WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #261, JANUARY 29, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Ex-Soldiers Take Over Government Buildings in El Salvador 2. Salvadoran Workers Fight Planned Privatizations 3. Nicaraguan President Vetoes New Labor Code Provisions 4. Mexicans March Against US Bailout 5. IMF and Wall Street Push Mexico Loans 6. Mexican Economic Crisis Deepens 7. Haiti: Has Rightist Violence Stopped? 8. Guatemala: Belgian Priest's Murder Ordered by Government 9. US Troops Build Roads in Guatemala 10. Cubans to be Allowed into US? 11. US Company Pleads Guilty in Chile/Iraq Arms Deal 12. Campesinos Murdered by Colombian Paramilitaries 13. Peru: Ex-Secret Police Agent Reveals Offical Death Squad 14. Other News: Argentina, Ecuador/Peru, Venezuela, Trinidad... 15. Upcoming Events and Announcements 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. EX-SOLDIERS TAKE OVER GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS IN EL SALVADOR On Jan. 24, El Salvador's National Civilian Police (PNC) opened fire on a rally of several hundred former members of the army and security forces near the entrance to the National University in San Salvador, killing Andres Mendez Flores of Guaymango, Ahuachapan department, and injuring four other protesters who were taken to nearby Rosales Hospital for treatment. The demonstration, organized by the Association of Demobilized Members of the Armed Forces of El Salvador (ADEFAES), was one of a series of coordinated actions throughout the country. The former soldiers are protesting delays in land transfers and compensation pay and pressuring the government to extend land, credit and cash payments to ADEFAES members who were not granted these benefits through the Peace Accords, signed three years ago this month. [Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) Action Alert 1/25/95] The protesters were armed with machetes, iron bars and sticks. [Reuter 1/24/95] Most had their faces covered with ski-masks or scarves. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 1/25/95 from AFP] In San Salvador, some 6,000 of the war veterans seized three public buildings: the Armed Forces' Institute for Social Provision (IPSFA, the army's pension office), the Legislative Assembly and the Finance Ministry. Some 500 IPSFA employees were taken hostage as military police and National Civilian Police (PNC) troops guarding the building stood by and did nothing. [Fundacion Flor de Izote Daily Chronology 1/24/95 from TV12; ED- LP 1/27/95 from AP] According to Fundacion Flor de Izote's Daily Chronology of Jan. 24, members of the PNC likewise looked on as the ADEFAES protesters occupied the Finance Ministry building, taking hostage some 2,500 workers and other people who happened to be in the building at the time. [Chronology 1/24/95] According to Inter Press Service, the PNC fired on the protesters as they tried to force their way into the Finance Ministry, leading to the death of Mendez Flores and the injury of three others. [IPS 1/24/95] Hundreds of people were also held hostage in the Legislative Assembly, including 13 deputies. [Financial Times (UK) 1/26/95; CISPES Action Alert 1/25/95] Among them were deputies Miguel Saenz, Marta Valladares (Nidia Diaz), Roberto Lorenzana and Oscar Ortiz, all from the leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN). [ED-LP 1/25/95 from AFP] Journalists said the group of veterans that took over the Assembly carried in tents and small electricity generators, prepared to remain in the building for as long as necessary. [Reuter 1/24/95] Other ADEFAES actions, including highway blockades, were attempted in the departments of Morazan, Usulutan, San Miguel, and outlying areas of San Salvador. Two major highways were successfully blockaded in central and eastern El Salvador. [Reuter 1/24/95; CISPES Action Alert 1/25/95] Vice-Minister for Public Security Hugo Barrera flew home from Guatemala to deal with the disturbances, and PNC director Rodrigo Avila declared a national state of emergency. [CISPES Action Alert 1/25/95] "Let them compare the problems we are causing with the hunger being suffered by our children," said one former soldier taking part in the actions, who would not give his name for fear of government reprisals. "We were deceived during the war and forced to fight the guerrillas and many did it, but now the government has abandoned us." [Inter Press Service 1/24/95] Most of the hostages were freed on the night of Jan. 24, with the exception of 27 IPSFA employees--including an army colonel--and the 13 Assembly deputies. [ED-LP 1/26/95 from AP] The remaining hostages were freed when the occupations ended late on Jan. 25 after the government agreed to grant land, credit, housing and training for some 5,000 former soldiers within two months. [FT 1/27/95] The government says it will begin an exhaustive investigation to uncover those responsible for the occupations. [ED-LP 1/27/95 from AP] 2. SALVADORAN WORKERS FIGHT PLANNED PRIVATIZATIONS The takeovers by demobilized soldiers took press and public attention away from a series of protests by workers against the government's privatization plans. Social organizations began protests against the privatizations on Jan. 24 [Fundacion Flor de Izote Daily Chronology 1/24/95 from TV2], and on Jan. 25 some 6,000 Public Works Ministry (MOP) employees marched in San Salvador to reject the plans, which they say involve 7,000 layoffs. The protesters demanded to meet with President Armando Calderon Sol, but he was called away to an emergency meeting to discuss the situation of the former soliders. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/26/95 from AP] The Salvadoran Association of Telecommunications Workers (ASTTEL) issued a statement on Jan. 26 criticizing the government's plan to privatize the national telephone company (ANTEL). In the statement, the union charges that far from being a burden on the state, ANTEL is the country's second-biggest source of hard- currency because of the high number of international calls made. According to ASTTEL, the phone company earned $250 million in net profits during 1994. Not only does this high level of profits subsidize domestic telephone service, says ASTTEL, it also subsidizes a significant portion of the government's other expenses. If ANTEL is privatized, warns the union, these government expenses will have to be covered through higher value- added taxes (IVA). In addition, the union cautions, phone rates will be increased, employees will be laid off, and unprofitable telephone offices will be closed, shutting off the phone access for poor communities which is currently provided as a public service. [ASTTEL Communique 1/26/95 from NY Transfer News] President Calderon announced his economic plan for 1995 during the week of Jan. 9. The plan includes a fixed dollar exchange rate for the Salvadoran currency (the colon), an increase in the value added tax and a reduction in tariffs--all measures suggested by international financial organizations. "They want to impose a new model on us, to convert us into a nation which simply offers a cheap workforce and a marketplace open to foreign influence..." said Ruben Zamora, leader of the center-left Democratic Convergence. [Inter Press Service 1/11/95] 3. NICARAGUAN PRESIDENT VETOES NEW LABOR CODE PROVISIONS In the week of Jan. 16, Nicaraguan president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro informed the National Assembly that she was vetoing 49 of 415 articles of the new Labor Code recently passed by the Assembly. [Diario Las Americas 1/21/95 from AFP; Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 1/24/95] The president said the offending articles do not correspond to the reality of the country. [DLA 1/21/95 from AFP] But according to Nicaraguan daily El Nuevo Diario, Chamorro was responding to pressure from the rightwing business council COSEP, which claimed the labor provisions would scare away private and foreign investment. COSEP leaders were in an all-afternoon meeting with the president and her top advisers on the day she vetoed the articles. A leader of the Sandinista-affiliated National Workers Front (FNT) union federation said the veto fit the demands of Nicaragua's structural adjustment agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In order to get more loans in 1994, the Chamorro government agreed to provide what the IMF calls a "flexible" labor market--one with no guaranteed job security for workers. The Chamorro government also signed a letter of agreement with the World Bank in 1994 promising a labor code that would allow for easy dismissal of workers. These external demands--requiring changes in labor law that violate previously-signed International Labor Organization (ILO) accords- -are themselves a violation of the World Bank's internal rules. [Nicaragua Network Hotline 1/24/95] 4. MEXICANS MARCH AGAINST US BAILOUT Thousands rallied in Mexico City's central plaza on Jan. 24 to protest a $40 billion loan guarantee package proposed earlier this month by US president Bill Clinton and Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon. The demonstration was called by prominent members of the center-left opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) along with a few important figures from the conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN) and dissidents from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). At the rally, former PRD presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano called for a national plebiscite on Feb. 12, the date of gubernatorial elections in the western state of Jalisco, in which the PAN candidate is favored to win. Cardenas read the demonstrators a proposed text for the referendum, asking Mexicans if they wished to owe the US another $40 billion. "No!" the protesters shouted, waving "wanted" posters with a caricature of president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Mexican president from 1988 until last month and architect of the country's economic "modernization" policy, which collapsed with the devaluation of the peso last month. [Equipo Pueblo, Mexico Update, Vol. 2, #15, 1/24/95; Telemundo TV (US) 1/25/95; Independent (UK) 1/28/95; Washington Post 1/28/95] There are now strong doubts about the bailout plan all across the political spectrum. PAN senator Mauricio Fernandez Garza from Nuevo Leon is furious over proposals in the US Congress to condition the loan guarantees on an end to Mexico's trade with Cuba. "No one can tell me what the hell I should do with my money," Fernandez Garza said on Jan. 21; the conservative senator has been involved in joint ventures with Cuba for two years and is planning a new $250 million venture for generating electrical energy. [La Jornada (Mexico) 1/22/95] Deputies from the PRI joined with the opposition parties on Jan. 26 to vote 381-58 for an unprecedented measure requiring President Zedillo to submit the loan guarantee plan to the Mexican Congress for ratification; the president was forced to agree to the requirement. [WP 1/28/95] Even Zedillo's secretary of foreign affairs, Jose Angel Gurria, expressed impatience with the US. "I would say that the typical US politician is not necessarily someone who is very conscious of international subjects," Gurria told Mexican legislators during discussions on the bailout. "Even supposing that they know exactly where Mexico is on the map...they lack information about what happens in Mexico." [FT 1/27/95] Meanwhile, Berta Lujan of the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC) and representatives of the Citizens Movement for Democracy and of the Democratic National Convention (CND), a grassroots coalition originally sponsored by the campesino rebels of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), have been touring Europe to explain the situation to European non- governmental organizations (NGOs). The groups want an abrogation or renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in effect for one year. "The events [the economic crisis] show that the shock treatment of NAFTA and liberalized trade was an error," CND co-president Sergio Zermeno told reporters during a visit to Paris on Jan. 24. [Inter Press Service 1/24/95] 5. IMF AND WALL STREET PUSH MEXICO LOANS US legislators share their Mexican counterparts' reluctance to back the bailout. Senate majority leader Bob Dole (R-KS) suggested for the first time on Jan. 27 that the US Congress might not approve the plan, despite support from the Democratic White House and the Republican leadership of Congress. [New York Times 1/28/95] International investors showed their lack of confidence in the situation on Jan. 24 during the Mexican government's weekly auction of tesobonos (short-term Treasury bonds). Only $275.3 million sold out of a $400 million offering, despite a staggering interest rate of 26.99%, up 7.25% from the high rate of the week before. [FT 1/25/95] However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demonstrated its support for the plan on Jan. 26 by signing a preliminary agreement for a standby loan of $7.58 billion to Mexico, the largest loan in the fund's 50-year history. The move brought the peso up 2.3% against the dollar. White House officials expressed hope that the IMF's support for Mexico would help win Congressional backing for the bailout. [Wall Street Journal 1/27/95] Another friend of the bailout plan is US treasury secretary Robert Rubin, who assured Congress on Jan. 25 that the loan guarantees were not a giveaway to US holders of tesobonos. "I don't think any of us would have the slightest interest if this were a question of bailing out wealthy investment firms," said Rubin, co-chair of the Goldman, Sachs & Co. investment firm until he joined the administration in 1993. [Los Angeles Times 1/26/95] While at Goldman, Sachs, Rubin had "significant contact," in his words, with companies such as Enron, the natural gas giant, that have substantial business interests in Mexico. Goldman, Sachs had pretax earnings of $1.4 billion in 1992, Rubin's last year as co- chair, and it was the largest single contributor to Clinton's presidential campaign. Rubin was a big NAFTA promoter while working for the Clinton administration in 1993. Rubin became Treasury Secretary after Lloyd Bentsen retired last month. His personal net worth is $155 million. [Counterpunch 12/15/94] Goldman, Sachs' sphere of influence includes major US media, which regularly cite the firm's Latin American equity research head, Jorge Mariscal [see Update #244]. Salomon Brothers, which handles $15 billion worth of transactions in Mexico each year, similarly influences the US media through its often-quoted "emerging markets" research head, John Purcell. In 1993 Purcell scolded Moody's Investors for its "fundamental error of pessimism" about Mexico. Purcell's ex-wife, Susan Kaufman Purcell, is another regular media source on Mexico. She is an official at the Americas Society and a director of an investment fund with big interests in Mexico. Political consultant Christopher Whalen, who advised Cuauhtemoc Cardenas' presidential campaign last year, predicted before the peso's fall: "There are a lot of people who are going to want to sue the ass off of Salomon after their investments go down the drain." [Counterpunch 12/1/94] On the Republican side, George Bush has been friends with both former president Salinas and his father, Raul Salinas Lozano, since the 1960s. [Counterpunch 12/1/94] Bush strongly supports the bailout [see Update #260], as do Sen. Dole and Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA). The Nation reports that Leach is "secretly drafting the bailout legislation"; recent financial-disclosure documents may show that he and Dole have "heavy Latin American holdings in mutual funds and stock and bond funds." [Nation 2/6/95] 6. MEXICAN ECONOMIC CRISIS DEEPENS Under the proposed bailout, the US would promise to pay as much as $40 billion (plus $9 billion from an earlier credit line) if the Mexican government was unable to meet bond payments. About $29 billion in bonds come due this year alone, the majority owned by US investors. As collateral, Mexico is to put export revenues from its mammoth state petroleum company, Pemex, directly into the US Federal Reserve; the exports come to about 470.4 million barrels (with 75.87% sold to the US), generating $7 billion in hard currency. Some Mexican economists ask how this plan could help lift Mexico out of the economic crisis precipitated by a 45.16% fall of the peso against the US dollar since Dec. 20. They note that Mexico would have to use six years' worth of oil revenues just to meet the new debt to the US. [LJ 1/22/95] Meanwhile, Zedillo's administration is proceeding with the sort of austerity measures always demanded by the US and the IMF during economic crises. For example, the government is slashing its investment budget by 11% and halting new investment projects scheduled for 1995. [FT 1/23/95] The government now projects a 1995 growth rate of just 2%--although most analysts expect a zero or negative growth rate. Soaring local interest rates (72% the week of Jan. 23) have brought half the country's huge construction industry to a standstill, with 10% of the firms shutting down in the last weeks. [Mexico Update 1/24/95] Some 18,000 auto workers have been laid off since the crisis began. Automobile production is the country's largest industry, employing 230,000 workers and producing 420,000 vehicles a year. The industry expects 30-50% declines in domestic sales. [IPS 1/24/95; FT 1/25/95] Even the production of billionaires has halted: Forbes Magazine reports that the total of 24 Mexican billionaires it counted last year has been reduced overnight to 14. [LAT 1/17/95] 7. HAITI: HAS RIGHTIST VIOLENCE STOPPED? On Jan. 17 UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali released a 17-page report to the UN Security Council on the situation in Haiti, where the UN is to take over from the current US military occupation on Mar. 31. Although the report supported the US claim that the security situation had "improved considerably" since the occupation began, Boutros-Ghali warned that "[t]he relative security currently enjoyed by the Haitian people remains very fragile." The report notes that "in certain localities, particularly in certain parts of the [central] Artibonite region, people have said that they are afraid to meet or demonstrate because of the persistence of activities by former members of the FRAPH [the rightist Front for the Progress and Advancement of Haiti] or by 'attaches' [police deputies]." [Haiti Progres (NY) 1/25-31/95, part retranslated from French] Boutros-Ghali also says there has been "a noticeable increase in vigilante activities over the past few weeks," although this is disputed by US and Haitian officials. [New York Times 1/29/95] ["Vigilante activities" has been used in the past to refer to self-defense actions by grassroots organizations.] Meanwhile, robberies and acts of violence by unidentified armed men are reported almost nightly, according to Inter Press Service. Many suspect that these are the work of rightists now engaged in common crime. The body of pediatrician Anne-Marie Guirand was found the night of Jan. 19 near the village of Titanyen, 20 km north of Port-au-Prince. Armed bandits had intercepted her car in the northern part of the capital, according to the police; she was shot dead and a colleague riding with her, Willy Robain, was wounded. Rightists often deposited bodies near Titanyen when the military was in control. Other acts of violence are harder to explain as common crimes. On Jan. 18 six armed men broke into the private radio station Haiti- Inter at Drouillard in the north of Port-au-Prince. The security guard was robbed and the thieves carried off the transmitters and other equipment, according to Inter Press Service; Haiti Progres reports that two guards were robbed and the transmitters were damaged. Dejean Louis, the deputy "delegate" (interim government representative) in Leogane, southwest of the capital, reported on Jan. 23 that there had been a marked resurgence of rightist activities around the nearby city of Petit-Goave. Groups have been postering with rightwing fliers at night; Louis suggests that they may even be responsible for electrical blackouts that have helped their nocturnal work. There are also reports that an arms shipment came to local rightists on Dec. 31. [IPS 1/24/95; HP 1/25-31/95] The government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide has finally acted to settle often-bloody land disputes in the central Artibonite region [see Update #260]. A seven-member commission will study the situation and make recommendations to settle the land conflicts. However, US troops have reportedly been meddling in land disputes in the Leogane region, evicting seven peasants from fields that they had farmed for years. [HP 1/25-31/95] 8. GUATEMALA: BELGIAN PRIEST'S MURDER ORDERED BY GOVERNMENT An investigation by the Guatemalan Archbishop's Human Rights Office (ODHA) has uncovered the identity of the government official who ordered the Dec. 19 killing in Guatemala City of Belgian priest Alfons Stessel [see Update #256], according to ODHA spokesperson Ronalth Ochaeta. Ochaeta didn't release the official's name but said his office would turn over its information to the Public Ministry. He said Marco Tulio Alvarez Salazar, a young gang member arrested Jan. 11 [see Update #259], participated in the murder along with three others. But the youths were carrying out orders by the unnamed government official, Ochaeta said. Initial reports indicated the Catholic priest was beaten to death during a nativity march, but later versions say he was beaten and shot to death on his way home from the march. Police reports have suggested that the youths killed Stessel to steal a tape recorder, but 300 quetzals the priest had in his pocket were left untouched. Ochaeta accused the police of irresponsibility in their investigation. He said Stessel had been investigating an attack by the unnamed official on another person when he was murdered. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #2, 1/17/95] On Jan. 11, Nineth Garcia of the Mutual Support Group (GAM) for relatives of the disappeared told the press that 1,488 cases of human rights violations were reported to her organization during 1994, including 1,062 murders, 20 of which were clearly political. The GAM statistics also show 138 cases of extrajudicial executions and 108 political disappearances in 1994, although 50 of those who were disappeared were later found. [IPS 1/11/95] As of Dec. 15 the Center for the Investigation, Study and Promotion of Human Rights (CIEPRODEH) reported a total of 1,057 cases of violations for 1994--126 more cases than in 1993. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #1, 1/10/95] 9. US TROOPS BUILD ROADS IN GUATEMALA The first 300 US Army Reserve and National Guard troops with the US Defense Department's 1995 "Strong Roads" program arrived in Guatemala on Jan. 14. Between now and May, some 5,000 US troops in groups of up to 300 will come to Guatemala to carry out rural development projects with the Guatemalan army as part of their annual training. In the US, the army is prohibited by law from taking part in social and infrastructure projects. "If we want to construct a building in this country we can't since we'd be taking the job away from another person.... To be able to construct a building we have to leave the country," Terry Bluml from the 88th Army Reserve Command in Fort Snelling, Minnesota told a group of peace and justice workers. This year's Strong Roads program, dubbed "Task Force Timber Wolf," is targeting the southern provinces of Jutiapa and Jalapa, where US troops will build roads, hospitals and schools alongside the Guatemalan army. Critics say "Strong Roads" undermines civilian authority in the Guatemalan countryside and bolsters the dominance of the Guatemalan army, notorious for its human rights abuses. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #2, 1/17/95] 10. CUBANS TO BE ALLOWED INTO US? Rightwing Miami daily Diario Las Americas reported on Jan. 28 that an agreement has been reached between the US government and a private group to resolve the problem of the balseros, Cubans who fled Cuba on rafts last fall seeking to emigrate to the US and are now being held in US military camps in Panama and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. According to the paper, the White House has given its final approval to the accord, reached between the US Justice Department and the Ad Hoc Commission. The Commission was originally established by powerful rightwing extremist leader Jorge Mas Canosa and Miami city administrator Cesar Odio after a meeting the two had with US president Bill Clinton last Aug. 19; it now claims to include the vast majority of Cuban emigre organizations in the US. Some 16,000 individuals--mostly relatives of the balseros--have already been signed up as sponsors by Mas Canosa's own organization, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF). Under the terms of the accord, these sponsors will provide those balseros allowed into the US with private medical insurance, jobs, and private school for their children--thus creating no "burden" on US taxpayers. [DLA 1/28/95] 11. US COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY IN CHILE/IRAQ ARMS DEAL A spokesperson for Florida federal prosecutor Kendall Coffey has announced that Coffey will try to seek the extradition of Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen from Chile. On Jan. 27, the California-based Teledyne Industries, Inc. pleaded guilty to charges that in 1988 it knowingly sold more than 120 tons of zirconium for use in powerful cluster bombs, which were sold to Iraq through Cardoen in violation of US arms export laws. Teledyne representatives admitted that the company, together with Cardoen, conspired to present the US government with false information that the zirconium was being exported to Peru for use in mining. The Peruvian company SMISA, which officially imported the zirconium, is actually a front for Cardoen's military transactions; the zirconium ended up in Chile where it was used to produce the cluster bombs. Between 1982 and 1988, Cardoen sold approximately 24,000 cluster bombs to Iraq. The total price of Teledyne's zirconium shipment was $3.5 million; the company will now have to pay fines of up to $4 million. The trial against Teledyne and two of its employees directly involved in the conspiracy--Edward A. Johnson and Ronald W. Griffin--will begin on Feb. 6. Cardoen claims that the US government had full knowledge of the real use of the zirconium. Teledyne had previously argued that the sale of zirconium to Iraq was part of an operation authorized by the US government's intelligence agencies as part of a secret project to help Iraq fight Iran. The company's guilty plea, a legal maneuver that had been anticipated for several days before it was announced, puts an end to a litigation process under way in federal courts since May of 1993. [Diario Las Americas 1/27/95] In a related case, US government lawyers announced on Jan. 23 that their investigation had revealed no evidence that the administration of former US president George Bush had secretly and illegally helped arm Iraq in the months or years preceding Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The Clinton administration's findings contradict those of Federal District Judge Marvin H. Shoob, who presided a 1992 hearing on the case. Shoob has said he thought there was strong evidence of a US government cover-up. [New York Times 1/24/95] 12. CAMPESINOS MURDERED BY COLOMBIAN PARAMILITARIES Around midnight on Jan. 14, a group of about 20 armed and masked men, some in military and some in civilian clothing, abducted nine men from a party in Patino, Aguachica, in the Colombian department of Cesar. The assailants, believed to be members of a paramilitary group known as "Los Masetos," threatened everyone present at the party, accusing them of collaborating with guerrilla groups. They then selected their victims--all campesino farmers and fishers--from a list they brought with them. Two of the abducted men were killed a short distance from the house, and the bodies of another five were found in different locations in the area, two of them close to a military base on the outskirts of Aguachica. Jesus Romero and another man whose name is not known are still missing. The next day, Jan. 15, brothers Melquicedet and Fanner Contreras Gomez were stopped at a roadblock on a main road out of Aguachica, near the community of Norean, by a group of about 30 armed men, also believed to be members of "Los Masetos." Early on Jan. 17, the bodies of the two brothers were found nearby. Their hands were tied, they had been shot in the head and there was clear evidence that they had been tortured. The area around Aguachica is heavily militarized. There are military bases in all the principal towns, on the main roads and spread out through rural areas. Although the government ordered them disbanded in 1989, Colombia's paramilitary forces continue to kill and disappear people with the support and collaboration of the security forces. President Ernesto Samper, sworn in on Aug. 7, 1994, has pledged to dismantle the paramilitary forces. [Amnesty International Urgent Action Bulletin 1/19/95] 13. PERU: EX-SECRET POLICE AGENT REVEALS OFFICAL DEATH SQUAD Jose Bazan, a former agent of the Peruvian secret police, told Lima TV channel 5 on Jan. 22 that the National Intelligence Service (SIN) had created a death squad which in the last ten years has killed individuals and groups in various cases that never were solved. According to Bazan the group, called "Colina," acted with the full knowledge and approval of the armed forces high command. Bazan, who deserted the army and is currently living clandestinely, said "Colina" was made up of army personnel who were in trouble and about to be kicked out of the armed forces; their personnel records were cleared in exchange for carrying out murders and other human rights violations. Bazan said that "Colina" carried out numerous crimes that were then attributed to the supposed "Rodrigo Franco Commando." One of the actions attributed to the "Rodrigo Franco Commando" was the 1988 murder of Manuel Febres; Febres was the lawyer of Osman Morote, a jailed leader of the Maoist insurgent group Sendero Luminoso. Three years later in 1991, during the administration of current president Alberto Fujimori, 13 adults and five children were murdered by hooded gunmen at a party in a central Lima neighborhood. According to Bazan, that massacre was carried out by "Colina." Bazan said that "Colina" has now become inactive since some of its members were imprisoned for the disappearance and murders of a college professor and nine students from La Cantuta university. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/24/95 from AFP] 14. IN OTHER NEWS... Argentine president Carlos Menem opened his reelection campaign on Jan. 21 in the province of Cordoba, a traditional stronghold of the opposition Radical Civic Union (UCR). For the first time Menem appeared with his vice presidential candidate Carlos Ruckauf, who served as Interior Minister until Menem chose him as a running mate on Jan. 2. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/22/95 from EFE]... On Jan. 28, Ecuadoran troops fought off Peruvian troops during renewed fighting on the border between the two countries. According to Ecuadoran brigade commander Col. Pablo Viteli, 20 Peruvian soldiers and three Ecuadorans were killed in combat in a 130-square mile jungle zone rich in gold. Ecuador's government has declared a state of emergency, and Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori flew to the border area on Jan. 27 to meet with military officers. In a statement issued Jan. 28, United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he was "gravely concerned by the current tension" on the Peru-Ecuador border. [New York Times 1/29/95 from Reuter]... On Nov. 5, 1994, Salvadoran AIDS educator Wilfredo was threatened by two men who told him that they would kill him if he did not stop his work distributing condoms and educational materials in San Salvador's poor neighborhoods and leave the country within 30 days. (The AIDS educator is referred to by his first name only in order to protect his identity.) The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) is urging supporters to fax President Armando Calderon Sol (+503- 271-0950) and Vice-Minister of Public Security Hugo Barrera (+503-221-0226) to demand that the Salvadoran government protect the life of Wilfredo and all public health workers. [IGLHRC email notice posted 1/6/95]... The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has closed the case of 14 fisherpeople murdered in the Venezuelan town of El Amparo on the Colombian border in October 1988. The case was closed after the Venezuelan government acknowledged responsibility for the incident and agreed to pay restitution to the survivors and the relatives of the victims. [La Jornada 1/22/94 from AP, AFP and EFE]... On Jan. 17, Trinidad and Tobago's Fourth Civil Court ruled that the Holy Name Convent school acted "unconstitutionally" when it barred 11-year old Muslim student Sumayyah Mohammed from attending classes wearing the hijab (head covering) mandated by her religion. The Holy Name Convent is denominationally-run but partially state-funded and therefore not a private school. Mohammed is one of three students barred from attending the school; another is the daughter of Yasin Abu Bakr, a leader of the Black Muslim sect Jamaat al Muslimeen. The new court decision has further angered many Trinidadians who believe that the Muslimeen should not have been granted amnesty for a coup d'etat they attempted in 1990. The courts ruled recently that the government must pay damages for jailing the Muslimeen after their surrender. [IPS 1/18/95]... Mexico's Foreign Ministry announced on Jan. 17 that the Republic of Guyana had signed on to the Tlatelolco Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Arms in Latin America and the Caribbean. Only Argentina and Brazil have not yet ratified their full participation in the treaty, while Cuba, St. Kitts/Nevis and St. Lucia have for various reasons not yet signed on. [IPS 1/17/95] 15. UPCOMING EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed are not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network. The National Labor Committee (NLC), a New York-based labor group, has issued an urgent action alert around workers' rights in maquiladoras producing for US brand names such as J.C. Penney, Wal-Mart, K Mart and Sears. The NLC is seeking information on violations of women's, workers' or children's rights in these maquilas. The NLC may be able to help by bringing these cases to the US Congress. This information can be especially useful if it is received before the Interim Trade Program (ITP), a $160 million tariff break for maquilas, comes before the US Congress in February or March. Please send information to the NLC at 212- 242-0700, ext. 580, 577 or 584, fax 212-255-7230, or Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH), 011-504- 573557 (phone and fax). 2/9 THU, 7:30 PM - Chico Ginu, Rubber Tapper Leader from Western Amazon. Amanaka'a Gallery, 584 Broadway, #904. Call for reservations 212-925-5299. -- + 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 + >