The Bánzer regime is destroying the crops under a "Dignity Plan," which calls for supposedly eliminating all coca trafficking in five years. Bánzer also claims peasant demonstrators are part of an anti-government guerrilla movement. "The only army existing in Chapare is the army of poverty," responded peasant leader Evo Morales. At least eight people have been killed by police during the protests and 40 farmers have disappeared in the last two weeks of confrontations. Members of the Bolivian Workers Federation (COB) engaged in the national strike in the urban areas have also come up against daily cop attacks.
Unemployment rises in Brazil
Unemployment in Sao Paulo, Brazil, hit a record high of
18.1 percent according to figures compiled by the labor
research institute Dieese. Thirty-two thousand workers lost
their jobs this March, bringing the total number of workers
laid off or fired this year to 142,000.
Killing of union defender in Colombia sets off strike
Some 10,000 oil workers and other public sector workers
organized a 24-hour national strike in Colombia April 20 to
protest the assassination of Eduardo Umaña. Umaña was a
lawyer who defended a number of oil workers at the state-run
Ecopetrol company, including the former president of the
public sector workers union, César Carrillo. The Bolivian
government accused Carrillo of terrorist acts against the
oil industry. The strike seriously impacted petroleum and
gas distribution, Ecopetrol general manager Joachim Gómez
said.
5,000 doctors strike in Nicaragua
Doctors blocked roads across Nicaragua April 23, passing
out information and building support for their two-month-
long strike. Close to 5,000 government-employed doctors have
been on strike since February 25, demanding a raise in
wages. Cops broke up the road block injuring six of the
strikers on a highway 80 miles west of the capital city
Managua. The eight state-owned hospitals and dozens of
clinics have been virtually shut down since the strike
began.
Panama banana workers strike
Workers at Chiriqui Land Co., a Chiquita Brands
subsidiary, went on strike February 19 to protest the
company's consideration of closing down the Puerto Armuelles
operation and laying off the workers there. The strike has
been a "serious interruption" to production, costing the
company more than $13 million in exports. Workers from the
Armuelles division produce half of Chiquita's annual
production in Panama.
Hondurans: No to U.S. execution
Some 500 people assembled at the U.S. embassy in
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, April 22 to protest the execution
that day of Honduran national José Roberto Villafuerte in
the state of Arizona, and to demand that the U.S. government
get its troops out of Honduras. Villafuerte was arrested and
convicted for a murder he denied committing, without
notification to the Honduran government. Villafuerte was not
informed of his right to contact the Honduran consulate.
About 100 protesters were Lencan (indigenous Honduran)
peasants who had a sign that read "We condemn the U.S. army
invasion in the indigenous territories of the Lenca people."
A force of 2,000 U.S. soldiers have set up military
operations in the Lenca region.
Tensions bubble in Israel over occupation of Palestinian lands
Hundreds of Israelis demonstrated April 12 to counter a
government-organized event in Hebron celebrating the 50th
anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel and
the 1967-68 seizure and occupation of the West Bank city.
Protesters heading to Hebron by bus were stopped by army
personnel. When the protesters got off the busses and laid
in the street to try to prevent pro-settlement forces from
getting to the event, 29 were arrested. Some activists were
eventually allowed to enter Hebron, where they protested
peacefully. Peace Now spokesman Hagit Yaari called the
celebration "a political move by the government" aimed at
"provocation." About 400 Zionist settlers live in Hebron, a
city of 120,000 Palestinians, guarded by Israeli troops.
Some 20,000 pro-settlement rightists, many of whom were
wearing T-shirts and hats proclaiming `Hebron is Ours,'
filed through the Palestinian areas. At least once, the
rightists provoked skirmishes with Palestinian shopkeepers
on their way to the Hebron meeting.
In other news, on April 15 Tel Aviv released Ahmed Qatamesh, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who was held in Israeli jails for nearly six years without charge or trial. Under Israeli law, prisoners can be held indefinitely in "administrative detention" - a tactic used to jail thousands during the 1987-93 Palestinian uprising. At least 200 Palestinian and Lebanese people are now detained without charge. "I think they realized that prison can not change and will not change my ideas and thoughts," Qatamesh said.
Turkey gov't attacks `Islamists'
Turkish prime minister Mesut Yilmaz, in the name of
combating "Islamic fundamentalism" is implementing a series
of undemocratic laws to close space for public assembly.
Ankara has jailed mayors, shut down community centers, and
tightened dress codes in recent months. Radio stations and
other forms of media are also under scrutiny. Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, mayor of the Turkish city Diyarbakir and well-known
figure in the main "Islamist" party, was sentenced to 10
months in jail April 21 for supposedly "inciting hatred" in
a public speech. One day earlier 16 businessmen accused of
financially supporting "Islamists" were arrested in police
raids. Meanwhile, opposition forces that include Deniz
Baykal's Republican People's Party, are pressuring Yilmaz to
call early general elections, which he agreed to hold next
March.
Romanian workers protest
"What does the government think we eat?" chanted Dumitru
Costin, one of 5,000 workers at Revolution Square in
Bucharest, Romania, April 7 protesting the sharp decline in
the standard of living there over the last two years. "Just
potatoes," the crowd responded. A similar action of 5,000
took place the same day in Craiova demanding raises in wages
and pensions.
Turkmen president visits D.C.
The Clinton administration hosted Turkmenistan president
Saparmurat Nyazov at the White House April 23, gave him
special accommodations, and a $750,000 "grant" in an effort
to win his support in a struggle over what nation will
control oil-rich Central Asia. Four months earlier Nyazov
made a deal with Iranian president Mohammad Khatami to set
up a natural-gas pipeline between Iran and the former Soviet
republic. Washington is trying to economically isolate
Tehran through a trade embargo. After meeting with U.S.
president William Clinton and vice-president Albert Gore,
Nyazov agreed for a U.S. company to do a "feasibility study"
of building another pipeline that goes around Iran, cutting
through Turkey. U.S. officials reportedly made less progress
in changing Nyazov's stance of refusing to sell off state-
owned industries.
-BRIAN TAYLOR
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