Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 14 July 2017

Police clash with ex-workers at Argentine PepsiCo plant

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina wielding batons and shields
(AP) — Hundreds of po- responded with pepper
lice and security agents in spray. The Security Ministry
riot gear clashed on Thurs- said 15 police officers and
day with former employ- 15 protesters were injured.
ees and other activists at Seven people were de-
a recently closed PepsiCo tained, but later released.
plant in Argentina.More “We deeply regret the in-
than 500 people lost jobs juries that have occurred,”
when PepsiCo closed the PepsiCo Argentina said
plant in the outskirts of Bue- in a statement, adding
nos Aires on June 20, citing that authorities had acted
“local challenges unique “against a small group ille-
to the plant’s residential lo- gally occupying our Florida
cation, a challenging cost plant.” The company said
structure and burdensome that 455 of the 536 work-
logistics requirements.” ers who were laid off had
Some of the workers have accepted a severance
been occupying the plant agreement. Union mem-
since then. Clashes be- ber Luis Medina said the
tween police and protest- protesters were “PepsiCo
ers, who also included workers who are simply
union activists, broke out proposing the reopening
during the eviction. Pro- of the plant so we can go
Worker Karina Lopez stands next to her team workers after clashes with police outside the PepsiCo testers set up barricades of back to our jobs and bring
plant on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, July 13, 2017. stones and wooden crates back some dignity to our
(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) and hauled rocks. Police families.”q

Moving Haiti’s rustic, rum-like clairin to market

LEOGANE, Haiti (AP) — Hai- sugar cane stalks that sur-
ti’s most famous export is round the distillery.
Barbancourt, a delicately They feed the cane into
flavored, carefully aged a grinder to produce the
rum that’s considered juice that is the raw mate-
among the best in the rial of both clairin and the
world. Then there’s its rustic type of rum associated
cousin clairin, a drink that’s with the French Caribbe-
much cheaper and rela- an.
tively rare outside this strug- Most rum produced else-
gling Caribbean country. where is made from molas-
Clairin, or kleren as it’s ses.
known in Haitian Creole, is The juice that flows out
less refined than rum and the other side is a murky
typically not aged, though caramel color, though the
some artisanal varieties are finished product will be as
subjected to an aging pro- clear as vodka.
cess to give them a more The clairin is fermented
mellow and distinctive fla- and filtered and then
vor. It’s produced at hun- shipped in plastic jugs for
dreds of small distilleries sale in market stalls and by
scattered across Haiti. street merchants. Individu-
At one of them, Ti Jean, in al retailers add flavors with
the coastal town of Leo- herbs or fruit.
gane west of the capital, Metelus Obnes pours clairin for a client as Deluson Michel, 15, drinks a small bottle of the sugar- In Port-au-Prince, vendor
men with their heads cov- based alcoholic drink in the Cite Soleil area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, July 11, 2017. A liter Eddy Lecty adds cloves to
ered to ward off the tropi- of clairin sells for about $1.36, a price tag that makes all the difference in a country where about spice up the clairin he sells
cal sun use machetes to 60 percent of the population gets by on less than $2 a day. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) in the capital’s Cite Soleil
cut down the towering slum.q