WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #260, JANUARY 22, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. UN to Take Over Haiti Mission Mar. 31 2. Grassroots Struggles Sweep Haiti 3. Bailout Plan Creates "United States--Mexico Branch" 4. Mexican Government Looks for Peace with Left 5. Brazil Scandals: Trade Deficit, Ron Brown, Congressional Pay 6. Brazil: Police and Army Attack Indigenous People 7. Nicaraguan National Assembly Elects New Leadership 8. Nicaragua: More FSLN Resignations 9. Guatemalan Guerrillas Push for Indigenous Rights Accord 10. Military Prison Approved in Chile 11. Caribbean Nations Protest Passage of Nuclear Waste Ship 12. Coup Plot Uncovered in Panama 13. Colombia Denies US Pilots Conducting Toxic Fumigations 14. Peru: Former First Lady Stages Hunger Strike 15. 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, 235 East 87th St #12J, New York, NY 10128. 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. UN TO TAKE OVER HAITI MISSION MAR. 31 On Jan. 17 US defense secretary William Perry announced that Haiti is now "safe and secure" and that the UN will begin taking over the international military operation in the country in the last two weeks of March. UN officials had already said that they would take charge on Mar. 31. The US will supply about 3,000 of the 6,000 UN troops. [Washington Post 1/18/95 from Reuter] The operation will be headed by a US two-star general, Major Gen. Joseph Kinzer. The White House dropped its original choice, the three-star Lt. Gen. Daniel Schroeder, because his appointment would have required Congressional approval. [New York Times 1/18/95] A New York Times dispatch from the southwestern city of Jeremie suggests that the US forces may already have overstayed their welcome. For many in Jeremie, the paper writes, the GIs "have turned out to be not saviors of the Haitian people, but rather allies of the paramilitary groups that oppressed Haitians for a generation." The Times cites a number of incidents that occurred in the fall but which it had failed to report at the time, such as a UN police group's Nov. 24 arrest of a popular liberation theology priest, whose name is given variously as Joachim Samedi or Jonassaint Samedy [see Update #253]. [NYT 1/17/95] Reports of abuses by US troops continue to accumulate. During November the occupiers allegedly arrested two peasants at Bocozelles, near Saint-Marc in the north-central Artibonite region, after the peasants had argued with an important landowner. This month four peasants were arrested near Leogane in the southwest in another dispute with landowners. [Haiti Progres (NY) 1/18-24/95] On Jan. 5 US forces reportedly attacked the hundreds of young men who were lined up at the Justice Ministry in Port-au-Prince to apply for jobs in the new US-trained police force. Several job applicants were injured as soldiers assaulted them with nightsticks and tear gas. "It's humiliating," one applicant said. "We've been waiting here all night. We have to bring lemons with us to protect us from the tear gas." [Inter Press Service 1/9/95] The New York-based leftist weekly Haiti Progres charges that the occupiers also used tear gas on crowds waiting for the traditional government handouts on Jan. 1, which is Haitian Independence Day. [HP 1/11-17/95] There were similar charges about a demonstration in Cap-Haitien on Nov. 9 [see Update #251]. The US signed on to the 1925 Geneva Protocol on chemical and biological warfare in 1975. At the time, the Ford administration agreed that tear gas was banned by the protocol. The US reserved the right to use it but only in certain clearly defined circumstances, such as "riot situations in areas under direct and distinct US military control," and with the approval "in advance" of the US president for "any use of riot-control agents and chemical herbicides in war." [Arms Control and Disarmament Agreements, from US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) 1990] 2. GRASSROOTS STRUGGLES SWEEP HAITI Growing Haitian frustration with US troops partly reflects efforts by grassroots organizations to regain positions lost during three years of rule by the Haitian military. Over the past month many groups have been demanding that rightwingers be removed from government posts they took after the 1991 military coup. On Jan. 9 a Cap-Haitien group, the Regional Union of Popular Forces of the North (IFPRN) closed down the water bureau, the post office and three other government offices; these remained closed as of Jan. 13. US troops had tried to block a similar demonstration on Dec. 12, leading an activist to remark that these events are making "a number of formerly naive sectors in the population see that the foreign troops aren't doing anything except protecting and reinforcing the enemies of the people." Similar protests shut down government offices in Petit-Goave in the southwest for the first week of January. In Jeremie a local resistance committee led a demonstration that closed the water authority and other offices on Dec. 19. The offices have reopened, but several are now staffed by volunteers. [During the Dec. 19 demonstration a Green Beret threatened the crowd with his bayonet, as was also reported by the New York Times [1/17/95]. However, another US soldier, a Haitian-American, apologized to the crowd and said he agreed with their actions.] Meanwhile, land disputes in the Artibonite region have led to more than a dozen deaths since October. Four people were killed and seven houses burned down in a dispute in Desdunes earlier this month. A still bloodier conflict is going on between the hamlets of Blain and Brizard over land Blain residents say was taken from them decades ago. The Brizard peasants are protected by some former Haitian soldiers and by rightwing deputy Eddy Dupiton, who is also the local public prosecutor. At least seven Blain residents have died in the struggle, as have two from Brizard. The Catholic Church's Peace and Justice Commission insists that the only long-term solution to such conflicts is reform of the land court system and then a serious agrarian reform. [Haiti Info Vol. 3, #7, 1/14/95] 3. BAILOUT PLAN CREATES "UNITED STATES--MEXICO BRANCH" On Jan. 17 investors snapped up $400 million worth of the short- term Mexican Treasury notes known as tesobonos. The news helped restore confidence in Mexico's economy: the peso promptly rose 1.3%, although the Mexican stock market (BMV) fell by 1.5%. A failure to sell bonds on Jan. 10--tesobonos are auctioned every Tuesday--had set off currency and stock market crashes throughout Latin America the week before. But investors remained nervous even after the Jan. 17 sale, which was made possible in part by an exorbitant 19.75% interest rate. There were also persistent rumors that the Mexican government had had its own development bank, Nacional Financiera, buy much of the offering. [Wall Street Journal 1/18/95; Financial Times (UK) 1/19/95] Investor confidence was further shaken as opposition grew in the US Congress to the $40 billion Mexican loan guarantee plan US president Bill Clinton and the Republican Congressional leadership had agreed to after the previous week's crashes. Both liberals and conservatives attacked the plan, calling it a bailout for the wealthy investors who had bought most of Mexico's bonds--"morons," wrote conservative columnist Pat Buchanan, who were "fleeced and burned like country bumpkins." [Associated Press, posted on New York Transfer 1/20/95] While admitting that the plan was meant to save US investors, the legislators tried to impose conditions on Mexico. Proposed conditions ranged from liberal Democrats' demands for raising Mexico's minimum wage to conservative Republican calls for Mexico to stop trading with Cuba. Both parties have also suggested conditions on Mexican immigration to the US. [WSJ 1/19/95; New York Times 1/20/95] US investors have made it clear that they want the privatization of Petroleos Mexicanos, Pemex, which is the world's third largest oil company in terms of assets (about $30 billion). The Mexican government has repeatedly insisted that it will only privatize secondary petrochemical plants, which it considers a "non- essential asset." [Inter Press Service 1/9/95] Some US investors are also looking for privatization of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). [NYT 1/20/95] The National Commission for Democracy in Mexico, USA (NCDMUSA) and the Latin American Support Office both suggest that Wall Street also has a secret condition: a military solution to the year-old conflict in the southern state of Chiapas. [NCDMUSA Urgent Action 1/16/95; Latin American Support Office letter 1/15/95] The Clinton administration has mounted what columnist Jim Hoagland calls "Operation Peso Shield," suggesting that the peso crisis puts Clinton's "presidency on the line" much in the same way as the Persian Gulf crisis did for former president George Bush in 1990. [Washington Post 1/16/95] "If we fail to act," Clinton warned, "the crisis of confidence in Mexico's economy could spread to other emerging countries in Latin America and Asia..." Bush himself endorsed the bailout on Jan. 19. [NYT 1/20/95] Mexicans are said to be furious about the talk of conditions. Popular cartoonist El Fisgon published a drawing of the Mexican national seal with the inscription: "The United States--Mexico Branch." [AP posted 1/20/95] On Jan. 17 Democratic legislators asked Treasury Under Secretary Lawrence Summers why the US didn't make Mexico put Pemex up as collateral for the bailout. "The government would fall," Summers reportedly answered. [NYT 1/18/94] 4. MEXICAN GOVERNMENT LOOKS FOR PEACE WITH LEFT Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon has been trying to contain the political costs of the month-old economic crisis by making overtures to the Mexican left. On Jan. 13 he held a meeting with leaders of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD); he assured them that Mexico needed a strong leftist party and that there was no question of forming a US- style two-party system made up of his ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN). [Reuter, posted on New York Transfer 1/18/95] Jan. 15 brought the surprise announcement that Governance Secretary Esteban Moctezuma, a close ally of Zedillo, had held a three-hour meeting that day with a delegation from the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in the town of Guadalupe Tepeyac in Chiapas. [Guardian (UK) 1/17/95] The talks, the first since last March, were limited to technical questions regarding a truce. A Zapatista communique dated Jan. 16 announced a "unilateral and indefinite ceasefire." In a letter to the media, EZLN military leader "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos" joked that "[y]ou are threatening us with unemployment again." [NCDMUSA translation from La Jornada (Mexico) 1/18/95] On Jan. 17 Zedillo and representatives of the PRI, the PRD, the PAN and the tiny Workers Party (PT) signed an agreement to engage in dialogue around new electoral reforms. Government officials said that there was also an unspoken agreement that within two years the government would hold new elections in Chiapas and Tabasco, where the PRD has been protesting what it considers fraudulent victories by PRI gubernatorial candidates. [WP 1/18/95] Even if Zedillo is sincere, there are doubts about his ability to sell his peace policy to his own party's base. The situation in Chiapas could still turn into "one of those dirty [civil wars] no one can control," according to former PRD gubernatorial candidate Amado Avendano Figueroa, who has headed a "transitional government in rebellion" since Dec. 8, the day the official governor, Eduardo Robledo Rincon, took office. Some PRD sources say that between them Avendano and the Zapatistas now control more than half the state. Much of the rest is in the hands of ranchers and rightist paramilitary groups known as "white guards." Many are said to be active-duty federal soldiers on their days off. White guards are now in control of Chicomuselo, site of a bloody shootout on Jan. 10 [see Update #259]. Avendano cites reports that a retired sub-lieutenant is training a group of 400 white guards in the south of the state. [Guardian 1/17/95] In Tabasco, PRD supporters protesting the Nov. 20 elections have maintained blockades around 14 Pemex installations for five weeks, costing the company about $3 million in lost income and in damages due to lack of maintenance, according to Pemex officials. [Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update Vol. 2, #4 1/17/95] PRD members began a blockade of the governor's offices on Dec. 31, when PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo Pintado was inaugurated [see Update #257]. A PRD rally on Jan. 15 brought some 30,000 protesters to Villahermosa in what the party called the biggest demonstration in state history. [NYT 1/20/95] But on Jan. 18 PRI supporters reacted to Zedillo's reform pact with their own protests, blocking highways, shutting down shops and seizing at least three radio stations. The next day the PRI supporters assaulted the PRD sit-in at the governor's palace. They overturned two trucks, set a van on fire, and burned the PRD activists' tents, clothes and personal belongings; the police stood by, some laughing. Madrazo took advantage of the clash to enter his offices for the first time, and then called for dialogue to end the dispute. [AP 1/20/95] The PRI lifted its blockades the next day. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 1/21/95 from AFP] 5. BRAZIL SCANDALS: TRADE DEFICIT, RON BROWN, CONGRESSIONAL PAY By Jan. 16 it was clear that the Brazilian government had underestimated the country's December trade deficit by as much as $1 billion. Preliminary figures released earlier in January put the deficit at $47 million, failing to take into account a surge in imports at the end of the year. The final figure is expected to be between $900 million and $1 billion. The Sao Paulo stock market fell 1.1% on Jan. 16 as investors realized the magnitude of the error. [Financial Times 1/17/95] Brazil had been trying to tell foreign investors shaken by the Mexican crisis that Brazil, in contrast to Mexico, had no problems with its current account (the difference between money coming into the country and money leaving it) [see Update #259]. The Jan. 23 issue of US News & World Report charges that an adviser to Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso arranged a loan of at least $108,000 for a friend of US commerce secretary Ron Brown and that the loan was used to buy a town house which Brown now owns. The Cardoso adviser is Amaro Pinto Ramos, an entrepreneur who puts together financial packages for large transportation and energy construction projects. Brown's attorney, Reid Weingarten, says that the deal was investigated by the Justice Department in 1993 and that no wrongdoing was found. [Washington Post 1/15/95 from AP] In September the Washington- based biweekly Counterpunch reported that Clinton campaign strategist James Carville was advising Cardoso in his race for the presidency [see Update #240]. Brown, a former Democratic Party national chairperson, worked as a lobbyist and legal adviser for Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in the early 1980s [see Update #128]. Effective Feb. 1, Brazil's Congress has given itself a 100% pay increase to 120,000 reales, almost 50 times the average Brazilian income of 2,500 reales. Cardoso's administration is seeking to cut $12 billion out of the federal budget this year and is opposing efforts to raise the minimum wage from 910 reales to 1,100. [Financial Times 1/19/95] 6. BRAZIL: POLICE AND ARMY ATTACK INDIGENOUS PEOPLE The Indian Council of Roraima state in Brazil announced on Jan. 12 that Brazilian police officers and soldiers had attacked Macuxi indigenous people who oppose a hydroelectric dam project threatening their traditional lifestyle. According to the group's statement, around 50 police officers and seven soldiers severely beat two members of the Macuxi and assaulted seven others on Jan. 7; the attackers also destroyed three huts, fired guns and exploded a bomb during the attack. "The motive for the invasion was to guarantee the construction of the hydroelectric dam on the River Cotingo," read the statement. The Macuxi live in a remote village on the banks of the Cotingo, which officials in Roraima state want to dam to provide much- needed electrical power for the region. Those who oppose the project warn that the dam will reduce the amount of water reaching the Macuxi, who depend largely on fish for food. The arrival of hundreds of construction workers will also disrupt the Macuxi's traditional ways of life. Gilberto Inacio de Araujo, Roraima's Environment Secretary, told Reuter in a recent interview, "This project would be useful for [the Macuxi], they're crazy about the idea. It would bring them work. It would be great for them." [Reuter 1/12/95] 7. NICARAGUAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTS NEW LEADERSHIP After a heated debate, Nicaragua's National Assembly on Jan 9 reelected Luis Humberto Guzman of the Christian Democratic Union (UDC) as Assembly president and voted in the legislature's new executive board. Out of the 91 Assembly deputies present, Guzman was supported by six UDC deputies (including himself), 30 deputies from the "Renovation" current of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), and 12 deputies from the National Opposition Union (UNO). There were three abstentions. Guzman's opponent, veteran Conservative Party leader Miriam Arguello, garnered 40 votes, including support from the "Center Group" of deputies who split from UNO, the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC), and the nine Sandinista deputies who are allied with the "orthodox" wing of the party led by former president Daniel Ortega. Ortega, who is still in Cuba recuperating from a heart attack, was the only deputy not present during the vote. Elected to the National Assembly's executive board for the 1995 term were FSLN deputy Reynaldo Antonio Tefel as first vice president, UNO deputy Nicolas Bolanos as second vice president, and FSLN deputy Doris Tijerino as third vice president. Other directorate members are the PLC deputy Julia Mena, FSLN deputy Ray Hooker, and UNO deputy Luis Sanchez. The three "Renovation" Sandinistas were allegedly elected to the board in exchange for their faction's support of Guzman. The "orthodox" wing of the FSLN has no representation on the new congressional directorate, nor does the "Center Group" of former UNO deputies, who are aligned with the government of President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 1/20/95 from ACAN-EFE, Inter Press Service, Notimex, Reuters, Agence France-Presse; IPS 1/9/95] The congressional elections also clear the way for ratification of a series of constitutional reforms--affecting almost a third of the articles in the Constitution--promoted by the Sandinista "Renovation" deputies and approved by 72 votes during the last legislative session over the objections of the executive and the "orthodox" wing of the FSLN. The most controversial of these reforms reduces the power of the president in certain fiscal matters, prohibits successive presidential reelection, and bans the presidential candidacy of close relatives of the president. Other reforms guarantee property rights and end the military draft. Since Nicaraguan law requires that constitutional reforms be approved in two legislative sessions, a final ratification vote will take place during the current session. At least 56 votes are needed to pass the constitutional reforms; Guzman said the leaders of the various legislative blocs have assured him the vote will be similar to the one in the previous session. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 1/17/95 from AFP; LADB Notisur 1/20/95 from ACAN-EFE, IPS, Notimex, Reuters, AFP] Guzman called his reelection a solid "affirmation by the majority of the National Assembly to advance approval of the constitutional reforms." [LADB Notisur 1/20/95 from ACAN-EFE, IPS, Notimex, Reuters, AFP] 8. NICARAGUA: MORE FSLN RESIGNATIONS Sandinista ex-Jesuit priest and former education minister Fernando Cardenal quit the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) on Jan. 17 after 23 years of militancy in the organization, citing the inability of the party's leadership to confront its internal crisis. "This is not the FSLN I entered and in which I served as a disciplined militant so many years..." said Cardenal. "I am leaving political militancy, but I will continue [to be] faithful, for the rest of the time my life may last, to my initial commitment: the cause of the poor." In his letter of resignation, Cardenal also accused "a small minority of appropriating the goods of the state" for their personal benefit after the FSLN's electoral defeat in 1990, in what was known as the "pinata." Cardenal called these appropriations "acts of corruption that caused the greatest damage to the Sandinista Front." So far, Cardenal has not defined himself as a sympathizer with the Movement of Sandinista Renovation (MRS), the political faction led by ex-president and former FSLN directorate member Sergio Ramirez. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/18/95 from EFE-Notimex] Cardenal's brother Ernesto, a poet and priest who served as Minister of Education under the Sandinista government, resigned from the FSLN on Oct. 24 and allied himself with the Ramirez faction [see Update #248]. A spokesperson for the MRS announced on Jan. 17 that in mid- February the formation of a new Sandinista party would be officially announced. At that time, said the spokesperson, "There will be a massive resignation [from the party]" of the FSLN deputies in the National Assembly. At least 30 of the 39 FSLN deputies are allied with the MRS. [ED-LP 1/18/95 from EFE- Notimex] Fernando Cardenal's resignation came a week after the Jan. 10 announcement by Sergio Ramirez that he was leaving the FSLN [see Update #259]. Ramirez' daughter, National Assembly deputy and former Sandinista Youth leader Maria Ramirez, had resigned from the party a day earlier on Jan. 9 along with deputies Raul Venerio, former head of the air force, and poet Fernando Silva; Assembly deputy Dora Maria Tellez resigned from the FSLN National Directorate--though not from the party--on that same day. The rash of resignations was supposedly prompted by the FSLN's failure to punish Radio Ya director Carlos Guadamuz for an editorial aired on the station, in which insinuations were made that Maria Ramirez had had a lesbian relationship with Tellez. Tellez accused Guadamuz of being "sick," but said she was not resigning from the FSLN because "I am a Sandinista and my militancy was earned throughout the years." [LADB Notisur from ACAN-EFE, IPS, Nicaragua News Service, Agence France-Presse; Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 1/16/95] 9. GUATEMALAN GUERRILLAS PUSH FOR INDIGENOUS RIGHTS ACCORD The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) guerrilla movement has rejected a government peace proposal, calling instead for an agreement on the identity and rights of indigenous peoples as soon as possible. In an open letter to United Nations (UN) Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on Jan. 11, the URNG also stressed the proposals for consensus presented last November by the Assembly of Civilian Society (ASC) on three of the other 11 unresolved issues in the talks: socioeconomic and agricultural problems; electoral and constitutional reform; and the strengthening of civilian power and examination of the role of the military in a democratic society. The rebels said these issues should be defined and agreements reached between Jan. 25 and 31 so that "all three, without exception, may be signed in a single ceremony on Feb. 1." [Inter Press Service 1/11/95] The rebels were responding to a Dec. 22 letter from Boutros-Ghali to the government and the rebels, urging a new accelerated timetable for the negotiations. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #1, 1/10/95] URNG leaders proposed that negotiations take place beginning on Feb. 5, with the goal of "signing a firm, lasting peace agreement as soon as possible." They also called for "a review of informative criteria so the Guatemalan people and the international community have the most comprehensive information possible on the contents and development of the negotiations." The ASC, led by Monsignor Rodolfo Quezada, released its own letter to Boutros-Ghali on Jan. 11, stating that the peace process should not be directed only at demobilization, but should address the issues that led to the armed conflict. The group called on Boutros-Ghali to suggest a more realistic timetable and proposed that the major issues be addressed with sufficient time for an in-depth and meaningful debate. [Inter Press Service 1/11/95] The mostly indigenous National Council of Widows (CONAVIGUA) also criticized UN pressure on the talks. The peace "should not be signed because of pressure or ultimatums," said CONAVIGUA leader Rosalina Tuyuc. According to Tuyuc, more than 30 years of war and 502 years of discrimination against indigenous peoples require profound solutions that cannot be rushed. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #1, 1/10/95] 10. MILITARY PRISON APPROVED IN CHILE Despite a poll showing that a vast majority of Chileans don't agree that military and police officers who are convicted or awaiting trial for human rights violations should be housed in a separate new prison [La Jornada (Mexico) 1/8/95], on Jan. 19 Chile's Congress approved an initiative mandating construction of the special penitentiary. The compromise proposal, which had been hammered out by a joint congressional committee, was approved almost unanimously by the Chamber of Deputies with only one vote against and one abstention; in the Senate there were five abstentions and no votes against. [Diario Las Americas 1/21/95 from EFE; Chile Information Project (CHIP) News 1/20/95] The final bill authorizes the prison system to build jails for certain prisoners if deemed necessary. Unlike the original bill introduced by the executive, the legislation does not authorize prison authorities to determine where prisoners will serve their sentences, but leaves this decision in the hands of the investigating judges. [CHIP News 1/20/95] Many believe the government is rushing to approve the prison just as former secret police (DINA) chief Manuel Contreras is about to be sentenced for the 1976 car-bomb assassination in Washington of Orlando Letelier. [CHIP News 1/9/95] Justice Minister Soledad Alvear insisted that the new prison will not be a "luxury or five-star" place, as the opposition has claimed [see Update #258]. [La Jornada 1/8/95] Nor will it be a maximum security prison, the national prison administration revealed on Jan. 9 when it presented its initial construction plans. The preliminary proposal calls for a prison population of 50, with 20 square meters of cell space per prisoner. Just as in common prisons, inmates will be able to receive visits from relatives twice a week. Political prisoners held at Chile's maximum security prison are allowed visits only once a week. [CHIP News 1/10/95] On Jan. 9, members of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh) marched to the national palace, La Moneda, to deliver a letter to President Eduardo Frei protesting the special prison. The militarized Carabineros police used water cannons to break up the protest and arrested some 15 demonstrators. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 1/10/95 from Notimex; CHIP News 1/10/95] In Colina, the site of the planned military prison, residents have been gathering signatures and calling town meetings to reject the military prison. Colina's municipal council voted against authorization for construction of the prison. Colina mayor Manuel Rojas del Rio criticized the government for not even consulting the municipality on the matter, and said that the two prisons Colina already hosts are enough. [CHIP News 1/9/95, 1/10/95] 11. CARIBBEAN NATIONS PROTEST PASSAGE OF NUCLEAR WASTE SHIP Puerto Rico governor Pedro Rossello announced on Jan. 19 that his government opposes the passage through Puerto Rico's territorial waters of a British freighter carrying plutonium from France to Japan. "We're going to unite with the [ecological] groups and with the calls that this shipment not pass through territorial waters of Puerto Rico," said Rossello. While the exact route is not yet known, the ship, owned by "Nuclear Pacific Transport Unlimited," is expected to cross the Mona passage between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic sometime in February, en route to the Pacific Ocean via the Panama Canal. Puerto Rican environmental groups have joined a campaign by the environmental organization Greenpeace to oppose the ship's passage through the Caribbean. [Diario Las Americas 1/21/95 from EFE; Reuter 1/12/95] According to Greenpeace representative Tom Clements, the ship is expected to transport some 3,200 glass cylinders of nuclear waste on its two-week voyage to Japan. "If there is an accident and the containers were subject to fire or pressure from the ocean, catastrophic damage could result in the Caribbean," he said. Clements called on the British, French and Japanese authorities to remove the veil of secrecy surrounding the shipment. [Reuter 1/12/95] The Greenpeace flagship "Rainbow Warrior" is in the Caribbean on a mission to drum up support for its campaign against the freighter. [DLA 1/21/95 from EFE] On Jan. 11 the Greenpeace ship docked at Port-of-Spain, capital of the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, where the national government joined in the opposition to the nuclear shipment. Trinidad and Tobago is now seeking support from Panama to block the ship's passage, Agriculture Minister Keith Rowley announced on Jan. 12. "Panama is a member of the Association of Caribbean States and we intend to communicate how we feel about the matter and seek that country's cooperation to stop the shipment," Rowley told Reuter. "We are at one with Greenpeace in this matter because we want the Caribbean region to be an official nuclear-free zone." [Reuter 1/12/95] 12. COUP PLOT UNCOVERED IN PANAMA On Jan. 11, the Panamanian government claimed that it had uncovered a plot by police officers, former military officers and civilians to assassinate president Ernesto Perez Balladares and take control of the country in a coup d'etat. The conspirators planned to assassinate Perez on Jan. 13 when he was due to open a public event, leaving the Public Force (a special police force) to clear the way for a civilian-military junta. Interior minister Raul Arango said 10 members of Panama's National Police Force had been arrested and that more arrests were expected; Perez said the plot was completely dismantled. The group that allegedly attempted the action opposes Perez' national security policies which include civilian power over the national police and the exclusion from the police force of ex-members of the Panamanian Defense Forces. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 1/12/95 from AP; Washington Post 1/12/95 from Reuter; Diario Las Americas (Miami) 1/14/95 from EFE; Inter Press Service 1/12/95] Col. Fernando Quezada, former leader of the Public Force, described the planned coup as "madness," and called for an in- depth investigation to find out if there was a former officer behind the plot. Most of the legislators from Panama's various political parties came out strongly against the coup attempt. Civil Renovation deputy Olmedo Guillen said it was unlikely that the lower rank officers arrested had thought up the coup attempt themselves, but he said their criticism of the "personalism" of the Perez government was valid. "We are prepared to defend democracy because we know that there are people who were pushed out of power [in 1989] who want to bring the dictatorship back," said Guillen, but he stressed that Perez should strongly consider a less autocratic style of governing. [IPS 1/12/95] Assembly president Balbina Herrera, from Perez' own Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), implied that top officials were involved in the coup plot and suggested that Perez name a replacement for National Police director Oswaldo Fernandez. Perez replied that the police director has his "total support" and asked that legislators from his party "not get involved where they are not called." [DLA 1/21/95 from EFE] 13. COLOMBIA DENIES US PILOTS CONDUCTING TOXIC FUMIGATIONS The head of Colombia's police forces denied on Jan. 10 that US pilots are fumigating drug crops with toxic herbicides as reported by a television newscast. "What we have had for many years are advisers who supervise the activity of our pilots," said Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano. The AM-PM television newscast reported over the weekend that the Colombian police aircraft used to fumigate coca and poppy crops have been flown by US pilots. AM-PM also claimed that a US pilot dropped dangerous herbicides on a populated area in the eastern department of Guaviare. "I will investigate and find out what happened," promised Serrano. He explained that since 1980 the Colombian police has had US advisers, but not "pilots carrying out anti-narcotic operations, which we ourselves could teach any pilot in the world how to do." The Colombian police force has 125 pilots trained in national and US schools, with between 5,000 and 7,000 flight hours--"the world's best fumigation pilots," Serrano called them. "The police have been fumigating coca and poppy crops for three years," following environmental norms and overseen by the attorney general's office, Serrano went on. Colombian authorities also denied AM-PM's accusations that police were fumigating with Velpar, a substance banned by the US Environmental Protection Agency after it was found to cause irreversible damage to humans. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry's Office of Indigenous Affairs is investigating the cause of a strange skin disease which has attacked nearly 40 members of the nomadic Nukak-Maku ethnic group, who live mainly in the Guaviare province. The skin disease is believed to be caused by the fumigations of illicit crops. [Inter Press Service 1/10/95] 14. PERU: FORMER FIRST LADY STAGES HUNGER STRIKE Susana Higuchi, estranged wife of Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, was interned in a clinic on Jan. 18 suffering from dehydration and pneumonia, just one day after she began a hunger strike to protest her political group's elimination from the electoral race. The National Elections Board (JNE) had eliminated Higuchi's presidential candidacy last October after declaring invalid thousands of signatures on her petitions of support; on Jan. 16 the JNE ruled ineligible the list of congressional candidates headed by Higuchi, claiming seven of the names listed were duplicates. The congressional lists of 23 other political groups were approved. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 1/22/95 from EFE] 15. 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. 1/26 THU, 7 PM - Campaign for Real Equitable Economic Development (CREED) meeting. Call 212-645-5230 or 212-674-9499. 1/27 FRI, 8 PM - Haiti Fundraiser. Videos, music. DC 1707 AFSCME, 75 Varick St. $10. Haiti Anti-Intervention Cmte, 212-592-3612. * -- + 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 + >