Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #968, November 30, 2008
1. Chile: Public Employees Win 10% Raise
2. Mexico: Teachers Win Some, Lose Some
3. Venezuela: 3 Unionists Murdered
4. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Chile: Public Employees Win 10% Raise
The 15 unions representing Chile's government workers agreed on the night of Nov. 20 to end their four-day-old strike after the Senate approved a 10.4% raise earlier that day. The unions had demanded a 14.5% pay increase, arguing that the annual inflation rate had risen to 9.9% in October. Arturo Martínez, president of the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT), acknowledged that the raise "[m]aybe isn't all we hoped for." He noted that the settlement was between President Michelle Bachelet and the Congress, not the government and the unions, but said the salary increase was the result of the unionists' mobilizations, and "today it's possible to celebrate; the workers have triumphed."
Some 400,000 government workers had observed a two-day strike on Nov. 11 and 12. When Bachelet's government refused to offer more than 6.5%, the unions decided to call an open-ended strike starting Nov. 17 [see Update #967]. Public schools, customs offices, municipal governments, tax offices, public hospitals and clinics, and the judicial system were shut down. Garbage piled up on the streets, and exports were delayed, at a loss to the country of about $165 million a day. On Nov. 20 some 10,000 doctors joined the strike.
The increase will raise the average government worker's pay next July 1 from 144,000 to 159,000 pesos a month (from $290.90 to $321.21). The workers will also get a one-time bonus--$156 for the best-paid workers but $312 for the others. The total increase will cost the government $1.648 billion a year. President Bachelet asked Congress to exclude top officials from the increase, but the legislators, who will be covered by the increase, said the exclusion would be unconstitutional. Bachelet promised to look for legal mechanisms to exempt the president and cabinet ministers from the raise. "I'm an adherent of the position that those of us who are in a relatively more privileged situation than others are the ones who should tighten our belts the most," she said. (TeleSUR 11/21/08; La Jornada (Mexico) 11/21/08 from correspondent and unidentified wire services)
*2. Mexico: Teachers Win Some, Lose Some
As protests by teachers continued in several southern and central Mexican states, on Nov. 28 the State Institute of Public Education of Oaxaca (IEEPO) announced plans to work with Section 22 of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) to produce an alternative to the government's new Alliance for Quality Education (ACE). The alternative program will be carried out "in accordance with the characteristics of the state," IEEPO director Abel Trejo González said. This is first time a state government has distanced itself from the ACE, which is promoted by Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and SNTE national president Elba Esther Gordillo Morales. Teachers have protested against the ACE since August, calling it an opening to privatization [see Update #864]. A strike by Section 22 set off a major uprising in 2006 that paralyzed much of the state for five months. (Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News and Analysis, 11/30/08; La Jornada 11/29/08)
Also on Nov. 28, teachers in Guerrero, to the west of Oaxaca, ended a job action against the ACE that began on Sept. 1. Negotiations had settled about 80% of the strike issues, with the state accepting the payment of salaries to some 500 teachers who participated in the movement; the automatic granting of 700 teaching positions to graduates of the state's nine teachers colleges; an agreement not to reform the Social Security law for the state's public employees; and continuation of the custom of allowing teachers to propose their replacements when they retire. At noon on Nov. 28, the teachers ended an 88-day encampment in front of the government building in Chilpancingo. About 10,000 teachers then marched through the streets under banners depicting the teachers Lucio Cabañas Barrientos and Genaro Vázquez Rojas, who led an armed rebellion in the 1970s; the marchers thanked the population for its "tolerance, support and collaboration" during the strike. (LJ 11/29/08)
The day before, on Nov. 27, hundreds of teachers college students clashed with police agents near Morelia, Michoacán. Starting at about 7:30am, students at the Vasco de Quiroga Teachers College took over 21 buses to transport protesters the 22km to Morelia for an afternoon demonstration. About 300 police agents were waiting for them on the Pátzcuaro-Morelia highway. When the 500 students refused to leave the buses, the agents attacked with tear gas while a helicopter launched tear gas grenades from above. The students fought back, and in the end there were dozens of injured people on both sides; 133 protesters were arrested, two police vehicles were set on fire, and two police agents were detained by the students. The state released 130 of the detained students on Nov. 29; all were women, and many came from other states. Nine male students were charged with robbery, injury, riot and privation of a police agent's freedom. One agent had been released the evening of Nov. 27; the students released the other on Nov. 29 at the Vasco de Quiroga college, along with firearms they'd taken from the police. (LJ 11/28/08, 11/30/08)
The protest movement started with teachers in the state of Morelos, south of Mexico, who went on strike in August. They returned to the classrooms on Nov. 6 after 80 days. Spokesperson Lili Ibarra said the teachers were "motivated by our responsibility to the children and the school community" and were still determined not to allow the ACE to take effect in the state's 1,750 schools. They warned that they would no longer allow the sale of health insurance, products of transnational corporations and cola drinks in the schools; they would permit the distribution of nutritious foods and Mexican products. (Excélsior (Mexico) 11/6/08)
*3. Venezuela: 3 Unionists Murdered
Three leftist Venezuelan unionists were shot dead the night of Nov. 27 in the city of Cagua, southwest of Caracas in Aragua state, just days after two of them ran unsuccessfully in Nov. 23 state and municipal elections. In what appeared to be a planned assassination, one or two armed men on a motorbike gunned the unionists down as they were leaving a nightclub. The victims were Richard Gallardo, president of the Aragua branch of the National Workers Union (UNT), the main leftist labor confederation; Carlos Requena, a UNT national coordinator; and Luis Hernández, the general secretary of the union at Pepsi Cola de Venezuela's plant in Villa de Cura in southern Aragua.
The three men were also leaders in the Left Socialist Unity party (USI). Gallardo had been the USI candidate for deputy from Zamora municipality to the Aragua legislature, while Hernández ran for major of Zamora on the USI ticket, losing to Aldo Lovera from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the party of President Hugo Chávez Frías. Some media noted that Hernández had planned to file a challenge on Nov. 28 to the voting results in the mayoral race. But pro-Chávez media, the USI and UNT spokesperson Orlando Chirinos stressed that on Nov. 27 Gallardo, Requena and Hernández had been participating with activities with 400 workers at the Alpina food processing plant who said they had been attacked by state police. Aragua's current governor is Didalco Bolivar, an opponent of Chávez; the PSUV won the state back with the election of Aragua Mario Isea on Nov. 23.
Supporters of the murdered unionists protested on Nov. 28, forcing stores to close in Villa de Cura. Unionists and the USI have called for an investigation by the national government. Some people have pointed out that Alpina is owned by Colombians and that political assassinations in Colombia often involve similar attacks by killers on motorbikes. (USI press release 11/28/08 via Aporrea; Prensa Latina 11/28/08; El Universal (Venezuela) 11/28/08; El Nacional (Venezuela) 11/29/08; Venezuelanalysis.com 11/29/08)
*4. Links to alternative sources on: Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico
Chile: Women Trade Unionists Find their Own Voices
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1598/68/
Paraguay: Mixed Results for Lugo's First 100 Days
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1601/68/
Bolivia: terrorism charges for autonomy leader?
http://ww4report.com/node/6424
Peru: Garcia blames Mexican cartels for Sendero violence
http://ww4report.com/node/6418
Peru: Praying for Justice
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1606/1/
Ecuador Seeks Non-payment of Illegitimate Foreign Debt
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5695
The Walk of Our Word: Colombia Will Walk the Minga! http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1603/68/
What Next for the Popular and Indigenous Minga in Colombia?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1600/1/
CIA Coverup Followed Another Spy Flight Mystery in Colombia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1602/68/
Colombia signs free trade agreement with Canada
http://ww4report.com/node/6417
Venezuelan opposition contracting Israeli mercenaries?
http://ww4report.com/node/6416
Medvedev, Chavez meet on eve of naval maneuvers
http://ww4report.com/node/6415
Elections: Geopolitical Nadir for Chavez and His Movement?
http://nacla.org/node/5256
Venezuela Elections Pose Big Test
http://nacla.org/node/5252
Chavez Supporters Win 17 out of 23 Venezuelan States, but Lose 3 Most Populous
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1594/68/
Radio Venezuela En Vivo: Election Updates and Analysis
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1592/68/
Suit Filed Against Salvadoran Ex-President Cristiani and 14 Former Soldiers for 1989 Jesuit Massacre
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1595/1/
Mexico: Calderon warns Obama on NAFTA revision
http://ww4report.com/node/6420
Mexico: Ciudad Juarez violence escalates
http://ww4report.com/node/6419
Free the Atenco 13!
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1596/68/
Puerto Rico Teachers' Union Trounces SEIU
http://nacla.org/node/5257
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Monday, December 1, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Links but no Update for November 23, 2008
[Due to other commitments, we are again unable to send out an Update. We'll be back next week. Below are links to stories from other sources.]
Ex-Argentine police commander in televised suicide
http://ww4report.com/node/6380
Bolivia: martial law lifted in Pando; prefect still imprisoned
http://ww4report.com/node/6384
Bolivia: Reform and Reaction in the Hemisphere
http://nacla.org/node/5221
Bolivia's Evo Morales seeks "improved relations" with Obama White House
http://ww4report.com/node/6359
007 Bolivian socialist?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1590/68/
The United States Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1587/68/\
Bush protested at Lima APEC summit
http://ww4report.com/node/6381
Peru: "If I Don't Come Back, Look For Me in Putis"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1580/1/
Copper Mesa Mining Expected to Lose Junin Project in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1586/68/
Mass Indigenous Protest In Defense of Water Caps Week of Mobilizations in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1591/1/
In Ecuador, Mass Mobilizations Against Mining Confront President Correa http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1588/1/
Colombia: indigenous march arrives in Bogotá
http://ww4report.com/node/6382
Eric Holder: death-squad defender
http://ww4report.com/node/6357
Obama's AG Pick Defended Chiquita in Death Squad Casehttp://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1585/68/
Colombia: protests after arrest of populist outlaw banker
http://ww4report.com/node/6365
Colombia declares state of emergency over financial scams
http://ww4report.com/node/6353
Colombia: coke users snort rainforest
http://ww4report.com/node/6364
Venezuela: Elections Will Put Chávez to the Test
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1582/68/
Venezuela: elections mandate or "hard blow" for Chávez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6383
Post-electoral violence continues in Nicaragua
http://ww4report.com/node/6352
Six beheaded in Guatemala prison riot
http://ww4report.com/node/6379\
El Salvador: FMLN Starts Out Ahead
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1583/68/
El Salvador: Company Promoters Shred Social Fabric of Communities http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1584/1/
Despite National and Global Distractions, the Popular Minga Marches on to Bogotá http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1579/1/
What's Driving El Salvador's Left Turn?
http://nacla.org/node/5238
Mexico's ex-drug czar busted for cartel collaboration
http://ww4report.com/node/6363
Obama: ominous appointments for Homeland Security, NSC
http://ww4report.com/node/6360
Obama and Myths of Racial Democracy
http://nacla.org/node/5229
Ex-Argentine police commander in televised suicide
http://ww4report.com/node/6380
Bolivia: martial law lifted in Pando; prefect still imprisoned
http://ww4report.com/node/6384
Bolivia: Reform and Reaction in the Hemisphere
http://nacla.org/node/5221
Bolivia's Evo Morales seeks "improved relations" with Obama White House
http://ww4report.com/node/6359
007 Bolivian socialist?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1590/68/
The United States Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1587/68/\
Bush protested at Lima APEC summit
http://ww4report.com/node/6381
Peru: "If I Don't Come Back, Look For Me in Putis"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1580/1/
Copper Mesa Mining Expected to Lose Junin Project in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1586/68/
Mass Indigenous Protest In Defense of Water Caps Week of Mobilizations in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1591/1/
In Ecuador, Mass Mobilizations Against Mining Confront President Correa http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1588/1/
Colombia: indigenous march arrives in Bogotá
http://ww4report.com/node/6382
Eric Holder: death-squad defender
http://ww4report.com/node/6357
Obama's AG Pick Defended Chiquita in Death Squad Casehttp://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1585/68/
Colombia: protests after arrest of populist outlaw banker
http://ww4report.com/node/6365
Colombia declares state of emergency over financial scams
http://ww4report.com/node/6353
Colombia: coke users snort rainforest
http://ww4report.com/node/6364
Venezuela: Elections Will Put Chávez to the Test
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1582/68/
Venezuela: elections mandate or "hard blow" for Chávez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6383
Post-electoral violence continues in Nicaragua
http://ww4report.com/node/6352
Six beheaded in Guatemala prison riot
http://ww4report.com/node/6379\
El Salvador: FMLN Starts Out Ahead
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1583/68/
El Salvador: Company Promoters Shred Social Fabric of Communities http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1584/1/
Despite National and Global Distractions, the Popular Minga Marches on to Bogotá http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1579/1/
What's Driving El Salvador's Left Turn?
http://nacla.org/node/5238
Mexico's ex-drug czar busted for cartel collaboration
http://ww4report.com/node/6363
Obama: ominous appointments for Homeland Security, NSC
http://ww4report.com/node/6360
Obama and Myths of Racial Democracy
http://nacla.org/node/5229
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
WNU #967: Chilean Government Workers Strike
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #967, November 16, 2008
1. Chile: Government Workers Strike
2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Chile: Government Workers Strike
Some 400,000 Chilean public employees staged a two-day strike on Nov. 11 and 12 to push for a 14.5% pay increase. The National Association of Government Employees (ANEF), which includes 15 unions and associations, said the job action was 90% effective, with professors, health workers, administrative workers and municipal workers honoring the strike call. Government service offices were closed, garbage collection stopped in some areas, and some medical services were shut down. The government of Socialist president Michelle Bachelet called the protest "blackmail"; Interior Minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma said workers wouldn't be paid for the two days they missed.
"We're not about to pay for the effects of the financial crisis," ANEF president Raúl de la Puente said, noting that inflation would eat up most of the raise. Chile's inflation rate reached 0.9% in October, bringing the projected annual rate to 9.9%, the highest since 1994. On Nov. 13 the government offered an increase of 5%, raising the offer to 6.5% on Nov. 14. The unions responded with a call for an open-ended strike to start on Nov. 17. (La Jornada (Mexico) 11/12/08 from correspondent; Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/12/08; Agence France Presse 11/15/08)
*2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
The leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations met in Washington, DC on Nov. 15 for the group's first summit--an emergency session to discuss the world financial crisis. The G20 combines the Group of 8 (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US) with growing industrial powers like China and India; together the G20 nations account for as much as 90% of the world's gross domestic product. The Latin American members are Argentina, Brazil and Mexico [see Update #966]; this year Brazil holds the group's rotating leadership.
The meeting failed to meet many members' hopes for a global agreement on regulation of financial speculation. Instead, the final 10-page declaration committed the members to undertaking reforms before Mar. 31. The G20 is to meet again on Apr. 30, 101 days after Barack Obama replaces George W. Bush as US president. But Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva considered the summit an advance. "We are talking about the G20 because the G8 doesn't have any more reason to exist," he said when leaving Brazil for the summit. "In other words, the emerging economies have to be taken into consideration in today's globalized world." At the summit he said that "existing multilateral organizations" like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been "rejected by history. Both the IMF and the World Bank should open themselves to bigger participation of developing economies." (International Herald Tribune 11/15/08 from AP; La Jornada 11/16/08 from DPA, AFP, Reuters and unidentified wire services)
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz was less optimistic. In an article published on Nov. 15, he noted that the G20 leaders were saying nothing about "the nonrenewable resources of the planet" or about ending the arms buildup. He added, alluding to president elect Obama, that "many people dream that with a simple change of office in the leadership of the empire, this [empire] will be more tolerant and less bellicose... It would be naive to believe that the good intentions of one intelligent person could change what centuries of interests and egoism have created. Human history demonstrates something else." (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08)
*3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
After the Nov. 15 Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington, Chinese president Hu Jintao flew to Costa Rica for the first visit by a Chinese president to Central America. He and Costa Rican president Oscar Arias were to sign 11 accords, including the creation of a joint enterprise of Refinería Costarricense de Petróleo and China National Petroleum Corporation to modernize Costa Rica's plant; a line of credit from a Chinese bank to the state-owned Banco de Costa Rica; funding for Chinese language instruction in the Universidad de Costa Rica; and $73 million for the construction of a new sports stadium in San José. China has been moving aggressively into economic activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the refinery accord opens the possibility that China may invest up to $1.2 billion in a new refinery. (Univisión 11/16/08 from AFP)
On Nov. 11 the Legislative Assembly passed the last enabling laws necessary for the implementation of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a trade accord strongly promoted by the US. President Arias said it would take effect on Jan. 1. The accord was signed in 2004, and all the other members have implemented it, but Costa Rican legislators wouldn't move on the issue until it was approved in a referendum on Oct. 7, 2007 after a bitter campaign [see Update #918]. (Miami Herald 11/11/08 from AP)
*4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
On Nov. 12 Cuba released La Paz en Colombia ("Peace in Colombia"), a 265-page book by former president Fidel Castro giving new information about the Cuban government's relations with Colombia's leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In the book, which Castro says took 400 hours of work, the former president repeats criticisms he made last July of the FARC's treatment of prisoners of war and "the capture and holding of civilians not involved in the war" [see Update #953]. In the book he also notes that holding "prisoners and hostages deprived the combatants of the ability to maneuver."
Castro says he tried to convince former FARC leader Manuel Marulanda Vélez, who died in March of this year, that he could make a peace agreement with then-president Andrés Pastrana during negotiations in 1999, but Marulanda didn't negotiate seriously because he thought the US was planning an intervention that would lead to a prolonged war and possibly a "continental struggle." The Cubans told him that "the international situation was entirely different from the way he saw it." Castro says he admired Marulanda's "revolutionary firmness" but felt that armed struggle was no longer viable, noting that Cuba aided the rebels in Nicaragua in the 1970s and in El Salvador in the 1980s. Castro mocks the US insistence that the rebels are terrorists; in 1999, Castro says, a US representative met with the FARC's chief negotiator, the late Raúl Reyes, in Costa Rica to discuss cooperation on an antinarcotics program. (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08; La Jornada 11/13/08, 11/14/08, 11/15/08 )
*5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
Puerto Rico's conservative New Progressive Party (PNP) gained easily over the centrist Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in elections on Nov. 4, with PNP gubernatorial candidate Luis Fortuño winning 52.8% of the vote to 41.3% for the PPD candidate, current governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. Rogelio Figueroa of Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico (PPR), a new party with an environmental orientation, got 2.8% of the vote, while Edwin Irizarry of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) followed with 2%. The PNP won 60 of the 78 seats in the legislature, and the PPD won the remaining 18. The PNP won 48 mayorships to 30 for the PPD.
Governor Elect Fortuño is a member of the US Republican party, which lost heavily in elections the same day in the US. Analysts attribute the PPD loss to popular resentment against Acevedo, who raised sales taxes and alienated an important part of the labor movement [see Update #963]; he also faces federal corruption charges. The PNP only gained 31,000 votes over its total in 2004, but the PPD total fell by 183,000 votes as many former supporters stayed home. (Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/10/08)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, US policy
Connecting Struggles: Documentation from the Social Forum of the Americas
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1567/1/
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing"
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Uruguay: Congress Votes to Legalise Abortion, But Veto Likely http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1573/68/
Paraguay: Agreement with Rural Activists Puts End to Protest
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1570/68/
Police Repression and Presidential Promises: The Fight for Social Justice in Paraguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1574/1/
Bolivia requests extradition of ex-president from US on "genocide" charge
http://ww4report.com/node/6311
Anti-Bases Coalition Pushes U.S. Military Base out of Ecuador
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Ecuador Protests Colombian Paramilitary Incursion, Documents CIA Infiltration
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1571/68/
Danger Ahead: Correa Gives Mining the Green Light in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1575/1/
US blocks aid to tainted Colombian army units: report
http://ww4report.com/node/6307
One dead in Colombian riots over financial scam
http://ww4report.com/node/6317
Colombian investors riot over pyramid scheme
http://ww4report.com/node/6312
Emanuel: Obama won't link Colombia FTA to stimulus package
http://ww4report.com/node/6306
Colombia: An Open Letter From ACIN to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1566/68/
Salvadoran officers could face charges in Spain for 1989 massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/6323
Mexico: gunmen kill reporter, kidnap farmworkers
http://ww4report.com/node/6324
Colombia good model for Mexico: Uribe
http://ww4report.com/node/6308
Another Economic Casualty: Mexican Remittances
http://nacla.org/node/5218
Larry Summers, Champion of Wall Street Greed Attained by Impoverishing the Mexican People
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5662
Afro-Latino Voices Shout: Obama! Obama!
http://nacla.org/node/5192
Latin America Sends Obama Congratulations--and a Piece of its Mind
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5654
Will Obama recognize Latin America is no longer "America's backyard?"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1569/68/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #967, November 16, 2008
1. Chile: Government Workers Strike
2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Chile: Government Workers Strike
Some 400,000 Chilean public employees staged a two-day strike on Nov. 11 and 12 to push for a 14.5% pay increase. The National Association of Government Employees (ANEF), which includes 15 unions and associations, said the job action was 90% effective, with professors, health workers, administrative workers and municipal workers honoring the strike call. Government service offices were closed, garbage collection stopped in some areas, and some medical services were shut down. The government of Socialist president Michelle Bachelet called the protest "blackmail"; Interior Minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma said workers wouldn't be paid for the two days they missed.
"We're not about to pay for the effects of the financial crisis," ANEF president Raúl de la Puente said, noting that inflation would eat up most of the raise. Chile's inflation rate reached 0.9% in October, bringing the projected annual rate to 9.9%, the highest since 1994. On Nov. 13 the government offered an increase of 5%, raising the offer to 6.5% on Nov. 14. The unions responded with a call for an open-ended strike to start on Nov. 17. (La Jornada (Mexico) 11/12/08 from correspondent; Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/12/08; Agence France Presse 11/15/08)
*2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
The leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations met in Washington, DC on Nov. 15 for the group's first summit--an emergency session to discuss the world financial crisis. The G20 combines the Group of 8 (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US) with growing industrial powers like China and India; together the G20 nations account for as much as 90% of the world's gross domestic product. The Latin American members are Argentina, Brazil and Mexico [see Update #966]; this year Brazil holds the group's rotating leadership.
The meeting failed to meet many members' hopes for a global agreement on regulation of financial speculation. Instead, the final 10-page declaration committed the members to undertaking reforms before Mar. 31. The G20 is to meet again on Apr. 30, 101 days after Barack Obama replaces George W. Bush as US president. But Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva considered the summit an advance. "We are talking about the G20 because the G8 doesn't have any more reason to exist," he said when leaving Brazil for the summit. "In other words, the emerging economies have to be taken into consideration in today's globalized world." At the summit he said that "existing multilateral organizations" like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been "rejected by history. Both the IMF and the World Bank should open themselves to bigger participation of developing economies." (International Herald Tribune 11/15/08 from AP; La Jornada 11/16/08 from DPA, AFP, Reuters and unidentified wire services)
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz was less optimistic. In an article published on Nov. 15, he noted that the G20 leaders were saying nothing about "the nonrenewable resources of the planet" or about ending the arms buildup. He added, alluding to president elect Obama, that "many people dream that with a simple change of office in the leadership of the empire, this [empire] will be more tolerant and less bellicose... It would be naive to believe that the good intentions of one intelligent person could change what centuries of interests and egoism have created. Human history demonstrates something else." (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08)
*3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
After the Nov. 15 Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington, Chinese president Hu Jintao flew to Costa Rica for the first visit by a Chinese president to Central America. He and Costa Rican president Oscar Arias were to sign 11 accords, including the creation of a joint enterprise of Refinería Costarricense de Petróleo and China National Petroleum Corporation to modernize Costa Rica's plant; a line of credit from a Chinese bank to the state-owned Banco de Costa Rica; funding for Chinese language instruction in the Universidad de Costa Rica; and $73 million for the construction of a new sports stadium in San José. China has been moving aggressively into economic activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the refinery accord opens the possibility that China may invest up to $1.2 billion in a new refinery. (Univisión 11/16/08 from AFP)
On Nov. 11 the Legislative Assembly passed the last enabling laws necessary for the implementation of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a trade accord strongly promoted by the US. President Arias said it would take effect on Jan. 1. The accord was signed in 2004, and all the other members have implemented it, but Costa Rican legislators wouldn't move on the issue until it was approved in a referendum on Oct. 7, 2007 after a bitter campaign [see Update #918]. (Miami Herald 11/11/08 from AP)
*4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
On Nov. 12 Cuba released La Paz en Colombia ("Peace in Colombia"), a 265-page book by former president Fidel Castro giving new information about the Cuban government's relations with Colombia's leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In the book, which Castro says took 400 hours of work, the former president repeats criticisms he made last July of the FARC's treatment of prisoners of war and "the capture and holding of civilians not involved in the war" [see Update #953]. In the book he also notes that holding "prisoners and hostages deprived the combatants of the ability to maneuver."
Castro says he tried to convince former FARC leader Manuel Marulanda Vélez, who died in March of this year, that he could make a peace agreement with then-president Andrés Pastrana during negotiations in 1999, but Marulanda didn't negotiate seriously because he thought the US was planning an intervention that would lead to a prolonged war and possibly a "continental struggle." The Cubans told him that "the international situation was entirely different from the way he saw it." Castro says he admired Marulanda's "revolutionary firmness" but felt that armed struggle was no longer viable, noting that Cuba aided the rebels in Nicaragua in the 1970s and in El Salvador in the 1980s. Castro mocks the US insistence that the rebels are terrorists; in 1999, Castro says, a US representative met with the FARC's chief negotiator, the late Raúl Reyes, in Costa Rica to discuss cooperation on an antinarcotics program. (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08; La Jornada 11/13/08, 11/14/08, 11/15/08 )
*5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
Puerto Rico's conservative New Progressive Party (PNP) gained easily over the centrist Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in elections on Nov. 4, with PNP gubernatorial candidate Luis Fortuño winning 52.8% of the vote to 41.3% for the PPD candidate, current governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. Rogelio Figueroa of Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico (PPR), a new party with an environmental orientation, got 2.8% of the vote, while Edwin Irizarry of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) followed with 2%. The PNP won 60 of the 78 seats in the legislature, and the PPD won the remaining 18. The PNP won 48 mayorships to 30 for the PPD.
Governor Elect Fortuño is a member of the US Republican party, which lost heavily in elections the same day in the US. Analysts attribute the PPD loss to popular resentment against Acevedo, who raised sales taxes and alienated an important part of the labor movement [see Update #963]; he also faces federal corruption charges. The PNP only gained 31,000 votes over its total in 2004, but the PPD total fell by 183,000 votes as many former supporters stayed home. (Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/10/08)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, US policy
Connecting Struggles: Documentation from the Social Forum of the Americas
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1567/1/
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing"
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Uruguay: Congress Votes to Legalise Abortion, But Veto Likely http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1573/68/
Paraguay: Agreement with Rural Activists Puts End to Protest
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1570/68/
Police Repression and Presidential Promises: The Fight for Social Justice in Paraguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1574/1/
Bolivia requests extradition of ex-president from US on "genocide" charge
http://ww4report.com/node/6311
Anti-Bases Coalition Pushes U.S. Military Base out of Ecuador
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Ecuador Protests Colombian Paramilitary Incursion, Documents CIA Infiltration
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1571/68/
Danger Ahead: Correa Gives Mining the Green Light in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1575/1/
US blocks aid to tainted Colombian army units: report
http://ww4report.com/node/6307
One dead in Colombian riots over financial scam
http://ww4report.com/node/6317
Colombian investors riot over pyramid scheme
http://ww4report.com/node/6312
Emanuel: Obama won't link Colombia FTA to stimulus package
http://ww4report.com/node/6306
Colombia: An Open Letter From ACIN to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1566/68/
Salvadoran officers could face charges in Spain for 1989 massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/6323
Mexico: gunmen kill reporter, kidnap farmworkers
http://ww4report.com/node/6324
Colombia good model for Mexico: Uribe
http://ww4report.com/node/6308
Another Economic Casualty: Mexican Remittances
http://nacla.org/node/5218
Larry Summers, Champion of Wall Street Greed Attained by Impoverishing the Mexican People
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5662
Afro-Latino Voices Shout: Obama! Obama!
http://nacla.org/node/5192
Latin America Sends Obama Congratulations--and a Piece of its Mind
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5654
Will Obama recognize Latin America is no longer "America's backyard?"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1569/68/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Monday, November 10, 2008
Links but no Update for November 9, 2008
[Due to other commitments, we are unable to send out an Update this week. We'll be back next week. Below are links to stories from other sources.]
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing" http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1559/68/
Paraguay: The Struggle for Land
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1557/68/
Paraguay: New 'Archives of Terror' Unearthed http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1555/68/
Next in Bolivia: lithium wars?
http://ww4report.com/node/6296
Whither Ecuador? An Interview with Indigenous Activist and Politician Monica Chuji
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1563/1/
Colombia: more threats, displacement at Peace Community
http://ww4report.com/node/6291
Colombia: armed forces chief resigns in human rights scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6273
Colombian Government Allegations of Indigenous and Popular Mobilization Terrorism False
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1560/68/
No End in Sight: Indigenous and Popular Minga Continues, Debate with Colombian President Stalls
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1556/1/
Venezuela to militarize Colombian border
http://ww4report.com/node/6297
Mexico: narco-Satanism in Ciudad Juárez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6295
Mexico: interior secretary killed in (mysterious?) air crash
http://ww4report.com/node/6272
Mexico: Zetas planning attacks on US Border Patrol?
http://ww4report.com/node/6271
Mexico: another Gulf Cartel kingpin busted, guns blazing
http://ww4report.com/node/6290
Activists Decry Arrest of APPO Members in Brad Will Murder
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1565/1/
Obama and the Americas: A Window of Opportunity
http://nacla.org/node/5198
Eduardo Galeano on Obama's Victory
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1562/68/
Latinobarómetro US Election Poll: Latin Americans Have Other Concerns
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1554/1/
Chávez, Evo hail Obama's victory, call for "new relations"
http://ww4report.com/node/6284
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing" http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1559/68/
Paraguay: The Struggle for Land
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1557/68/
Paraguay: New 'Archives of Terror' Unearthed http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1555/68/
Next in Bolivia: lithium wars?
http://ww4report.com/node/6296
Whither Ecuador? An Interview with Indigenous Activist and Politician Monica Chuji
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1563/1/
Colombia: more threats, displacement at Peace Community
http://ww4report.com/node/6291
Colombia: armed forces chief resigns in human rights scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6273
Colombian Government Allegations of Indigenous and Popular Mobilization Terrorism False
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1560/68/
No End in Sight: Indigenous and Popular Minga Continues, Debate with Colombian President Stalls
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1556/1/
Venezuela to militarize Colombian border
http://ww4report.com/node/6297
Mexico: narco-Satanism in Ciudad Juárez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6295
Mexico: interior secretary killed in (mysterious?) air crash
http://ww4report.com/node/6272
Mexico: Zetas planning attacks on US Border Patrol?
http://ww4report.com/node/6271
Mexico: another Gulf Cartel kingpin busted, guns blazing
http://ww4report.com/node/6290
Activists Decry Arrest of APPO Members in Brad Will Murder
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1565/1/
Obama and the Americas: A Window of Opportunity
http://nacla.org/node/5198
Eduardo Galeano on Obama's Victory
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1562/68/
Latinobarómetro US Election Poll: Latin Americans Have Other Concerns
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1554/1/
Chávez, Evo hail Obama's victory, call for "new relations"
http://ww4report.com/node/6284
Sunday, November 2, 2008
WNU #966: Paras Threaten Colombian Peace Community
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #966, November 2, 2008
1. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com
*1. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in Colombia's northwestern Antioquia department reported on Oct. 31 that rightwing paramilitaries were threatening to murder community members. A joint operation of paramilitaries and the army's 17th Brigade murdered eight people in San José de Apartadó on Feb. 21, 2005 [see Updates #787, 788, 791]; retired colonel Guillermo Armando Gordillo confessed this year that his troops participated in the massacre. Peace communities refuse to collaborate with any armed forces, including rebels, paramilitaries and the army.
According to the peace community, paramilitaries stopped three people on Oct. 30 and told them that residents of La Esperanza settlement, part of the peace community, had to leave if they wanted to avoid being massacred; the paramilitaries said they had a list of six people they were going to murder. Similar threats preceded the 2005 massacre, and the military has been pressuring the community recently. On Oct. 28 and 29 army troops spent the day in homes and the school in La Esperanza, keeping children from attending classes; when asked to leave, they called the community a "nest of guerrillas." Soldiers have also photographed residents and conducted an illegal census. The US-based Colombia Support Network (CSN) is urging people to contact US Congress members, US embassy attaché Scott Fagan (FaganSR@state.gov), Colombian defense minister Dr. Juan Manuel Santos (siden@mindefensa.gov.co, infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co and mdn@cable.net.co), and others to demand a stop to the planned massacre and respect for the rights of civilians. (Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa 11/2/08 from Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó communiqué 10/31/08; CSN urgent action 10/31/08; World War 4 Report 8/2/08)
*2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
The official theme of the 18th Ibero-American Summit, held Oct. 29-31 in San Salvador, El Salvador, was "Youth and Development," but the global financial crisis was the main topic of discussions by the representatives of Spain, Portugal and 19 Latin American countries.
Despite strong differences among the 19 heads of state who attended--from supporters of neoliberalism like Salvadoran president Elías Antonio Saca and Mexican president Felipe Hinojosa Calderón to supporters of state intervention like Bolivian president Evo Morales and Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa--the participants agreed on a united message for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to take to a meeting in Washington, DC of the Group of 20 (G20, the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations plus the largest "emerging economies"). They are to call for a sharp change in the advanced nations' policies of extreme deregulation, which Latin American leaders blamed for the crisis.
Latin American economies were initially somewhat resistant to the global meltdown, in part because of a recent policy of "unhitching" or "decoupling" their economies from the US [see Update #962]. But the crisis began to hit Latin America seriously the week of Oct. 6 as the Brazilian real and the Mexican peso plunged violently. Argentina's economy is now suffering from a fall in the price of the grains that represent 45.2% of its exports, while Venezuela faces a sharp drop in the price of oil, which accounts for 90% of its exports. Brazil is also affected by lower prices for oil, while the real's drop has forced the Central Bank to intervene in the private banking system. Mexico, which is exceptionally dependent on the US economy, has had to use 10% of its foreign reserves to support the peso.
Last year Latin America's overall gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.6%; this year the increase is expected to be 4% or less. Since the beginning of the month the two largest economies, Brazil and Mexico, have been growing at a 3% and 1.5% annual rate respectively. (La Jornada (Mexico) 10/28/08 from Economist Intelligence Unit, 10/31/08 from correspondent; AlterPresse (Haiti) 10/31/08 from correspondent; Xinhuanet (China) 10/31/08)
*3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Oct. 29 to condemn the US embargo on trade with Cuba that has been in effect since 1962. This is the 17th time the group has supported a nonbinding resolution against the embargo. The vote was 185-3 with one abstention, a slight change from last year's 184-4 vote [see Update #920]. The US, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution; the Marshall Islands, which voted with the US in 2007, joined Micronesia in abstaining. Albania, which was absent in 2007, backed this year's resolution. (Prensa Latina (Cuba) 10/29/08)
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Havana the evening of Oct. 30 for a 24-hour visit after he had attended the Ibero-American Summit. He immediately met with President Raúl Castro, personally inviting the Cuban leader to the Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean on Integration and Development, to be held Dec. 16-17 in Salvador de Bahía. Lula's main official business on the island appeared to be signing a treaty for joint petroleum exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, but the larger goal was clearly to raise Brazil's profile as a trading partner with Cuba. With $450 million in trade a year, Brazil is Cuba's second most important Latin American partner, after Venezuela. This was Lula's second visit to Cuba in 2008 [see Update #931]. (La Jornada 10/31/08 from correspondent)
Improved relations between Cuba and Mexico were evident in the Oct. 19-21 visit of Cuban foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque to Mexico City. On Oct. 20 he and Governance Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño signed a memorandum of understanding on immigration policy; the two countries agreed to cooperate in ending the practice by which hundreds of Cubans enter Mexico illegally by sea on their way to the US [see Update #964]. On Oct. 21 Roque met with Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and invited him to visit Cuba. Relations between the countries had been minimal starting in 2002 under Calderón's predecessor, Vicente Fox Quesada, who, like Calderón, is a member of the center-right National Action Party (PAN) and a supporter of the US. Trade between Cuba and Mexico is now up by 80% over what it was in the same period in 2007. (LJ 10/20/08, 10/21/08, 10/22/08)
*4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
About a dozen people reportedly died of starvation in the Baie d'Orange communal section in Belle-Anse in Haiti's Southeast department towards the end of October. Local authorities say malnutrition is a major problem in the area, which was hit by a series of storms two months ago; people are also suffering from dysentery, fevers and skin diseases. Apparently food relief failed to reach Baie d'Orange until recently because of the area's isolation, which was worsened by the storms. (AlterPresse 10/30/08)
International institutions have sent minimal aid to Haiti after the storms [see Update #964]. There is still no sign they will offer the country debt relief, or even admit that there is a problem. During a visit to Port-au-Prince on Oct. 20, World Bank president Robert Zoellick reportedly told journalists that Haiti's $1.7 billion debt was "half-forgiven" and promised "the rest of the debt" could soon be cancelled. $500 million of Haitian debt had already been cancelled, he said, according to reports. Local and international groups say that in fact none of Haiti's debt stock has been cancelled by the World Bank, and in recent weeks the World Bank has delayed debt cancellation for Haiti by six months. (AlterPresse 10/31/08)
In other news, on Oct. 28 former rightwing paramilitary leader Emmanuel ("Toto") Constant was given a 12 to 37 year prison sentence for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme in New York state [see Update #956]. Justice Abraham Gerges of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn said schemes like the one by Constant and his associates "played a role" in "the nationwide economic meltdown and the foreclosure crisis." In asking for leniency Constant said he worked for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Haiti from December 1991 to December 1994. (New York Times 10/29/08; Brooklyn Daily Eagle 10/28/08)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, US policy
Latin America's New Consensus
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5631
Revealed: McCain's Private Visit With Chilean Dictator Pinochet
http://nacla.org/node/5140
El "Técnico" y el "Pepe": Seeking Electoral Unity in Uruguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1548/1/
Bolivia boots DEA
http://ww4report.com/node/6256
Winds of Civil War in Bolivia: Understanding a Four-party Conflict
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5632
Multi-Layered Conflict Poses Uncertain Future for Bolivian Reforms
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5598
What did Bolivian Society Say Through the Recall Referendum?
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5486
The Bolivian Crisis, the OAS, and UNASUR
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5567
The Failure of U.S. "Democracy Promotion" in Bolivia
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5638
Militarization and the War on Drugs in Peru: Interview with Ricardo Soberón http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1542/1/
Colombia: officers purged over "false positive" executions
http://ww4report.com/node/6233
Colombia's Indigenous march against President Uribe
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2611&updaterx=2008-10-23+09%3A19%3A35
U'wa Fight New Oil Exploration
http://nacla.org/node/5151
Colombia: Uribe stands up indigenous leaders
http://ww4report.com/node/6223
Colombia: Where Dialogue Seems Impossible
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1546/68/
Colombia: FARC agrees to peace dialogue
http://ww4report.com/node/6234
Colombia: "We Are not Subversives, and We Demand Respect"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1544/68/
Creation of an Urban Guerrilla
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1552/1/
Honduras: All That Glitters Isn't Gold - A Story of Exploitation and Resistance
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1545/1/
Hemispheric Conference against Militarization Says No to Merida Initiative, U.S. Military Bases
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5605
Mexico: federal police chief steps down in narco-scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6257
Mexico: Sinaloa Cartel spies infiltrated Prosecutor General, US Embassy
http://ww4report.com/node/6235
Mexico: Tijuana Cartel kingpin busted
http://ww4report.com/node/6219
The Failure of Operation Chihuahua
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5626
Will an Obama Administration act differently towards South America?
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2608&updaterx=2008-10-22+09%3A23%3A30
Over 360 Latin America Experts Call on Obama to Improve U.S.-Latin American Relations
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1547/68/
Toward a New US-Latin America Foreign Policy
http://nacla.org/node/5148
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #966, November 2, 2008
1. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com
*1. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in Colombia's northwestern Antioquia department reported on Oct. 31 that rightwing paramilitaries were threatening to murder community members. A joint operation of paramilitaries and the army's 17th Brigade murdered eight people in San José de Apartadó on Feb. 21, 2005 [see Updates #787, 788, 791]; retired colonel Guillermo Armando Gordillo confessed this year that his troops participated in the massacre. Peace communities refuse to collaborate with any armed forces, including rebels, paramilitaries and the army.
According to the peace community, paramilitaries stopped three people on Oct. 30 and told them that residents of La Esperanza settlement, part of the peace community, had to leave if they wanted to avoid being massacred; the paramilitaries said they had a list of six people they were going to murder. Similar threats preceded the 2005 massacre, and the military has been pressuring the community recently. On Oct. 28 and 29 army troops spent the day in homes and the school in La Esperanza, keeping children from attending classes; when asked to leave, they called the community a "nest of guerrillas." Soldiers have also photographed residents and conducted an illegal census. The US-based Colombia Support Network (CSN) is urging people to contact US Congress members, US embassy attaché Scott Fagan (FaganSR@state.gov), Colombian defense minister Dr. Juan Manuel Santos (siden@mindefensa.gov.co, infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co and mdn@cable.net.co), and others to demand a stop to the planned massacre and respect for the rights of civilians. (Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa 11/2/08 from Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó communiqué 10/31/08; CSN urgent action 10/31/08; World War 4 Report 8/2/08)
*2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
The official theme of the 18th Ibero-American Summit, held Oct. 29-31 in San Salvador, El Salvador, was "Youth and Development," but the global financial crisis was the main topic of discussions by the representatives of Spain, Portugal and 19 Latin American countries.
Despite strong differences among the 19 heads of state who attended--from supporters of neoliberalism like Salvadoran president Elías Antonio Saca and Mexican president Felipe Hinojosa Calderón to supporters of state intervention like Bolivian president Evo Morales and Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa--the participants agreed on a united message for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to take to a meeting in Washington, DC of the Group of 20 (G20, the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations plus the largest "emerging economies"). They are to call for a sharp change in the advanced nations' policies of extreme deregulation, which Latin American leaders blamed for the crisis.
Latin American economies were initially somewhat resistant to the global meltdown, in part because of a recent policy of "unhitching" or "decoupling" their economies from the US [see Update #962]. But the crisis began to hit Latin America seriously the week of Oct. 6 as the Brazilian real and the Mexican peso plunged violently. Argentina's economy is now suffering from a fall in the price of the grains that represent 45.2% of its exports, while Venezuela faces a sharp drop in the price of oil, which accounts for 90% of its exports. Brazil is also affected by lower prices for oil, while the real's drop has forced the Central Bank to intervene in the private banking system. Mexico, which is exceptionally dependent on the US economy, has had to use 10% of its foreign reserves to support the peso.
Last year Latin America's overall gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.6%; this year the increase is expected to be 4% or less. Since the beginning of the month the two largest economies, Brazil and Mexico, have been growing at a 3% and 1.5% annual rate respectively. (La Jornada (Mexico) 10/28/08 from Economist Intelligence Unit, 10/31/08 from correspondent; AlterPresse (Haiti) 10/31/08 from correspondent; Xinhuanet (China) 10/31/08)
*3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Oct. 29 to condemn the US embargo on trade with Cuba that has been in effect since 1962. This is the 17th time the group has supported a nonbinding resolution against the embargo. The vote was 185-3 with one abstention, a slight change from last year's 184-4 vote [see Update #920]. The US, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution; the Marshall Islands, which voted with the US in 2007, joined Micronesia in abstaining. Albania, which was absent in 2007, backed this year's resolution. (Prensa Latina (Cuba) 10/29/08)
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Havana the evening of Oct. 30 for a 24-hour visit after he had attended the Ibero-American Summit. He immediately met with President Raúl Castro, personally inviting the Cuban leader to the Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean on Integration and Development, to be held Dec. 16-17 in Salvador de Bahía. Lula's main official business on the island appeared to be signing a treaty for joint petroleum exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, but the larger goal was clearly to raise Brazil's profile as a trading partner with Cuba. With $450 million in trade a year, Brazil is Cuba's second most important Latin American partner, after Venezuela. This was Lula's second visit to Cuba in 2008 [see Update #931]. (La Jornada 10/31/08 from correspondent)
Improved relations between Cuba and Mexico were evident in the Oct. 19-21 visit of Cuban foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque to Mexico City. On Oct. 20 he and Governance Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño signed a memorandum of understanding on immigration policy; the two countries agreed to cooperate in ending the practice by which hundreds of Cubans enter Mexico illegally by sea on their way to the US [see Update #964]. On Oct. 21 Roque met with Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and invited him to visit Cuba. Relations between the countries had been minimal starting in 2002 under Calderón's predecessor, Vicente Fox Quesada, who, like Calderón, is a member of the center-right National Action Party (PAN) and a supporter of the US. Trade between Cuba and Mexico is now up by 80% over what it was in the same period in 2007. (LJ 10/20/08, 10/21/08, 10/22/08)
*4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
About a dozen people reportedly died of starvation in the Baie d'Orange communal section in Belle-Anse in Haiti's Southeast department towards the end of October. Local authorities say malnutrition is a major problem in the area, which was hit by a series of storms two months ago; people are also suffering from dysentery, fevers and skin diseases. Apparently food relief failed to reach Baie d'Orange until recently because of the area's isolation, which was worsened by the storms. (AlterPresse 10/30/08)
International institutions have sent minimal aid to Haiti after the storms [see Update #964]. There is still no sign they will offer the country debt relief, or even admit that there is a problem. During a visit to Port-au-Prince on Oct. 20, World Bank president Robert Zoellick reportedly told journalists that Haiti's $1.7 billion debt was "half-forgiven" and promised "the rest of the debt" could soon be cancelled. $500 million of Haitian debt had already been cancelled, he said, according to reports. Local and international groups say that in fact none of Haiti's debt stock has been cancelled by the World Bank, and in recent weeks the World Bank has delayed debt cancellation for Haiti by six months. (AlterPresse 10/31/08)
In other news, on Oct. 28 former rightwing paramilitary leader Emmanuel ("Toto") Constant was given a 12 to 37 year prison sentence for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme in New York state [see Update #956]. Justice Abraham Gerges of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn said schemes like the one by Constant and his associates "played a role" in "the nationwide economic meltdown and the foreclosure crisis." In asking for leniency Constant said he worked for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Haiti from December 1991 to December 1994. (New York Times 10/29/08; Brooklyn Daily Eagle 10/28/08)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, US policy
Latin America's New Consensus
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5631
Revealed: McCain's Private Visit With Chilean Dictator Pinochet
http://nacla.org/node/5140
El "Técnico" y el "Pepe": Seeking Electoral Unity in Uruguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1548/1/
Bolivia boots DEA
http://ww4report.com/node/6256
Winds of Civil War in Bolivia: Understanding a Four-party Conflict
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5632
Multi-Layered Conflict Poses Uncertain Future for Bolivian Reforms
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5598
What did Bolivian Society Say Through the Recall Referendum?
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5486
The Bolivian Crisis, the OAS, and UNASUR
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5567
The Failure of U.S. "Democracy Promotion" in Bolivia
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5638
Militarization and the War on Drugs in Peru: Interview with Ricardo Soberón http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1542/1/
Colombia: officers purged over "false positive" executions
http://ww4report.com/node/6233
Colombia's Indigenous march against President Uribe
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2611&updaterx=2008-10-23+09%3A19%3A35
U'wa Fight New Oil Exploration
http://nacla.org/node/5151
Colombia: Uribe stands up indigenous leaders
http://ww4report.com/node/6223
Colombia: Where Dialogue Seems Impossible
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1546/68/
Colombia: FARC agrees to peace dialogue
http://ww4report.com/node/6234
Colombia: "We Are not Subversives, and We Demand Respect"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1544/68/
Creation of an Urban Guerrilla
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1552/1/
Honduras: All That Glitters Isn't Gold - A Story of Exploitation and Resistance
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1545/1/
Hemispheric Conference against Militarization Says No to Merida Initiative, U.S. Military Bases
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5605
Mexico: federal police chief steps down in narco-scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6257
Mexico: Sinaloa Cartel spies infiltrated Prosecutor General, US Embassy
http://ww4report.com/node/6235
Mexico: Tijuana Cartel kingpin busted
http://ww4report.com/node/6219
The Failure of Operation Chihuahua
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5626
Will an Obama Administration act differently towards South America?
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2608&updaterx=2008-10-22+09%3A23%3A30
Over 360 Latin America Experts Call on Obama to Improve U.S.-Latin American Relations
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1547/68/
Toward a New US-Latin America Foreign Policy
http://nacla.org/node/5148
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
WNU #965: Two Killed in Dominican Civic Strike
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #965, October 26, 2008
1. Dominican Republic: Two Killed in Civic Strike
2. Puerto Rico: Teachers Back Independent Union
3. Argentina: Police Fight Teachers
4. Mexico: PEMEX "Reform" Rules
5. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com
*1. Dominican Republic: Two Killed in Civic Strike
On Oct. 21 residents of San Francisco de Macorís in the northeastern Dominican province of Duarte started what was planned as a two-day civic strike for improvements in health and education services; in street and road maintenance; and in infrastructure work. The area has been the scene of numerous protests for years over these and similar demands [see Updates #484, 485, 592, 720, 731, 798, 821]
The current strike--led by the Broad Front of Popular Struggle (FALPO), which was involved many of the earlier protests--started to heat up around midday on Oct. 22 when the majority of store owners closed down their businesses and confrontations broke out between protesters and police agents. Protesters started fires while heavily armed agents, including SWAT anti-riot units, patrolled the streets and set up checkpoints. Two youths not connected to the protests were killed during the confrontations on Oct. 22, according to FALPO spokesperson Eddy Muñoz. Israel Polanco, 17, was shot while playing sports; Luis Gómez, 15, was shot while riding either a bicycle or a motorcycle in an area where police agents were firing at strikers. Some 20 other people were injured during the day, and dozens were reportedly detained.
FALPO responded to the police operation by extending the strike another day. On Oct. 23 hundreds of protesters marched through the downtown area and the Pueblo Nuevo, San Pedro, San Vicente, Hermanas Mirabal, San Martín, Alto de la Javiela and El Capacito neighborhoods. Despite a heavy police presence, there were no incidents. The strike officially ended at 6 am on Oct. 24. FALPO representatives were scheduled to meet that morning with a commission of officials, including Public Works Secretary Víctor Díaz Rúa; National Police chief Maj. Gen. Rafael Guillermo Guzmán Fermín; and National Drinking Water and Sewage Institute (INAPA) director Mariano Germán. Duarte governor Luz Selene Plata, who said the strikers' demands were just, was backing the meeting. (Prensa Latina 10/23/08, 10/24/08; Listín Diario 10/23/08, 10/24/08)
*2. Puerto Rico: Teachers Back Independent Union
Voting results released on Oct. 23 showed Puerto Rico's teachers rejecting by a 18,123-14,675 margin a bid by the Puerto Rican Teachers Union (SPM) to represent them. The "no" vote was vigorously promoted by the teachers' current union, the militant Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR), which the Labor Relations Commission excluded from running in the new election [see Update #963]. The Puerto Rican government decertified the FMPR after it defied a law against strikes by public employees in late February with a militant 10-day job action over wages, classroom size and health issues.
With an exceptionally high turnout--33,818 out of a reported 36,000 eligible voters participated--the results were a blow to the SPM and the affiliated Teachers' Association (AM), which represents school principals and administrators. The two unions are affiliated with the US-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU). With both the Puerto Rican government and a US union backing the SPM, the FMPR was at a tremendous disadvantage. FMPR leaders claimed that the SEIU and the SMP spent $20 million on the campaign and contracted 500 campaign workers from affiliated unions, while an FMPR activist estimated that the independent union spent a total of $50,000. The FMPR was even barred from having observers at the polling places. (FMPR press release 10/23/08; CounterPunch 10/24/08)
*3. Argentina: Police Fight Teachers
Two leaders of Argentine teachers' unions--Stella Maldonado, general secretary of the Federation of Education Workers of the Argentine Republic, and Alejandro de Michelis, press secretary for the Union of Education Workers--were among those injured on Oct. 20 when Buenos Aires city police agents tried to keep protesting teachers from installing a tent in front of the municipal building. The teachers had planned to start a 100-hour vigil at the site. After the confrontation, the teachers' unions and the Federation of Argentine Workers (CTA) declared a 24-hour national strike starting at noon on Oct. 21. Teachers in the capital have been pushing since August for a 20% pay raise, the return of scholarships to students and improvements in school cafeterias. Mauricio Macri, the center-right head of the city's government, is facing a number of conflicts as students and cultural and healthcare workers press their own demands.
In other news, Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was reportedly planning to announce the elimination of the system of private pensions set up by former president Carlos Menem (1989-1999). For the past two years many workers have been able to switch over to government-managed pensions. Fernández apparently wants to speed up the process because of the effect the world financial crisis is having on the private pensions. (La Jornada (Mexico) 10/21/08 from correspondent)
*4. Mexico: PEMEX "Reform" Rules
On Oct. 23 Mexico's 128-member Senate voted almost unanimously to pass legislation that opponents say will open the way to the partial privatization of Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the giant state-owned oil monopoly. The 500-member Chamber of Deputies approved the Senate's version without debate on Oct. 25. The Senate session was held in a downtown skyscraper to avoid protesters at the Senate building; some 1,200 agents from the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) guarded the session, with federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna leading the force himself. Police forcibly removed deputies from the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) who tried to enter the room where the Senate was meeting. Deputy Aleida Alavez, who is two months pregnant, said someone from García Luna's staff pulled her by the hair and threw her on the floor.
The vote was lopsided in both chambers. Four PRD senators and two from the small leftist Workers Party (PT) voted against all seven sections of the bill, while three from the Convergence party voted against two of the sections. The majority of PRD senators supported the measure, even though the party's 2006 presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has been leading the movement in opposition to it [see Updates #956, 957]. Most PRD legislators, members of the party's New Left (NI) faction, supported the bill in the Chamber of Deputies as well, but some PRD deputies joined PT and Convergence deputies when they walked out over a procedural dispute.
Even the opposition movement backed most of the legislation, which was greatly modified from the proposal that center-right president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa made earlier in the year. The opposition asked for 12 words to be added to bar contracts that might allow "the granting of exclusive blocks or areas" to private companies; the majority rejected the amendment. (La Jornada 10/24/08, __, 10/26/08; Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News and Analysis, 10/20/08-10/26/08)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, US policy
Pentecostalism and South America's Social Movements
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5590
Brazilian military exercises heighten tensions with Paraguay
http://ww4report.com/node/6208
Bolivia Reaches Agreement on Constitution Vote
http://nacla.org/node/5124
Bolivia: Congress Approves Referendum on Constitution
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1538/1/
Refugees in Ecuador: Organizing for Human Rights
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1539/1/
Colombia: An Historic Day for Indigenous Peoples
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1533/68/
Another Front in the Conflict: Colombian Government's Propaganda vs. Indigenous Media Perspectives http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1532/1/
Colombia: indigenous protesters march on Cali
http://ww4report.com/node/6209
Colombia: Hezbollah tie to drug gang claimed
http://ww4report.com/node/6206
Colombia: secret police chief resigns in spy scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6199
Smoke and Mirrors: An Analysis of Human Rights Watch's Report on Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1537/68/
Mexican Government Ignores Overwhelming Evidence, Charges Oaxacan Activists with Brad Will's Murder http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1535/68/
Mexico: Sinaloa kingpin busted as Rice schmoozes top cops
http://ww4report.com/node/6207
Mexico: 20 dead in Reynosa prison riot; more violence in Tijuana
http://ww4report.com/node/6195
The Reggaetón Factor in the U.S. Elections
http://nacla.org/node/5118
Obama on Latin America
http://nacla.org/node/5115
A Quick, Easy Way to Lower World Food Prices
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5599
The World Food Crisis: What's Behind it and What We Can Do About it
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5611
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #965, October 26, 2008
1. Dominican Republic: Two Killed in Civic Strike
2. Puerto Rico: Teachers Back Independent Union
3. Argentina: Police Fight Teachers
4. Mexico: PEMEX "Reform" Rules
5. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com
*1. Dominican Republic: Two Killed in Civic Strike
On Oct. 21 residents of San Francisco de Macorís in the northeastern Dominican province of Duarte started what was planned as a two-day civic strike for improvements in health and education services; in street and road maintenance; and in infrastructure work. The area has been the scene of numerous protests for years over these and similar demands [see Updates #484, 485, 592, 720, 731, 798, 821]
The current strike--led by the Broad Front of Popular Struggle (FALPO), which was involved many of the earlier protests--started to heat up around midday on Oct. 22 when the majority of store owners closed down their businesses and confrontations broke out between protesters and police agents. Protesters started fires while heavily armed agents, including SWAT anti-riot units, patrolled the streets and set up checkpoints. Two youths not connected to the protests were killed during the confrontations on Oct. 22, according to FALPO spokesperson Eddy Muñoz. Israel Polanco, 17, was shot while playing sports; Luis Gómez, 15, was shot while riding either a bicycle or a motorcycle in an area where police agents were firing at strikers. Some 20 other people were injured during the day, and dozens were reportedly detained.
FALPO responded to the police operation by extending the strike another day. On Oct. 23 hundreds of protesters marched through the downtown area and the Pueblo Nuevo, San Pedro, San Vicente, Hermanas Mirabal, San Martín, Alto de la Javiela and El Capacito neighborhoods. Despite a heavy police presence, there were no incidents. The strike officially ended at 6 am on Oct. 24. FALPO representatives were scheduled to meet that morning with a commission of officials, including Public Works Secretary Víctor Díaz Rúa; National Police chief Maj. Gen. Rafael Guillermo Guzmán Fermín; and National Drinking Water and Sewage Institute (INAPA) director Mariano Germán. Duarte governor Luz Selene Plata, who said the strikers' demands were just, was backing the meeting. (Prensa Latina 10/23/08, 10/24/08; Listín Diario 10/23/08, 10/24/08)
*2. Puerto Rico: Teachers Back Independent Union
Voting results released on Oct. 23 showed Puerto Rico's teachers rejecting by a 18,123-14,675 margin a bid by the Puerto Rican Teachers Union (SPM) to represent them. The "no" vote was vigorously promoted by the teachers' current union, the militant Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR), which the Labor Relations Commission excluded from running in the new election [see Update #963]. The Puerto Rican government decertified the FMPR after it defied a law against strikes by public employees in late February with a militant 10-day job action over wages, classroom size and health issues.
With an exceptionally high turnout--33,818 out of a reported 36,000 eligible voters participated--the results were a blow to the SPM and the affiliated Teachers' Association (AM), which represents school principals and administrators. The two unions are affiliated with the US-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU). With both the Puerto Rican government and a US union backing the SPM, the FMPR was at a tremendous disadvantage. FMPR leaders claimed that the SEIU and the SMP spent $20 million on the campaign and contracted 500 campaign workers from affiliated unions, while an FMPR activist estimated that the independent union spent a total of $50,000. The FMPR was even barred from having observers at the polling places. (FMPR press release 10/23/08; CounterPunch 10/24/08)
*3. Argentina: Police Fight Teachers
Two leaders of Argentine teachers' unions--Stella Maldonado, general secretary of the Federation of Education Workers of the Argentine Republic, and Alejandro de Michelis, press secretary for the Union of Education Workers--were among those injured on Oct. 20 when Buenos Aires city police agents tried to keep protesting teachers from installing a tent in front of the municipal building. The teachers had planned to start a 100-hour vigil at the site. After the confrontation, the teachers' unions and the Federation of Argentine Workers (CTA) declared a 24-hour national strike starting at noon on Oct. 21. Teachers in the capital have been pushing since August for a 20% pay raise, the return of scholarships to students and improvements in school cafeterias. Mauricio Macri, the center-right head of the city's government, is facing a number of conflicts as students and cultural and healthcare workers press their own demands.
In other news, Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was reportedly planning to announce the elimination of the system of private pensions set up by former president Carlos Menem (1989-1999). For the past two years many workers have been able to switch over to government-managed pensions. Fernández apparently wants to speed up the process because of the effect the world financial crisis is having on the private pensions. (La Jornada (Mexico) 10/21/08 from correspondent)
*4. Mexico: PEMEX "Reform" Rules
On Oct. 23 Mexico's 128-member Senate voted almost unanimously to pass legislation that opponents say will open the way to the partial privatization of Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the giant state-owned oil monopoly. The 500-member Chamber of Deputies approved the Senate's version without debate on Oct. 25. The Senate session was held in a downtown skyscraper to avoid protesters at the Senate building; some 1,200 agents from the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) guarded the session, with federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna leading the force himself. Police forcibly removed deputies from the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) who tried to enter the room where the Senate was meeting. Deputy Aleida Alavez, who is two months pregnant, said someone from García Luna's staff pulled her by the hair and threw her on the floor.
The vote was lopsided in both chambers. Four PRD senators and two from the small leftist Workers Party (PT) voted against all seven sections of the bill, while three from the Convergence party voted against two of the sections. The majority of PRD senators supported the measure, even though the party's 2006 presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has been leading the movement in opposition to it [see Updates #956, 957]. Most PRD legislators, members of the party's New Left (NI) faction, supported the bill in the Chamber of Deputies as well, but some PRD deputies joined PT and Convergence deputies when they walked out over a procedural dispute.
Even the opposition movement backed most of the legislation, which was greatly modified from the proposal that center-right president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa made earlier in the year. The opposition asked for 12 words to be added to bar contracts that might allow "the granting of exclusive blocks or areas" to private companies; the majority rejected the amendment. (La Jornada 10/24/08, __, 10/26/08; Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News and Analysis, 10/20/08-10/26/08)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: South America, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, US policy
Pentecostalism and South America's Social Movements
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5590
Brazilian military exercises heighten tensions with Paraguay
http://ww4report.com/node/6208
Bolivia Reaches Agreement on Constitution Vote
http://nacla.org/node/5124
Bolivia: Congress Approves Referendum on Constitution
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1538/1/
Refugees in Ecuador: Organizing for Human Rights
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1539/1/
Colombia: An Historic Day for Indigenous Peoples
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1533/68/
Another Front in the Conflict: Colombian Government's Propaganda vs. Indigenous Media Perspectives http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1532/1/
Colombia: indigenous protesters march on Cali
http://ww4report.com/node/6209
Colombia: Hezbollah tie to drug gang claimed
http://ww4report.com/node/6206
Colombia: secret police chief resigns in spy scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6199
Smoke and Mirrors: An Analysis of Human Rights Watch's Report on Venezuela
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1537/68/
Mexican Government Ignores Overwhelming Evidence, Charges Oaxacan Activists with Brad Will's Murder http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1535/68/
Mexico: Sinaloa kingpin busted as Rice schmoozes top cops
http://ww4report.com/node/6207
Mexico: 20 dead in Reynosa prison riot; more violence in Tijuana
http://ww4report.com/node/6195
The Reggaetón Factor in the U.S. Elections
http://nacla.org/node/5118
Obama on Latin America
http://nacla.org/node/5115
A Quick, Easy Way to Lower World Food Prices
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5599
The World Food Crisis: What's Behind it and What We Can Do About it
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5611
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
WNU #964: Mexican Activists Charged in Reporter's Death
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #964, October 19, 2008
1. Mexico: Activists Charged in Reporter's Death
2. Haiti: UN Sends Tanks, Not Tractors
3. In Other News: Chile, Argentina, Cuba
4. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com
*1. Mexico: Activists Charged in Reporter's Death
On Oct. 16 Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) arrested activist Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno for the shooting death of New York-based independent journalist Brad Will during a protest in the southern state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, 2006. Octavio Pérez Pérez was also arrested and charged with concealing the crime; Hugo Jafit Colmenares Leyva was arrested on the same charge on Oct. 17. Pérez and Colmenares were released on Oct. 18 on bail of 25,000 pesos (about $1,925) apiece. All three of the arrested men are activists in the leftist Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), which along with the state local of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) spearheaded protests that shut down much of Oaxaca state for five months in 2006.
Will, a member of the New York Indymedia collective, was hit while he was standing with the demonstrators and videotaping apparent supporters of the state government as they fired at protesters and reporters. A Mexican journalist was also hit but suffered minor injuries [see Updates #872, 873]. Adrián Ramírez, president of the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights (LIMEDDH), said videos and photographs from the scene show that Will could not have been shot by the nearby protesters. The federal government's own National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) found that the shots came from a distance of 30m. "We've spent two years on this, and the PGR's investigation is an insult," Kathy Will, the journalist's mother, told the daily Milenio. In Mexico, she added, "the impunity is amazing." (Milenio (Mexico) 10/17/08, 10/19/08; El Informador (Guadalajara) 10/19/08 from EFE; La Jornada (Mexico) 10/19/08)
The activists' arrests came as the Mexican government was cracking down on a teachers' strike in neighboring Morelos similar to the strike that set off the Oaxaca uprising two years before [see Update #962]. Residents of the Morelos indigenous communities of Amayuca and Xoxocotla have charged that they were tortured and subjected to sexual aggression when agents and soldiers raided the villages on Oct. 8 and 9 to stop protests in support of the teachers. Demonstrations have continued around the state despite the repression at various communities. Some 40,000 people marched through the state capital, Cuernavaca, on Oct. 14 to reject the national government's Alliance for Quality Education (ACE); Morelos teachers were joined by local supporters and teachers from other states. On Oct. 15 some 10,000 residents, teachers and supporters marched in Xoxocotla to demand that the PFP and the military withdraw from the community.
Teachers are resisting the ACE in other states as well. On Oct. 14 some 3,000 teachers blocked the state legislature building in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, forcing the legislature to suspend its session. On Oct. 17, more than 15,000 teachers from Morelos, Michoacán, Oaxaca, México state, the Federal District (DF, Mexico City), Guerrero, Zacatecas, Tlaxcala and Puebla marched in Mexico City from the Zócalo plaza to the president's residence, Los Pinos, calling for a national strike. Teachers have maintained an encampment in front of the Public Education Secretariat (SEP) since Oct. 8. (Viento de Libertad 10/11/08, 10/14/08; LJ 10/14/08, 10/15/08, 10/16/08, 10/18/08)
*2. Haiti: UN Sends Tanks, Not Tractors
On Oct. 14 the United Nations (UN) Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1840 authorizing the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to remain for another year, until Oct. 15, 2009. The international force, which began its occupation of Haiti in June 2004, has a maximum of 7,060 soldiers and 2,091 police agents. Its annual cost is now more than $500 million.
For more than two years Haitian President René Préval has called on the force to provide long-term assistance with "fewer tanks and more tractors." However, UN Special Representative Hedi Annabi, who heads the mission, said development work wasn't the Security Council's priority. The Security Council is instead calling for an international donors conference to provide funds for development. On Oct. 15 UN coordinator in Haiti Joel Boutroue said Haiti has been set back three or four years in economic growth by four major tropical storms that hit it this summer; he estimated that 50% of the current season's crops were destroyed. On Oct. 3 Haitian Civil Protection announced that 793 people were killed in the storms. (Haiti Support Group News Briefs 10/3/08 from AFP, 10/9/08 from AP; Reuters 10/14/07; Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 10/14/08; AlterPresse 10/16/08)
MINUSTAH is led by Brazil, and many of the troops come from Latin America. On Oct. 16 five Haitian groups published an open letter to the presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Guatemala saying the mission's "real purpose is to defend the rich's interests, as well as those of US imperialism"; they demanded "that the governments of all Latin American and Caribbean countries sending troops to Haiti pull out immediately." The groups were Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Struggle), Haitian Women's Solidarity (SOFA), Haitian Platform Advocating an Alternative Development (PAPDA), Popular Democratic Movement (MODEP) and Dessalines University Students' Association (ASID). (10/16/08)
*3. In Other News...
On Oct. 15 the Chilean Supreme Court sentenced the 88-year-old retired general Sergio Arellano Stark to six years in prison for the killing of four people shortly after a Sept. 11, 1973 coup that brought the late dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power. Another retired officer, Carlos Romero Muñoz, also received a six-year sentence in the same case; three others were sentenced to four years. The victims--Teófilo Segundo Arce Toloza, José Esteban Sepúlveda Baeza, Segundo Abelardo Sandoval Gómez and Leopoldo Mauricio González Norambuena--were killed at the San Javier military facility on Oct. 2, 1973. (La Jornada 10/16/08 from correspondent)... The public trial for the Argentine government's clandestine sale of arms to Ecuador and Croatia from 1991 to 1995 in violation of international agreements began in Buenos Aires on Oct. 16. There are 18 defendants; the best known, former president Carlos Menem (1989-1999), now a senator from La Rioja province, failed to attend, claiming health problems. Much of the evidence disappeared in the 1995 explosion of an arms factory; at least six potential witnesses had died by 1998, two in a helicopter crash, three from heart attacks and one in what was ruled a suicide [see Updates #449, 451, 452, 454, 458]. (LJ 10/17/08 from correspondent)... The main route for people trying to leave Cuba for the US is now through Mexico. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, 11,126 Cubans entered the US this way in 2007, while just 1,055 went directly to Florida. The immigrants usually pay $5,000-$10,000 for a trip in a high-speed fishing boat to Quintana Roo, Mexico, and then travel by land to the Texas border. The operations are generally run by Cuban Americans who have rented or stolen the boats from Florida. (El Nuevo Herald 10/19/08 from AP) [Mexican police arrested two Cuban American smugglers in June; they reportedly said they were members of the Miami-based rightwing Cuban American National Foundation (CANF)--see Updates #951, 952.]
*4. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, US policy
Financial Crisis Jumpstarts Integration
http://www.nacla.org/node/5097
Pentecostalism and South America's Social Movements
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1529/68/
Dark Side of Brazil's Agribusiness Boom: Violence, Mutiny and Environmental Pillage in the Amazon http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1526/68/
Evo: Bolivia won't "kneel down" to US on drug war
http://ww4report.com/node/6175
Bolivia: Evo leads march for new constitution
http://ww4report.com/node/6174
Iran to open clinics in Bolivia
http://ww4report.com/node/6154
New Discoveries Reveal US Intervention in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1522/1/
Ecuador Leads the Way; Now it's Pennsylvania's Turn to Protect the Environment
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1525/68/
Refugees in Ecuador: Putting Post-Neoliberalism to the Test http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1530/1/
History Repeats Itself For Indigenous Communities in Colombia http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1527/1/
Colombia: police attack indigenous protesters
http://ww4report.com/node/6179
Colombia: paramilitaries stage "armed strike" in Urabá
http://ww4report.com/node/6180
Colombian government hampers justice efforts: HRW
http://ww4report.com/node/6178
Venezuela: army intelligence officials held in student's death
http://ww4report.com/node/6177
Venezuela: nationwide protests at prisons
http://ww4report.com/node/6176
El Salvador: US Government's Role in Human Rights Abuses and Political Intervention http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1523/68/
Guatemala: Americas Social Forum Rejects Neoliberalism, Celebrates Resistance http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1524/1/
Toll of unknown victims on Mexico-Arizona border rises
http://ww4report.com/node/6156
Mexico: narco-killing spree in Ciudad Juárez--and throughout country
http://ww4report.com/node/6155
The Monroe Doctrine Revisited: China's Increased Role in Latin America http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1528/1/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #964, October 19, 2008
1. Mexico: Activists Charged in Reporter's Death
2. Haiti: UN Sends Tanks, Not Tractors
3. In Other News: Chile, Argentina, Cuba
4. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com
*1. Mexico: Activists Charged in Reporter's Death
On Oct. 16 Mexico's federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) arrested activist Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno for the shooting death of New York-based independent journalist Brad Will during a protest in the southern state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, 2006. Octavio Pérez Pérez was also arrested and charged with concealing the crime; Hugo Jafit Colmenares Leyva was arrested on the same charge on Oct. 17. Pérez and Colmenares were released on Oct. 18 on bail of 25,000 pesos (about $1,925) apiece. All three of the arrested men are activists in the leftist Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), which along with the state local of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) spearheaded protests that shut down much of Oaxaca state for five months in 2006.
Will, a member of the New York Indymedia collective, was hit while he was standing with the demonstrators and videotaping apparent supporters of the state government as they fired at protesters and reporters. A Mexican journalist was also hit but suffered minor injuries [see Updates #872, 873]. Adrián Ramírez, president of the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights (LIMEDDH), said videos and photographs from the scene show that Will could not have been shot by the nearby protesters. The federal government's own National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) found that the shots came from a distance of 30m. "We've spent two years on this, and the PGR's investigation is an insult," Kathy Will, the journalist's mother, told the daily Milenio. In Mexico, she added, "the impunity is amazing." (Milenio (Mexico) 10/17/08, 10/19/08; El Informador (Guadalajara) 10/19/08 from EFE; La Jornada (Mexico) 10/19/08)
The activists' arrests came as the Mexican government was cracking down on a teachers' strike in neighboring Morelos similar to the strike that set off the Oaxaca uprising two years before [see Update #962]. Residents of the Morelos indigenous communities of Amayuca and Xoxocotla have charged that they were tortured and subjected to sexual aggression when agents and soldiers raided the villages on Oct. 8 and 9 to stop protests in support of the teachers. Demonstrations have continued around the state despite the repression at various communities. Some 40,000 people marched through the state capital, Cuernavaca, on Oct. 14 to reject the national government's Alliance for Quality Education (ACE); Morelos teachers were joined by local supporters and teachers from other states. On Oct. 15 some 10,000 residents, teachers and supporters marched in Xoxocotla to demand that the PFP and the military withdraw from the community.
Teachers are resisting the ACE in other states as well. On Oct. 14 some 3,000 teachers blocked the state legislature building in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, forcing the legislature to suspend its session. On Oct. 17, more than 15,000 teachers from Morelos, Michoacán, Oaxaca, México state, the Federal District (DF, Mexico City), Guerrero, Zacatecas, Tlaxcala and Puebla marched in Mexico City from the Zócalo plaza to the president's residence, Los Pinos, calling for a national strike. Teachers have maintained an encampment in front of the Public Education Secretariat (SEP) since Oct. 8. (Viento de Libertad 10/11/08, 10/14/08; LJ 10/14/08, 10/15/08, 10/16/08, 10/18/08)
*2. Haiti: UN Sends Tanks, Not Tractors
On Oct. 14 the United Nations (UN) Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1840 authorizing the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to remain for another year, until Oct. 15, 2009. The international force, which began its occupation of Haiti in June 2004, has a maximum of 7,060 soldiers and 2,091 police agents. Its annual cost is now more than $500 million.
For more than two years Haitian President René Préval has called on the force to provide long-term assistance with "fewer tanks and more tractors." However, UN Special Representative Hedi Annabi, who heads the mission, said development work wasn't the Security Council's priority. The Security Council is instead calling for an international donors conference to provide funds for development. On Oct. 15 UN coordinator in Haiti Joel Boutroue said Haiti has been set back three or four years in economic growth by four major tropical storms that hit it this summer; he estimated that 50% of the current season's crops were destroyed. On Oct. 3 Haitian Civil Protection announced that 793 people were killed in the storms. (Haiti Support Group News Briefs 10/3/08 from AFP, 10/9/08 from AP; Reuters 10/14/07; Radio Kiskeya (Haiti) 10/14/08; AlterPresse 10/16/08)
MINUSTAH is led by Brazil, and many of the troops come from Latin America. On Oct. 16 five Haitian groups published an open letter to the presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Guatemala saying the mission's "real purpose is to defend the rich's interests, as well as those of US imperialism"; they demanded "that the governments of all Latin American and Caribbean countries sending troops to Haiti pull out immediately." The groups were Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Struggle), Haitian Women's Solidarity (SOFA), Haitian Platform Advocating an Alternative Development (PAPDA), Popular Democratic Movement (MODEP) and Dessalines University Students' Association (ASID). (10/16/08)
*3. In Other News...
On Oct. 15 the Chilean Supreme Court sentenced the 88-year-old retired general Sergio Arellano Stark to six years in prison for the killing of four people shortly after a Sept. 11, 1973 coup that brought the late dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power. Another retired officer, Carlos Romero Muñoz, also received a six-year sentence in the same case; three others were sentenced to four years. The victims--Teófilo Segundo Arce Toloza, José Esteban Sepúlveda Baeza, Segundo Abelardo Sandoval Gómez and Leopoldo Mauricio González Norambuena--were killed at the San Javier military facility on Oct. 2, 1973. (La Jornada 10/16/08 from correspondent)... The public trial for the Argentine government's clandestine sale of arms to Ecuador and Croatia from 1991 to 1995 in violation of international agreements began in Buenos Aires on Oct. 16. There are 18 defendants; the best known, former president Carlos Menem (1989-1999), now a senator from La Rioja province, failed to attend, claiming health problems. Much of the evidence disappeared in the 1995 explosion of an arms factory; at least six potential witnesses had died by 1998, two in a helicopter crash, three from heart attacks and one in what was ruled a suicide [see Updates #449, 451, 452, 454, 458]. (LJ 10/17/08 from correspondent)... The main route for people trying to leave Cuba for the US is now through Mexico. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, 11,126 Cubans entered the US this way in 2007, while just 1,055 went directly to Florida. The immigrants usually pay $5,000-$10,000 for a trip in a high-speed fishing boat to Quintana Roo, Mexico, and then travel by land to the Texas border. The operations are generally run by Cuban Americans who have rented or stolen the boats from Florida. (El Nuevo Herald 10/19/08 from AP) [Mexican police arrested two Cuban American smugglers in June; they reportedly said they were members of the Miami-based rightwing Cuban American National Foundation (CANF)--see Updates #951, 952.]
*4. Links to alternative sources on: Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, US policy
Financial Crisis Jumpstarts Integration
http://www.nacla.org/node/5097
Pentecostalism and South America's Social Movements
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1529/68/
Dark Side of Brazil's Agribusiness Boom: Violence, Mutiny and Environmental Pillage in the Amazon http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1526/68/
Evo: Bolivia won't "kneel down" to US on drug war
http://ww4report.com/node/6175
Bolivia: Evo leads march for new constitution
http://ww4report.com/node/6174
Iran to open clinics in Bolivia
http://ww4report.com/node/6154
New Discoveries Reveal US Intervention in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1522/1/
Ecuador Leads the Way; Now it's Pennsylvania's Turn to Protect the Environment
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1525/68/
Refugees in Ecuador: Putting Post-Neoliberalism to the Test http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1530/1/
History Repeats Itself For Indigenous Communities in Colombia http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1527/1/
Colombia: police attack indigenous protesters
http://ww4report.com/node/6179
Colombia: paramilitaries stage "armed strike" in Urabá
http://ww4report.com/node/6180
Colombian government hampers justice efforts: HRW
http://ww4report.com/node/6178
Venezuela: army intelligence officials held in student's death
http://ww4report.com/node/6177
Venezuela: nationwide protests at prisons
http://ww4report.com/node/6176
El Salvador: US Government's Role in Human Rights Abuses and Political Intervention http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1523/68/
Guatemala: Americas Social Forum Rejects Neoliberalism, Celebrates Resistance http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1524/1/
Toll of unknown victims on Mexico-Arizona border rises
http://ww4report.com/node/6156
Mexico: narco-killing spree in Ciudad Juárez--and throughout country
http://ww4report.com/node/6155
The Monroe Doctrine Revisited: China's Increased Role in Latin America http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1528/1/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
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