WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
ISSUE #474, FEBRUARY 28, 1999
NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 
LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 

Colombia News

7. Colombian Workers Stage One-Day Strike 
8. Colombian Agrarian Leader Murdered
10. US TO USE ECUADORAN AIR BASE
15. US Kills Genetics Treaty in Colombia 


*7. COLOMBIAN WORKERS STAGE ONE-DAY STRIKE 

A one-day nationwide strike shut down schools, hospitals and oil 
production in Colombia on Feb. 25. The day of meetings and 
assemblies was organized by the Unitary Workers Central (CUT) 
labor federation to protest the government's economic policies and 
demand an end to violence against labor and human rights activists. 
The unions are also protesting government cutbacks, as well as 
efforts by mayors in several large cities to evict street vendors and 
confiscate their merchandise. 

Teachers' union president Tarcisio Moro said his 250,000 members 
observed the strike, and in some towns occupied churches and offices 
of the Catholic Church to demand back pay. CUT said the national 
protest closed all public schools and hospitals, and a spokesperson for 
the oil workers' union said oil production was brought to a standstill. 
Labor Minister Hernando Yepes played down the strike, saying most 
government offices were open and functioning. Reports said 20 
people were injured when riot police tried to take down barricades 
set up by protestors to block roads leading to the capital.

Labor leaders say President Andres Pastrana Arango failed to fulfill 
agreements he signed with unions in October, and that emergency 
economic measures taken over the past months have increased 
unemployment and taxes, lowered wages, and pushed several 
hospitals to the verge of bankruptcy. [Agence France Presse 
2/25/99]

The surprise of the strike was the participation of workers from the 
Defense Ministry, who not only stopped work but went out to the 
Ministry's parking lot with placards pushing wage demands and 
protesting an attack suffered by Maria Clara Baquero, president of 
their union, ASODEFENSA. Ministry guards blocked the workers from 
joining other state employees on a march, and unsucessfully tried to 
stop journalists from filming the scene. [Agencia de Noticias Nueva 
Colombia (ANNCOL) 2/26/99] 

*8. COLOMBIAN AGRARIAN LEADER MURDERED

Julio Alfonso Poveda, president of the National Federation of 
Agrarian Cooperatives (FENACOA), was shot to death by a hired killer 
on a motorcycle on Feb. 17 as he drove his car in the south of Bogota, 
the Colombian capital. The FENACOA leadership has demanded that 
the government carry out a thorough investigation into his murder. 
The 73-year old Poveda had been a member of the Colombian 
Communist Party (PCC) his whole life. In the 1970s, he was a 
member of the PCC's Central Committee and served as treasurer of 
the Workers Central, the predecessor to CUT, Colombia's main labor 
federation. He was also a founder of the Colombian Workers Union 
Federation (FESTRAC) and a columnist in the weekly PCC publication 
Voz. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 2/18/99] 

The human rights program of the National Union School reports that 
ten Colombian union activists have been murdered so far in 1999, 
while two others have been attacked and two were kidnapped by 
unidentified groups. The victims include teachers union activists Luis 
Peroza and Numael Vercel, murdered on Feb. 12 in Cesar department 
after being abducted and tortured; and Gilberto Tovar Escudero, a 
leader of the Workers Union of Cartago Municipality in Valle 
department, murdered by paramilitary groups on Feb. 15. Ricaurte 
Perez, a human rights activist and leader of the Antioquia Teachers 
Association (ADIDA), was abducted by unidentified armed groups in 
Medellin on Feb. 17. [Escuela Nacional Sindical 2/18/99]

Several human rights groups have closed their offices in the face of 
continuing threats and violence by paramilitary groups. The Trujillo 
regional office of the Intercongregational Commission of Justice and 
Peace (CIJP) announced its closure on Feb. 22 as a result of recent 
death threats, intimidation and harassment against its workers, 
reportedly by paramilitary groups. CIJP and the Association of the 
Relatives of the Victims of Trujillo (AFAVIT) have tirelessly 
campaigned for justice in the cases of over 100 campesinos in the 
area who were "disappeared" or murdered by security forces and 
paramilitaries between 1989 and 1990, in what are known as the 
Trujillo massacres. 

The Committee of Solidarity with Political Prisoners (CSPP), another 
national human rights organization, also announced the closure of its 
offices on Feb. 23--three weeks after two of its staff, Everardo de 
Jesus Puerta and Julio Ernesto Gonzalez, were murdered while 
traveling from Medellin to Bogota. [M2 Presswire (Amnesty 
International) 2/22/99] The bodies of the two CSPP activists were 
found in a town under paramilitary control, but no group has 
officially taken credit for their murders and paramilitary leader 
Carlos Castano Gil has denied that his group, the United Self-Defense 
Forces of Colombia (AUC), is responsible [see Update #471]. [Center 
for International Policy report, undated, posted by email on 
2/25/99]


*10. US TO USE ECUADORAN AIR BASE

On Feb. 24, Ecuadoran foreign relations minister Jose Ayala denied 
that a US military base would be set up in Ecuador, but 
acknowledged that the US would be provided with air landing and 
supply facilities, and permission to fly over the country on anti-drug 
missions. "We have spoken of logistical facilities that Ecuador could 
offer and not of the establishment of any kind of bases, much less 
military bases," said Ayala. It was the first official response to a 
story which had circulated in the media for the past week, which 
said the port of Manta on Ecuador's central coast would become a 
base for US military equipment and personnel currently stationed in 
Panama. [Hoy (NJ) 2/25/99 from AP]

Hernan Batallas, Commander General of the Ecuadoran Air Force 
(FAE), confirmed on Feb. 26 that the operation of US military planes 
out of the FAE's Manta air base had been approved and would begin 
in March or April, depending on the signing of a contract between 
Ecuador's Foreign Relations Ministry and the US government. Batallas 
insisted that the Manta base would only have "about four or six 
people, no more" running the US operation. "All they are going to 
need is to have control of the operation and certainly communication 
equipment that will allow them to be in contact with the planes to 
know their positions," said Batallas. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/27/99 
from EFE] 

Meanwhile, Marc Krifchik, director of the US Information Service 
(USIS), has confirmed that Washington Fernando Aguirre worked in 
Ecuador as a paid informant for the US Drug Enforcement 
Administration (DEA) until two years ago. Aguirre was also an 
informant for the Ecuadoran police, according to Krifchik. Aguirre 
gained notoriety on Feb. 17 when he was arrested for the murders 
earlier that day of Ecuadoran legislative deputy Jaime Hurtado 
Gonzalez, alternate deputy Pablo Tapia and Hurtado's nephew and 
bodyguard Wellington Borja [see Update #473]. Krifchik said Aguirre 
didn't work for the DEA for very long, and that nothing was known 
about his activities after his relationship with the DEA ended two 
years ago. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/27/99 from EFE]

*15. US KILLS GENETICS TREATY IN COLOMBIA 

Negotiations on the Biosafety Protocol--a proposal for the first global 
treaty regulating trade in genetically altered products-- collapsed in 
Cartagena, Colombia on Feb. 24 when Argentina, Australia, Canada, 
Chile, Uruguay and the US rejected proposals backed by 130 other 
nations. The talks have now been suspended; they are scheduled to 
resume no later than May 2000. 

The protocol would require exporters of genetically modified plants, 
seeds and other organisms to get prior approval from the importing 
nation. The majority of nations wanted to extend the restriction to 
foods like grains that might contain seeds that could be planted in 
the importing nation; some countries wanted all foods included in the 
provision. The US and its five allies rejected any restriction that 
would include foods; the US also wanted the rules of the World Trade 
Organization (WTO) to have precedence over the Biosafety Protocol. 
The US, which dominates the biotechnology industry, exports about 
$50 billion in farm products each year; 25-45% of US crops like corn, 
soybeans and cotton are genetically altered. Many observers felt the 
US had intended from the beginning to sabotage the talks. "The 
environment's the loser, always," said Beth Burrows of the Edmonds 
Institute, an environmental group in Edmonds, Washington. "There 
was no moral high ground here. It was just cheap power politics." 
[NYT 2/25/99]

On Feb. 21 Mexico City police arrested 10 members of Mexico's 
Greenpeace ecological group for an action at the Independence 
monument timed to coincide with the Cartagena talks. Half of the 
group approached the statues of Mexican heroes and put up a sign 
reading: "The corn is ours." The other half managed to enter the 
monument and drop a 33-meter banner from the highest point 
calling for "An end to genetic imperialism." The protesters--who 
oppose the use, handling and trading of genetically altered organisms 
without establishing what damage they might cause for human 
health or the environment--were fined about $20 each for 
"inappropriate use of public monuments." [La Jornada 2/22/99; Hoy 
(NJ) 2/22/99 from AP]

======
ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is 
published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater 
New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. To subscribe, 
send a check or money order for US $25 payable to Nicaragua 
Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. 
Please specify if you want the electronic or print version: they are 
identical in content, but the electronic version is delivered directly to 
your email address; the print version is sent via first class mail. For 
more information about electronic subscriptions, contact 
wnu@igc.apc.org. Back issues and source materials are available on 
request. 

If you are accessing this Update for free on electronic newsgroups, 
we would appreciate any financial support you can contribute. We 
are a small, all-volunteer organization funded solely through 
subscriptions and contributions. Please also help spread the word 
about the Update. If you know someone who might be interested in 
subscribing, send their email (or regular mail) address to 
 and request a free one-month trial subscription to 
the Weekly News Update on the Americas. 

Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any 
information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News Update 
on the Americas," and include our full contact information so that 
people will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication 
where we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments 
and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail 
to 

CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITES:
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html 
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/nsnhome.html