Tag: The Andes

BOLIVIA: REGIONAL STRIKE OVER OIL DEAL

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

On Aug. 4, residents of the southern Bolivian city of Camiri, in Santa Cruz department, lifted their general strike after Hydrocarbons Minister Jaime Dunn signed an agreement promising to speed up the re-establishment of the state oil company, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales de Bolivia (YPFB). The agreement, reached after eight hours of negotiations, lays out a timetable under which the process will culminate in three weeks. The government also committed to install gas service in 3,800 homes in Camiri by 2006, and to locate the exploration and drilling management headquarters of the newly founded YPFB in Camiri. The re-establishment of the state firm was mandated by a hydrocarbons law enacted by Congress on May 17, but its implementation has been delayed.

Camiri residents had been blocking the main highway linking the city of Santa Cruz to the Argentine border since Aug. 1, and had begun a general civic strike on Aug. 3. The protests had threatened to spread throughout Bolivia’s Chaco region, center of the country’s oil and gas production.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Municipal Associations (FAME) and the Executive Committee of Bolivian Universities (CEUB) are planning a national protest if the government doesn’t agree to assign 20% of a new gas and oil tax to municipalities and 5% to higher education. In a joint communique, the municipalities and universities gave the government until Aug. 15 to include them in the distribution of the Direct Tax on Hydrocarbons (IDH), imposed by the new hydrocarbons law. Finance Minister Waldo Gutierrez said the demands cannot be met; in the case of the municipalities, he said that if they receive 20% of the tax, they will have to take over paying for health and education services. (Prensa Latina, Aug. 4; AP, Aug. 3, 4)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, Aug. 7

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ECUADOR: STRIKE HALTS AMAZON OIL PRODUCTION

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

On Aug. 15, residents of the Amazon provinces of Sucumbios and Orellana in northern Ecuador began an open-ended civic strike–backed by local elected officials–to demand higher wages, more jobs and the construction of roads, schools and health clinics in the region, as well as the cancellation of contracts with two transnational oil companies, the US-based Occidental (OXY) and Canada’s EnCana. The Ecuadoran prosecutor’s office has legally challenged OXY–the largest private oil producer in Ecuador–for breach of contract, saying it bought some of EnCana’s operating rights without the required approval from authorities. The strikers are demanding that OXY abandon Ecuador altogether. Some protest leaders are apparently demanding that the government renegotiate all contracts with foreign oil companies to demand a 50% share of the profits they make in Ecuador; others are demanding the full nationalization of Ecuador’s oil. (Adital, Aug. 18; Financial Times, Aug. 19; AFP, Aug. 20)

EnCana, Ecuador’s second biggest private producer, is desperate to leave the country, Britain’s Financial Times reports. No new foreign investors have signed exploration or production contracts in Ecuador since 1996. (FT, Aug. 19)

On the first day of the strike, protesters from the city of Nueva Loja (better known as Lago Agrio, capital of Sucumbios province) occupied “control station 1” of state oil company Petroecuador’s Trans-Ecuadoran Pipeline System (SOTE), leading the company to shut down pumping operations. (El Nuevo Herald, Miami, Aug. 17) EnCana followed by shutting down its output in Orellana on Aug. 17. Energy Minister Ivan Rodriguez claimed protesters had sabotaged EnCana’s pipeline, causing 1,000 barrels of crude to seep into a river. (FT, Aug. 19) In a statement, the Ecuadoran grassroots environmental group Ecological Action said the accusation was a lie, and that reporters who went to the site of the alleged pipeline leak had found no such spill. (Accion Ecologica, Aug. 19)

On Aug. 17, the government of President Alfredo Palacio decreed a state of emergency in Orellana and Sucumbios, allowing constitutional rights to be suspended in the two provinces. The Ecumenical Human Rights Commission (CEDHU) said Palacio had no legal basis to institute the state of emergency. (Adital, Aug. 18; CEDHU, Aug. 19) Indignant over Palacio’s response to the strike, thousands protested in the streets of Nueva Loja and elsewhere in the region on Aug. 17. Police and army forces cracked down on the crowds with tear gas bombs, water cannons and mass arrests. The repression left numerous people injured and many dozens arrested. Soldiers also detained between 40 and 50 people who were trying to seize a Petroecuador station. In Orellana, six people were wounded by bullets and three by tear gas bombs, according to CEDHU. (Adital, Aug. 18; CEDHU, Aug. 21)

Protesters did successfully seize several Petroecuador installations, leading the company to suspend all production on Aug. 18. Palacio announced on Aug. 18 that Petroecuador had suspended all crude oil exports because of the protests. Later that evening, the armed forces claimed they had secured the two provinces. (FT, Aug. 19; AFP, Aug. 20) Protesters also blockaded the region’s major roads and occupied the two main airports in El Coca (also known as Puerto Francisco de Orellana, the capital of Orellana province) and Nueva Loja. Soldiers finally retook control of the airports on Aug. 19 and reopened them. (AFP, Aug. 20; El Diario-La Prensa, NY, Aug. 20)

New economy minister Magdalena Barreiro said on Aug. 19 that Ecuador would need Venezuela’s help to meet oil export targets. Ecuador is South America’s fifth largest producer of crude and second biggest exporter to the US. Oil exports finance about 35% of Ecuador’s budget. (FT, Aug. 19; AFP, Aug. 20)

On Aug. 19, soldiers raided the home of Nueva Loja mayor Maximo Abad Jaramillo, who was supporting the strike, and arrested him. Later in the day, government forces burst into a meeting and arrested Sucumbios governor Guillermo Munoz and about 20 other local officials and leaders of social organizations who had gathered there to discuss a government dialogue offer. (Agencia Altercom, Quito, Aug. 19) As of Aug. 19, at least 60 people had been injured in the government repression, according to Munoz. (AFP, Aug. 20) Twenty people were detained in Orellana on Aug. 19, but they were later released. Four more people were arrested on Aug. 20. (CEDHU, Aug. 21)

On Aug. 19, members of various Sucumbios women’s organizations marched in Nueva Loja dressed in white and with their mouths taped shut to support the strike and protest the repression. (Altercom, Aug. 19) The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the indigenous Pachakutik Movement political party both issued statements expressing support for the strike’s demands, and condemning the repression. (CONAIE, Aug. 18; Radio Nizkor, Aug. 20; ED-LP, Aug. 20)

After visiting detainees at police headquarters in Nueva Loja on Aug. 19, the Lago Agrio Human Rights Commission reported that a number of people detained there since Aug. 17 were tortured by soldiers. “They are being beaten and every half hour they [the soldiers] throw a tear gas bomb into the cell,” the group reported. Among the detainees were eight boys ages 12-17. (CEDHU, Aug. 21)

On Aug. 19, Defense Minister Gen. Solon Espinosa either resigned or was forced out–apparently because he opposed repressing the strikers. (ED-LP, Aug. 20 from AFP) The Permanent Human Rights Assembly (APDH) of Ecuador blasted Palacio’s choice of retired general Oswaldo Jarrin to replace Espinosa, saying Jarrin heads a rightwing pro-US tendency among high-level retired officers and supports a heavy-handed response to social conflicts. (APDH, Aug. 19)

On Aug. 21, Nueva Loja mayor Abad–still under arrest–told the Spanish news service EFE the strike had been “suspended” to allow a dialogue with the government. He clarified that the suspension didn’t mean an end to the strike, but rather a temporary truce while a dialogue proceeds. Guadalupe Llori, president of the strike committee in Orellana province, told EFE that the strike had not been suspended and would continue in force until Abad and Munoz had been freed. (Resumen Latinoamericano, Aug. 21)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, Aug. 21

ECONOMY MINISTER QUITS

After serving for five months as Ecuador’s economy minister, Rafael Correa resigned from his post on Aug. 4, saying he was being forced out by “strong pressures” seeking to “block any relationship with a brother country like Venezuela.” (El Nuevo Herald, Miami, Aug. 6 from AP) Since July, Correa had been leading negotiations with the leftist Venezuelan government over plans for Venezuela to buy some $200 million in Ecuadoran debt bonds; on July 18 Correa called the plan “great business for Venezuela and great business for Ecuador.” Also being negotiated is a plan for Venezuela to refine Ecuadoran crude oil. (AP, Aug. 18, 20)

President Alfredo Palacio’s acceptance of Correa’s resignation prompted hundreds of students, workers, indigenous people and others to protest in Quito on Aug. 4, and again on Aug. 5. Palacio, the former vice president, became president on April 20 when popular protests forced out previous president Lucio Gutierrez Borbua. Humberto Cholango, leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), warned that if Palacio fails to maintain Correa’s progressive economic policies, “there will be an immediate national mobilization.” If Palacio “dares to sign the Free Trade Treaty (TLC) with the US” or otherwise “betrays the trust of the people,” said Cholango, there will be a new “popular insurrection.” (Noticieros Televisa, Aug. 5 with info from EFE, Notimex)

On Aug. 5, Palacio rushed to deny that Correa’s resignation was prompted by pressures or that it would bring changes in economic or foreign policy. Regardless of who replaces Correa, said Palacio, “the Ecuadoran government’s policy will be exactly the same; it has to be a policy of sovereignty, dignity, social orientation.” Palacio specifically confirmed that the negotiations with Caracas “will continue and will not be stopped.” Palacio emphasized that he would not order any repression against protesters, and said he was prepared to resign if the people demand it. (ENH, Aug. 6 from AP; Prensa Latina, Aug. 5; Hoy, Quito, Aug. 6)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, Aug. 7

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Continue ReadingECUADOR: STRIKE HALTS AMAZON OIL PRODUCTION 
The Andes

Pat Robertson: liar

“Robertson Apologizes for Chavez Remark” reads the Fox News headline Aug. 24. Actually, what he did was lie about what he said. From Blog for America, Aug. 25: Pat Robertson announced yesterday that his comments on last weekend’s “700 Club”… Read morePat Robertson: liar

The Andes

Pat Robertson: whack Chavez

Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson has given Hugo Chavez ample reason for his paranoia, calling for the US to assassinate the Venezuelan president, calling him “a terrific danger” bent on exporting Communism and Islamic extremism across the Americas. “If he thinks… Read morePat Robertson: whack Chavez

VENEZUELA: U.S. PLANS PROPAGANDA WAR, CAMPESINOS MARCH

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

Two stories from Venezuela this month exemplify the pressures faced by President Hugo Chavez: on one hand, an increased push from Washington and the bourgeois opposition to capitulate in his populist programs or face destabilization; on the other, a powerful campesino movement demanding an extension and faster pace of populist reforms, especially land redistribution. Reports of local military commanders taking a hard line with campesino protesters point to continuing divisions within Venezuela’s armed forces.—WW4 REPORT


U.S. TO LAUNCH PROPAGANDA BLITZ?

On July 20 the US House of Representatives approved appropriations of $9 million in 2006 and $9 million in 2007 for groups opposing the government of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, according to information minister Andres Izarra, who complained that the beneficiaries of the aid are promoting abstention in the country’s Aug. 7 municipal council elections and encouraging civil disobedience. The same day, the House passed an amendment authorizing the broadcasting of radio and television signals into Venezuela to provide “precise, objective and complete” information to Venezuelans and counter “the anti-Americanism” of a new regional television network, Televisora del Sur (Telesur). “Chavez is an enemy of freedom and of those who support it and promote it,” said Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL), who introduced the amendment.

Chavez responded on July 21 by warning that his government will block any US attempts to interfere with the Telesur broadcasts, which were set to begin on July 24. Chavez noted that if the Cuban government had been able to successfully neutralize the signal of the rightwing Radio Marti broadcasts since the 1980s, “here too we will neutralize any signal.” Chavez warned that the US government “will regret [this] because the response would be more powerful than the action, and will generate more conscience in Latin America.”

The Venezuelan embassy in Washington also issued a communique rejecting Mack’s amendment. The communique notes that Venezuela has private and public television stations, and suggested that it would be cheaper for US taxpayers if Mack were to try to convince private Venezuelan media to carry the US government’s Voice of America broadcasts, since none currently do.

Telesur is controlled 51% by the Venezuelan government, 20% by Argentina, 19% by Cuba and 10% by Uruguay. The station is set to broadcast four hours a day during a two-month trial period, with plans to expand in September. Headquartered in Caracas and with offices in Buenos Aires, Brasilia, Montevideo, La Paz, Bogota, Havana, Mexico City and Washington, Telesur hopes to offer an alternative to CNN and European networks. (La Jornada, Mexico, July 21, 22)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 24


CAMPESINOS TAKE CARACAS

On July 11, as many as 5,000 Venezuelan campesinos (2,000 according to Agence France Presse) marched in Caracas to protest the violent deaths of some 130 campesinos around the country and to demand that the government take steps to halt the killings and abuses against campesinos and to speed up the process of agrarian reform. The protest, dubbed “Zamora Takes Caracas,” was organized by the Ezequiel Zamora National Campesino Front (FNCEZ) and backed by the Ezequiel Zamora National Agrarian Coordinating Committee (CANEZ), numerous agricultural cooperatives and the Jirahara and Prudencio Vasquez movements, among others. (Ezequiel Zamora was a populist military leader who led battles for campesino rights in Venezuela in the mid-1800s.)

The campesinos marched from the capital’s Fort Tiuna to the Attorney General’s Office, where they handed in a document detailing their demands, then to the National Assembly, where they submitted a proposal for an “agrarian constituent assembly” to strengthen the rights of the campesino movement and step up the process of agrarian reform. An estimated 75% of Venezuela’s land is in the hands of 5% of the population and remains mostly unused, while the country imports 70% to 80% of its food.

Agriculture and Lands Minister Antonio Albarran, who also serves as acting president of the National Land Institute (INTI), announced that a high-level commission will be set up to study the demands of the campesino movements and address specific complaints on a case-by-case basis. FNCEZ leader Braulio Alvarez, a deputy of the legislative council of Yaracuy state and member of the INTI board, said the new commission would work to get the courts to begin legal proceedings against 30 people believed to have ordered the murders of campesinos. Alvarez himself survived an attack on his life on June 23. (Radio Nacional de Venezuela, July 12; Minga Informativa de Movimientos Sociales, July 13; Centro Nacional de Tecnologias de la Informacion (CNTI), July 11; Resumen Latinoamericano, July 12; Report by Adriana Rivas posted July 14 on Colombia Indymedia)

On May 14, nearly 4,000 campesinos organized by the FNCEZ marched through the streets of Guasdualito, Apure state, in western Venezuela near the Colombian border. They were protesting, among other issues, the abuses committed by Gen. Oswaldo Bracho, commander of the Theater of Operations #1, which covers the states of Barinas, Tachira and Apure. The FNCEZ says campesinos in the zone have suffered an increase in human rights accuses since Bracho took over the command last November. In one incident, Bracho led 40 soldiers in a raid on the community of Canadon-Bella Vista, in the south of Barinas state, and seized five members of a campesino cooperative whom he accuses of providing shelter to leftist rebels. The five campesinos remain jailed in Santa Ana, Tachira state, even though there is no proof to back up the accusations against them, and local leaders point out that campesinos often have no choice but to provide shelter to armed groups. The FNCEZ said Bracho also tried to block campesinos from reaching the May 14 demonstration, holding them up on the highways for as long as five hours. (Endavant, July 13) In the July 11 mobilization in Caracas, the campesinos informed Congress about Bracho’s abuses. (RNV, July 12)

The US media seemed to ignore the July 11-13 mobilization by thousands of Venezuelan campesinos, but did cover a July 15 anti-government march in Caracas by fewer than 400 doctors and nurses who work in public hospitals. The health care workers were demanding wage increases and protesting the presence of some 14,000 Cuban doctors in Venezuela. The Cubans provide health care to the country’s most underserved neighborhoods and rural areas under a special program sponsored by the government of left-populist president Hugo Chavez Frias. (AP, July 15)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 17

Weekly News Update on the Americas
http://home.earthlink.net/~nicadlw/wnuhome.html

NOTE: The leftist rebels active in western Venezuela are the Bolivarian Forces of Liberation (FBL). They took up arms shortly before Chavez came to power in 1998. According to the report on Colombia’s Agencia Prensa Rural: “Their objective is in no case to attack the actual government, but to guarantee that the Bolivarian revolution will continue advancing towards the consolidation of popular power, and to contribute to defending the process in case of external aggression. In spite of being an armed group, they have initiated very few actions.”—WW4R

Agencia Prensa Rural, July 13
http://www.prensarural.org/venezuela20050713.htm

See also WW4 REPORT #111
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COLOMBIA: PARAMILITARIES KILL CAMPESINOS, UNIONISTS

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

In spite of the “Justice and Peace” law passed in June, which provides an amnesty for Colombia’s right-wing paramilitary networks in exchange for “demobilization,” the networks appear to be as active as ever. Peasant and unionist leaders throughout the country continue to be targeted, even as the government of President Alvaro Uribe touts the “demobilization” program as evidence of progress towards peace to keep the US aid flowing in. Killings are reported this month from Dabeiba and Ciudad Bolivar, both in the Cordillera Occidental in Antioquia department, and El Castillo, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest in Meta department.—WW4 REPORT


DABEIBA: PARAMILITARIES KILL CAMPESINO

On July 3, at a checkpoint on the road leaving the town of Dabeiba in the Colombian department of Antioquia, rightwing paramilitaries took campesino Albeiro Higuita Agudelo off a local bus heading for Camparrusia. Later that afternoon, Higuita’s body, showing visible signs of torture, was found in Boton, 10 minutes from Dabeiba on the road to Medellin. Higuita was a member of the Campesino Association of Dabeiba; he lived in Balsillas, a rural community two and half hours from the town of Dabeiba.

The paramilitaries operate a permanent checkpoint at the exit point from Dabeiba, where they stop campesinos and control the amount of goods they can carry. Campesinos are not allowed to take tools, horseshoes or more than 30,000 pesos (less than $13) worth of food out of Dabeiba. Police and army forces are well-informed of the existence of the paramilitary checkpoint but leave it alone, since they are operating in coordination with the paramilitary groups, according to the Campesino Association of Dabeiba. Often the paramilitaries tell the campesinos that the confiscated goods can be reclaimed at the police station, and “in fact we do find them there,” the Association reports.

The Association is asking national and international solidarity organizations to demand that the government put a stop to the paramilitary checkpoint and the collaboration between public security forces and the paramilitaries. (Comunidad Campesina de Dabeiba, July 9 via Agencia Prensa Rural)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 17

META: ANOTHER CAMPESINO KILLED

On the morning of July 10, armed paramilitaries abducted campesino Edgar Palacios in the urban center of El Castillo municipality, in the southern Colombian department of Meta, and took him to a house in the town of Medellin del Ariari, also in Meta. Later that evening the paramilitaries took Palacios in a vehicle to the bridge over the Cumaral river, five minutes from the town center of Medellin del Ariari. His body was found the next day, in the garden of a home next to the bridge. Colombian soldiers and police agents from a counter-guerrilla force had an active presence in the town and surrounding area from July 10 to 17–including carrying out a house-by-house census and setting up strict checkpoints on access roads–yet they failed to take any action against the paramilitaries. On July 11, after Palacios’ body was found, police agents called together town residents and urged them to expose the paramilitaries present in the area. Yet on July 13, several known paramilitaries were seen playing soccer with the police agents stationed in Medellin del Ariari. Later the same day, the body of a man dressed in camouflage who was unfamiliar to local residents was found 15 minutes outside the urban center of the town. (Comision Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz, July 20)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 31


CIUDAD BOLIVAR: UNIONIST ASSASSINATED

On July 28, hired killers shot to death union leader Gilberto Chinome Barrera in La Estrella neighborhood of Ciudad Bolivar. Chinome was a former president of the refinery section of the United Union of Workers (USO), which represents workers at the state-run oil company Ecopetrol. In recent years he had focused on writing, including articles exposing administrative corruption at Ecopetrol. He had also sued Ecopetrol and the Colombian state. (USO Communique, July 29, via Colombia Indymedia)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 31


COLOMBIAN AMBASSADOR GETS IADB POST

On July 27 Luis Alberto Moreno, Colombia’s ambassador to the US, was elected president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), replacing Enrique Iglesias of Uruguay, who retired in May after 17 years in the position. Moreno won 60% of the votes of the bank’s shareholders and 20 votes from the 28 member nations. Brazilian candidate Jose Sayad, currently an IADB vice president, came in second with seven country votes. Moreno’s election was seen as a victory for the US, which failed to get its candidate elected president of the Organization of American States (OAS) in April. IADB disburses over $5 billion in loans every year. Moreno starts his five-year term on Oct. 1. (Financial Times, UK, July 27)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 31

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PERU: TRADE TREATY PROTESTS; INDIGENOUS BLOCK OIL OPERATIONS

from Weekly News Update on the Americas


HUGE PROTEST AGAINST TRADE PACT

On July 14, some 500,000 people–construction workers, teachers, students and many others–marched in seven of Peru’s regions to protest the Andean free trade treaty being negotiated between the US, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. The protests, organized by the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP), were also seeking an end to privatization and other neoliberal economic policies, and the resignation of Labor Minister Juan Sheput. The CGTP is also demanding the convening of a constituent assembly to rewrite Peru’s Constitution, and a new social security law based on the principles of solidarity. (Adital – World Data Service, July 15; Campana Continental Contra el ALCA, July 15)

A day earlier, July 13, some 4,000 people marched in Lima in another protest against the Andean trade pact, this time organized by the Association of Pharmaceutical Industries of National Origin and Capital (ADIFAN) and the National Convention of Peruvian Agriculture (CONVEAGRO). The noisy march stretched for 20 blocks, ending at the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Rather than rejecting the Andean trade pact as a whole, ADIFAN and CONVEAGRO are demanding that Peru drive a harder bargain in the negotiations. “The Peruvian negotiators seem to be gringos, since until now they have achieved nothing for the country. On the contrary, they have given up 50% of the national market to the US,” said CONVEAGRO president Luis Zuniga. Protesters, some of them on horseback, carried signs that said: “Competition, yes. Monopoly, no,” and “Don’t give it away. Negotiate.” Growers of sugar cane, rice, corn, potatoes and cotton fear US agricultural subsidies will make it impossible for them to compete. The negotiations have been going on for more than a year; the next round begins on July 18 in Miami. (Adital, July 15; CCCA, July 15; AP, July 14; Miami Herald, July 14)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 17

AMAZON: INDIGENOUS SEIZE OIL COMPANY

On July 8, some 300 Shipiba Coniba indigenous people from the community of Canan de Cachiaco (or Cashiyacu) entered the Maquillas (or Maquias) camp of Maple Gas Corporation in Ucayali province, in the Peruvian Amazon region of Loreto. Led by 80 Shipiba warriors armed with machetes, spears, and bows and arrows, they proceeded to take control of at least nine of the 27 oil wells on the company’s lot 31-B; the 150 workers at the camp were taking their lunch break and were caught off guard. “The occupation was totally peaceful, there were no material damages, since the company’s security personnel proceeded to close the fuel extraction valves to prevent leaks, and this was done in the presence of the crime prevention prosecutor, Julio Barreto,” said Ucayali deputy mayor Jose Diaz. The 80 Shipiba warriors are maintaining the occupation of the camp; the other community members returned home later on July 8.

Roberth Gimaraes, a leader of the Inter-Ethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Jungle, in Ucayali, said the Shipiba seized the camp to protest the environmental, social and cultural damage done to their communities by Maple Gas. Gimaraes said that in recent years an epidemic of stomach infections has affected the Shipiba communities, killing an average of five people a year. The Shipiba believe the stomach infections are caused by the company’s dumping of toxic waste in the Cachiaco river. They are demanding an environmental impact study to determine the extent of the pollution. They are also demanding that Maple Gas pay rent for the use of their territory, and provide basic necessities like schools and medical examinations. They want a high-level government delegation to come and meet with them over their demands. Barreto, the local prosecutor, apparently brokered a pact between the Shipiba and Maple Gas personnel in which both sides agreed not to touch the installations until a dialogue process could be established to address the Shipiba demands. As of July 10, the Shipiba were continuing to occupy the site.

Maple Gas general manager Guillermo Ferreyros said the conflict arose because the community doesn’t receive any of the royalties that the company pays to the Peruvian state. Ferreyros said the government’s oil company, Perupetro, was going to address the problem in a meeting with the Shipiba during the first week of July, but the meeting was cancelled for economic reasons. (La Ultima, Peru, July 9; AFP, July 8; 24 Horas Libre, Peru, July 9; RPP Noticias, Peru, July 10)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 10

Weekly News Update on the Americas
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See also WW4 REPORT #111
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PERU: COCALEROS CLASH WITH COPS

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

On May 29 in Tocache province, in the Huallaga valley of San Martin in north central Peru, at least 3,500 campesino coca growers (cocaleros) armed with sticks surrounded a group of 230 police agents charged with carrying out coca leaf eradication operations. According to police, the resulting clash left 17 agents hurt–one by a bullet, the rest by beatings. Twenty cocaleros were injured; Tocache mayor Nancy Zagerra said three of them are in serious condition with bullet wounds. (La Jornada, Mexico, May 31, from DPA)

The 230 anti-drug police agents had arrived in the area on May 26, along with 50 workers from the Control and Reduction of Coca Crops in the Alto Huallaga (CORAH) project. On May 28, the anti-drug forces set up camp in the village of 5 de Diciembre, where according to cocalero leader Nancy Obregon they forced the campesinos from their homes and destroyed their crops, even after the campesinos showed them documents from the state-run National Coca Company (ENACO) demonstrating that the crops were legal. “They said those [documents] were no good and they threw everyone out. The people have had to sleep outside,” said Obregon. Outraged at the incident, Obregon organized nearly 4,000 cocaleros to confront the agents at their camp the next day. (La Republica, Lima, May 30)

On May 31 a representative of the Office of the Defender of the People, Manlio Alvarez Soto, traveled to Tocache from Tingo Maria, in neighboring Huanuco region, to meet with the cocaleros and gather information about the conflict. Alvarez also visited two of the wounded cocaleros in the Tingo Maria hospital, where they were taken for treatment. (LR, June 1) On June 3, some 6,000 cocaleros from Monzon and Alto Huallaga marched in Tingo Maria in support of the Tocache cocaleros. (LR, June 4) Obregon said the cocaleros will start an open-ended strike on June 27. (LR, May 30)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, June 5

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COLOMBIA: PARAMILITARY AMNESTY PASSES, NEW AID PENDING

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

AMNESTY LAW PASSES

On June 20, the last day of ordinary sessions for the Colombian Congress, the Senate approved the “Justice and Peace” law, which paves the way for a “demobilization” and amnesty process under negotiation with the country’s right-wing paramilitaries since last July. The law grants the paramilitaries political status, allowing them to potentially benefit from pardons. Under the demobilization program, paramilitary commanders are supposed to confess all their crimes in order to benefit from reduced sentences of 4-8 years in prison. The Chamber of Representatives approved the law on June 21 in an extraordinary session. Colombia’s right-wing paramilitaries have historically been strongly supported by the state. (El Nuevo Herald, Miami, June 21 from AP; Inter Press Service, June 22)

Under the “Justice and Peace” law, which President Alvaro Uribe Velez signed on June 22, a group of 20 prosecutors will investigate within a maximum period of 60 days the crimes of each of the 10,000 paramilitary members who are eligible to demobilize from now through December.

Congressional representative Gustavo Petro of the leftist Independent Democratic Pole (PDI) party accuses Uribe of pushing through the “Justice and Peace” law in order to benefit relatives linked to paramilitary groups in Antioquia, where Uribe served as governor from 1995 to 1997. Petro said that Santiago Uribe Velez, the president’s brother, formed and financed a paramilitary group called “The 12 Apostles” around 1993-1994. The group, based out of the Uribe family’s La Carolina ranch in Yarumal, Antioquia, killed at least 50 people. Santiago Uribe was interrogated in 1997 about the group but the case was archived in 1999 for lack of evidence. Relatives of the victims of the June 1990 Campamento massacre, in which four people were killed and two disappeared by “The 12 Apostles,” have brought the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Petro also said two first cousins and an uncle of President Uribe led a paramilitary group known as “Los Erre,” linked to the killings of another 50 or more people in Titiribi and Armenia-Mantequilla municipalities in Antioquia. Carlos Alberto Velez Ochoa, Juan Diego Velez Ochoa and Mario Velez Ochoa were initially sentenced in the case but were released from prison after a year for lack of evidence. President Uribe and his family also apparently had close ties to Antioquia drug lords Pablo Escobar Gaviria and Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, who is related to the Velez Ochoa family.
(ENH, June 23 from correspondent; IPS, June 22)

On June 20, Colombia’s Congress approved two other laws pushed by Uribe’s government: a pension reform law which will take effect in 2010, and a law providing foreign investors with legal guarantees protecting their contracts from any changes in law or policy. But Congress rejected four legislative proposals presented by Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe, including one which would have unified the state’s intelligence services and another which would have increased the length of obligatory military service from 18 to 24 months. The defense minister narrowly avoided being fired the previous week when the Chamber of Representatives–but not the Senate–passed a vote of censure against him. (ENH, June 21 from AP)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, June 26


U.S. HOUSE OK’S NEW MILITARY AID

On June 28, the US House of Representatives voted 189-234 to defeat an amendment which would have cut $100 million in military aid for Colombia from a $734 million “Andean Counterdrug Initiative” in the 2006 foreign operations appropriations bill (HR 3057). The amendment to cut funding for the US-sponsored “Plan Colombia” military program was introduced by Reps. James McGovern (D-MA), Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Dennis Moore (D-KS). The Washington-based Latin America Working Group (LAWG) described the Colombia amendment as “the single most hotly-debated issue on the foreign operations bill.” Congress members who spoke out against it included Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), who noted how Afro-Colombians and indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by Colombia’s ongoing internal violence, and amendment co-sponsor McCollum, who pointed out that in Colombia, “90% of violent crimes…go unpunished, and human rights abuses among Colombia’s military are all too common.”

Later on June 28, the House voted 393-32 to approve the full bill, officially titled the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2006. In addition to the $734 million Andean Counterdrug Initiative, the bill will provide military aid of $2.3 billion for Israel and $1.3 billion for Egypt. In order for the bill to become law, a final version must be passed by both the House and Senate and then signed by the president. A subcommittee met June 29 to begin work on the Senate version. (LAWG Update, June 30; News from Lutheran World Relief, July 1; US Department of State Press Release, June 29 via allAfrica.com; Press Release from House Speaker Dennis Hastert, June 28 via US Newswire)

Weekly New Update on the Americas, July 3

SOLDIERS CHARGED IN MASSACRE

The Colombian attorney general’s office has ordered the arrest of six soldiers to face homicide charges for the killing of five civilians on April 10, 2004, in the village of Potosi, Cajamarca municipality, Tolima department. The army claimed the five villagers were killed in crossfire as a military patrol was pursuing a group of leftist guerrillas; the soldiers argued that they hadn’t been able to distinguish the victims as civilians because dense fog limited their visibility. The attorney general’s office ordered the arrests after an autopsy on 17-year old campesino Albeiro Mendoza showed he was shot at a distance of between 30 and 60 centimeters–practically point blank. The other victims were Mendoza’s son, six-month old Cristian Albeiro Mendoza Uruena; the baby’s mother, 17-year old Yamile Uruena Arango; 14-year old Julio Cesar Santana; and 24-year old Norberto Mendoza. The family was taking the baby to the doctor for an ear infection when they were killed. (El Tiempo, Bogota, July 1 via Servicio Prensa Rural)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 3

Weekly News Update on the Americas
http://home.earthlink.net/~nicadlw/wnuhome.html

See also WW4 REPORT #110
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Reprinted by WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, July 10, 2005
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