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New port terminal stalled in Guatemala
21 June 2007
The Guatemalan government has suspended plans to build a new terminal in the port of Quetzal amid protests from the local port union and politicians.
Reports from the ITF-affiliated union Sindicato de Trabajadores Empresa Portuaria - Quetzal (STEPQ) on 1 June revealed that the construction of the terminal, financed through a state trust fund, would be stalled. The union, backed by politicians, which opposed the plans, were concerned about the lack of transparency in the use of state finances. The establishment of the trust fund would have circumvented democratic processes and drained the existing port of its capital, including social funds. STEPQ had called for a feasibility study to demonstrate the level of return on the investment and argued that public funds should be open to public debate.
Lazaro Noe Reyes, STEPQ General Secretary welcomed the decision. “We don’t oppose progress – but we do demand transparency,” he said.
Rodolfo Neutze, Chair of the port’s board of directors, has insisted that construction work on the terminal would start this year for completion in February 2009.
The plans were part of proposals to privatise the port, an issue taken up by STEPQ leader Pedro Zamora at the time of his murder in Quetzal earlier this year.
On 29 May, Oscar Gonzalez, STEPQ executive committee member and friend of Zamora, who has helped to focus public attention on the campaign for justice for Zamora, addressed ITF staff at a meeting in London, UK. There he stated that despite this temporary success, he and his colleagues were constantly receiving death threats. The struggle, he said, had to continue: ”They want to build and they want to privatise and they don’t want to stop.”
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