The Guardian 31 January, 2007
Global briefs
NICARAGUA: Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega’s first official act after his second presidential inauguration on January 10 — after a 17-year hiatus — was to announce Nicaragua’s membership, with Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela, in the "Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas" (ALBA). ALBA is a multifaceted trade and economic pact that emphasises regional cooperation for mutual benefit. Its members reject US-dominated "free trade" schemes. Venezuela will provide Nicaragua with 10 million barrels of oil annually and will build an oil refinery and 32 electrical generating plants. Venezuela has also cancelled US$31.8 million of Nicaragua’s debt. On January 15, Ortega’s Education Ministry ended public school privatisation, abolished school fees and launched a literacy campaign. The government announced that private health care services will be eliminated from public hospitals, and that payments for medicines, surgery and tests at public hospitals have been abolished.
GUINEA: Unions headed by the National Confederation of Guinean Workers (CNTG) have carried out strikes throughout this West African nation aimed at removing President Lansana Conte. He has been criticised for economic mismanagement, especially in the mining sector. Guinea possesses about half of the world’s reserves of bauxite, a key material in producing aluminium. Conte took power in a 1984 coup and since 1993 has been re-elected in voting said to have been fraudulent. Despite the president’s offers to reduce fuel prices and retrieve mining revenues lost to foreign companies, he disappointed union representatives who met with him on January 17. The labour federation has called for the appointment of a transitional government. Up to 12 people have been killed and scores wounded in violent demonstrations in Conakry, the nation’s capital.
VIETNAM: A delegation of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (STUC) arrived in Vietnam on January 11 for bilateral meetings with the Vietnam’s General Confederation of Labour. The Swedish unionists have been asked by their Vietnamese counterparts to assist in the training of union officials and in devising curricula for Vietnam’s trade union schools. They were also asked to provide help in organising seminars on the World Federation of Trade Unions which Vietnam joined last year. The delegation leader, STUC Vice President Leif Hakansson, said, "We are mulling measures to further boost cooperation between the labour unions of the two nations and in economic and trade activities in the future." In 1969 Sweden became the first western nation to establish diplomatic relations with socialist Vietnam.
NEPAL: Entering Nepal’s Parliament on January 16, former Maoist rebels controlled enough seats to become the second-largest party in the transitional government. In November, the Maoists joined with seven political parties to end 10 years of civil war that claimed the lives of 14,000 people and displaced almost 200,000 more.