In Brief
El Salvador: AntiPrivatization Victory SAN SALVADOR-El Salvador's nine-month health care workers' strike against the privatization of the public health system came to an end on June 13....
...He then added: "We arrive without rancor but with memory...
...Kirchner has targeted the military, police and judiciary to show that he is willing to take decisive action to improve Argentina's situation...
...While the agreement reincorporates all workers immediately, 160 will be reviewed on an individual basis, because of charges against them for strike related activity...
...The state of emergency suspends constitutional rights including public assembly and due process, and allows the president to deploy police and military to restore order...
...The military deployments further inflamed demonstrations...
...The teachers union, SUTEP, reached a 40-point preliminary agreement with the government on June 4, but the strike continued for eight more days until the teachers agreed to half the pay raise they initially demanded...
...Both threats are in strict violation of the agreement signed...
...The next morning in a clash with protestors, police shot and killed 22 year-old Edi Quilca, a university student...
...It remains to be seen, however, if Kirchner's first weeks in office indicate a genuine attempt at reforming notoriously corrupt institutions, or if his main goal is to remove Menem loyalists, so they can be replaced by his own followers...
...Although murders by police go largely unpunished, Amnesty International stated in a press release that disbanding the CMU is hopefully "the turning of a corner in the fight to see justice for the victims of unlawful police killings in Jamaica...
...I joined the political struggle believing in values and convictions that I don't intend to leave at the door of the presidential palace...
...He is widely criticized in Peru for bowing to IMF demands for stringent structural adjustment measures, which allow Peru to service its debt but leave nothing for social programs and wage increases...
...Formed in 2000, the CMU was created to combat Jamaica's skyrocketing crime rates...
...As part of the agreement, a commission made up of medical professionals along with government, union and civil society representatives will follow up on reforms to El Salvador's health care system...
...But besides stopping the privatization, the nine-month strike educated the public on the drawbacks to privatizing the country's public services, so it is unlikely such a strategy would succeed...
...Student groups marched in solidarity with teachers and seized the university in the southeastern city of Puno on May 28...
...Kirchner has directed his most recent anti-corruption efforts at PAMI, the social security system for pensioners...
...Government spokespersons have repeatedly denied the resurgence of the Shining Path...
...Workers fired or on strike since last September will also return to their jobs...
...Families are welcome...
...We are in Cuemavaca, Mexico, "The City of Eternal Spring...
...Within one week of signing the agreement Mauricio Ramos Falla, the Social Security Institute's director, threatened to "demote" doctors and strikers in positions of authority in the hospital and mentioned new contracts...
...Kirchner bluntly warned KGhler that he would not sign anything that would betray his convictions...
...The assailants freed the oil workers after holding them for 36 hours...
...But hostages and other sources assert the company paid the kidnappers a ransom of $200,000 for their release...
...On June 3 Kirchner ordered the replacement of ten of the 12 most senior police officers in the federal police and a review of the files of 53 police commissioners...
...The new president's toughest political battle will be his recent call for the impeachment or resignation of Supreme Court justices...
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...Union leaders and government representatives reached an agreement that halts the privatization of the nation's health system...
...Teachers were at the forefront of mass mobilizations beginning on May 12 that included health and judiciary workers, farmers and students...
...Teo Ballve Argentina: Kirchner Shakes Things Up Newly elected Argentine President N6stor Kirchner began his term with a slew of measures aimed at instilling confidence in his ability to resuscitate the ailing country...
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...Kirchner made fighting corruption a prominent campaign promise...
...After the declaration of a state of emergency, the country erupted in protests...
...The move by Menem was a clear attempt to avoid an embarrassing defeat, but more importantly sought to sabotage Kirchner's presidential legitimacy...
...According to Amnesty International, point blank gunshots to the victims' heads indicate execution-style killings...
...Leslie Schuld Peru: Mounting Unrest President Alejandro Toledo declared a national state of emergency on May 27 amid widespread strikes and roadblocks by L A H 3*AD~)E[u AiV Study Spanish in Guatemala A not-for profit sisterhood of two collectively-run schools offers one-on-one instruction, family living, field trips and cultural activities...
...The day after his inauguration Kirchner forced nearly 75% of the country's highest-ranking military officers into retirement...
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...The head of the CMU, Reneto Adams, is seen by some as a crimefighting hero, but in 2001 he was internationally criticized for the murder of seven young men-now known as the Braeton Seven--during a raid in Braeton, a community on the outskirts of Kingston...
...On June 23, his entire cabinet announced its resignation...
...Anti-privatization has become a salient part of the FMLN's platform, which is surely an asset in a country where-according to a recent poll by the Jesuit University-80% of Salvadorans oppose health care privatization...
...Statistics show that in 2002 Jamaican police were responsible for the killing of 133 people in a population of 2.6 million...
...Tony Saca, the president of El Salvador's private business association, is the intellectual author of President Francisco Flores' health care privatization proposal...
...From the lowland Amazonian town of Iquitos, to the highland banks of Lake Titicaca, protestors took advantage of the nationwide uprising to voice their own demands...
...Representatives of the Doctors' Association met previously with World Bank officials in Washington and managed to reverse a privatization clause imposed under a loan earmarked for modernizing the public health system...
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...The political and popular vindication such a victory could provide would also help the President with a favorable outcome in the legislative elections slated for October...
...Besides targeting police, three weeks into his term he virtually forced out four directors of Argentina's state-owned National Bank-known for egregious political patronage...
...TB Contributor Leslie Schuld is the director and co-founder of the Center for Exchange and Solidarity (CIS), <http://www.cis-elsalvador.org>, in El Salvador...
...Saca is currently the favorite to win the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) presidential nomination for the 2004 elections...
...Kirchner became president on May 25 after his opponent, former President Carlos Menem, abandoned his candidacy amid poll numbers ensuring his defeat in the runoff between the two candidates...
...The previous IMF agreement is set to expire in August...
...The unions and medical associations expect the government will continue to seek privatization through the commission on health care reforms...
...Government critics say Toledo resorted to the confrontational state of emergency before avenues of dialogue were exhausted...
...TB Jamaica: Paramilitary Crime Unit Disbanded Jamaica's elite police squad, the Crime Management Unit (CMU), was disbanded on June 9. The group consisted of eight commando-like police officers donning black garb and assault rifles...
...In his inaugural address Kirchner foreshadowed his intentions by saying, "I am part of a generation that was decimated and castigated by painful absence...
...According to Amnesty International the squad is responsible for human rights abuses including extra-judicial killings and executions...
...IMF managing director, Horst Kohler, met twice with Kirchner at the end of June and they agreed to begin negotiations on a mediumterm plan to last three years...
...Inner-city warring drug gangs and entrenched political factionalism have contributed to one of the highest murder rates in the world...
...On June 4 Kirchner called on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings...
...Although Toledo is praised by lending institutions and governments for low inflation and a growth rate of 5%-the highest in Latin America-the half of Peru's population living on $1.25 or less a day has yet to reap the benefits...
...Official reports claim the kidnappers were members of the Shining Path guerrilla group...
...Menem expanded the court and stacked it with his appointees...
...Tel: +52 (777)311 8956 & 317 5151 Fax: +52 (777) 317 5151 & 316 3546 cleceiwnavacalanguageschoi.com www.cuernavacalanguageschool.com Vol XXXVII, No 1 JuLY/AUGUST 2003 1IN BRIEF protestors...
...If Kirchner succeeds in maneuvering this difficult political battle he will likely consolidate substantial legitimacy...
...According to the Argentine daily La Naci6n, during the first meeting Kbhler uncharacteristically accepted partial responsibility for Argentina's economic collapse at the end of 2001...
...The government has sought to undermine union organization by reassigning some workers-mainly union leaders-to new hospitals or to the Ministry of Health...
...In the first week of June a joint operation involving the Guyanese army and police left nine people dead...
...Although Toledo has yet to decide whether to accept all 13 resignations, the cabinet reshuffle should provide his administration with some breathing room...
...Emulating the CMU, similar anti-crime units continue to exist in other Caribbean nations like Trinidad and Guyana, both of which have escalating crime problems...
...Toledo mobilized 70% of the national Army to quell protests and clear highways of roadblocks...
...And the entire membership of both the health care workers' union and the medical professionals' union will be reinstated under previous contracts, restoring labor stability, salaries and seniority...
...The move was widely perceived as a purge to rid the armed forces of human rights violators in positions of power...
...Reports are conflicting concerning the release of the hostages...
...The Buenos Aires province police force is the hub of widespread police corruption...
...By weakening the unions the government could possibly pave the way for privatization...
...Also in Peru, 71 oil pipeline workers of the Argentine firm Techint were taken hostage on June 9 by a band of heavily armed kidnappers in Ayacucho department...
...In any case, his hardest task may prove to be the negotiation of a comprehensive agreement with the International Monetary Fund...
...His meager 11% approval rating-the lowest for any Latin American president-raises doubts about his ability to finish his term ending in 2006...
...Another motive in ousting the judges is Kirchner's intention of getting the court to overturn two laws protecting human rights abusers from prosecution for crimes committed during Argentina's "dirty war...
...The opposition Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), which gained substantial ground in the recent mayoral and legislative elections, leads the polls to win next year's presidential election...
...Official government statements claim the captors released the hostages because of pressure from a military maneuver...
...The commission is the first inclusive attempt at health reforms...
Vol. 37 • July 2003 • No. 1
