News June 14
News Update - June 14
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1. Peru: Campesinos Protest Free Trade
2. Costa Rica: Thousands March Against CAFTA
3. Guatemala: Break-in at Women's Group
4. Bolivia: Land Reform Decreed
5. Bolivia: Landowner Instigates Clash
6. Bolivia: One Dead in Urban Eviction
7. Brazil: Landless Invade Congress
8. Chile: Students End Strike
9. Mexico: Teachers Threaten Boycott
10. Mexico: Mysterious Campaign Shooting
*1. PERU: CAMPESINOS PROTEST FREE TRADE
On June 8, Peruvian campesinos held a day of protest against the
Andean Free Trade Agreement (known in the region as the Free
Trade Treaty, or TLC) which Peru's government signed with the US
last December. (The regional pact includes Colombia and Ecuador,
but the US has carried out negotiations with each country
separately, and the talks with Ecuador have been suspended since
March.) Hundreds of campesinos marched on the Panamerican South
highway in Chincha, Ica region, blocking traffic for hours. The
campesinos are demanding that Peru's Congress make changes to the
pact so it won't hurt small-scale farmers, especially those
producing cotton and corn. More than 3,000 campesinos marched to
the central plaza of Tarapoto, in San Martin region, from areas
including Altomayo and Huallaga Central. They threw rice during
the protest to draw attention to the negative impact the TLC will
have on Peruvian rice producers. [Cadena Peruana de Noticias
6/8/06] On June 7 or 8, before the protests began, the
Constitution Commission of Peru's Congress ruled out holding a
referendum on the TLC. [Adital 6/8/06]
Campesino leader Jose Villanueva told the Cadena Peruana de
Noticias radio network: "[President-elect] Alan Garcia in his
initial speech said the signing of that treaty was irresponsible,
yet now that he won the elections he is in favor and it seems he
won't say anything in the face of its ratification." [Cadena
Peruana de Noticias 6/8/06]
According to official results reported on June 10, with 99.77% of
the ballots counted, Garcia of the Peruvian Aprista Party won the
June 4 presidential runoff election with 52.6% of the vote,
compared to 47.4% for nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala, who
has come out more strongly against the TLC. Earlier reports
showed Garcia with a lead of more than 10 percentage points over
Humala [see Update #853]. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/6/06 from AFP,
DPA, Reuters; El Nuevo Herald 6/10/06 from AP] Based on the
results from the Apr. 9 general elections, Humala's Union for
Peru party will have the largest bloc in Congress, with 45 of the
120 seats, compared to 36 for Garcia's Aprista party. [ENH 6/8/06
from AP]
*2. COSTA RICA: THOUSANDS MARCH AGAINST CAFTA
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) 6/7/06 from Acan-EFE]
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 6/5/06 from Europa Press; Upside Down World 6/7/06]
*3. 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 5/29/06-
6/4/06; Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA urgent action
6/5/06]
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 6/7/06; La Jornada
(Mexico) 6/8/06 from AFP]
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 (email
presidente@scspr.gob.gt, fax +502 2251 2218) and Attorney General
Juan Luis Florido (fax +502 251 2218), with copies to GHRC-USA
(email 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 6/5/06]
*4. BOLIVIA: LAND REFORM DECREED
On June 3, Bolivian president Evo Morales Ayma signed decrees
instituting a large-scale national agrarian reform program. In a
ceremony in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, Morales
handed out the first titles under the new program, distributing
30,000 square kilometers of state-owned land to indigenous
campesino communities in what he called the start of a "true
agrarian revolution." Thousands of representatives of indigenous,
campesino and social organizations attended the ceremony in the
city's Chiriguano Plaza.
Morales called Bolivia's 1953 agrarian reform "insufficient" and
said his new program is broader and deeper. On June 6, Alfredo
Rada, deputy minister of coordination with the country's social
movements, announced that the program would redistribute 2.2
million hectares of land over the next four months. About 20
million hectares--a fifth of Bolivia's total land area--is
expected to be redistributed over the next five years.
In addition to handing out land parcels, the government will
provide subsidies, credits and equipment to small-scale
agricultural producers under the reform plan. In his June 3
speech, Morales also pledged his government's support for
"ecological products" and called for turning Bolivia into an
"organic country" which produces crops without chemical
fertilizers or pesticides.
While the reform program's initial distributions involve state-
owned land, Morales said his government will also confiscate
private lands that are deemed non-productive. He denied
accusations by large-scale landowners that their lands are being
stolen. In talks with those business sectors, Morales said, he
asked them to prove such claims and they declined. "They, their
grandparents, have stolen our land for 500 years," said Morales.
"They have to give the lands back to their original owners." [BBC
News 6/4/06; Resumen Latinoamericano 6/7/06; La Jornada (Mexico)
6/7/06 from correspondent & wire services; El Nuevo Herald
(Miami) 6/10/06 from AP]
The federation representing large-scale landowners in the eastern
Bolivian departments of Santa Cruz, Beni and Pando violently
opposes the land reform. When its leaders walked out of talks
with the government during the week of May 29, they warned that
their members would form paramilitary "self-defense" groups to
protect their estates from confiscation. [BBC News 6/4/06; LJ
6/7/06 from correspondent & wire services]
Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas also tried to fight the agrarian
reform by announcing his own reform plan on May 23, allegedly
with the goal of distributing land to campesinos and indigenous
people in Santa Cruz, the country's largest and most economically
powerful department. The national government called Costas' plan
illegal and unconstitutional. [LJ 6/7/06 from correspondent &
wire services] On June 9, the Santa Cruz business sectors named
Costas as their representative for possible land reform talks
with the Morales government. [LJ 6/10/06 from correspondent]
According to a public statement from the Confederation of
Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB), the Morales government's
new land reform decrees were developed in consensus among
Bolivia's indigenous and campesino organizations and were
approved in the National Agrarian Commission. Federations
representing large-scale farmers and ranchers were invited to
participate in the Commission but declined, said CIDOB.
The Commission was established under Law 1715, the National
Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA) Law, pushed through in October
1996 by the government of then-president Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada despite fierce protests by campesino and indigenous
sectors [see Updates #344, 345, 347-351]. The latest decrees,
which must still be approved by Congress, modify Law 1715 and,
according to CIDOB, seek to correct "injustices and illegalities"
in decrees promulgated in May 2005. One of these, Decree 28140,
created a new form of property--"forest property"--favoring
powerful economic sectors in eastern Bolivia. [CIDOB Statement
6/9/06] Decree 28140 was one of 46 decrees issued by President
Carlos Mesa Gisbert on May 17, 2005, a day after mass protests
began against his administration. He was forced from office three
weeks later, on June 6. [National Department of Social
Communication http://www.comunica.gov.bo/]
*5. BOLIVIA: LANDOWNER INSTIGATES CLASH
Over the weekend of June 3, Bolivian businessperson Luis del Rio
hired a group of Ayoreo indigenous people, armed with bows,
arrows and sticks, to attack other indigenous people allegedly
squatting on property he claims to own in Ascencion de Guarayos,
in the eastern department of Santa Cruz. The Ayoreo--who were
apparently drunk during the attack--burned the squatters'
makeshift homes, the alternative news agency Bolpress reported.
Two indigenous people were wounded. [La Jornada 6/7/06 from
correspondent & wire services; El Nuevo Herald 6/10/06 from AP;
Confederacion de Pueblos Indigenas de Bolivia (CIDOB) Statement
6/9/06]
Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said on June 9 that neither
Del Rio nor the squatters have any property titles for the land
in Guayaros, and that both groups will be evicted. Speaking in
Santa Cruz, Rural Development Minister Hugo Salvatierra accused
the Guarayos deputy mayor and the mayor of El Puente of "inciting
violence among indigenous people." Salvatierra said the two
municipal officials also sought to kidnap a national government
commission investigating land invasions in the area, in order to
"aggravate the problem." [LJ 6/10/06 from correspondent]
The Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB)
accused large landholders of creating a "false conflict" in
Guarayos, "making it seem as if the Ayoreo people are in
confrontation with the campesinos, which is not true." According
to CIDOB, "Once the Ayoreo brothers have been tricked by land
speculators taking advantage of their economic need, they are
hired and paid to defend the lands of those who claim to be the
owners--without proving it--of land occupied by Ayoreos and
campesinos." [CIDOB Statement 6/9/06] [A similar land conflict
involving Ayoreo indigenous people who were hired as thugs took
place May 8-12, 2005, on the Los Yuquises estate in Santiesteban
province, in Santa Cruz--see Update #798.]
*6. BOLIVIA: ONE DEAD IN URBAN EVICTION
On June 9, a land conflict erupted in Oruro department in
southwestern Bolivia when police agents and soldiers moved to
evict hundreds of members of the Homeless Movement (MST) from
urban properties on the outskirts of the city of Oruro, the
departmental capital. The MST had been occupying the properties,
which belonged to private owners and the departmental government,
for a month and a half. Police agents and soldiers used tear gas
and rubber bullets to dislodge the squatters, who responded with
rocks, sticks and dynamite, according to a report from the Erbol
radio network. At least 10 squatters were treated in a local
hospital for injuries; one police agent was killed by a bullet.
More than 30 people were arrested by the Technical Judicial
Police (PTJ). [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/10/06 from correspondent; El
Nuevo Herald (Miami) 6/10/06 from AP]
Oruro governor Alfredo Aguilar said he ordered the eviction based
on a court order. Alfredo Rada, deputy minister of coordination
with social movements, expressed the national government's
support for the action taken by Oruro authorities. [ENH 6/10/06
from AP] Rada said the government talked with the MST to try to
find a solution, "but we found an intransigence among the
representatives and we decided on the eviction. We knew the
risks, but we had no alternative but to restore legality." [LJ
6/10/06 from correspondent]
Presidency Minister Juan Ramon Quintana said the police agent who
died was a "member of the Battalion of Private Physical
Security." Rada said the agent was dressed in civilian clothing
during the operation. "The circumstances of the death are under
investigation," said Rada. [ENH 6/10/06 from AP]
Quintana denied that the police had used firearms, "not even
rubber bullets." The use of lethal weapons "does not fit within
the logic or the policy of our government; the maximum use of
chemical agents was ordered for this task," said Quintana.
The MST responded to the eviction with a protest march on the
evening of June 8, and 70 of its members began a hunger strike at
the offices of the Departmental Workers' Federation (COD). [LJ
6/10/06 from correspondent]
Quintana blamed the Oruro violence on the rightwing Democratic
and Social Power (Podemos) party led by ex-president Jorge
Quiroga, which he accused of working with elements of the
"radical left" in an effort to erode support for the ruling
Movement to Socialism (MAS) as the July 2 elections for a
Constituent Assembly draw near. [AP 6/11/06]
The Constituent Assembly, which will have the task of rewriting
Bolivia's Constitution, is scheduled to begin sessions on Aug. 6.
[Resumen Latinoamericano 6/7/06] Congress approved the law
convening the Constituent Assembly on Mar. 4, Morales promulgated
it on Mar. 6 and candidates for the Assembly's 255 seats had to
be registered by Apr. 3. The MAS is set to benefit from the short
timeline, since only political parties, duly recognized citizen
groups or undefined "indigenous peoples" can offer candidates.
Any social organization lacking such status would have had to
obtain--in less than a month--signatures representing 2% of
registered voters on a departmental or national level. ["Bolivia:
Proceso Abierto," article by Raquel Gutierrez & Luis A. Gomez
4/30/06 via Resumen Latinoamericano 6/9/06; AP 6/11/06]
*7. BRAZIL: LANDLESS INVADE CONGRESS
On June 6, hundreds of Brazilian landless workers from the
Landless Liberation Movement (MLST), armed with sticks and farm
implements, forced their way into an annex of the Chamber of
Deputies building in Brasilia. The protesters reached a room next
to one of the two main debating chambers where a legislative
session was taking place. They smashed windows, tables and doors,
and overturned and destroyed a car which was on display as the
prize of a sweepstakes for congressional staff. Officials said
about 500 people were arrested and more than 25 were hurt, one
seriously, as police and security guards tried to regain control.
The protesters said they were demanding legislative changes to
speed up land reform and end slave labor. They said they had
planned a peaceful protest but police attacked them. In a
statement, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned the
unrest as an act of vandalism against democracy. Lula is seeking
reelection in October. [BBC News 6/7/06]
The Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), Brazil's largest
and best-known landless organization, issued a press release on
June 7 clarifying that it "did not take part in any of the
protests conducted by the MLST at the Chamber of Deputies, in
Brasilia." The MST clarified that "the MLST is not a dissident
group of the MST," and the two groups are "in no way related."
[MST Press Release 6/7/06]
The Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) described the June 6 events as
"painful," noting that some of the MLST members carried out
"physical aggression against public servants." The CPT said it
was "not in agreement" with all the protest methods, but
understands the "just" indignation that agricultural workers and
other Brazilians feel "with so many scandals emerging every day
involving legislators in corruption cases and the embezzlement of
public resources." The CPT noted that Congress recently rejected
an official report on land conflicts, substituting it with a
statement declaring land occupations to be a terrorist act.
The CPT said it hopes the May 6 incident will lead the government
to seek efficient and rapid solutions to the people's legitimate
demands. The CPT also expressed its desire that the MLST members
arrested during the protest get their cases dealt with quickly
and with all the benefits allowed under the law. The CPT
explained to the Brazilian alternative news service Adital that
the MLST was formed spontaneously in Pernambuco in 1997 by a
group of landless workers led by Bruno Maranhao, a leader of the
"Socialist Brazil" current of Lula's leftist Workers Party (PT).
[Adital 6/9/06]
*8. CHILE: STUDENTS END STRIKE
On June 5 some 600,000 Chilean high school students began the
first day of an open-ended strike. They were joined in the action
by 300,000 university students and many professors. The first day
of the strike was supposedly scheduled as a "day of reflexion,"
without marches or demonstrations. [Adital 6/6/06] But in the
center of Santiago, some 500 students--mostly from universities--
ended up clashing with police, who sprayed them with water
cannons and tear gas. At least 40 people were arrested. In the
city of Valparaiso, some 12,000 high school students and union
members marched peacefully after reaching an agreement with the
militarized Carabineros police. In the northern city of La
Serena, some looting and attacks on stores were reported, and 12
people were arrested. In Concepcion, 23-year old Silvia Lobos was
injured and nine people were arrested in a clash with Carabineros
agents. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/6/06 from correspondent] Deputy
Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said a total of 439 people were
arrested and 35 injured nationwide over the course of the day on
June 5. [LJ 6/7/06 from correspondent]
The students had been protesting for weeks, demanding significant
representation on a commission charged with promoting changes to
the Constitutional Organic Law on Education (LOCE). The LOCE was
promulgated by dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte on Mar. 10, 1990-
-a day before Pinochet handed the government over to his elected
predecessor, Patricio Aylwin. Among other things, the law
provided state subsidies for private schools and handed public
schools over to municipal control under a "decentralization"
plan. The students were also calling for free university entrance
exams and public transport subsidies for the poorest students;
these demands were partially granted by the government of
President Michelle Bachelet on June 1 [see Updates #851, 853].
The protest movement, dubbed the "Penguin Revolution" because of
the uniforms the students wear, began on Apr. 26 when 1,000
students protested a delay in bus pass subsidies. [Adital 6/6/06;
Inter Press Service 6/9/06; LJ 6/6/06 & 6/7/06, both from
correspondent; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 6/8/06 from AFP]
On June 7, just before leaving on a trip to the US and the
Caribbean, Bachelet created a Presidential Advisory Council to
propose measures to improve the education system. At the same
time, Bachelet named representatives of academic, professional
and social organizations to fill most of the Council's 73 seats,
leaving open six slots for high school students and six for
university students.
The strike began losing steam following Bachelet's June 7 move,
and on June 9, the National Coordinating Assembly of High School
Students (ACES) announced an end to the strike and to the
occupations of school buildings. ACES spokesperson Maria Jesus
Sanhueza said the 700,000 striking high school students would
return to classes on June 13, the first day of school after a
long holiday weekend, but that they will stay on alert to make
sure the accord is fulfilled.
ACES spokesperson Juan Carlos Herrera admitted that the students
ended the protests because they were worn down, but said "we feel
victorious, we feel we have won." He said that although the
Presidential Advisory Council is not "truly representative," ACES
will send representatives to the Council's first meeting on June
13 and will try to form a bloc with representatives of social
organizations. [IPS 6/9/06; LJ 6/10/06 from correspondent; ENH
6/10/06 from AP]
*9. MEXICO: TEACHERS THREATEN BOYCOTT
The 70,000 members of Section 22 of Mexico's huge National
Education Workers Union (SNTE) continued their militant
mobilizations in the southern state of Oaxaca the week of June 5.
The Oaxaca teachers went on strike on May 22 to demand a cost of
living adjustment and an increased education budget; since then
they have maintained a sit-in blocking 56 streets in the city of
Oaxaca's Historic Center [see Update #853].
On June 5 teachers blocked off access to the state legislature. A
legislative official, Marcelo Diaz de Leon Murieras, charged that
the teachers broke into the building and looted and destroyed
property worth a total of 230,000 pesos ($20,220). According to
Section 22 secretary Enrique Rueda Pacheco, the teachers "just
went in [to the cafeteria] to get some soft drinks because they
were thirsty and some chairs to rest on." The next day, June 6,
thousands of teachers blocked the roads into the government-owned
Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) facility in Tlacolula municipality,
north of the city of Oaxaca, from 8am to 4pm, while other
teachers occupied the tollbooths for the Mexico-Oaxaca highway in
Huitzo municipality. Some 150 students seized the rector's office
at the Benito Juarez Oaxaca Autonomous University (UABJO) in
support of the striking teachers. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/7/06]
On June 7 the teachers held their second "megamarch" in less than
a week, with an estimated 120,000 teachers and supporters walking
12km to the Plaza de la Danza, where unionists and social
activists held a "people's impeachment" for Gov. Ulises Ruiz
Ortiz. The jury's decision will be presented to the legislature
as a formal petition for impeachment. Reporters said the
demonstration was the largest in the state's history. [LJ 6/8/06]
On June 10 the strikers blocked shopping centers, banks, market
places and bus terminals, and announced plans to boycott the July
2 national presidential and legislative elections. Section 22
secretary Rueda Pacheco said the teachers would blockade the
local office of the Federal Election Institute (IFE) on June 11
as "the beginning" of the boycott. [LJ 6/11/06]
Support for the Oaxaca teachers was the focus of one of three
demonstrations held in Mexico City on June 10. In the morning
some 4,000 teachers from the states of Michoacan, Oaxaca,
Tlaxcala and Guerrero marched from the Angel of Independence in a
demonstration called by the National Workers Coordinating
Committee (CNTE), a dissident rank-and-file caucus in the SNTE,
to demand an end to violence against women, campesinos,
unionists, students and teachers. The marchers said they would
not allow "Oaxaca to become Atenco," a reference to bloody police
attacks on campesino activists and their supporters in Texcoco
and San Salvador Atenco, two municipalities northeast of Mexico
City in Mexico state, on May 3 and May 4 [see Updates #849, 853].
Thousands of unionists and veterans of the 1968 student movement
marched in a separate demonstration in Mexico City's San Tomas
area to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the June 10, 1971,
massacre of at least 23 student demonstrators by government thugs
known as "The Falcons."
In the afternoon, The Other Campaign, a leftist movement promoted
by the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), held a
third march, also in the San Tomas area, headed by the 1968
student movement veterans and Atenco's militant Front of the
Peoples United in Defense of the Land (FDPT). The marchers
mourned 20-year-old Alexis Benhumea Hernandez, who died June 7 of
injuries he received on May 4 when he went to Atenco with his
father and brother to support the campesino activists. His skull
was fractured by a police tear-gas projectile fired at close
range, and he lay in a coma for 34 days before dying. Benhumea
was an economics student at the National Autonomous University of
Mexico (UNAM); he also studied mathematics, Russian and classical
ballet. [LJ 6/11/06, 6/8/06; El Universal (Mexico) website
6/7/06; Comite Cerezo 6/8/06]
[This was the second death from the Atenco incidents of May 3-4;
Francisco Javier Cortes Santiago, a 14-year-old Atenco resident,
was killed on May 3 by bullet of the type used by Mexico state
police--see Update #849].
*10. MEXICO: MYSTERIOUS CAMPAIGN SHOOTING
At about 6:30am on June 6, unknown persons in a Chevrolet fired
on an armored van carrying Cecilia Gurza, the wife of imprisoned
Mexican business magnate Carlos Ahumada Kurtz, near the couple's
Mexico City home; their three children and the family's driver
were also in the vehicle. There were no injuries, but the van was
hit by 10 bullets. Gurza said she was taking the children to
school, and later in the day she was planning to make public five
videos allegedly showing corruption by officials of the center-
left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Gurza said she had been receiving telephoned death threats since
June 3, and that the videos would hurt former Mexico City mayor
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the PRD's candidate in the July 2
presidential elections. The Argentine-born Ahumada made similar
videos public in 2004 before his own arrest on corruption charges
[see Update #745]. Long the front runner, Lopez Obrador is now
tied with Felipe Calderon of the center-right National Action
Party (PAN); recent polls show both with about 35% of voter
preferences. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 6/7/06 from La Opinion,
AP]
The shooting is being investigated by the PRD-controlled Mexico
City government. As of June 10, Gurza had denied requests from
the city's attorney general, Bernardo Batiz, for the five videos.
So far the only person detained in the incident is Miguel Angel
Cruz Vazquez, who was working illegally as a bodyguard for the
Ahumada family at the same time that he was employed as a guard
at Mexico City's Reclusorio Norte prison, where he was guarding
Ahumada himself. [LJ 6/11/06; El Universal 6/9/06]
2. Costa Rica: Thousands March Against CAFTA
3. Guatemala: Break-in at Women's Group
4. Bolivia: Land Reform Decreed
5. Bolivia: Landowner Instigates Clash
6. Bolivia: One Dead in Urban Eviction
7. Brazil: Landless Invade Congress
8. Chile: Students End Strike
9. Mexico: Teachers Threaten Boycott
10. Mexico: Mysterious Campaign Shooting
*1. PERU: CAMPESINOS PROTEST FREE TRADE
On June 8, Peruvian campesinos held a day of protest against the
Andean Free Trade Agreement (known in the region as the Free
Trade Treaty, or TLC) which Peru's government signed with the US
last December. (The regional pact includes Colombia and Ecuador,
but the US has carried out negotiations with each country
separately, and the talks with Ecuador have been suspended since
March.) Hundreds of campesinos marched on the Panamerican South
highway in Chincha, Ica region, blocking traffic for hours. The
campesinos are demanding that Peru's Congress make changes to the
pact so it won't hurt small-scale farmers, especially those
producing cotton and corn. More than 3,000 campesinos marched to
the central plaza of Tarapoto, in San Martin region, from areas
including Altomayo and Huallaga Central. They threw rice during
the protest to draw attention to the negative impact the TLC will
have on Peruvian rice producers. [Cadena Peruana de Noticias
6/8/06] On June 7 or 8, before the protests began, the
Constitution Commission of Peru's Congress ruled out holding a
referendum on the TLC. [Adital 6/8/06]
Campesino leader Jose Villanueva told the Cadena Peruana de
Noticias radio network: "[President-elect] Alan Garcia in his
initial speech said the signing of that treaty was irresponsible,
yet now that he won the elections he is in favor and it seems he
won't say anything in the face of its ratification." [Cadena
Peruana de Noticias 6/8/06]
According to official results reported on June 10, with 99.77% of
the ballots counted, Garcia of the Peruvian Aprista Party won the
June 4 presidential runoff election with 52.6% of the vote,
compared to 47.4% for nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala, who
has come out more strongly against the TLC. Earlier reports
showed Garcia with a lead of more than 10 percentage points over
Humala [see Update #853]. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/6/06 from AFP,
DPA, Reuters; El Nuevo Herald 6/10/06 from AP] Based on the
results from the Apr. 9 general elections, Humala's Union for
Peru party will have the largest bloc in Congress, with 45 of the
120 seats, compared to 36 for Garcia's Aprista party. [ENH 6/8/06
from AP]
*2. COSTA RICA: THOUSANDS MARCH AGAINST CAFTA
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) 6/7/06 from Acan-EFE]
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 6/5/06 from Europa Press; Upside Down World 6/7/06]
*3. 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 5/29/06-
6/4/06; Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA urgent action
6/5/06]
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 6/7/06; La Jornada
(Mexico) 6/8/06 from AFP]
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 (email
presidente@scspr.gob.gt, fax +502 2251 2218) and Attorney General
Juan Luis Florido (fax +502 251 2218), with copies to GHRC-USA
(email 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 6/5/06]
*4. BOLIVIA: LAND REFORM DECREED
On June 3, Bolivian president Evo Morales Ayma signed decrees
instituting a large-scale national agrarian reform program. In a
ceremony in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, Morales
handed out the first titles under the new program, distributing
30,000 square kilometers of state-owned land to indigenous
campesino communities in what he called the start of a "true
agrarian revolution." Thousands of representatives of indigenous,
campesino and social organizations attended the ceremony in the
city's Chiriguano Plaza.
Morales called Bolivia's 1953 agrarian reform "insufficient" and
said his new program is broader and deeper. On June 6, Alfredo
Rada, deputy minister of coordination with the country's social
movements, announced that the program would redistribute 2.2
million hectares of land over the next four months. About 20
million hectares--a fifth of Bolivia's total land area--is
expected to be redistributed over the next five years.
In addition to handing out land parcels, the government will
provide subsidies, credits and equipment to small-scale
agricultural producers under the reform plan. In his June 3
speech, Morales also pledged his government's support for
"ecological products" and called for turning Bolivia into an
"organic country" which produces crops without chemical
fertilizers or pesticides.
While the reform program's initial distributions involve state-
owned land, Morales said his government will also confiscate
private lands that are deemed non-productive. He denied
accusations by large-scale landowners that their lands are being
stolen. In talks with those business sectors, Morales said, he
asked them to prove such claims and they declined. "They, their
grandparents, have stolen our land for 500 years," said Morales.
"They have to give the lands back to their original owners." [BBC
News 6/4/06; Resumen Latinoamericano 6/7/06; La Jornada (Mexico)
6/7/06 from correspondent & wire services; El Nuevo Herald
(Miami) 6/10/06 from AP]
The federation representing large-scale landowners in the eastern
Bolivian departments of Santa Cruz, Beni and Pando violently
opposes the land reform. When its leaders walked out of talks
with the government during the week of May 29, they warned that
their members would form paramilitary "self-defense" groups to
protect their estates from confiscation. [BBC News 6/4/06; LJ
6/7/06 from correspondent & wire services]
Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas also tried to fight the agrarian
reform by announcing his own reform plan on May 23, allegedly
with the goal of distributing land to campesinos and indigenous
people in Santa Cruz, the country's largest and most economically
powerful department. The national government called Costas' plan
illegal and unconstitutional. [LJ 6/7/06 from correspondent &
wire services] On June 9, the Santa Cruz business sectors named
Costas as their representative for possible land reform talks
with the Morales government. [LJ 6/10/06 from correspondent]
According to a public statement from the Confederation of
Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB), the Morales government's
new land reform decrees were developed in consensus among
Bolivia's indigenous and campesino organizations and were
approved in the National Agrarian Commission. Federations
representing large-scale farmers and ranchers were invited to
participate in the Commission but declined, said CIDOB.
The Commission was established under Law 1715, the National
Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA) Law, pushed through in October
1996 by the government of then-president Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada despite fierce protests by campesino and indigenous
sectors [see Updates #344, 345, 347-351]. The latest decrees,
which must still be approved by Congress, modify Law 1715 and,
according to CIDOB, seek to correct "injustices and illegalities"
in decrees promulgated in May 2005. One of these, Decree 28140,
created a new form of property--"forest property"--favoring
powerful economic sectors in eastern Bolivia. [CIDOB Statement
6/9/06] Decree 28140 was one of 46 decrees issued by President
Carlos Mesa Gisbert on May 17, 2005, a day after mass protests
began against his administration. He was forced from office three
weeks later, on June 6. [National Department of Social
Communication http://www.comunica.gov.bo/]
*5. BOLIVIA: LANDOWNER INSTIGATES CLASH
Over the weekend of June 3, Bolivian businessperson Luis del Rio
hired a group of Ayoreo indigenous people, armed with bows,
arrows and sticks, to attack other indigenous people allegedly
squatting on property he claims to own in Ascencion de Guarayos,
in the eastern department of Santa Cruz. The Ayoreo--who were
apparently drunk during the attack--burned the squatters'
makeshift homes, the alternative news agency Bolpress reported.
Two indigenous people were wounded. [La Jornada 6/7/06 from
correspondent & wire services; El Nuevo Herald 6/10/06 from AP;
Confederacion de Pueblos Indigenas de Bolivia (CIDOB) Statement
6/9/06]
Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said on June 9 that neither
Del Rio nor the squatters have any property titles for the land
in Guayaros, and that both groups will be evicted. Speaking in
Santa Cruz, Rural Development Minister Hugo Salvatierra accused
the Guarayos deputy mayor and the mayor of El Puente of "inciting
violence among indigenous people." Salvatierra said the two
municipal officials also sought to kidnap a national government
commission investigating land invasions in the area, in order to
"aggravate the problem." [LJ 6/10/06 from correspondent]
The Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB)
accused large landholders of creating a "false conflict" in
Guarayos, "making it seem as if the Ayoreo people are in
confrontation with the campesinos, which is not true." According
to CIDOB, "Once the Ayoreo brothers have been tricked by land
speculators taking advantage of their economic need, they are
hired and paid to defend the lands of those who claim to be the
owners--without proving it--of land occupied by Ayoreos and
campesinos." [CIDOB Statement 6/9/06] [A similar land conflict
involving Ayoreo indigenous people who were hired as thugs took
place May 8-12, 2005, on the Los Yuquises estate in Santiesteban
province, in Santa Cruz--see Update #798.]
*6. BOLIVIA: ONE DEAD IN URBAN EVICTION
On June 9, a land conflict erupted in Oruro department in
southwestern Bolivia when police agents and soldiers moved to
evict hundreds of members of the Homeless Movement (MST) from
urban properties on the outskirts of the city of Oruro, the
departmental capital. The MST had been occupying the properties,
which belonged to private owners and the departmental government,
for a month and a half. Police agents and soldiers used tear gas
and rubber bullets to dislodge the squatters, who responded with
rocks, sticks and dynamite, according to a report from the Erbol
radio network. At least 10 squatters were treated in a local
hospital for injuries; one police agent was killed by a bullet.
More than 30 people were arrested by the Technical Judicial
Police (PTJ). [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/10/06 from correspondent; El
Nuevo Herald (Miami) 6/10/06 from AP]
Oruro governor Alfredo Aguilar said he ordered the eviction based
on a court order. Alfredo Rada, deputy minister of coordination
with social movements, expressed the national government's
support for the action taken by Oruro authorities. [ENH 6/10/06
from AP] Rada said the government talked with the MST to try to
find a solution, "but we found an intransigence among the
representatives and we decided on the eviction. We knew the
risks, but we had no alternative but to restore legality." [LJ
6/10/06 from correspondent]
Presidency Minister Juan Ramon Quintana said the police agent who
died was a "member of the Battalion of Private Physical
Security." Rada said the agent was dressed in civilian clothing
during the operation. "The circumstances of the death are under
investigation," said Rada. [ENH 6/10/06 from AP]
Quintana denied that the police had used firearms, "not even
rubber bullets." The use of lethal weapons "does not fit within
the logic or the policy of our government; the maximum use of
chemical agents was ordered for this task," said Quintana.
The MST responded to the eviction with a protest march on the
evening of June 8, and 70 of its members began a hunger strike at
the offices of the Departmental Workers' Federation (COD). [LJ
6/10/06 from correspondent]
Quintana blamed the Oruro violence on the rightwing Democratic
and Social Power (Podemos) party led by ex-president Jorge
Quiroga, which he accused of working with elements of the
"radical left" in an effort to erode support for the ruling
Movement to Socialism (MAS) as the July 2 elections for a
Constituent Assembly draw near. [AP 6/11/06]
The Constituent Assembly, which will have the task of rewriting
Bolivia's Constitution, is scheduled to begin sessions on Aug. 6.
[Resumen Latinoamericano 6/7/06] Congress approved the law
convening the Constituent Assembly on Mar. 4, Morales promulgated
it on Mar. 6 and candidates for the Assembly's 255 seats had to
be registered by Apr. 3. The MAS is set to benefit from the short
timeline, since only political parties, duly recognized citizen
groups or undefined "indigenous peoples" can offer candidates.
Any social organization lacking such status would have had to
obtain--in less than a month--signatures representing 2% of
registered voters on a departmental or national level. ["Bolivia:
Proceso Abierto," article by Raquel Gutierrez & Luis A. Gomez
4/30/06 via Resumen Latinoamericano 6/9/06; AP 6/11/06]
*7. BRAZIL: LANDLESS INVADE CONGRESS
On June 6, hundreds of Brazilian landless workers from the
Landless Liberation Movement (MLST), armed with sticks and farm
implements, forced their way into an annex of the Chamber of
Deputies building in Brasilia. The protesters reached a room next
to one of the two main debating chambers where a legislative
session was taking place. They smashed windows, tables and doors,
and overturned and destroyed a car which was on display as the
prize of a sweepstakes for congressional staff. Officials said
about 500 people were arrested and more than 25 were hurt, one
seriously, as police and security guards tried to regain control.
The protesters said they were demanding legislative changes to
speed up land reform and end slave labor. They said they had
planned a peaceful protest but police attacked them. In a
statement, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned the
unrest as an act of vandalism against democracy. Lula is seeking
reelection in October. [BBC News 6/7/06]
The Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST), Brazil's largest
and best-known landless organization, issued a press release on
June 7 clarifying that it "did not take part in any of the
protests conducted by the MLST at the Chamber of Deputies, in
Brasilia." The MST clarified that "the MLST is not a dissident
group of the MST," and the two groups are "in no way related."
[MST Press Release 6/7/06]
The Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) described the June 6 events as
"painful," noting that some of the MLST members carried out
"physical aggression against public servants." The CPT said it
was "not in agreement" with all the protest methods, but
understands the "just" indignation that agricultural workers and
other Brazilians feel "with so many scandals emerging every day
involving legislators in corruption cases and the embezzlement of
public resources." The CPT noted that Congress recently rejected
an official report on land conflicts, substituting it with a
statement declaring land occupations to be a terrorist act.
The CPT said it hopes the May 6 incident will lead the government
to seek efficient and rapid solutions to the people's legitimate
demands. The CPT also expressed its desire that the MLST members
arrested during the protest get their cases dealt with quickly
and with all the benefits allowed under the law. The CPT
explained to the Brazilian alternative news service Adital that
the MLST was formed spontaneously in Pernambuco in 1997 by a
group of landless workers led by Bruno Maranhao, a leader of the
"Socialist Brazil" current of Lula's leftist Workers Party (PT).
[Adital 6/9/06]
*8. CHILE: STUDENTS END STRIKE
On June 5 some 600,000 Chilean high school students began the
first day of an open-ended strike. They were joined in the action
by 300,000 university students and many professors. The first day
of the strike was supposedly scheduled as a "day of reflexion,"
without marches or demonstrations. [Adital 6/6/06] But in the
center of Santiago, some 500 students--mostly from universities--
ended up clashing with police, who sprayed them with water
cannons and tear gas. At least 40 people were arrested. In the
city of Valparaiso, some 12,000 high school students and union
members marched peacefully after reaching an agreement with the
militarized Carabineros police. In the northern city of La
Serena, some looting and attacks on stores were reported, and 12
people were arrested. In Concepcion, 23-year old Silvia Lobos was
injured and nine people were arrested in a clash with Carabineros
agents. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/6/06 from correspondent] Deputy
Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said a total of 439 people were
arrested and 35 injured nationwide over the course of the day on
June 5. [LJ 6/7/06 from correspondent]
The students had been protesting for weeks, demanding significant
representation on a commission charged with promoting changes to
the Constitutional Organic Law on Education (LOCE). The LOCE was
promulgated by dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte on Mar. 10, 1990-
-a day before Pinochet handed the government over to his elected
predecessor, Patricio Aylwin. Among other things, the law
provided state subsidies for private schools and handed public
schools over to municipal control under a "decentralization"
plan. The students were also calling for free university entrance
exams and public transport subsidies for the poorest students;
these demands were partially granted by the government of
President Michelle Bachelet on June 1 [see Updates #851, 853].
The protest movement, dubbed the "Penguin Revolution" because of
the uniforms the students wear, began on Apr. 26 when 1,000
students protested a delay in bus pass subsidies. [Adital 6/6/06;
Inter Press Service 6/9/06; LJ 6/6/06 & 6/7/06, both from
correspondent; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 6/8/06 from AFP]
On June 7, just before leaving on a trip to the US and the
Caribbean, Bachelet created a Presidential Advisory Council to
propose measures to improve the education system. At the same
time, Bachelet named representatives of academic, professional
and social organizations to fill most of the Council's 73 seats,
leaving open six slots for high school students and six for
university students.
The strike began losing steam following Bachelet's June 7 move,
and on June 9, the National Coordinating Assembly of High School
Students (ACES) announced an end to the strike and to the
occupations of school buildings. ACES spokesperson Maria Jesus
Sanhueza said the 700,000 striking high school students would
return to classes on June 13, the first day of school after a
long holiday weekend, but that they will stay on alert to make
sure the accord is fulfilled.
ACES spokesperson Juan Carlos Herrera admitted that the students
ended the protests because they were worn down, but said "we feel
victorious, we feel we have won." He said that although the
Presidential Advisory Council is not "truly representative," ACES
will send representatives to the Council's first meeting on June
13 and will try to form a bloc with representatives of social
organizations. [IPS 6/9/06; LJ 6/10/06 from correspondent; ENH
6/10/06 from AP]
*9. MEXICO: TEACHERS THREATEN BOYCOTT
The 70,000 members of Section 22 of Mexico's huge National
Education Workers Union (SNTE) continued their militant
mobilizations in the southern state of Oaxaca the week of June 5.
The Oaxaca teachers went on strike on May 22 to demand a cost of
living adjustment and an increased education budget; since then
they have maintained a sit-in blocking 56 streets in the city of
Oaxaca's Historic Center [see Update #853].
On June 5 teachers blocked off access to the state legislature. A
legislative official, Marcelo Diaz de Leon Murieras, charged that
the teachers broke into the building and looted and destroyed
property worth a total of 230,000 pesos ($20,220). According to
Section 22 secretary Enrique Rueda Pacheco, the teachers "just
went in [to the cafeteria] to get some soft drinks because they
were thirsty and some chairs to rest on." The next day, June 6,
thousands of teachers blocked the roads into the government-owned
Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) facility in Tlacolula municipality,
north of the city of Oaxaca, from 8am to 4pm, while other
teachers occupied the tollbooths for the Mexico-Oaxaca highway in
Huitzo municipality. Some 150 students seized the rector's office
at the Benito Juarez Oaxaca Autonomous University (UABJO) in
support of the striking teachers. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/7/06]
On June 7 the teachers held their second "megamarch" in less than
a week, with an estimated 120,000 teachers and supporters walking
12km to the Plaza de la Danza, where unionists and social
activists held a "people's impeachment" for Gov. Ulises Ruiz
Ortiz. The jury's decision will be presented to the legislature
as a formal petition for impeachment. Reporters said the
demonstration was the largest in the state's history. [LJ 6/8/06]
On June 10 the strikers blocked shopping centers, banks, market
places and bus terminals, and announced plans to boycott the July
2 national presidential and legislative elections. Section 22
secretary Rueda Pacheco said the teachers would blockade the
local office of the Federal Election Institute (IFE) on June 11
as "the beginning" of the boycott. [LJ 6/11/06]
Support for the Oaxaca teachers was the focus of one of three
demonstrations held in Mexico City on June 10. In the morning
some 4,000 teachers from the states of Michoacan, Oaxaca,
Tlaxcala and Guerrero marched from the Angel of Independence in a
demonstration called by the National Workers Coordinating
Committee (CNTE), a dissident rank-and-file caucus in the SNTE,
to demand an end to violence against women, campesinos,
unionists, students and teachers. The marchers said they would
not allow "Oaxaca to become Atenco," a reference to bloody police
attacks on campesino activists and their supporters in Texcoco
and San Salvador Atenco, two municipalities northeast of Mexico
City in Mexico state, on May 3 and May 4 [see Updates #849, 853].
Thousands of unionists and veterans of the 1968 student movement
marched in a separate demonstration in Mexico City's San Tomas
area to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the June 10, 1971,
massacre of at least 23 student demonstrators by government thugs
known as "The Falcons."
In the afternoon, The Other Campaign, a leftist movement promoted
by the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), held a
third march, also in the San Tomas area, headed by the 1968
student movement veterans and Atenco's militant Front of the
Peoples United in Defense of the Land (FDPT). The marchers
mourned 20-year-old Alexis Benhumea Hernandez, who died June 7 of
injuries he received on May 4 when he went to Atenco with his
father and brother to support the campesino activists. His skull
was fractured by a police tear-gas projectile fired at close
range, and he lay in a coma for 34 days before dying. Benhumea
was an economics student at the National Autonomous University of
Mexico (UNAM); he also studied mathematics, Russian and classical
ballet. [LJ 6/11/06, 6/8/06; El Universal (Mexico) website
6/7/06; Comite Cerezo 6/8/06]
[This was the second death from the Atenco incidents of May 3-4;
Francisco Javier Cortes Santiago, a 14-year-old Atenco resident,
was killed on May 3 by bullet of the type used by Mexico state
police--see Update #849].
*10. MEXICO: MYSTERIOUS CAMPAIGN SHOOTING
At about 6:30am on June 6, unknown persons in a Chevrolet fired
on an armored van carrying Cecilia Gurza, the wife of imprisoned
Mexican business magnate Carlos Ahumada Kurtz, near the couple's
Mexico City home; their three children and the family's driver
were also in the vehicle. There were no injuries, but the van was
hit by 10 bullets. Gurza said she was taking the children to
school, and later in the day she was planning to make public five
videos allegedly showing corruption by officials of the center-
left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Gurza said she had been receiving telephoned death threats since
June 3, and that the videos would hurt former Mexico City mayor
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the PRD's candidate in the July 2
presidential elections. The Argentine-born Ahumada made similar
videos public in 2004 before his own arrest on corruption charges
[see Update #745]. Long the front runner, Lopez Obrador is now
tied with Felipe Calderon of the center-right National Action
Party (PAN); recent polls show both with about 35% of voter
preferences. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 6/7/06 from La Opinion,
AP]
The shooting is being investigated by the PRD-controlled Mexico
City government. As of June 10, Gurza had denied requests from
the city's attorney general, Bernardo Batiz, for the five videos.
So far the only person detained in the incident is Miguel Angel
Cruz Vazquez, who was working illegally as a bodyguard for the
Ahumada family at the same time that he was employed as a guard
at Mexico City's Reclusorio Norte prison, where he was guarding
Ahumada himself. [LJ 6/11/06; El Universal 6/9/06]
posted by Latin America Solidarity Committee at 5:15 pm
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