Mexican Labor News & Analysis

Mexican Government Prepares to Seize Mexico City Power Plants to Break Power of Electrical Workers Union

By Dan La Botz

September 29, 2009

The Mexican Preventive Police (PFP) are preparing to occupy the facilities of the Central Light and Power Company in Mexico City in an attempt to break the militant Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), according to a union press release. The union warns that the quasi-military occupation of the plants could come within a week.

The PFP have been used in the last three years to attempt to break strikes of miners and steelworkers as well as to try to crush popular social movements. Mexican police have previously been used to occupy the facilities of telephone workers and others to break strikes. The Mexican government used the police or army to crush militant movements of workers in 1959, of students in 1968, and of electrical workers in 1975.

Government Attack on Electrical Workers

This current threat is the latest in a series of attacks on the union by the government of Felipe Calderón.The Felipe Calderón administration, having spent three years trying to destroy the Mexican Miners and Metal Workers Union (SNTMMRM), has now opened a new front in its war on the working class. In September the government launched a multifaceted attack intended to destroy the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) which has been at the center of resistance to its neoliberal programs.

The government's attack has several elements. First, the government is supporting a small dissident faction within the union, using that as an opportunity to meddle in the union's internal life with the goal of breaking its militant leadership. Second, the government, which is also the employer, has reduced the budget for the state-owned Central Light and Power Company (LFC). Third, the government is also calling for a change in company management and for the complete restructuring of the company.

The "Union Transparency" Dissidents

The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), has a long history as a rarity in the Mexican labor movement: a union which is both independent and democratic. Historically, union elections have often been contested, rival factions argue out their differences within the union, and then later they come together to fight the company and the government which stands behind it.

All of this changed earlier this year when, after a contested union election won by incumbent Martín Esparza Flores, the dissident group which calls itself Union Transparency led by Alejandro Muñoz Reséndiz took its complaints to the Secretary of Labor (STPS), opening the door to government involvement in the union. The Secretary of Labor, Javier Lozano Alarcón who has led the attack on the Miners union, has now, through a procedure known as "toma de nota" (taking note) refused to recognize Esparza Flores as head of the union.

The Secretary of Labor through the toma de nota procedure may not only refuse to recognize the union's officers, but may also declare the election invalid. In practice, these administrative procedures (which are nowhere found in Mexican labor law) are used against independent or democratic unions or against unions opposing government policies, and almost never against government backed, employer controlled or gangster-run unions. Without government approved and recognized officers, the union officials cannot engage in collective bargaining or other union activities, leaving the union officially leaderless.

Violent Attack on the Union by Dissidents

On September 23, according to the elected SME leadership, Muñoz Reséndiz and between 20 and 30 other Union Transparency members, together with about 150 other persons who were not members of the union, some of them armed, attacked the union headquarters in Mexico City. The attackers robbed the union, taking money, checkbooks, and records.

A union press release on that date declared Union Transparency to be a pro-government group backed by Secretary of Labor Javier Lozano Alarcón. The union leadership pledged to defend the union hall and called upon other union groups, social movements and political parties to take note of these developments. In a press conference held a couple of days later, Esparza showed security camera videos of the attack. The union also filed legal charges against Muñoz Reséndiz and others involved. Afterwards at a union meeting that lasted several hours, members voted to remove Muñoz Reséndiz from the office of union treasurer and to expel him from the union.

Cutting the Budget, Restructuring LFC

The Calderón government proposes to gradually reduce the Central Light and Power Company (LFC) budget, with 641.7 million pesos for 2010; 486.2 million in 2011; 464.3 million in 2012; 162.9 in 2013; and 164.7 million in 2014. The SME leadership argues that this will gradually starve the LFC, leading to blackouts in the region it serves: the Federal District (Mexico City), and the states of Mexico, Morelos, Puebla and Hidalgo.

During the later years of the Institutional Revolutionary Party governments, from 1980 to 2000, there were constant battles over the budget and over the reorganization of the country's nationalized electric power industry. The PRI presidents would have liked at times to have combined the LFC with the Mexican Electrical Commission (CME), the company which serves the rest of Mexico. That would have forced the independent SME to merge with the government-controlled Sole Union of Mexican Electrical Workers (SUTERM).

Now, the issue is somewhat different, though the process could also lead to the dissolution Light and Power and its merger with the Mexican Electrical Commission. Calderón's administration has two motives in its attack on the SME. First, it wants to break the SME because it has been the center of so many movements resisting the Calderón government, its neoliberal policies, and particularly its plans to privatize the petroleum and electric power industries. Second, Calderón wants specifically to privatize the electrical industry, including the Central Light and Power Company, and to do so it must break the power of the SME.

An Attack on SME Is an Attack on the Labor Movement

The government's attack on the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) represents an attack on the entire labor movement, because it is an attack on one of the labor movement's strongest pillars. The SME created the National Front Against Privatization. The SME joined with the National Union of Workers (UNT) and other worker, peasant and social organizations to former broader front, including the so-called Frentote that brought together virtually all progressive organizations. The SME, at times working with the UNT, took positions on legislative issues before the Congress.

One could argue that SME has represented an important part of the vanguard of Mexican labor, a catalyst for broader coalitions, a union that fought not only over its trade union issue, but also over social and political issues of concern to many other unions and to the working class and the Mexican people as a whole. Only a few other union organizations -- such as the Authentic Labor Front (FAT), the National Coordinating Committee of the Teachers Union (CNTE) -- have played such a role. The breaking of the back of the SME would be a tragedy for the entire workers' movement, for the social movements, and for the left.

Clearly, this represents one more step in rightward and authoritarian direction in which the Mexican state is moving. When seen in the context of the militarization that has accompanied the war on drugs, the attempt to destroy the Miners Union, the current budget and tax proposal, and the appointment of Arturo Chávez Chávez to the office of Attorney General, one has to recognize that the Mexican state has moved far toward becoming a kind of neo-liberal authoritarian state.

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Press Release from the Mexican Electrical Workers Union

This press release was received September 29, 2009

To all union, social and political organizations,

To public opinion,

To the media,

To the people of Mexico: Bolet�n de prensa

We have information from reliable sources that detachments of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) have been dispatched with the objective of occupying Central Light and Power (LyFC) this week.

The pretext for federal forces occupying our facilities, according to the heads of the PFP, is that we electrical workers plan to seize these same facilities in order to provoke a giant black-out in the Central Area of Control (ACC), which is the affected zone represented by our union organization. All of this would take place should [the government] fail to recognize our union leadership, the recognition of which is our legal right.

We DISASSOCIATE OURSELVES CLEARLY AND DECISIVELY from an action of this sort. We do so with the GREAT RESPONSIBILITY handed down to us from the now almost 95 years of existence of our Mexican Electrical Workers Union [SME] and with an absolute commitment to the users [customers], who are, in the last analysis the real beneficiaries of the Nationalization of the Electrical Industry, which just yesterday, September 27, we commemorated with a march from the Monument of the Revolution to the Zócalo [central plaza] and a rally here in this city [Mexico City].

We are informing public opinion that the Mexican Electrical Workers Union has not filed the legal papers for a strike, so there is no legal motive for the PFP to seize our facilities. We categorically deny that the SME has any intention to affect the electric energy supply in the zone where we work.

For our part, as electrical workers, we are perfectly clear about the rights that protect and shield the workers which are clearly stated in the Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico in Articles 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 39 y 123, as well as in the Federal Labor Law. The struggle that we continue for our Autonomy and Union Independence is Constitutional and Legal, and nothing will make us give up that framework. Unlike those in the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Public Security, who are responsible for respecting our rights, the Rule of Law, WE WILL NOT FALL INTO THEIR PROVOCATION.

We denounce -- to the unions, social movements, and political organizations, to public opinion, to the people of Mexico, and to the media -- the attempt of the federal Authorities to attack and to assault our company and our union, with the intention of forcing us to negotiate what is not negotiable, and what we will not accept under any conditions. We will be in every possible place to denounce these nefarious intentions.

The government provocations will not work!!!

Respect the Autonomy and independence of the unions!!!

Long live the Mexican Electrical Workers Union!!!

Fraternally,

--For the Rights and Justice of the Worker--

Central Committee

Autonomous Comissions

Divisional Subcomitee

Labor Commission

[of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union -- SME]

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Struggle over the Budget and Fiscal Policies:
Calderón Wants Cuts in Services, Regressive Taxes, Gas Hikes

President Felipe Calderón presented a budget in early September that would cut the budgets for health, education, and other social services while raising taxes on purchases of all goods and services, including food and medicine, raising payroll taxes by two percent, and increasing the price of gasoline. Calderón justified his proposed budget, saying that the government's increased income would be used to help the poor and to eliminate extreme poverty. Augustin Carstens, Secretary of the Treasury, called it a "sad and difficult" decision, but echoing the president said it was necessary to fight poverty.

Working class organizations of all sorts - labor unions and peasant organizations, social movements and left-of-center political parties - have all reacted strongly against the proposed budget and fiscal measures as an attack on them. Calderón's proposals have provoked the outbreak of a class political struggle, which for the first time in months, has eclipsed the government's war on the drug lords both in the news and in the public mind.

Critics Are Legion

Calderón's economic policy has been attacked from virtually every side: for lacking coherence as a policy, for failing to solve the country's economic problems, for protecting the interests of the very wealthy, and for putting the burden of current financial difficulties on the backs of working people and the poor.

The critics of Calderón's proposal are legion:

* Two Nobel Prize economists, Robert Engle (2003) and Eric Maskin (2007) also criticized the proposed budget. Engle called it "a mistaken position" and Maskin said it would fall most heavily on the poor.

* Merrill Lynch, the financial company, declared that Calderón's budget "does not represent a serious attempt to eliminate fiscal privileges and to broaden the tax base."

* Carlos Slim, Mexico's richest man, opposed the government's proposed tax on food and medicine.

* The Center for Economic Studies of the Private Sector (CEESP) called the budget "disappointing," saying that it did not represent a long term policy and would not solve the country's fiscal problems.

* The Institute of Economic Investigations at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has issued a statement saying that the government's economic package would create one million more poor people by 2010.

* Andrés Manuel López Obrador, head of the "Legitimate Government" of Mexico and of the Broad Popular Front (FAP), excoriated the "usurper government" for its protection of the rich and its exploitation of the poor.

* The Roman Catholic Bishops of Mexico criticized the Calder�n budget for taxing working people and the poor to pay for extravagant salaries of high government officials.

* A host of labor unions, peasant leagues, and poor peoples' organizations also pledged to resist the President's budget.

Amlo's Alternative Economic Program

López Obrador, who continues to tour the country speaking out against the government which he says stole the 2006 election, proposed an alternative economic plan which, he says, would generate half a billion pesos. At a rally in Mexico City of the National Movement in Defense of Petroleum and the Broad Popular Front he laid out his program. First, he calls for cuts in government spending, not in social services but in what he calls the "personal services" and other exorbitant costs of government. He gave as an example Ulises Ruiz, governor of Oaxaca, who spends $4,000 per hour for the use of a private jet plane. Second, he called for increases in the taxes on big business and bankers. AMLO warns of social upheaval if the government budget and taxes pass.

Also opposing the government's plan and supporting a solution such as AMLO proposes are the left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Workers Party (PT) and Convergencia. More important from AMLO's point of view, are the many popular movements which have spent much of September organizing to oppose the proposed budget and new taxes.

The Roman Catholic Church has also criticized the Calderón fiscal policies. The Archbishop of Guadalajara called upon the government look at its own expenses and opportunities for saving before calling upon the working class population to support the expenses of top government officials. The Catholic Bishops of Mexico assert that the two percent tax increase will "harm to the point of death" both many businesses and their workers.

Opposition from Below

Mexico's labor unions, farmers' organizations, and other social movements immediately spoke out against the budget and tax and began organizing to oppose it. The Mexican Union Front (FSM), led by the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), together with the National Streetcar Workers Alliance (ANT), the Federation of Union Groups (FAS), the National Coordinating Committee of the Teachers Union (la CNTE) oppose the Calderón proposal. So, too, do the National Coordinating Committee Plan de Ayala (CNPA), the Independent Central of Agricultural Workers and Pesants (CIOAC), the Independent Peasant Central (CCI), and other farmers and peasant groups.

Some of these organizations, along with the Union Nacional de Trabajadores (UNT) and others have formed a Movement for Food and Energy Sovereignty, Workers Rights, and Democratic Liberties, and have submitted a broad call for reform to the Mexican legislature (see following article).

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Social Movement Coalition Proposes a Legislative Agenda

The Movement for Food and Energy Sovereignty, Workers Rights, and Democratic Liberties, a coalition of labor and social movements, has called upon the Mexican legislature to join with the Mexican people in writing a program for "Economic Reconstruction and Development with Justice and Social Well Being." Calling for a change in Mexico's economic, social and political regime, the Movement proposes the following agenda to be taken up by the politicians and society:

Democratic Participation:

* The right to recall elected officials
* Plebiscite, referendum and popular initiative
* A federal law of citizen participation
* Recognition of the Indian Peoples
* Rights for Mexicans living abroad
* Strengthening of the OSC

Economic Democracy:

* Industrial policy
* Fiscal policy
* Development Bank, financial sector, Bank of Mexico
* Emergency program to confront the crisis
* Foundation for a national policy for the telecommunications industry.
* Establishment of a commission to promote a state aeronautics policy.

Public Finances

* A budget based upon a new Fiscal Pact with appropriate use and transparency of federal resources
* Instruments that guarantee the direct and/or transversal application of the budget for towns and Indian communities
* Special programs to encourage industrial and agricultural development
* A policy for the reactivation of the internal market.

Democracy in the World of Work

* Modernization and democratization of the world of work based on international standards of the International Organization of Labor and the United Nations, dealing with the issues of union freedom, autonomy and union democracy.
* Elimination of the state controlled (corporativist) union system.
* A general law on economic and social solidarity

Human Rights

* The right to a life with dignity
* Education
* Health
* Women's health
* Universal Social Security (health and retirement)
* Equity and Gender

Agricultural Policy

* Law of Agricultural and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security
* Renegotiation of the Agricultural Chapter of NAFTA
* Strategic reserves of basic grains
* The Ejido as family patrimony with the right to the land
* A Compensation Fund because of the asymmetries of the agricultural sector of Mexico vis-a-vis the U.S. and Canada
* Recognition of the Peasants Organizations of organizations of public and social interest
* Elevation of the right to water to constitutional protection

The document is signed by:

Confederación Nacional Campesina (CNC), Consejo Nacional de Organismos Rurales y Pesqueros (CONORP), Unión Nacional de Organizaciones Regionales, Campesinas y Autónomas (UNORCA), Central Campesina Independiente (CCI), Unión Campesina Democrática (UCD), Coalición Ciudadana Nacional (CCN), Alianza democrática de Organizaciones Civiles (ADOC), Diálogo Nacional, Unión Nacional de Trabajadores (UNT), Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE), Federación Nacional de Sindicatos Universitarios, Coordinadora Nacional de Sindicatos Universitarios y de Educación Superior (CNSUES), Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalúrgicos, Siderúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana, Movimiento Nacional los de Abajo.

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Disppointment, Anger at Calderón's Choice of Attorney General

áóíúñé

Human rights organizations, women's groups, and many others expressed disappointment and anger at President Felipe Calderón's appointment of Arturo Chávez Chávez to the office of Attorney General. Calderón's National Action Party (PAN) was joined by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and the Green Party (PVEM) in confirming Chávez Chávez by a vote of 75 to 27 in the Mexican Senate.

Chávez Chávez, who formerly served as Attorney General for the State of Chihuahua from 1996-1998, has been strongly criticized by human rights groups for his incompetence and perhaps even criminal neglect of the mass femicide in that state.

Human Rights Groups Opposed

During the last decade, hundreds of women were mutilated and murdered in what appeared to be sexual rituals. Like his predecessors and successors, Chávez Chávez failed to bring the women's murderers to justice. Other also hold him responsible for failing to prevent the growth of the drug cartels in that state, contributing to the current drug wars and thereby also partially responsible for the thousands of deaths that have followed.

Mexican human rights organizations -- Catholic groups such as Fray Francisco de Vitoria, Miguel Concha and Miguel Augstín Pro Juárez, and coalitions such as the Network for All Rights for All People, concurred that the confirmation of Chávez Chávez was lamentable.

Women Outraged

"All the blood of the women assassinated [in Chihuahua] is being spilled again in the Senate," said Yuridia Rodríguez of the National Citizens Watch on Femicide, as she protested outside the Senate. Also protesting were women from the Mexican Academy of Human Rights, the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, the Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Gender Equity, and Catholics for the Right to Decide. One side read: "Where has the blood of the murdered, humiliatated, beaten, and ignored women gone? It has gone into the Senate to Ratify Arturo Chávez Chávez."

Rosario Ibarra, Mexican Senator and longtime human rights activist, joined the women protesting outside, saying "My stomach is churning. I am really nauseated to hear the debate taking place in there, and I want to tell you that I am here with you, completely."

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After Midterm Elections, Left Attempts to Reorganize

Following the disastrous July 2009 midterm elections, Mexico's left political parties have undertaken to reorganize. The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Workers Party (PT), and Convergencia have formed a parliamentary alliance.

What remains unclear at this time is the relationship between these three parties and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the larger-than-life political leader of the left, and to the Broad Political Front (FAP) which he tends to lead. During the midterm election López Obrador broke with the PRD to support PT and Convergence candidates.

The PRD, after years of destructive internal factional fights, has created a commission to prepare for a re-foundation of the party. But, in an initial report, that commission warns that the PRD stands on the verge of completely marginalizing itself and becoming politically irrelevant, that is, unless it can transform itself. Such a transformation still seems difficult to accomplish given the party's personalities and one faction's rightward movement.

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Mexico City Teachers Demand New Union Elections

Mexico City teachers protested in the nation's capital in September to demand that Elba Esther Gordillo Morales, head of the Mexican Teachers Union (el SNTE) abide by a decision of the Federal Tribunal of Conciliation and Arbitration (TFCA) which last month declared the election of union officers loyal to Gordillo in Local 9 invalid.

Despite the court's decision, Gordillo has not called a local union convention to elect new officers.

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PEMEX Paid Petroleum Union Leaders Millions

While it has long been believed that the Mexican government and government-owned companies in effect paid union leaders for labor peace by providing handsome financial support, it has been difficult to prove that claim. A Mexican court decided in September that the Mexican Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM) does not have to reveal contributions from the government-owned Mexican Petroleum Company (PEMEX) between 2000 and 2009.

Nevertheless, the Federal Institute for Information Access (IFAI) has revealed that PEMEX, in the collective bargaining agreement, had given members of the union's executive committee some 532,107,506 pesos (about $52 million U.S. dollars) between 2000 and 2008 for trips and support. In addition, between 2000 and 2006 and again in 2008 the company gave 197.4 million pesos (about $20 million U.S. dollars) to the union for support in contract revisions, for the May 1st International Labor Day parade, and for the anniversary of the Mexican oil expropriation.

The IFAI also revealed that from 2005 to 2007 the company gave the union 1,644,500 (US$165,000) for travel costs for the executive committee. During those same years, the company provided the union 120,555,134 pesos (about 12 million U.S. dollars) for the May Day parade, the anniversary expropriation, and for costs of contract revisions. Those revisions also led to another payment of 5,640,000 pesos (about $564,000 U.S. dollars) for the period from 2005 to July 31, 2006.

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International Domestic Workers Organization Criticizes Mexico

An international organization of domestic workers, the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Home Workers, has criticized Mexico for its lack of legal protections for domestic workers. Mexico has not legislated rights and protections for domestic workers, despite both national and international pressure.

According to the Confederation's general secretary, Marcelina Butista, Mexico has about two million domestic workers. These workers usually move from rural areas in the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Mexico, Oaxaca, and Puebla to work in the country's largest cities, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City.

Many of these domestic workers are between the ages of 9 and 13, though most are older teenagers or adults. They typically work 17 hours per day. While they are generally paid by the week, if calculated on an hourly basis, the average pay per hour would be 3.5 pesos or about 35 cents per hour.

Domestic workers do not generally have clearly fixed hours, do not enjoy social security or other benefits, and frequently also face physical abuse and sexual harassment or assault. The Confederation called upon Mexico's legislature to pass a law to define the rights of these workers and to protect them.

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Mexican Trade Union and Civil Society Leaders Join G-20 Protests in Pittsburgh

Benedicto Martínez Orozco, a national leader of the Authentic Workers Front (FAT) and Vice-president of the National Union of Workers (UNT) represented the UNT at the official trade union gathering hosted by the AFL-CIO and spoke at various venues during the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh. The protests began with two marches on Sunday, September 20th. Martínez was one of four keynote speakers invited by the G-6 Billion, a progressive gathering of the faith community that had taken that name in solidarity with the billions not represented in Pittsburgh be the G-20 and which organized a church service followed by a vibrant march with flags from around the world.

After describing how corporate globalization had destroyed the environment surrounding the village where he had grown up in Mexico and how NAFTA had resulted in the forced exodus of small farmers, Martínez spoke of the broad front that had recently presented six sets of demands to the Mexican congress (see article below). He also addressed audiences at the Peoples' Summit, Peoples Voices, and as part of a panel at the University of Pittsburgh called Voices from Latin America. At the final march, an enthusiastic crowd of some 8,000 people, he described the People's Tribunal that had taken place the night before and announced to a cheering crowd that the G-20 had rendered a verdict of guilty!

Also in Pittsburgh at the invitation of the Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART) was Alberto Arroyo, an economist with the Red Mexicana Frente al Libre Comercio (RMALC). Arroyo also spoke on the Voices from Latin America panel, and was a witness before the People's Tribunal, providing powerful testimony about the devastating impact of NAFTA.

In reflecting on the experience, Martínez observed: "The week included very different kinds of events, representing very different views of the world. On the one hand we saw the most powerful nations gather to attempt to re-define their policies of control. On the other, we saw multiple events where people analyzed and documented the deterioration they are facing -- the loss of jobs, of health care, the decrease in their standard of living, and deterioration of the environment. However, I am leaving with optimism after seeing the enthusiastic participation, especially of young people, in various events and the outpouring in the final march. It makes me confident that there will be many people fighting for change, for a different future."

Martínez had come to Pittsburgh at the invitation of the FAT's long time ally, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), which was a key organizer and actively participated in many of the protest events. The People's Voices events were organized by the UE and other local groups in coalition with the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ), ART/HAS, and others. For more information regarding these events, see www.pittsburghunited.org/G20.

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Chihuahua: Journalist Killed Inside Newsroom

Mexico must put an end to the pattern of impunity in journalists' murders by prosecuting all those responsible for Wednesday's brutal killing of Norberto Miranda Madrid, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Miranda, a harsh critic of local crime, was shot to death in his office in Nuevo Casas Grandes in northern Chihuahua State, according to local authorities.

Around 11 p.m., two unidentified men wearing ski masks burst into the offices of local Radio Visión, where Miranda and his brother José were working, local reporters told CPJ. The assailants shot Miranda repeatedly in the back of the neck, a spokesperson at the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office, Julio César Castañeda, told CPJ. News reports said he died at the scene. The journalist's brother was unharmed. Miranda, 44, known as "El Gallito" (The Tough Guy), wrote the Web column "con el Gallito" and was a host on local Radio Visión.

A reporter with 15 years of experience, Miranda was known locally for his straightforward approach to social issues, according the national daily El Universal. In his most recent columns, he criticized the lack of safety in Nuevo Casas Grandes and its surrounding areas. His last column, posted on Tuesday, detailed what he said was a string of 25 execution-style murders in the area this month. The journalist pointed to organized crime groups as the executioners. Authorities told local reporters they are reviewing Miranda's recent columns to find a possible motive.

"Norberto Miranda Madrid is the fifth journalists to be slain in Mexico in 2009, continuing a disturbingly murderous trend that has made Mexico one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist," said Carlos Lauría, CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas. "Mexican authorities must bring an end to impunity in journalists' slayings by bringing Miranda's murderers to justice."

According to CPJ's annual survey, Attacks on the Press, 29 journalists have been killed, including Miranda, and at least 10 in direct reprisal for their work since 2000. Seven journalists have disappeared since 2005. Most covered organized crime or government corruption.

On May 25, unidentified assailants abducted crime reporter Eliseo Barrón Hernández from his home in Torreón in the state of Durango. His body was found the next day in an irrigation ditch. In June, the federal prosecutor's office said one of five men detained by the Mexican army had confessed to Barrón's murder and implicated the others. The alleged attacker, who officials say claimed to work for the Gulf cartel's enforcement arm Los Zetas, allegedly told interrogators that Barrón had been killed in order to teach other journalists not to report on Los Zetas.

Three other journalists were killed in 2008. On January 12, photographer Jean Paul Ibarra Ramírez was shot to death in the town of Iguala in Guerrero. On May 3, reporter Carlos Ortega Samper was pulled out of his pickup truck in and shot dead in the mountains of Durango. On July 28, authorities found the body of Acapulco radio anchorman Juan Daniel Martínez Gil beaten and suffocated. CPJ continues to investigate these murders and whether they are connected to the three men's work as journalists.

In 2008, the Chihuahua journalist Gutiérrez Soto took his 15-year-old son and fled his home in Ascensión, near Nuevo Casas Grandes, to the United States claiming he feared for his life. Gutiérrez, a correspondent for the El Diario del Noroeste of Nuevo Casas Grandes, said he had received threats from military personnel for his articles about alleged human rights abuses. He is currently awaiting political asylum in the United States.

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom around the world.

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists: 09/25

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Railroad Retirees Protest Collection of Union Dues

Retired railroad workers who once labored on the National Railroad (Ferronales) marched in mid-September to protest their union's collection of dues. The workers, organized in the Federation of Retired Railroad Workers, pointed out that the 2.6 million pesos (more than a quarter of a million dollars) collected from the retirees each month has never been accounted for by the union.

Workers have between 50 and 300 pesos (US$5.00 to $30) withheld from each pension check. Such moneys have been withheld form the workers for the last 11 years, since the liquidation of the National Railroad. They complain that their union has done nothing for them. The workers accuse Victor Flores, general secretary of the union, of defrauding the union and them of this money.

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