Baja farmworkers strike over concerns
SAN QUINTIN, Mexico – Workers at large, export-oriented farms in the Mexican border state of Baja California have led a week of violent protests over low pay, abuses and poor conditions, threatening a harvest that supplies millions of dollars worth of tomatoes, strawberries and other crops to the United States.
Burning tires and tossing rocks at vehicles, hundreds of farmworkers have blocked Baja’s main north-south highway on and off, and as many as 50,000 are believed to be on strike statewide as of Tuesday.
Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega said over the weekend that the harvest – and thousands of jobs – were at risk. “If the fields continue without a workforce, the harvests will be lost and that will affect everyone who depends on this part of the economy,” his office said in a press statement.
Many of the workers are migrants from southern Mexican states like Guerrero and Oaxaca who toil at huge hot-house farms just south of Ensenada. Their demands – health care, overtime pay, days off, an end to abuse by field bosses and more pay than the $8 many earn for a full day of stoop-labor – echo those of farmworkers 40 years ago in the United States.
Russia’s Putin touts country’s war games
MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that a recent Russian military exercise has marked the beginning of a series of such drills this year, a show of force that comes amid a bitter strain with the West over Ukraine.
Reflecting the tensions, U.S. and other NATO forces staged maneuvers in the Baltics, and a convoy of U.S. troops has driven through eastern Europe in a bid to reassure the allies.
Last week’s Russian maneuvers that spread from the Arctic to the Black Sea involved 80,000 troops, about 100 navy ships and more than 220 aircraft.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin Tuesday that the maneuvers were aimed at checking the readiness of the newly formed group of forces in the Arctic, as well as the military’s capability to quickly field troops to several theaters of operations.
Syrian rebels launch offensive on Idlib
BEIRUT – Syrian rebels launched an offensive Tuesday against a major government-held city in the country’s northwest, shelling the outskirts and warning residents to remain indoors in the coming days.
The target of the operation is Idlib, a city of some 165,000 people and the provincial capital of a province with the same name. Opposition fighters have controlled the countryside and towns across the province since 2012, but President Bashar Assad’s forces have maintained their grip on Idlib city.
Activists said Syrian government helicopters attacked the nearby town of Binish with chlorine gas Tuesday night. The Local Coordination Committees did not give details about casualties but Muayad Zurayk, an activist based in Idlib province, said 30 people were rushed to the hospital after suffering breathing problems.
The alleged attack came a week after the opposition claimed that the government carried out a poisonous gas attack on the nearby town of Sarmin, killing six and wounding dozens. Damascus denied the allegation.
Shiite rebels fire on protesters in Yemen
SANAA, Yemen – Shiite rebels fired bullets and tear gas Tuesday to disperse thousands of protesters demanding they withdraw from a southwestern province, killing six demonstrators, wounding scores more and escalating tensions in a country on the verge of civil war.
The rebels, known as Houthis, seized the capital Sanaa in September and have been advancing south alongside forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In recent days they have closed in on the southern port city of Aden, where the internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is now based.
Hadi on Tuesday asked the U.N. Security Council to authorize a military intervention “to protect Yemen and to deter the Houthi aggression expected to occur at any hour from now” against Aden and the rest of the south. In a letter to the council’s president, Hadi said he also has asked members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League for immediate help.
Massive protests were held in the third largest city of Taiz – which the rebels largely seized over the weekend – and in Torba, some 60 miles away, where witnesses said the streets were filled with thick black smoke from burning tires and where protesters torched three armored vehicles.
“Torba turned into a ball of fire,” said Khaled al-Asswadi, a resident. He said the protesters prevented the Houthis from advancing into the city.
Associated Press
