WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #263, FEBRUARY 12, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Mexican President Declares New War on Rebels 2. Mexican Government Cracks Down on Grassroots Movement 3. US to Mexico: "Eliminate the Zapatistas" 4. US and Mexico Take "Big Gamble" 5. Who Is the Mexican Rebel Leader? 6. Death Squads Target Local Organizers in Guatemala 7. Cubans Held Indefinitely in US Prisons 8. US Whips Up Trade War Over Bananas 9. Venezuelan Finance Minister Resigns Amid Banking Crisis 10. Nicaragua: Three More Sandinistas Leave to Join New Party 11. Contragate Figure Spotted in Nicaragua; US Citizen Kidnapped 12. Jamaican Teachers on Strike 13. Teachers Set to Strike in Colombia 14. Brazil's President Vetoes Minimum Wage Hike 15. Arms Cache Explodes in Panama 16. Ecuador/Peru: Grassroots Groups Demand End to Conflict 17. 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, 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012. 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. MEXICAN PRESIDENT DECLARES NEW WAR ON REBELS In a surprise address televised on the evening of Feb. 9, Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon announced that he had issued orders to arrest several leaders of the rebel Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). Zedillo said that his government had uncovered Zapatista arms caches in Mexico City and in the eastern state of Veracruz the day before, and that a number of rebels had been captured in the raids. "These facts and the evidence discovered allow us to establish that far from preparing itself for dialogue and negotiations, the EZLN's strategy was to play for time in order to equip itself and extend itself further with the goal of carrying out more acts of violence," the president said, in effect breaking off the new negotiating efforts started on Jan. 15 [see Update #260]. He offered identifications of several EZLN leaders, who have concealed themselves behind pseudonyms and ski masks. Zedillo said the group's best-known leader, "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos," is in fact Rafael Sebastian Guillen Vicente. [Text of 2/9/95 Address by Ernesto Zedillo, from National Commission for Democracy in Mexico, USA (NCMDUSA) 2/9/95] At about noon on Feb. 9, a few hours before Zedillo's address, the Mexican army began sweeping into areas controlled by the EZLN or sympathetic to the rebels in the southern state of Chiapas. Troops moved with armored cars and small tanks into parts of the municipality of Ocosingo in Zapatista territory and into Simojovel and San Andres Larrainzar, which were held briefly by the rebels in December. [Information Bulletin, Fray Bartoleme de Las Casas Human Rights Center, 2/10/95] The next day a military force with more than 100 vehicles and with helicopter support seized the EZLN headquarters in the Lacandona Forest at the town of Guadalupe Tepeyac, near the border with Guatemala. The rebels had disappeared, however. There was no fighting reported in the operation, but a colonel was apparently killed later in a sniper attack, along with an unidentified soldier. The police also reported that a police officer died in a shootout the night of Feb. 9 in the city of Toluca, 37 miles southwest of Mexico City; the government claims it captured 14 guerrillas in the raid. [New York Times 2/11/95; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 2/12/95 from wire services] The National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA) says the Chiapas operation involves 2,500 troops, 33 aircraft, 30 tanks and 32 armored vehicles. [Reuter 2/12/95] The EZLN is on "red alert," "Captain Lucio" told reporters on Feb. 9. [ED-LP 2/10/95 from EFE] The same day Marcos warned the moderate left daily La Jornada that the rebels would respond with a guerrilla war if attacked. "I sent word to [the government] that they can proceed," he said, "that surrender is not in our plans." [NYT 2/12/95] 2. MEXICAN GOVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT On Feb. 10 the Mexican government showed reporters the two EZLN arms caches it says were found in Mexico City and Veracruz; according to the Associated Press, they contained one UZI machine gun, 10 pistols, six grenade launchers, five rockets, a variety of ammunition and explosives and some EZLN documents. [AP 2/10/95] "The small arsenal of captured rebel weapons displayed...did little to prove [Zedillo's] assertion that [the Zapatistas] represented a serious threat," the New York Times remarks. [NYT 2/12/95] Mexican analysts expected a new government offensive well before the announced discovery of the arms caches. "It is clear that a decision [on the use of force] has been made," columnist Javier Ibarrola wrote in El Financiero before Zedillo's announcement. [Financial Times (UK) 2/9/95] The crackdown is not limited to EZLN leaders, despite the president's claim that he simply ordered a police action against guerrilla leaders. At the beginning of the month police began evicting squatters from some of the 2,400 ranches and small farms campesino groups have occupied in Chiapas since the Zapatista rebellion began on Jan. 1, 1994. Police moved in on four ranches near the town of Salto de Agua, 60 miles north of San Cristobal de Las Casas, on Feb. 3. Campesinos say 50 of the squatters were injured when police attacked them with tear gas and beat them with rifle butts. [AP 2/4/95] On Feb. 4 150 police assaulted six occupied estates in the Chiapa de Corzo area, near the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez. According to the Emiliano Zapata Campesino Organization (OCEZ), the police focused the assault on women and older people. A total of 66 campesinos were arrested in evictions between Feb. 2 and Feb. 4. [La Jornada (Mexico) 2/5/95] Opposition groups and leaders in Chiapas have also been targeted for harassment. On Feb. 7 a member of the military police told a prosecutor that he and another soldier had been kidnapped by masked men on Feb. 5 and beaten by Amado Avendano Figueroa, former gubernatorial candidate of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and now head of an opposition "parallel government" in Chiapas. Avendano says that in fact he was out of the state until Feb. 6. [AP 2/9/95; FT 2/9/95] [He was at a meeting of the Democratic National Convention (CND) grassroots coalition in Queretaro, capital of Queretaro state. See below.] Meanwhile, the government is using testimony from two captured rebels--testimony that at least one says was fabricated--to accuse San Cristobal bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia of knowing about last year's EZLN uprising in advance. A proponent of liberation theology, Ruiz was the official mediator in the government's negotiations with the EZLN. [NYT 2/12/95] At 1:30 AM on Feb. 10, just hours after Zedillo's address, 30 members of the Federal Judicial Police raided the offices of the Coalition of Non- Governmental Organizations for Peace (CONPAZ) in San Cristobal, breaking locks and leaving the coalition's files in disorder. [CONPAZ statement 2/10/95] The crackdown is not limited to Chiapas. The government claims it has found a network of financial support for the EZLN, including a leftist union of bus drivers in Mexico City. [NYT 2/12/95] Radio reports have thrown suspicion on CND president Rosario Ibarra de Piedra. Everyone ever connected with Rafael Sebastian Guillen, allegedly EZLN leader Marcos, is now under suspicion. Four professors from the Xochimilco campus of the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), where Guillen once taught, were reportedly arrested the night of Feb. 9. Much of the supposed evidence the government is putting out may have been obtained by torturing suspects. Maria Gloria Benavides Guevara, who was detained on Feb. 8 in Mexico City, says she was tortured and forced to confess membership in the EZLN. [NCDMUSA report 2/10/95] On the night of Feb. 9, Mexico's official news agency Notimex reported that economist Carlos Heredia was a friend of Guillen's. Heredia works with Equipo Pueblo, an important news source on Mexico and one of the few to give correct information on the developing peso crisis in 1994. He says that Guillen was a childhood friend but that they have had no contact for 20 years. [Supporters of Equipo Pueblo, frequently cited by the Weekly News Update, can protest to Mexican Ambassador Jesus Silva Herzog, phone 202-728-1690, fax 202-728-1698.] [Development Gap Action Alert 2/10/95] PRD general secretary Nario Saucedo is reportedly an old college friend of Guillen's. [AP 2/10/95] 3. US TO MEXICO: "ELIMINATE THE ZAPATISTAS" "The US continues to urge restraint, respect for human rights and full compliance with the legal process," the US State Department said in a Feb. 10 written statement on the Mexican crackdown. State Department spokesperson Christine Shelly told reporters later the same day: "I expect that our relationship with Mexico will go forward in the same way that it has been proceeding." Shelly spoke of Zedillo's "very strong record so far this year in areas we think represent his determination and his courageous leadership on a wide range of political issues." [Reuter 2/11/95] Shelly refused to describe Chiapas as an "internal affair" of the other country, a phase that was used in December to give de facto US endorsement to the subsequent bloodbath in the Russian province of Chechnya. [Washington Post 2/11/95] But the timing of Zedillo's announcement, nine days after US president Bill Clinton bypassed Congress to authorize an unprecedented $20 billion US Treasury bailout for Mexico, suggests that the US had approved or demanded the new policy. The New York Times refers to "rumors" about "foreign investors" pushing for a crackdown. [NYT 2/12/95 In fact, at the beginning of the month the investigative biweekly Counterpunch published solid evidence from a Jan. 13 memo issued by the Chase Bank Emerging Markets Group, which has billions invested in Mexico. "The [Mexican] government will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate their [sic] effective control of the national territory and security policy," the Chase memo advised. "[T]he monetary crisis limits the resources available to the government for social and economic reforms," Chase notes, indicating that the government should suppress the opposition rather than attempt to buy it off. The memo's author, Riordan Roett of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, also writes: "The Zedillo administration will need to consider carefully whether or not to allow opposition victories if fairly won at the ballot box." [Counterpunch 2/1/95] The New York Times reports that "American intelligence services" "helped" the Mexican government in "tracking" EZLN Subcommander Marcos' "real identity." [NYT 2/10/95] 4. US AND MEXICO TAKE "BIG GAMBLE" The conservative opposition daily Reforma published a poll on Feb. 11 showing that 52% of Mexico City residents support Zedillo's crackdown while 43% oppose it. [NYT 2/12/95] It is unclear how long Zedillo can hold even this moderate level of support. "I think he is taking a really big gamble; this could go horribly wrong," an unidentified diplomat told Reuter, which notes that "Zedillo risks seeing a botched operation degenerate into a bloody, drawn-out guerrilla war in the difficult terrain of the jungle-clad, mountainous state" of Chiapas. [Reuter 2/10/95] Zedillo's war moves come at a time when the Mexican opposition has apparently been gaining strength from the economic crisis that began Dec. 20 and from popular opposition to the government's concessions to Washington in exchange for the Jan. 31 bailout. The EZLN had been pushing for a broad opposition front, the National Liberation Movement (MLN), to be built by the generally pro-Zapatista CND grassroots coalition and the PRD's former presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano [see Update #262]. The project came closer to reality the weekend of Feb. 3 as the CND met in Queretaro for the anniversary of the 1917 Mexican Constitution, which was written there. In a letter read to the 4,000 or 5,000 CND delegates on Feb. 3, the Zapatistas said the national goal should be to "recognize the common enemy...and form a democratic transition government." The EZLN also asked to be considered "a political force" and not "merely...a regional or indigenous force." [Inter Press Service 2/3/95] Despite various dissensions, the CND generally agreed on the proposal. Chiapaneco rebel governor Avendano endorsed Cardenas, saying he had the "moral quality" to lead the MLN. Cardenas himself told the delegates that all of Mexico's political forces must unite to "overthrow the evil government through peaceful and Constitutional means, free the country from binding agreements which threaten its sovereignty, and open the way for democracy and justice." He asked Mexicans to vote in an unofficial plebiscite on the bailout plan; the plebiscite is now planned for Feb. 26 [see Update #262]. [Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update Vol. 2, #17, 2/7/95; LJ 2/5/95] Reuter reports that an estimated 100,000 "[a]ngry protesters filled Mexico City's huge main square," the Zocalo, on Feb. 11 to rally against the crackdown. The demonstration's leaders promised to step up the pressure on Zedillo over the coming weeks. [Reuter 2/12/95] US president Clinton too is vulnerable on the US role in the crackdown, due to his executive decree of a highly expensive and unpopular bailout against strong opposition from a majority in the US. The National Commission for Democracy in Mexico, USA (NCDMUSA) sponsored a number of protests at Mexican consulates around the country on Feb. 10; the New York protest is scheduled for noon on Feb. 13. The NDCMUSA is hosting a general strategy meeting in Chicago Mar. 18-19. [NDCMUSA memo 2/7/95] Locally, the Campaign for Real, Equitable Economic Development (CREED), which includes five New York Latin American solidarity groups, began a public education campaign on the bailout with a speakout at Wall Street on Feb. 9. The next event will combine leafleting and street theater at Macy's on Feb. 19. NDCMUSA: phone-fax 915-532- 8382, e-mail moonlight@igc.apc.org. NDCM New York: 212-614-6662 or 212-260-5602. CREED: call CISPES at 212-645-5230. 5. WHO IS THE MEXICAN REBEL LEADER? Rafael Sebastian Guillen, identified as the EZLN's Marcos, is one of eight children from a middle-class family in Tampico, a city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Guillen, whose father owns a furniture store, was born on July 19, 1957. He received two licenciaturas (equivalent to a US bachelor's degree) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, one in philosophy and literature and the other in sociology, and taught graphic communications design at UAM-Xochimilco until his resignation in 1984. Guillen Vicente's thesis for the philosophy degree received honorable mention in 1980; he was given a medal by then-president Jose Lopez Portillo. Mexicans on the street are joking that he is better qualified than many members of Zedillo's cabinet. [ED-LP 2/12/95 from AFP] [On Jan. 22 Education Secretary Fausto Alzati, a close Zedillo adviser, was forced to resign when it was proven that he had never received the Harvard doctorate he claimed; he had never even completed his licenciatura. [Latin America Data Base (LADB) SourceMex Vol. 6, #6, 2/8/95 from UPI 1/22/95, LJ (Mexico) 1/23/95, NYT 1/24/95, El Financiero International 1/30/95]] Barricada, the daily of Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), reports that Guillen spent several years in Nicaragua in the early 1980s organizing farmworkers and tending to the sick. [WP 2/12/95 from wire services] 6. DEATH SQUADS TARGET LOCAL ORGANIZERS IN GUATEMALA A local organizer of the Guatemalan Mutual Support Group for Families of the Disappeared (GAM) was shot in front of her home and seriously wounded on Feb. 6. Senayda Cana Chonay was taken to a local hospital after being shot four times; she was released on Feb. 10 with a bullet remaining in her thorax that doctors were unable to remove. [NISGUA Rapid Response Alert 2/10/95] GAM says paramilitary groups are targeting grassroots organizers at the local level instead of attacking more high-profile national leaders, in order to avoid condemnation and prosecution. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #5, 2/7/95] The US solidarity organization NISGUA is asking supporters to send messages to President Ramiro de Leon Carpio (fax #011-502-2- 519-702) and Guatemalan ambassador to the US Edmund Mulet (fax #202-745-1908), demanding a thorough investigation. Send copies and messages of solidarity to GAM (fax# 011-502-2-922262). 7. CUBANS HELD INDEFINITELY IN US PRISONS A San Francisco appeals court ruled on Jan. 12 that the US can keep Cubans who are considered dangerous criminals imprisoned for an indefinite period of time, even life, without pressing any charges. The same conclusion was reached in three of the four previous cases on behalf of the Cubans before US appeals courts. Mark Kemple, the lawyer of one of the Cubans affected by the decision, declared that his client has served two sentences for crimes committed in this country but has not been freed. Kemple pointed out that the 3,000-5,000 Cubans imprisoned in the US "could die in jail without any charges being presented against them." The prisoners are part of a group of about 125,000 Cubans who left in the 1980 Mariel boatlift. In 1984 the US and Cuba reached an agreement to repatriate between 200 to 300 inmates. The pact was broadened in 1987 after Cuban inmates rioted in Georgia and Louisiana prisons. In 1991, a group of Cuban inmates in Alabama took hostages in an unsuccessful attempt to end the deportations. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/15/95 from EFE] In other news, diplomatic sources announced on Jan. 24 that two Cubans seeking political asylum had finally abandoned the German embassy in Havana, which they entered by force last June 13 along with 17 [or 19] others [see Update #232]. A Foreign Relations Ministry official explained that Gustavo Garabito Gomez and Alberto Gonzalez made the decision to leave after giving up all hope of emigrating through those channels. Four Cubans remain in the embassy; the others left previously. [Inter Press Service 1/24/95] 8. US WHIPS UP TRADE WAR OVER BANANAS The US government is helping US multinational banana companies in their battle against banana quotas and trade restrictions imposed by the European Union (EU). In a letter to the European Commission in early January, US trade representative Mickey Kantor said the US might take retaliatory measures against a number of European exports if Europe did not end its banana restrictions. Chiquita Brands International and other US producers have complained that the import policy--which favors bananas from former British colonies in the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific over those produced in Latin America--has cut their sales to Europe by half, causing losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. "I have made a preliminary decision that the EU banana regime is adversely affecting US economic interests," Kantor wrote in his letter to Sir Leon Brittan, the European Commission's senior trade official in Brussels. Kantor's office also told four Latin American countries--Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Venezuela--that they could be subject to sanctions as well, for having worked out individual agreements with the EU concerning their banana exports. These agreements essentially allow local producers unlimited duty-free exports to Europe, while the amount that US producers in their countries can ship is restricted. [New York Times 1/29/95] 9. VENEZUELAN FINANCE MINISTER RESIGNS AMID BANKING CRISIS Venezuelan finance minister Julio Sosa Rodriguez resigned on Feb. 6. Sosa is expected to remain in the cabinet as presidential commissioner for international affairs, a new post that will focus on Venezuela's trade and financial relations with other countries. Information Minister Guillermo Alvarez Bajares said Sosa resigned for "absolutely personal reasons," and denied any confrontation with the economic policy of President Rafael Caldera. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/7/95 from AFP] The new finance minister will be Luis Raul Matos Azocar, who currently coordinates the government's foreign exchange control board. Matos was planning minister for President Jaime Lusinchi (1984-88). The British Financial Times reports that he is known to share President Caldera's concern that any economic reforms and growth must be acommpanied by progress in social welfare; like the president, he reportedly rejects the free market orientation of the previous administration. [FT 2/7/95] Matos said two of his priorities would be to attack inflation and the excess monetary liquidity that is feeding it. Speaking about the severe banking crisis that Venezuela has faced for the past year, Matos said the government was "not seeking any ideological or dogmatic reasons for nationalizing the banking system. It would be ideal for us if national and foreign financial groups would buy shares in [troubled] banks and resolve the capitalization problem." [FT 2/9/95] More than 15 banks--representing 60% of the shares in the banking system--have collapsed in Venezuela since the crisis began in January of 1994, a month before Caldera took office. In 1994 the government had to pay out more than $7 billion to reimburse depositers and bail out banks; this had a 15% impact on the country's gross domestic product. The most recent state takeover of a Venezuelan bank occurred on Feb. 1, while Sosa was at the world economic summit in Davos, Switzerland. [ED-LP 2/7/95] 10. NICARAGUA: THREE MORE SANDINISTAS LEAVE TO JOIN NEW PARTY On Feb. 3, three members of the National Directorate of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) resigned from the party and said they will join the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) headed by former Nicaraguan vice-president Sergio Ramirez. The three are Dora Maria Tellez, Luis Carrion, and Mirna Cunningham. Tellez had already quit her seat on the National Directorate on Jan. 9 [see Update #259]. Tellez and Carrion are among the "historic commanders" of the FSLN, and Cunningham is a physician and a Miskito Indian who has been a prominent Sandinista leader on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast. Tellez and Cunningham are both deputies in the Nicaraguan National Assembly. "We have taken the painful, but necessary decision to resign from the party because its current leaders have betrayed the dreams and ideals that lifted a whole generation to give everything to the revolutionary cause," read a statement signed by the three. [Reuter 2/3/95] Other prominent FSLN members who have quit the party recently include Ernesto Cardenal [see Update #248] and his brother Fernando Cardenal [see Update #260], as well as poet Giaconda Belli. Ramirez had left the party on Jan. 10; on Feb. 7, he announced that the MRS would officially become a political party with social-democratic leanings. The new group plans to run its own candidates in the 1996 elections. Ramirez did not deny that he might run for president, but he left open the possibility that the MRS may form alliances with other movements for the electoral campaign. "We're not going to build a new party just to win the 1996 election, but also to be a permanent and stable party," Tellez told reporters. As an initial proposal, Ramirez said the party will make an effort so that women and youth "occupy half the party's [leadership] positions." As a fundamental prerequisite for leadership in the MRS, added Ramirez, party members will have to make a declaration of financial assets, in order to gain the trust of the electorate. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/8/95 from AFP; Reuter 2/3/95] Another prominent FSLN militant, Omar Cabezas, author of the best selling book "Fire from the Mountain" renewed his militancy in the FSLN at a press conference with Tomas Borge, the last surviving founder of the FSLN. Cabezas said that while he identified in the past and still identifies with the ideas of the renovation current, "I think it is necessary to work from within." He added, "I am staying with the FSLN with all its errors, faults and good qualities; with its limitations and its virtues and with its vocation for victory. I still maintain my critical attitude but in a constructive manner and in support of unity. I am convinced that no renovation of the FSLN would mean the death of Sandinismo." [Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 2/6/95] 11. CONTRAGATE FIGURE SPOTTED IN NICARAGUA; US CITIZEN KIDNAPPED John Hull, who was a key contact in the supply of arms to the Nicaraguan contras, has been sighted again in Nicaragua, this time in the Caribbean coast city of Bluefields. The last time he was spotted in Nicaragua was in April of 1994, when he was investigating investment opportunities in the central department of Juigalpa. Hull is wanted by Costa Rican authorities for involvement in drug and arms trafficking carried out during the 1980s from from his ranch in Costa Rica near the Nicaraguan border. It appears that on his present trip, Hull is being hosted by Augusto de la Rocha of Nicaragua's Liberal Party, who is also president of the Regional Council of the Southern Autonomous region, the RAAS. [Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 2/6/95] Meanwhile, US national Gary Allan Hicks of California was abducted on Feb. 8 by Nicaraguan "recontra" leader "El Charro" near Jinotega. "El Charro" contacted the Organization of American States (OAS), admitted the abduction and demanded negotiations with four OAS human rights representatives. His demands are unknown at this time. Gary Allan Hicks has worked at a medical clinic in San Jose de Bocay in Jinotega department for more than ten years. [Source unknown, posted on email 2/10/95 by cooperhouse@igc.apc.org] 12. JAMAICAN TEACHERS ON STRIKE Thousands of Jamaican teachers walked off the job on Feb. 1 to demand higher salaries. The action came after several threats by the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA), which represents 18,000 of the island's teachers employed at public primary and secondary schools and community colleges. The teachers are demanding a 100% pay raise in the first year of their two-year contract and 50% in the second; the government has offered 16% in the first year and 14% in the second. Finance Minister Omar Davies insists that the government cannot afford the $30 million it would cost to meet the teachers' demands. There was no prior announcement of the labor action; thousands of students turned up for classes on Feb. 1 only to find that the teachers were absent. Until early on Feb. 1, JTA president Sherlock Allen would not even confirm that the teachers had voted to take action. "There is likely to be some dislocation today," was all he would admit. He said teachers were planning to institute a "load shedding" program until their demands are met. In Jamaica, a teacher with a degree in education from a teacher's college earns only $176 a month. "A gas station attendant with no formal training or qualification earns more than a pre-trained teacher. The teachers are not angry, they are frightened," says Allen. "What the government is offering is unrealistic, it is infuriating." [Inter Press Service 2/1/95] 13. TEACHERS SET TO STRIKE IN COLOMBIA Some 247,000 Colombian teachers were set to begin an open-ended strike on Feb. 6 to demand better salaries, according to the Colombian Educators Federation (FECODE). The strike was called after tense negotiations ended without an agreement on the night of Feb. 5 between FECODE and Education Minister Arturo Sarabia, who argued that the government doesn't have the budgetary resources to grant the 37% salary increase demanded by teachers. Two months ago the teachers were granted a 19% salary increase which they consider insufficient; they want salaries that are pegged to each teacher's qualifications, specializations and length of service. According to FECODE, a teacher with more than 10 years of service and specialized courses makes the equivalent of $300 a month. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/6/95 from AP] Correction: In Update #261 [hardcopy edition], we incorrectly referred to the Colombian department of "Cesar." The name of the department is Cesar (with no accent mark on the e). 14. BRAZIL'S PRESIDENT VETOES MINIMUM WAGE HIKE In his second month in office, Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso has moved to counter his rapid drop in popularity by taking a pay cut. Cardoso's popularity crashed after he vetoed a law to raise the minimum raise; a Datafolha poll during the first week of February found the proportion of people rating his government as good had dropped almost in half, to 36%, while the number of those considering it bad had tripled to 15%. On Feb. 3, Cardoso went on national television to explain the minimum wage veto, his first public appearance since taking office on Jan. 1. In a symbolic gesture, the president announced on TV that he and his ministers would take a 25% pay cut until the minimum wage is raised. The pay cut will bring Cardoso's salary down to the equivalent of about $100,000. Brazil's new Congress was installed on Feb. 1. Cardoso has asked it to review the vastly unpopular decision made by the outgoing Congress to grant itself--and the president and his ministers--a massive pay raise [see Update #260]. A package of constitutional reforms, designed to modernize the country's tax and social security systems, will be sent to Congress on Feb. 16. [Financial Times (UK) 2/4-5/95, 2/6/95; Wall Street Journal 2/9/95] Cardoso is also expected to send a package of constitutional reforms to the new congress which will eliminate restrictions on foreign investment and ownership and allow the privatization of state enterprise in telecommunications, petroleum and mining. [WSJ 2/9/95] Foreign investors excited by the prospects of rapid privatization in Brazil were disappointed when Energy and Mines Minister Raimundo Brito recently announced that the state- controlled mining company, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), will not be sold off immediately. "Privatization [of the mining sector] could happen, but it is not a priority of this government," Brito told Britain's Financial Times. "It's not urgent. It will be treated with more care." The electricity sector, however, said Brito, is an immediate target for privatization. A small electricity distribution company, Centrais Eletricas do Espirito Santo, will be the first to be sold on the Rio de Janeiro stock market on May 10. [FT 2/9/95; WSJ 2/9/95] Meanwhile, Brazil has reimposed high tariffs on car imports following worries about the trade balance and complaints that its car industry needed more time to improve its products and compete with foreign imports. The tariff has been increased from 20% to 32%. Industry Minister Dorothea Werneck said the tariff will fall two percentage points a year to reach 20% again in 2001. [FT 2/8/95] 15. ARMS CACHE EXPLODES IN PANAMA Panamanian police are investigating the possible connections of a leftist movement in Panama called National Liberation Movement 29 (MLN 29) to a weapons cache that exploded on Feb. 6 in the port city of Colon. The weapons were hidden inside heavy equipment and were destined for Ecuador. The weapons were found when authorities, believing there were drugs inside, tried to open the machinery with a torch and caused an explosion that killed three people and wounded 26. The weapons included AK-47 rifles, fragmentation grenades, ammunition and C-4 plastic explosives. According to the Panamanian police, the MLN 29 was bringing weapons from El Salvador and Nicaragua and shipping them to guerrillas in Colombia and Peru. According to media reports, the MLN 29, of Marxist-Leninist tendencies, was founded in the 1970s and is made up of lawyers, students and a priest who acts as treasurer for the movement. The group is allegedly involved in arms trafficking for profit. Gaspar Lopez, who worked for over a year with the Popular Coordinator of Human Rights in Panama (COPODEHUPA), was arrested in connection with the weapons cache. Lopez allegedly brought weapons through the northern border hidden in the false floor of a recreational vehicle; the weapons were then brought to a shop where they were put inside heavy machinery and shipped to South America by boat. Police found the vehicle in question on Feb. 7 with weapons hidden inside. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/7/95 & 2/10/95 from EFE] 16. ECUADOR/PERU: GRASSROOTS GROUPS DEMAND END TO CONFLICT Opposition continues to the border war between Peru and Ecuador. More than 5,000 people from both sides of the border participated in a Feb. 5 protest at Huaquillas international bridge, where they formed a human chain to demand peace. The protest was organized by Ecuadoran human rights organizations. [Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion 2/8/95] "We want peace with dignity, not war," said protest organizer Elsie Monje, president of the Ecumenical Human Rights Commission (CEDHU). "The only ones to benefit from war are the arms dealers. We want to incite the conciousness of the people to demand peace." [Inter Press Service 2/2/95] South America's history of chaotic colonization has left many borders unclear and nearly every nation on the continent has a territorial dispute with at least one of its neighbors. "Private foreign interests tried--and still try--to aggravate conflicts in order to `divide and conquer,' especially where minerals can be exploited," explained Bernardo Quagliotti, Secretary General of the Latin American Geopolitical Association. [IPS 2/1/95] 17. 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. 2/17 FRI, 7:30 PM - Hear Fr. Miguel D'Escoto, former Nicaraguan foreign minister, speak on the current political and economic climate in Nicaragua. At Shimmel Auditorium, Pace University (near City Hall Park). $5 per student, $7 per adult. Call Bridges to Community, 914-232-1123. 2/18 SAT, 7:30 PM - Hear Fr. Miguel D'Escoto speak on liberation theology in Central America. Hayes Library Theater, Pace University in White Plains, 78 N. Broadway. Free. 2/18 SAT, 7 PM - "Las Doce Sillas," 1962 film directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea. Spanish, no subtitles. At Viva Galeria, 445 W. 50th St. For info call 212-245-7131. 2/18 SAT, 9 PM - Colombia Multi-Media Project Dance. At Brecht Forum, 122 W. 27th St, 10th fl. $5. 212-802-7209. 2/19 SUN, 11:30 AM - Educational street theater & leafleting on neoliberalism & the Mexico bailout. Call CISPES 212-645-5230. -- + 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 + >