WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #272, APRIL 16, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. President Reelected in Peru 2. Argentine Worker Killed as Vote Nears 3. Mexico Tries to Break Bus Union 4. More Mexican Economic Scandals: Tortillas and Tesobonos 5. Mexico: Government-EZLN Talks, Action Alerts 6. Doubts About Haitian Elections 7. US Backtracks on Haitian Lawyer's Death 8. Guatemalan General Ordered to Pay Damages 9. Guatemalan Government and Rebels Sign Indigenous Rights Pact 10. Indigenous Panamanians Protest Mining Exploration 11. Obligatory Military Service Eliminated in Honduras 12. US Expels Cuban Diplomats 13. In Other News: Nicaraguan Teachers, Chilean Prisoners 14. Upcoming Events & 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, 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. PRESIDENT REELECTED IN PERU On Apr. 9, Peruvians overwhelmingly reelected Alberto Fujimori to a second consecutive five-year term as president. With 90% of the vote counted, the official results of the National Electoral Board (JNE), show Fujimori with about 64.6% of the more than 12 million valid votes cast, followed by former United Nations secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar with 21.63%. None of the other 12 candidates received more than 5% of the vote, and none of the traditional parties, including Popular Action (AP), American Revolutionary Popular Alliance (APRA, now called the Aprista Party), Popular Christian Party (PPC), and United Left (IU), got even the 5% required to maintain their legal status. Those four parties, which in the past took about 90% of the vote among them, this year took less than 10%. To continue as political parties, each will have to re-register as a new party, submitting 100,000 names of supporters to qualify. On election night, Fujimori commented that "democracy with a party structure has ended in Peru, and soon it may be ending in other countries in the region as well." Fujimori said the voters rejected the traditional parties because "they never listened to their rank and file." Fujimori's Change 90-New Majority coaliton will also enjoy absolute control of Congress, having won 66 of the 120 seats. Perez de Cuellar's political organization Union for Peru took 20 seats, becoming the largest opposition force. Normally, the top vote getter among deputies is elected to head the Congress; if congressional deputies follow this tradition, Martha Chavez of Fujimori's Cambio 90-Nuevo Mayoria coalition will be the new president of the legislative body, the first time in Peru's history that a woman has held that position. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 4/14/95 from UPI, Notimex, AP, DPA, NYT, AFP, Reuter] Susy Diaz, the stripper who ran for Congress on the ticket of the Independent Agrarian Movement (MIA), appears to have won a seat as the top vote-getter for her party. But Diaz has charged before the JNE and the press that several of her associates from the MIA are plotting to switch votes and put Victor Vazquez Villanueva, brother of the current agriculture minister, in her place in Congress. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 4/11/95 from AP, 4/16/95 from EFE] Both the Organization of American States (OAS) and other international observers verified that the number of "irregularities" did not go beyond what could normally be expected in a national election, and were not sufficient to taint the validity of the outcome. [LADB Notisur 4/14/95 from UPI, Notimex, AP, DPA, NYT, AFP, Reuter] The Peruvian civic group Transparencia, which had over 9,000 observers at the balloting, declared themselves broadly satisfied that the elections were fair. According to Transparencia, about 80% of voters turned out in this year's elections. As in many Latin American countries, voting is mandatory and failure to vote is punishable by fine. Investigation of a large-scale electoral fraud attempt uncovered on Apr. 6 in the Andean city of Huanuco [see Update #271] has meanwhile been deemed by the attorney general to be a criminal rather than a political issue. [Financial Times (UK) 4/11/95] Fujimori is the second person to be elected to a second term as president after changing Peru's Constitution to allow reelection. The first, Augusto B. Leguia, amended the Constitution in 1912 to pave the way for his reelection. In 1919 Leguia declared himself dictator and ruled until he was overthrown in a military coup in 1930. [LADB Notisur 4/14/95 from UPI, Notimex, AP, DPA, NYT, AFP, Reuter] 2. ARGENTINE WORKER KILLED AS VOTE NEARS One worker was killed and 26 others were injured on Apr. 12 in Ushuaia, the southernmost city of Argentina, when police tried to break up a demonstration against the closing of the Continental Fuegina television factory and the layoffs of 200 workers without severance pay. The clashes began on Apr. 11, when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a group of workers who refused to obey a court order to vacate the factory building. Local television coverage of the events showed a police officer shooting a fallen protester in the back with a rubber bullet at a distance of less than eight inches, as workers' family members pleaded for mercy. Some protesters said live bullets were also fired; the worker who was killed, Victor Choque, died from a shot to the head with a lead bullet. The Argentine government sent in federal troops to restore order in the Tierra del Fuego city on Apr. 12. [Financial Times 4/13/95; Diario Las Americas (Miami) 4/14/95 from EFE; El Diario-La Prensa 4/16/95 from EFE] Even though Tierra del Fuego province is governed by a local opposition force, the Fuegino Popular Movement, the Ushuaia events may turn out to be politically costly for the federal government and for the reelection campaign of President Carlos Saul Menem. Analysts say conflicts like the one in Ushuaia are just waiting to happen in other cities, particularly in the empoverished northern provinces. Menem's principal rivals for the presidency have been making references to Ushuaia in their campaign appearances since the clash there occurred. Jose Octavio Bordon, presidential candidate of the center-left coalition FREPASO (Frente Pais Solidario), said he feared the police repression in Ushuaia could become the model for the government's response "in facing the wave of social conflicts." [ED-LP 4/16/95 from EFE] Bordon blamed the recent wave of labor unrest on the government's economic policies. [FT 4/13/95] Candidate Horacio Massaccesi of the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR) directly accused the government of ignoring the problem of unemployment and simply fighting it "with blows and gunshots." [ED-LP 4/16/95 from EFE] Menem warned on Apr. 12 that there will be "total chaos" if a second round of voting becomes necessary, though he added that the possibility was "extremely remote" since he is 20 percentage points ahead of Bordon. To win in the first round on May 14, Menem must either get 45% or more votes, or 40% if he has at least a ten-point lead over his closest rival. The latest Gallup poll gives Menem 46% of voter intentions; Bordon is in second place with 26% and Massaccesi is in third place with 18%. [ED-LP 4/16/95 from EFE] An earlier poll by the private firm Mora y Araujo gave Menem 42.5%, Bordon 22%, and Massaccesi 12%. [La Jornada (Mexico) 4/9/95 from AFP, AP, Reuter] Bordon has been steadily gaining support since his candidacy was announced on Feb. 28 after he won FREPASO's primary elections [see Update #266]. Some polls now put him near 30%, close to the level that could force a runoff against Menem. The UCR, Argentina's oldest political party, has been dropping in popularity ever since it signed a compromise pact with Menem's ruling Justicialista (Peronist) Party in December of 1993 supporting a package of changes to the constitution, including one that introduced reelection [see Update #202]. In addition, Massaccesi's popularity has suffered as financial problems struck the state he governs, Rio Negro, and unpaid state employees there took to the streets in February. Massaccesi blames Rio Negro's difficulties on unfair treatment from the central government, and on the credit crunch precipitated by Mexico's financial crisis. [FT 4/12/95] 3. MEXICO TRIES TO BREAK BUS UNION On Apr. 8 the government of Mexico's Federal District (DF) suddenly shut down Mexico City's main bus line, Route 100, which provided service to 2.8 million passengers each day. A judge had declared the line bankrupt the day before, although lawyers argue that as a public enterprise Route 100 is not subject to bankruptcy. The DF government--which is appointed by the federal president's office--plans to lay off all 14,000 of Route 100's employees. As the line was being shut down on Apr. 8, the attorney general's office arrested five leaders of the Route 100 Urban Passenger Auto Transport Workers Union (SUTAUR 100); the unionists are charged with misuse of union funds, based on a complaint which 274 former employees filed in 1991 and which the authorities had ignored for four years. [La Jornada 4/9/95; LJ (electronic edition) 4/13/95] The body of DF transport and highways secretary Luis Miguel Moreno Gomez was discovered in his office early in the morning of Apr. 10; he had been shot twice in the chest with a 38 mm handgun apparently belonging to one of the office's security guards. The capital's forensic department insists that Moreno's death was a suicide. Later in the day, the DF government charged that Route 100 and SUTAUR 100 officials had engaged in $8 million worth of questionable transactions between 1992 and 1994. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/11/95 from AP; Reuter 4/11/95; Los Angeles Times 4/11/95] SUTAUR 100 supporters call the bankruptcy a "perfectly orchestrated plan" to break the union while setting the bus line up for privatization. They note that Route 100 was shut down without notice on a Saturday before Holy Week, when most Mexicans take vacations. [LJ 4/9/95] [Despite the severe national economic crisis, one tenth of Mexico City's population, including many working people, managed to leave town for the holidays. [Washington Post 4/15/95]] Since February the Mexican press has been suggesting that the leftist union was funneling money to the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) of southern Mexico [see Update #263]. Fernando Garcia, a member of SUTAUR 100's political action committee, told the Los Angeles Times that the union had sent food and clothes to the EZLN but denied rumors that the organization had supplied arms to the rebels. SUTAUR 100's legal counsel, Ricardo Barco, is a leader of the Independent Proletarian Movement and has organized a number of marches in support of the Zapatistas. [LAT 4/11/95] 4. MORE MEXICAN ECONOMIC SCANDALS: TORTILLAS AND TESOBONOS On Apr. 11 the Mexican government raised the price of tortillas for the first time since 1991; the price for a kilo (about 30 tortillas) rose 26%, from $0.12 to $0.15, in urban areas. The government, which spends $7 million a year subsidizing tortilla prices, said its goal was to help preserve the industry's 250,000 jobs in a time of high inflation. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/12/95] But journalist John Ross writes in the California-based Anderson Valley Advertiser that in fact the government has been undercutting the nixtamaleros, the small firms producing tortillas, since 1990 in favor of large-scale producers like Roberto Gonzalez Barrera, whose Maseca-Gruma-Mission Foods industrial group is working to corner the tortilla market throughout Mexico, Central America and the US. Gonzalez Barrera's brother-in-law is Carlos Hank Gonzalez, agriculture secretary during the presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari and a longtime stalwart of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who became a billionaire while Salinas was in office. He is rumored to have connections with last year's assassinations of PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta and PRI general secretary Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu. Hank Gonzalez has dropped out of sight this year, but his family reportedly owns the Boston home that ex-president Salinas has moved into following his Mar. 10 flight from Mexico. [AVA 4/5/95] Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that as of Mar. 15 the Mexican government had drawn down $5.2 billion of the $20 billion US credit line President Bill Clinton announced on Jan. 31. Of this, more than $4 billion went to pay off the Mexican short-term Treasury bonds known as tesobonos; as much as 90% of the payments were to US investors or Mexicans living abroad. Most of the money went directly from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York to Wall Street speculators, leading the Times to remark that "[m]uch of the money never left New York." [LAT 4/5/95] 5. MEXICO: GOVERNMENT-EZLN TALKS, ACTION ALERTS After 12 hours of often heated discussions in the village of San Miguel, Chiapas, on Apr. 9, representatives of the Mexican government and the rebel EZLN finally agreed to reopen formal peace negotiations on Apr. 20 in the town of San Andres Larrainzar, northwest of San Cristobal de las Casas. [La Jornada 4/11/95, National Commission for Democracy in Mexico translation] The rebels gave up on earlier demands for the formal negotiations to be held in Mexico City and for the federal army to withdraw from Zapatista territory as a precondition. The government agreed to continue the suspension of arrest warrants against several EZLN leaders. Unnamed analysts say that the EZLN is now on the defensive. [LA Times 4/11/95] Meanwhile, Mexican grassroots organizations are seeking international support around a number of emergency situations. Federal Deputy Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, president of the Democratic National Convention (CND), has launched a petition campaign to demand safe conduct out of the conflict zone--as provided for in the Geneva Conventions--for the EZLN's "Commander Ramona" so that she can receive treatment for a serious cancer condition. Support for the petition can be mailed (certified mail preferred) to Convencion Nacional de Mujeres, Xola 181-3 Colonia Alamos, Mexico D.F. CP 03400, Mexico, fax 011-525-519-7063. On Mar. 23 the Mexican government used the pretext of minor equipment problems to suspend Radio Huayacocotla, "The Voice of the Campesino," XEJN-OC, a small shortwave station in Veracruz state with an audience chiefly of campesino families of the Nahua, Otomie and Tepehua nations. The Jesuit-sponsored station is looking for faxes to Governance Secretary Esteban Moctezuma (011-525-592-0584) to ask for the suspension to be lifted and for the government to act on the station's 1978 application for an AM frequency. [Radio Huayacocotla press release 4/7/95] Kirkwood Industries in Mexico City is trying to fire all 250 of its workers in order to break the organizing drive of an independent metalworkers union affiliated with the Authentic Labor Front (FAT). On Apr. 12 workers set up an encampment outside the plant to protest the firing of 13 workers earlier that day. People who support the workers can call Kirkwood president Richard Klynn in Cleveland (216-267-6200, fax 216-362- 3804) and demand that the workers be reinstated. For more information, call Robin Alexander of the United Electrical Workers Union (UE) at 412-471-8919. [Posted by Labor Notes 4/12/95] 6. DOUBTS ABOUT HAITIAN ELECTIONS On Apr. 10 Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced without comment that the June 4 local and legislative elections, already postponed from last December, will be put off until June 25. A second round runoff scheduled for June 25 has now been rescheduled for July 16. The rightwing parties, which claim the national and local electoral councils are packed with supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, seemed pleased with the extension, which will give parties an extra two weeks--until the end of April--to register their voters. "[T]he CEP has given partial satisfaction," said former deputy Duly Brutus of the rightist PRANPRA, "but it still has a lot to do." [Haiti en Marche (Miami) 4/12-18/95, some from AP] Aristide supporters, who were expected to sweep the elections, are now questioning whether the balloting will--or should--take place in the current climate of violence. Haiti en Marche, a Miami-based weekly giving views of the more conservative sector of Aristide's Lavalas movement, talks about "a new Nov. 29, 1987"--when military death squads killed scores of voters as they lined up at polling places. "The air reeks of electoral massacre," the paper says, suggesting that the Mar. 28 murder of rightwing lawyer Mireille Durocher Bertin [see Updates #270 and 271] could be part of a rightist plot to destabilize the country in order to "take control of the elections." [HEM 4/12-18/95] Meanwhile, CEP president Anselme Remy objects to the US government's plan to print the ballots in California rather than Haiti. The US is paying for half the costs of the elections."[I]t has become clear that the money is US money," he says. "Their priorities are not our priorities." [Haiti Info Vol. 3, #13, 4/8/95] Aristide's government is also under pressure from the left, although the president himself remains popular. On Mar. 29 at least 1,000 people took to the streets to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Smarck Michel and his cabinet. The demonstration was called by a number of grassroots organizations, and signs read: "Down with the high cost of living," and "Down with privatization." [Haiti Info 4/8/95] On Apr. 7 US and UN troops fired tear gas into a crowd blocking a road near the Port- au-Prince airport. "There is no unemployment office. There is nothing we can do but block this road. Then maybe they will hear us," one protester told the Associated Press. Demonstrators threw rocks at the soldiers. On Apr. 10 and 11 hundreds rallied and set up barricades outside the US "Camp Democracy" headquarters. "We don't want elections. We want jobs. We want to eat," the protesters said. [Haiti Progres (NY) 4/12-18/95] On Apr. 6 a US Coast Guard cutter intercepted a 50-foot sailboat near Miami. The boat was carrying 128 Haitians and 12 Dominicans seeking to enter the US. State Department spokesperson Christine Shelly said this was the first time the Coast Guard had picked up Haitians at sea since Aristide's restoration by US troops in October 1994. [New York Times 4/8/95] On Apr. 11 US Major Gen. Joseph Kinzer, who heads the UN occupation forces, hinted that his group may stay past the February 1996 withdrawal date. Kinzer said that only a "narrow vision" would insist on pulling out before the mission is accomplished, "given what we have invested in this enterprise here." [HP 4/12-18/95] 7. US BACKTRACKS ON HAITIAN LAWYER'S DEATH After a week of blaming the Haitian government for the Durocher Bertin murder, US officials suddenly shifted gears in a New York Times article datelined Apr. 10. "I suspect we're not going to get anywhere" in the case, said an anonymous official close to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which had virtually taken over the investigation. The article suggested that the hit could have been masterminded by almost anyone: Colombian drug cartels, Durocher Bertin's husband, elements in the Haitian right seeking either to rid themselves of a rival or to embarrass Aristide. Only foreign intelligence agencies are never mentioned as suspects, despite the professionalism of the job. [NYT 4/11/95] The many questions about the case did not deter the liberal daily New York Newsday from assigning blame. "To allow left-wing death squads to take up the grisly work of their ousted right-wing oppressors is hardly a winning formula for democracy," the paper wrote in an editorial. [NY Newsday 4/10/95] Last fall Newsday was one of the strongest and most consistent backers of the US military intervention. Corrections: Update #271 gave the name of an informant in the Durocher Bertin case as Claude Douge; the last name is Douge. According to the Haitian press, the name of the Haitian captain variously reported as supporting and opposing Aristide is Richard Salomon. 8. GUATEMALAN GENERAL ORDERED TO PAY DAMAGES On Apr. 12, US federal district judge Douglas P. Woodlock ordered Guatemalan former defense minister and current presidential candidate Gen. Hector Gramajo Morales to pay $47.5 million in damages for human rights crimes committed under his command. "Gramajo was aware of and supported widespread acts of brutality committed under his command resulting in thousands of civilian deaths," Judge Woodlock ruled. "The evidence suggests that Gramajo devised and directed the implementation of an indiscriminate campaign of terror against civilians." "Forty-seven million dollars?" Gramajo said in a telephone interview from Guatemala City. "I don't have 47 million centavos!" Gramajo called the case "a remnant of the cold war," and said: "I was a public servant. I defended my country. I did nothing wrong." [NYT 4/13/95] The decision in the Boston federal court answers two lawsuits brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) against Gramajo in 1991 [see Updates #71, 72], one presented on June 6 on behalf of nine Guatemalans now living in the US, and one a week later on behalf of US nun Dianna Ortiz. The nine Guatemalans are all Canjobal indigenous people; their highland villages were razed and their families and friends slain by soldiers under Gramajo's command. They are all now living in and around Davis, California, and are seeking political asylum. Ortiz, a member of the Ursuline order, went to work as a missionary in Guatemala in 1987. She was kidnapped, raped, beaten and burned 111 times with cigarettes during an interrogation in 1989. Her torturers acused her of working with peasants and teachers who opposed military repression. Gramajo dismissed her injuries as the result of a sadomasochistic lesbian relationship, though he later admitted he had no basis for saying that. The suits were brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows victims of human rights abuses to bring suit in US federal courts no matter where the violations occurred, as long as the defendant is in the US. Gramajo was served with the first lawsuit at his graduation ceremony at the Kennedy School of Goverment at Harvard University, and the second at the apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was staying at the time. Gramajo then left the US and, after filing an answer, failed to contest the charges [New York Times 4/13/95; CCR Press Release 4/12/95]; a default judgement was issued against him on Nov. 7, 1991 for failing to respond to the court's requests for basic information [see Update #94]. The plaintiffs will seek collection of the judgement in Guatemala or any other country where Gramajo has assets. "My case is just one of thousands in Guatemala," said Ortiz in response to the ruling. "We have to keep challenging impunity both in Guatemala and the United States. Where is the justice for the Guatemalan people?" "This accusation is not only an accusation against Gramajo and the Guatemalan military but also against the US government," emphasized CCR attorney Beth Stephens, who along with CCR attorney Michael Ratner represented the plaintiffs in the two cases. "Gen. Gramajo didn't carry out his work in isolation," Ratner stressed. "He was trained by the United States and works closely with the CIA [US Central Intelligence Agency]. This case shows that the murders of Jennifer Harbury's husband and [US innkeeper] Michael Devine were not isolated cases or aberrations, but business as usual for the Guatemalan military and the CIA." CCR Press Release 4/12/95] US officials said on Apr. 14 that they had heard new unsubstantiated reports that members of the Guatemalan military are plotting to assassinate Harbury, a US lawyer whose Guatemalan guerrilla leader husband Efrain Bamaca Velasquez was tortured and murdered in a clandestine military prison in 1992. Harbury's name first appeared on a death list during a hunger strike in Guatemala City last fall [see Updates #246-250]. Another hunger strike by Harbury last month in Washington sparked the release of information that Guatemalan army colonel Julio Roberto Alpirez had directed the Bamaca and Devine murders while receiving payments from the CIA [see Updates #267-271]. The US Army's Southern Command headquarters in Panama has meanwhile announced that it withdrew an invitation to Gramajo for his participation in a Miami symposium on Central American security policy later this month. A Southern Command spokesperson said the invitation had been a mistake because "we would never knowingly associate with a guy like that." [Washington Post 4/15/95] The Mutual Support Group for Relatives of the Disappeared (GAM) is demanding to know if archives documenting the operations of the CIA in Guatemala were destroyed in a Mar. 26 explosion and fire at the Aurora military base in Guatemala City. The fire left three people dead and more than a dozen injured, and caused serious damages to eight warehouses belonging to the Corps of Engineers and the Army Department of Management at the base, where Col. Alpirez is second-in-command. The Guatemalan government said the fire may have been deliberately set, and has offered to compensate those who suffered losses in it. [Noticias de Guatemala Weekly Bulletin 3/25-31/95; Latin America Data Base Notisur 4/14/95 from Reuter, Notimex, AP] 9. GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT AND REBELS SIGN INDIGENOUS RIGHTS ACCORD On March 31 in Mexico City, the Guatemalan government and the rebel Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) signed an accord on indigenous rights, breaking a five-month impasse in the peace process. The accord calls for sweeping constitutional reforms that would recognize and protect ethnic differences in Guatemala. The reforms will not take effect until a final peace accord is ratified, and they must also be approved by Congress, which is currently headed by retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, a former dictator who led the army's brutal counterinsurgency campaign against indigenous civilians in the 1980s. Under the terms of the accord, the government promises to promote constitutional reforms to recognize the Maya, Xinca and Garifuna Indians and to adopt legal reforms to end discrimination and sexual harassment, respect the use of traditional dress and languages and promote bilingual education. Also, bilingual judges will be appointed to indigenous communities, and state-run social services will use indigenous languages. In addition, the accord asks Congress to approve Convention 169 on Indigenous Peoples and Tribes, written in 1989, which forms part of the treaties negotiated under the auspices of the International Labor Organization (ILO). The accord failed to meet Indian and URNG demands for ancestral territory, local political autonomy and measures to combat the extreme poverty faced by indigenous communities. Responsibility for implementing the pact's provisions lies solely with the government and Congress. [LADB Notisur 4/7/95 from UPI, ACAN-EFE, DPA, NYT, Reuter, AFP; San Francisco Chronicle 4/1/95, posted on email] 10. INDIGENOUS PANAMANIANS PROTEST MINING EXPLORATION One member of the indigenous Gnobe Bugle nation--also known as Guaymi--and two police officers were injured on Apr. 11 in the Panamanian district of Palmas de Veraguas during an indigenous protest against mining exploration by a Canadian-Panamanian consortium. More than 600 protesters--armed with rocks, sticks and machetes, according to Spanish news service EFE--set out to block the mining explorations of the Geotec firm, which is looking for copper and gold deposits on indigenous lands. In the clash, which followed a week of peaceful protests, police arrested eight indigenous leaders (or 10 according to AFP), and used tear gas and military clubs to subdue the crowd and clear the road. Liborio Concepcion was injured and then arrested when he tried to stop the arrest of three others. The arrested protesters were taken to Panama City; the chief of the Modelo prison admitted that they are being held there with unknown charges. Guaymi leader Antonio Acosta said that five indigenous communities will continue their protests until the government suspends the mining firm's concession. Geotec is linked to Minamerica, a binational consortium that conducts mining exploration in Panama and promotes investment by Canadian firms. [Diario Las Americas 4/14/95 from AFP; SAIIC Urgent Actions 4/12/95] According to the Indigenous Affairs Office of Veraguas, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry authorized concessions to exploit 18,700 hectares of land in the area. The indigenous communities in the area were not even consulted about the transaction. Atencio Lopez, director of the Legal Office of the Kunas Napguana, said the government refused to demarcate Gnobe- Bugle community land in order to keep control of the land and keep exploiting the resources on the land. Government officials have refused to talk to Gnobe-Bugle leaders. The protesters intend to keep the road blockaded until police and Geotec leave their land. More police and military are being sent to Veraguas, and the protesters expect more tear gas, clubs, and serious confrontation. They are asking for faxes to President Ernesto Perez Balladares (011-507-27-0076) and Government and Justice Minister Raul Montenegro at (011-507-62-7877), demanding that the arrested protesters be released, that no one be harmed by police, and that the Gnobe-Bugle lands be demarcated. For more information contact the South and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC), Box 28703, Oakland, CA 94604, (510) 834-4263; fax (510) 834-4264; email: saiic@igc.apc.org. [SAIIC Urgent Actions 4/12/95] 11. OBLIGATORY MILITARY SERVICE ELIMINATED IN HONDURAS The Honduran legislature has unanimously voted to abolish obligatory military service and replace it with a voluntary service. The measure approved by congress eliminates the constitutional article 272 of 1982 that established obligatory service. The new reforms had been approved by the previous legislature in May of 1994 but needed to be ratified by the current one to take effect. "It is an historic moment," said Alba de Mejia, president of the independent Committee of Women for Peace. In 1994 Mejia led a hunger strike to support an end to the draft. For years many parents had opposed the forced recruitment practices of the army, including the frequent abductions of young men from the streets, cars, buses and even from their own homes. [ED-LP 4/10/95 from AP] 12. US EXPELS CUBAN DIPLOMATS On Apr. 12, the US ordered two Cuban diplomats from Cuba's Mission to the United Nations (UN) to leave the US with their families before midnight of Apr. 16. The announcement was made by James Rubin, spokesperson of the US mission to the UN. A top UN official who asked not to be identified said the US action is in accordance with UN rules regarding US territory. The two Cuban diplomats are Edmundo Suarez Hernandez and Saul Hermida Griego; they were involved in a clash with anti-Castro demonstrators in front of the Cuban Mission in New York on Aug. 30, 1994. Four employees of the Mission were arrested in connection with the incident, but their arrests were invalid because they had diplomatic immunity. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/13/95 from combined services] US officials had threatened to expel Suarez and Hermida if they failed to renounce their diplomatic immunity. The officials want to put the two diplomats on trial in New York for disorderly conduct because they allegedly reacted violently when anti-Castro demonstrators broke through police barricades and tried to force their way into the Cuban mission. The Cuban government refused to withdraw diplomatic immunity from the two, and blamed US authorities for failing to offer sufficient protection to prevent violent incidents. On Apr. 5, a member of the Cuban Mission told the UN committee on relations with the host country that Havana has repeatedly denounced aggressive actions against the Mission, carried out openly and systematically with impunity by certain groups and individuals. [Radio Havana Cuba 4/5/95; Diario Las Americas 4/14/95 from EFE] The Cuban government called the expulsion orders "suspicious," and a note from Cuba's Foreign Ministry on Apr. 13 said it was "ridiculous to make this decision eight months after the accused actions took place." [ED-LP 4/14/95 from EFE-AFP] The expulsion orders were announced the same day that Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, arrived in New York for the latest round of talks between the Cuban and US governments on issues of emigration. [DLA 4/14/95 from EFE] 13. IN OTHER NEWS... Some 13,000 Nicaraguan teachers accepted a 30% raise on Apr. 11 after more than 40 days on strike [see Updates #267, 270, 271]. Classes are to resume Apr. 18, after the Easter week holidays. The government agreed to rehire 320 teachers fired during the strike and to study the possibility of raising teacher salaries in 1996. Teachers will also receive a one-time bonus this June equivalent to 159 cordobas ($21.70), and they will receive full back pay for the time they were on strike. As part of the settlement, the Ministry of Education and the unions have promised to promote the collection of voluntary donations in high schools which will go into a fund for teachers. [ED-LP 4/12/95 from EFE]. More than 70 political prisoners held in Chile's Maximum Security Prison (CAS) and eight women prisoners in the San Miguel men's prison ended their dry hunger strike over the weekend of Apr. 10 after authorities promised to reinstate the original prison regulations and add several recreational and work programs. The inmates went on strike a week ago to protest a harsh prison regime and strict limits on visitation rights. The strike was also a reaction to the discovery by inmates of more than 150 hidden microphones throughout the prison [see Update #271]. The government insisted that the microphones were never used, but ordered prison authorities to dismantle them. [CHIP News 4/10/95] 14. UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed are not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network. Available from the Nicaragua Solidarity Network: Excerpts from the Mar. 31 Charlie Rose show on PBS with Allan Nairn, Elliott Abrams and Robert Torricelli, on US involvement in Guatemalan human rights violations. Send an SASE for a copy; subscribers can also call or write to request that it be mailed with their next Update. 4/20 THU, 7 PM - CREED general mtg. 339 Lafayette #8. 212-674- 9499. 4/22 SAT, 9:30 AM - Demo to Stop Spread of Weapons. Dag Hammar- skjold Plaza, 47th & 1st Ave. NY Peace Council. 212-666-6742. 4/22 SAT, 9 PM - Spectacular Mind-Blowing CREED Party with DJ Power Serge. Sliding scale $5-$8. 122 W 27nd St 10th Fl. 212-674- 9499. 4/23 SUN, 1 PM - Radical Walking Tour: Harlem. Meet in front of 306 Lenox Ave at 125th St. $6. 718-492-0069. 4/25 TUE, 4:30 PM - Protest Against Budget Cuts. City Hall & other locations. 212-780-3293. -- + 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 + >