Forwarded message:
From: D Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: urgent action (fwd)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (michael perelman),
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Sam Lanfranco)
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 21:02:19 -0800 (PST)
Dear Michael and Sam,
I have signed off Pen-l and Labor-l for the next ten days. Since
signing off, I received the follwowing message. Could you kindly
forward it to your respective lists?
Thanks.
Sid Shniad
Forwarded message: > From
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tue Mar 12 16:02 PST 1996 > Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Tue, 12 Mar 96 19:02:13 -0500 (EST)
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Christian Task Force on Central America BC)
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: urgent action
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], igc!iwtc, [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], igc!smooney,
> igc!technomama, [EMAIL PROTECTED], igc!vsister, igc!wings
> Content-Type: text
> Content-Length: 6374
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> March 12,
> 1996.
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> URGENT ACTION GUATEMALA URGENT ACTION GUATEMALA
>
> VIOLENCE AGAINST TRADE UNIONISTS CONTINUES
> Dear Friends,
>
> We have received a request for urgent action from the Bank Workers'
> Federation of Guatemala -FESEBS.
>
> On February 27, 1996, at 6 p.m. VILMA CRISTINA GONZALEZ (35) was
> leaving her job at the postal office (7a. Ave. & 12 St. Zone 1) in
> Guatemala City when a group of heavily armed men in a van with
> polarized windows forced her into the car and abducted her. She was
> released hours later and is on medical treatment because she had been
> tortured and repeatedy raped. Vilma Cristina Gonzalez was threatened
> with death if she and her brother did not leave the country and if her
> brother did not stop his union activities. Her own independent
> activities were not questioned. Her brother REYNALDO GONZALEZ is the
> general secretary of FESEBS and has been involved in the labour.
> Reynaldo Gonzalez is leaving the country on Thursday March 14 but Vilma
> Cristina is not.
>
> On Thursday, February 29, Vilma Cristina Gonzalez saw the same black
> suburban vehicle, in which she was abducted, parked about a block from
> her home; she was followed and intimidated. Later that evening, a
> one-page letter was left under the door of Mrs. Gonzalez' home. Among
> other insults and vulgarities, it warned: " We are giving you 48 hours
> to leave the country. We are going to machine gun your home and your
> family. We are going to bury your two daughters in the same coffin with
> you. We already told you that we are going to rape them."
>
> BACKGROUND INFORMATION.
> For more than two decades, trade unionists and their families in
> Guatemala have been targets of threats, torture, disappearances and
> killings. According to the Guatemalan Constitution and Labor Law, the
> workers can organize unions. However, almost every time that workers
> attempt to form a union, they become victims of repression. Usually
> members of police and/or the army are involved in it.
>
> Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is a United States policy
> whereby those countries containing a maquila sector are not required to
> pay taxes for exports into the U. S., thus increasing profits for
> private enterprise in Guatemala.
> Guatemala has been under a workers' rights review since August, 1992
> due to the increase in violence against Guatemalan workers. Guatemalan
> labour activists are asking that the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)
> suspend duty-free benefits unless the government takes immediate action
> to investigate and begin prosecuting those who have abducted, tortured
> and murdered Guatemalan workers in the past six months.
>
> Reynaldo Gonzalez...
> Reynaldo Gonzalez is the general secretary of FESEBS and has been more
> involved in the GSP petition process than any other Guatemala trade
> unionist. He has provided much information to US/GLEP regarding the
> non-functioning of the labour court system, data which formed the basis
> of a substancial part of US/GLEP's own submission to USRT. Mr. Gonzalez
> has been, for the past two years, the convener of meetings involving
> all primary Guatemalan trade union organizations to develop a common
> position on GSP and coordinate the gathering of information to be
> submitted to USTR directly and through US/GLEP. He has testified before
> the USTR interagency subcommitee on GSP at the last public hearings in
> November 1993 in Washington D. C. despite threats warning him not to do
> so. Reynaldo Gonzalez was one of the lead spokespeople representing
> the trade union movement at the meetings with the USTR delegation held
> in November 1995.
> and previous threats against him.
> After testifying before the USTR subcommittee in November, 1993,
> Reynaldo Gonzalez received warnings serious enough that he went into
> hiding for three months during the first part of 1994. In late May,
> 1994, he reported being under surveillance again. On August 16, 1994,
> during a meeting of the National Salary Commission, Gonzalez reported
> that while negociations over a new minimum wage for rural workers were
> occuring Luis Reyes Mayen (then head of Camara de Agro and now the new
> minister of agriculture) became visibly upset. He started yelling
> saying that he would not yield to pressure and that people in the
> Guatemalan Labour movement were traitors. He ended by saying "We'll see
> how to resolve this, we'll look for our way to resolve this... You know
> the political costs that this represents" Gonzalez took these
> comments as a possible threat against him. In November 1995, Gonzalez
> reported receiving a phone call preceding a meeting with the USTR in
> which he was asked, "Where should we send the flowers fo
>
> RECOMMENDED ACTION.
> Please write or send a fax to the Guatemalan president ¥expressing
> concern for the attack against Vilma Cristina Gonzalez and threats
> against her brother Reynaldo Gonzalez. ¥calling on the authorities to
> take immediate measures to guarantee their safety and that of their
> families ¥ asking for an objective investigation and the need to bring
> those responsible to justice in order to break the impunity that
> continue to protect the perpetrators of these crimes. ¥ Requesting
> that all authorities and companies respect the freedom of
> organization.
> Please send copies to GEXPRONT.
> Please also send messages to the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs,
> requesting the Canadian government to send the above message.
>
> Please send copies of this letter to the Foreign Affairs critics for
> the NDP and Reform Party. (Eastern Canada covers the Bloc Qubecois.)
>
> ADDRESSES
> Lic. Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen, FAX: 011 502 2 515667
> Presidente de la Repblica de Guatemala, or 011 502 2 537472
> Palacio Nacional, Zona 1, or 011 502 2
> 393339
> Guatemala, GUATEMALA
> Gabriel Biguria Fax # 011 5022 32 35
> 90
> President of GEXPRONT (Association of Non Traditional Exports)
> Guatemala City, GUATEMALA
> Hon. Lloyd Axworthy, FAX: 1 613 947 4442
> Minister of Foreign Affairs, Phone:1 613 995 0153
> House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
> Bob Mills, M.P. (Reform Party) FAX:1
> 613 995 6831
> Bill Blaikie, M.P. (NDP) Both at House of Commons FAX: 1
> 613 995 6688
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--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 916-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
