Tuesday, June 28, 2011

WNU #1085: Haitian Peasants Demand an Agricultural Policy


Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1085, June 26, 2011

1. Haiti: Peasants March for a “Real Agricultural Policy”
2. Haiti: UN Office Criticizes Aid Distribution
3. Mexico: Military Admits 44 Violations in “Drug War”
4. Links to alternative sources on: Environment, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Caribbean, Haiti

ISSN#: 1084‑922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/

*1. Haiti: Peasants March for a “Real Agricultural Policy”
Thousands of Haitian peasants marched in the city of Hinche in the Central Plateau region on June 21 to demand that the government promote food sovereignty, the restoration of the environment and the development of an agriculture “adapted to the reality of our country.” “There needs to be a real agricultural policy,” protesters said, in distinction to current policies that encourage the importation of food, seeds and other agricultural commodities.

“Every day we see our neighbors giving up farming in the absence of any decent income,” said a longtime planter who gave his name as Jérôme. “Young peasants are very often discouraged by the lack of economic prospects [and] the prohibitive cost of land.” Another farmer, who came to the demonstration from the nearby town of Papaye, charged that competition from “agricultural commodities produced in the countries of the north in an intensive manner with enormous mechanical resources ruins food-producing agriculture that is respectful of human beings.” Camille Chalmers, an economist from the Port-au-Prince-based nonprofit Haitian Platform Advocating an Alternative Development (PAPDA), noted that the invasion of public land by private investors is also a threat for local populations, which are deprived of their means of subsistence.

The protest was organized by several grassroots organizations, including the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP), which sponsored a similar demonstration in June 2010 against the “poisoned gift” of hybrid seeds offered by the US multinational Monsanto [see Update #1036]. Like last year’s protest, the June 21 march ended with a rally in Hinche’s Charlemagne Péralte plaza, where organizers distributed locally produced seeds and seedlings. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 6/22/11)

*2. Haiti: UN Office Criticizes Aid Distribution
The distribution of international aid after the devastating January 2010 earthquake in southern Haiti has been slow and in some ways counterproductive, according to a United Nations (UN) report released in June of this year. “Has Aid Changed? Channeling assistance to Haiti before and after the earthquake” was prepared by the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Haiti; the office was set up in May 2009 “to assist the Haitian government and people in carrying out their priorities with the help of the international community,” according to a UN press release.

Following the earthquake international donors pledged a total of $4.58 billion in aid for 2010 and 2011. Only $1.74 billion has been disbursed so far, leaving $2.84 billion, about 60%, still not paid out, the report says. “And yet disbursing funds is only part of the aid picture,” the report adds. About 99% of the short-term relief aid after the earthquake was given to “bilateral and multilateral humanitarian agencies, the Red Cross movement and international non-state service providers, including NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and private contractors”; only 1% went to the Haitian government. Some 55% of the long-term recovery aid has gone to “multilateral agencies, international non-state service providers, and non-specified recipients,” with just 12% going directly to the Haitian government.

Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti Paul Farmer, a US doctor who founded Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante, a respected community-based health service in Haiti, writes in a forward to the report that “the already challenging task of moving from relief to recovery—which requires government leadership, above all—becomes almost impossible” when “over 99% of relief funding [is] circumventing Haitian public institutions.” “We have heard from the Haitian people time and again that creating jobs and supporting the government to ensure access to basic services are essential to restoring dignity,” he continues. “To revitalize Haitian institutions, we must channel money through them.” (UN press release 6/23/11; AlterPresse (Haiti) 6/25/11)

The Office of the Special Envoy is headed by former US president Bill Clinton (1993-2001), who is also co-president of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC, or CIRH in French and Spanish), a group set up by donor nations in March 2010 to disburse and monitor international aid. A number of Haitians, including Haitian members of the CIRH, have criticized the commission for leaving Haitians out of its decision-making process [see Update #1061].

*3. Mexico: Military Admits 44 Violations in “Drug War”
According to Mexico’s National Defense Secretariat (Sedena), the military has taken responsibility for 44 cases of violations of civilians’ human rights since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa ordered soldiers to join in the fight against drug trafficking. Sedena says it has initiated criminal or administrative proceedings against 223 soldiers, including officers, in these cases. However, no general has faced charges so far, and no soldier has received a sentence in cases resulting from recommendations by the government’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). A total of 5,055 complaints against the military have been received by the CNDH during this period; the military dismisses some of these as “presented by members [of criminal organizations] to discredit the military institution and in this way to limit its operations.”

The military has opened criminal proceedings in five new cases this year.

One stems from an incident the night of June 20, 2009, on the Chilpancingo-Las Peñas-Puebla federal highway in the southern state of Guerrero. Soldiers at a roadblock stopped a bus and inspected the passengers, arresting one for “probable” unauthorized use of an official uniform. The military says the bus driver then tried to drive away despite orders to stop and the soldiers fired on the bus, killing one person.

In another case, soldiers fired on a family car the night of Sept. 5, 2010, on the Monterrey-Nuevo Laredo highway in the northern state of Nuevo León, killing Vicente de León Ramírez and his 16-year-old son, Alejandro Gabriel de León Castellanos, and injuring six other people [see Update #1049].

In a third case, on Sept. 30, 2009, officials of Emiliano Zapata municipality in the southern state of Tabasco reported that 10 people with their faces covered took detainees to a military base, where they were allegedly mistreated. There are also proceedings related to a newspaper report that a civilian had died during a confrontation between the military and a criminal organization; Sedena didn’t indicate where or when this took place.

In the fifth case, the complainants were riding in a van at night on Sept. 18, 2009, in Comitán de Domínguez municipality in the southeastern state of Chiapas when soldiers at a checkpoint apparently told them to stop and fired on the van when they didn’t respond to the order. One person was killed and three were wounded. (La Jornada (Mexico) 6/24/11)

*4. Links to alternative sources on: Environment, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Caribbean, Haiti

Renewable Energies Will Devour Metal Resources in Latin America

Memory in Exile: An Interview with Jorge Coulon of Inti Illimani (Chile)

Chile: court suspends HidroAysen mega-hydro project

Brazil confirms existence of "uncontacted" tribe —as illegal timber interests encroach

Bolivia grapples with "food sovereignty" —and food crisis

Bolivia inaugurates new gas pipeline to Argentina

Peru: Aymara protest leaders in dialogue with mining ministry

Peru To Pass Colombia As World’s Largest Coca Producer, UN Report Says

The Ollanta Humala Victory in Peru: Moving Beyond Neoliberalism?

Peru: more killed in Puno, Huancavelica protests; demand investigation of García for repression

Colombia: disease threatens survival of Amazon tribe displaced by political violence

The Changing Political Economy of the War System in Colombia

Venezuelan Prelates Defied Pope over Efforts to Oust Chavez, Cables Show

Behind the Venezuelan Prison Riots: the State of Venezuela’s Prisons Today

Security Conference Vows to Push Drug War into Central America

Honduran President Denies “Secret Pact” with Venezuela

Ex-Guatemalan General Appears In Court On Charges Of Orchestrating Massacres

Former General Hector Lopez Fuentes: First Arrest in Connection to Genocide in Guatemala

UN applauds arrest of Guatemala genocide suspect

PRI Presses Forward with Its Labor Law Reform, Backed by Pan (Mexico)

Mexican journalist, wife, son slain in Veracruz home

Mexico: Guerrero campesinos displaced by narco violence

El Wache and the Most Vulnerable (Mexico)

Mexico: Impunity and Profits - Video

Voices from the Drug War Front (Mexico)

Private Contractors Making a Killing off the Drug War 

Mexico: "drug war" protest leaders meet with Calderón

Citizen’s Pact for Peace with Justice and Dignity (Mexico)

Development and Migration: The Missing Link (Mexico-US)

Immigration and the Culture of Solidarity (Mexico-US)

US Border Patrol shoots Mexican migrant at San Ysidro

Caribbean Dilemma: Between Barack and a Hard Place

WikiLeaks: Haiti’s Elite Tried to Turn the Police into a Private Army

For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:

For immigration updates and events:
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:
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:

Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

WNU #1084: Brazilian Campesinos Demand Land, End to Violence

Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1084, June 19, 2011

1. Brazil: Pará Campesinos Demand Land, End to Violence
2. Chile: “Historic” Student March Protests School Privatization
3. Mexico: Femicides Continue as "Drug War" Turns 40
4. Trade: US Congress Set to OK Colombia and Panama Trade Deals?
5. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti

ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/

*1. Brazil: Pará Campesinos Demand Land, End to Violence
More than 5,000 agricultural workers blocked the Trans-Amazonian highway in the northern Brazilian state of Pará on June 15 and 16 to push demands for land, government aid and an end to violence against activists. They continued the action after one protester was run over and killed on June 15, but they agreed to open up the highway on June 16 as the result of an agreement for Presidency Minister Gilberto Carvalho and representatives of the Mining and Energy Ministry and the Agrarian Development Ministry to meet with them on June 20.

The campesinos said that until the meeting had taken place they would continue the encampment they have maintained for the past month in front of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) office in the Pará city of Marabá.

According to a June 17 statement from the Landless Workers Movement (MST), the Agriculture Workers Federation (Fetagri) and the Federation of Family Agriculture Workers of Brazil (Fetraf), the protesters are demanding land for the 8,000 families that are still living in encampments in the state; conditions that will make it possible for the families that have land to grow crops; roads to take the produce to market; credits for agricultural projects; technical advice; and electricity. “There’s money to build hydroelectric facilities, railroads, waterways, steel plants, etc., but they say there aren’t resources for agrarian reform and family agriculture,” the groups wrote, claiming that investment in small-scale agriculture is more beneficial to the economy than many large-scale projects.

Family farming accounts for more than 50% of the food consumed in large Brazilian cities, the groups say, based on numbers from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), but it uses far less resources than large-scale agriculture. “Almost 50% of rural properties in Brazil consist of less than 10 hectares and take up just 2.36% of the cultivable land,” the statement reads, “while less than 1% of Brazil’s rural properties have an area of more than 1,000 hectares but take up 44% of the cultivable land. That’s a lot of land in the hands of a few big landowners who raise crops only for export.”

The protesters are also demanding action on recent murders of campesino leaders, including environmental activists José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva, a married couple who were killed on May 24 near their home in the village of Nova Ipixuna, Pará [see World War 4 Report 6/3/11]. According to the Catholic Church’s Pastoral Land Commission, 1,580 people were murdered in the Brazilian countryside from 1985 to 2010, and currently 1,855 people have received threats. (Adital (Brazil) 6/17/11)

Some 300 families in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais are also using an encampment to call attention to a land dispute. The families of the Drummond community in the city of Itabira are threatened with eviction from land they have lived on for 11 years; they say it was abandoned when they moved on to it. A local court has ruled against them and ordered their removal by July 31. According to Junio Cesar dos Anjos, a member of the group Popular Brigades, Itabira mayor João Izael has offered to provide land and construction materials so that the families can resettle elsewhere but he hasn’t given them guarantees. As of June 14 the families were continuing to camp out in shifts in front of Mayor Izael’s office to demand a formal agreement on a new place to live. On June 10 a Catholic priest, José Geraldo de Melo, started an open-ended hunger strike to support the families. (Adital 6/14/11)

*2. Chile: “Historic” Student March Protests School Privatization
Tens of thousands of students, teachers and supporters protested Chile’s education policies with a huge demonstration in Santiago on June 16 that the local daily La Tercera said was “the most massive march since the return of democracy” in 1990; the University of Chile radio station called it “historic.” The Carabineros militarized police gave a crowd estimate of 80,000, while organizers said 100,000 people had attended. Thousands more held marches in the cities of Concepción, La Serena, Temuco and Valparaíso. The nationwide protest followed several days of student strikes at dozens of high schools and universities.

The marches were called by the Chilean Student Confederation (CONFECH) and were supported by the Federation of University of Chile Students (FECH), the Federation of Catholic University Students (FEUC), and politicians from the Communist Party of Chile (PCC), the Socialist Party of Chile (PSC) and the Broad Social Movement (MAS).

There were some disturbances during the generally peaceful march in Santiago. Fernando Echeverría, the Santiago metropolitan area intendant (a supervisor appointed by the president), said that 37 protesters were arrested during the demonstration, five police agents were injured and two offices were looted. He blamed the organizers, charging that they hadn’t provided enough security. But in general the organizers were delighted with the day’s events. “We’ve demolished the myth that we’re a minority,” FEUC vice president Pedro Pablo Glatz said, “because we’ve shown that our demand is the demand of the majority.”

The protesters were calling for more funding for education and for a reversal of decades of decentralization and privatization. Chile’s schools received the equivalent of 7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 1973, and education was free, but school funding fell to 2.4% of GDP by the end of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship. (It has risen to 4.4% since then.) Administration of the public schools was turned over to the municipalities in 1990, and currently about 40% of the 3.5 million secondary students attend public schools, while some 50% study in subsidized schools, where the government and the parents share the costs. The remaining 10% go to private schools. Scholarships have also been cut back.

About 80% of the one million university students attend private institutions created during the military dictatorship starting in1981.

Rightwing president Sebastián Piñera has seen his approval ratings fall to about 36% since he took office in 2010, and his government was clearly worried by the massive protest on June 16. “Today’s march confirms the urgency for changes,” Education Minister Joaquín Lavín announced that evening, but he didn’t indicate whether he was planning to negotiate with the students. (Radio Universidad de Chile (Santiago) 6/16/11; LT 6/17/11; La Jornada (Mexico) 6/17/11 from correspondent and wire services)

*3. Mexico: Femicides Continue as "Drug War" Turns 40
More than 65 women have been murdered so far this year in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León, according to the Mexican daily La Jornada. The victims included pregnant women and nine underage girls; the majority had been sexually abused before they were killed, and some had been tortured. Several of the corpses were dismembered.

Northern Mexico is especially affected by drug-related violence, much of it from wars between drug cartels that have intensified since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa began militarizing the fight against traffickers in December 2006. Mexican analysts say this “drug war” fuels violence against women in the region [see Update #1078].

“Women’s bodies are plunder in this war,” Alicia Leal, the president of the Monterrey-based women’s shelter Peaceful Alternatives, told La Jornada, with women being used for sexual exploitation, to frighten rivals and to threaten and hurt enemies. But Leal emphasized that the killings are also femicides—misogynistic murders. These killings “have a gender component,” Leal said. “In the majority of these deaths there is rape, there is mutilation of a sexual type. This is gender violence, period. Even if it suits the government to treat it as something generalized, the reality is different.” Leal and other Mexican feminists are calling for the criminal code to categorize femicide as a special crime. (LJ 6/12/11)

Resistance to the US strategy of dealing with drug problems through police and military operations continues to grow both in Mexico and in the US [see Update #1082]. The 40th anniversary of the declaration of a “war on drugs” by then-US president Richard Nixon (1969-1974) on June 17 provided opponents of the policy with an occasion to express their criticisms. They noted that after costing as much as a trillion dollars and causing millions of arrests, the US government’s “drug war” has had a minimal effect on drug use. Some 20-25 million people now use illegal drugs in the US, 10 million more than in 1970, although the government says the percentage of drug users in the population has come down some since the late 1970s, when US drug use was at its peak.

La Jornada notes that the person in charge of researching drug addiction for the US government is a Mexican-born neuroscientist and the great-granddaughter of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Dr. Nora D. Volkow, who heads the National Institute on Drug Abuse, grew up in the Trotsky Museum in Coyoacán, a borough of Mexico City. She favors treating addiction as a medical problem rather than a crime. (LJ 6/17/11, ___: New York Times 6/13/11)

*4. Trade: US Congress Set to OK Colombia and Panama Trade Deals?
US president Barack Obama and congressional leaders “are within striking distance of a deal” to ratify free trade agreements (FTAs, or TLCs in Spanish) with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, US Chamber of Commerce president Thomas J. Donohue said at a news conference in Washington, DC, on June 15. Donohue said the Chamber is “optimistic” that the trade agreements can be approved by July 1.

The agreements were negotiated and signed under the administration of former president George W. Bush (2001-2009), but they’ve been held up in Congress, largely by partisan maneuvers by Democratic and Republican politicians. US labor unions have tended to oppose the unpopular trade deals, and Obama himself expressed doubts about FTAs when he was running for the presidency in 2008.

Unions and social movements in the affected countries—especially Colombia [see Update #1075]—strongly oppose the agreements. US labor groups were sponsoring a Colombian trade delegation in Washington in mid-June to lobby against the Colombian accord. George Kohl, senior director of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), told the Washington Post that the administration and Congress should hold off on the agreement until there is evidence that the Colombian government has fulfilled its commitment to reduce anti-union violence in the country. “Lets have real proof, not promises of proof,” Kohl said.

The DC-based nonprofit Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) is urging activists to tell their congressional representatives to oppose the FTAs. A form letter and other information are available at http://afgj.org/?p=1219. (WP 6/15/11; AFGJ urgent action 6/16/11)

*5. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti

Outrage at HidroAysén Dams Raises Environmental and Political Consciousness in Chile
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/chile-archives-34/3085-outrage-at-hidroaysen-dams-raises-environmental-and-political-consciousness-in-chile

The Qom, the Indigenous People Who Came to Buenos Aires (Argentina)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4890

In Bolivia, Social Protest Is a Way of Life
https://nacla.org/blog/bolivia-social-protest-way-life

Moving Toward Socialism in Bolivia?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3079-moving-toward-socialism-in-bolivia

Peru denies plan to dissolve reserve for "uncontacted" peoples
http://ww4report.com/node/9996

Peru: leader of Puno protests under police siege in Lima TV station
http://ww4report.com/node/9997

Peru: victory in struggle against Inambari hydro-dam —for now
http://ww4report.com/node/9998

Peru: is Inambari hydro-dam project really cancelled?
http://ww4report.com/node/10004

Peru: nuclear plant to replace Inambari hydro project?
http://ww4report.com/node/10005

Oil, hydro development plans generate conflict in Amazon's divided Pastaza basin (Peru)
http://ww4report.com/node/10006

Peru: Aymara protest leader starts vigil at congress chambers after arrest warrant dropped
http://ww4report.com/node/10007

Peru’s Humala And García Both Hint At Pardon For Ex-Leader Fujimori
http://latindispatch.com/2011/06/13/perus-humala-and-garcia-both-hint-at-pardon-for-ex-leader-fujimori/

Peru: Humala Pledges Justice for Sterilisation Victims
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3082-peru-humala-pledges-justice-for-sterilisation-victims

Colombia’s Catch 22: Undermining the Victims’ Law
https://nacla.org/blog/colombia%E2%80%99s-catch-22-undermining-victims%E2%80%99-law

Venezuela: To Support it, Critically Support it, or not Support it?
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6273

Central America Should Turn to Community Policing, Experts Say
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3077-central-america-should-turn-to-community-policing-experts-say

Mexico, Central American countries join challenge to Georgia immigration law
http://ww4report.com/node/10009

Alert: Salvadoran Student Anti-Mining Activist Assassinated
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3087-alert-salvadoran-student-anti-mining-activist-assassinated

El Salvador: environmental activist killed, quickly buried in "mass grave"
http://www.ww4report.com/node/10

The March Toward Unsustainability in El Salvador Gains Speed
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/3083-the-march-toward-unsustainability-in-el-salvador-gains-speed-

Zelaya Accuses Honduran Government Of Breaking Cartagena Accord
http://latindispatch.com/2011/06/17/zelaya-accuses-honduran-government-of-breaking-cartagena-accord/

Please, Stop Trying to 'Fix' Honduras: Letter to the Los Angeles Times
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/3086-please-stop-trying-to-fix-honduras-letter-to-the-la-times

SlutWalk Lands in Tegucigalpa (Honduras)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6933

Between Drug Trafficking and Electioneering, Guatemala Left High and Dry
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4870

Guatemala: Oil Companies and the Subservience of the Government
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/3081-guatemala-oil-companies-and-the-subservience-of-the-government

Mexico’s Spiraling Violence
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4885

On the Enemies List: Arms Dealers, the PRI, and the Pacifists
https://nacla.org/blog/enemies-list-arms-dealers-pri-and-pacifists

Capulalpam, the Babel of Land Disputes (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4822

Growing Ties Between Mexican and U.S. Labor
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4858

U.S. Must Stand Up to Unlawful Eviction of Haitians from Displacement Camps
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4931

U.S. Embassy Foresaw Haiti’s Earthquake Vulnerability\
http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume4-48/U.S.%20Embassy%20Foresaw.asp

WikiLeaked Cables Reveal: After Quake, a “Gold Rush” for Haiti Contracts
http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume4-48/After%20Quake.asp

WikiLeaked Cables Reveal: U.S. Worried about International Criticism of Post-Quake Troop Deployment
http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume4-48/U.S.%20Worried%20about%20International.asp

For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/967/blastContent.jsp
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/

For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/

END

Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Our weekly Immigration News Briefs has ended publication; for news, information and announcements in support of action for immigrant rights in the United States, subscribe to Immigrant Action at:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/immigrantaction
You can also visit the Immigrant Action blog at:
http://immigrantaction.blogspot.com/

Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

WNU #1083: Mapuche Prisoners End Fast in Chile

Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1083, June 12, 2011

1. Chile: Mapuche Prisoners End Fast, Form Commission
2. Honduras: Three Campesinos Killed, More Trouble for Landowner?
3. Mexico: US Admits It's the Source for Drug Gang Arms
4. Haiti: Cables Show US Role in 2009 Wage Struggle
5. Haiti: The Displaced Demonstrate for Housing, Again
6. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, 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. Chile: Mapuche Prisoners End Fast, Form Commission
On June 9 four Mapuche activists imprisoned in Chile’s central Araucanía region decided to end a liquids-only hunger strike they started on Mar. 15 to protest their convictions in what they considered an unfair trial [see Update #1081]. The prisoners--José Huenuche Reimán, Jonathan Huillical Méndez, Héctor Llaitul Carillanca and Ramón Llanquileo Pilquimán—stopped the fast after relatives, human rights organizations and members of the Catholic church made an agreement to form a Commission for the Defense of the Rights of the Mapuche People to promote and defend indigenous rights.

The four activists were tried along with 13 others for “terrorism” in a case relating to a fire and an attack on a prosecutor. All were acquitted of the “terrorism” charge—which was based on a law passed during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990)—but the four hunger strikers were convicted of common crimes. The Supreme Court of Justice issued a decision on June 3 reducing their sentences: Llaitul’s sentence was lowered from 25 to 14 years in prison, while the prison terms for the other three were lowered from 20 to eight years. But the activists insisted on continuing their struggle to have a fair trial without the use of the “antiterrorism” law.

The new commission includes Concepción archbishop Fernando Chomalí and auxiliary bishop Pedro Ossandon; Lorena Fríes, director of the National Human Rights Institute; Amerigo Incalcaterra, South America representative for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; José Fernando Díaz, from the National Indigenous Pastoral Commission (southern zone); Mapuche spokespeople Natividad Llanquileo and Millaray Garrido; and Pamela Matus, a relative of the prisoners. (Adital (Brazil) 6/10/11, some from wire services)

In a talk with the Chilean radio station Radio Cooperativa, Mapuche spokesperson Natividad Llanquileo said that the four activists were “much better” after ending the strike and that a full recovery was expected in week. But she warned that there could be problems in the dialogue with the government, which she said had failed to comply with earlier promises. (La Tercera (Santiago) 6/11/11)

*2. Honduras: Three Campesinos Killed, More Trouble for Landowner?
Campesino organizations from the Lower Aguán Valley in northern Honduras marched in Tegucigalpa on June 9 to protest the killings of Aguán campesinos and to demand that the government act on its promise last year to distribute 3,000 hectares of land to campesino families [see Update #1080]. The Honduras section of the international campesino group Vía Campesina joined in the demonstration, along with the Alliance for Food Sovereignty and Agrarian Reform (SARA) and members of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), the country’s main alliance of social movements. The groups say 39 campesinos have been murdered in the course of a longstanding land dispute in the valley.

In addition to land distribution, the protesters called for the disarming of “security” groups employed by big landowners in the region, the intervention of international human rights organizations in the conflict, and the government’s fulfillment of promises it made on May 22 in Cartagena, Colombia to respect human rights [see Update #1081]. The campesino groups also made “an urgent call to the national and international community and especially to national and international social movements to stand in solidarity with the Aguán and to demand a halt to the campesino bloodbath and the terror.” (Prensa Latina 6/9/11; Vos el Soberano (Honduras) 6/11/11 from Vía Campesina)

The march followed the June 5 murder of three campesinos in the Aguán Valley. According to the European organization FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN), paramilitaries employed by landowners shot José Recinos Aguilar, Joel Santamaría and Genaro Cuesta as they were driving a few meters from the San Esteban cooperative, of which they were members. The victims belonged to the Authentic Claimant Movement of Aguán Campesinos (MARCA), one of several campesino groups claiming land in the Aguán valley. The paramilitaries then went to the local offices of the government’s National Agrarian Institute (INA) and shot at campesinos who had taken refuge there the year before. Five people were wounded, including the campesina Doris Pérez Vásquez, who was shot in the abdomen and had to be rushed to a hospital in the city of La Ceiba. (Adital (Brazil) 6/6/11, with information from FIAN, FNRP, Comuna Ataroa and Tiempo (San Pedro Sula))

Pressure has been mounting on the landowners to settle the land dispute. An initiative has been introduced in the National Congress to expropriate 14 estates belonging to the main landowners in the valley—Honduran business owner Miguel Facussé Barjum, René Morales Carazo and Reinaldo Canales—and distribute them to the campesinos.

Facussé, who owns seven of the estates, has been campaigning vigorously to improve his image, taking out newspaper ads and bringing unsuccessful defamation suits against such critics as Santa Rosa de Copán archbishop Luis Alfonso Santos and Andrés Pavón, president of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (Codeh). On June 10, however, Facussé announced that he would sell four of his estates to the government at the government’s asking price, but he said he planned to retain one, the Marañones farm, for employees who were losing their jobs because of the sale, and wanted to keep two others for himself, the Lempira and La Concepción farms.

The Honduras Culture and Politics, a US-based blog, suggests that Facussé is now willing to compromise because of international campaigns charging that he is responsible for the deaths of as many as 14 campesinos. The allegations have already cost his Grupo Dinant company investment from two major European companies [see Update #1077]. Facussé “knows he has lost control of the message internationally, and probably nationally as well,” the blog concludes. (Honduras Culture and Politics 6/11/11; Prensa Latina 6/9/11; La Tribuna (Tegucigalpa) 6/10/11)

Although the courts have dismissed Facussé’s suit against Archbishop Santos, the archbishop made a partial apology on May 30 for identifying Facussé as an Arab rather than a Honduran. The Facussé family is one of a number of families that emigrated from Palestine and settled in Honduras several generations ago. Vía Campesina also gratuitously referred to Facussé’s Middle Eastern origin in its report on the June 9 march in Tegucigalpa; it appears not to have apologized. (Tiempo 5/31/11; Vos el Soberano (Honduras) 6/11/11 from Vía Campesina)

*3. Mexico: US Admits It's the Source for Drug Gang Arms
Statistics given to US senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) confirm claims that a high percentage of the illegal firearms in Mexico are smuggled from the US, although less than the 90% sometimes claimed in the past. The availability of illegal weapons in Mexico is a major factor in the more than 35,000 drug-related deaths in the country since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa began militarizing the fight against drug cartels in December 2006.

The Mexican government submitted 29,284 illegal guns to the ATF for tracing in 2009 and 2010. The bureau determined that 15,131 of the weapons were manufactured in the US and that 5,373 were imported to the US before ending up in Mexico, so that a total of 70% of the guns that were traced came from the US. The origins of the other weapons couldn't be determined. Mexico didn’t submit all the illegal weapons it seized, and it is unclear how many other illegal weapons were seized.

Mexico has strict regulations on gun sales, and most legal sales are processed through one store on a military base near Mexico City, while many states in the US have few restrictions, making it relatively easy to purchase guns legally in the US and then smuggle them to drug gangs in Mexico. Apparently there are also weapons that have gotten to the drug cartels because of a bungled operation by the ATF itself [see Update #1073]. Five arms found in a weapons cache in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, in April may be connected to Operation Fast and Furious, in which the ATF allowed guns to “walk” in order to trace the activities of US gun smugglers in the US Southwest.

The US arms industry disputes the ATF’s statistics. “I think all these numbers are phonied up for politics,” National Rifle Association (NRA) executive vice president Wayne LaPierre told the Wall Street Journal. But Dennis Henigan, vice president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said the numbers show “[i]t's beyond time for the United States to strengthen its gun laws and shut down the trafficking.” (WSJ 6/10/11)

Mexican government statistics indicate that the number of youths involved in drug gang activity has been increasing since 2006. The government reports that from December 2006 to January 2010 gang members executed 30,913 people and that 26.7% of them were 16-30 years old. Most of the executions took place in wars between rival drug cartels, so it is assumed that the victims were largely gang members themselves. What is striking is that the percentage of younger people in the gangs seems to be growing rapidly, based on the executions. In the northern state of Chihuahua, which has been especially hard hit by the drug wars, the executions of people between 15 and 30 represented 2.1% of the national total in 2008; in 2009 the number rose to 3.6%, and in 2010 it increased again to 5.1%, more than double what it had been two years before.

Josefina Rodríguez, coordinator of the 21st Century Youth association, blames the lack of opportunities for young people in Mexico for the rise in youth participation in the drug gangs. “What can happen is that we’ll have resentful and lost generations that will be very difficult to rescue,” she told the Mexican daily La Jornada. (LJ 6/12/11)

* 4. Haiti: Cables Show US Role in 2009 Wage Struggle
Leaked US diplomatic cables show that “[t]he US embassy in Haiti worked closely with factory owners contracted by Levi’s, Hanes, and Fruit of the Loom to aggressively block a paltry minimum wage increase for Haitian assembly zone workers” in 2009, according to an article in the New York and Haiti-based weekly newspaper Haïti Liberté. The article, published jointly with the US weekly magazine The Nation, is based on some of the 1,918 previously unpublished cables concerning Haiti that the WikiLeaks group has released to Haïti Liberté [see Update #1082].

In 2009 the Haitian Parliament attempted to raise the daily minimum wage from about $1.75 to about $5. Many of the owners of assembly plants, which produce largely for North American apparel retailers, pressured then-president René Préval (1996-2001 and 2006-2011) to oppose the increase. Despite militant demonstrations by students and factory workers, Préval eventually won approval for a two-tier system with a minimum wage of about $3 a day for assembly plant employees but $5 a day for other workers. (However, the minimum wage for assembly workers was increased to about $5 a day in October 2010, while in all other sectors it rose to $6.25, according to Haïti Liberté.)

Correction: The increases in the minimum wage are to take effect in October 2012; see Update #1045.

Although the US stayed behind the scenes, the cables show then-US ambassador Janet Sanderson calling for a “more visible and active engagement by Préval” and warning about the risk of “the political environment spiraling out of control.” The $5 a day minimum “did not take economic reality into account,” according to Deputy Chief of Mission David E. Lindwall. Charge d'Affaires Thomas C. Tighe cited studies supposedly showing that a $5 minimum wage “would make the [assembly] sector economically unviable and consequently force factories to shut down.”

Tighe apparently was also monitoring demonstrations by supporters of the wage increase. On Aug. 10 he was at a protest by Port-au-Prince factory workers during which his car was attacked. [At the time an embassy spokesperson called Tighe’s presence at the protest coincidental and said he was not a target of the protesters; see Update #1001]. (HL 5/25/11-5/30/11)

The cables also show the US government’s concern about the Haitian electoral council’s decision to exclude the Lavalas Family (FL) party of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004) from legislative elections originally scheduled for February 2010. (The vote was delayed by the January 2010 earthquake and was held in November.) The new US ambassador, Kenneth Merten, warned in December 2009 that FL would look “like a martyr and Haitians will believe (correctly) that Préval is manipulating the election.” Other diplomats expressed similar reservations at a Dec. 1, 2009 meeting of European Union and United Nations representatives with ambassadors from Brazil, Canada, Spain and the US. But the diplomats agreed to provide funds for the vote because “the international community has too much invested in Haiti's democracy to walk away from the upcoming elections, despite its [sic] imperfections,” according to a US cable. (HL 5/25/11-5/30/11)

The cables also show a little-reported relationship between the US embassy and at least some FL politicians. A confidential Feb. 7, 2008 cable, for instance, is devoted to a discussion Ambassador Sanderson had with Rudy Hériveaux, an FL senator representing the West department, which includes Port-au-Prince. Hériveaux “told the ambassador he supports President Preval and his efforts for the political stabilization of Haiti, wants to attract foreign investment… [and] will try to keep planned Lavalas anti-government protests within bounds,” according to the cable. Sanderson noted that the senator’s views are “not widely shared by party grassroots.”

US diplomats also seemed to be on friendly terms with Saurel (sometimes spelled “Sorel”) François, the FL legislative deputy representing eastern Port-au-Prince. A confidential June 5, 2009 cable about student demonstrations for the new minimum wage includes François’ opinion that “the student protesters were apparently being ‘pushed’ by an outside force. He said the protesters’ ever-changing demands concealed a more radical agenda, and he had heard that the students planned to go ‘very far’ to push their demands.” François voted against raising the minimum wage, according to a confidential June 10, 2009 cable.

After FL was forced off the ballot, Hériveaux switched to the Together We Are Strong party and François ran on the ticket of Préval’s Unity party. Neither won reelection. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 11/30/09; Radio Métropole (Haiti) 6/7/10)

*5. Haiti: The Displaced Demonstrate for Housing, Again
A group of Haitians left homeless by a January 2010 earthquake demonstrated in Port-au-Prince on June 10 to demand action on the housing situation and an end to forced evictions from the displaced persons camps. “We’ve had enough of living in tents, we want decent housing” was one of the slogans. The protest followed violent evictions from camps in the Delmas section of Port-au-Prince carried out on May 23 and May 25 by Delmas municipal authorities and agents of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) [see Update #1081].

The protesters read a letter calling for Parliament to enact a program and a budget for the creation of new housing. Signed by representatives of more than 70 camps, the letter noted that evictions of displaced persons violate Article 22 of the 1987 Constitution, which requires the government to assure respect for each person’s right to housing. “The forced expulsions fit in with a broad plan being implemented by the current administration” of rightwing president Michel Martelly, said Sanon Reyneld, who is a member of the Force for Reflection and Action on Housing (FRAKKA), an alliance of grassroots organizations and committees from the camps. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 6/10/11; Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 6/10/11)

*6. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, Puerto Rico

Brazil Without Poverty? Dilma’s Double Discourse
https://nacla.org/blog/brazil-without-poverty-dilma%E2%80%99s-double-discourse

Peru’s Humala Visits Brazil To Meet With Rousseff; Looks To Distance Himself From Chávez
http://latindispatch.com/2011/06/10/perus-humala-visits-brazil-to-meet-with-rousseff-looks-to-distance-himself-from-chavez/

Hope in the Andes: What Ollanta Humala’s Victory Means for Peru
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/3068-hope-in-the-andes-what-ollanta-humalas-victory-means-for-peru-

WikiLeaks cables: The great equaliser in Peru
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/2011627179165204.html

Peru: Puno protests resumed, government prepares dialogue
http://ww4report.com/node/9982

Ecuador cracks down on illegal gold mines, wants higher royalties from majors
http://ww4report.com/node/9970

The History of the Quimbo in Colombia: Dammed or Damned?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/3064--the-history-of-the-quimbo-in-colombia-dammed-or-damned

Afro-Colombian community leader assassinated in Medellín
http://ww4report.com/node/9972

Obama Pressed To Submit Free Trade Agreements With Colombia and Panama For Vote
http://latindispatch.com/2011/06/08/obama-pressed-to-submit-free-trade-agreements-with-colombia-and-panama-for-vote/

Venezuelan Peasant Organisations March to Demand Justice for Murders
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6258

How to Avoid Extrajudicial Execution in Honduras: Throw Popcorn at Police
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3073-how-to-avoid-extrajudicial-execution-in-honduras-throw-popcorn-at-police

A Civics Lesson (Mexico, Hank Rhon)
https://nacla.org/blog/civics-lesson

Mexico: narco-tank factory busted in Tamaulipas
http://ww4report.com/node/9977

Mexican Community Uses Barricades to Drive Out Organized Crime and Political Parties
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3065-mexican-community-uses-barricades-to-drive-out-organized-crime-and-political-parties

Javier Sicilia: ‘The United States Imposed This War on Us, It Should Change the Strategy”
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4759

In Bloody Durango, Civilian and Police Families Unite to Protest Drug War
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4771

Peace Caravan Encounters Massacres, Military Abuses and Disappearances in Torreón
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4783

Mexico Peace Caravan’s Long Road Ends (Begins) With Pact Signed in Juárez
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4842

Mexican "peace caravan" arrives at US border
http://ww4report.com/node/9983

Impasse? What’s blocking the capital’s reconstruction? (Haiti)
http://haitigrassrootswatch.squarespace.com/7pap1eng

While the heroes are watching (Haiti)
http://haitigrassrootswatch.squarespace.com/7chaneng1

Recent University of Puerto Rico Protests Raises Critique of Colonization
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/3075-recent-university-of-puerto-rico-protests-raises-critique-of-colonization

For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/967/blastContent.jsp
http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://ww4report.com/node/

For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/

END

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