Mexico's economy shrinks
The Mexican economy contracted 9.6 percent in the third
quarter of 1995. The country's gross domestic product
shrank 10.5 percent in the second quarter. Through the
first nine months of the year the economy contracted 7
percent, signaling that the country isn't likely to recover
soon from recession. Manufacturing activity fell 9.2
percent in the third quarter and retailing 19 percent.
Construction has fallen 21 percent since the start of the
year.
"This is the deepest recession that Mexico has seen since the Great Depression," said Arturo Porzecanski, chief economist at ING Capital Holdings Corp. The government tried to put its best face forward regarding the bad economic news, saying if the numbers were seasonally adjusted they would show a modest rebound from the second quarter.
Mexican sweepers seek asylum
Twenty-five Mexican street sweepers sought political
asylum at the Swedish embassy November 23, after facing
persecution for demanding higher wages. The workers, some
still wearing their orange coveralls, entered the embassy
in a wealthy neighborhood in Mexico City.
The workers said they represented some 320 cleaning workers from the southern state of Tabasco who had been unjustly fired for demanding an increase in their monthly wage of $70.
Japan banks and bad loans
Japanese banks were holding bad loans totaling 37,390
billion yen ($368 billion) at the end of September this
year. This represents more than 5 percent of the banks'
total lending. Even these staggering figures are likely to
be understating the banking problem in Japan.
The estimate does not include some bad loans in the agricultural and insurance sectors. As well, banks are only required to report as bad debt those loans made to bankrupt borrowers or on which no interest has been paid for more than six months. Restructured loans, on which interest has been reduced to keep a borrower from insolvency, are not required to be listed.
Chernobyl shutdown stalls
Negotiations in Kiev collapsed November 2 between
representatives of the Group of Seven, an association of
the world's leading capitalist powers, and the government
of Ukraine over the closing of the Chernobyl nuclear power
plant. Ukrainian environment ministry spokesman Volodymyr
Martyniuk stated that his government, which has pledged to
shut the remaining two functioning reactors at the plant by
the year 2000, wanted "a very detailed scheme for the final
plan: which country gives how much money through which bank
and so forth" to finance the cost of closing.
Current talks foundered on demands by the G-7 governments for more guarantees on the timetable for the shutdown. The crippled facility still provides 5 percent of the nation's electricity. The government of Ukraine now estimates the death toll from the 1986 nuclear explosion and its aftermath at 125,000 people.
Spain death squads probed
The lower house of the Spanish parliament voted to lift
immunity for former Socialist Party interior minister José
Barrionuevo, opening the way for a probe into his role in
death squads that operated against Basque separatists in
the 1980s.
Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez has been badly tarnished by former police officials who implicated past and current government officials and members of the ruling Socialist Party in a murderous campaign against members of Basque separatist groups.
Ex-presidents of S. Korea may be charged in Kwangju killings
A proposed new law is expected to be approved in South
Korea that could lead to prison sentences for two former
South Korean presidents for the massacre of student and
worker protesters in 1980. By official count some 192
people were gunned down or beaten to death in the Kwangju
massacre, after protests grew in response to a military
coup. Estimates by human rights activists put the actual
death toll at Kwangju in the thousands.
Former president Roh Tae Woo, who now sits in jail awaiting indictment on bribery charges, and Chun Doo Hwan, who seized power in the 1979 military coup, are widely viewed as responsible for the massacre. Democratic rights groups are pressing for an investigation into U.S. military involvement in the killings as well. Many students and workers in South Korea believe the U.S. military was a behind-the-scenes accomplice to the killings.
Three officers charged in killing of Afro-American businessman
Chanting, "The jury said murder," some 100 people
rallied outside the City-County Building in Pittsburgh
November 13 to protest the police murder of Jonny Gammage.
A 31-year-old Black businessman, Gammage was beaten and
killed October 12 after a routine traffic stop.
The latest protest was organized after Allegheny County district attorney Bob Colville rejected an inquest jury's recommendation to bring criminal homicide charges against the five suburban Pittsburgh police officers involved in the death. Colville said he is considering lesser charges of manslaughter against some of the cops involved.
"The harshest possible degree is what they should be charged with," said the jury foreman, Richard Lyons. The inquest jury, which included whites and Blacks, unanimously recommended homicide charges after hearing testimony for three days, mainly from the cops.
On November 27 two of the cops were charged with third- degree homicide and a third with involuntary manslaughter. The two other cops were not charged. "Involuntary manslaughter, that is like a slap on the wrist to me," said Gammage's mother Narves. She said all five cops should go to jail. "None of them tried to stop it."
- PAUL MAILHOT
Jon Hillson from St. Paul, Minnesota, and Bill Scheer and Sandi Sherman from Pittsburgh contributed to this column.