Bolivian teachers remain in jail; unions sign accord with
gov't
Several leaders of striking teachers unions in Bolivia
remain in jail and are being subjected to continued
government repression. On May 17, police raided two prisons
to force union leaders to halt a hunger strike. Inmates at
the prisons staged protests to try to stop the police
action. The three union leaders - Vilma Plata, Gonzalo
Soruco, and Jose Luis Alvarez - were moved to separate
sites, supposedly to receive medical treatment. Plata, who
began her fast May 10, is facing charges of sedition and
disturbing public order. She said that she had been
subjected to "brutal aggression" at the hands of the police.
Some 300 union leaders have been detained for protesting government austerity measures and plans to privatize state industries since a state of siege was declared April 18. Recently an accord was signed between the government and the main union organization, the Bolivian Workers Federation. Government ministers hailed the accords, which they hope will end the three-month wave of protests. But union leaders note that wage demands have not been met and union leaders remain in jail.
Mexico gov't ordered phone taps
In an interview in the Mexico daily La Jornada May 26,
workers at the Telmex phone company said wiretaps were
routinely ordered by the government. Union leaders estimated
some 200,000 lines were tapped, including those of
politicians, leaders of workers and peasants organizations,
and journalists.
Cholera hits Mexico, Guatemala
A cholera outbreak has hit Mexico and Guatemala. More than
1,740 cases have already been reported across Mexico this
year, close to triple the 1994 level. In Guatemala, the town
of Sanarate, 30 miles east of Guatemala City, had 542 cases
and four deaths in one week. Riot police were called in to
protect the mayor's office as villagers protested inadequate
water treatment. Health workers complained that a lack of
medicine and purified water was hampering efforts to contain
the disease.
Meanwhile, a drought in northern Mexico is causing massive crop loss and killing hundreds of thousands of cattle.
The United States turned down a Mexican government request May 9 to alleviate the drought with water from the Rio Grande. Under terms of a 1944 water-management treaty Mexico is not entitled to draw the amount of water currently needed. U.S. officials said they would allow enough water to be drawn for drinking, but not for irrigation.
Protests rock St. Lucia
A recent two-day strike called by the Industrial
Solidarity Pact, a grouping of trade unions, shut down
schools, the treasury, postal and customs services, and
affected prison operations and the Victoria Hospital on the
island of St. Lucia. According to Carib-News about 1,000
workers marched through Castries and staged a vigil around
government offices.
The strike was launched to demand a pay increase for public sector workers, and the scrapping of an amendment to the Criminal Code that unions view as aimed at hurting the labor movement. Prime Minister John Compton said the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have warned against giving in to the unions' demands.
Ghanaians protest tax hikes
Since late April nurses, teachers, and civil servants have
taken to the streets of Ghana's capital city, Accra,
protesting price hikes prompted by the government's
imposition of a 17.5 percent value-added tax. This followed
a 25 percent rise in gasoline prices announced in January.
While food is supposedly exempt from the tax, food prices
have jumped by as much as 300 percent.
On May 11, about 10,000 marched on the central market in Accra. Pro-government forces confronted the marchers and five people were killed with 17 wounded. But the actions have continued with a protest that shut down the ministry of finance in mid May, and a rally in front of the ministry of trade and industry on May 19. Unions are demanding a 70 percent wage hike.
Oil damage to spread in Russia
As spring thaws the rivers around Usinsk, 1,000 miles
northeast of Moscow, the damage from an oil spill last
August and September threatens to spread even wider. Russian
officials now estimate that 100,000 tons of oil sprang from
major leaks in the Usinsk-Kharyaga pipeline, about three
times the amount dumped by the Exxon Valdez in Alaska. The
oil spread across 170 acres of stream, and marshland,
blackening the Kolva, Usa, and salmon-rich Pechora rivers.
Komineft, the company running the pipeline, never shut it off, relying simply on attempts to stanch the flow with dams. In March the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development responded to a request for aid to clean up the major ecological disaster by pledging $125 million. More than $2 billion was spent on the Exxon Valdez cleanup efforts. The banks stipulated that a western company had to be given the contract.
U.S. is major arms supplier
The U.S. government is leading the way in the spread of
conventional weapons. A report issued by the New School for
Social Research notes in 45 of 50 armed conflicts studied
the U.S. supplied arms to one or more parties.
The United States has the distinction of being the world's major weapons supplier with arms sales abroad totaling 22.3 billion in 1993. The study also notes U.S. companies provided at least 13 percent of the weapons in the former Yugoslavia and 95 percent of the weapons imported for use by British and Protestant paramilitary forces in Northern Ireland. The report listed governments involved in domestic and border conflicts where U.S. weapons have been used, including Britain, Turkey, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Liberia, Panama, Chile, and Haiti before the U.S. invasion.
Identity card proposed
Not to be outdone by Patrick Buchanan, Dianne Feinstein, a
Democratic senator from California, explained her support
for a national identification system. To deal with the
problem of possible fraud in the production of any such card
she proposes possible solutions including, "a magnetic strip
on which the bearer's unique voice, retina pattern, or
fingerprint is digitally encoded."
Too much poison in cigarettes
Marlboro, the world's best-selling brand, was among 8
billion cigarettes recalled by the Philip Morris Co. Philip
Morris determined that half a dozen chemical contaminants
had been among the agents in a plasticizer spray used on the
filters. The contaminants could cause "temporary discomfort,
including eye, nose, and throat irritation, dizziness,
coughing, and wheezing," said Richard Carchman, the director
of scientific affairs for Philip Morris. But, he assured,
the effects are "short term and reversible."
- LAURA GARZA