Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO YOUR CONTACTS ASAP! [Dear Friends, last Friday, during a protest march of doctors in Quito against government cutbacks, the repressive organs of the Ecuadorian state unleashed volleys of tear-gas near a maternity ward. As a result of this attack two infants sufocated and died from the gases launched by the police. An editorial on the issue can be found at http://www.hoy.com.ec/edito/mierco/opinion.htm, which is the website of Ecuador's largest daily (NOTE: the opinions expressed within Hoy are only those of their authors and are completely separate from those of any other organization mentioned in this e-mail). I would urge activists to organize public vigils and actions in front of Ecuadorian or US consulates and embassies to protest this criminal deed. Below I include a CEOSL Press Release that talks about this sad tragedy and other struggles in Ecuador that need our support and solidarity.] Monday, July 30th 2001 - 5:37 p.m. CEOSL INFORMATION BULLETIN ------------------------------------------------------ COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTAMENT Tarqui 785 y Estrada, Sexto Piso Quito - Ecuador Telephone #s: 522511 - 506723 Fax: 500836 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------ Quito, July 30th 2001 ECUADOR'S POPULAR FORCES DEMAND LEGAL ACTION FROM THE AUTHORITIES "This morning, organizations belonging to the Unitary Front of Workers - Frente Unitario de Trabajadores, FUT - (CEOSL, CEDOCUT-CEDOC), SINDUOIESS, UGTE, Frente Popular and other social, indigenous and campesino movements, have confronted the district attorney, Marian Yepez, with a series of demands for an urgent investigation and prompt legal decision against the parliamentary Intervention Commission for the Ecuadorian Institute for Social Security (Instituto Ecuadoriano de Securidad Social, IESS), where the overcharges in the granting of contracts for loaning hemodialisis equipment in Quito and Guayaquil; the commissioning of Professional Service Contracts for around six billion sucres, in order to carry out studies for the Project for a Law on Social Security; and the IESS and TECFAPREV (Previsi�n y Tecnolog�a S.A.) contracts resulting from these decisions must be investigated. To this list of complaints one can also add the preoccupation of the workers and peoples of Ecuador with the crisis of the national financial system, especially the collapse of FILANBANCO, whose defaulting members [mostly belonging to the corrupt oligarchy running the country] have benefited from more than 1.2 billion dollars of the public's money to the detriment our nation. For these actions we are now demanding that pertinent legal action be taken in order to avoid a new era of impunity," stated the President of the Ecuadorian Confederation of Free Labour Organizations - Confederaci�n Ecuatoriana de Organizaciones Sindicales Libres, CEOSL - Jaime Arciniega. Arciniega, argued that in the face of the people's concern with these issues, the aforementioned organizations are demanding that the competent legal authorities initiate corresponding legal actions conforming to Articles 33 and 65 of the Code of Legal Proceedings, against the Intervention Commission for the IESS, and that those involved in these reprehensible acts of corruption, which have affected Ecuadorians both economically and morally, be punished. Furthermore, the President of CEOSL condemned the police crackdown last Friday, June 27th 2001, against striking health professionals who had organized a protest march from the Maternity ward of Isidro Ayora towards the Presidential Palace. As a result of the police's repressive actions, including the use of tear-gas, many infants in the maternity ward were adversely affected, including two babies that died from the gas, while several doctors were later apprehended for their resistance to the police brutality. We demand that the Congress carry out a full investigation of these events and that it sanction those responsible for these criminal acts. Finally, Arciniega declared that the country's unions and popular organizations will be meeting this Wednesday, August 1st, at the local of the United National Sindicate of IESS Workers, at 17h00, with the aim of coordinating united actions for the General Strike of the 8th and 9th of August 2001. Jaime Arciniega CEOSL PRESIDENT ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
