CENTRAL AMERICA: SANDINISTAS TAKE NICARAGUAN PRESIDENCY, GUATEMELAN GENERALS ORDERED ARRESTED

from Weekly News Update on the Americas:

Nicaragua: Ortega wins

WIth 91.6% of the ballots counted from Nicaragua’s Nov. 5 elections, former president Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) won the presidency with 38.07%, compared to 29% for Eduardo Montealegre of the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN). Having won over 35% of the vote and with a more than five point lead over his closest rival, Ortega was able to avoid a second round. Jose Rizo of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) was in third place with 26.21%; Edmundo Jarquin of the Sandinista Renewal Movement (MRS) got 6.44%; and Eden Pastora of Alternative for Change (AC) had 0.27%. The voting broke down to roughly the same percentages in the balloting for National Assembly deputies and representatives to the regional Central American Parliament (PARLACEN).

In the presidential race, the FSLN won in the northern departments of Nueva Segovia, Madriz, Esteli and Matagalpa; in the western departments of Chinandega, Leon, Managua and Carazo; and in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN). The ALN won in the southwestern departments of Masaya, Granada and Rivas; and in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS). The PLC dominated in the central cattle-ranching departments of Chontales and Boaco; the north central department of Jinotega; and the south central department of Rio San Juan. (Resultados Electorales, Nov. 7)

According to the Nicaragua Network in Washington, it is likely that the FSLN will have 37 seats in the National Assembly, one less than it has now; the ALN will have 26, the PLC will have 22 and the MRS will have six. It is not clear whether defeated candidates Montealegre, Rizo, and Jarquin are automatically granted seats in the Assembly or whether only Montealegre gets that privilege. Either way, the Network observes, “it is clear that the FSLN, or even the FSLN in coalition with the MRS, does not have the majority necessary to pass legislation. This means that there will be a strong incentive for the new government to continue the so-called pact with the PLC and its disgraced leader, former president Arnoldo Aleman.”

Ortega is to take office on Jan. 10, 2007, along with his vice president, Jaime Morales Carazo, a former leader of the US-backed right-wing contra movement in the 1980s. (La Jornada, Mexico, Nov. 8 from AFP, DPA) In his speeches since the elections, Ortega has insisted that he plans no radical changes and will continue to promote the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), foreign investment and close US ties. (AP, Nov. 10, 12)

On Nov. 11, Ortega said his cabinet ministers will be named by the people; he has asked local representatives to suggest candidates. He vowed that half his top officials would be women, and that he would include people who didn’t vote for him. (AP, Nov. 12)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Nov. 12

Nicaragua: abortion law passes

On Oct. 26, Nicaragua’s 93-member National Assembly voted 52-0 in favor of a law criminalizing abortion in all cases. The new law overturns article 165 of the country’s penal code, which for more than a century has allowed abortions up to the first 20 weeks of pregnancy in cases of rape or incest, or where they are necessary to preserve the pregnant woman’s life or health—as long as three doctors verify the medical need and the spouse or a close relative gives legal consent. (Abortions for any other reason have long been punishable with prison sentences of up to six years.) (Adital, Oct. 31; Nicaragua Network Hotline, Nov. 1; Nicaragua News Service, Oct. 24-Nov. 1 from La Prensa, El Nuevo Diario, Radio La Primerisima, TV Channel 8; Reuters, Oct. 27)

The FSLN joined the ruling Liberal Party in approving the bill. Of the FSLN’s 38 deputies, 25 voted for the bill, although some sent their aides to cast the vote rather than do it themselves. The other 13 FSLN deputies stayed away from the session. The FSLN’s support of the bill was seen as an attempt to cater to the Catholic church to win support for FSLN candidate and ex-president Daniel Ortega in the Oct. 5 presidential elections. (Reuters, Oct. 27)

Hundreds of women were vigiling outside as the Assembly debated the measure; as news of the vote broke, the protesters began to chant, “Women killers! Women killers!” Women’s organizations began setting up picket lines at the campaign headquarters of the four parties that approved the measure. The women’s groups also said they would challenge the new law in court.

Health minister Margarita Gurdian complained that the legislators had failed to consult doctors for a medical opinion before changing the law. Some 20 national doctors’ associations joined representatives of the Pan-American Health Organization and the World Health Organization in urging the Assembly to promptly review its decision. The groups predict that the repeal of article 165 will bring a 60% increase in the country’s maternal mortality rate, currently at 83.4 per 100,000 live births.

In the days leading up the vote, a wide range of national and international organizations had spoken out against the repeal of article 165. The organization Save the Children had issued a press release pointing out that Nicaragua has one of the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy in Latin America, and that most pregnant girls have been raped. The Nicaraguan Coordinating Council of Non-governmental Organizations working with Children and Adolescents (Codeni) and the Special Ombudsperson for Children had urged that debate over the measure be postponed until after the Nov. 5 elections. Codeni estimates that 30% of the female victims of sexual violence are children and adolescents, many of whom become pregnant.

“This Assembly has sent women to the guillotine,” said Matilde Jiron, a doctor specializing in reproductive health. Jiron said each year the Health ministry records about 1,000 cases of ectopic or molar pregnancies, in both of which “therapeutic abortion is absolutely necessary to save the mother’s life.” (Adital, Oct. 31; Nicanet Hotline, Nov. 1; NNS, Oct. 24-Nov. 1) The Autonomous Women’s Movement calculates that between 2004 and 2006, some 4,000 women underwent therapeutic abortions in Nicaragua. (La Jornada, Nov. 3)

An article in the Los Angeles Times reported that only 24 legally authorized abortions have been performed in Nicaragua in the last three years. Ipas, a US-based reproductive rights group, estimates that 32,000 illegal abortions are performed in Nicaragua each year, many under unsafe conditions. (Los Angeles Times, Oct. 26) The new law puts Nicaragua alongside nations like Chile and El Salvador in imposing a blanket ban on abortion. (Reuters, Oct. 27)

Three of the four leading presidential candidates supported the new anti-abortion law; only Edmundo Jarquin of the Sandinista Renewal Movement opposed it. (NNS, Oct. 24-Nov. 1)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Nov. 5

Guatemala: ex-leaders ordered arrested

On Nov. 6, Guatemala’s Fifth Criminal Sentence Court issued arrest warrants for six former military leaders in response to extradition requests from the National Court of Spain. The Spanish court has charged the six men with genocide, terrorism, torture, murder and illegal detentions during the 1980s, and specifically the burning of the Spanish embassy on Jan. 31, 1980. A group of indigenous activists had occupied the embassy to demand respect for human rights; 39 people died in the blaze.

Those ordered arrested are ex-dictator Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores (1983-1986); retired generals Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia (army chief of staff from August 1981 to March 1982) and Angel Anibal Guevara Rodriguez, a former defense minister; former police director Col. German Chupina; and two civilians, former governance minister Donaldo Alvarez Ruiz and former chief of the Police Sixth Command, Pedro Garcia Arredondo. (Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA, Nov. 9; Guatemala Hoy, Nov. 7; La Jornada, Nov. 7, 8, both from AFP)

Guevara Rodriguez turned himself in on Nov. 7; security forces arrested Chupina the same day. (LJ, Nov. 8 from AFP) Mejia Victores had not been found as of Nov. 8 and some speculate that he is in the US. (GHRC/USA, Nov. 9)

The Spanish court also sought the extradition of former dictator Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, who ruled Guatemala from late March of 1982 to early August of 1983. But the Guatemalan court declinedto issue an arrest order for Rios Montt, apparently because there was insufficient proof of his responsibility for the embassy deaths. Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz had charged Rios Montt with genocide, noting that the Commission of Historical Clarification had found, in its report on the violence over the 36-year armed conflict, that 69% of all the executions, 41% of the rapes and 45% of the torture incidents took place during Rios Montt’s rule. (GHRC/USA, Nov. 9; GH, Nov. 7; LJ, Nov. 8 from AFP)

When it issued the warrants last July 7, the Spanish court had also sought the arrest of Gen. Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia, who died last May in Venezuela. (See WW4 REPORT, May 30, 2006)

Many had hoped that Romeo Lucas Garcia, president of Guatemala from July 1978 to March 1982, would be “symbolically” brought to justice for the massacres that were committed under his rule. (GHRC/USA, Nov. 9)

Benedicto Lucas Garcia, who has been ordered arrested, was chief of staff during the final period of his brother’s rule, and was considered to be one of the key architects of the massacres.

The Mutual Support Group (GAM) reported in a 2000 study, “Massacres in Guatemala, the Screams of an Entire People,” that 1,112 massacres were carried out during the 36-year armed conflict, 1,046 of them (more than 94%) by government forces, including army, police, the paramilitary Civilian Self-Defense Patrols (PACs) and other security forces. The largest number—507 massacres, 49% of the total—took place under the Romeo Lucas Garcia regime. Another 413 of them—40%—were under Rios Montt’s 16-month rule. (GAM statement, Nov. 9 via Adital)

The court’s Nov. 6 decision came after the European Parliament passed a resolution on Oct. 26, backing the Spanish arrest warrants and urging the Guatemalan government to cooperate with the investigations. President Oscar Berger must sign the final extradition order. Rios Montt’s party, the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG), wields considerable power in Guatemala and is expected to try to halt the extraditions. (GHRC/USA, Nov. 9)

A group of victims’ families had held a demonstration on Nov. 3 outside the Supreme Court of Justice, asking it to immediately order the arrests of Rios Montt and the others. Members of the Coordinating Committee of Genocide Never Again hung banners bearing photographs of their disappeared loved ones. (La Semana en Guatemala, Oct. 30-Nov. 5)

On Nov. 8, some 100 families and members of the Genocide Never Again group again gathered outside the Supreme Court, saluting the arrest orders but demanding that Rios Montt be arrested too. “Now we have a small opening to send these men, who massacred and disappeared our people, to where they belong,” said Aura Elena Farfan, leader of the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA). Farfan’s brother, Ruben Amilcar, was abducted and disappeared in March 1984 during the military regime headed by Mejia Victores (1982-85). “No injustice lasts 100 years, and no people will endure it,” said Farfan. “Hopefully what is happening today in Guatemala will be an example for the whole world, and all those who commit genocide will be jailed.” (GH, Nov. 9)

On Nov. 10, more than 1,000 people from around the country gathered again under the umbrella of Genocide Never Again to march from Morazan park to the Supreme Court, demanding justice. Eduardo de Leon, director of the Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation, said the Public Ministry had been negligent in allowing Mejia Victores to escape. De Leon said the foundation has already formally asked the Spanish court to reissue the arrest order against Rios Montt. (GH, Nov. 11) Rigoberta Menchu, the Guatemalan indigenous leader and 1992 Nobel Peace laureate, originally filed the charges against the ex-officials in the Spanish court in December 1999; her father was among those killed in the Spanish embassy fire in 1980. (LJ, Nov. 7 from AFP)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Nov. 12

Guatemala: cops harass student protesters

A group of about 40 Guatemalan students attempted to protest neoliberal economic policies and the privatization of education during the traditional parade in Guatemala City marking Central American Independence Day, Sept. 15. According to Calixto Morales, a member of the National Students Organization of Guatemala (ONEG), when the protesters held up their signs near the reviewing stand, where President Oscar Berger and other officials were located, members of the Education Ministry (MINEDUC) pushed them away. When the students continued to demonstrate in front of the National Palace, police agents followed them, and the number of agents increased once they were away from the parade.

In Isabel La Catolica Park, 15 or more agents surrounded the students and pointed loaded guns at them. Agents hit one student and destroyed his photographic equipment. When a student leader said she would file a complaint, the agents threatened to arrest them for “rebellion.” The students were finally allowed to leave, without their signs, in pairs. (Guatemala Hoy, Sept. 18; ONEG communique on Chiapas Indymedia, Sept. 18)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Sept. 24

El Salvador: religious leaders killed

On Nov. 4, Francisco Carrillo and his wife, Jesus Calzada de Carrillo, both Lutheran pastors, human rights advocates, and activists in a local community volunteer rescue program, were shot and killed outside their church in the Salvadoran town of Jayaque, La Libertad. Francisco was locking up after the Friday service when assailants approached on bicycles and shot him, then shot his wife, who was waiting in a nearby car. The Carrillos were known for being vocal community activists and had recently received death threats for their work. The assailants rode away without covering their faces; some witnesses say they were local gang members. There is no known motive for the murder and there was no attempted robbery. The killing of the couple follows a number of similar recent incidents: the killing last July of the elderly parents of FMLN activist Mariposa Manzanares; the murder in August of leftist activist couple Alex Flores Montoya and Mercedes Penate de Flores; and the September murder of progressive Catholic priest Antonio Romero.

The Lutheran church and other members of the Jayaque community are calling for the National Civilian Police (PNC) and the attorney general’s office to investigate the Carrillos’ killings immediately. Given the PNC’s failure to make progress in investigating the other murders, religious and grassroots groups are pushing for results from the police investigation within two weeks. (CISPES El Salvador Update, Nov. 8; Diario Co Latino, El Salvador, Nov. 7)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Nov. 12

Honduras: indigenous brothers freed

On Aug. 15, a court in the Honduran city of Santa Rosa de Copan commuted the sentence of Leonardo Miranda, a Lenca indigenous activist from the community of Montana Verde. Miranda was freed from the prison in Gracias three hours later. His brother Marcelino Miranda Espinoza was freed from the same prison in Gracias on July 12 after a court secretary processed his release order. (Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras-COPINH communiques, July 12, Aug. 16, both via Rights Action) The Miranda brothers had been acquitted of murder charges on June 23 by the Supreme Court of Justice. They had been jailed since January 2003. In January 2006, Amnesty International joined an international campaign to win their release.

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Sept. 3

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TRADE PROTESTS ROCK COSTA RICA

Central America’s Last Stand Against CAFTA

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

On Oct. 23 and 24, an estimated 75,000 Costa Ricans from all sectors of society took part in a mobilization against the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), commonly referred to throughout the region as the Free Trade Treaty (TLC in Spanish). The two-day protest, called by the National Coordinating Committee of Struggle Against the TLC and numerous grassroots and labor organizations, included peaceful marches, road blockades, distribution of informational leaflets and other decentralized actions in all of the country’s provinces. Some public services—including schools and some non-emergency medical appointments—were shut down with strikes as part of the mobilization.

In San Jose, between 7,000 and 10,000 demonstrators marched to the Congress on Oct. 24 to demand that the legislature immediately withdraw consideration of the TLC and of a series of proposed measures linked to the trade pact, including the privatization of telecommunications, electricity and insurance. Costa Rica is the only nation included in DR-CAFTA which has not yet ratified the treaty.

The Human Rights Commission (CODEHU) and the Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ) of Costa Rica protested the presence of armed officers at all the mobilization sites and the use of military helicopters in the province of Limon. The rights groups also reported that a clash between riot police and demonstrators in Santa Rosa de Pocosol, San Carlos, left several civilians hurt. Still, the government of President Oscar Arias did not respond to the Oct. 23-24 mobilization with the same repression seen at other recent protests. (Minga Informativa de Movimientos Sociales, Oct. 25; El Diario-La Prensa, NY, Oct. 25 from EFE)

That repression began May 8, the day Arias took office, when hundreds of riot police, mounted police, canine units and other forces were deployed to stop thousands of demonstrators from protesting his inauguration. On Aug. 16, a similar police operation—with more plainclothes agents—was launched when demonstrators tried to protest Arias’ 100th day in office.

The police response was again disproportionate for Costa Rica’s official Sept. 14-15 independence day celebrations. On Sept. 14, the town of Cartago was completely militarized, and all streets near the official celebration site were barricaded by police, who searched everyone trying to approach. Police harassed local residents, beat up students who tried to hold a peaceful protest, and stopped busloads of demonstrators at police roadblocks on the city’s access highways. Similar tactics were used during the Sept. 15 celebration events in San Jose, and again on Sept. 25 during another official event attended by Arias in San Jose.

On Sept. 26 in the northern city of San Carlos, police surrounded the cathedral where Arias was to take part in a mass. Agents closed off access to the cathedral and subjected local residents trying to attend the mass to humiliating searches, even going through women’s purses. Bishop Angel Sancasimiro was so indignant that he complained to the press and told government officials that if the police barricades weren’t removed, he wouldn’t say the mass. Eventually one of the barricades was removed. (Frentes Comunitarios de Lucha contra el TLC, Sept. 29)

Already angered by the repression, Costa Ricans were further upset by the news, revealed in early October by legislative deputy Oscar Lopez of the Accessibility Without Exclusion Party (PASE), that US weapons manufacturer Raytheon had bought a farm in the area of Paquera, in Puntarenas, with the intention of building a factory. A public outcry ensued as opponents of the TLC argued that the trade pact would pave the way for the manufacturing and trade of weapons in Costa Rica, a country with no army and a longstanding tradition of neutrality.

The outcry deepened when Arias issued a decree regulating weapons production, including heavy weapons and the enrichment of radioactive materials. Because Arias has not managed to satisfy the public with his reasons for issuing the decree, or to convincingly argue that it isn’t related to the trade pact, the decree has intensified popular distrust of the TLC—and of Arias himself, a 1987 Nobel peace laureate who continues to speak internationally in support of disarmament.

Arias has continued to push hard for the TLC, and insists it will be ratified in December or January at the latest—when the year-end vacations make it harder for social movements to mobilize. (Minga Informativa de Movimientos Sociales, Oct. 25)

Limon Port Strike Ends

In the early hours of Oct. 27, the government of Costa Rica reached an agreement with striking dock workers in the Atlantic coast city of Limon. The government gave up its demand to punish the strikers, and agreed to pay the workers $900,000 owed to them from their 2005 collective bargaining agreement. Representatives of the government and the port unions will return to the table on Oct. 30 to begin discussing the key issue: the “modernization” of the state-controlled Board of Port Administration and Economic Development of the Atlantic Shelf (JAPDEVA). Port workers oppose the planned privatization of the Moin and Aleman docks in Limon; the Caldera docks on the Pacific coast have been operated since August by a private firm backed with Costa Rican and Colombian capital.

The Limon dock workers began a work slowdown in late September, and stepped up the protest to an open-ended all-out strike on Oct. 25. Strikers set up barricades in the city of Limon and clashed with police on Oct. 25. Police arrested four people and used tear gas to clear the barricades. The strike kept at least one cruise ship from docking at the port on Oct. 26. (A.M. Costa Rica, Oct. 27; Teletica, Oct. 26; Diario Extr, Oct. 28; El Diario-La Prensa, NY, Oct. 26 from EFE)

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WW4 REPORT #125, September 2006
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CENTRAL AMERICA: ANTI-MINING PROTESTS, ACTIVISTS MURDERED

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

HONDURAS: GARIFUNA WOMAN MURDERED

On the evening of Aug. 6, a group of masked men armed with AK-47 assault rifles forced 19-year-old Mirna Isabel Santos Thomas from her home in the Honduran Garifuna community of San Juan Tela, in the Caribbean coastal department of Atlantida. Santos’ body was found the next morning along the road leading to Triunfo de la Cruz and La Ensenada, several kilometers away on the other side of the town of Tela. The latest killing comes amid a wave of repression directed against the Garifuna community of San Juan Tela, which is resisting plans to build tourism projects on Garifuna ancestral lands in the Tela Bay area.

Messages protesting the killing and demanding a thorough investigation and punishment of those responsible can be sent to the Honduran embassies in the US (embassy@hondurasemb.org); to the Honduran special prosecutor for ethnic groups, Jany del Cid Martinez (janydelcid@yahoo.es, fax +504-221-5620); and to the public prosecutor’s office in Tela (fax +504-448-1758). (Rights Action, Aug. 13)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, Aug. 20

ROAD BLOCKED IN MINING PROTEST

Some 1,500 indigenous residents of the Honduran departments of Intibuca and Lempira blocked the Pan American Highway for 10 hours on July 25 to express opposition to the construction of El Tigre hydroelectric dam and to demand the repeal of the 1998 Mining Law, which permits strip mining and gives foreigners a concession to operate mines in up to 34% of Honduran territory. The protesters also demanded that roads between Gracias, Lempira department, La Esperanza, Intibuca department, and Marcala, La Paz department, be paved, along with the highways in southern Lempira and Intibuca.

Dozens of drivers lined up for 10 hours as they waited to proceed on the highway, which connects Tegucigalpa with San Pedro Sula, and hundreds of travelers had to walk 5 km to get buses. Despite the inconvenience, the travelers expressed support for the demonstration. “They’re in the right, the whole people has to unite,” Rosenda Villatoro told a reporter as she tried to get to Tegucigalpa. The demonstration dispersed about an hour and a half after some 100 riot police arrived. Police spokesperson Silvio Inestroza told Associated Press that “some of the protesters are threateningly armed with machetes.”

The protest was organized by the Civic and Democratic Alliance, made up of over 15 environmental groups, and was backed by local priests and some mayors. “All of us residents of Intibuca are united. We do not want the El Tigre dam in San Antonio. We are not protesting for ourselves but for future generations,” said Julio Gonzalez, a local leader.

According to official statistics, the mining companies pay the national government $0.25 cents for each hectare that they mine, and pay 1% of their $100 million annual income to local municipal government. The mining industry accounts for $65 million in exports and generates more than 5,000 jobs. (La Prensa, San Pedro Sula, July 26; BBC News, July 26; El Nuevo Herald, Miami, July 25 from AP; La Prensa, Managua, July 24 from AP)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 30

HONDURAN TEACHERS’ STRIKE GETS “80%”

On Aug. 12 Honduran president Manuel Zelaya signed an agreement with the Federation of Teachers’ Organizations (FOMH) ending a strike by 61,000 teachers that had kept 2.5 million children out of school since Aug. 1. The agreement increases the teachers’ base monthly pay by about $55 over three years, from $298 in 2007 to $353 in 2009; with the addition of international funding for an educational social program, the government says the national budget for teachers’ salaries will be 7.212 billion lempiras (about $379.5 million) a year. As of 2010, the teachers’ salaries will rise with annual increases in the cost of living as established by the Central Bank, currently ranging from 5 to 9%. “We’re happy,” FOMH spokesperson Edwin Oliva told a press conference, “even though we only won 80% of our demands.”

Some 20,000 teachers from 18 departments gathered in Tegucigalpa to carry out numerous protests for the nearly two weeks the strike lasted. They protested at the presidential offices, the National Congress and the education and finance ministries, and twice tried unsuccessfully to occupy the Toncontin de Tegucigalpa international airport. The government initially refused to negotiate unless the teachers ended the strike. Cost-of-living increases are mandated by the Law of the Teacher, passed at the beginning of the 1990s, but the government insisted that paying the increases would make the fiscal deficit soar and violate an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

On Aug. 4 teachers blocked two entrances from Tegucigalpa to the Northern Highway for five hours; they ended the protest peacefully after the government agreed to start talks. But violence broke out on Aug. 9, when thousands of teachers blocked access from Tegucigalpa to the Southern Highway and part of an avenue in the capital. The teachers confronted police agents and soldiers with clubs, stones and containers filled with water, while the government forces used tear gas and bullets. Some 50 people were injured, but apparently the injuries weren’t serious. (Reuters, Aug. 4, 9; Prensa Latina, Aug. 8; El Diario-La Prensa, NY, Aug. 10 from EFE; Miami Herald, Aug. 12 from AP; La Prensa, Honduras, Aug. 13)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, Aug. 13

EL SALVADOR: FMLN ACTIVISTS MURDERED

On Aug. 23, four unidentified assailants murdered Alex Flores Montoya and Mercedes Penate de Flores, activists with the leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), near their hometown of Coatepeque, in Santa Ana department, El Salvador. The married couple were driving on the highway from Coatepeque to the city of Santa Ana when the assailants stopped their vehicle, got inside and forced them to exit the highway. Flores and Penate were made to lie face down on the road before being killed, each with a single shot to the head.

David Linares, FMLN coordinator for Coatepeque, said it was “difficult to speculate” about possible motives for the double murder, but “for the fact that they were shot in the back of the head, we can dismiss the motive of a simple robbery. It seems more like some kind of execution.” Flores was the FMLN adjunct municipal coordinator for Coatepeque, and had been a candidate for the post of legal representative (sindico) in the last municipal elections. Penate was an FMLN activist and had been a candidate for the Coatepeque municipal council in the 2000 elections. (EFE, Aug. 24; Diario Latino, El Salvador, Aug. 25)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, Aug. 27

FAMILIES MARCH TO CAPITAL

Some 5,000 Salvadorans rallied outside the Economy Ministry offices in San Salvador on July 24 after marching from Amayo, 52 km north of the capital, to protest the high cost of living, the government’s granting of mining concessions, and the construction of El Cimarron dam in the northern department, Chalatenango. The “March for Dignity and Life” was organized by campesinos in 22 northern communities and was backed by the Popular Social Bloc (BPS), various religious organizations, and mayors and legislative deputies from the leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN). Entire campesino families took part in the march, which started on July 22.

FMLN activist Silvia Cartagena said mining would “continue to poison what water remains for the people, and with the construction of the highway, entire communities will be displaced.” The US government’s Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) is expected to fund a highway through northern El Salvador; critics say it will only benefit the mining and electric companies in the region. (MCA is a 2002 initiative to “support economic development and reduce poverty” in developing countries.) Representatives of the marchers met with Economy Minister Yolanda Mayora de Gavidia to present their demands. On July 22 De Gavidia and Environment Minister Hugo Barrera announced that they were sponsoring legislation to step up environmental requirements for companies applying for mining concessions. (La Nacion, Costa Rica, July 22, 23, from ACAN-EFE; El Nuevo Herald, July 23 from AP; Terra El Salvador, July 24 from EFE; USAID website, http://www.usaid.gov/espanol/cuenta.html)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 30

GUATEMALA: TOWNS HOLD VOTE ON MINING

Four municipalities in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango held an unofficial referendum July 25 on mining operations. Voters were asked to answer yes or no to the question: “Do you accept the [current] concession or any other concession or activity for mining metals in our municipality, whether for reconnaissance, exploration or mine operation?” According to the organizers 2,584 people voted in Concepcion Huista, 2,815 in Todos Santos Cuchumatan, 2,650 in San Juan Atitlan, and 2,123 in Colotenango. Organizers expected the vote to be overwhelmingly against the concessions. Colotenango mayor Arturo Mendez Ortiz said the choice was taken to the people in accordance with laws on indigenous rights and home rule. The final results will be reported to the Energy and Mines Ministry, the Congress and other governmental agencies, according to legislative deputy Victor Sales of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG). (Prensa Libre, Guatemala City, July 26)

On July 28 a group of 32 seniors announced the suspension of a liquids-only hunger strike they had been carrying out in shifts since June 5 to protest efforts to overturn a law guaranteeing a minimum pension. The strikers, aged 60 to 95, suspended the action after President Oscar Berger agreed to hold a meeting with them on July 31 to discuss their demands. The seniors threatened “more drastic” actions if the meeting was unsatisfactory. (El Diario-La Prensa, NY, July 29)

Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 30

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WW4 REPORT #124, August 2006
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“Latin America: protests against Israeli attacks,”
WW4 REPORT, July 24
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“Gold Mine in Guatemala Faces Indigenous Resistance ”
WW4 REPORT, #114, October 2005
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CENTRAL AMERICA: DEADLY REPRESSION AS CAFTA HITS IN

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

GUATEMALA: TRADE PROTESTERS SEIZE ESTATES

The Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) went into effect in Guatemala on July 1 amid protests against the US-sponsored pact, which seeks to bring Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the US together in a trade bloc. The agreement took effect in El Salvador on March 1, and in Honduras and Nicaragua on May 1. Costa Rica’s legislature has not yet approved the pact. (Yahoo en Espanol, July 1 from AFP)

DR-CAFTA was scheduled to go into effect in the Dominican Republic on July 1, but the implementation was delayed by a disagreement over US demands for legislation protecting industrial secrets for pharmaceutical companies. “We’re not giving in,” Marcelo Puello, Dominican assistant secretary for foreign trade, said on June 30. “The negotiating team closed this chapter, and the people in charge of implementation agree that we won’t give in on something that would be outside the text of the treaty.” (El Diario-La Prensa, NY, July 1)

For DR-CAFTA to go into effect in Guatemala, Congress had to meet US demands by passing an Implementation Law and by ratifying three international treaties: the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, enforced by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).

Under DR-CAFTA, 94% of Guatemala’s exports to the US will be exempt from tariffs, while 82% of US exports to Guatemala will be exempt, according to Economy Minister Marcio Cuevas. Guatemala imports about twice as much from the US as the US imports from Guatemala; in 2005 total Guatemalan exports were worth $3.378 billion, with 52.5% going to the US; Guatemala’s imports were worth $8.815 billion, with 38.7% coming from the US. Cuevas predicted that the trade pact could generate 10,000 new jobs in its first year, but Guatemalan-US Chamber of Commerce executive director Carolina Castellanos warned: “Let’s remember that the free trade pact isn’t a magic wand which goes into effect on Saturday and on Sunday we all already have jobs and are exporting.” (Yahoo, July 1 from AFP; Cadena Global, Venezuela, July 1)

On June 30 Guatemala’s National Coordinating Committee of Campesino Organizations (CNOC), the Social Organizations Collective and other groups announced plans for protests against DR-CAFTA on July 1. “The TLC [Free Trade Treaty] will submerge millions of people in extreme poverty, especially in the countryside,” CNOC leader Aparicio Perez charged. Some sectors had pushed for Congress to pass a Rural Development Law and other compensatory legislation that would help Guatemalan producers meet the competition of heavily subsidized US agricultural products, but Congress postponed discussion of the laws. (Prensa Latina, June 30, July 2) [CNOC experienced two break-ins in offices it was using in May 2005; see WW4 REPORT #110.]

Hundreds of campesinos started protesting even before July 1, occupying five government-owned estates on June 29. CNOC coordinated the occupations, which were carried out by two of its affiliates, the Campesino Unity Committee (CUC) and the Verapaz Union of Community Organizations (UVOC). According to CNOC the estates were: La Nube, in Gualan, Zacapa department, occupied by 50 families; San Jose las Lagrimas, Esquipulas, Chiquimula department, invaded by 120 families; Santa Ines, in Santa Cruz Verapaz, Alta Verapaz department, occupied by 22 families; Sexan, in Chisec, Alta Verapaz, invaded by 80 families; El Zapotal, in Chisec, Alta Verapaz, invaded by 25 families. As of July 2 campesinos had occupied a sixth estate.

At least one of the estates, San Jose las Lagrimas, belongs to the military. According to Aparicio Perez, the occupations were also intended to protest the military, which was about to celebrate Army Day, June 30. “We reject the plundering of lands that community members suffered at the hands of the military governments during the [1960-1996] armed conflict, and today we are demanding that the lands be returned,” he said. CNOC also condemned the role of the military in the evictions of landless campesinos who have invaded estates in the past. (Prensa Libre, Guatemala City, June 30; PL, July 2; Yahoo Argentina, June 26)

This year the military held its first public Army Day parade in Guatemala City since the civil war ended in 1996. Some 300 human rights activists protested, shouting “Murderers, murderers” at the soldiers. The parade came as Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz was visiting Guatemala in connection with genocide charges that activist Rigoberta Menchu Tum filed against four former military officers and two civilians in 1999. (El Nuevo Herald, Miami, June 30 from AP) [See related story, below.]

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 2

ALTA VERAPAZ: NINE DEAD IN LAND STRUGGLE

At least nine Guatemalan campesinos were reportedly killed on July 7 during an attempt by some 230 families to occupy the Moca estate in the community of Senahu in the northern department of Alta Verapaz. The health center in nearby La Tinta municipality reported that it had received at least 21 people injured in the confrontation. Police agents and representatives of the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office were sent to the estate on July 8 to investigate.

According to local media and activists, the families had already occupied and been driven from the estate three times, the most recent in April. The estate has “historically been the property of our great-great-grandfathers, grandfathers, fathers and now us,” local indigenous leader Mateo Yat Caal said. When the families tried to invade again, the owner sent 800 workers and private security guards to stop the occupation, according to Yat. Daniel Pascual, leader of the Campesino Unity Committee (CUC), charged that the owner had provided the guards with arms for the attack. Local radio stations reported that the guards had automatic rifles and pistols.

Campesinos continue to occupy some 20 private estates and 10 government-owned estates to push demands for the government to distribute land to them. (La Jornada, Mexico, July 9 from AFP; Prensa Latina, July 8; El Diario-La Prensa, NY, July 9 from EFE)

On July 5, Constitutional Court (CC) secretary Martin Guzman announced that Guatemalan president Oscar Berger had filed for an injunction with the court to prevent a law from taking effect that would guarantee a minimum pension for about 60,000 seniors. The law is already on hold because of a suit filed by a private lawyer. A group of seniors have been participating, in shifts, in a hunger strike outside government offices in downtown Guatemala City to demand that the law be allowed to take effect. (El Nuevo Herald, July 5 from AP)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 9

SPAIN INDICTS GUATEMALAN EX-OFFICERS

On July 7 Spanish National Court judge Santiago Pedraz issued arrest warrants for eight former Guatemalan officials accused of genocide during a 1960-1996 civil war. The judge also issued an order to freeze the defendants’ assets. The defendants named on the arrest warrants are former dictator Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, former head of government Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores, former defense minister Gen. Angel Anibal Guevara Rodriguez, former National Police director Pedro Garcia Arredondo, former police chief German Chupina Barahona, former head of Army General Staff Gen. Benedicto Lucas Garcia, former governance minister Donaldo Alvarez Ruiz and former president Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia. Lucas Garcia died in May in Venezuela, but his case remains open until Spain is officially notified.

Judge Pedraz took this action after returning from Guatemala on July 1 after a one-week visit. He had expected to interrogate the defendants during his trip, but he was thwarted when they filed last-minute appeals with the Guatemalan Constitutional Court. Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled on Oct. 5, 2005, that under the “principle of universal jurisdiction” Spain can try people for genocide or crimes against humanity, even if the crimes occurred outside Spain and no Spanish nationals were involved. (Center for Justice and Accountability press release, July 7; Adital, July 11; New York Times, July 7 from Reuters)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 16

HONDURAS: LENCA LEADERS ACQUITTED

On June 23, the Honduran Supreme Court of Justice acquitted Lenca indigenous activists Marcelino and Leonardo Miranda of the murder of Juan Reyes Gomez. The Miranda brothers are leaders of the Lenca community of Montana Verde in Lempira department; they were arrested in January 2003 in a violent raid on the community, and were convicted of the Reyes Gomez murder in December 2003 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Last January, Amnesty International declared the Miranda brothers to be prisoners of conscience and began an international campaign to win their freedom [see WW4 REPORT #119].

Their actual release is expected to take several weeks, since the ruling must be officially certified by the Supreme Court Secretariat and must then go back through the judicial system to the appeals court in Santa Rosa de Copan and the local court in Gracias. In a June 22 press release announcing the court decision, the Council of Popular and Indigenous Civic Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) said the brothers’ acquittal “would not have been achieved if not for solidarity and pressure on a local, national and international level.” Human rights groups say Honduran authorities fabricated charges against the Montana Verde leaders in reprisal for their work to win communal land titles.

Another Montana Verde leader, Margarito Vargas Ponce, was released from prison on June 28. He had been jailed since January 2006. In the end he was cleared of more serious charges but sentenced by Judge Hermes Moncada of the Gracias court to three years for complicity in battery against Demetrio Reyes Benitez, one of the community’s longtime persecutors. Under the new penal code, his sentence may be served in “provisional liberty” (parole). Vargas must present himself before local judicial authorities every two months, and if found guilty of any other crime within the next five years, will have to serve time in jail for both charges.

Rights Action, a North American group working in solidarity with the Montana Verde community, reports that less than 24 hours after his release, Vargas was participating with other members of the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) in a struggle to defend communities’ rights, lands and development from the threat of the El Tigre binational hydroelectric dam that will flood entire communities in southwestern Honduras. (COPINH press releases, June 22, 28; Amnesty International Public Statement, June 30; Rights Action, June 23, 30; Honduras News in Review, July 3)

ATLANTIDA: GARIFUNA LEADER THREATENED

On June 22, a man entered the home of Jessica Garcia, a leader of the Honduran Garifuna community of San Juan, on the Tela Bay in Atlantida department. Garcia is the president of the San Juan Tela Patronato, a local group representing community interests to government institutions. The intruder offered Garcia money to sign a document stating that her community recognizes the rights of the private real estate and tourism company Promotur to San Juan’s communally-owned lands. When Garcia refused, the man held a gun to her head and forced her to sign the document.

The San Juan community’s attempts to win legal recognition of its territorial rights have resulted in ongoing conflicts with Promotur and its owner, Jaime Rosenthal Oliva, a powerful businessperson and Liberal Party politician. Rosenthal is one of the richest men in Honduras; according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia he owns Grupo Continental, Banco Continental, several maquiladoras (tax-exempt assembly plants producing mainly for export), a cement company, the Hotel Intercontinental Tegucigalpa, the El Tiempo daily newspaper and a television network. Rosenthal’s son, Yani Rosenthal Hidalgo, is currently the presidency minister under President Manuel Zelaya, and is a key investor in the Los Micos Beach & Golf Resort, a massive tourism complex planned between the Garifuna communities of Tornabe and Miami, next to San Juan in the Tela Bay. The Los Micos project is financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCIE) and investors from Italy and Spain.

The June 22 incident was the latest in a series of attacks against the San Juan community and its leaders. Last November, the home of San Juan Lands Defense Committee president Wilfredo Guerrero was burned to the ground, with all of his possessions and the committee’s archives inside. The homes of other community members were destroyed this past March and April.

Last Jan. 14, Promotur representatives entered the community accompanied by a number of hooded men armed with AK47 semi-automatic assault rifles (which are apparently illegal in Honduras). Last Feb. 25, young San Juan community members Epson Andres Castillo and Yino Eligio Lopez were detained near Tornabe by agents of the public security forces allegedly assigned to protect the zone for the Los Micos tourism project. The bodies of the two young men were found the next day in a lagoon near the community of La Ensenada, along the Tela Bay.

The Garifuna community is demanding an investigation into those deaths, and immediate protection for Garcia. Rights Action urges people to send messages protesting the attacks against the San Juan community, urging protection for Garcia, Guerrero and other community leaders and their families, and pressing for the recognition of the San Juan community’s legal rights to their full communal territory. Messages can be sent to the Honduran embassies in the US (embassy@hondurasemb.org) or Canada (embhonca@magma.ca); to the Honduran special prosecutor for ethnic groups, Jany del Cid Martinez (janydelcid@yahoo.es, fax +504-221-5620); and to the public prosecutor’s office in Tela (fax +504-448-1758). (Rights Action, June 30; Honduras News in Review, July 3 from Hondudiario, June 28, COPINH press release, June 29)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 9

PRIDE MARCH IN SAN PEDRO SULA

On June 18, hundreds of people marched through the streets of San Pedro Sula, the second-largest city and main commercial center of Honduras, to demand respect for gender diversity and an end to discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. Ramon Valladares, one of the leaders of the march, promised that Article 60 of the Honduran Constitution, which prohibits discrimination, would be used to proceed legally against those who continue to violate LGBT rights. Valladares referred specifically to religious and political leaders who discriminate against the LGBT community. (Honduras News in Review, July 3 from Proceso Digital June 19)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 16

EL SALVADOR: DEATHS IN STUDENT PROTEST

On July 5, Salvadoran student protesters occupied a busy intersection outside the gates of the National University of El Salvador (UES) in San Salvador during morning rush hour to protest a $0.05 increase in bus fares and a 14% electricity rate hike. The protest held up traffic for blocks. A large group of high school students from the Francisco Menendez Institute (INFRAMEN) marched peacefully to join the demonstration, and riot police massed in preparation to break up the protest. When police violently grabbed and tried to arrest two 15-year-old students from the march, other protesters responded with rocks, while some attacked a bank ATM. Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, and amid the chaos a sudden volley of gunshots erupted. Two agents from the Order Maintenance Unit (UMO), an elite riot squad of the National Civilian Police (PNC), were killed by bullets, apparently from a semi-automatic, high-caliber weapon, and seven other agents were hospitalized. An undetermined number of students were wounded, and some sources reported that as many as three students were killed.

Most of the students sought refuge inside the university gates. Police helicopters then fired on protesters inside the university complex, injuring Herbert Rivas, director of multidisciplinary faculty. Police locked down the university–in violation of laws protecting the institution’s autonomy–and threatened to search its buildings and arrest anyone who remained there. Students were allowed to leave the university grounds only after being searched by police agents. According to one witness, a number of students were arrested at another police checkpoint near the university; police appeared to target students who had beards or long hair, or t-shirts with the image of Ernesto “Che” Guevara or with phrases in English that the agents couldn’t understand.

Human Rights Ombudsperson Beatrice Alamani de Carrillo said: “I’m still waiting for a complete report, and from no point of view can one identify with the use of violence. The deaths of the agents are reprehensible, just as the increase in bus fare is reprehensible.” (Christians for Peace in El Salvador- CRISPAZ, July 7; Eyewitness report sent by a UES professor via e-mail, July 5; Message from Comunidades de Fe y Vida-COFEVI, July 5 via Adital)

The government of President Elias Antonio Saca was quick to blame the leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) for the violence, although at the time of the incidents most of the FMLN leaders were in Suchitoto, 45 miles northeast of San Salvador, offering their condolences to longtime FMLN activist and Radio Venceremos co-founder Marina Manzanares for the death of her parents. (Eyewitness report sent by a UES professor via e-mail, July 5) On July 2, Francisco Antonio Manzanares and Juana Monjaras de Manzanares were brutally tortured for hours before being murdered in their home in Suchitoto. Their bodies were slashed and lye had been spread on their faces. Marina Manzanares said the family had been the target of multiple death threats in recent months. The week before her parents were killed, a box of bones arrived at their home with a note that said, “This is how you’ll receive your daughter’s bones.”

Police suggest the murder was carried out as part of a common robbery, because valuables were allegedly taken from the Manzanares home. But the killings have sparked terror in the community and rumors of a resurgence in death squad activity. “This is a crime that revisits all of the markings of the crimes committed by death squads back in the times of military dictatorship and the years of the armed conflict,” said FMLN legislative deputy Sigfrido Reyes. Alamani de Carrillo, the ombudsperson, said death squads began to resume activities in 2005; she urged the attorney general and police to undertake a serious investigation. (CRISPAZ, July 5)

On June 30, PNC agents arrested student Ricardo Gonzales Hernandez in San Salvador as he was on his way to school. Gonzales is the nephew of Frankie Flores, who represents the FMLN in California, is a member of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) International and is active with School of the Americas Watch. According to Flores, Gonzales was taking a bus to class at the Industrial Technical Institute (ITI) when he saw a group of students preparing to demonstrate over transport hikes, so he ran to catch another bus to avoid getting stuck in traffic. The bus he boarded was stopped a few blocks later by PNC special forces agents, who arrested Gonzales, claiming he had planned to commit a robbery on the bus. Flores said his nephew has never been in trouble, and divides his time between home, school and church. Flores, who lives in Los Angeles, has himself received death threats recently after writing articles about the resurgence of death squads in El Salvador. (Message from Flores, undated but probably July 1, via Resumen Latinoamericano, July 2)

At 4 PM on July 5, the Union Coordinating Committee of Salvadoran Workers (CSTS) held a press conference at its offices, pointing to the police violence at the student march as further evidence of a wave of repression against the country’s labor and grassroots movements. At 3 AM on July 6, police raided the CSTS offices without a warrant, holding CSTS press and propaganda secretary Daniel Ernesto Morales for three hours and hitting him on the head and face while demanding to know “where the weapons were.” The agents searched the offices and took equipment, cameras and $2,000 in cash. In the end they arrested Morales, supposedly because of a pistol they found in the CSTS offices, although the gun was legally registered and was at the site because it belonged to a member of the union that represents private security guards. (Centro de Estudios y Apoyo Laboral-CEAL, El Salvador, July 6) The raid took place a day after the Salvadoran government was informed that the CSTS intended to participate in a hearing before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission on the government’s systematic violation of labor rights. (UnionVoice action alert, undated)

The protests against the fare hikes continued on July 7, with hundreds of people blocking major roads in and around the capital and elsewhere in the country. The protests were called by the Social Popular Bloc (BPS) of El Salvador, which represents labor, student, campesino, veteran and religious groups, among others. The BPS blames the July 5 violence on “infiltrators” trying to damage the image of the social movements. (El Diario-La Prensa, NY, July 8)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 9

FMLN BLAMED FOR VIOLENCE

Fallout continued in El Salvador during the week of July 10 over the shooting death of two police agents at a July 5 student protest. Over the weekend of July 8, the police finally left the University of El Salvador campus, and 20-30 students arrested July 5 were released due to lack of evidence. On July 11, Union Coordinating Committee of Salvadoran Workers (CSTS) press and propaganda secretary Daniel Ernesto Morales was released; he had been arrested during a police raid on the CSTS office in the early hours of July 6.

Police have arrested a man they say was giving cover to the person who fired an M-16 during the demonstration, and are searching for Mario Belloso Castillo, who they claim fired the weapon. Both men have been members of the leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN); the ruling right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) is blaming the FMLN for the attacks and calling it a terrorist organization. The FMLN responded by condemning the use of violence at protests and pointing out that it cannot control the individual actions of its 100,000 party members.

News photos apparently show Belloso wielding an M-16 at the July 5 demonstration, but Human Rights ombudsperson Beatrice Alamani de Carrillo said on July 13 that the media footage isn’t proof that he killed the two riot agents. Alamani said the government’s only source of information–an anonymous informant–is insufficient, and only a thorough investigation will reveal who killed the agents. Alamani said “the deaths appeared to be very exact sniper executions that hit one police officer in the head and the other in the heart, to kill. This indicates that there has been a specific will to provoke this outcome.” (CISPES Update, July 13)

Meanwhile, FMLN activist Marina Manzanares Monjaras reported from Suchitoto on July 13 that she has been receiving continuing threats and intimidation since the July 2 murder of her elderly parents, Francisco Antonio Manzanares and Juana Monjaras de Manzanares. (Message from Marina Manzanares, July 13)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 16

——

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

See also WW4 REPORT #123
/node/2145

“Latin America: protests against Israeli attacks,” WW4 REPORT, July 24 /node/2229

“Guatemalan war criminal dies a free man,” WW4 REPORT, May 30 /node/2022

UnionVoice on CSTS repression in El Salvador http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/elsalvador

——————-

Reprinted by WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, Aug. 1, 2006
Reprinting permissible with attribution

Continue ReadingCENTRAL AMERICA: DEADLY REPRESSION AS CAFTA HITS IN 

CENTRAL AMERICA: TICOS PROTEST CAFTA

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

Thousands of workers from Costa Rica’s Social Security Institute, Electricity Institute, National Insurance Institute and other companies marched in San Jose on June 7 to oppose the US-sponsored Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and to protest a recent Constitutional Court decision annulling a series of benefits public workers had won through collective bargaining. According to the march organizers, 15,000 people participated.

The unionists said the court decision was intended to “smooth the way for CAFTA.” “The first victims of this CAFTA are the labor rights we’ve won,” National Association of Public and Private Employees (ANEP) general secretary Albino Vargas told the ACAN-EFE wire service. “With CAFTA, Costa Rica will have to agree to downgrade its labor legislation with the rest of the Central American countries, which means taking away rights from those who won them through struggle.” Costa Rica signed on to DR-CAFTA, but it is the only signatory nation whose legislature hasn’t ratified the agreement. President Oscar Arias, who was inaugurated on May 8, is a strong supporter of the accord. Arias was on a visit to Europe on June 7, and Vargas charged that the new president would be holding a “chat” with the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Europe while his country is “violating labor rights.” (La Nacion, Costa Rica, June 7)

The march came two weeks after a May 24 armed robbery at the office of the country’s largest labor organization, the Rerum Novarum Workers Confederation (CTRN). [Rerum Novarum is an 1891 papal encyclical on worker’s rights.] Unidentified assailants burst into the office in the morning and held pistols to the heads of two union staffers. The intruders robbed all the staffers present of their personal possessions, and then searched the office, taking a computer which had the text of a complaint the union was filing with the ILO. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) wrote to Arias demanding an “exhaustive” investigation of the incident to find the authors of these “intimidating and threatening” acts. (Yahoo de Argentina, June 5 from Europa Press; Upside Down World, June 7)

GUATEMALA: BREAK-IN AT WOMEN’S GROUP

On May 28 or 29 robbers broke into the central office of the Women’s Sector (Sector de Mujeres) organization in Guatemala City, stealing cell phones and the fax machine, rifling through files, and leaving traces of blood close to the windows and on the floor. In its 12 years of operation, Women’s Sector has organized and spoken out against violations of women’s rights and reported on the government’s failure to implement parts of the 1996 peace accords. It is one of the organizations sponsoring a legal action challenging the constitutionality of Guatemala’s participation in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). (La Semana en Guatemala May 29-June 4; Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA urgent action, June 5)

The Women’s Sector office was robbed again two weeks later, apparently on June 6. This time the intruders destroyed furniture and left a piece of glass covered with blood, apparently to intimidate the staffers. Sandra Moran, a member of the group, said the new break-in might be connected to a comparison Women’s Sector made between the current wave of murders of women in Guatemala and the methods used by paramilitaries during the country’s 36-year civil war. Another organization, the National Union of Guatemalan Women (UNAMG), reported that its office in Chimaltenango was also robbed in the early morning of June 6. The intruders stole computer equipment with important information and searched through desks. (Guatemala Hoy, June 7; La Jornada, Mexico, June 8)

On June 5–before the second break-in at the Women’s Sector–the Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC)/USA asked for letters to Guatemalan president Oscar Berger Perdomo (e-mail: presidente@scspr.gob.gt, fax +502 2251 2218) and Attorney General Juan Luis Florido (fax +502 251 2218), with copies to GHRC-USA (e-mail: ghrc-usa@ghrc-usa.org), urging a thorough investigation and noting that the government is required under the peace accords to “take special measures to protect those persons or entities working in the field of human rights.” (GHRC-USA urgent action, June 5)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, June 11

GUATEMALAN SENIORS ON HUNGER STRIKE

On June 5 some 35 Guatemalans between the ages of 60 and 95 began a liquids-only hunger strike in front of the Constitutional Court (CC) in Guatemala City to protest an effort to overturn the Law of the Older Adult, which would guarantee a minimum pension for seniors. As of June 13, 32 of the strikers remained in the encampment living on water and some liquid nutrients, although at least 25 had been taken at various times to a public assistance center. “We’d rather die of hunger here in front of the CC than on our knees waiting for the government to take pity on us,” Hector Montenegro, 70, president of the National Association of Older Persons Without Social Coverage (ANPTESCS), told the Spanish wire service EFE. This was reportedly the first mass hunger strike ever carried out by Guatemalan seniors.

Congress passed the law last year, but President Oscar Berger vetoed it November. A technical error in the veto allowed the law to be restored, but the CC suspended it in early June, before it had gone into effect, so that the court could consider a challenge to the law’s constitutionality by private attorney Rafael Zetina, who claimed the government lacked resources to pay the pensions and that the law would encourage “vagrancy.”

The law mandates a monthly pension of 578 quetzales (about $76). According to Zetina and the government, about 60,000 older Guatemalans qualify and the pension will cost the government an extra $35 million. ANPTESCS calculates that the total additional cost is about $31.5 million, which the group says can be covered by 1.85% of the Value-Added Tax (IVA, a sales tax). (El Nuevo Herald, June 5 from AP; Prensa Latina, June 9; Univision TV, June 13 from EFE)

In the early morning of June 19, police agents forcibly removed a group of seven hunger strikers who had encamped in front of the Presidential Office in solidarity with the protesters at the CC. “There were probably more than 50 [agents], and they dragged away the little old ladies,” ANPTESCS president Montenegro said. “They took them to the general hospital.” Rosa Maria de Frade insisted that the police took the protesters “because they showed symptoms of dehydration, but it was a mutually agreed-on action.” The Guatemala Human Rights Commission-USA (GHRC-USA) reported that some of those refusing to go were beaten, and that Ramiro Ortiz, 84, said police clubbed him on the back. (ENH, June 19; GHRC-USA urgent action, June 12)

As of June 20, the encampment at the Presidential Office had grown to include some 60 seniors. “We are putting up with hunger, heat and rain to see if President Oscar Berger will pay attention,” said 68-year-old Regina Morales. “We won’t leave here until we talk with the president,” others said.

The Presidential office was the target of two other protests at the same time. Students from teacher training schools marched to the office beating on drums to protest the addition of a year to their course of studies and what they said was a disguised plan to close down government-run teacher education schools and privatize the process. Another group of protesters were demanding legal titles to lands they had settled on; one of the leaders, Roly Escobar, said the government had promised them the titles two and a half years earlier. Some 380 settlements are registered in the capital’s metropolitan area for the legalization process, according to the National Coordination of Community Residents and Marginalized Areas; a total of 567 settlements are registered nationally. “The lack of seriousness of the executive has led to more than 800,000 families not having a legalized place to live,” Escobar said.

The three simultaneous protests caused a traffic jam, tying up hundreds of vehicles in the Historic Center for more than an hour. (Prensa Libre, Guatemala, June 21)

GHRC-USA is asking for letters to President Oscar Berger (fax: +502 2251 2218) and Interior Minister Carlos Vielman (fax: +502 2362 0237, e-mail: ministro@mingob.gob.gt), with copies to GHRC-USA (ghrc-usa@ghrc-usa.org), to demand an investigation of the June 19 police operation and to urge the authorities to guarantee the rights and safety of all the elderly protesters and the organizations supporting them. (GHRC-USA urgent action June 23)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, June 25

NICARAGUA: STUDENTS PROTEST FARE HIKES

A decision by Managua bus cooperatives at the beginning of May to raise fares from about $0.15 to about $0.18 set off a month of violent clashes between Nicaraguan riot police and students demanding a lower fare. The cooperatives insisted that the rising cost of fuel forced them to increase the fares and that they could hold the fares down if the government provided a subsidy of about $1 million a month. The national government of right-wing president Enrique Bolanos and the Managua government, headed by Dionisio Marenco of the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), blamed each other for the failure to provide the subsidy.

A similar dispute over fares in March and April in 2005 followed almost exactly the same pattern. This year’s confrontations are taking place during the run-up to Nov. 5 presidential and legislative elections, which will pit pro-Bolanos candidates against FSLN candidates.

The violence reached a high point in the week of May 22, when university and high school students battled riot police for five consecutive days. At least 10 people were seriously injured as students used rocks and home-made mortars against police using rubber bullets and tear gas. On May 24 bus drivers began attacking protesters outside the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) Managua campus, shooting a student in the thigh and using metal tubes and bottles to beat a young free-trade zone factory worker they mistook for a student. The students burned two buses during the week and seriously damaged three more with rocks. (Nicaragua News Service, May 23-9; Prensa Latina, May 27; La Prensa, Managua, May 23, 25; El Nuevo Diario, Managua, May 23, 24, 25)

After a brief truce, new confrontations broke out between police and students on May 31, during which students captured an agent from the anti-riot police and held him at the National Engineering University (UNI) until a mediator could arrange a release. A meeting between leaders of the students, transportation cooperatives and unions on May 31 failed to secure an agreement. On June 2 two people wearing hoods burned a vehicle belonging to the government’s Highway Maintenance Fund (FOMAV) near the UNAN campus, but it was not clear whether they were students.

Also on June 2, Gustavo Porras, general secretary of the National Workers Front (FNT), announced that students, workers and social organizations had agreed to hold a march together on June 6 to pressure the government to provide a permanent solution by allocating a transportation subsidy. Porras said the march would be followed up with sit-ins at various locations on June 7. (PL, May 31, June 2)

EL SALVADOR: PROTESTERS BLOCK HIGHWAYS

Thousands of Salvadorans protested the two-year anniversary of the election of rightwing president Antonio Saca by marching and blocking highways throughout the country. The largest protest was in San Salvador, where at least 25 activists were arrested. Actions also took place in Ahuachapan, Cojutepeque, Sonsonate, La Union, Sensuntepeque, Morazan, Guatajiagua, Chalatenango, San Vicente and Usulutan. (Adital, June 2)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, June 4

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

See also WW4 REPORT #122
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Reprinted by WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, July 1, 2006
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Continue ReadingCENTRAL AMERICA: TICOS PROTEST CAFTA 

CENTRAL AMERICA: ANTI-CAFTA MOBILIZATION

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

MAYDAY ANTI-CAFTA MOBILIZATION

As they did last year, many Central American workers marked May 1 with demonstrations protesting the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), a US-sponsored trade bloc composed of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the US. Many marchers also expressed solidarity with hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers demonstrating the same day in the US.

More than 20,000 workers, indigenous people, unionists, women and older people marched in Guatemala City, burning US flags and effigies of US president George W. Bush and Guatemalan president Oscar Berger. “The DR-CAFTA is a plague that will kill the people who live in extreme poverty,” campesino leader Daniel Pascual told the ACAN-EFE wire service. “Today is a day of Latin America inside the US,” said Jose Pinzon, a leader of the General Workers Central of Guatemala (CGTG), one of the country’s largest labor federations. The more than 1.2 million Guatemalans living in the US sent $3 billion back to Guatemala in 2005; some 60% of them are reportedly undocumented. US restaurant chains in Guatemala City’s historic center seemed empty as workers honored a boycott of US products in support of immigrants’ demands. (La Nacion, Costa Rica, May 1)

Thousands of Honduran workers, students, campesinos, indigenous peoples and others marked May 1 in 10 different cities to oppose DR-CAFTA, to show support for immigrants in the US and to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of a strike against the US-based Chiquita Brands and Standard Fruit companies which revitalized the Honduran labor movement at the time. “No unionist consumed any product from US companies today. This way we showed the empire, the US, how important we Latinos are to the US economy,” said Carlos H. Reyes, leader of the Popular Bloc, which is made up of more than 40 different grassroots and leftist organizations. According to official statistics, nearly a million Honduran live the US and one half are undocumented. Popular Bloc supporters blocked avenues and roads in a number of the cities where they marched. (La Prensa, Tegucigalpa, May 1)

Hundreds of Salvadoran workers marched in San Salvador in a demonstration sponsored by labor unions, grassroots organizations and the leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN). Workers in El Salvador are “trampled on every day,” Nidia Diaz, an FMLN deputy to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), told Radio Maya Vision. This and the lack of job opportunities is what provokes the migration of Salvadoran workers to the US, she said. (La Nacion, May 1)

In Nicaragua, unions and organizations affiliated with the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) led a march to the Colonia Primero de Mayo in eastern Managua to protest the 16 years of neoliberal economic policies promoted by right-wing governments that followed the FSLN’s electoral defeat in 1990. The FSLN is gearing up for Nov. 5 presidential and legislative elections. Organizers estimated that more than 3,000 people participated in the march. (La Prensa, Managua, May 2; El Nuevo Diario, Managua, May 1)

According to organizers, more than 5,000 Costa Ricans from 300 organizations marched in San Jose in a protest against DR-CAFTA. Costa Rica signed on to DR-CAFTA in 2004 but its legislature has not yet ratified the treaty; the legislatures of all the other signatories have completed the ratification process. “[T]he central goal of the protest is to show our opposition to the free trade agreement in order to defeat it,” Jesus Vazquez, president of the Association of Secondary School Teachers (APSE), told the ACAN-EFE wire service. “No to TLC” and “TLC=Poverty” were typical signs, using the Spanish initials for “free trade agreement.”

The march included an organized presence from the lesbian-gay rights movement, following the decision of the First Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender National Conference, held in Heredia province near San Jose on April 28-30, to issue a declaration against DR-CAFTA. At the march Abelardo Araya, president of the Diversity Movement, cited DR-CAFTA’s “negative effects,” especially on access to medicines. The movement was also calling for an end to labor discrimination. “[O]n many occasions homosexuals experience firings, persecution [and] harassment and even have problems advancing professionally,” he said. (La Nacion, May 1)

Hundreds of workers marched in Panama City in two separate marches by the Confederation of Workers of the Republic and the Public Servants Federation. In contrast to other Central American protests, support for immigrants in the US was not a theme in Panama; and Panama is not a signatory to DR-CAFTA. Instead, marchers demanded a referendum on the $5 billion plan for expansion of the Panama Canal and improved workplace safety. The day before, a Costa Rican immigrant construction worker identified as Luis Araya had fallen to his death from the 23rd floor of a building under construction. (El Nuevo Herald, Miami, May 1; El Siglo, Panama, May 1)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, May 14

GUATEMALA: UPRISING BRINGS ACCORD

On April 20, Guatemalan Mayan indigenous campesino and grassroots organizations grouped in the National Indigenous and Campesino Coordinating Committee (CONIC) began a national uprising to press a series of popular demands, including land rights and an end to discrimination and social injustice. In Escuintla, more than 100 people blocked the road leading to Puerto Quetzal; in Coatepeque, 100 more gathered; in the community of El Zarco, in Retalhuleu, more than 400 people blocked the road; in Mazatenango more than 500 people marched. Teachers protested in Chiquimula and Salcaja, Quetzaltenango, while campesinos protested in San Julian Tactic, Rio Polochi, Santa Catarina and Charca. In western Guatemala, protesters walked to the capital from San Lucas Sacatepequez. In Guatemala City, teachers gathered in Zone 9 and thousands of campesinos marched to Congress. Market vendors also marched.

The government responded to the mobilization with repression in all locations. Police fired tear gas grenades and guns at the demonstrators; one death was reported, several people were wounded and more than 27 people were arrested. (CONIC Statement, April 20 via Adital)

Later on April 20, after seven hours of negotiations, Vice President Eduardo Stein reached an agreement with CONIC to open a dialogue with labor, campesino and grassroots organizations on the movement’s demands. In exchange, CONIC agreed to suspend the protests. The agreement was reached with the mediation of human rights ombudsperson Sergio Morales. (Prensa Libre, Guatemala, April 21; Guatemala Hoy, April 25)

Meanwhile, Carlos Arriaga of the National Coordinating Committee of Campesino Organizations reported that on April 24, campesinos were violently evicted from the La Verde farm in San Andres Villa Seca, Retalhuleu. (GH, April 24)

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

See also WW4 REPORT #121
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Reprinted by WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, June 1, 2006
Reprinting permissible with attribution

Continue ReadingCENTRAL AMERICA: ANTI-CAFTA MOBILIZATION 

EL SALVADOR:

No Business as Usual as CAFTA Takes Effect

by Paul Pollack

SAN SALVADOR, March 1 — There was little fanfare and much protest today as the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) went into effect in El Salvador. The country is the first Central American nation to honor CAFTA and for the second straight day, thousands marched and traffic was snarled throughout San Salvador. Five other signatory nations have failed to meet US requirements necessary to join the agreement.

The day before, Salvadoran President Tony Saca proclaimed the start of CAFTA by announcing to George Bush (who was not present), “Come with your basket empty and take it home full.”

Today’s march started at the Salvador del Mundo Plaza and streamed for blocks to the Civic Plaza, in the heart of downtown San Salvador. Vendors of pirated CD’s and small farmers took to the streets next to unionists, students and anarchists. All declared their opposition to CAFTA, or the “TLC,” as it is known in Spanish.

The Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) political party announced that it intended to repeal CAFTA legislation, based on its inconformity with the Salvadoran constitution. The party submitted a lawsuit before the Supreme Court of Justice, but acknowledged that without a majority in the country’s Legislative Assembly behind them, there was not much hope for success.

Many people are looking towards the March 12 elections to decide CAFTA’s fate. If CAFTA opponents can gather 43 votes in the Legislative Assembly, they will be able to repeal enacting laws that the US deems essential for CAFTA participation.

CAFTA regulates trade in goods, services and investment, and forces governments to extend “national treatment” to foreign corporations. The agreement creates special courts to adjudicate trade disputes. These courts allow corporations to sue governments for “anticipated lost profits” if they can prove that local laws impede business. Protesters say that CAFTA will destroy local agricultural production by allowing cheap produce and grain from the US to enter tariff-free.

Perhaps the most heartening resistance to CAFTA in El Salvador has come from the informal sector. Months ago, the US demanded that El Salvador pass more stringent laws protecting copyright and brand-name logos. National police immediately launched a campaign to eliminate vendors who sold copies of popular CD’s, DVD’s and other name-brand merchandise. Instead of closing up shop however, vendors organized and fought back for their right to sell the gray-market merchandise. These vendors were in the streets yesterday in full force. One sign read: “No to originals!”

Protesters vowed to continue the fight and very few in the crowd felt that CAFTA was permanent.

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This piece originally appeared in Upside Down World
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/221/1/

See also:

“El Salvador: Protests as CAFTA Starts,” Weekly News Update on the Americas, March 5
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“Water Privatization for El Salvador?” by Paul Pollack, WW4 REPORT #119
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“CAFTA’s Assault on Democracy,” by Tom Ricker and Burke Stansbury, WW4 REPORT #119
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Reprinted by WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, April 1, 2006
Reprinting permissible with attribution

Continue ReadingEL SALVADOR: 

CAFTA’S ASSUALT ON DEMOCRACY

The New Corporate Agenda for Central America

by Tom Ricker and Burke Stansbury

What does tightening intellectual property laws have to do with “free” trade? That’s the question many people in Central American and the Dominican Republic are asking as the United States trade representative continues to insist on dramatic changes to constitutional laws in the six countries involved in the US-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (otherwise known as CAFTA).

As if the agreement itself weren’t bad enough for the region—critics say CAFTA will hurt small farmers, worsen workers rights, and lead to environmental degradation, among other negative effects—the US is manipulating the implementation process to demand even further concessions by the six countries involved.

January 1, 2006 marked the date that the Bush Administration set for CAFTA implementation. However, progress has been frustrated due to US insistence on significant constitutional reforms in the CAFTA countries. CAFTA approval in the US Congress is sited by the Bush administration as one of its few legislative successes of 2005, despite the fact that the two-vote margin was the closest ever for such an agreement. In fact, the flawed implementation process lumps CAFTA in a series of administration failures on trade which include stalled negotiations towards the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Doha round of the WTO.

One country has achieved the reforms necessary for implementation: El Salvador. But much like El Salvador’s turbulent ratification of the agreement—which occurred at 3:00 in the morning in an assembly surrounded by riot police—the process has been fraught with problems. In December the National Assembly rammed through 14 constitutional changes without any substantial debate, leading to the eruption of massive protests by informal-sector market vendors a few weeks later. The reforms will impose fines and even jail time for those who sell and purchase pirated goods, thereby destroying the livelihood of many poor Salvadorans who depend on the informal economy.

The Salvadoran executive introduced the CAFTA reforms just two days prior to the vote, prompting legislators from the largest opposition Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) to abstain from the vote and walk out of the Assembly session. Said Salvador Arias, a leading economist and deputy for the FMLN, “The right is giving our national legislation a coup de grace by putting it completely at the service of transnational corporations’ commercial interests, to the detriment of the common good.”

The Bush administration continues to demand that intellectual property rights protections be tightened in the other CAFTA countries before they can be certified to join the agreement. The US government is criticizing Guatemala’s pending intellectual property law for not being strict enough, using CAFTA implementation to pressure for tighter restrictions on drug patents—benefiting pharmaceutical corporations but certainly not poor people in need of affordable drugs. It’s no wonder that in Guatemala 20,000 protestors demonstrated against the National Assembly’s vote in favor of CAFTA last March.

Despite such popular opposition, the Central American governments continue to promote CAFTA as the great savior of the Central American people, bringing jobs, investment and opportunities for all. But resistance to CAFTA in the region continues to grow, and polls show that Central Americans believe that CAFTA will not improve their economic situation.

Perhaps more embarrassing for the Bush administration is that Costa Rica, representing one of the largest economies in the region, has yet to vote on CAFTA. Opposition has been fierce and is growing stronger. The new US ambassador in Costa Rica recently criticized that country for not having moved forward on CAFTA, and threatened that it could lose its textile export benefits under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) if it fails to approve the trade deal.

Similarly, in September 2005 under Secretary of State Robert Zoellick was sent to Nicaragua to threaten cuts in development aid should that country not pass the accord. CAFTA was introduced, “debated,” and voted on in one afternoon the week following Zoellick’s visit. Indeed, such threats have been the norm throughout the CAFTA negotiation, ratification, and implementation process.

Meanwhile, legal challenges have accompanied popular mobilization in the region. In Nicaragua, the National Workers Front (FNT) challenged CAFTA implementation before the Supreme Court, identifying 15 specific requirements of CAFTA that contravene the country’s constitution, including the provision granting transnational corporations special legal rights to seek monetary damages in response to regulatory efforts. Court battles are also pending in El Salvador.

Organizations from throughout Central America recently met in Costa Rica for the Sixth Mesoamerican Forum where they pledged to continue fighting CAFTA by monitoring its negative effects in the region and by mobilizing in the streets. In the US, the Stop CAFTA Coalition organized coordinated, local anti-CAFTA actions in January to denounce the likely effects of the agreement in Central America and to hold accountable representatives and senators who voted in favor of CAFTA last July. The actions also celebrated the continued resistance in Central America to “free” trade, privatization, and US economic domination.

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Tom Ricker is co-director of the Quixote Center‘s Quest for Peace Program. Burke Stansbury is Executive Director for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). Both organizations are founding members of the Stop CAFTA Coalition.

This story originally appeared in Upside Down World, Jan. 31 http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/179/1/

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Reprinted by WORLD WAR 4 REPORT, March 1, 2006
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