Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 06:53:55 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: AUT: Latest reasons to abolish the IMF


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Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 00:55:03 -0400 (EDT)
To: "David L. Wilson" <nicadlw-AT-earthlink.net>
From: Weekly News Update <wnu-AT-igc.org>
Subject: Weekly News Update #540, 6/4/00

          WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
               ISSUE #540, JUNE 4, 2000
  NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
        339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 
             (212) 674-9499 <wnu-AT-igc.org>

3. Thousands of Argentines Protest IMF Austerity Plan
4. Argentina: Imprisoned Ex-Rebels on Hunger Strike
5. Ecuador: Amnesty for Rebel Officers, More Economy Protests

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*3. THOUSANDS OF ARGENTINES PROTEST IMF AUSTERITY PLAN

On May 29, the government of Argentine president Fernando de la
Rua announced a series of new measures designed to cut $938
million in public spending. The measures are a desperate effort
to keep a commitment made with the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), which granted Argentina a $7.3 billion loan in exchange
for a promise to keep this year's budget deficit below $4.7
billion. The government spent nearly half that amount in the
first four months of 2000.
 
The new measures would cut wages by 12% for government workers
who earn between $1,000 and $6,500 a month, and by 15% for those
who earn more; and would restructure or eliminate a number of
government agencies. [La Republica (Lima) 5/30/00 from EFE;
Agence France Presse 5/31/00]
 
De la Rua's announcement provoked an immediate reaction from
employees of the Congress, who began an open-ended strike over
the projected closing of the congressional print shop and the
salary reductions; and from workers at the state news agency
Telam, who began a vigil in an effort to prevent the sale of the
agency's headquarters and the closing of its state advertising
department. The budget cuts were also rejected immediately by
both sectors of Argentina's divided main labor federation, the
General Workers Confederation (CGT). [LR 5/30/00 from EFE] 
 
Widespread opposition to the new austerity measures fueled strong
attendance at a previously scheduled march in Buenos Aires on May
31, timed to coincide with a visit by an IMF delegation. Tens of
thousands of people--20,000 according to Reuters, 40,000
according to the Buenos Aires left-leaning daily Clarin, or
80,000 according to protest organizers--marched to the Plaza de
Mayo behind a banner that said, "No to the IMF adjustment." The
march was called by the combative sector of the CGT, headed by
truckers' union leader Hugo Moyano, but was also backed by the
CGT's moderate wing led by Rodolfo Daer, and by Catholic church
leaders, who have become extremely critical of the IMF role in
Argentina. Ten people dressed as executioners, wearing black
hoods and t-shirts that said "IMF," carried a coffin labeled
"education, salaries, small and medium-size [businesses],
health." Another group of marchers burned an effigy of Uncle Sam.
 
In his speech, Moyano appealed to nationalist sentiments but also
surprised many observers by calling on Argentines to refuse to
pay their taxes as an act of "fiscal disobedience." (Income tax
jumped between 8% and 22% in January--the steepest increase in a
decade.) Moyano compared his country's 1976-1983 "military
dictatorship that tortured and killed" to the IMF's "financial
dictatorship that also kills 55 children a day in Argentina." He
added: "These organized people who defeated the military
dictatorship are also going to defeat the financial
dictatorship."
 
Both factions of the CGT, together with the independent
Confederation of Argentine Workers (CTA), have called a 24-hour
national general strike for June 9 to protest the government's
austerity measures. [Clarin 6/1/00; CNN en Espanol 5/31/00 with
info from Reuters; AFP 5/31/00; LR 6/1/00 from AFP; Financial
Times 6/1/00]
 
*4. ARGENTINA: IMPRISONED EX-REBELS ON HUNGER STRIKE

A group of 11 Argentine former rebels serving long sentences for
a 1989 attack on the La Tablada military base announced on May 29
that they were starting a hunger strike to demand their release
from prison. One of the hunger strikers is Enrique Gorriaran
Merlo, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the attack
on the army base on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Forty people
died in the 1989 attack, most of them members of Gorriaran's All
for the Homeland Movement (MTP). Gorriaran was previously a
leader of the Revolutionary Army of the People (ERP), a
Trotskyist guerrilla group active in Argentina in the 1970s [see
Updates #301, 328]. 
 
The La Tablada prisoners base their demands for release on a 1997
report by the Interamerican Human Rights Commission finding
irregularities in their trials, as well as evidence of human
rights violations committed by the army troops who seized control
of the base. The prisoners say they will continue the hunger
strike until they are released, or until they die. [La Republica
(Lima) 5/30/00 from EFE; Statement from La Tablada Prisoners
5/29/00 posted by Pulsar on 5/30/00; Pulsar 6/2/00]
 
*5. ECUADOR: AMNESTY FOR REBEL OFFICERS, MORE ECONOMY PROTESTS

On May 31, Ecuador's Congress granted amnesty to 115 members of
the armed forces under investigation for their role in the
January rebellion that ousted President Jamil Mahuad. The next
day, Carlos Jarrin, president of the Court of Military Justice
(CJM), closed the file on all of those who were under
investigation in the case. [Miami Herald 6/2/00 from wire
services; La Hora (Quito) 6/1/00] 
 
In other news, more than 10,000 university students marched
through Quito on May 31 to demand changes to the recently
approved Higher Education Law. Striking health workers also
staged a march in Quito on May 31. [LH 6/1/00] Teachers have been
engaging in protests around the country; the National Teachers
Union (UNE) reported that 50 people were arrested and one was
injured during teacher protests in Cotopaxi province on May 29,
and that five teachers and supporters were arrested in Guayaquil
on May 31. [El Telegrafo (Guayaquil) 6/1/00] 
 
Contributing to a wave of protests is public anger over a fuel
price hike announced on May 25. The ministers of social welfare,
labor and energy issued a joint statement explaining that the 66%
fuel price hike--which is accompanied by a 55% increase in public
employee salaries--is required by a letter of intent signed
between the goverment of President Gustavo Noboa Bejarano and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF). The fuel price hike is likely
to cause a sharp inflation in basic goods and necessities because
it increases the cost of transport.
 
Ecuador's Patriotic Front (FP), a coalition of grassroots and
labor organizations, was set to meet on June 3 to plan the date
of a "people's national strike," which will probably include
highway roadblocks. On June 5 the Federation of Campesino Social
Security Members is to begin protests to pressure the government
to reverse its IMF-imposed structural adjustment policies. [La
Republica (Lima) 5/28/00 from EFE]
 

END

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