Latin American Solidarity Committee Aotearoa

Latin America Solidarity News 16th July 07

2007-07-17T15:42:00.000+12:00

Latin America Solidarity News 13th April 2007

2007-04-14T17:11:00.000+12:00

Latin America Solidarity News March 18th 2007

2007-03-18T10:36:00.000+12:00

Events and Resources

The tale of Mundo, Daniel, the co-pilot, the duck, the mouse and the pig: Observing the 2006 Nicaraguan elections

Christchurch Tuesday 20 March, 12noon, Jobberns room, level 4, Geography building, University of Canterbury Geography Departmental Seminar by Julie Cupples

Last year Julie Cupples worked as an international election observer with the Carter Center for the 2006 Nicaraguan elections which saw Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista Front for National Liberation returned to power. This talk will talk about some of the political complexities of the electoral process from the point of view of an observer.
Contact: julie@geog.canterbury.ac.nz to organise a meeting in your centre.
Also visit youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUS9cnODlaY.

CUBAN TOUR APRIL 16 TO 22
Chance to hear Cuban ICAP (Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples) visitors:
Buenaventura Reyes Acosta, Vice-president of ICAP and
Alicia Elvira Corredera Morales, Director of Asia-Pacific Division, ICAP
National Contact: Mike Treen DD - 64 9 845 4027; Mobile - 0295254744

Wellington meeting Tuesday April 17th:
Public meeting Havana Bar, 32a Wigan Street, 7.30pm.
Presentation and discussion followed by social.

Update on Oaxaca and report back from Central America
Hear Julie Webb-Pullman 13th April 6pm VTBD
Presentation of Commission report on Human Rights in Oaxaca (Mexico)

LAC AGM Thursday 26th April 6pm
Planning for new year! VTBD.

Habana Blues
World Cinema Showcase film festival is featuring a Cuban film - Habana Blues - in this year’s festival.
A captivating love letter to life on the ‘crazy isle’ of Cuba, Habana Blues follows a group of musicians struggling to make the big time. If that sounds like Buena Vista Social Club: the Return, be aware this is fiction – these young stallions play a vibrant hybrid of soul and rock, and their goal in life is to leave behind the politics of their impoverished island. Ruy and Tito are the Mick and Keith of the band who spend their days flogging everything from cigars to sombreros out of the back of Tito’s delicious red ‘52 Chevy. When their long-awaited break arrives in the guise of Spanish record producer Marta, their lives are thrown into turmoil by the tantalising prospect of a one-way ticket to Spain. For once they’ve left Cuba, they can never return.

World Cinema Showcase - Auckland - March 15 - April 4, 2007
World Cinema Showcase - Wellington - March 29 - April 11. 2007
World Cinema Showcase - Christchurch - April 12 - 25, 2007
World Cinema Showcase - Dunedin - April 19 - May 5, 2007
www.worldcinemashowcase.co.nz

NEWS

Chiquita admits to working with Colombian terrorist group
CBC News
The Chiquita banana company admitted to doing business with a Colombian terrorist organization on Wednesday and agreed to pay a $25 million US fine.
The Cincinnati-based banana company worked out the fine with U.S. federal prosecutors, who accused Chiquita of paying $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, a right-wing organization also known as AUC.
Chiquita Brands International said the payments were made to ensure the safety of its employees, who work on farms in volatile parts of Colombia, where leftist militants frequently clash with right-wing paramilitaries. AUC promised to keep Chiquita's workers safe in exchange for money, Chiquita said.
The United States designated the AUC a terrorist organization in September 2001. The AUC is alleged to be responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia in recent years. The group is also accused of running much of the country's cocaine trade.
"The payments made by [Chiquita] were always motivated by our good faith concern for the safety of our employees," Fernando Aguirre, Chiquita's CEO, said in a statement Wednesday.
Details of the fine and settlement agreement were not released Wednesday, but Aguirre said the company has money set aside to pay the $25-million fine.
The U.S. Justice Department launched a lengthy investigation into Chiquita's financial dealings with AUC several years ago. In April 2003, Chiquita officials and lawyers admitted to prosecutors they had been paying AUC, but still continued to hand money over to the AUC until 2004.
Federal prosecutors filed what's known as an "information" against Chiquita in a U.S. court Wednesday. Unlike an indictment, the information is resolved by the prosecutors and the defendants and is usually followed by a guilty plea.
Mayan activists 'purify' sacred site in Guatemala
IXIMCHE, Guatemala (AP) - A whiff of incense, a sputter of candles, a hum of prayer. Mayan Indian activists on Thursday offered the gentlest protest yet to the Latin American tour of U.S. President George W. Bush as they held a purification ceremony to drive out the "bad spirits" they said he had left behind during a stop at their ancient pyramid.
Bush visited Iximche, capital of the prehispanic Kaqchiqueles kingdom, during his daylong trip to Guatemala as part of a five-nation tour of Latin America.
The activists said the bad spirits were roused by Bush's policies, including the U.S.-led war in Iraq and an immigration raid last week in Massachusetts that netted several Guatemalan immigrants and left dozens of their children stranded at schools.
"Today is a special day on the Mayan calendar," said Jorge Morales, director of the Young Mayan Movement. "That's why we are taking advantage to do this special event to clean and get rid of the bad spirits and re-establish this sacred place's harmony."
The group of about a dozen ascended a partially restored stone pyramid to a central altar, where they burned incense, scattered holy water and bowed to the ground in prayer.
The organizers of the protest are leaders of Indian rights organizations associated with the left-leaning National Indian and Peasant Co-ordinating Committee.
© The Canadian Press, 2007

Si Es Verdad
by Tim Costello, Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith
March 15, 2007

President Bush got a big surprise on his goodwill visit to
Guatemala this week. Protesters filled the streets of
Guatemala City to denounce an immigration raid that took place
at a leather goods factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts on
March 6th. The raid resulted in the arrest of 361 people,
most of them undocumented immigrants from Guatemala and El
Salvador.Even the President of Guatemala criticized the raids
in his welcoming speech to Bush on his arrival. This is big
news in Guatemala because 10% of the entire Guatemalan
population - many of them undocumented - lives in the US.

The press in Guatemala - and in Massachusetts - has been filled
with stories of the raid and its aftermath of families
shattered,children separated from their parents, and children
being held in federal custody. According to the New York Times:

"Facing pointed questions from Guatemalan journalists,Mr. Bush
stood by the raid, saying, 'People will be treated with
respect,but the United States will enforce our law. Mr. Bush
said he disputed 'conspiracies' relayed by Mr.
Berger [Guatemala's President] that children were taken away
from families. Mr. Bush denied such accounts. 'No es la
verdad,' Mr. Bush said, 'That's not the way America operates.
We're a decent, compassionate country. Those are the kind
of things we do not do. We believe in families, and we'll treat
people with dignity."

Well, si es verdad. Days after the raids the
Massachusetts Department of Social Services ( DSS) reported
that they 'could not connect 100 children with their
families'. One woman arrested in the raid was flown back from
Texas where she was being held when her 7 year old daughter
called a hot line created to unite families divided by the raid
to ask about her mother'swhereabouts. Two nursing infants were
hospitalized for dehydration when they were separated from
their mothers.

Once again Bush is either lying or out of touch with reality.
The events of this raid have been well documented and
roundly condemned by the press and politicians in Massachusetts
across the political spectrum. In the era of global
communications, people in Guatemala didn't even have to rely
on the media; they could pick up the phone and call their
relatives in New Bedford to find out what was really going on.

The New Bedford raid had what is by now a familiar feel to it.
On March 6, up to 500 government agents, police, and others
surrounded the Michael Bianco, Inc.leather goods factory in
New Bedford Massachusetts. Inside, an announcement came over
loudspeakers, 'Stay where you are. Immigration agents are in
the building.' Panic ensued as workers made a run for it, but
the exits were blocked, some by police with guns drawn. Some
workers scurried into hiding places, hoping to wait out the
raid.

When the building was finally locked down agents instructed US
citizens or green card holders to move to one area and all
others to another area. Workers were interviewed. Some were
released in a few hours because of compelling health or family
reasons. But most were loaded onto buses and transported to a
holding facility on Fort Devens, a former military base about
60 miles away.

Following processing at Fort Devens, 70 of those arrested
were released for a variety reasons within a few days, 90 are
being held in various jails in Massachusetts and Rhode Island,
and 207 were flown far from their homes and families to jails
in Texas. 8 minors were picked up, 3 were released, the rest
are being held in Miami.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick engaged in a few
testy exchanges with the Department of Homeland Security as did
Senators Kennedy and Kerry and other members of the state's
Congressional delegation. Patrick attacked the 'race to the
airport,' to move the workers out of state before they could be
properly interviewed. Kennedy compared the effect of the raids
to, 'the tragedy and human suffering that we all
witnessed after the devastation wreaked by Hurricane
Katrina....These men and women had not harmed anyone. They were
victims of exploitation, forced to work under barbaric
conditions by an employer who knew that they could not afford
to complain. Their children, many of whom are United States
citizens, had done nothing wrong at all. None of them had any
reason to expect that the Departmentof Homeland Security would
decide to make an example out of them."

Kerry called for a Congressional investigation of the raid.

Meanwhile, immigrant rights groups rushed to court and won
a federal court order to halt the out of state flights. But
most of the captives had already been moved.

The Massachusetts DSS sent two teams of 18 social workers
to Texas to interview those arrested. They asked that 21 mothers
be returned to Massachusetts immediately. While the Department
of Homeland Security maintains that it has worked closely with
DSS in the aftermath of the raids, DSS Commissioner
Harry Spence angrily denies this: 'They stopped us at every
step of the way. ICE's rhetoric has been completely different
from the truth.'

The company - owned by Michael Bianco - makes backpacks and vests
for the military under a $138 million contract, and
employs about 500 people. The firm also makes high end leather
goods for name brands like Coach, Inc.

Bianco and four others were arrested following the raid
and charged with knowingly employing undocumented workers or
providing false documents to workers. But unlike the workers,
Bianco and the managers were immediately released on bail and
were back at work the next day.

The Pentagon's contract rules encourage sweatshop production
like those that exist at Bianco, Inc. In fact, Massachusetts'
politicians complained to the Department of Defense long
before the raids about poor labor conditions in
factories producing uniforms and other articles for the
military, although they did not specially mention Bianco.

At a press conference announcing the raid US Attorney Michael
Sullivan pointed to the 'horrible' conditions in the
plant. Indeed an 11 month long investigation, which included
the use of undercover agents, turned up evidence of classic
sweatshop conditions: low wages, no benefits, harsh working
conditions which included restrictions on workers talking or
using restrooms, and workers' pay being docked for
infractions of workplace rules.

Yet no attempt was made to enforce labor laws. Instead,
the victims of the labor abuse were arrested and transported
and their children subjected to what, by virtually any
definition, is child abuse by federal authorities.

The story of the New Bedford raid is still unfolding. But it
could have areal impact on the current immigration debate.

Many advocates of immigration reform see the increase in
the number of raids by the Bush Administration as a move to
satisfy both the hard-line anti-immigrant wing of the
Republican Party and the corporate wing that wants access to
cheap immigrant labor through a guest worker program.
By creating a crisis, the Bush Administration hopes to push
through an immigration reform bill that it likes. It's unclear
whether the strategy will be successful.

On the one hand, many well meaning people - and some not so well-
meaning people - are now calling for immediate action
on comprehensive immigration reform. Massachusetts Senator
Kennedy is preparing to refile a bill similar to one filed in
the last session of Congress that attracted bi-partisan
support. That bill would provide an amnesty for many ofthose
already living in the US. But it would also create a guest
worker program for future immigrant flows and increase funding
for enforcement. It is as we have often written a bad
bill. It will not prevent future immigrant flows; it does not
stop New Bedford-style raids but instead increases enforcement
funding; and it creates a guest worker program that
could institutionalize sweatshops, since it is clear that
authorities are not interested in enforcing labor laws even
when they know from their own investigations that rampant labor
law violations exist.

On the other hand, the New Bedford raid could have a positive
blowback effect. As a result of Bush's visit to Latin America
and the protests in Guatemala, the raid may serve to highlight
the need for a hemispheric approach to immigration reform. Real
reform must involve both the sending and the receiving
countries and as the US moves to further militarize the border
and more draconian raids take place, Latin Americans are
demanding more of a say in how immigration is managed. Latin
American countries weighed in on the U.S.immigration law
reform debate last year, and the coalitions of social
movements and labor such as the Hemispheric Social Alliance
have long proposed principlesto regulate immigration
throughout the Americas.

It's time for immigrant rights advocates, labor unions, and
other elements of global civil society with a stake in
US immigration policy to step into the vacuum and create a new
immigration discourse and program based the realities of
immigrant flows in the age of globalization .

[Tim Costello, Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith are the
co-founders of Global Labor Strategies, a resource center
providing research and analysis on globalization, trade and
labor issues. GLS staff have published many previous reports on
a variety of labor-related issues, including Outsource This!
American Workers, the Jobs Deficit, and the Fair Globalization
Solution, Contingent Workers Fight For Fairness, and Fight
Where You Stand!: WhyGlobalization Matters in Your Community
and Workplace. They have also written and produced the Emmy-
nominated PBS documentary Global Village or Global Pillage? GLS
has offices in New York, Boston, and Montevideo,Uruguay.
For more on GLS visit: www.laborstrategies.blogs.com or email
info@laborstrategies.org.]

Full Tanks at the Cost of Empty Stomachs:
The Expansion of the Sugarcane Industry in Latin America
http://www.mstbrazil.org/?q=sugarcaneindustrybrazillatinamericamstanalysis20

We, representatives of organizations and social movements of Brasil,
Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic,
gathered at a forum on the expansion of the sugarcane industry in Latin
America, declare that:

The current model of production of bioenergy is sustained by the same
elements that have always caused the oppression of our peoples:
appropriation of territory, of natural resources, and the labor force.

Historically the sugar industry served as an instrument to maintain
colonialism in our countries and the creation of dominant classes that have
controlled, through today, large extensions of land, the industrial process,
and commercialization. This sector is based on latifundio ownership, on the
overexploitation of labor (including slave labor) and the appropriation of
public resources. This sector was created upon intensive and extensive
monocropping, provoking concentration of land, profit, and wealth.

The sugarcane industry was one of the main agricultural activities developed
in the colonies. It allowed sectors that controlled production and
commercializaction to continue accumulating capital and with this contribute
to the development of capitalism in Europe. In Latin America, the creation
and control of the State, beginning in the 19th century, continued to
service the colonial interests. Currently, control of the State by this
sector is characterized by so-called "bureaucratic capitalism". The sugar
industry defined the political structures of national States and of Latin
American economies.

In Brasil, beginning in the 1970s, during the so-called world oil "crisis",
the sugarcane industry began to produce fuel, which justified its
maintenance and expansion. The same was repeated in 2004, with the new
Pro-Alcohol program, which principally serves to benefit agribusiness. The
Brasilian government began to stimulate the production of biodiesel as well,
principally to guarantee the survival and expansion of large extensions of
soy monoculture. To legitimate this policy and camouflage its destructive
effects, the government stimulated the diversified production of biodiesel
by small producers, with the objective of creating a "social seal". The
monocultures have expanded into indigenous areas and other territories of
native peoples.

In February of 2007, the United States government announced its interest in
establishing a partnership with Brasil in the production of biofuels,
characterized as the principal "symbolic axis" in the relation between the
two countries. This is clearly a phase of a geopolitical strategy of the
United States to weaken the influence of countries such as Venezuela and
Bolivia in the region. It also justifies the expansion of monocultures of
sugarcane, soy, and african palm in all Latin American territories.

Taking advantage of the legitimate concern of international public opinion
on global warming, large agricultural companies, biotechnology companies,
oil companies, and auto companies now perceive that biofuels represent an
important source for the accumulation of capital.

Biomass is falsely presented as the new energy matrix, the ideal of which is
renewable energy. We know that biomass will not actually be able to
substitute fossil fuels, nor is it renewable.

Some characteristics inherent to the sugar industry are the destruction of
the environment and the overexploitation of labor. The principal workforce
is migrant labor. As a result, processes of migration are stimulated, making
workers more vulnerable and attempts at organization more difficult. The
rigorous work of cutting sugarcane has caused the death of hundreds of
workers.

Female workers who cut sugarcane are exploited even more, as they receive
lower salaries or, in some countries such as Costa Rica, do not directly
receive salaries. Payment is made to the husband or partner. Child labor is
commonly practiced in the industry throughout Latin America, as well as the
exploitation of youth as the main labor force in the suffocating process of
cutting sugarcane.

Workers do not have any control over the total amount of their production
and as a consequence over their salary, as they are paid according to the
quantity cut and not for hours worked. This situation has serious
implications for the health of workers and has caused the death of workers
through fatigue and the excessive labor that requires cutting up to 20 tons
per day. The majority of contracts are through third party intermediaries or
"gatos". This complicates the possibility of achieving workers' rights, as
formal work contracts do not exist. The figure of the employer is hidden in
this process, which negates the very existence of labor relations.

The Brasilian State stimulates the use of resettled lands under agrarian
reform and lands of small producers, currently responsible for 70% of the
production of food, for biofuel crops, compromising food sovereignty.

As a result, we assume the commitment of:

Expanding and strengthening the struggles of social movements in Latin
America and the Caribbean, through an articulation among existing workers'
organizations and support groups.

Denouncing and combating any agrarian model based on monocultures and
concentration of land and profit, destructive of the environment,
responsible for slave labor and the overexploitation of the working force.
Changing the current agrarian model implies a full realization of a profound
Agrarian Reform that eliminates latinfundios.

Strengthening rural workers' organizations, salaried workers, and
farmworkers to construct a new model that is closely cemented to farmworker
agriculture and agroecology, with diversified production, prioritizing
internal consumption. It is important to fight for a policy of subsidies for
the production of food. Our principal objective is to guarantee food
sovereignty, as the expansion of the production of biofuels aggravates
hunger in the world. We cannot maintain our tanks full while stomachs go
empty.
[Comissao Pastoral da Terra (CPT)
Grito dos Excluídos
Movimento Sem Terra (MST)
Servico Pastoral dos Migrantes (SPM)
Rede Social de Justica e Direitos Humanos
Via Campesina]

Bush to Press Free Trade in a Place Where Young
Children Still Cut the Cane
March 12, 2007 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/world/americas/12guatemala.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

CHIMALTENANGO, Guatemala, March 11 -- Work starts early
for the people of the Guatemalan countryside, sometimes
as early as 5 or 6. Not the time, the age.

Guatemalan children shine shoes and make bricks. They
cut cane and mop floors. At some factories exporting to
the United States, they sew and sort and chop, often in
conditions so onerous they violate even Guatemala's
very loose labor laws.

"They like us young people because we don't say
anything when they yell at us," said Alma de los
Angeles Zambrano, 15, who recently quit after 18 months
at a food processing plant to work part time for an
organization trying to improve conditions for young
workers.

President Bush is likely to miss this side of
Guatemala's labor market when he comes to this rural
area on Monday to visit a thriving agricultural
cooperative that sells products to Wal-Mart's stores in
Central America. The president will meet with Mariano
Canu, the leader of a United States-backed co-op that
hopes to take advantage of theCentral American Free
Trade Agreement. Mr. Canu is doing well enough that his
children are in school preparing for Guatemala's new
economy.

Opening up trade, Mr. Bush argues, will ultimately
raise wages and improve working conditions in Central
America. "My message to those trabajadores y
campesinos," Mr. Bush said last week, using the Spanish
words for workers and peasants, "is you have a friend
in the United States of America. We care about your
plight."

But this country's young workers, most of them poor
indigenous people, say they often feel that nobody
cares about them: not their parents, who send them off
to the work force; not their stern bosses, who treat
them like adults; not the dysfunctional government off
in Guatemala City.

"It's a major concern," said Manuel Manrique, Unicef's
representative in Guatemala. "Child labor keeps
children out of school. The numbers are very high and
there's a social acceptance in this country that child
labor is O.K."

None of the child workers interviewed around here said
they had yet felt any benefits of Cafta, as the trade
pact is known, which Guatemala signed nearly two years
ago and which slipped through the United States
Congress by a hair. One provision in Cafta, which is
intended to increase trade by eliminating tariff and
nontariff barriers, requires companies to adhere to
local labor laws and commits the United States to
helping improve inspections.

But that is easier said than done. Guatemala's labor
code sets the minimum age for employment at 14. In some
cases, though, the government can provide work permits
to even younger children. Children under 14, who require
parental permission to work, are supposed to work in
apprenticeships appropriate for their age. Economic
necessity in the family must be shown, which is not a
problem in this country where 80 percent of the
population lives in poverty and two-thirds of that
number, or 7.6 million people, live in extreme poverty.

But with little enforcement of labor laws, those
conditions are routinely violated. Guatemalan
workplaces can resemble grade schools, with adult
supervisors standing over little laborers like the
strictest of teachers.

The State Department acknowledged in its latest human
rights report for Guatemala released this month that
"child labor was a widespread and serious problem" and
that "laws governing the employment of minors were not
enforced effectively."

A few hours before leaving for Guatemala on Saturday,
Gordon D. Johndroe, the National Security Council
spokesman traveling with Mr. Bush, said: "Cafta, in its
nine-month existence, is beginning to bring economic
benefits to the people of Central America, but it will
clearly take some time before all those benefits are
fully realized. We'll continue to work with the
Guatemalan government to make sure all obligations to
their people are met."

An independent study of the issue estimated that about
a million Guatemalan children under age 18 are working.
Another review by the United Nations found 16 percent
of children between the ages of 5 and 14 in the labor
force in2000, more of them boys than girls.

The child workers are people like Maria, 16, who
lamented her four years in the labor force but at the
same time insisted that she not be fully identified so
as not to endanger a job that is helping to support her
parents and four brothers and sisters.

"My father hits me and tells me I can't study," she
said, tears running down her cheeks. "He stays home and
drinks and I have to go to the factory."

She studies on the sly. On Sundays, her only day off,
she goes to special classes for young laborers offered
by the Center for Study and Support for Local
Development, a small group known by its Spanish
initials, Ceadel. Despite having worked at a factory
since she was 12 and at home for years before that,
Maria has now completed the equivalent of third grade.

"I can be so tired, so exhausted, but I feel so good
when I come home and read," she said, her tears
stopping and her face lightingup. "It can be any book.
I just like to see the words."

Critics of Cafta see Guatemala's child labor problem as
evidence of the flaws in so-called free trade.

Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, was one of the
principle opponents of Cafta while he was in the House
of Representatives. "These trade agreements were
written for investors in large American corporations,"
he said in a telephone interview. "They weren't written
for American workers and they weren't written to
protect Central American children."

Cafta's backers, however, say it will take time to lift
countries like Guatemala out of poverty and to improve
longstanding social problems like child labor. The
United States government is paying for efforts to
improve the Ministry of Labor, which is now so
dysfunctional that some inspectors say that since they
work during the day they cannot possibly investigate
reports that children are working night shifts.

Mr.Bush, in his speech in Washington before leaving on
his Latin American trip, said American government aid
had helped lift Guatemala's percentage of children who
complete first grade to 71 percent from 51 percent, a
significant increase but one that illustrates the dire
state of education in the country.

"Children have more energy and they don't complain or
know anything about unions," said Carlos Toledo, whose
Asociacion Nuestros Derechos aids child laborers. "For
a company, they are perfect."

To draw attention to the issue of child labor in
advance of Mr. Bush's visit to Chimaltenango, the
National Labor Committee, a New York-based group that
has investigated gross labor violations worldwide,
interviewed child workers in the area.

The group focused on Legumex, a factory that exports
broccoli, melons and other fruits and vegetables to the
United States, and in a report to be issued on Monday
accuses it of violating a host of labor laws, including
employing children, some as young as 13, for shifts
longer than permitted.

Charles Kernaghan, director of the labor group, traced
the food exports to American food service marketers
that distributes to schools, hospitals, restaurants and
the military. "It is very possible that children in the
U.S. may be eating broccoli harvested and processed by
other children in Guatemala," Mr. Kernaghan said in a
statement.

But at Legumex, executives interviewed about child
labor in general insisted that they were complying with
labor laws. They said they did not employ children
under 18 without parental permission. They said they
paid low wages -- which they said were the legal minimum
of about a dollar a day but that Mr. Kernaghan said
were well below it -- because of the low prices paid for
their products in the United States.

"We're a developing country," said Hermann Peterson,
the company's auditor. "We can't have the
same conditions as factories in the United States."

Latin America Solidarity Committee
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Incal-Wellington http://incal.orcon.net.nz
Peña Cultural Latina Alternative Mondays from 20th October 6pm 128 Abel Smith St

Latin America Solidarity News 12th March 2007

2007-03-12T16:11:00.000+13:00

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Events and Resources

Successful showing of Salud!

A great response from viewers at our screenings of Salud! at the Film Archive last week.
"Salud" is top value, with a really engaging style, excellent photography and deals with the
fundamental issues of access to primary health care, and the sort of outcomes that can you
get when health care is community orientated rather than patient specific.

If I was in my early 20s, I guess I would be taking the next boat to Cuba to
enrol in their international medical college.

Three copies have been purchased, one will go to Department of Spanish and
Latin American Studies Centre, Auckland Univ, another to Global Education Centre
http://www.globaled.org.nz/, and another to the Otago Medical School.

Please spread the word around that it is available. Would be a great
appetiser for the upcoming District Health Board elections.

The DVD can be borrowed from the Global Education Centre http://www.globaled.org.nz/

Salud! Cuba/USA, 2006, Exempt, 93 minutes
Directed and produced by Academy Award nominee Connie Field, ,em>Salud! is a timely examination of human values and the health issues that affect us all. Salud! documents how Cuba not only overcomes its lack of resources to provide universal health care for its citizens but also helps other developing nations do the same.

Cuba Health Reports

Published online by the editors of MEDICC Review journal, Cuba Health Reports (CHR) offers you health and medical news from Cuba with the same standard of reliable, evidence-based analysis.

CHR is the premier destination if you want to keep up with Cuban health and medicine—including initiatives to tackle domestic health problems, updates on the country's global health cooperation and key research developments.

A few of the articles in this issue:

§ Cuba's Infant Mortality Rate Declines, Again

§ Overdue: Hospital Nacional Completely Overhauled

§ Julian Bond, NAACP, Visits US Students at Latin American Medical School

§ Studying Medicine in Cuba: Impressions of a First Year Student

Poverty, Development and Human Rights in Central America

Sally O’Neill, Director of Trocaire Central America, gave a fascinating talk on key development and human rights issues facing the peoples of Central America on 7th March.

Trocaire Central America is an organisation with over 25 years experience working alongside local development organizations in Central America around the themes of human rights and peace building (indigenous rights, gender and women’s empowerment), sustainable rural livelihoods, HIV-AIDS and civil society building. Trocaire Central America is a long term partner of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand. Contact: belinda@caritas.org.nz

Venezuela Documentary in the making
From: Julia Capon

I have just been in Venezuela over election time with the Australian
Solidarity brigade (with 8 other Kiwis - so really an Australian/NZ
brigade!) and were impressed by what we saw. My partner Ricardo and
are also currently in the process of making a documentary on
Venezuela..and applying for funding to get it out there - so shouldn't
be too long! We had some amazing interviews with Eva Golinger, Noam Chomsky, Michael Lebowitz, Greg Wilpert and Michael Fox from Venezuela Analysis to name a few and also went to the final Chavez rally and press conference and to be fair and balanced talked to the oppositon and went to their rally. We really looking forward to spreading the word about the

Bolivarian Revolution in NZ!

We thought you may be interested in looking at our documentary preview for "Venezuela's Revolutionary Tide" (working title) to see a little bit of what we experienced! It is on youtube so follow this link to watch it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUS9cnODlaY. Please feel free to forward this to anyone you feel may be interested as we want as many people as possible to see this and really want to publisice it! Or if you want we can supply you with the code to embed it in any websites related to Venezuela if your that keen! We are just in the process of applying for funding which is proving quite tricky from NZ based funding sources..but hopefully it won't be too long until we are able to show you the whole thing! Can't wait!

When we were in Venezuela we discussed setting up a solidarity group or a latin american solidarity group - but seems that we have already been beaten to it!

Venezuela
If you too want to be a "revolutionary tourist'' and ``join the wave of
backpackers, artists, academics and politicians on a mission to
discover if Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, really is forging a
radical alternative to neo-liberalism and capitalism" check out the
three solidarity brigades that the Australia Venezuela Solidarity
Network are organising this year including the first one for May Day
http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org/?q=node/40 also http://tinyurl.com/2yeg5a

.....and Venezuela Bolivariana Tours.
If your organization's members or friends are thinking of travelling to Venezuela on a tour; we are at your service. We are political activists who have seen a need to help people visit Venezuela in a safe and instructional environment. Our tours show and educate the international community about the Bolivarian revolution and the accomplishments it has achieved. People who travel on our tours will visit co-ops, factories, clinics, schools, farms, etc. They will meet with politicians, workers, community activists, doctors, teachers, etc. They will travel to various cities and states within Venezuela.

All proceeds from our tours go towards building an international solidarity and friendship centre within Venezuela. When the centre is completed it will accommodate, feed, translate for, transport and guide international visitors to places where they can learn about the revolution: the process and the people. The idea of the project is to build a self sufficient and sustainable community around it. This means that there will not only be services to visitors, but the Venezuelan community around it will benefit from, have input into, and form part of the centre. The plan of the centre is to bring the international solidarity movement together to make it united, stronger and more effective. http://www.bolivariancentre.com

May Day Global Solidarity School in Cuba

We extend a warm invitation to register for the historic first annual Global Solidarity School taking place in Havana Cuba from April 28 to May 12 2007. In the tradition of the World Social Forums, union education schools and community organizing, we are combining these elements to create a school for building social change -- bringing together students seeking to build a better world.

As a student at the Global Solidarity School, you will meet with international counterparts who care about the well being of our planet and who seek to create progressive social changes necessary to ensure social and environmental sustainability. Our classes allow you to examine global issues and strategies for change in a creative and friendly environment. Recognized activist educators and academics together with the University of Havana's top foreign language staff and cultural experts lead Global Solidarity School classes. www.solidarityschool.ca for details.

Peña Cultural Latina
Films, live music, food and conversation 128 Abel-Smith St, Wellington.
To assist in planning contact: hjorge40@hotmail.com

"La pesadilla azul" ("Blue Nightmare" in Spanish only)
Testimonies of people arrested by order of Ulises Ruiz during one of the most violent
interventions of the Federal Police on Nov. 25, 2006 in Oaxaca, Mexico
Please view at: http://www.maldeojotv.net/spip.php?article9

MAL DE OJO TV is an independent media collective in Oaxaca covering the
human rights violations in Oaxaca since June 2006. maldeojotv@espora.org

NEWS

President Bush's Trip to Latin America is All About Denial
http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1067&Itemi
d=45

"State of Denial" is the title of Bob Woodward's famous book on the Bush
team's road to disaster in Iraq, but it would have served just as well
for a description of their Latin America policy. This week President
Bush heads South for a seven-day, five country, trip to Latin America to
see if he can counter the populist political tide that has brought left
governments to about half the population of the region.

Carrying vague promises of a joint effort on ethanol production - but no
offer to lower tariffs protecting the US market - President Bush hopes
to entice Brazil into taking his side against his nemesis, President
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. This is a fantasy.

President Lula da Silva of Brazil made a point of visiting Venezuela
for his first foreign trip after being re-elected last October. There,
he presided over the dedication of a $1.2 billion bridge over the
Orinoco river, financed by the Brazilian government, while he lavished
praise on Chavez and gave the popular Venezuelan president an added
boost in his own re-election campaign.

The Bush Administration's policy of trying to isolate Venezuela from its
neighbors has only succeeded in isolating Washington. Last week
President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, speaking in Caracas, flatly
rejected the notion that Argentina or Brazil should "contain President
Chavez," whom he called "a brother and a friend." In another
thinly-veiled swipe at Washington, Kirchner said: "It cannot be that it
bothers anyone that our nations become integrated." At the same time he
announced that Venezuela and Argentina would jointly issue a "Bond of
the South" for $1.5 billion.

If Washington is in denial about the political reality of Latin America,
it is even more in denial about the economics. For twenty-five years our
government has pushed a series of reforms throughout the region: tighter
fiscal and monetary policies, more independent central banks,
indiscriminate opening to international trade and investment,
privatization of public enterprises, and the abandonment of economic
development strategies and industrial policies. The Bush team thinks
that these reforms, known as "neoliberalism" in Latin America, were just
the right formula to stimulate economic growth.

In fact, Latin America's economic growth over the last 25 years has been
a disaster - the worst long-term growth failure in more than a hundred
years. From 1980-2000 GDP per person grew by only 9 percent, and another
4 percent for 2000-2005. Compare this to 82 percent for just the two
decades from 1960-1980, and it is easy to see why candidates promising
new economic policies have been elected (and some re-elected) in
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
They also came close to winning in Mexico, Peru, and Costa Rica.

The left governments that have introduced new economic policies have
done pretty well: Argentina has grown by a phenomenal 8.6 percent
annually for nearly five years, pulling more than 8 million people out
of poverty in a country of 36 million. Bolivia has increased government
revenue from hydrocarbons by about 6.7 percent of GDP, an amount that
would equal $900 billion in the United States, and is using the
additional revenue to help its majority poor. Venezuela is also using
the government's increased take of oil production to provide health
care, education, and subsidized food for the poor. All of these
governments have succeeded by implementing policies that Washington
opposed.

President Bush will get a good reception from the right-wing governments
he is visiting: his close allies in Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala.
Colombia is in the midst of a huge national scandal over the
responsibility of government officials for mass murder and
assassinations of political opponents. More trade unionists are killed
in Colombia each year than in the rest of the world combined. Guatemala
is another right-wing ally with a terrible human rights record: two
weeks ago, three Central American parlimentarians were murdered by a
Guatemalan police death squad. All three governments have been linked to
narco-trafficking, but President Bush will likely praise them for their
cooperation in the war on drugs.

It's all about denial. The political and economic changes sweeping Latin
America are a serious break with the failed policies of the past.
Washington's influence has collapsed, and is not likely to recover.

Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C.

Stephen Lendman: Ecuador's President Embraces Bolivarianism :
Correa took office January 15 in a country of 13 million, over 70% of whom live in poverty. They voted for a man promising social democratic change and the same kinds of benefits Venezuelans now have under Hugo Chavez
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17142.htm

Venezuela's growing influence in Bolivia raises U.S. concerns:
Since Morales became president little more than a year ago, Venezuela has quickly come to rival the United States as Bolivia's main patron. It has provided assistance for the army, cattle ranches, soybean cultivation, microfinance projects, urban sanitation companies and the oil industry.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/23/news/bolivia.php

Protests Mount Against Mining Giant: -
Dangerous levels of lead and arsenic have been found in the blood of Honduran villagers living downstream from a controversial gold and silver mine owned by Canada's Goldcorp Inc., the world's third largest gold mining firm.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36717

Chavez signs decree to nationalize foreign oil companies:
The decree allows Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, (PDVSA) to take a 60 per cent stake on May 1 in four projects which process crude oil into 600,000 barrels of synthetic oil a day in the country's eastern Orinoco River basin.
http://snipurl.com/1bjlg

In Uruguay, Bush Finds a Friendly Ear

NY TIMES-Published: March 11, 2007
ESTANCIA ANCHORENA, Uruguay, March 10 — Of all of the Latin American nations President Bush is visiting this week, this one is the smallest, with a population that is roughly half that of New York City.
But it has two things that provide a particular draw: a left-leaning president in the area who is still willing to buck the anti-American push of regional strongmen like President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, and one who has a sprawling presidential retreat that is a cross between Camp David and Mr. Bush’s Texas ranch.
In a news briefing that followed the first of two meetings at that retreat, a pastoral setting with goats, cows and horses near the border with Argentina, Mr. Bush and President Tabaré Vázquez avoided their most contentious issues: Uruguay’s objection to United States trade quotas, and what has to be displeasure at the White House with Uruguay’s opposition to the Iraq war.
Mr. Bush renewed his pledge to create an overhaul of United States immigration laws that would include a guest worker program — a prospect that continues to languish in Congress but will certainly come up again on the trip. “I expressed to him that it is my interest to get a comprehensive immigration bill out of the United States Congress as soon as possible,” he said.
And Dr. Vázquez stuck to friendly, broad terms, recalling a visit to Uruguay by Mr. Bush’s father in 1990, when the doctor was the mayor of Montevideo, the nation’s capital.
Most important, officials said, was to use the visit to raise up Dr. Vázquez, still a part-time oncologist, as an example of what Dan Fisk, the top Western hemisphere specialist on the National Security Council, on Friday called “a country that is making the right policy choices.”
Last month, the United States and Uruguay signed the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to strengthen economic and trade ties without addressing the thorny issues of tariffs and subsidies. But Mr. Chávez has opposed the framework and is trying to push the region’s Mercosur trade alliance toward a stronger anti-America political stance.
Asked at the Saturday briefing about his position of juggling his country’s expanding relations with the United States and its membership in Mercosur, Dr. Vázquez said he was “strongly in favor of the regional process; we are where we are, and we don’t want to leave this place.” Though the trade alliance opposes individual bilateral deals by its members, he said, “Mercosur should be able to integrate to other blocs, other countries in the world.”
Neither he nor Mr. Bush mentioned Mr. Chávez, who was just across the Río de la Plata in Buenos Aires, having staged a demonstration against Mr. Bush on Friday night.
In fact, when Mr. Bush was asked what he thought of Mr. Chávez’s taunts, the president, who has not even spoken Mr. Chávez’s name, did not answer the question directly, saying, “The trip is a statement of a desire to work together with people in our neighborhood.” If he referred to Mr. Chávez’s bombast at all, it was by emphasizing that “I would call our diplomacy quiet and effective diplomacy.”
At his rally in Buenos Aires on Friday night, Mr. Chávez mocked everything from Mr. Bush’s poll ratings to his attempts to reach out in the region, and he said, “Gringo, go home.”
Afterward, Mr. Bush’s aides complained about the attention the news media were giving to Mr. Chávez, whose reported influence in the region they said was overblown and resented by his neighbors.
But even as Dr. Vázquez has made a show of friendship with Mr. Bush, as he did Saturday, he has also seemed to send signals to leftists like Mr. Chávez and others in the region that he has his own issues with American power.
In remarks this month in which he also spoke about Mr. Bush’s coming visit, Dr. Vázquez declared his was an “anti-imperialist” government, sharing the language of Mr. Chávez, who calls the United States an imperialist power.
When a group of Latin American journalists asked about that comment preceding the trip, Mr. Bush said last Tuesday, “I would hope he would define my government as pro-freedom.”
But officials here with Dr. Vázquez said he was not referring to the United States specifically, and was speaking in global terms. If anything, Uruguay seems very much to be swinging the United States’ way more than Mr. Chávez’s, providing important symbolism — despite Uruguay’s tiny size — for Mr. Bush this week before he moves on to a leg of his trip with other friendly nations: Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.
And in a potential salve to the television images of anti-American protests even in Montevideo, Mr. Bush and Dr. Vázquez had a lunch of barbecue beef and took a boat ride together.

Bush Heads to Colombia as Scandal Taints Key Alliance
NY TIMES-Published: March 11, 2007
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, March 10 — The Bush administration has no closer ally in South America than Colombia, the recipient of more than $4 billion in American aid this decade to combat drug trafficking and guerrilla insurgencies. But a widening scandal tying paramilitary death squads and drug traffickers to close supporters of President Álvaro Uribe is clouding President Bush’s brief visit here on Sunday.
Since the scandal worsened in recent weeks, Democrats in the United States Congress have increased their scrutiny of two important measures before them: a broad trade agreement with Colombia that has already been signed by Mr. Bush and Mr. Uribe, and a request from the administration for a new $3.9 billion aid package for the country.
Claims of human rights abuses by political allies of Mr. Uribe, including the use of information from the executive branch’s intelligence service to assassinate union organizers and university professors, have already resulted in the arrest of Jorge Noguera, a former chief of Colombia’s secret police who was awarded that job after working on the president’s campaign.
“Uribe has certainly been considered a bright light here in the United States, but at some point you have to ask: what are these people doing?” Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who heads the Senate panel that oversees aid to Colombia, said in a telephone interview from Washington. “It’s time to take a pause and look at what we’ve done,” he said, referring to the effectiveness of aid to Colombia.
Senior government officials here say concern over the scandal should not distract legislators in the United States from strides by Mr. Uribe since his presidency began in 2002. Mr. Uribe, an Oxford-educated lawyer, remains highly popular, with a 72 percent approval rating. Many Colombians, particularly in cities like Bogotá and Medellín, have welcomed a break with the chaotic years early in the decade when violence by guerrillas and paramilitaries was more widespread.
“This country was going to be Sudan, and we’ve turned a corner in a dramatic way,” Vice President Francisco Santos said in an interview, referring to fears at one point that Colombia, destabilized by an internal war, could become a failed state.
He pointed to accomplishments like economic growth expected to surpass 6 percent this year, a reduction in violent crime rates in large cities, and a process demobilizing about 30,000 paramilitary combatants.
Mr. Santos expressed gratitude for American help with efforts to end Colombia’s internal war, which has dragged on for more than four decades, displacing three million people.
Still, Mr. Santos turned on its head a statement by Winston Churchill about Americans always doing the right thing after exhausting all the alternatives by saying the United States had made “all the right decisions” in relation to Colombia. “If the Congress doesn’t approve the free trade agreement, the message is that being a friend of the United States doesn’t pay,” Mr. Santos said.
Supporters of Mr. Uribe say ties between paramilitary death squads and political supporters of the president are coming to light because of the resilience of Colombia’s political institutions, particularly the Supreme Court, which has been investigating the connections.
The court’s diligence despite death threats to its members has resulted in startling actions like an arrest warrant issued this month for Álvaro Araújo Noguera, a regional political boss implicated in the kidnapping of a member of a rival political family. Mr. Araújo, the father of Mr. Uribe’s former foreign minister, María Consuelo Araújo, remains at large.
“It is not our concern,” said Alfredo Gómez Quintero, the magistrate at the Supreme Court leading the investigation, when asked in an interview how the revelations might affect American aid to Colombia. “We know the eyes of the world are upon us. Our only job is to arrive at the truth.”
Beyond the paramilitary scandal ensnaring members of Mr. Uribe’s government and at least eight members of his coalition in Congress, human rights organizations are calling attention to the killings of trade union officials in the past six years. And there are claims of abuses involving American companies like the Drummond Company, a coal producer based in Birmingham, Ala.
A judge in Alabama this week allowed a civil lawsuit against Drummond to go forward in which the company is accused of allowing paramilitary gunmen to kill three union leaders at its operations in northern Colombia.
Drummond has repeatedly denied having a role in the killings, which have nonetheless generated skepticism over tightening trade relations with Colombia without safeguarding the rights of the working poor.
“Our aid should be more focused on giving Colombian prosecutors the resources to do their job,” said Representative Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat who visited Colombia this month.
Here in Bogotá, officials point to Mr. Bush’s visit, the first by an American president to the capital since Ronald Reagan in 1982, as evidence that the security situation has improved. Certainly the scrubbed prosperity of parts of Bogotá, its hotels bulging with foreign business executives and even the occasional tourist, contrasts with the swaths of territory still controlled by leftist-inspired guerrilla organizations.
But Mr. Bush’s visit has also drawn attention to the fact that Colombia, despite being the largest recipient of American aid outside the Middle East and Afghanistan, remains the world’s largest producer of cocaine.
The recent emergence of shadowy new paramilitary organizations with an intense focus on the cocaine trade illustrates the hydra-headed nature of Colombia’s traffickers, political analysts here say.
Mr. Santos, the vice president, said the supply of Colombian cocaine to the United States would be even greater without American antinarcotics aid. Mr. Bush is expected to stand by Mr. Uribe at a time when explicit allies in the region remain scarce.
The fragile stability in Colombia’s largest cities and the slow-burning war in its countryside came into focus in the days before Mr. Bush’s arrival, after Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro, the country’s police commander, said officials had monitored communications by guerrillas about plans for sabotage and attacks to coincide with the visit.
More than 7,000 police officers have been assigned to protect Mr. Bush.

Half Million of Latin Americans Recover Vision in Cuba

Havana, Feb 10, 2007 (Prensa Latina) Over half a million of Latin Americans recovered their vision thanks to an ophthalmologic program Operacion Milagros developed between Cuba and Venezuela since 2004.

Among those receiving the benefits there are 306 thousand Venezuelans and 100 thousand Cubans, expressed the Island Deputy Foreign Minister Yiliam Jimenez to the full session of the 9 International Meeting on Globalization and Development Problems.

According to the report of the National Information Agency Jimenez described the large cooperation program the Cuban Revolution has in education, health and other spheres with the so-called Third World, without expecting anything in return.

He also emphasized that in the late seven years of collaboration the medical groups have made over 304 million of medical consultations in 69 countries.

Meanwhile they safe lives of nearly 600 thousand lives, 5.6 over those that were lost in the Central American catastrophe, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Indonesia, he said.

Cuban doctors have also operated over 2 million 100 thousand patients.

He also noted that as part of the cooperation of Cuba with other countries over 28 young people from 120 States are studying in universities, most of them doing medicine.

Venezuela Orinoco May Top World Oil

Caracas, Feb 21, 2007 (Prensa Latina) The Orinoco oil zone, a key player in Venezuela s energy strategy, has the potential of becoming one of the world s largest oil reserves.

Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., with the State as major share holder, runs Magna Reserva Project within the 2005-2030 Siembra Petrolera Project to gauge and confirm its estimated 235 billion barrel potential.

PDVSA expects 15.3 billion dollar investments between 2006 and 2012 from partners in Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, China, Cuba, Iran, India, Malaysia, Russia, Spain, Uruguay and Vietnam.

Such hopes also involve four heavy oil refining ventures with US transnationals Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, Chevron Texaco and British Petroleum, Total (France) and Statoil (Norway).

If such potentials are confirmed Orinoco would stand as a pillar of Venezuela s industrial, social, economic, technological and domestic development.

MEXICO: CHIAPAS GROUP THREATENED

On Feb. 26 the Center for Economic and Political Investigations
of Community Action (CIEPAC), a non-governmental organization
based in San Cristobal de las Casas in the southeastern Mexican
state of Chiapas, received a note reading: "Enjoy your last day.
We will kill you I am looking for you and now we have found you."
This followed a series of incidents of surveillance and
harassment directed at CIEPAC's members over several months. The
organization is asking "national and international organized
groups in solidarity [to] maintain your vigilance in anticipation
of events that might occur shortly, continue your solidarity with
social movements in Mexico, and denounce the continuous
violations to human rights that are affecting civil society in
this country." [CIEPAC bulletin 2/26/07]

LET WASHINGTON DIVULGE WHAT IT KNOWS ABOUT PARAMILITARY AND "PARA-POLITICAL"
ACTIVITIES IN COLOMBIA

In connection with the planned visit of President George W. Bush to
Colombia, Senator Jorge Robledo, spokesperson for the Polo Democrático
Alternativo (PDA), wanted answers to the following questions: "Are the State
Department and the US Embassy in Colombia aware of what has happened in
terms of paramilitary activities and "para-politicking" in Colombia over the
last twenty years? Do they know that nearly one hundred political leaders
close to President Uribe are jailed, fugitives from the law, and named or
implicated because of their relations with paramilitary organizations? Do
they know that already nine members of the Colombian Congress, all close
friends of the Uribe administration, have been ordered to jail by the
Colombian Supreme Court because of their involvement? Are the State
Department and the US Embassy aware that in Colombia people speak
increasingly of "para-Uribismo," not merely "para-politicking"? Was there no
connection between US policies and the formation of these criminal
organizations and activities?"

Senator Robledo formulated these questions after sources close to the
administration of President Uribe touted the forthcoming March 11 visit of
George W. Bush to Colombia. These sources portrayed the visit as an explicit
backing by the White House of Colombia's President, even with respect to the
para-politicking scandal.

Senator Robledo reminded us that, under Plan Colombia, the military presence
of the United States increased to the tune of four billion dollars. The US
presence includes well-known robust operations by numerous agents of the
CIA, the DEA, the FBI, regular US military as well as mercenary forces. In
that regard Robledo cited comments by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy who said
that "the Colombian government is not simply a victim of their corrupt
influences." Leahy further stated that the Colombian government "allowed the
flourishing of paramilitary groups, sometimes colluding with those groups,
other times fostering their activities." (El Tiempo, March 4, 2007)

Senator Robledo emphasized that the truth about paramilitary and
para-political activities must be addressed for peace to be achieved in
Colombia.

Senator Jorge Robledo, Official Spokesperson, Polo Democrático Alternativo (PDA)

Latin America Solidarity News 22nd Feb 2007

2007-02-20T20:50:00.000+13:00

Lac Email lac@apc.org.nz
LAC website www.converge.org.nz/lac
LAC blogg www.lascnz.blogspot.com
Zapatista email zapatistasolidarity@gmail.com
Zapatista blogg http://vivazapatanz.blogspot.com/
Incal-Wellington http://incal.orcon.net.nz
Peña Cultural Latina Alternative Mondays from 20th October 6pm 128 Abel Smith St

Listen to Oye Latino Access Radio Wellington 783AM
Todos los Jueves de 6:00 a 7:30 p.m Thursdays 6pm to 7.30pm
Radio streaming www.r2.co.nz/meta/accessradio-56.asx - www.accessradio.org.nz/
This programme costs $65 a week to produce - if you would like to sponsor Oye Latino
Ph 021 548 985, oyelatino@gmail.com, or direct deposit to ASB #12-3157-0127644-01

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CARNIVAL (CUBA) MADNESS

¡Salud!
2nd and 3rd March 7pm Wellington
Follow up the Cuba Carnival (26-28th Feb)
and find out what puts Cuba on the map in the quest for global health …

NZ Community Trust Mediatheatre, NZ Film Archive,
Cnr Taranaki & Ghuznee Streets, Wellington
Tickets: $8 Public ($6 Concession)

Discussion following screening of film incl issues over community health in NZ.

Through the Cuban experience, the film challenges us to reflect on the larger questions: What will it take to stop disease from decimating poor countries and reaching around the world? How can we get enough doctors and health workers to where they are needed most? Do governments have a responsibility for the health of their citizens? In today's world, shouldn't every person be born with the right to a healthy chance at life?

Filmed in Cuba, South Africa, The Gambia, Honduras and Venezuela, the cameras of ¡SALUD! reveal the human dimension of the global health crisis, and the complex challenges faced by developing nations struggling to provide decent health care. The documentary examines Cuba’s example and its cooperation programs, in which 28,000 health professionals volunteer to meet emergencies and staff public health systems in 68 countries

Sponsored by Latin America Solidarity Committee and the Green Party
Further information http://events.filmarchive.org.nz, or contact Paul Bruce Tel 972 8699

Granito de Arena = Grain of sand!
Wednesday 28th February 6pm
Centre for Global Action Level 2, James Smith building,
cnr Cuba & Manners Malls

Granito de Arena is a powerful documentary about the fight
of Mexican teachers (and their unions) against neo-liberalism
and the dismantling of their public education system.

Free screening - Hot drinks and treats in the Dev-Zone
library from 5pm. Movie at 6pm followed by discussion
More information at www.dev-zone.org

For over 20 years economic globalisation has been dismantling public education in Mexico. But always in the shadow of popular resistance. This is the story of that resistance - the story of a grassroots, non-violent movement of public school teachers who took Mexico by surprise and have endured brutal repression in their 25-year struggle to defend public education

Compay Segundo: Quijote Tropical (Cuba, 2005 Exempt, 65 mins)
Thursday, 22 FEBRUARY, Friday, Saturday: 7.00pm
NZ Community Trust Mediatheatre, NZ Film Archive, cnr Taranaki & Ghuznee Streets.
Screening by kind permission of Southbound
Directed by Ileana Rodriguez, this 65-minute documentary looks at the life of Compay Segundo, the 90 plus-year-old Cuban musician who achieved international fame in the final years of his life with the Buena Vista Social Club. Segundo's unique life force shines bright in interviews with friends and colleagues along with a few choice musical clips...
Tickets: $8 Public ($6 Concession) http://events.filmarchive.org.nz

“FILMS UNDER THE STARS” series: “VIVA SÃO JOÃO!”
The Dell, Wellington Botanic Gardens, on Thursday, 22nd February 2007 9pm.
By Andrucha Waddington, with Gilberto Gil, Dominguinhos and others, at the
Cuba Street Carnival Trust in conjunction with the
Embassy of Brazil in Wellington and the NZ Film Archive.
NB: In the event of bad weather, the screening might be cancelled. Please check on the following:
Summer City Website - www.feelinggreat.co.nz; Wellington City Council Website
www.wellington.govt.nz; Newstalk ZB 1035 am or call the Summer City hotline - 801 3500

Urgent Action
As you may know the situation of indigenous peoples in Colombia has been a permanent struggle for autonomy and self-determination, but in the last years the U'wa people had achieved some recognition of their ancestral land against the oil exploration companies and the Colombian government. Unfortunately the greed is always powerful.
Carlos cevaldiviesol@unal.edu.co

Urgent action needed to stop oil drilling on U’wa land:

Following the Colombian government’s announcement of seismic testing on
their cloud-forest homelands, 150 heavy trucks carrying drilling equipment
accompanied by soldiers and police are reported to be heading for U’wa
territory. After the last decade of campaigning by the U’wa and their
international supporters, the Colombian government and it’s state-owned oil
company Ecopetrol appear on the brink of causing a human and environmental
tragedy. Please take a minute to view our Action Alert and send an urgent
letter to the US Ambassador in Bogota calling on him to urge the Colombian
government to reconsider.
--------------
http://www.amazonwatch.org/take_action/action_alerts/view_news.php?id=1325

Dear Friends,

The U’wa Indigenous People of Colombia are facing the biggest threat to
their way of life and homeland since the year 2000. As of January 17, 2007
some 150 trucks have moved towards U’wa land carrying oil exploration
equipment. This is the latest news after the Colombian government announced
last month that Ecopetrol would re-initiate oil exploration on the Siriri /
Catleya oil site in northeastern Colombia. Military personnel from the 18th
Brigade and from the Colombian National Police are in the area providing
protection to the oil workers.

You can help the U’wa people by sending a letter to the United States
Embassy in Colombia conveying your concern for the U’wa people, and request
that the Colombian government stop all operations on U’wa land. We are also
recommending that a Verification Commission led by the Defensoria del Pueblo
travel to the U’wa territory, and that the Colombian government ensure that
no human rights violation will be committed by the Colombian Armed Forces or
by the National Police while they are stationed there.

Please take a minute to write U.S Ambassador William Wood to tell him about
your concerns for the U’wa’s safety and the threat to their way of life by
the Siriri / Catleya Oil Project.

You can use or adapt the letter below and fax it to:

The Honorable William Wood
Ambassador
U.S. Embassy
Bogota, Colombia
Via Fax: 011-571-315-2197

For additional background information, please look at the links below, and
on our website: http://www.amazonwatch.org/amazon/CO/

May Global Solidarity School in Cuba
Labour, community and academics launch May Day Global Solidarity School in Cuba

We extend a warm invitation to register for the historic first annual Global Solidarity School taking place in Havana Cuba from April 28 to May 12 2007.

In the tradition of the World Social Forums, union education schools and community organizing, we are combining these elements to create a school for building social change -- bringing together students seeking to build a better world.

As a student at the Global Solidarity School, you will meet with international counterparts who care about the well being of our planet and who seek to create progressive social changes necessary to ensure social and environmental sustainability. Our classes allow you to examine global issues and strategies for change in a creative and friendly environment. Recognized activist educators and academics together with the University of Havana's top foreign language staff and cultural experts lead Global Solidarity School classes. See our course offerings on our website.

Register for one or two weeks. Please see our website www.solidarityschool.ca for details.

* Be part of May Day in Cuba: Participate up front as a respected international guest in the world's largest gathering of labour. Join with one million Cubans in what they describe as the Celebration of the Free Peoples in the American Hemisphere.
* Take Spanish and Cuban cultural courses taught by Cuban professors at the University of Havana.
* Participate in our courses on global issues and strategies for building solidarity and leadership led by expert educators and movement leaders from Canada and elsewhere.
* Learn how to perform and dance to Salsa, Son, Rumba and other popular Cuban rhythms.
* Participate in afternoon tours led by professional Cuban guides and translators to visit Havana's most important historic sites, plus visits to artist's studios, museums, Afrocuban enclaves, and contemporary Cuban cultural centers.
* Choose optional evening cultural events and you'll enjoy visits to some of Cuba's best jazz clubs, an Afrocuban dance performance, cabaret performances and other activities.
solidarityschool@vdlc.ca Email www.solidarityschool.ca Web

Peña Cultural Latina
Films, live music, food and conversation 128 Abel-Smith St, Wellington.
To assist in planning contact: hjorge40@hotmail.com

Venezuela
If you too want to be a "revolutionary tourist'' and ``join the wave of
backpackers, artists, academics and politicians on a mission to
discover if Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, really is forging a
radical alternative to neo-liberalism and capitalism" check out the
three solidarity brigades that the Australia Venezuela Solidarity
Network are organising this year including the first one for May Day
at http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org/?q=node/40]
also http://tinyurl.com/2yeg5a

Habana Blues
World Cinema Showcase film festival is featuring a Cuban film
- Habana Blues - in this year’s festival.
A captivating love letter to life on the ‘crazy isle’ of Cuba, Habana Blues follows a group of musicians struggling to make the big time. If that sounds like Buena Vista Social Club: the Return, be aware this is fiction – these young stallions play a vibrant hybrid of soul and rock, and their goal in life is to leave behind the politics of their impoverished island. Ruy and Tito are the Mick and Keith of the band who spend their days flogging everything from cigars to sombreros out of the back of Tito’s delicious red ‘52 Chevy. When their long-awaited break arrives in the guise of Spanish record producer Marta, their lives are thrown into turmoil by the tantalising prospect of a one-way ticket to Spain. For once they’ve left Cuba, they can never return.

World Cinema Showcase - Auckland - March 15 - April 4, 2007
World Cinema Showcase - Wellington - March 29 - April 11. 2007
World Cinema Showcase - Christchurch - April 12 - 25, 2007
World Cinema Showcase - Dunedin - April 19 - May 5, 2007
www.worldcinemashowcase.co.nz

NEWS

"La pesadilla azul" ("Blue Nightmare" in Spanish only)
Testimonies of people arrested by order of Ulises Ruiz during one of the most violent
interventions of the Federal Police on Nov. 25, 2006 in Oaxaca, Mexico
Please view at: http://www.maldeojotv.net/spip.php?article9

MAL DE OJO TV is an independent media collective in Oaxaca covering the
human rights violations in Oaxaca since June 2006.
maldeojotv@espora.org

GUATEMALA: WORKERS BURN MAQUILA

Dozens of laid-off workers looted and set fire to the Genesis
Feliz Tex S.A. garment plant in Guatemala City on the afternoon
of Jan. 20. The workers came to the plant to demand their
severance pay. Finding no one at the factory, the workers decided
to seize apparel and machinery in compensation. Within minutes
unit of the National Civil Police (PNC) arrived and dispersed the
crowd with tear gas, but before they left the workers started a
fire; firefighters spent two hours putting it out. No arrests
were made.

The plant was a maquiladora (tax-exempt assembly plant producing
for export) apparently owned by a Korean company. There are more
than 300 apparel-producing maquiladoras in Guatemala, employing
about 100,000 workers, mostly impoverished women. Some 20 of
these plants closed down in 2006, leaving 5,000 people without
work. [Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 1/21/07;

Venezuela's Chavez Sets Oil Fields Takeover for May:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the government’s planned takeover of the Orinoco belt oil fields, and the re-nationalization of the electricity sector at an international press conference yesterday. He also responded to U.S. President George W. Bush’s “concerns” over Venezuelan democracy.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2208

Ecuador won't recognize Occidental claim:
Two-year-long dispute with the Los Angeles-based company led Ecuador to cancel its contract with Occidental, which produced about 100,000 barrels of crude daily in Ecuador, and seize its facilities.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8N0DNC01.htm

Bolivia's Morales: 'This little Indian won't be leaving office'
by Federico Fuentes
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/696/36151

.............A poll published in the main La Paz daily, La Razon, a
year after Bolivia's powerful indigenous movement took
control of parliament, showed that Morales's approval
across the major cities was 59% -- higher than his
historic 53.7% vote in the December 2005 elections. The
rate was higher in the countryside, where Morales's
main support base is.

This reflects the support that Bolivia's national
revolution, led by Morales and with Bolivia's
indigenous people as its core, has among the Bolivian
masses, who, having regained their spirit and dignity
are fighting to liberate Bolivia and decolonise its
racist state structures.

A year of indigenous power

This strong support is in large part due to the
progress made on one of Morales's key election promises
-- the nationalisation of hydrocarbons. Having
overthrown two presidents in their struggle to regain
control over their natural resources, particularly gas,
over 90% of Bolivians approved when Morales sent the
military into the gas fields on May 1 to return control
of hydrocarbons to the state.

Six months later after intense negotiations, which
resulted in the resignation of hardline pro-
nationalisation hydrocarbons minister Andres Soliz Rada
and a war of words between the Bolivian government and
Brazil's state oil company Petrobras, 44 new contracts
were signed. The new rules meant that the state gained
control over hydrocarbons, from below the ground
through to the end of the industrialisation phase, and
the corporations were to become service providers. The
state would receive 82% of the revenue, which the
corporations previously took for themselves.

The government also successfully renegotiated a
doubling of the price for gas sold to Argentina, and
hopes to do the same soon with Brazil.

The result -- nearly US$1.3 billion in revenue from gas
(an increase of $635 million). Combined with a growth
rate of 4.3%, a reduction of parliamentary salaries by
50% and macroeconomic stability, the government has
been able to use this strong economic position to begin
to deliver on some of its promises, reversing the
impact of neoliberalism in Bolivia.

Morales has personally traveled around the country to
redistribute the gains from the gas nationalisation.
These include (with substantial help from Cuba and
Venezuela) 2000 Cuban doctors, 20 new hospitals, a
literacy campaign in which 73,000 out of 300,000
participants have already graduated, the Juancito Pinto
annual bonus for all school children under the age of
10 to help cover the costs of schooling, and tractors
as part of the government land reform plan.

This high level of support has also allowed the
government to move forward with its "agrarian
revolution", violently opposed by the large landowners
who have begun to set up paramilitary groups.

Challenges ahead

While there were some important gains made in
implementing the government's economic plans over the
past year, its key political plank -- the Constituent
Assembly -- remains stalled by the opposition.

According to Morales, the Constituent Assembly "is the
best democratic instrument ... to profoundly change our
country. It is the best instrument to unify, to
integrate our national territory." He added that the
assembly is "the hope of Bolivians to patent the
necessary structural transformations, and the changes
in the economic and social sphere".

Three other key challenges the government faces are
pushing forward with the industrialisation of gas and
mining to maintain and further improve economic
stability, better management at the microeconomic level
in order to ensure more resources and redistributed
wealth reach those sectors and regions that need it
most, and better coordination in the face of the rise
of a new opposition.

Morales noted that still pending in the process of
nationalising hydrocarbons was obtaining 50%-plus-1 of
the shares in companies operating in Bolivia, and the
refoundation of the state oil company YPFB, which is
still not in a position to carry out the
industrialisation of gas. The increased revenue from
the nationalisation, as well as help from Venezuelan
state oil company PDVSA, through the newly formed joint
project Petroandina, will allow the government to move
ahead on these tasks, Morales said.

Morales also used his one-year anniversary to announce
the "second nationalisation" of the mining industry.
Last year, mining exports equaled $1.1 billion, of
which only 1.5% went into state coffers. Morales
proposed that at least half of this now go to the
state, while the exportation of raw minerals will be
limited to give primacy to Bolivia's industrialisation.

To help this, the government proposed recovering
ownership of the Vinto tin smelter, sold off illegally
under previous neoliberal governments. The Morales
government has already begun to rebuild the state
mining company Comibol, having integrated 5000 ex-
cooperative miners into the company.

National Coalition for Change

In order to ensure better management of the state
apparatus, particularly in the opposition-controlled
regions, as well as coordination among the social
movements and their representatives in parliament and
the Constituent Assembly, Morales initiated the
National Coalition for Change on January 23.

The coalition is to involve 16 national social
organisations -- including indigenous, campesino and
workers' organisations -- and will "coordinate the
social power of the social movements with the executive
and legislative power and the constituent delegates,
and will fundamentally define the political,
revolutionary, democratic and cultural line", explained
the president of the lower house of parliament, Raul
Novillo.

This coordination is necessary to confront the rise of
a new opposition, based in the pro-business civic
committee of Santa Cruz and the prefectures of the four
eastern departments (states) referred to as the "half
moon". Raising the banner of autonomy in order to
maintain its hegemony over the east, the Santa Cruz
elite (tied to the gas transnationals and the US) have
attempted to mobilise the predominately white middle
and upper classes against the Morales government.

Stressing the need for social stability, furthering
economic improvements and defending autonomy within a
clear framework of national unity and control of
essential areas -- such as natural resources, police
and taxes -- will be crucial to isolating this new
opposition and winning over and consolidating large
sections of the middle classes and the armed forces to
supporting Bolivia's revolution.

Similar structures are to be established at the
departmental (or state) level from February, which
along with departmental delegates selected by the
national government will help in coordination and
organisation at this level. Such coordination has been
impeded because six out of nine prefectures are
controlled by the right.

On January 24, the three opposition parties in the
Senate united to elect one of their own as president of
the upper house, National Unity senator Jose
Villavicencio. This revival of the "mega coalition" of
the neoliberal parties that sustained the previous
governments is one more part of the oppositions plan to
block Morales's attempts to lead a democratic and
cultural revolution.

That day, Bolpress reported that other official sources
said this new opposition directorate would ask for the
revision of the parliamentary session that passed the
new agrarian reform law. Villavicencio has also
announced that the Senate would review another bill in
that session relating to cooperation with the
Venezuelan military on Bolivian soil.

In response, Morales was quoted by the Bolivian
Information Service on January 24 as saying that "the
right, the neoliberals, the auctioneers have united,
but there is no need for us to protest".

"The experience we have is that there are social forces
who are demanding their rights. Within this framework I
am sure that the people will identify if [the Senate]
works against this process of change."

Morales recalled how the opposition had tried to block
the passage of the agrarian reform law, as well as the
ratification of the gas contracts, by boycotting the
Senate, and argued that "it was the mobilisation of the
people that unblocked the Senate".

MEXICO: MARCH FOR "NEW SOCIAL PACT"

Tens of thousands of Mexicans filled Mexico City's huge Zocalo
plaza on Jan. 31 in the first large demonstration against the
center-right government of President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa,
who took office on Dec. 1 and now faces popular anger over a
dramatic rise in the price of corn and other staples [see Update
#884]. "Without corn, there's no country," the marchers chanted.
"We don't want PAN, we want tortillas." (The initials of
Calderon's National Action Party, PAN, form the Spanish for
"bread.")

At the demonstration the organizers proclaimed the "Declaration
of the Zocalo," which called for "broad social unity" to achieve
a "new social pact," including renegotiation of the agricultural
sections of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); an
emergency program to increase production; restrictions on price
increases; punishment for hoarders; an emergency wage increase; a
push to create jobs; and an end to repression of social
movements. One participant was the sociologist Pablo Gonzalez
Casanova, a former rector of the Autonomous National University
of Mexico (UNAM). Asked by reporters if the movement could turn
back Calderon's neoliberal economic policies, he answered: "We're
going to win, because now we are in a stage where neoliberalism
doesn't fool anyone.... The whole world knows clearly that
neoliberalism is one of the great lies of humanity...."

The march was called by a broad coalition of 150 labor unions and
campesino and farmer groups. The coalition included labor
federations like the National Workers Union (UNT) that split from
the old Congress of Labor (CT), which is dominated by the
formerly ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI); but
another important component was PRI-affiliated groups like
National Campesino Federation (CNC). The march organizers
insisted that the demonstration would not be partisan and barred
political speeches. But many protesters waited in the Zocalo for
the arrival of a second march around the same demands; this one
was led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the center-left coalition
candidate who narrowly lost the July 2 presidential race to
Calderon, according to electoral authorities. [La Jornada
(Mexico) 2/1/07]

Chávez in charge
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_gott/2007/02/gottvenezuela.html

Hugo Chávez is a man in a hurry, and this week's decision by the Venezuelan
national assembly to grant him additional powers foreshadows the radical
changes that are in the pipeline. President for the past eight years, Chávez
has only just begun to scratch the surface of the gigantic revolutionary
project that lies ahead. There have been obvious successes. Unprecedented
sums of oil money have been diverted towards the country's poor majority,
funding education and health programmes, and providing cheap food. The
results are already on show. A freshly mobilised and alert population is
beginning to flex its muscles, taking part in political decision-making
through a myriad local councils and ad-hoc committees operating at many
levels. Nothing like this has happened in Latin America since the Cuban
Revolution nearly half a century ago. It is riveting stuff.

Yet all this energy and excitement has been channelled through new
institutions, financed directly by the oil revenues, and essentially
unmonitored. Again, this is a revolution in progress. At the same time, much
of the old, pre-revolutionary Venezuela still remains. The country's
traditional infrastructure is plagued by bureaucracy and corruption, the
twin-headed disease inherited from the Spanish colonial era. Bureaucrats,
and that means public servants in every ministry and ancient state entity,
exist to ensure that nothing ever gets done, while corruption exists to
lubricate their powers of inaction. What is true of the state is true of
private industry as well. So this week's "enabling" legislation will give
greater powers to the executive at the expense of the legislature, with the
hope that Chávez will be able to push through some necessary changes. At
some stage, the new institutions and the old bureaucracies will have to be
merged.

Is this road to dictatorship or the path to reasonable reform? The nature of
the problem is familiar to political scientists, and certainly not new to
Latin America. Where should the balance fall between the executive and the
legislature? Each country makes its choice, and revolutions provide an
opportunity for the balance to be changed.

Allowing the Venezuelan president to issue executive orders is nothing new.
It is permitted under the constitution of 1999, as under the previous
constitution. Chávez's recent predecessors availed themselves of a similar
facility from time to time, notably when dealing with economic and financial
matters. Even Thomas Shannon, the US diplomat in charge of Latin America,
admitted in an unusually friendly comment that the enabling law was nothing
new. "It's something valid under the constitution (and) as with any tool of
democracy, it depends on how it is used."

So what is important here is a change in the nature of government rather
than a madcap scheme to seize private assets, soak the rich, and nationalise
everything in sight by presidential decree. Perhaps the most significant of
the planned reforms is the provision of finance and teeth to the "communal
councils" springing up in their thousands all over the country. The future
"socialist democracy" of Venezuela will depend more on these grassroots
expressions of the popular will than the national assembly in Caracas. Since
the opposition parties foolishly boycotted the assembly elections, the
entirely pro-Chávez assembly has a rather limited use.

For most of the past eight years, Chávez has moved ahead in response to the
actions of others. The attempted coup d'etat of 2002, the oil strike of
2003, and the recall referendum of 2004 all led to an acceleration of the
revolutionary process. Now he is advancing under his own steam. We know that
he wants to retain the commanding heights of the economy, the traditional
ambition of Latin American nationalists as well as old-fashioned social
democrats. That means oil and gas and electricity, and telecommunications.
We know that he hopes to extend the land reform, the essential first step
towards rural development. We know too that he wants to improve tax
collection and to do something about gross inequality, the untackled evil
throughout Latin America except in Cuba. We also know that he is hostile to
unbridled capitalism, and has made friendly remarks about cooperatives and
other ways of organising the private sector.

Yet the Venezuelan future is still interestingly uncertain and opaque, for
the simple reason that Chávez is not a dictator and has never shown the
slightest sign of wanting to become one. He has no blueprint that he seeks
to impose on the country. He wants to extend press freedom, for example, not
to reduce it, and, while curbing the power to make money of irresponsible
press barons like Marcel Granier of RCTV, he has also put state funds into
the development of community radio and television stations, as well as more
ambitious projects like Vive, the new cultural channel, and Telesur, the
international news channel. These new lines of communication already provide
fresh opportunities for popular participation, the ultimate safeguard of his
regime and the source of all future programmes and policies.

Chávez Lives Castro's Dream:
Chávez has begun using his plentiful oil, and oil money, to finance ambitious Cuban-inspired social policies in his own country and elsewhere, either by providing cheap oil (as in Bolivia and Nicaragua) or by helping ease his friends' financial burdens, as with Argentina
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17081706/site/newsweek/

Chavez a threat to democracy, US intelligence chief says:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez exports a form of "radical populism" throughout Latin America that poses a threat to democracy, the top US intelligence official said Tuesday. John Negroponte, during hearings on his nomination to become deputy secretary of state
http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/234/52/

Viva Chavez: Venezuela is the hip new socialist utopia

Leftists are flocking to see a country being transformed, writes Rory
Carroll in Caracas

TO SCEPTICS, they are naive Westerners who would not recognise
communist tyranny if it expropriated their sandals.

"Malodorous, left-wing, US and European peace creeps armed with Mom's
credit card and brand new Birkenstocks," sneered the American Thinker,
a right-wing magazine.

To the Venezuelan Government, however, they are valued friends who are
witnessing first-hand the positive changes sweeping the slums and
countryside and who return home, a volunteer army of ambassadors, to
spread the good news.

Meet the revolutionary tourists, a wave of backpackers, artists,
academics and politicians on a mission to discover if Venezuela's
President, Hugo Chavez, really is forging a radical alternative to
neo-liberalism and capitalism.

>From a trickle, a few years ago, there are now thousands. They travel
individually and on package tours, exploring a purported left-wing
mecca, and their ranks are set to swell now Mr Chavez is accelerating
his self-styled revolution after last month's landslide re-election.
"Socialism or death - I swear it," he said last week, and declared
himself a communist.

"It's just amazing being here. There is so much vibe and passion,
there is truly a sense of revolution," gushed Lucy Dale, 20, a
university student from Chicago on a 17-day trip. "I want to return to
do volunteer work."

Global Exchange, a San Francisco group that doubles as a travel agent,
organised trips for almost 500 Americans last year, five times the
2003 figure, said Jojo Farrell, its Venezuela liaison worker.

>From Britain, the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign plans to send at least
six delegations this year, mostly trade unionists. "Interest is
growing significantly," said Andy Goodall, co-ordinator of the
Wolverhampton-based group.

Visitors tend to shun the Caribbean beaches in favour of tours to
agricultural co-operatives, shantytown medical clinics and adult
literacy programs.

"We saw healthy, happy, well-dressed children taught by well-qualified
teachers who get paid a decent salary. These are opportunities that
did not exist for poor people before Chavez," said Kate Young, who
travelled with the Rotary Foundation.

Others hail Caracas and its alliance with other left-wing governments
for loosening the US's traditional grip on the region.

"We need checks and balances to US unilateralism, and any good North
American would laud Chavez for doing that," said Clif Roberts, a
Californian writer who stayed on in Venezuela after attending a poetry
festival.

Visiting celebrities such as the actor Danny Glover, the singer Harry
Belafonte and the anti-Iraq war activist Cindy Sheehan, echo the
sentiment.

Many enthusiasts set up solidarity groups when they return home and
record their impressions in blogs, amplifying the message sent out by
Venezuela's embassies and information offices.

The aim is to correct alleged mainstream media distortion depicting Mr
Chavez as an autocratic megalomaniac.

"The UK media is very disappointing, always a negative slant," said
Rod Finlayson, 62, a British union official who was thrilled by the
nationalisations and cultural events. "Bach in the slums. Stuff you
could only dream about."

Dreaming, say some critics, is the problem. Instead of investigating
complexities, such as the corruption and mismanagement undermining
some social programs, visitors sleepwalk through government spin and
never hear allegations that Venezuela's oil bonanza is being wasted or
that democracy is being smothered.

Mr Finlayson said his delegation ignored such voices because the goal
was to express solidarity, not investigate. But the group did
encounter some Chavez critics: walking through a wealthy district of
Caracas, it was pelted with eggs.

Some groups, such as those travelling with Global Exchange, meet
opposition figures and hear claims that Mr Chavez is hoarding power by
collapsing his movement into a single socialist party, not renewing
the licence of an opposition-aligned TV station and plotting to
abolish limits on terms of office.

"I was encouraged by what I saw in Venezuela but the focus on one
person as the source of hope strikes me as unfortunate," said Sarah
Gelder, an editor of the Seattle-based magazine Yes!.

Another left-wing journalist, Monica Vera, hailed the country as a
progressive beacon but voiced unease: "I just hope it continues on
that track."

Last Saturday Mr Chavez vowed to replace municipal governments with
councils inspired by the Paris Commune, France's shortlived experiment
with radical socialism in 1871.

Cuba Debates Economic Path Ahead Under Raul Castro

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN072796412

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban economists are busy studying
ways to rev up one of the world's last communist-run
economies, a step encouraged by acting President Raul
Castro since he took over from his ailing brother six
months ago.

The debate is focused on how to make Cuba's inefficient
command economy more productive and take advantage of
newfound financial buoyancy in foreign exchange
earnings.

"There is consensus on our goals: more popular
participation, the country's development and a better
material and spiritual life," China expert and
economics professor Evelio Vilarino told Reuters this
week at a globalization conference. "Where there is no
consensus is on how best to achieve that."

In a series of end-of-the-year speeches, Raul Castro
expressed frustration with bureaucracy, demanded
answers to declining food output, urged Cuba's press to
be more critical and authorized a study of socialist
property relations.

Cuban economist and agriculture expert Amando Nova said
agriculture reforms of the early 1990s -- when Cuba
divided state farms into worker cooperatives and
legalized private produce markets -- stopped halfway.

"We need farmers to participate more in production and
price decisions, to be able to purchase inputs and in
general enjoy more autonomy from the state," said Nova,
who is involved in a report on agriculture commissioned
by the government.

Similar reports are being prepared on other sectors of
the economy where the state dictates most output and
prices in exchange for inputs and credits.

Many experts view Raul Castro, 75, as more pragmatic
than his brother and believe he could steer Cuba's 90
percent state-run economy toward one that resembles the
more open Chinese model.

ADAPT, DON'T ADOPT

Luis Marcelo Yera of the National Economic Research
Institute, a member of the panel looking into property
relations, said Cuba is taking a path closer to one of
his favorite Japanese sayings.

"Adapt, don't adopt -- we can adapt the best
experiences but not adopt another's model," he said.

Marcelo said the panel was "looking at better defining
property under socialism ... because experience has
demonstrated it has many problems functioning."

Cuba's foreign exchange earnings have nearly doubled
over the last two years, thanks mainly to the export of
medical and other services to Venezuela and record-high
nickel prices.

Economic growth has sped up to three times its pace at
the start of the decade when Cuba was pulling out of
the economic collapse that followed the collapse of its
former benefactor, the Soviet Union, in 1991.

Nevertheless, the state has run into problems investing
the revenues through its more than 3,000 state-run
companies. The economy also suffers from chronic
disorganization, bad accounting, poor quality, lax
discipline and graft.

The head of parliament's economic commission, Osvaldo
Martinez, told Reuters the debate over economic policy
probably would be taking place even if President Fidel
Castro were not too ill to govern.

"We are not talking about the Chinese model, but a
Cuban model, the best way forward given Cuba's
possibilities, realities, resources and problems,"
Martinez said.

Some Cuban economists believe that only by adopting
China's model of a capitalist market under communist
political control, or at a minimum by decentralizing
and developing private cooperatives and markets in
nonstrategic sectors, can internal production be
improved.

Others say any opening would provide the United States
with a chance to topple the socialist system.

Agriculture specialist Nova said taking steps to loosen
the economy would not threaten his sector.

"Decentralization and more autonomy would result in
more production and food security, consolidating our
economy and making us less vulnerable," he said.

Latin America Solidarity News 28th Jan 2007

2007-02-07T22:28:00.000+13:00

Latin America Solidarity Committee
Lac Email lac@apc.org.nz
LAC website www.converge.org.nz/lac
LAC blogg www.lascnz.blogspot.com
Zapatista email zapatistasolidarity@gmail.com
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Peña Cultural Latina Alternative Mondays from 20th October 6pm 128 Abel Smith St

Listen to Voz Latinoamericana Wellington Access Radio 783AM
Todos los Jueves de 6:00 a 7:30 p.m Thursdays 6pm to 7.30pm
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Radio streaming www.r2.co.nz/meta/accessradio-56.asx - www.accessradio.org.nz/

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Events and Notices

“FILMS UNDER THE STARS” series: “VIVA SÃO JOÃO!”

Free screening of “Viva São João”, by Andrucha Waddington, with
Gilberto Gil, Dominguinhos and others, at the Wellington Botanic Gardens, on Thursday,
22nd February 2007. This event is being organized and promoted by the Cuba Street Carnival Trust in
conjunction with the Embassy of Brazil in Wellington and the NZ Film Archive.

When: Thursday 22nd February, 2007, from 9pm
Where: The Dell, Wellington Botanic Garden, Main Entrance, Tinakori Road
How much? Free... Come along and bring your friends!
NB: In the event of bad weather, the screening might be cancelled. Please check on the following:
Summer City Website - www.feelinggreat.co.nz; Wellington City Council Website
www.wellington.govt.nz; Newstalk ZB 1035 am or call the Summer City hotline - 801 3500

¡Salud! 2nd and 3rd March 7pm

Follow up the Cuba Carnival (26-28th Feb)
and find out what puts Cuba on the map in the quest for global health and see SALUD …
At New Zealand Film Archive, 84 Taranki St, Wellington (entrance off Guzhnee St)
Discussion following screening of film incl issues over community health in NZ.
Further information contact Paul Bruce lac@apc.org.nz Tel 972 8699
or NZ Film Archive Tel 384 7647
¡Salud, 93 minutes,is produced and directed by Academy Award nominee Connie Field
(The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter; Freedom on My Mind) and co-produced by Gail Reed.
http://www.saludthefilm.net/ns/main.html

Venezuela
If you too want to be a "revolutionary tourist'' and ``join the wave of
backpackers, artists, academics and politicians on a mission to
discover if Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, really is forging a
radical alternative to neo-liberalism and capitalism" check out the
three solidarity brigades that the Australia Venezuela Solidarity
Network are organising this year including the first one for May Day
at http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org/?q=node/40]
also http://tinyurl.com/2yeg5a
Habana Blues
World Cinema Showcase film festival is featuring a Cuban film - Habana Blues - in this year’s festival.
A captivating love letter to life on the ‘crazy isle’ of Cuba, Habana Blues follows a group of musicians struggling to make the big time. If that sounds like Buena Vista Social Club: the Return, be aware this is fiction – these young stallions play a vibrant hybrid of soul and rock, and their goal in life is to leave behind the politics of their impoverished island. Ruy and Tito are the Mick and Keith of the band who spend their days flogging everything from cigars to sombreros out of the back of Tito’s delicious red ‘52 Chevy. When their long-awaited break arrives in the guise of Spanish record producer Marta, their lives are thrown into turmoil by the tantalising prospect of a one-way ticket to Spain. For once they’ve left Cuba, they can never return.

World Cinema Showcase - Auckland - March 15 - April 4, 2007
World Cinema Showcase - Wellington - March 29 - April 11. 2007
World Cinema Showcase - Christchurch - April 12 - 25, 2007
World Cinema Showcase - Dunedin - April 19 - May 5, 2007
www.worldcinemashowcase.co.nz

Telecom 39th Auckland International Film Festival, July 13 - 29, 2007
Telecom 36th Wellington Film Festival, July 20 - August 5, 2007
Telecom 31st Dunedin International Film Festival, July 27 - August 12, 2007
Telecom 31st Christchurch International Film Festival, August 2 - 19, 2007
www.nzff.telecom.co.nz

NEWS
GUATEMALA: WORKERS BURN MAQUILA

Dozens of laid-off workers looted and set fire to the Genesis
Feliz Tex S.A. garment plant in Guatemala City on the afternoon
of Jan. 20. The workers came to the plant to demand their
severance pay. Finding no one at the factory, the workers decided
to seize apparel and machinery in compensation. Within minutes
unit of the National Civil Police (PNC) arrived and dispersed the
crowd with tear gas, but before they left the workers started a
fire; firefighters spent two hours putting it out. No arrests
were made.

The plant was a maquiladora (tax-exempt assembly plant producing
for export) apparently owned by a Korean company. There are more
than 300 apparel-producing maquiladoras in Guatemala, employing
about 100,000 workers, mostly impoverished women. Some 20 of
these plants closed down in 2006, leaving 5,000 people without
work. [Prensa Libre (Guatemala) 1/21/07;

Venezuela's Chavez Sets Oil Fields Takeover for May:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the government’s planned takeover of the Orinoco belt oil fields, and the re-nationalization of the electricity sector at an international press conference yesterday. He also responded to U.S. President George W. Bush’s “concerns” over Venezuelan democracy.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2208

Ecuador won't recognize Occidental claim:
Two-year-long dispute with the Los Angeles-based company led Ecuador to cancel its contract with Occidental, which produced about 100,000 barrels of crude daily in Ecuador, and seize its facilities.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8N0DNC01.htm

Chávez in charge
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_gott/2007/02/gottvenezuela.html
By Richard Gott

Hugo Chávez is a man in a hurry, and this week's decision by the Venezuelan
national assembly to grant him additional powers foreshadows the radical
changes that are in the pipeline. President for the past eight years, Chávez
has only just begun to scratch the surface of the gigantic revolutionary
project that lies ahead. There have been obvious successes. Unprecedented
sums of oil money have been diverted towards the country's poor majority,
funding education and health programmes, and providing cheap food. The
results are already on show. A freshly mobilised and alert population is
beginning to flex its muscles, taking part in political decision-making
through a myriad local councils and ad-hoc committees operating at many
levels. Nothing like this has happened in Latin America since the Cuban
Revolution nearly half a century ago. It is riveting stuff.

Yet all this energy and excitement has been channelled through new
institutions, financed directly by the oil revenues, and essentially
unmonitored. Again, this is a revolution in progress. At the same time, much
of the old, pre-revolutionary Venezuela still remains. The country's
traditional infrastructure is plagued by bureaucracy and corruption, the
twin-headed disease inherited from the Spanish colonial era. Bureaucrats,
and that means public servants in every ministry and ancient state entity,
exist to ensure that nothing ever gets done, while corruption exists to
lubricate their powers of inaction. What is true of the state is true of
private industry as well. So this week's "enabling" legislation will give
greater powers to the executive at the expense of the legislature, with the
hope that Chávez will be able to push through some necessary changes. At
some stage, the new institutions and the old bureaucracies will have to be
merged.

Is this road to dictatorship or the path to reasonable reform? The nature of
the problem is familiar to political scientists, and certainly not new to
Latin America. Where should the balance fall between the executive and the
legislature? Each country makes its choice, and revolutions provide an
opportunity for the balance to be changed.

Allowing the Venezuelan president to issue executive orders is nothing new.
It is permitted under the constitution of 1999, as under the previous
constitution. Chávez's recent predecessors availed themselves of a similar
facility from time to time, notably when dealing with economic and financial
matters. Even Thomas Shannon, the US diplomat in charge of Latin America,
admitted in an unusually friendly comment that the enabling law was nothing
new. "It's something valid under the constitution (and) as with any tool of
democracy, it depends on how it is used."

So what is important here is a change in the nature of government rather
than a madcap scheme to seize private assets, soak the rich, and nationalise
everything in sight by presidential decree. Perhaps the most significant of
the planned reforms is the provision of finance and teeth to the "communal
councils" springing up in their thousands all over the country. The future
"socialist democracy" of Venezuela will depend more on these grassroots
expressions of the popular will than the national assembly in Caracas. Since
the opposition parties foolishly boycotted the assembly elections, the
entirely pro-Chávez assembly has a rather limited use.

For most of the past eight years, Chávez has moved ahead in response to the
actions of others. The attempted coup d'etat of 2002, the oil strike of
2003, and the recall referendum of 2004 all led to an acceleration of the
revolutionary process. Now he is advancing under his own steam. We know that
he wants to retain the commanding heights of the economy, the traditional
ambition of Latin American nationalists as well as old-fashioned social
democrats. That means oil and gas and electricity, and telecommunications.
We know that he hopes to extend the land reform, the essential first step
towards rural development. We know too that he wants to improve tax
collection and to do something about gross inequality, the untackled evil
throughout Latin America except in Cuba. We also know that he is hostile to
unbridled capitalism, and has made friendly remarks about cooperatives and
other ways of organising the private sector.

Yet the Venezuelan future is still interestingly uncertain and opaque, for
the simple reason that Chávez is not a dictator and has never shown the
slightest sign of wanting to become one. He has no blueprint that he seeks
to impose on the country. He wants to extend press freedom, for example, not
to reduce it, and, while curbing the power to make money of irresponsible
press barons like Marcel Granier of RCTV, he has also put state funds into
the development of community radio and television stations, as well as more
ambitious projects like Vive, the new cultural channel, and Telesur, the
international news channel. These new lines of communication already provide
fresh opportunities for popular participation, the ultimate safeguard of his
regime and the source of all future programmes and policies.

Bolivia's Morales: 'This little Indian won't be leaving office'
by Federico Fuentes
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/696/36151

.............A poll published in the main La Paz daily, La Razon, a
year after Bolivia's powerful indigenous movement took
control of parliament, showed that Morales's approval
across the major cities was 59% -- higher than his
historic 53.7% vote in the December 2005 elections. The
rate was higher in the countryside, where Morales's
main support base is.

This reflects the support that Bolivia's national
revolution, led by Morales and with Bolivia's
indigenous people as its core, has among the Bolivian
masses, who, having regained their spirit and dignity
are fighting to liberate Bolivia and decolonise its
racist state structures.

A year of indigenous power

This strong support is in large part due to the
progress made on one of Morales's key election promises
-- the nationalisation of hydrocarbons. Having
overthrown two presidents in their struggle to regain
control over their natural resources, particularly gas,
over 90% of Bolivians approved when Morales sent the
military into the gas fields on May 1 to return control
of hydrocarbons to the state.

Six months later after intense negotiations, which
resulted in the resignation of hardline pro-
nationalisation hydrocarbons minister Andres Soliz Rada
and a war of words between the Bolivian government and
Brazil's state oil company Petrobras, 44 new contracts
were signed. The new rules meant that the state gained
control over hydrocarbons, from below the ground
through to the end of the industrialisation phase, and
the corporations were to become service providers. The
state would receive 82% of the revenue, which the
corporations previously took for themselves.

The government also successfully renegotiated a
doubling of the price for gas sold to Argentina, and
hopes to do the same soon with Brazil.

The result -- nearly US$1.3 billion in revenue from gas
(an increase of $635 million). Combined with a growth
rate of 4.3%, a reduction of parliamentary salaries by
50% and macroeconomic stability, the government has
been able to use this strong economic position to begin
to deliver on some of its promises, reversing the
impact of neoliberalism in Bolivia.

Morales has personally traveled around the country to
redistribute the gains from the gas nationalisation.
These include (with substantial help from Cuba and
Venezuela) 2000 Cuban doctors, 20 new hospitals, a
literacy campaign in which 73,000 out of 300,000
participants have already graduated, the Juancito Pinto
annual bonus for all school children under the age of
10 to help cover the costs of schooling, and tractors
as part of the government land reform plan.

This high level of support has also allowed the
government to move forward with its "agrarian
revolution", violently opposed by the large landowners
who have begun to set up paramilitary groups.

Challenges ahead

While there were some important gains made in
implementing the government's economic plans over the
past year, its key political plank -- the Constituent
Assembly -- remains stalled by the opposition.

According to Morales, the Constituent Assembly "is the
best democratic instrument ... to profoundly change our
country. It is the best instrument to unify, to
integrate our national territory." He added that the
assembly is "the hope of Bolivians to patent the
necessary structural transformations, and the changes
in the economic and social sphere".

Three other key challenges the government faces are
pushing forward with the industrialisation of gas and
mining to maintain and further improve economic
stability, better management at the microeconomic level
in order to ensure more resources and redistributed
wealth reach those sectors and regions that need it
most, and better coordination in the face of the rise
of a new opposition.

Morales noted that still pending in the process of
nationalising hydrocarbons was obtaining 50%-plus-1 of
the shares in companies operating in Bolivia, and the
refoundation of the state oil company YPFB, which is
still not in a position to carry out the
industrialisation of gas. The increased revenue from
the nationalisation, as well as help from Venezuelan
state oil company PDVSA, through the newly formed joint
project Petroandina, will allow the government to move
ahead on these tasks, Morales said.

Morales also used his one-year anniversary to announce
the "second nationalisation" of the mining industry.
Last year, mining exports equaled $1.1 billion, of
which only 1.5% went into state coffers. Morales
proposed that at least half of this now go to the
state, while the exportation of raw minerals will be
limited to give primacy to Bolivia's industrialisation.

To help this, the government proposed recovering
ownership of the Vinto tin smelter, sold off illegally
under previous neoliberal governments. The Morales
government has already begun to rebuild the state
mining company Comibol, having integrated 5000 ex-
cooperative miners into the company.

National Coalition for Change

In order to ensure better management of the state
apparatus, particularly in the opposition-controlled
regions, as well as coordination among the social
movements and their representatives in parliament and
the Constituent Assembly, Morales initiated the
National Coalition for Change on January 23.

The coalition is to involve 16 national social
organisations -- including indigenous, campesino and
workers' organisations -- and will "coordinate the
social power of the social movements with the executive
and legislative power and the constituent delegates,
and will fundamentally define the political,
revolutionary, democratic and cultural line", explained
the president of the lower house of parliament, Raul
Novillo.

This coordination is necessary to confront the rise of
a new opposition, based in the pro-business civic
committee of Santa Cruz and the prefectures of the four
eastern departments (states) referred to as the "half
moon". Raising the banner of autonomy in order to
maintain its hegemony over the east, the Santa Cruz
elite (tied to the gas transnationals and the US) have
attempted to mobilise the predominately white middle
and upper classes against the Morales government.

Stressing the need for social stability, furthering
economic improvements and defending autonomy within a
clear framework of national unity and control of
essential areas -- such as natural resources, police
and taxes -- will be crucial to isolating this new
opposition and winning over and consolidating large
sections of the middle classes and the armed forces to
supporting Bolivia's revolution.

Similar structures are to be established at the
departmental (or state) level from February, which
along with departmental delegates selected by the
national government will help in coordination and
organisation at this level. Such coordination has been
impeded because six out of nine prefectures are
controlled by the right.

On January 24, the three opposition parties in the
Senate united to elect one of their own as president of
the upper house, National Unity senator Jose
Villavicencio. This revival of the "mega coalition" of
the neoliberal parties that sustained the previous
governments is one more part of the oppositions plan to
block Morales's attempts to lead a democratic and
cultural revolution.

That day, Bolpress reported that other official sources
said this new opposition directorate would ask for the
revision of the parliamentary session that passed the
new agrarian reform law. Villavicencio has also
announced that the Senate would review another bill in
that session relating to cooperation with the
Venezuelan military on Bolivian soil.

In response, Morales was quoted by the Bolivian
Information Service on January 24 as saying that "the
right, the neoliberals, the auctioneers have united,
but there is no need for us to protest".

"The experience we have is that there are social forces
who are demanding their rights. Within this framework I
am sure that the people will identify if [the Senate]
works against this process of change."

Morales recalled how the opposition had tried to block
the passage of the agrarian reform law, as well as the
ratification of the gas contracts, by boycotting the
Senate, and argued that "it was the mobilisation of the
people that unblocked the Senate".

MEXICO: MARCH FOR "NEW SOCIAL PACT"

Tens of thousands of Mexicans filled Mexico City's huge Zocalo
plaza on Jan. 31 in the first large demonstration against the
center-right government of President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa,
who took office on Dec. 1 and now faces popular anger over a
dramatic rise in the price of corn and other staples [see Update
#884]. "Without corn, there's no country," the marchers chanted.
"We don't want PAN, we want tortillas." (The initials of
Calderon's National Action Party, PAN, form the Spanish for
"bread.")

At the demonstration the organizers proclaimed the "Declaration
of the Zocalo," which called for "broad social unity" to achieve
a "new social pact," including renegotiation of the agricultural
sections of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); an
emergency program to increase production; restrictions on price
increases; punishment for hoarders; an emergency wage increase; a
push to create jobs; and an end to repression of social
movements. One participant was the sociologist Pablo Gonzalez
Casanova, a former rector of the Autonomous National University
of Mexico (UNAM). Asked by reporters if the movement could turn
back Calderon's neoliberal economic policies, he answered: "We're
going to win, because now we are in a stage where neoliberalism
doesn't fool anyone.... The whole world knows clearly that
neoliberalism is one of the great lies of humanity...."

The march was called by a broad coalition of 150 labor unions and
campesino and farmer groups. The coalition included labor
federations like the National Workers Union (UNT) that split from
the old Congress of Labor (CT), which is dominated by the
formerly ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI); but
another important component was PRI-affiliated groups like
National Campesino Federation (CNC). The march organizers
insisted that the demonstration would not be partisan and barred
political speeches. But many protesters waited in the Zocalo for
the arrival of a second march around the same demands; this one
was led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the center-left coalition
candidate who narrowly lost the July 2 presidential race to
Calderon, according to electoral authorities. [La Jornada
(Mexico) 2/1/07]

The Costs of Rising Tortilla Prices in Mexico
Enrique C. Ochoa

Spurred by the increasing use of corn for ethanol,
tortilla prices in Mexico have skyrocketed by more that
50 percent in many regions. Mexicans protested these
sharp increases, forcing the government of Felipe
Calderon to publicly promise to punish speculators and
to call for increased corn imports. Calderon also
negotiated a pact with the largest tortilla producers
to cap the price of tortillas at 8.5 pesos per
kilogram - a 40 percent price increase. However few
consumers will benefit from these efforts. Instead,
WALMART, the large corporations that dominate the
industry, and the U.S. transnational companies that
supply Mexico with corn are likely to be the
beneficiaries.

The tortilla price hikes and the government's responses
will be shouldered by Mexico's poorest consumers and
producers. Tortilla prices have increased by more than
10 times the recent increase in the minimum wage. In
some states a kilogram of tortillas accounts for as
much as one-third of the daily minimum wage. Increasing
imports is likely to further devastate Mexican corn
producers, who have been especially hard hit since the
1994 implementation of NAFTA.

The Mexican government has not always been willing to
sacrifice the poor for giant corporations. In the
Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century, Mexico's
working classes demanded social justice. Successive
Mexican administrations responded by granting land to
the landless and subsidizing the production of
tortillas. As Mexican governments sought to transform
the economy through industrialization and large scale
agriculture, peasant and worker resistance led to the
creation of a government agency with a chain of stores
to keep basic food prices within the reach of
consumers. This agency established a minimum producer
price and purchased staple grains directly from small
producers. While the goal was not to eradicate poverty
or challenge the market system, this authoritarian
responsiveness provided a basic security net for
millions of Mexicans.

These social policies were greatly weakened by Mexico's
economic crisis of the 1980s and the U.S.-inspired
response. Social programs were slashed and food
subsidies eliminated as private businesses were hailed
as the solution to Mexico's economic ills. This has led
to a virtual abandonment of the countryside. Mexico's
farm employment has been reduced by 30 percent since
the implementation of NAFTA. According to a study the
International Relations Center, between 1999 and 2004
the price paid Mexican corn farmers fell by about half
as U.S. imports flooded Mexican markets. While for
centuries Mexico's campesinos have produced maize and
other basic staples, their lands are increasingly
privatized or abandoned and are forced to migrate in
search of better opportunities.

Among the major beneficiaries of the government
policies in the 1980s and 1990s, and of recent price
hikes, is the Mexican tortilla giant Grupo MASECA
(GRUMA). Founded in 1949, GRUMA pioneered an industrial
process of making corn flour and tortillas. When
subsidies to maize and tortillas plummeted, GRUMA
thrived as Mexican President Carlos Salinas diverted
state corn stocks away from smaller subsidized tortilla
factories and to the ready-mix tortilla industry, such
as GRUMA, openly favoring them as more efficient
producers.

GRUMA's dominance of the Mexican market stimulated its
international expansion. GRUMA controls approximately
65 percent of the overall Central American corn flour
market. In the U.S., with Mission and Guerrero as their
key brands, GRUMA controls about 70% of the tortilla
market in Southern California. It operates 13
industrial plants in the U.S including the largest
tortilla factory in the world in Rancho Cucamonga.
GRUMA has benefited from its strategic alliance with
Archer Daniel's Midland, one of the world's largest
agribusinesses and a key recipient of U.S. corn
subsidies.

WALMART, Mexico's number one private employer and
leading retailer, also stands to gain from the price
hikes. In its nearly 800 stores, WALMART has not
raised the price of tortillas as much as other
retailers. Its dominance of the market allows it to
undersell smaller stores thereby attracting more
customers. Smaller and national retailers are likely
to be the casualties, enabling WALMART to consolidate
its monopolistic hold over the Mexican market.

The current crisis provides an opportunity for
agribusiness to strengthen their dominance of the
Mexican countryside. Several large producer
organizations and biotech firms have called on the
government to authorize the planting of genetically
modified corn to increase yield in Mexico. In the
search for a quick fix, however, such a policy would
deepen Mexico's food dependence.

The lack of food sovereignty has had disastrous
consequences for Mexicans. According to Laura Carlsen
of the International Relations Center, the Mexican
government recently reported that 12.7 percent of
children under age five are chronically malnourished.
In the countryside, the percent is nearly double. The
increases in the price of tortillas, heightens the risk
of malnutrition. Hector Bourges Rodriguez, the
director of Nutrition of the National Institute of
Medical Sciences and Nutrition, reports that tortillas
are the one food item in the Mexican diet that deliver
the greatest amount of nutritional components.
Increasing the price could lead to the further
deteriorization of the Mexican diet.

The recent price increases of tortillas in Mexico,
therefore, are not mere market adjustments. They have
profound implications for who controls Mexico's basic
food staple. Long-term solutions to price increases
must be rooted in policies that increase Mexico's food
sovereignty and give more control to local campesino
producers and consumers. Short-term panaceas that
benefit WALMART, GRUMA, and U.S. agribusiness will not
improve the standard of living of the average Mexican;
instead, they may lead to greater malnutrition and
instability.

*Enrique C. Ochoa is a professor of History at the
California State University, Los Angeles and the
2006-07 Weglyn Chair of Multicultural Studies at Cal
Poly Pomona. The author of Feeding Mexico: The
Political Uses of Food Since 1910 (2000), he is
currently writing a book on the tortilla industry in
Mexico and Los Angeles.

Chavez a threat to democracy, US intelligence chief says:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez exports a form of "radical populism" throughout Latin America that poses a threat to democracy, the top US intelligence official said Tuesday. John Negroponte, during hearings on his nomination to become deputy secretary of state
http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/234/52/

Viva Chavez: Venezuela is the hip new socialist utopia

Leftists are flocking to see a country being transformed, writes Rory
Carroll in Caracas

TO SCEPTICS, they are naive Westerners who would not recognise
communist tyranny if it expropriated their sandals.

"Malodorous, left-wing, US and European peace creeps armed with Mom's
credit card and brand new Birkenstocks," sneered the American Thinker,
a right-wing magazine.

To the Venezuelan Government, however, they are valued friends who are
witnessing first-hand the positive changes sweeping the slums and
countryside and who return home, a volunteer army of ambassadors, to
spread the good news.

Meet the revolutionary tourists, a wave of backpackers, artists,
academics and politicians on a mission to discover if Venezuela's
President, Hugo Chavez, really is forging a radical alternative to
neo-liberalism and capitalism.

>From a trickle, a few years ago, there are now thousands. They travel
individually and on package tours, exploring a purported left-wing
mecca, and their ranks are set to swell now Mr Chavez is accelerating
his self-styled revolution after last month's landslide re-election.
"Socialism or death - I swear it," he said last week, and declared
himself a communist.

"It's just amazing being here. There is so much vibe and passion,
there is truly a sense of revolution," gushed Lucy Dale, 20, a
university student from Chicago on a 17-day trip. "I want to return to
do volunteer work."

Global Exchange, a San Francisco group that doubles as a travel agent,
organised trips for almost 500 Americans last year, five times the
2003 figure, said Jojo Farrell, its Venezuela liaison worker.

>From Britain, the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign plans to send at least
six delegations this year, mostly trade unionists. "Interest is
growing significantly," said Andy Goodall, co-ordinator of the
Wolverhampton-based group.

Visitors tend to shun the Caribbean beaches in favour of tours to
agricultural co-operatives, shantytown medical clinics and adult
literacy programs.

"We saw healthy, happy, well-dressed children taught by well-qualified
teachers who get paid a decent salary. These are opportunities that
did not exist for poor people before Chavez," said Kate Young, who
travelled with the Rotary Foundation.

Others hail Caracas and its alliance with other left-wing governments
for loosening the US's traditional grip on the region.

"We need checks and balances to US unilateralism, and any good North
American would laud Chavez for doing that," said Clif Roberts, a
Californian writer who stayed on in Venezuela after attending a poetry
festival.

Visiting celebrities such as the actor Danny Glover, the singer Harry
Belafonte and the anti-Iraq war activist Cindy Sheehan, echo the
sentiment.

Many enthusiasts set up solidarity groups when they return home and
record their impressions in blogs, amplifying the message sent out by
Venezuela's embassies and information offices.

The aim is to correct alleged mainstream media distortion depicting Mr
Chavez as an autocratic megalomaniac.

"The UK media is very disappointing, always a negative slant," said
Rod Finlayson, 62, a British union official who was thrilled by the
nationalisations and cultural events. "Bach in the slums. Stuff you
could only dream about."

Dreaming, say some critics, is the problem. Instead of investigating
complexities, such as the corruption and mismanagement undermining
some social programs, visitors sleepwalk through government spin and
never hear allegations that Venezuela's oil bonanza is being wasted or
that democracy is being smothered.

Mr Finlayson said his delegation ignored such voices because the goal
was to express solidarity, not investigate. But the group did
encounter some Chavez critics: walking through a wealthy district of
Caracas, it was pelted with eggs.

Some groups, such as those travelling with Global Exchange, meet
opposition figures and hear claims that Mr Chavez is hoarding power by
collapsing his movement into a single socialist party, not renewing
the licence of an opposition-aligned TV station and plotting to
abolish limits on terms of office.

"I was encouraged by what I saw in Venezuela but the focus on one
person as the source of hope strikes me as unfortunate," said Sarah
Gelder, an editor of the Seattle-based magazine Yes!.

Another left-wing journalist, Monica Vera, hailed the country as a
progressive beacon but voiced unease: "I just hope it continues on
that track."

Last Saturday Mr Chavez vowed to replace municipal governments with
councils inspired by the Paris Commune, France's shortlived experiment
with radical socialism in 1871.

Guardian News & Media

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Latin America Solidarity News 2nd Jan 2006

2007-01-02T11:11:00.000+13:00

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Events

“FILMS UNDER THE STARS” series: “VIVA SÃO JOÃO!”

Free screening of “Viva São João”, by Andrucha Waddington, with
Gilberto Gil, Dominguinhos and others, at the Wellington Botanic Gardens, on Thursday,
22nd February 2007. This event is being organized and promoted by the Cuba Street Carnival Trust in
conjunction with the Embassy of Brazil in Wellington and the NZ Film Archive.

When: Thursday 22nd February, 2007, from 9pm
Where: The Dell, Wellington Botanic Garden, Main Entrance, Tinakori Road
How much? Free... Come along and bring your friends!

NEWS
US and Latin America: Overview for 2006
The weakest link in Washington’s projected strategy in Latin America is the re-emergence of socio-political movements, like those which burst forth in the late 1990’s and first years of the new century: The MST in Brazil, the workers, peasant and Indian movements in Bolivia and Ecuador and the mass uprising in Oaxaca and electoral protests in Mexico are in the process of re-grouping, none having suffered a historic defeat.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15935.htm

Chavez targets Venezuela homeless woes :
President Hugo Chavez has pledged to do away with homelessness in Venezuela through an aggressive outreach program that is offering street people communal housing, drug treatment and a modest stipend.
http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=20893

Pinochet: : A Declassified Documentary Obit:
As Chile prepared to bury General Augusto Pinochet, the National Security Archive today posted a selection of declassified U.S. documents that illuminate the former dictator's record of repression. The documents include CIA records on Pinochet's role in the Washington D.C. car bombing that killed former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his American colleague Ronni Moffitt.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB212/index.htm

As Castro Fades, A Crop Of New Leaders
Interviews with two younger political figures suggest a gradual opening both economically and socially.
By Tom Fawthrop http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1227/p06s01-woam.html

'Children Are the Hope of the World' Says Che's Daughter
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35849
MILAN, Dec 14 (Tierramérica) - Aleida Guevara March has the eyes of
her famous father, the revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara. She
speaks energetically, as if she is attempting to convince a full
auditorium of her ideas. But she also smiles tenderly as she
remembers her father.

The pediatric allergist, 46, still refers to Cuba's ailing President
Fidel Castro as "tio" (uncle), and is confident of his recovery. Once
active in the Union of Young Communists, she now combines her work in
a children's hospital in Havana with frequent trips around the world
to promote what she considers the achievements of the Caribbean
island nation's socialist regime, among them, universal access to
free healthcare.

Poverty Crushes Guatemala
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={15658122-
CE16-4090-8D0A-37C893CF5A5D}&language=EN

Guatemala, Dec 26 (Prensa Latina) After having signed a peace
agreement, extreme poverty currently affects over 60 percent of the
population in Guatemala, where the war wages on, analysts said here.

Amid the armed conflict in 1989, about 80 percent of Guatemalans were
poor, and 59.3 lived in abject poverty, chiefly in rural areas, a
situation that experts consider has not changed in the Central
American country.

"The social stage set by the war still prevails," said Nadia
Sandoval, from Human Rights International Investigation Center in
Guatemala City.

The representative of the European Commission in Guatemala, Jo úo
Melo de Sampaio, said it was a contradiction to have an apparently
stable macro-economy to international eyes while there are such
domestic impoverishment exists.

According to local press, the country is not only socially divided
with a high percentage of abandoned native people in the countryside,
but huge differences in the concentration of wealth.

==========

Oaxaca, an Irreversible Crisis
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={48DE8877-
A8B8-44C8-9F49-9C4688F15398}&language=EN
the Oaxaca social conflict that broke
on May 22 in Mexico, with 70,000 local teachers demonstrating for
higher salaries, became the most significant political, social crisis
in the country in the last few years.

On that day, teachers of Section 22nd of the National Education
Workers Union could not even imagine they would start an irreversible
process that includes many commitments.

Slowness and disdain of federal authorities, intransigence of a local
governor who is clung on to power, the framework of interests of
Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and Accion Nacional (PAN) parties,
as well as the presence of police forces have all turned Oaxaca into
a vicious circle.

But, contrary to what politicians and observers may think, this
southern Mexican coastal state is today a powder keg, where a
solution to the conflict gets complicated, as the domination system
prevailing there was broken, and reconstruction of society cannot be
guaranteed by repression.

Far from serving as a dissuasion factor, state constraint has
encouraged resistance against Governor Ulises Ruiz, who for more than
six months has been urged to resign his post due to the high level of
ungovernability prevailing in the area.

Known as land of the sun, indigenous sanctuary of Mexico, birthplace
of national heroes and other names, Oaxaca is among worst hit Mexican
places when it comes to poverty, marginalization and backwardness.

At least 40 percent of its economically active population do not get
any payment for their work, and 60 percent of those lucky to be paid
earn less than a minimal wage a day. In contrast, just a tyre of one
of the governor's cars costs 2,400 dollars.

In the light of these realities, on June 14 Ruiz ordered a brutal
removal of teachers and social activists from their sit-ins, all of
which left 92 people wounded, including several with serious
injuries, according to official figures. A strong popular movement
followed.

Then, led by Oaxaca's Popular Assembly of the Peoples (Asamblea
Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca, APPO), grouping unions, as well as
indigenous, students, worker organizations and several settlers,
Oaxaca residents gave free rein to a broad mass movement of a
unitary, opposition nature.

Successive clashes with local and state police ensued, including the
occupation of main government buildings, the lifting of barricades,
street blockings and occupation of Universidad Radio, all of which
were responded by arbitrary detention, torture and violation of
individual guarantees.

Based on a skillful policy of alliances, APPO managed to build a
network of resistance and peaceful civil disobedience capable of
facing the state executive and paramilitary groups, only stopped by
the entry of Federal Preventive Police (PFP) into Oaxaca on October 29.

However, a lack of sensitivity in the Congress of the Republic to
declare the disappearance of powers in the area triggered not only a
radicalization of APPO, but also the most violent clash with PFP,
with 17 people killed and more than 284 detained.

Over 10 rounds of talks between APPO and representatives of the
Ministry of Interior and efforts made by senators and deputies bared
no fruit in finding a solution to the conflict.

Stuck in political interests of PRI and PAN, the Oaxaca crisis is in
a blind alley, on the brink of an increased social violence,
especially after the detention of main APPO leaders.

In opinion of the country's opposition progressive forces, the Oaxaca
conflict is a complex political issue that requires the resignation
of the state governor to be solved, as many recognize.

It is a reflection of ungovernability and incapacity to build bridges
of understanding, as well as incompetence to channel social demands
with firm, radical solutions.

Poll: Venezuelans Have Highest Regard for Their Democracy
Wednesday, Dec 20, 2006 - Gregory Wilpert -
www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2179

Venezuelans view their democracy more favorably than
the citizens of all other Latin American countries view
their own democracies, except Uruguay, according to a
new survey released by the Chilean NGO Latinbarometro
last Saturday. Also, Venezuela is in first place in
several measures of political participation, compared
to all other Latin American countries.

According to the Latinobarometro survey, Venezuelans
rank their democracy as being more fully realized than
the citizens of all other surveyed countries do except
Uruguay. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means a country
that is not democratic and 10 is a country that is
completely democratic, Venezuelans, on average, gave
their own democracy a score of 7.0. The Latin American
average was 5.8, with Uruguay having the highest score,
of 7.2, and Paraguay the lowest, at 3.9.

Similarly, Venezuelans say more often than the citizens
all other countries except Uruguayans that they are
satisfied with their democracy. 57% of Venezuelans are
happy with Venezuelan democracy, which is the second
highest percentage, with 66% of Uruguayans expressing
satisfaction. The average for all countries surveyed
was 38%, with citizens of Peru, Ecuador, and Paraguay,
expressing the least satisfaction, of 23%, 22%, and 12%
respectively.

For Venezuela, the percentage of citizens surveyed who
indicated satisfaction increased more since 1998, the
year Chavez was elected, than any other country. The
percentage expressing satisfaction increased from 32%
to 57% in those eight years.

In terms of political participation, Venezuelans
indicate that they are more politically active than the
citizens of any other surveyed country. Venezuelans
have the highest percentage of citizens that say they
discuss politics regularly (47%, average is 26%), who
say that they try to convince others on political
matters (32%, average is 16%), who participate in
demonstrations (26%, average is 12%), and who say they
are active in a political party (25%, average is 9%).

With regard to whether they believe that elections in
their country are 'clean,' Venezuelans answer in the
affirmative 56% of the time, which puts them in third
place, after Uruguay (83%) and Chile (69%). These were
the only three where over half said they believed
elections were clean. On average, only 41% of Latin
Americans expressed confidence in elections in their
country. Paraguayans (20%) and Ecuadorians (21%)
expressed the least confidence in their elections.

According to Latinobarometro, Venezuelans and
Uruguayans expressed the highest percentage of
confidence that elections were the most effective means
to promote change in their country (both 71%), compared
to 57% for all of Latin America.

Latinobarometro has been conducting an annual poll in
Latin American countries for the past 13 years. The
polls are financed by a variety of multilateral
agencies, such as the European Union, the Inter-
American Development Bank, and the World Bank. The 2006
poll was conducted in 18 countries in the month of
October 2006 and involved interviews with over 20,000
people. Its margin of error is about 3% (varies from
country to country).

The Latinobarometro report contradicted the common
perception that Latin America was heading towards more
authoritarian regimes with the recent political shift
towards the left. 'It is clear that there is no
authoritarian regression [in Latin America], which is
demonstrated by the fact that 14 presidents were
substituted, for various reasons and due to popular
pressure prior to the end of their mandate and within
the valid legal framework in each of the countries,'
said the report.

According to Latinobarometro, 'An important part of the
errors of perception about the evolution and
development of the region are produced by the false
expectations that international elites have about what
the region should be doing.'

Countries included in the survey were Argentina,
Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay,
and Venezuela.
www.latinobarometro.org/fileadmin/intranet/Informe_Latinobarometro_2006.pdf

Paramilitary Ties Implicate Colombia's Political Elite
By Juan Forero: Washington Post Foreign Service

BOGOTA, Colombia, Dec. 18 -- In what has been heralded as a decisive moment in Colombia's shadowy, decades-long conflict, a powerful paramilitary commander is to appear in a special court Tuesday to account for crimes that include massacres and assassinations. Salvatore Mancuso's testimony will be the first by a top death-squad leader in a Colombian courtroom, and it is being touted by the administration of President Álvaro Uribe as evidence that the wheels of justice are turning.

Rather than rejoicing, however, the Uribe government has found itself in the awkward position of being implicated in the wrongdoing. Over the past several weeks, Colombians have been gripped by revelations of ties between paramilitary fighters and several congressmen close to the president, as well as some officials in his administration. The scandal now threatens to unravel his authority.

Uribe won reelection in May after cultivating his reputation as a workaholic technocrat -- someone who would be relentless against corruption and illegal armed groups. But lately, he has joined a cast of lawmakers, intelligence service operatives and mid-level government bureaucrats in publicly denying ties to the paramilitary groups, which for a generation the military used as a proxy force to battle guerrillas.

"The government's smokescreen is becoming transparent," said Venus Albeiro Silva, a congressman from the left-leaning Alternative Democratic Pole party. "What's happening now is they cannot put the lid on this. That's why we're telling the president to come out and say the truth."

Repeated requests for an interview with Uribe went unanswered. But Vice President Francisco Santos said in an interview that the administration fully supports the investigations into ties with the paramilitary umbrella organization known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials, AUC.

"The government has said this has to go as deep as it needs to go," he said. But he added, "We're seeing the whole iceberg here."

So far, investigators from the Supreme Court and the attorney general's office have revealed case after case that not only expose friendly ties between officials and paramilitary fighters but also detail how lawmakers and others helped the fighters expand their hold over northern Colombia, liquidating opponents in the process.

Since three congressmen were jailed last month for collaborating with paramilitary groups, investigators have opened official probes into six more members of Congress and three former lawmakers. The most prominent is Sen. Álvaro Araújo, whose sister, Maria Consuelo Araújo, is the country's foreign minister. The senator has even admitted meeting with Rodrigo Tovar, a paramilitary commander who prosecutors say has been running a drug-trafficking group while negotiating with the government.

Another senator, Miguel de la Espriella, publicly detailed how he and dozens of other lawmakers met with paramilitary commanders in 2001. At the meeting, they signed a pact cementing an alliance designed to lead to disarmament negotiations, which death squad commanders hoped would help them avoid extradition to the United States on drug charges and hold on to land and other possessions. The talks began after Uribe won office in 2002.

"The interests of these men is personal, that they don't lose property and that they don't get extradited," said José Mejia, a former political officer in Tovar's paramilitary group who gave up his weapons this year. "What they're looking for is that they don't get tried for massacres and narco-trafficking."

The developments involving congressmen follow disclosures that a string of officials in the Uribe administration -- among them the former head of the intelligence service, the former head of the rural development agency and the former ambassador to Chile -- helped paramilitary groups by giving them classified information while orchestrating the takeover of land and the murder of the group's enemies.

The government has also come under withering criticism for moving too slowly to bring paramilitary fighters to justice, although the groups began disarming in 2003.

The government says 2,700 paramilitary commanders should be tried for atrocities, but the attorney general's office says administration officials have fully identified only 400. And although Mancuso agreed to talk to prosecutors, dozens of other top commanders have balked, threatening to paralyze the process.

Maria McFarland, of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the system set up to investigate paramilitary fighters puts the burden on prosecutors, not defendants.

"So far, the government hasn't gotten the paramilitaries to fulfill their commitments," she said. "They're supposed to confess, turn over their illegal assets, cease with their criminal activities, and they haven't really done any of those things."

The setbacks have the Uribe administration scrambling to contain the political damage while ensuring that the new Democratic majority in the U.S. Congress does not take a hard line against Colombia, the largest recipient of U.S. aid outside the Middle East. Most of that aid -- $700 million a year -- is spent to fight guerrillas and eradicate drug crops.

Colombian officials also worry that the government's inability to successfully prosecute paramilitary groups -- at least until now -- could hurt its chances for a free trade agreement with Washington, since the Democrats have called on Uribe to improve Colombia's human rights record.

"There's this perception of strong infiltration of the paramilitaries in Colombia's system, and if it's not straightened out and cleaned out, it's hard to see how he's going to move forward on any of his priorities," said Michael Shifter of Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington policy group.

Santos, the vice president, extolled the administration's achievements, noting, for example, that the number of homicides in rural areas has dropped sharply. He said the government is advancing in a process that will for the first time bring the commanders of an illegal insurgency to justice.

"Everyone who said this wouldn't work is wrong," he said.

Still, Santos cautioned patience: "To me, it's preferable that we go at it slow, and do it better than very quickly, and in the end we don't hear the victims."

Santos said that it was under Uribe's order that 59 paramilitary commanders were recently transferred to a prison. And he warned that they would be extradited to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges if they do not cooperate.

But documents from the attorney general's office, as well as interviews with rights groups and opposition congressmen, show that as the government prepares to process paramilitary commanders, some of them are forming parallel drug-trafficking gangs.

Even Mancuso, despite his imminent court appearance, was recently implicated in an international cocaine-trafficking and money-laundering ring involving the Italian Mafia.

A defector from one group, in the southern state of Meta, said in an interview that earlier this year he was recruited by a new paramilitary group run by Carlos Jimenez. The defector, Arley Rincón Herrera, 26, said the new group's purpose was to protect shipments of cocaine, cash and chemicals used to make drugs.

"They didn't teach us anything political, since it was narco-trafficking that they were interested in," said Rincón, who is in hiding in Bogota. "We had to guard the merchandise. If a car came down with merchandise, we protected it."

Meta's paramilitary forces demobilized under government auspices. But far from being freed of fighters, the state is afflicted by new groups that are snatching farms and killing rivals.

A local cattleman who spoke on condition of anonymity said these fighters demand the sale of farms at bargain-basement prices and that people who resist are killed.

Ranchers used to be able to appease the paramilitary forces by giving them support.

But those days appear to be over, the cattleman said. "We all see now that the medicine was worse than the illness."

Low-Wage Workers From Mexico Dominate Latest Great Wave of Immigrants
By JULIA PRESTON
NY TIMES-Published: December 19, 2006
Since the early 1990s, the United States has seen the largest wave of immigration in its history. Of 300 million people now living here, about 37 million were born in another country. Not since the trans-Atlantic rush a century ago have immigrants made up such a large portion of the population.
The new immigrants come from places as far-flung as the Philippines, India, China and El Salvador. But the great wave is dominated by people like Raquel Rodríguez and her sisters: low-wage workers from Mexico. At least one-third of the foreign-born in the United States come from Mexico, census figures show.
When Mrs. Rodríguez moved to Texas 11 years ago as a legal resident, she was lucky to have the best of an American immigration system that is generally agreed to be broken. Proposals for broad changes in the system by President Bush and the Senate met opposition this year from Republicans who favored a crackdown on illegal immigrants. The push for change could resume in the coming months with the new Democratic majority in Congress.
The clearest sign of the system’s dysfunction is that legal permanent residents are no longer the majority of newcomers. Among recent arrivals, legal immigrants are outnumbered by illegal ones who sneaked across a border, or came legally and overstayed their visas. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, about 56 percent of illegal immigrants come from Mexico.
The calculation Mexican immigrants make is simple: there are jobs across the border at wages that are much higher than in Mexico. In the United States new Mexican immigrants mostly earn poverty wages by American standards, a median income of only $300 a week, the Pew Hispanic Center reported last year. But that is as much as four times what they would make for similar work at home.
The current United States immigration system, first created by Congress in 1965, is based on family ties, not labor market demand. An American citizen or legal resident can petition a federal agency, Citizenship and Immigration Services, to bring a foreign spouse or children, and citizens can bring their siblings. Employers may also petition for workers, but most of these visas are for professionals with special education and skills. In 2005, only 8 percent of visas were for workers, according to a report in September by an independent bipartisan task force directed by Doris Meissner, a former head of the immigration service. Lawful immigrants receive a document known as a green card, even though the current version is pink.
Most visa categories have numerical caps, limiting their overall annual total to about 675,000 immigrants, and every country has a general limit of about 26,500 visas per year. As a result, the backlog of applications has become unmanageable. With the immigration agency overwhelmed, the process is generally tedious and frustrating. Today, for example, an American citizen seeking to bring a sibling from Mexico faces a wait of 13 years, the task force report found.
While Mexicans are coming in ever larger numbers, their legal avenues have not expanded. One result is that Mexican families often have mixed immigration status. There might, say, be a legal resident mother and an illegal father with children who are American citizens because they were born in the United States.
For Mexican immigrants the ties of family and religious faith are often more compelling than national allegiance. When immigrants first arrive, they rely on relatives already established in this country to give them shelter and steer them to jobs. Mexicans sent back $20 billion last year to aid families at home, the Inter-American Development Bank reported.
Mexicans more than live up to the truism that immigrants work hard. Often they carry more than one job at a time. Their driven work ethic is the unspoken factor in many debates about their impact on the labor market. It can lead them to accept jobs in unacceptable conditions. They run down their health and have little time to spend with their children.
Legal residents have clear advantages over illegal immigrants. While their job possibilities are not vastly different, they can hold driver’s licenses and bank accounts, build credit and receive government medical assistance. A growing proportion of legal immigrants are women.
Mexicans have not always shown a passion for learning English and becoming American citizens. But the accelerating crackdown on illegal immigration made many legal residents feel insecure, prompting hundreds of thousands of applications for citizenship.

Historical Perspectives on Latin American
By Noam Chomsky
http://www.japanfocus.org/products/details/2298
This is a lightly edited and excerpted version of Noam Chomsky’s December 15, 2006 talk to a Boston meeting of Mass Global Action following a recent trip to Chile and Peru. It is posted at Japan Focus on December 20, 2006.
There was a meeting on the weekend of December 9-10 in Cochabamba in Bolivia of major South American leaders. It was a very important meeting. One index of its importance is that it was unreported, virtually unreported apart from the wire services. So every editor knew about it. Since I suspect you didn't read that wire service report, I’ll read a few things from it to indicate why it was so important.
The South American leaders agreed to create a high-level commission to study the idea of forming a continent-wide community similar to the European Union. This is the presidents and envoys of major nations, and there was the two-day summit of what's called the South American Community of Nations, hosted by Evo Morales in Cochabamba, the president of Bolivia. The leaders agreed to form a study group to look at the possibility of creating a continent-wide union and even a South American parliament. The result, according to the AP report, left fiery Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, long an agitator for the region, taking a greater role on the world stage, pleased, but impatient. It goes on to say that the discussion over South American unity will continue later this month, when MERCOSUR, the South American trading bloc, has its regular meeting that will include leaders from Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Paraguay and Uruguay.

There is one -- has been one point of hostility in South America. That's Peru, Venezuela. But the article points out that Chavez and Peruvian President Alan Garcia took advantage of the summit to bury the hatchet, after having exchanged insults earlier in the year. And that is the only real conflict in South America at this time. So that seems to have been smoothed over.
The new Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa proposed a land and river trade route linking the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest to Ecuador's Pacific Coast, suggesting that for South America, it could be kind of like an alternative to the Panama Canal.
Chavez and Morales celebrated a new joint project, the gas separation plant in Bolivia's gas-rich region. It’s a joint venture with Petrovesa (PDVSA, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA. Pronounced “pedevesa”), the Venezuelan oil company, and the Bolivian state energy company. And it continues. Venezuela is the only Latin American member of OPEC and has by far the largest proven oil reserves outside the Middle East, by some measures maybe even comparable to Saudi Arabia.
There were also contributions, constructive, interesting contributions by Lula da Silva, Brazil's president, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, and others. All of this is extremely important.
This is the first time since the Spanish conquests, 500 years, that there have been real moves toward integration in South America. The countries have been very separated from one another. And integration is going to be a prerequisite for authentic independence. There have been attempts at independence, but they've been crushed, often very violently, partly because of lack of regional support. Because there was very little regional cooperation, they could be picked off one by one.
That’s what has happened since the 1960s. The Kennedy administration orchestrated a coup in Brazil. It was the first of a series of falling dominoes. Neo-Nazi-style national security states spread across the hemisphere. Chile was one of them. Then there were Reagan's terrorist wars in the 1980s, which devastated Central America and the Caribbean. It was the worst plague of repression in the history of Latin America since the original conquests.
But integration lays the basis for potential independence, and that's of extreme significance. Latin America’s colonial history -- Spain, Europe, the United States -- not only divided countries from one another, it also left a sharp internal division within the countries, every one, between a very wealthy small elite and a huge mass of impoverished people. The correlation to race is fairly close. Typically, the rich elite was white, European, westernized; and the poor mass of the population was indigenous, Indian, black, intermingled, and so on. It's a fairly close correlation, and it continues right to the present.
The white, mostly white, elites -- who ran the countries -- were not integrated with, had very few relations with, the other countries of the region. They were Western-oriented. You can see that in all sorts of ways. That's where the capital was exported. That's where the second homes were, where the children went to university, where their cultural connections were. And they had very little responsibility in their own societies. So there’s a very sharp division.
You can see the pattern in imports. Imports are overwhelmingly luxury goods. Development, such as it was, was mostly foreign. Latin America was much more open to foreign investment than, say, East Asia. It’s part of the reason for their radically different paths of development in the last couple of decades.
And, of course, the elite elements were strongly sympathetic to the neoliberal programs of the last 25 years, which enriched them -- destroyed the countries, but enriched them. Latin America, more than any region in the world, outside of southern Africa, adhered rigorously to the so-called Washington Consensus, what's called outside the United States the neoliberal programs of roughly the past 25 or 30 years. And where they were rigorously applied, almost without exception, they led to disaster. Very striking correlation. Sharp reduction in rates of growth, other macroeconomic indices, all the social effects that go along with that.
Actually, the comparison to East Asia is very striking. Latin America is potentially a much richer area. I mean, a century ago, it was taken for granted that Brazil would be what was called the “Colossus of the South,” comparable to the Colossus of the North. Haiti, now one of the poorest countries in the world, was the richest colony in the world, a source of much of France’s wealth, now devastated, first by France, then by the United States. And Venezuela -- enormous wealth -- was taken over by the United States around 1920, right at the beginning of the oil age, It had been a British dependency, but Woodrow Wilson kicked the British out, recognizing that control of oil was going to be important, and supported a vicious dictator. From that point, more or less, it goes on until the present. So the resources and the potential were always there. Very rich.
In contrast, East Asia had almost no resources, but they followed a different developmental path. In Latin America, imports were luxury goods for the rich. In East Asia, they were capital goods for development. They had state-coordinated development programs. They disregarded the Washington Consensus almost totally. Capital controls, controls on export of capital, pretty egalitarian societies -- authoritarian, sometimes, pretty harsh -- but educational programs, health programs, and so on. In fact, they followed pretty much the developmental paths of the currently wealthy countries, which are radically different from the rules that are being imposed on the South.
And that goes way back in history. You go back to the 17th century, when the commercial and industrial centers of the world were China and India. Life expectancy in Japan was greater than in Europe. Europe was kind of a barbarian outpost, but it had advantages, mainly in savagery. It conquered the world, imposed something like the neoliberal rules on the conquered regions, and for itself, adopted very high protectionism, a lot of state intervention and so on. So Europe developed.
The United States, as a typical case, had the highest tariffs in the world, most protectionist country in the world during the period of its great development. In fact, as late as 1950, when the United States literally had half the world's wealth, its tariffs were higher than the Latin American countries today, which are being ordered to reduce them.
Massive state intervention in the economy. Economists don't talk about it much, but the current economy in the United States relies very heavily on the state sector. That's where you get your computers and the internet and your airplane traffic and transit of goods, container ships and so on, almost entirely comes out of the state sector, including pharmaceuticals, management techniques, and so on. I won’t go on into that, but it’s a strong correlation right through history. Those are the methods of development.
The neoliberal methods created the third world, and in the past 30 years, they have led to disasters in Latin America and southern Africa, the places that most rigorously adhered to them. But there was growth and development in East Asia, which disregarded them, following instead pretty much the model of the currently rich countries.
Well, there’s a chance that that will begin to change. There are finally efforts inside South America -- unfortunately not in Central America, which has just been pretty much devastated by the terror of the ’80s particularly. But in South America, from Venezuela to Argentina, it’s, I think, the most exciting place in the world. After 500 years, there’s a beginning of efforts to overcome these overwhelming problems. The integration that's taking place is one example.
There are efforts of the Indian population. The indigenous population is, for the first time in hundreds of years, in some countries really beginning to take a very active role in their own affairs. In Bolivia, they succeeded in taking over the country, controlling their resources. It’s also leading to significant democratization, real democracy, in which the population participates. So it takes a Bolivia -- it’s the poorest country in South America (Haiti is poorer in the hemisphere). It had a real democratic election last year, of a kind that you can't imagine in the United States, or in Europe, for that matter. There was mass popular participation, and people knew what the issues were. The issues were crystal clear and very important. And people didn't just participate on election day. These are the things they had been struggling about for years. Actually, Cochabamba is a symbol of it.
Noam Chomsky’s most recent book is Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dialogues on Terror, Democracy, War and Justice.

Solidarity News November 30th 2006

2006-11-29T16:40:00.000+13:00

This week we have more from our correspondent in Oaxaca, Julie Webb-Pullman,
and further background information on the global economy and Milton Friedman's free market experiment in Chile.

Listen to Voz Latinoamericana Wellington Access Radio 783AM
Mondays 5-6pm Ph 021 548 985 or hjorge40@hotmail.com
Radio streaming www.r2.co.nz/meta/accessradio-56.asx - www.accessradio.org.nz/

ACTION ALERT:

From our correspondent in Oaxaca, Julie Webb-Pullman
Date: 27 November 2006 12:55:42 PM

I am in Oaxaca, trapped in the university, surrounded by narco police and PFP, who have been trucked in by the busload, according to neighbours who have rung the university radio, and even Ulises own radio station has admitted to this. Despite the university being an autonomous institution that the government cannot enter without invitation, everyone expects to be attacked today (it is now nearly 6pm) or tonight. Helicopters circled overhead several hours ago and were greeeted by home-made bazookas - not my idea of peaceful protest.... I have been able to get to this cibercafe behind the barricade escorted by a local but can only stay a minute. There are rumoured to now be between 3 and 13 dead according to a doctor who arrived at the university at 1pm, more than 800 unaccounted for (could be in hiding, disappeared, dead, or still being tortured before being formally arrested), 100 detained according to official sources (which means much more) 30 injured (doesn-t account for injured disappeareds) and the radio is constantly broadcasting messages from families asking for people to contact them. We cannot leave until either the police come in and kill&arrest us, or the federal government does something like get rid of Ruiz and pull the PFP and EFI out (EFI are the narco-police who have been brought in). There are bombs going off right now, so I better go.
Hope to see you again!!
JWP

Offensive by the Federal Preventive Police Against the People of Oaxaca

By the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) - The Other Oaxaca

November 25, 2006

A large number of people are reported detained in various parts of the city. Two deaths are the result of the confrontation. (as of 9:33)

The federal police began, around 5pm, to attack the members of the APPO that were peacefully demonstration in the areas around the zocalo. These aggressions caused the conflict that is still continuing between the police and the members of the APPO and its supporters.

The streets of the historic center area battle ground and the federal police began to discharge fire arms against the protesters about an hour ago. The ministerial police of the state of Oaxaca and the federal preventative forces are investigating in order to apprehend in some part of the city, such as in el Llano, Crespo street and the market Central de Abastos as well as in other parts.

Approximately 40 people are reported detained, 20 of them women. There are various injured people, one of whom is gravely hurt.

Up until now we have the information that two compañeros have lost their lives due to the aggressions, although their identities have not been confirmed.
At the moment the offices of exterior relations (immigration) that are located in Pino Suarez and the offices of the police that are located in Juarez Avenue are on fire.

The Federal Preventive Police together with the state police have unleashed an offensive against the social movement of Oaxaca. The confrontations have arrived to the area around ADO (a bus station) and the hospital IMSS which is located in the street Ninos Heroes.

The APPO has information that because of these recent events the Mexican Army is in Maximum Alert.

Santo Domingo, headquarters of the APPO’s planton (camps in the city’s center) has been removed by the federal police after being taken over by them.
Faced with this offensive against the people and in order to avoid more bloodshed the APPO has decided to retreat.

We demand the punishment of Felipe Calderón, Vicente Fox, Ulises Ruiz for this massacre that is being carried out against the people of Oaxaca.
We call to all of the peoples of Mexico and of the World to carry out mobilizations demanding that this aggression ends.

Punish the murders
Freedom to political prisoners
Long live the heroic people of Oaxaca
From mexprisonersart@yahoo.ca

LETHAL PARAMILITARY ATTACK in VIEJO VELASCO, CHIAPAS

In the early morning of 13 November the indigenous community of Viejo Velasco Suarez, Chiapas State, was attacked by armed individuals, many of whom were wearing security force clothing. About 40 individuals in civilian clothes and armed with machetes and bats first arrived in Viejo Velasco Suarez from Nueva Palestina that morning. About 200 individuals followed soon after, armed with high caliber firearms usually commissioned by the military. Some reportedly wore military clothes, some wore uniforms of the State Police (Policía Sectorial) and others wore balaclavas.

Two men and a woman died during the attack. According to testimonies, the woman was raped before being killed; she was six months pregnant. According to the testimony of a woman from Viejo Velasco who had been held hostage in the nearby community of Nueva Palestina for two days after the attack, three men – one of them her father – were killed when she and the three were taken to Nuevo Palestina. The community reports four men missing that might include the ones the woman reported as having been killed. However, their bodies have not been found for which they are considered disappeared. 39 people, including 5 children, from Viejo Velasco who only recently had returned to that community are displaced.

On 14 November Diego Arcos Meneses, a resident of a nearby community, was walking near the site of the attack when he was threatened and detained by agents of the Attorney of the Selva Region (Fiscalía Regional, Zona Selva]. Diego Arcos Meneses was reportedly forced to load the body of a dead woman onto the agents’ helicopter before being taken by them to the office of the Prosecutor in Palenque to be questioned as a witness to the attack in Viejo Velasco Suarez.

Diego Arcos Meneses, who does not speak Spanish very well and who cannot read Spanish, gave testimony verbally in Spanish and was not provided with interpretation. He refused to sign the written version of his testimony because he could not confirm its accuracy. As a result, he was reportedly beaten severely and was put into preventive custody. He remains in custody and the Fray Bartolomé Human Rights Center and the Center for Indigenous Rights are taking on his defense.

Reportedly one man from Nuevo Palestina also died in the attack and another who was injured was taken into custody. This man in his declaration to the police confirmed that the attack against Viejo Velasco had been planned and deliberate.

Recently a group of subcomuneros had carried out provocative actions in Viejo Velasco, such as cutting off the water supply to the community. The community demanded that they leave and they signed a document stating that they would leave the community on November 11. Two days later they came back as part of the aggressors against Viejo Velasco.

In the first reports of this attack the survivors denounced 11 deaths of people from their community, including 2 children, and 4 from Nuevo Palestina. These numbers were the result of the total confusion and chaos in the community as people dispersed fleeing into the mountains. When they gathered again, they assumed all the people missing as dead. The families remain displaced in various communities in precarious conditions.

There have been threats by the Lacandon community that events like this attack against Viejo Velasco could “repeat themselves” if five communities (among them Viejo Velasco) are not relocated.

BACKGROUND

Conflicts around land issues in the Selva Lacandona, Chiapas State, have brought violence to indigenous communities for decades, starting with a presidential decree of 1972 that granted 614.000 hectares of land to the Lacandon community, disregarding the presence of other communities in that same region. In 1984 an agreement was signed that relocated Tzeltal and Ch’ol communities such as Viejo Velasco to the region where they are at present and where this most recent attack took place. Following another agreement in 2005, the Federal and State government committed to regularize the land rights of 28 communities, including that of Viejo Velasco Suarez. However, since April 2006, conflicts began again because four communities were being left out of this regularization and the local government, allegedly with the support of pro-government militia groups and individuals from communities such as Nueva Palestina, began to threaten these communities with forced evictions and relocations.

[Note: In August 2006 Global Exchange organized a delegation to isolated communities in Montes Azules, Chiapas two hours hike from the closest road. Upon their return, the delegation participants wrote a report on the history and current situation in Montes Azules, describing vulnerable communities faced with frequent illegal and somethines violent eviction attempts.

Click here to see full report.

Please take these actions recommended by the Fray Bartolome Human Rights Center and Amnesty International:

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Spanish or your own language:

- urging the authorities to charge Diego Arcos Meneses with a recognisably criminal offence or to release him immediately and to investigate his reported beating and arbitrary arrest on 14 November;

- calling on the authorities to ensure the safety of the displaced inhabitants of Viejo Velasco Suarez, following the attack of 13 November by a group of armed individuals, some of whom wore security forces clothing;

- calling on the authorities to take emergency measures to establish the whereabouts of those who seem to be missing, and to ensure the safe release of those reportedly held hostage in Nueva Palestina;

- calling on the authorities to identify without delay those who were killed and to ensure a full, prompt and impartial forensic examination and secure protection of all evidence;

- calling for a full, prompt and impartial investigation into the violent confrontation of 13 November, in particular reports of official involvement, with the results to be made public and those responsible brought to justice.

APPEALS TO:

Attorney General of Chiapas
Lic. Mariano Herrán Salvatti
Fiscal General de Justicia del Estado de Chiapas
Libramiento Norte s/n, tercer nivel, Colonia Infonavit “El Rosario”, CP 30064
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico
Fax: + 52 961 61 657 24
Email: mherran@fge.chiapas.gob.mx

Salutation: Estimado Sr. Fiscal/Dear Attorney GeneGovernor of Chiapas
Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía
Gobernador del Estado de Chiapas
Palacio de Gobierno del Estado de Chiapas
Av. Central y Primera Oriente
Colonia Centro, C.P. 29009
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México
Fax: + 52 961 612 5618/612 9189

Salutation: Dear Governor/Señor Gobernador
Federal Attorney General
Lic. Daniel Cabeza de Vaca
Procurador General de la República, Procuraduría General de la República
Reforma Cuauhtémoc esq. Violeta 75, Col. Guerrero, Delegación Cuauhtémoc
México D.F., C.P. 06 500, MEXICO
Fax: + 525 55 346 0908 (if a voice reply say: “me da tono de fax por favor”)

Salutation: Dear Attorney General / Señor Procurador
Minister of Public Security, Chiapas State
Lic. Horacio Schroeder Bejarano
Secretaría de Seguridad Pública
Libramiento Sur Oriente Km. 9
C.P. 29070 Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas
(01 961) 61 7-70-20
Email: hschoeder@chiapas.gob.mx
Fax: + 525 55 961 61 7-70-20 ext. 16045

Salutation: Dear Minister / Señor Secretario
COPIES TO:
Human rights organizations

Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas A.C
Brasil No. 14 Barrio Mexicanos, CP. 29240, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico

Embassy of Mexico in the United States of America
1911 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington D.C. 20006

Carlos de Icaza, Ambassador
Phone: (202) 728-1600
Fax: (202) 883-4320
Salutation: Dear Ambassador /Señor Embajador

Letter in Support of the People of Oaxaca:

A new sign-on support letter has been drafted. Signatories include Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Eve Ensler, Danny Glover, Eduardo Galeano, Michael Moore, Arundhati Roy, Alice Walker, Howard Zinn, and many others. http://tinyurl.com/t36xa

Events
VISIT CUBA THIS SUMMER
Visit Cuba and see for youself. Dec 26, 2006 -23 January 2007. An
Australasian brigade spends a month in Cuba visiting historic sights,
having discussions with unions and womenâ•˙s groups, staying with
families ∑ and doing a little agricultural labour to express your
support and solidarity with Cuba in the face of the US blockade. Total
costs are about $5000 for fares, accommodation and meals. And there is
also time to lie on a beach, walk along the Malecon and dance in a Havana nightclub.
Contact Ina for info and registration details 09 3031755; inashina@clear.net.nz

NEWS

Greener pastures ... in Chile?

Ironic that foreign land purchases and higher prices are driving NZers to Chile presumably also decreasing opportunities for local Chilean farmers! (http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/community/CAFCA/OIReview/OIReview.html)
See also Pablo E. Guerrero, Retired Agric. Research Scientist guerrero@ihug.co.nz
Previous issues have covered Fronterra's connections to Soprole, the Chilean Diary company.

Dissatisfied with the rising price of dairying land in New Zealand, 12 dairy farmers are off to look at prospects in South America. TIM CRONSHAW asks what makes the continent so attractive. Free cola and crisps will be the last thing on the minds of 12 dairy farmers when they board a flight bound for South America.
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/0,2106,3856248a6531,00.html

Chilean President Bachelet was is in Wellington on the 20th Nov while a group of Chilean young people
protested the Chilean Governments track record on environmental issues in particular a polluting pulp mill in Valdivia. Background info at www.accionporloscisnes.org or call Macarena 021 052 1470

Eye of the Hurricane: Milton Friedman, the Global South and Chile
By Walden Bello

While economists laud the recently deceased Milton Friedman for being “a champion of freedom whose work transformed economics and changed the world,” as a full-page advertisement in the New York Times put it, people in the South will remember the University of Chicago professor as the eye of a human hurricane that cut a swath of destruction through their economies. For them, Friedman will long be associated with two things: free-market reform in Chile and “structural adjustment” in the developing world.

Soon after the coup against the government of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973, Chilean graduates of Friedman’s economics department, who were soon dubbed the “Chicago Boys,” took over the helm of the economy and launched a program of economic transformation with doctrinal vengeance. In light of his much-quoted assertion about political freedom going hand-in-hand with free markets, the irony that in Chile a free market paradise was being imposed with the bayonets of one of Latin America’s most bloodstained dictatorships could not have escaped the guru.

Yet Friedman visited Chile during the dictatorship, anointing the radical free-market, export-oriented thrust of the regime, praising Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet for his commitment to a “fully free market as a matter of principle,” and delivering talks with a title “The Fragility of Freedom” that could only be ironic in the Chilean context. Even as he accused his critics of being bent on “tarring and feathering” him with the regime’s human rights abuses, Friedman took pride in his doctrinal inspiration of what he described as the “Chilean Miracle.”

The Chilean Experiment

After his disciples were done with it, Chile was indeed radically transformed…for the worse.

Free market policies subjected the country to two major depressions twice in one decade, first in 1974-75, when GDP fell by 12 per cent, then again in 1982-83, when it dropped by 15 per cent.

Contrary to ideological expectations about free markets and robust growth, average GDP growth in the period 1974-89--the radical Jacobin phase of the Friedman-Pinochet revolution--was only 2.6 per cent, compared to over 4 per cent a year in the period 1951-71, when there was a much greater role of the state in the economy.

By the end of the radical free-market period, both poverty and inequality had increased significantly. The proportion of families living below the “line of destitution” had risen from 12 to 15 per cent between 1980 and 1990, and the percentage living below the poverty line, but above the line of destitution, had increased from 24 to 26 per cent. This meant that at the end of the Pinochet regime, some 40 per cent of Chile’s population, or 5.2 million of a population of 13 million, were poor.

In terms of income distribution, the share of the national income going to the poorest 50 per cent of the population declined from 20.4 per cent to 16.8 per cent, while the share going to the richest ten per cent rose dramatically from 36.5 per cent to 46.8 per cent.

In terms of the structure of the economy, the combination of erratic growth and radical trade liberalization resulted in “deindustrialization in the name of efficiency and avoiding inflation,” as one economist described it, with manufacturing’s share of of GDP declining from an average of 26 per cent in the late 1960’s to 20 per cent in the late eighties. Many metalworking and related manufacturing industries went under in an export-oriented economy that favored agricultural production and resource extraction.

Mitigating Friedmanism

The radical Friedman-Pinochet phase of the Chilean economic counterrevolution came to an end in the early 1990’s, after the Concertacion came to power. In violation of classic Friedmanism, this center-left coalition increased social spending to improve Chile’s income distribution, bringing down the proportion of people living in poverty from 40 per cent to 20 per cent of the population. This modification, which increased internal purchasing power, contributed to the post-Pinochet average yearly growth rate of six per cent a year.

However, with the social democratic regime unwilling to challenge the upper classes, the basic neoliberal contours of economic policy were kept, including the emphasis on agricultural and natural resource exports. This focus on primary product exports has created tremendous environmental stresses. Overfishing along Chile’s coasts has gone hand in hand with ecological destabilization from the spread of the fresh salmon and mussel farms inland. A booming wood export industry has promoted the growth of tree plantations at the expense of natural forests, resulting in Chile becoming the second most deforested area in Latin America after Brazil. Environmental management is widely acknowledged to be ineffective, being consistently subverted by the imperatives of export-oriented growth.

Exporting the “Revolution”

Chile was the guinea pig of a free market paradigm that was foisted on other third world countries beginning in the early 1980’s through the agency of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Some 90 developing and post-socialist economies were eventually subjected to free-market, “structural adjustment.” From Ghana to Argentina, state participation in the economy was drastically curtailed, government enterprises passed to private hands in the name of efficiency, protectionist barriers on Northern imports were eliminated wholesale, restrictions on foreign investment were lifted, and, through export-first policies, the domestic economy was more tightly integrated into the capitalist world market.

Structural adjustment policies (SAPs), which set the stage for the accelerated globalization of developing country economies during the 1990’s, created the same poverty, inequality, and environmental crisis in most countries that free-market policies did in Chile, minus the moderate growth of the post-Friedman-Pinochet phase. As the World Bank chief economist for Africa admitted, “We did not think the human costs of these programs could be so great, and the economic gains so slow in coming.” So discredited were SAPs that the World Bank and IMF soon changed their names to “Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers” in the late 1990’s.

Yet free-market and structural adjustment policies have been institutionalized so thoroughly that, despite their being now universally seen as dysfunctional, they continue to reign. The legacy of Milton Friedman will be with the developing world for a long time to come. Indeed, there is probably no more appropriate inscription for Friedman’s gravestone than what William Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar: “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.

Walden Bello is professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines and executive director of the Bangkok-based institute Focus on the Global South.
focus-staff@focusweb.org

Bolivian Leaders Cut Ties With Morales:
Six of Bolivia's nine regional governors have severed communications with President Evo Morales's government in recent days, intensifying protests against the ruling party's efforts to rewrite the constitution, implement a controversial land reform policy and limit the regional governments' powers.
http://tinyurl.com/yb6kke

Ecuador's Correa says he won't renew lease for US military base :
Leftist Rafael Correa, unofficially the winner of Ecuador's presidential election, reiterated he would not renew the US lease for a military air base in the South American country.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061127/pl_afp/ecuadorvoteus_061127181259

12 South American countries to have 'open borders':
The governments of 12 countries in South America have signed an agreement to allow their citizens to travel between them without passports.
http://tinyurl.com/yetnen

Pinochet indicted for deaths of Allende bodyguards:
Former dictator General Augusto Pinochet was indicted Monday and ordered to remain under house arrest for the execution of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende, the freely elected Marxist president who was toppled in a 1973 coup.
http://tinyurl.com/yfptao

Latin America is preparing to settle accounts with its white settler elite
By Richard Gott
The recent explosion of indigenous protest in Latin America, culminating in the election this year of Evo Morales, an Aymara indian, as president of Bolivia, has highlighted the precarious position of the white-settler elite that has dominated the continent for so many centuries.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15624.htm

The Secret Wars Of The CIA: : How 6 million People Were killed in CIA secret wars:
John Stockwell, former CIA Station Chief in Angola. He is a very compelling speaker and the highest level CIA officer to testify to the Congress about his actions. He estimates that over 6 million people have died in CIA covert actions, and this was in the late 1980's.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4068.htm

Who is Robert Michael Gates : Involvement in the Iran-Contra Scandal:
Owing to his senior status in the CIA, Gates was close to many figures who played significant roles in the Iran/contra affair and was in a position to have known of their activities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates

Protest sheds light on role of Benning school
Like clockwork, thousands of protesters are returning to Fort Benning, Ga., to demand closure of the school where U.S. military and civilian experts help train their counterparts from Latin American and Caribbean countries.

This year, however, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation stands to add hundreds of students from those countries even as protesters complain that many of the foreign military members trained at the school return home to oppress the public as tools of corrupt governments. Up to 20,000 protesters were expected to gather outside the Army post’s main gate from Friday through Sunday. www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2364060.php

More on Oaxaca
3,000 delegates gathered from all regions of Oaxaca to create the State Council of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (CEAPPO).

"CEAPPO has formed in the face of the extreme repression currently underway by the governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, who operates both through his PRI and paid henchmen and police in civilian clothes. The spirit of the CEAPPO is revolutionary, in a pacific, democratic and humanistic stance which is openly anti neoliberal and based on the traditional people power shown in usos y costumbres ('uses and customs'), a method of governing which is open and face to face. Ample provisions for recall of officials, referenda and plebiscites are included in the form of the council.

"In content, CEAPPO supports economic social justice, equality of persons, respect for differences, respect for the rights of women, respect for indigenous people and their autonomy, and development in benefit of the peoples of Oaxaca with high concern for sustainability and renewable resources.

"...While the congress was gathering for its first day of meetings, the zocalo was occupied by the Federal Preventive Police, and the tourist area was occupied by the APPO and teachers who won't return to classes while danger exists. During the time period of November 1 to November 10, about 49 students and APPO leaders were snatched off the street without warrants by men in civilian clothing who drove unmarked automobiles. Among the apprehended were two minors. Civil rights violations perpetrated by the government included entering private homes without warrant to arrest the highly visible people of the APPO and the teachers."

Despite the creation of the new, people-operated government body, danger still lingers for visible leaders of the former APPO movement, a clear sign of this being the continued blockade of University City, where radio broadcasters are unable to leave out of fear for their lives...read more at .......http://www.narconews.com

Honduras fines U.S. subsidiary over alleged mercenary training

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - The Honduran government said Friday it has fined the local subsidiary of a U.S. company $25,000 for allegedly training more than 300 Hondurans and foreigners last year to work as mercenaries in Iraq.

The company Your Solutions trained 340 Hondurans, Chileans and Nicaraguans in violation of labor laws, Public Safety Department spokesman Santos Flores told a news conference.

"The fine was imposed because the company was training mercenaries, and the act of being a mercenary is a form of violating labor rights in whatever country," Flores said, adding that the company, which he said is based in Chicago, Illinois, "operated without permission in Honduras."

Benjamin Canales, general manager of the Honduras-based subsidiary of Your Solutions, fled the country six months ago, Flores said.

The company could not immediately be reached in Chicago for comment late Friday.

In September 2005, Canales, a retired member of the Honduran military, said the company's trainees were private security guards "not mercenaries, as some people have called them."

"These are just people who want a job, and we have offered them one," Canales said.

Friday's fine was the second action the Honduran government has taken against the company. In September 2005, authorities - citing a federal law that prohibits security and military training for foreigners on Honduran soil - said that they were deporting 211 Chileans who came to Tegucigalpa to be trained by the company.

An investigation by the U.N. Human Rights Council earlier this year determined that the trainees were employed as private security guards, as Canales said, but received military training in both Honduras and Iraq and ended up performing duties not established in their employment contracts.

The company did not operate in secret in Honduras. In August 2005, it issued a public news release saying it had trained and sent a third group of 12 Hondurans, most of them former soldiers, to Iraq to work as private security guards.

Most of the trainees worked for six-month stints in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The company said each of the guards would earn a minimum monthly salary the equivalent of $990 U.S. dollars, 80 percent of which would be sent to their families in Honduras. A private security guard in Honduras earns about $250 a month. English-speaking guards were to be paid a higher salary, from $1,300 to $1,600 a month, the company said.

The Honduran government at one time sent peacekeeping troops to aid the U.S.-led mission in Iraq, but has since withdrawn its forces. [AP]

The Danger of Hugo Chávez's Successful Socialism
by Ted Rall http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/

When the hated despots of nations like Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan loot their countries' treasuries, transfer their oil wealth to personal Swiss bank accounts and use the rest to finance (in the House of Saud's case) terrorist extremists, American politicians praise them as trusted friends and allies. But when a democratically elected populist president uses Venezuela's oil profits to lift poor people out of poverty, they accuse him of pandering.

As the United States and Europe continue their shift toward a Darwinomic model where rapacious corporations accrue bigger and bigger profits while workers become poorer and poorer, the socialist economic model espoused by President Hugo Chávez has become wildly popular among Latin Americans tired of watching corrupt right-wing leaders enrich themselves at their expense. Left-of-center governments have recently won power in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Chávez's uncompromising rhetoric matches his politics, but what's really driving the American government and its corporate masters crazy is that he has the cash to back it up.

In their desperate frenzy to destroy Chávez, state-controlled media is resorting to some of the most transparently and hilariously hypocritical talking points ever. In the April 4th New York Times Juan Forero repeated the trope that Chávez's use of oil revenues is unfair -- even cheating somehow: "With Venezuela's oil revenues rising 32 percent last year," the paper exclaimed, "Mr. Chávez has been subsidizing samba parades in Brazil, eye surgery for poor Mexicans and even heating fuel for poor families from Maine to the Bronx to Philadelphia. By some estimates, the spending now surpasses the nearly $2 billion Washington allocates to pay for development programs and the drug war in western South America."

Chávez, the story continued, is poised to become "the next Fidel Castro, a hero to the masses who is intent on opposing every move the United States makes, but with an important advantage."

Heavens be! A rich country using its wealth to spread influence abroad! What God would permit such an abomination? Notice, by the way, that the United States funds "development programs." Oh, and it's a "drug war" -- not a bombing campaign against leftist insurgents who oppose South America's few remaining pro-U.S. right-wing regimes.

Quoted by the Times -- which editorialized in favor of and ran flattering profiles of the right-wing oligarchs who attempted to overthrow Chávez in a 2002 coup attempt -- is "critic" John Negroponte, whose day job happens to be as Bush's Director of National Intelligence. Negroponte complained that Chávez is "spending considerable sums involving himself in the political and economic life of other countries in Latin America and elsewhere, this despite the very real economic development and social needs of his own country."

Pot, kettle, please discuss the $1 billion a week we're wasting on Iraq while people die for lack of medical care and schools fall apart right here in America. Maybe Chávez should have found a better use for the money he spent on Rio's Carnival parade. On the other hand, at least it didn't go to bombs and torture camps.

Televangelist Pat Robertson's 2005 call to assassinate Chávez was criticized only mildly by establishment media, and primarily on the basis that murdering heads of state violates a U.S. law. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accuses Chávez of a "Latin brand of populism that has taken countries down the drain." Which ones? Certainly not Venezuela itself, where a double-digit-GDP boom leads the region and new houses, $10 billion per year is banked for future anti-poverty programs and schools are sprouting like weeds.

Loaded language unworthy of a junior high school newspaper is the norm in coverage of the Venezuelan president. "Chavez insists his government is democratic and accuses Washington of conspiring against him," the San Jose Mercury-News wrote on April 3rd. Why the "insists"? No international observer doubts that Venezuela, where the man who won the election gets to be president, is at least as democratic as the United States. The 2002 coup plotters gathered beforehand at the White House. Surely the Merc could grant Chávez's "accusation" as fact. The paper continued: "He says the United States was behind a short-lived 2002 coup, an allegation that U.S. officials reject." He also happens to be right, though it's hard to tell by reading that sentence.

Eighty-two percent of Venezuelans think Chávez is doing a good job. That's more than twice the approval rating by Americans of Bush. He roundly defeated an attempt to recall him. So why is Washington lecturing Caracas?

"The [Venezuelan] government is making billions of dollars [from its state oil company] and spending them on houses, education, medical care," notes CNN. And – gasp -- people's lives are improving.

What if the rest of us noticed? No wonder Chávez has to go.

Fidel Castro Handbook: New book by George Galloway
http://www.georgegalloway.com/page.php?page=fidel_handbook.html

Unforgettable images, quotes, media stories—a documentary-style, wide-ranging, and thoughtful assessment of the most iconic political leader of recent times who, George Galloway claims, is the most popular politician in the world today.

Unique interviews with people who know Fidel Castro, plus exclusive new material encompassing all aspects of his life, career and presidency.

In the year that Fidel Castro turns 80, this is a fresh look at his life from childhood, through his dramatic conquest of power, and his extraordinary, charismatic leadership of Cuba over 47 years—including sharply focused “takes” on the guerrilla struggle in the Sierra Maestra, life with the Soviet Union, involvement in Third World politics, and survival in the face of the hostility of the United States just 90 miles away.

George Galloway has researched archives from Havana, London, Washington, and Madrid and conducted original interviews with Fidel Castro’s contemporaries, in Cuba and throughout the world, that provide fascinating insights into his personality and achievements.

The themes that the book covers include: internationalism; race; the Cuban Missile Crisis; Fidel, the man behind the beard; Batista's bordello state; How the war was won; Fidel as orator; the emulators: Chavez and Morales; the cigars which didn't explode – attempts to assassinate Fidel; Celia Sánchez – right hand woman; Faith and Fidel (Church in Cuba: deep in the culture? what’s happening now? Pope's visit); the Che Factor; and the Miami-Cuban exiles.

On November 20th, Brazil celebrated Black Consciousness Day. The article below is about one group’s efforts to strengthen Brazil’s cultural ties to Africa by facilitating exchanges between children of Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil.

Without Africa, what is Brazil?

By Dirce Carrion, director of Olhares Cruzadas project

"Without Angola, there is no Brazil," said the polemical Fr. Antonio Vieira at the beginning of the 17th Century. Now we, being the largest black nation second only to Nigeria, ask the question, "Without Africa, what is Brazil?"

During 350 years of black slavery in Brazil, millions of Africans were pulled out of their natural and social environments, condemned to years of dispersion and miscegenation, marketed and sold in the most perverse, harsh and lucrative business of the New World.

Brazil and Africa were united in a tragic form through the trafficking of slaves. But we could say poetically that it was the waves and the winds of the Atlantic Ocean that united us in historic resistance to slavery and social exclusion. Perhaps the oldest and most effective form of resistance can be found in our rituals and the various manifestations of our Afro-Brazilian cultures.

The terrible journey across the Atlantic did not deprive the African people of the memories of their gods, nor the ability to recognize foreign gods, and certainly not their ability to identify with others in their state of slavery. It was through this constant interchange that gave birth to Afro-Brazilian culture.

Africa still suffers from the effects of the immense exodus of workers. It suffers from colonialism’s arbitrary division of its territories which grouped together ethnic rivals and separated groups that were friendly to each other, generating incessant internal strife. But the strength of its ancient culture continues to be a unique and fundamental reference for the world.

In the last decades, economic interests have destroyed the lives of millions around the world. The peoples of Africa, still wrapped up in the long process of de-colonizing themselves, have paid dearly in this contemporary Holocaust. It is very serious that the world stands by as this happens. But now, hoping to understand this context better and to change it, we are proposing new steps which may engender a different Brazil-Africa exchange, with new a basis for relationships, without personal agendas and certainly not neo-colonial motives. Now that political dependency on the colonizers has been cut off, the ex-colonies have begun to talk more about friendship and cooperation among themselves. We believe that now is the time to diversify and increase the quality of our relations through increased mutual understanding.

Yet the greater part of our information about Africa comes through the media, which only highlights the negative: wars, epidemics, hunger, misery. We envision changing the way we see Africa; and to do this, we need to highlight the positive: the strength of its cultures and its history of resistance.

This is the line we are taking in our project, Olhares Cruzados. The project promotes the identification of common, cultural roots through the exchange of photographs, cards, drawings, videos, toys, musical instruments and crafts produced by children of Brazil, Africa and the Caribbean while participating in creative, imaginative workshops. Using artistic methods which permit the children to use their own language, our intention is to help children make these methods of expression their own so that they can see themselves in their work, through their own way of looking, not through a "colonialist" or vertical reading in which the context is not accessible to the agents.

Taking into account the local reality and respecting the traditional culture of each country, we facilitate exchanges between children from Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Senegal and Haiti, the latter being the first independent country of the Americas and the first free black nation of the world.

In 2007, together with Revista Viracao, project Olhares Cruzados plans to host an exchange between children of a MST (Movement of Rural Workers Without Land) encampment and children of a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The plan is to send a team of Brazilians to conduct workshops in the Congo, and then in the spirit of reciprocity, we will invite African educators and artists to come and do the same here in Brazil.

Whether they be from Africa, Brazil or the Caribbean, the children always want to deal with themes that are most dear to them: family, friends, television, toys, food, the parts of home life that are the "prettiest." We have noticed that even in regions where the reality is very difficult, the children’s letters, drawings and artwork are permeated with happiness and a hope for a better future.

Believing that self-esteem is essential in overcoming prejudices and the barriers that are placed in front of them, we always try to have them look through an optimistic lens so that they will have a better chance of inserting themselves in the world.

In Brazil, where many do not believe that racism exists (but the society continues to practice it), it is up to us Brazilians and Africans to show that the waters that brought slavery and different cultures also created a solid bridge, which many still refuse to recognize.

Believing in the possibilities that it offers, as a form of expression and communication, a way to promote peace, a fight against social exclusion and racial intolerance, we hope that Olhares Cruzadas project be one more step in the long journey of making right the cultural relations among peoples.

Source: Revista Sem Terra, November/December 2006

Latin America Solidarity News November 8th 2006

2006-11-08T20:38:00.000+13:00

Latin America Solidarity Committee
Lac Email lac@apc.org.nz
LAC website www.converge.org.nz/lac
LAC blogg www.lascnz.blogspot.com
Zapatista email zapatistasolidarity@gmail.com
Zapatista blogg http://vivazapatanz.blogspot.com/
Incal-Wellington http://incal.orcon.net.nz

Listen to Voz Latinoamericana Wellington Access Radio 783AM
Mondays 5-6pm Ph 021 548 985 or hjorge40@hotmail.com
Radio streaming www.r2.co.nz/meta/accessradio-56.asx - www.accessradio.org.nz/

Subscribe to our Email lists:
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ACTION

Letter in Support of the People of Oaxaca:

A new sign-on support letter has been drafted. Signatories include Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Eve Ensler, Danny Glover, Eduardo Galeano, Michael Moore, Arundhati Roy, Alice Walker, Howard Zinn, and many others. http://tinyurl.com/t36xa

Events

VENEZUELAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION BRIGADE Nov/Dec
The Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network is organising its fourth Brigade to Venezuela, to coincide with the Presidential elections in December 2006. The Brigade is currently
scheduled to start on November 23 and end on the election date December
3 [Running for 10 days], and will also be facilitating the participation of Brigadistas as international election observers. www.venezuelasolidarity.org/?q=node/109.

VISIT CUBA THIS SUMMER
Visit Cuba and see for youself. Dec 26, 2006 -23 January 2007. An
Australasian brigade spends a month in Cuba visiting historic sights,
having discussions with unions and womenâ•˙s groups, staying with
families ∑ and doing a little agricultural labour to express your
support and solidarity with Cuba in the face of the US blockade. Total
costs are about $5000 for fares, accommodation and meals. And there is
also time to lie on a beach, walk along the Malecon and dance in a Havana nightclub.
Contact Ina for info and registration details 09 3031755; inashina@clear.net.nz

NEWS

Wellington demo in solidarity with people of Oaxaca
Photos on indymedia - http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/71904/index.php

Around a dozen people went to the Mexican embassy in Wellington to express their disgust at the murder of four people in Oaxaca over the weekend and the continuing repression targeted at the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO).

The dozen people taped a poster reading "MURDER, RAPE, TORTURE ON YOUR CONSCIENCE" to the glass door of the Embassy, made lots of noise with drums and demanded to get inside, but the Embassy staff kept the doors locked and all but two remained in the lobby.

As those in the lobby decided to leave, the two people inside the embassy attempted to join them, but embassy staff refused to unlock the door until Police arrived.

Around 10 police officers then proceeded to take the details of the two activists inside the embassy and one who had remained in the lobby (a Mexican citizen), before issuing them with verbal trespass notices effective for two years and allowing them to leave.

Backgrounder 31 Oct 2006

Mexico is my country and we know the main cause of the problem in Oaxaca is that the corrupt government doesn't want to spend in education of lower class citizens, they are racists that don't want to face the needs of the people, they don't care about providing jobs, they don't promote investment, they work only for their own enrichment by corrupt means, they steal from public funds, they steal elections, they sell everything they can and cheap, to friends, to colleagues, corruption in Mexico is at an all time high and possibly among the first three most corrupt nations in the world.

The only kind of investment the Mexican government wants is foreign investment, and they do everything in their power to keep the people poor to offer the cheapest labor force as possible, Mexico is an oil producing country, but the income from the oil sales is never honestly declared and is spent on God knows what because they never meet the needs of the country, they don’t build infrastructure, they don’t provide welfare to needy people, they don’t work for the country, but for themselves, they don’t fight crime, which is at 98% impunity, up from 96% in the year 2000… they don’t fight drug dealers, but instead have non aggression policies towards them, drug dealers contribute for political campaigns and have the freedom to work later as payment for their contributions. 50% of Mexico’s wealth is in the hands of 15% of the population, and there are plenty of millionaires but from 65% to 80% of the population is poor, with around 20 million in the poverty level. Mexican Presidents work for the American Government and the neo-liberal formula has been strongly applied in the last 25 years, which has taken around 50% off of the average working class wages or acquisitive buying power, while creating some of the richest men in the world, the third most richest man in the world Carlos Slim Helú, got that rich about 13 years after buying the Mexican telephone state owned monopoly, and charges for telephone use are the highest in the world. The man’s fortune is 30 billion US dollars and he along with a few other known people control the faith of Mexico along with it’s politics and impose the president of their choice by financing their campaigns and electoral fraud. We call those people “the owners of Mexico”, because that is how they act… Mexico is not a free or democratic country, the government controls the mass media and use them to suppress the news and control what people know and what they ignore, and now that the American control of our country is out in the open and strongly applied, freedom seems like an illusive dream for Mexicans, and Democracy is something that seems so close but so hard to reach.

The problem of Oaxaca started with the electoral fraud that imposed Ulises Ruiz as the governor of the state in 2004. In the month of May of this year, the state teachers union, requested for government funds to improve the education with the acquisition of school materials, which up to that date teachers had to buy from their wages due to low funding from the government, also better wages and funds to improve general conditions since the state is the poorest in the nation and schools need attention to preserve the buildings. So after five weeks of the “sit in” (planton as we call it) manifestation, State and Federal riot Police were sent in to punish the teachers by repressive means, the police were repelled and returned to the take over of the central square they occupied up to June the 14th, but this time ordinary citizens joined them in the protest, so for five months the state governor sent mercenaries to carry out drive by shootings during which up some people were killed, the attacks occurred after dark and the people decided to pile up barricades to prevent free flow of traffic for their protection. Things remained the same, for five months during which negotiations were carried out between the teachers and the federal government, they demanded from the federal government that they remove the state governor and improve funds for schools as a condition for their return to class rooms and on the 19th of October the Mexican Senate deliberated to remove the Oaxaca Governor but decided to leave him in office as the result of the PRI extorting the PAN (official party) to leave Governor Ulises Ruiz as head of the Oaxaca State or they would no recognize Felipe Calderon as the new President knowing that he was imposed by means of electoral fraud, as was negotiated during election day, recordings of deals between the two parties have proven the PRI party sold votes from their candidate to the PAN party candidate to defeat the PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who was the favorite among the people of Mexico, as the PRI candidate was far behind in the election day preliminary vote count and the PRD seemed to be leading the count.

So after the Senate decided to keep the Governor in Oaxaca, the people did not loose faith and remained in protest with the only demand left on their conditions; to remove Ulises Ruiz from state office… but on October 27th Ulises Ruiz feeling an untouchable, sent his shooters to kill some protesters and stir trouble as a likely plan to have Federal Police sent in to retake the city of Oaxaca from the teachers and the APPO people and American Journalist Brad Will was shot during that afternoon.. The people of Oaxaca had been in control of government offices and a radio station which they took control of after the June 14th repression by State and Federal Police.
They were the authority and kept a hold on the state in demand for the murderous Governor to be removed, among the governor’s faults are corruption, association with criminals, a repressive manner of governing, murder and drunkenness, so their demands were fair and just, but the federal government does not faithfully represent the will of the Mexican people and protect their own as members of the same crime organization in control of the country,… and on Saturday the 28th five planes full of federal police arrived in Oaxaca City and other parts of the State to take control from the teachers and people of Oaxaca, or APPO (People of Oaxaca Popular Assembly) as they call themselves.
On Sunday morning Federal Police had been waiting for orders and had not been fed, so the people provided them with something to eat and drink as some of the policemen had fainted, but in the afternoon they began the repression during which they hurt people and used water cannons with acid mixed in the water and even fired live bullets at them and a couple of people were killed, one of them a young boy. Men, women and children fought and even old people joined in the defense of their positions. By early night police had taken control of the city square and had arrested people. We are still waiting to hear as the events develop.

It is believed the police were actually military forces dressed in police anti-riot gear. [Anon]

The colonial city, shrouded in smoke yesterday, used to present a face of beauty and sophistication to tourists. Picture / Reuters

Caravana Arrives in Oaxaca for Megamarch
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0611/S00106.ht

The battle of Oaxaca - Independent
Wednesday November 1, 2006 - By David Usborne

A sign on the main road into town carries the simple message, "Welcome to Oaxaca". A centre of indigenous crafts and cuisine, of gorgeous Spanish colonial architecture, of art institutes, literary salons and tranquil contemplation, it has long been a tourist drawcard.

A visitor approaching yesterday, however, would have had good reason to pause. The city, nestled beneath verdant mountains, was partly obscured by plumes of smoke. A smell of petrol filled the air and the highway was littered with tree trunks, rocks and smears of blood - the debris of hand-to-hand violence.

Oaxaca has been sliding since early May into near anarchy amid a fast-gathering and angry popular rebellion that has forced the closure of hundreds of businesses, including almost all its hotels and restaurants, and kept children from school. Laws gave way to lawlessness, as leftist gangs roamed its streets, took control of its radio stations and set up a rag-tag encampment of tents and banners in the 16th-century central square, fringed by forlorn, abandoned cafes.

The crisis has been one the federal authorities in Mexico City, 480km to the northwest, appeared unwilling, or unable, to confront. President Vicente Fox, who leaves office in a month, contended that Oaxaca's journey into chaos was a local problem requiring local solutions.

It became a town where men accused of robbery were tied to trees with placards around their necks detailing their alleged crimes and mothers fought pitched battles with demonstrators using clubs and steel pipes as they tried in vain to get their children back into school.

The target of the loose coalition of unionists, anarchists, students and Indian groups has been state Governor Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of political thuggery, intimidation, vote-rigging and corruption. Their single demand, which remains unanswered, has been his resignation. The grievances boiling in the cauldron of Oaxaca exist across Mexico, a country seemingly unable to close the yawning gap between its wealthy and grindingly poor and where full democracy, born only six years ago, remains fragile. After a shoot-out at one of the demonstrators' barricades on Saturday left an American photo-journalist and two other people dead, Fox ordered the Army and federal police at last to retake Oaxaca.

The two-day operation began on Monday when police with automatic rifles took up positions around the city. They began their advance, backed by armed soldiers, water cannons and helicopters. Street by street, they advanced to the centre, pushing aside screaming protesters and breaking up the barricades.

The protesters abandoned their stronghold on the main plaza, the Zocalo, and the bloodbath that some had feared was inevitable appeared yesterday to have been avoided despite more protests. To what extent the movement has been subdued and Oaxaca can return to normality remains uncertain. The tides of rubbish - banners, tents, ad hoc lavatories and cooking stations - left behind were cleared. Luring back the tourists that once formed the backbone of the local economy will take a lot longer.

For visitors, Oaxaca used to present a face of beauty and sophistication. Yet the surrounding valleys are home to some of the poorest people in Mexico. After teachers declared a state-wide strike in May, locking 1.3 million children out of the classrooms, Ruiz eventually sent in police to break up their protests, using poorly trained officers. It was the spark that ignited the far more serious resistance to Ruiz. Local activists swelled the teachers' ranks, calling themselves the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca. Protesters accuse Ruiz of rigging his election in 2004 - an allegation that hits a nerve across Mexico, whose recent history is littered with claims of elections fixed and manipulated. They accuse him of using thugs to crush and kill his political opponents. It has been a protest against what many perceive as illegitimate government and an expression of frustration with the rift between rich and poor.

The city remains deeply divided. Many residents came out of their homes, their streets still dotted with charred and overturned vehicles, to thank the police for what they consider the liberation of their city after months under siege. "I don't want them to leave. Let them stay," said Edith Mendoza, a 40-year-old housewife. "We were held hostage for five months."

But some among the protesters vowed more resistance, including marching on the Zocalo, declaring that the battle will only be over when Ruiz is ousted. The worst of the violence may yet be to come. Even if it doesn't, the wounds suffered by Oaxaca will need many months to heal. INDEPENDENT

Que Pasa en Oaxaca?, by Michael McCaughan
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061120/oaxaca
A virtual state of siege prevails in Oaxaca City where thousands of military police have occupied the central square and surrounding streets, clearing barricades and detaining dozens of opposition activists. The city's emergency services are idle while banks and schools remain closed and the city center, usually bustling with tourists, has the air of a ghost town. The hub of activity has shifted to the Santo Domingo church where thousands of activists gather daily to swap news, make plans and denounce police brutality.
The federal police occupation began on October 28 with an aggressive push toward the Zocalo (town square) which was occupied in June by teachers, students and workers demanding the removal of discredited state governor Ulises Ruiz. The roots of the conflict go back a month earlier when teachers occupied the city square in demand of better pay. This annual protest dates back twenty-six years and the ritual typically ends with a small wage increase being approved. This time, however, Governor Ruiz violently evicted the teachers from the square, provoking a popular uprising.
Workers and students united to shut down government offices and seized local radio and television stations. The state government ground to a halt and Ruiz has gone into hiding, communicating through paid announcements in the press.
"The conflict in Oaxaca is almost over," announced Ruiz on Friday--confirmation, if it was necessary, that his hiding place must be a long way from Oaxaca.
The opposition formed the Oaxaca People's Popular Assembly (APPO), which comprises 200 organizations drawn from 600 villages and towns across the state, all determined to stand firm until Ruiz has left office and with him the federal security forces.
The APPO is a temporary alliance of activists ranging from moderates with links to the ruling party to radicals calling for armed struggle to overthrow the state. In conversation with APPO members this week there was consensus that the time had come to replace traditional political parties with community-based governing assemblies, in keeping with indigenous tradition.
On the eve of the police occupation the teacher's union signed a wage agreement and agreed to go back to work. The push to topple Ruiz would have continued but the core of the resistance movement was effectively neutralized. On that same day, however, government officials opened fire on a group of protestors, killing US citizen Brad Will and raising the profile of the dispute internationally.
Under pressure to resolve the impasse, President Fox dispatched police with orders to retake the square and dismantle barricades around the city. Mexico's congress simultaneously pushed for the resignation of Ruiz, to ease tensions. However the plan backfired as Ruiz refused to step down and appears determined to hang on until the bitter end.
The governor represents the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico from 1929 until 2000, combining populism with repression. In recent years the PRI has seen its power base eroded around the country, but Oaxaca, where the party has governed uninterruptedly for seventy-seven years, remains a significant fiefdom.
The situation is further complicated by the upcoming handover of presidential power to Felipe Calderón on December 1. Calderón's National Action Party (PAN) needs PRI support to govern effectively in congress and legitimize its candidate's feeble electoral victory. It is believed that Ruiz has demanded the PAN support him in return for PRI cooperation in the coming months.
Meanwhile, the military police have failed to crush the resistance movement. Indeed it is the federal police themselves who now look surrounded and isolated as they camp out in the square. In a dynamic new tactic protestors surge toward the square, chanting slogans and testing defenses at different entry points.
According to internal security documents, the police mission comprises three phases; the retaking of the square and clearing of all major barricades; the seizure of occupied radio and TV stations; and a final phase in which arrest warrants would be served on 200 APPO members and a major clampdown imposed to dampen resistance efforts.
The square was retaken last weekend in a day of violence which saw three people killed, dozens more injured and at least fifty people detained. The APPO militants abandoned barricades rather than clash with heavily armed police, but for every dismantled barricade three more appeared at significant intersections across the city.
On Thursday police engaged in running battles with protestors outside the university campus, where several people were snatched by police and taken by helicopter to a nearby airbase. The local police have also set up a "safe house" opposite a soft drink warehouse, where neighbors have reported cries of torture from "ghost" detainees yet to be formally charged or processed through the courts. There are now seventy-nine prisoners and thirty-seven "disappeared" citizens, sparking a desperate search by concerned relatives.
The authorities believed that by clearing the square, a potent symbol of APPO power, the movement would lose its focus. However, the repression has only multiplied the resistance as students shut down university faculties across Mexico and Zapatista rebels closed down the Panamerican Highway near Guatemala. Radio Universidad, playing a vital role in coordinating APPO activities, has been broadcasting hundreds of declarations of support from around the world.
By the end of the week President Fox had declared that he was leaving the Oaxaca conflict to his successor, Felipe Calderón. At a meeting with stockbrokers this week, Calderón outlined his future strategy for guaranteeing security around the country; "Will it be easy?" he reflected, "No...this is a problem which will take time, money and very probably it will cost more lives. "

Letter from Colombia Positiva! Cameron Sang in Bogotá

I’ve been back in Colombia for over a year now, clocking up more than
four and a half years here in total.

Bogotá continues to change, for both the better and for the worse,
however it does remain a fascinating city to be in.

I continue to try to balance having a life, working to satisfy the bank
manager and working to satisfy my soul. Not that the last two are always
mutually exclusive.

An interesting project I have become involved in is a Non-Governmental
Organisation, working in the area of education and poverty. The goal of
Play’s Cool Foundation is to develop English teaching resources, and
supply them to the greatly under funded and under resourced public
schools in poor areas of Bogotá.

Play’s Cool Foundation was formed by a Colombian family, who had spent a
number of years in Australia, and were greatly impressed with the
quality of the public schools there. They decided to dip into their own
pockets to try to improve the education system and teaching methods in
public schools here. I worked with them late last year, and earlier this
year, teaching in a bilingual private school, testing ideas for the
resources, and recently we have been working to fine tune and expand on
our ideas. This has been an interesting challenge for me, as I have more
experience teaching adults and teenagers, rather than children; however
it is a challenge I have been enjoying greatly.

If this project goes as planned, the method will be somewhat
revolutionary for public schools here, not only for the teaching of the
English language, but teaching as general.

Obviously it hasn’t all been plain sailing, and lack of funds and
contacts with the right people are seriously hampering progress, however
we have submitted the first draft of the first eight units to a
publisher, so hopefully things will start moving pretty quickly soon.

If anyone would like more information, please contact me.

Cameron Sang
Email: fisch@clear.net.nz
Website: http://happyfishmedia.web1000.com/
Weblog: http://happyfishmedia.blogspot.com/

AUGUSTO PINOCHET, the 90-year-old former dictator of Chile, was branded a “grave danger to society” as he was placed under house arrest in Santiago yesterday by the judge investigating his role in cases of torture and kidnapping during his time in power.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2429629,00.html

Brazil's working class leader wins landslide second term victory:

Brazil's leftwing president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won a landslide second term in power last night, a month after being forced into a run-off by allegations of corruption.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,,1934753,00.html

John Pilger Video: Nicaragua - A Nations Right To Survive:

In 1979, the Sandinistas won a popular revolution in Nicaragua, putting an end to decades of the corrupt US-backed Somoza dictatorship. In this film, Pilger describes the achievements of the Sandinistas and their "threat of a good example".
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15435.htm

Up from Below in Brazil The Meaning of Lula's Victory

By ROGER BURBACH

Luis Inácio "Lula" da Silva's resounding electoral victory with over 60 percent of the vote places Brazilian politics on a new footing. While many on the left remain critical of Lula for the limited reforms of his first term, his very victory has consolidated a shift in the country's possibilities for deeper social transformations. As Francisco Meneses of IBASE, the Brazilian Institute of Social Economic Analysis, says, "The country is more polarized, it can no longer move back to the old order. The economy is different and social expenditures have been augmented to a level that is important for the lower strata of society."

A major reason for Lula's resounding victory is due to the support of the poor and dispossesed who make up the majority of Brazil's population. Even in the first round of the elections on October 8 when Lula fell short of an absolute majority, garnering 48 percent of the vote versus his leading opponent's 41 percent, the poor, particularly in the country's impoverished northeast, provided the decisive margin of support. As Darci Frigo of the Land Rights Center in the state of Paraná states, "Agrarian reform may have been limited in Lula's first term, but thanks to the Zero Hunger program and direct income subsidies many families have more food and are better off."

In its international relations a victory by Lula's opponent, Geraldo Alckmin, would have reversed the increasingly independent stance that Brazil has adopted. Alckmin endorsed the neoliberal free trade position advocated by the Bush administration and would have pursued the policy of privatizing the economy that has favored the multinational corporations. Regarding relations with the South, Alckmin attacked Lula for caving in to Bolivia's nationalization in July of the holdings of Brazil's Petrobras. This semi-autonomous state enterprise owned large natural gas reserves in Bolivia that supplied over half of Brazil's domestic natural gas needs.

Lula responded by insisting that he would look after Brazil's interests while respecting Bolivia's national automony. Just this weekend as Brazilian voters went to the polls, Petrobras concluded a new agreement with Bolivia that cedes formal control over natural gas reserves to Bolivia's state owned company and significantly increases the gas revenues that remain in Bolivian coffers. As Francisco Meneses of Ibase notes, "Brazil under Lula is aligning itself with the Southern bloc of nations, not subverting its interests to the United States."

But many in Brazil remain skeptical of the chances for significant advances in a second Lula administration. Marcos Arruda of PACS, a research center on social and economic alternatives based in Rio de Janeiro, is highly critical of Lula. He notes that "the destruction of the environoment, particularly in the Amazon basin has continued apace," and "the government has practiced irresponsible fiscal policies focus on repaying the international debt and keeping national interest rates high while social spending falls far short of what the county needs."

During Lula's first term, most of the country's social movements felt that their agendas were largely neglected as Lula pursued economic and social stabilization policies. Darci Frigo of the Land Rights Center states, "The demands for a profound agrarian reform program advocated by the MST, the Landless Movement, were ignored. Some limited spending was directed to social and educational programs for the landless, but the large landed estates of the country were barely touched as the government encouraged agro-exports."

While Lula in the final election round did come out forsocial spending, Brazil's robust social movements are not sitting idly by, waiting on Lula's volition. Seventeen social movements lead by the MST and the the Unified Workers Central mobilizied in the major cities of Brazil during the final days of the campaign. They released an action manifesto, titled "Thirteen Points for A Social Policy for Brazil." Commiting themselves to "an intensification of the popular and democratic struggles throughout the country" during Lula's second term, they outlined a program that called for profound changes in education, health, fiscal policies, and agrarian reform, all to be carried out "with the effective participation of the people and their social organizations."

As Friar Betto, a radical Brazilian theologican notes, "Lula owes us much based on the promises he has made during his presidential campaigns." Even more than Lula's first campaign in 2002, this election polarized the country's electorate, laying out two distinct visions. Francisco Meneses says, "Perhaps Lula on his own would not change much, but the reality is that the social movements realize that this election is their victory and they intend to sharpen the agitation for real transformations from below."

Roger Burbach is director of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He is co-author with Jim Tarbell of "Imperial Overstretch: George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire," His latest book is: "The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice."

11th Hour Election Meddling by the US

Targeting Nicaraguans' Stomachs

By BEN BEACHY

Imagine the following: you and your family decide to remodel your kitchen. Your neighbor, also the principal at your children's elementary school, hears of the plan and immediately states his opposition. He argues that the remodeling project is not the sort of investment your family needs and hints that carrying it out would jeopardize his friendship. Deciding to move ahead with the remodeling anyway, you and your family begin removing the kitchen cabinets one day, but are interrupted by a knock at the door. Your neighbor enters and grimly announces to the entire family that if the remodeling is carried out as planned, he will see to it that your children do not pass another grade in his elementary school.

Your neighbor's behavior, however far-fetched it may seem, is no more ridiculous or offensive than the treatment U.S. political figures have been giving their neighboring Nicaraguans in the last several days. Nicaragua is currently gearing up for its national elections on Sunday, November 5. For the last year, Nicaragua's complicated electoral panorama has been further convoluted by a string of U.S. representatives endeavoring to ward off an electoral victory by Sandinista (FSLN) leader and former president Daniel Ortega. U.S. officials have publicly censured Ortega, attempted to unify his opposition, and threatened that an Ortega win would endanger U.S. financial support. The continuous intervention, however, has failed to unite Nicaragua's divided right or significantly detract from Ortega's base. Now U.S. meddlers are flustered and desperate in the face of recent polls revealing that Ortega is within a few percentage points of clinching the presidential office.

In a last-ditch effort to undermine Ortega, U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House's International Relations Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, sent a letter on Friday, October 27, to Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security. Rohrabacher enjoined Chertoff "to prepare in accordance with U.S. law, contingency plans to block any further money remittances from being sent to Nicaragua in the event that the FSLN enters government." The nearly half million Nicaraguans currently living in the U.S. send around $500 million each year to their family members in Nicaragua, according to Nicaraguan economist Nestor Avendaño.

Nicaraguans have reason to believe Rohrabacher may not be bluffing. In the buildup to Nicaragua's 1990 elections, the United States promised Nicaraguan voters that it would continue fueling the decade-old contra war and maintain its economic embargo on Nicaragua, both of which were wreaking havoc on Nicaragua's economy, if Daniel Ortega were reelected as President. Beleaguered by a crippling war, food rationing, and empty supermarket shelves, Nicaraguans opted for U.S.-backed Violeta Chamorro over Ortega. Satisfied, the U.S. then released its stranglehold on the Nicaraguan economy.

Seeing that the FSLN now has a chance to return to power, Rohrabacher seems eager to once again target Nicaraguans' stomachs with callous pressure. Thousands of Nicaraguan families depend on remittances to augment the meager wages paid for picking coffee, sewing jeans in assembly factories, or selling water at intersections. In an economy sacked with underemployment, stagnant salaries, and rising costs, remittances keep Nicaragua afloat by generating an income equivalent to 70% of the country's total annual exports, according to the most recent estimates. Avendaño projects that a U.S. embargo on remittances would prove as disastrous for Nicaraguans as the U.S.-imposed trade embargo of the 1980's. Once again, the hardest hit would be the impoverished majority.

Nicaraguan voters are not unaware of this reality. Nor is Rohrabacher, no doubt. Nicaraguans' direct dependence on remittances is what makes his open threat particularly potent. In the face of a potential Ortega victory, Rohrabacher is striving to make longstanding U.S. interference more personal by pushing Nicaraguans to see a vote for Ortega as a vote against their own pocketbooks.

Rohrabacher's letter is but one voice in a recent cacophony of U.S. meddling. Headlines of the last week have been laden with unsolicited U.S. opinions on Daniel Ortega and the sort of President Nicaraguans should want. The day after Rohrabacher sent his letter, Florida governor Jeb Bush authored a letter published in a La Prensa paid ad. Bush's letter declares that Nicaraguans must choose between a "tragic step towards the past," which he identifies as the "totalitarianism" of the Sandinistas, and "a vision towards the future." Jeb Bush's own vision for Nicaragua's future is revealed at the bottom of the ad, where the Alianza Liberal Nicaraguense party, which is running the U.S.-preferred presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre, is named as the ad's sponsor.

Just a few pages away from Bush's ad appears an article in which Adolfo Franco, USAID's Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, warns that a FSLN victory next week could limit USAID support for Nicaragua, citing worries that Daniel Ortega might significantly alter Nicaragua's current economic model. USAID's admonition piggybacks on US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez's more explicit pressure in an interview publicized one week earlier. Gutierrez threatened that an Ortega win could preclude a $230 million combined investment from three foreign companies that would generate 123,000 jobs, a $220 million aid package promised through the Millenium Challenge Account, and implementation of CAFTA in Nicaragua.

On October 29, the day after printing Jeb Bush's letter, La Prensa published an editorial by Otto Reich, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, in which he accuses the FSLN of maintaining ties with terrorist groups, a claim that Reich does not attempt to substantiate. Though Reich does not currently hold a position in the U.S. government, he writes as if he does, stating, "If the Sandinistas control the government of Nicaragua, there will be strong pressure in Washington to review all aspects of the bilateral relationship, including remittances." Reich equates a Sandinista victory with "a return to a past of poverty and international isolation." Such a dismal outcome indeed seems likely if the U.S., as the party responsible for the isolation of the past, would implement Reich's thinly cloaked threat of aid and remittance cutoffs.

Ironically, Reich precedes all the above statements with the disclaimer, "No one can tell [Nicaraguans] who to vote for." Jeb Bush, Adolfo Franco, and other outspoken U.S. figures have similarly acknowledged Nicaraguans' sovereign right to pick their own leaders. Unfortunately, such statements come across as meaningless niceties when subsequently contradicted with threats and admonishments against choosing a president not to the U.S.'s liking. As Nicaraguans make their way to the polls on Sunday, they must not only consider "What will this candidate do for my country if elected?" but also "What will the U.S. do to my country if this candidate is elected?" The product of relentless outside interference, this sad reality is profoundly undemocratic.

With numerous internal challenges posed by this election, Nicaraguans do not need to be further encumbered by fears of U.S. reprisal. If U.S. representatives truly wish to see free, unfettered elections in Nicaragua on November 5, they would do well to keep their mouths shut.

Ben Beachy is an educator with Witness for Peace in Nicaragua. Witness for Peace is a politically independent, grassroots organization that educates U.S. citizens on the impacts of U.S. policies and corporate practices in Latin America and the Caribbean. www.witnessforpeace.org

Solidarity News October 26th 2006

2006-10-26T21:06:00.000+13:00

William Blum: Operation Because We Can:
For 27 years, the most powerful nation in the world has found it impossible to share the Western Hemisphere with one of its poorest and weakest neighbors, Nicaragua, if the country's leader was not in love with capitalism. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15367.htm

Bolivia for Single, Free Health Care:
The Bolivian government pledged its commitment to a single and free health system in which all citizens have the same rights, according to a proposal presented to the Constituent Assembly on Saturday. http://tinyurl.com/yj78wt

Adios Ruiz, Bienvenidos AEPO

By Julie Webb-Pullman

Eight thousand members of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) arrived in Mexico City Monday, having left their home on 21 September to march almost 500 kilometres to Mexico City to demand the ouster of their Governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. They accuse him “of irreparable damage to human patrimony, of the assassination of social leaders, of the mismanagement of state finances, of “ethnocide,” of violating United Nations and UNESCO decrees including the guarantee of individual liberties, of promoting violence in the state” and of being incapable of resolving conflicts through diplomatic means.

Since taking power in December 2003, Ruiz has systematically persecuted his political opponents, killing 38 leaders of indigenous’, workers’, and independent organisations, ‘disappearing’ a few more, and detaining and incarcerating more than 200 political prisoners.

Whilst his relentless repression, corruption, and abuses of human rights terrorised many into silence, the teachers of Oaxaca spoke for all when on Mexico’s Teachers’ Day on 15 May this year they said, Ya Basta! Enough!
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00173.htm

Atenco HUman Rights Commission Report
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00302.htm

Oaxaca
Nancy Davies' new commentary from Oaxaca reveals that, despite
the continuing repression in that rebel state and the seemingly
endless stalemate on a solution with the federal government, the
people continue to find new reasons to have hope. She describes ten
key developments from the last few days, including:

"Over the weekend in the capital city of Oaxaca, during a forty-eight
hour period, ten different marches took place. They followed a public
funeral in the zocalo's central pavilion for Alejandro García, who
died from a gunshot wound to the head while he was at the barricade
in Colonia Alemán, bringing coffee to the night team. A car with
four military men in civilian clothes, recently seen leaving a local
cantina, tried to beak the barricade. During the ensuing scuffle two
members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO in its
Spanish initials) were shot, the second victim in the arm. The
accused soldier, Jonathan Ríos Vásquez, declared himself innocent."

"...An indigenous Nahuátl and Mazatec community radio station,
Nandia, was attacked and destroyed by government agents. The women
who ran the station belong to an organization of Mazatec indigenous
women. After the attack they tried to leave the small northern town
of Mazatlán Villa de Flores to travel to the capital, hoping to make
known their outrage (non-licensed indigenous radio stations are
presumably guaranteed in the Oaxaca state constitution), but the only
road out of town was blocked by people identified only as
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) loyalists. The Mazatec women
were planning a hunger strike in the atrium of the Cathedral in
Oaxaca. La Jornada of October 7 indicates that the attack was called
for by the state interior secretary and was carried out by the local
PRI. Now the women are calling on international support for the
community."

"...In order for the Oaxacan people, authorities, and indigenous
organizations to come together for discussions, the APPO and other
various sponsors held the Dialogue for Peace on Friday October 13 in
Oaxaca City. The importance of that meeting is that the former bishop
of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz, once again showed up and spoke for five
minutes. This indicates that Ruiz - who has come three times that I
know of - has put his whole moral weight behind the Oaxaca movement,
most likely because of the movement's importance for indigenous
peoples."

Read Davies' full commentary, and keep following the events in
Mexico's most indigenous and most revolutionary state:
http://www.narconews.com

MEXICO: OAXACA STRIKE CONTINUES

After a heated all-night assembly, on the morning of Oct. 22
delegates of 70,000 teachers in the southern Mexican state of
Oaxaca voted down a proposal to end a strike that has paralyzed
the capital city, also named Oaxaca, for five months. At the
beginning of the assembly, Enrique Rueda Pacheco, general
secretary of Section 22 of the National Education Workers Union
(SNTE), announced that in a membership consultation held Oct. 19-
20, teachers had voted 26,000 to 15,000 to accept an agreement
negotiated with the federal Governance Secretariat (interior
ministry) and return to teaching on Oct. 30. But union delegates
charged that the voting was "rigged" because of the way the
questions were presented, and decided to hold a new consultation
Oct. 23-24. Many denounced Rueda as a "sellout" and "traitor."
Anger at Rueda is so intense that he tried to slip into the
assembly through a back entrance while wearing dark glasses.
[Reuters 10/22/06; La Jornada (Mexico) 10/21/06, 10/22/06]

The teachers went on strike for cost-of-living increases and
better schools on May 22. After Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz of the
centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) tried to end the
strike with a police assault on June 14, the teachers escalated
their demands to include Ruiz's removal from office. Indigenous
communities and social movements joined the mobilization, forming
a coalition, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO).
Together the teachers and APPO have occupied the capital's
downtown area and many government offices for most of the last
five months and have taken control of several radio stations.

The federal government, headed by outgoing president Vicente Fox
Quesada of the center-right National Action Party (PAN), has
negotiated on wage issues but refuses to discuss the removal of
Ruiz. The federal Senate has the power to remove a governor, but
on Oct. 19 senators from the PAN and PRI, along with the small
Green Ecological Party of Mexico (PVEM), joined to block efforts
to oust Ruiz. The APPO and many teachers say they will not end
their mobilization as long as Ruiz is in office. [LJ 10/20/06]

The teachers say 10 strikers or supporters have been killed since
the strike started. The most recent victim was Panfilo Hernandez
Vazquez, an indigenous elementary school teacher. Several unknown
persons in a blue Jetta without license plates pulled up to
Hernandez on the evening of Oct. 18 as he was leaving a local
APPO meeting in the Jardin section of Oaxaca city. They shot him
three times in the abdomen at close range. [LJ 10/19/06,
10/21/06]

A revolution with an absolute minimum of violence:
- It’s not ‘news’ – but it should be
Today it’s Sunday (8 Oct 2006) in Oaxaca, beautiful clear air, sunny, a morning to enjoy a mole tamale and hot coffee for breakfast..........
http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-10-13.htm
===
Human rights workers attacked Colombia:

Amnesty International released a report Sept. 7 blasting the Colombian government for giving a "green light" for attacks against human rights workers in the country.
http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=4838
=======
AMERICAS: INDIGENOUS OCT. 12 PROTESTS
Tens of thousands of indigenous people and their allies focused
on neoliberal economic programs, US foreign policies and local
issues in protests throughout the Americas on Oct. 12, the 514th
anniversary of the arrival of European colonizer Christopher
Columbus in the hemisphere.

Thousands of marchers celebrated the "Day of Indigenous
Resistance" in Guatemala City after the conclusion of an
international meeting there on agrarian reform. The protesters--
including campesinos from six countries and members of dozens of
Guatemalan indigenous organizations and the National Coordinating
Committee of Campesino Organizations (CNOC)--carried signs
demanding "respect for multiculturalism," "no to discrimination
and exclusion" and "stop the removals," referring to police and
military operations against campesinos occupying private estates.
As the march passed by the US embassy, protesters denounced US-
imposed neoliberal policies and demanded an end to aggression
against Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela.

On the Pacific coast, hundreds of Guatemalans blocked a highway
leading to the Mexican border to express opposition to the
government's rural policies. Other protesters blocked the Inter-
American highway in the northwestern department of Huehuetenango
to demand an end to licensing for foreign mining companies. There
were also protests in Quetzaltenango in the west, Coban in the
center, and various municipalities in the northern department of
Peten, according to Juan Tiney of the National Indigenous and
Campesino Coordinating Committee. [Prensa Latina 10/12/06; El
Mostrador (Chile) 10/12/06 from EFE; La Jornada (Mexico) 10/13/06
from AFP, DPA, Reuters]

Hundreds of Hondurans representing indigenous and African-
descended communities demonstrated in front of the US embassy in
Tegucigalpa on Oct. 12 to protest economic policies promoted by
the US. The organizations called European colonization "the most
gigantic robbery of world history" and denounced "neo-
colonization" by the "US empire." The participants included
indigenous Lencas from the western departments of Lempira and
Intibuca on the border with El Salvador; the Lencas had
demonstrated on Oct. 11 against the building of the El Tigre dam
in their territories [see Update #861]. [EM 10/12/06 from EFE; LJ
10/13/06 from AFP, DPA, Reuters]

The dam was also the target of a protest that dozens of Civic
Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras
(COPINH) members had held on Oct. 3 at the Club Campestre, 30km
north of Tegucigalpa, as Central American presidents met there
for a regional security summit. COPINH declared Salvadoran
president Elias Antonio Saca persona non grata in Honduras for
his promotion of El Tigre, which "would put an end to entire
villages in San Antonio, Mapulaca, Piraera, Santa Lucia, Virginia
and La Virtud municipalities in Honduras, and others in El
Salvador, displacing more than 20,000 people, who would lose
their homes, their culture, their lands, their way of life and
their social networks." The group also objected to the presence
of Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, Mexico's official president-elect,
"given that his designation as president of Mexico is the product
of shameful electoral fraud." [EFE 10/3/06 via Univision TV (US)]

In Colombia some 700 Bari indigenous people marched on Oct. 12 in
Tibu, near the Venezuelan border in Norte de Santander
department, to demand that the state oil company Ecopetrol
suspend its exploratory drilling near their territory. The Bari,
who say they have been victimized by government-backed
"genocides" since 1932, carried bows and arrows along with signs
in what was apparently their first protest. Interior Deputy
Minister Maria Isabel Nieto had told the media that according to
military intelligence reports the Bari were being supported by
the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Observers from human rights organizations and the United Nations
said they saw no evidence of involvement by armed groups. [El
Diario-La Prensa (NY) 10/13/06 from AP; LJ 10/13/06 from AP]

Lisardo Domico, general secretary of the National Indigenous
Organization of Colombia (ONIC), declared Oct. 12 a day of
mourning. He noted that violence against indigenous communities
continues--from the military, leftist rebels and rightwing
paramilitaries. Some 104 indigenous people died violently in
2005, he said, while 18 have been killed and 28 have been
disappeared so far this year; ONIC says 5,731 indigenous people
were displaced from January to September. [El Siglo de Torreon
(Coahuila, Mexico) 10/13/06 from Notimex]

In Argentina, the National Institute Against Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Racism, which is under the authority of the
Interior Ministry, proposed ending Oct. 12's status as a holiday.
Venezuela has already officially renamed the date "Day of
Indigenous Resistance" [see Update #820]. [LJ 10/13/06 from AFP,
DPA, Reuters]
Weekly News Update on the Americas http://americas.org

U.S. cuts economic aid for Colombia area:
Six years and more than $4 billion in American tax dollars after Plan Colombia was launched in Caqueta, Colombia's army is still fighting rebels here, and coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine, is still the region's No. 1 cash crop.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Colombia_US_Aid_Cuts.html

Friends of the Right to Know!
Great news: the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled that there is a general right of access to information held by government. This is the first such ruling from an international tribunal. It's a decision to celebrate!
The Inter-American Court's decision in the case of Claude Reyes and others vs. Chile was released today and finds Chile in violation of the right of access to state-held information (The case dates from a request made in 1998 by three environmental activists about a controversial logging project; no information was provided nor a reasoned refusal. For a reminder/summary of the facts of the case, see www.access-info.org).
The decision also makes clear that to give full effect to this right, States must adopt legal and other provisions that ensure effective exercise of the right to information as well as define limited exemptions to be applied in ways that will cause minimum restriction of the right.
The Court further requires the Chilean state to train public officials on the right to information and the international standards for exemptions.
Spanish version of the decision: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/casos.cfm?idCaso=245
Spies, Lies and Visa Red Tape
The Case of the Cuban Five and Their Wives
by Julie Webb-Pullman

Wow! The US doesn’t only do it in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Europe, Asia and North Africa – they practice cruel and inhuman imprisonment right there at home as well!! And despite the daily diet of anti-terrorist rhetoric their mainstream media dishes up as nauseum, for the last eight years there has been only misinformation, Miaminformation, or an iron curtain of silence regarding the treatment of five Cuban anti-terrorist political prisoners in the U.S. and their families. Http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00136.htm

Latin America Solidarity News October 12th 2006

2006-10-12T14:29:00.000+13:00

What is the Zapatista Solidarity Group?

2006-10-07T11:53:00.000+13:00

We are a small group of people from Latin America, NZ and around the world, working to raise funds for Zapatista communities and raise awareness of their struggle. The funds will be used for a 4-wheel drive ambulance to serve several communities in rural Chiapas, Mexico. This ambulance is urgently needed as people living in these communities are unable to get emergency health care at present.

We hold regular events such as Penas Latinas (Latin American Cultural evenings), and we have regular meetings to plan our events and fundraising. We welcome new people to the group. If you would like to get involved, please contact us (zapatistasolidarity@gmail.com / 972 7260) or come along to one of our events!

For more info see:
www.vivazapatanz.blogspot.com

target="_blank">www.ezln.org.mx

flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico.html

target="_blank">chiapas.indymedia.org

target="_blank">www.narconews.com

We are affiliated with the Latin American Solidarity Committee

Latin America Solidarity News 1st October 2006

2006-10-01T18:29:00.000+13:00

Events, actions, trade and more news

Voz Latinoamericana Wellington Access Radio 783AM Mondays 5-6pm
(radio streaming www.r2.co.nz/meta/accessradio-56.asx - www.accessradio.org.nz/

Events

Next Peña Cultural Latina 6th October, Friday 6pm
Films, live music, food and conversation from 6pm
128 Abel-Smith St, Wellington. All welcome. Please come along and bring your friends
Contact: hjorge40@hotmail.com

"Eyes of the Rainbow" film screening Monday 9 October.
128 Abel-Smith St, Wellington

THE 2006 CUBAN FILM FESTIVAL
SI! CUBANAS! WOMEN BEHIND THE CAMERA
Auckland 27th September–11th October 2006
Wellington 10th–14th October 2006
Hamilton 5th–7th October
Raglan 8th October

FOR A LIST OF FILMS, VENUES AND SCREENING TIMES, GO TO:
www.descargacubana.co.nz/sicubanas.html

NEWS

How did we sink so low in just 6 years?
In a 253 to 168 “party-line” vote, the congress repealed habeas corpus and approved the torturing of prisoners in American custody. It is breathtaking assault on human rights and personal liberty and puts the United States well-outside the community of civilized nations.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15143.htm

Globalisation: make it work - Joseph Stiglitz
www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-vision_reflections/stiglitz_3931.jsp#
Another world is possible, says the renowned economist. But by crisis or choice?
Early in the book, Stiglitz contrasts developmental success in east Asia - whose governments, he said, kept a wary distance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - with economic instability and widening income inequality in Latin America, where the policies of the Washington consensus were followed to the letter.

Don't Cry to Them, Argentina
Is Monsanto playing fast and loose with Roundup Ready Soybeans in Argentina?
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/09/22/hearn/index.html?source=daily

In Argentina, which ranks second only to the United States in production of genetically modified crops, agro-giant Monsanto's Roundup Ready Soybeans are increasingly ubiquitous -- and controversial. RR soy fields are taking over jungles and savannas, with steep social and environmental consequences; meanwhile, Monsanto is finagling in European courts to reap more profit from Argentine farmers. Kelly Hearn traces a story of industrial-ag shenanigans and eco-ruin.

Chavez's Oil Gift, Part II
September 21, 2006, New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/09-20-2006/front/story/454232p-382122c.html

Hugo Chavez, the fiery president of oil-rich Venezuela, is
pumping up the volume - of cheap fuel oil for low-income New
Yorkers. And he's named a Kennedy as head salesman.

Individual homeowners and cooperatives in four of the city's
five boroughs will be able to buy cheap fuel this winter from
an oil-for-the-poor program, sources have told the Daily News.

CITGO Petroleum, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state-
owned oil company, has earmarked 25 million gallons of fuel
for low-income New York residents this year at 40% off the
wholesale market price.

That's enough fuel to heat 70,000 apartments, covering 200,000
New Yorkers, for the entire winter.

Bolivian President Evo Morales on Latin America,
U.S. Foreign Policy and the Role of the Indigenous People of Bolivia
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/22/1323211

Evo at the UN
http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2006/09/evo-at-un-speech-delivered-by.html

Speech delivered by the president of the republic, Evo Morales Ayma, in front of the United Nations General Assembly. New York, September 19, 2006.

Thank you, president. Fellow brother and sister presidents, delegates to the 61 Ordinary Reunion of the United Nations.

It is an enormous satisfaction to be here present, representing my people, from my homeland, Bolivia and especially the indigenous movement.

I want to tell you, that after 500 years of be looked down upon, at times considered to be savages, animals, in some regions condemned to extermination, thanks to this consciousness and this uprising and to the struggle for the rights of the peoples I got to, we got here to repair the historic damage, to repair 500 years of damage.

During the republic, we were equally discriminated, marginalised, they never took into account this struggle of the peoples for life, for humanity during the last 20 years, with their application of an economic model - neoliberalism - that continued the looting of our natural resources, the privatisation of our basic services.

Convinced, and we are convinced, that the way of privatisation of basic services is the best way of violating human rights.

And these small considerations oblige me to say the truth here about the livelihoods of these families, I come to express this sentiment for the humanity of the peoples, from my people. I come here to express the suffering, the product of marginalisation, of exclusion, I come to express above all else, this anti-colonial sentiment of the peoples that struggle for equality and justice.

I want to say to all of the delegates, Ms president, that in my country we have begun to search for deep democratic and peaceful transformations, we are in a stage think of how to refound Bolivia, refound Bolivia to unite Bolivians, refound Bolivia nor to take revenge against anyone, despite the fact that we have been kept down through discrimination, refound Bolivia, above all, to finish with distain, hatred, against the peoples.

I say this because my mother was commenting to me, saying, that when she went to the city, she did not have to right to walk in the principal plazas of the cities of my country, they didn’t have the right to walk on the footpaths.

But happily we have decided to pass over from the social, union, communal struggle to an electoral struggle so that we ourselves can be the actors to resolve social problems, economic problems, structural problems, and we are waging for this Constituent Assembly of refoundation, and I would like the United Nations to participate in this process of peaceful and democratic change, which is the best we can do for these abandoned, marginalised families.

Certainly, many countries have the same problem as my country, a country, a nation with so much wealth but also with so much poverty, where the natural resources have historically been stolen, looted, auctioned off by the neoliberal government, handed over to the transnationals.

The time has come, now at the head of this struggle of the peoples for power and land, to recuperate, recuperate those natural resources for the Bolivian state under the control of the peoples.

And when we speak of recuperating our natural resources, via the dirty campaign of accusations, they say that the government of Evo Morales will not respect private property, I want to say to you, in my government private property will be respected.

It is true that we need investment, we need partners, not bosses, not owners of our natural resources, we understand perfectly that an underdeveloped country needs investment, and I want to say, to clarify in front of all of you some worries, some false accusations; if the state exercises the property rights of a natural resource such as natural gas, hydrocarbons, oil, then we don’t expel anyone, we don’t confiscate off anyone.

It will be respected, but we guarantee that they recover their investments and have make an earning, but they will not earn like before, from the (fat) so we are left not being able to resolve the social problems in my country later.

I want to say to you within this framework, I don’t come here to tell you how to govern or to threaten a country, or to begin to put conditions on a country, I only want you as international organisations, as a state with solidarity, as nations with principals of reciprocity, of brotherhood, to participate in this process of democratic change.

We have a great desire, a great interest in their being a conscious of this class in international forums, international reunions such as the United Nations to support, to wager on peaceful changes.

All of you know, especially here in North America as well as in Europe, that there are many Bolivians who go in search of work, before it use to be the Europeans that invaded Latin American, especially Bolivia, now it seems that the situation has changed, it is the Latin American, or the Bolivians, that are invading Europe like they did to the US before. Why? Because in this conjuncture, at this moment there is no job creation.

I want to say to all of you that we want to wager for a just trade, a peoples trade for the people, a trade which resolves the problem of jobs, that trade for companies is important is clear, but trade for micro and small producers, for cooperatives, for associations, collective companies, is more important.

I would like, and this is the one wish I have, that instead of my sisters and brothers going to Europe, how much better would it be that products go there and not human beings, and I believe that this has to do with consciousness in the international community, if we want to resolve the issue of immigration.

I have information that our sisters and brothers are not going there to monopolise thousands of hectares as those that came to Latin America did when they monopolise thousands of hectares, they came to take over ownership of our wealth, of our resources.

I believe that it is important that within this framework of trade, trade that is referred to as free trade, even in my country, affected and eliminated the large producers, the agro-industrialists, imagine the agreement signed by Colombia with the United States over the Free Trade Agreement, is already taking away markets from the soya farmers in Bolivia, from the agro-industrialists in Colombia.

I am convinced that it is important to import what we do not produce and export what we produce and that this would be a solution to the economic problem, the problem of employment.

I would like to take advantage of this opportunity, Ms president, to say that there are also other historical injustices, such as the criminalisation of the coca leaf. I want to say, this is a green coca leaf, it is not the white of cocaine, this coca leaf represents Andean culture, it is a coca leaf that represents the environment and the hope of our peoples.

It is not possible that the coca leaf is legal for Coca Cola and that the coca leaf is illegal for other medicinal purposes in our country, and in the whole world.

We want to say, that it is important that the United Nations recognise that with the help of North American universities, with European universities, we have scientifically demonstrated that the coca leaf does not damage human health.

It is very lamentable that due to customs, to bad customs, that the coca leaf is derailed into an illegal problem, we are conscious of that, that is why we say as producers of the coca leaf that there will not be free coca cultivation, but nor will there be zero coca.

The previously implemented policies, that had conditions imposed, talked of zero coca, zero coca is like talking of zero Quechuas, Aymaras, Mojenos, Chiquitanos in my country, this finished with our government, no matter how underdeveloped our country is, a country with economic problems which are a product of the looting of our natural resource wealth.

And we are now here to dignify ourselves, and we have begun to dignify our country, and within this process of dignifying I want to say, that the best proposal for the struggle against narco-trafficking has been voluntary reduction, agreed upon without deaths or injuries.

Happily I have heard the report from the United Nation, which recognises that this honest, responsible effort, in the struggle against narco-trafficking, has increased efficiency by 300% as opposed to confiscations which seize drugs,.

Nevertheless, yesterday I heard a report from the government of the United States, it says, that they do not accept the cultivation of coca, and that they are putting conditions on it that modify our norms.

I want to say with great respect to the government of the United States, we are not going to change anything, we don’t need blackmail and threats, the so-called certification or decertification in the fight against narco-trafficking is simply an instrument of recolonialisation or colonialisation of the Andean countries, that is unacceptable, that can not be permitted.

I want to say to you that we have, and we need, an alliance to fight against narco-trafficking, but one that is real and effective, so that the war on drugs can not be used as an instrument, a pretext, for them to subjugate the countries of the Andean region, just like they invented preventative wars to intervene into some countries of the Middle East.

We need a real fight against narco-trafficking, and I call on the United Nations, I invite the government of the United States to make an agreement, an effective alliance to fight against narco-trafficking, so that the war on drugs is not used as a pretext to dominate us, or to humiliate us, or to try to establish military bases. In our country they use the pretext of the fight against narco-trafficking.

I take use of this opportunity to say that, within this process of change, we want justice, that justice be carried out is important for our peoples, but I feel that via the Constituent Assembly we are going to decolonise the law in order to nationalise justice, real justice.

That the people implicated in the violations of human rights, peoples threaten with military interventions, there will never be justice there, we are obliged as presidents, as head of states to dignify humanity by ending impunity.

In the previous governments in my country, they massacred people that struggle for their economic demands, for their natural resources, and it is not possible that perpetuators of genocide, corrupt criminals, escape in order to live in the United States, in a developed country such as United States.

I ask with a great deal of respect, expel these perpetuators of genocide, criminals, corrupt ones that come to live here, if they have nothing to do with it, why don’t they defend themselves in the Bolivian justice system.

I am obliged, as president, to demand that these authorities be tried in the Bolivian justice system, and I believe that no country, no head of state can protect, hid, delinquents, the perpetuators of genocide.

Hopefully with the help of the North American people, hopefully via international organisations, the people that have done so much economic damage, damage to human rights, will be tried, given that they have never respected human rights.

I have a recommendation for the permanent forum of the indigenous peoples, in front of the debates about the rights of indigenous peoples, in front of the debates about the rights of indigenous peoples that are in the subcommission of the rights of indigenous peoples in the United Nations in Geneva, in the Organisation of American States, I have information that this debate has reached this maximum instance of the United Nations.

I want to ask you in the name of the indigenous peoples of the world, especially of Abyalala, now called America, to urgently approve this declaration of the rights of indigenous peoples of the world, the right to self-determination, the right to live in community, collectively, the right to live in solidarity, in reciprocity, and fundamentally the right to live in brotherhood.

There are regions were communities live without private property, there is collective property, the indigenous peoples only want to live well, not better, to live better is to exploit, is to loot, to rob, but to live well is to live in brotherhood and that is why it is very important, president, that the United Nations urgently after the decade of the indigenous peoples, that this declaration of the rights of the indigenous peoples, the right to natural resources, the right to look after the environment, be approved.

Finally president, the indigenous peoples, the poor come especially from a culture of life and not a culture of war, and this millennium will really have to be to defend live, to save humanity and if we want to save humanity we have the obligation to save the planet. The indigenous peoples live in harmony with mother earth, and not only in reciprocity, in solidarity, with human beings.

We feel greatly that the politics of hegemonist competitions are destroying the planet. I feel that all countries, social forces, international organisms are important, let us begin to debate truthfully, in order to save the planet, to save humanity.

This new millennium, the millennium that we find ourselves in needs to be a millennium of life, not of war, a millennium of people and not of empire, a millennium of justice and equality and that any economic policy needs to be orientated towards ending, of at least lessening these so-called asymmetric differences between one country and another country, those social inequalities.

We are not trying to implement policies that allow the economic humiliation or economic looting; when they cannot loot according to the norms, they use troops.

I want to ask with great respect, that it is important to withdraw troops from Iraq if we want to respect human rights, it is important to withdraw economic policies that allow the concentration of capital in only a few hands.

And for this, I feel president, that these events should be historical in order to change the world and to change economic models, interventionalist policies. Above all else we want them to be times that allow us to defend and save humanity

Popular Armed Defense Called for in Bolivia
http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2006/09/popular-armed-defense-called-for-in.html

La Paz September 21 (Granma).-- The Bolivian government has urged small farmers to take up arms if necessary in defense of the ongoing process of change occurring in the country since Evo Morales, the country's first indigenous president, took office in January of this year.

The government's move to recuperate the country's hydrocarbon reserves from foreign interests, new education and healthcare programs, an agrarian reform, and hopes that the currently convened Constituent Assembly will draft a new more inclusive constitution have been met with resistance from privileged sectors of society.

On Wednesday, acting President Alvaro Garcia addressed the need for the peasant population to be on guard when speaking in the town of Warisata during the commemoration of the third anniversary of the first six deaths of the killings ordered by former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to crack down on a social protest.

Garcia, who years back joined an armed indigenous group operating in the zone, said the rural population should be ready to defend the nationalization of Bolivia's hydrocarbons.

The vice president said that if necessary, they will take up the fight 50 or 60 times until the oil companies, speculators and criminal politicians that have plundered the country pay attention.

The call comes amid stepped-up conflict and pressure by conservative, regional and other opposition forces demanding that the Constituent Assembly decisions be made by a two-thirds vote.

Divided Mexico - Part 1: The Bankers' Alliance Holds on to Power
by John W. Warnock
For a brief time the media in Canada and the United States gave some
coverage to the July 2 election in Mexico. There was a threat from the
social democratic left - the possibility that Andres Manual Lopez Obrador
(AMLO) might emerge as the next president. The U.S. government, concerned
about the spread of the new socialism across Latin America, settled back
when the Mexican establishment carried the day. Nevertheless, the election
produced a major shift to the left, angered the poor and disenfranchised,
and heightened social divisions and political resistance.

Mexico was ruled by a succession of generals until President Lazaro Cardenas
(1934-40) restructured the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). A
populist party, it included the trade unions, peasant organizations, a civic
alliance, and small business organizations. The PRI governed Mexico between
1929 and 2000 as a one-party state. Through the system known as
"Presidentialism," the PRI completely dominated. Elections were a farce as
the PRI won them all, legislatures rarely had any representation from other
parties, and the President appointed everyone, including his own successor.

In 1939 a group of right wing Catholics, business leaders and large land
owners formed the National Action Party (PAN) to defend the church, protect
private property rights, and to push for a government similar to Francisco
Franco's in Spain. They received strong support from the Mexican
Confederation of Employers (COPARMEX), whose slogan was "not class struggle
but class collaboration." The PAN provided token opposition to the PRI down
to the 1980s when it began to seriously contest local elections, demanding a
liberal democratic electoral regime.

Mexico has always been run by powerful wealthy families, foreign capital,
large landowners and the hierarchy of the Catholic church. The "bankers'
alliance," as they are known is Mexico, dominated the leadership and policy
of the PRI. It is commonly said that Mexico is run by 300 families.
Protected until the 1980s from competition from foreign firms, powerful
family groups have run the economy. In 2000 eight groups controlled around
70 percent of the stock on the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores. The most
influential organization has been the Mexican Council of Businessmen (CMHN),
37 of the richest men who in 1994 contributed $750 million to the PRI's
presidential campaign.

The first challenge to the bankers' alliance came in the 1988 presidential
election. When Carlos Salinas de Gortari was nominated to be the PRI
candidate, the moderate left wing caucus, the Democratic Current, left the
PRI and organized the National Democratic Front, an electoral alliance with
several small parties, the political left, and a broad range of popular and
community organizations, Mexico's "rainbow coalition." They supported
Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, the former PRI governor of Michoacan, for President.
The 1988 election was the biggest fraud in Mexican history. With 60 percent
of the votes counted, and Cardenas with a good lead, the PRI-controlled
Federal Electoral Commission (CFE) shut down the vote count; ten days later
they proclaimed that Salinas had won by a narrow plurality. It was Mexican
politics as usual. Salinas and his successor, Ernesto Zedillo, pursued the
neoliberal agenda of big business and embraced NAFTA.

The PRI's control over the Mexican political system was broken in 2000.
Vicente Fox, the candidate for the PAN, was elected president with 43
percent of the vote to 36 percent for the PRI's candidate and only 17
percent for Cardenas, now running for the Party of the Democratic Revolution
(PRD). With the introduction of a modified system of proportional election,
the PRI lost control of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and
political pluralism emerged. But the bankers' alliance was not worried; Fox
was a businessmen and rancher, one of their own, and the PAN was solidly on
the political right.

The threat from the PRD

Lopez Obrador was elected as Head of Government of Mexico City in 2000.
AMLO, as he is known, was a history teacher from Tabasco, where he was an
active member of the PRI. In 1988 he joined the Democratic Current, left the
PRI, and backed Cardenas for president. In 1994 he ran for governor of
Tabasco for the PRD and lost in an election stolen by the PRI. He is known
for his strong support of the rights of indigenous peoples, his dedication
to fair elections and ending corruption, and a willingness to use civil
disobedience to confront injustice. As head of the government of Mexico City
he led a fight against crime, greatly reduced corruption, worked to help the
poor and introduced the first universal pension for seniors. When he left
office in 2005 public opinion polls reported he had an approval rating of
over 80 percent.

Other polls indicated that Mexicans wanted AMLO to be the next president.
While he is not a radical, he supported the broad coalition of peasant
organizations that asked for a renegotiation of NAFTA to exempt agriculture
and food. He advocates taxing corporations and the rich and using the
revenues to expand social programs in a fight against poverty and
inequality. Mexicans quickly became disillusioned with Vicente Fox and the
PAN, and in the mid term elections in 2003, only 40 percent bothered to
vote.

The bankers' alliance took up the challenge. The wealthy political elite in
the PRI began to work out a political agreement with the leadership of the
PAN. In 1989 the legislature had created the Federal Electoral Institute
(IFE), which earned the respect of the Mexican people for their commitment
to a clean electoral process. But this changed in November 2003 when the two
parties in the Chamber of Deputies appointed their allies to the nine-member
General Council. Nominations by the other parties to the Federal Judicial
Elections Tribunal (TEPJF), the highest electoral court, were also rejected.
The partisan nature of these two bodies was demonstrated in the 2006
election.

In 2004 the PAN-PRI alliance stripped AMLO of his legislative immunity so
that he could be sued by a landowner for expropriating a piece of land to
build a road to a Mexico City hospital. This court action would have made
him ineligible to run for President. After a demonstration of over one
million supporters in Mexico City, President Fox abandoned the process.

Carlos Salinas, back in Mexico and deeply involved in building the PRI-PAN
alliance, helped to engineer a sting operation where several businessmen
made payments to two government officials in Mexico City to further their
construction projects. The transfer of cash was secretly filmed and then run
on television for months to demonstrate that the PRD was not free of
corruption. AMLO's support in the polls fell by 15 points.

The bankers' alliance directly entered the campaign. Aided by Dick Morris,
former adviser to Bill Clinton, they spent more than $19 million on
television ads; third party political advertisements are illegal under
Mexican law. The U.S. International Republican Institute, funded by the
National Endowment for Democracy, helped train PAN activists. Foreign
interference in an election is also a crime. PAN election spending far
exceeded the legal limits. President Fox spent six months campaigning for
Calderon, which is contrary to Mexican law. All these illegal activities
were recognized by the Federal Judicial Elections Tribunal, which concluded
that they did not have a significant effect on the outcome of the election.

Election results disputed

On July 2 around 60 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. The
results announced by IFE were as follows: Felipe Calderon, candidate for the
PAN, 36.38%; Lopez Obrador, 35.34% and Roberto Madrazo, the candidate of the
PRI, 21.57%. The margin of victory for Calderon was only 244,000 votes. No
major frauds were reported. However, many people went to the polls, found
they were not on the voters' list, were sent to special voting stations, and
found there were no ballots. This was especially the case in low income
areas where the PRD was strongest.

Going into the election, national polls indicated that AMLO had a lead of
around three percent. The two television networks, Televisa and TV Azteca,
did extensive exit polls which indicated that AMLO had won, but they did not
report the results. A large exit poll by the Instituto de Mercadotecnia y
Opinion showed AMLO had won, again not reported by the corporate media.
Academics who closely monitored the returns reported by IFE noted that
through most of the election night AMLO was ahead by a steady margin of
about three percent. Then, with around 70 percent of the vote counted, the
reports from the polls changed dramatically, with a five and then ten to one
margin going for Calderon up to the end. IFE officials claimed that this
discrepancy was due to the fact that rural votes came in last. But
Calderon's support was weakest in the rural areas. Shades of 1988.

Supporters of AMLO gathered by the hundreds of thousands in the zocalo of
Mexico City, demanding a complete recount. They camped there for weeks. A
poll by El Universal one of Mexico's major newspapers, revealed that 59
percent believe that there had been fraud. A poll in August found 48 percent
wanted a complete recount, while on 28 percent supported the announced
results. The New York Times and the Financial Times called for a recount in
order to establish the legitimacy of Calderon's apparent victory. But
President Fox, Calderon and the bankers alliance said "no!" They would ride
out the storm, as they did in 1988.

The PRD presented the Electoral Tribunal with 800 pages of documentation of
problems with the election. They challenged results in 72,000 of the 130,000
electoral districts, noting that there were major discrepancies between the
ballots delivered to polling stations, the votes counted at these stations,
and often between votes counted and numbers on the official voters' list. In
some areas the vote for Calderon exceeded the number on the voters' list.
They protested that officials at IFE had opened many of the sealed ballot
boxes after the election, which is against the law.

On August 5 the Electoral Tribunal dismissed the challenges from the PRD but
ordered a recount of 11,839 voting stations in 149 districts, covering
around 3.8 million voters. On August 28 they announced that they had
annulled ballot boxes which contained 237,000 votes, but insisted that this
had no effect on the outcome of the election. They refused to release any
details of the recount.

The PRD and its allies, the Workers Party (PT) and Convergencia, had
observers at all the recounts. They recorded the following from this sample:

* In 3,074 polling stations there were a total of 45,890 illegal votes,
above the number of recorded votes. This was primarily in PAN areas of
strength.

* in 4,368 polling stations a total of 80,392 ballots were missing.
If this sample was characteristic of the entire country, it would mean a
discrepancy of over 1.5 million votes, clearly enough to change the election
results.

On September 5 the Federal Judicial Elections Tribunal finally declared
Calderon the winner of the election. The court noted the criticism of the
procedures on election day but argued that they did not have enough
information to conclude that this affected the election results. They
announced that the ballots would be burned, as in 1988, thus blocking an
independent recount requested by a group of academics and El Proceso news
magazine.

But this is not 1988. Mass mobilizations have disrupted the political
establishment. More have been scheduled. A National Democratic Convention
was held in Mexico City on September 16, declaring AMLO the real president,
and appointing a commission to draft a plebiscite to call a new
constitutional convention.

The media focus on the presidency has obscured the fact that this election
has changed Mexican politics. The PRI was routed in the vote for president,
the elections for the legislature, and failed to carry a single state. The
PRD is now the second largest party in the legislature. If there had been a
run off vote for president, which is common in Latin America, AMLO would
have likely won, for the rank and file supporters of the PRI are peasants
and ordinary workers who hate the PAN. Even more than Fox, Calderon
represents the rich and powerful.

Political conflict is on the rise across Mexico. Miners are striking. A
national strike was held in February. Police killed two striking
steelworkers in Michoacan. Security police viciously attacked street venders
in the State of Mexico. Striking teachers and their supporters occupy the
centre of Oaxaca City, demanding the resignation of the Governor and have
created an alternate government. Police and military are again stepping up
the harassment of peasants in Chiapas. The general political trend across
Latin America has moved up to the Rio Grande.

John W. Warnock is a Regina political economist and author of The Other
Mexico: The North American Triangle Completed. He was a member of the
Canadian team of observers for the 1994 and 1997 Mexican federal elections.
In February 2006 he did research on the maquiladora zone industries in
Matamoros, Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana.

Mexico Part 2: Poverty, Inequality and NAFTA

September 27, 2006

There was very little coverage of the Mexican election in the North American
media this past July. But editorial opinion after the results were reported
was uniform: Andres Manual Lopez Obrador and the Party of the Democratic
Revolution (PRD) should shut up, accept their defeat and wait until the next
election. Nevertheless, a few newspapers did mention that the
president-elect Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN) would
have a difficult time dealing with a "deeply divided country" where around
50 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Wasn't the North American Free Trade Agreement supposed to fix this problem?
According to the World Bank, 50 percent of the population is living in
poverty and around one-fifth are living in "extreme poverty," with an income
of less than one U.S. dollar per day. This World Bank standard may be
relevant to some countries in Africa, but it is ridiculous to apply it to
Mexico where no one can survive on one dollar a day.

In 2002 the Mexican government introduced its own definition of poverty. It
distinguishes between rural and urban poverty. The three classification are
as follows, converted from Mexican pesos to U.S. dollars:

(1) Food-based poverty. Income is not enough to cover basic food expenses.
This includes 20 percent of the population. Individual income is $50 per
month in rural areas and $67 per month in urban areas.

(2) Capabilities poverty. Income is not enough to cover basic food, health,
and education. This includes 27 percent of the population. Individual income
is $60 per month in rural areas and $80 per month in urban areas.

(3) Basic needs poverty. Income is not enough to cover basic food, health,
education, clothing, housing and public transportation. This includes 50
percent of the population. Individual income is $95 per month in rural areas
and $137 in urban areas.

Poverty levels in Mexico City

The average household in Mexico has five members. In urban areas like Mexico
City, this standard family would be expected to survive on $685 per month.
This is the official basic needs poverty line.

These government classifications have been criticized by independent
scholars who put poverty levels considerably higher. For example, since 1978
the Centre for Multidisciplinary Analysis (CAM) of the Faculty of Economics
at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has been collecting
statistics on what is actually required to live in Mexico City. Their basic
needs basket is very limited: 35 items which includes food, toiletries,
public transportation, electricity, and gas for cooking. It excludes rent,
education, health, clothing, recreation and culture. While the government's
urban basic needs poverty level was set at $4.57 per day per person in 2002,
the actual costs of the CAM basket of goods alone was $28.82 per day.

In 2002 the minimum wage in the urban areas like Mexico City was $4.87 per
day. Because of inflation and devaluation of the Mexican peso in relation to
the U.S. dollar, between 1982 and 2002 the real value of the minimum wage
had fallen by 82 percent. During the presidency of Vicente Fox (2000-6) it
declined by 22 percent.

A study by Patricia Munoz of the Faculty of Economics at UNAM found that
"the minimum wage that entered into force on January 1, 2006 is only enough
to obtain 16 percent of what a worker could buy two decades ago with the
same salary." The minimum wage in Mexico "has suffered the largest, most
serious and drastic deterioration in all of Latin America."

Official government statistics report that 10.78 million Mexicans work for
the minimum wage or less, which is around 24 percent of those who have some
kind of employment. Forty one percent of workers earn the equivalent of two
minimum wages or less.

Finding a job

The average family in Mexico needs a number of sources of income to survive.
But the opportunities for employment are limited. Of the population of 106
million, around 44 million are considered to be actively involved in the
labour market. Of these, only around 20 million are in jobs that pay a wage
or a salary, and in 2004 only 45 percent of these workers were covered by
the contributory social insurance system.

According to government calculations, during the years of the presidency of
Vicente Fox, around 1.4 million workers entered the labour force each year.
However, the economy only created on average 524,000 new jobs per year over
this period. Thus 68 percent of new workers have had to survive in the
"informal economy," remain unemployed and dependent on their families, or
have fled to the United States. Around 1.3 million people work in the
streets.

During the period between 1961 and 1980 the average per capita real economic
growth in Mexico was 3.4 percent, higher than in either the United States or
Canada. The rate of inflation was very low, and the industrial sector of the
economy grew. So did formal employment and wages. At the time, the World
Bank and other institution described this as Mexico's "economic miracle."

But this changed with the world recession of the early 1980s and the
collapse of the price of oil. The Reagan-Thatcher free market and free trade
model was forced on Mexico. Between 1981 and 1990 the average real rate of
economic growth fell to -0.3 percent and rose only to 1.9 percent between
1991-2000.

While other middle income countries, like Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and
Singapore have been steadily narrowing the gap between their wages and those
of the United states, this has not been true of Mexico. For example, in 1975
manufacturing wages in Mexico were 23 percent of those in the United States;
this fell to 11.5 percent in 2001.

A study by Enrique Dussel Peters of the Faculty of Economics at UNAM found
that between 1988 and 2001 those industries that were most affected by the
trade liberalization policies represented by NAFTA showed a downward trend
in real wages but had the highest rate of productivity increases. Employers
in the export industries were getting much more out of their workers while
paying them less in wages and benefits.

Nevertheless, with the internationalization of production, and the open
economy, the major companies are shifting work out of Mexico. For example,
the average wage for electronics workers in Guadalajara in 2004 was $US1.80
per hour; in Shenzhen, one of the high wage areas in China, it was $US0.77
per hour. Workers in the maquiladora factories in the border zones in Mexico
complain that the shift in production to Asia and Central America has led to
a downward pressure on wages during the Fox presidency.

Persistence of inequality

Official government figures show that between 1963 and 1985 inequality
steadily declined. With the onset of the "lost decade" of the economy and
the shift to the policies of neoliberalism, inequality again began to
worsen. Some improvement has been seen since this low point. But in 2005 the
top 10 percent of households averaged an income of $US4,261 per month; the
bottom 10 percent of households averaged US$166 per month.

The U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean points out
that Mexico, a middle income country, "competes with other Latin American
countries for the first places on economic, social and gender inequality."
Very powerful business organizations preside over a hierarchical class and
social system. Mexico is also described as a "pigmentocracy," for those
families at the top stress their "whiteness" and Spanish blood while those
at the bottom of the social hierarchy are the dark skinned indigenous
peoples, who are also the poorest.

The Mexican government has introduced a new anti-poverty program,
Progresa-Oportunidades, which is targeted to those living in extreme
poverty. With a budget of $2.8 billion, it provides financial support for
school supplies, expanded health services, and a payment of around $US15 per
month to women for the purchase of food. By 2005 it provided cash subsidies
to around five million families, or 24 percent of the total population. The
program has faltered under President Fox.

One of the most serious obstacles to combating poverty is the fact that all
Mexican governments have hesitated to impose taxes on corporations, wealth
and those in higher income brackets. Between 1988 and 2002 social
expenditures dropped as a percentage of gross domestic product from 11
percent to two percent. Government spending in general accounts for less
than 20 percent of Mexico's gross domestic production, compared to over 40
percent in the developed countries.

The most important contribution to the reduction of poverty in Mexico is the
remittance of earnings from family members working in the United States. The
Mexican government reports that there are nine million Mexicans living and
working in the USA; this increased by 2.5 million during the presidency of
Vicente Fox. They are now remitting over $20 billion annually, most
important to low income families.

Felipe Calderon has proclaimed that he will make the reduction of poverty
and inequality the primary aim of his new government. Mexicans do not expect
much to change. The structure of the economy will not change. The general
policy shift away from serving the domestic market and emphasizing exports
has led to lower rates of economic growth, relatively lower wages, the
creation of few jobs, and increased inequality. Across Latin American
similar trends have promoted the shift to the political left. Mexico is no
exception.

John W. Warnock is a Regina political economist and author of The Other
Mexico: The North American Triangle Completed. He was a member of the
Canadian team of observers for the 1994 and 1997 Mexican federal elections.
In February 2006 he did research on the maquiladora zone industries in
Matamoros, Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana.

Latin America Solidarity Committee
lac@apc.org.nz www.converge.org.nz/lac LAC blogg www.lascnz.blogspot.com

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Contact: lac@apc.org.nz
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Other NZ links
Incal-Wellington http://incal.orcon.net.nz
Zapatista Hui contact bohobo@graffiti.net
Peña Cultural Latina Alternative Mondays from 6th October 6pm 128 Abel Smith St
Voz Latinoamericana Wellington Access Radio 783AM Mondays 5-6pm
Comentarios, Cultura, Musica, Poesia de todo latinonamerica
y comunidad de espanol hablantes en nueva zelandia
Contact: ph 021 548 985 or hjorge40@hotmail.com
Casalatina Auckland: www.casalatinanz.com
Universtiy of Auckland hispanic club: www.geocities.com/hispanic_club/
Cuba Friendship Society: www.cubafriends.org.nz
Lea – Lengua Espanola en Aotearoa: http://geomatica.rediris.es/elenza
Dev-Zone: www.dev-zone.org
Global Peace & Justice Auckland: http://gpja.org.nz/

Overseas Links
News from Brazil www.braziljusticenet.org
Mexico Solidarity Network http://www.mexicosolidarity.org
LASNET Latin American Solidarity Network www.latinlasnet.org
CISLAC - Latin America Solidarity Australia www.cislac.org.au/
Network Opposed to the Plan Puebla Panama (NoPPP); www.asej.org
ACERCA - Plan Puebla Panama, Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Acerca@sover.net
Latin American Solidarity Coalition: www.lasolidarity.org
Latin American Agenda project team of the Social Justice Committee www.s-j-c.net

Venezuela’s Chavez Says World Faces Choice Between US Hegemony and Survival

2006-09-25T16:19:00.000+12:00

Wednesday, Sep 20, 2006

By: Venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuela's President Chavez holds up a copy of Noam Chomsky's book Hegemony or Survival during his speech to the UN General Assembly.
Credit: AP

[Editor's note: The transcript of Chavez's speech at the end of this article had some translation errors. We now post a more accurate translation.]

Caracas, Venezuela, September 20, 2006 —Borrowing a line from U.S. linguist and foreign policy critic Noam Chomsky, Venezuela’s President Chavez told the 61st UN General Assembly that the world currently faces the choice between continued U.S. hegemony and human survival. Chavez also called for the re-founding of the United Nations, so as to avert this danger.

"The hegemonistic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very existence of the human species," said Chavez, holding up a copy of Chomsky’s book and to the applause of many attendees. Chavez continued, stressing, "We appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our head.”

Chavez’s speech, which, following his well-received appearance at the UN the previous year, as widely anticipated, also went on to refer to U.S. President Bush as the “devil” on several occasions. “Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world,” he said.

Chavez strongly criticized Bush’s speech of the previous day, saying that he seeks to impose an elitist model of democracy on the world. “They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons.”

Bush’s reference to the fight against extremists was another issue Chavez rejected, saying that those Bush sees as extremists are those who resist imperial domination, saying, “You can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination.”

Chavez went on to mock Bush’s statement that he wants peace, pointing out how he is responsible for wars in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine and then Bush says, according to Chavez, “We are suffering because we see homes destroyed.”

The ways in which the U.S. is able to get away with its ambitions are proof that the UN system has “collapsed” and is “worthless,” according to Chavez, and is in need of being “re-founded.”

Concretely, Chavez repeated four proposals that he said Venezuela had made a year earlier. First, the UN Security Council should be expanded, with new permanent members from the Third World. Second, said Chavez, it needs “methods to address and resolve world conflicts.” Third, the abolishing of the “undemocratic” veto in the Security Council. Fourth, the strengthening of the role of the UN Secretary General.

Chavez also referred to his effort to have Venezuela represented on the Security Council, accusing the U.S. of “an immoral attack,” in its effort to prevent Venezuela from obtaining one of the two-year rotating seats. He then listed the many countries that have publicly declared their support for Venezuela’s effort to be on the Security Council, such the members of Mercosur, of Caricom, of the Arab League, of the African League, and Russia and China.

For Chavez, Venezuela is struggling to “build a new and better world,” but it is being threatened by the U.S., which supports his government’s overthrow. Chavez reminded his audience that the U.S. employs hired assassins, such as Luis Posada Carriles, who Cuba and Venezuela hold responsible for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, who but is about to be freed from temporary custody in the U.S. He also mentioned that several other individuals who are wanted for terrorist acts in Venezuela have found safe harbor in the U.S.

U.S. Government Reactions

The U.S. ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said that Chavez’s speech did not deserve a response. “We're not going to address that kind of comic strip approach to international affairs,” stated Bolton.

Bolton added, though, "The real issue here is he knows he can exercise freedom of speech on that podium. And as I say, he could exercise it in Central Park, too. How about giving the same freedom to the people of Venezuela."

A White House spokesperson, Frederick Jones, similarly said Chavez’s speech was, "not worthy of reaction."

State Department Spokesperson Tom Casey said, "You know, the U.N. is an important world stage, and an important forum, and leaders come there representing their people and their country. And I'll leave it to the Venezuelan people to determine whether President Chavez represented them and presented them in a way they would have liked to have seen."

Florida Republican Connie Mack called on the international community to block Venezuela's entry as UN Security Council member, saying, "Chavez's diatribe in the United Nations against liberty only strengthens the fact that he is no more than the paladin of demoralization and of despoitism and a sworn enemy of hope and opportunity," quoted the news agency EFE.

Latin America Solidarity News September 20th 2006

2006-09-23T16:26:00.000+12:00

Events, actions, trade and more news

Web blogg - www.lascnz.blogspot.com
Voz Latinoamericana Wellington Access Radio 783AM Mondays 5-6pm
(radio streaming www.r2.co.nz/meta/accessradio-56.asx - www.accessradio.org.nz/

Events

Mexican Embassy Protest October 2nd

Protest against Felipe Calderon assuming the Mexican presidency.
and commemorate the Tlatelolco massacre of 1968

Next Zapatista hui Monday 25th September 6pm
If you are interested in joining the Zapatista solidarity fundraising group, the next meeting is on:
Monday 25 September at 6pm at 128 Abel-Smith St, Te Aro, Wellington. Contact: bohobo@graffiti.net
For inspiration check out “Walking, We Ask Questions” The Other Campaign in Spanish Harlem
http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article2037.html

Peña Cultural Latina 6th October, Friday 6pm
Films, live music, food and conversation from 6pm
128 Abel-Smith St, Wellington. All welcome. Please come along and bring your friends
Contact: hjorge40@hotmail.com

"Eyes of the Rainbow" film screening Monday 9 October.
128 Abel-Smith St, Wellington

THE 2006 CUBAN FILM FESTIVAL
SI! CUBANAS! WOMEN BEHIND THE CAMERA
Auckland 27th September–11th October 2006
Wellington 10th–14th October 2006
Hamilton 5th–7th October
Raglan 8th October

The Festival features a tantalising programme of films – shorts, features and documentaries - that will captivate and entertain, including the first feature film directed by a Cuban woman, De Cierta Manera, and a short documentary about women in Cuban cinema, Cualquier Mujer

GLORIA ROLANDO WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS FROM 21 September. For press enquires and to arrange an interview with director Gloria Rolando (Gloria’s English is good), please contact:

AUCKLAND: Rebecca Russell, 0211 700 792, rebecca66@slingshot.co.nz
WELLINGTON: Bronwyn Wilson , 021 33 23 93 or (04) 970 2217, wilson.bronwyn@gmail.com
HAMILTON: Helen Ritchie 07 8257470, helenr@clear.net.nz

FOR A LIST OF FILMS, VENUES AND SCREENING TIMES, GO TO:
www.descargacubana.co.nz/sicubanas.html

Melbourne Latin American & Asia Pacific Solidarity October Gathering
Visit LASNET site www.latinlasnet.org and find info about the Latin American & Asia Pacific
Solidarity Gathering to be held in Melbourne-Australia on October 21-22 October 2006

Main Speakers from: Mapuche Communities from Chile-Argentina, MST (Movimiento sin Tierra-Landless Movement) representative form Brazil, Coalition in Defense of Water and Gas from Bolivia and a representative from Simon Ridriguez Trainning Centre from Venezuela....more updates later on during September...
LASNET, Melbourne-Australia

VENEZUELAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION BRIGADE Nov/Dec
The Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network is organising its fourth Brigade to Venezuela, to coincide with the Presidential elections in December 2006. The Brigade is currently
scheduled to start on November 23 and end on the election date December
3 [Running for 10 days], and will also be facilitating the participation of Brigadistas as international election observers. www.venezuelasolidarity.org/?q=node/109.

VISIT CUBA THIS SUMMER
Visit Cuba and see for youself. Dec 26, 2006 -23 January 2007. An
Australasian brigade spends a month in Cuba visiting historic sights,
having discussions with unions and womenâ•˙s groups, staying with
families ∑ and doing a little agricultural labour to express your
support and solidarity with Cuba in the face of the US blockade. Total
costs are about $5000 for fares, accommodation and meals. And there is
also time to lie on a beach, walk along the Malecon and dance in a Havana nightclub.
Contact Ina for info and registration details 09 3031755; inashina@clear.net.nz

NEWS

MEXICO: LEFTISTS HOLD GIANT CONVENTION

Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans marked Independence Day on
Sept. 16 by holding a massive meeting, which they called the
"Democratic National Convention" (CND), in Mexico City's main
plaza, the Zocalo. The crowd voted up plans to carry on a
nonviolent struggle against Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, official
winner of the July 2 presidential election, who is to start his
six-year term on Dec. 1. The convention declared center-left
candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador the "legitimate president"
of Mexico and announced that he will be inaugurated on Nov. 20,
the 96th anniversary of the start of the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

The CND also laid out plans for disruptions of official events,
for an election for a constituent assembly to rewrite the
Constitution and for a boycott of companies that had financed
Calderon's campaign, including the US firms Coca-Cola and Wal-
Mart, and the Banco Nacional de Mexico (Banamex), which is owned
by the New York-based Citigroup. CND sources said slightly more
than 1 million "delegates" had registered to be part of the
convention, which set up permanent committees and made plans to
meet again on Mar. 21, 2007. [La Jornada (Mexico) 9/17/06;
Univision website 9/16/06 from EFE]

The CND followed complex negotiations over Independence Day
ceremonies between Lopez Obrador's representatives and the
government of outgoing president Vicente Fox Quesada, which
strongly supported Calderon, a member of center-right National
Action Party (PAN).

The custom is for the president to go to the Zocalo shortly
before midnight on Sept. 15 and give the Grito, the "cry" of
"Mexicans, long live Mexico!" with which Rev. Miguel Hidalgo is
said to have started the 1810 war for independence from Spain.
The next day, on Sept. 16, the military holds a massive parade in
the plaza. Lopez Obrador and his supporters agreed to end the
occupation of the Zocalo which they started on July 30, while
Fox--who had been prevented by protesters from giving his state
of the union report on Sept. 1--agreed to give the Grito in
Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato state, the site of the original
Grito, instead of Mexico City. Federal District (DF, Mexico City)
head of government Alejandro Encinas Rodriguez, a member of Lopez
Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), gave the
Grito in the Zocalo, with Lopez Obrador standing beside him. The
military held its parade in the plaza in the morning, and the CND
took over the Zocalo for the rest of the day. [Notimex 9/15/06;
LJ 9/17/06]

Traditional Independence Day ceremonies were also suspended in
the southern state of Oaxaca, where striking teachers and their
allies have been occupying much of the state capital since May.
The strikers organized the celebrations, and a teacher gave the
Grito. [LJ 9/17/06]

Mexican leftist says will never accept rival's win:
Mexico's leftist opposition leader said he will never recognize his right-wing rival as president and vowed a "radical transformation" of the country by setting up a parallel government.
http://tinyurl.com/jsle9

OPERATION 'CLEAN-UP' ON OAXACA
By Diego Enrique Osornoâ?¨Special to The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article2026.html
Following the CIA's "Psychological Operations" Manual for the Nicaraguan Contras, the State Government Has Unleashed a Bloody Counterinsurgency Strategy to Eliminate the Social Movement
.......they are part of the armed convoy that the Oaxaca state government has sent to try to eliminate the dissident Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO in its Spanish initials) once and for all.....

"Capitalism Has Only Hurt Latin America"
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,434272,00.html
Bolivia's President Evo Morales, 46, talks to DER
SPIEGEL about reform plans for his country, socialism
in Latin America, and the often tense relations of the
region's leftists with the United States.

US warns Nicaraguans not to back Ortega
The US ambassador to Nicaragua has issued a vigorous warning to this small Central American country’s electors against supporting Daniel Ortega, the veteran leftwing Sandinista leader and the frontrunner in November’s presidential election.

In a frank interview with the FT, Paul Trivelli said Mr Ortega was “undemocratic” and would roll back much of the advances made in recent years. And, underlining the concern felt in Washington about the regional influence of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, the ambassador said he had no doubt that Venezuela was playing an important role in the election.....
......
The ambassador said that an Ortega victory – while vague on many issues, the 60-year-old former rebel leader has talked of increasing the role of the state and renegotiating Cafta, the trade agreement between the US and Central America – would force Washington to “re-evaluate” relations.
www.ft.com/cms/s/0c1a0b18-42b5-11db-8dc3-0000779e2340.html

What is the U.S. Military Doing in Paraguay?:

The U.S. military is conducting secretive operations in Paraguay and reportedly building a new base there. Human rights groups and military analysts in the region believe trouble is brewing. However, the U.S. embassy in Paraguay denies the base exists and describes the military activity as routine
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2006/09/14/p10792

CHILE: MAPUCHE PRISONERS BETRAYED

On Sept. 6, Chile's Senate voted 20-13 with two abstentions
against a bill introduced by Socialist senator Alejandro Navarro
which would have granted conditional release to jailed Mapuche
activists. In May, four Mapuche political prisoners ended a 70-
day hunger strike on the promise that the bill would be approved
[see Updates #847, 850, 851, 853]. Navarro said the bill sought
to "correct an injustice" imposed on the Mapuche activists when
they were given harsh sentences under a widely criticized anti-
terrorism law. [Adital 9/11/06; La Nacion 9/6/06; El Mostrador
9/6/06]

Carbon credits and the green desert
By Heidi Bachram
As the struggle for land and water resources in Brazil intensifies,
Heidi Bachram discovers that the new carbon market is an added burden
For vulnerable communities.
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/temp/x-sep06-bachram.htm

Please do not sponsor this tree
We need to kick the fossil-fuel habit, and that won’t happen if people
And corporations are led to believe that it is OK to pollute because we
Can ‘offset’ those emissions.
http://www.newint.org/features/2006/07/01/voices/

Author of Lancet article on Haiti investigated
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060907.HAITI07/TPStory/National

The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, is investigating complaints about a potential conflict of interest involving the author of a recent article that found systemic human-rights violations in Haiti despite the presence of a Canadian-led United Nations police force and peacekeeping mission.

The study, co-authored by Athena Kolbe, found that 8,000 Haitians have been slain and 35,000 women and girls raped since the ouster of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in early 2004. Ms. Kolbe said that according to local Haitians, Canadian peacekeepers made death threats against them during house raids, and sexual advances against women while the peacekeepers were drunk and off duty.

However, Ms. Kolbe herself is now the subject of controversy after revelations that the 30-year-old master's degree student at Wayne State University's school of social work in Detroit used to be an advocacy journalist who wrote under the name Lyn Duff and worked at a Haitian orphanage founded by Mr. Aristide.

"How can Kolbe/Duff's research into the issues of human-rights violations be regarded as objective when she herself states that for 3.5 years she worked with the Lafanmi Selavi centre for street children, where she befriended Aristide himself and presumably some of the boys who later left the centre . . . [who] then acted as armed enforcers?" Charles Arthur, co-ordinator of the British-based Haiti Support Group, wrote this week in a letter of complaint to The Lancet.

"There is a concerted international campaign to distort news and manipulate information about Haiti with the apparent aim of repairing the reputation of Aristide. I am concerned The Lancet has unwittingly been used as part of the pro-Aristide propaganda campaign."

Nobody from The Lancet was available to comment yesterday, but Ms. Kolbe said the magazine is investigating, and she is confident it will find no conflict of interest.

"The Lancet would have appreciated hearing it from me and not from an outsider," she said in an interview. "But it's not like they wouldn't have published the article. The findings aren't at issue."

Ms. Kolbe said she used to write articles under the name Lyn Duff -- an old nickname and her mother's surname -- but wanted to go by her father's surname and her real first name once she entered academia.

She also said that from 1994-1997, she worked at an orphanage founded by Mr. Aristide, met him several times, and was an admirer of the then-president. Some of the children at the orphanage maintained links with him. "I am not a supporter of Lavalas [Aristide's political party]. I have warm feelings toward Aristide, but I am critical of some of his decisions."

She and her co-author, assistant professor Royce Hutson, defended the results of their survey, which has prompted some groups to call for a parliamentary inquiry into Canada's role in Haiti.

Mr. Aristide's first term in office was interrupted by a 1991 military coup and his second ended abruptly on Feb. 29, 2004, after a rebellion of thugs and ex-soldiers forced him out. He argues the United States forced him into exile.

Canada sent 450 soldiers to Haiti in March, 2004, part of a UN peacekeeping mission of 6,700 soldiers and 1,600 police. The soldiers left in August that year, and there are currently 66 police officers in Haiti leading the UN police force.

The Lancet peer-reviewed study of 5,720 randomly selected Haitians living in the capital found that in the 22-month period since Mr. Aristide's ouster, 97 had received death threats, 232 had been threatened physically and 86 sexually. According to survey respondents, one-third of those who issued death threats were criminals, 18 per cent were Haitian National Police and other government security agents and another 17 per cent were foreign soldiers. Only 6 per cent were Lavalas.

Mr. Arthur said these findings contradict independent human-rights investigators who report that many of the violations have been committed by criminals, Haitian police and anti-Aristide groups -- as well as Lavalas supporters. "My concern is that either the conduct or interpretation of the research was skewed or biased in order to exonerate Fanmi Lavalas/Aristide supporters from accusation of involvement in human-rights violations," he said in his letter.

Nicholas Galletti, with Rights and Democracy, a Montreal non-governmental organization, said the author's background further calls into question a study "based on flawed methodology" whereby responsibility for crimes is attributed to groups without a proper criminal investigation or trial.

However, Prof. Hutson says the study acknowledges the limitations of having to rely on subject recall.

"The charges of bias are baseless. We were aware Athena had written under another name and found no conflict. Our concern is the way UN soldiers are interacting with Haitians."
________________________________________________________
Montreal Muslim News Network - http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net

US Press Well Paid to Harm Cuba
Havana, Sep 9, 2006 (Prensa Latina) At least ten influential journalists in southern Florida, including three from the New Herald (Spanish edition), received thousands of dollars over the last few years from the US government for broadcasting anti-Cuba propaganda through radio-TV programs.

Veteran reporters Pablo Alfonso and Wilfredo Cancio and Olga Connor, a collaborator of the New Herald, were the best paid for attacking Cuba through the so called Radio and TV Marti, with sums reaching almost 175,000 dollars, Granma daily, the official organ of Cuba s Communist Party, reads today.

Alfonso and Cancio were immediately fired after The Miami Herald, the main headquarters of the New Herald, learned of the payments.

The list of US media mercenaries also include Helen Aguirre Ferre, from Las Americas daily, Miguel Cossio, news director of Channel 41, and columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner.

The news was no surprise in Cuba, where journalists have repeatedly denounced, even with names, the ethics of reporters paid by the US government to attack the Cuban Revolution, the daily stressed.

Latin America Solidarity Committee
lac@apc.org.nz www.converge.org.nz/lac LAC blogg www.lascnz.blogspot.com

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Other NZ links
Incal-Wellington http://incal.orcon.net.nz
Zapatista Hui contact bohobo@graffiti.net
Peña Cultural Latina Alternative Mondays from 28th August 8pm 128 Abel Smith St
Voz Latinoamericana Wellington Access Radio 783AM Mondays 5-6pm
Comentarios, Cultura, Musica, Poesia de todo latinonamerica
y comunidad de espanol hablantes en nueva zelandia
Contact: ph 021 548 985 or hjorge40@hotmail.com
Casalatina Auckland: www.casalatinanz.com
Universtiy of Auckland hispanic club: www.geocities.com/hispanic_club/
Cuba Friendship Society: www.cubafriends.org.nz
Lea – Lengua Espanola en Aotearoa: http://geomatica.rediris.es/elenza
Dev-Zone: www.dev-zone.org
Global Peace & Justice Auckland: http://gpja.org.nz/

Overseas Links
News from Brazil www.braziljusticenet.org
Mexico Solidarity Network http://www.mexicosolidarity.org
LASNET Latin American Solidarity Network www.latinlasnet.org
CISLAC - Latin America Solidarity Australia www.cislac.org.au/
Network Opposed to the Plan Puebla Panama (NoPPP); www.asej.org
ACERCA - Plan Puebla Panama, Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Acerca@sover.net
Latin American Solidarity Coalition: www.lasolidarity.org
Latin American Agenda project team of the Social Justice Committee www.s-j-c.net
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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Contact: Paul Bruce lac@apc.org.nz or go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/lac-news

Latin America Committee revisited on 9/11

2006-09-11T10:56:00.000+12:00

Latin America Committee revisited.

Amigos - once again we are approaching 9/11 when we remember the
events of 1973 and the violent overthrow of the democratically
elected government of the Chilean President Salvador Allende by
the CIA.

The Latin America Committee has been constant in its support
for the struggle of the Chilean people for a return to normalcy
since that fateful day 33 years ago. We pay respect to all those
who have died fighting for the basic human rights of freedom of
expression and the right to earn a fair living, especially for
those hundreds of thousands of Chileans who were forced to flee
their country.

Well over a million refugees left Chile, and some came here to
NZ. We especially acknowledge Rolando Olmedo, one of that
initial group of Chilean in 1975.

Rolando, like most other migrants, has made an enormous
contribution to our community, working tirelessly with people
with special needs through the use of theatre and music,
founding the Theatre company for the Deaf in Palmerston
North, and continuing this work today through the Hutt
Community Arts and Training Centre, and with Incal Casa Latina.

Roland and I meet in 1977 on my return from two years in Chile
and Bolivia, and I well remember the warm hospitality. We
collaborated over many projects. The Chilean Human Rights
Committee lead on to the formation of the Third World Cafe -
a community Cafe which fundraised for aid projects around the
world, the Nicargua Must Survive Campaign and the Latin American
Solidarity Committee.

Refugees such as Rolando Olmedo continue to make a strong
contribution to our community, and we have observed with great
sadness the treatment meted out to refugee Ahmed Zaoui, an elected
Algerian MP, also a campaigner for peace and human rights. Ahmed
Zaoui was held in prison for two years after the Security
Intelligence Service declared him a threat. The SIS never produced
any evidence to support their case, and the case is still pending.

The democratically elected Government of Chile was overthrown on
September 11th 1973, a 9/11 which resulted in a military
dictatorship of 17 years, torture, death, exile, and the
overturning of the progressive social agenda of Salvador Allende.

The US backed military coup was preceded by a long period of
destabilisation involving purchase of local media, the training of
military officials, the infiltration of key trade unions and the
assassination of key public figures. The USA created the
"El Condor" torture network which operated with fellow
military governments in Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay.

The return to parliamentary elections in 1993 was not a return to
full democracy. It is still a constrained democracy, with a portion
of the senate claimed by the military and ex Presidents, and the
impunity law still in place. The constitution written by Pinochet
survives in part to this day, and inequalities within the country
are amongst the largest in the world. The Mapuche people continue
the fight to have past wrongs addressed.

However, we welcome the election of Chile's first Women President,
Michelle Bachelet in March this year. She won the 2006 election
with 53.5% of the vote. A moderate Socialist, she campaigned on a
platform of continuing Chile's free market policies, while
increasing social benefits to help reduce the country's gap between
rich and poor.

Today, the world is much less safe place with the US on a war
footing. The United States has launched a diplomatic offensive to
block Venezuela's bid for a two-year rotating seat on the United
Nations Security Council. However, Venezuela has now received the
backing of Arab League, Caribbean Community and Common Market
(Caricom) and the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) countries.
Robertson, the right-wing evangelist and friend of the Bush
family, publicly called last year for the U.S. government to kill
- or at least kidnap - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. "This
is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil,
that could hurt us badly," Robertson said.

That "problem," quite simply, is that Chavez, a radical populist
who has been voted into office repeatedly by huge majorities in his
own country, controls the largest reserve of petroleum outside the
Middle East.

Even more scandalous for Big Oil, Chavez is using Venezuela's
windfall not to fatten his own country's oligarchy but to benefit
the Venezuelan poor and help neighboring countries.

While Robertson was issuing his accusations, the Venezuelan
president was in Jamaica, where he announced a new oil agreement.

Under the agreement, Venezuela supplied oil to Jamaica for a mere
$40 a barrel. The Chavez plan meant more than half a million dollars
a day in savings for Jamaica.

The agreement is part of a broader Chavez plan called Petrocaribe,
in which Chavez has offered the same kind of deal to the leaders of
more than a dozen other neighboring nations.

Chavez - A dangerous man, indeed! There are parallels between Chile
and Venezuela. However, the US should not be tempted into a new
adventure in the southern hemisphere against Venezuela, because
today there is a much stronger alliance between the major countries
of South America and the Caribbean.

Here in the Pacific Region, another Caribbean nation, Cuba, offered
over 800 full scholarships for young East Timorese to study at
Havana’s Latin American Medical School (ELAM). The first phase of
the scholarship program is well under way, with 361 students from
East Timor already matriculating in the medical school. Creating
a sustainable health system where East Timorese provide health
services for their own is the long-term strategy, says Dr. Francisco
Medina, head of Cuba’s Comprehensive Health Program (CHP) in the
small island nation. There are currently 182 Cuban professionals
and technicians working in East Timor under the medical cooperation
project and in Dili, Cuba has funded a new medical faculty at Dili's
National University.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation programme The World Today, tells
us when the Indonesians pulled out in 1999, there were barely 20
practicing doctors left in the country. Entire communities had never
had a single doctor, under Indonesian rule or the Portuguese.
In the last year it's Cuba that has stepped in to help.
Since 2004, Cuban doctors have spread to every district and
sub-district in East Timor, staffing clinics and field hospitals,
often for a pittance in pay.

Cuban Dr Medina says he plans to stay for at least six years. "We are
just some of the 27,000 Cuban doctors," he says, "working in 69
countries - in Africa, America, countries that need help, like East
Timor. The problems in East Timor are very similar to all the poor
nations throughout the world, Malaria, tuberculosis, infant mortality."

In New Zealand, Latin America Committee solidarity activities are
picking up.

Last year, solidarity events were held with Argentina, Chile, Colombia
and Venezuela, a major forum on the Proposed Chile/New Zealand Closer
Economic Partnership (Prue Hyman), Fair Trade as Sustainable
Development in an Egalitarian Society (Elinor Chisholm), Participatory
Democracy within the Context of Free Trade Agreements (Terence Wood)
and the World Social Forum 2005 Porto Alegre (Gary Williams & Betsan
Martin), and more recently a "Self Determination in Action Workshop"
including eye witness accounts from Mike Treen recently back form
Venezuela. Other solidarity events have been organised on behalf of
Nicaragua, Colombia and the Mapuche in Chile with the support of the
Los Andes Latin American Folk Group and others. LAC has also taken an
active part in the Council for International Development (CID) forums
on trade and the environment, also in the Point 7 campaign (www.makepovertyhistory.org.nz).

Coming up this year we can look forward to the launching of a
fundraising project for for the autonomous Zapatista communities of
Chiapas, Mexico, a new brigade to Venezuela as well as the annual
New Year Cuba Brigade, plus lots of Cultural events, such as a video
link up with celebrated Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano!

The film "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived its Peak Oil"
soon showing in your area is also highly recommended. If you miss
the film, contact us to borrow a copy.

Paul Bruce
Convenor LAC
August 2006

Film Screening "Power of Community"

2006-07-20T12:08:00.000+12:00

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived its Peak Oil

Film Archive, entrance off Guzhnee St near intersection with Taranaki St.
7pm Friday 18th and Saturday 19th August, Prices $8/$6,
Ticket sales at door preceding show.
Discussion following film - contact: Paul.Bruce@paradise.net.nz

An excellent new film has been produced by The Community Solution (53 min) addressing the response to Peak Oil. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba experienced a major economic depression. With imports of oil cut by more than one-half, and food imports by 80
percent, people were desperate for food. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community spirit and creativity of the Cuban people. They moved from highly mechanized agriculture to using organic farming and urban gardens, transforming themselves from an industrial country to a sustainable one. The film opens with a short explanation of Peak Oil, the imminent crisis caused by the all-time peak in world oil production. That Cuba faced and overcame just such a crisis shows the possibilities for the rest of the world.