WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                  ISSUE #243, SEPTEMBER 25, 1994

        NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
      339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499


     1. US Starts Occupation of Haiti
     2. International Support for Haiti Intervention?
     3. US-Haiti Troops Cooperate to "Quell Demonstrations"
     4. Haiti: "After Three Years, US Achieves Its Goal"
     5. Mexico: PRI Victory Overturned in Monterrey
     6. International Banks Help Rig Brazilian Elections
     7. Metalworkers Strike Settled in Brazil
     8. Anti-Castro Paramilitary Members on Trial in Miami
     9. Anti-Castro Cubans Plot Guantanamo Future
    10. Persecuted Venezuelan Unionists Reach Agreement
    11. Sandinista Media Charge Party Censorship in Nicaragua
    12. Chilean President Reshuffles Cabinet, Left Not Pleased
    13. Bolivian Coca Growers Win Preliminary Agreement
    14. Colombian Guerrillas Step Up Actions, Congressperson Killed
    15. Battles Over Church in Ecuadoran Schools
    16. Upcoming Events in the New York City Area

                                 *

ISSN#: 1068-5332. These updates are published weekly. A one-year
subscription is $25 by first class mail. Please send check or
money order payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network at 339
Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012). Back issues and source
materials are available on request. (Many of our source materials
are accessed through NY Transfer; back issues are also available
on NY Transfer's OnLine Library.)

Subscriptions to the Electronic Edition of this Update are
delivered directly to your e-mail box. To subscribe to the
electronic edition, send your e-mail address with a check or
money order for US $25 payable to Blythe Systems. Mail to: NY
Transfer News Collective, Attn: Kathleen Kelly, 39 West 14th
Street, Room 206, New York, NY 10011.

Feel free to reproduce these updates or reprint any information
from them, but please credit us, and send us a copy. We welcome
your comments and ideas: send them via e-mail to
nicanet@blythe.org.


1. US STARTS OCCUPATION OF HAITI

The first of some 15,000 US soldiers began entering Haiti on
Sept. 19, with the Haitian army, "the ostensible target of an
American invasion"--in the words of the British Financial Times--
"guiding the US forces to their positions around the country."
[FT 9/22/94] The peaceful entry resulted from an agreement worked
out the evening before by a US negotiating team--headed by former
president Jimmy Carter, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen.
Colin Powell and Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA)--and a Haitian military
group led by armed forces head Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras and army
chief of staff Brig. Gen. Philippe Biamby. A third leader in the
Haitian military, Port-au-Prince regional police chief Lt. Col.
Michel Francois, was absent from the talks.

The negotiators agreed that "the Haitian military and police
forces will work in close cooperation with the US military
mission... In order to personally contribute to the success of
this agreement, certain military officers of the Haitian armed
forces are willing to consent to an early and honorable
retirement...when a general amnesty will be voted into law by the
Haitian Parliament, or Oct. 15, 1994, whichever is earlier." On
the Haitian side the accord was signed by Emile Jonassaint, the
president of the military's de facto government. Cedras and
Biamby negotiated but did not sign the agreement, which fails to
specify which officers will retire and on what date deposed
president Jean-Bertrand Aristide would return to office. The deal
is said to have been reached only after Gen. Biamby received word
from an unknown source that US military planes had already left
Ft. Bragg, NC to begin an invasion. US president Bill Clinton
called the planes back after the accord was signed. [Haiti
Progres (NY) 9/21-27/94; New York Times 9/20/94; Washington Post
9/19/94

Contrary to the report in Update #242, the Haitian officers never
agreed to leave the country. Cedras told CBS-TV on Sept. 22 that
in fact he does not intend to leave, noting that the Haitian
Constitution "forbids exile." [FT 9/23/94] Carter and Cedras
reportedly developed a close friendship in 1990, when Carter was
in Haiti observing the Dec. 16 elections which brought Aristide
to the presidency. [Haiti Info Vol. 2, #26, 9/23/94] Now that the
accord is in effect, Carter has invited Cedras to teach his
Sunday school class in Atlanta. [NYT 9/22/94]

2. INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR HAITI INTERVENTION?

The UN's special envoy to Haiti, Argentine diplomat Dante Caputo,
abruptly resigned on Sept. 19, the day after the Carter-Cedras
accord was signed. In his resignation letter and in later
interviews, Caputo charged that the US had followed a strictly
"unilateral" course of action and that its "scenario" had been
planned long before. He said it was "scandalous" that the Haitian
military leaders had become the "heroes of the film." [Haiti Info
9/23/94]

Washington insists that the US-led Haiti occupation is
"multinational" and that the current forces--made up entirely of
US soldiers--will soon "trade off" with "peacekeepers" and
"police trainers" from 21 nations, including some as unlikely as
Bangladesh and Japan. On Sept. 19 US official Richard Holbrooke
called Polish president Lech Walensa's offer of 30 Polish police
trainers "a strong message to Haiti's military dictators." [HP
9/21-26/94] The Polish cabinet had not yet approved the plan, in
fact.

In contrast to Bangladesh and Japan, Poland has had military
experience in Haiti. In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte sent some 6,000
Polish volunteers to Haiti as part of a massive invasion meant to
regain the former colony for France and to return the Haitians to
the slavery from which they had freed themselves over the
previous decade. Only about 500 of the Polish volunteers returned
to Europe after the French expedition's crushing defeat.
[Financial Times 9/19/94]

3. US-HAITI TROOPS COOPERATE TO "QUELL DEMONSTRATIONS"

A civilian Haitian adviser told the French daily Liberation that
the cooperation between the Haitian and US military was "total."
He said that the US commander on the ground, Lt. Gen. Henry Hugh
Shelton, "felt so secure that he wouldn't be afraid if he had to
spend the night with us in the general headquarters. He also
offered Cedras a US escort to his home at night, which Cedras
declined." [9/21/94]

As the first US troops arrived in Port-au-Prince on Sept. 19, a
crowd formed in the Cite Soleil neighborhood to welcome soldiers
the residents believed had come to protect them from the Haitian
military. Haitian troops quickly arrived and dispersed the crowd
with truncheons while US officers kept their own soldiers from
reacting. [HP 9/21-26/94] The next day a larger demonstration
marched through the port area to support Aristide and greet the
US troops. The Haitian military moved in with nightsticks for a
more protracted and brutal attack than the day before, injuring
many and beating one man to death. This occurred in full view of
US troops and the international media. The man killed, Benekyl
Dede, was selling coconuts at the demonstration; Dede's wife says
he had told her that morning: "The Americans are here. Don't
worry about anything." [NYT 8/21/94, 9/24/94]

At first Washington defended the US troops' failure to respond.
"We are not in the business of doing day-to-day law and order,
for that matter resolving or quelling demonstrations," said Joint
Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. John Shalikashvili at a White House
press briefing on Sept. 20. "Nobody in the government is
comfortable with demonstrations that turn violent or nasty," said
White House spokesperson Dee Dee Myers. "But we cannot solve
every problem in Haiti overnight." At the Pentagon, an unnamed
"senior officer" explained that the "only institution in Haiti
that works is the military." [NYT 9/21/94]

By Sept. 21, however, White House advisers had decided that the
beatings should stop. "There's nothing more graphic than watching
people being beaten," a senior official explained. "Four or five
nights of it would have undone us politically." Under the new
policy, US troops would intervene in some--but not all--cases to
stop violence by the Haitian military. [NYT 9/22/94] There seemed
to be no more incidents in front of television cameras in
downtown Port-au-Prince, but on the same day that the new policy
was announced, police officers in the northern city of Cap-
Haitien fired into a crowd welcoming two US trucks. Witnesses
said two demonstrators died; according to US Marine officers, the
bodies were dragged away before the count could be confirmed.
[NYT 9/23/94] On Sept. 24 a large pro-Aristide demonstration was
permitted in the Port-au-Prince port area; a photograph of the
demonstration appeared prominently on the front page of the New
York Times the next day. But after the demonstration, police
began beating a man and woman outside police headquarters as
several hundred protesters gathered. The crowd was dispersed with
tear gas and some protesters were arrested. [NYT 9/25/94; WP
9/25/94]

On Sept. 21 US Army spokesperson Col. Barry Willey told reporters
in Port-au-Prince that Gen. Shelton had "expressed his
displeasure at the inflammatory nature of broadcasts on Haitian
[state-owned] television and asked for an immediate halt" to
programs depicting the 1989 US invasion of Panama in an
unfavorable light. [NYT 9/22/94]

4. HAITI: "AFTER THREE YEARS, US ACHIEVES ITS GOAL"

Most Haitians welcomed the US troops, who were backed up by a
steady stream of pro-intervention material broadcast on the media
and from loudspeakers on US helicopters. But many leaders in the
democratic and grassroots movements remain opposed. Parliamentary
deputy Samuel Madistin called the Carter-Cedras accord "a
maneuver by the US supporters of the coup...to close the doors on
the return of Aristide." The Sun of Justice for the Liberation of
the Haitian People Organization (OSJLPH) asked: "Who is the
American government protecting? Is it the Haitian people or is it
the Haitian army?... The agreement...is a phony agreement!"
"After three years of turmoil in Haiti and maneuvering in
Washington," writes the Port-au-Prince-based English-language
Haiti Info bulletin, "the US imperialist forces--personified by
the actual occupying troops but including everyone from President
Bill Clinton to the Central Intelligence Agency--accomplished
their goal. For the second time this century, Haiti is in the
midst of a full-fledged military occupation, complete with a
military 'governor' [Gen. Shelton], a foreign army with local
'apprentices,' a political plan and an economic policy.

"The necessity for a military intervention and occupation arose
when the forces behind the coup d'etat--in the U.S. at agencies
like the CIA as well as in Port-au-Prince--realized that the
Haitian democratic and popular movement would not accept the
brutal coup d'etat against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and
the democratic process here.

"The steadfast resistance of the people, despite the brutal and
targeted repression, led to a growing international support from
peoples and solidarity groups around the world and thus the
inevitability of President Aristide's return. This created a
problem which could only be resolved one way--an occupation with
accompanying programs which would provide the necessary control
and would help bring Haiti back in line with the rest of the
region, whose countries have adopted a formal democracy dominated
by the local business sectors and the elite, neoliberal economic
planning and...the dictates of the US." [Haiti Info 9/23/94]
Meanwhile, various US and Haitian progressives were hastily
maneuvering to distance themselves from the consequences of an
intervention they had strongly promoted. Jocelyn McCalla, the
Haitian-American head of the National Coalition for Haitian
Refugees (HCHR), charged that in the Carter-Cedras accord
"President Clinton has agreed to every one of the demands by Gen.
Cedras." [New York Newsday 9/21/94] TransAfrica head Randall
Robinson called the deal "terribly flawed" and similar to leaving
the Nazis unpunished after World War Two. It is "impossible for
the [Haitian] army to coexist cheek to jowl with proponents of
democracy," he said. [HP 9/21-27/94] Holly Burkhalter, Washington
director of Human Rights Watch, denounced the accord as "Carter's
horrendous gift to the Haitian armed forces." [NY Newsday
9/21/94]

But Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth continued
his three-year campaign against President Aristide's human rights
record. In a letter to the editor, Roth charged that while in
office Aristide "condoned threats of popular violence against the
judiciary and the legislature, compromising these democratic
institutions." Roth claims that a "recurrence" of "outbreaks of
popular violence" is "one of the worrisome possibilities as US
forces enter Haiti." [WP 9/22/94]

Correction: Update #242 misidentified the magazine that printed
an article by Allan Nairn about plans for the Haitian economy.
The article appeared in the July/August issue of the
Multinational Monitor.

5. MEXICO: PRI VICTORY OVERTURNED IN MONTERREY

The Nuevo Leon state Electoral Tribunal has in effect thrown out
the Aug. 21 victory of Mexico's ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI) in municipal elections in Monterrey,
the state capital and the country's third-largest city. The
tribunal disqualified 42 polling places because of ballot-
rigging, reducing the PRI's total by about 4,000 votes. The
official count originally showed PRI mayoral candidate Jorge
Manjarrez winning by 6,131 votes over Jesus Hinojosa of the
conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN). The Federal
Electoral Institute (IFE) had already reduced the PRI lead to
3,900, and it is assumed that a recount will give the victory to
the PAN, which has historically had a strong base in Nuevo Leon.

The IFE has also annulled votes in other polling places around
the country but not in a way likely to affect important races. A
PAN victory in Monterrey, a major industrial center, is likely to
help improve PAN-PRI relations as the three major parties--the
third is the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution
(PRD)--prepare for new negotiations on electoral reform.
[Financial Times (UK) 9/23/94; Diario Las Americas (Miami)
9/24/94 from EFE]

In the southern state of Chiapas, the rebels of the Zapatista
National Liberation Army (EZLN) continue a "red alert" announced
on Sept. 10. The EZLN charges that the Mexican army has doubled
its forces in Chiapas and has stepped up its surveillance
flights; the guerrillas also accuse the military of incursions
into Zapatista-held territory, in violation of last January's
armed truce. According to a EZLN communique of Sept. 15, the
Mexican army is trying to "force a break in the ceasefire."
[Inter Press Service 9/17/94; El Diario-La Prensa 9/25/94 from
EFE]

6. INTERNATIONAL BANKS HELP RIG BRAZILIAN ELECTIONS

Front-running Brazilian presidential candidate Fernando Henrique
Cardoso of the Social Democratic Party of Brazil (PSDB) seems set
to win the upcoming elections on Oct. 3. If he does not win an
absolute majority of votes in the first round, he is likely to
face Luis Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers Party (PT) in a
runoff on Nov. 15. Cardoso's campaign was sparked by the July
introduction of the real, the new currency that is the
centerpiece of the anti-inflation plan he developed while finance
minister. Inflation in Brazil had been running at 50% a month
before the introduction of the real; over the 30 days ending
Sept. 15 it was 0.96%, the lowest rate since 1986. [O Estado de
Sao Paulo 9/18/94; Folha de Sao Paulo 9/19/94, 9/22/94]

But more and more evidence is confirming suspicions that the
"real plan" is nothing more than an artificial boost of the
currency, and that after the Nov. 15 runoff, the Brazilian
economy will "deteriorate rapidly," according to an official in
the US Federal Reserve system. "The real was carefully calculated
to produce the maximum effect," the US official told Washington
weekly Counterpunch. "If it's such a great plan, why didn't they
introduce it in January instead of waiting until mid-year? The
answer is that it would have run out of steam by now and people
would be looking for somebody's head to chop off."

The same issue of Counterpunch reveals that in April, when Lula
was far ahead in opinion polls and monthly inflation neared 50%,
international banks began concerted efforts to turn back the
threat of a leftist government in Brazil and ensure the election
of Cardoso, a promoter of neoliberal economic programs. Brazil's
private creditors signed an agreement rescheduling $49 billion in
Brazilian debt, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) backed
the deal by putting up $1.5 billion to 2 billion for the purchase
of bonds. The US Federal Reserve official noted that the April
debt bail-out "could easily be seen as outside interference in
the presidential campaign." Citicorp vice chairman William Rhodes
was behind the debt deal, according to the US official, who
pointed out that when the terms of the deal are fully
implemented, Brazilian interest payments will bring Citicorp
roughly $400 million a year. [Counterpunch 9/1/94] [For more
Brazil coverage see special supplement.]

7. METALWORKERS STRIKE SETTLED IN BRAZIL

An agreement was signed on Sept. 17 settling a strike by
metalworkers at automobile companies in Sao Paulo's industrial
ABC region. The workers went on strike Sept. 12 to protest the
wage freeze established by the real plan. While salaries used to
be adjusted for inflation once a month, under the new plan they
are only to be adjusted once a year. Since inflation has been 12%
since the introduction of the real, actual wages have decreased
by the same amount. According to the terms of the "pre-accord"
signed Sept. 17, the workers would receive a one-time payment on
Oct. 5, corresponding to 59.5 hours of work. The agreement was
ratified by the union membership on Sept. 18; the workers
returned to work the next day. [O Estado do Brasil 9/18/94; Folha
de Sao Paulo 9/19/94]

8. ANTI-CASTRO PARAMILITARY MEMBERS ON TRIAL IN MIAMI

On Sept. 20 in Miami, the trial began of Rodolfo Frometa and
Fausto Marimon, members of the anti-Castro Cuban paramilitary
organization Comandos F-4. The two were arrested on June 2 for
attempting to illegally purchase weapons from an undercover agent
of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) posing as a
corrupt army sergeant [see Update #227]. Frometa told Miami
Spanish-language daily Diario Las Americas, "We believed [the FBI
agent] was another Oliver North. We thought the US secret
services wanted to help us." The defense may base its case on the
fact that the accused were practically pushed to request the
weapons, which included plastic explosives, anti-tank missiles,
and even a surface-to-air missile. The undercover agent offered
the men the weapons at a purchase price of $15,000, of which they
were only asked to make an initial payment of $5,000; they were
led to believe the weapons were being subsidized by supporters of
their cause within the US government. "The government of
President Bill Clinton is discriminating against us," said
Frometa. "The United States have given assistance to guerrillas
in Nicaragua and Angola," he explained. "Now they have invaded
Haiti, but they don't want to pay any attention to us." Frometa
said that if "we have to go to jail for Cuba's liberation, we are
ready." [Diario Las Americas 9/24/94]

Comandos F-4 was formed this past spring as a split from another
anti-Castro paramilitary organization, Alpha 66. Both Frometa and
Marimon were taken into custody early this year when the Coast
Guard caught them and five other Alpha 66 members en route to
Cuba with a boat full of weapons. At the time, federal prosecutor
Kendall Coffey declined to file charges against the seven. [New
York Times 6/4/94]

9. ANTI-CASTRO CUBANS PLOT GUANTANAMO FUTURE

Cuban economist Gerardo Trueba told Inter Press Service on Sept.
14 that the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), a
rightwing anti-Castro group based in Miami, is proposing to turn
the immigration detention camp at Guantanamo into a permanent or
semi-permanent community with an independent economy. The camp,
part of the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is currently
holding about 29,000 Cubans and 14,000 Haitians, nearly all of
whom were picked up at sea while attempting to emigrate to the US
on rafts or boats. The base covers 117 square kilometers; the US
has occupied it since 1903.

Trueba, head investigator of the Center of European Studies, said
that the CANF's proposal "involves the construction of modest
houses, the creation of low-technology factories, the development
of a trade and service infrastructure, and the creation of
conditions to receive visits from relatives and others." Trueba
said the plan's primary objective is to enrich Cuban-American
capital in Florida, "and to exploit to the maximum possibilities
that mass of Cubans, who are mainly young and with an average
ninth-grade education." The enclave planned by CANF seems similar
to a project attempted in 1961 which sought to create an anti-
Castro "government-in-exile" on the Cuban island. [Inter Press
Service 9/14/94]

Leaders of the more than 1,300 Cubans who were recently
transferred from Guantanamo to camps on a US military base in
Panama threatened on Sept. 13 to go on hunger strike to demand
they be granted greater freedoms and the status of political
refugees. At least 100 of the would-be emigres, or balseros as
they are commonly known (balsa means raft in Spanish), have asked
the Panamanian government to give them political asylum; Panama
has refused, and considers them "guests" of the US. [El Diario-La
Prensa 9/25/94 from AFP]

One young balsero, Fermin Sanchez, said he's getting desperate in
the tiny Panama camp, which is completely surrounded with barbed
wire and guarded by US troops. "If they don't want me in the
United States," complained Sanchez, "let them throw me to China
or any other part of the world where there is no communism." [IPS
9/20/94]

10. PERSECUTED VENEZUELAN UNIONISTS REACH AGREEMENT

Two Venezuelan unionists who sought asylum in the Mexican embassy
in Caracas at 1 pm on Sept. 15 [see Update #242] left voluntarily
at 11 pm the same night and began talks with Venezuelan
authorities about the persecution they say they are facing.
Leftist deputy Vladimir Villegas, president of the parliament's
human rights commission, told Inter Press Service that the
unionists left the embassy because of an accord with Presidency
Vice-Minister Fernando Egana, guaranteeing that they will not be
arrested or persecuted for their actions. Under the terms of the
accord, they will also hold meetings with officials from the
Interior Ministry and the National Guard.

The unionists--Isaac Vargas and Jose Antonio Bravo--are
agricultural workers who say they have been persecuted since they
started preparing for a strike. The strike began Aug. 24; on
Sept. 1, Vargas and Bravo say they were arrested by the National
Guard, which handed them over to the police in Santa Barbara,
where they were held prisoner until Sept. 5. Two days later, the
National Guard forced the strikers to return to work, and on
Sept. 13, an arrest order was issued against the two union
leaders. In the meetings with authorities, the two will demand
that the National Guard stop violating workers' human rights and
that they refrain from intervening in labor conflicts. [Inter
Press Service 9/16/94]

11. SANDINISTA MEDIA CHARGE PARTY CENSORSHIP IN NICARAGUA

A group of 37 journalists and editors from the pro-Sandinista
Nicaraguan daily newspaper Barricada released a communique on
Sept. 19 stating their opposition to any attempts at censorship--
or the replacement of Barricada director Carlos Fernando
Chamorro--by the leadership of the Sandinista National Liberation
Front (FSLN). "Any effort to restrict us in our right to emit our
own political opinions is unacceptable to us," read the
statement. Headed by Barricada subdirector Sergio de Castro, the
journalists emphasized that "as a collective we do not belong to
any [political] current [of the FSLN]...." They added that the
proposal to fire Chamorro consists of "a series of accusations
without a professional basis," and that the attempt at censoring
the paper "is not only an anachronistic and anti-democratic
proposal that contradicts the decision made by consensus three
years ago by the editorial staff of Barricada," but also "means a
true editorial and business disaster." [El Diario-La Prensa
9/20/94 from AP] [In January of 1991, Barricada stopped being the
official organ of the FSLN and was allowed a certain amount of
editorial freedom, though it remained heavily pro-Sandinista.]

The Interamerican Press Society (SIP) has requested first-hand
reports from FSLN leader and former president Daniel Ortega about
the possible firing of Chamorro as director of the newspaper.
According to the information received by the SIP, Ortega has
asked the Sandinista Assembly to expel Chamorro because the
newspaper favors the "reformist" tendency of the FSLN, headed by
former vice president Sergio Ramirez, over the "orthodox"
tendency headed by Ortega. [Diario Las Americas 9/24/94]

12. CHILEAN PRESIDENT RESHUFFLES CABINET, LEFT NOT PLEASED

On Sept. 20, Chilean president Eduardo Frei announced the first
major changes in his cabinet. Just a week past the first half
year in office, Frei accepted the resignations of four Cabinet
ministers and three undersecretaries. Carlos Figueroa, a
Christian Democrat who had been Foreign Affairs Minister,
replaced Socialist German Correa as Interior Minister. The
Socialist Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Jose Miguel Insulza,
was promoted to replace Figueroa. Sergio Molina, another
Christian Democrat who had been Planning Minister during the
government of Patricio Aylwin, replaced independent Ernesto
Schiefelbein as Education Minister. Government Secretary General
Victor Manuel Rebolledo of the Party for Democracy (PPD) was
replaced by another PPD member, Jose Joaquin Brunner, who has
been president of the National Television Board.

The new cabinet members are largely individuals who have the
personal confidence of President Frei. The PPD seemed unperturbed
by the changes, and the rightwing opposition parties, National
Renovation and Independent Democratic Union, made clear their
satisfaction. But Socialist Party president Camilo Escalona said
the shakeup left relations with the government "frankly cold,"
and the Communist Party felt the changes represent "an attempt to
resolve a political crisis of the presidency with a violent shift
to the right." [Chile Information Project (CHIP) News 9/21/94]
On Sept. 22, new interior minister Carlos Figueroa met with
national Carabineros police chief Rodolfo Stange in the
government palace, Stange's first official government reception
since President Eduardo Frei's call for his resignation months
ago [see Updates #219, #234]. After a judge charged the police
chief with covering up the 1985 murders of three Communist
leaders by police, President Frei had announced he would not
receive Stange until he stepped down. Stange took a two-month
leave of absence but returned to his office in July, after higher
courts cleared him of the crime. The handling of the Stange
incident by former interior minister German Correa is believed to
have been a factor in his recent replacement by Figueroa. [CHIP
News 9/23/94]

13. BOLIVIAN COCA GROWERS WIN PRELIMINARY AGREEMENT

Bolivian coca growers, backed by the country's largest labor
confederation, the Bolivian Workers Central (COB), reached a
preliminary agreement with President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's
administration on Sept. 20 to resolve some of their demands,
after a 22-day march to La Paz that the government tried
unsuccessfully to block [see Update #241, 242]. The march, which
met with violent military and police repression, was undertaken
to protest militarization of the Chapare, Bolivia's major coca-
growing region, and to demand that the government honor earlier
agreements with the growers [see Updates #215, #216]. In
particular, growers were protesting the stepped-up repression
that accompanied "Operation New Dawn," the government's latest
US-financed interdiction effort in the Chapare.

The publicity created by the march led the government to begin a
national debate with the growers on Sept. 15, before most of the
marchers had even arrived in La Paz. The preliminary agreement
calls for a national debate to consider the legalization of coca
leaf and discuss other aspects of the coca-cocaine problems that
could lead to a modification of Bolivia's Law 1008 regulating
coca and controlled substances. In addition, the government
promised to respect human rights, and it drew a clear distinction
between coca growers and drug traffickers. However, the accord
calls for continued international cooperation in the fight
against drug addiction and drug trafficking and commits Bolivia
to cooperate in that struggle.

Campesino representatives began meeting on Sept. 21 to discuss
the preliminary agreement and evaluate unresolved issues. Since
the agreement did not include the withdrawal of the military from
the Chapare or the end of "Operation New Dawn," the danger of
renewed conflict continues.

There was also little progress in addressing the continued
opposition to the presence of US military and US Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) agents in Bolivia. Following the meetings in
La Paz, the commander in chief of the armed forces, Gen. Moises
Shiriqui, expressed appreciation for US assistance in combatting
drug trafficking, but said it was time that the Bolivian military
took over planning the operations.

Bolivia is the world's second-largest grower of coca leaf, used
to produce cocaine.  There are 30,000 hectares under coca
cultivation in the Chapare region--500 kms. southeast of the
capital--which provide a living for 70,000 campesino families.
According to Moises Aguilar, one of the leaders of the march, the
government's attempts at crop substitution are a failure: "They
plant pineapple in one little area, enough for ten families and
that's all," he said. "And the rest of the people?  What about
all the rest?" [Latin America Database Notisur 9/23/94 from Inter
Press Service, Reuter, Action Alert-Washington Office on Latin
America, Spanish news service EFE, Agence France-Presse]

Coca-growers' leader Evo Morales accused the industrialized
nations, principally the US, of pressuring for the eradication of
coca cultivation as the solution in the war on drugs, while at
the same time "they permit a high level of cocaine consumption in
their countries." [El Diario-La Prensa 9/20/94 from AP]

Correction: In contrast to the sources we used in last week's
article on the coca growers march, this week's sources gave the
number of marchers as between 4,000 and 5,000. In last week's
Update (#242, item #4), we said there were 8,000 to 10,000
marchers.

14. COLOMBIAN GUERRILLAS STEP UP ACTIONS, CONGRESSPERSON KILLED

The Colombian government has announced new security measures for
members of Congress after the Sept. 19 murder of congressperson
Arlen Uribe Marquez from the ruling Liberal Party. Uribe and his
driver and bodyguard Gustavo Adolfo Ortiz were shot to death by a
group of attackers outside Antioquia University in Medellin,
where Uribe was a law professor. The attack has been attributed
to the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas. Attorney
General Orlando Vasquez said that Uribe had been receiving death
threats since last year from unidentified groups.

This latest killing comes a little more than a month after the
murder of Communist Party senator Manuel Cepeda by a rightwing
paramilitary group [see Update #237], and just a week after the
kidnapping of Conservative Party congressperson Juan Ignacio
Castrillon by leftist guerrillas. Castrillon was freed on the
night of Sept. 19 by his kidnappers, a new guerrilla group
calling itself the "Popular National Liberation Front." The group
ordered Castrillon to deliver a communique announcing that it
would continue the armed struggle. These attacks come at a time
when new president Ernesto Samper Pizano is trying to restart a
dialogue with Colombia's remaining guerrilla groups. [El Diario-
La Prensa 9/20/94 from AP, 9/21/94 from AP, Notimex]

On Sept. 23, presumed guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) fired on five helicopters carrying a
number of reporters and Colombian and US officials, including US
ambassador Myles Frechette, US under-secretary of defense Bryan
Sheridan, Colombian defense minister Fernando Botero, Colombian
armed forces chief Gen. Ramon Emilio Gil, and several other high-
level Colombian army and police officials. The helicopters
returned fire; one of them was hit by gunfire, but no one was
hurt. The group was trying to observe the confiscation of a ton
of cocaine, but the attack forced their program to be cancelled.
The officials were returning from a visit to the department of
Huila to see efforts by local anti-drug police to curb the
cultivation of poppy and coca, with international support.
[Diario Las Americas 9/24/94 from EFE]

15. BATTLES OVER CHURCH IN ECUADORAN SCHOOLS

Ecuadoran education minister Rosalia Arteaga quit on Sept. 22
over a proposed law that would institute the teaching of religion
in grade and high schools. The teachers' unions also oppose the
measure, and have threatened to go on strike if it is approved.
The proposed law was initiated and promoted by the Catholic
Church; if the legislature passes it, President Sixto Duran-
Ballen intends to sign it into law. Ecuador has had secular
education for over 100 years. National Educators Union (UNE)
president Gustavo Teran called the initiative "a retrograde law
coming from the right," and warned that it would set the country
back a century. [El Diario-La Prensa 9/23/94 from Notimex; Diario
Las Americas 9/24/94 from AFP]

16. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA

For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed are
not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network.

9/29 THU 6:30 PM - "Hidden Issues in the US Takeover of Haiti,"
with Workers World Chair Sam Marcy and Georges Honorat of Haiti's
National Popular Assembly. 55 W 17th St, 5th fl. 212-627-2994.

9/30 FRI 3-5:30 PM - Join Haitian community to mark 3rd
anniversary of 1991 coup. Dominican Consulate 42nd St & B'way,
march to State Dept. (5th Ave & 50th St) and UN. 212-592-3612.

10/1 SAT 1 PM - "Mexico Elections and the Zapatista Rebellion,"
with Gerry Foley of Socialist Action. At Brecht Forum, 122 W 27
St, 10th fl. $3. 212-662-6508.
--
+ 212-675-9690      NY TRANSFER NEWS COLLECTIVE     212-675-9663 +
+           Since 1985: Information for the Rest of Us           +
+ e-mail: nyt@blythe.org                   info: info@blythe.org +