[A-List] WNU #951: No Prime Minister in Haiti, Missing Cubans in Texas

["NSC WORKERS COOP" <nscchicago@xxxxxxx>]

Tom Baker here and through these reports
we bear witness to criminal oligarchies playing
high level scams.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Weekly News Update" <weeklynewsupdate@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: WNU #951: No Prime Minister in Haiti, Missing Cubans in Texas


        WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
            ISSUE #951, JUNE 22, 2008
 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
        339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012
            (212) 674-9499, weeklynewsupdate@xxxxxxxxx

1. Haiti: Still No Prime Minister
2. Mexico: Maquila Union Threatened
3. Cuba: "Missing" Emigres Found in US
4. Latin America: Anger at EU Immigration Measure
5. Links to alternative sources on: Peru, Ecuador, Colombia,
Central America, El Salvador

*1. HAITI: STILL NO PRIME MINISTER

On June 12 Haiti's Chamber of Deputies voted 57-22 with six
abstentions to reject President Rene Garcia Preval's latest
nominee for prime minister, Robert Manuel. A commission assigned
to study Manuel's qualifications found that he failed to meet two
requirements in the 1987 Constitution: he didn't own property in
Haiti and he hadn't lived in the country for the last five years
consecutively. Manuel is a longtime friend of Preval and was the
security chief during Preval's first term as president (1996-
2001). The Lavalas Family (FL) party of former president Jean
Bertrand Aristide pushed for Manuel's removal in 1999 [see Update
#506], and he left the country, returning near the end of 2005.

Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis had to resign on Apr. 12
following militant protests triggered by the rising cost of food
[see Update #943]. But he has continued to head a caretaker
government while Parliament and Preval try to settle on a
replacement. Parliament rejected an earlier nominee, Ericq
Pierre. [Haiti Support Group News 6/12/08 from Reuters;
AlterPresse 6/12/08]

Also on June 12, some 30 nongovernmental organizations from the
Group of Eight (G8) industrial countries and other European
countries issued a letter calling on G8 governments to respond to
the food crisis by cancelling Haiti's external debt or at least
declaring a moratorium on debt service, which will be $58.2
million for 2008. Haiti's total external debt as of 2006 was $1.3
billion. Of this about $1 billion was owed to international
credit institutions like the World Bank and the Inter-American
Development Bank. [AlterPresse 6/12/08]

*2. MEXICO: MAQUILA UNION THREATENED

Workers at the Mexmode garment factory in Atlixco municipality in
the central Mexican state of Puebla report that the state and
local governments are maneuvering to destroy the Independent
Union of Mexmode Company Workers (SITEMEX), one of the few
independent unions in Mexico's maquiladoras (tax-exempt assembly
plants producing for export). The workers say Antorcha Campesina
("Campesino Torch")--an organization linked to the centrist
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which governs the state-
-has taken hold in the factory and is threatening and
intimidating the union leadership. Atlixco director of culture
Maritona Espejel has been photographed distributing fliers
outside the plant; she reportedly called on workers to lynch a
group of observers during a work stoppage.

On June 18 state labor officials announced they would call a
meeting of workers to hold an election between current SITEMEX
president Josefina Hernandez and someone from Antorcha
Campesina's union. Workers say this action is illegal under
Mexican law, which establishes union autonomy and prohibits the
government from interfering in the internal affairs of unions.
The Chicago-based labor solidarity group USLEAP is calling for
letters to the Puebla government protesting this situation; to
send a letter, go to
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1618/t/3757/campaign.jsp?cam
paign_KEY=24705. [Campaign for Labor Rights alert 6/18/08]

[Workers at Mexmode, formerly the Korean-owned Kukdong
Internacional SA de CV, formed SITEMEX after a nine-month
struggle, which was supported by student and labor groups in
Canada, Korea and the US; see Updates #572, 574, 578, 609.]

*3. CUBA: "MISSING" EMIGRES FOUND IN US

A group of undocumented Cuban immigrants who were supposedly
"snatched" from Mexican immigration authorities by an armed
commando on June 11 in the southeastern state of Chiapas have
been located in Hidalgo, Texas, Mexican authorities said on June
18. The Mexican Attorney General's Office (PRG) will investigate
nine employees of the National Migration Institute (INM) in
connection with the incident, according to officials.

The Mexican navy detained 33 Cubans on June 8 in the eastern
state of Quintana Roo. On June 10 the INM decided to move the
Cubans and four Central American immigrants to a detention
facility in Tapachula, Chiapas, claiming that the facilities in
Quintana Roo were full. A group of six to nine heavily armed men
in masks "kidnapped" the 37 immigrants in Chiapas on June 11
while they were being transported to Tapachula by seven unarmed
INM agents and two bus drivers. The immigrants were then
reportedly taken to Palenque, Chiapas, and through Tabasco and
Veracruz to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, where they crossed the
international bridge to Hidalgo. Apparently they had been
supplied with false documents and had no trouble with either
Mexican or US authorities. According to the Mexican daily La
Jornada, 23 Cubans were found in Texas, while the Associated
Press put the number at 18. The location of the other Cubans and
the four Central Americans was unknown.

The immigrants' route took them through areas where the so-called
"Gulf Cartel" operates; the group has been linked to people
smuggling as well as drug trafficking. Chiapas justice secretary
Amador Rodriguez Lozano charged that the "Miami mafia"--rightwing
Cuban Americans living in Florida--financed the operation. Cuba's
ambassador to Mexico, Manuel Aguilera had made a similar
suggestion the weekend of June 13. [La Jornada 6/19/08; El
Diario-La Prensa 6/20/08 from AP (print edition only)]

*4. LATIN AMERICA: ANGER AT EU IMMIGRATION MEASURE

On June 18 the European Union (EU) Parliament passed guidelines
that would allow member countries to hold immigrants in special
detention centers for up to 18 months before being deported. The
guidelines are meant to standardize the way EU members treat
undocumented immigrants; currently France limits detention to 32
days, while seven countries, including the Netherlands and the
United Kingdom, allow indefinite detention.

Bolivian president Evo Morales met with European ambassadors in
La Paz to discuss the issue and propose alternatives. He told
foreign correspondents that his government would lead a campaign
against the new guidelines, and that he would bring the campaign
up at a meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)
at Tucuman, Argentina, at the end of June. Venezuelan president
Hugo Chavez went further, saying on June 19: "Our oil shouldn't
go to those countries" that adopt the guidelines. Venezuela is a
minor supplier of oil to Europe, but some European companies,
including France's Total and Norway's Statoil, operate in
Venezuela. He warned that European  companies could come under
scrutiny if their countries locked up South Americans. "We aren't
going to take anyone prisoner, but the company would have to take
its investments back there," he said. [San Francisco Chronicle
6/19/08 from AP; Prensa Latina 6/21/08]

More breaking stories from alternative sources:

Return to Putis: EPAF Resumes Exhumations of Mass Graves
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1336/68/

Chinese mining interest to relocate Peruvian peasants
http://www.ww4report.com/node/5669

Peru: Tambogrande Mine Returns Amidst Two Other Conflicts
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1337/1/

Unburying the Evidence of Peru's Biggest "Dirty War" Massacre
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1333/1/

Ecuador says no to ALBA --for now
http://www.ww4report.com/node/5656

Colombia: "shock" rise in coca production
http://www.ww4report.com/node/5657

Colombia: riot police attack indigenous land occupation
http://www.ww4report.com/node/5650

Paramilitaries Threaten Canadian Embassy in Bogot
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1332/1/

Colombia: No Reduction in Assassinations and Death Threats
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1339/68/

U.S. Has Central America's Northern Triangle in Its Sights
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1340/1/

What the Census Didn't Count: Water Rights and Privatization in
El Salvador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1338/1/

For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.newsvine.com/

For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com

END

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ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news
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