/09/30/brazil-judge-suspends-belo-monte-dam-construction-in-amazon/
Bolivia: interior minister next to resign over Amazon repression
http://ww4report.com/node/10372
Bolivia: defense minister resigns over Amazon repression
http://ww4report.com/node/10360
Bolivia: General Strike Protests Crackdown on Native March
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/3241-bolivia-general-strike-protests-crackdown-on-native-march
Bolivia: Amazon protest march resumes in tense atmosphere
http://www.ww4report.com/node/10385
An Open Letter to Our Friends About the Current Situation in Bolivia
http://democracyctr.org/blog/archives/1636
'We Are All TIPNIS' (Bolivia)
https://nacla.org/blog/2011/9/30/we-are-all-tipnis
Peru: government to mediate in dispute over Tacna copper mine
http://ww4report.com/node/10371
Painkillers and Pens Used to Placate Peru’s Indians as Gas Giants Move In
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3232-painkillers-and-pens-used-to-placate-perus-indians-as-gas-giants-move-in
Ecuador: Criminalization of the Social Protest in Times of the ‘Citizen Revolution’
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/3234-ecuador-criminalization-of-the-social-protest-in-times-of-the-citizen-revolution
Latest UNDP Report on Colombia: 'It's the Rural Economy, Stupid.'
https://nacla.org/blog/2011/9/26/latest-undp-report-colombia-its-rural-economy-stupid
U.S. President Obama Nominates Chavez Critic for Top Latin America Post
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6526
Book Review - Revolutionary Doctors: How Venezuela and Cuba Are Changing the World’s Conception of Health Care
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/cuba-archives-43/3231-book-review-revolutionary-doctors-how-venezuela-and-cuba-are-changing-the-worlds-conception-of-health-care-
Nicaragua: journalist flees country after death threats over "re-contra" reportage
http://www.ww4report.com/node/1038
Drug War Meets Dirty War In Guerrero (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/5482
Mexico: severed heads left as grisly message to striking teachers in Acapulco
http://ww4report.com/node/10370
Why Such Extreme Violence? (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/5486
Paramilitary Justice (Mexico)
https://nacla.org/blog/2011/9/27/paramilitary-justice-2
Wife Of Mexican Drug Lord “El Chapo” Guzmán Gives Birth In U.S.
http://latindispatch.com/2011/09/27/wife-of-mexican-drug-lord-el-chapo-guzman-gives-birth-in-u-s/
Haiti Urged to Bring Jean-Claude Duvalier to Justice
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3236-haiti-urged-to-bring-jean-claude-duvalier-to-justice
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/967/blastContent.jsp
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/
Showing posts with label Guadeloupe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guadeloupe. Show all posts
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
WNU #1078: Central American Militaries Arm the Drug Cartels?
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1078, May 1, 2011
1. Central America: US-Backed Militaries Arm the Drug Cartels?
2. Mexico: “Drug War” Has Intensified Violence Against Women
3. Haiti: Election Results Challenged, Media Threatened
4. Cuba: Rightwing Terrorist Bosch Dies in Miami
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, 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. Central America: US-Backed Militaries Arm the Drug Cartels?
Military officers in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have been selling significant amounts of heavy weaponry to drug trafficking organizations in Colombia and Mexico, according to US diplomatic cables and criminal charges filed in a US court against a retired Salvadoran captain. The sales have been made possible by what US diplomats called “lax controls” by military authorities and also by the authorities’ failure to bring criminal charges against officers who have been caught.
Some of these weapons were among those supplied by the US government to rightwing Central American armies at a time when they were fighting leftist rebels and social movements. The US is now spending $1.6 billion over a three-year period on a cooperation agreement known as the Mérida Initiative to fight drug trafficking in Central America and Mexico.
Secret US diplomatic cables from Oct. 2, 2008 and Oct. 17, 2008—released by the WikiLeaks group and acquired by McClatchy Newspapers—discuss 50 light anti-tank weapons (LAWs) that “were originally transferred to Honduras in 1992 as part of a US Foreign Military Sales program.” The Honduran military cannot account for 26 of the 50 LAWS. According to the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), three of these weapons turned up Mexico City in January 2008, one was found in Ciudad Juárez in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua in April 2008, and six were recovered in March 2008 on Colombia’s San Andrés Island, east of Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast.
The DIA also reportedly found that “at least two US-produced M433 40-mm grenades have been recovered in Colombia and Mexico.” These apparently came from a 1985 US military sale to Honduras.
A secret June 8, 2009 cable from the US embassy in Guatemala—also released by WikiLeaks—reported on “new information indicating rogue elements within the Guatemalan army are selling military-grade weapons and munitions to narco traffickers.” In April 2009 Guatemalan drug control agents raided a warehouse about 30 km south of Guatemala City containing “11 light machine guns, a light anti-tank weapon (LAW), 563 rocket-propelled grenades, 32 hand grenades, eight Claymore anti-personnel mines, almost 8,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, and three fully armored Suburbans.” US military analysts “were able to determine with a high degree of confidence that many of these weapons and munitions came from Guatemalan military stocks.” Some were made by the Guatemalan military industrial facility (IMG); the cable didn’t indicate whether any of the weapons might have come from the US.
“Twelve junior officers were recently relieved by their commanders for suspicion of selling armaments under their control to drug organizations,” the embassy wrote. The officers weren’t arrested, however--they were “sent home” pending an investigation.
El Salvador has less of a problem than Guatemala, Defense Minister David Munguia Payes told McClatchy Newspapers. But last year former Salvadoran captain Héctor Antonio Martínez Guillén (“El Capitán”) allegedly offered US undercover agents C-4 explosives, up to 3,000 hand grenades and several Russian-made Sam-7 shoulder-fired missiles, presumably from Salvadoran military supplies. The agents lured Martínez Guillén to the US and arrested him at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC, on Nov. 18. According to a Feb. 24 indictment, he thought he was dealing with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and expected to be paid in cocaine. (McClatchy Newspapers 4/21/11)
Although the report didn’t indicate that any of Martínez Guillén’s promised weapons came from the US, a US cable released by WikiLeaks in February reported that some fragmentation grenades used by drug traffickers in Monterrey came from shipments the US made to the Salvadoran military in the early 1990s [see Updates #1067, 1075].
Central American militaries are the main source of the Mexican cartels’ heavy weapons, the US embassy in Mexico wrote in a confidential Mar. 25, 2009 cable provided to the Mexican daily La Jornada by WikiLeaks. “At least 90% of military-origin weapons (such as grenades and light anti-tank weapons)” seized by security agents in Mexico “are traced to Central American military stocks,” according to the cable.
Small arms like rifles come directly from the US to Mexico, the embassy reported. “While estimates vary regarding the percentage of US commercial weapons recovered in Mexico, approximately 90% of all firearms seized and traced are from the United States.” (LJ 3/29/11)
CBS News reported on Apr. 25 that “the Mexican Government has retained an American law firm to explore filing civil charges against US gun manufacturers and distributors over the flood of guns crossing the border into Mexico.” (CBS News 4/21/11) [See Updates #1070, 1073 for information on the US government’s Operation Fast and Furious, which let firearms “walk” into Mexico.]
*2. Mexico: “Drug War” Has Intensified Violence Against Women
Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa’s militarization of the fight against drug trafficking has increased the level of violence against women, a leading Mexican feminist, María Marcela Lagarde y de los Ríos, told the Spanish wire service EFE on Apr. 29. “Everything that is happening favors violence against women,” she said. Calderón’s strategy “cultivates a very violent culture” and “establishes an ideology of violence, of defeat, of war… That’s a very macho culture, very misogynist, and we women are left defenseless.”
A member of the Chamber of Deputies for the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) from 2003 to 2006 and now a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Lagarde is part of the movement to have femicide (misogynist murders) categorized as a special crime, not simply as murder or a hate crime [see Update #1076]. (EFE 4/29/11 via Latin American Herald Tribune)
Ciudad Juárez, near the US border in the northern state of Chihuahua, is one of the places that have suffered the most from femicide and from Calderón’s “drug war,” which has claimed some 35,000 lives since the beginning of 2007. In March this year the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reported that nationally some 230,000 people had been displaced by drug-related violence [see Update #1073]. A new report by María del Socorro Velázquez Vargas, a researcher at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez, gives an even higher number.
Using a survey by Juárez’s municipal government and statistics from Chihuahua’s State Investigation Agency and the federal government’s National Statistics and Geography Institute (INEGI), Velázquez Vargas estimates that 273,000 people were displaced during 2008, 2009 and 2010 in Juárez alone—a full 21% of the municipality’s population. (El Diario (Ciudad Juárez) 4/17/11)
*3. Haiti: Election Results Challenged, Media Threatened
As of Apr. 30 the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the US were all pressuring Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to change 18 questionable decisions in the Mar. 20 runoff races for Parliament.
On Apr. 20 the CEP announced final results for the long-delayed second round of the 2010 presidential and legislative elections. As expected, the CEP confirmed the victory of conservative presidential candidate Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky”). However, the final results for legislative seats changed from the preliminary count in 19 cases, and critics questioned the decisions for 18 of them: 17 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and one in the Senate. All but two of the changes awarded the seats to candidates from the centrist Unity party of outgoing president René Préval. The CEP didn’t offer any explanation for its decisions, which would give Unity a majority in the 99-member Chamber and a strong position relative to president-elect Martelly, since the party already had a majority in the Senate [see Update #1075].
An Apr. 29 statement by an OAS-CARICOM observer mission “recommend[ed] a return to the preliminary results in each of the 18 cases examined.” On the same day, US senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the influential chair of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, sent an open letter to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton questioning the CEP’s final results. Saying that “Haiti's future depends on a Parliament that is recognized as legitimate,” Leahy urged the State Department “to take appropriate steps to convey our concern, including assessing the visa suitability and the lawful permanent status in the United States of Haitians officials who may be involved in election fraud.”
According to the Haitian radio station Radio Kiskeya, Leahy also intervened on Martelly’s side in December when questionable CEP results in the Nov. 28 elections gave Unity presidential candidate Jude Célestin second place, eliminating Martelly from the runoffs. (Leahy press release 4/29/11 via Sun Herald (Biloxi, Gulfport and South Mississippi); Radio Kiskeya 4/29/11; AlterPresse (Haiti) 4/30/11)
In a statement published on Apr. 29, the French-based organization Reporters Without Frontiers called on Martelly to “defuse” tensions and to “promise to guarantee pluralism, civil liberties and basic constitutional principles” when he assumes office on May 14. A number of Haitian journalists have accused Martelly of threatening the local media [see Update #1075]. (AlterPresse 4/29/11)
*4. Cuba: Rightwing Terrorist Bosch Dies in Miami
Far-right Cuban activist Orlando Bosch died in Miami on Apr. 27 at the age of 84. He had “a long and painful illness,” according to a statement by fellow rightwinger Pedro Corzo.
Although accused of involvement in a number of terrorist actions targeting Cuba’s leftist government, Bosch was only convicted of one: a Sept. 16, 1968 rifle attack on a Polish freighter docked at the Port of Miami. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison but fled the US after getting parole. In 1976 Venezuelan prosecutors charged Bosch and longtime US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asset Luis Posada Carriles [see Update #1075] in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviación jetliner; 73 people died in that attack. A Venezuelan military court acquitted Bosch and Posada in 1980, but they remained in prison pending a prosecution appeal to a civilian court. Posada escaped in 1985 and went on to work in US operations to supply the rightwing contra rebels in Nicaragua. The Venezuelan civilian court acquitted Bosch in 1987.
Bosch returned to Miami in 1988 and served three months in federal prison for violating parole in the 1968 case. Legally he could have been deported from the US as a convicted felon, but apparently the US refused to repatriate him to Cuba and no other country would accept him. This left Bosch free to live in Miami until his death, openly raising money for a campaign he called “Mortar for Masons.” “We’re not talking about flowers or hot meat pies,” Bosch explained in an interview the Miami Herald published in 1993. (Miami Herald 4/28/11)
In 1997 Bosch denied that he and Posada were involved in the bombings of Cuban hotels that year that left one Italian tourist dead. “The last news I had from [Posada] was about three months ago,” Bosch told Miami’s daily El Nuevo Herald. “I sent him money from some paintings of his that I sold here in Miami.... “We have nothing to do with these attacks. Besides, if we did, we'd still be denying it, since that's illegal in this country” [see Update #405].
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti
Mexico, Colombia, Peru & Chile Look To Integrate Their Economies And Expand Trade With Asia
http://latindispatch.com/2011/04/29/mexico-colombia-peru-chile-look-to-integrate-their-economies-and-expand-trade-with-asia/
Argentina’s Qom-Toba Community Call for an End to Repression and Discrimination
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3016-argentinas-qom-toba-community-call-for-an-end-to-repression-and-discrimination
MST Leader: Brazil Doesn’t Need Poisons to Maintain Food Production
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3011-mst-leader-brazil-doesnt-need-poisons-to-maintain-food-production
Bolivia to enshrine "rights of nature" in law
http://ww4report.com/node/9821
The Law of Mother Earth: Behind Bolivia’s Historic Bill
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3013-the-law-of-mother-earth-behind-bolivias-historic-bill-
Peru: one dead as strike paralyzes Puno
http://ww4report.com/node/9820
No Justice, No Peace: Canadian Mining in Ecuador and Impunity
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/3015-no-justice-no-peace-canadian-mining-in-ecuador-and-impunity-
FARC Car Bomb Kills Two Colombian Police Officers; Separate Attack Kills Two More
http://latindispatch.com/2011/04/28/farc-car-bomb-kills-two-colombian-police-officers-seperate-attack-kills-two-more/
Deportation of Alternative Journalist Becerra Causes Protest in Venezuela
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6160
Libyan Delegation in Venezuela to Find Peaceful Solution
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6156
Director of Radio Uno Survives Assassination Attempt (Honduras)
http://www.friendshipamericas.org/director-radio-uno-survives-assassination-attempt
Globalizing the Struggle: Women’s Voices from the Mesoamerican People's Forum in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3014-globalizing-the-struggle-womens-voices-from-the-mesoamerican-peoples-forum-in-mexico-
Mexico: rights activists threatened as more mass graves unearthed
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9829
Mexico’s House of Deputies Likely to Approve Police State Law
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4397
Mexico’s National Security Law Can’t Be Evaluated, Says PRI’s Navarrete
http://latindispatch.com/2011/04/29/mexicos-national-security-law-cant-be-evaluated-say-pris-navarrete/
Union-Busting Bill Stopped by Union Action—in Mexico
http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/union-busting-bill-stopped-union-action-mexico
Martelly-Clinton Seal Deal for Next Wave of Disaster Capitalism in Haiti
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/haiti-archives-51/3010-martelly-clinton-seal-deal-for-next-wave-of-disaster-capitalism-in-haiti
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/967/blastContent.jsp
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 #1078, May 1, 2011
1. Central America: US-Backed Militaries Arm the Drug Cartels?
2. Mexico: “Drug War” Has Intensified Violence Against Women
3. Haiti: Election Results Challenged, Media Threatened
4. Cuba: Rightwing Terrorist Bosch Dies in Miami
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, 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. Central America: US-Backed Militaries Arm the Drug Cartels?
Military officers in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have been selling significant amounts of heavy weaponry to drug trafficking organizations in Colombia and Mexico, according to US diplomatic cables and criminal charges filed in a US court against a retired Salvadoran captain. The sales have been made possible by what US diplomats called “lax controls” by military authorities and also by the authorities’ failure to bring criminal charges against officers who have been caught.
Some of these weapons were among those supplied by the US government to rightwing Central American armies at a time when they were fighting leftist rebels and social movements. The US is now spending $1.6 billion over a three-year period on a cooperation agreement known as the Mérida Initiative to fight drug trafficking in Central America and Mexico.
Secret US diplomatic cables from Oct. 2, 2008 and Oct. 17, 2008—released by the WikiLeaks group and acquired by McClatchy Newspapers—discuss 50 light anti-tank weapons (LAWs) that “were originally transferred to Honduras in 1992 as part of a US Foreign Military Sales program.” The Honduran military cannot account for 26 of the 50 LAWS. According to the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), three of these weapons turned up Mexico City in January 2008, one was found in Ciudad Juárez in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua in April 2008, and six were recovered in March 2008 on Colombia’s San Andrés Island, east of Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast.
The DIA also reportedly found that “at least two US-produced M433 40-mm grenades have been recovered in Colombia and Mexico.” These apparently came from a 1985 US military sale to Honduras.
A secret June 8, 2009 cable from the US embassy in Guatemala—also released by WikiLeaks—reported on “new information indicating rogue elements within the Guatemalan army are selling military-grade weapons and munitions to narco traffickers.” In April 2009 Guatemalan drug control agents raided a warehouse about 30 km south of Guatemala City containing “11 light machine guns, a light anti-tank weapon (LAW), 563 rocket-propelled grenades, 32 hand grenades, eight Claymore anti-personnel mines, almost 8,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, and three fully armored Suburbans.” US military analysts “were able to determine with a high degree of confidence that many of these weapons and munitions came from Guatemalan military stocks.” Some were made by the Guatemalan military industrial facility (IMG); the cable didn’t indicate whether any of the weapons might have come from the US.
“Twelve junior officers were recently relieved by their commanders for suspicion of selling armaments under their control to drug organizations,” the embassy wrote. The officers weren’t arrested, however--they were “sent home” pending an investigation.
El Salvador has less of a problem than Guatemala, Defense Minister David Munguia Payes told McClatchy Newspapers. But last year former Salvadoran captain Héctor Antonio Martínez Guillén (“El Capitán”) allegedly offered US undercover agents C-4 explosives, up to 3,000 hand grenades and several Russian-made Sam-7 shoulder-fired missiles, presumably from Salvadoran military supplies. The agents lured Martínez Guillén to the US and arrested him at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC, on Nov. 18. According to a Feb. 24 indictment, he thought he was dealing with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and expected to be paid in cocaine. (McClatchy Newspapers 4/21/11)
Although the report didn’t indicate that any of Martínez Guillén’s promised weapons came from the US, a US cable released by WikiLeaks in February reported that some fragmentation grenades used by drug traffickers in Monterrey came from shipments the US made to the Salvadoran military in the early 1990s [see Updates #1067, 1075].
Central American militaries are the main source of the Mexican cartels’ heavy weapons, the US embassy in Mexico wrote in a confidential Mar. 25, 2009 cable provided to the Mexican daily La Jornada by WikiLeaks. “At least 90% of military-origin weapons (such as grenades and light anti-tank weapons)” seized by security agents in Mexico “are traced to Central American military stocks,” according to the cable.
Small arms like rifles come directly from the US to Mexico, the embassy reported. “While estimates vary regarding the percentage of US commercial weapons recovered in Mexico, approximately 90% of all firearms seized and traced are from the United States.” (LJ 3/29/11)
CBS News reported on Apr. 25 that “the Mexican Government has retained an American law firm to explore filing civil charges against US gun manufacturers and distributors over the flood of guns crossing the border into Mexico.” (CBS News 4/21/11) [See Updates #1070, 1073 for information on the US government’s Operation Fast and Furious, which let firearms “walk” into Mexico.]
*2. Mexico: “Drug War” Has Intensified Violence Against Women
Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa’s militarization of the fight against drug trafficking has increased the level of violence against women, a leading Mexican feminist, María Marcela Lagarde y de los Ríos, told the Spanish wire service EFE on Apr. 29. “Everything that is happening favors violence against women,” she said. Calderón’s strategy “cultivates a very violent culture” and “establishes an ideology of violence, of defeat, of war… That’s a very macho culture, very misogynist, and we women are left defenseless.”
A member of the Chamber of Deputies for the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) from 2003 to 2006 and now a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Lagarde is part of the movement to have femicide (misogynist murders) categorized as a special crime, not simply as murder or a hate crime [see Update #1076]. (EFE 4/29/11 via Latin American Herald Tribune)
Ciudad Juárez, near the US border in the northern state of Chihuahua, is one of the places that have suffered the most from femicide and from Calderón’s “drug war,” which has claimed some 35,000 lives since the beginning of 2007. In March this year the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reported that nationally some 230,000 people had been displaced by drug-related violence [see Update #1073]. A new report by María del Socorro Velázquez Vargas, a researcher at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez, gives an even higher number.
Using a survey by Juárez’s municipal government and statistics from Chihuahua’s State Investigation Agency and the federal government’s National Statistics and Geography Institute (INEGI), Velázquez Vargas estimates that 273,000 people were displaced during 2008, 2009 and 2010 in Juárez alone—a full 21% of the municipality’s population. (El Diario (Ciudad Juárez) 4/17/11)
*3. Haiti: Election Results Challenged, Media Threatened
As of Apr. 30 the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the US were all pressuring Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) to change 18 questionable decisions in the Mar. 20 runoff races for Parliament.
On Apr. 20 the CEP announced final results for the long-delayed second round of the 2010 presidential and legislative elections. As expected, the CEP confirmed the victory of conservative presidential candidate Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky”). However, the final results for legislative seats changed from the preliminary count in 19 cases, and critics questioned the decisions for 18 of them: 17 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and one in the Senate. All but two of the changes awarded the seats to candidates from the centrist Unity party of outgoing president René Préval. The CEP didn’t offer any explanation for its decisions, which would give Unity a majority in the 99-member Chamber and a strong position relative to president-elect Martelly, since the party already had a majority in the Senate [see Update #1075].
An Apr. 29 statement by an OAS-CARICOM observer mission “recommend[ed] a return to the preliminary results in each of the 18 cases examined.” On the same day, US senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the influential chair of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, sent an open letter to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton questioning the CEP’s final results. Saying that “Haiti's future depends on a Parliament that is recognized as legitimate,” Leahy urged the State Department “to take appropriate steps to convey our concern, including assessing the visa suitability and the lawful permanent status in the United States of Haitians officials who may be involved in election fraud.”
According to the Haitian radio station Radio Kiskeya, Leahy also intervened on Martelly’s side in December when questionable CEP results in the Nov. 28 elections gave Unity presidential candidate Jude Célestin second place, eliminating Martelly from the runoffs. (Leahy press release 4/29/11 via Sun Herald (Biloxi, Gulfport and South Mississippi); Radio Kiskeya 4/29/11; AlterPresse (Haiti) 4/30/11)
In a statement published on Apr. 29, the French-based organization Reporters Without Frontiers called on Martelly to “defuse” tensions and to “promise to guarantee pluralism, civil liberties and basic constitutional principles” when he assumes office on May 14. A number of Haitian journalists have accused Martelly of threatening the local media [see Update #1075]. (AlterPresse 4/29/11)
*4. Cuba: Rightwing Terrorist Bosch Dies in Miami
Far-right Cuban activist Orlando Bosch died in Miami on Apr. 27 at the age of 84. He had “a long and painful illness,” according to a statement by fellow rightwinger Pedro Corzo.
Although accused of involvement in a number of terrorist actions targeting Cuba’s leftist government, Bosch was only convicted of one: a Sept. 16, 1968 rifle attack on a Polish freighter docked at the Port of Miami. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison but fled the US after getting parole. In 1976 Venezuelan prosecutors charged Bosch and longtime US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) asset Luis Posada Carriles [see Update #1075] in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviación jetliner; 73 people died in that attack. A Venezuelan military court acquitted Bosch and Posada in 1980, but they remained in prison pending a prosecution appeal to a civilian court. Posada escaped in 1985 and went on to work in US operations to supply the rightwing contra rebels in Nicaragua. The Venezuelan civilian court acquitted Bosch in 1987.
Bosch returned to Miami in 1988 and served three months in federal prison for violating parole in the 1968 case. Legally he could have been deported from the US as a convicted felon, but apparently the US refused to repatriate him to Cuba and no other country would accept him. This left Bosch free to live in Miami until his death, openly raising money for a campaign he called “Mortar for Masons.” “We’re not talking about flowers or hot meat pies,” Bosch explained in an interview the Miami Herald published in 1993. (Miami Herald 4/28/11)
In 1997 Bosch denied that he and Posada were involved in the bombings of Cuban hotels that year that left one Italian tourist dead. “The last news I had from [Posada] was about three months ago,” Bosch told Miami’s daily El Nuevo Herald. “I sent him money from some paintings of his that I sold here in Miami.... “We have nothing to do with these attacks. Besides, if we did, we'd still be denying it, since that's illegal in this country” [see Update #405].
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti
Mexico, Colombia, Peru & Chile Look To Integrate Their Economies And Expand Trade With Asia
http://latindispatch.com/2011/04/29/mexico-colombia-peru-chile-look-to-integrate-their-economies-and-expand-trade-with-asia/
Argentina’s Qom-Toba Community Call for an End to Repression and Discrimination
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3016-argentinas-qom-toba-community-call-for-an-end-to-repression-and-discrimination
MST Leader: Brazil Doesn’t Need Poisons to Maintain Food Production
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3011-mst-leader-brazil-doesnt-need-poisons-to-maintain-food-production
Bolivia to enshrine "rights of nature" in law
http://ww4report.com/node/9821
The Law of Mother Earth: Behind Bolivia’s Historic Bill
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3013-the-law-of-mother-earth-behind-bolivias-historic-bill-
Peru: one dead as strike paralyzes Puno
http://ww4report.com/node/9820
No Justice, No Peace: Canadian Mining in Ecuador and Impunity
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/3015-no-justice-no-peace-canadian-mining-in-ecuador-and-impunity-
FARC Car Bomb Kills Two Colombian Police Officers; Separate Attack Kills Two More
http://latindispatch.com/2011/04/28/farc-car-bomb-kills-two-colombian-police-officers-seperate-attack-kills-two-more/
Deportation of Alternative Journalist Becerra Causes Protest in Venezuela
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6160
Libyan Delegation in Venezuela to Find Peaceful Solution
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6156
Director of Radio Uno Survives Assassination Attempt (Honduras)
http://www.friendshipamericas.org/director-radio-uno-survives-assassination-attempt
Globalizing the Struggle: Women’s Voices from the Mesoamerican People's Forum in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3014-globalizing-the-struggle-womens-voices-from-the-mesoamerican-peoples-forum-in-mexico-
Mexico: rights activists threatened as more mass graves unearthed
http://www.ww4report.com/node/9829
Mexico’s House of Deputies Likely to Approve Police State Law
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4397
Mexico’s National Security Law Can’t Be Evaluated, Says PRI’s Navarrete
http://latindispatch.com/2011/04/29/mexicos-national-security-law-cant-be-evaluated-say-pris-navarrete/
Union-Busting Bill Stopped by Union Action—in Mexico
http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/union-busting-bill-stopped-union-action-mexico
Martelly-Clinton Seal Deal for Next Wave of Disaster Capitalism in Haiti
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/haiti-archives-51/3010-martelly-clinton-seal-deal-for-next-wave-of-disaster-capitalism-in-haiti
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/967/blastContent.jsp
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/
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
WNU #1046: Puerto Rican Strike Shuts Down Schools
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1046, August 29, 2010
1. Puerto Rico: One-Day Teachers’ Strike Shuts Down Schools
2. Honduras: Cops Attack Striking Teachers, Again
3. Haiti: Camp Residents Continue Protests
4. Links to alternative sources on: Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba
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. Puerto Rico: One-Day Teachers’ Strike Shuts Down Schools
A one-day strike by Puerto Rican teachers over budget issues and the need for additional teachers shut down about 90% of the island’s 1,500 public schools on Aug. 26, according to the Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR). The walkout was the largest teachers’ strike since early 2008, when the FMPR led a militant 10-day strike [see Update #938]. Interim education secretary Jesús Rivera Chávez called the Aug. 26 strike’s effect “devastating.”
The walkout was called by three unions: the FMPR, the largest, with 42,000 members; the smaller Teachers Association of Puerto Rico (AMPR); and the new National Union of Educators and Education Workers (UNETE). The FMPR and UNETE also led thousands of teachers in a march from San Juan’s Colón Plaza past the Capitol building to La Fortaleza, the governor’s residence.
The teachers charged that the government had failed to fill 1,000 vacancies for the new school year; they said this hurts the students and gives extra work to the teachers, who are also facing a shortage of textbooks and photocopies. The authorities said that they had now filled all but 330 posts, and Education Secretary Rivera Chávez blamed the problem in part on a lack of qualified teachers.
Some 30,000 teachers observed the strike while 13,000 reported for work, according to the government. Union leaders said that parents had generally kept their children at home. “This strike brought about reflection on the part of each family,” UNETE’s Emilio Nieves remarked, “and they came to the conclusion that they should be in solidarity with the teachers.” Rafael Feliciano of the FMPR said the teachers were planning to hold an assembly in September “if the government continues with the same attitude” and would decide whether to hold more job actions. (El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 8/26/10 from AP; Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 8/26/10)
The teachers’ strike follows a number of strikes and protests in the past year over austerity measures imposed by Gov. Luis Fortuño in response to the US economic crisis [see Update #1041].
*2. Honduras: Cops Attack Striking Teachers, Again
Honduran police arrested some 150 people while using tear gas and water cannons to disperse a demonstration by teachers, students and others in Tegucigalpa on Aug. 27, the 23rd day of a strike by teachers over their pension fund and other issues [see Update #1045]. The protest, which blocked Central America Boulevard for three hours, was called by the Federation of Teachers Organizations of Honduras (FOMH), which includes six unions, and the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), a coalition that formed last year to oppose the June 2009 military coup against then-president José Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya Rosales.
"We had to repel violent aggression and remove the protesters,” police commissioner Mario Chamorro said in a press conference. "And we almost immediately released the detainees.” The police said the demonstrators burned tires, set up barricades and confronted police agents with clubs, rocks and firebombs. The Associated Press wire service reported that masked teachers fired rifles and revolvers and broke car and shop windows, although it was not clear whether the AP correspondent claimed to have witnessed this or was citing police sources.
The unions and the FNRP said the police attacked the protesters “in a savage manner,” launching hundreds of tear gas grenades indiscriminately against protesters and bystanders. Agents clubbed protesters and charged into the nearby Francisco Morazán National Pedagogic University (UPNFM), where they searched classrooms for protesters. The operation was directed by Deputy Police Chief Rene Maradiaga Panchame, accused by human rights organizations of participating in the notorious Battalion 3-16 death squad, which disappeared around 100 people during the 1980s. “Before, the sicarios [hired killers] hid themselves—now they don’t,” said Berta Oliva, coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH), a leading human rights organization.
It was not clear how many people were injured by the agents or affected by the tear gas. Protesters charged that two public institutions, the School Hospital and the Social Security Hospital, turned the injured away without treatment. (El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 8/27/10 from AP; Red Morazánica de Información 8/27/10 via FNRP website, ___)
Negotiations to end the strike, which affects some 2 million students, had broken down on Aug. 26. Apparently the government and the unions largely agreed on a settlement under which the government would make overdue payments to the teachers’ pension fund, the National Institute of Teachers’ Social Security (Inprema), that have accumulated since 2007. The teachers estimate that the fund is owed some 3.7 billion lempiras (about $194 million). A union leader, Edwin Oliva, said the stalemate was over interest rates and scheduling for the payments, while Planning and International Cooperation Minister Arturo Corrales, the lead government negotiator, said the problem was the unions’ demand for President Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo Sosa to negotiate the removal of Education Minister Alejandro Ventura. (EFE 8/26/10 via Terra.ar)
*3. Haiti: Camp Residents Continue Protests
In the largest protest to date by Haitians left homeless by a massive Jan. 12 earthquake [see Update #1045], hundreds of people marched in Port-au-Prince on Aug. 26 to demand that the authorities take immediate measures to provide decent housing. The protesters threatened not to take part in presidential and legislative elections scheduled for Nov. 28. “There can be no elections with 1.5 million people living in tents,” demonstration organizers said.
The marchers came from several of more than 1,000 improvised encampments where earthquake survivors have been living for over seven months. The protesters suggested that international aid intended for them had been diverted elsewhere, and they accused the government of President René Préval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive of “political bargaining” with the situation. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 8/26/10)
Also on Aug. 26, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 9,000-member international military and police force, announced plans to double the number of police agents in the camps from 400 to 800, starting on Sept. 15. “This measure is aimed at preventing crime and protecting the most vulnerable groups in the camps,” United Nations Civilian Police spokesperson Jean François Vezina announced at a press conference. There have been repeated calls for more protection in the settlements, especially for women and girls, who have frequently been victims of sexual assaults.
MINUSTAH puts the number of camps at 1,354 in the Port-au-Prince area alone. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 8/26/10)
Twelve Haitian social organizations are planning to hold a conference on the homelessness crisis from Sept. 29 to Oct. 4. The International Symposium on the Right to Housing is to include seminars, protests, press conferences and meetings with the authorities to prioritize the need for proper shelter for earthquake survivors. The conference, timed to coincide with the United Nations’ World Habit Day, celebrated this year on Oct. 1, is also intended to build for Haitian participation in the 2011 World Social Forum (WSF), to be held next February in Dakar, Senegal. (Adital (Brazil) 8/27/10)
*4. Links to alternative sources on: Biodiversity, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba
Americas Program Biodiversity Report – July 2010
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2972
Chile: Mapuche occupy radio station
http://ww4report.com/node/8981
Chilean Miners Sent First Supplies in 18 Days; Families Seeking Legal Action Against Mining Company
http://latindispatch.com/2010/08/24/chilean-miners-sent-first-supplies-in-18-days-families-seeking-legal-action-against-mining-company/
IV Americas Social Forum: Grassroots Organizations Are Still in Charge (Paraguay)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2996
Pachamama and Progress: Conflicting Visions for Latin America’s Future (Paraguay)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2665-pachamama-and-progress-conflicting-visions-for-latin-americas-future
Brazil's president signs "death sentence" for Amazonian river
http://ww4report.com/node/8993
The Price of Fire in Bolivia: Reflecting on the Journeys of a Book
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2656-the-price-of-fire-in-spanish-reflecting-on-the-journeys-of-a-book
Potosí, Bolivia Protest: Resolved or Postponed?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2659-potosi-bolivia-protest-resolved-or-postponed
Peru: Students, Workers, and Teachers in Defense of the Public University
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2658-peru-stuents-workers-and-teachers-in-defense-of-the-public-university
Water or Gold in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2663-people-and-power-water-or-gold-in-ecuador-
Colombia: Violent "Agrarian Counter-Reform" Conspiracy
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2664-the-violent-qagrarian-counter-reformq-conspiracy
Colombia: indigenous leaders murdered
http://ww4report.com/node/8998
Colombia: Santos pledges to return 6 million hectares to displaced
http://ww4report.com/node/8999
Colombia: Blackwater busted for "unauthorized" military training
http://ww4report.com/node/9000
NYT Exploits Own Iraq Death Toll Denial to Trash Venezuela
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/nyt-exploits-own-iraq-dea_b_693041.html
Venezuelan Central Bank: Economy on Path Out of Recession
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5589
Venezuela-Colombia Border Security and Commerce a Top Priority as Bilateral Ties Restored
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5592
Mexico: migrants massacred in Tamaulipas
http://ww4report.com/node/8989
Mexico: Tamaulipas terror escalates
http://ww4report.com/node/8990
In Northern Mexico, Bodies of 72 Migrants Found
http://latindispatch.com/2010/08/26/in-northern-mexico-bodies-of-72-migrants-found/
Mexico: The Voice of the Community Faces Numerous Threats
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2662-mexico-the-voice-of-the-community-faces-numerous-threats
Growing Fuel Instead of Food: Agro-fuels in Chiapas (Mexico)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2657-growing-fuel-instead-of-food-agro-fuels-in-chiapas
Cuba Agrees To Free More Dissidents Into Exile In Spain; U.S. May Take Some
http://latindispatch.com/2010/08/25/cuba-agrees-to-free-more-dissidents-into-exile-in-spain-u-s-may-take-some/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
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 #1046, August 29, 2010
1. Puerto Rico: One-Day Teachers’ Strike Shuts Down Schools
2. Honduras: Cops Attack Striking Teachers, Again
3. Haiti: Camp Residents Continue Protests
4. Links to alternative sources on: Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba
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. Puerto Rico: One-Day Teachers’ Strike Shuts Down Schools
A one-day strike by Puerto Rican teachers over budget issues and the need for additional teachers shut down about 90% of the island’s 1,500 public schools on Aug. 26, according to the Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR). The walkout was the largest teachers’ strike since early 2008, when the FMPR led a militant 10-day strike [see Update #938]. Interim education secretary Jesús Rivera Chávez called the Aug. 26 strike’s effect “devastating.”
The walkout was called by three unions: the FMPR, the largest, with 42,000 members; the smaller Teachers Association of Puerto Rico (AMPR); and the new National Union of Educators and Education Workers (UNETE). The FMPR and UNETE also led thousands of teachers in a march from San Juan’s Colón Plaza past the Capitol building to La Fortaleza, the governor’s residence.
The teachers charged that the government had failed to fill 1,000 vacancies for the new school year; they said this hurts the students and gives extra work to the teachers, who are also facing a shortage of textbooks and photocopies. The authorities said that they had now filled all but 330 posts, and Education Secretary Rivera Chávez blamed the problem in part on a lack of qualified teachers.
Some 30,000 teachers observed the strike while 13,000 reported for work, according to the government. Union leaders said that parents had generally kept their children at home. “This strike brought about reflection on the part of each family,” UNETE’s Emilio Nieves remarked, “and they came to the conclusion that they should be in solidarity with the teachers.” Rafael Feliciano of the FMPR said the teachers were planning to hold an assembly in September “if the government continues with the same attitude” and would decide whether to hold more job actions. (El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 8/26/10 from AP; Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 8/26/10)
The teachers’ strike follows a number of strikes and protests in the past year over austerity measures imposed by Gov. Luis Fortuño in response to the US economic crisis [see Update #1041].
*2. Honduras: Cops Attack Striking Teachers, Again
Honduran police arrested some 150 people while using tear gas and water cannons to disperse a demonstration by teachers, students and others in Tegucigalpa on Aug. 27, the 23rd day of a strike by teachers over their pension fund and other issues [see Update #1045]. The protest, which blocked Central America Boulevard for three hours, was called by the Federation of Teachers Organizations of Honduras (FOMH), which includes six unions, and the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), a coalition that formed last year to oppose the June 2009 military coup against then-president José Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya Rosales.
"We had to repel violent aggression and remove the protesters,” police commissioner Mario Chamorro said in a press conference. "And we almost immediately released the detainees.” The police said the demonstrators burned tires, set up barricades and confronted police agents with clubs, rocks and firebombs. The Associated Press wire service reported that masked teachers fired rifles and revolvers and broke car and shop windows, although it was not clear whether the AP correspondent claimed to have witnessed this or was citing police sources.
The unions and the FNRP said the police attacked the protesters “in a savage manner,” launching hundreds of tear gas grenades indiscriminately against protesters and bystanders. Agents clubbed protesters and charged into the nearby Francisco Morazán National Pedagogic University (UPNFM), where they searched classrooms for protesters. The operation was directed by Deputy Police Chief Rene Maradiaga Panchame, accused by human rights organizations of participating in the notorious Battalion 3-16 death squad, which disappeared around 100 people during the 1980s. “Before, the sicarios [hired killers] hid themselves—now they don’t,” said Berta Oliva, coordinator of the Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH), a leading human rights organization.
It was not clear how many people were injured by the agents or affected by the tear gas. Protesters charged that two public institutions, the School Hospital and the Social Security Hospital, turned the injured away without treatment. (El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 8/27/10 from AP; Red Morazánica de Información 8/27/10 via FNRP website, ___)
Negotiations to end the strike, which affects some 2 million students, had broken down on Aug. 26. Apparently the government and the unions largely agreed on a settlement under which the government would make overdue payments to the teachers’ pension fund, the National Institute of Teachers’ Social Security (Inprema), that have accumulated since 2007. The teachers estimate that the fund is owed some 3.7 billion lempiras (about $194 million). A union leader, Edwin Oliva, said the stalemate was over interest rates and scheduling for the payments, while Planning and International Cooperation Minister Arturo Corrales, the lead government negotiator, said the problem was the unions’ demand for President Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo Sosa to negotiate the removal of Education Minister Alejandro Ventura. (EFE 8/26/10 via Terra.ar)
*3. Haiti: Camp Residents Continue Protests
In the largest protest to date by Haitians left homeless by a massive Jan. 12 earthquake [see Update #1045], hundreds of people marched in Port-au-Prince on Aug. 26 to demand that the authorities take immediate measures to provide decent housing. The protesters threatened not to take part in presidential and legislative elections scheduled for Nov. 28. “There can be no elections with 1.5 million people living in tents,” demonstration organizers said.
The marchers came from several of more than 1,000 improvised encampments where earthquake survivors have been living for over seven months. The protesters suggested that international aid intended for them had been diverted elsewhere, and they accused the government of President René Préval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive of “political bargaining” with the situation. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 8/26/10)
Also on Aug. 26, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 9,000-member international military and police force, announced plans to double the number of police agents in the camps from 400 to 800, starting on Sept. 15. “This measure is aimed at preventing crime and protecting the most vulnerable groups in the camps,” United Nations Civilian Police spokesperson Jean François Vezina announced at a press conference. There have been repeated calls for more protection in the settlements, especially for women and girls, who have frequently been victims of sexual assaults.
MINUSTAH puts the number of camps at 1,354 in the Port-au-Prince area alone. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 8/26/10)
Twelve Haitian social organizations are planning to hold a conference on the homelessness crisis from Sept. 29 to Oct. 4. The International Symposium on the Right to Housing is to include seminars, protests, press conferences and meetings with the authorities to prioritize the need for proper shelter for earthquake survivors. The conference, timed to coincide with the United Nations’ World Habit Day, celebrated this year on Oct. 1, is also intended to build for Haitian participation in the 2011 World Social Forum (WSF), to be held next February in Dakar, Senegal. (Adital (Brazil) 8/27/10)
*4. Links to alternative sources on: Biodiversity, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba
Americas Program Biodiversity Report – July 2010
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2972
Chile: Mapuche occupy radio station
http://ww4report.com/node/8981
Chilean Miners Sent First Supplies in 18 Days; Families Seeking Legal Action Against Mining Company
http://latindispatch.com/2010/08/24/chilean-miners-sent-first-supplies-in-18-days-families-seeking-legal-action-against-mining-company/
IV Americas Social Forum: Grassroots Organizations Are Still in Charge (Paraguay)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2996
Pachamama and Progress: Conflicting Visions for Latin America’s Future (Paraguay)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2665-pachamama-and-progress-conflicting-visions-for-latin-americas-future
Brazil's president signs "death sentence" for Amazonian river
http://ww4report.com/node/8993
The Price of Fire in Bolivia: Reflecting on the Journeys of a Book
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2656-the-price-of-fire-in-spanish-reflecting-on-the-journeys-of-a-book
Potosí, Bolivia Protest: Resolved or Postponed?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2659-potosi-bolivia-protest-resolved-or-postponed
Peru: Students, Workers, and Teachers in Defense of the Public University
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2658-peru-stuents-workers-and-teachers-in-defense-of-the-public-university
Water or Gold in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2663-people-and-power-water-or-gold-in-ecuador-
Colombia: Violent "Agrarian Counter-Reform" Conspiracy
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2664-the-violent-qagrarian-counter-reformq-conspiracy
Colombia: indigenous leaders murdered
http://ww4report.com/node/8998
Colombia: Santos pledges to return 6 million hectares to displaced
http://ww4report.com/node/8999
Colombia: Blackwater busted for "unauthorized" military training
http://ww4report.com/node/9000
NYT Exploits Own Iraq Death Toll Denial to Trash Venezuela
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/nyt-exploits-own-iraq-dea_b_693041.html
Venezuelan Central Bank: Economy on Path Out of Recession
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5589
Venezuela-Colombia Border Security and Commerce a Top Priority as Bilateral Ties Restored
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5592
Mexico: migrants massacred in Tamaulipas
http://ww4report.com/node/8989
Mexico: Tamaulipas terror escalates
http://ww4report.com/node/8990
In Northern Mexico, Bodies of 72 Migrants Found
http://latindispatch.com/2010/08/26/in-northern-mexico-bodies-of-72-migrants-found/
Mexico: The Voice of the Community Faces Numerous Threats
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2662-mexico-the-voice-of-the-community-faces-numerous-threats
Growing Fuel Instead of Food: Agro-fuels in Chiapas (Mexico)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2657-growing-fuel-instead-of-food-agro-fuels-in-chiapas
Cuba Agrees To Free More Dissidents Into Exile In Spain; U.S. May Take Some
http://latindispatch.com/2010/08/25/cuba-agrees-to-free-more-dissidents-into-exile-in-spain-u-s-may-take-some/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
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/
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
WNU #988: May Day Marches Focus on Crisis
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #988, May 3, 2009
1. Latin America: May Day Marches Focus on Crisis
2. Panama: Rightwinger Wins Presidency
3. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Curaçao, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba
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. Latin America: May Day Marches Focus on Crisis
In Latin America, as in much of the world, the traditional International Workers Day marches this May 1 focused on the global economic crisis and especially on increases in the unemployment rate, which is approaching 10% in many areas.
About 10,000 Chileans marched in Santiago on May 1 in a protest organized by the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT), the country’s largest labor confederation. CUT president Arturo Martínez demanded “a new law that distributes the wealth,” a right to strike without the threat of firings and replacement workers, and an end to the practice of letting firms lay workers off “because of the company’s needs.” After the main demonstration had ended, small groups of people wearing masks attacked the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. Dozens of people were arrested. (La Opinión (Los Angeles) 5/2/09 from AP)
Some 100,000 Argentine unionists gathered in downtown Buenos Aires on Apr. 30 for an early May Day event that was in effect a rally for President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her husband, former president Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007). Their supporters in the populist Justicialist Party (PJ, Peronist) face serious challenges in June congressional elections. "What is being debated is not the form of a model of government,” said Hugo Morano, president of the General Workers Confederation (CGT). “What is being debated is the fundamental question, and it's [whether] to snatch away from us the victories we have reached in recent times. The choice is to support a national, people's model that has as its objective dignifying humans, or we go back to the decade of the '90s, where they robbed us and took everything from us."
Argentina experienced massive privatizations and corruption under the neoliberal policies of president Carlos Saúl Menem (1989-1999), which were followed by a financial collapse in 2001. Economic growth returned under Kirchner and Fernández but halted with the onset of the global crisis in 2008. Moyano has reportedly persuaded Kirchner to include union officials on the PJ ticket in June. (Latin American Herald Tribune 4/30/09 from EFE)
In Brazil thousands of workers participated in celebrations in the main cities on May 1, with performances by musical groups and speeches by union leaders calling for lower interest rates to stimulate the economy in response to the crisis. (La Opinión 5/2/09 from AP)
In Bolivia President Evo Morales marked May 1 by signing a decree nationalizing the Bolivian subsidiary of British aviation fuel supplier AirBP in a ceremony before a massive crowd in La Paz’s Plaza de Armas. Morales ordered the military and state oil company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) to take over AirBP, which owns 12 jet fuel service stations at airports in La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Tarija, Beni and Pando. Morales--who had previously nationalized oil and telecommunications companies--also extended workers' benefits, requiring employers to provide mandatory severance pay after 90 months of continuous work and to provide social security coverage for temporary employees. (AFP 5/1/09; La Tribuna (Honduras) 5/1/09 from AFP)
Thousands of workers marched in Ecuador’s main cities carrying signs with slogans such as “Let the gringos pay for the capitalist crisis,” and “Reject the government’s labor policy.” At the Quito march, Edwin Bedoya, vice president of the Unified Workers Front, praised some of the changes made by the government of leftist president Rafael Correa. “But we criticize others,” Bedoya said, “like the layoffs of the compañeros at Petroecuador” (Empresa Estatal Petróleos del Ecuador, the state-owned oil company).
In Colombia, unions and retirees’ organizations mobilized thousands of workers with slogans against unemployment, President Alvaro Uribe’s bid for reelection and the ongoing violence against unionists. Marchers also called for a negotiated settlement to the armed conflict with leftist rebels such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). “We believe that peace with social justice has to be developed here,” Unitary Workers Central (CUT) president Tarsicio Mora said in Bogotá, calling the government’s neoliberal economic model a failure.
Unions supporting Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez held a massive march in Caracas, which also witnessed confrontations between police agents and opposition unionists at a separate march which the police dispersed with tear gas and water cannons.
Thousands of workers marched in 11 cities in Honduras with slogans against the US-sponsored Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). This was the fourth year in a row that the three main labor federations marched together despite their political differences.
Thousands of Cubans took part in the traditional government-sponsored march, headed by President Raúl Castro, to the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana. Slogans included calls for economic efficiency and support for the government, established by the 1959 Revolution. (La Opinión 5/2/09 from AP)
Mexico’s three main labor federations--the centrist Congress of Labor (CT), the independent National Workers Union (UNT) and the more radical Mexican Union Front (FSM)--called off their planned May Day activities in Mexico City following recommendations from health officials trying to control the spread of the H1N1 influenza (“swine flu”). Health Secretary José Angel Córdova Villalobos ordered a suspension of all non-essential services from May 1 to May 5; the National Chamber of the Manufacturing Industry (CANACINTRA) said its members didn’t have to pay wages to workers during the forced layoffs. (MRzine 5/1/09)
More than 30,000 Mexicans marched on May 1 despite the suspension of May Day activities in Mexico City. The largest march was in Puebla, capital of the eastern central state of Puebla. Some 25,000 people from 15 unions and campesino and activist groups participated in a UNT march to the city’s zócalo (main plaza). “Face masks aren’t enough to silence the conscience of the people” and “More harmful than the influenza—the government without shame” were among the chants. The largest contingent was made up of dissidents from sections 23 and 51 of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE). Teachers were also a major force in a march of about 3,000 workers in Tuxtla Gutiérrez in the southeastern state of Chiapas and in a protest by 1,000 workers in Cuernavaca in the central state of Morelos, where teachers fought the government’s Alliance for Quality Education (ACE) program last fall [see Update #968]. Smaller marches were held in other states, including Oaxaca, Guanajuato and Chihuahua. (La Jornada (Mexico) 5/2/09)
Haitian riot police used tear gas to disperse a march of several hundred students, teachers, unionists and others a few blocks from the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, causing panic and minor injuries. The marchers—organized by the Collective for Another May 1 around demands to raise the minimum wage [see Update #984]--regrouped later in the Champ de Mars, the capital’s main plaza, where the government of President René Préval was holding an agricultural and crafts fair around the theme: “solidarity between employers, workers, peasants and artisans to reinforce national production.” “It’s not normal for us to be unable to demonstrate peacefully and freely on May 1,” said a member of the organizing committee of the collective, which is made up of the Popular Democratic Movement (MODEP), Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen ("Small Haitian Peasants Unity"), Batay Ouvriye ("Workers Struggle") and other groups. (AlterPresse 5/1/09, __)
In the French Caribbean department of Guadeloupe, some 20,000 people marked May 1 with a celebration of the 44-day general strike that won an increase in the minimum wage and price reductions for basic necessities earlier in the year [see Update #982]. The demonstrators marched to Petit-Canal, the burial site of unionist Jacques Bino, who was killed on Feb. 17 in a night of violence during the generally peaceful strike. This was the first united May Day march for the island’s leading labor organizations: the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG), led by Elie Domota; the General Confederation of Labor of Guadeloupe (CGTG), led by Jean-Marie Nomertin; and the more radical Central of United Workers (CTU). But the march showed signs of tensions in the Collective Against Extreme Exploitation (LKP), the coalition that led the general strike: the CTU’s Alex Lollia denounced the LKP as a “petit bourgeois movement.” (Le Monde (France) 5/2/09)
In Puerto Rico the Broad Front of Solidarity and Struggle (FASyL), a coalition of 22 unions, held a one-day general strike and a march to protest what unionists said was a plan by Gov. Luis Fortuño to respond to the economic crisis by laying off 30,000-60,000 public employees and by “dismantling” the state through “the privatization of the country’s essential public services.” According to the police, 30,000 people participated in demonstrations in San Juan, during which Rafael Feliciano, leader of the militant Teachers’ Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR), shouted “murderer” at Police Superintendent José Figueroa Sancha. (Feliciano said later that Figueroa was involved in the killing of independence activist Filiberto Ojeda Ríos in September 2005.) Gov. Fortuño, of the conservative New Progressive Party (PNP), said he was studying alternatives for the workers to be laid off by the law he has proposed; he claimed that 40 states in the US have laid off public employees because of the crisis without giving any thought to situation of the workers. (TeleSUR 5/1/09; El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico) 5/1/09).
*2. Panama: Rightwinger Wins Presidency
Millionaire supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli of the conservative Democratic Change (CD) party easily won Panama’s presidential election on May 3. With 80% of the ballots counted at around 10 pm, Martinelli had 60.62% of the votes, against 36.97% for Balbina Herrera of the governing center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). Under current president Martín Torrijos, Panama has had economic growth rates approaching double digits, but growth has slowed with the global crisis. Media analysts note that Martinelli’s victory goes against the recent trend in Latin America for voters to replace conservative governments with left or center-left governments. The PRD had been losing support from the left; at Panama’s May 1 celebrations, labor and activist organizations urged the thousands of participants to abstain from the voting or leave their ballots blank. Herrera was also hurt by her ties to former dictator Manual Noriega. (Reuters 5/3/09; La Opinión 5/2/09 from AP)
*3. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Curaçao, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba
Argentina: Water is Worth More Than Gold! 300 Organizations Collectively Say "No To Open-Pit Mining"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1840/1/
Argentine May Day Massacre-100 Years Ago: Simón Radowitzky, Anarchist and Legend
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1843/68/
Paraguay: Protests and Rubber Bullets Greet Return of Dictatorship Criminal
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1842/1/
Webs of intrigue tangle Bolivia conspiracy case
http://ww4report.com/node/7262
Oil, neo-Nazi connections claimed in Bolivian conspiracy
http://ww4report.com/node/7262#comment-317129
Peruvian Indigenous Peoples Mobilize Across the Amazon
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1833/68/
Correa Triumphs in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1838/68/
Colombia: Paramilitary Chief Says He Helped Finance Uribe’s Campaign
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1834/68/
The US-Colombia FTA and National Insecurity: A Call for Ethical Foreign Policy
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1835/1/
Chávez refuses cooperation against FARC guerillas
http://www.ww4report.com/node/7277
Debrief: New Report on Venezuela's Re-Election Referendum
https://nacla.org/node/5741
Curaçao: Hezbollah connection in narco bust?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1840/1/
Nicaraguan workers' case against Dole dismissed
http://ww4report.com/node/3827#comment-317110
What We Want: Voices from the Salvadoran Left
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1839/1/
El Salvador’s LGBT Movement Continues the Fight
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1832/1/
Mexico’s Swine Flu and the Globalization of Disease
http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2009/04/mexicos-swine-flu-and-globalization-of.html
May Day: Juárez workers defy flu curfew
http://www.ww4report.com/node/7279
Rights group urges Mexico to hold soldiers accountable for abuses
http://ww4report.com/node/7266
Juárez femicide cases go before Inter-American Court of Human Rights
http://ww4report.com/node/7264
The Political Opportunism of Drug War "Spillover"
https://nacla.org/node/5745
The Bigger Picture of the Cuban Embargo and Travel Ban
https://nacla.org/node/5769
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #988, May 3, 2009
1. Latin America: May Day Marches Focus on Crisis
2. Panama: Rightwinger Wins Presidency
3. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Curaçao, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba
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. Latin America: May Day Marches Focus on Crisis
In Latin America, as in much of the world, the traditional International Workers Day marches this May 1 focused on the global economic crisis and especially on increases in the unemployment rate, which is approaching 10% in many areas.
About 10,000 Chileans marched in Santiago on May 1 in a protest organized by the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT), the country’s largest labor confederation. CUT president Arturo Martínez demanded “a new law that distributes the wealth,” a right to strike without the threat of firings and replacement workers, and an end to the practice of letting firms lay workers off “because of the company’s needs.” After the main demonstration had ended, small groups of people wearing masks attacked the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. Dozens of people were arrested. (La Opinión (Los Angeles) 5/2/09 from AP)
Some 100,000 Argentine unionists gathered in downtown Buenos Aires on Apr. 30 for an early May Day event that was in effect a rally for President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her husband, former president Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007). Their supporters in the populist Justicialist Party (PJ, Peronist) face serious challenges in June congressional elections. "What is being debated is not the form of a model of government,” said Hugo Morano, president of the General Workers Confederation (CGT). “What is being debated is the fundamental question, and it's [whether] to snatch away from us the victories we have reached in recent times. The choice is to support a national, people's model that has as its objective dignifying humans, or we go back to the decade of the '90s, where they robbed us and took everything from us."
Argentina experienced massive privatizations and corruption under the neoliberal policies of president Carlos Saúl Menem (1989-1999), which were followed by a financial collapse in 2001. Economic growth returned under Kirchner and Fernández but halted with the onset of the global crisis in 2008. Moyano has reportedly persuaded Kirchner to include union officials on the PJ ticket in June. (Latin American Herald Tribune 4/30/09 from EFE)
In Brazil thousands of workers participated in celebrations in the main cities on May 1, with performances by musical groups and speeches by union leaders calling for lower interest rates to stimulate the economy in response to the crisis. (La Opinión 5/2/09 from AP)
In Bolivia President Evo Morales marked May 1 by signing a decree nationalizing the Bolivian subsidiary of British aviation fuel supplier AirBP in a ceremony before a massive crowd in La Paz’s Plaza de Armas. Morales ordered the military and state oil company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) to take over AirBP, which owns 12 jet fuel service stations at airports in La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Tarija, Beni and Pando. Morales--who had previously nationalized oil and telecommunications companies--also extended workers' benefits, requiring employers to provide mandatory severance pay after 90 months of continuous work and to provide social security coverage for temporary employees. (AFP 5/1/09; La Tribuna (Honduras) 5/1/09 from AFP)
Thousands of workers marched in Ecuador’s main cities carrying signs with slogans such as “Let the gringos pay for the capitalist crisis,” and “Reject the government’s labor policy.” At the Quito march, Edwin Bedoya, vice president of the Unified Workers Front, praised some of the changes made by the government of leftist president Rafael Correa. “But we criticize others,” Bedoya said, “like the layoffs of the compañeros at Petroecuador” (Empresa Estatal Petróleos del Ecuador, the state-owned oil company).
In Colombia, unions and retirees’ organizations mobilized thousands of workers with slogans against unemployment, President Alvaro Uribe’s bid for reelection and the ongoing violence against unionists. Marchers also called for a negotiated settlement to the armed conflict with leftist rebels such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). “We believe that peace with social justice has to be developed here,” Unitary Workers Central (CUT) president Tarsicio Mora said in Bogotá, calling the government’s neoliberal economic model a failure.
Unions supporting Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez held a massive march in Caracas, which also witnessed confrontations between police agents and opposition unionists at a separate march which the police dispersed with tear gas and water cannons.
Thousands of workers marched in 11 cities in Honduras with slogans against the US-sponsored Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). This was the fourth year in a row that the three main labor federations marched together despite their political differences.
Thousands of Cubans took part in the traditional government-sponsored march, headed by President Raúl Castro, to the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana. Slogans included calls for economic efficiency and support for the government, established by the 1959 Revolution. (La Opinión 5/2/09 from AP)
Mexico’s three main labor federations--the centrist Congress of Labor (CT), the independent National Workers Union (UNT) and the more radical Mexican Union Front (FSM)--called off their planned May Day activities in Mexico City following recommendations from health officials trying to control the spread of the H1N1 influenza (“swine flu”). Health Secretary José Angel Córdova Villalobos ordered a suspension of all non-essential services from May 1 to May 5; the National Chamber of the Manufacturing Industry (CANACINTRA) said its members didn’t have to pay wages to workers during the forced layoffs. (MRzine 5/1/09)
More than 30,000 Mexicans marched on May 1 despite the suspension of May Day activities in Mexico City. The largest march was in Puebla, capital of the eastern central state of Puebla. Some 25,000 people from 15 unions and campesino and activist groups participated in a UNT march to the city’s zócalo (main plaza). “Face masks aren’t enough to silence the conscience of the people” and “More harmful than the influenza—the government without shame” were among the chants. The largest contingent was made up of dissidents from sections 23 and 51 of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE). Teachers were also a major force in a march of about 3,000 workers in Tuxtla Gutiérrez in the southeastern state of Chiapas and in a protest by 1,000 workers in Cuernavaca in the central state of Morelos, where teachers fought the government’s Alliance for Quality Education (ACE) program last fall [see Update #968]. Smaller marches were held in other states, including Oaxaca, Guanajuato and Chihuahua. (La Jornada (Mexico) 5/2/09)
Haitian riot police used tear gas to disperse a march of several hundred students, teachers, unionists and others a few blocks from the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, causing panic and minor injuries. The marchers—organized by the Collective for Another May 1 around demands to raise the minimum wage [see Update #984]--regrouped later in the Champ de Mars, the capital’s main plaza, where the government of President René Préval was holding an agricultural and crafts fair around the theme: “solidarity between employers, workers, peasants and artisans to reinforce national production.” “It’s not normal for us to be unable to demonstrate peacefully and freely on May 1,” said a member of the organizing committee of the collective, which is made up of the Popular Democratic Movement (MODEP), Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen ("Small Haitian Peasants Unity"), Batay Ouvriye ("Workers Struggle") and other groups. (AlterPresse 5/1/09, __)
In the French Caribbean department of Guadeloupe, some 20,000 people marked May 1 with a celebration of the 44-day general strike that won an increase in the minimum wage and price reductions for basic necessities earlier in the year [see Update #982]. The demonstrators marched to Petit-Canal, the burial site of unionist Jacques Bino, who was killed on Feb. 17 in a night of violence during the generally peaceful strike. This was the first united May Day march for the island’s leading labor organizations: the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG), led by Elie Domota; the General Confederation of Labor of Guadeloupe (CGTG), led by Jean-Marie Nomertin; and the more radical Central of United Workers (CTU). But the march showed signs of tensions in the Collective Against Extreme Exploitation (LKP), the coalition that led the general strike: the CTU’s Alex Lollia denounced the LKP as a “petit bourgeois movement.” (Le Monde (France) 5/2/09)
In Puerto Rico the Broad Front of Solidarity and Struggle (FASyL), a coalition of 22 unions, held a one-day general strike and a march to protest what unionists said was a plan by Gov. Luis Fortuño to respond to the economic crisis by laying off 30,000-60,000 public employees and by “dismantling” the state through “the privatization of the country’s essential public services.” According to the police, 30,000 people participated in demonstrations in San Juan, during which Rafael Feliciano, leader of the militant Teachers’ Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR), shouted “murderer” at Police Superintendent José Figueroa Sancha. (Feliciano said later that Figueroa was involved in the killing of independence activist Filiberto Ojeda Ríos in September 2005.) Gov. Fortuño, of the conservative New Progressive Party (PNP), said he was studying alternatives for the workers to be laid off by the law he has proposed; he claimed that 40 states in the US have laid off public employees because of the crisis without giving any thought to situation of the workers. (TeleSUR 5/1/09; El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico) 5/1/09).
*2. Panama: Rightwinger Wins Presidency
Millionaire supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli of the conservative Democratic Change (CD) party easily won Panama’s presidential election on May 3. With 80% of the ballots counted at around 10 pm, Martinelli had 60.62% of the votes, against 36.97% for Balbina Herrera of the governing center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). Under current president Martín Torrijos, Panama has had economic growth rates approaching double digits, but growth has slowed with the global crisis. Media analysts note that Martinelli’s victory goes against the recent trend in Latin America for voters to replace conservative governments with left or center-left governments. The PRD had been losing support from the left; at Panama’s May 1 celebrations, labor and activist organizations urged the thousands of participants to abstain from the voting or leave their ballots blank. Herrera was also hurt by her ties to former dictator Manual Noriega. (Reuters 5/3/09; La Opinión 5/2/09 from AP)
*3. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Curaçao, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba
Argentina: Water is Worth More Than Gold! 300 Organizations Collectively Say "No To Open-Pit Mining"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1840/1/
Argentine May Day Massacre-100 Years Ago: Simón Radowitzky, Anarchist and Legend
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1843/68/
Paraguay: Protests and Rubber Bullets Greet Return of Dictatorship Criminal
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1842/1/
Webs of intrigue tangle Bolivia conspiracy case
http://ww4report.com/node/7262
Oil, neo-Nazi connections claimed in Bolivian conspiracy
http://ww4report.com/node/7262#comment-317129
Peruvian Indigenous Peoples Mobilize Across the Amazon
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1833/68/
Correa Triumphs in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1838/68/
Colombia: Paramilitary Chief Says He Helped Finance Uribe’s Campaign
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1834/68/
The US-Colombia FTA and National Insecurity: A Call for Ethical Foreign Policy
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1835/1/
Chávez refuses cooperation against FARC guerillas
http://www.ww4report.com/node/7277
Debrief: New Report on Venezuela's Re-Election Referendum
https://nacla.org/node/5741
Curaçao: Hezbollah connection in narco bust?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1840/1/
Nicaraguan workers' case against Dole dismissed
http://ww4report.com/node/3827#comment-317110
What We Want: Voices from the Salvadoran Left
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1839/1/
El Salvador’s LGBT Movement Continues the Fight
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1832/1/
Mexico’s Swine Flu and the Globalization of Disease
http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/2009/04/mexicos-swine-flu-and-globalization-of.html
May Day: Juárez workers defy flu curfew
http://www.ww4report.com/node/7279
Rights group urges Mexico to hold soldiers accountable for abuses
http://ww4report.com/node/7266
Juárez femicide cases go before Inter-American Court of Human Rights
http://ww4report.com/node/7264
The Political Opportunism of Drug War "Spillover"
https://nacla.org/node/5745
The Bigger Picture of the Cuban Embargo and Travel Ban
https://nacla.org/node/5769
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
WNU #982: Guadeloupe Strike Wins--Repression Next?
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #982, March 8, 2009
1. Guadeloupe: Strike Wins--Repression Next?
2. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, US Policy
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. Guadeloupe: Strike Wins--Repression Next?
A 44-day general strike in the French Caribbean department of Guadeloupe ended with an agreement signed on Mar. 4 by representatives of the French government and the Collective Against Extreme Exploitation (LKP), which led the strike [see Update #981]. In the Jacques Binot Accord--named for a union leader killed the night of Feb. 17 [see Update #980]--the LKP won its basic demand for a raise of 200 euros a month (now about $253) for low-wage workers. The agreement's 165 articles also cover a wide range of economic demands: reductions in charges for school meals, in bank rates, in the price of water, in the price of auto fuel; lower real estate taxes; a 20% reduction in bus fares between towns; a rent freeze; and a freeze on the price of a loaf of bread.
The MEDEF--the Movement of Businesses of France, the most powerful French business association--refused to sign the accord. It is not clear how many workers local MEDEF members employ; estimates range as high as 30,000-40,000. But most Guadeloupeans seemed to consider the agreement a big win. Thousands of strike supporters celebrated with a demonstration in Pointe-à-Pitre, the departmental capital, on Mar. 7; several hundred supporters also demonstrated in Paris. "The economy is on its knees," an activist said in Pointe-à-Pitre when the accord was signed on Mar. 4, "but Guadeloupe will never be the way it was before."
On Mar. 7 the local government announced it was starting an investigation of LKP spokesperson Elie Domota, secretary general of the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG), for "provocation to discrimination, hate and violence against persons or categories of persons because of their origin." The investigation refers to two remarks Domota made during a television appearance on Télé Guadeloupe on Mar. 5: "Either [the employers] will apply the accord, or they'll leave Guadeloupe" and "We won't let a band of békés reestablish slavery." Béké is a Creole term for the descendants of white slave owners.
A general strike which began on Feb. 5 in the nearby overseas department of Martinique was still in progress on Mar. 8. Strikers, employers and the government had agreed on a framework for settling the strike on Mar. 3; as in Guadeloupe, this would include a 200 euro raise for low-wage workers. But some unions refused to sign on, although talks continued. Nine people were arrested on Mar. 6 after confrontations with the police, who said three agents had been shot and "slightly wounded." The night of Mar. 6-7 fire fighters put out numerous blazes set in rubbish and bus shelters. On Mar. 7 some 4,000-5,000 people marched peacefully to support the Feb. 5 Collective, which has led the strike.
In an action clearly inspired by the strikes in Guadeloupe and Martinique, some 10,000-15,000 people demonstrated on Mar. 5 in La Réunion, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean. (Nouvel Observateur (France) 3/6/09 from AP; Ouest-France 3/6/09; Le Monde (France) 3/7/09, some from AFP; AFP 3/8/09)
Activists in Guadeloupe and Martinique stressed effect their actions could have on continental France. Asked in an internet chat on Feb. 27 why the government and employers resisted the 200 euro wage increase for so long, Guadeloupe union leader Domota answered: "Most certainly to prevent the idea from catching on in France." Martinique's pro-independence National Council of Grassroots Committees stressed the French government's fear "of the extension of the mobilizations into France itself" as the world economic crisis accelerates. (MRzine 3/1/09, translated from Le Monde 2/27/09; AlterPresse (Haiti) 5/5/09)
*2. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, US Policy
From Colombia to Guatemala: Carnival Takes Back the Streets
http://nacla.org/node/5580
Argentina blasts CIA warning on instability
http://ww4report.com/node/6968
New Declarations Against Impunity in Uruguay
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1745/1/
Resource Wars in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1744/68/
Lawsuit: Canadian Mining Firm Financed Violence in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1742/68/
Colombia extradites another para commander --over protests from rights groups http://ww4report.com/node/6981
Colombia: UN relief chief meets with ethnicities affected by floods, displacement
http://ww4report.com/node/6982
Venezuela: Chávez sends army to seize rice processors
http://ww4report.com/node/6967
"Anti-imperialism of fools" in Venezuela?
http://ww4report.com/node/6872#comment‑316398
Indigenous Panamanians Defend Nature Against Speculators' Violent Onslaughts http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1744/68/
Will the Winds of Change Reach El Salvador?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1746/68/
El Salvador Left Poised for Election Victory: FMLN Party Promises a People-Centered Government http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1740/1/
Mexico: more army troops to Juárez in wake of prison massacre http://ww4report.com/node/6983
Cuba: For the Love of Libros - A Book Fair and a Fortress
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1747/1/
Pre-Electoral Political Tension and Antagonism High in El Salvador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1741/1/
Solidarity: A Middle Ground for a New Era
http://nacla.org/node/5583
Beyond the Four Freedoms: Obama and Sovereignty
http://nacla.org/node/5568
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #982, March 8, 2009
1. Guadeloupe: Strike Wins--Repression Next?
2. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, US Policy
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. Guadeloupe: Strike Wins--Repression Next?
A 44-day general strike in the French Caribbean department of Guadeloupe ended with an agreement signed on Mar. 4 by representatives of the French government and the Collective Against Extreme Exploitation (LKP), which led the strike [see Update #981]. In the Jacques Binot Accord--named for a union leader killed the night of Feb. 17 [see Update #980]--the LKP won its basic demand for a raise of 200 euros a month (now about $253) for low-wage workers. The agreement's 165 articles also cover a wide range of economic demands: reductions in charges for school meals, in bank rates, in the price of water, in the price of auto fuel; lower real estate taxes; a 20% reduction in bus fares between towns; a rent freeze; and a freeze on the price of a loaf of bread.
The MEDEF--the Movement of Businesses of France, the most powerful French business association--refused to sign the accord. It is not clear how many workers local MEDEF members employ; estimates range as high as 30,000-40,000. But most Guadeloupeans seemed to consider the agreement a big win. Thousands of strike supporters celebrated with a demonstration in Pointe-à-Pitre, the departmental capital, on Mar. 7; several hundred supporters also demonstrated in Paris. "The economy is on its knees," an activist said in Pointe-à-Pitre when the accord was signed on Mar. 4, "but Guadeloupe will never be the way it was before."
On Mar. 7 the local government announced it was starting an investigation of LKP spokesperson Elie Domota, secretary general of the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG), for "provocation to discrimination, hate and violence against persons or categories of persons because of their origin." The investigation refers to two remarks Domota made during a television appearance on Télé Guadeloupe on Mar. 5: "Either [the employers] will apply the accord, or they'll leave Guadeloupe" and "We won't let a band of békés reestablish slavery." Béké is a Creole term for the descendants of white slave owners.
A general strike which began on Feb. 5 in the nearby overseas department of Martinique was still in progress on Mar. 8. Strikers, employers and the government had agreed on a framework for settling the strike on Mar. 3; as in Guadeloupe, this would include a 200 euro raise for low-wage workers. But some unions refused to sign on, although talks continued. Nine people were arrested on Mar. 6 after confrontations with the police, who said three agents had been shot and "slightly wounded." The night of Mar. 6-7 fire fighters put out numerous blazes set in rubbish and bus shelters. On Mar. 7 some 4,000-5,000 people marched peacefully to support the Feb. 5 Collective, which has led the strike.
In an action clearly inspired by the strikes in Guadeloupe and Martinique, some 10,000-15,000 people demonstrated on Mar. 5 in La Réunion, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean. (Nouvel Observateur (France) 3/6/09 from AP; Ouest-France 3/6/09; Le Monde (France) 3/7/09, some from AFP; AFP 3/8/09)
Activists in Guadeloupe and Martinique stressed effect their actions could have on continental France. Asked in an internet chat on Feb. 27 why the government and employers resisted the 200 euro wage increase for so long, Guadeloupe union leader Domota answered: "Most certainly to prevent the idea from catching on in France." Martinique's pro-independence National Council of Grassroots Committees stressed the French government's fear "of the extension of the mobilizations into France itself" as the world economic crisis accelerates. (MRzine 3/1/09, translated from Le Monde 2/27/09; AlterPresse (Haiti) 5/5/09)
*2. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, US Policy
From Colombia to Guatemala: Carnival Takes Back the Streets
http://nacla.org/node/5580
Argentina blasts CIA warning on instability
http://ww4report.com/node/6968
New Declarations Against Impunity in Uruguay
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1745/1/
Resource Wars in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1744/68/
Lawsuit: Canadian Mining Firm Financed Violence in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1742/68/
Colombia extradites another para commander --over protests from rights groups http://ww4report.com/node/6981
Colombia: UN relief chief meets with ethnicities affected by floods, displacement
http://ww4report.com/node/6982
Venezuela: Chávez sends army to seize rice processors
http://ww4report.com/node/6967
"Anti-imperialism of fools" in Venezuela?
http://ww4report.com/node/6872#comment‑316398
Indigenous Panamanians Defend Nature Against Speculators' Violent Onslaughts http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1744/68/
Will the Winds of Change Reach El Salvador?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1746/68/
El Salvador Left Poised for Election Victory: FMLN Party Promises a People-Centered Government http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1740/1/
Mexico: more army troops to Juárez in wake of prison massacre http://ww4report.com/node/6983
Cuba: For the Love of Libros - A Book Fair and a Fortress
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1747/1/
Pre-Electoral Political Tension and Antagonism High in El Salvador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1741/1/
Solidarity: A Middle Ground for a New Era
http://nacla.org/node/5583
Beyond the Four Freedoms: Obama and Sovereignty
http://nacla.org/node/5568
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Monday, 2 March 2009
WNU #981: Hondurans Protest to Protect Forests
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #981, March 1, 2009
1. Honduras: Protests to Protect Forests
2. Guadeloupe: General Strike Continues
3. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico
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. Honduras: Protests to Protect Forests
On Feb. 16 indigenous Hondurans closed off roads in Intibucá department at the beginning of a 12-day mobilization organized by the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) against what they called the destruction of forests in the territories of the indigenous Lenca. COPINH said the protesters succeeded in maintaining "three strategic takeovers...completely paralyzing the exploitation of timber," and that the mobilization also resulted in the temporary suspension of authorizations for cutting trees in San Marcos de Sierra municipality and in Wise community in Intibucá municipality.
The mobilization continued on Feb. 22 with hundreds of people gathering in the city of Esperanza to participate in a Grassroots Assembly for the Defense of the Life of Woods and Water Sources. On Feb. 25 COPINH held a march attended by hundreds of youths and supporters from Esperanza and communities throughout Intibucá department. Concluding the mobilization on Feb. 27, COPINH announced that it was preparing "new and more overwhelming actions."
COPINH is demanding that the forests be exploited for the benefit of the Lenca communities, that the timber be used for local consumption or be exported in finished products, and that the forests be managed in a sustainable manner. Other demands are for decisions on timber and mining concessions to be made with community approval, and for guarantees that water sources will be protected. COPINH rejects US plans to install a military base in Lenca territory in the San Antonio plains, and demands the release of campesino activists Carlos Maradiaga and Isabel Morales. (Adital 2/19/09; COPINH communiqué 2/27/09)
*2. Guadeloupe: General Strike Continues
As of the morning of Mar. 2 a general strike in the French Caribbean department of Guadeloupe continued despite a preliminary agreement; Guadeloupe prefect Nicolas Desforges told the strikers that "you have to know to end a strike." The action, which began Jan. 20 [see Update #980], is the longest general strike France has experienced in more than 20 years.
The preliminary agreement meets the strikers' demand for a wage increase of 200 euros ($259) a month for the lowest-paid workers, to be financed with 50 euros from the companies, 50 euros from the local government and 100 euros from the national government. Some employers signed on to the accord, but the local branch of the MEDEF--the Movement of Businesses of France, the most powerful French business association--refused. The Collective Against Extreme Exploitation (LKP), which has led the strike, insisted that MEDEF members need to sign the accord before Guadeloupeans can return to work. LKP spokesperson Elie Domota, secretary general of the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG), said the strikers would go "from company to company" with protests to get the accord signed.
Talks were scheduled to resume on Mar. 2 in the nearby department of Martinique, which has been on strike since Feb. 5. Michel Monrose, president of the Feb. 5 Collective, the coalition leading the strike, said that a settlement would require a reduction in prices in addition to a wage increase. With a population of about 400,000, Martinique has an official unemployment rate of 21.2%. As in Guadeloupe, the strike has been generally peaceful, but confrontations between youths and the police broke out on the nights of Feb. 24 and 25. (Le Monde (France) 3/2/09 from Reuters; AFP 3/2/09; Alterpresse (Haiti) 2/27/09 from Ase Plere An nou Lite)
*3. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico
That Other World
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5900
Help the Poor or Learn From Them
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5899
Autonomy or New Forms of Domination? The Complex Relationship Between Governments and Movements
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1731/1/
Chile: Gov't Unleashes Anti-Terror Law on Mapuche Activist http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1733/68/
Colombia: surveillance scandal shakes secret police
http://ww4report.com/node/6894
Colombian president restricts wiretapping following scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6931
Colombia: Uribe disses top prosecutor over drug recrim
http://ww4report.com/node/6907
Colombia: Why They Kill the Awa
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1730/1/
Arms kingpin Monzer al-Kassar sentenced in DEA pseudo-deal with FARC
http://ww4report.com/node/6912
Radio: Colombia-Walking the Word of the People
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1736/68/
Colombia: Why They Kill the Awa
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1730/1/
State Department blasts Venezuela on human rights, drugs
http://ww4report.com/node/6933
Venezuela: another attack on Caracas Jewish center
http://ww4report.com/node/6932
Venezuela: "The People Won the Vote, Now The People Must Become the Government"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1738/68/
Analysis of the Venezuelan Referendum: Time for Economic Strategy
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1735/1/
Call on Congress to reject manipulation of U.S. foreign policy, defend fair elections in El Salvador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1734/68/
Mexico: bomb threats shut Ciudad Juárez airport
http://ww4report.com/node/6916
Mexico extradites legendary kingpin Miguel Caro Quintero
http://ww4report.com/node/6915
US claims major hit against Sinaloa Cartel's stateside networks
http://ww4report.com/node/6914
Mexico: attack on Chihuahua governor's motorcade
http://ww4report.com/node/6897
The Crisis Slams Mexico
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5894
Mexico Unconquered: Reviewing a People's History of Power and Revolt
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1732/1/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #981, March 1, 2009
1. Honduras: Protests to Protect Forests
2. Guadeloupe: General Strike Continues
3. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico
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. Honduras: Protests to Protect Forests
On Feb. 16 indigenous Hondurans closed off roads in Intibucá department at the beginning of a 12-day mobilization organized by the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) against what they called the destruction of forests in the territories of the indigenous Lenca. COPINH said the protesters succeeded in maintaining "three strategic takeovers...completely paralyzing the exploitation of timber," and that the mobilization also resulted in the temporary suspension of authorizations for cutting trees in San Marcos de Sierra municipality and in Wise community in Intibucá municipality.
The mobilization continued on Feb. 22 with hundreds of people gathering in the city of Esperanza to participate in a Grassroots Assembly for the Defense of the Life of Woods and Water Sources. On Feb. 25 COPINH held a march attended by hundreds of youths and supporters from Esperanza and communities throughout Intibucá department. Concluding the mobilization on Feb. 27, COPINH announced that it was preparing "new and more overwhelming actions."
COPINH is demanding that the forests be exploited for the benefit of the Lenca communities, that the timber be used for local consumption or be exported in finished products, and that the forests be managed in a sustainable manner. Other demands are for decisions on timber and mining concessions to be made with community approval, and for guarantees that water sources will be protected. COPINH rejects US plans to install a military base in Lenca territory in the San Antonio plains, and demands the release of campesino activists Carlos Maradiaga and Isabel Morales. (Adital 2/19/09; COPINH communiqué 2/27/09)
*2. Guadeloupe: General Strike Continues
As of the morning of Mar. 2 a general strike in the French Caribbean department of Guadeloupe continued despite a preliminary agreement; Guadeloupe prefect Nicolas Desforges told the strikers that "you have to know to end a strike." The action, which began Jan. 20 [see Update #980], is the longest general strike France has experienced in more than 20 years.
The preliminary agreement meets the strikers' demand for a wage increase of 200 euros ($259) a month for the lowest-paid workers, to be financed with 50 euros from the companies, 50 euros from the local government and 100 euros from the national government. Some employers signed on to the accord, but the local branch of the MEDEF--the Movement of Businesses of France, the most powerful French business association--refused. The Collective Against Extreme Exploitation (LKP), which has led the strike, insisted that MEDEF members need to sign the accord before Guadeloupeans can return to work. LKP spokesperson Elie Domota, secretary general of the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG), said the strikers would go "from company to company" with protests to get the accord signed.
Talks were scheduled to resume on Mar. 2 in the nearby department of Martinique, which has been on strike since Feb. 5. Michel Monrose, president of the Feb. 5 Collective, the coalition leading the strike, said that a settlement would require a reduction in prices in addition to a wage increase. With a population of about 400,000, Martinique has an official unemployment rate of 21.2%. As in Guadeloupe, the strike has been generally peaceful, but confrontations between youths and the police broke out on the nights of Feb. 24 and 25. (Le Monde (France) 3/2/09 from Reuters; AFP 3/2/09; Alterpresse (Haiti) 2/27/09 from Ase Plere An nou Lite)
*3. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico
That Other World
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5900
Help the Poor or Learn From Them
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5899
Autonomy or New Forms of Domination? The Complex Relationship Between Governments and Movements
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1731/1/
Chile: Gov't Unleashes Anti-Terror Law on Mapuche Activist http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1733/68/
Colombia: surveillance scandal shakes secret police
http://ww4report.com/node/6894
Colombian president restricts wiretapping following scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6931
Colombia: Uribe disses top prosecutor over drug recrim
http://ww4report.com/node/6907
Colombia: Why They Kill the Awa
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1730/1/
Arms kingpin Monzer al-Kassar sentenced in DEA pseudo-deal with FARC
http://ww4report.com/node/6912
Radio: Colombia-Walking the Word of the People
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1736/68/
Colombia: Why They Kill the Awa
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1730/1/
State Department blasts Venezuela on human rights, drugs
http://ww4report.com/node/6933
Venezuela: another attack on Caracas Jewish center
http://ww4report.com/node/6932
Venezuela: "The People Won the Vote, Now The People Must Become the Government"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1738/68/
Analysis of the Venezuelan Referendum: Time for Economic Strategy
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1735/1/
Call on Congress to reject manipulation of U.S. foreign policy, defend fair elections in El Salvador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1734/68/
Mexico: bomb threats shut Ciudad Juárez airport
http://ww4report.com/node/6916
Mexico extradites legendary kingpin Miguel Caro Quintero
http://ww4report.com/node/6915
US claims major hit against Sinaloa Cartel's stateside networks
http://ww4report.com/node/6914
Mexico: attack on Chihuahua governor's motorcade
http://ww4report.com/node/6897
The Crisis Slams Mexico
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5894
Mexico Unconquered: Reviewing a People's History of Power and Revolt
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1732/1/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Monday, 23 February 2009
WNU #980: Transport Strike in Mexico, New Talks in Guadeloupe
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #980, February 22, 2009
1. Mexico: Transport Strike in 17 States
2. Mexico: Cerezo Brothers Released
3. Guadeloupe: Talks Resume After Violence
4. Colombia: FARC Admits 8 Killings
5. Panama: Colombian Refugee Killed
6. Haiti: US Announces Deportations
7. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, US Policy
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: Transport Strike in 17 States
Some 500,000 Mexican bus and truck drivers and owners held a one-day strike on Feb. 16, slowing freight deliveries and forcing many passengers to find alternative transportation in 17 of the country's 32 entities (31 states and the Federal District). The strike was called by the Alliance of Multimodal Transport, recently formed by about 200 transport associations. The alliance is demanding that the federal government freeze diesel fuel prices at 6.31 pesos (about $0.43) a liter; the fuel is distributed by the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) oil company.
The strike was uneven. It was reportedly imperceptible in Quintana Roo in the southeast, while in México state, near Mexico City, the México-Pachuca and México-Querétaro highways were blocked by some 200 heavy trucks. Authorities in the eastern coastal state of Veracruz said about 4 million passengers were affected by the strike, which took 11,000 buses out of circulation; truckers also blocked the toll booths on the Jalapa highway for five hours. About 400,000 passengers were affected in Saltillo and Monclova in the northern state of Coahuila, while service was normal in Piedras Negras, Acuña and Torreón. In Chihuahua, also in the north, transport workers parked trucks and buses along the sides of the Pan American highway. At least 150,000 passengers were stranded in the central state of Aguascalientes. About 13,000 buses and trucks blocked avenues and intersections in the main cities of the southern state of Oaxaca, while only 345 of the 1,793 buses in Mérida, capital of Yucatán in the southeast, were out of service.
Carlos Demuner Pitol, a strike leader, said some authorities in Chihuahua and other states had offered to raise fares and freight rates if the alliance called off the strike, but the strikers rejected the offer, saying citizens would set their trucks and buses on fire if the rates went up. Another strike leader, Edmundo Delgado, said that if the government rejected their demand, the alliance would bring 300,000 vehicles to the Zócalo plaza in Mexico City. (La Jornada (Mexico) 2/17/09)
*2. Mexico: Cerezo Brothers Released
On Feb. 16 some 150 people greeted the brothers Antonio and Héctor Cerezo Contreras as they left a medium security prison in Morelos state, close to Mexico City. The Cerezos were arrested in 2001 along with their brother Alejandro after three small bombs exploded at Mexico City banks. Many people believe the arrests were connected to reports that their parents, Francisco Cerezo Quiroz and Emilia Contreras, are leaders in the rebel Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR). The brothers were never charged in the bombing but were convicted of possession of weapons and explosives. Alejandro was released in February 2005 after a court overturned his conviction [see Updates #774, 775, 778, 788].
"We will seek reparations of some kind," another brother, Francisco Cerezo Contreras, said when Antonio and Héctor were released. "This is not the end of the matter, although I must say that we no longer have the funds to keep going." The brothers deny having any contact with their parents, who have been underground since the early 1990s. In an open letter dated Feb. 1, Antonio Cerezo told his parents: "We love you very much, and you will always be present in our lives. A big hug to you both. Prisoners today, free forever!" (Inter Press Service 2/17/09)
*3. Guadeloupe: Talks Resume After Violence
On the evening of Feb. 19 French president Nicholas Sarkozy met in Paris with elected officials from the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and promised to work to restore calm to the Caribbean island, which has been paralyzed by a general strike since Jan. 20 [see Updates #978, 979]. He also announced 580 million euros ($737 million) in aid for France's overseas departments, with emphasis on the Active Solidarity Revenue (RSA), a social welfare program.
Hours later the Collective Against Extreme Exploitation (LKP), the coalition leading the strike, agreed to restart negotiations that the strikers had broken off on Feb. 12. The new talks began on Feb. 20 but quickly adjourned for the weekend; they were to resume on Feb. 23. The General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG), the leading force in the LKP, said its negotiators remained "extremely prudent and circumspect" about the government's offers. The strikers are demanding a wage increase of 200 euros ($259) a month. (Libération (France) 2/20/09; UGTG press release 2/20/09)
The new talks followed an escalation of the strike and several outbreaks of violence. On Feb. 16 strikers began blocking roads with dozens of barricades. Shooting began the night of Feb. 17, and a union leader, Jacques Bino, was shot dead. The government blamed "delinquents"; UGTG secretary general Elie Domota has called for an independent investigation. There was more shooting the night of Feb. 18; stores were looted, some dozen fires were set, the Sainte-Rose town hall was sacked, and about 40 people were arrested. The French government announced it was sending four squadrons of mobile armed national police (about 280 agents), in addition to the 1,000 armed national police and 993 regular police already on the island. (There are also 850 armed national police and 1,000 regular police in the nearby overseas department of Martinique, which has been on strike since Feb. 5.)
The situation grew less tense on Feb. 19 as strike leaders for the first time issued explicit appeals for calm to the island's youths. (Libération 2/20/09; AFP 2/21/09; La Jornada (Mexico) 2/19/09 from AFP, DPA)
Sarkozy has had trouble responding to the situation because "he's afraid the dispute may overtake France," Elie Domota told reporters on Feb. 21, alluding to the effects of global recession on Europe. Left-of-center French activists and politicians have started visiting Guadeloupe. Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party (PS) candidate against Sarkozy in 2007, arrived on Feb. 21 to attend Jacques Bino's funeral, scheduled for Feb. 22. French peasant leader José Bové arrived on Feb. 19, as did Olivier Besancenot, spokesperson for the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA). Cheers greeted Bové as he stood in front of the LKP's headquarters at the Palais de la Mutualité to denounce the "neocolonial order that reigns in Guadeloupe" and to call for "food sovereignty." (L'Express (France) 2/22/09; Libération 2/20/09)
Thousands of people marched in France on Feb. 21 to support the Guadeloupean strikers. The largest demonstration, in Paris, drew 10,000 people, according to the police; organizers put the number at 30,000. There were smaller demonstrations in Nantes (700 people), Marseilles, Toulouse (500-600 people), Lyons, Lille, Rennes, Limoges and Strasbourg. Most demonstrators were from the Caribbean, but many national unions and parties supported the marches, including the PS, the NPA, the Greens, Workers Struggle (LO), the French Communist Party (PCF) and the General Workers Confederation (CGT). Slogans included: "Life is expensive under the coconut trees," "Liberty, equality, fraternity, for whom?" and "200 euros here too, yes we can"--with the last three words in English, an allusion to the 2008 campaign slogan of US president Barack Obama. (AFP 2/21/09; Nouvel Observateur (France) 2/21/09)
*4. Colombia: FARC Admits 8 Killings
On Feb. 17 the Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL) published a Feb. 11 communiqué from the Antonio José de Sucre column of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) taking responsibility for the killing of eight people on Feb. 6 at Río Bravo, Barbacoas municipality in the southwestern department of Nariño. The communiqué charges that the eight victims had collaborated with the military and that due to "their responsibility in the death of numerous guerrilleros and their undeniable active participation which involves them in the conflict, they were executed." The FARC didn't specify the ethnicity of the victims but insisted that the "action was not against indigenous people." The communiqué didn't comment on any other recent killings of indigenous people attributed to the FARC in the same area. (ANNCOL 2/17/09)
The Awá indigenous group has reported that the FARC killed a total of 27 Awá in two incidents in Nariño this month and detained at least three minors. As a result, Awá authorities say, some 400 indigenous people have fled their homes for the Nariño towns of Samaniego, Buenavista and Ricaurte. Indigenous groups say they follow a policy of not collaborating with any armed groups, including the military and the rebels. There are about 30,000 Awá living in Colombia and Ecuador.
Rightwing Colombian president Alvaro Uribe Vélez condemned the FARC's actions, and leftist opposition senator Piedad Córdoba, who has helped arrange the release of prisoners held by the FARC [see Updates #972, 974, 977], deplored the killings. (AFP 2/17/09; La Jornada 2/18/09) On Feb. 13 the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN) wrote that the FARC, "by having carried out these atrocious acts, confirm a terrible truth: they have become one more element of terror against the peoples." The ACIN also denounced the government, the media and many political parties, charging that they were trying to use the situation to convince indigenous people to "collaborate with the authorities, with the security forces." (Servicio Informativo "alai-amlatino" 2/13/09)
*5. Panama: Colombian Refugee Killed
A Colombian refugee living in Panama was killed on Feb. 18 near the town of Boca de Cupé in Darién province, a jungle region bordering Colombia that has experienced incursions in the past by Colombian armed groups. Government and Justice Minister Dilio Arcia said the victim was killed when he went outside with his son to work on his property. Local media reported that the victim was named Aureliano Graciano Sepúlveda ("Bolaños" and "Mono Bolaños"); he was granted asylum in 1996, they said, and the three armed men who killed him were probably from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). (Telemetro Reporta (Panama) 2/18/09; Univision 2/18/09 from AP; Crítica en Línea (Panama) 2/19/09)
*6. Haiti: US Announces Deportations
A US federal judge has placed 30,299 Haitians under final deportation orders, the US government announced the week of Feb. 16. The government suspended deportations of Haitians living in the US in September, after four tropical storm ravaged Haiti in one month, devastating crops and killing at least 800 people; the US resumed deportations in December [see Update #970]. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE) bureau was only holding about 600 of the deportable Haitians as of Feb. 9; 243 others were being monitored with electronic ankle bracelets. The government says it expects the other Haitians with deportation orders to leave voluntarily. Otherwise, they will be sought by "fugitive alien teams," according to ICE spokesperson Barbara Gonzalez.
Some immigrant advocates who worked for the election of US president Barack Obama "are dismayed by growing reports of Haitians being deported to the hurricane-wrecked island," according to the St. Petersburg Times. Meanwhile, the government of Haitian president René Préval has been blocking the deportations by telling consular officials in the US not to provide travel documents. As a result deportations have dropped by 89% from about 156 a month before the storms to about 17 a month now. But this means that more Haitians are forced either to await deportation in detention centers or to arrange their own travel documents. (The Journal News (Lower Hudson Valley, NY) 2/21/09; Palm Beach (Florida) Post 2/16/09 from Florida Sun-Sentinel; St. Petersburg (Florida) Times 2/21/09)
In other news, on Feb. 16 Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) published its definitive list of candidates for the Apr. 19 elections, which will fill 12 posts in the Senate. The lists did not include the candidates of the Lavalas Family (FL). The CEP had insisted that it needed official confirmation from the party's leader, former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, now living in South Africa, in order to confirm the FL's candidates [see Updates #978, 979]. According to Maryse Narcisse, the leader of one of the party's rival factions, Aristide refused to sign documents before consuls appointed by people who forced him from power in 2004. (Haiti Support Group News Briefs 2/17/09 from Reuters; AlterPresse 2/17/09)
*7. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, US Policy
Autonomy or New Forms of Domination?
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5877
The Minga of Resistance: Policy Making From Below
http://nacla.org/node/5517
Argentina: Environmental and Human Rights Group Spreads Message With Anti-Soy Video for Kids http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1727/68/
Underground Changes: Argentine Subway Workers Fight for a New Union http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1729/1/
Argentina expels Holocaust denier "traditionalist" bishop
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6881
Is Brazil Creating Its Own "Backyard" in Latin America?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1720/1/
Migration and Mechanization in Brazil's Biofuel Cane Fields
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5851
Ecuador expels US diplomats
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6880
Colombia: indigenous leaders issue "ultimatum" to FARC
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6882
An Important but Risky Victory for Venezuela and for Socialism
http://nacla.org/node/5526
Venezuela's Referendum: Media's Double Standards
http://nacla.org/node/5522
Venezuelans Vote to Eliminate Two-Term Limit on All Elected Office 54.4% to 45.6% http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1719/68/
Venezuelans Vote Peacefully Over whether to Amend Constitution http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1718/68/
Venezuelan Jewish leader accuses Chávez of fomenting anti-Semitism
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6872
Victory in Venezuela: Chavez, Progress and Media Coverage
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1721/1/
A New Attitude in the White House? State Department Calls Bolivian, Venezuelan Referendums "Democratic" http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5879
Night of the Golden Iguana: Land Conflicts Riddle Mexican Tourism Development
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5837
Mexico: Juárez police chief steps down, citing threats
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6879
Mexico: Gulf Cartel behind border protests?
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6871
Chiapas Under Siege by Global Industries
http://nacla.org/node/5520
Obama: Improve Relations with Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1722/68/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #980, February 22, 2009
1. Mexico: Transport Strike in 17 States
2. Mexico: Cerezo Brothers Released
3. Guadeloupe: Talks Resume After Violence
4. Colombia: FARC Admits 8 Killings
5. Panama: Colombian Refugee Killed
6. Haiti: US Announces Deportations
7. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, US Policy
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: Transport Strike in 17 States
Some 500,000 Mexican bus and truck drivers and owners held a one-day strike on Feb. 16, slowing freight deliveries and forcing many passengers to find alternative transportation in 17 of the country's 32 entities (31 states and the Federal District). The strike was called by the Alliance of Multimodal Transport, recently formed by about 200 transport associations. The alliance is demanding that the federal government freeze diesel fuel prices at 6.31 pesos (about $0.43) a liter; the fuel is distributed by the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) oil company.
The strike was uneven. It was reportedly imperceptible in Quintana Roo in the southeast, while in México state, near Mexico City, the México-Pachuca and México-Querétaro highways were blocked by some 200 heavy trucks. Authorities in the eastern coastal state of Veracruz said about 4 million passengers were affected by the strike, which took 11,000 buses out of circulation; truckers also blocked the toll booths on the Jalapa highway for five hours. About 400,000 passengers were affected in Saltillo and Monclova in the northern state of Coahuila, while service was normal in Piedras Negras, Acuña and Torreón. In Chihuahua, also in the north, transport workers parked trucks and buses along the sides of the Pan American highway. At least 150,000 passengers were stranded in the central state of Aguascalientes. About 13,000 buses and trucks blocked avenues and intersections in the main cities of the southern state of Oaxaca, while only 345 of the 1,793 buses in Mérida, capital of Yucatán in the southeast, were out of service.
Carlos Demuner Pitol, a strike leader, said some authorities in Chihuahua and other states had offered to raise fares and freight rates if the alliance called off the strike, but the strikers rejected the offer, saying citizens would set their trucks and buses on fire if the rates went up. Another strike leader, Edmundo Delgado, said that if the government rejected their demand, the alliance would bring 300,000 vehicles to the Zócalo plaza in Mexico City. (La Jornada (Mexico) 2/17/09)
*2. Mexico: Cerezo Brothers Released
On Feb. 16 some 150 people greeted the brothers Antonio and Héctor Cerezo Contreras as they left a medium security prison in Morelos state, close to Mexico City. The Cerezos were arrested in 2001 along with their brother Alejandro after three small bombs exploded at Mexico City banks. Many people believe the arrests were connected to reports that their parents, Francisco Cerezo Quiroz and Emilia Contreras, are leaders in the rebel Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR). The brothers were never charged in the bombing but were convicted of possession of weapons and explosives. Alejandro was released in February 2005 after a court overturned his conviction [see Updates #774, 775, 778, 788].
"We will seek reparations of some kind," another brother, Francisco Cerezo Contreras, said when Antonio and Héctor were released. "This is not the end of the matter, although I must say that we no longer have the funds to keep going." The brothers deny having any contact with their parents, who have been underground since the early 1990s. In an open letter dated Feb. 1, Antonio Cerezo told his parents: "We love you very much, and you will always be present in our lives. A big hug to you both. Prisoners today, free forever!" (Inter Press Service 2/17/09)
*3. Guadeloupe: Talks Resume After Violence
On the evening of Feb. 19 French president Nicholas Sarkozy met in Paris with elected officials from the French overseas department of Guadeloupe and promised to work to restore calm to the Caribbean island, which has been paralyzed by a general strike since Jan. 20 [see Updates #978, 979]. He also announced 580 million euros ($737 million) in aid for France's overseas departments, with emphasis on the Active Solidarity Revenue (RSA), a social welfare program.
Hours later the Collective Against Extreme Exploitation (LKP), the coalition leading the strike, agreed to restart negotiations that the strikers had broken off on Feb. 12. The new talks began on Feb. 20 but quickly adjourned for the weekend; they were to resume on Feb. 23. The General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG), the leading force in the LKP, said its negotiators remained "extremely prudent and circumspect" about the government's offers. The strikers are demanding a wage increase of 200 euros ($259) a month. (Libération (France) 2/20/09; UGTG press release 2/20/09)
The new talks followed an escalation of the strike and several outbreaks of violence. On Feb. 16 strikers began blocking roads with dozens of barricades. Shooting began the night of Feb. 17, and a union leader, Jacques Bino, was shot dead. The government blamed "delinquents"; UGTG secretary general Elie Domota has called for an independent investigation. There was more shooting the night of Feb. 18; stores were looted, some dozen fires were set, the Sainte-Rose town hall was sacked, and about 40 people were arrested. The French government announced it was sending four squadrons of mobile armed national police (about 280 agents), in addition to the 1,000 armed national police and 993 regular police already on the island. (There are also 850 armed national police and 1,000 regular police in the nearby overseas department of Martinique, which has been on strike since Feb. 5.)
The situation grew less tense on Feb. 19 as strike leaders for the first time issued explicit appeals for calm to the island's youths. (Libération 2/20/09; AFP 2/21/09; La Jornada (Mexico) 2/19/09 from AFP, DPA)
Sarkozy has had trouble responding to the situation because "he's afraid the dispute may overtake France," Elie Domota told reporters on Feb. 21, alluding to the effects of global recession on Europe. Left-of-center French activists and politicians have started visiting Guadeloupe. Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party (PS) candidate against Sarkozy in 2007, arrived on Feb. 21 to attend Jacques Bino's funeral, scheduled for Feb. 22. French peasant leader José Bové arrived on Feb. 19, as did Olivier Besancenot, spokesperson for the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA). Cheers greeted Bové as he stood in front of the LKP's headquarters at the Palais de la Mutualité to denounce the "neocolonial order that reigns in Guadeloupe" and to call for "food sovereignty." (L'Express (France) 2/22/09; Libération 2/20/09)
Thousands of people marched in France on Feb. 21 to support the Guadeloupean strikers. The largest demonstration, in Paris, drew 10,000 people, according to the police; organizers put the number at 30,000. There were smaller demonstrations in Nantes (700 people), Marseilles, Toulouse (500-600 people), Lyons, Lille, Rennes, Limoges and Strasbourg. Most demonstrators were from the Caribbean, but many national unions and parties supported the marches, including the PS, the NPA, the Greens, Workers Struggle (LO), the French Communist Party (PCF) and the General Workers Confederation (CGT). Slogans included: "Life is expensive under the coconut trees," "Liberty, equality, fraternity, for whom?" and "200 euros here too, yes we can"--with the last three words in English, an allusion to the 2008 campaign slogan of US president Barack Obama. (AFP 2/21/09; Nouvel Observateur (France) 2/21/09)
*4. Colombia: FARC Admits 8 Killings
On Feb. 17 the Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL) published a Feb. 11 communiqué from the Antonio José de Sucre column of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) taking responsibility for the killing of eight people on Feb. 6 at Río Bravo, Barbacoas municipality in the southwestern department of Nariño. The communiqué charges that the eight victims had collaborated with the military and that due to "their responsibility in the death of numerous guerrilleros and their undeniable active participation which involves them in the conflict, they were executed." The FARC didn't specify the ethnicity of the victims but insisted that the "action was not against indigenous people." The communiqué didn't comment on any other recent killings of indigenous people attributed to the FARC in the same area. (ANNCOL 2/17/09)
The Awá indigenous group has reported that the FARC killed a total of 27 Awá in two incidents in Nariño this month and detained at least three minors. As a result, Awá authorities say, some 400 indigenous people have fled their homes for the Nariño towns of Samaniego, Buenavista and Ricaurte. Indigenous groups say they follow a policy of not collaborating with any armed groups, including the military and the rebels. There are about 30,000 Awá living in Colombia and Ecuador.
Rightwing Colombian president Alvaro Uribe Vélez condemned the FARC's actions, and leftist opposition senator Piedad Córdoba, who has helped arrange the release of prisoners held by the FARC [see Updates #972, 974, 977], deplored the killings. (AFP 2/17/09; La Jornada 2/18/09) On Feb. 13 the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN) wrote that the FARC, "by having carried out these atrocious acts, confirm a terrible truth: they have become one more element of terror against the peoples." The ACIN also denounced the government, the media and many political parties, charging that they were trying to use the situation to convince indigenous people to "collaborate with the authorities, with the security forces." (Servicio Informativo "alai-amlatino" 2/13/09)
*5. Panama: Colombian Refugee Killed
A Colombian refugee living in Panama was killed on Feb. 18 near the town of Boca de Cupé in Darién province, a jungle region bordering Colombia that has experienced incursions in the past by Colombian armed groups. Government and Justice Minister Dilio Arcia said the victim was killed when he went outside with his son to work on his property. Local media reported that the victim was named Aureliano Graciano Sepúlveda ("Bolaños" and "Mono Bolaños"); he was granted asylum in 1996, they said, and the three armed men who killed him were probably from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). (Telemetro Reporta (Panama) 2/18/09; Univision 2/18/09 from AP; Crítica en Línea (Panama) 2/19/09)
*6. Haiti: US Announces Deportations
A US federal judge has placed 30,299 Haitians under final deportation orders, the US government announced the week of Feb. 16. The government suspended deportations of Haitians living in the US in September, after four tropical storm ravaged Haiti in one month, devastating crops and killing at least 800 people; the US resumed deportations in December [see Update #970]. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE) bureau was only holding about 600 of the deportable Haitians as of Feb. 9; 243 others were being monitored with electronic ankle bracelets. The government says it expects the other Haitians with deportation orders to leave voluntarily. Otherwise, they will be sought by "fugitive alien teams," according to ICE spokesperson Barbara Gonzalez.
Some immigrant advocates who worked for the election of US president Barack Obama "are dismayed by growing reports of Haitians being deported to the hurricane-wrecked island," according to the St. Petersburg Times. Meanwhile, the government of Haitian president René Préval has been blocking the deportations by telling consular officials in the US not to provide travel documents. As a result deportations have dropped by 89% from about 156 a month before the storms to about 17 a month now. But this means that more Haitians are forced either to await deportation in detention centers or to arrange their own travel documents. (The Journal News (Lower Hudson Valley, NY) 2/21/09; Palm Beach (Florida) Post 2/16/09 from Florida Sun-Sentinel; St. Petersburg (Florida) Times 2/21/09)
In other news, on Feb. 16 Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) published its definitive list of candidates for the Apr. 19 elections, which will fill 12 posts in the Senate. The lists did not include the candidates of the Lavalas Family (FL). The CEP had insisted that it needed official confirmation from the party's leader, former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, now living in South Africa, in order to confirm the FL's candidates [see Updates #978, 979]. According to Maryse Narcisse, the leader of one of the party's rival factions, Aristide refused to sign documents before consuls appointed by people who forced him from power in 2004. (Haiti Support Group News Briefs 2/17/09 from Reuters; AlterPresse 2/17/09)
*7. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, US Policy
Autonomy or New Forms of Domination?
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5877
The Minga of Resistance: Policy Making From Below
http://nacla.org/node/5517
Argentina: Environmental and Human Rights Group Spreads Message With Anti-Soy Video for Kids http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1727/68/
Underground Changes: Argentine Subway Workers Fight for a New Union http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1729/1/
Argentina expels Holocaust denier "traditionalist" bishop
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6881
Is Brazil Creating Its Own "Backyard" in Latin America?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1720/1/
Migration and Mechanization in Brazil's Biofuel Cane Fields
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5851
Ecuador expels US diplomats
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6880
Colombia: indigenous leaders issue "ultimatum" to FARC
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6882
An Important but Risky Victory for Venezuela and for Socialism
http://nacla.org/node/5526
Venezuela's Referendum: Media's Double Standards
http://nacla.org/node/5522
Venezuelans Vote to Eliminate Two-Term Limit on All Elected Office 54.4% to 45.6% http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1719/68/
Venezuelans Vote Peacefully Over whether to Amend Constitution http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1718/68/
Venezuelan Jewish leader accuses Chávez of fomenting anti-Semitism
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6872
Victory in Venezuela: Chavez, Progress and Media Coverage
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1721/1/
A New Attitude in the White House? State Department Calls Bolivian, Venezuelan Referendums "Democratic" http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5879
Night of the Golden Iguana: Land Conflicts Riddle Mexican Tourism Development
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5837
Mexico: Juárez police chief steps down, citing threats
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6879
Mexico: Gulf Cartel behind border protests?
http://www.ww4report.com/node/6871
Chiapas Under Siege by Global Industries
http://nacla.org/node/5520
Obama: Improve Relations with Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1722/68/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)