US files labor rights case against Guatemala

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

US files labor rights case against Guatemala
(AFP) – 47 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — The United States announced Friday it would file a case against Guatemala for apparent labor rights violations under a central American free trade agreement. This is the first labor case the United States has ever brought against a trade agreement partner, President Barack Obama's top trade official said.

"Today, I am announcing that the Obama administration will file a case against Guatemala under our trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic, for apparent violations of obligations on labor rights," US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a speech in Pennsylvania. He said the case would send "a strong message" to US trading partners to protect their own workers and that the Obama administration "will not tolerate labor violations that place US workers at a disadvantage."

"We are prepared to enforce the full spectrum of American trade rights from labor to the environment," he said.

Kirk said that the United States was also "very concerned" that the problem of labor-related violence was becoming "increasingly serious" in Guatemala. "We will be working with partners across the Obama administration to examine and take up this issue with Guatemala as well in the near future," he said.

The Guatemala government's apparent failure to effectively enforce its labor laws harmed US workers by forcing them to compete against "substandard labor practices and tilts the playing field away from American workers and businesses," Kirk charged.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h24HoyOpgjZxcyH9gE_n_eEjp_SA

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[Judi Lynn]

1. From last February: Guatemala: alarming increase in anti-union violence

Guatemala: alarming increase in anti-union violence
Date of publication: February 10, 2010

The ITUC, its regional organisation the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) and its Guatemalan affiliates CGTG, CUSG and UNSITRAGUA, grouped within the Guatemalan Labour, Indigenous and Campesino Movement, are seriously concerned at the alarming increase in anti-union violence seen in Guatemala since the year 2007.

The poaching of members and the rise of "parallel" unions aimed at dividing the labour movement, robbing it of its independence and making it serve the interests of the government rather than the genuine interests and needs of Guatemala's workers, are a cause for grave concern, together with the recurrent violence against MSICG members and representatives.

The national, regional and international trade union movement is seriously alarmed by the government's attempts to delegitimize the MSICG in national and international forums, rather than encouraging solid and inclusive social dialogue aimed at eradicating the violence, the lack of respect for the core conventions of the ILO, and thus bringing an end to the impunity prevailing in the country.

On 2 February, bearing witness to the unusual level of anti-union violence, the MSICG presented a report on the serious human rights violations registered from the year 2005 to January 2010.

The TUCA and the ITUC fully support their affiliates and the Labour, Indigenous and Campesino Movement (MSICG) in their brave and committed dedication to trade union rights in Guatemala. In a statement delivered by TUCA in Guatemala. Victor Báez and Amanda Villatoro called on the government to "take every step necessary to bring an immediate halt to the acts violating trade union rights and freedoms".

http://www.laborrights.org/freedom-at-work/guatemala/news/12272

[dipsydoodle]

2. And Colombia gets a free pass ?

:wtf:

[Judi Lynn]

3. Maybe Guatemala needs to torture, and publicly murder a lot of union leaders,

and throw them either into mass graves, or gut them so their bodies will sink and throw them in the river, or cremate them in one of the crematoria scattered around the country, THEN we won't hear a peep about it from the U.S. government!

You nailed that one right away, dipsydoodle. Got'em.

[fascisthunter]

4. very selective, aren't they... the "Jackals" told us hands-off

"only do what "look" right in country's that we do very little business with.

[Peace Patriot]

5. My guess: The U.S. is trying to destabilize and topple Guatemala's leftist government.

Traditional CIA "divide and conquer" tactic, which fits with my theory that the "old CIA" is back in charge*. It's also possible that the US. is both funding the violence against trade unionists in Guatemala and, at the same time, hypocritically suing Guatemala for it, to create divisions, unrest and instability.

What is PERFECTLY CLEAR--in Colombia and Honduras--is that the U.S. doesn't give a fuck for trade unionists or anybody else who gets in the way of its "free trade for the rich"/war profiteer agenda.


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*(My theory is that Daddy Bush and his "Iraq Study Group"--of which Leon Panetta (Obama appointment to CIA head) was a member--got rid of Rumsfeld and de-fanged Cheney, circa 2006, to save Bush Jr's skin from CIA retaliation (for the Plame outings), and probably in coalition with military brass who didn't want to nuke Iran (at least then--too much danger of China and Russia coming into it?). The "old CIA" has been re-empowered (vs Rumsfeld's "Office of Special Plans") and their tactics are subtler and smarter, in a corpo-fascist sort of way.

We are seeing evidence of this in a lot of subterranean news events (hard to read news events), for instance, the effort to use this same issue--murders of trade unionists--against Chavez in Venezuela. Of course, Chavez doesn't have a policy of murdering trade unionists--like the $7 billion-U.S.-funded Colombian government and military do. These are private murders in Venezuela--probably Colombian death squads hired over the border in service to rich Venezuelan landowners, or by Colombia's version of the CIA, or the CIA itself, to create chaos on the Venezuela/Colombia border area. The point is that the Chavez government is not responsible for them--they didn't commit the murders--whereas in Colombia, the military is responsible for half of the murders of trade unionists and their closely tied death squads for the other half (according to Amnesty International); and some 70 political cohorts, including family members. of the rancid outgoing leader of Colombia, are under investigation or in jail for their ties to the death squads. That is not the case in Venezuela. Venezuela's justice system may be traditionally corrupt and hard to reform, and slow to catch these murderers (especially if they slip back over the border into Colombia). That is quite different from the government committing the murders! Yet we find rightwingers blaming the Chavez government--more fodder for "divide and conquer" destabilization. There are whole USAID (CIA) projects for this purpose--pitting labor unions against leftist governments. And, on the covert front, we don't know but can only guess. The Bushwhacks engaged in crude coup attempts--in Venezuela in 2002, in Bolivia in 2008, and the 2009 Honduran coup was probably designed by them. This CIA seems more patient, and, as I said, subtler and smarter, and also more into democracy cosmetics. The goals are the same--U.S. multinational corporate/war profiteer control of Latin America's resources--especially its oil--enslavement of its work force, and installation of toadying, rightwing governments. The tactics are different.

One other thing: The "old CIA" may be more effective than the Bushwhacks at setting up the next oil war (against Venezuela and Ecuador). They think more long term. They seem to be trying to pick off Chavez allies one by one. For instance, consider the Honduran coup--which was half Bushwack and half old CIA/Clinton (democracy cosmetics), and the odd development of U.S. military maneuvers in (demilitarized) Costa Rica. This sandwiches Nicaragua (next target?--leftist government, Venezuelan ally) with a U.S.-controlled fascist coup government to the north--Honduras--and the militarization of "free trade for the rich" Costa Rica to the south. Mexico was taken care of by a stolen election in 2005 (when the leftist came within 0.05% of winning, and very likely did win). Then there's Guatemala, now sandwiched between a "war on drugs" militarized Mexico and a bloody rightwing coup government (and U.S. bases) in Honduras. Central America was, recently, a breathtaking sweep of leftist governments, right up the peninsula to Mexico: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua (with a centrist Costa Rica). Add Venezuela (long coast on the Caribbean) and Cuba, and you had leftist dominance of the Caribbean. And they were getting organized, with their ALBA trade group, to resist U.S.-enforced "free trade for the rich." Now it's a checkerboard--less unity, and less collective power for its individual governments. But the purpose of this checkerboarding by the U.S. may be worse. It may be an oil war in the making. The Bushwhacks maybe couldn't pull it off? Too much recent baggage? But the "old CIA" can? That is my fear.)