WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #483, MAY 2, 1999 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 *2. TEACHERS, HEALTH WORKERS, CAMPESINOS STRIKE IN COLOMBIA Some 115,000 health workers closed public hospitals in Colombia with an open-ended national strike on Apr. 27. The Association of Hospital Worker Unions announced that the strike is a protest against the government's plans to reduce the healthcare budget and privatize "inefficient" state hospitals. Government planning director Jaime Ruiz said the government is only seeking to eliminate corruption and reduce wasteful spending in the public hospitals. Colombia's 300,000 public school teachers began an open-ended strike on Apr. 20 to protest what they say are government plans to privatize public education. Education Minister German Bula insisted that the government is not planning to privatize education, but rather to improve it by evaluating teacher capacity and transferring teachers to areas where they are most needed. The Federation of State Service Workers called a 24-hour national general strike on Apr. 28 to support the teachers and health workers and to protest unemployment, which hit a record high of 19.5% in March. Demonstrations were held throughout Colombia, but Labor Minister Hernando Yepes Arcila denied that state service workers had joined the strike. The main oil workers' union USO also launched a day-long slowdown in solidarity with the health and education workers, but the state-run oil company Ecopetrol said production and refining operations were not affected. The same day, Apr. 28, transport owners in Bogota pulled some 12,000 buses and 5,000 taxis off the streets in a strike to demand the repair of highways, the elimination of fines for traffic violations, and cancellation of a law requiring buses dating from before 1978 to be replaced by June 30 of this year. Some 28 people were arrested in Bogota during the strike for causing disturbances and for throwing tacks onto the streets to puncture tires. [El Universal (Caracas, Venezuela) 4/28/99, 4/29/99; El Nuevo Herald 4/28/99 from AP, 4/29/99 from AP, 4/30/99 from AP; CNN en Espanol 4/28/99 with info from AP; Reuters 4/28/99] On Apr. 29, some 40,000 striking teachers and health workers marched in the city of Barranquilla; elsewhere the teachers and health workers blocked three major highways: the Panamerican highway at Ipiales, on the southern border with Ecuador; the highway linking Bogota with Medellin; and part of the highway between Tunja and Bogota. Strikers also staged marches in Pereira, Bogota and other cities. Some 30,000 campesinos began an agrarian strike in the southern department of Huila on Apr. 19, setting up roadblocks on highways surrounding the departmental capital, Neiva. Clashes erupted on Apr. 29 when police used tear gas and clubs to force campesinos from the main highway linking Bogota with much of southern Colombia, which the protesters had kept blockaded for two weeks. Two police agents were injured, according to Associated Press. The Sweden-based Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia (ANNCOL) reported that 30 campesinos were injured and 17 have disappeared. According to ANNCOL, the police may have carried out the attack in retaliation for the campesinos' rejection on Apr. 28 of a proposed accord to end the protest, presented by Agriculture Minister Carlos Murgas. AP reported that the campesinos had tried to beat up Murgas after rejecting his proposal. The campesinos remain on strike. [ENH 4/30/99 from AP; ANNCOL 4/29/99] Protest marches were staged across Colombia on May 1 to mark International Workers Day and to protest unemployment. Two students were injured in Bogota when an explosive device they were preparing to set off at a demonstration blew up early, according to the army. [La Republica (Lima, Peru) 5/2/99] In Medellin, a peaceful and well-organized May 1 protest march by about 3,000 workers was disrupted by hooded individuals who clashed with police, set off explosives and damaged stores. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 5/2/99] On Apr. 29 a group of 80 indigenous Colombians from the Embera Katio, Paez and Wayuu nations occupied the building of the governmental institute for national planning in Bogota. Another group of Embera Katio entered the Spanish embassy to request political asylum for all 2,500 members of their tribe, whose survival is being threatened by the Urra I hydroelectric dam project on the Sinu river, being carried out by a Swedish company. They are also demanding that they be allowed to maintain neutrality in Colombia's armed conflict. At least three Embera Katio leaders have been murdered so far this year, most recently Lucindo Domico Jarupia, secretary of the Embera Katio tribal authority of the Alto Sinu reservation, who was murdered on Apr. 24 in Tierra Alta, a rightwing paramilitary stronghold in Cordoba department. [ENH 4/30/99 from AP, 5/1/99 from Reuters; Communique from Pueblos Indigenas de Colombia 4/29/99 via ANNCOL; Communique from the Executive Committe of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) 4/25/99] ==================== 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. 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