Tag: central & latin america

Argentinean teachers strike over police killing

Posted on By 3arabawy

From Al-Jazeera:

Argentine teachers have held a one-day nationwide strike after a high school chemistry teacher was killed by police last week during a protest over pay in the southern province of Neuquen.
In Buenos Aires, the capital, workers at banks, hospitals, government offices, and public transportation joined the strike for an hour on Monday afternoon.
Police in the northern city of Salta fired tear gas at groups of protesters, local media said.
Carlos Fuentealba, a 41-year-old teacher, died on Thursday, a day after he was hit in the head by a tear gas cartridge when police broke up a teachers’ protest and road block in Neuquen.

New Dirty War?

Posted on By 3arabawy

Worried about the rise of the Left in Latin America, the US government prepares for a new Dirty War:

U.S. will train Latin American militaries
Ban lifted to offset trend toward left
By Barbara Slavin
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Concern about leftist victories in Latin America has prompted President Bush to quietly grant a waiver that allows the United States to resume training militaries from 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The administration hopes the training will forge links with countries in the region and blunt a leftward trend. Daniel Ortega, an adversary of the United States in the region during the 1980s, was elected president in Nicaragua this week. Bolivians chose another leftist, Evo Morales, last year.
A military training ban was originally designed to pressure countries into exempting U.S. soldiers from war crimes trials.
The 2002 U.S. law bars countries from receiving military aid and training if they refuse to promise immunity from prosecution to U.S. service members who might get hauled before the International Criminal Court. The law allows presidential waivers.
The White House lifted the ban on 21 countries, about half in Latin America or the Caribbean, through a presidential memorandum Oct. 2 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The training is conducted in the USA.
A ban on giving countries weapons remains. Commercial arms sales are not affected, said Jose Ruiz, a U.S. Southern Command spokesman.
The training ban had resulted in a loss of U.S. influence in the region. The issue gained urgency after a string of leftist candidates came to power in Latin America.
On a trip to the region this year, Rice said that the impact of the ban had been “the same as shooting ourselves in the foot.”
China stepped into the gap. Ruiz said China “has approached every country in our area of responsibility” and has exchanged senior military officials with Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Cuba and provided military aid and training to Jamaica and Venezuela.
The ban remains in effect for some countries. Venezuela, whose fiery President Hugo Chavez is a critic of the Bush administration, remains ineligible because it is on a State Department list of countries alleged to have permitted the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation and forced labor.
Chavez is up for re-election in December and leads in the polls. Cuba is also off-limits because of a long-standing U.S. embargo against Fidel Castro’s regime.
Ruiz said efforts are being made to transfer money this year to begin training foreign officers from eligible countries.