Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1142, August 26, 2012
1. Mexico: Police Shoot Up US Embassy Car, Wound Two
2. Honduras: Aguán Campesinos Arrested in Supreme Court Protests
3. Colombia: GM and Hunger Strikers Agree to Mediation
4. Colombia: Paramilitaries Issue Death Threats in Barrancabermeja
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, US/immigration
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. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
*1. Mexico: Police Shoot Up US Embassy Car, Wound Two
A group of Mexican federal police agents attacked a US embassy car at around 8 am on Aug. 24 in the state of Morelos just of south of Mexico City, near the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway. The police agents shot a number of times at the car, lightly wounding two US officials who were traveling with a member of the Mexican Navy to a nearby Navy training installation. The embassy car had diplomatic license plates, while the federal police were reportedly traveling in four unmarked vehicles.
Mexican authorities detained 12 federal police agents the evening of Aug. 24 in connection with the shooting and began an investigation. The federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) is reportedly focusing on “confusion” on the part of the agents, who claimed they had been in the area to investigate a kidnapping by a criminal group that operates in Huitzilac and Cuernavaca municipalities in Morelos. The US embassy described the attack as an “ambush.”
Mexican media identified the wounded US officials as Jess Hood Garner and Stan Dove Boss, said to be shooting instructors from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). They were apparently on their way to the installation to train Navy personnel. The US government strongly promotes the militarized “drug war” that President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa declared shortly after taking office in December 2006, and the US supplies the Mexican military and police with training and equipment under the $1.4 billion Mérida Initiative, an aid program that was launched in 2008. Since the beginning of 2007 Mexico has suffered some 50,000 drug-related deaths. (La Jornada (Mexico) 8/26/12)
On Aug. 25 the left-leaning Mexican daily La Jornada noted that US agents have been involved in Mexican anti-drug operations, and sometimes in operations Mexican agencies don’t know about [see Update #1103]. The newspaper charged that by interfering in drug operations the US has encouraged lack of coordination and even rivalry between different Mexican security forces, especially through US officials’ “marked favoritism for the Navy.” “[T]he strategy for combating drugs that the United States has imposed on various nations south of its border…has turned out to be detrimental for bilateral relations [between Mexico and the US]—now plunged into a mutual loss of confidence—and for national sovereignty, and has represented, at the end of the day, a risk for the security of US officials themselves in our country.” (LJ 8/25/12)
*2. Honduras: Aguán Campesinos Arrested in Supreme Court Protests
Some 45 campesinos from the Lower Aguán Valley in northern Honduras were arrested during protests on Aug. 21 and Aug. 22 demanding that the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) issue rulings in favor of campesino struggles for land. The protests were sponsored by a number of organizations—including the Unified Campesino Movement of the Aguán (MUCA) and the Authentic Claimant Movement of Aguán Campesinos (MARCA)—that have led land occupations and other demonstrations since 2009 in an effort to obtain farmland that they say big landowners acquired illegally during the 1990s [see Update #1137].
Tensions started to mount on Aug. 20 when a group of campesinos arrived at the CSJ building in Tegucigalpa expecting to meet with judges. But according to MUCA members, CSJ president Jorge Rivera Avilés decided not to receive their representatives and in fact had already made an agreement with representatives of two major landowners, Miguel Facussé and René Morales. The protesters also reported being attacked by the police at the building that day.
On Aug. 21 a group of about 80 campesinos escalated their protest by taking over the CSJ building’s five main doors; they also set up barricades on the street in front of the court, blocking traffic. (According to the Brazilian news service Adital, a total of 350 protesters, including children and older people, were participating in the demonstration.) After the campesinos had kept employees and others from entering or leaving the building for about three hours, agents from the Preventive Police arrived and asked the protesters to end the blockade. The campesinos refused. A squadron of Cobras, the notorious anti-riot police, then appeared and carried out a surprise attack, using tear gas and nightsticks.
A total of 27 or 28 protesters were arrested, including two women, a minor, and three people who had to be taken to a hospital for emergency treatment. Some of the protesters sought refuge in the headquarters of the militant Union of Workers of the Brewery Industry and the Like (STIBYS), but police agents used tear gas on them as well
On Aug. 22 a campesino group in the Aguán Valley--at first mostly women carrying machetes and clubs--responded to the arrests in Tegucigalpa by blocking the highway that connects Saba and La Ceiba with rocks and two trucks to demand the release of the 27 detained protesters. Police and military units broke up the blockade, arresting 18 protesters; several injuries were reported.
The Aguán campesinos’ eight demands on the CSJ included the suspension of criminal cases against campesinos detained for protesting and the removal of judges that the protesters said had favored the big landowners over campesinos in their decisions; the protesters were referring especially to a case in July in which the Ceiba and Francisco Morazán Appeals Court overturned a June decision by a lower court awarding 2,000 hectares of land to MARCA members. The campesinos were also asking the CSJ to declare unconstitutional a government move to ban firearms in Colón department, which includes the Aguán region. The measure discriminates in favor of the landowners, according to Rafael Alegría, a national campesino leader. The security guards hired by the big landowners and the business owners can go around with whatever arms they want, he told reporters, but ranchers, shopkeepers and campesinos can’t.
More than 70 people have been killed in the Aguán region over the past three years, most of them campesinos. (Vos el Soberano (Honduras) 8/21/12; La Prensa (Tegucigalpa) 8/21/12, 8/22/12; Adital (Brazil) 8/22/12; Agencia Venezolana de Noticias 8/23/12)
On Aug. 22 the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) issued a statement condemning the “brutal aggression” against campesino protesters on Aug. 21. The statement also cited death threats made against Donny Reyes, the coordinator of the LGBT Rainbow Coalition, and against members of the Broad Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ), a group that fights against corruption and for the defense of natural resources. The statement suggested writing letters to CSJ President Jorge Rivera Avilés (presidencia@poderjudicial.gob.hn) and Justice and Human Rights Minister Ana Pineda (info@sjdh.gob). (Copinh statement 8/22/12)
*3. Colombia: GM and Hunger Strikers Agree to Mediation
A group of former employees of GM Colmotores, the Colombian subsidiary of the Detroit-based General Motors Company (GM), announced on the morning of Aug. 24 that they had agreed to enter into mediation to resolve a dispute with the company. As part of the agreement, they were ending a liquids-only hunger strike that 12 workers started on Aug. 1 to pressure Colmotores to reinstate them and compensate them for injuries. They said that until the dispute was settled, they would continue an encampment in front of the US embassy in Bogotá which they have maintained for more than a year [see Update #1141].
According to the former employees’ organization, the Association of Injured Workers and Ex-Workers of Colmotores (Asotrecol), some 200 of the company’s workers have disabilities caused by injuries on the job, repetitive stress injuries or work-related illnesses. Asotrecol says the company simply fires injured workers instead of compensating them and moving them to jobs they can handle. Colomotores management has repeatedly denied Asotrecol’s claims, but apparently it decided to accept mediation rather than face the negative publicity being generated in the US by the three-week hunger strike and by photographs of seven fasters who sewed their lips shut. The workers’ supporters in the US include the nonprofit organization Witness for Peace and the main US labor confederation, the AFL-CIO.
The US Labor Department issued a statement on Aug. 24 welcoming the accord and highlighting its own role, along with the US embassy in Bogotá and the US Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, in brokering the deal. The statement failed to mention that the US government itself is a party to the dispute, since it is General Motors’ largest shareholder as a result of a major bailout in 2009. “To us it seems unjust and a double standard,” Asotrecol president Jorge Parra told reporters, “for the government of [US president Barack] Obama to demand respect for labor rights in Colombia and the same time allow the abuses that have happened to us.” (AFP 8/24/12 via Univision; AFL-CIO Now blog 8/24/12; US Labor Department press release 8/24/12)
*4. Colombia: Paramilitaries Issue Death Threats in Barrancabermeja
A reconstituted paramilitary group, “Los Rastrojos Urban Commandos,” made a series of death threats the week of Aug. 13 against members of four human rights organizations and one union in Barrancabermeja in the northern Colombian department of Santander. The first threats came in a manila envelope found on Aug. 14 at the home of human rights activist Himad Choser. The envelope contained a 9 mm bullet and a pamphlet by “Los Rastrojos” declaring Choser an enemy because he had been “denouncing and attacking our economic structure, based on drug trafficking in the region.” The pamphlet described Choser as “at the service of the FARC,” the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The pamphlet also named four organizations and the National Union of Food Industry Workers (SINALTRAINAL) as collaborators with Choser.
On Aug. 18 another "Los Rastrojos" pamphlet was left in the office of the People in Action Organization, a group that defends LGBT rights. In this pamphlet the paramilitaries declared a “death sentence against Mr. Ovidio [Nieto], of the organization that defends the gays”; against “the guerrilla William Mendoza,” the local SINALTRAINAL president; and against Choser, “so that this defender of fags won’t agitate the city.” “We’re going to be blunt,” the pamphlet continued. “We won’t give more warnings.”
Local human rights organizations called on the authorities “to fulfill their role as guarantor[s] of the life and tranquility of the residents of our city,” and they asked the international community to monitor and publicize the threats and to demand that the national government take action against criminal groups. (Communiqué 8/20/12 posted on SINALTRAINAL website) [Earlier in the month Colombian unionists called for international solidarity for SINALTRAINAL president Mendoza, who says the government is trying to have him sentenced to prison, where he fears he will be killed; see Update #1141.]
"Los Rastrojos" is one of several criminal groups that carry on the work of rightwing paramilitary groups which ostensibly demobilized during the middle 2000s [see Updates #1086, 1087, World War 4 Report 5/8/12]. On Aug. 18 the Colombian radio station Caracol reported that a leading paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), acquired weapons from criminal groups in the US in 2004 and 2005, at the same time that the group claimed to be demobilizing. Basing its report on documents from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Caracol said the AUC acquired 200 M16 rifles, 100 fragmentation grenades, 150 rocket-propelled grenades and 50,000 .22 cartridges from Miami in just one year.
The last section of the AUC to demobilize, the Elmer Cárdenas Bloc, officially gave up its arms on Aug. 16, 2006. Some of its former members then formed “Los Urabeños,” which the Medellín-based news service Colombia Reports describes as “one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Colombia and in control of the drug routes in what used to be the heartland of the AUC.” (Colombia Reports 8/19/12)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, US/immigration
Proven model predicts higher food prices if speculation is not reined in (Latin America)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7773
Marketing Consent: A Journey into the Public Relations Underside of Canada's Mining Sector in Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/3829-marketing-consent-a-journey-into-the-public-relations-underside-of-canadas-mining-sector-in-latin-america
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel: 'There is No Political Will to Respect Native Peoples' in Argentina
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/3832-adolfo-perez-esquivel-qthere-is-no-political-will-to-respect-native-peoplesq-in-argentina
Chile urged to ensure justice for victims of enforced disappearances
http://ww4report.com/node/11422
Hydropower Dam to Flood Sacred Amazon Indigenous Site in Brazil
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3825-hydropower-dam-to-flood-sacred-amazon-indigenous-site-in-brazil
Brazil: court blocks mega-hydro to protect Pantanal
http://www.ww4report.com/node/11435
Brazil: high court orders release of rancher convicted in Dorothy Stang slaying
http://www.ww4report.com/node/1143
Bolivia: Aymara communities occupy Oruro mine
http://ww4report.com/node/11420
Peru: Newmont Mining to abandon Conga project?
http://ww4report.com/node/11419
To the Colombian Military: “Don’t be afraid of peace!”
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7794
The Colombian Paradox: Capital Mobility, Land, and Power
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/22/colombian-paradox-capital-mobility-land-and-power
Colombia: Despite Repression, the Minga in Huila Continues for the Liberation of Mother Earth
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3830-colombia-despite-repression-the-minga-in-huila-continues-for-the-liberation-of-mother-earth
Colombian GM Workers on Hunger Strike Until Death Sew Their Mouths Shut
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8720
US Carter Center: Venezuelan Electoral System one of the Most Automated in the World
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7177
U.S.-Funded War in El Salvador Casts Shadow over Romney/Ryan Campaign
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3827-us-funded-war-in-el-salvador-casts-shadow-over-romneyryan-campaign
Broken Anvil: Victims Fight for Justice After DEA Operation Leaves Four Dead in Honduras
https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#label/wnu1142/1394c720240c7ea2
Lost and Found (Honduras)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7779
Guatemala: The Spoils of an Undeclared War
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/3823-guatemala-the-spoils-of-an-undeclared-war
Guatemala: ex-National Police chief gets 70 years for "disappearance"
http://www.ww4report.com/node/11436
Mining, Repression and the Rhetoric of Democracy and the Rule of Law in Guatemala
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3824-mining-repression-and-the-rhetoric-of-democracy-and-the-rule-of-law-in-guatemala
Mexico: victory for campesino struggle against La Parota dam
http://ww4report.com/node/11421
Mexican Farmers Battle Canadian Mining Company for Control of Their Land
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3822-mexican-farmers-battle-canadian-mining-company-for-control-of-their-land
Miners in Coahuila Died for Seven Dollars a Day (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7831
Stop, Frisk and Demolish in Ciudad Juarez (Mexico)
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august212012/ciudad-stops-kp.php
The Caravan for Peace Begins a Long Ride Across the USA
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/21/caravan-peace-begins-long-ride-across-usa
Caravan of Peace, Cities of Death
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/08/caravan-of-peace-cities-of-death.html
On Haiti, Jared Diamond Hasn't Done His Homework
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/20/haiti-jared-diamond-hasnt-done-his-homework
A Twenty-First Century Border: The Ever-expanding U.S. Boundary (Dominican Republic, US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/22/twenty-first-century-border-ever-expanding-us-boundary
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.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
WNU #1141: Wal-Mart Hit by Money Laundering Scandal
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1141, August 19, 2012
1. Mexico: Now Wal-Mart Faces a Money Laundering Scandal
2. Chile: Students Reject Government's New Tax Law
3. Colombia: Fired GM Workers Go on Hunger Strike
4. Guatemala: Military Removes Squatters in Capital, Twice
5. Dominican Republic: “Haitians” Arrested for Demonstrating
6. Links to alternative sources on: Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Guyana
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. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
*1. Mexico: Now Wal-Mart Faces a Money Laundering Scandal
According to two members of the US Congress, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Henry Waxman (D-CA), there is evidence that the US-based retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., didn’t take legally required steps to prevent money laundering and tax evasion through its Mexican subsidiary, Wal-Mart de México. The allegation appears in an Aug. 14 letter the two legislators wrote to Wal-Mart Stores CEO Michael Duke complaining that the company has failed to cooperate with their investigation of a $24 million bribery scandal that emerged in April [see Update #1127 and World War 4 Report 8/12/12].
“[A]lthough you have stated on multiple occasions that you intend to cooperate with our investigation,” Cummings and Waxman wrote, “you have failed to provide the documents we requested, and you continue to deny us access to key witnesses.” Despite the lack of cooperation from Wal-Mart, the Congress members said they had “obtained internal company documents, including internal audit reports, from other sources suggesting that Wal-Mart may have had compliance issues relating not only to bribery, but also to ‘questionable financial behavior’ including tax evasion and money laundering in Mexico.” They added that their concerns about Wal-Mart’s practices weren’t limited to Mexico.
The letter gave no specifics about the compliance issues, but Wal-Mart de México operates a bank which accepts deposits and issues credit and debit cards. The subsidiary’s stocks fell by 5.95% on the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) on Aug. 15, the day Cummings and Waxman made their letter public.
This is the third time in one month that foreign corporations have been linked to the laundering of money from Mexico. In July a US Senate subcommittee reported on compliance violations by the London-based corporation HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, and in early August US media reported on an investigation of possible violations by rightwing US billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. casino company [see Updates #1137, 1140]. Mexican regulators fined HSBC $28 million in July for its failure to prevent money laundering through its Mexican subsidiary. (La Jornada (Mexico) 8/15/12 from correspondent, 8/16/12; Associated Press 8/15/12 via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Wal-Mart may benefit from having good connections across the political spectrum in Mexico. According to the Mexican-based Reporte Indigo website, a Wal-Mart de México vice president, Álvaro Arrigunaga Gómez del Campo, is a cousin of Margarita Zavala Gómez del Campo, the wife of Mexico’s current president, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, who is a leader of the center-right National Action Party (PAN). Another Wal-Mart vice president is Alberto Ebrard Casaubón, brother of Marcelo Ebrard, head of government of the Federal District (DF, Mexico City) and one of the most popular politicians in the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). A second brother, Eugenio Ebrard, worked for the firm from the 1990s until 2010. (Poder Ciudadano (Ciudad de Puebla) 4/25/12)
*2. Chile: Students Reject Government's New Tax Law
Chilean high school students occupied two important schools in Santiago on Aug. 13, after taking over at least eight public high schools the week before in a continuation of protests for educational reform that started more than a year ago [see Update #1140]. The students occupied the Barros Arana National Boarding School (INBA) and the prestigious High School of Implementation. They also tried to take over the José Miguel Carrera National Institute but gave up when police contingents arrived. Agents arrested 14 youths allegedly involved in the actions, which were supported by hundreds of students.
“We decided to give up on the takeover because of the police presence,” INBA student Diego Mellado said, “but if we have to go back to take over the school, we’re going to do it.” (La Jornada (Mexico) 8/14/12 from correspondent)
The student movement is demanding a reversal of the privatization of education that began during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Rightwing president Sebastián Piñera has responded to the students by proposing legislation that would raise corporate tax rates as part of a fiscal overhaul allowing the government to provide low-interest student loans [see Update #1127]. The Chamber of Deputies approved the measure during the second week of August with the support of some legislators from opposition parties, despite promises the parties’ leaders had made to students that they would vote against the bill. The bill still requires approval from the Senate. The student movement opposes Piñera’s “supposed education reform,” Federation of University of Chile Students (FECH) vice president Camila Vallejo wrote in an open letter to the senators, because “it simply maintains the commercial, privatizing and discriminatory logic of the current educational system.” (Prensa Latina 8/14/12 via Adital (Brazil))
Carabineros militarized police succeeded in ending three of the high school occupations on Aug. 16. Using tear gas and with the support of vehicles with water cannons, the agents stormed the Darío Salas, Miguel de Cervantes and Swiss Confederation schools. The Darío Salas occupiers left the building when the police arrived, but students in the other two schools resisted. Police arrested 132 people in the buildings and seven outside. Students reportedly occupied three other schools while the police operation was going on at Darío Salas, Miguel de Cervantes and Swiss Confederation. (EFE 8/16/12 via Fox News Latina; LJ 8/17/12 from correspondent)
*3. Colombia: Fired GM Workers Go on Hunger Strike
As of Aug. 15 a total of 13 former employees of GM Colmotores, the Colombian subsidiary of the Detroit-based General Motors Company (GM), were continuing a liquids-only hunger strike they began on Aug. 1 to demand reinstatement and compensation for injuries they say they received on the job. According to the protesters, the company fired them after they received disabling injuries at the Colmotores factory, which employs about 1,800 workers just outside Bogotá. The company denies the workers’ accusations.
A group of the laid-off workers formed the Association of Injured Workers and Ex-Workers of Colmotores (Asotrecol) last year and set up an encampment in front of the US embassy in Bogotá on Aug. 1, 2011 to push their demands. They decided to go on hunger strike after protesting for one year without results. Seven have sewn their mouths shut as part of the protest, and more plan to take this step in the future.
According to the US-based human rights organization Witness for Peace, US labor activists fasted on Aug. 15 in at least 20 states in solidarity with the Colombian hunger strikers; there was also a demonstration outside GM headquarters in Detroit.
In recent years the US government has pushed Colombia to improve its record on labor rights in order to win approval from the US Congress for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), but activists say violations have remained common since Congress ratified the FTA last October [see Update #1104]. The case of GM Colmotores is especially striking because the company is owned by a US corporation which itself is partly owned by the US government. The US Treasury bought GM stock worth billions of dollars to bail the company out of bankruptcy in 2009. According to BusinessWeek, the US government remains GM’s largest shareholder, with 32% of the company’s stock. (AlterNet 8/13/12; Colombia Reports 8/15/12; BusinessWeek 8/9/12)
Colombian unionists are also asking for solidarity for two leaders in the National Union of Food Industry Workers (SINALTRAINAL) in Barrancabermeja in the northern department of Santander. Local president William Mendoza and Executive Board member Juan Carlos Galvis were accused in 2008 of placing a bomb in a Coca Cola plant 10 years earlier. The case is only being activated now, and the two leaders, who represent workers at the local Coca-Cola plant, believe that if they are convicted, they will be murdered in jail.
Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world for unionists, and rightwing paramilitaries have murdered or attempted to murder SINALTRAINAL members in the past. Mendoza and Galvis and their families have been targeted a number of times [see World War 4 Report 8/27/03 and 5/29/12]. “The judicial system in Colombia is now making its decisions based on politics, not the law,” Mendoza says. “We need you to send letters from members of Congress and from North American organizations protesting this prosecution against Juan Carlos Galvis and me.” Emails can be sent to Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (fsantos@presidencia.gov.co), Vice President Angelino Garzón (contactovicepresidencia@presidencia.gov.co) and the Attorney General’s Office (contacto@fiscalia.gov.co, denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co). (Portside 8/17/12 via Talking Union blog, where more information is available on the letters)
*4. Guatemala: Military Removes Squatters in Capital, Twice
After living on land in the center of Guatemala City since January, a group of about 100 impoverished families were forced to move at least twice during the week of Aug. 13 as the result of an eviction order obtained by the Defense Ministry, which claims the property. Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Erick Escobedo said the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction had mandated the eviction on the grounds that the land was unstable; the disaster agency didn’t return phone calls when the Associated Press wire service tried to confirm Escobedo’s statement.
The families had originally put up their houses near the La Asunción bridge in Zone 1, naming the settlement Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, after a president deposed in 1954 in a military coup largely engineered by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The military removed the families peacefully from that land on Aug. 14, but the squatters then settled on nearby land also claimed by the military. Security forces evicted the families from the new settlement on Aug. 15, this time violently. Following the second removal, the families set up shelters on in the nearby Gerona neighborhood on land which may belong to the government. As of Aug. 16 they hadn’t been removed from the new location.
“We don’t have anywhere to go, and the only response we’ve gotten from the government is repression,” Vilma Rodríguez, one of the group’s leaders, told reporters. “We don’t make enough to rent a room or buy some land.” “Let the government tell us where, and we’ll go,” she added. According to official figures, more than a million families now live in settlements known as “poverty belts” that surround the country’s main cities. In January the Congress approved a National Housing Law to provide decent residences for impoverished Guatemalans, but the government has yet to allocate the resources to implement the legislation. (EFE 8/16/12 via Siglo 21 (Guatemala); Associated Press 8/16/12 via Miami Herald; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 8/17/12)
*5. Dominican Republic: “Haitians” Arrested for Demonstrating
Police agents stopped a group of Dominican youths of Haitian descent from marching on Aug. 13 in Monte Plata, in the central province of the same name, to demand that the government respect their rights as citizens. The protesters, members of the youth movement Reconoci.do, were trying to march from the city’s central part to the local Civil Status office, the registry for identification documents.
According to the group’s spokesperson, Ana María Belique, the protesters applied for a permit from the Monte Plata government but were turned down on the grounds that they weren’t Dominicans and had no right to demonstrate. When they attempted to march without a permit, a police contingent commanded by a Col. Antígua dispersed them with tear gas, arresting eight protesters. Three of those arrested were beaten by an agent from the robbery unit identified only as “Papo,” who told them to hold their demonstrations in “their country.”
Until 2010 the Dominican Constitution recognized everyone born in the Dominican Republic as a citizen, but in practice Dominicans with Haitian parents were frequently denied citizenship rights. The government responded to an unfavorable 2005 ruling by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), by amending the Constitution in 2010 to limit citizenship to people with Dominican parents. Since then government officials have tried to apply the measure retroactively, with the Central Electoral Council (JCE) and its president, Roberto Rosario, preventing Dominicans of Haitian descent from obtaining birth certificates and other legal documents and leaving them in effect stateless [see Update #1109].
Reconoci.do members were able demonstrate without problems in other parts of the country on Aug. 12 and 13. In San Pedro de Macorís they marched from Duarte Park to the San Pedro Apóstol Cathedral, where Catholic bishop Francisco Ozoria called for the youths to be given their papers. In Pedernales Reconoci.do members met with officials and with civil society organizations; in El Seibo the group sponsored an artistic presentation. (El Masacre (Dajabón) 8/16/12; Otramérica website 8/5/12)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Guyana
Paraguay: Why the Canadian Government Supports the Ouster of Lugo
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/paraguay-archives-44/3814-paraguay-why-the-canadian-government-supports-the-ouster-of-lugo
Paraguay: Spanish Tycoon’s Role in Destruction of ‘Hiding Tribe’s’ Forest
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3811-paraguay-spanish-tycoons-role-in-destruction-of-hiding-tribes-forest
Brazilian appeals court suspends Belo Monte dam
http://ww4report.com/node/11386
Belo Monte Dam Suspended by Brazilian Appeals Court
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/brazil-archives-63/3813-belo-monte-dam-suspended-by-brazilian-appeals-court
Bolivia: judicial crisis over Amazon road project
http://ww4report.com/node/11388
Women In the Forefront of Bolivia’s TIPNIS Conflict
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/17/women-forefront-bolivia%E2%80%99s-tipnis-conflict
Peru: endgame in Cajamarca struggle?
http://ww4report.com/node/11387
Protests Could Derail Peru’s Giant Conga Mine
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7741
Peru: Shining Path control outlaw gold operations?
http://ww4report.com/node/11404
Peru: peasants protest Chinese mining project
http://ww4report.com/node/11405
Inter-American Court rules for Amazon people in Ecuador case
http://ww4report.com/node/11392
Ecuador indigenous movement on Assange asylum: "democracy begins at home"
http://ww4report.com/node/11409
Andean indigenous movements meet in Colombia
http://ww4report.com/node/11389
Colombia: war, illegal mining encroach on indigenous communities
http://ww4report.com/node/11390
Colombia: San José de Apartadó Peace Community under attack again
http://ww4report.com/node/11391
Indigenous Nasa Resists Militarization in Cauca, Colombia
http://ww4report.com/node/11396
Striking Rail Workers Affect Coal Production in Colombia
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/14/striking-rail-workers-affect-coal-production-colombia
Act Now! General Motors Workers on Hunger Strike in Colombia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3812-act-now-general-motors-workers-on-hunger-strike-in-colombia
Ex-President Uribe of Colombia Reveals He Wanted a Military Intervention in Venezuela
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7171
“Honey of the Revolution” – An Interview with Rosangela Orozco, Member of the Alexis Lives Foundation (Fundación Alexis Vive) in Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/3809-honey-of-the-revolution-an-interview-with-rosangela-orozco-member-of-the-alexis-lives-foundation-fundacion-alexis-vive
US State Department Blinks on Honduran Security
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3810-us-state-department-blinks-on-honduran-security-
Honduran Media Emphasize Role of DEA in Miskitu Killings
http://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/2012/08/ngo-report-implicates-dea-in-miskitu.html
How Walmart, Chiquita avoid labor oversight in Honduras
http://www.minnpost.com/global-post/2012/08/how-walmart-chiquita-avoid-labor-oversight-honduras
'Yo Soy 132' Mexican student movement looks to the future
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3818-mexican-student-movement-looks-to-the-future
Mexico: Concessions Continue in Wirikuta, Despite Government Ruse
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3817-mexico-concessions-continue-in-wirikuta-despite-government-ruse-
In Mexico, You Can’t Escape the Tri!
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/16/mexico-you-can%E2%80%99t-escape-tri
Join the U.S. Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity!
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7746
Police Killings Spark Crisis in Guyana
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/16/police-killings-spark-crisis-guyana
Obama, Upset by Latin America Criticism, Replaces an Advisor (US/policy)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7717
Fuerza!: The Fight Against SB 1070 and the Prison Industry in Arizona (US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/14/fuerza-fights-against-sb-1070-and-prison-industry-arizona
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.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #1141, August 19, 2012
1. Mexico: Now Wal-Mart Faces a Money Laundering Scandal
2. Chile: Students Reject Government's New Tax Law
3. Colombia: Fired GM Workers Go on Hunger Strike
4. Guatemala: Military Removes Squatters in Capital, Twice
5. Dominican Republic: “Haitians” Arrested for Demonstrating
6. Links to alternative sources on: Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Guyana
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. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
*1. Mexico: Now Wal-Mart Faces a Money Laundering Scandal
According to two members of the US Congress, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Henry Waxman (D-CA), there is evidence that the US-based retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., didn’t take legally required steps to prevent money laundering and tax evasion through its Mexican subsidiary, Wal-Mart de México. The allegation appears in an Aug. 14 letter the two legislators wrote to Wal-Mart Stores CEO Michael Duke complaining that the company has failed to cooperate with their investigation of a $24 million bribery scandal that emerged in April [see Update #1127 and World War 4 Report 8/12/12].
“[A]lthough you have stated on multiple occasions that you intend to cooperate with our investigation,” Cummings and Waxman wrote, “you have failed to provide the documents we requested, and you continue to deny us access to key witnesses.” Despite the lack of cooperation from Wal-Mart, the Congress members said they had “obtained internal company documents, including internal audit reports, from other sources suggesting that Wal-Mart may have had compliance issues relating not only to bribery, but also to ‘questionable financial behavior’ including tax evasion and money laundering in Mexico.” They added that their concerns about Wal-Mart’s practices weren’t limited to Mexico.
The letter gave no specifics about the compliance issues, but Wal-Mart de México operates a bank which accepts deposits and issues credit and debit cards. The subsidiary’s stocks fell by 5.95% on the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) on Aug. 15, the day Cummings and Waxman made their letter public.
This is the third time in one month that foreign corporations have been linked to the laundering of money from Mexico. In July a US Senate subcommittee reported on compliance violations by the London-based corporation HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, and in early August US media reported on an investigation of possible violations by rightwing US billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. casino company [see Updates #1137, 1140]. Mexican regulators fined HSBC $28 million in July for its failure to prevent money laundering through its Mexican subsidiary. (La Jornada (Mexico) 8/15/12 from correspondent, 8/16/12; Associated Press 8/15/12 via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Wal-Mart may benefit from having good connections across the political spectrum in Mexico. According to the Mexican-based Reporte Indigo website, a Wal-Mart de México vice president, Álvaro Arrigunaga Gómez del Campo, is a cousin of Margarita Zavala Gómez del Campo, the wife of Mexico’s current president, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, who is a leader of the center-right National Action Party (PAN). Another Wal-Mart vice president is Alberto Ebrard Casaubón, brother of Marcelo Ebrard, head of government of the Federal District (DF, Mexico City) and one of the most popular politicians in the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). A second brother, Eugenio Ebrard, worked for the firm from the 1990s until 2010. (Poder Ciudadano (Ciudad de Puebla) 4/25/12)
*2. Chile: Students Reject Government's New Tax Law
Chilean high school students occupied two important schools in Santiago on Aug. 13, after taking over at least eight public high schools the week before in a continuation of protests for educational reform that started more than a year ago [see Update #1140]. The students occupied the Barros Arana National Boarding School (INBA) and the prestigious High School of Implementation. They also tried to take over the José Miguel Carrera National Institute but gave up when police contingents arrived. Agents arrested 14 youths allegedly involved in the actions, which were supported by hundreds of students.
“We decided to give up on the takeover because of the police presence,” INBA student Diego Mellado said, “but if we have to go back to take over the school, we’re going to do it.” (La Jornada (Mexico) 8/14/12 from correspondent)
The student movement is demanding a reversal of the privatization of education that began during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Rightwing president Sebastián Piñera has responded to the students by proposing legislation that would raise corporate tax rates as part of a fiscal overhaul allowing the government to provide low-interest student loans [see Update #1127]. The Chamber of Deputies approved the measure during the second week of August with the support of some legislators from opposition parties, despite promises the parties’ leaders had made to students that they would vote against the bill. The bill still requires approval from the Senate. The student movement opposes Piñera’s “supposed education reform,” Federation of University of Chile Students (FECH) vice president Camila Vallejo wrote in an open letter to the senators, because “it simply maintains the commercial, privatizing and discriminatory logic of the current educational system.” (Prensa Latina 8/14/12 via Adital (Brazil))
Carabineros militarized police succeeded in ending three of the high school occupations on Aug. 16. Using tear gas and with the support of vehicles with water cannons, the agents stormed the Darío Salas, Miguel de Cervantes and Swiss Confederation schools. The Darío Salas occupiers left the building when the police arrived, but students in the other two schools resisted. Police arrested 132 people in the buildings and seven outside. Students reportedly occupied three other schools while the police operation was going on at Darío Salas, Miguel de Cervantes and Swiss Confederation. (EFE 8/16/12 via Fox News Latina; LJ 8/17/12 from correspondent)
*3. Colombia: Fired GM Workers Go on Hunger Strike
As of Aug. 15 a total of 13 former employees of GM Colmotores, the Colombian subsidiary of the Detroit-based General Motors Company (GM), were continuing a liquids-only hunger strike they began on Aug. 1 to demand reinstatement and compensation for injuries they say they received on the job. According to the protesters, the company fired them after they received disabling injuries at the Colmotores factory, which employs about 1,800 workers just outside Bogotá. The company denies the workers’ accusations.
A group of the laid-off workers formed the Association of Injured Workers and Ex-Workers of Colmotores (Asotrecol) last year and set up an encampment in front of the US embassy in Bogotá on Aug. 1, 2011 to push their demands. They decided to go on hunger strike after protesting for one year without results. Seven have sewn their mouths shut as part of the protest, and more plan to take this step in the future.
According to the US-based human rights organization Witness for Peace, US labor activists fasted on Aug. 15 in at least 20 states in solidarity with the Colombian hunger strikers; there was also a demonstration outside GM headquarters in Detroit.
In recent years the US government has pushed Colombia to improve its record on labor rights in order to win approval from the US Congress for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), but activists say violations have remained common since Congress ratified the FTA last October [see Update #1104]. The case of GM Colmotores is especially striking because the company is owned by a US corporation which itself is partly owned by the US government. The US Treasury bought GM stock worth billions of dollars to bail the company out of bankruptcy in 2009. According to BusinessWeek, the US government remains GM’s largest shareholder, with 32% of the company’s stock. (AlterNet 8/13/12; Colombia Reports 8/15/12; BusinessWeek 8/9/12)
Colombian unionists are also asking for solidarity for two leaders in the National Union of Food Industry Workers (SINALTRAINAL) in Barrancabermeja in the northern department of Santander. Local president William Mendoza and Executive Board member Juan Carlos Galvis were accused in 2008 of placing a bomb in a Coca Cola plant 10 years earlier. The case is only being activated now, and the two leaders, who represent workers at the local Coca-Cola plant, believe that if they are convicted, they will be murdered in jail.
Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world for unionists, and rightwing paramilitaries have murdered or attempted to murder SINALTRAINAL members in the past. Mendoza and Galvis and their families have been targeted a number of times [see World War 4 Report 8/27/03 and 5/29/12]. “The judicial system in Colombia is now making its decisions based on politics, not the law,” Mendoza says. “We need you to send letters from members of Congress and from North American organizations protesting this prosecution against Juan Carlos Galvis and me.” Emails can be sent to Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (fsantos@presidencia.gov.co), Vice President Angelino Garzón (contactovicepresidencia@presidencia.gov.co) and the Attorney General’s Office (contacto@fiscalia.gov.co, denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co). (Portside 8/17/12 via Talking Union blog, where more information is available on the letters)
*4. Guatemala: Military Removes Squatters in Capital, Twice
After living on land in the center of Guatemala City since January, a group of about 100 impoverished families were forced to move at least twice during the week of Aug. 13 as the result of an eviction order obtained by the Defense Ministry, which claims the property. Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Erick Escobedo said the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction had mandated the eviction on the grounds that the land was unstable; the disaster agency didn’t return phone calls when the Associated Press wire service tried to confirm Escobedo’s statement.
The families had originally put up their houses near the La Asunción bridge in Zone 1, naming the settlement Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, after a president deposed in 1954 in a military coup largely engineered by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The military removed the families peacefully from that land on Aug. 14, but the squatters then settled on nearby land also claimed by the military. Security forces evicted the families from the new settlement on Aug. 15, this time violently. Following the second removal, the families set up shelters on in the nearby Gerona neighborhood on land which may belong to the government. As of Aug. 16 they hadn’t been removed from the new location.
“We don’t have anywhere to go, and the only response we’ve gotten from the government is repression,” Vilma Rodríguez, one of the group’s leaders, told reporters. “We don’t make enough to rent a room or buy some land.” “Let the government tell us where, and we’ll go,” she added. According to official figures, more than a million families now live in settlements known as “poverty belts” that surround the country’s main cities. In January the Congress approved a National Housing Law to provide decent residences for impoverished Guatemalans, but the government has yet to allocate the resources to implement the legislation. (EFE 8/16/12 via Siglo 21 (Guatemala); Associated Press 8/16/12 via Miami Herald; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 8/17/12)
*5. Dominican Republic: “Haitians” Arrested for Demonstrating
Police agents stopped a group of Dominican youths of Haitian descent from marching on Aug. 13 in Monte Plata, in the central province of the same name, to demand that the government respect their rights as citizens. The protesters, members of the youth movement Reconoci.do, were trying to march from the city’s central part to the local Civil Status office, the registry for identification documents.
According to the group’s spokesperson, Ana María Belique, the protesters applied for a permit from the Monte Plata government but were turned down on the grounds that they weren’t Dominicans and had no right to demonstrate. When they attempted to march without a permit, a police contingent commanded by a Col. Antígua dispersed them with tear gas, arresting eight protesters. Three of those arrested were beaten by an agent from the robbery unit identified only as “Papo,” who told them to hold their demonstrations in “their country.”
Until 2010 the Dominican Constitution recognized everyone born in the Dominican Republic as a citizen, but in practice Dominicans with Haitian parents were frequently denied citizenship rights. The government responded to an unfavorable 2005 ruling by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), by amending the Constitution in 2010 to limit citizenship to people with Dominican parents. Since then government officials have tried to apply the measure retroactively, with the Central Electoral Council (JCE) and its president, Roberto Rosario, preventing Dominicans of Haitian descent from obtaining birth certificates and other legal documents and leaving them in effect stateless [see Update #1109].
Reconoci.do members were able demonstrate without problems in other parts of the country on Aug. 12 and 13. In San Pedro de Macorís they marched from Duarte Park to the San Pedro Apóstol Cathedral, where Catholic bishop Francisco Ozoria called for the youths to be given their papers. In Pedernales Reconoci.do members met with officials and with civil society organizations; in El Seibo the group sponsored an artistic presentation. (El Masacre (Dajabón) 8/16/12; Otramérica website 8/5/12)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Guyana
Paraguay: Why the Canadian Government Supports the Ouster of Lugo
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/paraguay-archives-44/3814-paraguay-why-the-canadian-government-supports-the-ouster-of-lugo
Paraguay: Spanish Tycoon’s Role in Destruction of ‘Hiding Tribe’s’ Forest
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3811-paraguay-spanish-tycoons-role-in-destruction-of-hiding-tribes-forest
Brazilian appeals court suspends Belo Monte dam
http://ww4report.com/node/11386
Belo Monte Dam Suspended by Brazilian Appeals Court
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/brazil-archives-63/3813-belo-monte-dam-suspended-by-brazilian-appeals-court
Bolivia: judicial crisis over Amazon road project
http://ww4report.com/node/11388
Women In the Forefront of Bolivia’s TIPNIS Conflict
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/17/women-forefront-bolivia%E2%80%99s-tipnis-conflict
Peru: endgame in Cajamarca struggle?
http://ww4report.com/node/11387
Protests Could Derail Peru’s Giant Conga Mine
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7741
Peru: Shining Path control outlaw gold operations?
http://ww4report.com/node/11404
Peru: peasants protest Chinese mining project
http://ww4report.com/node/11405
Inter-American Court rules for Amazon people in Ecuador case
http://ww4report.com/node/11392
Ecuador indigenous movement on Assange asylum: "democracy begins at home"
http://ww4report.com/node/11409
Andean indigenous movements meet in Colombia
http://ww4report.com/node/11389
Colombia: war, illegal mining encroach on indigenous communities
http://ww4report.com/node/11390
Colombia: San José de Apartadó Peace Community under attack again
http://ww4report.com/node/11391
Indigenous Nasa Resists Militarization in Cauca, Colombia
http://ww4report.com/node/11396
Striking Rail Workers Affect Coal Production in Colombia
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/14/striking-rail-workers-affect-coal-production-colombia
Act Now! General Motors Workers on Hunger Strike in Colombia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3812-act-now-general-motors-workers-on-hunger-strike-in-colombia
Ex-President Uribe of Colombia Reveals He Wanted a Military Intervention in Venezuela
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7171
“Honey of the Revolution” – An Interview with Rosangela Orozco, Member of the Alexis Lives Foundation (Fundación Alexis Vive) in Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/3809-honey-of-the-revolution-an-interview-with-rosangela-orozco-member-of-the-alexis-lives-foundation-fundacion-alexis-vive
US State Department Blinks on Honduran Security
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3810-us-state-department-blinks-on-honduran-security-
Honduran Media Emphasize Role of DEA in Miskitu Killings
http://hondurasculturepolitics.blogspot.com/2012/08/ngo-report-implicates-dea-in-miskitu.html
How Walmart, Chiquita avoid labor oversight in Honduras
http://www.minnpost.com/global-post/2012/08/how-walmart-chiquita-avoid-labor-oversight-honduras
'Yo Soy 132' Mexican student movement looks to the future
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3818-mexican-student-movement-looks-to-the-future
Mexico: Concessions Continue in Wirikuta, Despite Government Ruse
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3817-mexico-concessions-continue-in-wirikuta-despite-government-ruse-
In Mexico, You Can’t Escape the Tri!
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/16/mexico-you-can%E2%80%99t-escape-tri
Join the U.S. Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity!
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7746
Police Killings Spark Crisis in Guyana
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/16/police-killings-spark-crisis-guyana
Obama, Upset by Latin America Criticism, Replaces an Advisor (US/policy)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7717
Fuerza!: The Fight Against SB 1070 and the Prison Industry in Arizona (US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/14/fuerza-fights-against-sb-1070-and-prison-industry-arizona
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.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Monday, August 13, 2012
WNU #1140: New Puerto Rican Law to “Intimidate” Activists
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1140, August 12, 2012
1. Puerto Rico: New Law to "Intimidate" Unions and Students
2. Chile: High Students Occupy Schools to Demand Reform
3. Dominican Republic: Residents Protest New Barrick Gold Mine
4. Mexico: Did Romney Donor’s Casino Launder Drug Money?
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Mercosur, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
*1. Puerto Rico: New Law to "Intimidate" Unions and Students
On July 30 Puerto Rican governor Luis Fortuño signed into law a new Penal Code that he and legislators said would counter a recent rise in crime [see Update #1111] by imposing much stiffer prison sentences for a wide range of crimes. The new law, which replaces the Penal Code of 2004, also defines the seduction of minors through the internet as a criminal offense and gives the government the power to fire any public employee who commits a crime while carrying out a public function. “We’re not going to let the criminals take over Puerto Rico,” Fortuño said at the signing ceremony.
Fortuño insisted that the new code wouldn’t limit rights of free expression. But Puerto Rican legal experts noted that the revisions dramatically increased penalties for civil disobedience. For example, participating in a protest on the steps of the Capitol building that impedes the work of Puerto Rico’s legislature—like one carried out by students in June 2010 [see Updates #1039, 1100]--could now be punished with three years in prison, while in the 2004 Penal Code the penalty only applied if legislative work was interrupted through “intimidation, violence or fraud,” language which was removed in the new law.
Attorney César Rosado, a human and civil rights specialist who represents several unions, told the Puerto Rican daily El Nuevo Día that the new law “tries to intimidate the unions and other pressure groups—like the student movement—which historically have distinguished themselves by presenting resistance to any measure they consider unjust. Establishing a three-year sentence is a big deterrent for protest.” Activists have frequently used nonviolent civil disobedience as a form of protest in Puerto Rico, most famously in the mass arrests that led to the removal of the US Navy proving grounds from the small island of Vieques in 2003. “In democracy it’s important to allow activism,” constitutional law professor Hiram Meléndez Juarbe told the newspaper, “even if at times it’s inconvenient for the government.” (END 7/30/12, 7/31/12)
In the US the maximum penalty for interrupting a session of Congress is six months in prison and/or a $500 fine. El Nuevo Día noted that the punishment for six Puerto Rican independence activists who interrupted Congress by singing patriotic hymns on May 6, 2009, was a fine. (END 7/31/12)
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on Aug. 7 challenging the new law. The challenge was presented as an amendment to a complaint the ACLU filed against the Puerto Rico Police Department on June 27 alleging that the department violated the rights of protesters [see World War 4 Report 6/28/12]. (Jurist 8/8/12)
*2. Chile: High Students Occupy Schools to Demand Reform
Students had occupied several of the public high schools in Santiago by the morning of Aug. 10 in the latest protest against the privatization of Chile’s educational system that started under the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Chilean high school and university students launched a militant movement in the spring of 2011 to demand free, high-quality public education; current demands also include rejection of the so-called “Hinzpeter Law,” legislation proposed by rightwing president Sebastián Piñera last year to impose severe penalties on people who occupy schools or public or private buildings, or who cause damage in protests. Student actions included some 40 marches in 2011 and five so far this year [see Updates #1130, 1135].
Radio Bío Bío reported on Aug. 10 that Special Forces from the carabineros militarized police used tear gas to remove some 30 students who had been occupying the Santiago Superior Institute of Commerce. The students responded with “rocks, paint and eggs,” according to the radio station, and then “fled and took refuge in the Darío Salas High School,” which remained occupied.
Two days earlier, on Aug. 8, marches sponsored by the Secondary Students Coordinating Assembly (ACES), with support from university student federations, ended violently. Santiago authorities refused the high school students permission to march in the central Alameda (Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins Avenue). When the crowd of 5,000-10,000 protesters tried to use the avenue, they were attacked with tear gas, a water cannon and mounted police. The youths threw rocks at police agents and built barricades; acts of vandalism included the burning of three buses. Some 75 protesters were arrested and 49 agents were reportedly injured. A demonstration in the seaside resort city of Viña del Mar ended with 11 people arrested and a pharmacy and supermarket destroyed. There were also marches in La Serena and Valdivia.
The student demonstrations have regularly ended with vandalism by hooded youths, and student organizers have sometimes suggested that infiltrators were behind the violence. After the Aug. 8 march ACES spokesperson Eloísa González said it was “quite suspicious” that with such a large police deployment it wasn’t possible to prevent the isolated activity of the people involved in setting vehicles on fire. Senator Guido Girardi, from the social democratic Party for Democracy (PPD), said there should be an investigation of why each demonstration involved people who “have the same interest as the government, that violence should be what occupies the pages [of the newspapers] and not the fundamental issue.” (La Jornada (Mexico) 8/9/12 from correspondent; EFE 8/9/12 via Latin American Herald Tribune; Prensa Latina 8/10/12)
*3. Dominican Republic: Residents Protest New Barrick Gold Mine
Residents of the area around the city of Cotuí, the capital of the Dominican Republic’s central province of Sánchez Ramírez, held a protest against the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation on Aug. 8, charging that the company’s giant Pueblo Viejo gold mine was contaminating drinking water and affecting residents’ health and their crops. The residents also complained that the company’s trucks had been causing accidents. The Pueblo Viejo, constructed on the site of a state-owned mine shut down in 1999, is scheduled to open this month [see Update #1139].
Barrick Gold is the largest open-pit gold mining company in the world; it maintains 27 mines, in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Tanzania and the US. (Adital (Brazil) 8/8/12 from TeleSUR; Prensa Latina 8/8/12)
The company has had two setbacks recently at its massive Pascua Lama mine in the Andes on the border between Argentina and Chile: dramatic cost overruns and an adverse decision from Argentina’s Supreme Court of Justice [see Update #1138]. Former Barrick CEO Aaron Regent was fired at the beginning of July; his replacement, Jamie Sokalsky, is the company’s third CEO in less than four years.
Barrick’s problems are not unique. The gold mining industry has been expanding rapidly as the price of gold jumped to five times what it was 11 years ago—and protests about environmental damage have increased in parallel with the increase in mining. But gold’s price has only gone up 3.1% so far this year, and the New York Stock Exchange’s index of 16 gold-mining companies has fallen 17%, suggesting that the period of rapid expansion may be over. (BusinessWeek 7/27/12; Bloomberg News 8/7/12)
*4. Mexico: Did Romney Donor’s Casino Launder Drug Money?
According to an Aug. 4 report in the Wall Street Journal, the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles is investigating possible money laundering by Chinese-Mexican pharmaceutical entrepreneur Zhenli Ye Gon in the middle 2000s through the Las Vegas Sands Corp. casino company. The company, whose CEO and largest shareholder is US billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a major donor to the Republican Party, reportedly failed to tell the authorities about suspicious money transfers by Ye Gon until the publication of a newspaper article about him in 2007. Adelson himself is apparently not being investigated at this point.
Ye Gon is in US custody awaiting extradition to Mexico on drug charges. He is accused of importing chemicals used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, and there are suspicions that he is connected with the Sinaloa drug cartel. In March 2007 police raided his Mexico City home and found almost $207 million in cash; the authorities described the raid as “the largest single drug cash seizure the world has ever seen.” Ye Gon reportedly transferred millions of dollars through Sands and was such a good customer at the company’s Venetian casino that he was given a Rolls Royce. He also transferred some $90 million through the Mexican subsidiary of the London-based corporation HSBC during the same period [see Update #1137].
Adelson was a major donor to former US House speaker Newt Gingrich’s campaign to be the Republicans’ 2012 presidential candidate. When Gingrich dropped out of the race, the casino magnate switched to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who is now considered certain to win the Republican nomination. Adelson plans to donate $100 million to this fall’s Republican campaigns. He is also a strong supporter of rightwing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he was in Jerusalem in July when Romney and Netanyahu held a meeting there. (Reuters 8/4/12; Business Insider 8/7/12)
Adelson was having public relations problems even before the Ye Gon allegations appeared in the media. On Aug. 8 he filed a $60 million defamation suit against the Washington, DC-based National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC). The group had quoted news reports carrying allegations by former Adelson employee Steven Jacobs that Adelson had approved of prostitution at his businesses in Macau, China.
“Referencing mainstream press accounts examining the conduct of a public figure and his business ventures--as we did--is wholly appropriate,” the NJDC said in response. “We know that we were well within our rights, and we will defend ourselves against this SLAPP [strategic lawsuit against public participation] suit as far and as long as necessary. We simply will not be bullied, and we will not be silenced.” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency 8/8/12; The Jewish Week 8/9/12 from JTA)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Mercosur, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti
Americas: Governments Prioritize Profit over Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3807-americas-governments-prioritize-profit-over-indigenous-peoples-rights
From the Green Economy to Communality (South America)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7690
Geopolitical Tsunami in the Southern Cone
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7698
The New York Times Publishes Misplaced Concerns Over Mercosur
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/6/new-york-times-publishes-misplaced-concerns-over-mercosur
Stolen As Infant, Argentine Man Reunites With Biological Family
http://latindispatch.com/2012/08/10/stolen-as-infant-argentine-man-reunites-with-biological-family/
In the Shadow of the Coup: Social Movements for Democracy Mobilize in Paraguay
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/paraguay-archives-44/3801-in-the-shadow-of-the-coup-social-movements-for-democracy-mobilize-in-paraguay
Brazil mobilizes troops to southern borders in anti-narco drive
http://ww4report.com/node/11353
Bolivia: TIPNIS Communities Divided As Road Consultation Begins
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/5/bolivia-tipnis-communities-divided-road-consultation-begins
Peru: Cajamarca dialogue nears collapse
http://ww4report.com/node/11355
Peru: state of emergency extended in VRAE
http://ww4report.com/node/11358
Peru: more protests over mining, water
http://ww4report.com/node/11359
Ecuador to export via north Peru pipeline
http://ww4report.com/node/11354
Colombia: blows against narco-para network?
http://ww4report.com/node/11351
Colombia: UN calls for dialogue with indigenous movement
http://ww4report.com/node/11352
Colombia: Minga of Resistance Launched against Quimbo Dam and Other Resource Extraction Projects
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/3797-colombia-minga-of-resistance-commences-aminga-of-resistance-launched-against-quimbo-dam-and-other-resource-extraction-projects-
Former GM Workers' Hunger Strike Grows in Colombia
http://nacla.org/news/2012/8/10/former-gm-workers-hunger-strike-grows-colombia
Venezuela with Two Months to Go till the Presidential Elections
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7161
Honduran President Puts “Tigers” Police Force on the Stree
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3802-honduran-president-puts-tigers-police-force-on-the-streets
Photo Essay: The "Caravan for Land and Territory" in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3798-photo-essay-the-qcaravan-for-land-and-territoryq-in-mexico
Mexican Communities Fight Mini-Dams
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3800-mexican-communities-fight-mini-dams
The Wal-Mart Corruption Case: Innocents Abroad? (Mexico)
http://ww4report.com/node/11369
Mexican Mobility and Canada: Hardening Boundaries and Growing Resistance
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/8/mexican-mobility-and-canada-hardening-boundaries-and-growing-resistance
Mexico’s Peace Movement Heads to the US
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3806-mexicos-peace-movement-heads-to-the-us
The Mexican Diaspora Rises
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august062012/mexican-diaspora.php
Cholera Continues to Spread as Response and Surveillance Weaken (Haiti)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/
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.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
==> Be sure to check out World War 4 Report’s new and much improved format:
http://ww4report.com/node/
Issue #1140, August 12, 2012
1. Puerto Rico: New Law to "Intimidate" Unions and Students
2. Chile: High Students Occupy Schools to Demand Reform
3. Dominican Republic: Residents Protest New Barrick Gold Mine
4. Mexico: Did Romney Donor’s Casino Launder Drug Money?
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Mercosur, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
*1. Puerto Rico: New Law to "Intimidate" Unions and Students
On July 30 Puerto Rican governor Luis Fortuño signed into law a new Penal Code that he and legislators said would counter a recent rise in crime [see Update #1111] by imposing much stiffer prison sentences for a wide range of crimes. The new law, which replaces the Penal Code of 2004, also defines the seduction of minors through the internet as a criminal offense and gives the government the power to fire any public employee who commits a crime while carrying out a public function. “We’re not going to let the criminals take over Puerto Rico,” Fortuño said at the signing ceremony.
Fortuño insisted that the new code wouldn’t limit rights of free expression. But Puerto Rican legal experts noted that the revisions dramatically increased penalties for civil disobedience. For example, participating in a protest on the steps of the Capitol building that impedes the work of Puerto Rico’s legislature—like one carried out by students in June 2010 [see Updates #1039, 1100]--could now be punished with three years in prison, while in the 2004 Penal Code the penalty only applied if legislative work was interrupted through “intimidation, violence or fraud,” language which was removed in the new law.
Attorney César Rosado, a human and civil rights specialist who represents several unions, told the Puerto Rican daily El Nuevo Día that the new law “tries to intimidate the unions and other pressure groups—like the student movement—which historically have distinguished themselves by presenting resistance to any measure they consider unjust. Establishing a three-year sentence is a big deterrent for protest.” Activists have frequently used nonviolent civil disobedience as a form of protest in Puerto Rico, most famously in the mass arrests that led to the removal of the US Navy proving grounds from the small island of Vieques in 2003. “In democracy it’s important to allow activism,” constitutional law professor Hiram Meléndez Juarbe told the newspaper, “even if at times it’s inconvenient for the government.” (END 7/30/12, 7/31/12)
In the US the maximum penalty for interrupting a session of Congress is six months in prison and/or a $500 fine. El Nuevo Día noted that the punishment for six Puerto Rican independence activists who interrupted Congress by singing patriotic hymns on May 6, 2009, was a fine. (END 7/31/12)
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on Aug. 7 challenging the new law. The challenge was presented as an amendment to a complaint the ACLU filed against the Puerto Rico Police Department on June 27 alleging that the department violated the rights of protesters [see World War 4 Report 6/28/12]. (Jurist 8/8/12)
*2. Chile: High Students Occupy Schools to Demand Reform
Students had occupied several of the public high schools in Santiago by the morning of Aug. 10 in the latest protest against the privatization of Chile’s educational system that started under the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Chilean high school and university students launched a militant movement in the spring of 2011 to demand free, high-quality public education; current demands also include rejection of the so-called “Hinzpeter Law,” legislation proposed by rightwing president Sebastián Piñera last year to impose severe penalties on people who occupy schools or public or private buildings, or who cause damage in protests. Student actions included some 40 marches in 2011 and five so far this year [see Updates #1130, 1135].
Radio Bío Bío reported on Aug. 10 that Special Forces from the carabineros militarized police used tear gas to remove some 30 students who had been occupying the Santiago Superior Institute of Commerce. The students responded with “rocks, paint and eggs,” according to the radio station, and then “fled and took refuge in the Darío Salas High School,” which remained occupied.
Two days earlier, on Aug. 8, marches sponsored by the Secondary Students Coordinating Assembly (ACES), with support from university student federations, ended violently. Santiago authorities refused the high school students permission to march in the central Alameda (Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins Avenue). When the crowd of 5,000-10,000 protesters tried to use the avenue, they were attacked with tear gas, a water cannon and mounted police. The youths threw rocks at police agents and built barricades; acts of vandalism included the burning of three buses. Some 75 protesters were arrested and 49 agents were reportedly injured. A demonstration in the seaside resort city of Viña del Mar ended with 11 people arrested and a pharmacy and supermarket destroyed. There were also marches in La Serena and Valdivia.
The student demonstrations have regularly ended with vandalism by hooded youths, and student organizers have sometimes suggested that infiltrators were behind the violence. After the Aug. 8 march ACES spokesperson Eloísa González said it was “quite suspicious” that with such a large police deployment it wasn’t possible to prevent the isolated activity of the people involved in setting vehicles on fire. Senator Guido Girardi, from the social democratic Party for Democracy (PPD), said there should be an investigation of why each demonstration involved people who “have the same interest as the government, that violence should be what occupies the pages [of the newspapers] and not the fundamental issue.” (La Jornada (Mexico) 8/9/12 from correspondent; EFE 8/9/12 via Latin American Herald Tribune; Prensa Latina 8/10/12)
*3. Dominican Republic: Residents Protest New Barrick Gold Mine
Residents of the area around the city of Cotuí, the capital of the Dominican Republic’s central province of Sánchez Ramírez, held a protest against the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation on Aug. 8, charging that the company’s giant Pueblo Viejo gold mine was contaminating drinking water and affecting residents’ health and their crops. The residents also complained that the company’s trucks had been causing accidents. The Pueblo Viejo, constructed on the site of a state-owned mine shut down in 1999, is scheduled to open this month [see Update #1139].
Barrick Gold is the largest open-pit gold mining company in the world; it maintains 27 mines, in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Tanzania and the US. (Adital (Brazil) 8/8/12 from TeleSUR; Prensa Latina 8/8/12)
The company has had two setbacks recently at its massive Pascua Lama mine in the Andes on the border between Argentina and Chile: dramatic cost overruns and an adverse decision from Argentina’s Supreme Court of Justice [see Update #1138]. Former Barrick CEO Aaron Regent was fired at the beginning of July; his replacement, Jamie Sokalsky, is the company’s third CEO in less than four years.
Barrick’s problems are not unique. The gold mining industry has been expanding rapidly as the price of gold jumped to five times what it was 11 years ago—and protests about environmental damage have increased in parallel with the increase in mining. But gold’s price has only gone up 3.1% so far this year, and the New York Stock Exchange’s index of 16 gold-mining companies has fallen 17%, suggesting that the period of rapid expansion may be over. (BusinessWeek 7/27/12; Bloomberg News 8/7/12)
*4. Mexico: Did Romney Donor’s Casino Launder Drug Money?
According to an Aug. 4 report in the Wall Street Journal, the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles is investigating possible money laundering by Chinese-Mexican pharmaceutical entrepreneur Zhenli Ye Gon in the middle 2000s through the Las Vegas Sands Corp. casino company. The company, whose CEO and largest shareholder is US billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a major donor to the Republican Party, reportedly failed to tell the authorities about suspicious money transfers by Ye Gon until the publication of a newspaper article about him in 2007. Adelson himself is apparently not being investigated at this point.
Ye Gon is in US custody awaiting extradition to Mexico on drug charges. He is accused of importing chemicals used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, and there are suspicions that he is connected with the Sinaloa drug cartel. In March 2007 police raided his Mexico City home and found almost $207 million in cash; the authorities described the raid as “the largest single drug cash seizure the world has ever seen.” Ye Gon reportedly transferred millions of dollars through Sands and was such a good customer at the company’s Venetian casino that he was given a Rolls Royce. He also transferred some $90 million through the Mexican subsidiary of the London-based corporation HSBC during the same period [see Update #1137].
Adelson was a major donor to former US House speaker Newt Gingrich’s campaign to be the Republicans’ 2012 presidential candidate. When Gingrich dropped out of the race, the casino magnate switched to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who is now considered certain to win the Republican nomination. Adelson plans to donate $100 million to this fall’s Republican campaigns. He is also a strong supporter of rightwing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he was in Jerusalem in July when Romney and Netanyahu held a meeting there. (Reuters 8/4/12; Business Insider 8/7/12)
Adelson was having public relations problems even before the Ye Gon allegations appeared in the media. On Aug. 8 he filed a $60 million defamation suit against the Washington, DC-based National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC). The group had quoted news reports carrying allegations by former Adelson employee Steven Jacobs that Adelson had approved of prostitution at his businesses in Macau, China.
“Referencing mainstream press accounts examining the conduct of a public figure and his business ventures--as we did--is wholly appropriate,” the NJDC said in response. “We know that we were well within our rights, and we will defend ourselves against this SLAPP [strategic lawsuit against public participation] suit as far and as long as necessary. We simply will not be bullied, and we will not be silenced.” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency 8/8/12; The Jewish Week 8/9/12 from JTA)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Mercosur, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti
Americas: Governments Prioritize Profit over Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3807-americas-governments-prioritize-profit-over-indigenous-peoples-rights
From the Green Economy to Communality (South America)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7690
Geopolitical Tsunami in the Southern Cone
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7698
The New York Times Publishes Misplaced Concerns Over Mercosur
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/6/new-york-times-publishes-misplaced-concerns-over-mercosur
Stolen As Infant, Argentine Man Reunites With Biological Family
http://latindispatch.com/2012/08/10/stolen-as-infant-argentine-man-reunites-with-biological-family/
In the Shadow of the Coup: Social Movements for Democracy Mobilize in Paraguay
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/paraguay-archives-44/3801-in-the-shadow-of-the-coup-social-movements-for-democracy-mobilize-in-paraguay
Brazil mobilizes troops to southern borders in anti-narco drive
http://ww4report.com/node/11353
Bolivia: TIPNIS Communities Divided As Road Consultation Begins
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/5/bolivia-tipnis-communities-divided-road-consultation-begins
Peru: Cajamarca dialogue nears collapse
http://ww4report.com/node/11355
Peru: state of emergency extended in VRAE
http://ww4report.com/node/11358
Peru: more protests over mining, water
http://ww4report.com/node/11359
Ecuador to export via north Peru pipeline
http://ww4report.com/node/11354
Colombia: blows against narco-para network?
http://ww4report.com/node/11351
Colombia: UN calls for dialogue with indigenous movement
http://ww4report.com/node/11352
Colombia: Minga of Resistance Launched against Quimbo Dam and Other Resource Extraction Projects
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/3797-colombia-minga-of-resistance-commences-aminga-of-resistance-launched-against-quimbo-dam-and-other-resource-extraction-projects-
Former GM Workers' Hunger Strike Grows in Colombia
http://nacla.org/news/2012/8/10/former-gm-workers-hunger-strike-grows-colombia
Venezuela with Two Months to Go till the Presidential Elections
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7161
Honduran President Puts “Tigers” Police Force on the Stree
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3802-honduran-president-puts-tigers-police-force-on-the-streets
Photo Essay: The "Caravan for Land and Territory" in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3798-photo-essay-the-qcaravan-for-land-and-territoryq-in-mexico
Mexican Communities Fight Mini-Dams
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3800-mexican-communities-fight-mini-dams
The Wal-Mart Corruption Case: Innocents Abroad? (Mexico)
http://ww4report.com/node/11369
Mexican Mobility and Canada: Hardening Boundaries and Growing Resistance
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/8/8/mexican-mobility-and-canada-hardening-boundaries-and-growing-resistance
Mexico’s Peace Movement Heads to the US
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3806-mexicos-peace-movement-heads-to-the-us
The Mexican Diaspora Rises
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august062012/mexican-diaspora.php
Cholera Continues to Spread as Response and Surveillance Weaken (Haiti)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/
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.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
==> Be sure to check out World War 4 Report’s new and much improved format:
http://ww4report.com/node/
Monday, August 6, 2012
WNU #1139: Chilean Mine Workers Occupy Church in Protest
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1139, August 5, 2012
1. Chile: Pascua Lama Workers Occupy Church in Protest
2. Dominican Republic: Barrick Set to Open Giant Gold Mine
3. Mexico: Six Killed in Latest Mining Disaster
4. Guatemala: Students Resist Teacher Education “Reform”
5. Honduras: Students Demand Transportation Subsidy
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras,Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, US/media
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. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
*1. Chile: Pascua Lama Workers Occupy Church in Protest
A group of 23 contract workers occupied the San Ambrosio Church in Vallenar, capital of the northern Chilean province of Huasco, on the morning of Aug. 4 to protest labor conditions at Pascua Lama, an open-pit gold, silver and copper mine being built in the Andes at the border between Argentina and Chile. Eight of the protesters took over the bell tower, where they shouted and banged on the metal structure to draw attention to their complaints against the mine’s operator, the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation.
The main motive for the protest, according to Ricardo Véliz, regional coordinator of the National Mining Union ((Sinami), which represents the contract workers, “is to let the community know…about the bad living conditions which the workers who provide their services in Pascua Lama are experiencing.” Several workers had to transferred out on an emergency basis because they had symptoms of hypothermia, Véliz said. The mine is at an altitude of some 4,500 meters above sea level, and temperatures go down to –20º C (-4º F). Rafael Castillo, the vice president of a workers’ group, told Radio Bío Bío that workers die every year for lack of medical attention at the site. The protesters said they wouldn’t leave the church until the authorities listened to their complaints. (Radio Universidad de Chile 8/4/12; lainformacion.com 8/4/12)
The $8 billion Pascua Lama project, which is expected to be one of the world’s largest gold mines when it opens in 2014, has sparked protests by environmentalists and others in both Chile and Argentina. On July 26 the company acknowledged that technical and other problems were delaying the mine’s opening [see Update #1138].
*2. Dominican Republic: Barrick Set to Open Giant Gold Mine
The Pueblo Viejo gold mine in Cotuí in the Dominican Republic’s central province of Sánchez Ramírez is starting operations this August, Jamie Sokalsky, CEO of the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation, told investors on July 26. The new mine, on a site abandoned by the state enterprise Rosario Dominicana in 1999, will produce up to 125,000 ounces of gold this year and reach full capacity during 2013, Sokalsky said. The project, a joint venture with the Vancouver-based multinational Goldcorp Inc., has cost about $3.8 billion so far; this is said to be the largest private investment ever made in the Dominican Republic. (AP 7/26/12 via NBC 29 (Charlottesville, Virginia))
The project has stirred up protests in the past, because of what activists said were irregularities in the government’s contract with the Canadian companies, and because of potential damage to the environment and to archeological sites [see Update #1027]. Barrick plans to use 24 tons of cyanide a day, Virginia Rodríguez, a coordinator for the local nongovernmental organization SalvaTierra (“Save the Earth”), told the Associated Press wire service. “There is a very high risk, especially with an island like ours with a very fragile ecosystem,” she said. The mine is located in a mountainous region, the source of some of the country's most important rivers.
Barrick Gold has been working to counter these complaints. The old Pueblo Viejo mine caused extensive environmental damage, but Barrick insists that this was the fault of Rosario Dominicana. The Canadian company says it will protect the environment by applying “the industry’s highest international standards to bring about an operation based on responsible mining.” Even the damage from the old mine has mostly been eliminated by natural processes, according to Carlos Tamayo, a Mexican national who directs Barrick’s local environmental department. “[T]ime has been the best ally for improving the situation,” he told the Dominican daily Hoy. “The environment is very wise. It’s like when someone’s sick, and the body often creates its own self-defense mechanisms to be able to cure itself naturally.” (AP 7/5/12 via Tampa Bay (Florida) Times; Hoy Digital 7/18/12)
*3. Mexico: Six Killed in Latest Mining Disaster
Six Mexican coal miners were killed on Aug. 3 when some 100 tons of coal and rock collapsed in a mine operated by Altos Hornos de México S.A. de C.V. (AHMSA) in Barroterán community, Progreso municipality, in the northern state of Coahuila. One miner was trapped but survived with minor injuries; he was rescued about an hour after the collapse. The other 287 workers in the mine escaped without injuries. Some workers thought a methane explosion caused the accident, but management attributed it to “a pocket of methane gas,” not an explosion.
The latest disaster came just nine days after seven workers were killed, all members of the same family, in a methane explosion on July 25 in Múzquiz, Coahuila, 40 km from the AHMSA mine. In a press conference on Aug. 3, Coahuila governor Rubén Moreira Valdez discounted the possibility of suspending mining operations in the state, saying that Coahuila’s mining industry directly generates more than 20,000 jobs and produces 8 to 11% of Mexico’s electric power. Instead, he called for finding a way to locate and remove methane gas from the mines.
On Aug. 4 several labor rights organizations issued a communiqué demanding that coal mine operators “invest in the application of existing technology to guarantee miners’ lives.” The groups—which included the Pasta de Conchos Family, an organization of relatives of 65 coal miners killed in a methane explosion in Coahuila in February 2006 [see Update #1037]--said it was “not acceptable, in any manner or by any argument, that this investment be conditioned on the gaining of profits.”
Eleven miners were killed in a methane explosion in a Coahuila mine in May of 2011, according to labor rights groups, and a total of 30 miners died in accidents in the state that year. The groups say the majority of the state’s miners are paid from 70 a 150 pesos (about US$ 5.39-11.44) a day. (BBC News 8/3/12; La Jornada (Mexico) 8/4/12; AFP 8/4/12 via Terra.com)
*4. Guatemala: Students Resist Teacher Education “Reform”
An agent of Guatemala’s National Civilian Police and two students were injured in a confrontation July 30 between riot police and students outside the Teachers School for Men in the south of Guatemala City; three students and a teacher were arrested for alleged attacks on security forces. The clash came after hundreds of students occupied eight schools, one in the capital and seven in other parts of the country, to protest proposed changes in the national teacher certification program. Security forces prevented the takeover of two other schools.
Students also reportedly blocked various highways in the northern and northeastern parts of the country, but apparently without any confrontations with the police. (EFE 7/30/12 via La Raza (Chicago))
The students were protesting plans by the government of rightwing president Otto Pérez Molina to expand the certification program for primary school teachers from three to five years and to require a university degree. The students argue that the teaching program is one of the few educational programs open to indigenous youth and other impoverished Guatemalans, and many of these students will be unable to afford two extra years of study and a university degree unless they receive a subsidy. Currently only 2% of the population have university degrees, and only 20% of the high school-age population attends high school. As in many other Latin American countries, the students suspect that the educational “reforms” are meant to open the way to privatization of public education [see Update #1105].
The students carried out similar occupations at the end of June and the beginning of July; these also ended in clashes with the police. In the following weeks, after mediation by legislators from Congress, the Education Ministry held meetings with various groups of students, teachers, parents, academics and specialists and heard 83 proposals. But the students remained opposed to the government’s plan. On July 26 they held a peaceful march in the capital from the Central America Teachers Institute (Inca) to the Education Ministry to demonstrate their continued opposition to the proposal and to the measures taken against students and teachers involved in the earlier protests. (Upside Down World 7/5/12; Americas Quarterly 7/7/12; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 7/26/12; EFE 7/30/12 via La Raza (Chicago)
*5. Honduras: Students Demand Transportation Subsidy
A total of 25 high school students from the Honduras Technical Institute in Tegucigalpa were arrested on July 30 when the National Police broke up a protest by about 100 students on the Armed Forces Boulevard in the Villas del Sol neighborhood. The protesters were demanding that the government pay out a promised transportation subsidy. When police agents used tear gas and nightsticks to disperse the demonstration, the students reportedly responded by throwing rocks. Some shops were damaged, along with a patrol car, but according to police spokesperson Desire Martínez “no students or police were injured.”
Jorge Jiménez, a student leader, told reporters that the government had failed to comply with an agreement it had signed after negotiations. The students’ goal was a transportation subsidy of 600 lempiras (US$31.58) for the 180,000 students in the country’s 422 secondary schools. Other demands included an end to repression and reforms to the Fundamental Education Law. The government said it had already started paying out the subsidy and would finish by Aug. 28.
The protests continued through the week. On Aug. 2 students blocked traffic in the El Obelisco area of Comayagüela, Tegucigalpa’s sister city. On Aug. 3, a group of students carried out a similar protest in the Germania neighborhood. With the support of some adults who live in the area, the youths burned tires in the street, tying up vehicles on the highway to the south for several hours.
The student protests coincided with a series of job actions by public school teachers in each of the country’s 18 departments to protest the Supreme Court’s rejection of complaints by various groups against legislation that they said would harm teachers’ rights. Educators walked off the job in Francisco Morazán department on July 30 and planned to suspend classes in Copan, Comayagua and Atlántida departments on Aug. 1. Further job actions were to come in Lempira, La Paz and Yoro on Aug. 2 and Intibucá, Islas de la Bahía and Gracias a Dios on Aug. 3; teachers were to stage actions in the remaining departments the week of Aug. 6-10. (Prensa Latina 7/30/12; TeleSUR 7/30/12 from staff, PL, La Tribuna, El Heraldo; Kaos en la Red 8/2/12 from Defensores en Línea; La Tribuna (Honduras) 8/3/12)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras,Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, US/media
Latin America in the New Global Capitalism
http://nacla.org/news/2012/8/3/latin-america-new-global-capitalism
Territories in Resistance: A Cartography of Latin American Social Movements - Excerpt From Book
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/3795-excerpt-territories-in-resistance-a-cartography-of-latin-american-social-movements
Revealed: Secret Agenda of Ranchers to Steal Uncontacted Tribe’s Land in Paraguay
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3792-revealed-secret-agenda-of-ranchers-to-steal-uncontacted-tribes-land-in-paraguay
Brazil: court orders Chevron to suspend drilling
http://ww4report.com/node/11327
Bolivia Pushes Back Against Glencore
http://ww4report.com/node/11319
Peru: toxic mining spill sickens villagers, Anonymous hacks back
http://ww4report.com/node/11326
The War System Dynamics in Colombia : A 2012 Assessment
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/7/31/war-system-dynamics-colombia-2012-assessment
Colombia: Indigenous Nasa Resist Militarization in Cauca
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/3790-colombia-indigenous-nasa-resist-militarization-in-cauca
Venezuela’s Full Membership of Mercosur Converts the Bloc into “Fifth World Power”
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7142
"Tigres" Are Honduras' New Battalion 3-16
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3791-qtigresq-are-honduras-new-battalion-3-16
The Grave Risks for Journalists and Those Who Stand for Freedom of Expression in Honduras
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/moreno260712.html
Divide and Rule in the Land of Gold (Guatemala)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/11335
Mexico’s Movement for Real Democracy
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7675
Mexico: The Campaign Continues
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/7/31/mexico-campaign-continues
Photo Essay: National March Against the Imposition of Nieto as President in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3786-photo-essay-national-march-against-the-imposition-of-nieto-as-president-in-mexico
International Call for Solidarity with Zapatista Support Bases of San Marcos Aviles (Mexico)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3793-international-call-for-solidarity-with-zapatista-support-bases-of-san-marcos-aviles
Coastal Development Threatens Mexican Reef
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7685
Mexican Truckers Stage National Protest
http://www.grass-roots-press.com/2012/08/03/mexican-truckers-stage-national-protest/
Special Report: The Massacre of Miners Continues
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=203#1484
FAT Affiliate Wins Second Election at DMI (Mexico)
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=203#1479
Brazil And Ecuador To Help Rebuild Haitian Army
http://latindispatch.com/2012/07/31/brazil-and-ecuador-to-help-rebuild-haitian-army/
AP Investigation Finds Lack of Results and Transparency in Haiti’s Reconstruction
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/ap-investigation-finds-lack-of-results-and-transparency-in-haitis-reconstruction
A Closer Look at USAID Food Aid Programs in Haiti
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/967/blastContent.jsp
The Washington Post Ignores Coups in Article on Threats to Latin American Democracy (US/media)
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/7/30/washington-post-ignores-coups-article-threats-latin-american-democracy
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.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #1139, August 5, 2012
1. Chile: Pascua Lama Workers Occupy Church in Protest
2. Dominican Republic: Barrick Set to Open Giant Gold Mine
3. Mexico: Six Killed in Latest Mining Disaster
4. Guatemala: Students Resist Teacher Education “Reform”
5. Honduras: Students Demand Transportation Subsidy
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras,Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, US/media
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. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
*1. Chile: Pascua Lama Workers Occupy Church in Protest
A group of 23 contract workers occupied the San Ambrosio Church in Vallenar, capital of the northern Chilean province of Huasco, on the morning of Aug. 4 to protest labor conditions at Pascua Lama, an open-pit gold, silver and copper mine being built in the Andes at the border between Argentina and Chile. Eight of the protesters took over the bell tower, where they shouted and banged on the metal structure to draw attention to their complaints against the mine’s operator, the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation.
The main motive for the protest, according to Ricardo Véliz, regional coordinator of the National Mining Union ((Sinami), which represents the contract workers, “is to let the community know…about the bad living conditions which the workers who provide their services in Pascua Lama are experiencing.” Several workers had to transferred out on an emergency basis because they had symptoms of hypothermia, Véliz said. The mine is at an altitude of some 4,500 meters above sea level, and temperatures go down to –20º C (-4º F). Rafael Castillo, the vice president of a workers’ group, told Radio Bío Bío that workers die every year for lack of medical attention at the site. The protesters said they wouldn’t leave the church until the authorities listened to their complaints. (Radio Universidad de Chile 8/4/12; lainformacion.com 8/4/12)
The $8 billion Pascua Lama project, which is expected to be one of the world’s largest gold mines when it opens in 2014, has sparked protests by environmentalists and others in both Chile and Argentina. On July 26 the company acknowledged that technical and other problems were delaying the mine’s opening [see Update #1138].
*2. Dominican Republic: Barrick Set to Open Giant Gold Mine
The Pueblo Viejo gold mine in Cotuí in the Dominican Republic’s central province of Sánchez Ramírez is starting operations this August, Jamie Sokalsky, CEO of the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation, told investors on July 26. The new mine, on a site abandoned by the state enterprise Rosario Dominicana in 1999, will produce up to 125,000 ounces of gold this year and reach full capacity during 2013, Sokalsky said. The project, a joint venture with the Vancouver-based multinational Goldcorp Inc., has cost about $3.8 billion so far; this is said to be the largest private investment ever made in the Dominican Republic. (AP 7/26/12 via NBC 29 (Charlottesville, Virginia))
The project has stirred up protests in the past, because of what activists said were irregularities in the government’s contract with the Canadian companies, and because of potential damage to the environment and to archeological sites [see Update #1027]. Barrick plans to use 24 tons of cyanide a day, Virginia Rodríguez, a coordinator for the local nongovernmental organization SalvaTierra (“Save the Earth”), told the Associated Press wire service. “There is a very high risk, especially with an island like ours with a very fragile ecosystem,” she said. The mine is located in a mountainous region, the source of some of the country's most important rivers.
Barrick Gold has been working to counter these complaints. The old Pueblo Viejo mine caused extensive environmental damage, but Barrick insists that this was the fault of Rosario Dominicana. The Canadian company says it will protect the environment by applying “the industry’s highest international standards to bring about an operation based on responsible mining.” Even the damage from the old mine has mostly been eliminated by natural processes, according to Carlos Tamayo, a Mexican national who directs Barrick’s local environmental department. “[T]ime has been the best ally for improving the situation,” he told the Dominican daily Hoy. “The environment is very wise. It’s like when someone’s sick, and the body often creates its own self-defense mechanisms to be able to cure itself naturally.” (AP 7/5/12 via Tampa Bay (Florida) Times; Hoy Digital 7/18/12)
*3. Mexico: Six Killed in Latest Mining Disaster
Six Mexican coal miners were killed on Aug. 3 when some 100 tons of coal and rock collapsed in a mine operated by Altos Hornos de México S.A. de C.V. (AHMSA) in Barroterán community, Progreso municipality, in the northern state of Coahuila. One miner was trapped but survived with minor injuries; he was rescued about an hour after the collapse. The other 287 workers in the mine escaped without injuries. Some workers thought a methane explosion caused the accident, but management attributed it to “a pocket of methane gas,” not an explosion.
The latest disaster came just nine days after seven workers were killed, all members of the same family, in a methane explosion on July 25 in Múzquiz, Coahuila, 40 km from the AHMSA mine. In a press conference on Aug. 3, Coahuila governor Rubén Moreira Valdez discounted the possibility of suspending mining operations in the state, saying that Coahuila’s mining industry directly generates more than 20,000 jobs and produces 8 to 11% of Mexico’s electric power. Instead, he called for finding a way to locate and remove methane gas from the mines.
On Aug. 4 several labor rights organizations issued a communiqué demanding that coal mine operators “invest in the application of existing technology to guarantee miners’ lives.” The groups—which included the Pasta de Conchos Family, an organization of relatives of 65 coal miners killed in a methane explosion in Coahuila in February 2006 [see Update #1037]--said it was “not acceptable, in any manner or by any argument, that this investment be conditioned on the gaining of profits.”
Eleven miners were killed in a methane explosion in a Coahuila mine in May of 2011, according to labor rights groups, and a total of 30 miners died in accidents in the state that year. The groups say the majority of the state’s miners are paid from 70 a 150 pesos (about US$ 5.39-11.44) a day. (BBC News 8/3/12; La Jornada (Mexico) 8/4/12; AFP 8/4/12 via Terra.com)
*4. Guatemala: Students Resist Teacher Education “Reform”
An agent of Guatemala’s National Civilian Police and two students were injured in a confrontation July 30 between riot police and students outside the Teachers School for Men in the south of Guatemala City; three students and a teacher were arrested for alleged attacks on security forces. The clash came after hundreds of students occupied eight schools, one in the capital and seven in other parts of the country, to protest proposed changes in the national teacher certification program. Security forces prevented the takeover of two other schools.
Students also reportedly blocked various highways in the northern and northeastern parts of the country, but apparently without any confrontations with the police. (EFE 7/30/12 via La Raza (Chicago))
The students were protesting plans by the government of rightwing president Otto Pérez Molina to expand the certification program for primary school teachers from three to five years and to require a university degree. The students argue that the teaching program is one of the few educational programs open to indigenous youth and other impoverished Guatemalans, and many of these students will be unable to afford two extra years of study and a university degree unless they receive a subsidy. Currently only 2% of the population have university degrees, and only 20% of the high school-age population attends high school. As in many other Latin American countries, the students suspect that the educational “reforms” are meant to open the way to privatization of public education [see Update #1105].
The students carried out similar occupations at the end of June and the beginning of July; these also ended in clashes with the police. In the following weeks, after mediation by legislators from Congress, the Education Ministry held meetings with various groups of students, teachers, parents, academics and specialists and heard 83 proposals. But the students remained opposed to the government’s plan. On July 26 they held a peaceful march in the capital from the Central America Teachers Institute (Inca) to the Education Ministry to demonstrate their continued opposition to the proposal and to the measures taken against students and teachers involved in the earlier protests. (Upside Down World 7/5/12; Americas Quarterly 7/7/12; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 7/26/12; EFE 7/30/12 via La Raza (Chicago)
*5. Honduras: Students Demand Transportation Subsidy
A total of 25 high school students from the Honduras Technical Institute in Tegucigalpa were arrested on July 30 when the National Police broke up a protest by about 100 students on the Armed Forces Boulevard in the Villas del Sol neighborhood. The protesters were demanding that the government pay out a promised transportation subsidy. When police agents used tear gas and nightsticks to disperse the demonstration, the students reportedly responded by throwing rocks. Some shops were damaged, along with a patrol car, but according to police spokesperson Desire Martínez “no students or police were injured.”
Jorge Jiménez, a student leader, told reporters that the government had failed to comply with an agreement it had signed after negotiations. The students’ goal was a transportation subsidy of 600 lempiras (US$31.58) for the 180,000 students in the country’s 422 secondary schools. Other demands included an end to repression and reforms to the Fundamental Education Law. The government said it had already started paying out the subsidy and would finish by Aug. 28.
The protests continued through the week. On Aug. 2 students blocked traffic in the El Obelisco area of Comayagüela, Tegucigalpa’s sister city. On Aug. 3, a group of students carried out a similar protest in the Germania neighborhood. With the support of some adults who live in the area, the youths burned tires in the street, tying up vehicles on the highway to the south for several hours.
The student protests coincided with a series of job actions by public school teachers in each of the country’s 18 departments to protest the Supreme Court’s rejection of complaints by various groups against legislation that they said would harm teachers’ rights. Educators walked off the job in Francisco Morazán department on July 30 and planned to suspend classes in Copan, Comayagua and Atlántida departments on Aug. 1. Further job actions were to come in Lempira, La Paz and Yoro on Aug. 2 and Intibucá, Islas de la Bahía and Gracias a Dios on Aug. 3; teachers were to stage actions in the remaining departments the week of Aug. 6-10. (Prensa Latina 7/30/12; TeleSUR 7/30/12 from staff, PL, La Tribuna, El Heraldo; Kaos en la Red 8/2/12 from Defensores en Línea; La Tribuna (Honduras) 8/3/12)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras,Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, US/media
Latin America in the New Global Capitalism
http://nacla.org/news/2012/8/3/latin-america-new-global-capitalism
Territories in Resistance: A Cartography of Latin American Social Movements - Excerpt From Book
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/3795-excerpt-territories-in-resistance-a-cartography-of-latin-american-social-movements
Revealed: Secret Agenda of Ranchers to Steal Uncontacted Tribe’s Land in Paraguay
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3792-revealed-secret-agenda-of-ranchers-to-steal-uncontacted-tribes-land-in-paraguay
Brazil: court orders Chevron to suspend drilling
http://ww4report.com/node/11327
Bolivia Pushes Back Against Glencore
http://ww4report.com/node/11319
Peru: toxic mining spill sickens villagers, Anonymous hacks back
http://ww4report.com/node/11326
The War System Dynamics in Colombia : A 2012 Assessment
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/7/31/war-system-dynamics-colombia-2012-assessment
Colombia: Indigenous Nasa Resist Militarization in Cauca
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/3790-colombia-indigenous-nasa-resist-militarization-in-cauca
Venezuela’s Full Membership of Mercosur Converts the Bloc into “Fifth World Power”
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7142
"Tigres" Are Honduras' New Battalion 3-16
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3791-qtigresq-are-honduras-new-battalion-3-16
The Grave Risks for Journalists and Those Who Stand for Freedom of Expression in Honduras
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/moreno260712.html
Divide and Rule in the Land of Gold (Guatemala)
http://www.ww4report.com/node/11335
Mexico’s Movement for Real Democracy
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7675
Mexico: The Campaign Continues
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/7/31/mexico-campaign-continues
Photo Essay: National March Against the Imposition of Nieto as President in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/3786-photo-essay-national-march-against-the-imposition-of-nieto-as-president-in-mexico
International Call for Solidarity with Zapatista Support Bases of San Marcos Aviles (Mexico)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/3793-international-call-for-solidarity-with-zapatista-support-bases-of-san-marcos-aviles
Coastal Development Threatens Mexican Reef
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/7685
Mexican Truckers Stage National Protest
http://www.grass-roots-press.com/2012/08/03/mexican-truckers-stage-national-protest/
Special Report: The Massacre of Miners Continues
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=203#1484
FAT Affiliate Wins Second Election at DMI (Mexico)
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=203#1479
Brazil And Ecuador To Help Rebuild Haitian Army
http://latindispatch.com/2012/07/31/brazil-and-ecuador-to-help-rebuild-haitian-army/
AP Investigation Finds Lack of Results and Transparency in Haiti’s Reconstruction
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/ap-investigation-finds-lack-of-results-and-transparency-in-haitis-reconstruction
A Closer Look at USAID Food Aid Programs in Haiti
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/967/blastContent.jsp
The Washington Post Ignores Coups in Article on Threats to Latin American Democracy (US/media)
http://nacla.org/blog/2012/7/30/washington-post-ignores-coups-article-threats-latin-american-democracy
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.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
