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Archives: December 2009
LATIN AMERICA BAROMETER REPORT FOR 2009
from a graduate student in Latin American history at the State University of NY at Stony Brook, Kevin Young:
It's interesting (sort of) how the corporate media is interpreting the findings: for example, The Economist notes that "support for democracy" is "maturing," in an echo of age-old imperialist debates over whether or not Latin Americans are "ready" for democracy. The report (http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15080535) neglects what in my mind are the most important findings of the poll, instead depicting the poll as a vindication of market fundamentalism and of US policy and a repudiation of Chavez (the results most definitely do NOT vindicate neoliberalism if you read them closely, they simply indicate that respondents support the notion that markets have a ROLE to play in development; there is a question indicating wariness of Chavez outside Venezuela, but this is hardly the most important aspect of the results). The report by El Universal (one of Venezuela's corporate media outlets) is an even more selective and vulgar interpretation of the results (http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/12/11/en_pol_esp_latinobarometro-poll_11A3179971.shtml).
For those who read Spanish, the annual continent-wide poll by Latin America's largest polling firm was just released. While I haven't read through the whole thing yet, the results seem pretty similar to the 2008 figures (available from the same site, and summed up at http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21557) Washington's foes, including Bolivia and Venezuela, rank among the most democratic and egalitarian by their own residents' evaluations, while the few remaining allies of the US like Colombia and especially Mexico rank pretty low in many key categories. Of course, for many reasons the findings do not offer a straightforward or unproblematic "measurement" of democracy or justice in each country, but at least offer a pretty good indication that those countries where we're told that despotism is destroying democracy are actually among the more democratic countries in a region where governments have historically been extremely anti-democratic.
Across the region people also overwhelmingly reject neoliberalism and market fundamentalism, favoring a much more expansive definition of democracy than that long promoted by the US (big surprise here!)...
There is also a short section on the Honduras coup, which respondents strongly rejected.
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HUMAN RIGHTS DAY: INTERNATIONAL MINING & IMPUNITY DAY
INTERNATIONAL MINING & IMPUNITY DAY:
CANADIAN MINING COMPANIES MAKING A KILLING IN EL SALVADOR, GUATEMALA, CHIAPAS, …
By Grahame Russell
Across the world, December 10th is celebrated as “international human rights day”. For the global mining industry, we commemorate “international impunity day”.
Below, summaries of three recent assassinations related to community-based struggles in resistance to Canadian mining companies.
Just three stories, of many stories of repression that occur, worldwide, against community and indigenous leaders working in defense of community-controlled development and in protection of their community health and environment; local men and women who are educating and organizing their communities to resist the harms and violations caused by global resource extraction companies.
PACIFIC RIM & THE KILLING OF MARCELO RIVERA MORENO (EL SALVADOR)
In early July 2009, the body of Marcelo Rivera, a teacher and community leader, was found dumped in a well. He was “disappeared” on June 18. Torture signs were found on his body, including burn marks and missing toe and finger nails. Before and after Marcelo’s disappearance, torture and murder, he and other community leaders have been receiving death threats. For years, the Rivera brothers and many Salvadorans have been working hard, at risk of obvious repression, to prevent Pacific Rim, a Canadian gold mining company, from operating an open-pit, cyanide-laced gold mine in the Cabanas state, near the Honduran border.
No justice has been done for the death of Marcelo Rivera. Pacific Rim denies any responsibility, or that this death squad assassination is linked to their now aborted mining plans. The previous ARENA Party government of El Salvador blamed the murder on gang violence.
Meanwhile, Pacific Rim is trying to use a World Bank “mediation” procedure (the World Bank is a major investor in global mining companies) to sue the government of El Salvador for millions of dollars in “lost profits”. (No, the family members of Marcelo Rivera cannot use this World Bank procedure to seek justice or remedy – it is only for corporations and investors.)
HUDBAY MINERALS & THE KILLING OF ADOLFO ICH (GUATEMALA)
On September 27, 2009, Adolfo Ich, a Mayan Qeqchi teacher and community leader in El Estor (eastern department of Izabal), was shot and captured by security guards in the hire of HudBay Minerals. Hours later, family members found him abandoned in the company building where the HudBay guards had detained him. He died soon after of his gunshot wounds and beating.
Adolfo Ich, and local Mayan-Qeqchi villagers, have long been resisting the harms and forced evictions caused by Canadian nickel mining companies. The first wave of evictions, killings and repression occurred in the 1970s, early 1980s. Evictions and repression began again in 2006 (by Skye Resources), through to today. No justice has been done for any of the earlier killings and abuses, nor in Adolfo’s case. HudBay Minerals denies any responsibility and continues with efforts to “relocate” potentially thousands of Mayan-Qeqchi villagers, living on these lands since long before the first nickel miners (INCO) arrived in the 1960s.
BLACKFIRE EXPLORATION & THE KILLING OF MARIANO ABARCA ROBLEDO (MEXICO)
Mariano Abarca Robeldo, a community leader from the state of Chiapas, was known in Mexico for his work in promotion of community development and the environmental, in opposition to health and environmental harms and human rights violations caused by mining.
On November 27, 2009, he was assassinated in the town of Chicomuselo, state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. The alleged assassins are employees of and/or linked to Blackfire Exploration Inc, a Canadian mining company, … that denies any responsibility for the crimes.
IMPUNITY – LOCAL TO GLOBAL
These are not exceptional cases. They are stark snap-shots of repression, let alone environmental and health harms that are common in communities (usually poor, often indigenous) where many mines operate.
Neither is the impunity exceptional. Companies operate with effective impunity from prosecution or accountability in many countries where they operate mines. They operate with impunity in the sphere of international law. And, above all, they operate with impunity in Canada where they are headquartered, where all the major corporate and investor decisions are taken. There are basically no criminal or civil laws to hold Canadian companies accountable for environmental and health harms or human rights violations (including killings) that occur related to their business operations elsewhere.
There are efforts in Canada to pass legislation - Bill C-300 – that would provide an administrative framework for government oversight and possible economic sanction (withdrawal of public funds a particular company might be receiving) in the case of mining company wrong-doing. If passed, Bill C-300 would not provide for criminal law punishment, in cases where crimes were committed; it would not provide for financial or other remedies to the victims of mining company harms and wrongs, if proven.
Even at that, Bill C-300 is being strongly opposed by the mining industry and supporters in the Conservative and Liberal parties.
Their opposition to enforceable laws, remedies and punishment is hypocritical and cynical. I wager that all the mining company executives and politicians opposed to the enactment of binding and enforceable legislation swear by the values and accountability mechanisms of democracy and the rule of law – just not when they would and should apply to their corporate activities abroad.
I wager that were these company executives and politicians themselves (and their families and home communities) victims of environmental and health harms, or human rights violations, they would expect and demand nothing less that full political and legal accountability for the harmful actions, and full remedy for the harms and losses.
Happy international impunity day to the global mining industry.
(Feel free to re-distribute, publish. Grahame is co-director of Rights Action, info@rightsaction.org, www.rightsaction.org, that funds and supports community development, environmental defense, disaster response and human rights projects in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as Chiapas, El Salvador and Peru.)
******************a second story about Mariano Abarca Roblero
(source: narcosphere.narconews.com
Chiapas Murder Draws Criticism of Canadian Mining in Mexico
Posted by Kristin Bricker - December 14, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Canadian NGOs Call for Increased Oversight, Accountability; Mexican Communities Want Mines Closed
The recent murder of Chiapan anti-mining organizer Mariano Abarca Roblero has drawn sharp criticism of Canadian mining in Mexico. Abarca was shot to death in front of his home on November 27. Three men linked to Canadian mining company Blackfire Exploration Ltd. were arrested for the murder. Blackfire owns a barite mine in Chicomuselo, Chiapas. Abarca, a local resident, was the leader of a campaign to close the mine at the time of his assassination.
In response to the murder, Mexican communities and organizations have mobilized to demand accountability for the murder and permanent closure of the Chicomuselo and other Canadian-owned mines. Hundreds of people attended Abarca's funeral in Chicomuselo. The funeral procession stopped at Blackfire's Chicomuselo office to demand justice.
Chicomuselo residents and representatives from other mine-affected communities formed a protest caravan to travel to Mexico City to demand justice. The caravan stopped for rallies and events in Comitan, Chiapas, and the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez. The two-bus caravan then met up with representatives from other mining-affected communities in front of the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City, where they held a protest. Representatives from Oaxaca, San Luis Potosi, Jalisco, and Mexico City joined the delegates from Chiapas for a protest in Mexico City.
The protesters stopped by the Mexican Ministry of Economics to deliver a letter demanding that Blackfire's mining concession in Chicomuselo be immediately cancelled. According to a communique issued by Abarca's organization the Mexican Anti-mining Network (REMA), they told a Ministry representative, "If [the Ministry of] Economics doesn't cancel Blackfire's mining concession, the people will do it de facto. We won't tolerate more deaths, nor more environmental destruction, nor division within the Community." That isn't an idle threat: the community blockaded the road leading to the mine in July.
After meeting with an official from the Ministry of Economics, the caravan then headed to the Canadian Embassy to protest Abarca's murder. According to the REMA communique, "We also stressed that they [the Canadian government] need to support laws that would give the government teeth to be able to hold accountable the mining companies that they are currently supporting economically, and which have a general conduct of violating human rights and democracy."
Laws With Teeth
When the mining-affected communities demand "laws that would give the government teeth" to hold mining companies accountable for their actions in foreign countries, they are referring to laws like Bill C-300, An Act Respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas Corporations in Developing Countries, which is currently making its way through the Canadian parliament. The bill, according to Canadian NGO MiningWatch, would set corporate accountability standards that would determine eligibility for the political and financial support that the Canadian government currently provides to Canadian extractive companies. These corporate accountability standards would include health, safety, security, and human rights criteria. The bill would also create a complaints mechanism wherein affected communities could file complaints with the Canadian government. If a company is found to be out of compliance with the corporate accountability standards, it would be ineligible for Canadian government support.
The Canadian NGO the Council of Canadians admits that the sanctions proposed in Bill C-300 are "modest." However, they believe that the mining industry's staunch opposition to the bill demonstrates that the industry views the bill as a threat.
The Harper administration has opposed Bill C-300.
Another proposed bill, Bill C-354, would allow foreigners to sue Canadian companies in Canadian courts for human rights abuses, regardless of where the abuses take place. According to the bill's sponsor, Peter Julian, the bill replicates the United States' Alien Tort Claims Act, which survivors of torture in other countries have used to sue their torturers in US courts.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow linked Abarca's murder to the Canadian government's inaction when mining companies it supports commit abuses. "A man deeply involved in the protest against the Canadian mining company Blackfire has been murdered outside his home," said Barlow. "This tragic outcome can be traced directly to the Harper government's refusal to end the impunity currently enjoyed by Canadian mining companies."
Gordon Peeling, president and CEO of the Canadian mining industry's lobbying group, The Mining Association of Canada, told the press, “It is not helpful in terms of the dynamic of the discussion for those that want to link these things. Their thinking is flawed if they try to link it [the murder] to C-300,” he added.
Perhaps Bill C-300 would have been too weak to prevent the assassination of Abarca, who had been the victim of threats and physical attacks since at least August 2008. But the role of Canadian mining company Blackfire in the murder is unquestionable.
"Abarca Murder: Mission Accomplished"
The three men arrested for Abarca's murder are all current or former Blackfire employees.
Jorge Carlos Sepúlveda Calvo is accused of shooting Abarca. He was a driver for Blackfire.
Chiapan authorities have not revealed the role they believe another detained man, Ricardo Antonio Coutiño Velasco, played in the murder. Coutiño Velasco was a Blackfire contractor.
Caralampio López Vázquez is an operator and shift supervisor in the mine. According to witnesses, he drove the motorcycle in which the murders fled.
Blackfire cannot claim the murder was an isolated incident. REMA reports that in August 2008, three men wearing Blackfire employee vests beat Abarca and his son in their home. They held Abarca's wife at gunpoint. REMA says that in response to the attack, Abarca filed charges with the government. The government did nothing.
In the summer of 2009, Chicomuselo residents entered into negotiations with Blackfire regarding a road the company had illegally built on their communal land. The residents claim to be in possession of a January 2008 agreement signed by the company that determined where Blackfire should build the road to the mine. The company ignored the agreement and build the road in a place the Chiapas state government says it shouldn't have. When negotiations broke down between residents and Blackfire, the residents began to fence off the road in question in order to close it. According to the complaint anti-mining organizer Gustavo Castro Soto says residents later filed with the government, "Luis Antonio Flores (Blackfire Public Relations Officer), Rene Salvador Cartajena, Caralampio Lopez, and another man, along with Blackfire employees, came out and threatened to kill us and attack us with the sharp weapons and the firearms that they were armed with. For these reasons we didn't close the road. We decided to leave so that we wouldn't be led into the violent or deadly confrontation that they were hoping for. They tried to run over the compañeros with their machinery. Therefore today we ask that Gov. Juan Sabines Guerrero and his administration cancel [Blackfire's] permission in this ejido [communally held land]."
It should be noted that Caralampio Lopez, mentioned in the complaint as part of this threatening mob, is charged with driving the getaway motorcycle in Abarca's murder. Caralampio Lopez was reportedly a current Blackfire employee at the time of Abarca's murder. In other words, residents reportedly filed a formal complaint against Lopez for being part of a mob that threatened Chicomuselo residents with bodily harm when they tried to close an illegally constructed road, and Blackfire appears to have done nothing.
Just days before his murder, Abarca filed charges against two Blackfire employees, Ciro Roblero Perez and Luis Antonio Flores Villatoro, for threatening to shoot him if he didn't stop organizing against Blackfire's barium mine in Chicomuselo. According to a formal complaint filed by a government employee who works in the Chicomuselo municipal building, Roblero Perez arrived at the municipal building to say that he had gone to look for Abarca to "fuck him up in a hail of bullets." He also reportedly said that Abarca and other people were on a list of people Blackfire management wants to hurt. Blackfire public relations manager Luis Antonio Flores Villatoro was mentioned in the government employee's complaint as one of the people responsible for the list. The government had cited Roblero Perez and Flores Villatoro to testify regarding the charges the day of Abarca's murder, but they failed to appear. Abarca was murdered later that evening.
On December 7, Chiapas state authorities finally acted. They temporarily closed Blackfire's mine in Chicomuselo. Blackfire itself reportedly closed the mine and removed its light machinery soon after Abarca's death. The Chiapas government only made the act official by hanging a "Closed" sign on the gates.
The government claims the closure has nothing to do with Abarca's murder. According to the government, "The reason for the closure of said company is due to the creation of new roads without the authorization related to environmental impact, suspended particle emissions, as well as runoff and wastewater and changing the use of soil in an important area."
Pollution is the principal reason that Abarca and REMA were protesting Blackfire's barite mine. When he was alive, Abarca told everyone who would listen about the pollution the mine caused in Chicomuselo. According to Castro Soto, even after the brutal August 2008 beating at the hands of alleged Blackfire employees, "He continued fighting. He decried the lack of water in the streams and the consequences of the explosions. He decried the pollution of the rivers; they're full of mud and the fish have all died. Livestock and other animals have died."
The Chiapas-based Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center is demanding that the government turn the temporary closure of Blackfire's mine into a permanent one. "This Human Rights Center celebrates that last Monday the barite mine located in Chicomuselo county and operated by Black Fire Exploration has been closed.... However, we consider it necessary that the cancelation not only be temporary; rather, it should be permanent now that the negative effects insistently denounced by residents have cost Mr. Mariano Abarca Roblero his life. He was assassinated allegedly for his active activism against the Canadian company's exploitation. It is also urgent that measures are taken so that this is not repeated, to guarantee that in the future these sorts of companies don't set up shop, in order to avoid damages to the environment as happened in the Chicomuselo region with Blackfire Exploration's mining exploitation."
It's a shame Abarca had to give his life so that Chiapas authorities would finally act and close the mine. Even more tragic is that the Canadian government, which heavily subsidizes its mining industry, has done absolutely nothing about Blackfire's human rights and environmental abuses. Canadian Governor-General Michaëlle Jean and Peter Kent, Canada's junior foreign minister for the Americas, visited Chiapas just two days after the state government closed Blackfire's mine. They were greeted by about fifty protesters who demanded that Blackfire's mine be closed and that the company pay for its crimes. REMA requested a meeting with the dignitaries, but Jean and Kent refused the invitation, citing time constraints.
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* Mexico: Protesters blame the death of activist Mariano Abarca on mining company Blackfire Exploration
- company denies involvement in killing http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/896947
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PERU: Violence Targets Anti-mining Activists
Written by Jennifer Moore
Monday, 07 December 2009
On Wednesday afternoon, Vicente Robledo Ramírez, aged 55 and father of eight children, and Castulo Correa Huayama, aged 36 and father of six, were shot dead in a confrontation with national police. Another six campesinos were wounded and two detained. The police report that they also sustained several wounded, but further details have not been released.
Over the weekend, a reported 2,000 campesinos turned out to mourn the death of the men in the remote rural province of Huancabamba where campesinos have been opposing a Chinese and UK owned mine for the last six years. The Rio Blanco project is principally owned by the Chinese Zijin Consortium together with the UK's Monterrico Metals.
Juan Amancio Romero, son of Vicente, asked authorities “to investigate what took place and to respect the decisions of the people who don't want the mine to continue in the area, nor a NGO [believed to be closely linked to the company] or police.”
The Front for the Sustainable Development of the Northern Border of Peru (FDSFNP by its initials in Spanish) also called for further investigation and reiterated “its will to dialogue” with the government.
The incident brings the death toll in the area to seven. On Nov. 1, two security guards and the mine site manager were killed in an armed attack by unidentified perpetrators at the Rio Blanco mining camp, now the subject of reserved investigations involving national police. Also, in 2004 and 2005, two campesinos were killed as result of repression against protests.
According to the People's Ombudsman (Defensoria del Pueblo), police report that the deaths last week took place after they detained a man in the area of the community of Cajas-Canchaque. The regional police chief Walter Rivera said that the detention was part of investigations into the November attack on the mine camp and that those implicated in this prior incident had been refusing to cooperate. President Servando Aponte of the campesino community challenged the police version saying that officers acted “arrogantly” and that when they entered the home of Lorenzo Rojas to detain him that his neighbours came out in his defense because there was no official warrant for his detention.
For the last six years, the Rio Blanco project, a proposed open-pit copper and molybdenum mine, has generated opposition from campesino communities on whose land it would be located given potential impacts on water supplies and agricultural activities taking place within the watershed. As a result, the company has never obtained the two-thirds approval from local assemblies that it is required to have by law in order to operate in the area. On Sept. 16, 2007, three rural districts in Huancabamba and Ayabaca participated a popular referendum and reaffirmed their opposition to the mine in which a majority voted against any mining activity in the area.
Earlier attempts at dialogue broke down because of government refusal to discuss the results of the 2007 referendum. Since then, around 300 local leaders have faced legal processes believed to be a means of political persecution for their role in the referendum. Most recently, tensions have risen following the Nov. 1 attack on the mining camp for which it is believed that those opposed to the mine are being principally targeted as part of investigations by national police.
Javier Jahncke of the Ecumenical Foundation for Development and Peace (Fedepaz), whose organization is part of a national network that promotes the sustainable use of natural resources and the rights of rural and indigenous communities, says they have concluded that police are leading investigations into the November incident “with a single hypothesis in which they assume that the campesinos were the authors of the crime.”
The day following the attack the FDSFNP, a coalition of local community leaders opposed to the mine, expressed its condolences for the deaths and urged that thorough investigations take place. According to the Peru Support Group, the UK company Monterrico Metals was also “quick to distance itself from any accusations blaming local community groups for this latest violence and indeed thanked local communities for the help they showed the mine camp's employees who escaped the attack.”
However, Jahncke is concerned that police have set aside other possible explanations for the attack to focus on the possible involvement of the mine's opponents. He suggests other theories, such that Rio Blanco's workers might have been killed as part of an attempted robbery or that there was a dispute among workers that led to reprisals, are being ignored. He notes that they have not been privy to evidence being considered as part of investigations since they have been reserved by police.
A congresswoman from the northwestern department of Piura has also received testimonies that police have detained and tortured people in local communities as part of efforts to gain confessions concerning the attack.
Jahncke further questions the timing of the recent violence given that a judge in the English High Court has only recently upheld an injunction to freeze the assets of Monterrico Metals saying that 29 men and women from Piura have a “good arguable case” against the company for allegations of abuses which took place at the Rio Blanco mine site in 2005.
“This lawsuit has seriously affected the image of the company Monterrico Metals,” says Jahncke, “and by extension, Zijin.” This raises questions in his mind about the recent violence and how it is being dealt with “because of who is being affected by this situation, and if it isn't the same campesinos that have been resorting to international channels to be able to be heard since such a process has not begun in their own country.”
Fears of Militarization
As a result, Jahncke sees last week's violence as part of a “clear effort at any cost” to make way for the mine. He fears that by creating the public perception of a rural population that is “unmanageable” and “violent” that the state will be able to “justify the militarization of this area.”
Only days after the November attack on the mining camp, Peruvian Prime Minister Velásquez Quesquén indicated that the government was evaluating the possibility of installing a military base in the area. The General Manager Jian Wu of the principal stakeholder in the Rio Blanco project, the Chinese Zijin Consortium, was present at the meeting.
However, says Jahncke, “These conflicts cannot be resolved with the military protecting the company operations. This will just put more fuel on the fire and generate more conflict... For this to go ahead would be the worst thing possible.”
Overall, he is concerned that the government continues to favour the company's presence “over the property rights of the communities.”
He concludes, “Until this situation is seen as the rights of some being preferred over the rights of others, in a situation that is not legal, and in which rights have been violated for a long time, the problem will not be solved and you will see decisions that will collide with community rights and the conflict will continue to grow, which is what we least want and what hopefully the state least wants to see happen as well.”
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2244/1/
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* Honduras: NGOs say investigations conducted at Goldcorp's San Martin mine show severe water contamination affecting communities
- Goldcorp response http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/967193
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COLOMBIA: Human Rights Cases: Stand Beside the victims of violence
Justice and Protection for Human Rights Victims
Extrajudicial Killings in Colombia
Witnesses indicate that on March 11, 2006 the U.S.-backed Colombian military shot and killed José Orlando Giraldo, a farmer, husband and father. The morning he was killed while the soldiers allegedly responsible remained at the scene of the crime, neighbors and family members rushed to his house, including his daughter, Martha Giraldo, and his brother, José Wilson Giraldo. Since then the Mr. Giraldo's family has tirelessly called for justice.
People from across the United States watched a short video about this case http://witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=625 and sent messages to Congress and letters of support to Martha and her family.
On May 5, the trial began against the only person held for this crime, then Colombian Army Sargent (and now retired) Luís Eduardo Mahecha Hernández, who was the head of intelligence for the Rodrigo Lloreda Caicedo High Mountain Battalion. The trial abruptly halted the next day and was postponed.
On April 28, just days before the trial was set start, reports indicate that two members of the Colombian Armed Forces went to the home of José Wilson Giraldo--the victim's brother and a witness in the trial. Neighbors report that the soldiers asked about the whereabouts of José Wilson Giraldo and looked around the house.
Martha Giraldo
Reports indicated that in broad daylight on Mother's Day, May 10, as José Wilson Giraldo was with his wife waiting for a bus to take them to his mother's house, a hitman came up behind him and shot him in the head. He is currently in stable condition in the hospital.
Please join the Giraldo family, the United Nations and Witness for Peace is condemning this attack and calling for justice in the cases of the Giraldo brothers and protection for the Giraldo family and the other witnesses in this case. Send a message to U.S. Ambassador to Colombia now.
Click here for more background information on this issue.
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5436/t/2467/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1551
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Solidarity with Liliany Obando and All Colombian Political Prisoners;
On this Human Rights Day, the International Network in Solidarity with the Colombian Political Prisoners (INSPP) calls attention to the violation of the human rights of Colombia's political opposition and its supporters. The Colombian government is waging a campaign to criminalize critical thinking-a campaign that paves the way for transnational access to Colombia's resources, underwritten with more than (US) $7 billion in the US funded Plan Colombia.
Of special concern is the case of Liliany Patricia Obando Villota, undergoing her trial process at this very moment. She was jailed the very week she released a report on the murders of more than 1,500 members of Fensuagro, Colombia's largest union of farmers and farm workers. Liliany is the first person to be arrested and stand trial as part of the farc-politica. This is a process attempting to connect members of the political and social opposition to the FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) based on evidence contained in computers allegedly belonging to Commandant Raúl Reyes. The Colombian military claims it recovered these computers after a bomb attack killed Reyes and more than 20 others. The computers were in the hands of the Colombian police for over a week before being turned over to the international police agency, INTERPOL. INTERPOL says that tens of thousands of the files contained therein showed signs of tampering by Colombian authorities. Police Captain Roy Hayden Coy Ortiz, who oversaw the initial investigation, testified in court that the computers contained no emails, only Word documents. Alleged emails are the foundation for the charges against Liliany.
Liliany's case is important for two main reasons. First, while an acquittal would be a final blow to the whole farc-politica, a conviction would revive it and open the way for broad repression of dissent. A conviction would also strengthen government efforts to destroy Fensuagro by providing a spurious link with the FARC.
Liliany and her family have been victims of a series of threatening emails and phone calls. Similar emails have been received by the INSPP. The internationalization of farc-politica intimidation has taken place at all levels. In a trip to Canada earlier this year, Pres. Uribe accused unionists and solidarity activists visited by Liliany of being cells of the FARC. In a violation of Colombian sovereignty and international law, Australian Federal Police officer David Nelson, accompanied by two Colombian officials, visited Liliany in prison, trying to get information about unionists she had contacted in Australia. She refused to cooperate. The International Network in Solidarity with the Colombian Political Prisoners wants to make clear that we will not be intimidated by these efforts to export the farc-politica.
As we prepare this report, Liliany is trying, for the 8th time, to get home detention during her trial. This is a right that is commonly given to persons in many circumstances, especially women, who like Liliany, are single mothers and sole providers for their children. (Liliany is the mother of a teenage son and a young daughter.) The right to home detention is frequently provided to those sentenced for all kinds of crimes, including convicted members of paramilitary death squads-yet Liliany has been denied this right seven times.
The International Network in Solidarity with the Colombian Political Prisoners calls on all its supporters to demand that the Colombian government implement a Humanitarian Exchange of prisoners as a first step in the political solution to the deep social and complex armed conflict in the country.
1. Demand that the Colombian Attorney's General Office grant Liliany Obando home detention to allow her to care for her children.
2. Demand that the Colombian government guarantee the safety of Liliany and her family.
3. Request that human rights organizations monitor the safety of Liliany and her family.
4. Demand that the Colombian government implement a Humanitarian Exchange of prisoners as a first step in the political solution to the deep social and complex armed conflict in the country.
Email and/or Call the Colombian Embassy in the US at:
embassyofcolombia@colombiaemb.org
Phone: (202)-387-8338
Send your messages and letters to:
The Attorney General's office.
Emails: contacto@fiscalia.gov.co & denuncias@fiscalia.gov.co
President Álvaro Uribe.
Email: auribe@presidencia.gov.co
(NOTE: It has been our experience that the email for Colombian Pres. Uribe often does not function. We are aware of this problem, but please try to email him anyway...sometimes it works....)
Interamerican Commission for Human Rights.
Email: cidhoea@oas.org
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Email: oacnudh@hchr.org.co
Copy your messages to:
sol.net.pp@gmail.com
This Alert was prepared by the Alliance for Global Justice.
We can be reached by phone at 202-544-9355 or 520-243-0381. You can also email james@afgj.org for more information.
Visit our website at: http://www.clrlabor.org/wordpress/
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Help to protect human rights Attorney Jorge Molano;
In the last several weeks human rights lawyer Jorge Eliecer Molano- Rodriguez has received worrisome visits to his apartment building by individuals who refused to give their names to the building watchman and his companion has been stalked by strange men. His cellular telephone was among those tapped by the DAS ( Administrative Department of Security) since 2004 as a part of its espionage activities against human rights workers, Supreme Court Magistrates, and opposition political leaders.
Molano’s legal work has involved him in some of Colombia’s most controversial cases, representing, among others, families of victims of the Palace of Justice murders; of the February 21, 2005 massacre of members of the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado; and of the Army’s “false positives” kidnapping and murder of civilian youths in San Jose de Guaviare, and in Bolivar and Cesar Departments. He has also provided legal consultations in proceedings against former cabinet minister Fernando Londono Hoyos, Conservative political leader German Vargas Lleras, and Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon.
These cases are fundamentally important to obtaining justice for victims of violence perpetrated by or acquiesced in by the Colombian State, and Jorge Molano’s contribution in these cases has been very important.
ACTION :
Please write to your representatives in the U.S. Congress See the Action Center at our site: http://www.colombiasupport.net/actioncenter.html
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and U. S. Ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield to express your concern and to urge them to communicate to Colombian officials the need to protect Mr. Molano.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton : secretary@state.gov
www.state.gov
United States Ambassador Mr. William Brownfield: AmbassadorB@state.gov
Human Rights Officer, U. S. Embassy Bogotá Carolyn Cooley, CooleyCN@state.gov
Also write to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez and Prosecuting Attorney (Fiscal General) to urge them to take measures to protect Jorge Molano, to investigate the threats against him, and to prosecute those responsible for these threats.
Presidencia de la República
Dr. Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Presidente de la República
Cra 8 # 7-26, Palacio de Nariño, Bogotá D.C.
E-mail: auribe@presidencia.gov.co
Fax: 57 1 566 2071
Or check his website www.presidencia.gov.co
Fiscalia General de la Nacion
Oficina de Asuntos Internacionales de la Fiscalia:
franciscoj.echeverri@fiscalia.gov.co
( Office of the High Court for International Affairs)
Or to the following emails:
denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co
denuncias@fiscalia.gov.co
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Give the gift of Solidarity this Holiday Season.
The community of Las Pavas nonviolent struggle to return to their land continues. Thus far, we have not seen any serious action on behalf of the cosmetic company The Body Shop. They have failed to sufficiently pressure their palm oil supplier the Daabon Company to relent and return the las Pavas farm to the 123 families. As of today, the situation of the 123 displaced families is growing more difficult by the day. Therefore, we are calling on individuals, churches, groups, and civil society to give the gift of solidarity this holiday season to the families of Las Pavas by protesting in front of The Body Shop.
The continued official response that Christian peacemaker Teams (CPT) has received from the Body Shop is that The Body Shop and/or Daabon are financing an investigative commission to Las Pavas. CPT Colombia believes that any commission that is paid for by Daabon and/or The Body cannot be independent and will only continue to serve the interest of the multi-national corporations. Therefore, CPT will not participate in the commission. The commission is not an adequate answer to the violations done to the community. Instead, we will continue to insist that justice can only come when the land is given back to the families. The only way that The Body Shop can live up to their values of “Community trade, Human rights, and Protection for the planet” is by telling Daabon Company to return the land and pay compensation for the damages the community suffered because of the forced displacement.”
Everywhere in Colombia palm plantations are associated with violence and environmental destruction. The mono-cropping of palm in Colombia is a policy being pushed by the global north and in Colombia this policy has been implemented by forced displacement and assassinations by paramilitaries. Though, there has been no paramilitary assassinations since the displacement, there has been presence of paramilitary on the farm. Christian Peacemaker Teams have also witnessed the extreme environmental damage and human costs that palm plantation bring. There are rivers, lakes, and channels being dried up and destroyed, while others are being polluted by runoff chemicals that kill thousands of fish. For those working on the palm plantation, the conditions amount to modern day slavery. They do not have the right to unionize nor make a living wage. CPT questions the idea that sustainable palm oil production in Colombia is even a possibility.
CPT Colombia officially announces that actions be taken against The Body Shop. During this holiday season give the gift of solidarity to the 123 families of Las Pavas by speaking truth to power. Starting December 20th, we are asking people to protest outside The Body Shop demanding justice for the community of Las Pavas in southern Bolivar, Colombia. We are asking the Body Shop to live up to their expressed values of “Community Trade, Human Rights, and Protection for the planet” by publicly announcing to Daabon that they must give the land back to the Las Pavas families and pay compensation for the damages they suffered because of the forced displacement or The Body shop will seek other suppliers!
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Interesting article in Spanish about how Warstatistics in Colombia don't add up
http://www.codhes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=384
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HONDURAS: A long road ahead for the Resistance to the Coup
State Department for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Assistant Secretary Arturo Valenzuela: 202-647-4000. More direct line: 202-647-9572
White House: President Barack Obama and Dan Restrepo (Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs): 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414.
Honduran Embassy: Chief of mission: Ambassador Roberto FLORES Bermúdez
Embassy: 3007 Tilden Street NW, Washington, DC 20008
Telephone: [1] (202) 966-7702, 2604, 5008, 4596
FAX: [1] (202) 966-9751
15/12/2009
Walter Tróchez killed -- a member of the resistance and human rights defender
On the night of Sunday 13 December 2009, Walter Trochez, resistance member and active member of the gay community, was shot in downtown Tegucigalpa.
Two weeks ago, Walter, who worked at the CIPRODEH (Human Rights) was captured in the main street of Comayagüela while he did his work monitoring the Trans working in the area. As he was captured in front of witnesses the police snapped "it’s true you're one that is in the Resistance, guerrilla garbage!"
Walter defended himself from police blows as best he could, he managed to grab the ski mask off one of the officers and escaped from the patrol. He managed to hide in a vacant lot while he shed blood. In the morning he went to visit a friend who accompanied him to the Attorney General to file a complaint. In the Ministry office they made fun of him for his homosexuality. They took notes and did nothing.
Last night, Walter was shot. He was 25.
The following is a note dated August 11 at http://www.defensoresenlinea.com/cms/ when his nightmare began:
"Unknown men who come to intimidate his neighbors to tell where he is, have caused Walter Tróchez much fear that at any time they may take his life.
Tróchez is an activist and human rights advocate in the gay community and for people living with HIV / AIDS.
"I am being subjected to threats, harassment and persecution, strangers are coming to my house for the last 22 days, morning, afternoon, men come to ask about me, where I've been, what I do and intimidating the where people live, "said Tróchez.
According to the complainant who spoke to defensoresenlinea.com, insecurity he feels currently is because the number of complaints his organization has brought about different violations carried out by oppressive groups like the police and army.
“My fear is they may also harm people where I live, four men who arrived last week pressured people I live with to open the doors of our house. In that way they’ve been able to observe the inside in order to carry out a crime later.”
In July, while participating in a demonstration condemning the coup and calling for the return of constitutional order, Walter went to the old building of the National Electric Power Company to urinate. There six soldiers of the Special Tactical Team captured him, took him at gunpoint before handing it over to police custody, where an officer grabbed and kicked him.
The human rights activist asked why he beat him and in response the police told him "shut up you fag. You do not have rights because we are tired of you, we are fed up" and ordered another officer to put him in a cell. "I said I was entitled to at least a call and in an aggressive tone he said what call, and proceeded to snatch a bag that I was carrying and broke it.”
I got in a patrol car and this officer attacked me again and made fun of me with foul language and threatened to shoot me, remembered Tróchez , who always participated in the resistance marches against the coup.
Others were arrested with him, and one named Henry Fúnez protested to the policeman who was abusing Tróchez. In response he received a blow on the forehead.
Instead of stopping there, the police officer took a stick and hit Henry all over his body while he threatened to take him and kill him at La Montanita.
“We were taken along with other detainees at the Metropolitan no. 1 and the officer beat me as I got out of patrol car M-06. He ordered the officer on duty to release two companions and 2 others with me were to stay as prisoners. The police tied us to a pole in the courtyard under a hot sun because since we thought we were so important and big defenders of human rights, we had no rights,” he continued the story.
This detention was not recorded anywhere since the police headquarters where they were taken and held for several hours did not register their name in the book of detainees. Fortunately, the two who were freed stayed outside and told other students through cell phones and they came to the police station.
I left there through the intervention of several organizations including the Center for Prevention and Rehabilitation Against Torture, CPTRT.
Since that date is when these unknown people have come looking for me, so I decided to take security measures to protect my life, "My fear is that something will happen to me and my neighbors. I leave my home with the suspense of not knowing what will happen to people who stay there.”
Several members of the Gay and Lesbian community have been killed in different circumstances. Two women were shot to death in Comayaguela while in a discussion with policemen who shot and killed them.
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Read all the way to the end, the story is more complicated than it appears
On 12/9/09, Death squads murder members of the resistance in Tegucigalpa
El Libertador
The Death Squads are Back
Yesterday, Sunday night, a vehicle without plates took the lives of 5 people, all identified as members of the popular resistance against the dictatorship that was installed in the country 5 months ago. The event occurred in sector 6 of the Villanueva neighbourhood of Tegucigalpa, where the occupants of a white vehicle without license plates, opened fire without saying a Word, on the five now dead men who were near a traffic circle by the ring road.
According to one of the residents of the area, who for obvious reasons of security declined to give his name, "the boys (the victims) were active members of the Resistance. They had organized the committees in the Honduras and Víctor F Ardón neighbourhoods so that the neighbours could get involved in the Resistance Front."
The names of the deceased are: Isaac Coello, (24); Roger Reyes (22), Kenneth Rosa (23), Gabriel Parrales and Marco Vinicio Matute (39), while one woman, Wendy Reyes, was wounded and is receiving treatment at the medical school hospital.
Area residents said that in the hours prior to the bloody event, there was an agent of the National Criminal Investigation Directorate (DNIC) watching the area where the crime took place and who mysteriously left shortly before the killings.
José Luna, a sub-inspector of the Preventative Policía responded to questions about the killings by saying “Whenever there are murders, there are people who say the victims were good people." He added that the police are tracking those responsible for the massacre. So far, however, they have not been able to locate the vehicle described in the incident.
During the last few weeks, double cabin pick-ups with no plates have taken on the task of intimidating members of the Popular Resistance Against the Coup d'etat. Reporters of this publication have also complained of being followed and observed by vehicles with similar characteristics, and human rights organizations are also been aware of such anomalies.
Link Video coverage form Canal Cholusat Sur (36) of the Dec. 6 massacre of resistance members: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNNbzYQdhsA&feature=player_embedded
Fecha: 08/12/2009 Fuente: Vos EL soberano
It may actually worse than that.
According to family and friends, the men in question were not resistance members. I went to the wakes of three of the men in question yesterday and everyone told us that they were not political at all, in any way shape or form.
It's possible the families and friends all decided it best to not declare their activities, but in my short experience, usually families and friends of politically active assassination victims are the first to declare it was a political act, for various reasons, not the least of which being respect for their martyrdom. That being said, the father of one of the victims told us that he blames the coup government, so it's not as if he was censoring the truth for his own safety. He says this is a plan to terrify Hondurans into isolation from each other. And that any member of any marginalized community (this took place in a very poor one) is a potential target as they seek to strike fear into the society.
The coverage in the media backs this up. One paper ran a piece saying that this meant that the gangs are now dressing up in police uniforms to do their violence. An opinion that was quickly taken on by many people I talked to around the city that day.
But perhaps the most worrying signal that the father was right about the intentions here, came in the official statement from the National Police. They said that the lesson of the murders is that young people should not hang out together in groups anymore. This was carried as the sub-headline in a number of papers.
So, although it is possible that they were indeed resistance members, it appears more likely that they were not and that we're seeing something even more hideous than the repression of the resistance.
Jesse.
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ELECTIONS IN BOLIVIA AND URUGUAY
The Speed of Change: Bolivian President Morales Empowered by Re-Election
Written by Benjamin Dangl
Monday, 07 December 2009
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2243/1/
Bolivian President Evo Morales was re-elected on Sunday, December 6th in a landslide victory. After the polls closed, fireworks, music and celebrations filled the Plaza Murillo in downtown La Paz where Morales supporters chanted "Evo Again! Evo Again!" Addressing the crowd from the presidential palace balcony, Morales said, "The people, with their participation, showed once again that it’s possible to change Bolivia… We have the responsibility to deepen and accelerate this process of change."
Though the official results are not yet known, exit polls show that Morales won roughly 63% of the vote, with his closest rival, former conservative governor Manfred Reyes Villa, winning around 23% of the vote.
The Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), Morales’ political party, also won over two thirds of the seats in the lower house and the senate, meaning the MAS administration will have an easier time passing laws without right wing opposition.
Many of Bolivia’s indigenous and impoverished majority identify with Morales, an indigenous man who grew up poor and was a grassroots leader before his election as president in 2005. Many also voted for Morales because of new government programs aimed at empowering the country’s marginalized people.
"Brother Evo Morales is working for the poorest people, for the people that are fighting for their survival," El Alto street vendor Julio Fernandez told Bloomberg reporter Jonathan Levin on election day.
"He's changing things. He's helping the poor and building highways and schools," Veronica Canizaya, a 49-year old housewife, told Reuters before voting near Lake Titicaca.
During his first four years in office Morales partially nationalized Bolivia’s vast gas reserves, ushered in a new constitution written in a constituent assembly, granted more rights to indigenous people and exerted more state-control over natural resources and the economy. Much of the wealth generated from new state-run industries has been directed to various social and development programs to benefit impoverished sectors of society.
For example, Inez Mamani receives a government stipend to help her care for her newborn baby. The funding is thanks to the state-run gas company. Mamani, who also has five other children, spoke with Annie Murphy of National Public Radio about the program. "With my other children, there wasn't a program like this. It was sad the way we raised them. Now they have milk, clothing, diapers, and it's great that the government helps us. Before, natural resources were privately owned and there wasn't this sort of support."
In addition to the support for mothers, the government also gives stipends to young students and the elderly; the stipends reached some 2 million people in 2009. "I'm a teacher and I see that the kids go to school with hope, because they get breakfast there and the subsidies ... I ask them how they spend the hand-outs and some of them say they buy shoes. Some didn't have shoes before," Irene Paz told Reuters after voting in El Alto.
Thanks to such far-reaching government programs and socialistic policies, Bolivia’s economic growth has been higher during the four years under Morales than at any other period during the last three decades, according to the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research.
"None of this would have been possible without the government's regaining control of the country's natural resources," said CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot. "Bolivia's fiscal stimulus over the past year was vastly larger than ours in the United States, relative to their economy."
During Morales’ new term in office, with over two thirds control in both houses of congress, the MAS government should be able to further apply the changes established in the new constitution, a document passed in a national vote this past January. The MAS base is eager for land reform, broader access to public services, development projects and more say in how their government is run. The mandate and demands for massive changes are now greater than ever.
As Bolivian political analyst Franklin Pareja told IPS News, "In the past four years, the change was an illusion, and now it should be real."
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Benjamin Dangl is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press) and the forthcoming book Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America (AK Press). He is the editor of TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events and UpsideDownWorld.org, a website on activism and politics in Latin America. Email: Bendangl(at)gmail.com
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The Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, DC reports that Bolivia's economic growth over the last four years has been higher than at any time in the last 30 years - with projected growth for 2009 the highest in the Western Hemisphere - due to a series of government initiatives in recent years that have helped Bolivia to cope with the impact of the world recession.
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/press-releases/press-releases/bolivias-economic-performance-over-last-four-years/
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MEXICO: Updates on Chiapas and Privatization Plans for Federal Commission of Electricity
NOVEMBER 2009 CHIAPAS/ZAPATISTA NEWS SUMMARY
1. The EZLN's Silence on 26th Anniversary - November 17 was the 26th Anniversary of the founding of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Traditionally, this day is celebrated with festivities in all 5 Zapatista Caracoles and the EZLN's CCRI-CG (Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General Command) issues a communiqué. This year, the CCRI-CG issued no statement and there were no celebrations in the Caracoles. Hmmm! We're wondering what the Zapatistas are up to.
2. Supreme Court Releases 9 More Prisoners in Acteal Case - On November 4, Mexico's Supreme Court ordered the release of nine more prisoners convicted for participating in the 1997 Acteal Massacre of 21 women, 15 children and 9 men as they prayed for peace in a chapel located in the community of Acteal, Chiapas. The Court ruled that their convictions were based on illegally obtained evidence. New trials were ordered for 16 others.This ruling was made over the objections of the surviving victims and family members of those murdered and after the United States released intelligence reports establishing that the government trained paramilitaries in that region. In August, the Court released 20 prisoners convicted for the massacre and ordered new trials for six. Many analysts believe the Court's decision was purely political and that it implemented a campaign promise made by now President Calderon. The governor of Chiapas, faced with the problem of what to do with these former paramilitaries, has apparently obtained an agreement that they will not return to their communities in Chenalho Municipality in exchange for the government providing them with housing and other benefits.
3. Chiapas Repression Includes OPEZ-Historic -The Emiliano Zapata Proletarian Organization (OPEZ-Historic) denounced military harassment of its communities in La Trinitaria, Las Margaritas, Socoltenango, Venustiano Carranza, Nicolas Ruiz and Comitán. The organization says that soldiers enter communities when the women are alone with the children, break into houses and frighten everyone. It also reports that the Army has set up camps in or near some of its communities and that there are military checkpoints throughout this area. OPEZ-Historic is one of the several current factions of the OPEZ. It is the faction known for cooperating with the Chiapas state government.
4. What's Behind the Current Repression in Chiapas? - La Jornada obtained a document compiled by the Chiapas Attorney General's Office which concludes that
an armed movement is being forged for next year (2010). The document is titled The Prevailing Situation in Venustiano Carranza Municipality," and supposedly documents the existence of a subversive network whose axis would be Jesús Landín, a Catholic priest in Venustiano Carranza parish. It also concludes that imprisoned OCEZ-RC leader, Jose Manuel Hernandez Martinez (Chema), is the leader of the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) in Chiapas. It implicates Diego Cadenas of Frayba and the National Front of Struggle for Socialism (FNLS) in the subversive network. This document, which seems to mix apples with oranges in order to arrive at itsconclusions, is thought to be the origin of the rumors and leaks from the state government to the media. It also serves to justify the repression in Venustiano Carranza and neighboring municipalities. Apparently, the document also anticipatted an outbreak of violence on the 99th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution (November 20) this year, which did not occur.
5. OCEZ Leader, El Chema, Free on Bail - José Manuel Hernandez Martinez and two other OCEZ leaders were released from prison on November 23, free on bail only a couple of days after Chiapas Governor Juan Sabines Guerrero met with Felipe Arizmendi, Catholic bishop of the diocese of San Cristobal. Next, there were a series of what appear to be announcements paid for by the state government in La Jornada about Sabines' great desire to calm the tension in Chiapas. The 3 OCEZ leaders were then released and the government offered a negotiations to reach "detente" with the OCEZ. The OCEZ met with the state government on November 27. This did not result in the end of the sit-in (encampment) in front of the cathedral. OCEZ is demanding that criminal charges against the 3 leaders be dropped and the 11 warrants for the arrest of other OCEZ members be cancelled. It appears that OCEZ is also demanding a building to use as a shelter for its "internally displaced" members. The commitments reached in the November 27 meeting did, however, result in OCEZ vacating the UN offices in San Cristobal on November 30.
6. 1400 U.S. Agents Active in Mexico - La Jornada reported that there are now approximately 1400 U.S. agents gathering intelligence on Mexican soil. Half of them are Mexican citizens and previously worked for Mexican police or intelligence agencies. The agents work for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). The ICE and ATF agents are concentrated mostly along the border, but DEA agents spread out all over Mexico, including Chiapas.
7. Mining Opposition Leader, Mariano Abarca, Murdered - Mariano Abarca was murdered outside his home in Chicomuselo, Chiapas, on November 27 by an unidentified gunman on a motorcycle. Abarca had been a leader in the opposition to mining in the Sierra Region of Chiapas. The Black Fire mining company is suspected of possibly having some responsibility for the crime.
8. Disinformation About Zapatistas by Chiapas Government - La Jornada carried a news note claiming that the 5 Zapatista Juntas had asked the state government for legal recognition of their autonomous municipalities and a share of the state budget. The source for the story was a PAN elected official. All 5 Juntas denied the story, each with an interesting choice of words.
In Other Parts of Mexico...
1. Electrical Workers Union (SME) and Allies Stage National Strike - The SME called for a national strike on November 11 and received lots of support across the country. They filled Mexico City's Zocalo with approximately 200,000 people and had large marches in other cities around the country too. On November 29, as President Calderon was giving a speech at the National Palace, electrical workers, organized a demonstration in front of the National Palace which was tear gassed by the Federal Police. In response the electrical workers threw eggs at the police. The local police, controlled by Mexico City's Mayor, put themselves in between the Federal Police and demonstrators, effectively preventing the Federal Police from further action. Currently, 4 women are on a hunger strike demanding reinstatement of Central Light & Power. (See last month's news summary.) Peasant organizations and electrical workers will commemorate the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution on December 4 by carrying out a symbolic takeover of Mexico City.
2. U.S. and Colombian Law Enforcement Personnel Train Mexico's Federal Police in San Luis Potosi - Funds from the Merida Initiative (Plan Mexico), distrubuted by the U.S. State Department, are financing training of Mexico's new Federal Police agency at a secure police academy in San Luis Potosí. The training program is run by a private logistics company, Kaseman LLC, in Virginia. FBI agents, ICE officers, U.S. marshals, DEA agents and detectives from city police departments give the training, as well as police from Colombia and other countries. According to the Arizona Republic, which visited the site, the Colombians are graduates of similar U.S. training efforts in Colombia, where Plan Colombia funds helped counter leftist rebels and drug traffickers.
3. ERPI Commander Murdered - Comandante Ramiro of the Insurgent People's Revolutionary Army (ERPI, its initials in Spanish) was shot dead in Palos Grandes, Ajuchitlan del Progreso Municipality, Guerrero, on November 4 with an AK-47. The ERPI alleges that a hired gunman did the job for the government. The ERPI issued a communique alleging that the gunman was tied to the biggest cacique (political and economic boss) in Guerrero and also to the police and military. The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Guerrero (APPG) claimed Ramiro's body and buried him.
Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas
P.O. Box 3421, Oakland, CA 94609
Tel: (510) 654-9587
Email: cezmat@igc.org
http://www.chiapas-support.org
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