Weekly News Update #797, 5/8/05
Weekly News Update
ISSUE #797, MAY 8, 2005
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <w...@igc.org>
1. Colombia: US Arming Death Squads?
2. Colombia: One Killed in May Day March
3. South America: May Day Roundup
4. Brazil: May Day, MST March
5. Dominican Republic: May Day Against CAFTA
6. US: Presidents Push DR-CAFTA
7. Costa Rica: Thousands Protest CAFTA
8. Central America: Workers Blast CAFTA
9. Mexico: Separate May Day Marches
10. Cuba: May Day Celebrated
11. Haiti: Ex-PM on Hunger Strike
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news
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*1. COLOMBIA: US ARMING DEATH SQUADS?
On May 3, Colombian authorities arrested two US soldiers at a
luxury estate in Tolima department, where they were allegedly
preparing to deliver 40,000 rounds of ammunition to a rightwing
paramilitary group. The Colombian government turned over Warrant
Officer Allan Tanquary and Sgt. Jesus Hernandez to US authorities
on May 5, despite widespread demands that the soldiers face trial
in Colombia.
On May 6, during a visit to Tolima, US ambassador William Wood
ruled out lifting the diplomatic immunity granted to the soldiers
under a 1974 treaty between the US and Colombia, though he said
Colombian prosecutors would be allowed to question the two at the
US embassy in Bogota in the coming days, before they are flown to
the US. The Colombian attorney general's office formally sought
permission earlier on May 6 to conduct the questioning. Wood said
Tanquary and Hernandez will be tried by a US military court and
will be severely punished if found guilty.
The case has deeply embarrassed the US government, coming just
five weeks after five US service members were detained for
allegedly smuggling cocaine aboard a military aircraft to the US
[see Update #792]. The US has denied secretly helping the
paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which
have been blamed for countless atrocities. The US government has
designated the AUC a terrorist organization. [Miami Herald 5/7/05
from AP]
*2. COLOMBIA: ONE KILLED IN MAY DAY MARCH
At least two million Colombians marked International Workers' Day
by marching on May 1 in the capital and other cities to protest a
free trade treaty being negotiated between the US and Colombia,
Ecuador and Peru [see Update #785]. Marchers were also protesting
the economic policies of President Alvaro Uribe Velez and his
attempt to win reelection to a second term. [El Diario-La Prensa
(NY) 5/2/05 from wire services; Indymedia Colombia (various
reports) 5/2/05-5/7/05]
In Bogota, thousands of workers, students, indigenous people,
campesinos, unemployed people and activists were marching
peacefully when agents from the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) of
the National Police attacked with rubber bullets and nightsticks.
A number of people were injured, several of them seriously;
police beat 15-year old Nicolas Neira Alvarez so badly they
fractured his skull and put him in a coma. Neira, a high school
student activist who was marching with an anarchist contingent,
never regained consciousness; on May 5, doctors announced he was
brain dead and on May 6, he died from his injuries.
National police director Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro said on May 6
that the police would carry out an investigation, but claimed
that there was an "act of terrorism" during the march, with
"explosive devices and disturbances on the part of the
demonstrators." According to Pedro Mahecha of the Collective of
Human Rights Lawyers, "Several police agents, dressed in black,
beat the boy on the ground, caused serious injuries to his head
and then stood in a circle around him to prevent people nearby
from picking him up." Witnesses say eight ESMAD agents covered
their faces with ski-masks to prevent being identified while they
blocked anyone from helping the badly injured Neira. The lawyers'
collective will bring a legal complaint, backed by witness
testimony, videos and photographs from the march. [El Tiempo
(Bogota) 5/7/055/7/05; Agencia Prensa Rural 5/7/05; Statement,
undated, from CUT Bogota-Cundinamarca Section and various human
rights groups; Colombia Indymedia (various reports) 5/2/05-
5/7/05] Ricardo Lopez Torres, a cameraperson for a union
television program, was beaten by ESMAD agents as he was filming
the police brutality during the march. He required 30 stitches on
his lip. Several alternative media activists were also injured,
at least one by rubber bullets. [APR 5/7/05]
On May 3, hired killers on a motorcycle shot to death union
activist Adan Alberto Pacheco in Barranquilla, capital of
Atlantico department, on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Pacheco had
worked for the regional electrical workers union, linked to the
CUT, and was associated with the privatized Electricaribe
company. His family said he had received numerous death threats.
[La Republica (Lima) 5/4/05 from EFE] According to Julio Roberto
Gomez, president of the General Confederation of Workers (CGT),
92 unionists were murdered in Colombia during 2004. [La Jornada
(Mexico) 5/2/05 from AFP, DPA, Reuters; El Diario-La Prensa (NY)
5/2/05 from wire services]
*3. SOUTH AMERICA: MAY DAY ROUNDUP
In Chile, more than 50,000 people took part in a rally organized
by the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT). CUT president Antonio
Martinez threatened to call a 48-hour strike if Congress approves
a labor reform law. Martinez also announced that the union was
bringing a formal legal complaint against ex-dictator Augusto
Pinochet Ugarte and his interior minister, Onofre Jafra, for the
murder of 26 people at a 1983 union demonstration. [EFE 5/2/05;
La Jornada (Mexico) 5/2/05 from correspondent] Martinez also
called for a new constitution: "If we want a just Chile, we have
to once and for all get rid of that fraudulent 1980 Constitution,
imposed by an illegitimate government," he said. [El Diario-La
Prensa (NY) 5/2/05 from wire services]
In Ecuador, more than 10,000 workers demonstrated against new
president Alfredo Palacio, the Congress and the political
parties, blaming them for social inequality and other problems.
Demonstrators also protested a free trade treaty (TLC) being
negotiated with the US, Colombia and Peru. A separate
demonstration called by the country's main labor federation, the
Unitary Workers Front (FUT), drew only about 250 people. [EFE
5/2/05]
In Bolivia, marches were held in several cities to press demands
for the nationalization of oil and gas resources. Some 5,000
people attended the largest march, in La Paz, at which a number
of marchers wore masks representing Cuban president Fidel Castro,
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and famed revolutionary Che
Guevara. At the close of the event, demonstrators burned effigies
of Bolivian ex-presidents Jaime Paz Zamora and Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada, both current leaders of opposition parties, and Manfred
Reyes Villa, who heads the rightwing New Republican Force (NFR).
Bolivian Workers Central (COB) leader Jaime Solares did not
attend the march in La Paz, as he was in Cuba. [EFE 5/2/05; La
Razon (La Paz) 5/2/05] On May 5, Bolivia's Chamber of Deputies
voted 59-48 to approve, without new modifications, a version of
the Hydrocarbons Law previously modified and approved by the
Senate. The bill now goes to President Carlos Mesa Gisbert for
approval. [El Diario (La Paz) 5/6/05]
In Venezuela there were two May Day marches, one in support of
the government of President Hugo Chavez Frias and one against.
The marches followed different routes and no incidents were
reported. The opposition march was headed by Manuel Cova, leader
of the Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV). Vice President
Jose Vicente Rangel participated in the much larger pro-
government march in the center of Caracas, which was organized by
the National Union of Workers (UNETE). UNETE used the march to
promote a proposed law that would grant workers the right to
participate in management of the companies where they work.
Chavez told the union he would study the proposal. [EFE 5/2/05;
Agencia Pulsar 5/3/05]
In Argentina, members of unions, student groups, political
organizations and piquetero associations of organized unemployed
people marked May Day with protest marches and artistic
presentations. In Buenos Aires, thousands of people filled the
Plaza de Mayo for a rally "against the government and
imperialism." Protesters pressed demands for better wages and
social programs, an increase in pensions, reduction of the work
day to six hours and a more equitable distribution of wealth. The
General Confederation of Workers (CGT) did not take part in the
demonstrations. [EFE 5/2/05; La Jornada (Mexico) 5/2/05 from AFP,
DPA, Reuters; Santacruceno (Argentina) 5/2/05 from Telam, DyN]
In Uruguay, leftist president Tabare Vazquez and most of his
cabinet members attended the May Day rally organized by the
country's only labor federation, the Inter-Union Workers Plenary-
National Workers Convention (PIT-CNT). The federation called for
the restoration of state control over water and sewer services.
Vazquez said he agreed with many of the protest demands, but
warned that unspecified others "were not in the government's
program." [La Jornada (Mexico) 5/2/05 from AFP, DPA, Reuters]
In Paraguay, more than 1,500 members of the Worker, Campesino and
Grassroots Coordinating Committee gathered in the Plaza Italia in
Asuncion to demand jobs, protest the persecution of campesinos
and unionists, and reject privatization. The demonstrators did
not take part in the official May Day rally organized by
Paraguay's main union federations, which took place in front of
the Pantheon of Heroes but apparently drew a much smaller crowd.
[ABC Color (Asuncion) 5/2/05]
Union organizations from Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil
took part in a joint May Day event on Apr. 30 in the Brazilian
city of Foz do Iguacu, on the triple border with Ciudad del Este
(Paraguay) and Puerto Iguazu (Argentina). The unions expressed
their opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)
and the attempts by the US to take control of the Guarani
underground aquifer, one of the largest fresh water reserves in
the world. The action was organized by the Coordinating Committee
of Union Federations of the Southern Cone (CCSCS). The
delegations said they would hold demonstrations on Nov. 4 and 5
against the free trade treaties and against the presence of US
president George W. Bush in the region. Bush is expected to
attend the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
[El Pais (Montevideo) 4/30/05 from ANSA]
*4. BRAZIL: MAY DAY, MST MARCH
Brazil's two largest union federations, the Only Confederation of
Workers (CUT) and Union Force, brought out hundreds of thousands
of people to separate rallies on May 1 in the city of Sao Paulo.
Union Force, which is critical of President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva and his Workers Party (PT) government, drew nearly 1.5
million supporters to the Campos de Bagatelle plaza in Santa Ana,
in the northern zone of Sao Paulo, for a festival and concert
demanding a reduction in the work day, fewer taxes and union
reform. The CUT drew just over a million people to a rally on
Paulista Avenue, where Jose Dirceu, Lula's cabinet chief, spoke.
[EFE 5/2/05; La Jornada (Mexico) 5/2/05 from AFP, DPA, Reuters]
On May 2 some 12,000 rural workers from 23 of Brazil's states
left the city of Goiania, capital of Goias state, to begin a 17-
day 200-kilometer march to Brasilia. The march is being organized
by the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) to call attention
to poverty and inequality in the countryside and demand
acceleration of agrarian reform. [Updates from Friends of the MST
5/3/05] Two weeks earlier, on Apr. 17, some 10,000 rural workers
took part in a demonstration at a roadside in Eldorado dos
Carajas, Para state, to mark the ninth anniversary of the day
when Military Police (PM) agents killed 19 MST members and
wounded 69 others there. [MST Informa #88, 4/20/05]
*5. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: MAY DAY AGAINST CAFTA
On May 1 in the northern Dominican Republic city of Santiago,
transport workers marched with members of neighborhood and
grassroots organizations to protest the government's economic
policies and the US-sponsored Dominican Republic-Central America
Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). The march was organized by the
Alternative Social Forum of the Northern Region, whose
spokesperson, Victor Breton, warned that DR-CAFTA will deepen the
economic crisis affecting Dominican farmers. Breton noted that
"thousands" of workers have been laid off from the country's
"free trade zones," tourism is down and unemployment is at its
highest rate in years. Fidel Santana, general spokesperson of the
Alternative Social Forum, also spoke at the march, saying that
DR-CAFTA will make Dominicans poorer. Hundreds of workers from
the northern region took part in the march in Santiago, which was
joined by a delegation of grassroots leaders from Santo Domingo.
[EFE 5/1/05]
The Dominican Senate has conditioned its approval of DR-CAFTA on
a series of compensatory measures for national producers, who
will be unable to compete with the other treaty partners. On May
3, a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which was
in the Dominican Republic to evaluate an accord signed with the
government last January, recommended a fiscal reform to recover
the income which the country will lose when DR-CAFTA takes
effect. [Hoy (NY) 5/6/05 from wire services]
The Alternative Social Forum, which groups more than 50 union and
grassroots organizations from throughout the Dominican Republic,
organized a mass march to the National Palace in Santo Domingo on
Apr. 20 to protest DR-CAFTA and put forth alternative economic
proposals. The march was blocked by a heavy police and military
presence. The Forum also organized a picket on Apr. 28 outside
the National Social Security Council to protest the privatization
of health care and demand that the government continue to provide
medical insurance to Dominican workers. [Hoy (NY) 4/29/05 from
correspondent]
More than 10,000 doctors in the Dominican Republic's 173 public
hospitals held a 48-hour strike on May 4-5, treating only
emergency cases. The doctors are demanding better salaries and
improvements to health centers. [Miami Herald 5/5/05 from wire
services]
*6. US: PRESIDENTS PUSH DR-CAFTA
Six Central American and Caribbean presidents--Abel Pacheco of
Costa Rica, Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, Elias
Antonio Saca of El Salvador, Oscar Berger of Guatemala, Ricardo
Maduro of Honduras and Enrique Bolanos of Nicaragua--are meeting
with US president George W. Bush in Washington on May 12 to
discuss DR-CAFTA, which Bush is trying to get approved by the US
Congress. The presidents will start arriving in the US on May 9.
According to Honduran trade minister Fernando Garcia, before
meeting with Bush the presidents will visit areas where
opposition to DR-CAFTA is especially strong, in an effort to win
the votes of local US Congress members.
So far only the legislatures of El Salvador, Guatemala and
Honduras have ratified the agreement. The US Senate Committee on
Finance began considering DR-CAFTA on Apr. 6; the House Ways and
Means Committee was to start on Apr. 21. The administration would
like to hold the vote before July 1, the expiration date for the
"fast-track" rule which keeps Congress from changing or amending
trade agreements. The Senate is expected to approve, but the
measure faces problems in the House of Representatives. On May 4,
four centrist representatives--Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), Adam Smith
(D-WA), Arthur Davis (D-AL) and Ron Kind (D-WI)--announced they
were not backing DR-CAFTA. The opposition is "very strong,"
Tauscher said, but she couldn't say whether it would be enough to
stop the trade pact.
The US labor federation, the AFL-CIO, is countering the visit of
the DR-CAFTA presidents by bringing a group of union leaders from
the region to Washington for a rally in front of the Capitol on
May 10. The unionists will include Rafael Abreu from the
Dominican Workers General Confederation; Reynaldo Gonzalez from
Guatemala's Union Federation of Bank and Insurance Employees
(FESEBS); Albino Vargas from Costa Rica's National Public
Employees Association (ANEP); and Marta Diaz Palacio from the
Textile Industry Workers Union (STIT) of El Salvador. [AP 5/6/05;
Reuters 5/6/05; Prensa Latina 4/18/05; El Nuevo Herald (Miami)
5/5/05 from AP]
*7. COSTA RICA: THOUSANDS PROTEST CAFTA
For the second year in a row, thousands of workers and students
marched on May 1 in San Jose, Costa Rica to demand that the
government reject DR-CAFTA. This year there were no clashes or
incidents. The march began at La Merced park and ended at the
Legislative Assembly. Fabio Chavez, leader of the National
Federation of Public Service Workers, announced that there will
be a general strike on May 16 "to defeat the TLC [free trade
treaty] and the right wing." [La Nacion (Costa Rica) 5/2/05; EFE
5/1/05]
On Apr. 26, President Abel Pacheco announced that he would
designate a commission of five "notables"--supposedly with no
political, business or union affiliations--to study DR-CAFTA and
make a recommendation which will help him decide whether or not
to send the measure to Congress for approval. On May 5, Pacheco
designated the commission's first member, Franklin Chang, a US
astronaut of Costa Rican descent. Pacheco said that once he gets
the report from the commission he will proceed in accordance with
his conscience. [La Republica (Costa Rica) 5/6/05]
*8. CENTRAL AMERICA: WORKERS BLAST CAFTA
May Day marches in Central America focused on opposition to DR-
CAFTA and neoliberal economic policies. [La Jornada (Mexico)
5/2/05 from AFP, DPA, Reuters]
In Guatemala City, nearly 30,000 people marched five kilometers
from a labor monument to Constitution Plaza to protest the free
trade treaty. The march was organized by the Indigenous,
Campesino, Union and Grassroots Movement. Similar protests were
held in the departments of Izabal, Quetzaltenango, Suchitepequez,
Escuintla and Jutiapa, among others. [EFE 5/1/05; Guatemala Hoy
5/2/05]
More than 40,000 workers and students marched in the Salvadoran
capital on May Day to protest DR-CAFTA and call for respect for
labor rights. Participants were demanding that El Salvador to
ratify all the International Labor Organization (ILO)
conventions, including one which refers to the right of public
sector workers to be represented by unions. [EFE 5/1/05;
Argenpress 5/3/05]
More than 70,000 people marched in 10 Honduran cities to protest
DR-CAFTA and Mexico's Plan Puebla-Panama, as well as government
corruption and the high price of basic necessities. The marches
in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, Puerto Cortes and six
other towns were also commemorating the 51st anniversary of a
strike by banana workers against the US multinationals Standard
Fruit and Chiquita Brands, which marked the birth of the Honduran
labor movement. [Argenpress 5/3/05]
In Nicaragua, there were two opposing May Day marches, together
drawing about 4,000 people. One march was headed by rightwing
President Enrique Bolanos; the other was led by leftist
Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) founder and leader
Tomas Borge. [EFE 5/2/05; La Jornada (Mexico) 5/2/05 from AFP,
DPA, Reuters]
Thousands of workers and students marched in Panama City to
protest proposed social security "reforms," demand an increase in
the minimum wage, and condemn government corruption. [EFE 5/2/05]
As the march ended, three agents from the National Police
arrested Carlos Obaldia, finance secretary of the Only Union of
Construction and Similar Workers (SUNTRACS), a combative union
which has been active in the struggle against the privatization
of social security. Obaldia was released after a half hour; he
said police claimed they arrested him for painting graffiti,
though he denied doing so. [La Prensa (Panama) 5/2/05]
*9. MEXICO: SEPARATE MAY DAY MARCHES
As has become traditional, Mexico's two main labor federations
held separate May 1 demonstrations in Mexico City's main plaza,
the Zocalo. The centrist Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM),
affiliated with the former ruling party, the Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI), had a 20-minute ceremony in the
morning, with few slogans and no demands. Some 40,000 workers
attended, according to the Spanish wire service EFE.
Once the CTM demonstration was over, some 50,000 workers joined
feeder marches to the Zocalo organized by the Mexican Workers
Union (UNT), an independent federation largely composed of unions
that split from the CTM during the 1990s. The marchers protested
the economic policies of President Vicente Fox Quesada of the
center-right National Action Party (PAN) and denounced plans for
the partial privatization of social security. Mexican Electricity
Workers Union (SME) general secretary Rosendo Flores Flores
charged that in the past 23 years wages have lost 70% of their
buying power and that one of every two workers now makes less
than 80 pesos (about $7.20) a day. Demonstration organizers were
disappointed by the absence of campesino organizations, which
have turned out contingents for demonstrations in the past. [La
Jornada (Mexico) 5/2/05; EFE 5/2/05; El Diario-La Prensa (NY)
5/2/05 from unidentified wire services; Agencia Pulsar 5/3/05]
*10. CUBA: MAY DAY CELEBRATED
According to Cuban president Fidel Castro, more than 1.3 million
people attended the May Day celebration in and around Havana's
Plaza de la Revolucion. Joined by Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez,
former Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega and Salvadoran
opposition leader Schafik Jorge Handal, Castro used his speech to
demand that the US extradite US intelligence "asset" Luis Posada
Carriles to Venezuela to face trial for the 1976 bombing of a
Cubana de Aviacion airliner in which 73 people were killed. Also
on the podium with Castro was US national Robert Marsh, husband
of one of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the US,
and the Italian Giustino di Celmo, father of Fabio di Celmo, who
was killed in a 1997 bombing of Havana's Copacabana Hotel for
which Posada Carriles admitted responsibility in 1998. [La
Jornada (Mexico) 5/2/05] Although Fabio di Celmo was born in
Italy, he was a longtime resident of Montreal, where he ran an
import-export business. [Miami Herald 4/12/05]
*11. HAITI: EX-PM ON HUNGER STRIKE
As of May 8 former Haitian prime minister Yvon Neptune was on the
21st day of a hunger strike to demand his release from
imprisonment. This was the second hunger strike since February
for Neptune, who was prime minister under ousted left-populist
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and his doctors are alarmed
about his health [see Update #788]. Neptune has been imprisoned
since June 2004 in connection with the killing of Aristide
opponents when Aristide supporters and government forces retook
the western city of St.-Marc after a brief rebellion in early
February 2004. So far the government has failed to bring formal
charges. He was flown to St.-Marc on Apr. 22 to be interviewed by
the investigative judge, but had to be flown back when the judge,
who hadn't been notified, turned out not to be available.
[Newsday (Long Island) 5/8/05; St. Petersburg Times 5/7/05; Haiti
Progres (Haiti & NY) 5/4/05]
END
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