US embassy cable - 04GUATEMALA691

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 GUATEMALA 000691 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT OF STATE FOR DRL/IL, WHA/CEN AND WHA/PPC 
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FOR ILAB 
USTR FOR BUD CLATANOFF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB, ETRD, KCRM, PHUM, GT 
SUBJECT: LABOR/TIP UPDATE #2-2004 
 
 
1. (SBU) The following is an update of significant recent 
developments in the labor sector and trafficking in persons 
(TIP). Topics include: 
 
-- TIP: GOG Stepping Up Enforcement Efforts (para 2) 
 
-- TIP: ILO Introduces Reforms to Congress (3-4) 
 
-- Labor:  Successful USDOL Project Design Visit (5) 
 
-- Labor:  Minister Finds "Irregularities" in MOL (6) 
 
-- Labor:  Education Minister Sanguine about Possible Strike 
(7-9) 
 
-- Labor:  Trucker Terror (10) 
 
-- Labor:  Gallery Apparel Case Update (11) 
 
-- Labor:  Public Sector Worries (12) 
 
-- Labor Dialogue Restarts: CACIF and UGT (13) 
 
TIP:  GOG Stepping Up Enforcement Efforts 
----------------------------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU) The new GOG is starting to take actions against TIP 
and to work in coordinated law enforcement actions, as they 
have pledged to do. 
 
-- On March 10, the Minors Section of the National Civilian 
Police's (PNC) Criminal Investigative Service (SIC) arrested 
Oscar Emerito Cabeza Garcia, a 24 year-old Salvadoran running 
the "Cocoloco International" club in Zone 19 of the capital, 
and rescued three Salvadoran minors being held for 
prostitution and 5 Salvadoran adult prostitutes.  The adults 
were deported and the minors were turned over to the courts 
for protection. 
 
-- Immigration, Public Ministry (Office of the Prosecutor for 
Women) and 150 PNC conducted a coordinated operation 
targeting gang members near the Mexican border in Tecun Uman, 
and San Marcos province on March 5.  A total of 31 illegal 
migrants (20 Honduran, 10 Salvadorans, and 1 Mexican) were 
taken into custody for deportation; 8 reportedly fit the 
profile of gang members. 
 
-- Fiscal for Women Sandra Zayas told LabAtt on March 12 that 
recent stakeouts of bars listed in the Casa Alianza report in 
Mixco, a municipality adjacent to the capital, did not 
confirm the presence of minors in prostitution.  Instead, 
other bars in the capital listed in the report will be 
surveiled early in the week of March 15, and a rescue 
operation will be mounted on March 19.  On March 18, Zayas 
confirmed that her 4-person unit is working with a new 
6-person anti-TIP unit in the PNC and six immigration agents 
in a task force operation, and have confirmed their targets 
for the  March 19 operation. 
 
-- DHS will provide anti-TIP training to PNC, MP, judiciary 
and Immigration officials during the week of March 22. 
 
TIP: ILO Introduces Reforms to Congress 
--------------------------------------- 
 
3.  (U) On March 3 the ILO Project to Eliminate Child Labor 
(IPEC) briefed interested Congress members on a series of 
proposed reforms to the penal code designed to strengthen 
anti-TIP legislation.  Ten Congressional deputies attended 
the briefing, hosted by the President of the Child and Family 
Commission.  In a signal of Executive branch support, an 
official from the Presidential Secretariat on Social Welfare 
attended the briefing and spoke in support of the proposed 
reforms  (Note: the ILO/IPEC presented the same reforms to 
the Executive branch, which is considering them but has not 
yet formally submitted them to Congress). 
 
4.  (U) The reforms would increase jail terms for TIP from 
the current 1-3 years with fines to 5-8 years (6-10 years if 
minors are involved).  TIP would no longer need to involve 
the crossing of an international border.  The reforms would 
also stiffen sanctions for kidnapping for sexual purposes 
(increased from 2-5 years to 3-6 years, 4-10 years for minors 
under 13 years), corruption of minors (increased from 2-6 
years to 4-8 years).  All these sanctions would continue to 
be increased by 2/3 if coercion, trickery, violence or threat 
are used against the victim; if a parent or guardian is 
involved; or if the victim is especially vulnerable in terms 
of economic standing, ethnicity, handicapped status; or if 
they are migrants or displaced persons.  The initiative would 
add new crimes of sexual trafficking, sexual tourism, and 
paid sexual relations of minors (all with 6-10 years 
imprisonment), and child pornography (6-8 years).  Penalties 
for pimping and "ruffianism" (living off the earnings of a 
prostitute) would be increased from the current fines to 5-8 
years and 3-6 years imprisonment, respectively.  The reforms 
also outlawed sexual harassment (punished by 2-6 years 
imprisonment; 4-6 years if the accused is a parent or 
guardian).  One legislator warned the inclusion of sexual 
harassment would make the proposal controversial and 
suggested dropping it. 
Labor:  USDOL Project Design Visit 
---------------------------------- 
 
5.  (U) A design team from USDOL and its contractors 
(FUNPADEM and Abt Associates) visited Guatemala March 8-11 to 
meet with stakeholders in the new $6.75 m regional project 
"Cumple y Gana."  They met with the GOG (Minister of Labor 
and chief of the Labor Inspectorate), union leaders, employer 
groups, other international donors, and NGOs active in labor 
rights promotion.  The four-year project, which will focus on 
labor rights promotion and strengthening of labor law 
enforcement capacity, was welcomed by all sectors, which 
pledged to cooperate.  The group also met with the Special 
Prosecutor for Crimes Against Trade Unionists, who agreed to 
provide information useful to the public about how to file 
complaints about threats or anti-union violence on the 
interactive Website contemplated under the project. 
 
Labor Minister Finds "Irregularities" in MOL 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
6.  (U) Labor Minister Jorge Gallardo told the press on March 
10 that he had discovered evidence of corruption in the 
Ministry of Labor including bribery of inspectors by 
employers in some cases, payments to more than 25 "ghost" 
workers in the Ministry, and the hiring of 50 political 
appointees which are considered unnecessary and will not be 
replaced.  (Note:  the Ministry has a total personnel of 480, 
including more than 300 inspectors nationwide.)  Gallardo's 
plan to restructure the Ministry will involve 
"belt-tightening, without reducing our attention to our 
duties."  Among his first steps to get the Ministry in order, 
he said, will be to move (to reduce current inflated rental 
costs of $22,000/month). 
 
Education Minister Sanguine About Teacher Strike 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
7.  (SBU) On March 11 LabAtt met with Education Minister 
Maria del Carmen Acena and Vice Minister Chaclan to discuss 
labor relations in the Ministry.  Acena said the Ministry was 
currently struggling with the issue of the 13,000 teachers 
incorrectly hired by the Portillo administration.  The 
Ministry has been given 3 months by the President to sort 
that issue out;  the new hires have been suspended during 
this period.  (Note:  suspended new hires began a hunger 
strike on the steps of the Presidential offices on March 12, 
demanding dialogue, and blocked rush-hour traffic near the 
Ministry on March 16.)  The main problem, according to Acena, 
is that there is no money in the budget to pay the new 
employees.  An internal Ministry report states that 79% of 
the 13,000 are technically qualified, and found procedural 
irregularities in the passage of the Government Accord 
creating the new positions. 
 
8.  (SBU) Acena said she does not think the potential exists 
for a more general labor conflict with the various teachers' 
unions, which do not represent the new hires.  Such strikes 
occur only every 10 years, she said, and the teachers are 
still weary from the last strike which took place in 2003. 
Furthermore, the unions are exaggerating their membership's 
hardships.  Teachers received a 90% pay boost over the past 
four years, and are now overpaid if anything, she said. 
Acena said she hopes to blunt any possibility of a 
teacher-parent protest by opening channels of communication 
with parents to inform them of the increases in teacher pay 
(and lack of any increases in quality or productivity) and to 
discredit unreasonable union demands, such as their recent 
request that the Ministry of Labor authorize collective 
bargaining. 
 
9.  (SBU) LabAtt urged the Ministry to view labor relations 
as a permanent dialogue, and briefed the Minister on the 
obligations of collective bargaining (mandatory with the 
support of 25% or more of the teachers -- she admitted union 
membership was around 50%), a fundamental labor right.  Acena 
complained that the unions were asking for a 50% pay hike and 
for the Ministry to pay their union dues, neither of which 
the Ministry could afford.  LabAtt urged her to view the 
bargaining (which does not have a time limit) as an 
opportunity to achieve a result which increases the quality 
and productivity of the workforce.  The Minister seemed to 
take these recommendations under consideration, and asked the 
Vice Minister to invite the unions to the table in early 
April. 
 
Labor:  Trucker Terror 
---------------------- 
 
10.  (U) On February 25, truckers protested against the new 
Mayor of Guatemala City's rules prohibiting passage by heavy 
trucks through the city streets during weekday morning and 
evening rush-hour periods.  (Note:  Guatemala's major 
north-south and east-west highways cross in Guatemala City, 
which lacks a completed ring road, compounding the traffic 
problem in the capital.)  The protesters blocked those major 
arteries for 14 hours by parking their trucks and threatened 
to light gasoline spilled on the roads (near urban 
residential neighborhoods) from several tanker trucks. 
Police intervened using tear gas to dislodge the protesters 
and arrested approximately 30 protesters, including several 
union leaders (Victoriano Zacarias, a member of the executive 
board of the CGTG confederation, was the ranking union leader 
caught), who claim to have arrived on the scene to mediate 
between the truckers and the authorities and not to organize 
strike activities.  Those individuals remain in custody, 
charged with terrorism and other serious crimes.  The 
Secretary General of the Inter-American Organization of 
 
SIPDIS 
Workers (ORIT), Victor Baez Mosqueira, visited Guatemala 
March 16 to denounce the detentions of labor leaders 
Rigoberto Duenas (also a leader of the CGTG, and still being 
held in the Social Security Institute corruption scandal) and 
Zacarias. 
 
Labor:  Gallery Apparel Case Update 
----------------------------------- 
 
11.  (U) Representatives of workers from the closed Gallery 
Apparel factory informed LabAtt on March 9 that since 
exhausting the conciliation procedures offered by the 
Ministry of Labor, the aggrieved workers have filed legal 
complaints in the labor court system.  The workers seek 
severance, holiday, and bonus payments owed by the company. 
An insurance adjuster for the U.S.-based firm visited 
Guatemala March 15-16 and met with the Commercial Section 
about the company's million-dollar claim for losses generated 
after workers rioted and looted the plant after a payroll was 
missed in December. 
 
Labor:  Public Sector Layoffs 
----------------------------- 
 
12.  (U) Public sector union confederation (FENASTEG) bought 
a full-page add in the afternoon daily "La Hora" on March 11 
to denounce the cash-strapped new government's layoffs of 
public servants in several member unions (of immigration 
workers, a state-owned bank which may be closed, a 
municipality, workers in the Ministry of Energy and Mines, 
the state-owned telephone company, the state literacy agency, 
and other public institutions).  The unions allege that the 
layoffs violate ILO commitments to respect existing 
collective bargaining agreements.  Most public sector 
agreements include a "labor stability" clause which prohibits 
the government from laying off permanent staff unless they 
are offered a new an comparable job.  The add called on the 
new government to stop the layoffs and cease its unilateral 
approach by meeting with FENASTEG.  Nery Barrios, Secretary 
General of another major labor federation (UASP) which 
includes public sector members, told a visiting GSP 
delegation in February that his union was similarly concerned 
for its membership, and planned to meet with the President 
and Vice President to discuss the issue. 
 
Labor Dialogue:  CACIF and UGT Meet Again 
----------------------------------------- 
 
13.  (U) A major labor confederation (UGT) met on March 3 
with the Labor Commission of the major employer association 
(CACIF), in response to CACIF's public call for dialogue. 
Carlos Arias, CACIF's Labor Coordinator, tells us he is 
seeking union support for possible labor code reforms to 
promote mediation/conciliation alternatives to the labor 
court system.  Union leaders insist that employers address 
alleged violations of the right to organize and bargain 
collectively before employer proposals are considered. 
Employer-union dialogue had begun shortly after the new 
government took office but was broken when the Constitutional 
Court accepted a CACIF request to suspend the previous 
government minimum wage hike. 
HAMILTON