Indigenous Groups Challenge U.S. Drug Company QUITO-Indigenous communi- ties in the Amazon are consider- ing a legal challenge to a patent of ayahuasca, a native plant sacred to indigenous groups who have cultivated it since pre-Columbian times for reglious ceremonies and medicinal purposes. The patent was granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to the owner of a California-based pharmaceutical company. "Our goal is to have the aya- huasca patent annulled, and to teach all international biopirates a lesson," said Rodolfo Asar, com- munications director of the Ecuador-based Coordinating Body for Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), a group representing over 400 indigenous groups from eight countries. The conflict over the plant began ten years ago when Loren Miller, director of the Inter- national Plant Medicine Corp- oration, took a sample of the plant back to the United States. Miller patented it, obtaining exclusive rights to sell and breed new vari- eties from the plant. COICA only learned of the patent claims re- cently, and immediately de- nounced his actions. Miller, whose company is cur- rently developing psychiatric and cardio-vascular pharmaceuticals from the plant, has ignored repeated requests from indige- nous groups to give up the patent. In response, COICA informed its members that Miller was an "enemy of indigenous peoples," and that "his entrance into all indigenous territory should be prohibited." The organization also posted a notice on its Web site stating that it would not be responsible for any physical harm to Miller if he ventured into indigenous territory. U.S. officials have reacted strongly to COICA's threats. The U.S. Embassy in Ecuador and the Inter-American Foundation (IAF), a government-funded develop- ment agency which has provided the indigenous organization with more than $1 million in financial support, called for a retraction. "We do not represent the private interests of Mr. Miller," said Adolfo Franco, vice-president of the IAF. "However, the COICA resolution is abusive and repre- hensible, constituting a threat against the security and well- being of Mr. Miller, and we can- not support that." The response from indigenous groups has been equally strong. "The dignity of our peoples is highly valued, much more than your million dollars," Antonio Jacanamijoy, COICA's general coordinator, said in response to Franco's remarks. "Without lis- tening to our reasons, your orga- nization unconditionally defends the economic interests of Mr. Miller." Edward Hammond, a U.S. researcher with the Canadian- based Rural Advancement Foundation International, says that U.S. patent law is largely to blame for this and similar con- flicts. "In order to claim a plant patent under U.S. law, you do not need to be the breeder or the cul- tivator of a plant in order to claim intellectual property. What you do need is a pair of scissors, a passport and a backpack," says Hammond. "This was not some plant that no one knew about. It is widely used and cultivated throughout the Amazon and has been selectively bred by indige- nous people for centuries," he noted. Hammond says this case illustrates the need to revise U.S. patent laws to protect the property rights of indigenous peoples. -Danielle Knight/ InterPress Service Attempt to Censure Senator Pinochet Fails VALPARAISO-With the key votes of 11 legislators from the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), Chile's Chamber of Dep- uties voted down a motion to cen- sure former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, which sought to remove him from his lifetime seat in the Senate. After an 11- hour session on April 9, the lower house voted 62-52 to reject the motion that would have im- peached the retired Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces for "dishonoring" the country. The motion accused Pinochet of responsibility for two incidents of army insubordination against the civilian government of Patricio Aylwin in December 1990 and May 1993. The charges also included slanderous remarks made by Pinochet against the rel- atives of the victims of his regime, comments against the German army and other acts which legislators said seriously damaged Chile's prestige and international image. Given the majority commanded in the Senate by right-wing par- ties and the designated senators, the motion was doomed from the start. Nevertheless, the sponsors of the motion and human rights organizations maintained that approval of the motion by the lower house would have consti- tuted a political and moral victory over the former dictator. Pro-Pinochet lawmakers and the government successfully pressed for a secret ballot, thus making it easier for PDC legislators to vote against the motion. Nevertheless, the 24 PDC deputies who voted to Vol XXXI, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1998 1 Vol XXXI, No 6 MAY/JUNE 1998 1NEWSBRIEFS censure Pinochet made their votes public by displaying the color of their ballots. President Eduardo Frei was strongly opposed to the motion, calling it "inconvenient" and ar- guing that instead of condemning Pinochet, it would have condemned the entire transition to democracy. Former President Aylwin also opposed the measure. The right argued that if Pinochet was found guilty of the charges, it would incriminate both Aylwin and Frei for allowing the illegal actions of the former army commander. The vote has intensified the tensions between the PDC and their junior partners in the ruling Concertaci6n coalition, the Soc- ialists and the Party for Demo- cracy, with whom they are al- ready at odds over the selection of the coalition's candidate for the December 1999 presidential elections. The episode has also caused a major split in the PDC. Several of the 24 PDC legislators who sup- ported the motion criticized the pressures applied by the govern- ment and by party president Enrique Krauss to vote against the motion. Members of the Christian Democratic Youth oc- cupied party headquarters the day following the vote carrying plac- ards that asked for forgiveness for the PDC vote and demanded Krauss' resignation. -NotiSur/InterPress Service Mexican Government Targets Foreigners CHIAPAS-On April 12, Mex- ico's Interior Ministry ordered the immediate expulsion from Mexico of 12 foreign solidarity activists who had attended a cer- emony establishing a pro-Zapa- tista autonomous municipality in northern Chiapas two days ear- lier. By expelling the foreigners, and jailing nine of the indigenous organizers of the autonomous community, the government was striking back at what have become the two most successful tactics of the indigenous uprising in Chiapas-the creation of a semipermanent protective buffer of First-World solidarity acti- vists, and the development of unarmed bases of support for the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in the form of par- allel local governments called autonomous municipalities. The expulsion of foreign nationals, especially those associ- ated with the Diocese of San Crist6bal, headed by the radical bishop Samuel Ruiz, has intensi- fied over the past year. Foreigners in Chiapas have become targets of political convenience in the gov- ernment's campaign to present both the EZLN and Bishop Ruiz as somehow un-Mexican. Several cabinet ministers have stated that both the creation of autonomous municipalities and the invitations extended to international ob- servers are affronts to Mexican dignity and sovereignty. The current impasse in Chiapas stems from the deep disagree- ments over whether or not the government is complying with the San Andr6s Accords. Since peace talks collapsed in 1996 after the government attempted to modify the agreements it had already signed, tensions have been mounting. In early 1997, the EZLN began encouraging the formation of autonomous local governments. "The autonomous municipalities are the political solution which the EZLN has constructed to channel the in- digenous rebellion," wrote col- umnist Luis Herndndez in a re- cent edition of the Mexican daily, Continued on page 45 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 La Jornada. "They are, simultane- ously, the response to the govern- mental impasse in the negotiations, constituting a de facto application of the San Andr6s Accords." There are now 38 such entities in Chiapas. The Zedillo government's re- sponse to the impasse has been a growing military and paramilitary presence as well as a new unilateral proposal for constitutional reforms that it says would put it into compli- ance with the San Andr6s Accords. Because it was never discussed with either of the mediating groups or the EZLN, Zedillo's new proposal-- regardless of its content-is widely seen as an attempt to skirt the nego- tiating process. It lacks credibility precisely among the groups to whom it is being presented. According to the National Med- iation Commission (CONAI), the government's strategy has been to change the public perception of the conflict from one between the EZLN and the government to one between diverse groups within the state of Chiapas which the govern- ment itself should mediate. In this context, the old mediators have become inconvenient, and the government has launched a cam- paign against CONAI as well as the Mediation and Pacification Commission (COCOPA). Interior Minister Labastida has complained that CONAI-especially its direc- tor, Bishop Ruiz-is "partial" to the Zapatistas and therefore unable to play the role of impartial media- tor. The COCOPA, on the other hand, which is composed of con- gressional representatives of all the political parties, has become divided along partisan lines and is therefore ineffective, according to Labastida. Meanwhile, at the conclusion of a Mexico City march commemorat- ing the seventy-ninth anniversary of the assassination of Emiliano Zapata on April 10, several hundred mem- bers of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), a group sym- pathetic to the EZLN, set up camp in the central plaza, the Z6calo, and announced they would remain there until dialogue was resumed in Chiapas. Two days later, from its Z6calo encampment, the CNI announced the creation of 20 new autonomous municipalities in the southern states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Veracruz. "In the face of the aggression which has tried to push us back," said Marcelino Dfaz de Jestis, the group's director, "we will respond by creating new auto- nomous municipalities." -Fred Rosen Women Zapatista Supporters Threatened With Rape CHIAPAS-On April 20, 190 women residents of the town of Taniperlas, Chiapas, which recently became a pro-Zapatista autonomous municipality, signed a letter de- nouncing rape threats made against them by members of the Anti- Zapatista Revolutionary Indigenous Movement (MIRA), a local paramil- itary group which operates with the support of the police, the Mexican army and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The signatories of the letter, who are members of the Association of Collective Rural Interests and Zapatista supporters, stated that the paramilitaries threatened to enter their village and rape all the women "that very night" if their husbands did not return. The men of Taniperlas had abandoned the community and taken refuge in the jungle to avoid a confrontation with the MIRA. -Fray Bartolom' de Las Casas Human Rights Center NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Multilateral Invasion Force for Colombia? BOGOTA- In an April 6 letter to Gen. Manuel Josd Bonett, comman- der of the Colombian military, the head of U.S. Southern Command, Charles Wilhelm, informed Gen. Bonett that he had asked the U.S. Congress for urgent support for the Colombian military's coun- terinsurgency war against leftist guerrillas. Wilhelm stated that "at this time the Colombian armed forces are not up to the task of con- fronting and defeating the insur- gents. Colombia is the most threat- ened in the area under the Southern Command's responsibility, and it is in urgent need of our support." A report prepared last November by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)-the U.S. military's principal intelligence service-con- cluded that the Colombian armed forces could be defeated within five years unless the country's govern- ment regains political legitimacy and its armed forces are drastically restructured. According to Wilhelm, the Colombian military and police need U.S. aid to improve their mobility and logistical support and to increase their capacity for direct attacks, nighttime operations, com- munications, intelligence and river and coast-guard deployments. Bonett, who made the letter public, agreed that the Colombian armed forces are in "a position of inferiority" with respect to the rebels, saying that he would gladly accept U.S. military aid, including atomic bombs. In his letter, Wilhelm denied that the U.S. government was seeking to head up a multilateral force to intervene in Colombia. Wilhelm was responding to reports in the Ar- gentine press charging that he had received permission from Colom- bian leaders to assemble a multilat- eral force, and that he had asked the Argentine and Brazilian presidents for their support. He claimed to know nothing about the alleged multilateral force, and insisted that no such thing had been discussed either by the Colombian military or by the government, calling the press reports on the matter "incom- plete and imprecise." Buenos Aires radio station Radio Mitre was the first to pick up the story about a multilateral invasion force, citing military and diplomatic sources. The report was quickly and vehemently denied as "absurd" and "unfounded" by Colombian, Argen- tine and U.S. authorities. According to the report, which was also pub- lished by center-left Buenos Aires daily El Clarin, Wilhelm discussed the multinational force at a meeting in Miami in February with Argentine army chief Gen. Martin Balza. The alleged plan called for troops from Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador to enter Colombian terri- tory as a "peace force." Sources: Danielle Knight is Global Environment Editor at the Washington, D.C. office of InterPress Service, an international news service. Its dispatches can be read on- line in the Peacenet conferences: ips.espahol and ips.english. NotiSur is available as a closed Peacenet conference: carnet.ladb. For subscription information: Latin America Data Base, Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131; (800) 472-0888. Fred Rosen is Editor (on leave) of NACLA Report on the Americas. He is currently engaged in research in Mexico City. The Fray Bartolom6 Las Casas Human Rights Center is based in Chiapas, Mexico, and can be contacted at cdhb- casas@laneta.apc.org. Information about the Center's activities can be obtained at http://www.laneta.apc.org/cdhbcasas/. Weekly News Update of the Americas is published by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. For sub- scription information: 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012; (212) 674-9499.
