ALC NEWS SERVICE E-mail: director@alcnoticias.org
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CONTENT
PUERTO RICO: Methodist Bishop lead workers concentration to demand solution to fiscal crisis COLOMBIA: Polemic over the decriminalization of abortion BRAZIL: Pre-presidential candidate Anthony Garotinho suspended hunger strike CUBA: Osvaldo Paya called on government to modify Constitution for democratic transition GUATEMALA: Harold Caballeros said that the Elite have failed in Guatemala
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PUERTO RICO
Methodist Bishop lead workers concentration to demand solution to fiscal crisis
SAN JUAN, May 12 (ALC). A demand for a solution to the unprecedented fiscal crisis that the Puerto Rican government is confronting and unrest due to the lay off of thousands of workers May 1 united workers and religious leaders in one of the biggest demonstrations in recent decades on May 11.
According to witnesses some 50,000 people marched through the downtown streets of the city demanding that the Executive and legislative branches overcome their differences and reach an agreement on the budget crisis that forced the government to close more than 40 offices and lay off more than 90,000 public workers.
Methodist Bishop Juan Vera, one of the two speakers at the manifestation, said that religious leaders have the obligation to be with the workers and to support the just demands to give people back their jobs.
"Their struggles are our struggles, their dreams are our drams and in this spirit of solidarity I tell you that if the people are the streets, in the streets we will be with the people," said Vera, who presides the Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Coalition of Puerto Rico.
The Coalition, made up of representatives from the Catholic Church, Evangelical Churches and Muslim communities played an important role in the search for solutions to the fiscal crisis and proposed last week that the government make some funds available as a type of loan for around $740 million to ensure the return of the workers to their jobs next Monday.
In order to avoid similar crises in the future, Vera demanded an urgent contributive and fiscal reform that ensures justice for salaried workers and obligates those who have more to contribute more. At the same time, he called on the authorities to put an end to unnecessary spending, to restructure the budget and to efficiently administer the resources.
Alluding to Martin Luther King, the ecumenical leader shared his dreams to achieve a better Puerto Rico, without violence against children and women, which respects all types of thinking, with compassion for those who have less. These dreams cannot be negotiated, he said in the midst of applause from the workers.
Sybaris Morales, who was the other speaker, in representation of working women, said that the country is suffering because of the inability of politicians to legislate and govern and warned that she will not rest until legislation that benefits all workers is approved.
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COLOMBIA
Polemic over the decriminalization of abortion
By Amparo Beltrán
BOGOTA, May 12 (ALC). A ruling on the part of the Constitutional Court to accept a suit from lawyer Monica Roa to decriminalize abortion in limited circumstances has put the Catholic Church at loggerheads with feminist activities.
While feminists held demonstrations on May 10 in front of the Constitutional Court, asking it to recognize the sexual and reproductive rights of women, the Catholic Church convened its faithful to hold a pilgrimage from the Sanctuary of the Child Jesus to the Bolívar Plaza.
The 20,000 pilgrims reached the plaza where the Court is headquartered, along with the Municipality of Bogota and the Catholic Cathedral, to demand that the constitutional organization speak out against the decriminalization of abortion, considering it a violation of the right to life.
This Friday Cardinal Pedro Rubiano said that anyone who is involved in an abortion will be excommunication from the Church, whether it is the doctor, the backstreet abortionist, the man who encourages the abortion or the woman who undergoes one.
The polemic issue attracted a great deal of media attention and calls to radio stations demonstrated that a vast majority of Colombians are in favor of the Constitutional Court sentence and consider that Cardinal Rubiano's position is exaggerated.
According to Roa, director of Gender and Justice for the Women's Link Worldwide, more than 300,000 clandestine abortions are carried out each year in Colombia. Of those 30 percent lead to complications and 10% lead to death. Abortion is the third cause of maternal mortality.
The lawyer, who promoted the unconstitutionality, said "We are happy, celebrating together with women and feminists, doctors and academics and individuals who have worked for years preparing the terrain so that the suit was successful in the court and in public opinion."
While the media have not interviewed people from other Churches the Evangelical Churches, when they joined the Radical Change party made party leaders promise they would not accept the de-criminalization of abortion.
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BRAZIL
Pre-presidential candidate Anthony Garotinho suspended hunger strike
RÍO DE JANEIRO, May 11 (ALC). The former governor of Rio de Janeiro and a pre-candidate for the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) as president Anthony Garotinho suspended an 11-day hunger strike last Thursday.
Garotinho, a member of the Presbyterian Church of Rio won a right to a replica in the daily O Globo and the magazine Veja that recently reported alleged irregularities in donations for his presidential campaign. If the publications do not comply with the judicial decision they will have to pay a daily fine of $16,000 and $23,000 respectively.
The courts in Rio de Janeiro have demanded that Veja offer its front page and eight pages in its upcoming issue so that Garotinho can defend himself from accusations of populism, corruption, irresponsibility, fraud and interventionism, contained in a May 3 reported entitled "the seven capital sins of politics."
The daily O Globo must give the former governor a sub-headline on its front page and the same space used in the article "Garotinho uses the plane of a bandit," published April 30. The Organizaciones Globo announced, however, that they will appeal the judicial decision.
On Wednesday night Garotinho was taken to a private hospital in Rio de Janeiro on a doctor's recommendation as he was dehydrated and extremely weak. During his 11-day hunger strike he lost 7 kilos.
In a letter to the Nation Garotinho thanked God, his wife, the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Rosinha Matheus, his relatives, friends and supporters for all the support he had received.
The pre-presidential candidate confirmed his participation in the PMDB Convention in Brasilia, programmed for May 13 when it will be decided whether or not the party will have its own candidate.
The PMDB is divided into at least three sectors: those who prefer to propose a vice president in the Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva slate, those who seek to align themselves with the opposition Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso and those who defend the idea of running with their own candidate. Among those defending this final alternative are those who prefer another candidate in the dispute, who is not Garotinho.
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CUBA
Osvaldo Paya called on government to modify Constitution for democratic transition
HAVANA, May. 11 (ALC). The coordinator of the opposition Christian Liberation Movement Osvaldo Paya presented a program this Wednesday entitled "All Cubans" that proposes modifying the Socialist Constitution of Cuba and implementing a new electoral law to facilitate a peaceful democratic transition.
According to Paya, who opposes the Castro regime, this program should be analyzed by the National Assembly and taken to a referendum after stating that the documents were consulted in a broad-based based national dialogue that involved between 12,000 and 15,000 people.
Paya affirmed in a press conference at his home that he is presenting this project within a "spirit of reconciliation" but also as a resource to construct a road that everyone can travel "without exclusions, as brothers, as free men and women to offer the new generation a more free, human and just society."
On the other hand, according to Enrique Lopez Oliva, correspondent from the Monitor of Mexico, Paya called on the US government to hold a "sincere dialogue without conditions" with the Cuban people. The MCL leader underlined that it is a "proposal, as a service to the Cuban people, with a vision that peaceful change is possible among Cubans, who are the ones who have the right to design a project for Cuba."
"The people want change," he declared, after stating his impression that this will be peaceful.
Paya denounced that there are currently 25 members of the Christian Liberation Movement in prison and some 50 activities who supported the Varela Project, supported by the Movement. Paya and the MCL, like the rest of the Cuban opposition, do not have access to national media and are heavily controlled.
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Harold Caballeros said that the Elite have failed in Guatemala
By Antonio Otzoy
GUATEMALA CITY, May. 11 (ALC). The situation in Guatemala is a product of the failure of its elite, said Harold Caballeros, pastor of the El Shaddai Church and a member of the apostolic movement, after affirming that the state has failed as it does "not provide people with security, clear rules, education, health or nutrition."
Caballeros, who has presidential aspirations said that there is a lack of a common vision but there is no consensus because it "is not convenient for the economic and military elite." He added, however, that "in the midst of all the adverse situations we have not lacked God's blessing, bringing peace in the midst of the storm in which we live."
On May 8 he presented his plan for the transformation of Guatemala before an audience of Evangelicals in an event sponsored by the Institute at the Service of the Nation, Christian Coalition for Guatemala and the Research Center for the Development of Latin America.
"Enough of just criticizing everything that is lacking," he said adding that thinking that way is a vicious circle. He called on all those present to feel capable of producing peace and truth. "If we become involved in society, we will bring about change," he said.
He invited those present to be part of an elite of sacrifice, a generation that pays the price to change the destiny of Guatemala. "To carry the fire of God with a vision, so that the children can say that our parents worked and achieved it," he said.
"We need a leadership transformed with an inclusive vision, to work together as one man. Enough of divisions, we must conciliate so that Guatemala is for all Guatemalans," he said.
He said that Evangelicals are no proactive, do not offer proposals and are not active. "The future depends on us," he said, calling on them to unite to work for the next 50 years or "until the nation is just, fair and until the Lord is Lord of this country," he said.
Manuel Conde, former presidential candidate for the Social and Political National Change Movement in past elections said he agreed with Caballeros and emphasized the importance of having brought together people from different sectors, based on Christian principles, to seek unity for Guatemala.
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