Mexico Week In Review: 06.19-06.25

[cisdc]

Mexico Week In Review: 06.19-06.25
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Published since 1994, 'Mexico Week In Review' is a service of the
Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (CIS).  CIS is a Washington, D.C.
based activist group committed to the ongoing struggles of Indigenous
peoples in the Americas.  CIS is actively supporting the struggles
of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico while simultaneously combating
related structures of oppression within our own communities.

To view newsletter archives, visit: 
http://lists.mutualaid.org/pipermail/mexico-week/

"Para Todos, Todo; Para Nosotros Nada"
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Note: Due to the holiday we will not be publishing next week. -ed.
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OAXACA UPDATE: STRIKING TEACHERS CLASH WITH CITIZENS, BLOCK HIGHWAYS

Thousands of striking teachers blocked all the highways leading to 
the southern Mexico city of Oaxaca, in an attempt to stop a march in 
support of the local government to evict the teachers from the city's 
main square. The blockade lasted for several hours and at least two 
people were injured in the clashes, said Jose Manuel Vera Salinas, 
the state's public security chief.

The march, which was organized by local business and social groups, 
was marching early on Thursday to protest the teachers' month-long 
presence in the city's historical main square, where they had camped 
out to demand a salary hike. The marching businessmen demanded an 
immediate end to the conflict between the striking teachers and the 
government, complaining it had caused sales to fall, while the civil 
society organizations demanded the teachers return to school for the 
1.3 million affected students.

Enrique Rueda, spokesman for the National Education Workers Union 
(NEWU) representing the teachers, said he was sorry about the 
economic effect of the strike, saying the teachers would insist on 
fighting for a better pay and conditions and return to school 
finally. Rueda believed the march was summoned by the government, 
"which is trying to created a climate of conflict." Oaxaca, a city 
that is listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations, is 
capital city of the southern Mexican state of the same name. It is 
350 km southeast of Mexico City.

Source: Xinhuanet: 06/23
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WORKERS PLAN 24-HR STRIKE AS ELECTION LOOMS

Tens of thousands of Mexican telephone and university workers are 
threatening a 24-hour strike just days before July presidential 
elections to pressure the government to end a long-running mining 
dispute. On June 28 the workers will walk off the job, joining 
thousands of teachers and miners, some of whom have been on strike 
for months in a series of labor conflicts that have seen running 
street battles with riot police. The sometimes violent conflicts have 
caused two deaths and dozens of injuries, creating industrial 
instability ahead of closely-fought July 2 presidential elections.

The telephone workers union said the June 28 strikes at Mexico's main 
telephone company Telmex, would affect only customer service and 
administrative functions. Telmex is owned by the world's third 
richest man, Carlos Slim. "If you want to make a phone call you won't 
have any problem, but if you have to make a payment or your phone is 
broken there will be nothing you can do about it that day," union 
spokesman Eduardo Torres said on Monday. The powerful electricity 
workers union is expected to organize protests to support the strike, 
although its members will not walk off the job completely. Mexico's 
mining industry has been in turmoil for most of this year with 
sporadic and sometimes drawn-out strikes in favor of union boss 
Napoleon Gomez, accused of fraud by the government and some workers.

Torres said the one-day strike had been called to pressure the 
government to reinstate the ousted union boss. He said the June 28 
labor action would only be called off if the government backed down. 
The Sicartsa steel mill and Grupo Mexico's massive Cananea and La 
Caridad mines in the state of Sonora near the U.S. border are the 
hardest hit by the mining crisis. In April, two workers were shot 
dead by police in a botched attempt to end the Sicartsa strike by 
force. Gomez was officially pushed out of the union in February and 
is now wanted by Sonora police for alleged misuse of union funds, but 
still enjoys the support of many union members who say the labor 
ministry illegally orchestrated his removal. La Caridad produced 
122,317 metric tons of copper in concentrates last year. La Cananea 
produced 118,741 metric tons of copper in concentrates in 2005.

Source: Reuters: 06/20
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ELECTION UPDATE I: AMLO WIDENS HIS LEAD IN POLL

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, former mayor of Mexico City, widened his 
lead in a voters' opinion poll ahead of the July 2 presidential 
election. Support for Lopez Obrador, the Party of the Democratic 
Revolution's candidate, rose to 35.4 percent of likely voters in a 
June 16-20 survey from 34.2 percent two weeks ago. Backing for Felipe 
Calderon, the National Action Party's candidate, fell to 30.5 percent 
from 31 percent, Milenio Diario said on its Web site. Support for 
Roberto Madrazo, the candidate from the Institutional Revolutionary 
Party, held at 29.6 percent of likely voters. The poll of 2,000 
registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 
percentage points, Milenio said.

Source: Bloomberg: 06/22
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ELECTION UPDATE II: AMLO CRITICIZES NAFTA COMMITMENT

The free trade agreement with the United States (NAFTA), severely 
damages Mexico's agriculture, according to presidential candidate, 
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has announced that if elected he 
will not eliminate tariffs on US corn and beans. During a speech 
delivered in the Mexican state of Chiapas, the presidential hopeful 
promised farmers that if elected he would give guaranteed prices, 
subsidies and loans on favorable terms, actions questionable under 
NAFTA rules which are seen as harmful to Mexican farmers.

Experts warn that the elimination of such tariffs could severely 
damage Mexico's agricultural economy, which farmers say has already 
suffered since the trade deal went into effect in 1994,forcing many 
to migrate to the United States. Mexico's agriculture minister 
pleaded with Canada and the United States this month to reconsider 
the removal of the corn and bean tariffs, but US officials flatly 
rejected the appeal, saying they were not interested in renegotiating 
parts of the agreement.

Lopez Obrador charged that Vicente Fox and the "technocrats who 
govern our country badly ... do nothing more than copy the bad from 
abroad." The presidential candidate has promised to raise the income 
of poor families by as much as 20 percent by providing them with 
subsidized power and basic goods, and extending nationwide the free 
pensions he established for Mexico City's elderly.

Source: Radio Havana Cuba: 06/21
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BORDER NEWS I: NEW HEAD: WALLS ARE NOT THE ANSWER

Two weeks on the job, the new head of U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection said he does not favor building a huge wall along the 
Mexican border. "I don't support, I don't believe the administration 
supports a wall," Commissioner W. Ralph Basham said in Tucson, where 
he met with patrol officials and agents before embarking on a tour 
across the Arizona desert. Asked about proposals in Senate- and 
House-approved immigration measures to build security walls 380 or 
700 miles long, respectively, Basham said, "It doesn't make sense, 
it's not practical." As Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano put it, "You 
build a 50-foot wall, somebody will find a 51-foot ladder," he said.

Fencing, including so-called smart fencing with imbedded sensors, 
vehicle barriers and lighting will be part of the infrastructure 
improvements needed, Basham said. But a layered approach that mixes 
technology and air operations for observation and responding to 
illegal crossings will be necessary to control the border, he said. 
"There is not a silver bullet out there, there's not one answer," he 
said. Basham is touring the Southwest border region for a firsthand 
look at the challenges the Border Patrol is facing as National Guard 
troops arrive to begin assisting efforts to control the border. "You 
can sit in Washington, D.C., and you can get briefings and you can 
look at maps and hear from people what the challenges are out here," 
Basham said. "But until you get up there and you look and you see 
what kind of terrain you're dealing with and the difficulties of it, 
you really don't have a true appreciation."

Source: Associated Press: 06/20
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BORDER NEWS II: NEW HEAD: SCHWARZENEGGER DEFIES BUSH OVER GUARD 
BORDER REINFORCEMENTS

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has defied a request from 
Washington to deploy additional National Guard troops from his state 
to the border with Mexico, according to a newspaper report. "The 
governor did not feel that it was appropriate to send additional 
Guard out of state," Adam Mendelsohn, the California governor's 
communications director, told The Los Angeles Times newspaper. 
Mendelsohn said Schwarzenegger disagreed with the request for further 
Guard border reinforcements because of concerns the western state, 
which is the country's most populous, could be vulnerable if an 
earthquake or large fires spark a state emergency.

California is due to deploy some 1,000 Guard troops to points along 
the border by July 31, and has dispatched 250 troops in the past 
week. The LA Times said the White House was now requesting that 
California deploy up to 1,500 troops. Under the White House-backed 
program, US border security is due be boosted by some 6,000 
additional Guard troops by August 1.

Source: AFP: 06/23
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FIRST BODY FROM FEBRUARY MINE BLAST FOUND

Rescuers have found the first of 65 bodies believed to have been left 
in a northern Mexican mine following a February explosion, a Mexican 
newspaper reported. The body was found about dawn as workers were 
removing debris from one of the shafts at the Pasta de Conchos mine 
in northern Coahuila state, the Reforma newspaper said, citing a 
spokeswoman from mine owner Grupo Mexico.

Source: Associated Press: 06/23
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GOVERNMENT TO SLASH DEBT WITH WORLD BANK, IADB

Mexico will prepay $7 billion in debt to the World Bank and the 
Inter-American Development Bank, dipping into its record-high foreign 
reserves to do so, the finance ministry said. Deputy Finance Minister 
Alonso Garcia said the payback would save Mexico about 600 million 
pesos ($52 million) in interest payments and improve the country's 
protection against future crises. "This operation will permit the 
government to continue its strategy of strengthening the 
public-sector debt structure," Garcia said. "We are continuing to 
diminish the vulnerability of public finances to adverse 
international market conditions."

A sign of Mexico's financial strength ahead of a July 2 presidential 
election, Garcia said the operation will lower the country's foreign 
debt to 28.5 percent from 32.5 percent of total debt. Mexico has 
often suffered political and economic turmoil at the end of 
presidents' six-year mandates. The country has debt of about $13 
billion with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, 
Garcia said.

Source: Reuters: 06/22

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The above articles were originally published and copyrighted by the 
listed sources. These articles are offered for educational purposes 
which CIS maintains is  'fair use' of copyrighted material as 
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

end: Mexico Week In Review: 06.19-06.25
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