Bozen, Brixen, Hamburg, 14. April 2003

Ecuadors Ureinwohner geraten mit dem Bau einer neuen Ölpipeline (OCP)
weiter unter Druck. Sie wird möglicherweise Ende dieses Jahres
fertiggestellt sein. Um ihre Heimat zu retten, haben die Ureinwohner
den Ölgesellschaften den Kampf angesagt. Die Gesellschaft für bedrohte
Völker (GfbV), die Organisation für eine solidarische Welt (OEW) und
Global Aware unterstützen sie dabei.

Bisher bestand eine Pipeline aus dem Regenwald Ecuadors an die Küste
nach Esmeraldas, wo das Erdöl verschifft wird. Mit dieser neuen, von
privaten Ölkonzernen gebauten Schwerölpipeline wird sich die
Transportkapazität des Landes mehr als verdoppeln. Um sie zu füllen,
wollen Ölkonzerne tiefer in den Amazonas vordringen - sie werden weder
vor dem Land der Ureinwohner noch den Grenzen der Nationalparks
haltmachen.

Davon betroffen sind die Shuar, ein indigenes Volk, das im Südosten
des Landes beheimatet ist. Sie kündigen offen ihren Widerstand gegen
die Konzerne an. Einen Emissär der Ölgesellschaften steckten sie
bereits in einen Topf mit scharfer Soße. Ihrer informellen
Willensbekundung ließen die Völker der Shuar und Achuar eine
offizielle folgen, mit der sie den Ölgesellschaften den Kampf
ansagten: "Wir wissen, wie das Ölgeschäft läuft.

In Ecuador kürt und stürzt es Präsidenten und es zerstört Natur und
Menschen. Wir sagen ,atsaá' - ,Nein' in unserer Sprache. Wir werden
bis vor die Vereinten Nationen ziehen und unsere Unabhängigkeit
verlangen, wenn wir das müssen. Aber die Ölgesellschaften werden hier
nicht bohren."

Das jedoch ist keineswegs gewiss. Begehrlicher denn je blicken
Ölkonzerne, darunter die italienische Agip, auf die letzten Stücke
unberührten Amazonas. Ein Stück vom Kuchen wollen auch die Banca
Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) und die Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB)
abhaben, die die 500 Kilometer lange Pipeline mitfinanzieren.

Auch der im Januar mit den Stimmen der indigenen Völker gewählte
Präsident Lucio Gutierrez setzt - kaum im Amt - auf das schwarze
Gold. Bei seinem USA-Besuch warb er für Partner, um im
Yasuni-Nationalpark, einem der letzten intakten Naturschutzreservate
und Rückzuggebiet für das Volk der Huaorani, Öl zu fördern.

Kampflos werden die Indigenen ihr Territorium aber nicht aufgeben. In
Sarayacu in der Provinz Pastaza stellte der argentinische Konzern CGC
seine unter Militärschutz durchgeführten Probebohrungen ein, nachdem
einige Mitarbeiter von Ureinwohnern entführt worden waren.

Gegen das Triumvirat aus Regierung, Militär und privaten Konzernen
scheinen die Ureinwohner jedoch chancenlos. Die GfbV, OEW und Global
Aware fordern daher die zuständigen Regierungen auf, Druck auf die
beteiligten westlichen Firmen auszuüben: Das Land der Ureinwohner und
die Nationalparks Ecuadors dürfen nicht ausgebeutet und zerstört
werden.

"Die Wölfin und die Schlange". Der Film des jungen Südtiroler
Regisseurs Patrick Kofler erscheint am 17. April mit dem Magazin
"Carta". Er dokumentiert den Bau der OCP und den Kampf
dagegen. Daneben hat Global Aware eine Diashow
(www.globalaware.org/DEUTSCH/index.html) über das Pipeline-Projekt und
seine Folgen ins Netz gestellt.

----

Siehe auch:
* www.gfbv.it: www.gfbv.it/2c-stampa/03-1/030311de.html |
www.gfbv.it/2c-stampa/02-2/020528de.html |
www.gfbv.it/2c-stampa/02-3/021113de.html |
www.gfbv.it/3dossier/ind-voelker/konibo-de.html
* www: www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/newratframeE.htm | www.ilo.org |
www.ran.org | www.amazonwatch.org

==================================================
07 Cuba, Cuban Writers and Artists Against Fascism
From: RAWNEWS <rawnews@btopenworld.com>
==================================================
Declaration from the National Council of UNEAC

The National Council of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba is
meeting at a dramatic and extremely dangerous time for humanity, as
the world is witnessing a resurgence of fascism and its brutal intent
to control the planet. The war of conquest unleashed against the
people of Iraq, with total contempt for worldwide public opinion and
the community of nations, recalls the fascist intervention in Spain in
1936, which constituted the prelude to World War II.

In those dark days, fascism tested its weapons of mass destruction in
places like Guernica and initiated an ongoing escalation that would
culminate with the invasion of Poland and a war that cost 50 million
lives and the destruction and ruin of entire continents. Today we are
facing a much graver danger, because unlike that time,  this
return of fascism has no armed opposition or retaining wall
whatsoever, and its war machine has a destructive power capable of
decimating any country in the world in a matter of minutes.

With the invasion of Iraq, the government of the United States has
openly disregarded the principles of coexistence among nations and the
very Charter adopted in San Francisco in 1945, which embodied the hope
for a just, balanced and peaceful order in the United Nations
system. It has adopted an interventionist stance that violates all
agreements on international law and seeks to wipe out the sacred
principles of sovereignty and self-determination. In its own time, for
similar reasons, Nazi Germany left the League of Nations. What we are
witnessing, as has been rightly said, is the ominous substitution of
the rule of law with the law of the imperial ruler.

In this aggression, we can clearly see, perfectly articulated, such
fascist theories as preventive war and lightning war ­ better known as
blitzkrieg ­ combined with a powerful system of propaganda and
disinformation. Without a doubt, the legacy of Goebbels is very much
alive in neofascism.

Its propaganda machine repeatedly and deliberately puts forward
accusations that are never backed up with the slightest proof; it
portrays the empire s forces as liberators and as a coalition ; it
hails the democratic nature of the colonial administration that will
be imposed; it shamelessly speaks of humanitarian aid while stripping
the victims of their identity, their culture, their morale, presenting
an aseptic image of the massacre by systematically blocking
information, so that the blood, the deaths of thousands of civilians,
the casualties among the attackers themselves and the resistance to
the invasion can be neither seen nor judged by the public in the
United States and the rest of the world.

The media manipulation is sustained by such theoretical aberrations as
the purported clash of cultures and the concept of civilization versus
barbarism, the masks of racism that have been used in wars of conquest
and colonization since time immemorial.

The propaganda machine inundates the planet daily with the constantly
reiterated message of the superiority of the United States and its
messianic role as the savior of humanity, complemented by a cartoonish
and xenophobic image of the Other, and especially the Third World. At
the same time, it focuses with particular emphasis on the manipulation
of history, something that is evident, for example, in the attempts to
erase the so-called Viet Nam syndrome from the memory of the American
people.

Nevertheless, despite the enormous influence of the media war, there
is a growing anti-war and anti-imperialist consciousness emerging
around the world today. It began to manifest itself from the moment of
the announcement and preparation of the genocide against the people of
Iraq, and has a worthy antecedent in the Not In Our Name declaration
signed by thousands of the most distinguished artists and
intellectuals of the United States. It should be recalled that UNEAC
celebrated the Fourth of July last year as a means of emphasizing that
the culture and the people of the United States have nothing to do
with the atrocities committed by their government.

We also welcome the other documents that have been published in
various countries with the same intent, such as Against Barbarism and
Manifesto of the International Committee of Intellectuals Against the
War , issued by our colleagues in Europe and Latin America,
respectively, and reflecting the rebelliousness, lucidity and spirit
of justice of the men and women of the cultural sphere. Today like
never before, the people are taking to the streets to condemn this
monstrous crime. This upsurge has led the world s intellectuals to
resume their place in society and participate in this renewal of civic
and humanist activism among their peoples. This has been one of the
most significant developments in these convulsive days, when issues
central to the very survival of the human race are under debate.

The tragic and condemnable events of September 11, 2001 have become
the pretext for implementing a preconceived policy of universal
domination and plunder.

The supposed war on terrorism has paved the way for an unprecedented
deployment of weapons and resources, a splendid business long dreamed
of by the military industrial complex.

The war in Iraq is a phenomenon of international scope; today it is
happening there, tomorrow it could be anywhere else in the world. The
expansionist plans that underlie this aggression were drawn up by the
ultra-right wing in the United States, heirs to the thinking of those
who were denounced in their day, with astonishing historical
foresight, by José Martí. What lies before us is a plunder of the
territories and wealth of other peoples even worse than what occurred
in the era of colonialism, with the most sophisticated weapons of the
21st century in the hands of the greatest imperial power in all of
history.

We are witnessing a sinister attempt to impose a worldwide neofascist
dictatorship that will guarantee the imperial superpower control of
all the markets, raw materials, energy sources, industries and basic
services on the planet.

We the writers and artists of Cuba, as we did at the recent No to War
workshop, call on all men and women of good will to join together in
an anti-fascist front, recalling such noble antecedents as the
Congress in Defense of Culture held under the bombs in Spain in 1937.

In the early 19th century, Simón Bolívar declared that the United
States seemed destined by fate to plague the Americas with misery in
the name of freedom; today, that threat is looming over every region
of the planet. To fight it with all our might is an ineludible
duty. Sowing ideas, sowing awareness, as proclaimed on the 150th
anniversary of the birth of José Martí, must be our primary task.

Havana, April 12, 2003

==================================================
08 Chávez Still on Top in Venezuela After Tough Year
From: RAWNEWS <rawnews@btopenworld.com>
==================================================
Chávez Still on Top in Venezuela After Tough Year

By JUAN FORERO
New York Times
4/11/03

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 11 - The economy is expected to shrink by as
much as 20 percent this year, the nation remains sharply divided and
his opponents are still trying to force him from office. But a year
after he survived a coup, President Hugo Chávez is as strong as ever.
He has purged the military of the disloyal officers who betrayed
him. He weathered a two-month national strike at the start of the year
devised to force him from power again.

He has since tightened the government's grip on the state oil company
and, against long odds, nearly restored production. Key opponents
have abandoned the country, or are in disarray. Today the opposition
at last abandoned efforts to force Mr. Chávez to call a new
presidential election before his term ends in 2006, and instead agreed
to a referendum on the president's rule later this year, as Mr. Chávez
himself had long offered.

So undaunted is the president, in fact, that Mr. Chávez marked the
anniversary of the coup today in a buoyant mood, holding a convention
of leftist leaders and intellectuals from around the world who have
come to celebrate his revolution, and planning three days of
boisterous rallies. He is charging ahead with what he dubs "the
year of the revolutionary offensive." That agenda, critics say,
is intended to punish his enemies and consolidate the leftist program
that has pushed Venezuela into political turmoil and to the brink of
economic collapse. "Let no one forget that we are on the
offensive, and we have to maintain the rhythm of the offensive,"
Mr. Chávez told a crowd of supporters. "We cannot let the
offensive grow cold in any way." The turnaround is remarkable for
a man whose government has been on the ropes repeatedly in the last
year. Rather than the political opposition, Mr. Chávez's greatest
challenge at this stage, critics and supporters say, is the economy,
which is expected to fall harder than any other in a region where weak
economies prevail. Thousands of Chávez backers are expected to turn
out this weekend to commemorate the events of a year ago, when the
president was deposed after 19 people died in a huge protest and then,
just two days later, reinstated by loyal troops and throngs of
supporters.

His opponents - big businessmen, labor leaders, politicians and private
media owners who make up a coalition called the Democratic Coordinator -
not long ago were themselves able to convene hundreds of thousands of
people in antigovernment marches.

But today the coalition's tactics are so reviled and its failures so
pronounced - their strike cost the economy an estimated $7 billion and
led to a rash of bankruptcies - that some prominent Chávez opponents
are distancing themselves from the group. The two most visible
leaders of the strike, Carlos Ortega, the fiery labor leader who
headed the C.T.V. labor confederation, and Carlos Fernández, the
president of Venezuela's largest business group, Fedecámaras, have
left the country.

Mr. Ortega has sought exile in Costa Rica. Mr. Fernández, who is
supposedly under house arrest for organizing the strike, is in
Florida, where he is being treated for his failing health. A third
leader, Juan Fernández, the head of the dissident oil workers, has
also lowered his profile and has been traveling frequently to the
United States, where opposition leaders say he is raising money for a
possible presidential campaign.

"There is no legitimate leadership in the opposition, which has
been defeated," said Alberto Garrido, a political analyst and
author who has been critical of the government as well as the
opposition. "This has led to a vacuum of power." Henrique
Salas Romer, a former governor who finished second to Mr. Chávez in
the 1998 presidential election, has broken with opposition coalition
and appears to be preparing another presidential bid.

Another key player in the Democratic Coordinator, the First Justice
Party, has said it will focus more on its own outreach programs as it
prepares for possible elections. "This distances us from the
Coordinator," explained José Mejías, the party's secretary
general. "because all the Coordinator does is fight with
Chávez. We cannot let ourselves be kidnapped by the Coordinator. At
this point what the Coordinator needs are new alternatives."
Members of the Democratic Coordinator minimize its problems. "I
wouldn't say the opposition is split," said Edgar Paredes, a
leader of dissident oil workers who was dismissed by the government
during the recent strike.

"On the contrary, I would say this is a renaissance of the
Democratic Coordinator." But independent analysts disagree. They
say that the government is buoyant, feeling that it can best its foes
and in the coming months consolidate its gains. "It is not that
the government won, but rather that the opposition lost," said
Teodoro Petkoff, a newspaper editor and analyst. "But the
government came out ahead, stronger overall, though it is facing a
catastrophic economic situation."

Indeed, Mr. Chávez faces the monumental task of steering an economy
that contracted 9 percent last year and may tumble another 17 percent
this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. Some private
economists say the fall could even top 20 percent. More than 5,000
industrial companies failed last year, nearly 20 percent of the
population is unemployed, inflation is soaring and 56 percent of
Venezuelans work in the informal economy, many of them selling
trinkets and fruit on the streets. For some opposition leaders the
strategy now is to lie low and watch the economy worsen, hoping that
the president will be dragged down with it.

"We have gone to a situation where the issue is not political
rights but the right to eat," said Mr. Salas Romer. "The
president is fighting not against just the opposition anymore. He is
fighting against his own bad management." The next election is
not until 2006, when Mr. Chávez could run again. For now his hold on
power is firm, even if opinion polls reveal strong opposition as
well.

One polling firm, Consultores 21, recently found that if the elections
were held now, Mr. Chávez would receive only 34 percent of the vote
and that 54 percent of Venezuelans would vote for an opposition
leader, though who that could be is far from clear. In the meantime,
after today's accord with the opposition, Mr. Chávez will almost
certainly face a referendum on his rule, though the timing remains
unclear.

To hold such a vote, the opposition needs to collect 2.5 million
signatures, which it says it did already in February. Mr. Chávez has
called those signatures invalid, arguing that the Constitution
requires the mechanisms leading to a referendum to begin halfway
through a president's term, which in this case is Aug. 19.

Before then, Mr. Chávez has wasted no time taking the offensive
against his opponents. The president has been crisscrossing Venezuela
urging supporters to organize local referendums to remove opposition
lawmakers. His government is proposing several measures to tighten
control over anti-Chávez newspapers and television and radio outlets.
It has also enacted strict controls on foreign exchange, saying it is
needed to stem capital flight, though many business owners say the
step is intended to punish them for their role in the strike.

At the same time, supporters are being rewarded. Land titles have been
handed out to squatters, and the president has promised to push
through other social programs, delighting supporters.

"Facing all this adversity has made us stronger," Deyanira
González, an ally of the president, said at a community meeting in the
poor western end of the Caracas this week. "It is very hard for a
group of oligarchs to destroy what we are building."

Boletin Latino

In solidarity with the General Francisco de Miranda Bolivarian Circle
in Albuquerque, New Mexico

For more on the Venezuelan Revolution visit our site pages:
www.latinamericabulletin.cafeprogressive.com/custom.html
www.latinamericabulletin.cafeprogressive.com/custom4.html
www.latinamericabulletin.cafeprogressive.com/photo3.html
www.latinamericabulletin.cafeprogressive.com/photo6.html

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