http://colombiareports.co/trade-comes-halt-colombia-venezuela-border/
Aug 28, 2013 Businesses in northern Colombia close as Venezuelan border blockedposted by Daniel Freeman [image: Businesses in northern Colombia close as Venezuelan border blocked]<http://colombiareports.co/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/maicao_frontera_venezuela_f_flickr.jpg> [image: Share Button] <http://www.hupso.com/share/> <http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=twitter&title=Businesses%20in%20northern%20Colombia%20close%20as%20Venezuelan%20border%20blocked&url=http://colombiareports.co/trade-comes-halt-colombia-venezuela-border/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=facebook&title=Businesses%20in%20northern%20Colombia%20close%20as%20Venezuelan%20border%20blocked&url=http://colombiareports.co/trade-comes-halt-colombia-venezuela-border/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=googleplus&title=Businesses%20in%20northern%20Colombia%20close%20as%20Venezuelan%20border%20blocked&url=http://colombiareports.co/trade-comes-halt-colombia-venezuela-border/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=linkedin&title=Businesses%20in%20northern%20Colombia%20close%20as%20Venezuelan%20border%20blocked&url=http://colombiareports.co/trade-comes-halt-colombia-venezuela-border/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=stumbleupon&title=Businesses%20in%20northern%20Colombia%20close%20as%20Venezuelan%20border%20blocked&url=http://colombiareports.co/trade-comes-halt-colombia-venezuela-border/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=reddit&title=Businesses%20in%20northern%20Colombia%20close%20as%20Venezuelan%20border%20blocked&url=http://colombiareports.co/trade-comes-halt-colombia-venezuela-border/> Businesses in northern Colombia have closed after protesters blocked an area along the Colombia-Venezuela border over fuel disputes, local media reported on Tuesday. The business sector of the border-city Maicao, located in the northern department of La Guajira, closed Tuesday morning as local business owners reacted to a blockaded border and a lack of accessible fuel. All trade between Colombia and Venezuela through this northeastern border has been closed off since last Friday, causing all transportation of goods to cease, diminishing traffic from crucial Venezuelan consumers, and exacerbating a severe shortage of affordable Venezuelan fuel. Colombian shop owners, distributors and suppliers decided to close their shops because they refused to be engulfed in the paralysis a day longer, explained citizens of Maicao to the local media. This financial crisis, as local media have labeled the situation, began Friday when a coalition of Venezuelan gas providers made up of the indigenous Wayuu people, blockaded the borders in protest of the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, failing to deliver oil and gas to the region after meetings with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. The fuel deliveries stopped once Santos and PDVSA agreed to cease the 2011 bi-national fuel exports program that former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin agreed upon. This program provided the only source of income for almost 3,000 indigenous families in Venezuela, and was part of a 13-point economic agreement made by the two countries at the time. *MORE*: Colombia, Venezuela sign pacts to improve relations<http://colombiareports.co/colombia-and-venezuela-sign-agreements-to-improve-relations/> Cheap gasoline, often smuggled from Venezuela into Colombia, is a staple for the vitality of both border cities and such gas coalitions, though the practice is at the expense of both countrys larger economies. *MORE*: Incredibly cheap Venezuelan gas in unstoppable flow across Colombian border<http://colombiareports.co/incredibly-cheap-venezuelan-gas-in-unstoppable-flow-across-colombian-border/> If the governments of Colombia and Venezuela do not solve this fuel problem, all business will permanently stop because [Maicao's] commercial dynamic is given to [Venezuela] all the time, and if there are no buyers, then we cannot do anything with open establishments insisted Mara Ortega, president of the Federation of Liquor and Cigarette Importers for La Guajira Special Customs Regime. Neither President Santos nor the Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum and Mining, Rafael Ramirez have publicly offered a solution to halt in trade or the cease in oil and gas delivery at this time. Maicao, La Guajira Sources - Se Paraliza Comercio En Maicao Por Crisis En Frontera Colombo Venezolana <http://www.cmi.com.co/?n=114109> (CMI) - Paralizado Comercio De Maicao Por Bloqueo En Venezuela<http://www.elheraldo.co/region/guajira/paralizado-comercio-de-maicao-por-bloqueo-en-venezuela-122303> (El Heraldo) - Cooperativas De Combustible Cierran Paso En Paraguachón<http://www.entornointeligente.com/articulo/1480915/Cooperativas-de-combustible-cierran-paso-en-Paraguachon-26082013> (Entorno Inteligente) - Indígenas Paralizan Frontera Con Colombia<http://www.elmundo.com.ve/noticias/actualidad/noticias/indigenas-paralizan-frontera-con-colombia.aspx> (El Mundo) - -------------------------- - http://colombiareports.co/national-march-thursday-shed-light-ignored-labor-platforms-introduce-new-groups-colombias-national-strikes/ Aug 28, 2013 Colombias largest union calls for protests in support of strikesposted by Steven Cohen [image: Colombias largest union calls for protests in support of strikes]<http://colombiareports.co/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/union_protest1.jpg> (Photo: Wesley Tomaselli) [image: Share Button] <http://www.hupso.com/share/> <http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=twitter&title=Colombia's%20largest%20union%20calls%20for%20protests%20in%20support%20of%20strikes&url=http://colombiareports.co/national-march-thursday-shed-light-ignored-labor-platforms-introduce-new-groups-colombias-national-strikes/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=facebook&title=Colombia's%20largest%20union%20calls%20for%20protests%20in%20support%20of%20strikes&url=http://colombiareports.co/national-march-thursday-shed-light-ignored-labor-platforms-introduce-new-groups-colombias-national-strikes/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=googleplus&title=Colombia's%20largest%20union%20calls%20for%20protests%20in%20support%20of%20strikes&url=http://colombiareports.co/national-march-thursday-shed-light-ignored-labor-platforms-introduce-new-groups-colombias-national-strikes/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=linkedin&title=Colombia's%20largest%20union%20calls%20for%20protests%20in%20support%20of%20strikes&url=http://colombiareports.co/national-march-thursday-shed-light-ignored-labor-platforms-introduce-new-groups-colombias-national-strikes/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=stumbleupon&title=Colombia's%20largest%20union%20calls%20for%20protests%20in%20support%20of%20strikes&url=http://colombiareports.co/national-march-thursday-shed-light-ignored-labor-platforms-introduce-new-groups-colombias-national-strikes/><http://www.hupso.com/share/add.php?service=reddit&title=Colombia's%20largest%20union%20calls%20for%20protests%20in%20support%20of%20strikes&url=http://colombiareports.co/national-march-thursday-shed-light-ignored-labor-platforms-introduce-new-groups-colombias-national-strikes/> On Wednesday, Colombias largest labor union declared Thursday a national day of protest in support of striking farmers and miners. The union demands President Juan Manuel Santos talk to the organizers of labor strikes that are building steam across the country. The United Workers Center (CUT) announced it would be partnering with leaders of Colombias less publicized protest movements in its National Day of Struggle and Solidarity to bring attention to the national labor organizations being ignored by the Santos administration. *MORE: *Social unrest spreads in Colombia as govt fails to reach out to strikers<http://colombiareports.co/colombias-national-protests-gain-momentum-president-santos-meets-isolated-departments/> In a statement, CUT President Alejandro Pedraza explained that what the government did [Monday and Tuesday] was promote a labor [negotiation] table for the agriculture sector, but it hasnt tried to involve itself at all in any of the other conflicts like that of miners and truckers who have also refused to work since last week. *MORE:* Colombia govt delegation arrives 6 hrs late at meeting with farmers, strikes expand to oil sector<http://colombiareports.co/state-colombias-national-strikes/> CUT General Secretary Tarsicio Rivera told Colombia Reports that demonstrations are scheduled to take place Thursday in each of the 32 departmental capitals, including Bogota, and all other large urban centers in Colombia. The event seeks to highlight the national platforms of labor groups, such as health workers, truckers and teachers, whose movements have been somewhat eclipsed by the public clamor over the agricultural strikes, but the marches will also give sectors recently entering the protest fray an opportunity to spread their messages. Entering large-scale protest activities for the first time since the start of the recent wave of civil unrest are the national oil (USO), student (MANE) and banking (UNEB) unions. The USO announced Saturday it would be joining protest, but it wasnt until earlier this week that it publicly solidified its intentions. On Thursday, oil workers will go on 24-hour strike to participate in the CUTs national day of protest. According to a statement posted on its website Wednesday, entitled Wake Up Colombians! Theyre Stealing Your Oil!, the strike is in protest of a long history of neo-liberal economic policy and globalization efforts that send cheap Colombian oil oversees, keep domestic combustible costs at among the highest levels in the world and prevent both workers and citizens from enjoying the massive profits involved in petro-production. USO sympathizes, it said, with the plight of Colombias striking truckers, and shares many of their complaints regarding the ongoing free-trade negotiations with South Korea, and the generally inflated cost of gas throughout Colombia. Colombias bank workers, too, are protesting free trade. A spokesman for the union told local media on Tuesday that the finance sector has never been far from the struggles the Colombian people have opened, claiming that bank workers previously warned of the situation that the signing of the [Free Trade Agreement with the United States] was going to generate, the one overwhelming the countrys agriculture. The national student union has yet to decide whether it will launch an indefinite strike. It says it is leaving that decision for later, choosing instead to attempt a formal dialogue with the government to avoid another massive university shutdown like the one that occurred in 2011. The students say that the agreements that ended MANEs previous large-scale protests, however, have gone unfulfilled. They are protesting the ongoing privatization of the public education system, and demanding the government comply with the promises it made in 2011. For Thursdays protests, the students will be dressed in typical *campesino *clothing to lend their support to the agriculture protests, but they have planned a series of protests for early September that will specifically address their own issues, and are expected to lay out an official proposal to the government tomorrow. Rivera encouraged anyone unable to attend to participate in the second round of national cazerolazos (the banging of pots and pans)* *planned for Wednesday night. In Bogota, Thursdays march will begin in the National Park at 9AM and make its way to the Plaza Bolivar at around midday. Rivera directed interested parties to contact local CUT chapters to find out more information about the demonstration schedule for other cities. Sources - Interview with Tarsicio Rivera - CUT Website<http://www.cut.org.co/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5257:convocatoria-gran-concentracion-y-movilizacion-nacional-en-solidaridad-con-los-sectores-en-conflicto&catid=34:comunicados&Itemid=190> - La Cut Convoca A Marcha Nacional Para El Proximo 29 De Agosto<http://www.cmi.com.co/?n=114080> (CM&) - Cuatro Nuevo Sectores Anuncian Gran Marcha Nacional Este Jueves<http://www.elpais.com.co/elpais/colombia/noticias/cuatro-nuevos-sectores-anuncian-gran-marcha-nacional-este-jueves> (El Pais) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
