INTERNATIONAL FOCUS/PRESIDENTS COLUMN

RMTnews :: february 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk 24 INTERNATIONAL FOCUS V enezuela’s national assembly recently granted president Hugo Chavez additional powers for 18 months to transform the country, which is still plagued by poverty and inequality. Thousands of Chavez supporters took to the streets as lawmakers read out the proposed bill in public meetings. Huge sums of oil money have already been diverted towards the country's poor majority, funding education and health programmes, and providing cheap food. One of the most significant of the reforms is giving funding and powers to "communal councils" which are springing up in their thousands all over the country. The nationalist leader has been in power eight years and survived a western-backed coup in 2002. He has made clear that the government wishes to develop industries from oil, gas, electricity and telecommunications and to extend land reform as a first step towards rural development. G uatemalan STEPQ dockers’ union leader Pedro Zamora was murdered by multiple assailants who ambushed him last month as he collected his sons from a hospital appointment. After firing 100 shots one walked up to the wounded Zamora and shot him at point blank range in the face – in front of his children, one of whom, three year old Angel, was wounded in the attack. Zamora’s last act had been to push the children to the floor to try and protect them. Pedro Zamora had known he was being followed for several months, in response to his role in defending workers’ jobs at Quetzal, while police were also sent to intimidate him, reportedly at the orders of the port company. The ITF had protested to the government about this last October and notified the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which has remonstrated with Guatemala before over the number of killings of trade unionists. At the time of his murder Pedro was continuing to negotiate on behalf of his members over the future of the port. Just before the execution-style murder the government had committed parliament to reinstate nine unfairly sacked workers, as requested by STEPQ. Reportedly, this had angered the port’s general manager, who was implicated as the man who ordered police to go into the port and arrest union leaders last year. A car of the new Paris tramway is seen at Porte de Versailles, South of Paris, shortly before its inauguration in Paris. The tram will transport some 100,000 travellers a day to and from the southwest area of Paris. Emergency personnel transport a Washington Metro system passenger away from the Mount Vernon Square station after a subway train derailed last month, near downtown Washington, sending 16 people to the hospital and prompting the rescue of 60 people from a tunnel. GUATEMALAN DOCKERS’ LEADER MURDERED VENEZUELAN LEADER TO TRANSFORM THE COUNTRY WASHINGTON DC SUB VIVA: A supporter of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez holds a photo of him during an outdoor legislative session at Plaza Bolivar in Caracas.