Newsbriefs
Indigenous Groups Challenge U.S. Drug Company QUITO-Indigenous communities in the Amazon are considering a legal challenge to a patent of ayahuasca, a native plant sacred to indigenous...
...Given the majority commanded in the Senate by right-wing parties and the designated senators, the motion was doomed from the start...
...BOGOTA- In an April 6 letter to Gen...
...researcher with the Canadianbased Rural Advancement Foundation International, says that U.S...
...The report was quickly and vehemently denied as "absurd" and "unfounded" by Colombian, Argentine and U.S...
...The U.S...
...In early 1997, the EZLN began encouraging the formation of autonomous local governments...
...According to the National Mediation Commission (CONAI), the government's strategy has been to change the public perception of the conflict from one between the EZLN and the government to one between diverse groups within the state of Chiapas which the government itself should mediate...
...The Zedillo government's response to the impasse has been a growing military and paramilitary presence as well as a new unilateral proposal for constitutional reforms that it says would put it into compliance with the San Andr6s Accords...
...In order to claim a plant patent under U.S...
...Its dispatches can be read online in the Peacenet conferences: ips.espahol and ips.english...
...Pro-Pinochet lawmakers and the government successfully pressed for a secret ballot, thus making it easier for PDC legislators to vote against the motion...
...The signatories of the letter, who are members of the Association of Collective Rural Interests and Zapatista supporters, stated that the paramilitaries threatened to enter their village and rape all the women "that very night" if their husbands did not return...
...The charges also included slanderous remarks made by Pinochet against the relatives of the victims of his regime, comments against the German army and other acts which legislators said seriously damaged Chile's prestige and international image...
...Manuel Josd Bonett, commander of the Colombian military, the head of U.S...
...The response from indigenous groups has been equally strong...
...The conflict over the plant began ten years ago when Loren Miller, director of the International Plant Medicine Corporation, took a sample of the plant back to the United States...
...Miller...
...Our goal is to have the ayahuasca patent annulled, and to teach all international biopirates a lesson," said Rodolfo Asar, communications director of the Ecuador-based Coordinating Body for Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), a group representing over 400 indigenous groups from eight countries...
...military's principal intelligence service-concluded that the Colombian armed forces could be defeated within five years unless the country's government regains political legitimacy and its armed forces are drastically restructured...
...patent law is largely to blame for this and similar conflicts...
...military aid, including atomic bombs...
...Meanwhile, at the conclusion of a Mexico City march commemorating the seventy-ninth anniversary of the assassination of Emiliano Zapata on April 10, several hundred members of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), a group sympathetic to the EZLN, set up camp in the central plaza, the Z6calo, and announced they would remain there until dialogue was resumed in Chiapas...
...Miller," said Adolfo Franco, vice-president of the IAF...
...Drug Company QUITO-Indigenous communities in the Amazon are considering a legal challenge to a patent of ayahuasca, a native plant sacred to indigenous groups who have cultivated it since pre-Columbian times for reglious ceremonies and medicinal purposes...
...This was not some plant that no one knew about...
...Miller, whose company is currently developing psychiatric and cardio-vascular pharmaceuticals from the plant, has ignored repeated requests from indigenous groups to give up the patent...
...authorities...
...aid to improve their mobility and logistical support and to increase their capacity for direct attacks, nighttime operations, communications, intelligence and river and coast-guard deployments...
...It lacks credibility precisely among the groups to whom it is being presented...
...Nevertheless, the sponsors of the motion and human rights organizations maintained that approval of the motion by the lower house would have constituted a political and moral victory over the former dictator...
...Danielle Knight/ InterPress Service Attempt to Censure Senator Pinochet Fails VALPARAISO-With the key votes of 11 legislators from the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), Chile's Chamber of Deputies voted down a motion to censure former dictator Gen...
...They are, simultaneously, the response to the governmental impasse in the negotiations, constituting a de facto application of the San Andr6s Accords...
...Wilhelm was responding to reports in the Argentine press charging that he had received permission from Colombian leaders to assemble a multilateral force, and that he had asked the Argentine and Brazilian presidents for their support...
...Patent and Trademark Office to the owner of a California-based pharmaceutical company...
...The patent was granted by the U.S...
...Augusto Pinochet, which sought to remove him from his lifetime seat in the Senate...
...law, you do not need to be the breeder or the cultivator of a plant in order to claim intellectual property...
...Embassy in Ecuador and the Inter-American Foundation (IAF), a government-funded development agency which has provided the indigenous organization with more than $1 million in financial support, called for a retraction...
...After an 11hour session on April 9, the lower house voted 62-52 to reject the motion that would have impeached the retired Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces for "dishonoring" the country...
...Martin Balza...
...officials have reacted strongly to COICA's threats...
...For subscription information: 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012...
...The men of Taniperlas had abandoned the community and taken refuge in the jungle to avoid a confrontation with the MIRA...
...Because it was never discussed with either of the mediating groups or the EZLN, Zedillo's new proposal-regardless of its content-is widely seen as an attempt to skirt the negotiating process...
...However, the COICA resolution is abusive and reprehensible, constituting a threat against the security and wellbeing of Mr...
...Bonett that he had asked the U.S...
...The current impasse in Chiapas stems from the deep disagreements over whether or not the government is complying with the San Andr6s Accords...
...The Fray Bartolom6 Las Casas Human Rights Center is based in Chiapas, Mexico, and can be contacted at cdhbcasas@laneta.apc.org...
...The organization also posted a notice on its Web site stating that it would not be responsible for any physical harm to Miller if he ventured into indigenous territory...
...Colombia is the most threatened in the area under the Southern Command's responsibility, and it is in urgent need of our support...
...government was seeking to head up a multilateral force to intervene in Colombia...
...Information about the Center's activities can be obtained at http://www.laneta.apc.org/cdhbcasas...
...Wilhelm stated that "at this time the Colombian armed forces are not up to the task of confronting and defeating the insurgents...
...Edward Hammond, a U.S...
...Nevertheless, the 24 PDC deputies who voted to Vol XXXI, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1998 1 Vol XXXI, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1998 1NEWSBRIEFS censure Pinochet made their votes public by displaying the color of their ballots...
...Weekly News Update of the Americas is published by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York...
...According to Wilhelm, the Colombian military and police need U.S...
...Several of the 24 PDC legislators who supported the motion criticized the pressures applied by the government and by party president Enrique Krauss to vote against the motion...
...Several cabinet ministers have stated that both the creation of autonomous municipalities and the invitations extended to international observers are affronts to Mexican dignity and sovereignty...
...The COCOPA, on the other hand, which is composed of congressional representatives of all the political parties, has become divided along partisan lines and is therefore ineffective, according to Labastida...
...A report prepared last November by the U.S...
...The dignity of our peoples is highly valued, much more than your million dollars," Antonio Jacanamijoy, COICA's general coordinator, said in response to Franco's remarks...
...Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)-the U.S...
...The vote has intensified the tensions between the PDC and their junior partners in the ruling Concertaci6n coalition, the Socialists and the Party for Democracy, with whom they are already at odds over the selection of the coalition's candidate for the December 1999 presidential elections...
...Fray Bartolom' de Las Casas Human Rights Center NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Multilateral Invasion Force for Colombia...
...NotiSur/InterPress Service Mexican Government Targets Foreigners CHIAPAS-On April 12, Mexico's Interior Ministry ordered the immediate expulsion from Mexico of 12 foreign solidarity activists who had attended a ceremony establishing a pro-Zapatista autonomous municipality in northern Chiapas two days earlier...
...NotiSur is available as a closed Peacenet conference: carnet.ladb...
...He is currently engaged in research in Mexico City...
...Hammond says this case illustrates the need to revise U.S...
...Bonett, who made the letter public, agreed that the Colombian armed forces are in "a position of inferiority" with respect to the rebels, saying that he would gladly accept U.S...
...patent laws to protect the property rights of indigenous peoples...
...Miller patented it, obtaining exclusive rights to sell and breed new varieties from the plant...
...In response, COICA informed its members that Miller was an "enemy of indigenous peoples," and that "his entrance into all indigenous territory should be prohibited...
...By expelling the foreigners, and jailing nine of the indigenous organizers of the autonomous community, the government was striking back at what have become the two most successful tactics of the indigenous uprising in Chiapas-the creation of a semipermanent protective buffer of First-World solidarity activists, and the development of unarmed bases of support for the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in the form of parallel local governments called autonomous municipalities...
...We do not represent the private interests of Mr...
...What you do need is a pair of scissors, a passport and a backpack," says Hammond...
...The episode has also caused a major split in the PDC...
...The right argued that if Pinochet was found guilty of the charges, it would incriminate both Aylwin and Frei for allowing the illegal actions of the former army commander...
...Fred Rosen is Editor (on leave) of NACLA Report on the Americas...
...According to the report, which was also published by center-left Buenos Aires daily El Clarin, Wilhelm discussed the multinational force at a meeting in Miami in February with Argentine army chief Gen...
...Members of the Christian Democratic Youth occupied party headquarters the day following the vote carrying placards that asked for forgiveness for the PDC vote and demanded Krauss' resignation...
...Former President Aylwin also opposed the measure...
...800) 472-0888...
...The expulsion of foreign nationals, especially those associated with the Diocese of San Crist6bal, headed by the radical bishop Samuel Ruiz, has intensified over the past year...
...In this context, the old mediators have become inconvenient, and the government has launched a campaign against CONAI as well as the Mediation and Pacification Commission (COCOPA...
...For subscription information: Latin America Data Base, Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131...
...Two days later, from its Z6calo encampment, the CNI announced the creation of 20 new autonomous municipalities in the southern states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Veracruz...
...The motion accused Pinochet of responsibility for two incidents of army insubordination against the civilian government of Patricio Aylwin in December 1990 and May 1993...
...Miller, and we cannot support that...
...Without listening to our reasons, your organization unconditionally defends the economic interests of Mr...
...The autonomous municipalities are the political solution which the EZLN has constructed to channel the indigenous rebellion," wrote columnist Luis Herndndez in a recent edition of the Mexican daily, Continued on page 45 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 La Jornada...
...Congress for urgent support for the Colombian military's counterinsurgency war against leftist guerrillas...
...Interior Minister Labastida has complained that CONAI-especially its director, Bishop Ruiz-is "partial" to the Zapatistas and therefore unable to play the role of impartial mediator...
...Buenos Aires radio station Radio Mitre was the first to pick up the story about a multilateral invasion force, citing military and diplomatic sources...
...In his letter, Wilhelm denied that the U.S...
...COICA only learned of the patent claims recently, and immediately denounced his actions...
...Since peace talks collapsed in 1996 after the government attempted to modify the agreements it had already signed, tensions have been mounting...
...The alleged plan called for troops from Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador to enter Colombian territory as a "peace force...
...Southern Command, Charles Wilhelm, informed Gen...
...office of InterPress Service, an international news service...
...Fred Rosen Women Zapatista Supporters Threatened With Rape CHIAPAS-On April 20, 190 women residents of the town of Taniperlas, Chiapas, which recently became a pro-Zapatista autonomous municipality, signed a letter denouncing rape threats made against them by members of the AntiZapatista Revolutionary Indigenous Movement (MIRA), a local paramilitary group which operates with the support of the police, the Mexican army and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI...
...It is widely used and cultivated throughout the Amazon and has been selectively bred by indigenous people for centuries," he noted...
...President Eduardo Frei was strongly opposed to the motion, calling it "inconvenient" and arguing that instead of condemning Pinochet, it would have condemned the entire transition to democracy...
...212) 674-9499...
...There are now 38 such entities in Chiapas...
...He claimed to know nothing about the alleged multilateral force, and insisted that no such thing had been discussed either by the Colombian military or by the government, calling the press reports on the matter "incomplete and imprecise...
...Sources: Danielle Knight is Global Environment Editor at the Washington, D.C...
...Foreigners in Chiapas have become targets of political convenience in the government's campaign to present both the EZLN and Bishop Ruiz as somehow un-Mexican...
...In the face of the aggression which has tried to push us back," said Marcelino Dfaz de Jestis, the group's director, "we will respond by creating new autonomous municipalities...
Vol. 31 • May 1998 • No. 6
