In the wake of September 11, the Bush administration is threatening the Nicaraguan people over the possible election victory of Daniel Ortega, the presidential candidate for the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), in the Central American nation’s November 4 elections. Polls indicate that Ortega has a thin lead over the candidate of the ruling Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC), Enrique Bolanos.
The 18-day strike by autoworkers in Mexico that stopped production at the giant Volkswagen-Mexico plant in Puebla state ended September 5 after the union agreed to management’s wage and benefits offer. The 12,400 workers will receive a 10.2 percent increase in wages, 3.5 percent increase in food vouchers and 1 percent more for school supplies for workers’ children.
The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) reports that as many as 1.6 million Central Americans are suffering from famine as a result of a drought in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala. The agency has said up to now it has only been able to distribute food to about half of the nearly 700,000 people in urgent need of food supplies.
Mexico’s VW workers overwhelmingly rejected a proposed contract settlement and decided to continue their strike for improved wages and working conditions against the German-owned auto giant. Nearly 97 percent of the 11,460 strikers voted against the 10.2 percent wage offer accepted by their union, with only 281 workers approving the deal. Earlier in the week, the union dropped its wage increase demand to 10 percent, down from 19 percent at the beginning of the strike.
A famine is afflicting 1.4 million Central Americans, including in Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. The immediate cause of the famine is a devastating drought that severely reduced the corn crop. In Nicaragua at least six children have died. In that country, the famine is being compounded by the layoff of thousands of coffee workers.
Fourteen Mexican immigrants, ages 16 to 35, died May 23 and 24 of dehydration and exposure in the Arizona Desert after crossing into the United States. The US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) took another 12 young men into custody for treatment and questioning before deporting them back to Mexico. Two others are missing and presumed dead.
On May 15 the California State Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved a sharp increase in retail electricity prices, which will result in most consumers paying between 12 and 47 percent higher rates. Beginning in June, residents and businesses in the state will pay $5.7 billion more for electricity in what amounts to a further bailout of the utility giants who pushed for the deregulation of the state's energy market.
By a 5-0 vote March 26, California's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved an electricity rate increase that will hike rates by as much as 42 percent for some Southern California Edison customers and 46 percent for certain customers of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. PUC officials calculate that the overall rate hike will average around 40 percent.
More than 1.5 million California residents lost power Monday and Tuesday as state officials ordered 90-minute rolling blackouts to cope with electricity shortages caused by the deregulation of the state's energy market. The blackouts—the first since mid-January—began with virtually no warning Monday morning and left schools, businesses, traffic lights and elevators without power. San Francisco, Sacramento and other cities, from the Oregon border in the north, to San Diego in the south, were affected, including Los Angeles, which lost power for the first time since the outages began several months ago.
Despite extended negotiations and repeated state government interventions, California's energy supply remains in a precarious position. In an attempt to stabilize the ongoing crisis, a series of legislative actions and financial arrangements have been undertaken or proposed by the state over the past two weeks. While California Governor Gray Davis has expressed optimism, a number of pressing issues remain unresolved.
After weeks of threatened power outages, California was hit by rolling electricity blackouts Wednesday afternoon affecting 500,000 people in San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose as well as other sections of Silicon Valley. Traffic lights, ATMs, classrooms and entire neighborhoods lost power for 60 to 90 minutes amid warnings electricity supplies would be dangerously low throughout the afternoon and into the evening. The rotating blackouts, the first ordered by California authorities since World War II, were expected to continue throughout the evening, affecting up to 2 million households.
It only lasted 30 seconds, but it will take many days to determine the scope of the damage resulting from the earthquake that shook Central America off the coast of El Salvador on Saturday, January 13 at 11:34 a.m. Monday morning's figures indicate that nearly 500 are dead, 1,077 wounded and some 2,000 disappeared.
While the California electricity crisis has received the most national attention, utility rates are soaring across the nation as the effects of deregulation begin to be felt amid one of the coldest winters on record in many parts of the US. The cost of natural gas for homes—a preferred heating fuel in much of the country—is expected to rise by at least 70 percent across the nation according to the US Department of Energy.
On December 22 the California State Public Utilities Commission (PUC) announced it would raise electricity rates on January 4, in response to ultimatums from Edison, the giant electric utility that dominates Southern California.
A 36-hour general strike called by three union federations in Argentina virtually shut down the nation of 37 million inhabitants last week. The mass walkout was a protest against austerity measures by the De la Rua administration that would cut Social Security benefits and freeze federal and provincial budgets for five years. President De la Rua and Labor Minister Patricia Bullrich denounced the strike.
Los Angeles County workers have begun a series of partial one-day strikes this week to demand a 15.5 percent wage increase over three years and the rescinding of plans to impose co-payments on their medical insurance. The workers are also demanding the county improve child care and retirement benefits.
More than 4,000 bus and train drivers, members of the United Transportation Union (UTU), went on strike Saturday against the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), after reaching an impasse in contract talks. The strike in the second largest US city affected some 200,000 passengers on the weekend and will affect nearly half a million riders when the business week starts Monday.
The July 2 Mexican elections, the first in the country's history to transfer power from one party to another, have been hailed by both the Mexican and US media as a triumph of democracy.
Four thousand health care workers walked off the job Thursday against 10 for-profit hospitals in California's San Francisco Bay Area. The one-day strike was to protest the wave of budget cutbacks that have degraded medical care.
The candidates for president of Mexico suspended campaigning June 29, observing the 72-hour moratorium required under the country's electoral laws. Nearly 70 million are eligible to cast ballots July 2 for president, congressional seats and positions in a dozen state governments, but most attention has been focused on whether the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institutional (Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI) will be defeated for the first time in a presidential campaign.
