Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1038, June 27, 2010
1. Latin America: Most Cocaine Trade Profits Stay in the US
2. Honduras: Police, Military Kill Aguán Campesino
3. Guatemala: Goldcorp, Government Stall on Mine Suspension
4. Mexico: Activist Seeks Asylum at Venezuelan Embassy
5. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, US
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: Most Cocaine Trade Profits Stay in the US
Some 85% of the gross profits from trafficking cocaine from South America to the US remain with US distribution networks, Antonio Luigi Mazzitelli, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) representative for Mexico and Central America, told the Spanish wire service EFE on June 26.
According to Mazzitelli, gross profits from trafficking to the US came to about $35 billion in 2008. The growers in the Andean region got some $500 million, while $400 million went to the local traffickers. The Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, which transport the cocaine from South America to the US, made some $4.6 billion in gross profits in 2008. Of the remaining $29.5 billion, $5.3 billion went to the 200 major distributors in the US and $24.2 billion to 6,000 US intermediaries and an unknown number of small-scale vendors.
Mazzitelli said that these figures, which appear in the UNODC’s World Drug Report 2010, released on June 23, “demythologize” the idea that the Latin American drug traffickers are the main beneficiaries of the drug trade. (El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 6/27/10 from EFE; El Colombiano (Antioquia, Colombia) 6/26/10 from EFE)
*2. Honduras: Police, Military Kill Aguán Campesino
On June 20 the Unified Campesino Movement of the Aguán (MUCA) reported that Honduran soldiers from the Cobra Battalion, agents of the Preventive Police and private security guards from the Orión company had entered the La Aurora estate in northern Honduras that morning and attacked campesinos who were encamped there. A teenage campesino whose name was given as Oscar Yovani Ramírez or Oscar Geovanny Ramírez died in the operation, and five other campesinos were detained, according to MUCA.
The campesinos in La Aurora are parties to an agreement MUCA and Honduran president Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo Sosa signed on Apr. 18 to bring an end to a land dispute between Aguán Valley residents and large landowners Miguel Facussé, René Morales and Reinaldo Canales [see Update #1033]. The 24 campesino cooperatives that make up MUCA say they withdrew from the 24 farms they’d been occupying and settled in five estates--La Lempira, La Confianza, La Aurora, La Concepción and Camarones—while waiting for the government to turn over the 11,000 hectares promised them in the accord. They blame the government for delays in providing the land and for its refusal to end the heavy military and police presence in the area. (Defensoresenlinea.com 6/20/10; FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN) communiqué 6/20/10 via Vos el Soberano)
The latest violence in the Aguán Valley came as people in Honduras and elsewhere prepared to mark the first anniversary of a military coup that removed then-president José Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009) from office on June 28, 2009 [see Update #995]. In the US, 27 members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on June 24 calling on the administration of US president Barack Obama to suspend aid to Honduras and to send a mission there to investigate human rights violations. The letter, signed by House National Security Subcommittee chair John Tierney (D-MA) and Judicial Committee chair John Conyers (D-MI), noted that nine journalists were murdered in Honduras during the last year. (La Jornada (Mexico) 6/26/10 from AFP)
In Honduras, the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), a coalition that grew out of resistance to the coup, was planning a series of events for June 28 and the days leading up to it. The front is trying to collect more than 1.2 million signatures calling for Zelaya’s return from his exile in the Dominican Republic and for the convocation of a constituent assembly to rewrite the 1982 Constitution. The coup halted a nonbinding referendum scheduled for June 28, 2009 that would have asked voters if they wished to vote on a constituent assembly in the national elections to be held on Nov. 29, 2009. (LJ 6/27/10 from AFP, DPA, Reuters)
Correction: We originally reported in error that the FNRP "has collected more than 1.2 million signatures."
*3. Guatemala: Goldcorp, Government Stall on Mine Suspension
On June 23 the Guatemalan government agreed to suspend operations at the Marlin gold mine in the western department of San Marcos, which is owned by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, SA, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Goldcorp Inc. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), a Washington, DC-based agency of the Organization of American States (OAS), had ordered Guatemala on May 21 to carry out the suspension within 20 days; the IACHR was responding to a complaint filed by indigenous inhabitants of the communities of Sipacapa and San Miguel Ixtahuacán who say the mine has caused significant damage to residents’ health and the local environment [see Update #1035].
Fernando Barillas, an adviser to Guatemalan president Alvaro Colom, told Bloomberg News on June 23 that there was “no exact day yet” for the suspension. “Perhaps within 15 days or a month," he added. On June 25 Guatemalan vice president Rafael Espada said that “many steps have to be completed” to shut down the mine and that it might take three months. A mission of IACHR technicians is slated to visit the mine in July, and Goldcorp spokesperson Jeff Wilhoit indicated that the company expected the IACHR mission not to find serious problems with the mine and that the suspension would never take place. (Vancouver Sun 6/25/10; ACAN-EFE 6/25/10 via terra.com (Spain))
*4. Mexico: Activist Seeks Asylum at Venezuelan Embassy
Mexican campesino rights activist América del Valle applied for political asylum at the Venezuelan embassy in Mexico City on the morning of June 23, citing "four years of unceasing political persecution.” Del Valle is a member of the Front of the Peoples in Defense of the Land (FPDT), a campesino movement that formed in 2001 and successfully opposed plans to build a new international airport on farmlands in and around San Salvador Atenco municipality northeast of Mexico City in México state.
América del Valle’s father, Ignacio del Valle Medina, and 11 other FPDT members are serving lengthy prison sentences stemming from a May 3-4, 2006 confrontation between police and Atenco campesinos which resulted in the deaths of two protesters, 209 arrests and accusations that police agents systematically beat and sexually abused prisoners [see Update #959]. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) is currently reviewing the FPDT members’ cases, but América del Valle said while the court might reduce some sentences or release a few prisoners, “the reality is that injustice will prevail." (Latin American Herald Tribune 6/24/10 from EFE; Adital (Brazil) 6/25/10)
1997 Nobel peace prize winner Jody Williams and 10 other Nobel peace laureates have expressed support for the Atenco prisoners. The other signers are: Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984) and Frederick de Klerk (1993), South Africa; Mairead Carrigan Maguire (1976), Betty Williams (1976) and John Hume (1998), Ireland; Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (1980), Argentina; Elie Wiesel (1986), Romania; Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992), Guatemala; Shirin Ebadi (2003), Iran; Wangari Maathai (2004), Kenya. “Behind each one of these signatures there are legions of activists,” Jody Williams, a US citizen who lived in Mexico for two years when she was a teenager, told the Mexican daily La Jornada on June 25. (LJ 6/26/10)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, US
Brazilian Union Assists in Land Takeovers, Showing Power of a Good Example
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2551-brazilian-union-assists-in-land-takeovers-showing-power-of-a-good-example
USAID: The Bone of Contention in U.S. - Bolivia Relations
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/usaid-bone-of-contention-in-us-bolivia-relations
Peru: authorities challenge UN findings on coca leaf boom
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8784
Peru: President García refuses to sign indigenous rights law
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8785
Bagua, Peru: A Year After
https://nacla.org/node/6622
Leader Returns from Asylum to Slam French Oil Company in Peru
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2557-leader-returns-from-asylum-to-slam-french-oil-company-in-peru
Reencounter of the Original Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/2554-reencounter-of-the-original-peoples-and-nationalities-of-abya-yala-in-ecuador
Colombia: New President-Elect, Same Old Story
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2552-colombia-new-president-elect-same-old-story
Venezuela Nationalizes 11 Oil Rigs Owned By U.S.-Based Helmerich & Payne
http://latindispatch.com/2010/06/25/venezuela-nationalizes-11-oil-rigs-owned-by-u-s-based-helmerich-payne/
Venezuela to Nationalize 11 Oilrigs Owned by US Oil Company
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/5449
Washington Resumes Military Aid to Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2558-washington-resumes-military-aid-to-honduras-
The Honduran Business Elite One Year After the Coup
https://nacla.org/node/6619
Two Dead in Confrontation in Oaxaca, Near Site of Canadian Mine
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2559-two-dead-in-confrontation-in-oaxaca-near-site-of-canadian-mine
An Uprising of Bones (Mexico)
http://counterpunch.com/ross06252010.html
Flashback: An Interview With Carlos Monsiváis (Mexico)
https://nacla.org/node/6617
Lethal Force on the Border (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2595
Dudus Coke pleads guilty in NYC (Jamaica)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8661#comment-320812
Haitian Farmers Leery of Monsanto's Largesse
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51894
Haitian Peasants March against Monsanto Company for Food and Seed Sovereignty
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2591
Based Out in Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/2561-based-out-in-latin-america
Oliver Stone's New Documentary Explains Progressive Governments in Latin America, Exposes Adversarial Media Bias
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/2553-oliver-stones-new-documentary-explains-progressive-governments-in-latin-america-exposes-adversarial-media-bias-
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://nacla.org/articles
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Monday, June 28, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
WNU #1037: Puerto Rican Students Win Demands
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1037, June 20, 2010
1. Puerto Rico: Student Strike Wins Most Demands
2. Mexico: Labor, Left Denounce “Solution” at Cananea Mine
3. Venezuela: Left and Right Charge Union Repression
4. Latin America: Colombia Leads in Murdered Unionists
5. Links to alternative sources on: Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Central America, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, US-OAS
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Puerto Rico: Student Strike Wins Most Demands
After a new four-day round of talks with a court-appointed mediator, students and the Board of Trustees at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) reached an agreement on the night of June 16-17 to end a two-month strike that had closed 10 of the public university’s 11 campuses [see Update #1036]. The trustees agreed to drop plans for cutbacks in the budget and for reductions in scholarships and tuition exemptions, and they postponed until next January a plan to impose a special tuition surcharge of about $1,100 for each of the next three years. They also agreed not to penalize the strike leaders. The strikers’ National Negotiating Committee (CNN) said the shutdown would end if students ratified the agreement in a national assembly on June 21.
The breakthrough in negotiations came after the mediator, former judge Pedro López Oliver, brought all 13 trustees into the talks, which had been dominated previously by Board of Trustees president Ygrí Rivera. Rivera and three other trustees refused to sign the final agreement.
The strike began on Apr. 21 with a two-day protest at the Río Piedras campus in San Juan, the largest campus in the system, which has a student body of about 65,000. On Apr. 23 student leaders at Río Piedras declared an open-ended strike, which quickly spread to all but one of the other campuses. The strikers won support from Puerto Rican unions and grassroots organizations along with much of the island’s artistic community, reflecting anger at Gov. Luis Fortuño’s policy of responding to the world economic crisis with layoffs, budget cuts and privatization. There was also strong international support for the students [see Update #1034].
Strike leaders called the agreement the first big victory for the student movement in the university’s 107-year history. They said they planned to use the June 21 national assembly, to be held at the Pachín Vicéns Auditorium in the southern city of Ponce, to solidify the student movement. Meanwhile, after celebrating on the night of June 17, students who had been sitting in at the various campuses began clearing out their encampments. Arianis Pacheco, an education student at Río Piedras, told a reporter on June 18 that they would donate the food they’d been stockpiling to earthquake victims in Haiti. (Univision 6/17/10 from AP; Prensa Latina 6/17/10; New York Times 6/17/10 from correspondent; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 6/18/10; El Nuevo Día (San Juan) 6/19/10; Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 6/18/10 from staff, 6/19/10 from IPS)
*2. Mexico: Labor, Left Denounce “Solution” at Cananea Mine
Mexico’s independent labor movement reacted angrily to the government’s use of hundreds of police agents the night of June 6 to break a three-year strike at the giant Cananea copper mine in the northern state of Sonora. Later the same night, police stormed the sealed Pasta de Conchos mine in the northern state of Coahuila, where family members were protesting the failure to retrieve the bodies of miners killed in a methane explosion on Feb. 19, 2006; only two of the 65 bodies have been recovered [see Update #944]. Both mines are owned by the powerful Grupo México corporation.
Officials of the National Workers Union (UNT), the largest independent labor federation, announced on June 9 that they would hold a national day of action protesting the assault on Cananea. They are also filing a complaint against the government of President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa with the International Labor Organization (ILO). The Cananea strikers are members of Section 65 of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers and the Like of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM). The national union has been in a four-year struggle with the federal government over corruption charges against its leaders; supporters consider the charges an attempt to break the union [see Update #1022].
On June 10 members of the Pasta de Conchos families resumed their protest by joining an encampment in the Zócalo plaza in downtown Mexico City where members of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) were on the 47th day of a mass hunger strike. The electrical workers are protesting their sudden layoffs last October [see Update #1034]. (La Jornada (Mexico) 6/10/10, 6/11/10)
Former Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the presidential candidate of a center-left coalition in 2006, promised to organize the collection of provisions for the Cananea strikers and to fight a “lynching campaign” in the media, which he accused of “demonizing” the workers. During a visit to the Section 65 union hall in Cananea on June 14, López Obrador charged that the miners were the victims of a “mafia of power” and noted that when the Cananea mine was privatized in 1990, former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) “sold it to [Germán] Larrea [Mota-Velasco],” the main shareholder in Grupo México, “for $400 million, when it was worth more than $2 billion, according to an assessment by the Nacional Financiera,” the government’s bank for the development of small and medium businesses. (LJ 6/15/10)
US unions joined the denunciations of the police actions at Cananea and Pasta de Conchos. President Calderón “has launched a reign of terror against working people,” United Steelworkers (USW) international president Leo Gerard said on June 7, calling on the US Congress to “halt delivery of all funding to Mexican security forces” under the Mérida initiative, which is nominally aimed at fighting drug trafficking [see Update #952]. (USW press release 6/7/10) “As long as the Mexican military and police continue to violate the fundamental rights of workers, the US Congress should freeze current funding for these forces and any proposals for future support,” Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the largest US labor federation, said in a June 9 statement. (AFL-CIO blog 6/9/10)
Grupo México officials said they would need four months to get the mine operating again and would spend as much as $114 million to clean it up. According to Gustavo Ortega, a technical director, the company had lost some $3.5 billion during the 34 months of the strike. Isaac López, director of operations at the mine, told the Milenio Diario newspaper on June 14 that the mine would probably employ 800 non-union workers in the future, including some former members of Section 65. “The safest thing right now is for us not to have a union for the new workers,” he said. “Later, we’ll see."
Some people have asked why the company would accept big financial losses instead of just meeting the strikers’ demands, which focused on health and safety issues. The answer may be in plans to step up mining activity in Mexico—apparently without unions. On Apr. 7 Manuel Luévanos Sánchez, president of the Council of Directors of the Chamber of Mining of Mexico, told a meeting of the group that 70% of Mexico’s territory could contain mineral wealth. He called on the government for a "complete solution to the union problems that generate a growing uncertainty in the industry and slow down investments, putting at risk thousands of sources of employment.” (El Universal (Mexico) 6/14/10; Prensa Latina 6/20/10)
*3. Venezuela: Left, Right Charge Union Repression
The Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce (Fedecámaras) filed a complaint at a meeting of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva on June 11 against the labor and business policies of President Hugo Chávez’s leftist government. In addition to protesting the nationalization of businesses, the group charged that the government was “criminalizing protest” by labor unions and that the murders of some 200 unionists over the past five years had gone unpunished. On June 15 pro-government unionists protested in front of the Fedecámaras office in Ciudad Guayana in the eastern state of Bolívar, denying that there was repression of labor and charging that the business group, which supported a 2002 coup against Chávez, was trying to destabilize the government. (El Nacional (Caracas) 6/11/10 from EFE; El Diario de Guayana (Venezuela) 6/16/10)
One of the cases of alleged repression cited by Fedecámaras is the imprisonment since Sept. 29, 2009 of Rubén González, general secretary of the Ferrominera Workers Union (Sintraferrominera), which represents employees at the government-owned Ferrominera Orinoco (FMO) in Ciudad Guayana. González is charged with instigating criminal activity and with agavillamiento (“forming criminal gangs”).
The charges stem from a dispute last August at Ferrominera, an iron ore mining subsidiary of CVG, the national heavy industry holding company. According to the government and another Sintraferrominera official, Alfredo Spooner, González led a band of 20 to 50 workers that attacked other workers in an effort to force a strike by the company’s 6,232 employees. González’s supporters, including anarchists and some other leftists, say that there was a 16-day strike at the company by many of the workers and that on Aug. 26 FMO president Radwan Sabbagh publicly signed an agreement with González ending the strike and promising that there would be no reprisals against the strikers. The supporters also say that far from opposing the Chávez government, González is a member of the pro-government United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). (Aporrea (Venezuela) 8/19/09 from Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN), 5/10/10; Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo action alert 6/4/10)
*4. Latin America: Colombia Leads in Murdered Unionists
The number of trade unionists murdered around the world increased by 30% in 2009, according to an annual survey released on June 9 by the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The majority of the 101 murders cited in the report took place in Latin America, with 48 in Colombia, 16 in Guatemala, 12 in Honduras, six in Mexico, four in Brazil and three in the Dominican Republic.
“Colombia was yet again the country where standing up for fundamental rights of workers is more likely than anywhere else to mean a death sentence, despite the Colombian government’s public relations campaign to the contrary,” ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder said. “The worsening situation in Guatemala, Honduras and several other countries is also cause for extreme concern.” (ITUC announcement 6/9/10)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Central America, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, US-OAS
Bolivia: government appeals to Amazon peoples not to march for autonomy
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8776
One Year since the Bagua Massacre: New Actors Facing a State in Crisis
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2572
Peru: regional strike paralyzes south over Camisea LNG project
http://ww4report.com/node/8764
Peru: police clash with protesting mineral workers
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8756
Amnesty International: free Alberto Pizango (Peru)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8668#comment-320632
Peru: Amazon leader returns from asylum to slam French oil company
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8775
Colombia: US documents on Palace of Justice affair reveal army massacre
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8766
The Glory of the Heir (Colombia)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2583
Colombia: rival presidential candidates back hostage rescue mission
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8755
WOLA Announces Second Death Threat From Colombian Paramilitaries For Working With Displaced Peoples
http://latindispatch.com/2010/06/18/wola-announces-second-death-threat-from-colombian-paramilitary-group/
Colombia: Ten Injured as Riot Police Break Strike at Calgary-Owned Oil Company
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2541-colombia-ten-injured-as-riot-police-break-strike-at-calgary-owned-oil-company
Colombia: president-elect Santos pledges to escalate war
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8774
Central America: Food Security Further Undermined by Climate Disasters
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2543-central-america-food-security-further-undermined-by-climate-disasters
Building Socialism from Below: The Role of the Communes in Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2544-building-socialism-from-below-the-role-of-the-communes-in-venezuela
Interview: Return to El Salvador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/2542-interview-return-to-el-salvador
Honduras: Violence and Human Rights Violations Escalate
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2547-honduras-violence-and-human-rights-violations-escalate
Extending the Reach of Safe Abortion in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2549-extending-the-reach-of-safe-abortion-in-mexico
Tear Gas in Cananea (Mexico)
http://www.agenceglobal.com/Article.asp?Id=2355
Mexico: mass "narco-graves" found in Cancún
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8763
Mexico: 200 dead in one week of narco-violence
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8757
Mexico Awaits BP's Oil Blowout; Savaging Turtle Island
http://www.counterpunch.org/ross06042010.html
Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s Government Puts Limits On Cash Exchanges; Hopes To Hinder Drug Cartels
http://latindispatch.com/2010/06/16/mexican-president-felipe-calderons-government-puts-limits-on-cash-exchanges-hopes-to-hinder-drug-cartels/
Mexico: mayor who stood up to cartels assassinated
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8773
Media took gov't cash during trial of 'Cuban 5'
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5281
Musical Passions: Cuba’s Cultural Ambassadors
https://nacla.org/node/6609
Katrina Redux: New Disaster, Same Contractors in Haiti
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2548-katrina-redux-new-disaster-same-contractors-in-haiti
A Bad Week for the Monroe Doctrine
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2546--a-bad-week-for-the-monroe-doctrine
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://nacla.org/articles
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #1037, June 20, 2010
1. Puerto Rico: Student Strike Wins Most Demands
2. Mexico: Labor, Left Denounce “Solution” at Cananea Mine
3. Venezuela: Left and Right Charge Union Repression
4. Latin America: Colombia Leads in Murdered Unionists
5. Links to alternative sources on: Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Central America, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, US-OAS
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Puerto Rico: Student Strike Wins Most Demands
After a new four-day round of talks with a court-appointed mediator, students and the Board of Trustees at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) reached an agreement on the night of June 16-17 to end a two-month strike that had closed 10 of the public university’s 11 campuses [see Update #1036]. The trustees agreed to drop plans for cutbacks in the budget and for reductions in scholarships and tuition exemptions, and they postponed until next January a plan to impose a special tuition surcharge of about $1,100 for each of the next three years. They also agreed not to penalize the strike leaders. The strikers’ National Negotiating Committee (CNN) said the shutdown would end if students ratified the agreement in a national assembly on June 21.
The breakthrough in negotiations came after the mediator, former judge Pedro López Oliver, brought all 13 trustees into the talks, which had been dominated previously by Board of Trustees president Ygrí Rivera. Rivera and three other trustees refused to sign the final agreement.
The strike began on Apr. 21 with a two-day protest at the Río Piedras campus in San Juan, the largest campus in the system, which has a student body of about 65,000. On Apr. 23 student leaders at Río Piedras declared an open-ended strike, which quickly spread to all but one of the other campuses. The strikers won support from Puerto Rican unions and grassroots organizations along with much of the island’s artistic community, reflecting anger at Gov. Luis Fortuño’s policy of responding to the world economic crisis with layoffs, budget cuts and privatization. There was also strong international support for the students [see Update #1034].
Strike leaders called the agreement the first big victory for the student movement in the university’s 107-year history. They said they planned to use the June 21 national assembly, to be held at the Pachín Vicéns Auditorium in the southern city of Ponce, to solidify the student movement. Meanwhile, after celebrating on the night of June 17, students who had been sitting in at the various campuses began clearing out their encampments. Arianis Pacheco, an education student at Río Piedras, told a reporter on June 18 that they would donate the food they’d been stockpiling to earthquake victims in Haiti. (Univision 6/17/10 from AP; Prensa Latina 6/17/10; New York Times 6/17/10 from correspondent; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 6/18/10; El Nuevo Día (San Juan) 6/19/10; Primera Hora (Guaynabo) 6/18/10 from staff, 6/19/10 from IPS)
*2. Mexico: Labor, Left Denounce “Solution” at Cananea Mine
Mexico’s independent labor movement reacted angrily to the government’s use of hundreds of police agents the night of June 6 to break a three-year strike at the giant Cananea copper mine in the northern state of Sonora. Later the same night, police stormed the sealed Pasta de Conchos mine in the northern state of Coahuila, where family members were protesting the failure to retrieve the bodies of miners killed in a methane explosion on Feb. 19, 2006; only two of the 65 bodies have been recovered [see Update #944]. Both mines are owned by the powerful Grupo México corporation.
Officials of the National Workers Union (UNT), the largest independent labor federation, announced on June 9 that they would hold a national day of action protesting the assault on Cananea. They are also filing a complaint against the government of President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa with the International Labor Organization (ILO). The Cananea strikers are members of Section 65 of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers and the Like of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM). The national union has been in a four-year struggle with the federal government over corruption charges against its leaders; supporters consider the charges an attempt to break the union [see Update #1022].
On June 10 members of the Pasta de Conchos families resumed their protest by joining an encampment in the Zócalo plaza in downtown Mexico City where members of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) were on the 47th day of a mass hunger strike. The electrical workers are protesting their sudden layoffs last October [see Update #1034]. (La Jornada (Mexico) 6/10/10, 6/11/10)
Former Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the presidential candidate of a center-left coalition in 2006, promised to organize the collection of provisions for the Cananea strikers and to fight a “lynching campaign” in the media, which he accused of “demonizing” the workers. During a visit to the Section 65 union hall in Cananea on June 14, López Obrador charged that the miners were the victims of a “mafia of power” and noted that when the Cananea mine was privatized in 1990, former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) “sold it to [Germán] Larrea [Mota-Velasco],” the main shareholder in Grupo México, “for $400 million, when it was worth more than $2 billion, according to an assessment by the Nacional Financiera,” the government’s bank for the development of small and medium businesses. (LJ 6/15/10)
US unions joined the denunciations of the police actions at Cananea and Pasta de Conchos. President Calderón “has launched a reign of terror against working people,” United Steelworkers (USW) international president Leo Gerard said on June 7, calling on the US Congress to “halt delivery of all funding to Mexican security forces” under the Mérida initiative, which is nominally aimed at fighting drug trafficking [see Update #952]. (USW press release 6/7/10) “As long as the Mexican military and police continue to violate the fundamental rights of workers, the US Congress should freeze current funding for these forces and any proposals for future support,” Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the largest US labor federation, said in a June 9 statement. (AFL-CIO blog 6/9/10)
Grupo México officials said they would need four months to get the mine operating again and would spend as much as $114 million to clean it up. According to Gustavo Ortega, a technical director, the company had lost some $3.5 billion during the 34 months of the strike. Isaac López, director of operations at the mine, told the Milenio Diario newspaper on June 14 that the mine would probably employ 800 non-union workers in the future, including some former members of Section 65. “The safest thing right now is for us not to have a union for the new workers,” he said. “Later, we’ll see."
Some people have asked why the company would accept big financial losses instead of just meeting the strikers’ demands, which focused on health and safety issues. The answer may be in plans to step up mining activity in Mexico—apparently without unions. On Apr. 7 Manuel Luévanos Sánchez, president of the Council of Directors of the Chamber of Mining of Mexico, told a meeting of the group that 70% of Mexico’s territory could contain mineral wealth. He called on the government for a "complete solution to the union problems that generate a growing uncertainty in the industry and slow down investments, putting at risk thousands of sources of employment.” (El Universal (Mexico) 6/14/10; Prensa Latina 6/20/10)
*3. Venezuela: Left, Right Charge Union Repression
The Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce (Fedecámaras) filed a complaint at a meeting of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva on June 11 against the labor and business policies of President Hugo Chávez’s leftist government. In addition to protesting the nationalization of businesses, the group charged that the government was “criminalizing protest” by labor unions and that the murders of some 200 unionists over the past five years had gone unpunished. On June 15 pro-government unionists protested in front of the Fedecámaras office in Ciudad Guayana in the eastern state of Bolívar, denying that there was repression of labor and charging that the business group, which supported a 2002 coup against Chávez, was trying to destabilize the government. (El Nacional (Caracas) 6/11/10 from EFE; El Diario de Guayana (Venezuela) 6/16/10)
One of the cases of alleged repression cited by Fedecámaras is the imprisonment since Sept. 29, 2009 of Rubén González, general secretary of the Ferrominera Workers Union (Sintraferrominera), which represents employees at the government-owned Ferrominera Orinoco (FMO) in Ciudad Guayana. González is charged with instigating criminal activity and with agavillamiento (“forming criminal gangs”).
The charges stem from a dispute last August at Ferrominera, an iron ore mining subsidiary of CVG, the national heavy industry holding company. According to the government and another Sintraferrominera official, Alfredo Spooner, González led a band of 20 to 50 workers that attacked other workers in an effort to force a strike by the company’s 6,232 employees. González’s supporters, including anarchists and some other leftists, say that there was a 16-day strike at the company by many of the workers and that on Aug. 26 FMO president Radwan Sabbagh publicly signed an agreement with González ending the strike and promising that there would be no reprisals against the strikers. The supporters also say that far from opposing the Chávez government, González is a member of the pro-government United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). (Aporrea (Venezuela) 8/19/09 from Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN), 5/10/10; Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo action alert 6/4/10)
*4. Latin America: Colombia Leads in Murdered Unionists
The number of trade unionists murdered around the world increased by 30% in 2009, according to an annual survey released on June 9 by the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The majority of the 101 murders cited in the report took place in Latin America, with 48 in Colombia, 16 in Guatemala, 12 in Honduras, six in Mexico, four in Brazil and three in the Dominican Republic.
“Colombia was yet again the country where standing up for fundamental rights of workers is more likely than anywhere else to mean a death sentence, despite the Colombian government’s public relations campaign to the contrary,” ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder said. “The worsening situation in Guatemala, Honduras and several other countries is also cause for extreme concern.” (ITUC announcement 6/9/10)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Central America, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, US-OAS
Bolivia: government appeals to Amazon peoples not to march for autonomy
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8776
One Year since the Bagua Massacre: New Actors Facing a State in Crisis
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2572
Peru: regional strike paralyzes south over Camisea LNG project
http://ww4report.com/node/8764
Peru: police clash with protesting mineral workers
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8756
Amnesty International: free Alberto Pizango (Peru)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8668#comment-320632
Peru: Amazon leader returns from asylum to slam French oil company
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8775
Colombia: US documents on Palace of Justice affair reveal army massacre
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8766
The Glory of the Heir (Colombia)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2583
Colombia: rival presidential candidates back hostage rescue mission
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8755
WOLA Announces Second Death Threat From Colombian Paramilitaries For Working With Displaced Peoples
http://latindispatch.com/2010/06/18/wola-announces-second-death-threat-from-colombian-paramilitary-group/
Colombia: Ten Injured as Riot Police Break Strike at Calgary-Owned Oil Company
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2541-colombia-ten-injured-as-riot-police-break-strike-at-calgary-owned-oil-company
Colombia: president-elect Santos pledges to escalate war
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8774
Central America: Food Security Further Undermined by Climate Disasters
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2543-central-america-food-security-further-undermined-by-climate-disasters
Building Socialism from Below: The Role of the Communes in Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2544-building-socialism-from-below-the-role-of-the-communes-in-venezuela
Interview: Return to El Salvador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/2542-interview-return-to-el-salvador
Honduras: Violence and Human Rights Violations Escalate
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2547-honduras-violence-and-human-rights-violations-escalate
Extending the Reach of Safe Abortion in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2549-extending-the-reach-of-safe-abortion-in-mexico
Tear Gas in Cananea (Mexico)
http://www.agenceglobal.com/Article.asp?Id=2355
Mexico: mass "narco-graves" found in Cancún
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8763
Mexico: 200 dead in one week of narco-violence
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8757
Mexico Awaits BP's Oil Blowout; Savaging Turtle Island
http://www.counterpunch.org/ross06042010.html
Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s Government Puts Limits On Cash Exchanges; Hopes To Hinder Drug Cartels
http://latindispatch.com/2010/06/16/mexican-president-felipe-calderons-government-puts-limits-on-cash-exchanges-hopes-to-hinder-drug-cartels/
Mexico: mayor who stood up to cartels assassinated
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8773
Media took gov't cash during trial of 'Cuban 5'
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5281
Musical Passions: Cuba’s Cultural Ambassadors
https://nacla.org/node/6609
Katrina Redux: New Disaster, Same Contractors in Haiti
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2548-katrina-redux-new-disaster-same-contractors-in-haiti
A Bad Week for the Monroe Doctrine
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2546--a-bad-week-for-the-monroe-doctrine
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://nacla.org/articles
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Links but No Update for June 13, 2010
[We are unable to send out an Update this week. We'll be back next week. Below are links to stories from other sources.]
Americas Program Biodiversity Report, June 2010
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2528
Bolivia: congress advances indigenous justice system bill
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8741
Afghan lithium bonanza bad break for Bolivia?
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8751
Peru inaugurates Hunt Oil LNG plant —amid controversy
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8740
Peru: peasants block roads to demand water rights
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8739
Peru passes "prior consultation" law on indigenous peoples
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8726
Amnesty International Asks Peru To Drop Charges Against Indigenous Leader Alberto Pizango
http://latindispatch.com/2010/05/31/amnesty-international-calls-for-release-of-peruvian-indigenous-leader-alberto-pizango/
Colombia: army colonel gets 30 years for Palace of Justice disappearances
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8738
Colombia: Ten Injured as Riot Police Break Strike at Calgary-Owned Oil Company
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2541-colombia-ten-injured-as-riot-police-break-strike-at-calgary-owned-oil-company
Another Trade Union Leader Assassinated in Colombia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2533-another-trade-union-leader-assassinated-in-colombia
The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement: Forgery, Murder, and Deception
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2530-the-canada-colombia-free-trade-agreement-forgery-murder-and-deception
Against the Odds: Fighting Canada’s Free Trade Deal With Colombia
https://nacla.org/node/6604
Venezuela scores initial win in Exxon arbitration case
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8747
Venezuela orders arrest of anti-Chávez TV boss
http://www.ww4report.com/node/7355#comment-320611
Goldcorp Drilled by Shareholders for Mining Projects in Central America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2535--goldcorp-drilled-by-shareholders-for-mining-projects-in-central-america
Clinton Urges OAS to Forget Coup, Readmit Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2531-clinton-urges-oas-to-forget-coup-readmit-honduras-
Guatemala: prosecutor general on corruption allegations
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8408#comment-320612
Mexican Police Attack Cananea Mine, Beating and Arresting Striking Miners
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2529-mexican-police-attack-cananea-mine-beating-and-arresting-striking-miners-
Mexico: police attack striking workers at Cananea mine
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8727
Mexico: Civil Society Divided Ahead of Climate Summit
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2527-mexico-civil-society-divided-ahead-of-climate-summit
Second Humanitarian Caravan Braves Danger in Oaxaca
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2532--second-humanitarian-caravan-braves-danger-in-oaxaca
Mexico: 39 killed in Chihuahua, Tamaulipas violence
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8746
Pemex suit charges US firms in gas smuggling (Mexico)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8725
Mexico Elections 2010: Upping the Ante in Oaxaca
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2540-mexico-elections-2010-upping-the-ante-in-oaxaca
Violence Against Journalists in Mexico: An Interview With Laura Castellanos
https://nacla.org/node/6598
Manufacturing a Border Crisis (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2508
Mexico protests "disproportionate" use of force in Border Patrol killing
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8728
Video Emerges In The Shooting Of Mexican Boy By Border Agents; Elicits Criticism From Calderón
http://latindispatch.com/2010/06/11/video-emerges-in-the-shooting-of-mexican-boy-by-border-agents-elicits-criticism-from-calderon/
As "Temporary" Camps Linger, Tensions Rise with Haitian Landowners
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2534--as-qtemporaryq-camps-linger-tensions-rise-with-haitian-landowners
Private Contractors and Covert Wars in Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/2539-private-contractors-and-covert-wars-in-latin-america
Americas Program Biodiversity Report, June 2010
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2528
Bolivia: congress advances indigenous justice system bill
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8741
Afghan lithium bonanza bad break for Bolivia?
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8751
Peru inaugurates Hunt Oil LNG plant —amid controversy
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8740
Peru: peasants block roads to demand water rights
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8739
Peru passes "prior consultation" law on indigenous peoples
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8726
Amnesty International Asks Peru To Drop Charges Against Indigenous Leader Alberto Pizango
http://latindispatch.com/2010/05/31/amnesty-international-calls-for-release-of-peruvian-indigenous-leader-alberto-pizango/
Colombia: army colonel gets 30 years for Palace of Justice disappearances
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8738
Colombia: Ten Injured as Riot Police Break Strike at Calgary-Owned Oil Company
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2541-colombia-ten-injured-as-riot-police-break-strike-at-calgary-owned-oil-company
Another Trade Union Leader Assassinated in Colombia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2533-another-trade-union-leader-assassinated-in-colombia
The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement: Forgery, Murder, and Deception
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2530-the-canada-colombia-free-trade-agreement-forgery-murder-and-deception
Against the Odds: Fighting Canada’s Free Trade Deal With Colombia
https://nacla.org/node/6604
Venezuela scores initial win in Exxon arbitration case
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8747
Venezuela orders arrest of anti-Chávez TV boss
http://www.ww4report.com/node/7355#comment-320611
Goldcorp Drilled by Shareholders for Mining Projects in Central America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2535--goldcorp-drilled-by-shareholders-for-mining-projects-in-central-america
Clinton Urges OAS to Forget Coup, Readmit Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2531-clinton-urges-oas-to-forget-coup-readmit-honduras-
Guatemala: prosecutor general on corruption allegations
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8408#comment-320612
Mexican Police Attack Cananea Mine, Beating and Arresting Striking Miners
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2529-mexican-police-attack-cananea-mine-beating-and-arresting-striking-miners-
Mexico: police attack striking workers at Cananea mine
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8727
Mexico: Civil Society Divided Ahead of Climate Summit
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2527-mexico-civil-society-divided-ahead-of-climate-summit
Second Humanitarian Caravan Braves Danger in Oaxaca
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2532--second-humanitarian-caravan-braves-danger-in-oaxaca
Mexico: 39 killed in Chihuahua, Tamaulipas violence
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8746
Pemex suit charges US firms in gas smuggling (Mexico)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8725
Mexico Elections 2010: Upping the Ante in Oaxaca
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2540-mexico-elections-2010-upping-the-ante-in-oaxaca
Violence Against Journalists in Mexico: An Interview With Laura Castellanos
https://nacla.org/node/6598
Manufacturing a Border Crisis (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2508
Mexico protests "disproportionate" use of force in Border Patrol killing
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8728
Video Emerges In The Shooting Of Mexican Boy By Border Agents; Elicits Criticism From Calderón
http://latindispatch.com/2010/06/11/video-emerges-in-the-shooting-of-mexican-boy-by-border-agents-elicits-criticism-from-calderon/
As "Temporary" Camps Linger, Tensions Rise with Haitian Landowners
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2534--as-qtemporaryq-camps-linger-tensions-rise-with-haitian-landowners
Private Contractors and Covert Wars in Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/2539-private-contractors-and-covert-wars-in-latin-america
Monday, June 7, 2010
WNU #1036: Haitian Farmers Reject Monsanto Seeds
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1036, June 6, 2010
1. Haiti: Thousands of Farmers Reject Monsanto Seeds
2. Mexico: High Court Backs 2 Otomí Women
3. Puerto Rico: University Cutbacks Pay for Wall Street Bonds
4. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Central America, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, US-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. Haiti: Thousands of Farmers Reject Monsanto Seeds
Thousands of peasant farmers gathered in the main plaza in Hinche, a city in Haiti’s Central Plateau, on June 4 to protest a donation of about 476 metric tons of hybrid seeds from the Monsanto Company, a US-based biotechnology multinational that produces genetically modified organisms (GMO). Agriculture Minister Joanas Gué admitted on May 12 that the government was accepting Monsanto’s offer, supposedly intended to help the country recover from a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. The seeds are not GMO, but critics say they are still a “poisoned present” [see Update #1033].
The June 4 protest started with a 7-km march--accompanied by Haitian instruments such as bamboo flutes and conch shell horns--from the nearby town of Papaye to Hinche’s Charlemagne Péralte plaza, named for the Hinche-born leader of an armed movement against the 1915-1934 US occupation of Haiti. The organizers burned a small quantity of hybrid corn seeds and then distributed “Creole corn” seeds (from locally produced corn) to the protesters, many of whom wore red shirts and straw hats with such slogans as “Down with Monsanto” and “Down with [Haitian president René] Préval.”
According to Kettly Alexandre of the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP), the protest’s main sponsor, 8,000 to 12,000 people joined the march; some organizers gave the number as 20,000. Other groups participating in the protest included Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen ("Small Haitian Peasants Unity"), the Haitian Platform Advocating an Alternative Development (PAPDA) and Action SOS Haïti. There were also campesino groups from Brazil and the Dominican Republic that like the MPP are affiliated with the international Vía Campesina movement. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 6/4/10; Radio Métropole (Haiti) 6/5/10; EFE 6/5/10 via Terra.es; Rebelión (Spain) 6/6/10)
MPP coordinator Chavannes Jean-Baptiste has compared the hybrid seeds’ potential effect on Haitian agriculture to the January earthquake. Critics of Monsanto point to possible health risks because the hybrid corn seeds are treated with the fungicide Maxim XO and the calypso tomato seeds are treated with thiram, a toxic chemical. But the main complaint from Haitian farmers is that they would need to buy the hybrid seeds from Monsanto each year; many see the donation—which is being distributed in part by the US Agency for International Development (USAID)--as an effort to increase Haitian dependency on expensive seeds from abroad.
On June 1 Monsanto spokesperson Darren Wallis denied any ulterior motives in the donation, which the corporation says is worth about $4 million: "We do not have a commercial corn business in Haiti.” "[T]he ones hurt by the action [of burning Monsanto seeds] will be Haitian farmers and the Haitian people, not those watching on the sidelines," Wallis said, just three days before the massive protest in Hinche.
Dina Brick, technical adviser for food security at Catholic Relief Services (CRS), told the Catholic News Service (CNS) that farmers and seed suppliers said local seed supplies were sufficient. But many peasants were low on cash because of economic and social dislocations after the earthquake, she said, and had to cut back on their purchases of local seeds. (Huffington Post 5/17/10; CNS 6/1/10)
*2. Mexico: High Court Backs 2 Otomí Women
Two indigenous Mexican women, Teresa González Cornelio and Alberta Alcántara Juan, were released from prison on Apr. 28 after serving more than three and a half years of a 21-year sentence for allegedly kidnapping six agents of the now-defunct Federal Investigation Agency (AFI). Their release followed a unanimous ruling by a five-member panel of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) that the two women, street vendors who belong to the Otomí indigenous group, had been falsely imprisoned. The charges against them stemmed from a Mar. 26, 2006 incident in the market in Santiago Mexquititlán community, Amealco de Bonfil municipality in Querétaro state; the AFI agents had raided the market in an unsuccessful search for pirated DVDs, destroying the women’s booth in the process [see Update #1023].
Justice Arturo Zaldívar, a member of the SCJN panel, said the ruling was intended to set a precedent for the rights of indigenous women. "We tend to think that this is not the first time [an injustice] has happened and that it is, in fact, a common practice, undermining human rights...which is more than embarrassing for our judicial system," Zaldívar said. According to the Miguel Agustín Pro Human Rights Center, which represented González Cornelio and Alcántara Juan, 8,000 indigenous women are in Mexican prisons, and nine out of 10 were not given access to a translator at their trials. (Many Mexicans speak indigenous languages and need translation for court proceedings, which are in Spanish).
A month after their release, González Cornelio and Alcántara Juan were again working as street vendors selling traditional indigenous handmade cloth dolls. They said several politicians had visited them in prison and promised them better jobs but failed to follow through. They refused to name the politicians. (SourceMex Economic News & Analysis on Mexico 5/19/10 via Allbusiness.com; El Universal (Mexico) 6/2/10)
*3. Puerto Rico: University Cutbacks Pay for Wall Street Bonds
In meetings with striking students on June 2 and June 4, officials of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) announced that the public university was $200 million in debt and that they intended to cover the debt with $200 million in tuition surcharges over the next three years—about $1,000 for each student. There will also be an “enormous reduction” in the pay to university employees, Board of Trustees president Ygrí Rivera said; this would be done through lower salaries and other cutbacks, not layoffs. Finally, UPR officials plan cuts in the budgets for books, professional services, scholarships and other aid to students, and the purchase of equipment.
Students went on strike at the Río Piedras campus in San Juan on Apr. 21 to oppose budget cuts, and the protest has spread to 10 of the 11 campuses of the UPR, which has a student body of about 65,000 [see Update #1034]. The strikers’ National Negotiating Committee has refused to give in on the cutbacks; committee members released a video on the internet and through the student radio station, Radio Huelga (“Strike Radio”), outlining what they considered the movement’s achievements and demands.
UPR authorities say that with the Puerto Rican government reducing its subsidy to the university, they need a loan of $40 million if they are to meet the payroll in July. Scotia Bank, Banco Santander and the government development bank, Banco Gubernamental de Fomento, all turned down UPR’s requests for a loan.
But the Argentine blog Argenpress says the main problem is the more than $700 million in bonds UPR has floated over the years on Wall Street financial markets. Much has been for massive construction projects, including the $78 million in bonds that helped finance Plaza Universitaria, a complex of buildings that has been turned over to a private company. A bond sale in 2004 was handled by Sidley Austin LLP, a large US corporate law firm. A Sidley Austin attorney, Thomas Green, later led the defense of former governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (2005-2009), who was acquitted of multiple corruption changes in US federal court in March 2009. (Primera Hora (Puerto Rico) 6/5/10; Argenpress 6/3/10)
*4. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Central America, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, US-Mexico
Latin America Mostly at Odds With US on Israeli Raid
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2525-latin-america-mostly-at-odds-with-us-on-israeli-raid-
A Second Independence for Argentina
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/2520-a-second-independence-for-argentina
Argentine ex-officers go on trial for "Operation Condor" crimes
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8582#comment-320552
Human Rights Groups Say Brazil's Policy of Saturation Policing Criminalizes Poverty
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2521-human-rights-groups-say-brazils-policy-of-saturation-policing-criminalises-poverty
Brazil’s Nuclear Diplomacy and Its Quest for a New International Politics
https://nacla.org/node/6596
Exclusive: The U.S. Paid Money to Support Hugo Banzer’s 1971 Coup in Bolivia
http://www.digitalemunction.com/2010/05/30/exclusive-the-u-s-paid-money-to-support-hugo-banzers-1971-coup-in-bolivia/
Video From Bolivia - The other debt crisis: Climate debt
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2526-video-from-bolivia-the-other-debt-crisis-climate-debt
Letter to Obama: Push Peru's President on Trade, Forestry and Indigenous Rights
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2518-letter-to-obama-push-perus-president-on-trade-forestry-and-indigenous-rights
Peru: Native Peoples' Right to Consultation on Land Use Enshrined in Law
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2517-peru-native-peoples-right-to-consultation-on-land-use-enshrined-in-law
Peru president: no decision yet on Lori Berenson
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8662#comment-320562
"Pocahontas" protests Peruvian president
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8668#comment-320561
Tragic BP Gulf Spill Casts Light on Chevron Disaster in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2522-tragic-bp-gulf-spill-casts-light-on-chevron-disaster-in-ecuador
Colombian Army Attacks Striking BP Workers
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/2524-colombian-army-attacks-striking-bp-workers
Colombia: army attacks striking workers at BP facility
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8714
Tropical storm hammers Central America amid climate change fears
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8700
Nicaragua breaks ties with Israel
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8708
Nicaragua signs convention on indigenous peoples
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8705
Foosball with the Devil: Haiti, Honduras, and Democracy in the Neoliberal Era
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2516-foosball-with-the-devil-haiti-honduras-and-democracy-in-the-neoliberal-era
Growing Protests As UN Attacks Haitian Refugee Camp
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/haiti-archives-51/2519-growing-protests-as-un-attacks-haitian-refugee-camp
"We are at a Crossroads" - Yannick Etienne on Sweatshops as a Development Model (Haiti)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beverly-bell/we-are-at-a-crossroads_b_599485.html
US-Mexico: Huge weapons cache seized in Laredo
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8709
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://nacla.org/articles
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #1036, June 6, 2010
1. Haiti: Thousands of Farmers Reject Monsanto Seeds
2. Mexico: High Court Backs 2 Otomí Women
3. Puerto Rico: University Cutbacks Pay for Wall Street Bonds
4. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Central America, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, US-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. Haiti: Thousands of Farmers Reject Monsanto Seeds
Thousands of peasant farmers gathered in the main plaza in Hinche, a city in Haiti’s Central Plateau, on June 4 to protest a donation of about 476 metric tons of hybrid seeds from the Monsanto Company, a US-based biotechnology multinational that produces genetically modified organisms (GMO). Agriculture Minister Joanas Gué admitted on May 12 that the government was accepting Monsanto’s offer, supposedly intended to help the country recover from a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. The seeds are not GMO, but critics say they are still a “poisoned present” [see Update #1033].
The June 4 protest started with a 7-km march--accompanied by Haitian instruments such as bamboo flutes and conch shell horns--from the nearby town of Papaye to Hinche’s Charlemagne Péralte plaza, named for the Hinche-born leader of an armed movement against the 1915-1934 US occupation of Haiti. The organizers burned a small quantity of hybrid corn seeds and then distributed “Creole corn” seeds (from locally produced corn) to the protesters, many of whom wore red shirts and straw hats with such slogans as “Down with Monsanto” and “Down with [Haitian president René] Préval.”
According to Kettly Alexandre of the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP), the protest’s main sponsor, 8,000 to 12,000 people joined the march; some organizers gave the number as 20,000. Other groups participating in the protest included Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen ("Small Haitian Peasants Unity"), the Haitian Platform Advocating an Alternative Development (PAPDA) and Action SOS Haïti. There were also campesino groups from Brazil and the Dominican Republic that like the MPP are affiliated with the international Vía Campesina movement. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 6/4/10; Radio Métropole (Haiti) 6/5/10; EFE 6/5/10 via Terra.es; Rebelión (Spain) 6/6/10)
MPP coordinator Chavannes Jean-Baptiste has compared the hybrid seeds’ potential effect on Haitian agriculture to the January earthquake. Critics of Monsanto point to possible health risks because the hybrid corn seeds are treated with the fungicide Maxim XO and the calypso tomato seeds are treated with thiram, a toxic chemical. But the main complaint from Haitian farmers is that they would need to buy the hybrid seeds from Monsanto each year; many see the donation—which is being distributed in part by the US Agency for International Development (USAID)--as an effort to increase Haitian dependency on expensive seeds from abroad.
On June 1 Monsanto spokesperson Darren Wallis denied any ulterior motives in the donation, which the corporation says is worth about $4 million: "We do not have a commercial corn business in Haiti.” "[T]he ones hurt by the action [of burning Monsanto seeds] will be Haitian farmers and the Haitian people, not those watching on the sidelines," Wallis said, just three days before the massive protest in Hinche.
Dina Brick, technical adviser for food security at Catholic Relief Services (CRS), told the Catholic News Service (CNS) that farmers and seed suppliers said local seed supplies were sufficient. But many peasants were low on cash because of economic and social dislocations after the earthquake, she said, and had to cut back on their purchases of local seeds. (Huffington Post 5/17/10; CNS 6/1/10)
*2. Mexico: High Court Backs 2 Otomí Women
Two indigenous Mexican women, Teresa González Cornelio and Alberta Alcántara Juan, were released from prison on Apr. 28 after serving more than three and a half years of a 21-year sentence for allegedly kidnapping six agents of the now-defunct Federal Investigation Agency (AFI). Their release followed a unanimous ruling by a five-member panel of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) that the two women, street vendors who belong to the Otomí indigenous group, had been falsely imprisoned. The charges against them stemmed from a Mar. 26, 2006 incident in the market in Santiago Mexquititlán community, Amealco de Bonfil municipality in Querétaro state; the AFI agents had raided the market in an unsuccessful search for pirated DVDs, destroying the women’s booth in the process [see Update #1023].
Justice Arturo Zaldívar, a member of the SCJN panel, said the ruling was intended to set a precedent for the rights of indigenous women. "We tend to think that this is not the first time [an injustice] has happened and that it is, in fact, a common practice, undermining human rights...which is more than embarrassing for our judicial system," Zaldívar said. According to the Miguel Agustín Pro Human Rights Center, which represented González Cornelio and Alcántara Juan, 8,000 indigenous women are in Mexican prisons, and nine out of 10 were not given access to a translator at their trials. (Many Mexicans speak indigenous languages and need translation for court proceedings, which are in Spanish).
A month after their release, González Cornelio and Alcántara Juan were again working as street vendors selling traditional indigenous handmade cloth dolls. They said several politicians had visited them in prison and promised them better jobs but failed to follow through. They refused to name the politicians. (SourceMex Economic News & Analysis on Mexico 5/19/10 via Allbusiness.com; El Universal (Mexico) 6/2/10)
*3. Puerto Rico: University Cutbacks Pay for Wall Street Bonds
In meetings with striking students on June 2 and June 4, officials of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) announced that the public university was $200 million in debt and that they intended to cover the debt with $200 million in tuition surcharges over the next three years—about $1,000 for each student. There will also be an “enormous reduction” in the pay to university employees, Board of Trustees president Ygrí Rivera said; this would be done through lower salaries and other cutbacks, not layoffs. Finally, UPR officials plan cuts in the budgets for books, professional services, scholarships and other aid to students, and the purchase of equipment.
Students went on strike at the Río Piedras campus in San Juan on Apr. 21 to oppose budget cuts, and the protest has spread to 10 of the 11 campuses of the UPR, which has a student body of about 65,000 [see Update #1034]. The strikers’ National Negotiating Committee has refused to give in on the cutbacks; committee members released a video on the internet and through the student radio station, Radio Huelga (“Strike Radio”), outlining what they considered the movement’s achievements and demands.
UPR authorities say that with the Puerto Rican government reducing its subsidy to the university, they need a loan of $40 million if they are to meet the payroll in July. Scotia Bank, Banco Santander and the government development bank, Banco Gubernamental de Fomento, all turned down UPR’s requests for a loan.
But the Argentine blog Argenpress says the main problem is the more than $700 million in bonds UPR has floated over the years on Wall Street financial markets. Much has been for massive construction projects, including the $78 million in bonds that helped finance Plaza Universitaria, a complex of buildings that has been turned over to a private company. A bond sale in 2004 was handled by Sidley Austin LLP, a large US corporate law firm. A Sidley Austin attorney, Thomas Green, later led the defense of former governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (2005-2009), who was acquitted of multiple corruption changes in US federal court in March 2009. (Primera Hora (Puerto Rico) 6/5/10; Argenpress 6/3/10)
*4. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Central America, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti, US-Mexico
Latin America Mostly at Odds With US on Israeli Raid
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2525-latin-america-mostly-at-odds-with-us-on-israeli-raid-
A Second Independence for Argentina
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/2520-a-second-independence-for-argentina
Argentine ex-officers go on trial for "Operation Condor" crimes
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8582#comment-320552
Human Rights Groups Say Brazil's Policy of Saturation Policing Criminalizes Poverty
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2521-human-rights-groups-say-brazils-policy-of-saturation-policing-criminalises-poverty
Brazil’s Nuclear Diplomacy and Its Quest for a New International Politics
https://nacla.org/node/6596
Exclusive: The U.S. Paid Money to Support Hugo Banzer’s 1971 Coup in Bolivia
http://www.digitalemunction.com/2010/05/30/exclusive-the-u-s-paid-money-to-support-hugo-banzers-1971-coup-in-bolivia/
Video From Bolivia - The other debt crisis: Climate debt
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2526-video-from-bolivia-the-other-debt-crisis-climate-debt
Letter to Obama: Push Peru's President on Trade, Forestry and Indigenous Rights
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2518-letter-to-obama-push-perus-president-on-trade-forestry-and-indigenous-rights
Peru: Native Peoples' Right to Consultation on Land Use Enshrined in Law
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2517-peru-native-peoples-right-to-consultation-on-land-use-enshrined-in-law
Peru president: no decision yet on Lori Berenson
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8662#comment-320562
"Pocahontas" protests Peruvian president
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8668#comment-320561
Tragic BP Gulf Spill Casts Light on Chevron Disaster in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2522-tragic-bp-gulf-spill-casts-light-on-chevron-disaster-in-ecuador
Colombian Army Attacks Striking BP Workers
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/2524-colombian-army-attacks-striking-bp-workers
Colombia: army attacks striking workers at BP facility
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8714
Tropical storm hammers Central America amid climate change fears
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8700
Nicaragua breaks ties with Israel
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8708
Nicaragua signs convention on indigenous peoples
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8705
Foosball with the Devil: Haiti, Honduras, and Democracy in the Neoliberal Era
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2516-foosball-with-the-devil-haiti-honduras-and-democracy-in-the-neoliberal-era
Growing Protests As UN Attacks Haitian Refugee Camp
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/haiti-archives-51/2519-growing-protests-as-un-attacks-haitian-refugee-camp
"We are at a Crossroads" - Yannick Etienne on Sweatshops as a Development Model (Haiti)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beverly-bell/we-are-at-a-crossroads_b_599485.html
US-Mexico: Huge weapons cache seized in Laredo
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8709
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://nacla.org/articles
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
WNU #1035: Guatemalan Gold Mine to Be Suspended?
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1035, May 30, 2010
1. Guatemala: Goldcorp Mine to Be Suspended?
2. Mexico: Federal Cops Rout Electrical Workers
3. Honduras: It Was a Coup, President Admits
4. Haiti: Obama Signs HELP Sweatshop Law
5. Haiti: UN Troops Invade Campus, Protests Continue
6. Links to alternative sources on: Trade, Women’s Rights, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Guatemala: Goldcorp Mine to Be Suspended?
On May 21 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), a Washington, DC-based agency of the Organization of American States (OAS), ordered the Guatemalan government to suspend operations at the Marlin gold mine in the western department of San Marcos within 20 days and to take measures to protect the local environment. The indigenous inhabitants of the communities of Sipacapa and San Miguel Ixtahuacán have protested the mine--which is owned by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, SA, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Goldcorp Inc--since it began operations in 2008.
The IACHR order came three days after the release on May 18 of a study by the University of Michigan revealing that tests conducted in August 2009 had found higher levels of mercury, copper, arsenic, zinc and lead in the blood and urine of area residents who lived near the Marlin mine. The study’s authors said the metals could have been acquired from water contaminated by the mine.
According to Rigoberto García, director of the Multicultural Center for Democracy, the Guatemalan government is required to comply with the order. If it doesn’t, García said, the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (also CIDH in Spanish) of the OAS will proceed to act on a complaint that led to the order; García and leaders of the indigenous communities filed the legal action in June 2009.
Carlos Meany, head of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), said the relevant government ministries would meet and decide on a response to the IACHR order. “There is no reason for us to suspend our project,” Montana Exploradora attorney Jorge Mario Sandoval said. “The government is the one that decides.” The Marlin mine produces 250,000 ounces of gold and 3.5 million ounces of silver a year. (EFE 5/21/10 via Terra.es (Spain); Siglo Veintiuno (Guatemala) 5/22/10; Univision 5/21/10)
The indigenous Mam in the communities around the Marlin mine have charged repeatedly that the mining operation is polluting the area. Five residents were arrested in the summer of 2009 in connection with a June 12 incident during which a pickup truck and an exploration drill rig were set on fire [see Update #1003].
*2. Mexico: Federal Cops Rout Electrical Workers
Some 600 Mexican federal police agents used tear gas and nightsticks to remove about 100 members of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) on May 27 from outside the Teopanzolco substation of the Central Light and Power Company (LFC) in Cuernavaca, capital of Morelos state, south of Mexico City. The unionists, who lost their jobs along with 44,000 other LFC employees when President Felipe Calderón suddenly liquidated the state-owned power company the night of Oct. 10, were blocking access to the facility to keep the police from removing five LFC vans. The workers said they were defending their source of work.
At least 10 workers were injured in the police attack. Later an LFC vehicle hit a worker, who was taken to the Cuernavaca General Hospital; the other protesters surrounded the vehicle, broke windows and injured the driver, an employee of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), which is taking over LFC operations. The federal police also destroyed an encampment the workers had set up outside the substation, along with an encampment at the Ocotepec substation, also in Cuernavaca.
Activists in the western state of Jalisco started a “hunger strike in relays” in Guadalajara’s Plaza de Armas on May 27 to show solidarity with a month-old hunger strike by SME members in Mexico City [see Update #1034]. (La Jornada (Mexico) 5/28/10)
In other labor news, Section 22 of the huge National Education Workers Union (SNTE) started a two-day strike in the southern state of Oaxaca on May 27, leaving 1.3 million students without classes, according to the local’s general secretary, Azael Santiago Chepi. In addition to local demands, Section 22 was calling for a cancellation of the Alliance for Quality Education (ACE), a program pushed by the federal government and the SNTE national leadership, and its replacement with an alternative program [see Update #988]. Teachers blocked shopping malls, banks, government buildings and tollbooths during the first day of the strike. Santiago Chepi said Section 22 would start an open-ended strike on June 15 if the teachers didn’t receive a satisfactory answer from the state and local governments. (LJ 5/28/10) [Repression of a strike by Section 22 four years ago triggered a popular uprising that paralyzed much of the state for more than four months.]
Some of the Section 22 strikers joined a march in Mexico City on May 28 by about 8,000 teachers from a number of different states. The protest, organized by the National Education Workers Coordinating Committee (CNTE), the main rank-and-file caucus in the SNTE, demanded higher pay for teachers and cancellation of the ACE program. (LJ 5/29/10)
*3. Honduras: It Was a Coup, President Admits
In an interview on Spanish CCN broadcast on May 19, Honduran president Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo Sosa agreed that the removal of former president José Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009) from office on June 28, 2009 was a coup d’état. “Of course, put it how you will, but it was a coup,” Lobo Sosa said when CNN’s José Levy asked if the removal was a coup. But the Honduran president, who was in Madrid for a May 18 trade summit of European Union (EU) and Latin American and Caribbean leaders, justified the removal. “Democracy did not have sufficient mechanisms to guarantee its maintenance,” he said. During his election campaign last year, Lobo Sosa avoided characterizing the June 28 action. Supporters of Zelaya’s ouster generally have insisted that it was constitutional and not a coup. (Honduras Culture and Politics blog 5/22/10; La Vanguardia (Honduras) 5/21/10)
As of May 26 more than 30 people were holding hunger strikes around a number of issues in Tegucigalpa. Two members of the Association of Judges for Democracy were carrying out the “Hunger Strike Against Impunity,” which started on May 17 to demand the return of four judges dismissed for supporting legal actions in favor of former president Zelaya. A group of 12 campesinos from the Aguán River Valley in northern Honduras started a hunger strike on May 24 to demand the removal of troops from the region [see Update #1033], and 10 former supervisors and officials of the Education Ministry began a hunger strike on May 26 to protest what they said were irregularities in their dismissals.
Along with the hunger strikers protesting actions by the government, a group of 10 parents started fasting on May 17 to protest a teachers’ strike. Some 50,000 teachers left their classrooms to protest the dismissal of nine university professors, allegedly because they had participated in a hunger strike to protest the layoffs of 180 National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) workers by the rector, Julieta Castellanos [see Update #1033]. (Adital (Brazil) 5/26/10)
*4. Haiti: Obama Signs HELP Sweatshop Law
On May 25 US president Barack Obama signed into law a measure intended to promote renewed development of the low-wage apparel assembly industry in Haiti. The Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act of 2010, introduced in Congress on Apr. 28 by a bipartisan group of representatives and senators, extends through 2020 several existing laws giving tariff preferences for apparel stitched in Haiti: the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) and the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Engagement Acts of 2006 (HOPE Act) and 2008 (HOPE II).
Proponents of the measure said HELP would aid Haiti’s recovery from a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. "We are confident Haiti will now be able to attract substantial investment that could create tens of thousands of jobs," said Ron Sorini, a principal of Sorini, Samet & Associates, a DC-based consulting firm that represents the Haitian government on trade. The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), a US manufacturers’ association, noted: “While aiding Haiti through recovery, this law works to create a predictable and certain environment for the US apparel and textile industry.” (Fibre2Fashion (Gujarat, India) 5/26/10; Sorini Samet press release 5/21/10; Just-Style (UK) 5/25/10)
US plans to develop the Haitian assembly sectors were among the policies a meeting of European and Latin American social movements in Madrid denounced on May 16, saying that the US was using a “humanitarian alibi” to defend “US geopolitical, economic and military interests” [see Update #1034].
*5. Haiti: UN Troops Invade Campus, Protests Continue
Edmond Mulet, acting head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 9,000-member international military force, issued an apology on May 25 for an incursion by a group of Brazilian soldiers the day before into the Faculty of Ethnology at the State University of Haiti (UEH) in downtown Port-au-Prince. The soldiers arrested a student, Frantz Mathieu Junior, claiming he threw stones at them; they released him later the same day. Students responded to the invasion by burning tires and throwing rocks.
Mulet denied that the troops used tear gas and live ammunition, contrary to reports from UEH students and CNN crews. Homeless earthquake survivors in nearby encampments said they had to flee because of the tear gas, and they reported that at least one baby required medical attention.
The UEH incident came as a broad range of groups continued to protest against the government of President René Préval [see Update #1034]. Hundreds of people marched on the National Palace in central Port-au-Prince on May 25. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters when they attempted to approach the building. A number of babies and some adults lost consciousness as the tear gas spread to the Champ de Mars, a huge park across the street where there are eight encampments of Port-au-Prince residents left homeless by the quake. Hundreds of people—thousands, according to one report--joined another protest on May 27; police again used tear gas to disperse the protesters as they approached the National Palace.
On May 28 at least four people were reportedly wounded when MINUSTAH forces fired on a demonstration protesting lack of power in the Cité Lescot neighborhood of the northern city of Cap-Haïtien. (Inter Press Service 5/25/10; Agence Haïtienne de Presse (Haiti) 5/25/10, 5/27/10, 5/28/10; Radio Métropole (Haiti) 5/25/10, 5/26/10, 5/27/10; AlterPresse (Haiti) 5/26/10; Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 5/28/10)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Trade, Women’s Rights, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico
What’s Left for Latin America to Do With China?
https://nacla.org/node/6586
Making Latin America's Cities Women-Friendly
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2504-making-latin-americas-cities-women-friendly
Thai, Argentine Textile Workers Unite Against Slave Labour
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51547
Argentina’s Bicentennial: Indigenous Tell Another History
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/2510-argentinas-bicentennial-indigenous-tell-another-history
A State of Emergency in Paraguay: The Risks of Militarization
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2514-a-state-of-emergency-in-paraguay-the-risks-of-militarization
The Climate Justice Groundswell: From Copenhagen to Cochabamba to Cancún
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8672
Bolivia: Morales Caught Between Gas Revenues and Indigenous Demands
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2505-bolivia-morales-caught-between-gas-revenues-and-indigenous-demands
Bolivia and its Lithium: Can the ‘Gold of the 21st Century’ Lift a Nation out of Poverty?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2507-bolivia-and-its-lithium-can-the-gold-of-the-21st-century-lift-a-nation-out-of-poverty
Bolivia announces uranium exploration program
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8681
Bolivia scores points with animal-lovers
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8680
Bolivia: Evo to negotiate with "Warrior Clans"
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8679
Peru: Lori Berenson to Be Released on Parole After 15 Years
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2513-peru-lori-berenson-to-be-released-on-parole-after-15-years
Peru: Lori Berenson paroled; hardliners outraged
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8662
Indigenous leader Alberto Pizango arrested on return to Peru
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8668
Peruvian Congress Calls in Debt from U.S. Oil Executive
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2512-peruvian-congress-calls-in-debt-from-us-oil-executive
Murky Waters Flow From Peruvian Andes: Peasants Protest Irrigation Megaproject
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8671
Change Colombians Can Believe In?
http://www.counterpunch.org/hylton05262010.html
The Circle Opens Out: New Evidence on Criminality in Colombian Regime
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/2508-the-circle-opens-out-new-evidence-on-criminality-in-colombian-regime
Colombia: President Uribe's brother said to have led death squad
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8660
Colombia: Santos wins first round —amid reports of widespread irregularities
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8689
Mexico: mass grave found in Guerrero silver mine
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8691
Venezuela: The Myth of "Eco-Socialism": Ecological Contradictions of the Bolivarian Revolution
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8674
Mexico: Another Triqui leader Slain in Oaxaca
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2509-mexico-another-triqui-leader-slain-in-oaxaca
The Big Snatch: Mexico's Bogus President Regaled by Washington's Phony Hope Prophet
http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/6305-the-big-snatch-mexicos-bogus-president-regaled-by-washingtons-phony-hope-prophet.html
Calderón Schmoozes, Mexico Loses
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2459
Obama to send National Guard to Mexican border; Fox fuels terror scare
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8666
Mexico: Quintana Roo gubernatorial candidate busted on narco charges
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8665
Death toll rising in Jamaica
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8661
Poverty-Wage Assembly Plants as Development Strategy in Haiti: An Interview with the Center for the Promotion of Women Workers
http://www.otherworldsarepossible.org/another-haiti-possible/poverty-wage-assembly-plants-development-strategy-haiti-interview-center-prom
Haiti: Struggle and Solidarity After the Cataclysm: An Interview with Batay Ouvriye
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8682
Student Strike in Puerto Rico Continues With Increasing International Support
https://nacla.org/node/6582
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://nacla.org/articles
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #1035, May 30, 2010
1. Guatemala: Goldcorp Mine to Be Suspended?
2. Mexico: Federal Cops Rout Electrical Workers
3. Honduras: It Was a Coup, President Admits
4. Haiti: Obama Signs HELP Sweatshop Law
5. Haiti: UN Troops Invade Campus, Protests Continue
6. Links to alternative sources on: Trade, Women’s Rights, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Guatemala: Goldcorp Mine to Be Suspended?
On May 21 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), a Washington, DC-based agency of the Organization of American States (OAS), ordered the Guatemalan government to suspend operations at the Marlin gold mine in the western department of San Marcos within 20 days and to take measures to protect the local environment. The indigenous inhabitants of the communities of Sipacapa and San Miguel Ixtahuacán have protested the mine--which is owned by Montana Exploradora de Guatemala, SA, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company Goldcorp Inc--since it began operations in 2008.
The IACHR order came three days after the release on May 18 of a study by the University of Michigan revealing that tests conducted in August 2009 had found higher levels of mercury, copper, arsenic, zinc and lead in the blood and urine of area residents who lived near the Marlin mine. The study’s authors said the metals could have been acquired from water contaminated by the mine.
According to Rigoberto García, director of the Multicultural Center for Democracy, the Guatemalan government is required to comply with the order. If it doesn’t, García said, the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (also CIDH in Spanish) of the OAS will proceed to act on a complaint that led to the order; García and leaders of the indigenous communities filed the legal action in June 2009.
Carlos Meany, head of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), said the relevant government ministries would meet and decide on a response to the IACHR order. “There is no reason for us to suspend our project,” Montana Exploradora attorney Jorge Mario Sandoval said. “The government is the one that decides.” The Marlin mine produces 250,000 ounces of gold and 3.5 million ounces of silver a year. (EFE 5/21/10 via Terra.es (Spain); Siglo Veintiuno (Guatemala) 5/22/10; Univision 5/21/10)
The indigenous Mam in the communities around the Marlin mine have charged repeatedly that the mining operation is polluting the area. Five residents were arrested in the summer of 2009 in connection with a June 12 incident during which a pickup truck and an exploration drill rig were set on fire [see Update #1003].
*2. Mexico: Federal Cops Rout Electrical Workers
Some 600 Mexican federal police agents used tear gas and nightsticks to remove about 100 members of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) on May 27 from outside the Teopanzolco substation of the Central Light and Power Company (LFC) in Cuernavaca, capital of Morelos state, south of Mexico City. The unionists, who lost their jobs along with 44,000 other LFC employees when President Felipe Calderón suddenly liquidated the state-owned power company the night of Oct. 10, were blocking access to the facility to keep the police from removing five LFC vans. The workers said they were defending their source of work.
At least 10 workers were injured in the police attack. Later an LFC vehicle hit a worker, who was taken to the Cuernavaca General Hospital; the other protesters surrounded the vehicle, broke windows and injured the driver, an employee of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), which is taking over LFC operations. The federal police also destroyed an encampment the workers had set up outside the substation, along with an encampment at the Ocotepec substation, also in Cuernavaca.
Activists in the western state of Jalisco started a “hunger strike in relays” in Guadalajara’s Plaza de Armas on May 27 to show solidarity with a month-old hunger strike by SME members in Mexico City [see Update #1034]. (La Jornada (Mexico) 5/28/10)
In other labor news, Section 22 of the huge National Education Workers Union (SNTE) started a two-day strike in the southern state of Oaxaca on May 27, leaving 1.3 million students without classes, according to the local’s general secretary, Azael Santiago Chepi. In addition to local demands, Section 22 was calling for a cancellation of the Alliance for Quality Education (ACE), a program pushed by the federal government and the SNTE national leadership, and its replacement with an alternative program [see Update #988]. Teachers blocked shopping malls, banks, government buildings and tollbooths during the first day of the strike. Santiago Chepi said Section 22 would start an open-ended strike on June 15 if the teachers didn’t receive a satisfactory answer from the state and local governments. (LJ 5/28/10) [Repression of a strike by Section 22 four years ago triggered a popular uprising that paralyzed much of the state for more than four months.]
Some of the Section 22 strikers joined a march in Mexico City on May 28 by about 8,000 teachers from a number of different states. The protest, organized by the National Education Workers Coordinating Committee (CNTE), the main rank-and-file caucus in the SNTE, demanded higher pay for teachers and cancellation of the ACE program. (LJ 5/29/10)
*3. Honduras: It Was a Coup, President Admits
In an interview on Spanish CCN broadcast on May 19, Honduran president Porfirio (“Pepe”) Lobo Sosa agreed that the removal of former president José Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009) from office on June 28, 2009 was a coup d’état. “Of course, put it how you will, but it was a coup,” Lobo Sosa said when CNN’s José Levy asked if the removal was a coup. But the Honduran president, who was in Madrid for a May 18 trade summit of European Union (EU) and Latin American and Caribbean leaders, justified the removal. “Democracy did not have sufficient mechanisms to guarantee its maintenance,” he said. During his election campaign last year, Lobo Sosa avoided characterizing the June 28 action. Supporters of Zelaya’s ouster generally have insisted that it was constitutional and not a coup. (Honduras Culture and Politics blog 5/22/10; La Vanguardia (Honduras) 5/21/10)
As of May 26 more than 30 people were holding hunger strikes around a number of issues in Tegucigalpa. Two members of the Association of Judges for Democracy were carrying out the “Hunger Strike Against Impunity,” which started on May 17 to demand the return of four judges dismissed for supporting legal actions in favor of former president Zelaya. A group of 12 campesinos from the Aguán River Valley in northern Honduras started a hunger strike on May 24 to demand the removal of troops from the region [see Update #1033], and 10 former supervisors and officials of the Education Ministry began a hunger strike on May 26 to protest what they said were irregularities in their dismissals.
Along with the hunger strikers protesting actions by the government, a group of 10 parents started fasting on May 17 to protest a teachers’ strike. Some 50,000 teachers left their classrooms to protest the dismissal of nine university professors, allegedly because they had participated in a hunger strike to protest the layoffs of 180 National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) workers by the rector, Julieta Castellanos [see Update #1033]. (Adital (Brazil) 5/26/10)
*4. Haiti: Obama Signs HELP Sweatshop Law
On May 25 US president Barack Obama signed into law a measure intended to promote renewed development of the low-wage apparel assembly industry in Haiti. The Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act of 2010, introduced in Congress on Apr. 28 by a bipartisan group of representatives and senators, extends through 2020 several existing laws giving tariff preferences for apparel stitched in Haiti: the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) and the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Engagement Acts of 2006 (HOPE Act) and 2008 (HOPE II).
Proponents of the measure said HELP would aid Haiti’s recovery from a devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. "We are confident Haiti will now be able to attract substantial investment that could create tens of thousands of jobs," said Ron Sorini, a principal of Sorini, Samet & Associates, a DC-based consulting firm that represents the Haitian government on trade. The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), a US manufacturers’ association, noted: “While aiding Haiti through recovery, this law works to create a predictable and certain environment for the US apparel and textile industry.” (Fibre2Fashion (Gujarat, India) 5/26/10; Sorini Samet press release 5/21/10; Just-Style (UK) 5/25/10)
US plans to develop the Haitian assembly sectors were among the policies a meeting of European and Latin American social movements in Madrid denounced on May 16, saying that the US was using a “humanitarian alibi” to defend “US geopolitical, economic and military interests” [see Update #1034].
*5. Haiti: UN Troops Invade Campus, Protests Continue
Edmond Mulet, acting head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), a 9,000-member international military force, issued an apology on May 25 for an incursion by a group of Brazilian soldiers the day before into the Faculty of Ethnology at the State University of Haiti (UEH) in downtown Port-au-Prince. The soldiers arrested a student, Frantz Mathieu Junior, claiming he threw stones at them; they released him later the same day. Students responded to the invasion by burning tires and throwing rocks.
Mulet denied that the troops used tear gas and live ammunition, contrary to reports from UEH students and CNN crews. Homeless earthquake survivors in nearby encampments said they had to flee because of the tear gas, and they reported that at least one baby required medical attention.
The UEH incident came as a broad range of groups continued to protest against the government of President René Préval [see Update #1034]. Hundreds of people marched on the National Palace in central Port-au-Prince on May 25. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters when they attempted to approach the building. A number of babies and some adults lost consciousness as the tear gas spread to the Champ de Mars, a huge park across the street where there are eight encampments of Port-au-Prince residents left homeless by the quake. Hundreds of people—thousands, according to one report--joined another protest on May 27; police again used tear gas to disperse the protesters as they approached the National Palace.
On May 28 at least four people were reportedly wounded when MINUSTAH forces fired on a demonstration protesting lack of power in the Cité Lescot neighborhood of the northern city of Cap-Haïtien. (Inter Press Service 5/25/10; Agence Haïtienne de Presse (Haiti) 5/25/10, 5/27/10, 5/28/10; Radio Métropole (Haiti) 5/25/10, 5/26/10, 5/27/10; AlterPresse (Haiti) 5/26/10; Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 5/28/10)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Trade, Women’s Rights, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico
What’s Left for Latin America to Do With China?
https://nacla.org/node/6586
Making Latin America's Cities Women-Friendly
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2504-making-latin-americas-cities-women-friendly
Thai, Argentine Textile Workers Unite Against Slave Labour
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51547
Argentina’s Bicentennial: Indigenous Tell Another History
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/2510-argentinas-bicentennial-indigenous-tell-another-history
A State of Emergency in Paraguay: The Risks of Militarization
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2514-a-state-of-emergency-in-paraguay-the-risks-of-militarization
The Climate Justice Groundswell: From Copenhagen to Cochabamba to Cancún
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8672
Bolivia: Morales Caught Between Gas Revenues and Indigenous Demands
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2505-bolivia-morales-caught-between-gas-revenues-and-indigenous-demands
Bolivia and its Lithium: Can the ‘Gold of the 21st Century’ Lift a Nation out of Poverty?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2507-bolivia-and-its-lithium-can-the-gold-of-the-21st-century-lift-a-nation-out-of-poverty
Bolivia announces uranium exploration program
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8681
Bolivia scores points with animal-lovers
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8680
Bolivia: Evo to negotiate with "Warrior Clans"
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8679
Peru: Lori Berenson to Be Released on Parole After 15 Years
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2513-peru-lori-berenson-to-be-released-on-parole-after-15-years
Peru: Lori Berenson paroled; hardliners outraged
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8662
Indigenous leader Alberto Pizango arrested on return to Peru
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8668
Peruvian Congress Calls in Debt from U.S. Oil Executive
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/2512-peruvian-congress-calls-in-debt-from-us-oil-executive
Murky Waters Flow From Peruvian Andes: Peasants Protest Irrigation Megaproject
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8671
Change Colombians Can Believe In?
http://www.counterpunch.org/hylton05262010.html
The Circle Opens Out: New Evidence on Criminality in Colombian Regime
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/2508-the-circle-opens-out-new-evidence-on-criminality-in-colombian-regime
Colombia: President Uribe's brother said to have led death squad
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8660
Colombia: Santos wins first round —amid reports of widespread irregularities
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8689
Mexico: mass grave found in Guerrero silver mine
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8691
Venezuela: The Myth of "Eco-Socialism": Ecological Contradictions of the Bolivarian Revolution
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8674
Mexico: Another Triqui leader Slain in Oaxaca
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/2509-mexico-another-triqui-leader-slain-in-oaxaca
The Big Snatch: Mexico's Bogus President Regaled by Washington's Phony Hope Prophet
http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/6305-the-big-snatch-mexicos-bogus-president-regaled-by-washingtons-phony-hope-prophet.html
Calderón Schmoozes, Mexico Loses
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/2459
Obama to send National Guard to Mexican border; Fox fuels terror scare
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8666
Mexico: Quintana Roo gubernatorial candidate busted on narco charges
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8665
Death toll rising in Jamaica
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8661
Poverty-Wage Assembly Plants as Development Strategy in Haiti: An Interview with the Center for the Promotion of Women Workers
http://www.otherworldsarepossible.org/another-haiti-possible/poverty-wage-assembly-plants-development-strategy-haiti-interview-center-prom
Haiti: Struggle and Solidarity After the Cataclysm: An Interview with Batay Ouvriye
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8682
Student Strike in Puerto Rico Continues With Increasing International Support
https://nacla.org/node/6582
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://americas.irc-online.org/
http://nacla.org/articles
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
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