Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #970, December 14, 2008
1. Latin America: Groups Mark Human Rights Day
2. Argentina: Mass Graves Excavated
3. Haiti: US Resumes Deportations
4. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, 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. Latin America: Groups Mark Human Rights Day
On Dec. 10 human rights organizations in Latin America celebrated the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by holding ceremonies, staging protests and issuing reports on the situation in their countries.
The Venezuelan Program of Education-Action in Human Rights (Provea) released its 20th Annual Report on the Human Rights Situation in Venezuela on Dec. 9. The report, which covers the period from October 2007 to September 2008, notes positive developments, including advances in education and in the right to nutrition; an increase in consumption by the poorest sectors; the creation of an office for the human rights of seniors; a decline in the repression of demonstrations; and a stronger commitment by the Attorney General's Office (FGR) to fight impunity for police agents. However, Provea reported that the number of people killed by security agencies or the armed forces had risen to 274, largely through executions. It also criticized the government of President Hugo Chávez for failing to slow the country's overall homicide rate, which Provea says rose 10.86% over the year before, to more than 10,000. It noted the high number of murders of campesinos and union members, which made Venezuela one of the most dangerous countries for unionists [see Updates #968, 969]. (Adital 12/10/08; El Universal (Caracas) 12/11/08)
Since Colombian president Alvaro Uribe took office in 2002, more than 14,000 people have died or disappeared for social or political reasons, not counting deaths in combat, according to statistics released by human rights organizations in Geneva on Dec. 9. The groups attributed 75% of the killings to the government. Unionists and human rights activists have had especially high murder rates, with 40 unionists murdered in the first eight months of 2008. Of the 2,700 unionists killed in the last 20 years, 480 died in 2002-2007 period. The groups said 75 human rights activists have been killed or disappeared under Uribe's government, and that 932 people were tortured during the period, including 731 that died. The government released a report on Dec. 10 that gave a more positive view of the statistics, noting that while 99 unionists were killed in 2002, the number had fallen to eight in 2007. (Adital 12/10/08)
Brazilian human rights organizations were planning to mark the Human Rights Declaration anniversary by holding their 11th National Human Rights Conference, from Dec. 15 to Dec. 18. The theme will be "Democracy, Development and Human Rights: Overcoming Inequalities." The conferences, which include government and nongovernmental organizations, started in 1996 and were held annually until 2004; since then, they have taken place every two years. The conference organizers held state and district conferences up to Sept. 15 to build for the national meeting. (Adital 12/10/08)
In Guatemala, the organizations in the Convergence for Human Rights organized a caravan that visited different sites in the capital to promote human rights demands. At the US embassy, Aura Elena Farfán, from the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared, delivered a communiqué to Ambassador Stephen Macfarland calling for the right to migrate, the right to development and the right to self-determination of peoples. The caravan also planned to visit the Defense Ministry to demand that the military comply with President Alvaro Colom's order to turn over military archives. At the Chambers of Business and Industry, the protesters were planning to demand respect for labor rights, the payment of minimum wage and benefits, and the right to social security. Other activities that day included a Human Rights Festival in the Plaza Central organized by the Center for Legal Action in Human Rights (CALDH). (Adital 12/10/08 from Cerigua)
In Mexico the "All Rights for All" National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations called on the federal, state and local governments to work with human rights groups and to end what the group called a policy of criminalization of social protest. It rejected efforts to reinstate the death penalty. Members of the organization Children for Identity and Justice Against Forgetting and Silence (HIJOS Mexico) demonstrated at the government's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) offices to demand the release of political prisoners and the return of disappeared persons. (La Jornada (Mexico) 12/11/08)
*2. Argentina: Mass Graves Excavated
The Argentine government, the opposition and grassroots organizations all marked Dec. 10 as the 25th anniversary of the return of democratic rule after a bloody 1976-1983 military dictatorship. The Mothers (Founding Line) and the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo--organizations of women demanding the return of youths disappeared during the dictatorship's "dirty war" against suspected leftists--demonstrated in the Plaza de Mayo to demand justice for the crimes of the period. "Let's look after democracy," said Tatí Almayda, one of the leaders of the movement. "And let's get justice now, also, because the perpetrators of genocide are dying of old age--and the mothers are too."
One day earlier, on Dec. 9, experts from the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) reported on their excavations in Pozo de Arana, a secret detention center used by the dictatorship from 1976 to 1977, or later, near La Plata in Buenos Aires province. They reported that they had found more than 10,000 charred bone fragments in four mass graves at the site, along with a wall apparently used for firing squads. The excavations, which were ordered last year by prosecutor Félix Crous, confirmed testimony by witnesses that the military executed detainees at the center and then incinerated and buried the remains. The EAAF has sent 38 bone samples to specialists in the US who worked on identifying the remains of victims of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
Former Buenos Aires province police investigations director Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz and his deputy, Ramón Camps, were responsible for Pozo de Arana; police agent Miguel Kearney was in direct command of the detention center. Camps died of cancer in 1994 without having spent a day in jail; Kearney is currently in detention and is being tried for his role at the center. Etchecolatz was sentenced to life in prison in September 2006, thanks in part to the testimony of a former detainee at the center, Jorge Julio López, who disappeared at the same time that Etchecolatz was convicted [see Updates #869, 881, 892, 917]. Among those presumed killed at the center were six students from a La Plata high school who were seized on Sept. 16, 1976 for participating in a protest over increased bus fares; they were the subject of a well-known film, "La Noche de los Lápices" ("The Night of the Pencils").
Also on Dec. 10, a court upheld preventive detention for Juan Carlos Rolón, who has been accused of the disappearance and death of journalist Rodolfo Walsh in 1977; Walsh was reportedly executed at the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) in the city of Buenos Aires. (La Jornada 12/11/08 from Notimex, AFP, PL; El Diario (Mexico) 12/10/08 from AFP; El País (Spain) 12/11/08 from correspondent)
*3. Haiti: US Resumes Deportations
Haiti marked the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' 60th anniversary with an official ceremony organized by the United Nations at the Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty (FOKAL), a nongovernmental organization formerly headed by Prime Minster Michéle Duvivier Pierre-Louis. The event included the screening of a film, "The Dream of Water," as the opening of a human rights film festival. The Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (Pohdh) also organized activities to celebrate the anniversary. (AlterPresse 12/10/08)
Two days earlier, on Dec. 8, the US government acknowledged that it had resumed deporting Haitians. It suspended the deportations in September after Haiti was hit by two hurricanes and two tropical storms in one month, leaving at least 800 people dead [see Update #962]. "We determined that it was appropriate to resume based on the circumstances in Haiti," Nicole Navas, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said.
"We still have thousands of cubic meters of mud being removed from [the northwestern city of] Gonaïves," Haitian consul general in Miami told the Miami Herald. "There are still people in shelters, and of course people know children are suffering from malnutrition in Haiti." "Deportations at this time are simply inhumane, sending people to conditions of famine and disease," said Randolph McGrorty, executive director of Catholic Legal Services in Miami. The policy is "so cruel and misguided that I cannot explain it by any other way than to condemn the policy as racist." (Miami Herald 12/9/08)
*4. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, US policy
Brazil: high court upholds Amazon indigenous land rights
http://ww4report.com/node/6508
Bolivia: drought hits campesinos hard
http://ww4report.com/node/6502
DEA complicit in Bolivia coke trade: Evo
http://ww4report.com/node/6501
Evo Morales: DEA Complicit in Bolivia Drug Trade
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1624/68/
Ecuador announces default on "illegitimate" debt
http://ww4report.com/node/6515
Colombia extradites Valle Cartel kingpin
http://ww4report.com/node/6514
Colombia: survivors remember "Bananera Massacre"
http://ww4report.com/node/6500
Colombian Cane Cutters Score Victory, But Struggle of Afro-Colombians Continues http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1625/1/
Colombia: Social Conflict Replaces Warfare
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1623/1/
Indigenous Justice in Colombia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1618/1/
Colombia: "We Need a Popular Movement in Order to Win the Elections"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1622/68/
Colombian army's "numbers don't add up" in war on FARC
http://ww4report.com/node/6524
Colombia's "Capt. Nemo" on trial
http://ww4report.com/node/6523
No Justice for Guatemala Massacre Victims After 26 Years
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1621/68/
Mexico: narco-war death toll doubles '07; Juárez femicide breaks records
http://ww4report.com/node/6499
Mexico pledges to halve greenhouse emissions--with carbon-trading
http://ww4report.com/node/6513
Group Calls for Obama to Suspend CAFTA
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1617/68/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/news/feed
http://nacla.org/fromaroundtheweb/feed
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, 15 December 2008
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
WNU #969: US Crisis Squeezes Latin American Economies
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #969, December 7, 2008
1. Latin America: US Deficit Squeezes Credit
2. Argentina: Government Announces Stimulus
3. Mexico: Government Tries to Save Jobs
4. Mexico: Layoffs Up, Unionists Busted
5. Venezuela: Who Killed Aragua Unionists?
6. Links to alternative sources on: Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, 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. Latin America: US Deficit Squeezes Credit
Efforts by the US to fight its own financial crisis may cut Latin American governments off from access to credit at a time when they need an estimated $250 billion for financing their 2009 budgets. The US has been issuing huge volumes of Treasury bonds and is running a fiscal deficit that could top $1 trillion next year. The Latin American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (CLAAF)--a group of economists including former Argentine finance minister Roque Fernández and former Venezuelan central bank president Ruth de Krivoy--warns that the massive borrowing by the US government may "crowd out" Latin American and other emerging economies from the credit markets.
The drying up of credit comes as the region is already suffering from other effects of the global crisis, notably a decline of demand for exports. The CLAAF said existing funding through the International Monetary Fund and other financial institutions is inadequate and that "unprecedented resources" are needed. (Financial Times (UK) 12/4/08)
*2. Argentina: Government Announces Stimulus
On Nov. 25 Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced an economic stimulus package that includes tax breaks for Argentines who repatriate money they've sent abroad and invest it in infrastructure, real estate, agriculture, industry or government bonds; tax breaks for firms that create new jobs; an amnesty on unpaid taxes for the smallest employers if they give formal employment status to off-the-books workers; and a $21 billion public works plan intended to double the number of jobs in construction.
On Dec. 5 Fernández announced an additional $3.85 billion stimulus package meant to boost the economy with $1 billion in cheap credits for the automotive sector, $1.1 billion in other consumer credits, and a 5% cut in export duties for wheat and corn--although probably not for the soy producers, who staged a series of strikes earlier in the year when Fernández tried to increase their duties [see Update #955].
The Fernández government has also been moving to regain control of funds and companies that were nationalized under the neoliberal policies of previous governments, especially during the administration of former president Carlos Menem (1989-1999). In November the government finalized legislation to nationalize some $24 billion in private pension funds [see Update #965], and some of that money will be used to finance the infrastructure program. On Dec. 4 the Chamber of Deputies voted 152 to 84 to seize the country's largest airline, Aerolíneas Argentinas, from the Spanish company Grupo Marsans; the airline was privatized 18 years ago.
Argentina enjoyed five years of strong growth after its dramatic economic collapse at the end of 2001, but now it seems to have been brought down by the world economic situation. The Center for Financial Investigations at Buenos Aires' Torcuato Di Tella University reports that consumer confidence dropped by 24% in November compared to the same period in 2007, while willingness to buy high-cost products like cars and refrigerators fell by 41%. (MercoPress (Montevideo) 11/26/08, 12/5/08; BBC 12/4/08)
*3. Mexico: Government Tries to Save Jobs
In a Dec. 5 interview with Bloomberg Television, Mexican Economy Minister Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said the government will react to job losses from the global economic crisis by spending $12.5 billion on roads, ports, railroads and other projects in the first quarter of 2009. He said the government is also studying programs to prevent layoffs in manufacturing. "In manufacturing we'll suffer the most in terms of jobs because of lower demand for our exports," he said. Mexico is especially vulnerable to the recession in the US, which buys 80% of Mexico's exports. Ruiz Mateos expects Mexico to grow at 1.5-1.8% next year, but a central bank survey of analysts reported a median estimate of just 0.38%. (Bloomberg 12/5/08) [Mexico's growth rate was about 3.3% in 2007, less than half the rates for Argentina (8.6%) and Venezuela (8.5%)--see Update #926].
Many Mexican companies are wholly or partly owned by foreign-based transnationals. As the crisis intensifies and the demand for credit increases in the more industrialized countries, the Mexican subsidiaries have sent more and more of their capital back into the countries where the transnationals are based. According to a report by the Banco de México, Mexico's central bank, the Mexican companies sent $2.287 billion abroad in the first nine months of 2008, almost as much as the $2.619 billion they sent abroad in all of 2007. Reinvestment in Mexico by these companies dropped precipitously during the summer of 2008. They reinvested $2.19 billion in the first quarter and $2.610 billion in the second, but in the third quarter the number fell by 95% to $134 million. (La Jornada (Mexico) 12/1/08)
The same phenomenon has been occurring with Mexican business owners, who moved more than $19 billion out of Mexico from January through September to deposit in foreign bank accounts or to buy into foreign businesses. The outflow, which doesn't include money for buying real estate abroad, is a major cause of Mexico's balance of payments deficit, according to the Banco de México. It is 22% higher than the $15.560 billion direct investment that foreign capital made in Mexico during the same period. (LJ 12/3/08)
*4. Mexico: Layoffs Up, Unionists Busted
On Dec. 2 Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA), Mexico's main steelmaker, announced plans for laying off 8,500 contract workers in its Proyecto Fénix modernization project and 3,500 of its own employees. (La Jornada 12/3/08) In the two days after the layoff announcement, the Mexican government froze some funds belonging to the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM), which represents AHMSA workers, and arrested two union leaders. Based on complaints that the union mishandled a $55 million miners' fund, the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) arrested the union's Vigilance and Justice Council president Juan Linares Montúfar on Dec. 3 and political affairs secretary Carlos Pavón Campos on Dec. 4.
The government said the complaints came from workers, but the union charged that the arrests are part of an anti-union drive by the government, AHMSA and the Grupo México mining company. Carrying the fight to the entire mining and metal industry, on Dec. 5 the SNTMMRM started open-ended strikes at mines belonging to Industrias Peñoles, the world's largest silver producer, to demand the union leaders' release and the unfreezing of the union's funds. The strike affected the Met Mex Peñoles plant in Torreón, Coahuila, and Peñoles mines in Fresnillo, Sombrerete (Sabinas), Zacatecas (Francisco I. Madero) and Concepción del Oro municipalities in Zacatecas state.
The SNTMMRM has been fighting the government since early 2006 when charges were filed against union general secretary Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, who fled to Canada. Walkouts since then--including a strike at Grupo México's giant Cananea copper mine since July 2007 [see Update #945]--have cost the mining companies more than $2.5 billion, according to the Mexican Mining Chamber of Commerce. (Bloomberg 12/5/08, LJ 12/6/08)
According to the Mártires de San Angel Textile Industry Workers Union (STMSAIT), the textile sector has lost 150,000 jobs in the past five years, and 3,286 companies have shut down, partly because of competition from China. The union's head, Fermín Lara Jiménez, was jailed on Aug. 15 on charges of fraud involving $40 million; this was based on a complaint from the national export bank, Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior (Bancomext). (LJ 12/7/08)
*5. Venezuela: Who Killed Aragua Unionists?
On Dec. 2 Venezuelan interior and justice minister Tarek El Aissami announced the arrest of Julio César Agrinzones (also given as "Arguinzones") Romero the night before on charges of killing three leftist Venezuelan unionists- -Richard Gallardo, Carlos Requena and Luis Hernández--the night of Nov. 27 in the city of Cagua, southwest of Caracas in Aragua state [see Update #968]. Although El Aissami said the government had not established who was behind the killing, he implied it was "over a job," hinting at internal conflicts in the pro-government National Workers Union (UNT), in which the victims were leaders.
Aragua union leaders rejected El Aissami's implication, saying that Agrinzones Romero was at work at the Pepsi Cola de Venezuela's plant in Villa de Cura in southern Aragua the night of the killing; Luis Hernández was president of the plant's union. Local unionists suspect the Colombian-owned Alpina food processing plant and state police under former governor Didalco Bolívar were involved in the murders. In a speech on Dec. 1 at the inauguration of the state's new governor, Rafael Isea, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez suggested that an unnamed "foreign-owned company against which they [the murdered union leaders] were fighting" was responsible.
On Dec. 2 some 7,000 workers from 17 unions protested and blocked roads in Aragua to demand a thorough investigation of the killings. (El Universal (Venezuela) 12/2/08; YVKE Mundial 12/2/08; El Carabobeño (Venezuela) 12/4/08; Venezuela Analysis (12/3/08)
Another Aragua unionist was murdered on Dec. 4. Simón Caldea, a leader of the Bolivarian Union of Industry and Construction Workers (UBT), was riding in a pickup truck on the Barbacoas-Camatagua highway when unknown persons in another vehicle shot repeatedly at the truck. Caldea was killed instantly, and two other unionists, Yagle Agrinzones and Héctor Mijares, were wounded. (El Nacional (Venezuela) 12/4/08; El Universal 12/4/08) [The sources did not mention any possible relation of Yagle Agrinzones to Julio César Agrinzones Romero.]
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, US policy
Bolivian opposition blasts report on Pando massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/6463
Zinc slump threatens Bolivian mining sector
http://ww4report.com/node/6464
Probe: Bolivian Peasant Killings an Anti-Gov. Massacre
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1616/68/
Peru removes army chief, ends 125-year dispute with Chile?
http://ww4report.com/node/6461
Texan firm wins deal for Peru gas plant
http://ww4report.com/node/6462
Peru: Leftist Leaders Targeted by Anti-Terror Police
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1613/68/
Ecuador backs Betancourt mission to free FARC hostages
http://ww4report.com/node/6465
Colombian consul recalled from Venezuela's restive Zulia state
http://ww4report.com/node/6466
Venezuela Proposes New Regional Currency During ALBA Summit http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1610/68/
Adentro Barrio Adentro: An American Medical Student in Venezuela http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1615/1/
Russian warship enters Panama Canal, first since World War II
http://ww4report.com/node/6460
US releases first tranche of Plan Mexico funds
http://ww4report.com/node/6451
Mexico: 13 killed in Sinaloa massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/6452
Mexico: home destroyed at contested Juárez barrio
http://ww4report.com/node/6453
Tijuana: army officers take over police force
http://ww4report.com/node/6439
Chiapas: Zapatistas to host "Festival of Dignified Rage"
http://ww4report.com/node/6454
Pain and Protest on the Day of the Butterflies: Violence Persists Against Women in Mexico http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1614/1/
The Presidential Transition and Latin America Policy: Optimism for Change Dims as Reality Sets In http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1612/1/
Dealing with Killers and Kidnappers: The High Cost of Free Trade http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1609/1/
Latin America and the U.S.: A New Policy Direction
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1611/68/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/news/feed
http://nacla.org/fromaroundtheweb/feed
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). 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 #969, December 7, 2008
1. Latin America: US Deficit Squeezes Credit
2. Argentina: Government Announces Stimulus
3. Mexico: Government Tries to Save Jobs
4. Mexico: Layoffs Up, Unionists Busted
5. Venezuela: Who Killed Aragua Unionists?
6. Links to alternative sources on: Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, 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. Latin America: US Deficit Squeezes Credit
Efforts by the US to fight its own financial crisis may cut Latin American governments off from access to credit at a time when they need an estimated $250 billion for financing their 2009 budgets. The US has been issuing huge volumes of Treasury bonds and is running a fiscal deficit that could top $1 trillion next year. The Latin American Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (CLAAF)--a group of economists including former Argentine finance minister Roque Fernández and former Venezuelan central bank president Ruth de Krivoy--warns that the massive borrowing by the US government may "crowd out" Latin American and other emerging economies from the credit markets.
The drying up of credit comes as the region is already suffering from other effects of the global crisis, notably a decline of demand for exports. The CLAAF said existing funding through the International Monetary Fund and other financial institutions is inadequate and that "unprecedented resources" are needed. (Financial Times (UK) 12/4/08)
*2. Argentina: Government Announces Stimulus
On Nov. 25 Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced an economic stimulus package that includes tax breaks for Argentines who repatriate money they've sent abroad and invest it in infrastructure, real estate, agriculture, industry or government bonds; tax breaks for firms that create new jobs; an amnesty on unpaid taxes for the smallest employers if they give formal employment status to off-the-books workers; and a $21 billion public works plan intended to double the number of jobs in construction.
On Dec. 5 Fernández announced an additional $3.85 billion stimulus package meant to boost the economy with $1 billion in cheap credits for the automotive sector, $1.1 billion in other consumer credits, and a 5% cut in export duties for wheat and corn--although probably not for the soy producers, who staged a series of strikes earlier in the year when Fernández tried to increase their duties [see Update #955].
The Fernández government has also been moving to regain control of funds and companies that were nationalized under the neoliberal policies of previous governments, especially during the administration of former president Carlos Menem (1989-1999). In November the government finalized legislation to nationalize some $24 billion in private pension funds [see Update #965], and some of that money will be used to finance the infrastructure program. On Dec. 4 the Chamber of Deputies voted 152 to 84 to seize the country's largest airline, Aerolíneas Argentinas, from the Spanish company Grupo Marsans; the airline was privatized 18 years ago.
Argentina enjoyed five years of strong growth after its dramatic economic collapse at the end of 2001, but now it seems to have been brought down by the world economic situation. The Center for Financial Investigations at Buenos Aires' Torcuato Di Tella University reports that consumer confidence dropped by 24% in November compared to the same period in 2007, while willingness to buy high-cost products like cars and refrigerators fell by 41%. (MercoPress (Montevideo) 11/26/08, 12/5/08; BBC 12/4/08)
*3. Mexico: Government Tries to Save Jobs
In a Dec. 5 interview with Bloomberg Television, Mexican Economy Minister Gerardo Ruiz Mateos said the government will react to job losses from the global economic crisis by spending $12.5 billion on roads, ports, railroads and other projects in the first quarter of 2009. He said the government is also studying programs to prevent layoffs in manufacturing. "In manufacturing we'll suffer the most in terms of jobs because of lower demand for our exports," he said. Mexico is especially vulnerable to the recession in the US, which buys 80% of Mexico's exports. Ruiz Mateos expects Mexico to grow at 1.5-1.8% next year, but a central bank survey of analysts reported a median estimate of just 0.38%. (Bloomberg 12/5/08) [Mexico's growth rate was about 3.3% in 2007, less than half the rates for Argentina (8.6%) and Venezuela (8.5%)--see Update #926].
Many Mexican companies are wholly or partly owned by foreign-based transnationals. As the crisis intensifies and the demand for credit increases in the more industrialized countries, the Mexican subsidiaries have sent more and more of their capital back into the countries where the transnationals are based. According to a report by the Banco de México, Mexico's central bank, the Mexican companies sent $2.287 billion abroad in the first nine months of 2008, almost as much as the $2.619 billion they sent abroad in all of 2007. Reinvestment in Mexico by these companies dropped precipitously during the summer of 2008. They reinvested $2.19 billion in the first quarter and $2.610 billion in the second, but in the third quarter the number fell by 95% to $134 million. (La Jornada (Mexico) 12/1/08)
The same phenomenon has been occurring with Mexican business owners, who moved more than $19 billion out of Mexico from January through September to deposit in foreign bank accounts or to buy into foreign businesses. The outflow, which doesn't include money for buying real estate abroad, is a major cause of Mexico's balance of payments deficit, according to the Banco de México. It is 22% higher than the $15.560 billion direct investment that foreign capital made in Mexico during the same period. (LJ 12/3/08)
*4. Mexico: Layoffs Up, Unionists Busted
On Dec. 2 Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA), Mexico's main steelmaker, announced plans for laying off 8,500 contract workers in its Proyecto Fénix modernization project and 3,500 of its own employees. (La Jornada 12/3/08) In the two days after the layoff announcement, the Mexican government froze some funds belonging to the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM), which represents AHMSA workers, and arrested two union leaders. Based on complaints that the union mishandled a $55 million miners' fund, the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) arrested the union's Vigilance and Justice Council president Juan Linares Montúfar on Dec. 3 and political affairs secretary Carlos Pavón Campos on Dec. 4.
The government said the complaints came from workers, but the union charged that the arrests are part of an anti-union drive by the government, AHMSA and the Grupo México mining company. Carrying the fight to the entire mining and metal industry, on Dec. 5 the SNTMMRM started open-ended strikes at mines belonging to Industrias Peñoles, the world's largest silver producer, to demand the union leaders' release and the unfreezing of the union's funds. The strike affected the Met Mex Peñoles plant in Torreón, Coahuila, and Peñoles mines in Fresnillo, Sombrerete (Sabinas), Zacatecas (Francisco I. Madero) and Concepción del Oro municipalities in Zacatecas state.
The SNTMMRM has been fighting the government since early 2006 when charges were filed against union general secretary Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, who fled to Canada. Walkouts since then--including a strike at Grupo México's giant Cananea copper mine since July 2007 [see Update #945]--have cost the mining companies more than $2.5 billion, according to the Mexican Mining Chamber of Commerce. (Bloomberg 12/5/08, LJ 12/6/08)
According to the Mártires de San Angel Textile Industry Workers Union (STMSAIT), the textile sector has lost 150,000 jobs in the past five years, and 3,286 companies have shut down, partly because of competition from China. The union's head, Fermín Lara Jiménez, was jailed on Aug. 15 on charges of fraud involving $40 million; this was based on a complaint from the national export bank, Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior (Bancomext). (LJ 12/7/08)
*5. Venezuela: Who Killed Aragua Unionists?
On Dec. 2 Venezuelan interior and justice minister Tarek El Aissami announced the arrest of Julio César Agrinzones (also given as "Arguinzones") Romero the night before on charges of killing three leftist Venezuelan unionists- -Richard Gallardo, Carlos Requena and Luis Hernández--the night of Nov. 27 in the city of Cagua, southwest of Caracas in Aragua state [see Update #968]. Although El Aissami said the government had not established who was behind the killing, he implied it was "over a job," hinting at internal conflicts in the pro-government National Workers Union (UNT), in which the victims were leaders.
Aragua union leaders rejected El Aissami's implication, saying that Agrinzones Romero was at work at the Pepsi Cola de Venezuela's plant in Villa de Cura in southern Aragua the night of the killing; Luis Hernández was president of the plant's union. Local unionists suspect the Colombian-owned Alpina food processing plant and state police under former governor Didalco Bolívar were involved in the murders. In a speech on Dec. 1 at the inauguration of the state's new governor, Rafael Isea, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez suggested that an unnamed "foreign-owned company against which they [the murdered union leaders] were fighting" was responsible.
On Dec. 2 some 7,000 workers from 17 unions protested and blocked roads in Aragua to demand a thorough investigation of the killings. (El Universal (Venezuela) 12/2/08; YVKE Mundial 12/2/08; El Carabobeño (Venezuela) 12/4/08; Venezuela Analysis (12/3/08)
Another Aragua unionist was murdered on Dec. 4. Simón Caldea, a leader of the Bolivarian Union of Industry and Construction Workers (UBT), was riding in a pickup truck on the Barbacoas-Camatagua highway when unknown persons in another vehicle shot repeatedly at the truck. Caldea was killed instantly, and two other unionists, Yagle Agrinzones and Héctor Mijares, were wounded. (El Nacional (Venezuela) 12/4/08; El Universal 12/4/08) [The sources did not mention any possible relation of Yagle Agrinzones to Julio César Agrinzones Romero.]
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, US policy
Bolivian opposition blasts report on Pando massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/6463
Zinc slump threatens Bolivian mining sector
http://ww4report.com/node/6464
Probe: Bolivian Peasant Killings an Anti-Gov. Massacre
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1616/68/
Peru removes army chief, ends 125-year dispute with Chile?
http://ww4report.com/node/6461
Texan firm wins deal for Peru gas plant
http://ww4report.com/node/6462
Peru: Leftist Leaders Targeted by Anti-Terror Police
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1613/68/
Ecuador backs Betancourt mission to free FARC hostages
http://ww4report.com/node/6465
Colombian consul recalled from Venezuela's restive Zulia state
http://ww4report.com/node/6466
Venezuela Proposes New Regional Currency During ALBA Summit http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1610/68/
Adentro Barrio Adentro: An American Medical Student in Venezuela http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1615/1/
Russian warship enters Panama Canal, first since World War II
http://ww4report.com/node/6460
US releases first tranche of Plan Mexico funds
http://ww4report.com/node/6451
Mexico: 13 killed in Sinaloa massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/6452
Mexico: home destroyed at contested Juárez barrio
http://ww4report.com/node/6453
Tijuana: army officers take over police force
http://ww4report.com/node/6439
Chiapas: Zapatistas to host "Festival of Dignified Rage"
http://ww4report.com/node/6454
Pain and Protest on the Day of the Butterflies: Violence Persists Against Women in Mexico http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1614/1/
The Presidential Transition and Latin America Policy: Optimism for Change Dims as Reality Sets In http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1612/1/
Dealing with Killers and Kidnappers: The High Cost of Free Trade http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1609/1/
Latin America and the U.S.: A New Policy Direction
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1611/68/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/news/feed
http://nacla.org/fromaroundtheweb/feed
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). 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, 1 December 2008
WNU #968: Chilean Government Workers Get Raise
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #968, November 30, 2008
1. Chile: Public Employees Win 10% Raise
2. Mexico: Teachers Win Some, Lose Some
3. Venezuela: 3 Unionists Murdered
4. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, 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. Chile: Public Employees Win 10% Raise
The 15 unions representing Chile's government workers agreed on the night of Nov. 20 to end their four-day-old strike after the Senate approved a 10.4% raise earlier that day. The unions had demanded a 14.5% pay increase, arguing that the annual inflation rate had risen to 9.9% in October. Arturo Martínez, president of the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT), acknowledged that the raise "[m]aybe isn't all we hoped for." He noted that the settlement was between President Michelle Bachelet and the Congress, not the government and the unions, but said the salary increase was the result of the unionists' mobilizations, and "today it's possible to celebrate; the workers have triumphed."
Some 400,000 government workers had observed a two-day strike on Nov. 11 and 12. When Bachelet's government refused to offer more than 6.5%, the unions decided to call an open-ended strike starting Nov. 17 [see Update #967]. Public schools, customs offices, municipal governments, tax offices, public hospitals and clinics, and the judicial system were shut down. Garbage piled up on the streets, and exports were delayed, at a loss to the country of about $165 million a day. On Nov. 20 some 10,000 doctors joined the strike.
The increase will raise the average government worker's pay next July 1 from 144,000 to 159,000 pesos a month (from $290.90 to $321.21). The workers will also get a one-time bonus--$156 for the best-paid workers but $312 for the others. The total increase will cost the government $1.648 billion a year. President Bachelet asked Congress to exclude top officials from the increase, but the legislators, who will be covered by the increase, said the exclusion would be unconstitutional. Bachelet promised to look for legal mechanisms to exempt the president and cabinet ministers from the raise. "I'm an adherent of the position that those of us who are in a relatively more privileged situation than others are the ones who should tighten our belts the most," she said. (TeleSUR 11/21/08; La Jornada (Mexico) 11/21/08 from correspondent and unidentified wire services)
*2. Mexico: Teachers Win Some, Lose Some
As protests by teachers continued in several southern and central Mexican states, on Nov. 28 the State Institute of Public Education of Oaxaca (IEEPO) announced plans to work with Section 22 of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) to produce an alternative to the government's new Alliance for Quality Education (ACE). The alternative program will be carried out "in accordance with the characteristics of the state," IEEPO director Abel Trejo González said. This is first time a state government has distanced itself from the ACE, which is promoted by Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and SNTE national president Elba Esther Gordillo Morales. Teachers have protested against the ACE since August, calling it an opening to privatization [see Update #864]. A strike by Section 22 set off a major uprising in 2006 that paralyzed much of the state for five months. (Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News and Analysis, 11/30/08; La Jornada 11/29/08)
Also on Nov. 28, teachers in Guerrero, to the west of Oaxaca, ended a job action against the ACE that began on Sept. 1. Negotiations had settled about 80% of the strike issues, with the state accepting the payment of salaries to some 500 teachers who participated in the movement; the automatic granting of 700 teaching positions to graduates of the state's nine teachers colleges; an agreement not to reform the Social Security law for the state's public employees; and continuation of the custom of allowing teachers to propose their replacements when they retire. At noon on Nov. 28, the teachers ended an 88-day encampment in front of the government building in Chilpancingo. About 10,000 teachers then marched through the streets under banners depicting the teachers Lucio Cabañas Barrientos and Genaro Vázquez Rojas, who led an armed rebellion in the 1970s; the marchers thanked the population for its "tolerance, support and collaboration" during the strike. (LJ 11/29/08)
The day before, on Nov. 27, hundreds of teachers college students clashed with police agents near Morelia, Michoacán. Starting at about 7:30am, students at the Vasco de Quiroga Teachers College took over 21 buses to transport protesters the 22km to Morelia for an afternoon demonstration. About 300 police agents were waiting for them on the Pátzcuaro-Morelia highway. When the 500 students refused to leave the buses, the agents attacked with tear gas while a helicopter launched tear gas grenades from above. The students fought back, and in the end there were dozens of injured people on both sides; 133 protesters were arrested, two police vehicles were set on fire, and two police agents were detained by the students. The state released 130 of the detained students on Nov. 29; all were women, and many came from other states. Nine male students were charged with robbery, injury, riot and privation of a police agent's freedom. One agent had been released the evening of Nov. 27; the students released the other on Nov. 29 at the Vasco de Quiroga college, along with firearms they'd taken from the police. (LJ 11/28/08, 11/30/08)
The protest movement started with teachers in the state of Morelos, south of Mexico, who went on strike in August. They returned to the classrooms on Nov. 6 after 80 days. Spokesperson Lili Ibarra said the teachers were "motivated by our responsibility to the children and the school community" and were still determined not to allow the ACE to take effect in the state's 1,750 schools. They warned that they would no longer allow the sale of health insurance, products of transnational corporations and cola drinks in the schools; they would permit the distribution of nutritious foods and Mexican products. (Excélsior (Mexico) 11/6/08)
*3. Venezuela: 3 Unionists Murdered
Three leftist Venezuelan unionists were shot dead the night of Nov. 27 in the city of Cagua, southwest of Caracas in Aragua state, just days after two of them ran unsuccessfully in Nov. 23 state and municipal elections. In what appeared to be a planned assassination, one or two armed men on a motorbike gunned the unionists down as they were leaving a nightclub. The victims were Richard Gallardo, president of the Aragua branch of the National Workers Union (UNT), the main leftist labor confederation; Carlos Requena, a UNT national coordinator; and Luis Hernández, the general secretary of the union at Pepsi Cola de Venezuela's plant in Villa de Cura in southern Aragua.
The three men were also leaders in the Left Socialist Unity party (USI). Gallardo had been the USI candidate for deputy from Zamora municipality to the Aragua legislature, while Hernández ran for major of Zamora on the USI ticket, losing to Aldo Lovera from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the party of President Hugo Chávez Frías. Some media noted that Hernández had planned to file a challenge on Nov. 28 to the voting results in the mayoral race. But pro-Chávez media, the USI and UNT spokesperson Orlando Chirinos stressed that on Nov. 27 Gallardo, Requena and Hernández had been participating with activities with 400 workers at the Alpina food processing plant who said they had been attacked by state police. Aragua's current governor is Didalco Bolivar, an opponent of Chávez; the PSUV won the state back with the election of Aragua Mario Isea on Nov. 23.
Supporters of the murdered unionists protested on Nov. 28, forcing stores to close in Villa de Cura. Unionists and the USI have called for an investigation by the national government. Some people have pointed out that Alpina is owned by Colombians and that political assassinations in Colombia often involve similar attacks by killers on motorbikes. (USI press release 11/28/08 via Aporrea; Prensa Latina 11/28/08; El Universal (Venezuela) 11/28/08; El Nacional (Venezuela) 11/29/08; Venezuelanalysis.com 11/29/08)
*4. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico
Chile: Women Trade Unionists Find their Own Voices
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1598/68/
Paraguay: Mixed Results for Lugo's First 100 Days
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1601/68/
Bolivia: terrorism charges for autonomy leader?
http://ww4report.com/node/6424
Peru: Garcia blames Mexican cartels for Sendero violence
http://ww4report.com/node/6418
Peru: Praying for Justice
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1606/1/
Ecuador Seeks Non-payment of Illegitimate Foreign Debt
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5695
The Walk of Our Word: Colombia Will Walk the Minga! http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1603/68/
What Next for the Popular and Indigenous Minga in Colombia?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1600/1/
CIA Coverup Followed Another Spy Flight Mystery in Colombia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1602/68/
Colombia signs free trade agreement with Canada
http://ww4report.com/node/6417
Venezuelan opposition contracting Israeli mercenaries?
http://ww4report.com/node/6416
Medvedev, Chavez meet on eve of naval maneuvers
http://ww4report.com/node/6415
Elections: Geopolitical Nadir for Chavez and His Movement?
http://nacla.org/node/5256
Venezuela Elections Pose Big Test
http://nacla.org/node/5252
Chavez Supporters Win 17 out of 23 Venezuelan States, but Lose 3 Most Populous
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1594/68/
Radio Venezuela En Vivo: Election Updates and Analysis
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1592/68/
Suit Filed Against Salvadoran Ex-President Cristiani and 14 Former Soldiers for 1989 Jesuit Massacre
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1595/1/
Mexico: Calderon warns Obama on NAFTA revision
http://ww4report.com/node/6420
Mexico: Ciudad Juarez violence escalates
http://ww4report.com/node/6419
Free the Atenco 13!
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1596/68/
Puerto Rico Teachers' Union Trounces SEIU
http://nacla.org/node/5257
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. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). 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 #968, November 30, 2008
1. Chile: Public Employees Win 10% Raise
2. Mexico: Teachers Win Some, Lose Some
3. Venezuela: 3 Unionists Murdered
4. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, 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. Chile: Public Employees Win 10% Raise
The 15 unions representing Chile's government workers agreed on the night of Nov. 20 to end their four-day-old strike after the Senate approved a 10.4% raise earlier that day. The unions had demanded a 14.5% pay increase, arguing that the annual inflation rate had risen to 9.9% in October. Arturo Martínez, president of the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT), acknowledged that the raise "[m]aybe isn't all we hoped for." He noted that the settlement was between President Michelle Bachelet and the Congress, not the government and the unions, but said the salary increase was the result of the unionists' mobilizations, and "today it's possible to celebrate; the workers have triumphed."
Some 400,000 government workers had observed a two-day strike on Nov. 11 and 12. When Bachelet's government refused to offer more than 6.5%, the unions decided to call an open-ended strike starting Nov. 17 [see Update #967]. Public schools, customs offices, municipal governments, tax offices, public hospitals and clinics, and the judicial system were shut down. Garbage piled up on the streets, and exports were delayed, at a loss to the country of about $165 million a day. On Nov. 20 some 10,000 doctors joined the strike.
The increase will raise the average government worker's pay next July 1 from 144,000 to 159,000 pesos a month (from $290.90 to $321.21). The workers will also get a one-time bonus--$156 for the best-paid workers but $312 for the others. The total increase will cost the government $1.648 billion a year. President Bachelet asked Congress to exclude top officials from the increase, but the legislators, who will be covered by the increase, said the exclusion would be unconstitutional. Bachelet promised to look for legal mechanisms to exempt the president and cabinet ministers from the raise. "I'm an adherent of the position that those of us who are in a relatively more privileged situation than others are the ones who should tighten our belts the most," she said. (TeleSUR 11/21/08; La Jornada (Mexico) 11/21/08 from correspondent and unidentified wire services)
*2. Mexico: Teachers Win Some, Lose Some
As protests by teachers continued in several southern and central Mexican states, on Nov. 28 the State Institute of Public Education of Oaxaca (IEEPO) announced plans to work with Section 22 of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) to produce an alternative to the government's new Alliance for Quality Education (ACE). The alternative program will be carried out "in accordance with the characteristics of the state," IEEPO director Abel Trejo González said. This is first time a state government has distanced itself from the ACE, which is promoted by Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and SNTE national president Elba Esther Gordillo Morales. Teachers have protested against the ACE since August, calling it an opening to privatization [see Update #864]. A strike by Section 22 set off a major uprising in 2006 that paralyzed much of the state for five months. (Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News and Analysis, 11/30/08; La Jornada 11/29/08)
Also on Nov. 28, teachers in Guerrero, to the west of Oaxaca, ended a job action against the ACE that began on Sept. 1. Negotiations had settled about 80% of the strike issues, with the state accepting the payment of salaries to some 500 teachers who participated in the movement; the automatic granting of 700 teaching positions to graduates of the state's nine teachers colleges; an agreement not to reform the Social Security law for the state's public employees; and continuation of the custom of allowing teachers to propose their replacements when they retire. At noon on Nov. 28, the teachers ended an 88-day encampment in front of the government building in Chilpancingo. About 10,000 teachers then marched through the streets under banners depicting the teachers Lucio Cabañas Barrientos and Genaro Vázquez Rojas, who led an armed rebellion in the 1970s; the marchers thanked the population for its "tolerance, support and collaboration" during the strike. (LJ 11/29/08)
The day before, on Nov. 27, hundreds of teachers college students clashed with police agents near Morelia, Michoacán. Starting at about 7:30am, students at the Vasco de Quiroga Teachers College took over 21 buses to transport protesters the 22km to Morelia for an afternoon demonstration. About 300 police agents were waiting for them on the Pátzcuaro-Morelia highway. When the 500 students refused to leave the buses, the agents attacked with tear gas while a helicopter launched tear gas grenades from above. The students fought back, and in the end there were dozens of injured people on both sides; 133 protesters were arrested, two police vehicles were set on fire, and two police agents were detained by the students. The state released 130 of the detained students on Nov. 29; all were women, and many came from other states. Nine male students were charged with robbery, injury, riot and privation of a police agent's freedom. One agent had been released the evening of Nov. 27; the students released the other on Nov. 29 at the Vasco de Quiroga college, along with firearms they'd taken from the police. (LJ 11/28/08, 11/30/08)
The protest movement started with teachers in the state of Morelos, south of Mexico, who went on strike in August. They returned to the classrooms on Nov. 6 after 80 days. Spokesperson Lili Ibarra said the teachers were "motivated by our responsibility to the children and the school community" and were still determined not to allow the ACE to take effect in the state's 1,750 schools. They warned that they would no longer allow the sale of health insurance, products of transnational corporations and cola drinks in the schools; they would permit the distribution of nutritious foods and Mexican products. (Excélsior (Mexico) 11/6/08)
*3. Venezuela: 3 Unionists Murdered
Three leftist Venezuelan unionists were shot dead the night of Nov. 27 in the city of Cagua, southwest of Caracas in Aragua state, just days after two of them ran unsuccessfully in Nov. 23 state and municipal elections. In what appeared to be a planned assassination, one or two armed men on a motorbike gunned the unionists down as they were leaving a nightclub. The victims were Richard Gallardo, president of the Aragua branch of the National Workers Union (UNT), the main leftist labor confederation; Carlos Requena, a UNT national coordinator; and Luis Hernández, the general secretary of the union at Pepsi Cola de Venezuela's plant in Villa de Cura in southern Aragua.
The three men were also leaders in the Left Socialist Unity party (USI). Gallardo had been the USI candidate for deputy from Zamora municipality to the Aragua legislature, while Hernández ran for major of Zamora on the USI ticket, losing to Aldo Lovera from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the party of President Hugo Chávez Frías. Some media noted that Hernández had planned to file a challenge on Nov. 28 to the voting results in the mayoral race. But pro-Chávez media, the USI and UNT spokesperson Orlando Chirinos stressed that on Nov. 27 Gallardo, Requena and Hernández had been participating with activities with 400 workers at the Alpina food processing plant who said they had been attacked by state police. Aragua's current governor is Didalco Bolivar, an opponent of Chávez; the PSUV won the state back with the election of Aragua Mario Isea on Nov. 23.
Supporters of the murdered unionists protested on Nov. 28, forcing stores to close in Villa de Cura. Unionists and the USI have called for an investigation by the national government. Some people have pointed out that Alpina is owned by Colombians and that political assassinations in Colombia often involve similar attacks by killers on motorbikes. (USI press release 11/28/08 via Aporrea; Prensa Latina 11/28/08; El Universal (Venezuela) 11/28/08; El Nacional (Venezuela) 11/29/08; Venezuelanalysis.com 11/29/08)
*4. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico
Chile: Women Trade Unionists Find their Own Voices
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1598/68/
Paraguay: Mixed Results for Lugo's First 100 Days
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1601/68/
Bolivia: terrorism charges for autonomy leader?
http://ww4report.com/node/6424
Peru: Garcia blames Mexican cartels for Sendero violence
http://ww4report.com/node/6418
Peru: Praying for Justice
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1606/1/
Ecuador Seeks Non-payment of Illegitimate Foreign Debt
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5695
The Walk of Our Word: Colombia Will Walk the Minga! http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1603/68/
What Next for the Popular and Indigenous Minga in Colombia?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1600/1/
CIA Coverup Followed Another Spy Flight Mystery in Colombia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1602/68/
Colombia signs free trade agreement with Canada
http://ww4report.com/node/6417
Venezuelan opposition contracting Israeli mercenaries?
http://ww4report.com/node/6416
Medvedev, Chavez meet on eve of naval maneuvers
http://ww4report.com/node/6415
Elections: Geopolitical Nadir for Chavez and His Movement?
http://nacla.org/node/5256
Venezuela Elections Pose Big Test
http://nacla.org/node/5252
Chavez Supporters Win 17 out of 23 Venezuelan States, but Lose 3 Most Populous
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1594/68/
Radio Venezuela En Vivo: Election Updates and Analysis
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1592/68/
Suit Filed Against Salvadoran Ex-President Cristiani and 14 Former Soldiers for 1989 Jesuit Massacre
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1595/1/
Mexico: Calderon warns Obama on NAFTA revision
http://ww4report.com/node/6420
Mexico: Ciudad Juarez violence escalates
http://ww4report.com/node/6419
Free the Atenco 13!
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1596/68/
Puerto Rico Teachers' Union Trounces SEIU
http://nacla.org/node/5257
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. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). 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, 24 November 2008
Links but no Update for November 23, 2008
[Due to other commitments, we are again unable to send out an Update. We'll be back next week. Below are links to stories from other sources.]
Ex-Argentine police commander in televised suicide
http://ww4report.com/node/6380
Bolivia: martial law lifted in Pando; prefect still imprisoned
http://ww4report.com/node/6384
Bolivia: Reform and Reaction in the Hemisphere
http://nacla.org/node/5221
Bolivia's Evo Morales seeks "improved relations" with Obama White House
http://ww4report.com/node/6359
007 Bolivian socialist?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1590/68/
The United States Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1587/68/\
Bush protested at Lima APEC summit
http://ww4report.com/node/6381
Peru: "If I Don't Come Back, Look For Me in Putis"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1580/1/
Copper Mesa Mining Expected to Lose Junin Project in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1586/68/
Mass Indigenous Protest In Defense of Water Caps Week of Mobilizations in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1591/1/
In Ecuador, Mass Mobilizations Against Mining Confront President Correa http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1588/1/
Colombia: indigenous march arrives in Bogotá
http://ww4report.com/node/6382
Eric Holder: death-squad defender
http://ww4report.com/node/6357
Obama's AG Pick Defended Chiquita in Death Squad Casehttp://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1585/68/
Colombia: protests after arrest of populist outlaw banker
http://ww4report.com/node/6365
Colombia declares state of emergency over financial scams
http://ww4report.com/node/6353
Colombia: coke users snort rainforest
http://ww4report.com/node/6364
Venezuela: Elections Will Put Chávez to the Test
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1582/68/
Venezuela: elections mandate or "hard blow" for Chávez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6383
Post-electoral violence continues in Nicaragua
http://ww4report.com/node/6352
Six beheaded in Guatemala prison riot
http://ww4report.com/node/6379\
El Salvador: FMLN Starts Out Ahead
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1583/68/
El Salvador: Company Promoters Shred Social Fabric of Communities http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1584/1/
Despite National and Global Distractions, the Popular Minga Marches on to Bogotá http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1579/1/
What's Driving El Salvador's Left Turn?
http://nacla.org/node/5238
Mexico's ex-drug czar busted for cartel collaboration
http://ww4report.com/node/6363
Obama: ominous appointments for Homeland Security, NSC
http://ww4report.com/node/6360
Obama and Myths of Racial Democracy
http://nacla.org/node/5229
Ex-Argentine police commander in televised suicide
http://ww4report.com/node/6380
Bolivia: martial law lifted in Pando; prefect still imprisoned
http://ww4report.com/node/6384
Bolivia: Reform and Reaction in the Hemisphere
http://nacla.org/node/5221
Bolivia's Evo Morales seeks "improved relations" with Obama White House
http://ww4report.com/node/6359
007 Bolivian socialist?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1590/68/
The United States Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1587/68/\
Bush protested at Lima APEC summit
http://ww4report.com/node/6381
Peru: "If I Don't Come Back, Look For Me in Putis"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1580/1/
Copper Mesa Mining Expected to Lose Junin Project in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1586/68/
Mass Indigenous Protest In Defense of Water Caps Week of Mobilizations in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1591/1/
In Ecuador, Mass Mobilizations Against Mining Confront President Correa http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1588/1/
Colombia: indigenous march arrives in Bogotá
http://ww4report.com/node/6382
Eric Holder: death-squad defender
http://ww4report.com/node/6357
Obama's AG Pick Defended Chiquita in Death Squad Casehttp://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1585/68/
Colombia: protests after arrest of populist outlaw banker
http://ww4report.com/node/6365
Colombia declares state of emergency over financial scams
http://ww4report.com/node/6353
Colombia: coke users snort rainforest
http://ww4report.com/node/6364
Venezuela: Elections Will Put Chávez to the Test
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1582/68/
Venezuela: elections mandate or "hard blow" for Chávez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6383
Post-electoral violence continues in Nicaragua
http://ww4report.com/node/6352
Six beheaded in Guatemala prison riot
http://ww4report.com/node/6379\
El Salvador: FMLN Starts Out Ahead
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1583/68/
El Salvador: Company Promoters Shred Social Fabric of Communities http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1584/1/
Despite National and Global Distractions, the Popular Minga Marches on to Bogotá http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1579/1/
What's Driving El Salvador's Left Turn?
http://nacla.org/node/5238
Mexico's ex-drug czar busted for cartel collaboration
http://ww4report.com/node/6363
Obama: ominous appointments for Homeland Security, NSC
http://ww4report.com/node/6360
Obama and Myths of Racial Democracy
http://nacla.org/node/5229
Monday, 17 November 2008
WNU #967: Chilean Government Workers Strike
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #967, November 16, 2008
1. Chile: Government Workers Strike
2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, 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. Chile: Government Workers Strike
Some 400,000 Chilean public employees staged a two-day strike on Nov. 11 and 12 to push for a 14.5% pay increase. The National Association of Government Employees (ANEF), which includes 15 unions and associations, said the job action was 90% effective, with professors, health workers, administrative workers and municipal workers honoring the strike call. Government service offices were closed, garbage collection stopped in some areas, and some medical services were shut down. The government of Socialist president Michelle Bachelet called the protest "blackmail"; Interior Minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma said workers wouldn't be paid for the two days they missed.
"We're not about to pay for the effects of the financial crisis," ANEF president Raúl de la Puente said, noting that inflation would eat up most of the raise. Chile's inflation rate reached 0.9% in October, bringing the projected annual rate to 9.9%, the highest since 1994. On Nov. 13 the government offered an increase of 5%, raising the offer to 6.5% on Nov. 14. The unions responded with a call for an open-ended strike to start on Nov. 17. (La Jornada (Mexico) 11/12/08 from correspondent; Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/12/08; Agence France Presse 11/15/08)
*2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
The leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations met in Washington, DC on Nov. 15 for the group's first summit--an emergency session to discuss the world financial crisis. The G20 combines the Group of 8 (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US) with growing industrial powers like China and India; together the G20 nations account for as much as 90% of the world's gross domestic product. The Latin American members are Argentina, Brazil and Mexico [see Update #966]; this year Brazil holds the group's rotating leadership.
The meeting failed to meet many members' hopes for a global agreement on regulation of financial speculation. Instead, the final 10-page declaration committed the members to undertaking reforms before Mar. 31. The G20 is to meet again on Apr. 30, 101 days after Barack Obama replaces George W. Bush as US president. But Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva considered the summit an advance. "We are talking about the G20 because the G8 doesn't have any more reason to exist," he said when leaving Brazil for the summit. "In other words, the emerging economies have to be taken into consideration in today's globalized world." At the summit he said that "existing multilateral organizations" like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been "rejected by history. Both the IMF and the World Bank should open themselves to bigger participation of developing economies." (International Herald Tribune 11/15/08 from AP; La Jornada 11/16/08 from DPA, AFP, Reuters and unidentified wire services)
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz was less optimistic. In an article published on Nov. 15, he noted that the G20 leaders were saying nothing about "the nonrenewable resources of the planet" or about ending the arms buildup. He added, alluding to president elect Obama, that "many people dream that with a simple change of office in the leadership of the empire, this [empire] will be more tolerant and less bellicose... It would be naive to believe that the good intentions of one intelligent person could change what centuries of interests and egoism have created. Human history demonstrates something else." (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08)
*3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
After the Nov. 15 Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington, Chinese president Hu Jintao flew to Costa Rica for the first visit by a Chinese president to Central America. He and Costa Rican president Oscar Arias were to sign 11 accords, including the creation of a joint enterprise of Refinería Costarricense de Petróleo and China National Petroleum Corporation to modernize Costa Rica's plant; a line of credit from a Chinese bank to the state-owned Banco de Costa Rica; funding for Chinese language instruction in the Universidad de Costa Rica; and $73 million for the construction of a new sports stadium in San José. China has been moving aggressively into economic activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the refinery accord opens the possibility that China may invest up to $1.2 billion in a new refinery. (Univisión 11/16/08 from AFP)
On Nov. 11 the Legislative Assembly passed the last enabling laws necessary for the implementation of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a trade accord strongly promoted by the US. President Arias said it would take effect on Jan. 1. The accord was signed in 2004, and all the other members have implemented it, but Costa Rican legislators wouldn't move on the issue until it was approved in a referendum on Oct. 7, 2007 after a bitter campaign [see Update #918]. (Miami Herald 11/11/08 from AP)
*4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
On Nov. 12 Cuba released La Paz en Colombia ("Peace in Colombia"), a 265-page book by former president Fidel Castro giving new information about the Cuban government's relations with Colombia's leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In the book, which Castro says took 400 hours of work, the former president repeats criticisms he made last July of the FARC's treatment of prisoners of war and "the capture and holding of civilians not involved in the war" [see Update #953]. In the book he also notes that holding "prisoners and hostages deprived the combatants of the ability to maneuver."
Castro says he tried to convince former FARC leader Manuel Marulanda Vélez, who died in March of this year, that he could make a peace agreement with then-president Andrés Pastrana during negotiations in 1999, but Marulanda didn't negotiate seriously because he thought the US was planning an intervention that would lead to a prolonged war and possibly a "continental struggle." The Cubans told him that "the international situation was entirely different from the way he saw it." Castro says he admired Marulanda's "revolutionary firmness" but felt that armed struggle was no longer viable, noting that Cuba aided the rebels in Nicaragua in the 1970s and in El Salvador in the 1980s. Castro mocks the US insistence that the rebels are terrorists; in 1999, Castro says, a US representative met with the FARC's chief negotiator, the late Raúl Reyes, in Costa Rica to discuss cooperation on an antinarcotics program. (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08; La Jornada 11/13/08, 11/14/08, 11/15/08 )
*5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
Puerto Rico's conservative New Progressive Party (PNP) gained easily over the centrist Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in elections on Nov. 4, with PNP gubernatorial candidate Luis Fortuño winning 52.8% of the vote to 41.3% for the PPD candidate, current governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. Rogelio Figueroa of Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico (PPR), a new party with an environmental orientation, got 2.8% of the vote, while Edwin Irizarry of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) followed with 2%. The PNP won 60 of the 78 seats in the legislature, and the PPD won the remaining 18. The PNP won 48 mayorships to 30 for the PPD.
Governor Elect Fortuño is a member of the US Republican party, which lost heavily in elections the same day in the US. Analysts attribute the PPD loss to popular resentment against Acevedo, who raised sales taxes and alienated an important part of the labor movement [see Update #963]; he also faces federal corruption charges. The PNP only gained 31,000 votes over its total in 2004, but the PPD total fell by 183,000 votes as many former supporters stayed home. (Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/10/08)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, US policy
Connecting Struggles: Documentation from the Social Forum of the Americas
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1567/1/
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing"
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Uruguay: Congress Votes to Legalise Abortion, But Veto Likely http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1573/68/
Paraguay: Agreement with Rural Activists Puts End to Protest
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1570/68/
Police Repression and Presidential Promises: The Fight for Social Justice in Paraguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1574/1/
Bolivia requests extradition of ex-president from US on "genocide" charge
http://ww4report.com/node/6311
Anti-Bases Coalition Pushes U.S. Military Base out of Ecuador
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Ecuador Protests Colombian Paramilitary Incursion, Documents CIA Infiltration
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1571/68/
Danger Ahead: Correa Gives Mining the Green Light in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1575/1/
US blocks aid to tainted Colombian army units: report
http://ww4report.com/node/6307
One dead in Colombian riots over financial scam
http://ww4report.com/node/6317
Colombian investors riot over pyramid scheme
http://ww4report.com/node/6312
Emanuel: Obama won't link Colombia FTA to stimulus package
http://ww4report.com/node/6306
Colombia: An Open Letter From ACIN to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1566/68/
Salvadoran officers could face charges in Spain for 1989 massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/6323
Mexico: gunmen kill reporter, kidnap farmworkers
http://ww4report.com/node/6324
Colombia good model for Mexico: Uribe
http://ww4report.com/node/6308
Another Economic Casualty: Mexican Remittances
http://nacla.org/node/5218
Larry Summers, Champion of Wall Street Greed Attained by Impoverishing the Mexican People
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5662
Afro-Latino Voices Shout: Obama! Obama!
http://nacla.org/node/5192
Latin America Sends Obama Congratulations--and a Piece of its Mind
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5654
Will Obama recognize Latin America is no longer "America's backyard?"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1569/68/
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. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). 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 #967, November 16, 2008
1. Chile: Government Workers Strike
2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, 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. Chile: Government Workers Strike
Some 400,000 Chilean public employees staged a two-day strike on Nov. 11 and 12 to push for a 14.5% pay increase. The National Association of Government Employees (ANEF), which includes 15 unions and associations, said the job action was 90% effective, with professors, health workers, administrative workers and municipal workers honoring the strike call. Government service offices were closed, garbage collection stopped in some areas, and some medical services were shut down. The government of Socialist president Michelle Bachelet called the protest "blackmail"; Interior Minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma said workers wouldn't be paid for the two days they missed.
"We're not about to pay for the effects of the financial crisis," ANEF president Raúl de la Puente said, noting that inflation would eat up most of the raise. Chile's inflation rate reached 0.9% in October, bringing the projected annual rate to 9.9%, the highest since 1994. On Nov. 13 the government offered an increase of 5%, raising the offer to 6.5% on Nov. 14. The unions responded with a call for an open-ended strike to start on Nov. 17. (La Jornada (Mexico) 11/12/08 from correspondent; Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/12/08; Agence France Presse 11/15/08)
*2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
The leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations met in Washington, DC on Nov. 15 for the group's first summit--an emergency session to discuss the world financial crisis. The G20 combines the Group of 8 (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US) with growing industrial powers like China and India; together the G20 nations account for as much as 90% of the world's gross domestic product. The Latin American members are Argentina, Brazil and Mexico [see Update #966]; this year Brazil holds the group's rotating leadership.
The meeting failed to meet many members' hopes for a global agreement on regulation of financial speculation. Instead, the final 10-page declaration committed the members to undertaking reforms before Mar. 31. The G20 is to meet again on Apr. 30, 101 days after Barack Obama replaces George W. Bush as US president. But Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva considered the summit an advance. "We are talking about the G20 because the G8 doesn't have any more reason to exist," he said when leaving Brazil for the summit. "In other words, the emerging economies have to be taken into consideration in today's globalized world." At the summit he said that "existing multilateral organizations" like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been "rejected by history. Both the IMF and the World Bank should open themselves to bigger participation of developing economies." (International Herald Tribune 11/15/08 from AP; La Jornada 11/16/08 from DPA, AFP, Reuters and unidentified wire services)
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz was less optimistic. In an article published on Nov. 15, he noted that the G20 leaders were saying nothing about "the nonrenewable resources of the planet" or about ending the arms buildup. He added, alluding to president elect Obama, that "many people dream that with a simple change of office in the leadership of the empire, this [empire] will be more tolerant and less bellicose... It would be naive to believe that the good intentions of one intelligent person could change what centuries of interests and egoism have created. Human history demonstrates something else." (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08)
*3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
After the Nov. 15 Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington, Chinese president Hu Jintao flew to Costa Rica for the first visit by a Chinese president to Central America. He and Costa Rican president Oscar Arias were to sign 11 accords, including the creation of a joint enterprise of Refinería Costarricense de Petróleo and China National Petroleum Corporation to modernize Costa Rica's plant; a line of credit from a Chinese bank to the state-owned Banco de Costa Rica; funding for Chinese language instruction in the Universidad de Costa Rica; and $73 million for the construction of a new sports stadium in San José. China has been moving aggressively into economic activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the refinery accord opens the possibility that China may invest up to $1.2 billion in a new refinery. (Univisión 11/16/08 from AFP)
On Nov. 11 the Legislative Assembly passed the last enabling laws necessary for the implementation of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a trade accord strongly promoted by the US. President Arias said it would take effect on Jan. 1. The accord was signed in 2004, and all the other members have implemented it, but Costa Rican legislators wouldn't move on the issue until it was approved in a referendum on Oct. 7, 2007 after a bitter campaign [see Update #918]. (Miami Herald 11/11/08 from AP)
*4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
On Nov. 12 Cuba released La Paz en Colombia ("Peace in Colombia"), a 265-page book by former president Fidel Castro giving new information about the Cuban government's relations with Colombia's leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In the book, which Castro says took 400 hours of work, the former president repeats criticisms he made last July of the FARC's treatment of prisoners of war and "the capture and holding of civilians not involved in the war" [see Update #953]. In the book he also notes that holding "prisoners and hostages deprived the combatants of the ability to maneuver."
Castro says he tried to convince former FARC leader Manuel Marulanda Vélez, who died in March of this year, that he could make a peace agreement with then-president Andrés Pastrana during negotiations in 1999, but Marulanda didn't negotiate seriously because he thought the US was planning an intervention that would lead to a prolonged war and possibly a "continental struggle." The Cubans told him that "the international situation was entirely different from the way he saw it." Castro says he admired Marulanda's "revolutionary firmness" but felt that armed struggle was no longer viable, noting that Cuba aided the rebels in Nicaragua in the 1970s and in El Salvador in the 1980s. Castro mocks the US insistence that the rebels are terrorists; in 1999, Castro says, a US representative met with the FARC's chief negotiator, the late Raúl Reyes, in Costa Rica to discuss cooperation on an antinarcotics program. (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08; La Jornada 11/13/08, 11/14/08, 11/15/08 )
*5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
Puerto Rico's conservative New Progressive Party (PNP) gained easily over the centrist Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in elections on Nov. 4, with PNP gubernatorial candidate Luis Fortuño winning 52.8% of the vote to 41.3% for the PPD candidate, current governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. Rogelio Figueroa of Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico (PPR), a new party with an environmental orientation, got 2.8% of the vote, while Edwin Irizarry of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) followed with 2%. The PNP won 60 of the 78 seats in the legislature, and the PPD won the remaining 18. The PNP won 48 mayorships to 30 for the PPD.
Governor Elect Fortuño is a member of the US Republican party, which lost heavily in elections the same day in the US. Analysts attribute the PPD loss to popular resentment against Acevedo, who raised sales taxes and alienated an important part of the labor movement [see Update #963]; he also faces federal corruption charges. The PNP only gained 31,000 votes over its total in 2004, but the PPD total fell by 183,000 votes as many former supporters stayed home. (Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/10/08)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, US policy
Connecting Struggles: Documentation from the Social Forum of the Americas
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1567/1/
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing"
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Uruguay: Congress Votes to Legalise Abortion, But Veto Likely http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1573/68/
Paraguay: Agreement with Rural Activists Puts End to Protest
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1570/68/
Police Repression and Presidential Promises: The Fight for Social Justice in Paraguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1574/1/
Bolivia requests extradition of ex-president from US on "genocide" charge
http://ww4report.com/node/6311
Anti-Bases Coalition Pushes U.S. Military Base out of Ecuador
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Ecuador Protests Colombian Paramilitary Incursion, Documents CIA Infiltration
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1571/68/
Danger Ahead: Correa Gives Mining the Green Light in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1575/1/
US blocks aid to tainted Colombian army units: report
http://ww4report.com/node/6307
One dead in Colombian riots over financial scam
http://ww4report.com/node/6317
Colombian investors riot over pyramid scheme
http://ww4report.com/node/6312
Emanuel: Obama won't link Colombia FTA to stimulus package
http://ww4report.com/node/6306
Colombia: An Open Letter From ACIN to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1566/68/
Salvadoran officers could face charges in Spain for 1989 massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/6323
Mexico: gunmen kill reporter, kidnap farmworkers
http://ww4report.com/node/6324
Colombia good model for Mexico: Uribe
http://ww4report.com/node/6308
Another Economic Casualty: Mexican Remittances
http://nacla.org/node/5218
Larry Summers, Champion of Wall Street Greed Attained by Impoverishing the Mexican People
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5662
Afro-Latino Voices Shout: Obama! Obama!
http://nacla.org/node/5192
Latin America Sends Obama Congratulations--and a Piece of its Mind
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5654
Will Obama recognize Latin America is no longer "America's backyard?"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1569/68/
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. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). 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, 10 November 2008
Links but no Update for November 9, 2008
[Due to other commitments, we are unable to send out an Update this week. We'll be back next week. Below are links to stories from other sources.]
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing" http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1559/68/
Paraguay: The Struggle for Land
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1557/68/
Paraguay: New 'Archives of Terror' Unearthed http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1555/68/
Next in Bolivia: lithium wars?
http://ww4report.com/node/6296
Whither Ecuador? An Interview with Indigenous Activist and Politician Monica Chuji
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1563/1/
Colombia: more threats, displacement at Peace Community
http://ww4report.com/node/6291
Colombia: armed forces chief resigns in human rights scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6273
Colombian Government Allegations of Indigenous and Popular Mobilization Terrorism False
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1560/68/
No End in Sight: Indigenous and Popular Minga Continues, Debate with Colombian President Stalls
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1556/1/
Venezuela to militarize Colombian border
http://ww4report.com/node/6297
Mexico: narco-Satanism in Ciudad Juárez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6295
Mexico: interior secretary killed in (mysterious?) air crash
http://ww4report.com/node/6272
Mexico: Zetas planning attacks on US Border Patrol?
http://ww4report.com/node/6271
Mexico: another Gulf Cartel kingpin busted, guns blazing
http://ww4report.com/node/6290
Activists Decry Arrest of APPO Members in Brad Will Murder
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1565/1/
Obama and the Americas: A Window of Opportunity
http://nacla.org/node/5198
Eduardo Galeano on Obama's Victory
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1562/68/
Latinobarómetro US Election Poll: Latin Americans Have Other Concerns
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1554/1/
Chávez, Evo hail Obama's victory, call for "new relations"
http://ww4report.com/node/6284
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing" http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1559/68/
Paraguay: The Struggle for Land
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1557/68/
Paraguay: New 'Archives of Terror' Unearthed http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1555/68/
Next in Bolivia: lithium wars?
http://ww4report.com/node/6296
Whither Ecuador? An Interview with Indigenous Activist and Politician Monica Chuji
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1563/1/
Colombia: more threats, displacement at Peace Community
http://ww4report.com/node/6291
Colombia: armed forces chief resigns in human rights scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6273
Colombian Government Allegations of Indigenous and Popular Mobilization Terrorism False
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1560/68/
No End in Sight: Indigenous and Popular Minga Continues, Debate with Colombian President Stalls
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1556/1/
Venezuela to militarize Colombian border
http://ww4report.com/node/6297
Mexico: narco-Satanism in Ciudad Juárez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6295
Mexico: interior secretary killed in (mysterious?) air crash
http://ww4report.com/node/6272
Mexico: Zetas planning attacks on US Border Patrol?
http://ww4report.com/node/6271
Mexico: another Gulf Cartel kingpin busted, guns blazing
http://ww4report.com/node/6290
Activists Decry Arrest of APPO Members in Brad Will Murder
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1565/1/
Obama and the Americas: A Window of Opportunity
http://nacla.org/node/5198
Eduardo Galeano on Obama's Victory
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1562/68/
Latinobarómetro US Election Poll: Latin Americans Have Other Concerns
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1554/1/
Chávez, Evo hail Obama's victory, call for "new relations"
http://ww4report.com/node/6284
Sunday, 2 November 2008
WNU #966: Paras Threaten Colombian Peace Community
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #966, November 2, 2008
1. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, 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. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in Colombia's northwestern Antioquia department reported on Oct. 31 that rightwing paramilitaries were threatening to murder community members. A joint operation of paramilitaries and the army's 17th Brigade murdered eight people in San José de Apartadó on Feb. 21, 2005 [see Updates #787, 788, 791]; retired colonel Guillermo Armando Gordillo confessed this year that his troops participated in the massacre. Peace communities refuse to collaborate with any armed forces, including rebels, paramilitaries and the army.
According to the peace community, paramilitaries stopped three people on Oct. 30 and told them that residents of La Esperanza settlement, part of the peace community, had to leave if they wanted to avoid being massacred; the paramilitaries said they had a list of six people they were going to murder. Similar threats preceded the 2005 massacre, and the military has been pressuring the community recently. On Oct. 28 and 29 army troops spent the day in homes and the school in La Esperanza, keeping children from attending classes; when asked to leave, they called the community a "nest of guerrillas." Soldiers have also photographed residents and conducted an illegal census. The US-based Colombia Support Network (CSN) is urging people to contact US Congress members, US embassy attaché Scott Fagan (FaganSR@state.gov), Colombian defense minister Dr. Juan Manuel Santos (siden@mindefensa.gov.co, infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co and mdn@cable.net.co), and others to demand a stop to the planned massacre and respect for the rights of civilians. (Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa 11/2/08 from Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó communiqué 10/31/08; CSN urgent action 10/31/08; World War 4 Report 8/2/08)
*2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
The official theme of the 18th Ibero-American Summit, held Oct. 29-31 in San Salvador, El Salvador, was "Youth and Development," but the global financial crisis was the main topic of discussions by the representatives of Spain, Portugal and 19 Latin American countries.
Despite strong differences among the 19 heads of state who attended--from supporters of neoliberalism like Salvadoran president Elías Antonio Saca and Mexican president Felipe Hinojosa Calderón to supporters of state intervention like Bolivian president Evo Morales and Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa--the participants agreed on a united message for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to take to a meeting in Washington, DC of the Group of 20 (G20, the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations plus the largest "emerging economies"). They are to call for a sharp change in the advanced nations' policies of extreme deregulation, which Latin American leaders blamed for the crisis.
Latin American economies were initially somewhat resistant to the global meltdown, in part because of a recent policy of "unhitching" or "decoupling" their economies from the US [see Update #962]. But the crisis began to hit Latin America seriously the week of Oct. 6 as the Brazilian real and the Mexican peso plunged violently. Argentina's economy is now suffering from a fall in the price of the grains that represent 45.2% of its exports, while Venezuela faces a sharp drop in the price of oil, which accounts for 90% of its exports. Brazil is also affected by lower prices for oil, while the real's drop has forced the Central Bank to intervene in the private banking system. Mexico, which is exceptionally dependent on the US economy, has had to use 10% of its foreign reserves to support the peso.
Last year Latin America's overall gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.6%; this year the increase is expected to be 4% or less. Since the beginning of the month the two largest economies, Brazil and Mexico, have been growing at a 3% and 1.5% annual rate respectively. (La Jornada (Mexico) 10/28/08 from Economist Intelligence Unit, 10/31/08 from correspondent; AlterPresse (Haiti) 10/31/08 from correspondent; Xinhuanet (China) 10/31/08)
*3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Oct. 29 to condemn the US embargo on trade with Cuba that has been in effect since 1962. This is the 17th time the group has supported a nonbinding resolution against the embargo. The vote was 185-3 with one abstention, a slight change from last year's 184-4 vote [see Update #920]. The US, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution; the Marshall Islands, which voted with the US in 2007, joined Micronesia in abstaining. Albania, which was absent in 2007, backed this year's resolution. (Prensa Latina (Cuba) 10/29/08)
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Havana the evening of Oct. 30 for a 24-hour visit after he had attended the Ibero-American Summit. He immediately met with President Raúl Castro, personally inviting the Cuban leader to the Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean on Integration and Development, to be held Dec. 16-17 in Salvador de Bahía. Lula's main official business on the island appeared to be signing a treaty for joint petroleum exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, but the larger goal was clearly to raise Brazil's profile as a trading partner with Cuba. With $450 million in trade a year, Brazil is Cuba's second most important Latin American partner, after Venezuela. This was Lula's second visit to Cuba in 2008 [see Update #931]. (La Jornada 10/31/08 from correspondent)
Improved relations between Cuba and Mexico were evident in the Oct. 19-21 visit of Cuban foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque to Mexico City. On Oct. 20 he and Governance Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño signed a memorandum of understanding on immigration policy; the two countries agreed to cooperate in ending the practice by which hundreds of Cubans enter Mexico illegally by sea on their way to the US [see Update #964]. On Oct. 21 Roque met with Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and invited him to visit Cuba. Relations between the countries had been minimal starting in 2002 under Calderón's predecessor, Vicente Fox Quesada, who, like Calderón, is a member of the center-right National Action Party (PAN) and a supporter of the US. Trade between Cuba and Mexico is now up by 80% over what it was in the same period in 2007. (LJ 10/20/08, 10/21/08, 10/22/08)
*4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
About a dozen people reportedly died of starvation in the Baie d'Orange communal section in Belle-Anse in Haiti's Southeast department towards the end of October. Local authorities say malnutrition is a major problem in the area, which was hit by a series of storms two months ago; people are also suffering from dysentery, fevers and skin diseases. Apparently food relief failed to reach Baie d'Orange until recently because of the area's isolation, which was worsened by the storms. (AlterPresse 10/30/08)
International institutions have sent minimal aid to Haiti after the storms [see Update #964]. There is still no sign they will offer the country debt relief, or even admit that there is a problem. During a visit to Port-au-Prince on Oct. 20, World Bank president Robert Zoellick reportedly told journalists that Haiti's $1.7 billion debt was "half-forgiven" and promised "the rest of the debt" could soon be cancelled. $500 million of Haitian debt had already been cancelled, he said, according to reports. Local and international groups say that in fact none of Haiti's debt stock has been cancelled by the World Bank, and in recent weeks the World Bank has delayed debt cancellation for Haiti by six months. (AlterPresse 10/31/08)
In other news, on Oct. 28 former rightwing paramilitary leader Emmanuel ("Toto") Constant was given a 12 to 37 year prison sentence for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme in New York state [see Update #956]. Justice Abraham Gerges of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn said schemes like the one by Constant and his associates "played a role" in "the nationwide economic meltdown and the foreclosure crisis." In asking for leniency Constant said he worked for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Haiti from December 1991 to December 1994. (New York Times 10/29/08; Brooklyn Daily Eagle 10/28/08)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, US policy
Latin America's New Consensus
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5631
Revealed: McCain's Private Visit With Chilean Dictator Pinochet
http://nacla.org/node/5140
El "Técnico" y el "Pepe": Seeking Electoral Unity in Uruguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1548/1/
Bolivia boots DEA
http://ww4report.com/node/6256
Winds of Civil War in Bolivia: Understanding a Four-party Conflict
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5632
Multi-Layered Conflict Poses Uncertain Future for Bolivian Reforms
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5598
What did Bolivian Society Say Through the Recall Referendum?
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5486
The Bolivian Crisis, the OAS, and UNASUR
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5567
The Failure of U.S. "Democracy Promotion" in Bolivia
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5638
Militarization and the War on Drugs in Peru: Interview with Ricardo Soberón http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1542/1/
Colombia: officers purged over "false positive" executions
http://ww4report.com/node/6233
Colombia's Indigenous march against President Uribe
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2611&updaterx=2008-10-23+09%3A19%3A35
U'wa Fight New Oil Exploration
http://nacla.org/node/5151
Colombia: Uribe stands up indigenous leaders
http://ww4report.com/node/6223
Colombia: Where Dialogue Seems Impossible
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1546/68/
Colombia: FARC agrees to peace dialogue
http://ww4report.com/node/6234
Colombia: "We Are not Subversives, and We Demand Respect"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1544/68/
Creation of an Urban Guerrilla
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1552/1/
Honduras: All That Glitters Isn't Gold - A Story of Exploitation and Resistance
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1545/1/
Hemispheric Conference against Militarization Says No to Merida Initiative, U.S. Military Bases
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5605
Mexico: federal police chief steps down in narco-scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6257
Mexico: Sinaloa Cartel spies infiltrated Prosecutor General, US Embassy
http://ww4report.com/node/6235
Mexico: Tijuana Cartel kingpin busted
http://ww4report.com/node/6219
The Failure of Operation Chihuahua
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5626
Will an Obama Administration act differently towards South America?
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2608&updaterx=2008-10-22+09%3A23%3A30
Over 360 Latin America Experts Call on Obama to Improve U.S.-Latin American Relations
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1547/68/
Toward a New US-Latin America Foreign Policy
http://nacla.org/node/5148
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. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). 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 #966, November 2, 2008
1. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, 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. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in Colombia's northwestern Antioquia department reported on Oct. 31 that rightwing paramilitaries were threatening to murder community members. A joint operation of paramilitaries and the army's 17th Brigade murdered eight people in San José de Apartadó on Feb. 21, 2005 [see Updates #787, 788, 791]; retired colonel Guillermo Armando Gordillo confessed this year that his troops participated in the massacre. Peace communities refuse to collaborate with any armed forces, including rebels, paramilitaries and the army.
According to the peace community, paramilitaries stopped three people on Oct. 30 and told them that residents of La Esperanza settlement, part of the peace community, had to leave if they wanted to avoid being massacred; the paramilitaries said they had a list of six people they were going to murder. Similar threats preceded the 2005 massacre, and the military has been pressuring the community recently. On Oct. 28 and 29 army troops spent the day in homes and the school in La Esperanza, keeping children from attending classes; when asked to leave, they called the community a "nest of guerrillas." Soldiers have also photographed residents and conducted an illegal census. The US-based Colombia Support Network (CSN) is urging people to contact US Congress members, US embassy attaché Scott Fagan (FaganSR@state.gov), Colombian defense minister Dr. Juan Manuel Santos (siden@mindefensa.gov.co, infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co and mdn@cable.net.co), and others to demand a stop to the planned massacre and respect for the rights of civilians. (Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa 11/2/08 from Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó communiqué 10/31/08; CSN urgent action 10/31/08; World War 4 Report 8/2/08)
*2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
The official theme of the 18th Ibero-American Summit, held Oct. 29-31 in San Salvador, El Salvador, was "Youth and Development," but the global financial crisis was the main topic of discussions by the representatives of Spain, Portugal and 19 Latin American countries.
Despite strong differences among the 19 heads of state who attended--from supporters of neoliberalism like Salvadoran president Elías Antonio Saca and Mexican president Felipe Hinojosa Calderón to supporters of state intervention like Bolivian president Evo Morales and Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa--the participants agreed on a united message for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to take to a meeting in Washington, DC of the Group of 20 (G20, the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations plus the largest "emerging economies"). They are to call for a sharp change in the advanced nations' policies of extreme deregulation, which Latin American leaders blamed for the crisis.
Latin American economies were initially somewhat resistant to the global meltdown, in part because of a recent policy of "unhitching" or "decoupling" their economies from the US [see Update #962]. But the crisis began to hit Latin America seriously the week of Oct. 6 as the Brazilian real and the Mexican peso plunged violently. Argentina's economy is now suffering from a fall in the price of the grains that represent 45.2% of its exports, while Venezuela faces a sharp drop in the price of oil, which accounts for 90% of its exports. Brazil is also affected by lower prices for oil, while the real's drop has forced the Central Bank to intervene in the private banking system. Mexico, which is exceptionally dependent on the US economy, has had to use 10% of its foreign reserves to support the peso.
Last year Latin America's overall gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.6%; this year the increase is expected to be 4% or less. Since the beginning of the month the two largest economies, Brazil and Mexico, have been growing at a 3% and 1.5% annual rate respectively. (La Jornada (Mexico) 10/28/08 from Economist Intelligence Unit, 10/31/08 from correspondent; AlterPresse (Haiti) 10/31/08 from correspondent; Xinhuanet (China) 10/31/08)
*3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Oct. 29 to condemn the US embargo on trade with Cuba that has been in effect since 1962. This is the 17th time the group has supported a nonbinding resolution against the embargo. The vote was 185-3 with one abstention, a slight change from last year's 184-4 vote [see Update #920]. The US, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution; the Marshall Islands, which voted with the US in 2007, joined Micronesia in abstaining. Albania, which was absent in 2007, backed this year's resolution. (Prensa Latina (Cuba) 10/29/08)
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Havana the evening of Oct. 30 for a 24-hour visit after he had attended the Ibero-American Summit. He immediately met with President Raúl Castro, personally inviting the Cuban leader to the Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean on Integration and Development, to be held Dec. 16-17 in Salvador de Bahía. Lula's main official business on the island appeared to be signing a treaty for joint petroleum exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, but the larger goal was clearly to raise Brazil's profile as a trading partner with Cuba. With $450 million in trade a year, Brazil is Cuba's second most important Latin American partner, after Venezuela. This was Lula's second visit to Cuba in 2008 [see Update #931]. (La Jornada 10/31/08 from correspondent)
Improved relations between Cuba and Mexico were evident in the Oct. 19-21 visit of Cuban foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque to Mexico City. On Oct. 20 he and Governance Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño signed a memorandum of understanding on immigration policy; the two countries agreed to cooperate in ending the practice by which hundreds of Cubans enter Mexico illegally by sea on their way to the US [see Update #964]. On Oct. 21 Roque met with Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and invited him to visit Cuba. Relations between the countries had been minimal starting in 2002 under Calderón's predecessor, Vicente Fox Quesada, who, like Calderón, is a member of the center-right National Action Party (PAN) and a supporter of the US. Trade between Cuba and Mexico is now up by 80% over what it was in the same period in 2007. (LJ 10/20/08, 10/21/08, 10/22/08)
*4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
About a dozen people reportedly died of starvation in the Baie d'Orange communal section in Belle-Anse in Haiti's Southeast department towards the end of October. Local authorities say malnutrition is a major problem in the area, which was hit by a series of storms two months ago; people are also suffering from dysentery, fevers and skin diseases. Apparently food relief failed to reach Baie d'Orange until recently because of the area's isolation, which was worsened by the storms. (AlterPresse 10/30/08)
International institutions have sent minimal aid to Haiti after the storms [see Update #964]. There is still no sign they will offer the country debt relief, or even admit that there is a problem. During a visit to Port-au-Prince on Oct. 20, World Bank president Robert Zoellick reportedly told journalists that Haiti's $1.7 billion debt was "half-forgiven" and promised "the rest of the debt" could soon be cancelled. $500 million of Haitian debt had already been cancelled, he said, according to reports. Local and international groups say that in fact none of Haiti's debt stock has been cancelled by the World Bank, and in recent weeks the World Bank has delayed debt cancellation for Haiti by six months. (AlterPresse 10/31/08)
In other news, on Oct. 28 former rightwing paramilitary leader Emmanuel ("Toto") Constant was given a 12 to 37 year prison sentence for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme in New York state [see Update #956]. Justice Abraham Gerges of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn said schemes like the one by Constant and his associates "played a role" in "the nationwide economic meltdown and the foreclosure crisis." In asking for leniency Constant said he worked for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Haiti from December 1991 to December 1994. (New York Times 10/29/08; Brooklyn Daily Eagle 10/28/08)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, US policy
Latin America's New Consensus
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5631
Revealed: McCain's Private Visit With Chilean Dictator Pinochet
http://nacla.org/node/5140
El "Técnico" y el "Pepe": Seeking Electoral Unity in Uruguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1548/1/
Bolivia boots DEA
http://ww4report.com/node/6256
Winds of Civil War in Bolivia: Understanding a Four-party Conflict
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5632
Multi-Layered Conflict Poses Uncertain Future for Bolivian Reforms
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5598
What did Bolivian Society Say Through the Recall Referendum?
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5486
The Bolivian Crisis, the OAS, and UNASUR
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5567
The Failure of U.S. "Democracy Promotion" in Bolivia
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5638
Militarization and the War on Drugs in Peru: Interview with Ricardo Soberón http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1542/1/
Colombia: officers purged over "false positive" executions
http://ww4report.com/node/6233
Colombia's Indigenous march against President Uribe
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2611&updaterx=2008-10-23+09%3A19%3A35
U'wa Fight New Oil Exploration
http://nacla.org/node/5151
Colombia: Uribe stands up indigenous leaders
http://ww4report.com/node/6223
Colombia: Where Dialogue Seems Impossible
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1546/68/
Colombia: FARC agrees to peace dialogue
http://ww4report.com/node/6234
Colombia: "We Are not Subversives, and We Demand Respect"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1544/68/
Creation of an Urban Guerrilla
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1552/1/
Honduras: All That Glitters Isn't Gold - A Story of Exploitation and Resistance
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1545/1/
Hemispheric Conference against Militarization Says No to Merida Initiative, U.S. Military Bases
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5605
Mexico: federal police chief steps down in narco-scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6257
Mexico: Sinaloa Cartel spies infiltrated Prosecutor General, US Embassy
http://ww4report.com/node/6235
Mexico: Tijuana Cartel kingpin busted
http://ww4report.com/node/6219
The Failure of Operation Chihuahua
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5626
Will an Obama Administration act differently towards South America?
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2608&updaterx=2008-10-22+09%3A23%3A30
Over 360 Latin America Experts Call on Obama to Improve U.S.-Latin American Relations
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1547/68/
Toward a New US-Latin America Foreign Policy
http://nacla.org/node/5148
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. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). 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/
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