US denies visa to Nicaraguan unionist

On November 15 the US Government denied a visa to Pedro Ortega, a 
Nicaraguan union leader who had been invited to speak at an international 
conference at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The subject 
of the conference was workers' rights.

Pedro Ortega is the General Secretary of Nicaragua's Federation of Garment, 
Textile, Leather and Shoe Workers, affiliated with the Sandinista Workers' 
Federation (CST), which is linked to the Sandinista National Liberation 
Front (FSLN), which forms the opposition in the Nicaraguan parliament.

Ortega is also a leader in the Central American Workers Coordinating 
Committee (COCENTRA).

Ortega's federation has organised six unions in Nicaraguan apparel 
maquiladoras (tariff-exempt assembly plants for export), starting with the 
Taiwanese-owned Chentex plant in the Las Mercedes "free trade zone" near 
Managua.

On the same day that Ortega was denied a US visa, 106 workers were poisoned 
by toxic fumes at the Chentex factory. Thirty workers were hospitalised, 
including nine pregnant women.

CST unionists charge that the Nicaraguan Government is attempting to 
"decapitate" the labour movement in Las Mercedes.

Douglas Reyes, Secretary General of the union at the Chih Hsing plant — 
site of a strike in July — charges that Labour Ministry officials are 
pressuring the Chih Hsing workers to leave the CST and affiliate with the 
more conservative Workers' Federation of Nicaragua.

Reyes also charges that management is attempting to shut one line of the 
plant, with 130 workers, because much of the union leadership works there.

The US-based Campaign for Labour Rights (CLR) charges that the denial of a 
visa to Ortega is "part of a pattern of increasing denials to those who 
advocate for workers, the poor and other oppressed, exploited and 
marginalised sectors of their own countries".

CLR is asking for letters of protest to Ambassador Oliver Garza and General 
Consul Celio Sandate at the US embassy in Managua
 fax +505-266-
9074,
 email mailto:usbsiness@amemb.org and mailto:fedzerge@state.gov with copies to 
the Nicaragua Network
 fax 202-544-0359 or email
 mailto:nicanet@igc.org