US congressmen urge Santos to take action to protect Colombian workers

US congressmen urge Santos to take action to protect Colombian workers
May 16, 2014 posted by Nicolas Bedoya

Recent bombings that targeted Colombian unions resulted in US congressmen sending a letter to Colombia president Juan Manuel Santos urging him to protect workers’ rights.

The letter was sent on Thursday and signed by seven democratic representatives, who are part of the Congressional Monitoring Group on Labor Rights in Colombia (CMG).

The CMG is part of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement’s provisions to protect worker’s rights. Colombia and the US developed the Labor Action Plan parallel with the FTA to improve Colombia’s labor rights record and make sure the FTA wouldn’t aggravate violations.

~snip~
“As you know, in the past, this union was also the focus of “Operation Dragon” – an assassination plot involving former members of the armed forces against a long list of labor rights activists, including the former President of Sintraemcali and now Senator Alexander Lopez-Maya and prominent human rights defender Berenice Celeyta, the Robert F. Kennedy laureate for Colombia,” said the members of congress in the letter.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/us-representatives-send-letter-santos-urging-action-protect-colombian-workers/

10 Reasons to Love Uruguay’s President José Mujica

May 15, 2014
The Short List

10 Reasons to Love Uruguay’s President José Mujica

by MEDEA BENJAMIN

President José Mujica of Uruguay, a 78-year-old former Marxist guerrilla who spent 14 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, recently visited the United States to meet with President Obama and speak at a variety of venues. He told Obama that Americans should smoke less and learn more languages. He lectured a roomful of businessmen at the US Chamber of Commerce about the benefits of redistributing wealth and raising workers’ salaries. He told students at American University that there are no “just wars.” Whatever the audience, he spoke extemporaneously and with such brutal honesty that it was hard not to love the guy. Here are 10 reasons you, too, should love President Mujica.

1. He lives simply and rejects the perks of the presidency. Mujica has refused to live at the Presidential Palace or have a motorcade. He lives in a one-bedroom house on his wife’s farm and drives a 1987 Volkswagen. “There have been years when I would have been happy just to have a mattress,” said Mujica, referring to his time in prison. He donates over 90% of his $12,000/month salary to charity so he makes the same as the average citizen in Uruguay. When called “the poorest president in the world,” Mujica says he is not poor. “A poor person is not someone who has little but one who needs infinitely more, and more and more. I don’t live in poverty, I live in simplicity. There’s very little that I need to live.”

2. He supported the nation’s groundbreaking legalization of marijuana. “In no part of the world has repression of drug consumption brought results. It’s time to try something different,” Mujica said. So this year, Uruguay became the first country in the world to regulate the legal production, sale, and consumption of marijuana. The law allows individuals to grow a certain amount each year and the government controls the price of marijuana sold at pharmacies. The law requires consumers, sellers, and distributors to be licensed by the government. Uruguay’s experience aims to take the market away from the ruthless drug traffickers and treat drug addiction as a public health issue. Their experiment will have reverberations worldwide.

3. In August 2013, Mujica signed the bill making Uruguay the second nation in Latin America (after Argentina) to legalize gay marriage. He said that legalizing gay marriage is simply recognizing reality. “Not to legalize it would be unnecessary torture for some people,” he said. In recent years, Uruguay has also moved to allow adoption by gay couples and openly gay people to serve in the armed forces.

4. He’s not afraid to confront corporate abuses, as evidenced by the epic struggle his government is waging against the American tobacco giant Philip Morris. A former smoker, Mujica says that tobacco is a killer that needs to be brought under control. But Philip Morris is suing Uruguay for $25 million at the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes because of the country’s tough smoking laws that prohibit smoking in enclosed public spaces and require warning labels, including graphic images of the health effects. Uruguay is the first Latin American country and the fifth nation worldwide to implement a ban on smoking in enclosed public places. Philip Morris, the largest cigarette manufacturer in the United States, has huge global business interests (and a well-paid army of lawyers). Uruguay’s battle against the tobacco Goliath will also have global repercussions.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/15/10-reasons-to-love-uruguays-president-jose-mujica/

El Salvador mulls freeing 17 women jailed for abortion crimes

Source: Reuters

El Salvador mulls freeing 17 women jailed for abortion crimes
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Thu, 15 May 2014 07:07 AM

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Guadalupe was hunched over with abdominal pain and heavy bleeding one afternoon in October 2007.

The 18-year-old domestic worker went to a public hospital in El Salvador’s capital San Salvador where she went into premature labour. Her baby died.

A year later, another young woman, 22-year-old Salvadora, got pregnant as a result of rape. She gave birth at home. Her baby was stillborn.

In both cases, hospital staff went to police and accused the two women of inducing abortions. Police interrogated the women while they still lay recovering in their hospital beds.

Read more: http://www.trust.org/item/20140515070722-xav1r/

‘Prosecution deceived me’: key witness against Uribe brother refuses to testify

‘Prosecution deceived me’: key witness against Uribe brother refuses to testify
May 14, 2014 posted by Tim Hinchliffe

The key witness in a criminal case against the younger brother of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is refusing to continue cooperating with authorities until the Prosecutor General’s Office can guarantee his safety, local media reported Wednesday.

Retired National Police Major Juan Carlos Meneses has repeatedly accused Santiago Uribe of links to the former paramilitary organization, “Los 12 Apsosteles,” and was the key witness in the case being mounted against the central Colombian business man. Uribe is the younger brother of former President Alvaro Uribe, himself the subject of various similar accusations.

Meneses — a former fugitive who turned himself in to authorities in January on charges relating his own alleged involvement with the 12 Apostles — is now claiming, however, that the authorities have failed to comply with the agreed upon terms of his testimony and that his life is in danger as a result.

“I am going to decline (to testify), because the Prosecutor General’s Office deceived me. A bargain was made about my place of detention, and they sent me to the place where the hired killer that I was pointing to as a member of the 12 Apostles is,” he said.

More:
http://colombiareports.co/prosecution-deceived-key-witness-uribes-brothers-paramilitary-trial/#prettyPhoto

Children's rights defender in Honduras beaten, detained

Source: Amnestly International

Children's rights defender in Honduras beaten, detained
Posted 14 May 2014, 5:12pm

The Director of Casa Alianza Honduras, a children’s rights organization, was beaten and detained by military police on 8 May. He believes his mistreatment was in retaliation for speaking out against violence against children in Honduras and denouncing government inaction on the matter.

Late in the evening on 8 May, José Guadalupe Ruelas, director of the children’s charity Casa Alianza in Honduras, was driving the organization’s car and wearing clothes with the organization’s markings, when he was signalled to stop at a military police checkpoint in front of the presidential residence in Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa. José Guadalupe Ruelas says his car was stationary when a policeman on a motorbike collided with it. He stated that he was pulled out of the car by military police and beaten in the face, head, ribs and legs. He was then pulled by the legs face down and kicked.

The police also took José Guadalupe Ruelas’ belongings, including a laptop, before bringing him to a police station. When local human rights organizations intervened, José Guadalupe Ruelas was taken to hospital for check-ups, where he remained under police custody until late on 9 May.

José Guadalupe Ruelas believes that his mistreatment was in retaliation for speaking out against the government. In April, he presented a report denouncing the high levels of killings of children and young people in the country, with at least 270 violent deaths of people under the age of 23 occurring in the first four months of 2014. Ruelas wrote “there is an emerging pattern of organized people with access to expensive vehicles, weapons and equipment, who kidnap, torture and kill poor children and youths, in almost total impunity”. In May, after the discovery of the dismembered bodies of four children, José Guadalupe Ruelas was interviewed by the media and said that none of the numerous Honduran laws aimed at protecting children were being implemented by the government due to corruption and impunity.

Read more: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/childrens-human-rights-network/childrens-rights-defender-honduras-beaten-detained

Guatemala's congress approves resolution denying genocide occurred during 36-year civil war

Source: Associated Press

Guatemala's congress approves resolution denying genocide occurred during 36-year civil war
Article by: Associated Press
Updated: May 14, 2014 - 12:20 PM

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala's Congress approved a non-binding resolution that denies there was any attempt to commit genocide during the bloody 36-year civil war, while calling for "national reconciliation" in the Central American country.

"It is legally impossible ... that genocide could have occurred in our country's territory during the armed conflict," said the resolution, which passed late Tuesday with support from 87 of the 158 legislators.

The resolution was proposed by Luis Fernando Perez, a legislator for the party founded by former dictator Efrain Rios Montt. Rios Montt was convicted of genocide for crimes during his 1982-83 rule, but a court later annulled the 80-year sentence for the massacre of thousands of Mayans and ordered his trial re-started.

The vote apparently will have no effect on the trial, which is scheduled to begin again in January.

Groups representing Guatemala's Indians, the principal victims among the estimated 250,000 people killed during the 1960-96 civil war between a U.S.-supported government and leftist movements, have said the annulment of the Rios Montt verdict was a denial of justice.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/world/259239771.html

Your comments reminded me of when I learned about the murders waiting job seekers

in Colombia.

DU'er rabs left a helpful video on this subject, four years ago.

Here's the post:

... ran across this video a few months ago. It tells the story of the poor youths from Soacha (poverty-stricken slum area on the outskirts of Bogota) who were offered jobs elsewhere in Colombia and a month later wound up as false positives, killed by the Colombian army. Video shows mothers of two of the youths, government claims that the FARC had killed them, then Santos saying they were killed in combat, uribe saying the same, until the truth finally came out in NGOs and Colombian and international media. This was happening in August 2008 when JM santos was defense minister.

Video is in Spanish, but easy to follow.

Peru's Conga Mine Conflict: Cajamarca Won't Capitulate

Peru's Conga Mine Conflict: Cajamarca Won't Capitulate
Monday, 12 May 2014 09:35
By Lynda Sullivan, Upside Down World | News Analysis

The fight over the Conga mining project is one of Peru’s largest current social conflicts. Today, the local population continues resisting the imposition of one of Latin America`s largest gold mining projects – Minas Conga. The situation remains tense, and the resistance continues, but with an intensified sense of urgency because as the battles are won and lost, many feel that the conflict is nearing its conclusion.

The struggle against the Conga project has been a long and arduous one already (1). To summarize, Conga is a 4.8 billion dollar project of Yanacocha – a company which combines the interests of Newmont mining corporation (US-based), Buenaventura (Peru) and the IFC of the World Bank. It aims to destroy the head of the water basin for the province of Celendin, and in part that of neighboring Cajamarca and Hualgayoc, leaving severe water shortage and contamination. This would prove disastrous for the mainly rural provinces of the region of Cajamarca, in the northern highlands of Peru, where the majority of dwellers live by agriculture and cattle rearing. It would be an aggressive open pit mining project, an Earth-destroying technique that Newmont itself initiated in the early 1960s (2), and similar but more expansive than Yanacocha`s previous work in Cajamarca. For this the population rejecting the project have a fair idea of what is in store – all they need to do is look next door to the devastation that 20 years of open pit mining has left in its wake (to see more about the particulars of this devastation please see the aforementioned article).

The campaign against the project is growing stronger, constantly renewing itself as the pressure crushes the spirits of some and makes space for others. The struggle doesn`t belong to any one person, or any particular high-profile figure, as the mass media would have you believe, rather the struggle is of the people, and for this it remains strong. Though it is this very fact that has led to an intensification of the repression and criminalization of the resistance – as the government and Yanacocha become ever more desperate to push the project through 'by blood and by fire' (3).

The Woman of the Blue Lagoon

A woman who is shining example of the resistance, some say the embodiment of it, is Doña Maxima Acuña Chaupe who leads her family in their fight to defend their land – which happens to sit in the heart of Conga. The mining company, once they realized that their dogged attempts to buy up all the land destined for exploitation had left a few holes – one hole being the Chaupe family`s land, they tried to drive the family away by violence and intimidation. Due to courage and perseverance against all the odds, the family successfully resisted. So now the family find themselves in a legal battle spanning years, which has been riddled with negligence, corruption and foul play. They continue to be harassed constantly by the police, mining security and certain locals who are believed to have been paid by the mining company to intimidate the family. Amnesty International recently released an Urgent Action calling for a stop to the harassment which included death threats (4), as did the women`s network ULAM (5). The family claim they will not give their land up as they are the rightful owners; they believe the mountain lakes are sacred, and are willing to protect them, and Mother Earth, at all costs. So if the mining company continues with its mission to forcibly evict this campesino family, they would be violating their right to a home, to a safe environment, to food (as their land is their source of food) and perhaps even their right to life.

Criminalization of Social Protest

The repression also extends to the entire resistance movement and only intensifies with time. Mirtha Vasquez, a local human rights lawyer from Cajamarca, in her report ‘Criminalization of the protest in Peru’ details how the state has assumed the role of protector of neoliberal economic interests, and as such, deliberately and systematically tries to eliminate elements that threaten to disturb the working of this model (6). The arms of the state body that it uses to crush dissent include lawmaking, the judicial system, the police and armed forces, and the intelligence services.

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/23638-perus-conga-mine-conflict-cajamarca-wont-capitulate

Exiles captured in Cuba during armed infiltrations cannot return to the US

Source: Miami Herald

Exiles captured in Cuba during armed infiltrations cannot return to the US

By JUAN O. TAMAYO

The Miami Herald May 11, 2014

Branded as a terrorist by both the Cuban and U.S. governments, Tomas Ramos says he is essentially a nonperson in Havana - ha has no job and no identification papers. But he says he gets lots of harassment by State Security agents.

"We are always persecuted," said Ramos, 70, one of several former South Florida men freed after serving long sentences in Cuban prisons for armed raids against the island in the 1990s - but prohibited from returning to the United States.

Cuban authorities monitor them tightly and with deep suspicion. And the U.S. State Department has denied them visas and political asylum, they say, because of their past involvement in political violence.

"We are watched all the time, even in our private lives. Our lives in Cuba are worth nothing. They can kill us anytime," Ramos said. "And nevertheless, the U.S. does not allow us to go there because they say that we are violent."



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/05/11/227145/exiles-captured-in-cuba-during.html#storylink=cpy

Hands Off Venezuela! What Has Been Happening Since February and Why It Matters

Hands Off Venezuela! What Has Been Happening Since February and Why It Matters

Written by Susan Spronk
Wednesday, 07 May 2014 06:31

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro announces new initiatives to address current economic problems, arguing that population's universal welfare is a key aim behind policymaking.Source: New Socialist

The recent destabilization campaign waged by the right-wing opposition has yet again made Venezuela a darling of the international media. While there is always a deafening media silence when the Bolivarian government wins an electoral mandate, throughout the month of February 2014 viewers were assailed with images of “innocent” student protesters—mostly from the academic bastion of the Venezuelan elite, the Central University of Venezuela—being brutalized by state security forces.

Apparently the ax that has chopped budgets for investigative journalism has fallen heavily on Venezuela. Mainstream media outlets re-broadcast images from twitter without bothering to fact-check, not realizing that they were actually from places like Egypt and Syria or that they depicted Venezuelan state security forces that had been disbanded two years ago. The February traumas were almost another “media coup” in the making.

The mainstream media’s attempts to manufacture consent and condone the opposition-sponsored violence against the Maduro government should ring alarm bells for anyone on the left. While we can have legitimate debates about how anti-capitalist the Bolivarian revolution has truly been, since Hugo Chávez took office in 1999 “the process” (as it is known in Venezuela) has achieved the greatest redistribution of social wealth since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. As well, “twenty-first century socialism” should be distinguished from earlier historical versions because of its commitment to democratic forms of decision-making. By fostering forms of democratic control over the economy through systems such as workers collectives and community councils, Venezuela is experimenting with what may be the most radical attempts to decentralize decision-making to the local level.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/4830--hands-off-venezuela-what-has-been-happening-since-february-and-why-it-matters