WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
>                    ISSUE #250, NOVEMBER 13, 1994
>           NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
>         339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499
>
>
>      1. FMLN Leader Murdered in El Salvador
>      2. Rearmed Contras Murder 20 Indigenous Nicaraguans
>      3. Nicaraguan Teachers Strike Over Pay
>      4. Nicaraguan Newspaper Staff Fired
>      5. Bus Fare Hike Sparks Protests in Guatemala
>      6. US Lawyer Ends Hunger Strike in Guatemala
>      7. Haiti Gets "Reconciliation" Cabinet
>      8. Haiti: No Schedule for Elections, Troop Withdrawals
>      9. Mexican Soldiers Kill Police in Chiapas
>     10. Mexico: "Peace Encampments" As Electoral Tensions Rise
>     11. President-Elect Certified by Mexican Congress
>     12. Mexico Action Alerts: Zedillo, Ford Cuautitlan
>     13. Hospital and Postal Workers Strike in Honduras
>     14. Campesinos Protest Eviction in Peru
>     15. California Voters Approve Anti-Immigrant Measure
>     16. In Other News: Puerto Rico, Ecuador & Dominican Rep.
>     17. Upcoming Events in the New York City Area
>
>                                 *
>
> 1. FMLN LEADER MURDERED IN EL SALVADOR
>
> On Nov. 10, Salvadoran former rebel commander David Faustino
> Merino was murdered in San Salvador. Known during the guerrilla
> war as "Franco", at the time of his death Merino was secretary of
> the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) in the
> eastern department of Usulutan and a member of the central
> committee of the Popular Liberation Forces (FPL), one of the five
> groups making up the FMLN. Merino was eating lunch at a
> restaurant with Pablo Parado Andino and Carlos Cortez Hernandez
> when three armed assailants shot at them. Both Parado and Cortez
> were injured. Parado is secretary general of the FMLN in the
> central department of San Vicente; Cortez is a member of the
> municipal council of Tecoluca in San Vicente. [Diario Las
> Americas (Miami) 11/12/94 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa (NY)
> 11/13/94 from ACAN-EFE]
>
> FPL secretary general Salvador Sanchez Ceren said that according
> to preliminary investigations the murder was "planned, and with
> political motivations." "There was no motive of theft or a
> quarrel," Sanchez explained, "but rather it was carried out in
> the style of summary executions that the death squads used to
> use..." Diego Garcia Sayan, director of the United Nations
> Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL)'s Human Rights Division,
> called the Merino murder "a worrisome incident." [ED-LP 11/13/94
> from ACAN-EFE]
>
> 2. REARMED CONTRAS MURDER 20 INDIGENOUS NICARAGUANS
>
> The Nicaraguan army is pursuing a group of nearly 100 rearmed
> former contra rebels ("recontras") who carried out an attack on
> two Miskito communities in the northern department of Jinotega on
> Nov. 9. Some 20 indigenous residents of Nueva Esperanza and
> Kantawas (also known as Pankawas) were killed in the attack. Some
> reports say the villagers tried to defend themselves with old
> hunting rifles. As of Nov. 11, six bodies had been found and the
> army was still trying to reach the remote and nearly inaccessible
> communities from nearby San Andres de Bocay to determine the
> number of victims and other details of the massacre; heavy rains
> made the army's mission even more difficult.
>
> According to information gathered by local Moravian church leader
> Nelson Bent, the recontras arrived at Kantawas in small boats via
> the Rio Coco that separates Nicaragua from Honduras. Other
> reports say the victims were in a boat on the river when they
> were shot at with machine guns from the shore. Army sources
> suggest that the attackers were led by "El Charro," the leader of
> a group of recontras that operates in the region. There are no
> military bases anywhere in the area. Bent told Spanish news
> service EFE that residents want a military presence in the region
> in order to prevent further attacks. [El Diario-La Prensa
> 11/13/94 from AFP; Diario Las Americas 11/12/94 from EFE]
>
> 3. NICARAGUAN TEACHERS STRIKE OVER PAY
>
> On Nov. 4, more than 20,000 teachers in the majority of
> Nicaragua's public schools held a 24-hour strike and protest
> marches to demand an 80% salary increase. Teachers are currently
> the lowest paid professionals in the country; their salaries
> range from $50 to $70 a month. The labor actions were called by
> the country's three teachers' unions: the Nicaraguan Teachers
> Confederation (CMN), the National Federation of Education and
> Culture Workers (FENITEC) and the pro-Sandinista National
> Association of Nicaraguan Educators (ANDEN). The teachers are
> also demanding the restructuring of the wage scale for years of
> service, an increase of $1.4 million for the total collective
> contract, a 100% increase in pensions and a bigger budget for
> teacher training. In addition, they are demanding the creation of
> a General Law of Education, which would give stability to the
> country's educational system, according to ANDEN leader Jose
> Antonio Zepeda. Teachers in the city of Esteli announced that
> their strike will continue until their salary demands are met.
> [Inter Press Service 11/4/94]
>
> 4. NICARAGUAN NEWSPAPER STAFF FIRED
>
> Tomas Borge, Nicaragua's former interior minister and the only
> surviving founder of the leftist Sandinista Front for National
> Liberation (FSLN), is the new president of the executive and
> editorial boards of the FSLN-owned daily newspaper Barricada.
> Borge replaces Bayardo Arce, who resigned on Nov. 1 over the
> firing of Barricada director Carlos Fernando Chamorro [see Update
> #248]. "My disagreement," said Arce, "cannot be interpreted as a
> criticism of those who represent the newspaper's owners, much
> less as an attempt to deny them their rights. All property owners
> choose whom they want to administer their property." [El Diario-
> La Prensa 11/2/94 from AP; Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 11/7/94]
>
> On Nov. 4 it was announced that Barricada's new editor would be
> William Grigsby, the controversial radio commentator of La
> Primerisima and one of the most outspoken members of what has
> been called the "Democratic Left" or "orthodox" faction of the
> FSLN. The assistant director will be Julio Lopez, who worked with
> the FSLN's Department of International Relations (DRI) during the
> 1980s. [Nicanet Hotline 11/7/94]
>
> Fourteen Barricada journalists--virtually all of the editorial
> staff--and three administrative workers who opposed the
> newspaper's change in command were fired on Nov. 10. [ED-LP
> 11/13/94 from AFP] The US-based national Nicaragua Network
> reports that the workers had hoped to be fired, because they did
> not want to continue working under the present circumstances; if
> they had quit they would not entitled to severance pay or other
> benefits. [Nicanet Hotline 11/7/94] The fired journalists are now
> suing the newspaper's owners for one month's severance pay. [ED-
> LP 11/13/94 from AFP]
>
> 5. BUS FARE HIKE SPARKS PROTESTS IN GUATEMALA
>
> Eight people died, more than 150 others were injured, and 25
> buses were burned in a week of violent protests in Guatemala City
> resulting from a sudden unauthorized hike in bus fares. On Nov. 2
> the fares on Guatemala City's privately owned buses jumped from
> the authorized $0.11 (65 centavos) for economy buses and $0.16
> for premium buses to $0.17 and $0.22 respectively. The fares were
> unilaterally raised by transport company owners after municipal
> authorities rejected their requests for rate hikes or a
> government subsidy. Bus owners charge that since price controls
> on gasoline were lifted over a year ago, they have been losing
> some $7.8 million yearly because of high gas prices and increased
> taxes. The head of one bus cooperative, Freddy Lucero, insisted
> that bus owners were "ready to face any situation, including
> violence if necessary, even though we are aware that the
> passengers are not able to pay the increases."
>
> Mayor Oscar Berger urged the bus owners to postpone the fare
> increases until January, when the municipality plans to initiate
> a service for low-income passengers. At the same time, he warned
> bus owners that if they did not lower the illegal fares, he would
> rescind their operating licenses.
>
> College students led the first protests on Nov. 2 near the
> University of San Carlos. Masked demonstrators built barricades
> of burning tires and attacked buses with homemade gasoline bombs,
> destroying 15 buses. One 19-year-old was shot to death under
> confusing circumstances in a suburban section of the city where
> protests were also being held. In other parts of the city, high
> school students burned another bus while residents in the poorer
> barrios blocked roads and caused massive traffic jams.
>
> Protests continued throughout the capital the next two days as
> thousands of angry Guatemalans took to the streets, stoning and
> burning more buses. By the weekend of Nov. 5 all bus service had
> been halted and passengers moved around the city packed into
> private trucks, as well as army vehicles that were pressed into
> service for the emergency. Most of the eight people killed died
> in accidents caused by overloaded vehicles used to provide
> temporary transportation.
>
> With the buses still not running on Nov. 7, the Union of Labor
> and Grassroots Action (UASP) and the Association of University
> Students (AEU) called a protest march. The march turned ugly as
> bands of youths stoned cars and looted stores along the route.
> When the demonstration arrived at the central plaza of the city,
> masked protesters stoned the windows of the National Palace and
> painted its walls with slogans and graffiti. [Latin America Data
> Base Notisur 11/11/94 from Reuters, Agence France-Presse, United
> Press International, Notimex, Agencia Centroamericana de
> Noticias-Spanish news service EFE; Diario Las Americas 11/12/94
> from EFE]
>
> 6. US LAWYER ENDS HUNGER STRIKE IN GUATEMALA
>
> On Nov. 10, a grave was opened in Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango,
> which Guatemalan government officials had told Jennifer Harbury
> might contain the body of her husband, guerrilla leader Efrain
> Bamaca Velasquez (aka Everardo). The grave contained two bodies,
> one of which was of a man estimated to be in his mid-twenties at
> the time of death; the other was about 18 years old at the time
> of death. Both had been shot to death. Bamaca would have been 35
> if he had died in 1992, as the Guatemalan government maintains.
> The dental characteristics of the corpses also did not match
> Bamaca's. In addition, the men had been buried on Mar. 1 or 2,
> 1992. Bamaca did not disappear until Mar. 12. of that year.
>
> On the day of the exhumation, a death list signed by the
> Patriotic Anti-Communist Unit was sent to the Guatemalan press.
> First on the list of people "who should be eliminated" was
> Jennifer Harbury. Seven other people were also named, including
> Mutual Support Group (GAM) director Nineth Montenegro and Karen
> Fischer de Carpio, the daughter-in-law of murdered newspaper
> director Jorge Carpio Nicolle. [Guatemalan Human Rights
> Commission/USA Urgent Action 11/10/94]
> 
> On Nov. 11, the 32nd day of her hunger strike, Harbury drank some
> diluted papaya juice and told reporters, "I have decided to end
> my hunger strike and return to Washington." She said she would
> meet with US officials who have offered to help her search for
> her husband. "I will return to Guatemala to press charges against
> officials who have committed crimes against my husband," she
> added. "I probably didn't have much more than a week left before
> I'd be too weak to do anything," Harbury told the New York Times
> in a telephone interview. [NYT 11/12/94; Washington Post 11/12/94
> from Reuter]
> 
> Bamaca's whereabouts remain unknown. A Guatemalan journalist who
> does not want to be identified reportedly told Anne Manuel of
> Human Rights Watch/Americas and Mrs. John Porter, of Washington,
> DC, both of whom attended the exhumation, that he had interviewed
> various people in Bamaca's native village of El Tumbador, San
> Marcos. According to the journalist, several villagers said they
> had seen Bamaca recently in army custody, being taken through the
> town, dressed as a soldier. [GHRC/USA Urgent Action 11/10/94]
> 
> Eyewitness Santiago Cabrera Lopez, a member of the guerrilla
> organization Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG),
> testified on Nov. 3 at the Organization of American States (OAS)
> Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH). The eyewitness
> testified that he had been captured in March of 1991 by the
> Guatemalan Army and held as a clandestine prisoner in several
> military installations for a period of 19 months. Cabrera
> testified that he saw URNG commander Everardo and other prisoners
> alive and under torture in clandestine Guatemalan army custody on
> several occasions in both March and July of 1992.
> 
> Cabrera identified several top Guatemalan army officers as having
> participated in the capture and torture of Everardo and other
> prisoners. Some of the army officials identified are Lt. Col.
> Hector Rene Perez Solares; G-2 Specialist Margarito Sarceno
> Medrano; Military Commissioner Emilio Escobar; Commander Edgar
> Perez Gutierrez; Lt. Colonel Barahona; G-2 Specialist Simeon Cum
> Chut; Capt. Laco; G-2 member Rene Alfaro Loarca; Specialist
> Molina; Major Soto; Major Mario Sosa Orellana; Colonel Julio
> Alpirez. In response to the OAS' question during the hearing, the
> government of Guatemalan admitted its failure to interrogate any
> of these officials despite having been provided their names by
> the OAS in March of 1993. [Press Release from the Law Offices of
> Jose Pertierra (Washington, DC) 11/4/94, posted on email]
> 
> Supporters should keep up pressure on the Bamaca case. For more
> information, contact Pat Davis at the Guatemalan Human Rights
> Commission/USA: phone# 202-529-6599, fax# 202-526-4611, email
> ghrc@igc.apc.org.
> 
> CORRECTION: In last week's Update #249, we wrote that Harbury had
> gone to Coatepeque on very short notice to attend an exhumation,
> but that once she arrived officials told her it had been
> cancelled. The Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) explains
> in its Nov. 4 "Update and Urgent Action" that Harbury had
> requested--and was denied--postponement of the exhumation to give
> her enough time to line up an independent non-Guatemalan forensic
> specialist who would not be affected by threats. By law, Harbury
> should have been provided written notice of the exhumation 48
> hours in advance of the scheduled time; in fact, authorities gave
> her less than 12 hours notice. According to GHRC, "The only way
> to have the exhumation cancelled or postponed was to file a legal
> motion at 8:00 A.M. in the courthouse in Coatepeque." Harbury
> went to Coatepeque to do this, and with pressure from the US
> embassy the exhumation was postponed.
> 
> 7. HAITI GETS "RECONCILIATION" CABINET
> 
> On Nov. 7 Haiti's parliament formally endorsed Smarck Michel as
> the country's new prime minister, along with a 17-member cabinet
> nominated by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide the week before.
> Aristide was reportedly in a hurry to have the new cabinet in
> place before a World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank
> (IDB) delegation arrived later in the week. [New York Times
> 11/9/94] A Washington Post editorial congratulated Aristide for
> naming a cabinet with a "clearly centrist" plan of action and
> with "a few [people] who served in the military regimes,
> including the one that overthrew Mr. Aristide." [WP 11/11/94]
> 
> The coup supporter in the cabinet is Public Works Minister Marc
> Henry Rousseau Francois, who held the same post in the de facto
> government of Joseph Nerette, set up by the Haitian military in
> October 1991. Rene Prosper will continue as interior minister, a
> post he held in Aristide's cabinet in exile; Prosper's sister is
> Yannick Cedras, wife of exiled military head Lt. Gen. Raoul
> Cedras. There are reports that the Central Bank presidency will
> go to Leslie Delatour, one of the architects of the neoliberal
> economic plan Aristide's government signed on to in August.
> Delatour was in Miami on Nov. 4 to address a conference of 200
> Haitian and US business leaders on the need for "a level playing
> field" for foreign businesses in Haiti. "Competition has not
> killed anybody except those that deserve to die because of their
> inefficiency," he told the conference, which was conducted in
> English. "Haiti is too poor to afford inefficiency." [Haiti
> Progres (NY) 11/9-15/94]
> 
> Aristide has been promoting his new style of government among his
> supporters in the poorer neighborhoods. Accompanied by US
> National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, the president visited
> Port-au-Prince's huge Cite Soleil neighborhood on Nov. 3.
> Aristide remarked that "we have to thank the CDS, all who work in
> the health field...particularly Dr. Boulos, who works with
> others...." [HP 11/9-15/94] "CDS" stands for Centers for
> Development and Health, a Cite Soleil-based group headed by Dr.
> Reginald Boulos. Local residents say CDS, which gets funding from
> Americares and the US Agency for International Development
> (USAID), employs members of the Haitian Front for Advancement and
> Progress (FRAPH) death squads, who have killed dozens of Aristide
> supporters in Cite Soleil [see Update #213].
> 
> On Nov. 9 US and Guatemalan soldiers surrounded Aristide as he
> visited the northern city of Cap-Haitien. Supporters cheered when
> he called for change but showed less enthusiasm when he spoke of
> reconciliation with the military; some booed outright when he
> embraced rightwing archbishop Francois Gaillot. [WP 11/10/94]
> 
> 8. HAITI: NO SCHEDULE FOR ELECTIONS, TROOP WITHDRAWALS
> 
> The US Democratic Party's dramatic loss of its control over
> Congress in Nov. 8 federal legislative elections is reportedly
> giving Haitian government officials second thoughts about their
> alliance with Democratic president Bill Clinton. The British
> Financial Times notes that "[w]ithout a clear commitment on
> continuing support from Washington, Mr. Aristide may be inclined
> to reconsider the political merits of some of the administrative
> and economic reforms to which he is now committed, particularly
> those likely to be unpopular." [FT 11/11/94]
> 
> On Nov. 6, two days before the US elections, White House
> officials let it be known that 6,000 US troops would be withdrawn
> by Dec. 1. The occupation force is already down to 15,000 from a
> high of 21,000; the new reduction would leave 9,000 GIs in Haiti.
> [NYT 11/7/94] But UN representative Lakhdar Brahimi announced on
> Nov. 3 that the UN would not be ready to take over the operation
> by the end of the year. [Inter Press Service 11/3/94] US
> Secretary of State Warren Christopher told the press on Oct. 15
> that the US military presence "will probably extend through the
> parliamentary elections" scheduled for December. But USAID is
> pushing to postpone the vote for as long as possible, well into
> 1995. Rightwing forces want a delay because they "fear being
> swept away in a voter landslide for President Aristide and the
> Lavalas movement he founded," the New York Times writes. [NYT
> 11/13/94]
> 
> There is some question how well the US is controlling the
> situation even at current troop strength. On Nov. 10 a robber
> attacked a US embassy vehicle in broad daylight, killed two
> Haitians employed by the embassy and made off with $60,000 from
> the payroll. The chief suspect is Francois College, one of
> Ambassador William Swing's eight bodyguards. [WP 11/12/94]
> 
> 9. MEXICAN SOLDIERS KILL POLICE IN CHIAPAS
> 
> Soldiers of the Mexican army shot and killed two police officers
> outside a bar in Comitan de Dominguez, Chiapas, on Nov. 11,
> according to police spokesperson Miguel Angel Galvez Chavez. A
> third police officer then fired on the soldiers, seriously
> wounding two. The police had intervened when five soldiers
> attacked a taxi driver. Local residents say soldiers often harass
> patrons at restaurants and bars and refuse to pay their bills.
> [Associated Press 11/12/94]
> 
> The incident is the latest of many violent incidents in Chiapas,
> despite a ceasefire between the army and the guerrillas of the
> Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). On Nov. 5 a rightist
> group detained interim governor Javier Lopez Moreno for four
> hours in the city of Simojovel, about 50 km. northeast of Tuxtla
> Gutierrez, the state capital. The governor was in town to mediate
> a 20-day dispute between the conservative Simojovel Civic Front
> (FCS) and the Independent Confederation of Workers, Farmers and
> Campesinos (CIOAC), which has blocked the road to the city to
> press demands for control over the new municipal council. On the
> same day Noe Urbino, municipal president (mayor) in the nearby
> town of Soyalo, agreed to resign after 300 members of the center-
> left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) surrounded the town
> hall and blocked the road with trucks. [La Jornada (Mexico)
> 11/6/94]
> 
> Meanwhile, conservative Chiapas ranchers have been on hunger
> strike at the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City since
> the last week of October. Their leader, Jorge Constantino Kanter,
> says their "peaceful attitude" may have to change if the
> authorities don't give them rent in compensation for land seized
> by campesinos in EZLN-held territory. [LJ 11/6/94 from Notimex]
> 
> 10. MEXICO: "PEACE ENCAMPMENTS" AS ELECTORAL TENSIONS RISE
> 
> The most immediate threat to peace in southern Mexico comes from
> the unresolved issue of the Aug. 21 Chiapas state elections. The
> ruling Institutional Party (PRI) insists that the victor was its
> gubernatorial candidate, Eduardo Robledo Rincon, and that he will
> take office on Dec. 8. The grassroots organizations that backed
> journalist Amado Avendano Figueroa, who ran on the PRD ticket,
> are equally insistent that the PRI victory was fraudulent. The
> EZLN warns of violence from the army and rightwing groups if
> Robledo takes office [see Update #247].
> 
> The pro-EZLN Democratic National Convention (CND), representing
> hundreds of grassroots organizations, met in Chiapas Nov. 4-6 for
> its second general session. Part of the time was taken up with
> internal disputes over the CND's direction, but the delegates
> agreed to fight for annulment of the Aug. 21 federal elections,
> for a transitional government and for a constituent congress to
> revise the Constitution. The session also established three
> "peace encampments," where 120 members of civilian groups will
> maintain a nonviolent presence in the areas of conflict in an
> attempt to prevent renewed fighting between the EZLN and the
> army. [Mexico Update, Equipo Pueblo, Vol. 2, #8, 11/10/94; LJ
> 11/6/94]
> 
> Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano, PRD presidential candidate in the
> Aug. 21 federal elections, went to Chiapas to meet with EZLN
> spokesperson "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos" on Nov. 7.
> Afterwards he told reporters that he hoped to "serve as an
> instrument" in a political solution, which he found the EZLN
> ready for. But he warned that the government should reconsider
> its plan to impose Robledo as governor. Avendano has called on
> his supporters to seize the state government building in Tuxtla
> Gutierrez if Robledo tries to take office on Dec. 8. [El Diario-
> La Prensa (NY) 11/11/94 from EFE]
> 
> 11. PRESIDENT-ELECT CERTIFIED BY MEXICAN CONGRESS
> 
> On Nov. 8 Mexico's 500-member Chamber of Deputies officially
> declared PRI candidate Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon the
> country's president-elect. Under the Constitution the newly
> elected Chamber of Deputies certifies the winner of federal
> president elections. The PRI's 300 deputies voted for Zedillo,
> PRD deputies opposed him, the conservative National Action Party
> (PAN) abstained and the tiny Workers Party (PT) was divided. Two
> consultants to the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) arrived
> unannounced to repeat their objections to the "inequalities" and
> "irregularities" in the August vote. A recent report by the
> independent Civic Alliance monitoring group concluded that the
> PRI "created, reproduced and brought about the buying and
> coercion of the vote in a proportion which did affect the
> results." [Mexico Update 11/10/94]
> 
> The PRI is now trying to clean up its anti-democratic image by
> holding state nominating conventions. Jalisco state PRI delegates
> met on Nov. 5 and voted to run Eugenio Rodrigo Ruiz Orozco for
> governor in the Feb. 12 elections. [ED-LP 11/7/94 from AP] Old
> habits die hard, however. The rolls showed 1,877 delegates
> attending the convention; PRI officials couldn't explain how the
> final vote count came out to 1,894. [LJ 11/6/94]
> 
> 12. MEXICO ACTION ALERTS: ZEDILLO, FORD CUAUTITLAN
> 
> Before taking office on Dec. 1, Mexican president-elect Zedillo
> is to visit the Central American presidents Nov. 18-19, and US
> president Bill Clinton and Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien
> Nov. 22-23. [LJ 11/6/94] The National Commission for Democracy in
> Mexico (NCDM), which represents the EZLN in the US, has called
> for faxes to Clinton (202-456-2461) and Secretary of State Warren
> Christopher (202-647-6434) before Nov. 22 to demand withdrawal of
> the military blockade around Zapatista territory, support for
> mediator Samuel Ruiz Garcia's peace initiative, suspension of the
> North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and suspension of US
> economic and military aid to Mexico. [NCDM Urgent Action Alert
> 11/11/94, posted on New York Transfer News]
> 
> On Oct. 30 Mexican police arrested Hector Uriarte Martinez,
> former president of the pro-government Mexican Workers
> Confederation (CTM) local at the Ford Motor Company plant in
> Cuautitlan, outside Mexico City in the state of Mexico. He was
> charged with homicide and other offenses in connection with a
> Jan. 8, 1990 goon attack on the dissident Ford-Cuautitlan
> Democratic Workers Movement that resulted in the death of Cleto
> Nigmo Urbino and the wounding of dozens of other workers [see
> Update #241]. But Mexico state authorities released Uriarte on
> Nov. 4 for "lack of evidence." The Democratic Workers Movement is
> calling for faxes to Mexico state governor Emilio Chauyaffet
> Chemos (011-52-721-158007) asking that he apply the law in the
> Cleto Nigmo case. Send copies to the Ford workers at 011-525-528-
> 2309. [LJ 11/6/94; Urgent Action Alert from Ford-Cuautitlan
> Democratic Workers Movement 11/5/94, posted on New York Transfer
> News]
> 
> 13. HOSPITAL AND POSTAL WORKERS STRIKE IN HONDURAS
> 
> More than 7,000 Honduran health workers took over 16 hospitals in
> the capital Tegucigalpa on Nov. 7 as they began an open-ended
> strike for a 40% pay raise. The health workers are also demanding
> overtime pay and the dismissal of metropolitan regional health
> director Jorge Higuero Crespo, who they say treats employees
> badly. A statement from the health workers union SITRAMEDHYS said
> the strike could soon be extended to hospitals nationwide. Health
> Minister Enrique Samayoa is heading a four-member commission to
> negotiate with the strikers. Health workers earn about $150 a
> month in Honduras. Deputy health minister Juan de Dios Paredes
> called the strikers "irresponsible" for going out on strike in
> the midst of a resurgence of cholera cases in Tegucigalpa. [ED-LP
> 11/8/94 from AP, 11/9/94 from AFP]
> 
> Some 1,800 postal workers have meanwhile taken over postal
> offices throughout Honduras in an open-ended strike for a 50%
> salary increase. Postal workers union president David Flores told
> Associated Press that "the strike will end when the government
> meets our demands." The postal workers earn about $150 a month.
> [ED-LP 11/8/94 from AP]
> 
> 14. CAMPESINOS PROTEST EVICTION IN PERU
> 
> Some 300 campesinos living on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, are
> protesting their threatened eviction from lands they have
> occupied and cultivated for the past two years. At least ten of
> the campesinos--both women and men--have had themselves buried
> alive with only their heads exposed; the rest are maintaining
> all-night vigils around them to protest the eviction. At least
> three of the protesters have been hospitalized. The campesinos
> charge that hired hitmen are sent nightly to threaten them and
> that last week several hundred police officers tried to evict
> them. The campesinos say the land was abandoned when they took it
> over, cleared it of rocks, and began cultivation. Now an alleged
> owner has appeared and is demanding the squatters be removed so
> he can construct buildings on the site. [Univision (US) TV News
> 11/11/94; Telemundo (US) TV News 11/11/94]
> 
> 15. CALIFORNIA VOTERS APPROVE ANTI-IMMIGRANT MEASURE
> 
> On Nov. 8 California voters approved Proposition 187, a state law
> denying public healthcare and education services to undocumented
> immigrants, by 59% to 41%. Voters there also elected Republican
> governor Pete Wilson, who had focused his campaign on support for
> Prop 187, to a second term. [El Diario-La Prensa 11/10/94 from
> AP] According to information posted on electronic mail by
> activist Duane Campbell in California, only the San Fransico Bay
> Area defeated Prop 187, while the Los Angeles Basin passed it
> 62-38%; Los Angeles County passed it 56-44%; Sacramento County
> 60-40%; San Diego County 67-33%; and in California's agricultural
> Central Valley, where the economy is particularly dependent on
> immigrant labor, the proposition passed 69-31%. [Email message
> from Duane Campbell 11/10/94]
> 
> On Nov. 9, Federal District Judge Matthew Byrne, Jr., barred
> enforcement of the newly approved statewide initiative's
> provisions for one week, until he can hold a hearing. On the same
> day a San Francisco Superior Court judge issued a temporary
> restraining order preventing enforcement of the part of the bill
> that would deny education to undocumented children. [New York
> Times 11/10/94] Also on Nov. 9, lawyer Peter Schey of the Los
> Angeles-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law
> filed one of several lawsuits in federal court challenging the
> initiative. Schey was one of the attorneys who fought a similar
> state law in Texas in 1982; the Supreme Court ruled that the law,
> which would have denied public education to some 150,000
> undocumented immigrant children, was unconstitutional. [Los
> Angeles Times 11/10/94] Another legal challenge to the new law
> has been presented by the Carnegie Endowment in Washington.
> [Financial Times (UK) 11/10/94]
> 
> In Mexico City on Nov. 8--as California voters went to the polls-
> -a group of 30-40 people wearing ski-masks held a protest
> demonstration and handed out leaflets against Prop 187 in front
> of a McDonalds restaurant in the capital's upscale Zona Rosa
> district. Minutes later, the group entered the restaurant and
> destroyed windows, furniture and cash registers as customers
> fled. The front of the restaurant was spray-painted with such
> slogans as "Solidarity with the immigrants," "No to 187,"
> "Yankees go home," "Boycott, racists get out" and "Stop
> transnationals." At the same time, a few hundred yards away,
> about 150 people demonstrated in front of the US embassy, where
> protests were being held almost daily as the California vote
> approached. [ED-LP 11/9/94 from Notimex; Wall Street Journal
> 11/9/94]
> 
> Speaking about the new anti-immigrant law for the first time
> since its passage, Mexico's president-elect Ernesto Zedillo noted
> that California used to be part of Mexico and said Mexicans
> living there deserve "scrupulously delicate treatment instead of
> the revival of deplorable tendencies of segregation that offend
> us and have been condemned by humanity." [Reuter 11/11/94]
> California was ceded to the US by a Mexican general as part of a
> $15 million deal in 1848, soon after an 1847 war in which the US
> military occupied Mexico City for six months.
> 
> 16. IN OTHER NEWS...
> 
> On Nov. 6 Puerto Ricans voted down two Constitutional amendments
> that would have ended the absolute right to bail and increased the
> number of Supreme Court judges. The rejection of the measures by a
> margin of about 9% was a defeat for Gov. Pedro Rossello of the
> pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP); the pro- commonwealth
> Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and the Puerto Rican Independence
> Party (PIP) had opposed the amendments. [El Diario- La Prensa
> 11/7/94].
> 
> Traffic was blocked along the Pan-American highway in Ecuador as
> truckers started a 48-hour strike on Nov. 7. The truckers are
> protesting hikes in gasoline prices, highway maintenance
> surcharges on transport companies, difficulty entering cities and
> lack of safety on the roads. A spokesperson for the National
> Federation of Heavy Transport added that the government is
> favoring international corporations while the small local
> companies get harsher treatment. The spokesperson said that the
> government is simply adding a hidden tax to the general population
> with the extra tolls. [ED-LP 11/7/94 from AFP, 11/8/94 from AP].
> 
> On Nov. 8, all of the Dominican Republic's 40,000 public school
> teachers walked off the job in protest because they have not
> received raises approved by the government. The teachers say they
> will work only three days a week until the government agrees to
> pay the raises. The government argues it doesn't have the money;
> it is short $100 million in this year's $1.8 billion budget. The
> raises, which were due to take effect last month, would increase
> teachers' salaries by 29%, from $60.70 to $78.20 a month. The
> minimum wage for state employees is $61 a month. [Associated Press
> 11/8/94]
> 
> 
> 17. ANNOUNCEMENTS & 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.
> 
> FILE CABINETS NEEDED by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network, any
> size. If you donate them to us, we will come to your home or
> office and haul them away. Leave us a message at 212-674-9499.
> 
> VOLUNTEERS NEEDED in the New York City area to help with the
> Weekly News Update. We especially need people who can help with
> filing! Leave us a message at 212-674-9499.
> 
> 
> 11/16 WED, 7:30 PM - "Women, Gays & the Cuban Revolution."
> Radical Women, 32 Union Sq East #907. Free, or $6 with dinner (at
> 7 PM). 212-677-7002.
> 
> 11/16, 8 PM - "The Maya Uprising in Chiapas & the New World
> Disorder," with June Nash. Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10th fl.
> $6. 212-242-4201.
>
> 11/17 THU, 5:30 PM - "Human Rights for the 21st Century." Panel
> w/Ruben Zamora & others. Hunter College Playhouse, 68th St &
> Lexington Ave. Free. Reserve tickets 212-772-4448.
> 
> 11/17 THU, 7 PM - Brazilian film, TBA. Amanaka'a Amazon Network.
> 584 Broadway #814. $3. 212-925-5299.
> 
> 11/18 FRI, 7 PM - Live Brazilian music. Amanaka'a Amazon Network.
> 584 Broadway. $3. 212-925-5299.
> 
> 11/19 SAT, 2 PM - Feijoada Party to Benefit Yanomami Campaign. At
> Amanaka'a Amazon Network, 584 Broadway, 212-925-5299.
> 
> 11/19 SAT, 9 PM - US Healthcare Trade Union Cmte Fundraising
> Party. Local 1199, 310 W 43 St $12 at door. 212-261-2233.
> 
> 11/20 SUN, at 1 PM - Radical Walking Tour, Trotsky-Hoffman-
> Madonna Tour (East Village III). Meet at St Marks Church, 2nd Ave
> & 10th St. $6. 718-492-0069.
>
> 11/23 WED, 7 PM - "El Gallo de Oro," Mexico, 1964, with short
> "Zapatistas: The Next Phase." Viva Galeria, 445 W 50th St. $5. In
> Spanish. 212-245-7131.
> 
> 
> --
> + 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 +