Issue #1235, September 28, 2014
1. Mexico: Police Kill Guerrero Students, Again
2. Guatemala: Police Occupy Town After Violence
3. Haiti: Women Protest 1835 Abortion Law
4. Nicaragua: Contra-Drug Series Was CIA “Nightmare”
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, 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 Kill Guerrero Students, Again
The Attorney General’s Office of the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero announced on Sept. 28 that 22 agents from the Iguala de la Independencia municipal preventive police had been detained and removed to Acapulco in connection with a violent outbreak the night of Sept. 26-27 that left six dead and 17 injured. At least two of those killed were students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College, located in the town of Ayotzinapa, and as of Sept. 27 some 25 of the students were still missing. Two students from the same school were killed in an assault by state and federal police during a protest on Dec. 12, 2011; Guerrero governor Angel Aguirre Rivero eventually had to apologize publicly for the killings after the federal government’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) issued a recommendation for an apology and for compensation to the victims’ families [see Update #1153].
According to the authorities, the violence in Iguala began late on Sept. 26 when a group of students from the teachers’ college commandeered three buses to take them back to Ayotzinapa, about 125 kilometers away, after a visit to the city. Police agents responded by shooting at the buses, killing two students. Later that night, unidentified gunmen attacked a bus on the federal Iguala-Chilpancingo highway as it was taking a Chilpancingo soccer team, the Avispones (“Hornets”), home after a match with an Iguala team. A teenage player, David Josué García Evangelista, was killed, along with a passenger, Blanca Montiel Sánchez; the bus driver was wounded and died afterwards from his injuries. The military also found a man’s body at another location on the same highway; the victim still hadn’t been identified as of Sept. 28. It wasn’t clear whether he was a student, but the daily La Jornada suggested that the night’s attacks were “against anyone who looked like a student.”
As the violence was beginning on Sept. 27, Iguala mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez told a reporter that “apparently someone hired [the Ayotzinapa students] to come and make trouble.” The mayor’s wife, Municipal Family Development System president María de los Angeles Pineda Villa, was scheduled to deliver a report in a public plaza that night, although there was also a dance with a tropical music group, Luz Roja de San Marcos, at the plaza. Mayor Abarca Velázquez, a business owner and a member of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), is reportedly planning to have his wife replace him in city hall if he wins a seat in the federal Chamber of Deputies next year. The students said they simply came to Iguala to do fundraising in the streets, and they denied that they seized the buses by force. “There was some discussion with the bus drivers; they agreed to do us a favor,” Pedro David García López, a representative of the Ayotzinapa Student Executive Committee, told reporters on Sept. 27. “There wasn’t a kidnapping or a threat against a driver…. The buses had already let out their passengers.”
On Sept. 27 the State Organizing Committee of Education Workers in Guerrero (CETEG), an organization of dissident local members of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE), condemned the police attack and announced that the group’s campaign against the federal government’s “education reform” program [see Update #1174] would now include a demand for punishment of the people responsible for the Iguala killings. (CNN México 9/27/14, some from Notimex; La Jornada (Mexico) 9/28/14, 9/28/14; Informador (Mexico) 9/28/14)
*2. Guatemala: Police Occupy Town After Violence
On Sept. 22 Guatemalan president Otto Pérez Molina declared a 30-day state of emergency in San Juan Sacatepéquez municipality in response to the deaths of at least eight indigenous Kaqchikel in a confrontation the night of Sept. 19-20 in the municipality’s Pajoques community [see Update #1234]. Some 600 police agents were sent to the municipality; according to one report they were backed up by 1,000 soldiers. Under the state of emergency the police are free to break up any demonstration or public meeting held without government authorization. On Sept. 23 the police arrested five community members, charging them with murder, attempted murder, arson and illegal meetings and protests; there are warrants for several dozen other community members.
There is little agreement on what happened the night of Sept. 19-20, even on the number of deaths: press reports range from eight to 11. The confrontation was between supporters and opponents of two construction projects, a huge cement factory in the municipality and a section of a beltway around Guatemala City, and the two sides gave radically different accounts. Construction supporters—generally residents who have been hired by the cement factory’s owners or have sold land for one or both of the construction projects—claim that the resistance activists are thieves and rapists who regularly harass and rob other community members.
Opponents of the construction charge that the incident started when 10 armed men from the factory entered Pajoques and fired on opponents, killing one and wounding two others. Community members say they called the national police soon after the shooting began but the police never arrived. All five of those arrested on Sept. 23 appear to belong to the resistance. Two claimed they had solid alibis. Celestino Turuy Pajoj, the director of a local school, said he was at a private university taking a law course, while José Dolores Pajoj Pirir said he was at a hospital with one of his sons at the time of the killings he is charged with. Two of his sons were shot at the beginning of the confrontation; one died and the other was hospitalized with injuries.
The Guatemalan firm Productos Mineros Limited, a subsidiary of Cementos Progreso, is the principal owner of the cement factory, holding 80% of the shares; the remaining 20% are held by the Swiss multinational cement company Holcim Ltd. Cementos Progreso is controlled by Guatemala’s rightwing Novella family, which has contracts for millions of dollars worth of development projects arranged by President Pérez Molina and his Patriot Party (PP), according to a Sept. 22 report by the Guatemalan Independent Media Center. Cementos Progreso made large contributions to Pérez Molina’s campaign in the 2011 presidential election. (Latin American Herald Tribune 9/23/14 from EFE; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 9/24/14, 9/27/14 from EFE; TeleSUR 9/25/14; NACLA 9/26/14)
*3. Haiti: Women Protest 1835 Abortion Law
Some 30 Haitian women held a protest in front of the Ministry for the Feminine Condition and Women’s Rights (MCFDF) in Port-au-Prince on Sept. 26 to demand the decriminalization of abortion. Under Article 262 of Haiti’s Criminal Code, in effect since 1835, the sentence for a woman having an abortion and for anyone who helps her is life in prison. The law is apparently never enforced, but because of it all abortions in Haiti are clandestine and unregulated. The country has the highest rate of maternal deaths in the Americas, with 530 deaths for each 100,000 births; 100 of these deaths follow abortions. In a 2012 survey of 352 women who had abortions since 2007, 40% reported having complications. “Criminalization isn’t a solution,” the protesters, mostly young women, chanted. “We want to be educated sexually to be able to decide.” The demonstration was sponsored by a number of women’s rights organizations, including the Initiative for an Equitable Development in Haiti (Ideh), Kay Fanm (“Women’s House”) and Haitian Women’s Solidarity (SOFA).
The Sept. 26 protest was in observance of the annual Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion, which is officially observed two days later on Sept. 28, but the issue had gained additional attention in Haiti because of a Sept. 20 article in the French newsweekly Le Nouvel Observateur. According to the article, in May 2013 a group of doctors, feminists and religious leaders adopted a resolution for decriminalization after a colloquium on abortion organized by Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP). “Haiti must remove the vagueness existing currently in its legislation on abortion by adopting a law that abrogates Article 262 of the Criminal Code of1835,” the resolution read. However, it has been kept secret and hasn’t been presented to the Parliament for legislative action. (Le Nouvel Observateur 9/20/14; AlterPresse (Haiti) 9/25/14, 9/27/14)
*4. Nicaragua: Contra-Drug Series Was CIA “Nightmare”
On Sept. 18 the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released a number of classified articles from its in-house journal, Studies in Intelligence, including an article about “Dark Alliance,” a 1996 series in the San Jose Mercury News that linked the CIA-backed Nicaraguan contra rebels to the sale of crack in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s. Other US media, notably the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, harshly criticized the series’ author, investigative reporter Gary Webb, noting, and often exaggerating, flaws in his reporting. Webb lost his job at the Mercury News and was never employed by a major newspaper again; he was found dead on Dec. 10, 2004 in an apparent suicide [see Update #777].
The CIA journal article, by a Directorate of Intelligence staffer named Nicholas Dujmovic, described the initial public reaction to the series as a “nightmare” and “a genuine public relations crisis.” Although the contras’ links to cocaine trafficking had been reported previously, Webb’s series had more effect, in part because it connected the contras to the explosion of crack use in African-American communities. It was also one of the first major stories to gain traction through circulation over the internet. Dujmovic attributed the popularity of “Dark Alliance” to “societal shortcomings.” “We live in somewhat coarse and emotional times-–when large numbers of Americans do not adhere to the same standards of logic, evidence, or even civil discourse as those practiced by members of the CIA community,” he complained.
The CIA’s response largely relied on “a ground base of already productive relations with journalists,” Dujmovic wrote. The agency managed to discourage “one major news affiliate” from covering the story, and in another case it helped out a reporter by making “a rare exception to the general policy that CIA does not comment on any individual’s alleged CIA ties.” But to a large extent the mainstream media did the job on Webb without prompting from the CIA. The Los Angeles Times, for example, assembled a group of 17 reporters in what one member called the “get Gary Webb team.” The group “put [Webb’s series] under a microscope,” another of the reporters, Jesse Katz, said in a 2013 radio interview. “And we did it in a way that most of us who were involved in it, I think, would look back on that and say it was overkill. We had this huge team of people at the L.A. Times and kind of piled on to one lone muckraker up in Northern California.” The result of the media attack was a “success,” according to Dujmovic, although only “in relative terms.” (The Intercept 9/25/14)
The story has never completely disappeared from public consciousness, however. A 1997 report by the CIA’s then-inspector general, Frederick Hitz, confirmed the contras’ link to drug trafficking, and a new story about contra drug dealing appeared in October 2013 in both the rightwing US-based Fox television network and the left-leaning Mexican weekly Proceso [see Update #1198]. A feature film about Gary Webb, “Kill the Messenger,” is scheduled for release on Oct. 10.
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, US/immigration
Global Drug Report: Don't Just Decriminalize, Demilitarize (Latin America)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5063-global-drug-report-dont-just-decriminalize-demilitarize
REDD: A controversial mechanism (Latin America)
http://alainet.org/active/77477
Biodiversity Offsetting Advances in Latin America Amid Controversy
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5056-biodiversity-offsetting-advances-in-latin-america-amid-controversy
Until the Rulers Obey: Learning from Latin America’s Social Movements
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/5060-until-the-rulers-obey-learning-from-latin-americas-social-movements
How one Latin American peace group has persevered over 40 years
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/40-years-serpaj-continues-peace-work-throughout-latin-america/
Trucks Set on Fire in Mapuche Conflict Zone, Chile
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Trucks-Set-on-Fire-in-Mapuche-Conflict-Zone-Chile-20140928-0002.html
What is at stake in Brazil
http://alainet.org/active/77401
An indigenous nation in the industrialized heart of South America (Brazil)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/12904
Police Violence and Forced Evictions in São Paulo: An Interview with Benedito “Dito” Barbosa (Brazil)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/police-violence-and-forced-evictions-in-sao-paulo-an-interview-with-benedito-dito-barbosa
Washington Snubs Bolivia on Drug Policy Reform, Again
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5061-washington-snubs-bolivia-on-drug-policy-reform-again
Peru: rural mayor killed in jungle unrest
http://ww4report.com/node/13561
Peru: Newmont behind water authority shake-up?
http://ww4report.com/node/13562
Peru: massacre victims exhumed in Ayacucho
http://ww4report.com/node/13569
Peru: record coke bust points to Mexican cartels
http://ww4report.com/node/13566
Colombia's indigenous communities at risk: report
http://ww4report.com/node/13572
Colombia's Ecopetrol to process fracking licenses
http://ww4report.com/node/13568
Venezuela’s Maduro Responds to Scathing US Editorials and Blames Capitalism for ‘Environment Collapse’
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10928
When A Cement Factory’s Progress Drive Turns Deadly (Guatemala)
http://nacla.org/news/2014/9/26/when-cement-factorys-progress-drive-turns-deadly
El Salvador: Total Ban on Abortion is Killing Women and Girls and Condemning Others to Decades Behind Bars
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5063-global-drug-report-dont-just-decriminalize-demilitarize
Mexico Police Kill 2 Students During Protest, 25 Missing
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexico-Police-Kill-2-Students-During-Protest-25-Missing-20140928-0013.html
Sonora Spill adds to the Social and Environmental Consequences of Free-Market Mining in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/5066-sonora-spill-adds-to-the-social-and-environmental-consequences-of-free-market-mining-in-mexico
Memorial Planned for Famed Border Writer (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/memorial-planned-for-famed-border-writer/
Climate Ironies Expose the Vulnerable Borderlands (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/climate-ironies-expose-the-vulnerable-borderlands/
Bring on the Casinos-Tax Free! (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/bring-on-the-casinos-tax-free/
ISIS to attack US through Mexico —not!
http://ww4report.com/node/13579
Mexico: protests for imprisoned vigilante leader
http://ww4report.com/node/13578
The Growing Divide Between Democrats and Latino Voters (US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/news/2014/9/29/growing-divide-between-democrats-and-latino-voters
Expanding Insecurity (US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/9/24/expanding-insecurity
DHS Argues It Has Evidence That Locking Up Immigrant Families Deters Migration. One Problem: It’s So Wrong. (US/immigration)
https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/dhs-argues-it-has-evidence-locking-immigrant-families-deters-migration-one
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://www.telesurtv.net/english/index.html
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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Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
WNU #1234: 8 Guatemalans Killed in Dispute Over Construction
Issue #1234, September 21, 2014
1. Guatemala: 8 Die in Cement Factory Dispute
2. Honduras: Mine Opponents Report New Threats
3. Mexico: Cananea Toxic Spills Continue
4. Chile: Alleged Anarchists Arrested in Bombing
5. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, 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. Guatemala: 8 Die in Cement Factory Dispute
A confrontation between indigenous Guatemalans in the early morning of Sept. 20 over the construction of a cement factory and a highway left eight dead in Loma Blanca community, San Juan Sacatepéquez municipality, about 30 km northwest of Guatemala City in Guatemala department. Several others were injured, and three houses and five vehicles were set on fire. According to Daniel Pascual, the leader of the Campesino Unity Committee (CUC) [see Update #1123], several armed men, some of them employees of the Cementos Progreso cement company, fired on residents who oppose the two construction projects. A Cementos Progreso representative, José González Merlos, blamed factory opponents. “These acts of violence aren’t new,” he said, charging that construction workers “have frequently been harassed and attacked in their homes.” Factory opponents “respect absolutely nothing,” according to González Merlos.
San Juan Sacatepéquez residents, who are mostly members of the Kaqchikel Mayan group, have been organizing against construction of the cement factory since 2007; one was killed during a protest in a June 2008 [see Update #1183]. Many of the residents also oppose the government’s plan to run a highway through the municipality as part of the Regional Beltway, a highway which is to encircle Guatemala City. However, some residents have gotten jobs in the construction of the cement factory or have made money by selling their land for the highway. Witnesses said the violence on Sept. 20 grew out of a late-night argument between supporters and opponents of the projects; one witness claimed the participants had been drinking. A construction supporter shot an opponent dead, according to some reports, and his friends then retaliated by killing the attacker and six members of his family. (Periódico Digital (Mexico) 9/20/14 from AFP; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 9/20/14)
In related news, the CUC was one of the organizations sponsoring two days of road blockages and other protests on Sept. 17 and 18 to demand that Congress pass two bills, the Rural Development Law and the Community Communication Media Law. Campesinos demonstrated at 26 sites around the country. The national protests came a little more than two weeks after similar campesino actions helped promote repeal of the “Monsanto Law,” a measure authorizing patents on hybrid and genetically modified (GM) plants [see Update #1232].
At least five people were injured during the protests on Sept. 18 when police agents tried to remove roadblocks in the eastern department of Chiquimula. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla told reporters that the protesters fired on police, while the CUC’s Pascual described the incident as a “brawl” and indicated that police hit a Maya Chariti woman with live ammunition. A teenager suffered a head injury when protesters blocking the Inter-American highway at San Cristóbal Totonicapán, Totonicapán, threw rocks at a bus he was riding as the driver tried to pass through. Highways were also blocked in Quetzaltenango, Quiché, Jalapa, Retalhuleu and Alta Verapaz departments. In Alta Verapaz a group of demonstrators detained Raxruhá mayor Gumercindo Reyes Bolvito for five hours to pressure the authorities to listen to their demands, while in Chisec municipality, also in Alta Verapaz, alleged demonstrators damaged the home of Mayor Rogelio Cal. (Prensa Libre 9/18/14; Latin American Herald Tribune 9/18/14 from EFE; Prensa Latina 9/19/14)
*2. Honduras: Mine Opponents Report New Threats
Members of Honduras’ Tolupan indigenous group in the community of San Francisco Locomapa in the northern department of Yoro have been threatened by armed men linked to organized crime, some residents charged in a video posted on YouTube on Sept. 10. There have been protests for more than a year against illegal logging in the area and against an antimony mine which the protesters say is operating without a permit. Locomapa residents María Enriqueta Matute, Armando Fúnez Medina and Ricardo Soto were killed by two mine employees during a protest on Aug. 23, 2013 [see Update #1190]. The Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH) and other Honduran organizations say the government has failed to arrest the killers or take other actions required by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), the human rights agency of the Organization of American States (OAS). The CID ordered protective measures for 38 community members last year on Dec. 19. (Adital (Brazil) 9/18/14)
*3. Mexico: Cananea Toxic Spills Continue
The State Civil Protection Unit (UEPC) of the northern Mexican state of Sonora issued a new alert on Sept. 21 warning some 25,000 residents about likely contamination in the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers from the giant Buenavista del Cobre copper mine in Cananea. According to Arizpe municipality president Vidal Vázquez Chacón, who reported the contamination a day earlier, the source was a leak in the temporary dam set up to stop the overflow of toxic substances after 40,000 cubic meters of copper sulfate acid solution spilled from the mine into the two rivers on Aug. 6 [see Update #1231]. Spokespeople for Grupo México, the company that owns and operates the mine, said the latest overflow was caused by heavy rains associated with Hurricane Odile in mid-September. The 115-year-old mine makes $1 billion annually by producing some 200,000 tons of copper each year. (La Jornada (Mexico) 9/21/14; Associated Press 9/21/14 via Salon)
Anger is growing over the damages from the spill; the National Water Commission (Conagua) initially set the cost at more than 702 million pesos (about US$53 million). On Sept. 19 the UEPC officially confirmed that Buenavista del Cobre personnel were intentionally allowing runoffs from the temporary dam. The agency’s director, Carlos Jesús Arias, said that the mine was no longer giving inspectors access to the area and that UEPC officials would bring along public security forces for the next inspection. (LJ 9/20/14)
Two days earlier, on Sept. 17, the Chamber of Deputies of the federal Congress called for the immediate suspension of the mine’s operations, charging that Grupo México was putting human lives at risk, along with the environment and the region’s economic development. The deputies said the company should be required to pay for all damages, and they endorsed an investigation by a special commission of the Chamber that had found repeated violations of environmental and labor regulations at Cananea. Among other findings, the commission charged that the only protection miners had against dust at the mine came from paper masks issued by management. (LJ 9/15/14, 9/18/14)
The Cananea mine was privatized in 1990 when former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) sold it to Grupo México, whose main shareholder is Mexican billionaire Germán Larrea Mota Velasco [see Update #1037]. The latest problems with the mine come as current president Enrique Peña Nieto pushes ahead with the privatization of the energy sector [see Update #1214].
In other news, on Sept. 20 the federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) announced that it was opening an investigation into the killing of 22 people by soldiers on June 30 in Tlatlaya municipality in México state [see World War 4 Report 9/10/14]. The military claimed that the victims, apparently members of a gang, died in a shootout, but witnesses say they were executed after surrendering. The México state authorities had ruled that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the soldiers. (LJ 9/21/14)
*4. Chile: Alleged Anarchists Arrested in Bombing
On Sept. 18 Chilean authorities arrested three supposed anarchists, Juan Alexis Flores Riquelme, Nataly Casanova Muñoz and Guillermo Durán Méndez, on charges of participation in the Sept. 8 bombing at a shopping center in Santiago’s Escuela Militar subway station; 14 people were injured in the lunchtime blast [see Update #1233]. Public defender Eduardo Camus, who is representing the defendants, said they denied involvement. The arrests took place during an operation by more than 200 agents of the carabineros militarized police which included searches in six homes in the working-class Santiago-area communes of La Granja, San Bernardo and La Pintana. So far there have been some 200 bombings and attempted bombings in Chile in the past 10 years; most caused no injuries.
Also on Sept. 18, a statement appeared on an anarchist website claiming responsibility for the attack by part of an international network known as the “Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire” (“Conspiración de las Células del Fuego,” or CCF, in Spanish). The statement--posted at a URL which now appears to be inaccessible, http://es.contrainfo.espiv.net/2014/09/18/santiago-chile-reivindicacion-de-los-bombazos-en-la-estacion-los-dominicos-y-el-subcentro-de-escuela-militar/--claimed that the group called an emergency number “more than 10 minutes before the blast, waiting for police to react by evacuating, but they ignored it, detonating the device and causing several injuries, which we lament. Our target was not consumers or workers, but the structures, properties and enforcers of power.”
The “Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire” seems to be mostly based in Greece, and the US State Department has reportedly labeled the Greek section a terrorist group, although the group doesn’t appear on the State Department’s official terrorist list. Anarchists and other leftists in Chile have denounced the Sept. 8 attack, and University of Chile history professor Sergio Grez, who writes about anarchism, questioned whether anarchists were involved. “To conflate anarchism and terrorism is not just a profound historical mistake but a politically motivated one as well,” he told the Associated Press wire service. (Terra Chile 9/18/14 from EFE; Radio Universidad de Chile 9/18/14; Washington Post 9/18/14 from AP)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico, Haiti, US/immigration
Battle Hots Up to Curb ‘Vulture Funds’ (Argentina)
http://alainet.org/active/77206
Uruguay’s Legalization of Marijuana Makes Sense in a Senseless Drug War
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/uruguay-archives-48/5057-uruguays-legalization-of-marijuana-makes-sense-in-a-senseless-drug-war
Uruguay: Deepening of progressivism or conservative break?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5047-uruguay-deepening-of-progressivism-or-conservative-break
Amazon's 'flying rivers' dry up (Brazil)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5046-amazons-flying-rivers-dry-up
The Negation of Rights in Mato Grosso do Sul: A Look at the Reality (Brazil)
https://intercontinentalcry.org/negation-rights-mato-grosso-sul-look-reality/
Connectivity and Mobility through Bolivia's Cable Cars
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/connectivity-and-mobility-through-bolivias-cable-cars
Anti-Semitic attacks in Bolivia: usual confusion
http://ww4report.com/node/13544
Remains Believed to Be Those of Murdered Indigenous Leader Found in Peru
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5050-remains-believed-to-be-those-of-murdered-indigenous-leader-found-in-peru
Peru Plans to Abolish Iconic Amazon Indigenous Reserve, NGO Claims
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/5052-peru-plans-to-abolish-iconic-amazon-indigenous-reserve-ngo-claims
Ecuador: mobilizations for and against Correa
http://ww4report.com/node/13546
Colombia: freed cartel hitman demands protection
http://ww4report.com/node/13529
Colombia: Chocó indigenous leaders assassinated
http://ww4report.com/node/13545
Latest Video Links Opposition Mayor to Venezuelan Terrorists
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/-Latest-Video-Links-Opposition-Mayor-to-Venezuelan-Terrorists-20140920-0025.html
56 Tons of Venezuelan Humanitarian Aid Reach Gaza in Second Shipment since August
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10915
World Bank Tribunal Weighs Final Arguments in El Salvador Mining Dispute
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/5049-world-bank-tribunal-weighs-final-arguments-in-el-salvador-mining-dispute
Multinational Mineral Company Strikes Back at El Salvador
http://ww4report.com/node/13548
Yaqui Tribal Authority’s Jailing in Water Conflict Signals Need to Implement Environmental Justice (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/12899
US$525 Million in Mexico's Oil Industry
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Companies-to-Invest-US525-Million-in-Mexicos-Oil-Industry-20140919-0055.html
Mexico: a new Pax Mafiosa?
http://ww4report.com/node/13553
Mexico: San Salvador Atenco Fights for Land, Resists Proposed Airport
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/5055-mexico-san-salvador-atenco-fights-for-land-resists-proposed-airport
U.N. and U.S. Blame Haiti’s Opposition for Delayed Elections, Ignore History
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/un-and-us-blame-haitis-opposition-for-delayed-elections-ignore-history
How a little hospitality has helped grow the movement for migrant rights (US/immigration)
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/hospitality-helped-grow-movement-for-migrant-rights/
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://www.telesurtv.net/english/index.html
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/
1. Guatemala: 8 Die in Cement Factory Dispute
2. Honduras: Mine Opponents Report New Threats
3. Mexico: Cananea Toxic Spills Continue
4. Chile: Alleged Anarchists Arrested in Bombing
5. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, 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. Guatemala: 8 Die in Cement Factory Dispute
A confrontation between indigenous Guatemalans in the early morning of Sept. 20 over the construction of a cement factory and a highway left eight dead in Loma Blanca community, San Juan Sacatepéquez municipality, about 30 km northwest of Guatemala City in Guatemala department. Several others were injured, and three houses and five vehicles were set on fire. According to Daniel Pascual, the leader of the Campesino Unity Committee (CUC) [see Update #1123], several armed men, some of them employees of the Cementos Progreso cement company, fired on residents who oppose the two construction projects. A Cementos Progreso representative, José González Merlos, blamed factory opponents. “These acts of violence aren’t new,” he said, charging that construction workers “have frequently been harassed and attacked in their homes.” Factory opponents “respect absolutely nothing,” according to González Merlos.
San Juan Sacatepéquez residents, who are mostly members of the Kaqchikel Mayan group, have been organizing against construction of the cement factory since 2007; one was killed during a protest in a June 2008 [see Update #1183]. Many of the residents also oppose the government’s plan to run a highway through the municipality as part of the Regional Beltway, a highway which is to encircle Guatemala City. However, some residents have gotten jobs in the construction of the cement factory or have made money by selling their land for the highway. Witnesses said the violence on Sept. 20 grew out of a late-night argument between supporters and opponents of the projects; one witness claimed the participants had been drinking. A construction supporter shot an opponent dead, according to some reports, and his friends then retaliated by killing the attacker and six members of his family. (Periódico Digital (Mexico) 9/20/14 from AFP; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 9/20/14)
In related news, the CUC was one of the organizations sponsoring two days of road blockages and other protests on Sept. 17 and 18 to demand that Congress pass two bills, the Rural Development Law and the Community Communication Media Law. Campesinos demonstrated at 26 sites around the country. The national protests came a little more than two weeks after similar campesino actions helped promote repeal of the “Monsanto Law,” a measure authorizing patents on hybrid and genetically modified (GM) plants [see Update #1232].
At least five people were injured during the protests on Sept. 18 when police agents tried to remove roadblocks in the eastern department of Chiquimula. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla told reporters that the protesters fired on police, while the CUC’s Pascual described the incident as a “brawl” and indicated that police hit a Maya Chariti woman with live ammunition. A teenager suffered a head injury when protesters blocking the Inter-American highway at San Cristóbal Totonicapán, Totonicapán, threw rocks at a bus he was riding as the driver tried to pass through. Highways were also blocked in Quetzaltenango, Quiché, Jalapa, Retalhuleu and Alta Verapaz departments. In Alta Verapaz a group of demonstrators detained Raxruhá mayor Gumercindo Reyes Bolvito for five hours to pressure the authorities to listen to their demands, while in Chisec municipality, also in Alta Verapaz, alleged demonstrators damaged the home of Mayor Rogelio Cal. (Prensa Libre 9/18/14; Latin American Herald Tribune 9/18/14 from EFE; Prensa Latina 9/19/14)
*2. Honduras: Mine Opponents Report New Threats
Members of Honduras’ Tolupan indigenous group in the community of San Francisco Locomapa in the northern department of Yoro have been threatened by armed men linked to organized crime, some residents charged in a video posted on YouTube on Sept. 10. There have been protests for more than a year against illegal logging in the area and against an antimony mine which the protesters say is operating without a permit. Locomapa residents María Enriqueta Matute, Armando Fúnez Medina and Ricardo Soto were killed by two mine employees during a protest on Aug. 23, 2013 [see Update #1190]. The Honduran Black Fraternal Organization (OFRANEH) and other Honduran organizations say the government has failed to arrest the killers or take other actions required by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR, or CIDH in Spanish), the human rights agency of the Organization of American States (OAS). The CID ordered protective measures for 38 community members last year on Dec. 19. (Adital (Brazil) 9/18/14)
*3. Mexico: Cananea Toxic Spills Continue
The State Civil Protection Unit (UEPC) of the northern Mexican state of Sonora issued a new alert on Sept. 21 warning some 25,000 residents about likely contamination in the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers from the giant Buenavista del Cobre copper mine in Cananea. According to Arizpe municipality president Vidal Vázquez Chacón, who reported the contamination a day earlier, the source was a leak in the temporary dam set up to stop the overflow of toxic substances after 40,000 cubic meters of copper sulfate acid solution spilled from the mine into the two rivers on Aug. 6 [see Update #1231]. Spokespeople for Grupo México, the company that owns and operates the mine, said the latest overflow was caused by heavy rains associated with Hurricane Odile in mid-September. The 115-year-old mine makes $1 billion annually by producing some 200,000 tons of copper each year. (La Jornada (Mexico) 9/21/14; Associated Press 9/21/14 via Salon)
Anger is growing over the damages from the spill; the National Water Commission (Conagua) initially set the cost at more than 702 million pesos (about US$53 million). On Sept. 19 the UEPC officially confirmed that Buenavista del Cobre personnel were intentionally allowing runoffs from the temporary dam. The agency’s director, Carlos Jesús Arias, said that the mine was no longer giving inspectors access to the area and that UEPC officials would bring along public security forces for the next inspection. (LJ 9/20/14)
Two days earlier, on Sept. 17, the Chamber of Deputies of the federal Congress called for the immediate suspension of the mine’s operations, charging that Grupo México was putting human lives at risk, along with the environment and the region’s economic development. The deputies said the company should be required to pay for all damages, and they endorsed an investigation by a special commission of the Chamber that had found repeated violations of environmental and labor regulations at Cananea. Among other findings, the commission charged that the only protection miners had against dust at the mine came from paper masks issued by management. (LJ 9/15/14, 9/18/14)
The Cananea mine was privatized in 1990 when former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) sold it to Grupo México, whose main shareholder is Mexican billionaire Germán Larrea Mota Velasco [see Update #1037]. The latest problems with the mine come as current president Enrique Peña Nieto pushes ahead with the privatization of the energy sector [see Update #1214].
In other news, on Sept. 20 the federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) announced that it was opening an investigation into the killing of 22 people by soldiers on June 30 in Tlatlaya municipality in México state [see World War 4 Report 9/10/14]. The military claimed that the victims, apparently members of a gang, died in a shootout, but witnesses say they were executed after surrendering. The México state authorities had ruled that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the soldiers. (LJ 9/21/14)
*4. Chile: Alleged Anarchists Arrested in Bombing
On Sept. 18 Chilean authorities arrested three supposed anarchists, Juan Alexis Flores Riquelme, Nataly Casanova Muñoz and Guillermo Durán Méndez, on charges of participation in the Sept. 8 bombing at a shopping center in Santiago’s Escuela Militar subway station; 14 people were injured in the lunchtime blast [see Update #1233]. Public defender Eduardo Camus, who is representing the defendants, said they denied involvement. The arrests took place during an operation by more than 200 agents of the carabineros militarized police which included searches in six homes in the working-class Santiago-area communes of La Granja, San Bernardo and La Pintana. So far there have been some 200 bombings and attempted bombings in Chile in the past 10 years; most caused no injuries.
Also on Sept. 18, a statement appeared on an anarchist website claiming responsibility for the attack by part of an international network known as the “Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire” (“Conspiración de las Células del Fuego,” or CCF, in Spanish). The statement--posted at a URL which now appears to be inaccessible, http://es.contrainfo.espiv.net/2014/09/18/santiago-chile-reivindicacion-de-los-bombazos-en-la-estacion-los-dominicos-y-el-subcentro-de-escuela-militar/--claimed that the group called an emergency number “more than 10 minutes before the blast, waiting for police to react by evacuating, but they ignored it, detonating the device and causing several injuries, which we lament. Our target was not consumers or workers, but the structures, properties and enforcers of power.”
The “Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire” seems to be mostly based in Greece, and the US State Department has reportedly labeled the Greek section a terrorist group, although the group doesn’t appear on the State Department’s official terrorist list. Anarchists and other leftists in Chile have denounced the Sept. 8 attack, and University of Chile history professor Sergio Grez, who writes about anarchism, questioned whether anarchists were involved. “To conflate anarchism and terrorism is not just a profound historical mistake but a politically motivated one as well,” he told the Associated Press wire service. (Terra Chile 9/18/14 from EFE; Radio Universidad de Chile 9/18/14; Washington Post 9/18/14 from AP)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico, Haiti, US/immigration
Battle Hots Up to Curb ‘Vulture Funds’ (Argentina)
http://alainet.org/active/77206
Uruguay’s Legalization of Marijuana Makes Sense in a Senseless Drug War
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/uruguay-archives-48/5057-uruguays-legalization-of-marijuana-makes-sense-in-a-senseless-drug-war
Uruguay: Deepening of progressivism or conservative break?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5047-uruguay-deepening-of-progressivism-or-conservative-break
Amazon's 'flying rivers' dry up (Brazil)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5046-amazons-flying-rivers-dry-up
The Negation of Rights in Mato Grosso do Sul: A Look at the Reality (Brazil)
https://intercontinentalcry.org/negation-rights-mato-grosso-sul-look-reality/
Connectivity and Mobility through Bolivia's Cable Cars
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/connectivity-and-mobility-through-bolivias-cable-cars
Anti-Semitic attacks in Bolivia: usual confusion
http://ww4report.com/node/13544
Remains Believed to Be Those of Murdered Indigenous Leader Found in Peru
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5050-remains-believed-to-be-those-of-murdered-indigenous-leader-found-in-peru
Peru Plans to Abolish Iconic Amazon Indigenous Reserve, NGO Claims
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/5052-peru-plans-to-abolish-iconic-amazon-indigenous-reserve-ngo-claims
Ecuador: mobilizations for and against Correa
http://ww4report.com/node/13546
Colombia: freed cartel hitman demands protection
http://ww4report.com/node/13529
Colombia: Chocó indigenous leaders assassinated
http://ww4report.com/node/13545
Latest Video Links Opposition Mayor to Venezuelan Terrorists
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/-Latest-Video-Links-Opposition-Mayor-to-Venezuelan-Terrorists-20140920-0025.html
56 Tons of Venezuelan Humanitarian Aid Reach Gaza in Second Shipment since August
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10915
World Bank Tribunal Weighs Final Arguments in El Salvador Mining Dispute
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/el-salvador-archives-74/5049-world-bank-tribunal-weighs-final-arguments-in-el-salvador-mining-dispute
Multinational Mineral Company Strikes Back at El Salvador
http://ww4report.com/node/13548
Yaqui Tribal Authority’s Jailing in Water Conflict Signals Need to Implement Environmental Justice (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/12899
US$525 Million in Mexico's Oil Industry
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Companies-to-Invest-US525-Million-in-Mexicos-Oil-Industry-20140919-0055.html
Mexico: a new Pax Mafiosa?
http://ww4report.com/node/13553
Mexico: San Salvador Atenco Fights for Land, Resists Proposed Airport
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/5055-mexico-san-salvador-atenco-fights-for-land-resists-proposed-airport
U.N. and U.S. Blame Haiti’s Opposition for Delayed Elections, Ignore History
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/un-and-us-blame-haitis-opposition-for-delayed-elections-ignore-history
How a little hospitality has helped grow the movement for migrant rights (US/immigration)
http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/hospitality-helped-grow-movement-for-migrant-rights/
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://www.telesurtv.net/english/index.html
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, September 16, 2014
WNU #1233: Who’s Behind the Bombings in Chile?
Issue #1233, September 14, 2014
1. Chile: Who’s Behind the Bombing Spree?
2. Guatemala: Bishop's Killer Runs Prison Ring
3. Peru: Guards Union Leader Brutally Beaten
4. Haiti: UN Mission Reduced; Opposition Grows
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, US/immigration, US/policy
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. 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: Who’s Behind the Bombing Spree?
Fourteen people were injured, four of them seriously, when a homemade bomb exploded at 2 pm on Sept. 8 in a shopping center restaurant at the busy Escuela Miltar subway station in Santiago, the Chilean capital. In response, President Michelle Bachelet, a Socialist Party of Chile (PS) leader who began her second term on Mar. 11, held a special security meeting in the La Moneda palace on Sept. 9; she called for increased vigilance and for modifications to the Antiterrorist Law, a measure passed during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The bombing came shortly before the 41st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 1973 coup in which Pinochet’s military overthrew Socialist president Salvador Allende Gossens.
No group had claimed responsibility for the attack as of Sept. 13. There were reportedly 26 attempted bombings in Chile previously this year, several supposedly by anarchist groups, but only four of the earlier bombs exploded, and none resulted in injuries. The media speculated that anarchist groups were involved in the Sept. 8 attack, and the Canal 13 television station suggested the bombing might be linked to the country’s militant student movement [see Update #1219]. Others suggested involvement by the leftist rebel Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), which carried out an assassination attempt against Pinochet on Sept. 7, 1986, almost exactly 28 years before this year’s bombing; five guards were killed, but Pinochet only suffered minor injuries. The group, now demobilized, quickly denied responsibility for the new attack. Rightwing forces “seek through injuring workers and Chileans in general to create political and social conditions to give birth to the reestablishment of security organizations in the style of the military-civilian governments,” the FPMR said in a statement. Analysts noted that Chile’s left groups had in the past avoided daytime attacks in crowded areas like subway stations and shopping centers.
There was also speculation that President Bachelet’s mother, Angela Jeria--the widow of Gen. Alberto Bachelet, who was murdered by the Pinochet regime--might have been the target. She lives in the area near the Escuela Militar station and happened to be in the shopping center at the time of the explosion, accompanied by her usual security team of two carabinero police agents in civilian dress. She was not injured. (Terra Chile 9/8/14 from AFP; Washington Post 9/9/14 from AP; La Opinión (Los Angeles) 9/9/14; La Jornada (Mexico) 9/10/14 from correspondent; La República (Peru) 9/14/14)
As has been customary for years, militant protests marked the actual anniversary of the coup on Sept. 11, with burning barricades and vehicles and clashes with police in working-class districts of Santiago, including Villa Francia, Peñalolen, San Bernardo, Quilicura and Cerro Navia. President Bachelet used the occasion to call for a repeal of the Amnesty Law, which shields many abusers from the Pinochet era. “In democracy, Chile has not lost its memory and has not forgotten its persecuted, executed and missing arrested children,” she said at a Sept. 11 commemoration. “Neither has [Chile] forgotten the wounds that continue causing pain.” In addition to losing her father, Bachelet herself was tortured under the dictatorship. (VICE 9/12/14)
In related news, Chilean journalist Loreto Daza reported, based on US government documents, that in 1986 the administration of former president Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) feared resistance to the regime in Chile might lead to civil war and considered a plan to remove Pinochet from power and offer him asylum in the US. One document described this as an “honorable departure for President [Pinochet], who would be received as a guest of our government.” According to Peter Kornbluh, director of the Chile Documentation Project at the DC-based National Security Archive, Reagan admired Pinochet so much that he “wanted to go to Chile to personally thank him for ‘saving Chile’ and tell him that ‘it was time to go.’” Then-secretary of state George Shultz nixed Reagan’s idea. (The Guardian (UK) 9/11/14)
*2. Guatemala: Bishop's Killer Runs Prison Ring
On Sept. 3 the United Nations-sponsored International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) announced that a joint operation with Guatemala’s Public Ministry and Governance Ministry had captured seven members of a criminal network that took bribes to arrange transfers for prisoners; the ring also supplied prisoners with cell phones, special food, conjugal visits and other benefits. According to the authorities, the network’s leaders were Penitentiary System Director Edgar Camargo Liere and a prisoner, Byron Miguel Lima Oliva, who is serving a 20-year term for carrying out the Apr. 26, 1998 murder of Catholic bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, a well-known human rights campaigner. A total of 14 people are charged with participating in the bribery ring, but apparently not all had been captured as of Sept. 3. (CICIG 9/3/14)
Lima Oliva, a former army captain who is an inmate in the Pavoncito prison south of Guatemala City, reportedly had an arrangement with Penitentiary Director Camargo that enabled him to charge a prisoner as much as $12,000 to be transferred. Lima Oliva himself apparently was living well in the Pavoncito. He was equipped with as many as five cell phones for his business, made frequent trips out of prison in armored cars, including a Porsche, and invested in real estate, including a beachfront property. The Mexican daily La Jornada reported that the corruption in Pavoncito “was always known.” Lima Oliva himself has claimed to be friends with President Otto Pérez Molina and to have connections with Governance Minister Mauricio López Bonilla; he says he arranged the printing of the campaign polo shirts for Pérez Molina’s successful 2011 election campaign. In February of this year Lima Oliva was apprehended while going to the dentist and overstaying his authorized time outside the prison; he and his entourage were traveling in vehicles used in the 2011 campaign by Pérez Molina’s Patriotic Party (PP).
According to the court that convicted him in June 2001, Lima Oliva bludgeoned Bishop Gerardi to death just two days after Gerardi released a report on abuses during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war; the report blamed many of the abuses on the military. Also convicted were Lima Oliva’s father, former colonel Byron Disrael Lima Estrada, and a former soldier in the Presidential General Staff (EMP), Specialist Obdulio Villanueva Arévalo. The elder Lima was given an early release in 2012 for good behavior; Villanueva was decapitated during an inmate riot at the Preventive Center prison in northern Guatemala City in February 2003. Lima Oliva was in the same prison but was unharmed [see Update #681]. He denies any role in Gerardi’s murder and says he’s a scapegoat.
Lima Oliva’s apparent connections with the government have led to suspicions that the prosecution of the former captain may not be successful. La Jornada correspondent Sanjuana Martínez asked the judge in the case, Miguel Ángel Gálvez, if he might end up fleeing the country, as happened with the chief prosecutor in Lima Oliva’s 2001 conviction. “I hope not,” Judge Gálvez said. When asked if he was afraid, he answered: “Of course, especially since this is a very complex country.” (Christian Science Monitor 9/5/14; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 9/11/14; LJ 9/14/14; The Guardian (UK) 7/14/12 from AP)
*3. Peru: Guards Union Leader Brutally Beaten
Luis Cárdenas Velásquez, the secretary general of a union representing Peruvian employees of the Spanish security firm Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad, was assaulted near his home early on the morning of Aug. 22 as he was on his way to work. The assailant beat Cárdenas’ head with a rock and then fled in a car which had been kept waiting a block away with the motor running. Nothing was stolen. Cárdenas reported the attack to the authorities and received four stitches at a hospital. A month earlier pamphlets were circulated among Prosegur staff accusing Cárdenas of stealing union funds. Management denied responsibility for the pamphlets and for similar anti-union pamphlets that have been reported at Prosegur sites in Colombia. The company has subsidiaries in a total of eight Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Cárdenas’ union, the Prosegur Workers Union Peru, represents money transport workers who won recognition from management after a five-day strike in September 2013. The union is affiliated with the Swiss-based UNI Global Union, which claims to represent some 20 million service workers in 900 unions worldwide. UNI has protested to Prosegur in Spain, and the British-based LabourStart website is calling for labor rights supporters to send a letter to Presegur president Helena Revoredo Delvecchio and CEO Christian Gut Revoredo; the letter can be sent by email from http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=2477. (La República (Peru) 9/12/13; UNI Global Union 9/18/13, 8/28/14; Sindicato de Trabajadores y Empleados de Prosegur Paraguay S.A. 8/22/14; LabourStart 9/10/14)
*4. Haiti: UN Mission Reduced; Opposition Grows
United Nations (UN) secretary general Ban Ki-moon plans to continue the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) one more year but wishes to cut it significantly, according to a report that the military and police mission’s current head, the Trinidadian diplomat Sandra Honoré, presented to the UN Security Council on Sept. 11. Secretary General Ban recommended extending MINUSTAH for another year when its mandate ends on Oct. 15. However, the military component would be reduced to 2,370 soldiers by June 2015; currently the mission has 5,021 soldiers and 2,601 police agents, along with nearly 2,000 civilian employees and volunteers. Honoré said the Haitian National Police (PNH), which now has 10,963 agents, would be able to take over many of MINUSTAH’s functions. She admitted that “[t[he reinforcement of the national police needs to be accompanied by measures for accelerating the reform of the justice system to support the construction of institutions and to improve local governance.” (AlterPresse (Haiti) 9/12/14)
Opposition to MINUSTAH continues to grow in several of the Latin American countries that contribute most of the troops. In June Jubilee South/Americas, a Latin American network focusing on international debt, marked 10 years since the mission’s start by launching a campaign to end it [see Update #1222]. On Sept. 8 some 100 social movements and well-known activists sent Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies a letter calling on the National Congress to end the authorization for the country’s participation; Argentina has 566 soldiers in Haiti. The letter also asked the legislature to demand that the left-leaning government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner use its current position on the UN Security Council to vote no when MINUSTAH’s mandate comes up for renewal on Oct. 15.
MINUSTAH opponents held a press conference at the Chamber of Deputies on Sept. 10 with Nora Cortiñas from the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo; 1980 Nobel peace prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; Pablo Micheli, general secretary of the Federation of Argentine Workers (CTA); journalist and human rights defender Herman Schiller; and Jubilee South’s Beverly Keene. “Argentina ought to take into consideration the example of Bolivia and Uruguay, which are discussing the withdrawal of their troops,” Micheli said in his remarks, “and, even more so, the example of Cuba and Venezuela, which, far from sending occupation forces, are guaranteeing the presence of doctors and teachers, which is what the Haitian people need.” (AlterPresse 9/11/14; Adital (Brazil) 9/12/14)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, US/immigration, US/policy
The Conservative Restoration in Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/5039-the-conservative-restoration-in-latin-america
Latin America’s Anti-drug Policies Feed on the Poor
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5040-latin-americas-anti-drug-policies-feed-on-the-poor
The Other Side of Human Rights in Argentina
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/5034-the-other-side-of-human-rights-in-argentina
Brazil: deadly prison uprising ends in deal
http://ww4report.com/node/13518
Four Peruvian anti-logging activists murdered
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5038-four-peruvian-anti-logging-activists-murdered
Amazon indigenous leaders killed by illegal loggers (Peru)
http://ww4report.com/node/13520
Venezuela’s PDVSA Discusses Sale of Citgo as Central Bank Reports Drop in Inflation
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10899
Film Review: ‘Revolutionary Medicine - A Story of the First Garifuna Hospital' (Honduras)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/5043-film-review-revolutionary-medicine-a-story-of-the-first-garifuna-hospital
Organizations Condemn Assassination of Human Rights Activist in Guatemala
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Organizations-Condemn-Assassination-of-Human-Rights-Activist-in-Guatemala-20140913-0038.html
Mayan People’s Movement Defeats Monsanto Law in Guatemala
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/5042-mayan-peoples-movement-defeats-monsanto-law-in-guatemala
Media in Movement (Interview with Martín Rodríguez Pellecer, Guatemala)
http://nacla.org/news/2014/9/10/media-movement-interview-mart%C3%ADn-rodr%C3%ADguez-pellecer
Mexico: demand investigation of military massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/13519
U.S. Congressmen Demand Freedom for Nestora (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/u-s-congressmen-demand-freedom-for-nestora/
Cuba to Send Doctors to Treat Ebola in Africa
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cuba-to-Send-Doctors-to-Treat-Ebola-in-Africa-20140912-0022.html
Cuba estimates US embargo has cost island $116.8bn in damages in 55 years
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5041-cuba-estimates-us-embargo-has-cost-island-1168bn-in-damages-in-55-years
Is the Martelly Government Putting Former President Aristide in Danger? (Haiti)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/is-the-martelly-government-putting-former-president-aristide-in-danger
USAID Education Contractor Gets a Bad Grade (Haiti)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/usaid-education-contractor-gets-a-bad-grade
Why Immigration Reform Has to Go Hand-in-Hand With Stronger Labor Rights (US/immigration)
http://www.thenation.com/blog/181517/why-immigration-reform-has-go-hand-hand-stronger-labor-rights
US Court Sets Precedent by Ruling Guatemalan Domestic Violence Victim Can Seek Asylum (US/immigration)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5044-us-court-sets-precedent-by-ruling-guatemalan-domestic-violence-victim-can-seek-asylum-
On Government Funding of Think Tanks (US/policy)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/on-government-funding-of-think-tanks
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://www.telesurtv.net/english/index.html
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/
1. Chile: Who’s Behind the Bombing Spree?
2. Guatemala: Bishop's Killer Runs Prison Ring
3. Peru: Guards Union Leader Brutally Beaten
4. Haiti: UN Mission Reduced; Opposition Grows
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, US/immigration, US/policy
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. 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: Who’s Behind the Bombing Spree?
Fourteen people were injured, four of them seriously, when a homemade bomb exploded at 2 pm on Sept. 8 in a shopping center restaurant at the busy Escuela Miltar subway station in Santiago, the Chilean capital. In response, President Michelle Bachelet, a Socialist Party of Chile (PS) leader who began her second term on Mar. 11, held a special security meeting in the La Moneda palace on Sept. 9; she called for increased vigilance and for modifications to the Antiterrorist Law, a measure passed during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The bombing came shortly before the 41st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 1973 coup in which Pinochet’s military overthrew Socialist president Salvador Allende Gossens.
No group had claimed responsibility for the attack as of Sept. 13. There were reportedly 26 attempted bombings in Chile previously this year, several supposedly by anarchist groups, but only four of the earlier bombs exploded, and none resulted in injuries. The media speculated that anarchist groups were involved in the Sept. 8 attack, and the Canal 13 television station suggested the bombing might be linked to the country’s militant student movement [see Update #1219]. Others suggested involvement by the leftist rebel Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), which carried out an assassination attempt against Pinochet on Sept. 7, 1986, almost exactly 28 years before this year’s bombing; five guards were killed, but Pinochet only suffered minor injuries. The group, now demobilized, quickly denied responsibility for the new attack. Rightwing forces “seek through injuring workers and Chileans in general to create political and social conditions to give birth to the reestablishment of security organizations in the style of the military-civilian governments,” the FPMR said in a statement. Analysts noted that Chile’s left groups had in the past avoided daytime attacks in crowded areas like subway stations and shopping centers.
There was also speculation that President Bachelet’s mother, Angela Jeria--the widow of Gen. Alberto Bachelet, who was murdered by the Pinochet regime--might have been the target. She lives in the area near the Escuela Militar station and happened to be in the shopping center at the time of the explosion, accompanied by her usual security team of two carabinero police agents in civilian dress. She was not injured. (Terra Chile 9/8/14 from AFP; Washington Post 9/9/14 from AP; La Opinión (Los Angeles) 9/9/14; La Jornada (Mexico) 9/10/14 from correspondent; La República (Peru) 9/14/14)
As has been customary for years, militant protests marked the actual anniversary of the coup on Sept. 11, with burning barricades and vehicles and clashes with police in working-class districts of Santiago, including Villa Francia, Peñalolen, San Bernardo, Quilicura and Cerro Navia. President Bachelet used the occasion to call for a repeal of the Amnesty Law, which shields many abusers from the Pinochet era. “In democracy, Chile has not lost its memory and has not forgotten its persecuted, executed and missing arrested children,” she said at a Sept. 11 commemoration. “Neither has [Chile] forgotten the wounds that continue causing pain.” In addition to losing her father, Bachelet herself was tortured under the dictatorship. (VICE 9/12/14)
In related news, Chilean journalist Loreto Daza reported, based on US government documents, that in 1986 the administration of former president Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) feared resistance to the regime in Chile might lead to civil war and considered a plan to remove Pinochet from power and offer him asylum in the US. One document described this as an “honorable departure for President [Pinochet], who would be received as a guest of our government.” According to Peter Kornbluh, director of the Chile Documentation Project at the DC-based National Security Archive, Reagan admired Pinochet so much that he “wanted to go to Chile to personally thank him for ‘saving Chile’ and tell him that ‘it was time to go.’” Then-secretary of state George Shultz nixed Reagan’s idea. (The Guardian (UK) 9/11/14)
*2. Guatemala: Bishop's Killer Runs Prison Ring
On Sept. 3 the United Nations-sponsored International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) announced that a joint operation with Guatemala’s Public Ministry and Governance Ministry had captured seven members of a criminal network that took bribes to arrange transfers for prisoners; the ring also supplied prisoners with cell phones, special food, conjugal visits and other benefits. According to the authorities, the network’s leaders were Penitentiary System Director Edgar Camargo Liere and a prisoner, Byron Miguel Lima Oliva, who is serving a 20-year term for carrying out the Apr. 26, 1998 murder of Catholic bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, a well-known human rights campaigner. A total of 14 people are charged with participating in the bribery ring, but apparently not all had been captured as of Sept. 3. (CICIG 9/3/14)
Lima Oliva, a former army captain who is an inmate in the Pavoncito prison south of Guatemala City, reportedly had an arrangement with Penitentiary Director Camargo that enabled him to charge a prisoner as much as $12,000 to be transferred. Lima Oliva himself apparently was living well in the Pavoncito. He was equipped with as many as five cell phones for his business, made frequent trips out of prison in armored cars, including a Porsche, and invested in real estate, including a beachfront property. The Mexican daily La Jornada reported that the corruption in Pavoncito “was always known.” Lima Oliva himself has claimed to be friends with President Otto Pérez Molina and to have connections with Governance Minister Mauricio López Bonilla; he says he arranged the printing of the campaign polo shirts for Pérez Molina’s successful 2011 election campaign. In February of this year Lima Oliva was apprehended while going to the dentist and overstaying his authorized time outside the prison; he and his entourage were traveling in vehicles used in the 2011 campaign by Pérez Molina’s Patriotic Party (PP).
According to the court that convicted him in June 2001, Lima Oliva bludgeoned Bishop Gerardi to death just two days after Gerardi released a report on abuses during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war; the report blamed many of the abuses on the military. Also convicted were Lima Oliva’s father, former colonel Byron Disrael Lima Estrada, and a former soldier in the Presidential General Staff (EMP), Specialist Obdulio Villanueva Arévalo. The elder Lima was given an early release in 2012 for good behavior; Villanueva was decapitated during an inmate riot at the Preventive Center prison in northern Guatemala City in February 2003. Lima Oliva was in the same prison but was unharmed [see Update #681]. He denies any role in Gerardi’s murder and says he’s a scapegoat.
Lima Oliva’s apparent connections with the government have led to suspicions that the prosecution of the former captain may not be successful. La Jornada correspondent Sanjuana Martínez asked the judge in the case, Miguel Ángel Gálvez, if he might end up fleeing the country, as happened with the chief prosecutor in Lima Oliva’s 2001 conviction. “I hope not,” Judge Gálvez said. When asked if he was afraid, he answered: “Of course, especially since this is a very complex country.” (Christian Science Monitor 9/5/14; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 9/11/14; LJ 9/14/14; The Guardian (UK) 7/14/12 from AP)
*3. Peru: Guards Union Leader Brutally Beaten
Luis Cárdenas Velásquez, the secretary general of a union representing Peruvian employees of the Spanish security firm Prosegur Compañía de Seguridad, was assaulted near his home early on the morning of Aug. 22 as he was on his way to work. The assailant beat Cárdenas’ head with a rock and then fled in a car which had been kept waiting a block away with the motor running. Nothing was stolen. Cárdenas reported the attack to the authorities and received four stitches at a hospital. A month earlier pamphlets were circulated among Prosegur staff accusing Cárdenas of stealing union funds. Management denied responsibility for the pamphlets and for similar anti-union pamphlets that have been reported at Prosegur sites in Colombia. The company has subsidiaries in a total of eight Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Cárdenas’ union, the Prosegur Workers Union Peru, represents money transport workers who won recognition from management after a five-day strike in September 2013. The union is affiliated with the Swiss-based UNI Global Union, which claims to represent some 20 million service workers in 900 unions worldwide. UNI has protested to Prosegur in Spain, and the British-based LabourStart website is calling for labor rights supporters to send a letter to Presegur president Helena Revoredo Delvecchio and CEO Christian Gut Revoredo; the letter can be sent by email from http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=2477. (La República (Peru) 9/12/13; UNI Global Union 9/18/13, 8/28/14; Sindicato de Trabajadores y Empleados de Prosegur Paraguay S.A. 8/22/14; LabourStart 9/10/14)
*4. Haiti: UN Mission Reduced; Opposition Grows
United Nations (UN) secretary general Ban Ki-moon plans to continue the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) one more year but wishes to cut it significantly, according to a report that the military and police mission’s current head, the Trinidadian diplomat Sandra Honoré, presented to the UN Security Council on Sept. 11. Secretary General Ban recommended extending MINUSTAH for another year when its mandate ends on Oct. 15. However, the military component would be reduced to 2,370 soldiers by June 2015; currently the mission has 5,021 soldiers and 2,601 police agents, along with nearly 2,000 civilian employees and volunteers. Honoré said the Haitian National Police (PNH), which now has 10,963 agents, would be able to take over many of MINUSTAH’s functions. She admitted that “[t[he reinforcement of the national police needs to be accompanied by measures for accelerating the reform of the justice system to support the construction of institutions and to improve local governance.” (AlterPresse (Haiti) 9/12/14)
Opposition to MINUSTAH continues to grow in several of the Latin American countries that contribute most of the troops. In June Jubilee South/Americas, a Latin American network focusing on international debt, marked 10 years since the mission’s start by launching a campaign to end it [see Update #1222]. On Sept. 8 some 100 social movements and well-known activists sent Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies a letter calling on the National Congress to end the authorization for the country’s participation; Argentina has 566 soldiers in Haiti. The letter also asked the legislature to demand that the left-leaning government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner use its current position on the UN Security Council to vote no when MINUSTAH’s mandate comes up for renewal on Oct. 15.
MINUSTAH opponents held a press conference at the Chamber of Deputies on Sept. 10 with Nora Cortiñas from the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo; 1980 Nobel peace prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; Pablo Micheli, general secretary of the Federation of Argentine Workers (CTA); journalist and human rights defender Herman Schiller; and Jubilee South’s Beverly Keene. “Argentina ought to take into consideration the example of Bolivia and Uruguay, which are discussing the withdrawal of their troops,” Micheli said in his remarks, “and, even more so, the example of Cuba and Venezuela, which, far from sending occupation forces, are guaranteeing the presence of doctors and teachers, which is what the Haitian people need.” (AlterPresse 9/11/14; Adital (Brazil) 9/12/14)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, US/immigration, US/policy
The Conservative Restoration in Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/5039-the-conservative-restoration-in-latin-america
Latin America’s Anti-drug Policies Feed on the Poor
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5040-latin-americas-anti-drug-policies-feed-on-the-poor
The Other Side of Human Rights in Argentina
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/5034-the-other-side-of-human-rights-in-argentina
Brazil: deadly prison uprising ends in deal
http://ww4report.com/node/13518
Four Peruvian anti-logging activists murdered
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5038-four-peruvian-anti-logging-activists-murdered
Amazon indigenous leaders killed by illegal loggers (Peru)
http://ww4report.com/node/13520
Venezuela’s PDVSA Discusses Sale of Citgo as Central Bank Reports Drop in Inflation
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10899
Film Review: ‘Revolutionary Medicine - A Story of the First Garifuna Hospital' (Honduras)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/5043-film-review-revolutionary-medicine-a-story-of-the-first-garifuna-hospital
Organizations Condemn Assassination of Human Rights Activist in Guatemala
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Organizations-Condemn-Assassination-of-Human-Rights-Activist-in-Guatemala-20140913-0038.html
Mayan People’s Movement Defeats Monsanto Law in Guatemala
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/5042-mayan-peoples-movement-defeats-monsanto-law-in-guatemala
Media in Movement (Interview with Martín Rodríguez Pellecer, Guatemala)
http://nacla.org/news/2014/9/10/media-movement-interview-mart%C3%ADn-rodr%C3%ADguez-pellecer
Mexico: demand investigation of military massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/13519
U.S. Congressmen Demand Freedom for Nestora (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/u-s-congressmen-demand-freedom-for-nestora/
Cuba to Send Doctors to Treat Ebola in Africa
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cuba-to-Send-Doctors-to-Treat-Ebola-in-Africa-20140912-0022.html
Cuba estimates US embargo has cost island $116.8bn in damages in 55 years
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5041-cuba-estimates-us-embargo-has-cost-island-1168bn-in-damages-in-55-years
Is the Martelly Government Putting Former President Aristide in Danger? (Haiti)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/is-the-martelly-government-putting-former-president-aristide-in-danger
USAID Education Contractor Gets a Bad Grade (Haiti)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/usaid-education-contractor-gets-a-bad-grade
Why Immigration Reform Has to Go Hand-in-Hand With Stronger Labor Rights (US/immigration)
http://www.thenation.com/blog/181517/why-immigration-reform-has-go-hand-hand-stronger-labor-rights
US Court Sets Precedent by Ruling Guatemalan Domestic Violence Victim Can Seek Asylum (US/immigration)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5044-us-court-sets-precedent-by-ruling-guatemalan-domestic-violence-victim-can-seek-asylum-
On Government Funding of Think Tanks (US/policy)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/on-government-funding-of-think-tanks
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://www.telesurtv.net/english/index.html
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, September 9, 2014
WNU #1232: Guatemalan Activists Defeat “Monsanto Law”
Issue #1232, September 7, 2014
1. Guatemala: Activists Defeat “Monsanto Law”
2. Honduras: Longtime Campesina Leader Murdered
3. Mexico: Torture Increased 600% in 10 Years
4. Haiti: Martelly Opponents Charged With Murder
5. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, 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. Guatemala: Activists Defeat “Monsanto Law”
Guatemala’s unicameral Congress voted 117-111 on Sept. 4 to repeal Decree 19-2014, the Law for Protection of Procurement of Plants, in response to a lawsuit and mass protests by campesinos and environmentalists. The law, which was to take full effect on Sept. 26, provided for granting patents of 25 years for new plants, including hybrid and genetically modified (GM) varieties; unauthorized use of the plants or seeds could result in one to four years in prison and a fine of $130 to $1,300. The law had already been weakened by the Court of Constitutionality; acting on an Aug. 25 legal challenge from the Guatemalan Union, Indigenous and Campesino Movement (MSICG), the court suspended the law’s Articles 46 and 55. The law was originally passed to comply with an intellectual property requirement in the 2004 Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), and it was unclear whether Guatemala might now be excluded from the US-promoted trade bloc.
Opponents labeled the legislation the “Monsanto Law,” after the Missouri-based multinational Monsanto Company, the world’s leading producer of GM seeds. Activists charged that the law opened the way to the introduction of GM plants, which might contaminate local crop varieties and disrupt traditional indigenous farming. Campesinos also felt they could lose their livelihoods due to competition from large-scale farmers who can afford higher-yielding seeds from multinationals.
Opposition to the law appeared to be broad. On Sept. 2 thousands of indigenous campesinos blocked the Inter-American highway at three points in the southwestern department of Sololá until 6 pm to demand the law’s revocation. The protests were led by mayors of the department’s 82 indigenous communities, and some communities closed schools so that students could join in. Organizers estimated total participation at 120,000. Opposition to GM plants and to the dominance of multinationals like Monsanto has been growing in Latin America; indigenous communities in southeastern Mexico have won three court actions blocking GM soy so far this year [see Update #1229]. (Adital (Brazil) 9/2/14; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 9/2/14; TeleSUR English 9/5/14)
*2. Honduras: Longtime Campesina Leader Murdered
Masked men shot and killed Honduran campesino movement leader Margarita Murillo the night of Aug. 26 on land she farmed in the community of El Planón, Villanueva municipality, in the northern department of Cortés. Murillo reportedly began working for campesino rights at the age of 12. During the 1980s she was a founder of the Campesino National Unity Front (FENACAMH) and the General Confederation of Rural Workers (CNTC). After the military removed then-president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009) from office in June 2009, she was both a local and a national leader in the broad coalition resisting the coup, the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), and then in the center-left party that grew out of it, the Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE). The National Congress observed a moment of silence after reports of Murillo’s death were confirmed.
As of Aug. 28 the police said they had no indication of the murder’s authors. Murillo was leading a small cooperative, The Windows Campesino Associative Production Enterprise, that was engaged in a land dispute in the area where she was working at the time of her death. Soldiers had carried off her grown son Samuel from the house where the family lives in Marañón community, south of San Pedro Sula, on July 26; he was reportedly still missing as of Aug. 30. According to Rafael Alegría, a legislative deputy and campesino leader, some 200 campesinos have been murdered and about 700 campesinas face legal charges in cases involving land disputes. (La Prensa (San Pedro Sula) 8/28/14; El Ciudadano (Chile) 8/29/14 from TeleSUR; Vía Campesina 8/30/14)
*3. Mexico: Torture Increased 600% in 10 Years
Torture by police and soldiers continues to be a major problem for the Mexican government, according to “Out of Control: Torture and Other Ill-Treatment in Mexico,” a 74-page report released by the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) on Sept. 4. Electric shocks, near-asphyxiation, mock executions, death threats against prisoners and their families, injection of carbonated drinks or chili pepper in prisoners’ noses, and rape and other forms of sexual violence remain common practices, according to the report, which cites both official statistics and interviews with victims. The result is often forced confessions, wrongful convictions and a failure to arrest the actual perpetrators. Although the government officially condemns torture, it rarely prosecutes police agents or soldiers for the practice and almost never convicts them. January 2014 data from the government’s Federal Judiciary Council (CJF) show that federal courts only took 123 torture cases to trial from 2005 to 2013; seven resulted in convictions. The federal government’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) received 7,164 torture complaints from 2010 to 2013; not one of them led to a conviction.
Reports of torture jumped dramatically after December 2006, when then-president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (2006-2012) began militarizing the fight against drug trafficking [see Update #1199]; complaints to the CNDH rose by 600% from 2003 to 2013. Current president Enrique Peña Nieto has deemphasized the “drug war,” but the number of torture complaints has only fallen slightly. (Al Jazeera America 9/4/14; La Jornada (Mexico) 9/5/14; Jurist 9/5/14)
In other news, a poll released by the Consulta Mitofsky firm in early September showed President Peña Nieto’s approval rating falling to 47%, its lowest level since he took office in December 2012 with a 54% approval rate. The week before, the Pew Research Center reported that the president’s negative ratings rose by nine points in the past year. Peña has been remarkably successful in pushing his programs through Congress, notably an “energy reform” that increases the participation of private and foreign companies in oil production [see Update #1214]. His administration has managed to engineer 85 changes to the Constitution. But the “reforms” have failed to produce the economic upturn Peña promised; the government’s current growth prediction for this year is just 2.7%. The president is “much more popular outside than in Mexico because we don't trust him,” Guadalupe Loaeza, a columnist for the daily Reforma, told the Washington Post. “We don't believe him.” (WP 9/3/14 from correspondents)
*4. Haiti: Martelly Opponents Charged With Murder
On Aug. 27 Haitian investigative judge Lamarre Bélizaire ordered the arrests of four people--two brothers, a well-known lawyer and a police agent--for the Oct. 18, 2010 murder of the student Frantzy Duverseau at his Port-au-Prince home [see Update #1188]. The judge’s action immediately sparked accusations of political interference by the government of Haitian president Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky”). The two brothers charged in the killing, Enold and Josué Florestal, are plaintiffs in a suit accusing Martelly’s wife, Sophia Martelly, and his son, Olivier Martelly, of corruption; the Florestal brothers have already been in prison for about a year. Their attorney, André Michel, is also charged in the murder case. Judge Bélizaire—whose other cases include the inquiry into allegations of corruption and drug trafficking during the second administration of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004) [see Update #1231]--is said to be close to Martelly’s government.
According to Frantzy Duverseau’s family, the October 2010 incident began with a domestic violence case. Enold Florestal reportedly assaulted Fabienne Duverseau, his wife; her brother Frantzy intervened, and Florestal was injured. Florestal then brought the police to the family home, along with his brother Josué and their attorney, André Michel. One of the police agents shot Frantzy Duverseau dead when he resisted arrest; Judge Bélizaire’s warrant names the agent as Jeanco Honorat. In a Sept. 2 report, Haiti’s independent National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) detailed problems with Bélizaire’s investigation, including the failure to search the scene, to conduct a ballistics analysis and to establish which of the accused were charged as material authors and which as accomplices. The report concluded that Bélizaire’s arrest warrant “constitutes a vast joke.” (Haitian-Caribbean News Network (HCNN) 8/28/14; AlterPresse 9/5/14)
In other news, French groups in solidarity with Haiti and Latin America held a meeting with Haiti’s designated ambassador to France, Vanessa Matignon, on Aug. 28, to discuss the case of Haitian police agent Jean Matulnès Lamy, who has been held in the National Penitentiary without charges since February [see Update #1211]. Lamy is a resident of Ile-à-Vache, a small island southeast of Les Cayes in South department. Supporters say he was arrested because of his role as a leader in the resistance to the government’s plans for tourism development on the island. (AlterPresse 9/4/14)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, US/immigration
Argentina, In the Shadow of the Vultures
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/12839
Inter-American Court of Human Rights Orders Chile to Annul Sentences Under Anti-Terrorist Law
https://intercontinentalcry.org/inter-american-court-human-rights-orders-chile-annul-sentences-anti-terrorist-law-25431/
Affirmative Action in Uruguay Tests Government Commitment to Race
http://nacla.org/news/2014/9/2/affirmative-action-uruguay-tests-government-commitment-race
Brazil: Napalm in the Ribeira Valley
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/brazil-archives-63/5027-brazil-napalm-in-the-ribeira-valley
Brazil cracks down on Amazon 'land traffickers
http://ww4report.com/node/13501
Elections Revive Bolivia’s Controversial TIPNIS Highway Plan
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/9/4/elections-revive-bolivia%E2%80%99s-controversial-tipnis-highway-plan
Bolivia: dirty electoral season gets dirtier
http://ww4report.com/node/13390#comment-452380
Indigenous Anarchist Critique of Bolivia's 'Indigenous State': Interview with Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/5031-indigenous-anarchist-critique-of-bolivias-indigenous-state-interview-with-silvia-rivera-cusicanqui
Peru: deadly repression of pipeline protests
http://ww4report.com/node/13499
President Correa: 'Biggest Mistake in Recent Years Was Letting Alberto Acosta Be President of the Constituent Assembly' (Ecuador)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5033-president-correa-biggest-mistake-in-recent-years-was-letting-alberto-acosta-be-president-of-the-constituent-assembly
Sixth teacher assassinated this year in Colombia
http://ww4report.com/node/13500
Colombia: FARC meet army brass, coke flows on
http://ww4report.com/node/13511
Venezuelan Government, Sidor Workers Sign New Collective Contract
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10885
Marta Harnecker: New paths require a new culture on the left (Venezuela)
http://links.org.au/node/4020
Garifuna Denounce Honduran Government at the Inter-American Court
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Garifuna-Denounce-Honduran-Government-at-the-Inter-American-Court-20140906-0029.html
Escaping the New Honduras
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/09/escaping-the-new-honduras/
Bonilla’s New Role Raises Questions for U.S.-Funded Police Trainings in Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5023-bonillas-new-role-raises-questions-for-us-funded-police-trainings-in-honduras
Chixoy Dam: No Reparations, No Justice, No Peace (Guatemala)
https://intercontinentalcry.org/chixoy-dam-reparations-justice-peace/
The World Bank And Inter-American Development Bank's Chixoy Dam Project: Still Killing Mayan Guatemalans 32 Years Later
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/5029-the-world-bank-and-inter-american-development-banks-chixoy-dam-project-still-killing-mayan-gautemalans-32-years-later-
Ecocides Ravage Mexican Waters
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/ecocides-ravage-mexican-waters/
Filmmakers Sign Historic Agreement With Tribal Authorities in Mexico City
https://intercontinentalcry.org/filmmakers-sign-historic-agreement-tribal-authorities-mexico-city-25508/
How US Intelligence Distorted Its Own Data on Child Migration (US/immigration)
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25890-how-us-intelligence-distorted-its-own-data-on-child-migration
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://www.telesurtv.net/english/index.html
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/
1. Guatemala: Activists Defeat “Monsanto Law”
2. Honduras: Longtime Campesina Leader Murdered
3. Mexico: Torture Increased 600% in 10 Years
4. Haiti: Martelly Opponents Charged With Murder
5. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, 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. Guatemala: Activists Defeat “Monsanto Law”
Guatemala’s unicameral Congress voted 117-111 on Sept. 4 to repeal Decree 19-2014, the Law for Protection of Procurement of Plants, in response to a lawsuit and mass protests by campesinos and environmentalists. The law, which was to take full effect on Sept. 26, provided for granting patents of 25 years for new plants, including hybrid and genetically modified (GM) varieties; unauthorized use of the plants or seeds could result in one to four years in prison and a fine of $130 to $1,300. The law had already been weakened by the Court of Constitutionality; acting on an Aug. 25 legal challenge from the Guatemalan Union, Indigenous and Campesino Movement (MSICG), the court suspended the law’s Articles 46 and 55. The law was originally passed to comply with an intellectual property requirement in the 2004 Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), and it was unclear whether Guatemala might now be excluded from the US-promoted trade bloc.
Opponents labeled the legislation the “Monsanto Law,” after the Missouri-based multinational Monsanto Company, the world’s leading producer of GM seeds. Activists charged that the law opened the way to the introduction of GM plants, which might contaminate local crop varieties and disrupt traditional indigenous farming. Campesinos also felt they could lose their livelihoods due to competition from large-scale farmers who can afford higher-yielding seeds from multinationals.
Opposition to the law appeared to be broad. On Sept. 2 thousands of indigenous campesinos blocked the Inter-American highway at three points in the southwestern department of Sololá until 6 pm to demand the law’s revocation. The protests were led by mayors of the department’s 82 indigenous communities, and some communities closed schools so that students could join in. Organizers estimated total participation at 120,000. Opposition to GM plants and to the dominance of multinationals like Monsanto has been growing in Latin America; indigenous communities in southeastern Mexico have won three court actions blocking GM soy so far this year [see Update #1229]. (Adital (Brazil) 9/2/14; Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 9/2/14; TeleSUR English 9/5/14)
*2. Honduras: Longtime Campesina Leader Murdered
Masked men shot and killed Honduran campesino movement leader Margarita Murillo the night of Aug. 26 on land she farmed in the community of El Planón, Villanueva municipality, in the northern department of Cortés. Murillo reportedly began working for campesino rights at the age of 12. During the 1980s she was a founder of the Campesino National Unity Front (FENACAMH) and the General Confederation of Rural Workers (CNTC). After the military removed then-president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009) from office in June 2009, she was both a local and a national leader in the broad coalition resisting the coup, the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), and then in the center-left party that grew out of it, the Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE). The National Congress observed a moment of silence after reports of Murillo’s death were confirmed.
As of Aug. 28 the police said they had no indication of the murder’s authors. Murillo was leading a small cooperative, The Windows Campesino Associative Production Enterprise, that was engaged in a land dispute in the area where she was working at the time of her death. Soldiers had carried off her grown son Samuel from the house where the family lives in Marañón community, south of San Pedro Sula, on July 26; he was reportedly still missing as of Aug. 30. According to Rafael Alegría, a legislative deputy and campesino leader, some 200 campesinos have been murdered and about 700 campesinas face legal charges in cases involving land disputes. (La Prensa (San Pedro Sula) 8/28/14; El Ciudadano (Chile) 8/29/14 from TeleSUR; Vía Campesina 8/30/14)
*3. Mexico: Torture Increased 600% in 10 Years
Torture by police and soldiers continues to be a major problem for the Mexican government, according to “Out of Control: Torture and Other Ill-Treatment in Mexico,” a 74-page report released by the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) on Sept. 4. Electric shocks, near-asphyxiation, mock executions, death threats against prisoners and their families, injection of carbonated drinks or chili pepper in prisoners’ noses, and rape and other forms of sexual violence remain common practices, according to the report, which cites both official statistics and interviews with victims. The result is often forced confessions, wrongful convictions and a failure to arrest the actual perpetrators. Although the government officially condemns torture, it rarely prosecutes police agents or soldiers for the practice and almost never convicts them. January 2014 data from the government’s Federal Judiciary Council (CJF) show that federal courts only took 123 torture cases to trial from 2005 to 2013; seven resulted in convictions. The federal government’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) received 7,164 torture complaints from 2010 to 2013; not one of them led to a conviction.
Reports of torture jumped dramatically after December 2006, when then-president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (2006-2012) began militarizing the fight against drug trafficking [see Update #1199]; complaints to the CNDH rose by 600% from 2003 to 2013. Current president Enrique Peña Nieto has deemphasized the “drug war,” but the number of torture complaints has only fallen slightly. (Al Jazeera America 9/4/14; La Jornada (Mexico) 9/5/14; Jurist 9/5/14)
In other news, a poll released by the Consulta Mitofsky firm in early September showed President Peña Nieto’s approval rating falling to 47%, its lowest level since he took office in December 2012 with a 54% approval rate. The week before, the Pew Research Center reported that the president’s negative ratings rose by nine points in the past year. Peña has been remarkably successful in pushing his programs through Congress, notably an “energy reform” that increases the participation of private and foreign companies in oil production [see Update #1214]. His administration has managed to engineer 85 changes to the Constitution. But the “reforms” have failed to produce the economic upturn Peña promised; the government’s current growth prediction for this year is just 2.7%. The president is “much more popular outside than in Mexico because we don't trust him,” Guadalupe Loaeza, a columnist for the daily Reforma, told the Washington Post. “We don't believe him.” (WP 9/3/14 from correspondents)
*4. Haiti: Martelly Opponents Charged With Murder
On Aug. 27 Haitian investigative judge Lamarre Bélizaire ordered the arrests of four people--two brothers, a well-known lawyer and a police agent--for the Oct. 18, 2010 murder of the student Frantzy Duverseau at his Port-au-Prince home [see Update #1188]. The judge’s action immediately sparked accusations of political interference by the government of Haitian president Michel Martelly (“Sweet Micky”). The two brothers charged in the killing, Enold and Josué Florestal, are plaintiffs in a suit accusing Martelly’s wife, Sophia Martelly, and his son, Olivier Martelly, of corruption; the Florestal brothers have already been in prison for about a year. Their attorney, André Michel, is also charged in the murder case. Judge Bélizaire—whose other cases include the inquiry into allegations of corruption and drug trafficking during the second administration of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004) [see Update #1231]--is said to be close to Martelly’s government.
According to Frantzy Duverseau’s family, the October 2010 incident began with a domestic violence case. Enold Florestal reportedly assaulted Fabienne Duverseau, his wife; her brother Frantzy intervened, and Florestal was injured. Florestal then brought the police to the family home, along with his brother Josué and their attorney, André Michel. One of the police agents shot Frantzy Duverseau dead when he resisted arrest; Judge Bélizaire’s warrant names the agent as Jeanco Honorat. In a Sept. 2 report, Haiti’s independent National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) detailed problems with Bélizaire’s investigation, including the failure to search the scene, to conduct a ballistics analysis and to establish which of the accused were charged as material authors and which as accomplices. The report concluded that Bélizaire’s arrest warrant “constitutes a vast joke.” (Haitian-Caribbean News Network (HCNN) 8/28/14; AlterPresse 9/5/14)
In other news, French groups in solidarity with Haiti and Latin America held a meeting with Haiti’s designated ambassador to France, Vanessa Matignon, on Aug. 28, to discuss the case of Haitian police agent Jean Matulnès Lamy, who has been held in the National Penitentiary without charges since February [see Update #1211]. Lamy is a resident of Ile-à-Vache, a small island southeast of Les Cayes in South department. Supporters say he was arrested because of his role as a leader in the resistance to the government’s plans for tourism development on the island. (AlterPresse 9/4/14)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, US/immigration
Argentina, In the Shadow of the Vultures
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/12839
Inter-American Court of Human Rights Orders Chile to Annul Sentences Under Anti-Terrorist Law
https://intercontinentalcry.org/inter-american-court-human-rights-orders-chile-annul-sentences-anti-terrorist-law-25431/
Affirmative Action in Uruguay Tests Government Commitment to Race
http://nacla.org/news/2014/9/2/affirmative-action-uruguay-tests-government-commitment-race
Brazil: Napalm in the Ribeira Valley
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/brazil-archives-63/5027-brazil-napalm-in-the-ribeira-valley
Brazil cracks down on Amazon 'land traffickers
http://ww4report.com/node/13501
Elections Revive Bolivia’s Controversial TIPNIS Highway Plan
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/9/4/elections-revive-bolivia%E2%80%99s-controversial-tipnis-highway-plan
Bolivia: dirty electoral season gets dirtier
http://ww4report.com/node/13390#comment-452380
Indigenous Anarchist Critique of Bolivia's 'Indigenous State': Interview with Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/5031-indigenous-anarchist-critique-of-bolivias-indigenous-state-interview-with-silvia-rivera-cusicanqui
Peru: deadly repression of pipeline protests
http://ww4report.com/node/13499
President Correa: 'Biggest Mistake in Recent Years Was Letting Alberto Acosta Be President of the Constituent Assembly' (Ecuador)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5033-president-correa-biggest-mistake-in-recent-years-was-letting-alberto-acosta-be-president-of-the-constituent-assembly
Sixth teacher assassinated this year in Colombia
http://ww4report.com/node/13500
Colombia: FARC meet army brass, coke flows on
http://ww4report.com/node/13511
Venezuelan Government, Sidor Workers Sign New Collective Contract
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10885
Marta Harnecker: New paths require a new culture on the left (Venezuela)
http://links.org.au/node/4020
Garifuna Denounce Honduran Government at the Inter-American Court
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Garifuna-Denounce-Honduran-Government-at-the-Inter-American-Court-20140906-0029.html
Escaping the New Honduras
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/09/escaping-the-new-honduras/
Bonilla’s New Role Raises Questions for U.S.-Funded Police Trainings in Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5023-bonillas-new-role-raises-questions-for-us-funded-police-trainings-in-honduras
Chixoy Dam: No Reparations, No Justice, No Peace (Guatemala)
https://intercontinentalcry.org/chixoy-dam-reparations-justice-peace/
The World Bank And Inter-American Development Bank's Chixoy Dam Project: Still Killing Mayan Guatemalans 32 Years Later
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/5029-the-world-bank-and-inter-american-development-banks-chixoy-dam-project-still-killing-mayan-gautemalans-32-years-later-
Ecocides Ravage Mexican Waters
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/ecocides-ravage-mexican-waters/
Filmmakers Sign Historic Agreement With Tribal Authorities in Mexico City
https://intercontinentalcry.org/filmmakers-sign-historic-agreement-tribal-authorities-mexico-city-25508/
How US Intelligence Distorted Its Own Data on Child Migration (US/immigration)
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25890-how-us-intelligence-distorted-its-own-data-on-child-migration
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://www.telesurtv.net/english/index.html
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, September 2, 2014
Links but No Update for August 31, 2014
[There is no Update this week; we'll be back next week. Below are links to stories from other sources.]
The Common Market of the South: the long and difficult path to integration (Latin America)
http://alainet.org/active/76660
Lifting the Sentence of Secrecy in Chile
http://nacla.org/news/2014/8/25/lifting-sentence-secrecy-chile
Threat of Hydropower Dams Still Looms in Chile’s Patagonia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5017-threat-of-hydropower-dams-still-looms-in-chiles-patagonia
Ghosts of Olavarría: Human Rights Trial in Argentina Seeks Justice for Victims of Military Dictatorship
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/5013-ghosts-of-olavarria-human-rights-trial-in-argentina-seeks-justice-for-victims-of-military-dictatorship
Protecting the Amazon Includes Defending Indigenous Rights (Brazil)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12281
What Happened To Progressive Politics In Lima (Peru)
http://nacla.org/news/2014/8/27/what-happened-progressive-politics-lima
US Senators Urge Ecuador to Restore Relations with Israel
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5020-us-senators-urge-ecuador-to-restore-relations-with-israel
Colombia Peace Talks Restart with FARC Warning
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombia-Peace-Talks-Restart-with-FARC-Warning-20140901-0033.html
Poll Sees Conflicting Approval Rates for Venezuelan President Maduro
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10864
Venezuela: Maduro in Chávez’s Shoes
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/5015-venezuela-maduro-in-chavezs-shoes
Snapshot from the Economic War in Venezuela
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10870
Guatemala: Mobilizing Against "Monsanto Bill" Passed Secretly by Congress
https://intercontinentalcry.org/guatemala-mobilizing-against-monsanto-bill-passed-secretly-by-congress-25404/
Bonilla’s New Role Raises Questions for U.S.-Funded Police Trainings in Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5023-bonillas-new-role-raises-questions-for-us-funded-police-trainings-in-honduras
Pena Nieto’s Rankings Take a Nose Dive (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/pena-nietos-rankings-take-a-nose-dive/
Hundreds Protest Mexican President State of the Union Address
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Hundreds-Protest-Mexican-President-State-of-the-Union-Address-20140901-0044.html
Mexico Debates the Minimum Wage
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=227#1745
Queering the Metro in Mexico City
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/5021-queering-the-metro-in-mexico-city
Former Braceros Demand Their Social Welfare Funds (Mexico)
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=227#1742
Ciudad Juarez Demands: No More Abuse (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/ciudad-juarez-demands-no-more-abuse/
The Real Story Behind the “Invasion” of the Children (US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/8/25/real-story-behind-%E2%80%9Cinvasion%E2%80%9D-children
Despite Current Debate, Police Militarization Goes Beyond U.S. Borders (US/policy)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/5010-despite-current-debate-police-militarization-goes-beyond-us-borders
The Common Market of the South: the long and difficult path to integration (Latin America)
http://alainet.org/active/76660
Lifting the Sentence of Secrecy in Chile
http://nacla.org/news/2014/8/25/lifting-sentence-secrecy-chile
Threat of Hydropower Dams Still Looms in Chile’s Patagonia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5017-threat-of-hydropower-dams-still-looms-in-chiles-patagonia
Ghosts of Olavarría: Human Rights Trial in Argentina Seeks Justice for Victims of Military Dictatorship
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/argentina-archives-32/5013-ghosts-of-olavarria-human-rights-trial-in-argentina-seeks-justice-for-victims-of-military-dictatorship
Protecting the Amazon Includes Defending Indigenous Rights (Brazil)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12281
What Happened To Progressive Politics In Lima (Peru)
http://nacla.org/news/2014/8/27/what-happened-progressive-politics-lima
US Senators Urge Ecuador to Restore Relations with Israel
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5020-us-senators-urge-ecuador-to-restore-relations-with-israel
Colombia Peace Talks Restart with FARC Warning
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombia-Peace-Talks-Restart-with-FARC-Warning-20140901-0033.html
Poll Sees Conflicting Approval Rates for Venezuelan President Maduro
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10864
Venezuela: Maduro in Chávez’s Shoes
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/5015-venezuela-maduro-in-chavezs-shoes
Snapshot from the Economic War in Venezuela
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10870
Guatemala: Mobilizing Against "Monsanto Bill" Passed Secretly by Congress
https://intercontinentalcry.org/guatemala-mobilizing-against-monsanto-bill-passed-secretly-by-congress-25404/
Bonilla’s New Role Raises Questions for U.S.-Funded Police Trainings in Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5023-bonillas-new-role-raises-questions-for-us-funded-police-trainings-in-honduras
Pena Nieto’s Rankings Take a Nose Dive (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/pena-nietos-rankings-take-a-nose-dive/
Hundreds Protest Mexican President State of the Union Address
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Hundreds-Protest-Mexican-President-State-of-the-Union-Address-20140901-0044.html
Mexico Debates the Minimum Wage
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=227#1745
Queering the Metro in Mexico City
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/5021-queering-the-metro-in-mexico-city
Former Braceros Demand Their Social Welfare Funds (Mexico)
http://www.ueinternational.org/MLNA/mlna_articles.php?id=227#1742
Ciudad Juarez Demands: No More Abuse (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/ciudad-juarez-demands-no-more-abuse/
The Real Story Behind the “Invasion” of the Children (US/immigration)
http://nacla.org/blog/2014/8/25/real-story-behind-%E2%80%9Cinvasion%E2%80%9D-children
Despite Current Debate, Police Militarization Goes Beyond U.S. Borders (US/policy)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/5010-despite-current-debate-police-militarization-goes-beyond-us-borders
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