Weekly News Update on the Americas: March 2014

Monday, March 24, 2014

Links but No Update for March 23, 2014

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

WNU #1213: Brazilian Street Sweepers Win With Wildcat

Issue #1213, March 16, 2014

1. Brazil: Rio Street Sweepers Win With Wildcat
2. Mexico: Community Radio Announcers Imprisoned
3. Dominican Republic: Haitian Descendants Continue Protests
4. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, 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. Brazil: Rio Street Sweepers Win With Wildcat
Opposed by the media, the city government and their own union, street sweepers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second largest city, won a 37% raise and an increase in benefits on Mar. 8 after an eight-day wildcat strike that left streets littered during Rio’s famous Carnaval celebrations. The settlement reached by the municipal government and the strikers’ committee increased the sweepers’ base monthly pay from 802 to 1,100 reais (US$338.61 to US$466.64). The sweepers also gained an increase in their daily meal tickets from 12 to 20 reais (US$5.09 to US$8.49), payment for extra hours, and increases for medical and dental care. The settlement included a guarantee that no workers would be fired for taking part in the strike.

The Union of Employees of Cleaning and Conservation Companies of Rio de Janeiro Municipality (SEEACRMJ) had previously made a settlement with the city for a 9% pay raise, but a group of workers walked out on Mar. 1 to demand an increase of 50%. According to the strike committee, 6,000 of the city’s 15,000 sweepers participated in the wildcat, but Rio mayor Eduardo Paes, from the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) dismissed the strike and its supporters, calling them “marginal and criminal.” The city's Municipal Company of Urban Cleaning (Comlurb) at first tried to squelch the walkout by firing 300 strikers; later Paes threatened to lay off 1,100-1,200 strikers, in effect admitting that participation was more than marginal. The government also claimed that the strikers were using the threat of violence to get other sweepers to join them. Under this pretext, police “escorts” accompanied the sweepers who continued to work; strike supporters said these agents were in fact sent to keep the sweepers from participating in the walkout.

The strikers claimed they had broad support from the public, despite constant hostility in the media and the problems the strike caused for Carnaval, which ran from Feb. 28 to Mar. 4 this year. There was similar support for a lengthy strike by Rio teachers last summer and fall, reflecting the public’s anger over police brutality and inadequate health and education services, which led to massive protests throughout the country in June 2013 [see Update #1195]. After the settlement was announced, strike committee member Bruno Lima said the movement had motivated the sweepers to follow up with more grassroots organizing. “We’re very happy,” he said, “but we’re aware that this is a process that isn’t ending here.” (Agencia Púlsar 3/10/14; Adital (Brazil) 3/10/14, 3/13/14; Global Voices 3/11/14)

The national government has been trying to contain the recent upsurge in protests, with the Senate considering a bill that would designate some types of violence at demonstrations as terrorism [see Update #1210]. The São Paulo State Department of Criminal Investigations (Deic) has been carrying out an inquiry since Oct. 9 that supposedly targets the anarchist Black Bloc tendency, which the police consider responsible for acts of vandalism by masked youths at demonstrations. The investigation has been very broad. For example, 40 youths were given summonses to testify on Feb. 22; they were asked questions about their political beliefs and even how they voted in the previous election. Summonses were also given to 10 members of the Free Pass Movement (MPL), a group whose protests against high transit costs helped spark last year’s demonstrations. The Deic decree authorizing the investigation indicates that the department plans to charge protesters with “criminal association” under Article 288 of the Criminal Code; the crime carries a prison sentence of one to three years. (Adital 3/10/14)

*2. Mexico: Community Radio Announcers Imprisoned
Alma Delia Olivares Castro, an announcer on the La Cabina community radio station in Omealca municipality in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, was arrested on Feb. 28 and was held in a federal prison in Nayarit state for five days on charges of “auditory contamination.” The authorities released Olivares Castro on Mar. 4 after her family put up 25,000 pesos (about US$1,893) in bail, but she still faces criminal charges. After realizing that “auditory contamination” is not an offense under Mexican law, the authorities changed the charge to “undue use of a national good” (the airwaves). The station has already been closed and fined 29,000 pesos (about US$2,199) under the Federal Radio and Television Law, which regulates the licensing of radio and television stations.

Olivares Castro and some friends started La Cabina to meet the lack of local news in the area. According to supporters, the station quickly became a forum for the community where people could debate political issues and even question the mayor’s decisions. Mexican activists say the government is slow to grant licenses to community radio stations, so many operate without authorization. The Mexican section of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) denounced the government’s penalization of La Cabina and Olivares Castro as an attack on freedom of speech.

In a similar case, Paola Ochoa Tlapanco, an announcer on Radio Identidad in Paso del Macho, Veracruz, was arrested in 2009 along with two other employees, José Maza and Juan José Hernández. According to one report, this year she was sentenced to two years in prison, the payment of a fine and the loss of civil and political rights for the unauthorized use of the airwaves. (elgolfo.info (Veracruz) 2/25/14; Ifex 3/13/14; Adital (Brazil) 3/13/14)

*3. Dominican Republic: Haitian Descendants Continue Protests
Chanting “We’re Dominicans and we’re staying here,” hundreds of people of Haitian descent and their supporters gathered in front of the Congress building in Santo Domingo on Mar. 12 in the latest protest against Decision 168-13, a ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal (TC) last September declaring that no one born to undocumented immigrants since 1929 was a citizen [see Update #1208]. Among the groups participating in the “Day of Fasting and Prayer” were the Bonó Center, a Catholic human rights organization, and Reconoci.do, a youth movement that has been organizing demonstrations for two years on the 12th day of the month to demand papers for the Dominican-born children of immigrants [see Update #1184]. Manuel María Mercedes and other members of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) joined the protest, as did legislative deputies Hugo Tolentino Dipp and Guadalupe Valdez and former labor minister Max Puig.

The protesters focused on a legislative proposal that President Danilo Medina had said he would introduce to Congress on Feb. 27 to regularize the status of the tens of thousands of Dominicans who had been deprived of their citizenship by Decision 168-13. “We’re still consulting the sectors” involved, Medina said on Mar. 12 to explain why he hadn’t presented the legislation. “We’re going to look for the most suitable form.” (7días.com.do (Santo Domingo) 3/12/14; Associated Press 3/12/14 via Terra Argentina)

Groups in Haiti joined in the criticism of Medina, whose government has been holding talks with the Haitian government on the treatment of Haitian descendants. Dominican representatives had indicated during the bi-national dialogue’s February meeting that the regularization bill would be introduced that month. On Mar. 12 the Haitian section of the Jesuit Service for Refugees and Migrants (SJRM) and the Haitian nonprofit Support Group for the Repatriated and Refugees (GARR) said Medina’s failure to act had jeopardized the talks, which are scheduled to continue on Mar. 20. “Dialogue is bringing nothing for Haiti,” GARR’s Jean Baptiste Azolin said. “Nothing for migration. Nothing has been done yet, and nothing has changed.” (AlterPresse (Haiti) 3/12/14)

In other news, GARR reported that a Haitian worker was killed and at least 27 were wounded by bullets and knives during a demonstration they were holding on Mar. 1 in the Boca de Cachon neighborhood of Jimaní, a city in the southwestern province of Independencia at the border with Haiti. The workers organized the protest to demand more than three months of wages they said Dominican authorities owed them for work on the construction of a village for the relocation of 560 families who are threatened by flooding from Lake Enriquillo. (GARR 3/4/14)

*4. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, US/immigration

Resurgent Chilean Social Movements Advance Cross-Border Solidarity
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/3/14/resurgent-chilean-social-movements-advance-cross-border-solidarity

Chile’s Student Movement Leads the Way: Progressive Prospects for Michelle Bachelet’s Second Term
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/chile-archives-34/4743-chiles-student-movement-leads-the-way-progressive-prospects-for-michelle-bachelets-second-term

Repsol Sells Oil Stake in ‘Isolated’ Indigenous Peoples’ Territory in Peruvian Amazon
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/4744-repsol-sells-oil-stake-in-isolated-indigenous-peoples-territory-in-peruvian-amazon

US Oil and Gas Firm Hunt Urged to Suspend Amazon Exploration (Peru)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4732-us-oil-and-gas-firm-hunt-urged-to-suspend-amazon-exploratio

The Quimbo Hydroelectric Project Moves Ahead without Complying with its Environmental License (Colombia)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4738-the-quimbo-hydroelectric-project-moves-ahead-without-complying-with-its-environmental-license

Understanding the Facts on Violence and Human Rights in Venezuela's Unrest
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10474

Venezuela: Who You Gonna Believe, the New York Times or Your Lying Eyes?
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/venezuela-who-you-gonna-believe-the-new-york-times-or-your-lying-eyes

Lula Sends Letter of Support to Maduro (Venezuela)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/lula-sends-letter-of-support-to-maduro

Venezuelan Attorney General Meets with Human Rights Group and Holds Members of the Security Forces Responsible for Their Actions
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/venezuelan-attorney-general-meets-with-human-rights-group-and-holds-members-of-the-security-forces-responsible-for-their-actions

Venezuela's Polarizations and Maduro’s Next Steps
http://nacla.org/news/2014/3/11/venezuelas-polarizations-and-maduro%E2%80%99s-next-steps

Venezuelan Community Pie Del Tiro Explains Opposition Violence (Video)
http://nacla.org/news/2014/3/14/venezuelan-community-pie-del-tiro-explains-opposition-violence-video

Fair FMLN Presidential Victory in El Salvador (Interview with Election Observer Richard Hobbs)
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/3/14/fair-fmln-presidential-victory-el-salvador-interview-election-observer-richard-hobbs

In the Face of an Expected Election Defeat, El Salvador’s Right-wing ARENA Party ‘Prepared for War’
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/4739-in-the-face-of-an-expected-election-defeat-el-salvadors-right-wing-arena-party-prepared-for-war

Honduras: Indigenous Tolupanes Return to Their Territory with IACHR Orders of Protection
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/4734-honduras-indigenous-tolupanes-return-to-their-territory-with-iachr-orders-of-protection

Guatemala: The Peaceful Anti-Mining Resistance at "La Puya" Celebrates Two Years of Struggle
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/4742-the-peaceful-anti-mining-resistance-at-qla-puyaq-celebrates-two-years-of-struggle

My Life in Juarez: Women Speak Out (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/my-life-in-juarez-women-speak-out/

Lime, Gangsters and the Yellow Dragon (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/lime-gangsters-and-the-yellow-dragon/

Border Patrol Agents Train for War on the U.S.-Mexico Border (US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/3/12/border-patrol-agents-train-war-us-mexico-border

Immigration crisis disrupts Boehner’s breakfast, again (US/immigration)
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/03/immigration-crisis-disrupts-boehners-breakfast/

Hunger strike in Tacoma detention center enters second week (US/immigration)
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/hunger-strike-tahoma-detention-center-enters-second-week/

For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/967/blastContent.jsp
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/
http://intercontinentalcry.org/
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/index.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://wagingnonviolence.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/

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

END

Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as “Weekly News Update on the Americas” and include a link.

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

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

WNU #1212: US Dockworkers Walk Out to Back Honduran Unionists

Issue #1212, March 9, 2014

1. Honduras: Solidarity Action Hits US Port
2. Mexico: Citigroup, PEMEX Embroiled in Fraud Scandal
3. Chile: Environmentalists Declare “Glacier Republic”
4. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago

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. Honduras: Solidarity Action Hits US Port
Dockworkers at the Port of Portland in Oregon walked off their jobs at the container yard on Mar. 4 to honor a picket line set up by a small group of Honduran dockworkers protesting what they said were labor abuses at the Puerto Cortés port in northern Honduras. The picketers were members of the Dockworkers Labor Union (SGTM), which has been in a dispute since last year with Operadora Portuaria Centroamericana (OPC), the Honduran subsidiary of the Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) [see Update #1193]. A US subsidiary of ICTSI operates Terminal 6 in the Oregon port, and the dockworkers there, who are represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), have had their own disputes with the company.

The job action in Portland only lasted from the morning to the evening of Mar. 4. A labor arbitrator ordered the ILWU members back to work, ruling that while the walkout was not illegal, it was unjustified because the Honduran workers weren’t employees of the US subsidiary. The ILWU workers returned to the job in the evening, but about 100 ILWU members and supporters protested at the Honduran consulate in San Francisco on Mar. 7, charging that the company had identified two Honduran workers who were part of the picket line, Carlos Alvarado and Glen Galdames, to the Honduran government. As a result the police had sought the two men after their return to Honduras on Mar. 6, the ILWU said. The Solidarity Center—the foreign policy arm of the US AFL-CIO labor federation, which the ILWU recently left--wrote to US ambassador to Honduras Lisa Kubiske on Mar. 6 urging her to demand that the Honduran government stop trying to arrest Alvarado and Galdames. ICTSI Oregon chief executive Elvis Ganda responded that the unions were “making baseless allegations about events in Honduras.” (Associated Press 3/4/14 via SFGate; ILWU press release 3/4/14 via Longshore & Shipping News; The Oregonian 3/4/14, 3/7/14)

OPC won a 29-year concession in February 2013 to operate and modernize the Puerto Cortés seaport. According to the SGTM, the company signed a labor agreement with the government without consulting the workers. The union’s general secretary, Víctor Crespo, began receiving death threats, and on Sept. 14 armed men tried to break down the door at his home; they fled after Crespo’s neighbors woke up and became potential witnesses. Crespo relocated to an undisclosed country, but his father, Víctor Manuel Crespo Puerto, died on Jan. 28 of injuries he received when he and other family members were run down by an armed man in a stolen car.

In December OPC began laying off a large number of unionized workers. A protest by the dockworkers broke out at the port on Feb. 26, and it was joined by truckers angry at poor service at the terminal and OPC’s decision to increase the fees. “The Honduran military responded to the protest by invading the port and arresting approximately 129 workers, who were charged with ‘terrorism’ and ‘damaging the national economy,’” according to the ILWU. (La Prensa (San Pedro Sula) 2/27/14; Rebanadas de Realidad 1/18/14 from International Transport Workers Federation (ITF); ILWU press release 3/4/14)

*2. Mexico: Citigroup, PEMEX Embroiled in Fraud Scandal
Some 1,200 employees of the Mexican oil company Oceanografía SA de CV began blocking the four entrances to the Laguna Azul industrial dock in Ciudad del Carmen in the eastern state of Campeche early on the morning of Mar. 7, disrupting the operations of at least 40 companies that provide services to Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the government’s giant oil monopoly. The workers were demanding payment of wages that have been held up since the government’s Finance Secretariat took over the bankrupt company at the end of February after it became mired in allegations of fraud.

Oceanografía is a private company that has contracted with PEMEX and its main exploration and production subsidiary, Exploración y Producción (PEP), for some 40 years. The company was PEMEX’s main contractor under the administrations of presidents Vicente Fox Quesada (2000-2006) and Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (2006-2012), who are both members of the center-right National Action Party (PAN). From 2003 to 2013 Oceanografía won some 100 contracts worth a total of nearly $3 billion for services to PEMEX such as the maintenance of equipment and the installation of oil extraction structures in the Gulf of Mexico. But on Jan. 15 of this year Oceanografía CEO Amado Yáñez told investors that the company wouldn’t be able to meet its debt obligations, and on Feb. 11 the government issued a fine of about $1.9 million and blocked the company from bidding on government contracts for 21 months.

Oceanografía had borrowed some $585 million from Banco Nacional de Mexico (Banamex), Mexico’s second largest bank, which was bought in 2001 by Citigroup Inc., the third largest banking group in the US. As Oceanografía’s money problems mounted, Citigroup began reviewing the loans, for which the oil company had offered invoices to PEMEX as collateral. On Feb. 28 Citigroup announced that it had worked with PEMEX and found that only $185 million of the collateral could be verified. Apparently Oceanografía had falsified invoices to PEMEX, possibly with collaboration from Banamex and PEMEX employees. The Mexican government quickly took control of Oceanografía so that services to PEMEX would be maintained, while Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Attorney’s office in Massachusetts all began inquiries. On Mar. 4 Mexican attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam suggested that money laundering might also be involved. “Money laundering can start with the initial crime of fraud, but it does not stop there,” he said.

The Oceanografía collapse has resulted in a number of embarrassments in both Mexico and the US. Citigroup had to write down its profits for 2013 by $235 million, while PEMEX and the Mexican government will need to explain their over-reliance on Oceanografía. There have also been suggestions that two of the children of former president Fox’s wife, Marta Sahagún de Fox, were involved. In 2005 a Chamber of Deputies commission found indications that Sahagún's sons Manuel and Jorge Alberto Bribiesca and their uncle, Guillermo Sahagún, arranged PEMEX contracts worth 5.929 billion pesos (nearly US$448 million) for Oceanografía from 2002 and 2006. As of Mar. 5 Mexican investigators said they had no indications that the Bribiesca brothers were involved in the fraud. (Reuters 2/28/14; Bloomberg News 2/28/14; ADNPolítico.com (Mexico) 3/5/14; La Jornada (Mexico) 3/8/14, 3/8/14)

The scandal broke just three months after Mexico approved constitutional amendments laying the groundwork for President Enrique Peña Nieto’s “energy reform” program, which would open up PEMEX to extensive contracting with Mexican and foreign oil companies [see Update #1203].

*3. Chile: Environmentalists Declare “Glacier Republic”
Greenpeace Chile announced on Mar. 5 that it had established a new country in the glacial regions of southern Chile, the “Glacier Republic.” The group said the country will remain independent until the Chilean government passes laws to protect Chile’s glaciers. Greenpeace based its claim to the territory on a loophole in Chile’s laws, which include no claim to sovereignty over the glaciers. In the past the loophole has made the glacial regions vulnerable to environmental damage by mining companies, but Greenpeace now hopes to use it as a way of bringing attention to projects such as the mammoth Pascua Lama mine that the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation has been building high the mountains on both sides of the border with Argentina [see Update #1198]. Greenpeace is also targeting what it calls “an even greater danger”—the Andina 244 project of the state-owned copper company Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Codelco), which Greenpeace says “provides for the destruction of 5,000 hectares of glaciers, directly affecting water reserves for Chile’s entire central zone.”

Setting up a capital city of tents on the ice, Greenpeace announced the new country with a video and a full-page ad in the New York Times. The idea was met with enthusiasm by some Chileans. Juan Luis García, an assistant professor of glacial geology at the Catholic University of Chile, called the project “a great initiative and a beautiful way of protesting.” On Mar. 6 the 99-year-old poet, mathematician and physicist Nicanor Parra, who won Spain’s prestigious Cervantes prize for literature in 2011, applied for a passport and sent a letter of support to the Glacier Republic’s embassy in Santiago. (BioBioChile 3/5/14; Santiago Times 3/6/14; Adital (Brazil) 3/6/14)

In related news, late on Mar. 3, a Chilean environmental court revoked a $16 million fine that environmental regulator Juan Carlos Monckeberg imposed on Barrick’s Pascua Lama project last May [see Update #1179]. But the ruling may increase Barrick’s penalties. The court held that Monckeberg erred in grouping the mining company’s 23 environmental infringements in five categories; instead, he will now have to impose a separate fine for each of the infringements. The court’s decision doesn’t affect the project’s suspension, which remains in effect. (Mining.com 3/4/14)

Correction: following our source, we originally gave Juan Luis García's name incorrectly.

*4. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago

A struggle against the growing hegemony of agribusiness (Brazil)
http://alainet.org/active/71797

Team Klamazon Returns: Klamath River Indigenous Youth and River Activists Bring a Message From the Amazon (Brazil)
http://intercontinentalcry.org/team-klamazon-returns-klamath-river-indigenous-youth-river-activists-bring-message-amazon/

For Abortion Rights in Bolivia, A Modest Gain
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4729-for-abortion-rights-in-bolivia-a-modest-gain

US Oil and Gas Firm Hunt Urged to Suspend Amazon Exploration (Peru)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4732-us-oil-and-gas-firm-hunt-urged-to-suspend-amazon-exploration

What Do the Local Ecuadorian Elections Tell Us about Alianza PAIS?
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/what-do-the-local-ecuadorian-elections-tell-us-about-alianza-pais

Ecuador's President Correa Suffers Political Setback in Local Elections
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/4727-ecuadors-president-correa-suffers-political-setback-in-local-elections

Chevron Wins Latest Round in Ecuador Pollution Case
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/4731-chevron-wins-latest-round-in-ecuador-pollution-case

US judge blocks enforcement of Chevron judgment (Ecuador)
http://ww4report.com/node/13063

Venezuelan Barrio Organization Calls for Peace to Deepen the Revolution
http://nacla.org/news/2014/3/3/venezuelan-barrio-organization-calls-peace-deepen-revolution

NYT Violates Standards of Basic Economics and Journalistic Procedures in Reporting on Venezuela Inflation
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/nyt-violates-standards-of-basic-economics-and-journalistic-procedures-in-reporting-on-venezuela-inflation

The Legacy of Hugo Chávez One Year After His Death (Audio) (Venezuela)
http://nacla.org/news/2014/3/5/legacy-hugo-chavez-one-year-after-his-death-audio

Manufacturing Contempt for Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/4728-manufacturing-contempt-for-venezuela

Venezuela’s Opposition Is United Against Maduro, But Internally Divided
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10459

Violence Against Women in Mexico and Central America and the Impact of U.S. Policy
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/11630

Nicaragua: electoral violence on Caribbean coast?
http://ww4report.com/node/13052

El Salvador, Costa Rica Elections 2014: Tests for Social Democracy in Central America
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/3/7/el-salvador-costa-rica-elections-2014-tests-social-democracy-central-america

Presidential Elections in El Salvador: The Lion vs. The Dentist
http://nacla.org/news/2014/3/7/presidential-elections-el-salvador-lion-vs-dentist

Salvadoran Youth, Facing Big Challenges, Mobilize for Mar. 9 Election
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/11613

Honduras: Indigenous Tolupanes Return to Their Territory with IACHR Orders of Protection
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/4734-honduras-indigenous-tolupanes-return-to-their-territory-with-iachr-orders-of-protection

In Mexico, Hate Continues to Kill Women
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/11624

Midwives, givers of life in rural communities, in danger of disappearing (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/11597

A Line under the Parrot’s Nest (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/a-line-under-the-parrots-nest/

NAFTA’s Bad Apples (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/naftas-bad-apples/

Mexico Truth Commision Prepares Final Report
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/mexico-truth-commision-prepares-final-report/

UN Official Calls for Cholera Compensation; UN Cholera Coordinator is Interviewed; Insider Tells of UN Cholera Cover-up (Haiti)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/un-official-calls-for-cholera-compensation-un-cholera-coordinator-is-interviewed-insider-tells-of-un-cholera-cover-up

Trinidad and Tobago: Battling the Resource Curse
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4726-trinidad-and-tobago-battling-the-resource-curse

For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/967/blastContent.jsp
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/
http://intercontinentalcry.org/
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/index.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://wagingnonviolence.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/

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

END

Your support is appreciated. Back issues and source materials are available on request. Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as “Weekly News Update on the Americas” and include a link.

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

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

WNU #1211: Argentina’s Piqueteros Are Blocking Roads Again

Issue #1211, March 2, 2014

1. Argentina: Piqueteros Demand Wage, Service Increases
2. Haiti: Islanders Protest Tourism Project
3. Cuba: One of the “Five” Returns From US Prison
4. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, 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. Argentina: Piqueteros Demand Wage, Service Increases
Protesters tied up traffic in central Buenos Aires for more than five hours on Feb. 25 to press their demands for the center-left government of Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to increase pay and benefits in government antipoverty programs. Police rerouted traffic around the demonstration, which blocked cars and buses at the Obelisk in the Plaza de la República. The action was organized by several groups, including Barrios de Pie (“Neighborhoods Standing Up”), Polo Obrero (“Workers’ Pole”), the Federation of Grassroots Organizations (FOB) and the Labor Association of Self-Managed and Contingent Cooperative Workers (Agtcap). Protest leaders held a meeting with government representatives during the protest, but these were “second-level functionaries,” according to Barrios de Pie national coordinator Daniel Menéndez. “[T]he government is turning its back on the complaints of the lowliest people,” he said.

One focus of the demonstration was Argentina Trabaja (“Argentina Works”), a program that provides employment through government-funded cooperatives; the protesters complain that the monthly salary of 2,400 pesos (about US$304.30) is only two-thirds of the legal minimum wage. Another focus is the Universal Allocation by Child (AUH), which provides 460 pesos (about US$58.32) a month for each child of workers who are unemployed, work in the informal economy or make less than the minimum wage. The groups say this hasn’t risen to match inflation; Barrios de Pie estimates the annual inflation rate at 35%, much higher than the official figure.

Some of the same groups have been holding similar actions in other cities. During the last week of February hundreds of people from Barrios de Pie closed off streets around the municipal government’s Centers of Community Participation (CPC) in Córdoba, the country’s second-largest city. These groups generally developed out of the piquetero (“picketer”) movement, which came to prominence by blocking roads as the 2001 economic crisis was growing. Some are former supporters of President Fernández’s administration and of that of her late husband, Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007); there were leaders of Barrios de Pie in government position in the early 2000s. But Fernández can no longer count on their support as the country faces new economic problems. March is likely to bring more protests, since parents will face added costs when the new school year starts in the Southern Hemisphere. (InfoBAE (Argentina) 2/25/14; Terra Argentina 2/25/14 from Noticias Argentinas; Adital 2/27/14; Perfil 3/1/14)

*2. Haiti: Islanders Protest Tourism Project
The president of the Haitian Senate’s Justice and Security Commission, Pierre Francky Exius, announced on Feb. 27 that the commission had summoned Justice Minister Jean Renel Sanon and the command of the Haitian National Police (PNH) to testify about a crisis situation on Ile-à-Vache, a small island southeast of the city of Les Cayes in South department. Over the past month the police have beaten and shot at Ile-à-Vache residents protesting plans for a major tourism project on the island. Some protesters have fled the island, and one protest leader, a local police agent, has been arrested.

The “Ile-à-Vache Tourist Destination” project was first announced in December 2012 by Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe. The plans include an international airport, a hotel, bars, restaurants, spas, a theater and a museum. According to Haitian journalist Dady Chéry, there will also be “‘agricultural infrastructure’ to allow [tourists]…to learn to farm sustainably as part of their full ecotourism experience.” “I think Ile-à-Vache has great potential,” Lamothe said, “and it doesn’t present the challenges for land titles that you might face on the mainland.” US companies interested in investing include Holmes International Development, while the leftist government of Venezuela is partnering on the project, according to Lamothe.

Ile-à-Vache residents, who live by farming and fishing, were never consulted. In December 2013, after the island’s only forest had been destroyed to make way for the airport, they formed the Konbit of Ile-à-Vache Peasant Organizations (KOPI) to resist the tourism plan. (“Konbit” is a Creole word for a communal work project.) A series of protests followed KOPI’s formation, scaring off some of the investors. The government responded by sending police agents, who landed on the island the night of Feb. 8-9 and reportedly beat two residents in the La Hatte area. The next day they beat a girl in the Madame Bernard area, according to residents, and forced protesters to take down barricades they’d built. Some 100 heavily armed Motorized Intervention Brigade (BIM) agents invaded a school and destroyed several houses on Feb. 20. The next day the police arrested KOPI’s vice president, a local police agent whose name is given variously as Jean Matulnès Lamy or Jean Lamy Matulnes; he was taken to the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince. On Feb. 25 BIM agents used live ammunition to break up a demonstration; two people were arrested and 12 were injured.

The government of President Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky”) insists that tourism projects like the one on Ile-à-Vache will help advance Haiti’s economic development. But economist Camille Chalmers of the Haitian Platform Advocating an Alternative Development (PAPDA) dismissed the projects as “selling the country’s resources and patrimony to the highest bidders, in the framework of imperialist interests.” He said that the government’s slogan, “Haiti, open for business,” “means liquidating national interests for the benefit of foreign capital.” In a statement backing the island protesters, the Patriotic Democratic Popular Movement (MPDP), a coalition of 30 grassroots organizations, noted that while the government pours money into the tourism project, “in Ile-à-Vache there are big problems with schools, hospitals, water and other basic services…. [I]t’s not improving the life of the population that interests those in power. What interests them is making money and facilitating the looting of the island!” (AlterPresse (Haiti) 2/25/14, 2/27/14; MPDP statement 2/25/14 via PAPDA; News Junkie Post 3/1/14)

*3. Cuba: One of the “Five” Returns From US Prison
Fernando González, one of five Cuban agents charged with espionage by the US government in 1998 [see Update #1209], returned to Cuba on Feb. 28 after serving out a 15-year term in US prisons. Released from the federal correctional center in Safford, Arizona, on Feb. 27, González landed around noon the next day at Havana’s José Martí International Airport, where he was met by Cuban president Raúl Castro. The Cuban government insists that its agents, who are widely known as the “Cuban Five,” were never spying on the US and that their goal was only to gather information on terrorist plots by rightwing groups based in the Miami area.

González is the second of the Five to be freed; René González was released on probation in October 2011 and was allowed to relocate to Cuba in May 2013 [see Update #1175]. The three remaining prisoners are Antonio Guerrero, scheduled for release in September 2017; Ramón Labañino, scheduled for release in October 2024; and Gerardo Hernández, who is serving two life sentences for his alleged involvement in the shooting down of two planes sent into Cuban air space by the rightwing Brothers to the Rescue group in 1996. DC-based attorney José Pertierra, an expert on Cuban-US relations, cautioned on Feb. 27 that González’s release shouldn’t be interpreted as a favor by the US, since he had served out his full term; if the US wants to signal a thaw in relations with Cuban, President Barack Obama would need to extend executive clemency to the remaining three prisoners, Pertierra said.

Ironically, González was released on the same day as the news spread that former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “asset” Luis Posada Carriles had been given a medal by the Cuban History Academy at Miami Dade College. The Cuban-born Posada, who was charged by Venezuela in the 1970s with masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner in which 73 people died, is living openly in the Miami area [see Update #1075]. The US government refuses to extradite him for trial in Venezuela, although it lists him as a terrorist and bans him from traveling by air, according to Pertierra. (CubaSi.cu 2/27/14; La Jornada (Mexico) 2/28/13 from correspondent; Prensa Latina 2/28/14)

*4. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, US/immigration

Lula Backs Maduro and the Region Debates UNASUR vs. OAS (Latin America)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/lula-backs-maduro-and-the-region-debates-unasur-vs-oas

Latin America: The Impact of the Extractive Industries
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4725-latin-america-the-impact-of-the-extractive-industries

An Argentine Bachillerato Popular at the Crossroads: The Encroachment of the State on the Demands of Social Organizations
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/4721-an-argentine-bachillerato-popular-at-the-crossroads-the-encroachment-of-the-state-on-the-demands-of-social-organizations

Brazilian Social Movements Organize for Political Reform
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/brazilian-social-movements-organize-for-political-reform

For Abortion Rights in Bolivia, A Modest Gain
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/2/28/abortion-rights-bolivia-modest-gain

Peru: Sendero harass pipeline project
http://ww4report.com/node/13049

Indigenous Humanitarian Commission Attacked in Colombia
http://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-humanitarian-commission-attacked-in-colombia-22342/

Violence and Vulnerability in Buenaventura, the Dark Side of Development (Colombia)
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/2/24/violence-and-vulnerability-buenaventura-dark-side-development

#LaSalida? Venezuela at a Crossroads
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4719-lasalida-venezuela-at-a-crossroads-

U.S. Destabilization and Media Distortion in Venezuela (Interview)
http://nacla.org/news/2014/2/25/us-destabilization-and-media-distortion-venezuela-interview

New York Times Corrects False Statement on Venezuela
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/new-york-times-corrects-false-statement-on-venezuela

Letter to New York Times: Correct Francisco Toro's Error on Venezuela
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/2/26/letter-new-york-times-correct-francisco-toros-error-venezuela

Venezuela is Democratic and Bolivarian
http://alainet.org/active/71737

February Traumas: The Third Insurrectionary Moment of the Venezuelan Right
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/4715-february-traumas-the-third-insurrectionary-moment-of-the-venezuelan-right

Venezuela: The Left, Context, Prices and the Market
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/4720-venezuela-the-left-context-prices-and-the-market

Venezuela Marks 25 Years Since “Caracazo” Uprising Against Neoliberalism (+Video/Images)
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10431

Panama: Ngäbe Communities Remain on High Alert
http://intercontinentalcry.org/panama-ngabe-communities-remain-high-alert-22390/

The Thugocracy Next Door (Honduras)
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/02/honduras-the-thugocracy-ext-door-103883.html

Three Amigos Summit: Reaffirmation of NAFTA's Neoliberal Agenda (Mexico)
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=221#1676

The Fall of El Chapo (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/the-fall-of-el-chapo/

Dissident Teachers Reorganize, Prepare to Renew Movement (Mexico)
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=221#1679

Rage, Sadness, and Determination: Journalists in Mexico will not be Silenced
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/4723-rage-sadness-and-determination-journalists-in-mexico-will-not-be-silenced

Mexico: mass graves unearthed in Coahuila
http://ww4report.com/node/13043

Ten Years After the Coup in Haiti, Democracy is Still Under Siege
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/ten-years-after-the-coup-in-haiti-democracy-is-still-under-siege

Haiti: From Original Sin to Electoral Intervention (Interview With Ricardo Seitenfus)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-from-original-sin-to-electoral-intervention

Killing With Impunity on the U.S.-Mexico Border: The Global Color Line (US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/2/26/killing-impunity-us-mexico-border-global-color-line

For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/967/blastContent.jsp
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/
http://intercontinentalcry.org/
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/index.php
http://nacla.org/
http://upsidedownworld.org/
http://venezuelanalysis.com/
http://wagingnonviolence.org/
http://ww4report.com/node/

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

END

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

Monday, March 24, 2014

Links but No Update for March 23, 2014

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

WNU #1213: Brazilian Street Sweepers Win With Wildcat

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

WNU #1212: US Dockworkers Walk Out to Back Honduran Unionists

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

WNU #1211: Argentina’s Piqueteros Are Blocking Roads Again

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