In Brief
Police Halt "Outing" of Chilean Magnate and Human Rights Violator SANTIAGO-In late June, the Chilean human rights movement known as La Funa was met with water cannons, beatings and...
...The political circumstances will only get worse if we don't make changes...
...For the hard-line free-market economist Ricardo L6pez Murphy, who for just 15 days last March was finance minister, the position that now belongs to Domingo Cavallo, "Argentina has to make changes today to get out of the crisis...
...According to Terry Collingsworth of the International Labor Rights Fund and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, "There is no question that Coke knew about, and benefits from, the systematic repression of trade union rights at its bottling plants in Colombia, and this case will make the company accountable...
...The violent response to the targeting of Claro highlights the limits of Chilean democratization...
...The governing Alliance, composed of the social democratic Radical Civic Union (UCR) and the moderate left National Solidarity Front (Frepaso), is reeling from the economy's downward plunge...
...As opposed to other protests, the June 19 demonstration was orderly, peaceful and spontaneous...
...This is why there is constant talk about "market coups" that resemble the old military revolts...
...Since the beginning of 2001, the NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS popularity that had led Mejia to victory in the May 2000 presidential elections has been waning...
...He was targeted for his role in the deaths of six workers from his Elecmetal factory who were turned over to security forces in November 1973 and executed...
...The reticence of international financial sectors to raise the country's ratings, in spite of having more than complied with its obligations, was also worrying...
...The suit was filed on July 20 by the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian union that represents workers at Coca-Cola's Colombian bottling plants...
...Menem had a lot to sell and manipulated "peronismojusticialismo...
...The police action was technically under the jurisdiction of the intendent (regional governor) but a Funa leader noted that they "don't move a finger without consulting [the President in] La Moneda...
...The workers were then led into the manager's office to sign union resignation forms prepared by the company...
...Although the government had previously accused the Funa of violating the rights of its targets and failing to respect the judicial process, no effort had been made to prevent the monthly actions...
...Stella Calloni Coca-Cola Accused of Using Paramilitaries to Target Colombian Unionists MIAMI AND BOGOTA--A lawsuit filed in U.S...
...Rosalind Bresnahan Reality Hits Argentina BUENOS AIRES-The social and economic crisis that affects Argentine politics was foreseen long ago...
...All the seasoned economists, on the right or left, agree on one point: Adjustments are needed...
...Cavallo sails through rough waters, and can no longer sell false promises because reality has finally hit Argentina...
...Dante Ortiz Sources Rosalind Bresnahan teaches in the Department of Communication Studies, California State University San Bernardino...
...Argentines were also hit by hourWe gratefully acknowledge the support of the following major donors, 2000-2001: David Amdur Paula and Harold Baron Albert Bildner Judith Buechner James Campen Arthur Clark Marc Edelman Tess Ewing Miguel Fuentes Fritz Hafer Collier Hands Ada G. Halbreich Hugh Hazelton Judith Hellman Robin Lloyd Isa Maack Michael Mage Nita R. Manitzas Cynthia McClintock Peter Millard Lawrence B. Morse David Negus Jill Nelson Michael Nimkoff Phyllis Pennell David Perasso John A. Pollack Edgar Rios Rose S. Rosen James Roth T.M...
...At the same time, the middle sectors have seen their incomes and quality of life decline with increases in the cost of fuel, electricity and taxes...
...None of that seems possible now...
...The conservatives said the Alliance "was not in the interest of the market fundamentalists...
...These policies were no different than the ones they had successfully backed during the administrations of Joaquin Balaguer and Leonel Fernandez...
...Over the past few months the entire entrepreneurial class has been aligned against Mejia, to the point of refusing to pay newly imposed taxes...
...The suit was also brought on behalf of the estate of murdered union leader Isidro Segundo Gil, and five other unionists...
...These companies come up with these codes and then don't enforce them...
...These are the darkest days of the oscillating economy of the past few years...
...Nor could it be capitalized on by any political movement or party, although forces of Joaquin Balaguer's Reform Party were pre- sent, as were some smaller groups on the left...
...He is also accused of making his ships available as torture centers...
...Although the pact puts the euphemistically called "markets" at ease, this solution can cause a "social default" with unforeseeable consequences...
...When asked about his company's use of paramilitaries to kill and intimidate union members, Bebidas y Alimentos owner Richard Kirby said, "You don't use them, they use you...
...Garry M. Leech Mejia's Neoliberal Policies Stir Cauldron of Unrest in Dominican Republic SANTO DOMINGO-This past June 19 saw the most contentious nationwide demonstration yet against the economic policies of President Hip6lito Mejia...
...They follow the celebrations over the artificial growth that characterized Carlos Menem's (1989-1999) administration, when all state companies were sold-whether they were efficient or not-in negotiations riddled with corruption that has only now become fully apparent...
...Then he allowed the country's most militant group of neoliberals, the Economy and Development Foundation (FED), to place the Ministry of Finance at the service of the banking sector...
...Shortly after Mosquera's pronouncement, local members of SINALTRAINAL began receiving threats from the paramilitaries...
...The PJ is also in the process of breaking up, especially after Menem's arrest for corruption and arms trafficking...
...During April and May there had been over 20 civic strikes both in Santo Domingo and in the provinces...
...Claro's many business interests include a major shipping company, the Santa Rita vineyards, Megavision television and Metropolis Intercom cable TV...
...The repression demonstrated the political clout of the Funa's target, magnate Ricardo Claro, one of Chile's wealthiest and most powerful men...
...As usual, the lowest income groups have suffered the most, facing declining incomes and a rising cost of living across the board: telephone and utility bills, the family basket of basic goods and the cost of transportation...
...Even though President de la Rua and his party formed a pact with the opposition Peronist Party (PJ) to achieve the zero deficit goal, this is not enough...
...He also claims the facts regarding the murder of Isidro Segundo Gil have been distorted: "One day the paramilitaries showed up at the plant...
...Nobody tells the paramilitaries what to do...
...SINALTRAINAL responded by sending a letter to the Colombian headquarters of both Bebidas y Alimentos and Coca-Cola Colombia informing them of Mosquera's threats and requesting protection for its members...
...The crisis has reached its limits...
...After a decade of civilian government, embarrassing former members of the security apparatus will be tolerated...
...The President began to lose support when it seemed that he was backing away from the vigorous prosecution of well-documented cases of corruption among members of the previous administration of Leonel Fernindez...
...These policies leave the government exposed to new and more radical protests within a highly politicized society deter- mined not to die of hunger and pri- vation...
...Now it's been turned around so that it's our fault...
...The June action represented the culmination of civic discontent that had been building since early spring...
...Joining the right and left, entrepreneurial sectors helped stimulate the strike, hoping to pressure the government to forgive their taxes...
...In his defense, it is certain that Mejia inherited empty state coffers due to the corruption of the previous administration...
...The June 23 march had barely gotten underway toward Megavision when several busloads of police intervened...
...But as economist Aldo Ferrer N notes, "Argentina was the t( country that made those in changes in the worst way: It X went deeply into debt, sold its tt national resources in their lc entirety and attracted a great N amount of foreign investment that has been selling to the internal market while buying from abroad, thus running up deficits...
...Two days later, according to eyewitness accounts, the paramilitaries returned to the plant and told employees they had three choices: resign from the union, leave Carepa, or be killed...
...In 1996, according to the complaint, Ariosto Milan Mosquera, plant manager at Bebidas y Alimentos' bottling facility in Carepa, Colombia, publicly announced that he had ordered paramilitaries to destroy the union...
...Police Halt "Outing" of Chilean Magnate and Human Rights Violator SANTIAGO-In late June, the Chilean human rights movement known as La Funa was met with water cannons, beatings and mass arrests for the first time since beginning public "outings" of human rights violators in October 1999...
...The suit claims that CocaCola controls all aspects of business conducted by its Colombian subsidiary Coca-Cola Colombia, as well as the operations of its Florida-based bottlers, Panamco and Bebidas y Alimentos, which are also named in the lawsuit...
...Trust Vol XXXV, No 2 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 1IN BRIEF by-hour announcements of the rising "country risk" (the excess interest a country must pay on its foreign debt if its bonds are considered risky investments) that in one dark week rose to over 600 points...
...Three demonstrators were injured...
...However, on the morning of December 5, 1996, Bebidas y Alimentos employee and local SINALTRAINAL executive board member Isidro Segundo Gil was killed by paramilitaries inside the Carepa bottling plant...
...Finally, President Mejia has responded to all the criticism against the government's policies by insulting his critics, reaffirming his erratic social and economic policies, and by highlighting his propensity for inappropriate language...
...If it persists with the neoliberal prescriptions of the FED, with the impunity surround- ing the cases of corruption of the previous government and with higher taxes for those least able to pay, it faces the rapid erosion of the popular support that carried Mejia's Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) to victory in the last elections...
...With the trauma that downward mobility causes, with the gutting of public education and with 14 million people living in poverty-nearly 40% of the population-in one of the most expensive countries in Latin America, it is going to be hard to accept further decline...
...Garry M. Leech is the Publisher of Colombia Report, a web-based magazine that provides analysis of the Colombian civil war...
...Coca-Cola spokesman Rafael Fernmndez denied any wrongdoing regarding human rights violations in Colombia and claimed, "CocaCola has a strict code of conduct that all its subsidiaries and businesses that work with Coca-Cola products have to adhere to...
...All of this has turned the middle classes and intellectuals against him, leading some to compare him with former President Bucardm of Ecuador...
...Similar feelings exist on the left and the Alliance has already suffered a major break with the October 2000 resignation of vice-president and Frepaso leader, Carlos Alvarez...
...The suit also claims that local management at Panamco's Barrancabermeja plant publicly accused SINALTRAINAL members of being guerrillas...
...Analysts suspect that the conservative wing of the UCR had long decided on the need for the Alliance's rupture...
...But the seventh adjustment in slightly more than a decade announced by President Fernando de la Rua on July 11 affected the middle classes, workers and retirees and revealed the seriousness of the moment, causing a "tango effect" throughout the region...
...Given the volatile situation in Barrancabermeja, home to the most intense urban warfare in Colombia, such an accusation is tantamount to a death sentence...
...Scott Tennican Steven S. Volk Tamar Diana Wilson Ronald G. Woodbury Anonymous (2) In memory of William C. Roseberry Ford Foundation Funding Exchange Kiva Booksellers Harry Levine Foundation National Council of Churches of Christ National Ministries Division Presbyterian Church (USA) New York Annual Conference United Methodist Church Theodore A. Von der Ahe, Jr...
...Claro has denied these charges and filed a slander lawsuit against a prominent human rights lawyer who discussed his human rights record in a television interview last year...
...Since the last military dictatorship (1976-1983) and especially during the last decade, Argentina has changed its profile to one of a more advanced and socially equitable country...
...Union members claim that Mosquera often socialized with paramilitary fighters and even provided them with Coca-Cola products for their parties...
...A feeling of desperation has spread over the population affected by a four-year recession, a 17% rate of unemployment and 35% underemployment, the recent cuts in already-low pensions and cuts in the wages of public employees and teachers...
...Many local experts say this is the last chance for this administration...
...But according to Collingsworth, "Their 'code of conduct' shows that they are legally responsible...
...District Court in Florida accuses the Coca-Cola Company of collaborating with paramilitary death squads to murder, torture, kidnap and threaten union leaders in Colombia...
...His reluctance to push forward against high-level malfeasance negated his reiterated campaign promise to pursue, punish and root out all administrative corruption...
...Almost fifty of the approximately 200 participants were arrested and fined...
...He sold the idea of becoming a First World country and so kept the population at ease by promising future rewards...
...Popular discontent and indigna- tion are so high that Mejia's gov- ernment is at a stage of great uncertainty: It must change its macroeconomic strategy or face more civil disobedience and ungovernability...
...Nonetheless, the government's decision to take the neoliberal road has aggravated the problem and stirred the cauldron of unrest...
...Stella Calloni is the South America corre- spondent for La Jornada (Mexico City) and the winner of the 2001 Samuel Chavkin Prize for Investigative Journalism in Latin America...
...See <<http:/~.colombiareport.org>> Dante Ortiz is Professor of history and sociology at the Universidad Aut6noma de Santo Domingo and the lnstituto Tecnol6gico de Santo Domingo...
...They shut the plant down, put everyone against the wall, and started shooting...
...Thus, he lost the sympathies of wide sectors that had voted for him principally to vote against government corruption...
...Many Argentines now feel that for ten years each drastic measure has had a piercing effect while none of the promises made by the government have materialized...
...The financiers quickly gained the enmity of the agricultural and industrial sectors by vigorously advocating economic policies consisting of onerous interest rates, tight money and austerity measures against the workers...
...According to the complaint, union officials at several other Coca-Cola bottling plants have also been threatened and harassed...
...targeting pillars of the economic model will not...
...Ferrer is critical of the recent budget cuts and warns that "the procedure of linking the level of expenditures with tax revenues is problematic because in recessions revenues tend to decline...
...Scruggs David Silk Hobart Spalding, Jr...
...He recognized that there were missed opportunities: "Structural measures could have been taken at a very low cost, whereas today the decisions that have to be taken are very traumatic...
...It is also true that remittances from the United States had waned because of the recession during the first half of the year, and that the rise of global oil prices had dealt a severe blow to the economy...
...In 1996, five union members were wrongly imprisoned for six months for allegedly planting a bomb that the regional prosecutor concluded never existed...
Vol. 35 • September 2001 • No. 2
