[Onthebarricades] LATIN AMERICA: Farmers protest neoliberalism - Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil

[Andy]

*  PERU:  Farmers strike against free trade agreement; five killed in police 
attacks - farmers demand debt relief and compensation
*  MEXICO:  Farmers revolt against GM crops
*  MEXICO:  Rising corn prices prompt protests
*  MEXICO:  Farmers clog Mexico city in protest against free trade
*  ARGENTINA:  Farmers stage month-long strike over export taxes
*  BRAZIL:  Landless peasants blockade railroad and mine, protest 
displacement; dam also targeted
*  BRAZIL:  GM crops trashed in protest by landless movement

Publicly Archived at Global Resistance: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance


http://www.ww4report.com/node/5154

Peru: five killed in trade protests
Submitted by WW4 Report on Tue, 02/26/2008 - 02:51.
Campesinos and farmers started an open-ended strike in eight Peruvian 
departments on Feb. 18, holding marches and blocking highways to demand 
government measures to ease the impact of a free trade agreement (FTA, or 
TLC in Spanish) with the US. The action was called by the National 
Convention of Agriculture (Conveagro), the National Council of Irrigation 
Users (JNUDR) and the National Agrarian Confederation (CNA). According to 
JNUDR president Enrique Malaga, the FTA, which is to lift tariffs on heavily 
subsidized US farm products, will harm more than 1.75 million Peruvian 
farms.
One protester was killed in Barranca, north of Lima, on Feb. 18; police said 
he was shot by an angry motorist. Three more protesters were killed on Feb. 
19: two were shot dead when police fired into a march in Ayacucho department 
in the central Andean region; another protester fell to his death as he was 
fleeing police tear gas near the Pan-American Highway in the southern 
department of Arequipa. At least 150 people were arrested. The government 
declared a state of emergency in the eight departments on Feb. 19, and by 
the end of the day the organizers had suspended the strike and resumed 
negotiations with the government.
Also on Feb. 19, teachers marched on Congress in Lima to protest a decree by 
social democratic president Alan Garcia on the hiring of teachers with 
university degrees in the public schools.
Despite the suspension, campesinos continued the strike through Feb. 20 in 
the southern departments of Cusco, Arequipa and Ayacucho to protest the four 
deaths in the preceding days. According to CNR radio, a fifth protester, 
Edgar Huayta Saccsara, was killed during the Feb. 20 strike. He was 
reportedly shot in the head during disturbances in Huamanga, capital of 
Ayacucho; some 73 other people were injured. Also on Feb. 20, US ambassador 
Peter Michael McKinley spoke out in favor of the trade pact, which the US 
Congress approved in December. It would "establish modern systems of trade 
regulation and design a discipline which will improve Peru's competitiveness 
and promote its prosperity," he said. (Bloomberg News, Feb. 21; Earth Times, 
Feb. 20; TeleSUR, Feb. 19; EFE, Feb. 20; Prensa Latina, Feb. 20)
The protests continued two more days in Cusco, where local people called a 
48-hour strike starting on Feb. 21 to protest a law allowing companies to 
set up businesses near archeological zones. Strikers blocked roads out of 
the city of Cusco, while some 500 marched in the downtown area. On Feb. 21 
protesters marched on the airport, causing some damage and leading the 
authorities to suspend flights for the duration of the strike. Hundreds of 
tourists were stranded, but five of them-three from Argentina, one from 
Colombia and one from Spain-were reportedly detained by the national police 
in Cusco for joining the protests. (AFP, Feb. 22; Living in Peru, Feb. 21)
On Feb. 22, Peruvian vice president Luis Giampietri blamed the week's 
protests on "subversion" by former presidential candidate Ollanta Humala and 
his Nationalist Peruvian Party (PNP). (La Prensa, Panama, Feb. 24 from DPA.)

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20080220165800519

Hot Time in Peru

Wednesday, February 20 2008 @ 04:58 PM PST
Contributed by: Oread Daily
Views: 517
Clashes between police and farmers in Peru left at least four protesters 
dead on Tuesday. Farmers had called a nationwide action to push for state 
subsidies as part of a free-trade agreement with the U.S., for lower prices 
on fertilizer and for a halt to farm seizures by banks. Peru, the world's 
largest exporter of organic coffee, asparagus and paprika, boosted 
agricultural exports to the U.S. and China by 10 percent to $2 billion last 
year.

HOT TIME IN PERU

Clashes between police and farmers in Peru left at least four protesters 
dead on Tuesday. Farmers had called a nationwide action to push for state 
subsidies as part of a free-trade agreement with the U.S., for lower prices 
on fertilizer and for a halt to farm seizures by banks. Peru, the world's 
largest exporter of organic coffee, asparagus and paprika, boosted 
agricultural exports to the U.S. and China by 10 percent to $2 billion last 
year.

The government yesterday declared a state of emergency and granted the armed 
forces control over the states of Lima, Ancash and La Libertad in a bid to 
free about 1,000 stranded buses after protesters battled police and blocked 
roads and railway lines, Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo said Tuesday.

Bloomberg reports the protest left more than 140,000 passengers stranded 
yesterday at a dozen roadblocks around the country, causing 25 million soles 
($8.6 million) in losses for Peru's transport industry. Railways and roads, 
including the Pan-American highway, the major route on the Peruvian coast, 
were blocked with tree trunks, rocks and sand. Rail services to the 
country's Machu Picchu site were also blocked on Monday, with about 400 
travellers left stranded near the ancient Inca ruins, Peru's biggest tourist 
attraction.

"The government only listens to us when we strike," said Antolin Huascar, 
the head of a national farmers' group.

According to government sources, the farmers have now declared the "strike" 
over.

``We've told our people to return to normality,'' Enrique Malaga, president 
of the National Irrigation Board, helped organize the protest, said in a 
telephone interview. ``We will be discussing issues which have yet to be 
resolved with the government.''

While all this is going on activists have been threatening to again block 
access to the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu and the airport in nearby 
Cusco as a protest against a new law that would allow increased development 
near Peru's archaeological zones. Protesters burned tires and blocked roads 
around Cuzco earlier this month as 30,000 demonstrators asked the government 
of Peruvian President Alan Garcia to repeal two laws that make it easier to 
obtain licenses to build hotels and other works near historic and 
archaeological sites.

The proposed laws, one of which was already rejected but requires a second 
vote, would ease construction restrictions in Cuzco and allow for more 
hotels to be built near archaeological sites. The area between Cuzco and 
Machu Picchu is dotted with ancient Inca ruins.

The following is from Prena Latina.

Three More Peruvian Farmers Killed

Another three Peruvian farmers were killed in Police operations against 
strikers demanding compensation for damages derived from the Free Trade 
Agreement with the United States.

The deaths occurred in central Andean Arequipa and Ayacucho regions, where 
protesters built road blockages.

An unidentified farmer, who was blocking the strategic Panamericana Sur 
Highway, died when the police-launched tear gas canister knocked him into a 
ravine, according to witnesses.

In Ayacucho, farm workers Ruben Pariona and Emiliano Garcia were shot dead 
by police during repression of another road blockage, according to Canal N 
TV.

Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo requested a four-year sentences for the 
over 160 people that have been arrested since last Monday.

In spite of the strike´s magnitude, Agriculture minister Ismael Benavides 
claimed the protests have failed.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/agitating-peru-farmers-clash-with-cops-toll-rises-to-four_10019460.html

Agitating Peru farmers clash with cops, toll rises to four
February 20th, 2008 - 7:06 pm ICT by admin -  Email This Post

Lima, Feb 20 (IANS) Two more farmers have been killed in clashes with the 
police on the outskirts of the Peruvian city of Ayacucho, raising the toll 
to four in the two-day nationwide demonstration by farmers, EFE news agency 
reported Wednesday. The farmers were demanding concessions on loans, water 
rights and compensation for losses caused by the free trade agreement with 
the US.
The incident Tuesday occurred when a group of farmers tried to block the 
highway, leading from Ayacucho to the Pacific coast, and burnt a gasoline 
station located on the outskirts of the city.
According to RPP radio, several people were injured in the incident and were 
taken to hospitals in Ayacucho.
One farmer died Tuesday morning when he fell into a ravine while he was 
fleeing from the police. Another person died the previous day after he tried 
to attack a bus on a road.
The Peruvian government has declared a state of emergency in eight districts 
where protests were held.
Hundreds of vehicles were left stranded on the roads as a result of the 
protests. Many cases of robbery on the highways were also reported.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/farmers-protest-turns-violent-in-peru_10019801.html

Farmers' protest turns violent in Peru
February 21st, 2008 - 5:47 pm ICT by admin -  Email This Post

Lima, Feb 21 (IANS) Fresh clashes broke out between the protesting farmers 
and the police in the southern Peruvian city of Ayacucho despite suspension 
of a nationwide strike by the farmers, EFE news agency reported Thursday. 
The farmers organised a rally Monday to push their demand for compensation 
of the losses caused by the free trade agreement with the US, better water 
supply and debt relief.
However, the protest by the JUNDR, an association of Peruvian farmers, 
turned violent after police killed two demonstrators Wednesday. The police 
also arrested ten people, Congresswoman Juana Huancahuari told the news 
agency.
"Some people had thrown projectiles and clashed with police. And after that, 
the situation became violent. Otherwise, it would have been a peaceful 
march," she said.
Meanwhile, the government has started an inquiry into the incident.
On Wednesday, the JUNDR suspended the seven-day nationwide strike 
spearheaded by them earlier.
The group's president, Enrique Malaga, said the farmers were returning to 
work, adding, that the suspension would give sufficient time to work out an 
agreement with the government to address the problem.
The farmers had blocked roads across Peru to demand their rights Monday, 
following which the stranded motorists were targeted by robbers. The police 
arrested around 150 demonstrators.

http://www.mcgilldaily.com/article/2998-seeds-of-worry

Seeds of worry
Charles Mostoller, a former Daily editor, reports from Mexico's movement 
against genetically modified corn
Charles Mostoller
After 14 years of the North American Free Trade Agreement's devastating 
effects on the majority of Mexican farmers, Mexico's food system now faces 
another serious threat. Illegally planted and unknowingly imported since the 
late nineties, genetically modified (GM) corn has contaminated farms all 
over Mexico, threatening the livelihoods of small farmers, endangering 
consumer health, and putting at risk the incredible genetic diversity of 
native Mexican corn.
But for over a year now, farmers, scientists, and activists all over Mexico 
have been mobilizing under the banner Sin maíz, no hay país - without corn, 
there is no country. The campaign has been organizing protests against the 
import of GM corn and in support of maiz criollo, known in English as 
"Indian corn" or maize.
At a recent Sin maíz, no hay país event in Huajauapan, Oaxaca, longtime 
indigenous-rights activist and honorary Zapatista Commander Don Felix Serdán 
called for the prohibition of GM corn, saying that it represented a threat 
to food security and to Mexico's sovereignty.
"If we lose our corn, we lose our sovereignty, our very dignity," he says. 
"We will depend on the U.S., we will have to buy their GM seeds. That will 
be slavery. Now, we're no longer self-sufficient and there is no food 
security.... We have the responsibility to avoid the contamination by GM 
corn, to protect our communities."
The sad story of Mexico
Mexico's 109 million people consume about 300 million tortillas every day. 
Nobody knows how much of the maize in these tortillas is genetically 
modified, and serious concerns persist about GM corn's effects on human 
health.
The planting of GM corn has never been legal in Mexico, although some 
biotech companies have permission to plant small "pilot fields" to test out 
their GM varieties. But according to a recent Reuters article, there are an 
estimated 9,000 hectares of GM corn in northern Mexico's Chihuahua state. 
The government is aware of this, but has done nothing to stop it.
Mexico does allow the importation of GM corn, and since the late nineties, 
enormous quantities of it have entered - unlabelled - into Mexico's food 
system. Farmers also unwittingly plant GM corn, and native varieties have 
been contaminated by GM corn all over the country - thanks to the fact that 
pollen can travel long distances by wind.
The Mexican government hasn't taken any steps to slow or stop the influx of 
GM corn, nor has it tried to study the consequences of GM contamination or 
the effects on human health. And despite the importance of Mexico's native 
corn diversity, and the fact that GM contamination has been discovered all 
over the country, the corn keeps flooding into Mexico.
"Today, approximately 60 per cent of the corn that enters Mexico is 
genetically modified," says Cati Marielle, Director of the Sustainable 
Agricultural Systems division of the Environmental Study Group (known by its 
Spanish acronym, GEA), a non-governmental organization dedicated to helping 
indigenous farmers.
"It's the sad story of Mexico, to be subordinate to the interests of the 
United States government, which in turn represents the interests of 
transnational corporations," she continues.
Financial interests v. health risks
In the U.S., a GM corn variety approved only for livestock feed made its way 
into Taco Bell food and triggered a massive recall scandal in 2000. The 
corn, known as Starlink and made by biotech company Aventis, had been 
marketed as feed corn because of the possibility of adverse health effects 
in humans.
Introducing radically different elements into food is not something to be 
taken lightly. But that's just what biotech companies have done; they have 
charged ahead with the unlabelled distribution of GM food, despite little 
real knowledge of long-term health issues. When that GM food is corn, the 
lifeblood of Mexico, there is even greater cause for concern.
In Mexico some 44 million tons of second-generation foodstuffs are produced 
annually from imported GM corn, possibly including Starlink corn. GM corn is 
distributed without any indication that it is modified. More than 11 million 
tons of GM corn were imported last year, of which 8 million was directed to 
internal food production, representing one-third of the corn consumed 
annually in Mexico.
Since corn products are the foundation of the Mexican diet, the 
pervasiveness of GM products worries Marielle and health advocates.
"Officially, GM corn only enters [Mexico] for consumption by animals and for 
industrial products for human consumption. But if you go to the supermarket, 
you'll find an astonishing quantity of products that contain corn, although 
it appears that you aren't buying corn," Marielle says.
Greenpeace Mexico has published a list of commercial products that contain 
GM corn. It includes various commercial brands of tortillas, as well as 
snacks and breakfast cereals. GM corn is also the basis for many industrial 
food products like corn syrup, fructose, and vegetable oils.
The principal biotechnology corporations doing business in Mexico are 
Monsanto, Dupont-Pioneer, Syngenta, and Dow. But Monsanto is the key player, 
both in Mexico and worldwide; it owns 90 per cent of GM seed patents 
globally and raked in profits of $8.6-billion last year. The company is 
infamous for its aggressive legal action against farmers whose crops are 
unwittingly contaminated by Monsanto's patented varieties.
A Monsanto press representative, Darren Wallis, says that GM products have 
been eaten by humans since their inception, but does not reply to questions 
about GM corn's possible negative effects.
"Biotechnologies, from Monsanto and many other companies," says Wallis, 
"have been used in parts of the world now for more than a decade. Food 
products from staple crops like corn and soybeans have used ingredients from 
these crops for the same amount of time and have been widely consumed by 
people around the world."
GM contamination: is it worth it?
The long-term effects of GM contamination on native maize are still 
unknown - even the science behind genetic modification remains unclear. The 
biotech companies themselves are clueless as to exactly how and where 
transgenes attach themselves to DNA in the process of creating a GM food 
variety.
When GM contamination of native maize was discovered throughout Mexico in 
2001 by both independent and government studies, it was revealed that some 
plants had been contaminated more than once, and by different GM corn 
varieties - including Starlink. Farmers in areas of contamination have also 
reported high rates of mutated cobs.
Although the real extent of contamination is uncertain, it is clear that GM 
corn can seriously affect insect populations - both pests and those 
beneficial to crops - with possibly catastrophic results.
One of the most common types of GM corn is known as Bt corn. Bt is a primary 
contaminator of maize in Mexico, and produces its own insecticide thanks to 
the genetic fusing of a toxic bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis, into the 
corn genome. Some studies have shown that Bt pollen is harmful or fatal to 
the larvae of Monarch butterflies - millions of which breed each year in 
central Mexico - although the biotech industry's own studies claim 
otherwise.
More alarming is that crop-destroying pests can become resistant to the Bt 
toxin, posing a threat not only to GM farms, but contaminated ones as well - 
which could lead to widespread crop failures in the not-so-distant future.
Even Monsanto has realized this. Although the company has published 
strategies on avoiding the development of Bt-resistant pests, it maintains 
that such a possibility is unlikely.
"[Bt corn] is a good tool for farmers because it is toxic to target pests 
like the corn ear worm in corn, and specific pests in cotton, and is 
something already found in nature," says Wallis.
To protect non-GM corn varieties from contamination, Monsanto suggests 
separating some corn in "refuge areas" in order to maintain separate pest 
populations and avoid contamination from GM varieties.
"Monsanto has a rigorous stewardship plan that protects technologies, like 
Bt, and promotes its longevity. For Bt in particular, this comes in the form 
of natural refuge in cotton and refuge acres in corn," Wallis says.
In spite of such efforts, Marielle feels that the risks just aren't worth 
it.
"When we talk to Monsanto's scientists who work with GM crops, they say, 
'What we know is really very little.' With so much information lacking, they 
want to sell us a product that's really not as safe as they say it is," she 
says.
It's the patents, stupid
Recently, Mexico has passed two laws relating to the planting and sale of GM 
seeds: in 2005, the Biosecurity Law - known as the Monsanto Law for that 
company's alleged involvement in its creation - and in 2007 the Law of Seed 
Production, Certification, and Sale. Both laws set the stage for the legal 
planting of GM corn, as well as the criminalization of farmers found to have 
fields contaminated by GM corn.
These laws are part of a process to institutionalize the rights of the 
transnational agro-biotech sector, similar to one already established in the 
US and Canada. After a few years of planting GM crops - in test fields, or 
by farmers who have bought the seed - Monsanto takes farmers whose fields 
have been contaminated to court for patent violations, forcing these farmers 
to buy Monsanto's GM variety, year after year.
In Canada, Monsanto won a case in 2001 against Percy Schmeiser, a 
Saskatchewan canola farmer whose field was contaminated by the company's GM 
canola from a neighbouring field.
Although the judge ruled that Schmeiser did not have to pay Monsanto, he is 
not yet free from their grasp. In 2005, Monsanto's canola continued to pop 
up in Schmeiser's field, cross-pollinating his crop and contaminating his 
seed.
According to Marielle, the issue comes down to biotechnology patents.
"Everything is tied to the patents," she says. "For farmers, they represent 
a threat to a common good - maize - with the inheritance of hundreds of 
generations of farmers and 7,000 years of maize agriculture in Mexico. 
Fifty-nine maize races with over 1,200 identified varieties are cultivated 
here. There is a continuous diversification of maize that creates varieties 
adapted to every ecological niche."
But Marielle says that Monsanto wants to control the seed and fertilizer 
markets, turning every farmer it can into a lifelong client, and in the 
process effectively wiping out the genetic diversity of maize.
"It's not just the introduction of a GM gene into the native maize 
varieties, but the fact that the gene is the private property of Monsanto, 
entering into a public good," she emphasizes.
Monsanto: a step ahead of the game
Marielle believes that Monsanto's next step is to appropriate the genome of 
native maize varieties, and to turn some of them into Monsanto's private 
property.
"To date, all GM seeds are made out of hybrid seeds, but Monsanto is very 
interested in knowing what is it that makes a maize variety blue, or red, or 
resistant to droughts. They are promising to develop a GM corn that is 
drought-resistant," she says. "But here in Mexico we already have 
drought-resistant varieties - or how do you explain that farmers plant corn 
in the desert? It's because farmers have been selecting, throughout many 
centuries, to adapt their seed to such extreme conditions."
Monsanto has already made inroads with farmers in the north of the country, 
despite the fact that it remains illegal to promote GM corn in Mexico. Of 
course, the farmers in Chihuahua who planted 9,000 hectares of it had to buy 
it from somewhere.
"Recently, farmers in the north have been quoted saying that 'We want GM 
corn, and since the government hasn't decided its position, we're already 
planting it'," says Marielle, adding that Monsanto has influence in Mexico 
through an organization called Agrodinamica Nacional A.C.
Leonardo Estrada, a leader of the National Confederation of Farmers (CNC) - 
tied to the country's longtime ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary 
Party (PRI) - in Guanajuato state, says that the CNC has strong ties with 
Monsanto and other bio-tech firms.
"We have a special office in the CNC, the office of Storage and 
Comercialization, which already has all the necessary ties and connections 
with the transnationals that can sell us GM seed," he says.
Recently, Monsanto signed an agreement with the CNC, formalizing the future 
sale of GM seed to CNC farmers as soon as it is legal. In exchange, Monsanto 
has initiated a project to "conserve" native varieties, hoping to create a 
database and seedbank of Mexico's maize varieties.
The project could give Monsanto the raw material to start patenting new GM 
varieties based on Mexico's native maize.
Monsanto's stated goal in undertaking efforts to "conserve" Mexico's maize 
diversity is to protect maize in the poor southern Mexican states - by not 
planting there. Some of most contaminated regions, however, are in Oaxaca 
and Puebla, two southern states that are among Mexico's most impoverished.
Out of reach?
Biotech companies are campaigning hard in Mexico's industrialized north, 
trying to convince farmers to buy GM corn. Farmworkers are led to believe 
that GM corn will save them money, and are generally unaware of the risks of 
contamination.
"We are really ignorant as to how GM corn works," says Miguel, a farmer from 
Guanajuato state. "But GM corn yields more, and it doesn't need herbicides. 
In total, it already comes with everything, which for us represents a lot of 
money saved. We want the government to let us plant it, because it yields 
more with less water."
Biotech companies' own studies support the claim that GM corn yields more 
product, but critics argue that independent data indicates otherwise.
"Independent studies by scientists in the U.S. and Europe demonstrate that 
the improvement in yields isn't true," Marielle argues. "In some cases, yes, 
but it's never more that ten percent. Sometimes it's negative. There's one 
study that shows that, in the U.S., the average yield increase is two 
percent. Is it really worth it to run so much risk for such an insignificant 
increase in yield?"
Monsanto, however, maintains that GM corn is beneficial to farmers because 
of yield increases.
"In [GM] corn, some of the most dramatic benefits have come in the shape of 
increased yields which have helped create more food and feed for people and 
animals," says Wallis.
Although some farmers believe that they will save money with GM technology, 
even its proponents admit that small farmers can't afford to buy the large 
quantities of seed, fertilizer, and irrigation that GM corn requires.
"We have to make the federal government give us a subsidy, because our 
farmers in the CNC don't have the financial capacity to be buying large 
volumes of seeds," Estrada says. "We are only waiting for the financial 
resources to bring [GM corn] in."
A recent study on GM crops by Friends of the Earth International shows that 
since 1994 - when herbicide-tolerant varieties of GM soy, corn, and cotton 
were introduced in the U.S. - there has been a 15-fold increase in herbicide 
use.
Some of the GM corn varieties in Mexico are herbicide-tolerant, resulting in 
the increased application of glyphosate - a Monsanto-produced herbicide 
known as Roundup. In Mexico, Monsanto's glyphosate-resistant YieldGuard corn 
varieties, along with Monsanto's Bt corn, are the principal GM contaminators 
of native maize.
Sin maíz, no hay país
A lot of attention has been paid recently to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, 
a so-called "doomsday" bank in Norway to keep the world's seed wealth in 
suspended animation. But farmers are the real seed bank; they are the 
original biotechnicians, constantly adapting and bettering their seed as 
conditions change. Helping farmers maintain that seed diversity is the real 
key to food security.
Corn is one of the most important crops on the planet, with some 687.2 
billion kilos harvested in 2006 and 2007. Although the majority of that corn 
is produced in the U.S. and in China - and a large portion has recently been 
diverted to production of ethanol and other industrial products like glues - 
it remains a staple food crop all over Africa and the Americas. Preserving 
the diversity of Mexico's maize is key to future world food security.
The import and planting of GM corn in Mexico - whether illegal or legal - 
threatens to contaminate maize all over the country, turning campesinos into 
Monsanto's slaves, obligated to buy its seed year after year.
Campesinos in contaminated areas filed suit in 2002 with the Commission for 
Environmental Cooperation of North America (CEC), NAFTA's ruling authority 
on environmental issues, calling for a review of the risks of GM corn in 
Mexico. The CEC report called for Mexico to uphold its ban on planting GM 
seed, and to minimize the import of GM produce.
For the moment, Monsanto is content to wait before taking Mexican farmers to 
court to formalize their patent rights.
"Right now they're not going to persecute those who have contaminated 
fields. What they want to do is let their seed proliferate throughout the 
country," says Marielle.
But indigenous farmers all over Mexico have begun to fight back, holding 
rituals to cleanse their maize and starting their own seed banks to protect 
local diversity. However, testing for GM contamination is prohibitively 
expensive, costing over $200 for each sample.
According to Marielle, a moratorium on the import of GM corn is the only 
solution to wprotecting Mexico's maize. She argues that consumers must 
reject GM products and force the government into action.
"What is really needed is a total moratorium. And it's nothing more than a 
question of political will. It could be done tomorrow," says Marielle. "Why 
can Japan, who imports a lot of corn and rice from the U.S., successfully 
reject the importation of GM crops? Because the government of Japan is very 
strong, and most importantly, Japan's consumers are very strong."
On January 31, in one of Mexico's biggest protests ever, some 200,000 
farmers from all over the country flooded Mexico City's central plaza, 
calling for the government to re-negotiate the terms of NAFTA's agricultural 
chapter and to immediately stop the importation GM corn.
Bety Cariño is an activist from Oaxaca's Sierra Mixteca - 150 kilometres 
from where GM contamination was first discovered in 2001 - and part of the 
Sin maíz, no hay país campaign. She says that GM contamination represented 
the final straw to not just farmers, but also to Mexico's indigenous 
peoples, for whom maize is often an important cultural item.
"The government has abandoned real support for the countryside, leaving our 
fields empty here in the Mixteca, where the youth have to leave for the 
United States to survive, leaving their communities behind and abandoning 
the field," she says. "And now, GM corn is going to finish off the 
countryside - which is to say, Mexico's indigenous peoples."
However, thanks to organizations like GEA and Greenpeace and the Sin maíz, 
no hay país campaign, Mexican consumers and farmers are learning the risks 
of GM corn and starting to fight back.
Despite the government's inaction, campesino and indigenous activists all 
over Mexico have vowed to keep fighting to do what no one else will: protect 
Mexico's corn, farmers, and indigenous peoples.
"Better to die fighting," says Don Serdán with tears in his eyes, "than on 
our knees, begging for the food that we ourselves can produce."




http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/how-the-rising-price-of-corn-made-mexicans-take-to-streets-454260.html



How the rising price of corn made Mexicans take to streets


By Jerome Taylor
Saturday, 23 June 2007
Mexico was ablaze in late January. Just two months after the election of 
Felipe Calderon as Mexico's President, protests had broken out across the 
country.

Thousands of people were marching on the main cities calling on their 
pro-free trade businessman President to halt a phenomenon threatening the 
lives of millions of Mexicans.

In their hands the protesters clutched cobs of corn, the staple crop that 
makes tortillas and for many of Mexico's poor the main source of calorific 
sustenance in an otherwise nutritionally sparse diet.

Over the past three months the price of corn flour had risen by 400 per 
cent. Despite being the world's fourth largest corn producer and a major 
importer of supposedly cheap American corn, millions of Mexicans found the 
one source of cheap nutrition available to them was suddenly out of reach.

Poor Mexicans, who normally expect to set aside a third of their wages for 
corn flour, had always been particularly vulnerable to price fluctuations in 
the corn market, but a four-fold increase was both unheard of and 
potentially catastrophic.

The reason for such a substantial increase in the price lay north of the 
border. In order to wean itself off its addiction to oil, the US was turning 
to biofuels made from industrial corn like never before. Farmers in Mexico 
and America had been replacing edible corn crops with industrial corn that 
could then be processed into biofuels, leading to a decrease in the amount 
corn available on the open market.

As corn imports and domestic production dropped, greedy wholesalers in 
Mexico began hoarding what supplies they could get their hands on, forcing 
the price of corn to rise astronomically. Eventually tortillas became 
unaffordable, so people took to the streets.

President Calderon found himself caught between a rock and a hard place. On 
the one hand were the corn importers and major multinationals who would not 
look kindly on any government intervention on the free market. On the other 
side were Mexico's teeming poor, the vast majority of the population who 
already viewed Mr Calderon as a discredited pro-business leader that ignored 
the needy.

In the end, Mr Calderon compromised. He capped the price of flour at 78 
cents per kilogram but made the scheme voluntary for businesses. So far the 
price has largely stabilised but many are becoming increasingly concerned 
that Mexico's tortilla wars were simply the sign of things to come. 
"Recently there's been a huge increase in the demand for industrial corn for 
the production of ethanol which inevitably pushes up the price of food 
stuffs," says Dawn McLaren, a research economist at the W P Carey School of 
Business in Phoenix, Arizona. "But if we get a particularly bad harvest or 
if a weather system like El Niño strikes we could be really stuck."

Mrs McLaren says that as the West looks to replace its oil, poor people will 
pay the price. "It doesn't strike me as a very good idea to start using yet 
another vital and limited resource to wean ourselves off oil," she said.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hDUCfa3JCjUuDZcRUdkTGGP3dRvg

Farmers clog Mexico City in corn tariff protest
Jan 31, 2008
MEXICO CITY (AFP) - Tens of thousands of farmers on foot and on lumbering 
tractors clogged Mexico City Thursday to protest the lifting of corn tariffs 
under a free trade agreement, which they say is hurting their pockets.
"No corn, no country" was the byword of the protest plastered in signs on 
tractors and buses, as the angry farmers, some of them leading herds of 
cattle through the streets, demanded equal treatment with farmers in the 
United States and Canada.
While it was mostly peaceful, there was some tension late Wednesday when a 
column of slow-moving tractors ground to a reluctant halt before a phalanx 
of anti-riot police that barred access to the Zocalo, the city's main 
square.
By late Thursday, however, the protest was allowed to move on Zocalo, where 
organizers said some 50,000 people congregated, while police put the crowd 
estimate taken by helicopter at between 20,000 and 25,000.
Some 1,500 police fanned out across the city to prevent any unrest stemming 
from the protest. Farmers from across the country have made their way here, 
some on foot for 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles), since January 18.
A provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) lifting 
tariffs on corn -- Mexico's staple food -- and other products kicked in on 
January 1, 14 years after the agreement between the three neighbors came 
into being.
Many farmers in Mexico have been against NAFTA from the start, but their 
protest has escalated as the date for lifting corn tariffs approached.
The National Peasant Confederation (CNC), Mexico's chief farmers' union with 
more than five million members, has also warned against NAFTA regulations 
lifting tariffs on milk and sugar cane products.
Farmers say that government subsidies their counterparts in Canada and 
United States receive are unfair. CNC said farmers get some 20,000 dollars 
in annual subsidies in the United States compared to only 700 dollars in 
Mexico.
They also complain of mounting fuel, fertilizer and electricity prices which 
they claim represent 60 percent of the average cost of running a farm and 
place them at a severe disadvantage to their northern competitors.
The farmers and opposition politicians are insisting that some NAFTA 
provisions be renegotiated, but the three NAFTA governments refuse to do so.
Canada's Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz last week said the United States, 
Mexico and Canada were pleased at how NAFTA was working and saw no reason to 
reopen negotiations.
Mexican leftist opposition lawmaker Victor Quintana, however, asked that "at 
least corn and beans be removed" from the list of products allowed 
tariff-free into Mexico.
The NAFTA agremeement, he told reporters, "is a disaster for Mexican 
farmers, for the people's food security, for national security and for the 
country's democratic rule."
For University of Chapingo agronomist Rita Schwentesius, the 1,000 farm 
products exempt of tariffs since January 1 "will have no ecomomic impact. 
There will be no crisis because grain prices (corn and beans included) have 
gone up on the international market."
But corn grower Luis Valdiga, 49, who drove his tractor here from central 
Aguascalientes state, saw things differently.
"Before NAFTA we could live off our crops. Now they're worthless. What can 
we do?"
http://elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/01/30/internacional/1201716984.html

http://www.dailyradical.org/News/Miles_de_campesinos_en_pie_hacia_M_xico

* 'We need a new National Agreement for the Countryside' claim

Mexican Farmers, on their way to the capital. (Photo: AP)
Enlarge

Mexican Farmers, on their way to the capital. (Photo: AP)

Last Wednesday 30/01/2008 19:28 (CET)

Listen noticiaImprimirEnviar noticiaDisminuye letraAumenta letter
JACOBO GARCIA

MEXICO .- Under the slogan 'No Country no maize' thousands
of Mexican farmers begin to reach the streets of the City
to participate in the'Megamarch' that is prepared on Thursday
to defend the camp and againstthe Free Trade Agreement (FTA )
signed with the United States and Canada.

Alongside them, dozens of cows, milk tanks and hundreds of tractors
and trucks arrived from the most remote country have already
installed camps in major locations in the capital,
pending a joint demonstration thattomorrow
will reach the Zocalo, the heart Federal District.

The massive influx of peasants promises desquiciar a little more
thealready chaotic traffic itself from the world's largest metropolis.

The Mexican countryside decided to stand up against
the full opening ofthe agricultural sector which came into force
on January 1 under theNorth American Free Trade Agreement
of North America (NAFTA), signedwith the United States and Canada.

All farming organisations in the country have come together
against thisagreement ratified in the year 90, and claim
compensations and a renegotiation of the treaty.
Convened thousands of workers

Faced with the full opening of the market for maize, beans,
sugar andpowdered milk, postponed until now by a moratorium,
peasantorganizations have joined unions like the Electricians,
Telephone,teachers, UNAM (National Autonomous University
of Mexico) , miners and Social Security.

Act jointly in protest with making government offices,
bank branches, blocking roads and marches scheduled for today
and tomorrow throughout the country. The merger will bring together,
according to the organizers, over 200,000 people.

Yesterday Tuesday, farmers from Veracruz, Oaxaca
and San Luis Potosi protested in front of
the presidential residence of Los Pinos.

"We need a new National Agreement for the Countryside,
NAFTA should be reviewed and try to make it now should benefit
small producers who have not been able to enter the international trade,"
said Jorge Arredondo, president of the organization Furrow.

Requiring national peasant and social organizations of the federal
government to renegotiate the agricultural chapter of NAFTA
faced with the political class and has managed to divide several states,
such as Michoacan and Sinaloa, the strategy forward.

While the agent Michoacán Lazaro Cardenas supported the protest
because it believed that the trade agreement will subtract
on sovereignty to the country, the governor of Sinaloa,
Jesus Alberto Aguilar, defended the modernization
of the countryside in the north of the country has promoted
the export of vegetables to the United States
and the white maize harvest

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/013588BE-DB1E-494D-94FF-5D68B9758CBD.htm

Mexican farmers hold trade protest

Tractors were burned during the protest [Reuters]

Thousands of Mexican farmers, many riding tractors and herding cows, have 
marched through Mexico City to demand government protection against cheap US 
agricultural imports.
Trade barriers were lifted in January under the North American Free Trade 
Agreement (Nafta), opening Mexico up for the first time to tax-free US 
exports of traditional food like corn and beans.
"The free trade agreement is like an open wound for the Mexican 
countryside," said Victor Suarez, the head of a small farmers' group.
"You can give the patient medical attention, but if you don't stop the 
hemorrhage first the patient will die."
Mexican farmers complain that the government of Felipe Calderon, the 
president, is not doing enough to protect them against heavily subsidised US 
goods and are demanding that Mexico renegotiate the treaty.
Since Nafta came in to force in 1994, corn tariffs have gradually been 
phased out and imports of US yellow corn to Mexico, mostly used in animal 
feed, have increased.
They now account for close to 35 per cent of Mexican consumption.
Government support
Farmers set one tractor on fire and built an enclosure for dairy cows in 
front of the Mexican stock exchange.
Some carried black crosses or coffins representing the death of rural 
Mexico.
The farmers fear the absence of tariffs will encourage large US farms to 
start producing white corn, which has been a major part of the Mexican diet 
since the Aztec era.
Opposition politicians have called for the resignation of Alberto Cardenas, 
the agriculture minister, for failing to do enough to support farmers.
Cardenas said on Wednesday the government would offer support to farmers to 
buy corn for animal feed, since international prices have rocketed in recent 
months.
The minister said the negative effects of the trade deal for corn and wheat 
growers would be offset by high international prices caused by increasing US 
demand for ethanol, which is made from corn.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/02/01/mexico.farmers/index.html

Mexican farmers protest NAFTA
Story Highlights
Farmers want the government to renegotiate the 1994 free trade agreement
Farmers: Mexican products are undermined by subsidized U.S., Canadian grains
Pleas have fallen on deaf ears in the Mexican government, farmers say
Mexican officials: Grain prices have been stable in January

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Hundreds of thousands of farmers clogged 
central Mexico City Thursday with their slow-moving tractors, protesting the 
entry of cheap imported corn from the United States and Canada.

Farmers protest in Mexico City Thursday against the removal of import 
tariffs on U.S. and Canada farm goods.

On January 1 Mexico repealed all tariffs on corn imported from north of the 
border as part of a 14-year phaseout under the North American Free Trade 
Agreement, or NAFTA.
The farmers want the government to renegotiate the 1994 free trade 
agreement, which removed most trade barriers among Mexico, Canada, and the 
United States, saying livelihoods are at stake.
"NAFTA is very bad, very bad for Mexican consumers and for Mexican 
producers," said Victor Quintana, head of Democratic Farmers Front, which 
organized the protest.
The farmers complain that U.S. and Canadian grains are heavily subsidized 
and therefore undermine Mexican products.
"The NAFTA agreement is in place and that's that," said farmer Armando del 
Valle. "But all producers should be under equal conditions, and as Mexicans, 
we are not working under the same terms as our neighbors up north." Watch a 
tractor go up in smoke, as farmers plead their case »
Ramon Garcia, who grows corn just outside Mexico City, said he couldn't 
afford to fertilize his crop this year and had to rent a tractor to till his 
field. The work is too much work for too little return, he said.
"Corn is too cheap," Garcia said. "For me to make a profit, it has to bring 
in 15 pesos ($1.4) a kilo, and I can barely get 10."
The farmers say their pleas have fallen on deaf ears in the Mexican 
government, forcing them to take their protests to the streets.

The government has said NAFTA is working fine and won't be renegotiated but 
promised to negotiate with farmers to find ways to increase their subsidies.
Grain prices in Mexico have been stable since subsidized U.S. and Canadian 
grains appeared on the market in January, Mexican officials said -- but 
still too low for many farmers.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/01/america/01mexico.php

Mexican farmers protest end of corn-import taxes

By James C. Mckinley Jr.
Published: February 1, 2008

MEXICO CITY: Tens of thousands of farmers clogged the streets of the capital 
on Thursday to protest the end of tariffs on corn from the United States, 
warning that the elimination of trade barriers could drive them out of 
business and lead more Mexicans to migrate north.
The farmers brought a herd of cattle and more than 50 tractors to make their 
point, jamming the historic center and blocking the central artery, Paseo de 
la Reforma. One rowdy group burned a tractor.
Stretching for more than four miles, the march was a sea of tanned faces, 
cowboy hats, flags and calloused hands gripping banners with slogans like 
"Without farms there is no country." The police said at least 50,000 people 
joined the protest; organizers put the number at 100,000.
"We cannot compete against this monster, the United States," said one 
farmer, Enrique Barrera Pérez, who is 44 and works about five acres in 
Yucatán. "It's not worth the trouble to plant. We don't have the subsidies. 
We don't have the machinery."
One the nation's largest labor coalitions, the National Union of Workers, 
joined dozens of farmers' organizations like the National Campesino 
Confederation to finance the march. The organizers bused people in from as 
far away as Chihuahua in the north and Yucatán on the Gulf Coast.
Today in Americas

On Jan. 1, the last tariffs on corn, beans, sugar and milk were lifted under 
the North American Free Trade Agreement, completing a 14-year transition to 
an open market between Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Since then, Mexican leaders of farm coalitions and other unionists have been 
calling for the government to renegotiate the treaty, putting them at odds 
with President Felipe Calderón, a staunch free-trade advocate.
The farmers worry that a surge of inexpensive corn could doom millions of 
peasants who farm plots of less than 12 acres. They also complain that the 
government has done almost nothing to prepare farmers for the open 
competition.
Much of the $1.4 billion in annual aid for farmers, they say, has gone to 
large agricultural businesses in the northern states rather than to small 
farms.
"We are mostly angry with the Mexican government," said Victor Suárez, the 
leader of ANEC, a farmers' coalition. "They have left the small producers to 
fend for themselves."
Opposition politicians have also seized on corn- along with an unpopular 
proposal to allow foreign investment in the state oil monopoly - to whip up 
sentiment against the administration.
Calderón has fought back. In a speech on Jan. 7, he declared that the 
free-trade agreement had brought Mexicans lower prices for goods while 
increasing exports fourfold, even when oil is excluded.
"As with all agreements of this nature, the treaty presents challenges and 
opportunities, but in general it has been beneficial to Mexicans," he said.
Yet the renewed debate seems to have touched a nerve in Mexico, where corn 
was first domesticated 5,000 years ago and the culture revolves around its 
consumption. Underlying the political discourse is a widespread sentiment 
that poor Mexicans have benefited little from free-trade policies, while 
giant businesses have reaped profits.
In practice, however, nothing changed on Jan. 1. Mexico had been gradually 
dropping its tariffs on corn since 1994, when they stood at more than 200 
percent, and most of the corn imports in recent years had entered without 
tariffs under import quotas. What is more, the corn from the United States 
is yellow corn, used to feed livestock, rather than the white corn Mexican 
farmers produce for tortillas.
Some opponents of the treaty, however, say a spike in demand for American 
corn to produce ethanol has protected Mexico's farmers so far. Over the long 
haul, these critics say, small farmers in Mexico cannot face off with the 
Americans' heavily subsidized and mechanized farms.
"How are you going to compete with the enormous subsidized farms in the 
United States and Canada?" said Francisco Hernández Juárez, the president of 
the National Union of Workers. "It's totally unequal."
Agricultural officials here agree that the peasant farmers cannot hope to 
stay in the game. They say four-fifths of the nation's 2.6 million small 
farms have plots so little that they produce only enough to live on and 
never market their goods.
"Our small producers are not affected by the free trade agreement," said 
Marco Sifuentes, a spokesman for the agriculture department. "They don't 
participate in the market."
Francisco López Tostado, an assistant secretary of agriculture, said the 
answer lay in peasant farmers' forming large competitive agricultural 
cooperatives, a policy the administration has pursued.
Several marchers who farm less than five acres said they no longer planted 
corn or beans except to feed their own families. Even with corn prices high, 
they said, the high costs of fuel and fertilizer had made it unprofitable to 
market their corn.
Others with larger farms said they could still make a living, but they 
feared that imports from the United States would eventually drive the prices 
down to a point where they could not compete.
Francisco Javier Ríos, 66, a farmer from Bahia de Banderas, in Nayarit 
State, said he planted 15 acres with white corn each year. Depending on 
prices and weather, he can make between $3,000 and $4,000 of profit. He 
worries, however, that imports from the United States will cut his thin 
profit margin.
"The free market should exist, but it should be more level," he said. "To 
compete against them is unfair to us because we don't get the same 
subsidies. Our costs are 100 percent ours."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D89F60B9-695E-4794-B52D-394E182810DB.htm

Argentine farmers resume protest

Farmers in Argentina have restarted their 17-day-old national strike over an 
increase in export taxes, barely 24 hours after it calling a brief truce 
with the government.

The strike, which has caused nationwide food shortages and prompted clashes 
between farmers and transporters, began again on Saturday after negotiations 
broke down.

The strike has become the biggest test so far for Cristina Fernandez de 
Kirchner, the Argentine president, whose mandate began in December.

Kirchner's government had refused farmers' demands to suspend an increase in 
the tax on soya products, Argentina biggest export, for at least 90 days.

Protest to stay

"Since farmers and livestock producers have not had an answer to their 
complaints ... we have decided to continue with protest measures," the 
country's four big agro-industrial groups said in a joint statement.

They said they would talk with the government on Monday but that the protest 
would remain in place at least until Wednesday.

There was no immediate response from the government, which has repeatedly 
refused to meet the farmers while they are blocking transportation of farm 
goods.

The strike was suspended on Friday night after Kirchner called for talks 
over their concerns about the increase of taxes on soya bean exports from 35 
to 44.1 per cent.

Half of Argentina's fertile farmland is used for soya bean cultivation, and 
the country is the biggest soya exporter in the world, sending $13bn worth 
annually to China, India, Southeast Asia and Europe.

During the brief truce farmers allowed trucks with agricultural products to 
circulate and began negotiations at the government palace.

But after five hours the negotiations ended in failure and the groups 
ordered a resumption of the protest that has paralysed exports from 
Argentina, a top world supplier of soya bean, corn, wheat and beef.

Kirchner and other ministers had labelled the farmers "extortionists", and 
claimed that sky-high commodities prices on the world market, coupled with 
Argentina's devalued peso, have made many rural landowners very wealthy.

But farmers complain the tax increase, combined with income taxes, transport 
costs and the high cost of land, would push many of them out of business.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gl-raBs_euhuHTWKgdoP-LMVgciQD8VLJRLO0

Argentine Farm Protest Enters Third Week
By BILL CORMIER - Mar 26, 2008
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Striking farmers built new highway blockades 
around Argentina's agricultural heartland Wednesday in a standoff with the 
president over tax increases on major export crops.
The nationwide farm and ranch strike headed into a third week, all but 
paralyzing one of the leading world exporters of soybeans, beef and wheat. 
There were no reports of major violence despite tension and fisticuffs at 
one barricade and huge traffic jams elsewhere.
Demonstrators held a second straight night of noisy pot-banging protests 
late Wednesday, rallying in the hundreds outside the downtown Government 
House and the suburban presidential residence. The downtown demonstration 
melted away quickly after a similar-size crowd of counter-protesters arrived 
waving flags in support of President Cristina Fernandez.
Television footage showed scattered fistfights between rival bands, with 
three people slightly injured. One man was spotted leaving the 
demonstrations with his face bloodied after he was reportedly hit by a pot 
thrown by a rival demonstrators.
The strike by farmers against the government decree, which raises taxes on 
soybean exports from 35 percent to 45 percent and slaps new taxes on other 
farm exports, has led to shortages of beef, milk, cooking oil and other 
products on supermarket shelves in Argentina.
Fernandez's ruling center-left coalition, which controls both houses of 
Congress, passed a resolution in the Senate supporting tax hikes and urging 
strikers to call off the 14-day-old protest. A similar proposal was expected 
to sail through the House.
Earlier, farmers rumbled in a convoy of tractors through the central city of 
Cordoba and laid sharp spikes across a key trucking route through farmland 
in Buenos Aires province. Long-distance bus companies scrapped service as 
more demonstration gauntlets went up in six provinces.
Fernandez has angrily refused to roll back new export taxes, facing down 
angry farmers as aides warned police could forcibly free up highway transit, 
arresting anyone who resists.
In a nationally televised address on Tuesday, Fernandez rejected any 
rollback of the March 11 decree.
Fernandez chided strikers and said rich "oligarchs" benefited the most from 
a recent boom in world commodity prices, though she wanted to redistribute 
some of their wealth to those less fortunate.
The tough words only hardened the resolve of protesters.
"This country is fed up with taxes. Where does the tax money go?" retired 
flight attendant Karina Sagemuner said outside the president's Olivos 
residence. "What they are doing to the farmers is shameful by confiscating 
their money."
The president's speech also drew an unexpected new player into the crisis 
confronting a three-month-old administration: thousands of middle class 
Argentines, who took to the streets Tuesday night to support the farmers.
Argentines complain high inflation and taxes are universal problems still 
unanswered in Argentina despite a robust recovery from a 2002 economic 
meltdown.
The country's last major pot-banging protests, called "cacerolazos" in 
Spanish, helped bring down the government of President Fernando de la Rua 
during the December 2001 prelude to Argentina's economic free fall.

http://www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living-1/1207297911260790.xml&coll=2

Argentine farmers suspend protests
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Larry Habegger
Special to The Plain Dealer
In Argentina, farmers suspended a three-week-long protest that has created 
food shortages around the country, keeping meat and grain from reaching 
supermarkets and prompting demonstrations of support in Buenos Aires and 
other cities. The original protest began March 11 when the government 
imposed a 44 percent export tax on their crops. The farmers suspended the 
protests March 28, then resumed them March 31 when talks with the government 
failed to address their grievances. The farmers lifted the road blockades 
again on Wednesday, but warned that they would shut down transport again in 
30 days if the government did not negotiate concessions.

http://www.reuters.com/article/RAILRD/idUSN1049089520080310

UPDATE 1-Brazil peasants end Vale railroad protest
Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:26pm EDT

(Recasts with protest end; adds byline; changes dateline from Sao Paulo)
By Denise Luna
SAO PAULO, March 10 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Brazilian peasant farmers ended 
a daylong blockade on Monday of a railroad operated by mining giant Vale, 
one of several multinational companies targeted by a wave of protests.
The activists cleared the Vitoria-Minas railroad in the central state of 
Minas Gerais peacefully in the afternoon, after Vale obtained a court order 
to have them removed, a spokesman for the activist group Via Campesina told 
Reuters.
Vale (VALE5.SA: Quote, Profile, Research)(RIO.N: Quote, Profile, Research), 
the world's biggest exporter of iron ore, said because of the protest it did 
not transport 300,000 tonnes of ore on Monday.
Vale said it was evaluating when it would resume shipment.
The Via Campesina group was protesting against the construction by Vale and 
its partner of a dam in the area known as Aimores that would flood an area 
the size of 2,000 soccer fields.
The iron ore is shipped to Tubarao port and then loaded onto ships for 
export.
In October, the leftist Movement of the Landless Rural Workers, or MST, and 
its related international umbrella organization, Via Campesina, blocked 
Vale's other railroad in Carajas for two days, briefly leaving a pellets 
plant without raw materials.
On Saturday, MST activists invaded a Vale-owned forestry and charcoal unit 
near the company's pelletizing plant in Carajas -- the Amazon area where 
Vale's biggest iron ore mine is located.
Vale called the invasion "a criminal act of extreme violence," saying the 
protesters damaged buildings and equipment and took one worker hostage.
The peasants made social and economic demands that had no relation to Vale 
and should be resolved by the federal and state governments, the company 
said.
"Clearly there is a movement forming in Brazil to use Vale as an instrument 
to publicize and pressure," Tito Martins, the company's corporate affairs 
director, told reporters in Rio de Janeiro.
Via Campesina, which defends peasants' rights and land reform, denied it 
took any hostages.
On Friday, about 300 Brazilian women activists from the Via Campesina group 
raided a research unit of U.S. agricultural biotech company Monsanto (MON.N: 
Quote, Profile, Research), destroying a tree nursery and an experimental 
field of genetically modified corn.
The protests are aimed against multinational companies to draw attention to 
the need for land reform in Brazil, where most land is concentrated in the 
hands of a few big landowners. (Additional reporting by Andrei Khalip and 
Raymond Colitt; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/5679348/Brazilian-peasants-end-mining-company-protest

Brazilian peasants end mining company protest
Published: Tuesday 11 March 2008 07:33 UTC
Last updated: Tuesday 11 March 2008 10:31 UTC
Resplendor - Brazilian peasants have ended a day-long blockade of a railway 
line belonging to the Vale mine company. They took the action in protest 
against the building of a dam, which will flood an enormous area of land.

The activists say the land could be put to better use as agricultural land 
to feed the poor population of the state of Minas Gerais. They only left the 
rail line after a judge gave the mining company permission to use force to 
remove them.

Vale says as a result of the protest, 300,000 tonnes less iron ore was 
transported than normal. It is the second protest against Vale mining 
company in a week. On Saturday, in the northeastern state of Maranhao one of 
the company's factories was besieged

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7289334.stm

Brazil landless blockade railway

The protest halted the transport of iron ore for export
Hundreds of landless farmers in Brazil blockaded a railway operated by 
mining giant Vale for several hours.
The demonstrators occupied the line in the state of Minas Gerais to protest 
against the construction of a dam by Vale and a partner company.
They left after Vale obtained a court order to have them removed.
The action comes amid a widening campaign by landless groups to target major 
agricultural businesses and multinationals over a range of issues.
Several hundred protesters, led by activist groups Via Campesina and MST, 
occupied the railway in the town of Resplendor on Monday.
Pressure
The demonstrators said they were protesting against a hydroelectric dam 
built by Vale and an energy company that had, they said, displaced more than 
2,000 people.

Vale, the world's biggest exporter of iron ore, said the blockade prevented 
the transport of some 300,000 tonnes of iron ore to port.
The company said the action was "a criminal act of extreme violence", 
accusing demonstrators of destroying railway signals.
Vale said the protesters' demands had no relation to the company and should 
be resolved by the federal and state governments.
"Clearly there is a movement forming in Brazil to use Vale as an instrument 
to publicise and pressure," said Vale corporate affairs director Tito 
Martins, according to Reuters news agency.
In the past, groups that represent landless rural workers focused on 
occupying farmland they regarded as unproductive, says the BBC's Gary Duffy 
in Sao Paulo.
But their actions have been increasingly aimed at businesses, he says.
In a protest earlier this month, protesters invaded property to destroy 
genetically modified crops.

http://noticias.notiemail.com/noticia.asp?nt=12138044&cty=200

EFE: 10/03/2008-17:53:00
Protest shuts down mining rail line in Brazil
Rio de Janeiro, Mar 10 (EFE).- About 800 activists from social organizations 
like the MST Landless Movement on Monday blocked a railroad line operated by 
Brazilian mining giant Vale.
The MST announced on its Web site that the protest was being staged against 
a dam that is being constructed by Vale and which is affecting the residents 
of Resplandor, a municipality in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
According to Vale, the world's largest producer of iron ore, the 
demonstrators arrived at 5 a.m. and occupied a stretch of the so-called 
Estrada de Hierro Victoria-Minas railway in the jurisdiction of Resplandor, 
forcing the firm to suspend its transport of minerals by train.
The rail line runs some 900 kilometers (560 miles), in total.
The firm announced in a press release that it had requested the intervention 
of the police in the matter.
It added that the railway is used to transport different minerals from Minas 
Gerais, where it operates several mines, to the Atlantic port of Victoria.
The demonstration, according to the MST, is to "denounce (the fact that) the 
construction of the Aimores dam, started by Vale and by the Energy Company 
of Minas Gerais (Cemig), left the city's sewage system unviable, which 
caused the flooding of 2,000 hectares of land."
A hectare is about 2.5 acres.
The organization representing the peasants seeking lands to cultivate in 
Brazil added that the takeover also was part of a national day of protest to 
denounce the Brazilian production model, which allegedly favors large 
agribusiness concerns over family farmers.
"Vale is one of the main (entities) responsible for the destruction of the 
environment in Minas Gerais and for the concentration of land through the 
planting of eucalyptus," the MST added.
In keeping with the day of protests, MST activists on Friday had already 
occupied a Vale farm devoted to the production of charcoal in the northern 
Amazonian state of Para.
Some 1,000 women from the organization invaded the Monte Libano farm.
Meanwhile, Vale said that the occupation was an act of "extreme violence" in 
which the firm's installations and equipment were damaged.
Also in keeping with the day of protests, activists last week attacked a 
eucalyptus farm operated by forest-products multinational Stora Enso in the 
state of Rio Grande do Sul and a Monsanto transgenic corn production farm in 
Sao Paulo state, among other things. EFE
cm/bp

http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN1044651620080310

Brazil peasant protest halts miner Vale's railroad
Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:25pm GMT
SAO PAULO, March 10 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Brazilian peasant farmers 
blocked a railroad operated by mining giant Vale on Monday, carrying on a 
wave of protests that started across Brazil last week.
"The railway has been halted, we've ceased transporting 2,500 passengers a 
day and 300,000 tonnes of ore," Vale (VALE5.SA: Quote, Profile, 
Research)(RIO.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's biggest exporter of 
iron ore, said in a statement.
The blockage on the Vitoria-Minas railroad is in the central state of Minas 
Gerais.
The iron ore is shipped to Tubarao port and then loaded onto ships for 
export. Vale said the port had stocks but it was not clear how long they 
would last if the protests continued.
The Via Campesina group was protesting against the construction by Vale and 
its partner of a dam in the area known as Aimores that would flood an area 
the size of 2,000 soccer fields.
Last October, the leftist Landless Peasants Movement, or MST, and its ally 
Via Campesina blocked Vale's other railroad in Carajas for two days, briefly 
leaving a pellets plant without raw materials.
On Saturday, on International Women's Day, MST activists invaded a 
Vale-owned forestry and charcoal unit near the company's pelletizing plant 
in Carajas -- the Amazon area where Vale's biggest iron ore mine is located.
Vale called the invasion "a criminal act of extreme violence", saying the 
protesters damaged buildings and equipment and threatened workers.
It said the peasants made social and economic demands "that have no relation 
to Vale" and should be resolved by the federal and state governments.
On Friday, about 300 Brazilian women activists from the Via Campesina group 
raided a research unit of U.S. agricultural biotech company Monsanto (MON.N: 
Quote, Profile, Research), destroying a tree nursery and an experimental 
field of genetically modified corn.
Earlier last week, a group of 900 women briefly raided a eucalyptus 
plantation owned by European paper maker Stora Enso (STERV.HE: Quote, 
Profile, Research), felling trees and destroying saplings before they were 
kicked out by the military and police.
The protests are aimed against multinational companies to draw attention to 
the need for land reform in Brazil, where most land is concentrated in the 
hands of a few big landowners. (Reporting by Alberto Alerigi and Andrei 
Khalip)

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/brazil-demonstraters-block-access-to-dam/n20080324153809990013

Brazil demonstraters block access to dam to protest utility privatization
By ALAN CLENDENNING,
AP
Posted: 2008-03-24 15:38:25
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - About 500 activists opposed to the privatization of 
a large Brazilian electricity producer blocked an access road Monday at one 
of the company's dams, protesting Wednesday's multibillion-dollar auction of 
a majority stake in the state-owned company.

Companhia Energetica de Sao Paulo SA, or CESP, said in a statement that the 
protest did not affect operations and that the protesters stayed on public 
land just outside the hydroelectric facility before dispersing. The auction 
to privatize CESP requires a minimum bid of 6.6 billion reals (US$3.8 
billion; euro2.5 billion).

The company generates about 60 percent of the electricity used in Sao Paulo 
state, Brazil's most populous, and has six hydroelectric facilities with a 
capacity of nearly 7,500 megawatts.

Sao Paulo state plans to use much of the auction's proceeds to improve the 
metro system in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city.

But CESP's stock fell 10.7 percent Monday on Sao Paulo's Bovespa exchange 
amid speculation that the auction may fail to generate minimum bids because 
Brazil's federal government hasn't promised to renew licenses on two of the 
company's dams.

Licenses for those dams, which account for two-thirds of Cesp's generating 
capacity, run out in 2015 and analysts say uncertainty over their future 
after that could scuttle the privatization auction.

The activists with the Landless Workers Movement and Movement of 
Dam-Affected People are fiercely opposed to most privatizations of 
state-owned companies, saying Brazil's poor frequently end up with few 
benefits after valuable industries are sold off to wealthy investors.

The Landless Workers Movement has frequently invaded property owned by miner 
Vale do Rio Doce SA, the world's biggest iron ore miner. Vale was privatized 
in the 1990s.

A court last week banned the movement from using violence in protests 
against Vale and said protesters must demonstrate peacefully without hurting 
Vale's business.

Earlier this month, the group blocked a railway that carries some 300,000 
tons of iron ore to port each day and destroyed railway signal machinery. It 
also vandalized buildings and machinery after invading a pig iron plant, 
Vale said.

http://www.viacampesina.org/main_en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=493&Itemid=1

Farmers repression in Rio Grande do Sul: Solidarity with the women defending 
life and biodiversity

Friday, 07 March 2008
We express our solidarity with the women of Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil in 
their action against green deserts.

On March 4th, around 900 women of Via Campesina Rio Grande do Sul occupied 
the 2.100 hectares "Fazenda Tarumã" in Rosário do Sul. The women cut the 
eucalyptus and planted native trees in a land illegally purchased by the 
giant Finish-Swedish paper and celluloses company Stora Enso. The police 
violently attacked the peaceful gathering, injuring badly as many as 50 
women. This action was taking place among other activities organised for the 
International Women Day on the 8th of March. Women farmers are the most 
affected by the current export-oriented agriculture model based on the 
plundering of natural ressources and the exclusion of small farmers by 
transnational companies.

All around the world, eucalyptus plantations as well as other monoculture 
plantations (green deserts) destroy the environment and prevent small 
farmers from making a living and producing food for all.

We strongly condemn any violence against farmers, women and men, defending 
their right to live and feed their communities in a socially and 
ecologically sustainable way.

Via Campesina members all around the world promote a model of peasant or 
family-farm agriculture based on sustainable production with local 
ressources and in harmony with local cultures and traditions.
We promote equality between women and men!
We promote food sovereignty!

Henry Saragih,
General Coordinator of La Via Campesina International
Jakarta, 07 March 2007

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Brazilian_protesters_destroy_GM_crops_group_999.html



Brazilian protesters destroy GM crops: group
by Staff Writers
Sao Paulo (AFP) March 7, 2008

Around 300 women rural residents in Brazil burst into a property owned by 
the US company Monsanto and destroyed a plant nursery and crops containing 
genetically modified corn, their organization said.

The women were protesting what they saw as environmental damage by the 
crops. They trashed the plants within 30 minutes and left before police 
arrived at the site in the southern state of Sao Paulo, a member of the 
Landless Workers' Movement, Igor Foride, told AFP. The Brazilian government 
had "caved in to pressure from agrobusinesses" by recently allowing tinkered 
crops to be grown in the country, he said. In Brasilia, a protest by another 
400 women from an umbrella group, Via Campesina (the Rural Way), was held in 
front of the Swiss embassy against Syngenta, a Swiss company that is selling 
genetically modified seeds in Brazil. The demonstrators called attention to 
an October 2007 incident in which private guards working for Syngenta killed 
a protester taking part in an occupation of land owned by the company. Via 
Campesina said in a statement that "no scientific studies exist that 
guarantee that genetically! modified
crops won't have negative effects on human health and on nature." It added 
that on Tuesday, another 900 of its members had entered a property owned by 
the Swedish-Finnish paper giant Stora Enso and ripped out non-modified 
eucalyptus saplings they claimed were illegally planted.



http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news624.htm



Whilst the spectre of genetically modified foods occasionally rears it's 
deformed head here in Europe (see SchNEWS 583), the GM companies are trying 
to get a bigger share of the food market in the global south, but like in 
Europe they are getting a kicking by the majority of the population who are 
opposed to their Frankenstein food.

Last November we recently reported how a Brazilian anti-GM campaigner was 
murdered at a Syngenta GM crop trial in Paraná, Brazil, after security 
forces opened fire on the Via Campesina (The International Peasants 
Movement) camp at the experimental farm (See SchNEWS 610).

Deadly force has not been enough to stop the resistance however, which has 
been continuing with increasing intensity. Last week in Brasilia, a protest 
by 400 women from Via Campesina was held in front of the Swiss embassy 
against Syngenta, (a Swiss company). Via Campesina summed up their position 
by releasing a statement saying that, "no scientific studies exist that 
guarantee that genetically modified crops won't have negative effects on 
human health and on nature."

Meanwhile, also last week around 300 rural women residents from the state of 
Sao Paulo burst into a property owned by Monsanto and destroyed a plant 
nursery and crops containing genetically modified corn. They were in and out 
in half an hour and long gone by the time cops arrived on the scene.

There was also an action the previous week when another 900 members of Via 
Campesina broke into a facility owned by the Swedish-Finnish paper giant 
Stora Enso and ripped out non-modified eucalyptus saplings they claimed were 
illegally planted. It's good to know that wherever they ply their evil 
trade, there's no hiding place for the GM corporations.