WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #270, APRIL 2, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Fallout Over Charges of US Involvement in Guatemala 2. US Sent Guatemala Covert Aid After Cutoff 3. Reactions in Guatemala: No Surprise, Just Denials 4. US Activists Protest Guatemalan Human Rights Violations 5. "Operation Whitewash": UN Takes Over Haiti Occupation 6. Many Mysteries in Haitian Rightist's Murder 7. Argentina: Police Crack Down on Human Rights Protesters 8. Mexico: Unionists Plan Strikes, Rebels Propose Talks 9. Is Mexico Bailout "Working"? 10. Nicaraguan Teachers on Strike 11. Other News: Bolivia, Dominican Rep, Venezuela, Peru, Cuba 12. Upcoming Events in the New York City Area & Beyond 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, 339 Lafayette Street, 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. FALLOUT OVER CHARGES OF US INVOLVEMENT IN GUATEMALA Fallout continues over accusations made public on Mar. 22 by US Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ), who charged that Guatemalan army Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, a paid informer for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was responsible for the 1990 murder of US citizen Michael DeVine and the 1992 torture and murder of Guatemalan guerrilla leader Efrain Bamaca Velazquez [see Update #269]. An unsigned letter received late on Mar. 28 by Torricelli, printed on National Security Agency (NSA) stationery, states that "extensive communication intercepts by NSA in Guatemala during the time of these murders clearly substantiate that the CIA and the DOD [Department of Defense] knew, at that time, the circumstances" of the murders. The claim conflicts with acting CIA director William Studeman's public statement last week that the agency did not know the circumstances surrounding the two deaths until long after they occurred. According to the unsigned letter, "US Army Special Forces personnel in Guatemala were providing information to Colonel Alpirez regarding Bamaca and Michael DeVine," implying a direct role in the murders. The letter added that "efforts are currently being made to cover up involvement of the US Army" in having helped Alpirez. It charged specifically that Col. Daniel D. Day, a US army intelligence officer assigned to the NSA, was working with the Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence to purge "certain records regarding communications intercepts which show US Army Intelligence involvement in these incidents." [Washington Post 3/30/95] On Mar. 29, the Clinton administration ordered a series of steps to secure records relating to the case. Clinton ordered the Intelligence Oversight Board, a subcommittee of an independent advisory group, to do what a senior White House official called "a government-wide review of any and all aspects of the allegations...as well as [of] any related matters." National Security Adviser Anthony Lake issued an order that all government agencies must preserve any related documents. At the request of the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a probe into the allegations, and FBI officials contacted the NSA. A senior Justice Department official said "all necessary steps have been taken to ensure the security of the premises" at the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, MD. [WP 3/30/95] Both the House and Senate intelligence committees have also announced their intention to investigate US activity in Guatemala. [WP 4/1/95] On Mar. 31, Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch--Clinton's nominee to head the CIA--announced a sweeping investigation into the US military's activities in Guatemala from the early 1980s to the present and promised "to hold people accountable for their conduct" if wrongdoing is uncovered. The Defense Department's Guatemala Review Panel will be co-chaired by Pentagon General Counsel Judith Miller and newly appointed Inspector General Eleanor Hill; it will look into "every bit of information that we have on all Department of Defense activities," according to Deutch, including counter-narcotics operations. Cocaine transshipment through Guatemala is a serious problem, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and joint US/Guatemalan interdiction and eradication programs involve at least 200 Guatemalan Treasury Police, including air assault units. [WP 4/1/95] [According to former US ambassador to El Salvador Robert White, murdered US citizen Michael DeVine was "known as an informer for the DEA." White suggested that DeVine was killed because the "Guatemalan military is involved in a gigantic web of drug trafficking." [Inter Press Service 3/23/95]] 2. US SENT GUATEMALA COVERT AID AFTER CUTOFF Members of the Bush and Clinton administrations admitted on Mar. 29 that the Bush administration had secretly allowed the CIA to send $5-7 million annually to Guatemalan military officials after publicly cutting off US military aid in 1990. The CIA's payments apparently were disguised as part of a "liaison" relationship with a foreign intelligence service, according to a Bush administration official who insisted on not being identified. The details of such relationships are rarely shared with congressional oversight committees, though it is not known whether Congress was informed in this case. The payments apparently continued into the Clinton Administration but it was not known whether they are still being made. [New York Times 3/30/95] The CIA station in Guatemala also gave the Guatemalan army "special information, intelligence information on the area," according to former president Vinicio Cerezo. "Certainly the CIA gave information about guerrilla movements or contacts in some areas. According to the New York Times, the CIA station chief in Guatemala from 1988 to 1991 "was, like many intelligence officers who had served there, a Cuban-American who had worked on the Reagan Administration's secret programs in Central America." [NYT 4/2/95] According to an article by Allan Nairn in the Nation, US operatives of the CIA work inside the G-2, a Guatemalan army unit that maintains a network of torture centers and has killed thousands of Guatemalan civilians. The G-2 has been advised, trained, armed and equipped by US undercover agents at least since the 1960s. At least three of the recent top G-2 chiefs have been paid by the CIA, according to US and Guatemalan intelligence sources cited by Nairn. One of the three, Gen. Edgar Godoy Gaitan, a former army Chief of Staff, has been accused of being one of the prime intellectual authors of the 1990 murder of Guatemalan anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang. The others are Col. Otto Perez Molina, who now runs the Presidential General Staff and oversees that body's intelligence unit, known as the Archivo; and Gen. Francisco Ortega Menaldo, who now works in Washington as general staff director at the Pentagon-backed Inter-American Defense Board. Other top army commanders paid by the CIA include Gen. Roberto Matta Galvez, another former army Chief of Staff and former head of the Presidential General Staff; and former defense minister Gen. Hector Gramajo Morales. [The Nation 4/17/95] Col. George Hooker, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) chief in Guatemala from 1985 to 1989, told Nairn: "It would be an embarrassing situation if you ever had a roll call of everybody in the Guatemalan Army who ever collected a CIA paycheck." Hooker says the agency payroll is so large that it encompasses most of the army's top decision-makers. [The Nation 4/17/95] In addition to the Bamaca and DeVine cases, the US government is now also looking into the 1985 murders of journalist Nicholas Blake and photographer Griffith Davis, and the 1989 abduction, torture and rape of US nun Dianna Ortiz. At a Washington press conference with Jennifer Harbury--a US lawyer and Bamaca's widow- -and Samuel Blake, the brother of the murdered journalist, Ortiz described her experience at the hands of the Guatemalan military. Ortiz said she was burned with cigarettes, lowered into a pit of corpses and raped repeatedly. In what turned out to be the last torture session, Ortiz said a tall, fair-skinned man who spoke with a US accent seemed to be in charge. "He ordered them to stop the torture, explicitly telling them that I was a North American nun and that my disappearance had become public," she said. Ortiz said the man offered to drive her to the US Embassy but she jumped out of the car and escaped. "I attempted to explain to him that the reason I remained in Guatemala was rooted in my commitment to a suffering people," she continued. "He told me that he too was concerned about the people and consequently, he was working to liberate them from communism." [LA Times 3/31/95] "No one in the world can convince me that he was not an American and I personally believe he was affiliated to the CIA," Ortiz told Reuters by phone from Washington. [Reuter 3/26/95] "We were not very squeamish," admitted a senior US official who helped direct US anti-drug and counterinsurgency efforts in the region. [WP 4/2/95] 3. REACTIONS IN GUATEMALA: NO SURPRISE, JUST DENIALS The Guatemalan Foreign Ministry says that Washington has not responded to requests for evidence to back up the charges against Col. Alpirez, who now is second-in-command of La Aurora, the largest military base in Guatemala City. After seven hours of questioning on Mar. 27 by prosecutors, Alpirez said he was innocent of the DeVine and Bamaca murders; he also denied that he had been paid by the CIA or "any US agency," though he admitted routinely exchanging information with CIA officials, especially about drug trafficking. [NYT 3/30/95; WP 3/29/95 from news services] President Ramiro de Leon Carpio came to Alpirez's defense on Mar. 29, telling reporters that as a result of a government investigation, "We are certain that he did not participate in DeVine's killing." [WP 4/2/95] De Leon said he had advised Alpirez to sue Rep. Torricelli for defamation in Guatemalan and US courts "for the damages this has caused him and his family." [NYT 3/30/95] Guatemalan Defense Minister Gen. Mario Enriquez has also asked that US authorities provide proof of Alpirez's involvement [Noticias de Guatemala Weekly Bulletin 3/18-24/95]; he called it "disloyal" and "shameful" for Guatemalan military officers to take CIA money. Informed of Enriquez' comments, US Col. Hooker burst out laughing and said: "Good! Good answer, Mario! I'd hate to think how many guys were on that payroll. It's a perfectly normal thing." [Nation 4/17/95] Defense Minister Enriquez admitted he had been friends for about a year and a half with the CIA's Guatemala station chief who was transferred back to agency headquarters last January. While the station chief's removal had been demanded by US ambassador Marilyn McAfee, Enriquez emphasized the transfer was not a dismissal or a demotion. "He left quite happy with his transfer, and I even congratulated him," said Enriquez. [NYT 3/30/95] The Mutual Support Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM) has noted that the CIA's principal station is located in the installations of an army post in central Guatemala City. [La Jornada 3/26/95 from ANSA, Cerigua, AFP, IPS, DPA, AP, Reuter] The CIA's links to the DeVine murder were confirmed on Mar. 24 by Jorge Lemus, who became known for his accusations against top military officers linked to human rights violations, drug trafficking and auto theft, when he arranged an October 1993 press conference at Guatemala City's Pavoncito prison [see Update #269, #198]. Lemus confirmed that both Alpirez and Col. Mario Garcia participated directly in the murder of DeVine; he said he had first revealed this over a year ago, when he also accused the CIA of covering up information on the DeVine murder. "It's very significant that on an international level for the first time the US government is fingered as a participant in these activities," said Lemus, "since that is an accusation that I made quite a long time ago." Lemus asserted that he has sufficient evidence to show that the US embassy is "precisely who was in charge of hiding those details, when it was they who most pressured Guatemala to clear up this type of activity." [Inter Press Service 3/24/95] 4. US ACTIVISTS PROTEST GUATEMALAN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS Forty human rights activists picketed and shouted slogans on Mar. 29 in front of the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington to condemn continuing human rights abuses in Guatemala. The protest was sponsored by the Guatemala Committee of the Washington Area, one of over 100 grassroots committees that form the national Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA), based in Washington. Nine protesters were arrested by Secret Service agents for intentionally blocking the entrance to the Embassy. Seven of those arrested were in the midst of a week-long fast to protest the US Army School of the Americas, where Col. Alpirez and numerous other Latin American military officers have trained [see Update #269]. Father Roy Bourgeois, the organizer of the fast, addressed the crowd. Protesters demanded that the US declassify all US intelligence information on human rights violations committed against tens of thousands of Guatemalans and a number of US citizens since the 1950s; suspend US visas for Guatemalan army officers; ban all US commercial military equipment and weapons sales to the Guatemalan military; and close the School of the Americas. [Guatemala Committee Press Release 3/29/95] Shortly before noon on Mar. 28, seven people were arrested for peacefully occupying the Guatemalan Consulate in San Francisco. When the demonstrators asked Consul Rafael Salazar to make phone calls concerning the Alpirez murders, Salazar suggested that they take their protest to US government offices instead. "Who do you think trained the Guatemalan military? Who gave them their weapons? Who provided them with military experts?" he asked. [Guatemala News and Information Bureau 3/29/95] Human rights violations continue in Guatemala, meanwhile. Unionist Alexander Giovanny Gomez Virula was recently abducted and beaten to death; his body was found in a gully. Gomez was the financial secretary of the union at the RCA maquiladora, which was illegally closed by its owners in the face of a union drive. The victim's father lamented, "The only crime that my son committed was to ask for his labor rights." Byron Morales, leader of the Union of Guatemalan Labor Unions (UNSITRAGUA), said that 13 union leaders have been assassinated since July 1994. [Noticias de Guatemala Weekly Bulletin 3/18-24/95] 5. "OPERATION WHITEWASH": UN TAKES OVER HAITI OCCUPATION US president Bill Clinton paid an 11-hour visit to Haiti on Mar. 31 to mark the end of the six-month US military occupation of the country and the beginning of a UN-led occupation, which is to continue until February 1996. At official ceremonies Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide told Clinton that "Haiti moved from death to life" when the US occupation began on Sept. 19, 1994, while the US president told the Haitian people to "to work hard" and "have patience." Clinton's visit was the second by a US president. The first, by Franklin Roosevelt in 1934, marked the end of an earlier, 19-year US occupation. [New York Times 4/1/95; Washington Post 4/1/95] The British Financial Times remarks that despite the transfer of command "[l]ittle will change in reality." "It will be a simple matter of taking a Kevlar helmet off and putting a blue beret on," said Gen. John Sheehan, commander in chief of the US Atlantic command. [FT 3/31/95] The US military presence, which started with 20,000 soldiers, had already dropped considerably by Mar. 31. US Army major general Joseph Kinzer will command the UN force, and the US will provide about 2,400 of the 6,900 soldiers and police in the UN occupation force; 500 will be members of the Army's Special Forces (Green Berets). The remaining troops will come mostly from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Canada, but will also include 120 soldiers from Honduras, 120 military police from Guatemala and 27 aircraft specialists and an unspecified number of police from Argentina. [NYT 4/2/95, WP 4/2/95] [The past few weeks have brought new revelations about atrocities by security forces in Argentina's "dirty war" of the 1970s and Guatemala's counterinsurgency campaign of the 1980s.] US military vehicles are being repainted white, in conformity with UN practice. The $1 million paint job has the official code name "Operation Whitewash." [WP 4/2/95] A new report by two US-based human rights groups indicates that like the occupation force, the Haitian security force has not changed significantly. In a joint report Human Rights Watch/Americas and the National Coalition for Haitian Refugees (NCHR)--two groups that supported the US occupation--say that the 2,700 police in the Interim Public Security Force set up by the US are all "recycled" soldiers from Haiti's notorious military. The US screened out former soldiers only if there was "credible information regarding violations of law and human rights violations," according to Luis Moreno, the US political officer in charge of the screening. The US refused even to investigate unproven allegations against potential members of the interim force. Because of their background in the military, the interim police have not had a high "level of public acceptance" in some places, the report says; in a number of northern towns, such as Limbe, the US military has had to allow community-based civilian police to take over many security functions. The situation will not improve soon. A new US-trained permanent national police force is not expected to be fully operational until November 1996 or later. It will consist of 6,000 to 7,000 police agents, with the same minimal screening as in the interim force. ["Haiti: Security Compromised," March 1995] [The Haitian army which the new police will supposedly replace had between 7,000 and 8,000 members.] Meanwhile, about 40 US companies have reportedly returned to the country, and the White House hopes that eventually the number will reach 200. [FT 3/31/95] 6. MANY MYSTERIES IN HAITIAN RIGHTIST'S MURDER On Mar. 28 unknown assailants shot and killed rightwing Haitian lawyer Mireille Durocher Bertin in broad daylight as she was driving in Port-au-Prince. Junior Baillergeaux, a client who was riding with the lawyer, was also killed. Durocher Bertin had been a strong supporter of the military's 1991 coup against President Aristide; in 1994 she was chief of staff for the de facto regime's president, Emile Jonassaint. The week before her murder she had announced the formation of a new rightwing party, the National Integration Movement (MIN). There was immediate speculation on the left that the killing was the result of political in-fighting on the right. [Haiti Progres (NY) 3/29- 4/4/95] On Mar. 29 Aristide asked the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to take over the investigation into Durocher Bertin's death. The next day US officials announced that they had evidence implicating the Aristide government's interior minister, Brig. Gen. Mondesir Beaubrun. Ten days earlier, on Mar. 19, US troops had detained four Haitians, including the brothers Eddy and Patrick Moise, on suspicion of involvement in a plot against Durocher Bertin. The US said that an interpreter working for the US military had named the four and had charged Beaubrun with masterminding the plot. The Haitian government warned Durocher Bertin on Mar. 23 and offered to provide her with security, which she refused. Beaubrun was in favor with the army command during the military dictatorship. He switched sides when the occupation began and became chief of staff after Aristide's return on Oct. 15. During a violent demonstration by former soldiers in December, Beaubrun barricaded himself in his office and shot two of his own bodyguards dead, apparently by mistake. He was among the 43 officers suddenly retired in February, but was then named interior minister, for reasons which remain unclear. As of Apr. 1 the interior minister had not been charged or arrested. The Moise brothers are self-proclaimed Aristide supporters who seized and briefly held the Canadian embassy in late 1992; they are widely considered agents provocateurs. [NYT 3/30/95, 3/31/95] The New York-based leftist weekly Haiti Progres reports that Beaubrun was the one who ordered the Moise brothers' arrest. [HP 3/29-4/4/95] 7. ARGENTINA: POLICE CRACK DOWN ON HUMAN RIGHTS PROTESTERS On Mar. 23 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, members of the human rights organization Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo transferred their traditional Thursday protest from the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the central government building, to the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA), which was used as a clandestine prison and torture center during Argentina's military dictatorship (1976-83). The school was chosen because of its prominence in recently published statements by retired navy officer Adolfo Scilingo, who charges that some 2,000 of the political prisoners held at the school were flung naked and unconscious from navy helicopters into the Rio Plata to die [see Update #267]. Police met the marchers with repression [Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion 3/30/95], using water cannons and arresting three people. Independent news agency DyN reported that the trouble began when a young demonstrator jumped the police barricades in front of the navy school. A scuffle between police and protesters followed, and police turned water cannons on the demonstrators to disperse them. [DLA 3/25/95 from EFE] Hebe de Bonafina, leader of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and herself a mother of two children who were "disappeared" during the dictatorship, was struck by police during the protest. Bonafini sees the Argentine Justice Department's recent order to release a list of political prisoners as too weak: "We don't want a list of the disappeared, we want a list of the murderers and torturers so that they can be sent to prison." The Mothers organization has been holding protests every week for 17 years to demand justice for their disappeared relatives. The security forces were ordered to stay away from a larger demonstration held the next day, Mar. 24, a commemoration of the 19th anniversary of the 1976 coup d'etat that began the period of military rule. A majority of the local human rights organizations participated in the protest, which like the one on Thursday was held in front of the ESMA. [Inter Press Service 3/24/95] Meanwhile, on Mar. 25 President Menem renewed his campaigning for the upcoming May 14 elections, where he will seek an unprecedented second term. He had suspended campaign activities 11 days earlier when his 26-year old son Carlos was killed in a helicopter accident. [LJ 3/26/95 from AFP, Reuter, DPA] 8. MEXICO: UNIONISTS PLAN STRIKES, REBELS PROPOSE TALKS The head of Mexico's main labor organization, Fidel Velazquez Sanchez of the pro-government Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), has decided that his unions will not march on May 1 this year, breaking a tradition dating back to the revolution of 1910- 17. [La Jornada (Mexico) 3/30/95, electronic edition] Ignoring Velazquez, leaders from university workers unions are working on a two-month action plan in response to the economic crisis that broke out in late December. At a Mar. 25 meeting also attended by representatives from social organizations and secondary school workers unions, the university unions from Mexico City and several states agreed on a series of actions culminating in a May 16 strike. The university workers are to join a campesino march on Apr. 10 (the 76th anniversary of the death of revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata), hold a one-day national strike on Apr. 26, carry out their own May Day march to Mexico City's main plaza, and give support to the traditional Teachers Day march on May 15. The next day they plan to start an open-ended strike of university workers to demand an emergency wage increase. [LJ 3/26/95] Meanwhile, a communique dated Mar. 24 from the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) offered the federal government concrete proposals for a new round of peace talks. The rebels, who are based in the southern state of Chiapas, suggested that the talks be held in one of four sites in Mexico City: the National Cathedral, the Basilica of Guadalupe, the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) or the UN office. The Governance Secretariat officially welcomed the proposals but said some were "unworkable." [LJ 3/30/95] Other government officials privately dismissed the proposal as a publicity stunt. [New York Times 3/30/95] UNAM students immediately supported the use of their campus for negotiations, while the Catholic Church announced that Mexico's Constitutional separation of church and state would prevent the use of the cathedral or the basilica. The conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN) objected that the EZLN was simply trying to give a national and international dimension to a strictly local conflict in Chiapas. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 4/2/95 from AFP] An editorial in the moderate leftist daily La Jornada suggested that the Zapatistas had serious security concerns about trying to hold talks in Chiapas, which seems to approaching a state of chaos. [LJ 3/30/95] The Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, reports at least 12 deaths between Mar. 14 and Mar. 27. Four members of the center-left opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) were killed in Salto de Agua on Mar. 14. In Tumbala a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was murdered on Mar. 21, and three more people died in a confrontation between PRI and PRD supporters on Mar. 21. Public security forces killed four campesinos in Venustiano Carranza as a campesino organization attempted to occupy land it claimed its members had been given titles to in 1965. Mexican and international solidarity activists have also been attacked, although without injuries. On Mar. 26 PRI supporters in Tumbala seized five international observers and held them overnight; the same day, masked people attacked the International Caravan for Peace as it passed through Oxchuc municipality with 180 tons of food, clothes and medicine for indigenous communities. The 48 people on board were robbed of about $1,700. [Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center news bulletin 3/27/95; Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update, Vol. 2, #24, 3/28/95] 9. IS MEXICO BAILOUT "WORKING"? In an interview with the Cable News Network (CNN) on Mar. 25, US treasury secretary Robert Rubin admitted that "there's no guarantee" that the US-led international $53 billion credit line extended to Mexico since February "will work... [W]e do not know for sure that it will rescue the Mexican economy." [Mexico Update 3/28/95; LJ 3/26/95 from AFP, AP, EFE, Notimex and DPA] The bailout plan is ostensibly meant to enable Mexico to meet current debt payments while rebuilding its hard currency reserves and attracting new investments. But Mexican government figures show that Mexico has already had to use $12.95 billion from the bailout package and its predecessor since December. No major new investments have come into the country, and the hard currency reserves are now $7.85 billion, up only slightly from the disastrous December low of $6.15 billion. [Wall Street Journal 3/27/95] Rubin said on Mar. 31 that the previous week's stabilization of the stock market and the peso had given him "a more positive feel." [NYT 4/2/95] Mexican economic columnist Leon Bendesky writes that the Mexican plan does have one major success: the austerity measures have succeeded in their goal of forcing a recession, which he notes it "doesn't take much knowledge" to produce. [LJ 3/26/95] For example, February vehicle sales fell 50% from the year before [WSJ 3/29/95], while PAN head Carlo Castillo Peraza says that at least eight of the country's 32 states (including Sonora, Sinoloa, Baja California and Jalisco, which have PAN governors) are about to default on their debts. [Mexico Update 3/28/95] The new recession comes on top of 14 years of decline for most Mexicans. New figures from the National Minimum Wage Commission show that the buying power of the minimum wage fell 53% from 1982 to 1988 and 28% from 1988 to 1994. However, the part of the work force receiving the minimum wage fell from 46.1% to 14.4% during the 14-year period. [LJ 3/26/95] [While part of the decline results from workers getting paid above the minimum wage, much is due to a decline in jobs for the lowest-paid workers, who are now suffering high rates of unemployment.] On Mar. 30 rightwing US senator Alphonse D'Amato (R-NY) brought the Senate budget-approval process to a halt by offering an amendment that would block the US's $20 billion share of the bailout plan. [NYT 3/30/95] "Mexico has collapsed already," he told the New York Times the next day. "The rescue plan has failed. And we are just perpetuating a myth if we think we are helping anyone except rich investors, who the United States has saved while everyone else in Mexico starves." [NYT 4/2/95] Despite this populist rhetoric, the investigative bimonthly Counterpunch reports that D'Amato is known in Washington as "the senator from Goldman, Sachs" as a result of the many contributions he has received from the Wall Street investment bank. Treasury Secretary Rubin himself is a former co-chair of the company, which has extensive business dealings with Mexico. In contrast, liberal Democrats like John Conyers (D-MI), Barney Frank (D-MA) and Charles Rangel (D-NY) support the bailout. "The timidity of the party's liberal wing [on Mexico] is proportional to perceptions about Clinton's political vulnerability," a Democratic staffer told Counterpunch. "There's a sense we could knock him over on this one." [Counterpunch 3/15/95] 10. NICARAGUAN TEACHERS ON STRIKE The leaders of 13,000 striking teachers in Nicaragua have announced their rejection of government proposals to end a strike for better wages; the strike was in its fifth week as of Mar. 30. "We don't accept those proposals because, besides seeming like the product of an electoral campaign, the government never complies with what it promises," explained Mario Quintana, one of the strike leaders. "We want short-term solutions." The teachers are demanding a 50% salary increase and other social and professional benefits. Current teacher salaries range from the equivalent of $50 to $75 a month. A proposal announced by the Education Ministry on Mar. 30 promises to ask the National Assembly to guarantee 20% of next year's budget for teacher salaries. [El Diario-La Prensa 3/31/95 from AP] The Education Ministry has meanwhile fired more than 300 of the striking teachers. Education Minister Humberto Belli said he was "sick and tired of the demands of the union leaders, who only point out problems without offering solutions." [Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 3/27/95] 11. IN OTHER NEWS... Mar. 29 was the third day of a general strike by unions in Bolivia, and the 18th day of a national teachers strike [see Update #269]. Oscar Salas, executive secretary of the Bolivian Workers Central (COB), said the government has cracked down on workers "as if it were a dictatorial regime"; police have been ordered to arrest many union leaders and have used tear gas and rubber bullets against strikers. [El Diario-La Prensa 3/30/95 from AP]. A 12-year old girl was killed in the Dominican Republic on Mar. 28 when several unidentified people drove by and shot at student demonstrators in the city of San Francisco de Macoris. The police say they have identified the pickup truck from which the shots were fired. Five people were killed the previous week during demonstrations against bus fare hikes in the capital, Santo Domingo [see Update #269]. [ED-LP 3/29/95 from EFE] Also in the Dominican Republic, four national nurses unions began an open-ended strike on Mar. 29 to demand better wages. The nurses held several shorter strikes in previous weeks [see Update #268]. [ED-LP 3/29/95] Students and administrators of Venezuela's main universities held a legal and peaceful protest march to the Congress on Mar. 31 to demand a law that will prohibit the police from using firearms at public demonstrations. Simon Munoz, rector of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), presented the proposal to Congress president Eduardo Gomez. [Diario las Americas 4/1/95 from EFE]. Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori is favored to win an unprecedented second term in the Apr. 9 general elections. A poll from the Datum firm shows him winning in the first round with 56.5%; former UN secretary Javier Perez de Cuellar trails badly with 19%, according to the poll. [La Jornada 3/26/95 from ANSA, Reuter, AFP, UPI, DPA, AP]. At a ceremony in Havana on Mar. 25, Cuba became the last Latin American country to sign on to the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco, which bans nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brazil and Mexico had been urging Cuba to join for some time, arguing that signing the treaty would weaken US claims that Cuba represents a threat. Obstacles remain, as a Cuban Foreign Ministry declaration pointed out, citing the illegal US occupation of the Guantanamo naval base, through which nuclear ships sometimes pass. [El Diario-La Prensa 3/27/95 from EFE; Financial Times 3/27/95] 12. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA & BEYOND For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed are not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network. 4/6-7 THU-FRI - "Reform of Mexican Agrarian Reform." Conference on changes in Mexican land, who wins, who loses, views of NAFTA. 606 Dodge Hall, Columbia Univ. Call 212-854-2389. 4/7 FRI, 7:45 PM - "Free, Accessible Health Care in Cuba," report on visit by 5 nursing students. All Saints Episcopal Church, 43- 12 46th St, Sunnyside. Queens Health Task Force. 718-482-0170. 4/8 SAT, 3 PM - "Bringing It Home: Confronting Neoliberalism Locally." CREED panel at Socialist Scholars Conference, Rm S751, BMCC, 199 Chambers St. Call 212-674-9499. 4/9 SUN 11 AM -- Mobilize for Women's Lives. Rally in DC to stop violence against women. The Mall. NOW, 202-331-0066. 4/9 SUN, 3 PM - Speakers, food, poetry to celebrate Palestine Land Day. Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10th fl. $15. Palestine Aid Society. 212-385-4233. 4/12 WED, 7 PM - The Rich Get Richer, workshop organized by Share the Wealth Project and the Learning Alliance. $8/$10/$12 (no one turned away). 324 Lafayette St. 7th Fl. 212-226-7171. -- + NY Transfer has moved! + + NY Transfer Blythe Internet + + 212-979-0464 <== NEW PHONE NUMBERS ==> 212-979-0440 + + 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 + + e-mail: nyt@blythe.org + >