Trade summit disrupted as protesters battle
police in Quebec City streets
Anti-free trade protesters hurl part of a
fence and a traffic pylon at riot police during protests at
the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada on April 20,
2001.
By Eamon Martin ]
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, Apr. 22— As tear gas clouds
that enveloped the streets of Quebec City this past weekend
had barely begun to dissipate, thirty-four heads of state in
the Western hemisphere pledged their allegiance to the proposal
for the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement (FTAA). Sequestered
behind a 9ft. high, 2 mile perimeter of concrete and chain-link
fence reinforced by 6,000 riot police, much to the incredulity
of angry demonstrators outside, the nations’ leaders proclaimed
that the aim of the gathering was to “strengthen democracy.”
An estimated 30,000 to 50,000 demonstrators filled the streets
of this Canadian city in what has become an uprising of opposition
to closed and elite international trade negotiations. Demonstrators
argued that the global trade negotiations of the FTAA only serve
the interests and privileges of international finance capital,
while the most basic interests of citizens, consumers, workers
and the environment are regarded as disposable “trade barriers”
by trade bureaucrats.
“Reinforcing and improving the quality of our democracies
has been the primary goal of our efforts as a community of nations,”
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced on Friday. “Democracy
has been restored by people sitting in this room.” Chretien
also said that having a democratic government was an “essential
condition” for membership in the summit.
For the tens of thousands of people occupying the city’s streets
in outrage over the Summit of the Americas’ authoritarian arrogance
which took unprecedented measures to exclude and squelch dissenting
public opinion, Chretien’s remarks seemed ironic, disingenuous
and obscene.
A diverse, decentralized legion of international protesters
wearing gas-masks and bandannas defiantly laid siege to the
meeting’s Citadel fence, no holds barred, in often awe-inspiring
feats of self-denial and rugged determination, to directly attack
their naked exclusion, the meetings, the FTAA agenda, and the
state system itself.
A massive street party of resistance raged throughout Quebec
City for most of the weekend. The presence of the FTAA summit
engulfed the entire city. In a move consistent with the overwhelming
tone of opposition and offense taken by residents, the Province
of Quebec denounced the meetings in a statement issued on Sunday.
Between Apr. 19-21, thousands of rocks were thrown in the face
of corporate globalization, making what most demonstrators see
as being one of it’s most menacing expressions to date: unabated
free trade for North-Central-South America and the Caribbean.
Citing the hyper-acceleration of rampant ecological devastation
and poverty left in the wake of the FTAA’s precursor, the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Quebec City’s insurrectionists
seemed to be saying: the world is going to hell and you are
flying us there with ever greater exploitation, misery and oppression
for the majority of the Earth and it’s inhabitants. Your lies
and social controls shouldn’t be tolerated any longer and you
have no legitimacy or authority anymore. The twilight hour has
arrived.
The army of national, state and municipal police responded
with a relentless assault of tear gas, batons, water cannon,
pepper spray and plastic bullets against an enormously militant
opposition which threatened to outnumber their ranks, invade
the FTAA fortress and seriously jam the meeting’s proceedings.
Undeterred protesters — some dressed in makeshift body armor
— engaged in ongoing, pitched battles with police and on several
occasions destroyed large sections of the fence perimeter. With
helicopters hovering overhead, the city was suddenly transformed
into a weekend war zone. On Friday, the meetings were delayed
due to the melee. On Saturday, meeting attendees were forced
to move proceedings to an alternate location within the Citadel
because of tear gas seeping into the conference building’s air
ducts. By meeting’s end, there were 450 arrests, with injuries
to more than 71 police officers, 109 protesters and many more
bystanders. One person received an emergency tracheotomy after
getting shot in the throat by a plastic bullet. “Smash the FTAA”,
“Viva Zapatista”, anti-US/Bush/capitalist slogans and hundreds
of other graffiti messages had blossomed on many noticeable
surfaces.
Organized in opposition to the FTAA, 2,300 delegates from
34 countries attended a People’s Summit nearby. They roundly
concluded that the trade agreement was “neo-Liberal, racist
and destructive of the environment.” Further, they recommended
that the FTAA be rejected in favor of an international alliance
based on true democracy, equality, solidarity, and the respect
of human rights and the environment. On Saturday, summit organizers
chaperoned a colorful demonstration of about 60,000 people.
Among other things, the FTAA critics pointed to the fact that
since NAFTA began — a treaty regarded by Mexico’s indigenous
Zapatista movement as a “death sentence” — Mexico’s poverty
rate ballooned 50 percent. In addition, NAFTA’s favorable business
climate negotiations -- of unregulated labor and environmental
conditions -- have resulted in an epidemic of low-paying, maquiladora,
sweatshop factories. Reports of birth deformities — such as
brainless children — from maquiladora waste run off contamination
are now common.
Commenting on the FTAA’s meaning, Matthew Coon-Come, national
chief of the Assembly of First Nations said the 40 million indigenous
inhabitants in the western hemisphere are the victims of “a
500-year rush to exploit and colonize this continent.”
“Our position in the Americas has failed to improve,” he said.
“Our people are the poorest of the poor.”
Bearing this in mind, many of the protesters explained that
they came to Quebec to express deep concern for the people who
could never dream of traveling the distance, and for whom the
FTAA’s cost will be the most exacting.
Many of those who wanted to travel into Canada to protest were
prevented by often overbearing, discriminatory border entrance
policies. Hundreds were denied entry by Canadian Customs who
politically profiled travelers to prevent the admission of demonstrators
they deemed as being fearsome enough to instigate a protest
of Seattle-like proportions. Regardless, hundreds of US citizens
managed to join their Canadian counterparts in the streets.
After a weekend of high escalation battles and incessant bonfires
burning through the dawn hours — which made the anti-World Trade
Organization protests in late November 1999 seem tame in comparison
— it was obvious that the Canadian government had failed.
In addition to the mass resistance in Quebec City, people in
cities throughout the Americas -- and worldwide -- held solidarity
demonstrations. Protesters took the streets, marched and rallied,
performed political theater, engaged in acts of civil disobedience
and property destruction, and confronted police in San Diego,
CA; Boulder, CO; Buffalo, NY; Portland, OR; Atlanta, GA; and
Austin, TX, among many others. In Asheville on Sunday, activists
marched through the streets with puppets, chanting “FTAA no
way!”
In Sao Paulo, Brazil, over 1,500 people participated in a massive,
peaceful protest, which was attacked by police, resulting in
over 100 injuries and over 60 arrests. More than 200 people
marched and rallied in Bogota, Colombia. Activists in Ecuador
occupied the Canadian embassy in the capital city of Quito,
denouncing the FTAA for promoting a “new colonization process.”
War zone
Demonstrators pull down the security fence
during the second day of protests against the third Summit of
the Americas, April 21, 2001.
On Friday, thousands of militant protesters wasted no time
in assaulting the security fence after a giant march, comprised
of many under the banner of the Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist
Offensive, led the way. Within the ranks, a small army of black-clad,
anarchist Blac Bloc members brandishing sticks set the tone,
stopping once to smash the windows of a Shell gas station. This
was a city rapidly charged with dissent. Many passive activists
abandoned peaceful protest to join the more militant. Observers
commented that the $1 million fence became the perfect symbol
of the neglect people feel from their “leaders.” Over the course
of the weekend riot cops would be actively defending it’s stronghold
from all sides.
In a short time, the first sections of the fence were torn
down as riot police soon began what would be a prolonged volley
of tear gas that seemed to continue with little pause for the
remainder of the weekend. Undaunted protesters repeatedly lobbed
the canisters back at police. Not long after the beginning of
the fence offensive, hundreds of protesters began what would
also prove to be a tireless barrage of debris and rock-throwing
at riot police. Sidewalk bricks and chunks of the fence’s concrete
foundation were quickly smashed to be used as projectiles.
Also on Friday, Quebec police introduced their newly purchased
water cannons, the first of which was immediately attacked and
disabled by stick-wielding protesters. Despite the continuous
police fire — criticized by many present as indiscriminate —
protester resilience was impressive and indignant as, after
numerous gassings, they returned again and again for more combat.
Meanwhile, as Jean Chretien, George W. Bush, Vicente Fox and
most of the other dignitaries dined on Lac Brome duck supreme
and were entertained by Cirque du Soleil, many elderly residents
started to complain of respiratory problems from tear gas invading
their homes.
On Saturday and Sunday, the battle continued with the fence
perimeter ripped open several more times. Resourceful anarchists
using grappling hooks did much of the damage. In addition, a
bulldozer being used to reinforce the fence was sabotaged. At
night, police used laser-sighted rubber bullet guns to target
the street insurrectionists. Some protesters returned the fire
with Molotov cocktails.
During the daytime, undercover police extensively videotaped
students and young people walking to and from the Universite
de Laval. The university’s gymnasium was being used as a hostel
for over 2,000 visiting activists. Activist Jaggi Singh, who
helped coordinate the accommodations, had been suddenly arrested
without provocation on Friday by undercover police.
Though not all of the protesters were militant — many even
criticizing the large, rock-throwing contingent for their tactics
— the solidarity of the FTAA/capitalist opposition was felt
throughout Quebec City. Everywhere protesters were given heroes’
welcomes by local residents, who shouted, “Yay! Protestataire!”,
filled water bottles, and blared music out of their apartment
windows in support. Some offered advice on the best methods
of dismantling the fence.
On Saturday, the Quebec Federation of Labor organized a march
of over 25,000 trade unionists. The labor parade as well as
the People’s Summit march steered down barren streets in industrial
areas out of sight of potential spectators. Towards the parade’s
end a sect of march participants wishing to engage in the fence
action parted ways with the peaceful others who had decided
not to support the confrontation.
Back at the fence, a protester yelled to the FTAA political
elite inside, “The planet is dying! Half the world’s organisms
are already dead and you hide behind your fence and call us
criminals. You think you can tell us how to run our world?”
Additional source: Montreal Gazette
US-allied death squads use
chainsaws to slaughter dozens of Colombian civilians
A Colombian family flees the Naya region,
Apr. 16, 2001, after a massacre by paramilitary troops during
the weekend.
Compiled by Brendan Conley
Apr. 24-- Right-wing paramilitary death squads massacred
dozens of civilians in the Colombian village of Naya, province
of Cauca, over Easter week. Local officials said the death toll
is at least 40, and may be well over 100.
The paramilitaries used chainsaws and machetes to torture
and kill the villagers, whom they accused of collaborating with
rebel armies. Though officially illegal, the paramilitary death
squads were created by the US-funded military. Human rights
observers insist that the government and the death squads collaborate
in the war against left-wing guerrillas, and against the civilian
population.
The attack, which began on April 11, caused more than 3,000
survivors to flee their village, traveling to nearby Timba,
where the massacre was reported to local officials. There are
more than 2 million internally displaced people in Colombia.
“No one knows why they are killing us this way, “ said Rafael
Caso, whose son was killed in the massacre. “To clean everyone
out is the idea. But why us?”
After visiting Naya soon after the killings, Colombia’s human
rights ombudsman, Eduardo Cifuentes, warned that “we have returned
to the most barbaric era.” A 17-year-old girl had her limbs
cut off with a chainsaw. Another was eviscerated. The bodies
were left for a week in a roadside ditch, with paramilitaries
preventing villagers from burying the dead.
Naya, a town of 8,000, was ostensibly a target because of its
valuable coca fields and guerrilla activity in the area. Both
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National
Liberation Army (ELN) had been present in the area. But some
Colombian organizers warn that the paramilitaries simply intend
to “cleanse” the civilian population from valuable lands so
the resources can be used by the rich landowners who fund the
death squads.
Human rights groups say that the military is complicit in this
massacre, because the government was warned repeatedly that
the AUC (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia), as the paramilitaries
are called, was preparing for a massacre in Cauca.
In late March, a commission of state, federal, church, and
UN officials visited the zone and delivered a detailed report
describing large numbers of heavily armed paramilitary fighters
and noting the AUC were mounting a “large scale operation” in
Cauca. Human rights groups say their pleas for the military
to protect villagers went unheeded, and in fact the military
moved out of the area just before the massacre.
The military disputes this claim, saying that all of Colombia
is under urgent danger of violence, and, in the words of Gen.
Francisco Pedraza, who commands the Army in Cauca, “It’s impossible
to have a soldier every meter of the way.”
According to human rights groups, the paramilitaries who carried
out the massacre are now threatening the Afro-Colombian communities
of the Yurumangui river. The Afro-Colombian communities in the
municipality of Buenaventura are alerting the Colombian security
forces of an imminent massacre.
The coffin of Edwin Velasco, 22, is carried
by relatives during his funeral in El Placer, Cauca province,
April 16, 2001. Velasco is one of the victims of a Colombian
peasant massacre over the Easter holiday weekend.
In a separate incident, the FARC rebels were involved in a
major battle with paramilitaries and the army in the province
of Antioquia Easter weekend. Local officials said that more
than 25 civilians had been killed in the battle, including many
children.
Meanwhile, the ELN rebel group said it would suspend road blockades
along three major highways in Colombia as a “goodwill gesture.”
The action comes amid a bloody right-wing paramilitary offensive
in northern Colombia that has prevented the establishment of
a demilitarized zone and threatened peace talks. The ELN also
kidnapped about 100 Colombian employees of Occidental Petroleum,
an American oil company. The rebel group released about 70 of
the captives unharmed, but continues to hold 27, and has not
offered detailed explanations for its actions.
The United States is providing $1.3 billion in aid to Colombia;
most of it is military aid. Former President Bill Clinton waived
human rights conditions on the aid package, a move that critics
claim gave the military and death squads tacit permission for
abuses. The military aid appears to be intensifying Colombia’s
37-year-long civil war, which claims 3,000 lives per year. President
George W. Bush is seeking to increase the aid package in 2002.
President Bush, in Quebec City on Sunday for the Summit of
the Americas, said that the United States is committed to supporting
Colombian President Andres Pastrana’s efforts to bring peace
to Colombia.
Sources: Associated Press, Colombian Labor Monitor (www.prairienet.org/clm),
Colombia Support Network (www.colombiasupport.net),
New York Times, Reuters, Washington Post.
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