Issue #1254, February 15, 2015
1. Panama: Barro Blanco Dam Construction Suspended
2. Honduras: AFL-CIO Blames Trade Policies for Crisis
3. Mexico: UN Criticizes Officials on Disappearances
4. Haiti: New General Strike Shuts Down Capital
5. Dominican Republic: Was Haitian Man Lynched?
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Central America, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, 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.
Note: As we announced last month, this will be the last regular issue of the Update. We want to thank all the people who have helped over the past 25 years by writing, researching, aiding in distribution and circulation, and sending financial contributions. We plan to go on using the Update's Twitter account (@WeeklyNewsUpdat) for now, and we'll occasionally post items to the Update blog and email list, along with links to stories in other media.
We encourage our readers to keep up to date with news from the Americas through the many English-language publications now covering the region. Twelve are listed below after the links to alternative sources.
*1. Panama: Barro Blanco Dam Construction Suspended
Panamanian vice president and foreign minister Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado announced on Feb. 9 that the country’s National Environmental Authority (ANAM) had ordered the temporary suspension of work on the $130 million Barro Blanco hydroelectric project, which is being built on the Tabasará river in the western province of Chiriquí [see Update #1254]. ANAM attributed the suspension to the owners’ failure to comply with requirements in an environmental impact study, including those for clear agreements with the affected communities and for a plan approved by the National Culture Institute (INAC) to protect archeological objects likely to be flooded because of the dam. ANAM officials also cited the owners’ handling of hazardous waste without an environmental impact study and the lack of a plan for the management of sediments.
The suspension came four days before preliminary talks between the government and representatives of the Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous group, which opposes the Barro Blanco project. The Feb. 13 talks were in preparation for a formal dialogue scheduled for Feb. 24. The two parties are seeking “a consensus that takes into account human rights, the protection of the original peoples, the environment [and] sustainable development,” Governance Minister Milton Henríquez said on Feb. 12. The government has invited United Nations (UN) representatives to participate in the discussions. However, the UN itself has come under criticism from international environmental groups for the decision of its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to approve the project. Eva Filzmoser, the director of the Brussels-based Carbon Market Watch, charged on Feb. 10 that the CDM board “approved Barro Blanco when it was clear that the dam would flood the homes of numerous indigenous families. This decision is a warning signal that safeguards must be introduced to protect human rights, including robust stakeholder consultations and a grievance mechanism.” (La Estrella de Panamá 2/9/15, 2/13/15; Intercontinental Cry 2/10/15)
*2. Honduras: AFL-CIO Blames Trade Policies for Crisis
US political and trade policies “play a major role” in worsening the poverty and violence that are root causes of unauthorized immigration to the US by Hondurans, according to a report released by the AFL-CIO, the main US labor federation, on Jan. 12. The report, “Trade, Violence and Migration: The Broken Promises to Honduran Workers,” grew out of the experiences of a delegation the union group sent to Honduras in October following a sharp increase in migration from the country by unaccompanied minors the previous spring [see Update #1254]. The report notes that Honduras is now “the most unequal country in Latin America,” with an increase in poverty by 4.5 percentage points from 2006 to 2013. “[T]he percentage of those working full time but receiving less than the minimum wage has gone up by nearly 30%,” according to the report.
One cause of poverty and violence in Honduras, according to the report, was the June 2009 coup that removed former president José Manuel (“Mel”) Zelaya Rosales (2006-2009), with only token objections from the US government. “Since the 2009 coup, the ruling governments have failed to respect worker and human rights or create decent work, and instead have built a repressive security apparatus to put down dissent,” the authors wrote. Another principal cause of the country’s problems was the implementation of the 2004 Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). The delegation found that CAFTA-DR’s “architecture of deregulation coupled with investor protection allowed companies to outsource labor-intensive components of their supply chains to locations with weak labor laws and low wages.” The agreement “accelerated free market devastation,” Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and a participant in the delegation, told a reporter. He noted “constant violations of organizing rights…that included everything from the murder of [union] leaders to the collapse of bargaining rights where they once existed.”
“Failed trade and migration policies continue to exacerbate Honduras’ problems,” the report concludes. “The US government criminalizes migrant children and their families, while pursuing trade deals that simultaneously displace subsistence farmers and lower wages and standards across other sectors, and eliminate good jobs, intensifying the economic conditions that drive migration. This dynamic is enhanced in countries like Honduras, where the government's own policies leave workers and families vulnerable to abuse.” (National Catholic Reporter 1/28/15; The Nation 2/6/15; Equal Times 2/10/15)
Probably the best known of the displacements of subsistence farmers occurred in northern Honduras’ Lower Aguán River Valley, where campesino groups struggling to regain their land have been victims of violence by the military and private security forces since 2009 [see Update #1243]. A recent example was the forced disappearance of Cristian Alberto Martínez Pérez, a young activist in the Gregorio Chávez Campesino Movement (MCGC, also referred to as the Gregorio Chávez Collective), as he was riding his bicycle the evening of Jan. 29 near his home in Panamá community, Trujillo municipality, Colón department.
Human rights groups and several campesino organizations quickly responded to Martínez Pérez’s disappearance by joining together in an intensive search. The youth was found alive--but tied up and dehydrated--a few meters from the Paso Aguán estate the morning of Feb. 1, about 62 hours after his abduction. He said he had been seized by a soldier and a security guard and confined to a vehicle, where he was questioned about his group’s leaders and possible plans for an occupation of the estate. Paso Aguán is owned by Honduran entrepreneur and landowner Miguel Facussé Barjum and is guarded by soldiers and security employers of the powerful Corporación Dinant food-product company, which Facussé founded. At least two deaths have been reported on the estate in the past; the MCGC is apparently named for one of the victims [see Update #1226]. (Defensores en Línea 2/3/15; Honduprensa 2/5/15)
The Aguán campesino movement is the subject of a new documentary, “Resistencia: The Film,” which is premiering in Montreal on Feb. 20. For more information, go to https://www.facebook.com/events/760100744074861
*3. Mexico: UN Criticizes Officials on Disappearances
In a report published on Feb. 13, the United Nations’ Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) called on the Mexican government to prioritize actions to deal with the large number of disappearances taking place in many parts of the country, often with the participation of government functionaries. Although international attention has been focused on the September abduction of 43 students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College, located in the Guerrero town of Ayotzinapa [see Update #1254], the total number of people who have gone missing in Mexico since the militarization of the “war on drugs” began in late 2006 is estimated at 22,600. “[I]n contrast to the thousands of enforced disappearances,” CED member Rainer Huhle told a news briefing, citing the government’s own statistics, “there are exactly six persons put to trial and sentenced for this crime.”
The report was based on an evaluation the CED carried out Feb. 2-3 at the group’s headquarters in Geneva. The CED recognized some advances by the Mexican government, including the ratification of all United Nations human rights treaties and the adoption of a General Law for Victims, but expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s failure even to keep an accurate record of the number of forced disappearances. The committee’s recommendations included creating a national registry of disappearances and the formation of a special unit to search for disappeared persons. (La Jornada (Mexico) 2/14/15; Jurist 2/14/15)
The Ayotzinapa case has brought international attention to Mexico’s record on disappearances. On Jan. 22 the London-based rights group Amnesty International (AI) criticized what it called “the faltering investigations overseen by the Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam.” “The disappearance of [the Ayotzinapa] students is a crime that has shocked the world,” AI Americas director Erika Guevara Rosas said. “This tragedy has changed the distorted perception that the human rights situation has been improving in Mexico since President [Enrique] Peña Nieto took power” in 2012.
Criticism is also starting to increase in the US, whose government and media have strongly backed Peña Nieto in the past. The Mexican government’s account of the Ayotzinapa abductions “isn’t a historical truth,” José Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director of US-based Human Right Watch (HRW), said recently. “It’s an official version.” The website of the influential weekly The New Yorker has carried five articles so far on the Ayotzinapa case by novelist Francisco Goldman. The latest, posted on Feb. 7, details the many questions raised by the official account of the abduction of the students. (AI press release 1/22/15; New Yorker 2/7/15; Jurist 2/13/15)
In related news, the cousin of a disappearance victim was murdered around noon on Feb. 13 in Iguala de la Independencia, the Guerrero city that was the site of the September attack on the Ayotzinapa students. Two men on a motorcycle gunned Norma Angélica Bruno Román down in front of her three children as they were on the way to a cemetery for the burial of another murder victim, José Ramón Bernabé Armenta, who had been killed two days earlier. Initial reports said Bruno Román was an activist with the local Committee of Forced Disappearance Victims; the committee is also known as “The Other Disappeared,” since it deals with victims other than the missing 43 students. The group clarified later that Bruno Román had participated in the group’s activities in her search for her cousin, Ivette Melissa Flores Román, who has been missing since she was abducted from her home the night of Oct. 24, 2012. However, Bruno Román wasn’t part of the group, and committee members felt her murder wasn’t connected to their work. (Proceso (Mexico) 2/13/15; LJ 2/14/15)
*4. Haiti: New General Strike Shuts Down Capital
A general strike by Haitian transit workers and opposition groups paralyzed Port-au-Prince and some other cities Feb. 9-10 in a protest against high fuel prices and the government of President Michel Joseph Martelly. With most forms of public transportation shut down, the capital’s streets were empty except for rocks and burning tires that strike supporters set up as barricades; some streets were turned into improvised soccer fields. People generally stayed home, and most government offices, businesses, banks and schools were closed. There was little violence, although one police agent, Ravelin Yves André, reportedly received a stab wound in the impoverished Cité Soleil sector while trying to remove burning tires.
Petit-Goâve and Miragoâne in South department observed the strike, while Cap-Haïtien in North department and Les Cayes in South department mostly ignored it the first day, according to media reports. There was more strike activity in Cap-Haïtien the second day, while a few people went back to work in Port-au-Prince, where the government provided some free bus service.
This was the second general strike in a week over fuel prices [see Update #1254]. A two-day strike called by transit workers for Feb. 2-3 ended after one day when the government agreed to lower gasoline prices from 215 gourdes to 195 gourdes (about US$4.58 to US$4.15) for a gallon, with corresponding reductions for diesel fuel and kerosene. But the second general strike was more political, with support from such opposition groups as the Patriotic Force for Respect for the Constitution (FOPARC), which backs the Family Lavalas (FL) party of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004). The government refused to consider the protesters’ demand for a price reduction of 100 gourdes (about US$2.17). Officials said the country needed to pay off some of a large debt for the oil it has acquired through Venezuela’s Petrocaribe program. But many people disagreed. “We are poor, we cannot live anymore,” a driver of one of the minibuses known as tap-taps complained to a reporter. “Gasoline prices are falling worldwide, so it should be the same here in Haiti.” (AlterPresse (Haiti) 2/9/15, 2/10/15, 2/10/15; Reuters 2/10/15)
*5. Dominican Republic: Was Haitian Man Lynched?
The body of a Haitian immigrant, Claude (“Tulile”) Jean Harry, was found hanging from a tree in Ercilia Pepín Park in Santiago de los Cabelleros, the capital of the northern Dominican province of Santiago, on Feb. 11. Dominican police spokespeople say they are working on the theory that Jean Harry was killed to prevent him from testifying about the Feb. 9 murder of Altagracia Díaz Ventura. According to the police, Díaz Ventura was killed by her sister-in-law, Annery Núñez, who then stole the victim’s money and furniture. Jean Harry did odd jobs in the area; he may have been paid to help move the furniture and could have found out about the murder. Annery Núñez had turned herself into the police as of Feb. 15.
Haitian immigrants and human rights organization questioned the police version, noting the increase in anti-Haitian sentiment following a September 2013 Constitutional Tribunal (TC) ruling that deprived thousands of Haitian-descended Dominicans of citizenship [see Update #1253]. “Nobody knows yet the reason behind the lynching, but it comes in the context of constant discrimination and violence against Haitians,” the Robert F Kennedy Center for Human Rights’ Santiago Canton said. Jean Harry was murdered just hours after a group of Dominicans publicly burned the Haitian flag in Santiago. As of Feb. 13 the authorities said they had arrested five members of the group. (The Guardian (UK) 2/12/15 from correspondent; AlterPresse (Haiti) 2/13/15; El Nuevo Diario (Dominican Republic) 2/15/15)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Central America, El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, US/immigration
Latin America: Solidarity and Accompaniment
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Solidarity-and-Accompaniment-20150208-0008.html
Washington’s Prying Eyes (Latin America)
https://nacla.org/article/washington%E2%80%99s-prying-eyes
Editor's Note: last print edition of NACLA's Report on the Americas (Latin America)
https://nacla.org/article/editor%27s-note
Investigation Into Argentine President Will Resume
http://latindispatch.com/2015/02/13/investigation-into-argentine-president-will-resume/
Argentina Wins British Victory in Vulture Funds Battle
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Argentina-Wins-British-Victory-in-Vulture-Funds-Battle-20150214-0013.html
Argentina: Chinese spaceport plan protested
http://ww4report.com/node/13979
Can Bolivia Chart a Sustainable Path Away From Capitalism?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5212-can-bolivia-chart-a-sustainable-path-away-from-capitalism-
Peruvian Youth Celebrates Victory Over Government and Big Business’ Ley Pulpín
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/5213-peruvian-youth-celebrates-victory-over-government-and-big-business-ley-pulpin
Peru’s Media-Friendly Mining Ban Conceals Toxic Inaction
https://nacla.org/article/peru%E2%80%99s-media-friendly-mining-ban-conceals-toxic-inaction
Peru: protests against PlusPetrol turn deadly
http://ww4report.com/node/13974
Deep in the Amazon, a Tiny Tribe Is Beating Big Oil (Ecuador)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5214-deep-in-the-amazon-a-tiny-tribe-is-beating-big-oil-
Colombia: Urgent Action: Afro-descendant leaders threatened
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR23/006/2015/en/60719a46-80d6-4ca7-b4b7-18c6bc6e360a/amr230062015en.html
Venezuela Coup Thwarted
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Evidence-Reveals-Canada-UK-Involvement-in-Venezuela-Coup-Plot-20150213-0035.html
Hector Navarro: I’m Encouraging a Rebellion at the Bases of the PSUV (Venezuela)
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11209
How US 'Free Trade' Policies Created the Central American Migration Crisis
www.thenation.com/blog/197313/how-us-free-trade-policies-created-central-american-migration-crisis
UN Registered Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Dam Temporarily Suspended Over Non-Compliance With Environmental Impact Assessment (Panama)
https://intercontinentalcry.org/un-registered-barro-blanco-hydroelectric-dam-temporarily-suspended-non-compliance-environmental-impact-assessment/
Salvadorans Demand Trial for Former Right-Wing President
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Salvadorans-Demand-Trial-for-Former-Right-Wing-President-20150213-0036.html
Did Bill O'Reilly Cover Up a War Crime in El Salvador?
www.thenation.com/blog/197401/did-bill-oreilly-cover-war-crime-el-salvador
Daniel’s Story: A Mother’s Memories of an Ayotzinapa Victim (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/daniels-story-a-mothers-memories-of-an-ayotzinapa-victim/
Mexican Teachers Take to the Streets Again
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/mexican-teachers-take-to-the-streets-again/
Divisadero: Tierra Nativa Raramuri (Mexico)
https://intercontinentalcry.org/divisadero-tierra-nativa-raramuri/
Paved With Bad Intentions: The Ñatho (Otomí) Struggle Against the Toluca-Naucalpan Super Highway (Mexico)
https://intercontinentalcry.org/paved-bad-intentions/
How to Close Guantanamo (Cuba)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/14563
CEP Proposes Legislative Elections in July, Presidential in October (Haiti)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/cep-proposes-legislative-elections-in-july-presidential-in-october
Americas Program Policy Report: Border Drones a Financial and Policy Bust (US/immigration)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/14573
Radically Reshaping Latina/o America (US/immigration)
https://nacla.org/article/radically-reshaping-latinao-america
Washington Police Shooting Ingites a Cross-Border Controversy (US/immigration)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/washington-police-shooting-ingites-a-cross-border-controversy/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://www.cipamericas.org/
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/
http://intercontinentalcry.org/
http://latindispatch.com/
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/967/blastContent.jsp
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/
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/
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Monday, January 12, 2015
WNU #1250: US Grants UN Immunity in Haiti Cholera Suit
Issue #1250, January 11, 2015
1. Haiti: US Grants UN Immunity in Cholera Suit
2. Peru: Fujimori Sentenced for Tabloid Bribery
3. Mexico: Protests Follow Peña to Washington
4. Latin America: Why Did Monsanto Profits Dip?
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, 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.
Note: The Update is ceasing publication on Feb. 15. In each of the remaining issues we will try to include some updated information on stories we covered in the past.
*1. Haiti: US Grants UN Immunity in Cholera Suit
On Jan. 9 a federal district judge in New York, J. Paul Oetken, dismissed a lawsuit seeking compensation from the United Nations (UN) for a cholera epidemic introduced into Haiti in October 2010 by infected soldiers from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) [see Update #1238]. “The UN is immune from suit unless it expressly waives its immunity,” Judge Oetken wrote in his decision, which was based on the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN and a US appeals court ruling in a 2010 sexual discrimination case. Lawyers from the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), representing thousands of Haitian cholera victims, said they would appeal the decision, which came three days before the fifth anniversary of an earthquake that devastated much of southern Haiti.
The suit, Delama Georges, et al, v. United Nations, et al, was filed in October 2013. The plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that the UN was not entitled to immunity under the 1946 convention because the world organization failed to meet its obligation under the convention to establish a settlement process for the victims. A number of legal experts agreed with the plaintiffs’ position, filing three amicus curiae briefs with the court and arguing in support of the plaintiffs at a hearing in October 2014. The UN has never admitted its responsibility for the cholera outbreak and didn’t respond to the suit; the US government argued on the UN’s behalf. According to Haitian rights lawyer Mario Joseph, the president of the Bureau of International Lawyers (BAI), Oetken’s ruling “implies that there is nowhere in the world [the victims] can turn to seek justice. That is irreconcilable with their human rights and basic notions of justice.” (IJDH press release 1/9/15; Reuters 1/10/15)
At least 8,774 Haitians had died of the cholera epidemic by Jan. 8, according to the DC-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). Some 14,000 or more were sickened by the disease in 2014, and 243 died that year. The amount of money required for a program for the eradication of cholera in Haiti is estimated to be $2.2 billion; the amount pledged so far is $50 million. (Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch, CEPR, 1/8/15)
Arnel (or Anel) Alexis Joseph, the controversial president of the Superior Council of the Judicial Branch (CSPJ), offered his resignation on Jan. 7, as was recommended on Dec. 9 by an 11-member “consultative commission” that President Michel Martelly set up to resolve a political impasse; terms are set to expire for one-third of Haiti’s senators on Jan. 12, leaving the Senate without a quorum and possibly creating a constitutional crisis [see Update #1246]. Other people that the commission asked to resign, including former prime minister Laurent Lamothe and the members of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), had already complied. The Senate called for Joseph’s resignation back in 2012 on the grounds that he was past the maximum legal age for the post. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 1/7/15)
*2. Peru: Fujimori Sentenced for Tabloid Bribery
After a trial lasting more than a year, on Jan. 8 a Peruvian court sentenced former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) to eight years in prison for embezzlement. The court found that between 1998 and 2000 Fujimori diverted some $43 million from the military to the National Intelligence Service (SIN) in order to pay tabloid dailies to follow the government’s editorial line. The colorful tabloids--known in Peru as “diarios chicha” after a popular musical style—supported Fujimori’s campaign for reelection in 2000 by characterizing his opponents as communists, homosexuals and spies; some of the papers were actually created by Fujimori’s government for the purpose. The former president claimed in court on Dec. 29 that he didn’t know about the diversion of the money. In addition to the prison sentence, Fujimori lost his right to hold public office for three years and was ordered to pay a fine of 3 million soles (about US$1 million). (RRP (Peru) 1/8/15; El País (Madrid) 1/8/15 from correspondent)
This was the fifth conviction for Fujimori since 2007. On Dec. 11, 2007, he was found guilty of ordering an illegal search of the home of the wife of his former adviser Vladimiro Montesinos to seize compromising video tapes. On Apr. 7, 2009, a court sentenced him to 25 years in prison for two massacres of unarmed civilians carried out by the Colina Group, a death squad organized by military intelligence and allegedly reporting to the president: the November 1991 killing of 15 people at a family barbecue in the Barrios Altos neighborhood of Lima, and the July 1992 abduction and murder of nine university students and a professor from the Enrique Guzmán y Valle (La Cantuta) university; the group also kidnapped journalist Gustavo Gorriti and business owner Samuel Dyer in 1992 [see Update #1019]. Also in 2009, Fujimori was sentenced to seven years and six months for appropriating $15 million from the treasury for Montesinos; in a separate case, he was sentenced to six years for spying on phone calls, payoffs to the media and the buying of Congress members.
Although elected as a populist in 1990, Fujimori quickly imposed a harsh neoliberal program known as “Fujishock.” In 1992 he seized dictatorial powers with a “self-coup,” claiming this would clear the way for combating two leftist rebel movements. He fled the country in 2000 when his government’s massive corruption came to light, and sought asylum in Japan. In 2005 he went to Chile as part of a plan to return to Peru, but Chilean authorities imprisoned him and turned him over to the Peruvian government in 2007. The maximum sentence in Peru is 25 years, so the five sentences will run concurrently. Fujimori will theoretically be released in 2032, at the age of 94. (La República (Peru) 1/8/15; El País 1/8/15)
In other news, judicial authorities announced on Dec. 30 that Attorney General Carlos Ramos Heredia had been suspended from his post for six months to “safeguard the optimal development of the investigations” into charges that he impeded inquiries concerning alleged corruption in the central western department of Ancash. Officials there took $113 million in public funds between 2008 and 2011, according to Mesías Guevara, the president of the parliamentary commission investigating the allegations. Ramos Heredia told RPP radio that he would respect the suspension but wouldn’t resign. (Yahoo News 12/30/14 from AP)
*3. Mexico: Protests Follow Peña to Washington
Facing serious political and economic problems at home, on Jan. 6 Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto made his first official visit to Washington, DC, since taking office in December 2012. A private meeting at the White House with US president Barack Obama lasted longer than was scheduled, and the two presidents didn’t take questions when they spoke with the press afterwards. The US has been following the “tragic events” involving seven deaths and the abduction of 43 students the night of Sept. 26-27 in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero [see Update #1246], Obama told reporters, and the US would continue to aid in investigations and in the fight against drug cartels. Obama also praised Mexico’s efforts to keep Central American migrants from reaching the US border, especially during the child migrant “crisis” in the summer of 2014 [see Update #1237]. Peña Nieto promised that Mexico would help the US and Cuba normalize relations. (La Jornada (Mexico) 1/7/15)
In addition to facing massive protests against the Mexican political system since the Guerrero abductions, Peña Nieto’s government is having to deal with a drop in oil prices that has led to downward pressure on the peso. Now at $39.70 a barrel, the price of Mexico’s export oil plummeted by 61.23% from June 20, 2014 to Jan. 9 of this year, while the peso fell by 12.3%, ending up at 14.5 to the US dollar. (El Financiero (Mexico) 1/12/15)
As the two presidents were speaking, about 100 protesters, mostly Mexicans and Mexican Americans, rallied outside the White House. The protesters charged that the US government is supporting corruption and violence in Mexico through its Mérida Initiative, a program often referred to as “Plan Mexico,” in which the US funds anti-narcotics campaigns by Mexican security forces, themselves often linked to the cartels [see Update #952]. Among the participants in the rally was Nansi Cisneros, whose brother was kidnapped by men in police uniforms in the western state of Jalisco; a US citizen living in Los Angeles, Cisneros had written about her brother’s case on the Huffington Post news site.
There were similar protests that day in at least nine other US cities, including Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle, organized by the USTired2 network [see Update #1245] and other groups to echo the demonstrations in Mexico. One of the protesters in Seattle was José Luis Avila, the husband of Nestora Salgado García, an imprisoned community police leader in Olinalá, Guerrero [see Update #1237]. (LJ 1/7/15)
On Jan. 8 the Guerrero government announced that it was dropping charges against Salgado “as a demonstration that this citizens’ government has been consistent in the search for peace and the harmonious development of Guerrero in all its aspects.” (LJ 1/8/15) As of Jan. 11 there had been no reports of her release.
In other news, the celebrated Mexican editor and investigative reporter Julio Scherer died on Jan. 7 at the age of 88. Scherer edited the influential daily El Excélsior from 1968 to 1976, when government pressure finally succeeded in getting the paper to remove him. He then founded the weekly Proceso, whose investigative reports have plagued Mexican politicians ever since--most recently in articles on alleged federal involvement in the abduction of the 43 students in Guerrero and on possible judicial favoritism for the brother of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari [see Updates #1246, 1248]. People that Scherer interviewed or attempted to interview ranged from Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet to Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael (“El Mayo”) Zambada García. The journalist claimed that he’d go to hell if the devil offered him an interview. (LJ 1/8/15)
*4. Latin America: Why Did Monsanto Profits Dip?
The Missouri-based biotech giant Monsanto Company announced on Jan. 7 that its revenues for September through November 2014, the first quarter of the company’s current fiscal year, fell to $2.87 billion from $3.14 billion for the same period the year before. The decline was less than analysts had expected. According to Bloomberg News, this was because the losses, including a 12% drop in corn seed sales, were partly offset by sales of Monsanto’s new Intacta soybeans, which the company says are genetically modified to withstand pests in South America. But the losses themselves were “in part, due to the reduction in sowing areas in South America,” the Spanish agricultural news site agroinformación.com reported. Agroinformación.com also cited resistance to the construction of a seed processing plant in Malvinas Argentinas in Argentina’s central Córdoba province [see Update #1204]. (Bloomberg 1/7/15; agroinformación.com 1/8/15)
In December residents of Malvinas Argentinas--a small working-class town near the provincial capital, also named Córdoba—celebrated their success so far in stopping Monsanto’s factory, which was to be the company’s largest South American seed processing plant. Since September 2013 residents have been blocking construction crews’ access to the site. Construction has in fact been suspended since January 2014, when an appeals court ordered the company to produce a new environmental impact study. Although the provincial government initially promoted the construction, in February the province’s Environmental Secretariat rejected the company’ new study. Monsanto is now reportedly looking at other sites.
Despite activists’ apparent success in Malvinas Argentinas—and a growing Latin American movement against Monsanto and other producers of genetically modified (GM) seeds [see Update #1232]—Argentina’s major farmers still rely heavily on the products. The country’s huge soybean crop is 100% transgenic, as are 92% of the cotton crop and 84% of the corn crop. The 23.9 million hectares of GM crop in the country represent the world’s third largest surface sowed with transgenic seed, after the US with 69.5 million hectares and Brazil with 36.6 million hectares. (BBC Mundo 12/14/14)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, US/immigration
The Agents of Unregulated Globalization vs. the Agents of the Fight against Climate Change (Latin America)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/the-agents-of-unregulated-globalization-vs-the-agents-of-the-fight-against-climate-change
Open Letter to Rafael Correa: Stop the Eviction of CONAIE (Ecuador)
https://intercontinentalcry.org/open-letter-rafael-correa-stop-eviction-conaie/
China Commits $20 Billion to Venezuela at First Latin America-China Forum in Beijing
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11143
Territories Free of Mining on the Rise in Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/5170-territories-free-of-mining-on-the-rise-in-honduras-
Genocide Trial against Guatemalan Dictator Suspended Once Again
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Genocide-Trial-against-Guatemalan-Dictator-Suspended-Once-Again-20150105-0020.html
The Federal Police Not Only Knew, They Were There (Audio) (Mexico)
https://nacla.org/news/2015/01/08/federal-police-not-only-knew-they-were-there-audio
‘Nothing Was an Accident That Night’: Mexican Federal Police Implicated in the Disappearance of the 43
http://www.thenation.com/blog/194073/nothing-was-accident-night-mexican-federal-police-implicated-disappearance-43
Popular Political Trial in Iguala (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/14375
Led by Latinos, US Cities Organize to End Plan Mexico and Support Ayotzinapa
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/14231
The Organizers Who Never Gave Up on the Cuban Five
https://nacla.org/news/2015/01/12/organizers-who-never-gave-cuban-five
Haiti 5 Years After Devastating Earthquake
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12984
Haiti by the Numbers, Five Years Later
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-by-the-numbers-five-years-later
Haiti Cholera Suit Struck Down
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Haiti-Cholera-Suit-Struck-Down-20150110-0005.html
Monsanto Hires Marketing Firm to Poll Citizens on GMOs (Puerto Rico)
http://alainet.org/active/79925
Deportations to Dangerous Zones (US/immigration)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/deportations-to-dangerous-zones/
No Alternative: Ankle Monitors Expand the Reach of Immigration Detention (US/immigration)
https://nacla.org/news/2015/01/06/no-alternative-ankle-monitors-expand-reach-immigration-detention
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/
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. Haiti: US Grants UN Immunity in Cholera Suit
2. Peru: Fujimori Sentenced for Tabloid Bribery
3. Mexico: Protests Follow Peña to Washington
4. Latin America: Why Did Monsanto Profits Dip?
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, 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.
Note: The Update is ceasing publication on Feb. 15. In each of the remaining issues we will try to include some updated information on stories we covered in the past.
*1. Haiti: US Grants UN Immunity in Cholera Suit
On Jan. 9 a federal district judge in New York, J. Paul Oetken, dismissed a lawsuit seeking compensation from the United Nations (UN) for a cholera epidemic introduced into Haiti in October 2010 by infected soldiers from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) [see Update #1238]. “The UN is immune from suit unless it expressly waives its immunity,” Judge Oetken wrote in his decision, which was based on the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN and a US appeals court ruling in a 2010 sexual discrimination case. Lawyers from the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), representing thousands of Haitian cholera victims, said they would appeal the decision, which came three days before the fifth anniversary of an earthquake that devastated much of southern Haiti.
The suit, Delama Georges, et al, v. United Nations, et al, was filed in October 2013. The plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that the UN was not entitled to immunity under the 1946 convention because the world organization failed to meet its obligation under the convention to establish a settlement process for the victims. A number of legal experts agreed with the plaintiffs’ position, filing three amicus curiae briefs with the court and arguing in support of the plaintiffs at a hearing in October 2014. The UN has never admitted its responsibility for the cholera outbreak and didn’t respond to the suit; the US government argued on the UN’s behalf. According to Haitian rights lawyer Mario Joseph, the president of the Bureau of International Lawyers (BAI), Oetken’s ruling “implies that there is nowhere in the world [the victims] can turn to seek justice. That is irreconcilable with their human rights and basic notions of justice.” (IJDH press release 1/9/15; Reuters 1/10/15)
At least 8,774 Haitians had died of the cholera epidemic by Jan. 8, according to the DC-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). Some 14,000 or more were sickened by the disease in 2014, and 243 died that year. The amount of money required for a program for the eradication of cholera in Haiti is estimated to be $2.2 billion; the amount pledged so far is $50 million. (Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch, CEPR, 1/8/15)
Arnel (or Anel) Alexis Joseph, the controversial president of the Superior Council of the Judicial Branch (CSPJ), offered his resignation on Jan. 7, as was recommended on Dec. 9 by an 11-member “consultative commission” that President Michel Martelly set up to resolve a political impasse; terms are set to expire for one-third of Haiti’s senators on Jan. 12, leaving the Senate without a quorum and possibly creating a constitutional crisis [see Update #1246]. Other people that the commission asked to resign, including former prime minister Laurent Lamothe and the members of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), had already complied. The Senate called for Joseph’s resignation back in 2012 on the grounds that he was past the maximum legal age for the post. (AlterPresse (Haiti) 1/7/15)
*2. Peru: Fujimori Sentenced for Tabloid Bribery
After a trial lasting more than a year, on Jan. 8 a Peruvian court sentenced former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) to eight years in prison for embezzlement. The court found that between 1998 and 2000 Fujimori diverted some $43 million from the military to the National Intelligence Service (SIN) in order to pay tabloid dailies to follow the government’s editorial line. The colorful tabloids--known in Peru as “diarios chicha” after a popular musical style—supported Fujimori’s campaign for reelection in 2000 by characterizing his opponents as communists, homosexuals and spies; some of the papers were actually created by Fujimori’s government for the purpose. The former president claimed in court on Dec. 29 that he didn’t know about the diversion of the money. In addition to the prison sentence, Fujimori lost his right to hold public office for three years and was ordered to pay a fine of 3 million soles (about US$1 million). (RRP (Peru) 1/8/15; El País (Madrid) 1/8/15 from correspondent)
This was the fifth conviction for Fujimori since 2007. On Dec. 11, 2007, he was found guilty of ordering an illegal search of the home of the wife of his former adviser Vladimiro Montesinos to seize compromising video tapes. On Apr. 7, 2009, a court sentenced him to 25 years in prison for two massacres of unarmed civilians carried out by the Colina Group, a death squad organized by military intelligence and allegedly reporting to the president: the November 1991 killing of 15 people at a family barbecue in the Barrios Altos neighborhood of Lima, and the July 1992 abduction and murder of nine university students and a professor from the Enrique Guzmán y Valle (La Cantuta) university; the group also kidnapped journalist Gustavo Gorriti and business owner Samuel Dyer in 1992 [see Update #1019]. Also in 2009, Fujimori was sentenced to seven years and six months for appropriating $15 million from the treasury for Montesinos; in a separate case, he was sentenced to six years for spying on phone calls, payoffs to the media and the buying of Congress members.
Although elected as a populist in 1990, Fujimori quickly imposed a harsh neoliberal program known as “Fujishock.” In 1992 he seized dictatorial powers with a “self-coup,” claiming this would clear the way for combating two leftist rebel movements. He fled the country in 2000 when his government’s massive corruption came to light, and sought asylum in Japan. In 2005 he went to Chile as part of a plan to return to Peru, but Chilean authorities imprisoned him and turned him over to the Peruvian government in 2007. The maximum sentence in Peru is 25 years, so the five sentences will run concurrently. Fujimori will theoretically be released in 2032, at the age of 94. (La República (Peru) 1/8/15; El País 1/8/15)
In other news, judicial authorities announced on Dec. 30 that Attorney General Carlos Ramos Heredia had been suspended from his post for six months to “safeguard the optimal development of the investigations” into charges that he impeded inquiries concerning alleged corruption in the central western department of Ancash. Officials there took $113 million in public funds between 2008 and 2011, according to Mesías Guevara, the president of the parliamentary commission investigating the allegations. Ramos Heredia told RPP radio that he would respect the suspension but wouldn’t resign. (Yahoo News 12/30/14 from AP)
*3. Mexico: Protests Follow Peña to Washington
Facing serious political and economic problems at home, on Jan. 6 Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto made his first official visit to Washington, DC, since taking office in December 2012. A private meeting at the White House with US president Barack Obama lasted longer than was scheduled, and the two presidents didn’t take questions when they spoke with the press afterwards. The US has been following the “tragic events” involving seven deaths and the abduction of 43 students the night of Sept. 26-27 in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero [see Update #1246], Obama told reporters, and the US would continue to aid in investigations and in the fight against drug cartels. Obama also praised Mexico’s efforts to keep Central American migrants from reaching the US border, especially during the child migrant “crisis” in the summer of 2014 [see Update #1237]. Peña Nieto promised that Mexico would help the US and Cuba normalize relations. (La Jornada (Mexico) 1/7/15)
In addition to facing massive protests against the Mexican political system since the Guerrero abductions, Peña Nieto’s government is having to deal with a drop in oil prices that has led to downward pressure on the peso. Now at $39.70 a barrel, the price of Mexico’s export oil plummeted by 61.23% from June 20, 2014 to Jan. 9 of this year, while the peso fell by 12.3%, ending up at 14.5 to the US dollar. (El Financiero (Mexico) 1/12/15)
As the two presidents were speaking, about 100 protesters, mostly Mexicans and Mexican Americans, rallied outside the White House. The protesters charged that the US government is supporting corruption and violence in Mexico through its Mérida Initiative, a program often referred to as “Plan Mexico,” in which the US funds anti-narcotics campaigns by Mexican security forces, themselves often linked to the cartels [see Update #952]. Among the participants in the rally was Nansi Cisneros, whose brother was kidnapped by men in police uniforms in the western state of Jalisco; a US citizen living in Los Angeles, Cisneros had written about her brother’s case on the Huffington Post news site.
There were similar protests that day in at least nine other US cities, including Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle, organized by the USTired2 network [see Update #1245] and other groups to echo the demonstrations in Mexico. One of the protesters in Seattle was José Luis Avila, the husband of Nestora Salgado García, an imprisoned community police leader in Olinalá, Guerrero [see Update #1237]. (LJ 1/7/15)
On Jan. 8 the Guerrero government announced that it was dropping charges against Salgado “as a demonstration that this citizens’ government has been consistent in the search for peace and the harmonious development of Guerrero in all its aspects.” (LJ 1/8/15) As of Jan. 11 there had been no reports of her release.
In other news, the celebrated Mexican editor and investigative reporter Julio Scherer died on Jan. 7 at the age of 88. Scherer edited the influential daily El Excélsior from 1968 to 1976, when government pressure finally succeeded in getting the paper to remove him. He then founded the weekly Proceso, whose investigative reports have plagued Mexican politicians ever since--most recently in articles on alleged federal involvement in the abduction of the 43 students in Guerrero and on possible judicial favoritism for the brother of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari [see Updates #1246, 1248]. People that Scherer interviewed or attempted to interview ranged from Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet to Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael (“El Mayo”) Zambada García. The journalist claimed that he’d go to hell if the devil offered him an interview. (LJ 1/8/15)
*4. Latin America: Why Did Monsanto Profits Dip?
The Missouri-based biotech giant Monsanto Company announced on Jan. 7 that its revenues for September through November 2014, the first quarter of the company’s current fiscal year, fell to $2.87 billion from $3.14 billion for the same period the year before. The decline was less than analysts had expected. According to Bloomberg News, this was because the losses, including a 12% drop in corn seed sales, were partly offset by sales of Monsanto’s new Intacta soybeans, which the company says are genetically modified to withstand pests in South America. But the losses themselves were “in part, due to the reduction in sowing areas in South America,” the Spanish agricultural news site agroinformación.com reported. Agroinformación.com also cited resistance to the construction of a seed processing plant in Malvinas Argentinas in Argentina’s central Córdoba province [see Update #1204]. (Bloomberg 1/7/15; agroinformación.com 1/8/15)
In December residents of Malvinas Argentinas--a small working-class town near the provincial capital, also named Córdoba—celebrated their success so far in stopping Monsanto’s factory, which was to be the company’s largest South American seed processing plant. Since September 2013 residents have been blocking construction crews’ access to the site. Construction has in fact been suspended since January 2014, when an appeals court ordered the company to produce a new environmental impact study. Although the provincial government initially promoted the construction, in February the province’s Environmental Secretariat rejected the company’ new study. Monsanto is now reportedly looking at other sites.
Despite activists’ apparent success in Malvinas Argentinas—and a growing Latin American movement against Monsanto and other producers of genetically modified (GM) seeds [see Update #1232]—Argentina’s major farmers still rely heavily on the products. The country’s huge soybean crop is 100% transgenic, as are 92% of the cotton crop and 84% of the corn crop. The 23.9 million hectares of GM crop in the country represent the world’s third largest surface sowed with transgenic seed, after the US with 69.5 million hectares and Brazil with 36.6 million hectares. (BBC Mundo 12/14/14)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Ecuador, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, US/immigration
The Agents of Unregulated Globalization vs. the Agents of the Fight against Climate Change (Latin America)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/the-agents-of-unregulated-globalization-vs-the-agents-of-the-fight-against-climate-change
Open Letter to Rafael Correa: Stop the Eviction of CONAIE (Ecuador)
https://intercontinentalcry.org/open-letter-rafael-correa-stop-eviction-conaie/
China Commits $20 Billion to Venezuela at First Latin America-China Forum in Beijing
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11143
Territories Free of Mining on the Rise in Honduras
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/5170-territories-free-of-mining-on-the-rise-in-honduras-
Genocide Trial against Guatemalan Dictator Suspended Once Again
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Genocide-Trial-against-Guatemalan-Dictator-Suspended-Once-Again-20150105-0020.html
The Federal Police Not Only Knew, They Were There (Audio) (Mexico)
https://nacla.org/news/2015/01/08/federal-police-not-only-knew-they-were-there-audio
‘Nothing Was an Accident That Night’: Mexican Federal Police Implicated in the Disappearance of the 43
http://www.thenation.com/blog/194073/nothing-was-accident-night-mexican-federal-police-implicated-disappearance-43
Popular Political Trial in Iguala (Mexico)
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/14375
Led by Latinos, US Cities Organize to End Plan Mexico and Support Ayotzinapa
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/14231
The Organizers Who Never Gave Up on the Cuban Five
https://nacla.org/news/2015/01/12/organizers-who-never-gave-cuban-five
Haiti 5 Years After Devastating Earthquake
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12984
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haiti-by-the-numbers-five-years-later
Haiti Cholera Suit Struck Down
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Haiti-Cholera-Suit-Struck-Down-20150110-0005.html
Monsanto Hires Marketing Firm to Poll Citizens on GMOs (Puerto Rico)
http://alainet.org/active/79925
Deportations to Dangerous Zones (US/immigration)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/deportations-to-dangerous-zones/
No Alternative: Ankle Monitors Expand the Reach of Immigration Detention (US/immigration)
https://nacla.org/news/2015/01/06/no-alternative-ankle-monitors-expand-reach-immigration-detention
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/
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, August 26, 2014
WNU #1231: Mexican Miners Protest Toxic Spill
Issue #1231, August 24, 2014
1. Mexico: Unionists Protest Cananea Toxic Spill
2. Honduras: Child, Journalist Murders Continue
3. Haiti: Aristide’s Lawyers Question Inquiry
4. Brazil: Haiti Mission Shaped Rio Police Unit
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, US/immigration
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
Note: There will be links but no Update on August 31, 2014. Publication will resume the following week.
*1. Mexico: Unionists Protest Cananea Toxic Spill
At least 800 members of Section 65 of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers and the Like of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM, “Los Mineros”) began blocking the three main entrances to the giant Buenavista del Cobre copper mine in Cananea, near the US border in the northwestern state of Sonora, on Aug. 20 to protest environmental damage caused two weeks earlier when about 40,000 cubic meters of copper sulfate acid solution spilled from the mine into the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers. Most of the unionists lost their jobs four years ago when the mine’s owner, Grupo México S.A.B. de C.V., broke a 2007-2010 strike over health and safety issues [see Update #1194]. “During the strike we made several complaints about the improper and inadequate measures Grupo México implemented for preventing overflows from the dams” for chemicals and heavy metals, Section 65 director Sergio Tolano Lizárraga told the national daily La Jornada. He said the blockade would continue until the company recognized the workers’ old contract. (LJ 8/22/14)
Authorities shut down wells in the region following the Aug. 6 spill, depriving an estimated 22,000 residents of water; 89 schools had to be closed just as classes were starting for the new school year. On Aug. 19 officials from the Federal Attorney General’s Office for Protection of the Environment (Profepa) said they had filed charges against Grupo México, which could be fined up to 43 million pesos (US$3.3 million) and would be responsible for cleanup costs. The company denied reports that it hadn’t initially reported the spill. On Aug. 23 officials from Profepa and the National Water Commission (Conagua) said they had now found leaks in the temporary dam set up to stop the overflow of toxic substances into the Sonora. (Wall Street Journal 8/19/14; LJ 8/24/14)
“Grupo México is a serial killer,” labor activist Cristina Auerbach Benavides told La Jornada. “It’s never made repairs in the environment where it has passed through. Grupo México rots everything it touches.” Auerbach--who directs the Pasta de Conchos Family, an organization of relatives of 65 coal miners killed in a methane explosion at a Grupo México mine in Coahuila in February 2006 [see Update #1139]—dated the company’s history of environmental disasters and industrial accidents back to 1908, when 200 miners died in a gas explosion at the Rosita 3 coal mine in Coahuila.
Guillermo Martínez Berlanga, director of the Ecological Committee for Wellbeing, noted the small size of the proposed fine against Grupo México for creating a major disaster; in contrast, the US government fined the company’s US subsidiary Asarco $800,000 just for failing to allow an audit. The Mexican government’s approach to national companies like Grupo México and the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) raises questions about President Enrique Peña Nieto’s controversial “energy reform,” which will open up the energy sector to private and foreign companies [see Update #1214]. “These ecological disasters demonstrate that Mexico isn’t ready for the energy reform,” Martínez Berlanga said, “because if the government can’t control PEMEX’s spills and Grupo México’s contamination, much less will it be able to control multinationals that are 10 times more powerful and [have] a greater power to corrupt.” (LJ 8/24/14)
In other news, protests were being planned internationally on Aug. 21 to mark the first anniversary of the imprisonment of community activist Nestora Salgado and to demand her release [see Update #1223]. Sites for the protests included her hometown, Olinalá in the southwestern state of Guerrero; Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland in the US; and Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Mexican author Elena Poniatowska, Mexican director and actor Jesusa Rodríguez, and US Congress member Adam Smith (D-WA) are among the people supporting Salgado, who holds dual Mexican and US citizenship; she was arrested while heading the community police in Olinalá. (LJ 8/21/14)
*2. Honduras: Child, Journalist Murders Continue
At least five Honduran minors recently deported from the US were among the 42 children murdered in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, Cortés department, since February, according to Hector Hernández, who heads the city’s morgue. The number could be as high as 10, he told Los Angeles Times reporter Cindy Carcamo. In June and July the administration of US president Barack Obama responded to a dramatic increase of tens of thousands of Central American minors seeking refuge in the US by emphasizing that most will be repatriated; the administration even arranged and publicized a special deportation flight of mothers with young children to San Pedro Sula on July 14 [see Update #1227]. But Carcamo’s reporting suggests that publicity won’t be enough to stop youths from trying to flee gang violence in Honduras. “There are many youngsters who only three days after they've been deported are killed, shot by a firearm,” Hernández said. “They return just to die.”
One San Pedro Sula resident told Carcamo that a teenage cousin was shot dead just hours after arriving on a deportation flight. The resident refused to identify himself or the victim for fear of reprisal from neighborhood gangs. “I would be killing my entire family,” he said. The morgue reported 594 homicides in the region around the city as of mid-July; the toll for all of last year was 778. (LAT 8/16/14 from correspondent)
The murders of Honduran journalists continue [see Update #1217]. Nery Soto Torres, who directed a television program on Channel 23, was gunned down on Aug. 14 in front of his home in Olanchito in the northern department of Yoro, east of San Pedro Sula. The authorities said the killers didn’t steal anything from the victim. Soto was the seventh journalist murdered in Honduras this year; the sixth was Herlyn Espinal, whose body was found on July 21 at a ranch between La Barca and Santa Rita municipalities in Yoro. The National Human Rights Commission (CONADEH) says a total of 47 media workers have been killed since November 2003 and 91% of the cases have not resulted in convictions. A group of journalists held a march in Olanchito on Aug. 19 to demand a prompt and thorough investigation of Soto’s killing. Most investigations of journalists’ murders “are completely abandoned,” Miguel Romero, president of the Yoro Journalists Association, said at the march. (Latin American Herald Tribune 8/17/14 from EFE; Washington Post 8/19/14 from AP; La Prensa (San Pedro Sula) 8/19/14 from EFE)
*3. Haiti: Aristide’s Lawyers Question Inquiry
Former Haitian prime minister Yvon Neptune (2002-2004) appeared before investigative judge Lamarre Bélizaire at the judge’s Port-au-Prince office on Aug. 22 to answer questions in an inquiry into allegations of corruption and drug trafficking during the second administration of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004). Bélizaire has notified the authorities that 33 people, most of them connected with Aristide’s Lavalas Family (FL) party, are not permitted to leave the country because of their connection with the investigation. After the Aug. 22 session, Neptune, who has broken with Aristide, told reporters that he had no problem answering Bélizaire’s summons. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 8/23/14)
Lawyers for Aristide, on the other hand, have challenged Bélizaire’s entire inquiry and his qualifications to head it. Aristide was reportedly ordered to appear before Bélizaire on Aug. 13, but human rights advocate Mario Joseph, Aristide’s lead attorney, said the former president never received the summons. Joseph himself went to Bélizaire’s office to deliver a letter on the subject, but the judge wasn’t present. Aristide’s legal team is demanding that Bélizaire be removed from the case on the grounds that there were irregularities in his appointment as judge and that he is a member of the center-right Tèt Kale Haitian Party (PHTK) of President Michel Martelly (tèt kale is Creole for “Bald Head,” a nickname for the president). Lavalas supporters have maintained barricades around Aristide’s house in the northeastern suburb of Tabarre since mid-August in case Judge Bélizaire issues an arrest warrant for the former president.
Aristide’s backers aren’t the only ones questioning Bélizaire’s investigation. “This case should be handled by another judge, one who understands respecting the law,” Pierre Espérance, the director of the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) and a longtime Aristide opponent, told the online Haitian news service AlterPresse. “Judge Lamarre lacks character and temperament. He kneels before the executive.” According to Espérance, Bélizaire hasn’t had training to investigate financial crimes. “If he stays on the case, it’s because he has a personal interest.” (AlterPresse 8/13/14, 8/13/14; Radio Kiskeya 8/17/14, 8/17/14)
The Haitian court system is often accused of being influenced by political interests. On Aug. 11 a court in the northwestern city of Gonaïves sentenced Wilford Ferdinand (“Ti Wil”) and his cousin Alix Suffrant (“Bout Zòrèy”) to nine years at hard labor for the April 2007 murder of Johnson Edouard, a former correspondent for the weekly Haïti Progrès and a regional coordinator for FL. Ferdinand was a leader in the so-called “Cannibal Army,” a local group that initially supported Aristide but later joined rightwing paramilitary groups seeking to overthrow him. Ferdinand charged that the sentence against him was politically motivated. “Investigative judge Pierre Michel Denis is a member of the Lavalas Family party,” Ferdinand said. But he thanked the public ministry’s representative, Enock Géné Génélus, for his help. Normally the public ministry, which is responsible to the Martelly government, would be expected to lead the prosecution; in this case, it supported the defendant. (AlterPresse 8/14/14)
In a major embarrassment for the criminal justice system, 329 prisoners broke out of the prison in Croix-des-Bouquets, northeast of Port-au-Prince, on Aug. 10. One of the escapees was Clifford Brandt, a wealthy business leader’s son who is charged with masterminding the October 2012 kidnapping of other members of the elite. There was speculation that Brandt’s backers were behind the massive jailbreak. Brandt was captured two days later by Dominican soldiers in Hondo Valle, just across the border from Haiti. As of Aug. 13 only some 20 of the escaped prisoners had been recaptured. (AlterPresse 8/13/14, 8/13/14)
*4. Brazil: Haiti Mission Shaped Rio Police Unit
Two Brazilian experts in police work have confirmed longstanding claims that the Brazilian military and police used their leading role in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) as a way to train their forces for operations in Brazil’s own cities. According to Lt. Col. Carlos Cavalcanti, of the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Center (CCOPAB), the Brazilians were especially interested in the concept of permanent “strong points” in urban areas, which MINUSTAH forces used to “pacify” Port-au-Prince’s huge Cité Soleil section in 2005 and the Cité Militaire neighborhood in 2007. “Rio de Janeiro’s Militarized Police even sent a group to Haiti while these operations were still being carried out, with the object of taking in the Brazilian army’s experiences,” Cavalcanti said.
These experiences inspired the use of special police groups known as Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) in controlling the impoverished urban areas in Brazil known as favelas, according to Claudio Silveira, a defense specialist at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ). The UPP in Rio was the target of repeated protests in the summer of 2013 because of unit members’ alleged torture and murder of construction worker Amarildo de Souza Lima [see Update #1195]. One advantage of MINUSTAH for the Brazilian military is apparently that it helps make up for what top officers feel is an inadequate budget for training soldiers. In Haiti the soldiers get real-life training, for which the Brazilian government has paid out 2.11 billion reais (US$923 million) since the mission’s start in June 2004; the United Nations has reimbursed it with 741 million reais (US$324 million). (Adital (Brazil) 8/13/14)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, US/immigration
Washington Should Follow Latin America’s Lead in Condemning Israel’s War on Palestine
http://telesurtv.net/english/news/Washington-Should-Follow-Latin-Americas-Lead-in-Condemning-Israels-War-on-Palestine-20140815-0059.html
Land rights in Latin America: where are the voices of indigenous women?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5003-land-rights-in-latin-america-where-are-the-voices-of-indigenous-women
The Changing Map of Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4986--the-changing-map-of-latin-america-
Argentina Takes on Pirates and Vultures
http://nacla.org/news/2014/8/14/argentina-takes-pirates-and-vultures
Do the Holdout Hedge Funds Hold Argentine Credit Default Swaps?
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/do-the-holdout-hedge-funds-hold-argentine-credit-default-swaps
Window Dressing for the Vulture Funds (Argentina)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/window-dressing-for-the-vulture-funds
Peru leaks: oil company rewrote environmental law
http://ww4report.com/node/13447
Mining Firms in Peru Mount Legal Offensive Against Inspection Tax
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/4998-mining-firms-in-peru-mount-legal-offensive-against-inspection-tax
Cajamarca: campesino family convicted in retrial (Peru)
http://ww4report.com/node/13445
Ecuador: Free Pacto from Mining
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/4984-ecuador-free-pacto-from-mining
Colombia - Hope in the Midst of a Violent Crisis: Life in Buenaventura's Urban Humanitarian Space
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/4992-colombia-hope-in-the-midst-of-a-violent-crisis-life-in-buenaventuras-urban-humanitarian-space
Gabriel García Márquez: The Last Visit (Colombia)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/4988-gabriel-garcia-marquez-the-last-visit
F-16 Missile Attacks Venezuelan Humanitarian Aid Mission in Gaza
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10861
Aruba frees wanted Venezuelan 'narco-general'
http://ww4report.com/node/13467
The Carrot, the Stick, and the Seeds: U.S. development policy faces resistance in El Salvador
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/12762
Progressive Tax Reforms Approved in El Salvador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5002-progressive-tax-reforms-approved-in-el-salvador
Report: World Bank Loan in Honduras Ignores Environmental and Social Risks
http://telesurtv.net/english/news/Report-World-Bank-Loan-in-Honduras-Ignores-Environmental-and-Social-Risks-20140817-0010.html
Cold Warrior Criticizes Cold War and Drug War, Hires Cold Warrior to Promote Drug War (Guatemala)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/cold-warrior-criticizes-cold-war-and-drug-war-hires-cold-warrior-to-promote-drug-war
Guatemala: The End of the Spring of Claudia Paz y Paz
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/5000-guatemala-the-end-of-the-spring-of-claudia-paz-y-paz
Women-Led Resistance against False Development in Guatemala
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/5006-guatemala-women-led-resistance-against-false-development-in-guatemala
Indigenous Mexico Rising Again
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/indigenous-mexico-rising-again/
National Indigenous Congress and Zapatistas Unite Against Plundering of Their Lands (Mexico)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4995-national-indigenous-congress-and-zapatistas-unite-against-plundering-of-their-lands
Voices From the Field: Puebla’s Campesinos Resisting the Theft of Their Land (Mexico)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/5007-voices-from-the-field-pueblas-campesinos-resisting-the-theft-of-their-land-
Sweet Victory for Mexico Beekeepers as Monsanto Loses GM Permit
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4985-sweet-victory-for-mexico-beekeepers-as-monsanto-loses-gm-permit
A Toxic Shade of Orange (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/a-toxic-shade-of-orange/
Sonora: mining threatens disappearing waters (Mexico)
http://ww4report.com/node/13448
Sinaloa kingpin prevails in prison hunger strike (Mexico)
http://ww4report.com/node/13451
The Mission to Mexico: California Governor Jerry Brown’s Diplomatic Coup
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/the-mission-to-mexico-california-governor-jerry-browns-diplomatic-coup/
Reclaiming Life from Streets of Death (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/reclaiming-life-from-streets-of-death/
As Men Emigrate, Indigenous Women Gain Political Opportunities and Obligations in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5004-as-men-emigrate-indigenous-women-gain-political-opportunities-and-obligations-in-mexico
Will Former President Aristide be Arrested? After 10 Years of Investigations, He Has Never Been Charged
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/will-former-president-aristide-be-arrested-after-10-years-of-investigations-he-has-never-been-charged
Who Counts as a Refugee in US Immigration Policy—and Who Doesn’t (US/immigration)
http://www.thenation.com/article/180929/who-counts-refugee-us-immigration-policy-and-who-doesnt
Where Is the Voice of Migrant Children in the Immigration Crisis? (US/immigration)
http://www.thenation.com/blog/180928/where-voice-migrant-children-immigration-crisis#
Georgia Police Chief Severely Restricts Annual SOA Protest: Social Organizations and US Reps Respond (US/policy)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/5009-georgia-police-chief-severely-restricts-annual-soa-protest-social-organizations-and-us-reps-respond
Mastering movements — An interview with immigrant rights activist Carlos Saavedra (US/immigration)
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/08/mastering-movements-interview-carlos-saavedra/
Children of the Monroe Doctrine: The Militarized Roots of America's Border Calamity (US/immigration)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4999-children-of-the-monroe-doctrine-the-militarized-roots-of-americas-border-calamity
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. Mexico: Unionists Protest Cananea Toxic Spill
2. Honduras: Child, Journalist Murders Continue
3. Haiti: Aristide’s Lawyers Question Inquiry
4. Brazil: Haiti Mission Shaped Rio Police Unit
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, US/immigration
ISSN#: 1084 922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/WeeklyNewsUpdat.
Note: There will be links but no Update on August 31, 2014. Publication will resume the following week.
*1. Mexico: Unionists Protest Cananea Toxic Spill
At least 800 members of Section 65 of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers and the Like of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSRM, “Los Mineros”) began blocking the three main entrances to the giant Buenavista del Cobre copper mine in Cananea, near the US border in the northwestern state of Sonora, on Aug. 20 to protest environmental damage caused two weeks earlier when about 40,000 cubic meters of copper sulfate acid solution spilled from the mine into the Bacanuchi and Sonora rivers. Most of the unionists lost their jobs four years ago when the mine’s owner, Grupo México S.A.B. de C.V., broke a 2007-2010 strike over health and safety issues [see Update #1194]. “During the strike we made several complaints about the improper and inadequate measures Grupo México implemented for preventing overflows from the dams” for chemicals and heavy metals, Section 65 director Sergio Tolano Lizárraga told the national daily La Jornada. He said the blockade would continue until the company recognized the workers’ old contract. (LJ 8/22/14)
Authorities shut down wells in the region following the Aug. 6 spill, depriving an estimated 22,000 residents of water; 89 schools had to be closed just as classes were starting for the new school year. On Aug. 19 officials from the Federal Attorney General’s Office for Protection of the Environment (Profepa) said they had filed charges against Grupo México, which could be fined up to 43 million pesos (US$3.3 million) and would be responsible for cleanup costs. The company denied reports that it hadn’t initially reported the spill. On Aug. 23 officials from Profepa and the National Water Commission (Conagua) said they had now found leaks in the temporary dam set up to stop the overflow of toxic substances into the Sonora. (Wall Street Journal 8/19/14; LJ 8/24/14)
“Grupo México is a serial killer,” labor activist Cristina Auerbach Benavides told La Jornada. “It’s never made repairs in the environment where it has passed through. Grupo México rots everything it touches.” Auerbach--who directs the Pasta de Conchos Family, an organization of relatives of 65 coal miners killed in a methane explosion at a Grupo México mine in Coahuila in February 2006 [see Update #1139]—dated the company’s history of environmental disasters and industrial accidents back to 1908, when 200 miners died in a gas explosion at the Rosita 3 coal mine in Coahuila.
Guillermo Martínez Berlanga, director of the Ecological Committee for Wellbeing, noted the small size of the proposed fine against Grupo México for creating a major disaster; in contrast, the US government fined the company’s US subsidiary Asarco $800,000 just for failing to allow an audit. The Mexican government’s approach to national companies like Grupo México and the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) raises questions about President Enrique Peña Nieto’s controversial “energy reform,” which will open up the energy sector to private and foreign companies [see Update #1214]. “These ecological disasters demonstrate that Mexico isn’t ready for the energy reform,” Martínez Berlanga said, “because if the government can’t control PEMEX’s spills and Grupo México’s contamination, much less will it be able to control multinationals that are 10 times more powerful and [have] a greater power to corrupt.” (LJ 8/24/14)
In other news, protests were being planned internationally on Aug. 21 to mark the first anniversary of the imprisonment of community activist Nestora Salgado and to demand her release [see Update #1223]. Sites for the protests included her hometown, Olinalá in the southwestern state of Guerrero; Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland in the US; and Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Mexican author Elena Poniatowska, Mexican director and actor Jesusa Rodríguez, and US Congress member Adam Smith (D-WA) are among the people supporting Salgado, who holds dual Mexican and US citizenship; she was arrested while heading the community police in Olinalá. (LJ 8/21/14)
*2. Honduras: Child, Journalist Murders Continue
At least five Honduran minors recently deported from the US were among the 42 children murdered in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, Cortés department, since February, according to Hector Hernández, who heads the city’s morgue. The number could be as high as 10, he told Los Angeles Times reporter Cindy Carcamo. In June and July the administration of US president Barack Obama responded to a dramatic increase of tens of thousands of Central American minors seeking refuge in the US by emphasizing that most will be repatriated; the administration even arranged and publicized a special deportation flight of mothers with young children to San Pedro Sula on July 14 [see Update #1227]. But Carcamo’s reporting suggests that publicity won’t be enough to stop youths from trying to flee gang violence in Honduras. “There are many youngsters who only three days after they've been deported are killed, shot by a firearm,” Hernández said. “They return just to die.”
One San Pedro Sula resident told Carcamo that a teenage cousin was shot dead just hours after arriving on a deportation flight. The resident refused to identify himself or the victim for fear of reprisal from neighborhood gangs. “I would be killing my entire family,” he said. The morgue reported 594 homicides in the region around the city as of mid-July; the toll for all of last year was 778. (LAT 8/16/14 from correspondent)
The murders of Honduran journalists continue [see Update #1217]. Nery Soto Torres, who directed a television program on Channel 23, was gunned down on Aug. 14 in front of his home in Olanchito in the northern department of Yoro, east of San Pedro Sula. The authorities said the killers didn’t steal anything from the victim. Soto was the seventh journalist murdered in Honduras this year; the sixth was Herlyn Espinal, whose body was found on July 21 at a ranch between La Barca and Santa Rita municipalities in Yoro. The National Human Rights Commission (CONADEH) says a total of 47 media workers have been killed since November 2003 and 91% of the cases have not resulted in convictions. A group of journalists held a march in Olanchito on Aug. 19 to demand a prompt and thorough investigation of Soto’s killing. Most investigations of journalists’ murders “are completely abandoned,” Miguel Romero, president of the Yoro Journalists Association, said at the march. (Latin American Herald Tribune 8/17/14 from EFE; Washington Post 8/19/14 from AP; La Prensa (San Pedro Sula) 8/19/14 from EFE)
*3. Haiti: Aristide’s Lawyers Question Inquiry
Former Haitian prime minister Yvon Neptune (2002-2004) appeared before investigative judge Lamarre Bélizaire at the judge’s Port-au-Prince office on Aug. 22 to answer questions in an inquiry into allegations of corruption and drug trafficking during the second administration of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1996, 2001-2004). Bélizaire has notified the authorities that 33 people, most of them connected with Aristide’s Lavalas Family (FL) party, are not permitted to leave the country because of their connection with the investigation. After the Aug. 22 session, Neptune, who has broken with Aristide, told reporters that he had no problem answering Bélizaire’s summons. (Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 8/23/14)
Lawyers for Aristide, on the other hand, have challenged Bélizaire’s entire inquiry and his qualifications to head it. Aristide was reportedly ordered to appear before Bélizaire on Aug. 13, but human rights advocate Mario Joseph, Aristide’s lead attorney, said the former president never received the summons. Joseph himself went to Bélizaire’s office to deliver a letter on the subject, but the judge wasn’t present. Aristide’s legal team is demanding that Bélizaire be removed from the case on the grounds that there were irregularities in his appointment as judge and that he is a member of the center-right Tèt Kale Haitian Party (PHTK) of President Michel Martelly (tèt kale is Creole for “Bald Head,” a nickname for the president). Lavalas supporters have maintained barricades around Aristide’s house in the northeastern suburb of Tabarre since mid-August in case Judge Bélizaire issues an arrest warrant for the former president.
Aristide’s backers aren’t the only ones questioning Bélizaire’s investigation. “This case should be handled by another judge, one who understands respecting the law,” Pierre Espérance, the director of the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) and a longtime Aristide opponent, told the online Haitian news service AlterPresse. “Judge Lamarre lacks character and temperament. He kneels before the executive.” According to Espérance, Bélizaire hasn’t had training to investigate financial crimes. “If he stays on the case, it’s because he has a personal interest.” (AlterPresse 8/13/14, 8/13/14; Radio Kiskeya 8/17/14, 8/17/14)
The Haitian court system is often accused of being influenced by political interests. On Aug. 11 a court in the northwestern city of Gonaïves sentenced Wilford Ferdinand (“Ti Wil”) and his cousin Alix Suffrant (“Bout Zòrèy”) to nine years at hard labor for the April 2007 murder of Johnson Edouard, a former correspondent for the weekly Haïti Progrès and a regional coordinator for FL. Ferdinand was a leader in the so-called “Cannibal Army,” a local group that initially supported Aristide but later joined rightwing paramilitary groups seeking to overthrow him. Ferdinand charged that the sentence against him was politically motivated. “Investigative judge Pierre Michel Denis is a member of the Lavalas Family party,” Ferdinand said. But he thanked the public ministry’s representative, Enock Géné Génélus, for his help. Normally the public ministry, which is responsible to the Martelly government, would be expected to lead the prosecution; in this case, it supported the defendant. (AlterPresse 8/14/14)
In a major embarrassment for the criminal justice system, 329 prisoners broke out of the prison in Croix-des-Bouquets, northeast of Port-au-Prince, on Aug. 10. One of the escapees was Clifford Brandt, a wealthy business leader’s son who is charged with masterminding the October 2012 kidnapping of other members of the elite. There was speculation that Brandt’s backers were behind the massive jailbreak. Brandt was captured two days later by Dominican soldiers in Hondo Valle, just across the border from Haiti. As of Aug. 13 only some 20 of the escaped prisoners had been recaptured. (AlterPresse 8/13/14, 8/13/14)
*4. Brazil: Haiti Mission Shaped Rio Police Unit
Two Brazilian experts in police work have confirmed longstanding claims that the Brazilian military and police used their leading role in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) as a way to train their forces for operations in Brazil’s own cities. According to Lt. Col. Carlos Cavalcanti, of the Brazilian Peace Operations Joint Training Center (CCOPAB), the Brazilians were especially interested in the concept of permanent “strong points” in urban areas, which MINUSTAH forces used to “pacify” Port-au-Prince’s huge Cité Soleil section in 2005 and the Cité Militaire neighborhood in 2007. “Rio de Janeiro’s Militarized Police even sent a group to Haiti while these operations were still being carried out, with the object of taking in the Brazilian army’s experiences,” Cavalcanti said.
These experiences inspired the use of special police groups known as Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) in controlling the impoverished urban areas in Brazil known as favelas, according to Claudio Silveira, a defense specialist at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ). The UPP in Rio was the target of repeated protests in the summer of 2013 because of unit members’ alleged torture and murder of construction worker Amarildo de Souza Lima [see Update #1195]. One advantage of MINUSTAH for the Brazilian military is apparently that it helps make up for what top officers feel is an inadequate budget for training soldiers. In Haiti the soldiers get real-life training, for which the Brazilian government has paid out 2.11 billion reais (US$923 million) since the mission’s start in June 2004; the United Nations has reimbursed it with 741 million reais (US$324 million). (Adital (Brazil) 8/13/14)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti, US/immigration
Washington Should Follow Latin America’s Lead in Condemning Israel’s War on Palestine
http://telesurtv.net/english/news/Washington-Should-Follow-Latin-Americas-Lead-in-Condemning-Israels-War-on-Palestine-20140815-0059.html
Land rights in Latin America: where are the voices of indigenous women?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5003-land-rights-in-latin-america-where-are-the-voices-of-indigenous-women
The Changing Map of Latin America
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4986--the-changing-map-of-latin-america-
Argentina Takes on Pirates and Vultures
http://nacla.org/news/2014/8/14/argentina-takes-pirates-and-vultures
Do the Holdout Hedge Funds Hold Argentine Credit Default Swaps?
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/do-the-holdout-hedge-funds-hold-argentine-credit-default-swaps
Window Dressing for the Vulture Funds (Argentina)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/window-dressing-for-the-vulture-funds
Peru leaks: oil company rewrote environmental law
http://ww4report.com/node/13447
Mining Firms in Peru Mount Legal Offensive Against Inspection Tax
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/peru-archives-76/4998-mining-firms-in-peru-mount-legal-offensive-against-inspection-tax
Cajamarca: campesino family convicted in retrial (Peru)
http://ww4report.com/node/13445
Ecuador: Free Pacto from Mining
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/4984-ecuador-free-pacto-from-mining
Colombia - Hope in the Midst of a Violent Crisis: Life in Buenaventura's Urban Humanitarian Space
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/4992-colombia-hope-in-the-midst-of-a-violent-crisis-life-in-buenaventuras-urban-humanitarian-space
Gabriel García Márquez: The Last Visit (Colombia)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/colombia-archives-61/4988-gabriel-garcia-marquez-the-last-visit
F-16 Missile Attacks Venezuelan Humanitarian Aid Mission in Gaza
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10861
Aruba frees wanted Venezuelan 'narco-general'
http://ww4report.com/node/13467
The Carrot, the Stick, and the Seeds: U.S. development policy faces resistance in El Salvador
http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/12762
Progressive Tax Reforms Approved in El Salvador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5002-progressive-tax-reforms-approved-in-el-salvador
Report: World Bank Loan in Honduras Ignores Environmental and Social Risks
http://telesurtv.net/english/news/Report-World-Bank-Loan-in-Honduras-Ignores-Environmental-and-Social-Risks-20140817-0010.html
Cold Warrior Criticizes Cold War and Drug War, Hires Cold Warrior to Promote Drug War (Guatemala)
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/cold-warrior-criticizes-cold-war-and-drug-war-hires-cold-warrior-to-promote-drug-war
Guatemala: The End of the Spring of Claudia Paz y Paz
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/5000-guatemala-the-end-of-the-spring-of-claudia-paz-y-paz
Women-Led Resistance against False Development in Guatemala
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/5006-guatemala-women-led-resistance-against-false-development-in-guatemala
Indigenous Mexico Rising Again
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/indigenous-mexico-rising-again/
National Indigenous Congress and Zapatistas Unite Against Plundering of Their Lands (Mexico)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4995-national-indigenous-congress-and-zapatistas-unite-against-plundering-of-their-lands
Voices From the Field: Puebla’s Campesinos Resisting the Theft of Their Land (Mexico)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/mexico-archives-79/5007-voices-from-the-field-pueblas-campesinos-resisting-the-theft-of-their-land-
Sweet Victory for Mexico Beekeepers as Monsanto Loses GM Permit
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4985-sweet-victory-for-mexico-beekeepers-as-monsanto-loses-gm-permit
A Toxic Shade of Orange (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/a-toxic-shade-of-orange/
Sonora: mining threatens disappearing waters (Mexico)
http://ww4report.com/node/13448
Sinaloa kingpin prevails in prison hunger strike (Mexico)
http://ww4report.com/node/13451
The Mission to Mexico: California Governor Jerry Brown’s Diplomatic Coup
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/the-mission-to-mexico-california-governor-jerry-browns-diplomatic-coup/
Reclaiming Life from Streets of Death (Mexico)
http://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/reclaiming-life-from-streets-of-death/
As Men Emigrate, Indigenous Women Gain Political Opportunities and Obligations in Mexico
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/5004-as-men-emigrate-indigenous-women-gain-political-opportunities-and-obligations-in-mexico
Will Former President Aristide be Arrested? After 10 Years of Investigations, He Has Never Been Charged
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/will-former-president-aristide-be-arrested-after-10-years-of-investigations-he-has-never-been-charged
Who Counts as a Refugee in US Immigration Policy—and Who Doesn’t (US/immigration)
http://www.thenation.com/article/180929/who-counts-refugee-us-immigration-policy-and-who-doesnt
Where Is the Voice of Migrant Children in the Immigration Crisis? (US/immigration)
http://www.thenation.com/blog/180928/where-voice-migrant-children-immigration-crisis#
Georgia Police Chief Severely Restricts Annual SOA Protest: Social Organizations and US Reps Respond (US/policy)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/5009-georgia-police-chief-severely-restricts-annual-soa-protest-social-organizations-and-us-reps-respond
Mastering movements — An interview with immigrant rights activist Carlos Saavedra (US/immigration)
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/08/mastering-movements-interview-carlos-saavedra/
Children of the Monroe Doctrine: The Militarized Roots of America's Border Calamity (US/immigration)
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/news-briefs-archives-68/4999-children-of-the-monroe-doctrine-the-militarized-roots-of-americas-border-calamity
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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Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
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