WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #273, APRIL 23, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Bolivian Gov't Declares State of Siege, Arrests Unionists 2. Repression Condemned in Bolivia 3. Government Forces Economic "Adjustment" on Uruguayans 4. Costa Ricans Protest Austerity Plan 5. Mexican Peace Talks Resume 6. Mexico: Prisoner Freed, Anti-Labor Drive Continues 7. Is Mexican Left in "Process of Erosion"? 8. Haiti: Boat People, Sexual Harassment, Durocher Bertin Case 9. Death Penalty Extended in Guatemala 10. Cuba: Immigration News Roundup 11. One Killed in Dominican Republic Prison Protest 12. Doctors on Strike Again in Chile 13. Oklahoma Bombing Advances Anti-Solidarity Law 14. Other News: Argentina, Chile/Cuba, Peru, Puerto Rico, Ecuador 15. 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. BOLIVIAN GOV'T DECLARES STATE OF SIEGE, ARRESTS UNIONISTS On Apr. 18, Bolivian police officers and masked civilian agents of the Ministry of Government broke into the building where the Bolivian Workers Central (COB) was having a meeting and arrested the majority of union leaders and others present in the building at the time. [Noticias, Red Latinoamericana de Informacion en Europa, 4/19/95] The union members at the COB meeting had just voted to continue a three-week old general strike, according to local media. [Reuter 4/20/95] [The general strike began Mar. 27 after government troops used tear gas against a peaceful march by teachers, who have been on strike since Mar. 12 (see Updates #269, 270).] A few hours earlier, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, Bolivian soldiers arrested all the members of the Andean Council of Coca Producers, which represents campesinos from Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. Members of Andean Action, an international organization of intellectuals that advises the Andean Council, were also arrested and brought to La Paz. [Noticias, Red Latinoamericana de Informacion en Europa, 4/19/95] At midnight, less than three hours after breaking up the COB meeting, the government declared a 90-day state of siege, suspending civil rights and imposing a curfew; the government also declared the end of the strike. All demonstrations and union or political meetings have now been banned, along with the carrying of weapons, and the movement of people and vehicles has been restricted. [Reuter 4/20/95; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 4/20/95 from AFP] Minister of Government Carlos Sanchez Berzain announced on Apr. 20 that in the crackdown the Bolivian government had arrested 374 people who were accused of sedition and attacking public order. Some 20 of those detained--including six journalists--have since been released. Among those imprisoned are COB general secretary Oscar Salas Moya and the leader of the coca producers, Evo Morales. According to government reports, most of the imprisoned unionists are being held in remote military bases far from La Paz in the villages of Puerto Rico (in Pando, Bolivia's northernmost department), San Joaquin (in the large northeastern department of Beni) and Uyuni (in the southwestern corner province of Potosi). [ED-LP 4/21/95 from AP; Reuter 4/20/95] Those COB leaders who were not arrested have gone into hiding; they issued a communique rejecting the government's violent actions and demanding that those arrested be freed, that democratic freedoms be fully reestablished, and that human and constitutional rights be respected. COB leaders expressed fear that the government intends to provoke a conflict of unpredictable dimensions in the coca-producing zones and the entire country. [Noticias, Red Latinoamericana de Informacion en Europa, 4/19/95] Leaders of the teachers union announced from hiding that they would continue to pressure the government until the Law of Educational Reform is repealed. Teachers Telmo Roman (in hiding) and Gonzalo Soruco (in prison), both warned that the 70,000 striking teachers will not return to work until the government suspends the state of siege and frees all arrested union leaders. [ED-LP 4/20/95 from AFP] On Apr. 17, education authorities alleged that half the country's schools were open despite the teachers' strike; the teachers union denied the story and said the strike was observed fully. [ED-LP 4/18/95 from Notimex] Workers in Bolivia's public and private hospitals had planned to begin a 72-hour strike on Apr. 19 to demand compliance with salary commitments promised on Feb. 9 by Human Development Minister Enrique Ipina Melgar. The government failed to fulfil the wage demands, even after a 48-hour strike during the week of Apr. 3. [ED-LP 4/19/95 from Notimex] 2. REPRESSION CONDEMNED IN BOLIVIA The Bolivian Catholic Church, which was mediating in negotiations between the union and the government over the general strike, said it was surprised by the government's action, which abruptly ended "a process of dialogue which seemed to be on the way for a happy ending." The church condemned the state of siege on Apr. 19 and demanded the immediate release of the imprisoned unionists. The government measures are "a defeat for reason and [imply a] forgetting of commitments," Bolivia's Bishops Conference announced. [Reuter 4/20/95] The Federation of Bolivian Press Workers (FTPB) also condemned the state of siege, calling it a "failure of the government," and protested the arrest of journalists who were covering the COB meeting. Opposition politicians also blasted the government's moves, accusing it of acting in bad faith. [ED-LP 4/20/95 from AFP] Congress was to meet on Apr. 20 to conclude a debate over whether to ratify the state of siege; the government was confident it had the numbers to win. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada said on Apr. 19 that he had called the state of siege to quash trouble- making by political groups that he said had sabotaged talks with the COB. Sanchez de Lozada is now the third Bolivian president in a row to decree a state of siege to combat union unrest since the restoration of democracy in 1982. [Reuter 4/20/95] Messages can be faxed to President Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada or Minister of Government Carlos Sanchez Berzain at the Government Palace (fax# (011) 591-2-391216). [Noticias, Red Latinoamericana de Informacion en Europa, 4/19/95] 3. GOVERNMENT FORCES ECONOMIC "ADJUSTMENT" ON URUGUAYANS Early on Apr. 21, after a long session, Uruguay's Senate approved a packet of economic measures designed to reduce the fiscal deficit. The vote was 21 to 10: the ruling Colorado Party's 11 senators teamed up with the 10 senators from the the National Party (aka Blancos), previously in power, to support the neoliberal policy of structural adjustment; the leftist Frente Amplio coalition's nine senators and the sole senator of the social democratic New Space party voted against the measures. Most of the economic reforms will enter into effect as soon as the government promulgates the law, but some, like an increase in wage taxes, will take effect on May 1. Among the other measures included in the plan are a reduction in administrative spending and an increase in the value added tax (IVA). The plan's author, Luis Mosca, claims that this series of measures will be able to reduce the fiscal deficit from 2.8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 1.5%, and that it will also reduce inflation, which was 45.3% over the past 12 months. According to official figures, the trade deficit in the first two months of 1995 was $81 million, even though exports increased by 28% in the same period. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/23/95 from EFE] The plan has sparked protests from Uruguay's unions: the powerful PIT-CNT federation held a four-hour general strike on Apr. 7 to protest the proposed measures, calling the tax increases "regressive and unfair." [Financial Times (UK) 4/7/95] A 24-hour general strike is planned for the beginning of May. A poll published by the daily El Observador during the week of Apr. 17 shows that 63% of Uruguayans oppose the adjustment plan. [ED-LP 4/23/95 from EFE] 4. COSTA RICANS PROTEST AUSTERITY PLAN Costa Rican public employee unions are planning to strike on Apr. 24 and will hold a street demonstration to protest the government's decision to eliminate 8,000 jobs. The general secretary of the National Association of Public Employees (ANEP) told the local press that a number of unions plan to participate in the labor actions, and they are currently deciding whether the strike will be open-ended. The government of President Jose Maria Figueres has faced a series of protests from the labor movement for his decision to address the country's economic crisis with controversial measures like higher taxes and layoffs of state employees. The government is trying to reduce the fiscal deficit, which reached 8.3% of the Gross Domestic Product in 1994, to 3.5% this year. The deficit reduction is one of the demands made by international financial institutions as a condition for granting loans. The government hopes its planned budget cuts will reduce public spending by some $190 million. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/20/95 from AFP] 5. MEXICAN PEACE TALKS RESUME On Apr. 22 representatives of the Mexican federal government and the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) held formal negotiations for the first time since March 1994. The talks, held in the small Chiapas town of San Andres Larrainzar, were delayed two days when government officials refused to attend. On Apr. 19 several thousand indigenous people demonstrated near the basketball court where the talks were to be held, and more than 1,000 set up an encampment. Federal negotiators objected that the demonstrators--who carried signs supporting the EZLN and EZLN leader "Sub-Commander Marcos"--were violating the security agreements for the talks. The Zapatista supporters finally moved away from the site on Apr. 21 after a request from the EZLN's "Commander Tacho." Marcos was not among the eight Zapatista representatives. [Associated Press 4/21/95; Reuter 4/21/95; New York Times 4/23/95; Washington Post 4/23/95] San Andres is a small town about 15 miles northwest of San Cristobal de las Casas. Most of the San Andres municipality's 15,000 residents are Tzotziles, and many support the Zapatistas, even though the main Zapatista base is the Lacandona Forest region in southeastern Chiapas. The EZLN's "Commander Ramona" is said to come from San Andres, which earlier this year had a banner welcoming visitors to "rebel territory." Zapatista supporters call the municipality San Andres Sacamch'en de los Pobres; "Sacamch'en" is the traditional Tzotzil name and means "white cave." The official name refers to Ramon Larrainzar, a 19th-century Chiapas governor best known for the question (possibly apocryphal): "Why do you want to buy mules if you have Indians to work the land?" [AP 4/21/95] Both sides expect several rounds of talks over the next months. Maria Luz Casal of the Center for Ecumenical Studies in Mexico City suggests that prospects for the talks are hurt by the parties' fundamentally different positions, "one based on modern neoliberalism, and the other putting forth proposals motivated by a type of neosocialism with Christian overtones." Casal says that one side or the other will have to compromise its principles, unless the parties are simply playing for time. [Inter Press Service 4/17/95] 6. MEXICO: PRISONER FREED, ANTI-LABOR DRIVE CONTINUES On Apr. 13 a source in the Mexican Governance Secretariat indicated that the government would grant the EZLN's Commander Ramona safe conduct from the conflict zone to seek treatment for cancer [see Update #272]. [La Jornada (Mexico) 4/14/95, electronic edition] Two days later, the government released Jorge Santiago Santiago, who had spent 63 days in prison in the Chiapas capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, on charges of being a rebel commander. For the last 20 years Santiago has headed a San Cristobal nongovernmental organization (NGO), Mexican Indigenous Social and Economic Development (DESMI). [LJ 4/16/95] But Sebastian Etzin and video journalist Javier Elorriaga Berdegue remain imprisoned in Chiapas on the same charges, while eight other alleged Zapatistas are in Mexico City's North Preventive Prison and seven are being held in the Almoloya maximum security prison in Mexico State. [LJ 4/2/95] Meanwhile, the government refuses to negotiate with the 14,000 members of the Route 100 Urban Passenger Auto Transport Workers Union (SUTAUR 100) in Mexico City. On Apr. 7 the city government declared the Route 100 public bus line bankrupt; the next day, the city shut the service down and arrested five SUTAUR 100 leaders for alleged misuse of union funds. Press stories implied that the embezzled money had gone to buy arms for the EZLN [see Update #272]. The lockout has created chaos in the capital's transit system, with thousands of laid-off bus drivers demonstrating in he streets while 1,500 police agents escort and sometimes drive the "emergency service" buses the city is using to cover about a third of the line's former routes. Some 20 helicopters are also being used in the operation, which costs the city $200,000 a day. "This isn't right," a police agent told the Mexico City daily La Jornada. "Our job is to be cops, not drivers. The workers may think we're strikebreakers..." On Apr. 15 a mass meeting of SUTAUR 100 members agreed to remain united and reject any government plan to replace Route 100 with a private, non-union firm. But the economic crisis makes labor solidarity difficult. In three days during the week of Apr. 9--Holy Week, when most Mexicans go on vacation--14,000 people applied for jobs as replacement drivers. [IPS 4/17/95; Reuter 4/20/95; LJ 4/14/95, 4/16/95] The Federal District Human Rights Commission (CDHDF), a governmental organization, has questioned the legality of some of the government's actions, such as suspending a public service and preventing union meetings. [LJ 4/14/95] Other legal authorities are challenging the form of the bankruptcy actions and the requirement that women replacement workers produce a "certificate of non-pregnancy," in violation of Mexican labor law. There are also many questions about the supposed suicide of Federal District (DF) transport and highways secretary Luis Miguel Moreno Gomez on Apr. 10. Moreno Gomez was shot twice in the chest; the pistol used was not automatic. [LJ 4/16/95] 7. IS MEXICAN LEFT IN "PROCESS OF EROSION?" Reuter writes that as the government's formal negotiations with the EZLN begin, Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon's "negotiating position is now far stronger than at any time since taking office last December." [Reuter 4/20/95] The New York Times says that "[f]or the first time...the government finds itself in a position of relative strength" because its February military offensive "re-established the rule of law in rebel territory in a few days" and demonstrated that "[n]o one is above the law." Moreover, "the source of some of the rebels' financial support was cut off when the government shut down" Route 100. [NYT 4/23/95] The situation seems just as bleak for the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which the Pacific News Service says is suffering "shock waves" because of a book. We're Going to Win by political scientist Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, who advised the presidential campaign of PRD founder Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano last year, charges that the party failed to use television properly and paid too much attention to grassroots organizing among campesinos. Zinser told the leftist weekly Proceso that the PRD "may stop being an alternative force for Mexican society since its process of erosion is more accelerated" than that of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). [PNS article posted on New York Transfer News 4/20/95; El Diario- La Prensa 4/17/95 from EFE] The PRI's "process of erosion" is quite advanced, however. On Apr. 18 Attorney General Antonio Lozano Gracia confirmed that federal deputy Ignacio Ovalle Fernandez, head of the PRI's internal reform committee, will be questioned in connection with the September 1994 assassination of PRI general secretary Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu. The conservative opposition daily El Financiero declared the same day that the $300,000 used to finance the murder came from the office of then-president Carlos Salinas de Gortari. [Los Angeles Times 4/19/95] One of the accused in the case, Fernando Rodriguez, says that five out of Mexico's 32 state governors were involved in the job. [ED-LP 4/20/95 from EFE] And the EZLN insurrection is not the only rebellion Zedillo is facing. At the other end of the country and the political spectrum, on Apr. 4 the mayor of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, set up five booths on the international bridge to Texas and began collecting tolls from the 13,000 vehicles and 20,000 pedestrians that cross each day into the US. The mayor, Francisco Villarreal Torres of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), was arrested and charged with violating the Constitution by usurping a federal function. But the government released him on Apr. 15 after Juarez residents demonstrated in his favor. Other mayors of border cities are thinking of following Villarreal's example. [LJ 4/9/95, 4/16/95] 8. HAITI: BOAT PEOPLE, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, DUROCHER BERTIN CASE On Apr. 16 the US Coast Guard seized 115 Haitians in a motor boat two miles from Miami Beach. [New York Times 4/17/95] This was the second interception of Haitians fleeing Haiti since the return of elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in October 1994 [see Update #272]. On Apr. 21 presidential spokesperson Ivon Neptune announced that the Haitian government would not renew an agreement allowing the US to repatriate Haitians intercepted at sea. The agrement lapsed in October. But on Apr. 8 the US returned 138 Haitians to Port-au-Prince without any opposition from Haitian authorities. [NYT 4/23/95]... Col. James Pulley, who supervised the 545 soldiers of the US Army Special Operations Task Force in Haiti, was recalled to Fort Bragg, NC, after a woman soldier from the Army's 4th Psychological Operations Group brought sexual harassment charges against him. Army sources explain that the charges concern verbal harassment, "an exercise in bad judgment." [Washington Post 4/22/95]... On Apr. 14 the Haitian police, along with UN officers and members of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrested Claudy Lacroix in Port-au-Prince in connection with the Mar. 28 assassination of rightwing lawyer Mireille Durocher Bertin. Lacroix has been described as a small-time marijuana dealer. Another suspect was arrested on Apr. 24; this was Gerald Bernius, described by authorities as "a business person known for his commitment to the right wing." The new arrests suggest that the main suspects in the killing are now Durocher Bertin's rivals on the right. [Haiti Progres (NY) 4/19-25/95; Haiti en Marche (Miami) 4/19-25/95] 9. DEATH PENALTY EXTENDED IN GUATEMALA On Apr. 20, Guatemala's Legislative Assembly unanimously overrode a presidential pocket veto to approve the death penalty for kidnappers, and ordered the new law published in the official gazette. The law was originally approved on Mar. 16; it will be applied to the material and intellectual authors of kidnappings carried out for economic gain or for the exchange of people. President Ramiro de Leon Carpio, a former human rights attorney general, had failed to sign the bill into law within the required 15 days; he said he was waiting for input from the Court of Constitutionality to find out if the law violates Guatemala's constitution. The death penalty has been on the books in Guatemala since 1973 for authors of multiple murders, and it was extended last year to kidnappers who either cause grave physical or psychological harm to their victims, or whose victims are children or over 60 years old. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/21/95 from EFE, Notimex] The Archbishop's Human Rights Office (ODHA) announced that it would challenge the new law; ODHA president Ronalth Ochaeta said the decision by Congress goes against international agreements ratified by Guatemala, in which the country committed itself to not extend the death penalty. Ochaeta said that President de Leon should take the initiative to challenge the law. The United Nations Observer Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) also condemned the congressional decision, pointing out that Guatemala ratified the American Convention on Human Rights in 1978, which seeks to end the expansion of the death penalty. [ED-LP 4/21/95 from Notimex] 10. CUBA: IMMIGRATION NEWS ROUNDUP On Apr. 17, an INS appeals court granted political asylum to Leonel Macias Gonzalez, accused by the Cuban government of assaulting a government boat and murdering a Cuban naval official last Aug. 8. The 19-year old Cuban initially received asylum in February, but the US government had appealed the measure. [ED-LP 4/20/95 from AP]. Some 100 Cuban emigres housed in a refugee camp in the British colony of the Cayman Islands rioted from 6 pm to 10 pm on Apr. 15., leaving immigration officers wounded, windows shattered and vehicles damaged, the government said on Apr. 17. The disturbance was contained after several police units were called to the scene; authorities said the camp, known as Tent City, had remained calm since. Caymans authorities said that as a result of the uprising, day releases from the compound and a two-hour daily visitors' period have been suspended. There are now about 200 Cubans in Tent City, down from the high of 1,200 housed there since it was opened. [Reuter 4/17/95]. At a Mar. 31 press conference in the Miami area, US representatives Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Florida Republicans of Cuban-American origin, blasted the Pentagon's recent decision to prohibit flights to the migrant camps at the US Guantanamo naval base in Cuba by the anti-Castro organization "Brothers to the Rescue." According to a letter from Under-Secretary of Defense H. Allen Holmes to Ros-Lehtinen, the group was banned from Guantanamo because the Cuban government formally complained to the US Interests Section in Havana that on Nov. 10, 1994, two of its planes tried to distribute leaflets not only over the camps on the US base, but also within Cuban territory. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 4/1/95]. The US Coast Guard handed over two US permanent residents [presumably Cubans] to immigration authorities on Apr. 18 after capturing them the night before off the Florida Keys on a boat with 16 Cubans who were trying to enter the US illegally. In a press release distributed on Apr. 18, the Coast Guard said the two foreigners were being questioned by agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) over the possibility that they were trafficking undocumented immigrants into the US. The ten adults and six children aboard were sent to the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [ED-LP 4/19/95 from EFE]. A Cuban state prosecutor is seeking a 20-year sentence for two Cubans accused of the "clandestine sale of falsified documents to obtain US visas," with lesser sentences for several others involved. The trial took place on Apr. 15; the sentencing is to be announced at a later date. The two main defendants are Francisco Chaviano, president of the clandestine "National Council for Civil Rights," and interior ministry official Cesar Augusto San Martin; another defendant, Alberto Boza, is a former interior ministry official. Boza and San Martin are accused of using their positions to obtain documents for US visa-seekers. Official Cuban news service Prensa Latina said Chaviano guaranteed to US officials that people seeking visas through his service were politically persecuted. [Washington Post 4/17/95 from Reuter; ED-LP 4/17/95 from AFP]. Several days of brief talks between the US and Cuban governments on the issue of migration wound up on Apr. 19 at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations (UN) in New York with no major changes from the documents signed last September after the first round of talks. This was the fourth round of talks; there will be another meeting within a few months, which will probably be held in Cuba. [ED-LP 4/20/95]. Diplomats Saul Hermida and Edmundo Suarez of the Cuban Mission to the UN arrived in Havana on Apr. 15 after being expelled by the US government for involvement in violence at a protest by anti-Castro Cubans last August [see Update #272]. [La Jornada 4/16/95 from EFE, Reuter, DPA] 11. ONE KILLED IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PRISON PROTEST One prisoner was killed and several others were wounded during an uprising on Apr. 19 at the La Victoria prison north of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Prison authorities said the disturbance had been brought under control by midday. Police said the incident was instigated by prisoners facing transfer to prisons in the nation's interior. Police identified the dead inmate as 21-year old Jose Antonio Perez; they said four other prisoners were wounded, two of them seriously, and were taken to the capital for treatment. A similar protest broke out in the same prison on April 2, also leaving one dead and several wounded. That uprising prompted authorities to transfer some of the more than 4,500 prisoners in an attempt to end overcrowding at La Victoria, which only has capacity for 1,200 inmates. [Reuter 4/19/95; El Diario-La Prensa 4/20/95, 4/21/95] The disturbances at La Victoria did not end with the Apr. 19 incident: on Apr. 21, a spokesperson from the National Prison Directorate confirmed that some 60 foreign inmates had been taken hostage by other prisoners in an attempt to pressure prison authorities to halt the transfers. The spokesperson explained that the foreign hostages are primarily Colombians, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans, Haitians and "some European, maybe Spanish." One of the inmates injured in the Apr. 19 riot told Spanish news service EFE that some prisoners oppose the decongestion of the prison because it will affect the internal trade run by gang leaders inside the institution. [ED-LP 4/23/95 from EFE] The correspondent for New York Spanish-language daily El Diario- La Prensa reports that a few inmates at La Victoria have made themselves rich through extortion rackets in the prison, demanding money from other prisoners in exchange for a bed, physical space and/or protection. [ED-LP 4/21/95] 12. DOCTORS ON STRIKE AGAIN IN CHILE Doctors in Chile's public hospitals began a three-day strike on Apr. 18; according to unofficial estimates nearly 95% of the country's 8,000 public sector doctors stayed off the job during the strike's first day, along with some 1,500 pharmacists and dentists. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/19/95 from AP] [According to an Agence France Presse report in Miami Spanish-language daily Diario Las Americas on Apr. 22, the number of striking doctors was 16,000.] Outside the Santiago Metropolitan area strike observance was even higher--in the northern city of Antofagasta, 100% of the doctors went out. [CHIP News 4/19/95] Some 3,000 doctors from municipal clinics planned to participate in the strike during its second day. Apart from salary increases, doctors are demanding reforms to the state's health policies, including an end to financial support for private health institutions and an increase in economic resources for the public health sector. [ED-LP 4/19/95 from AP] After their 48-hour strike Apr. 6-7, doctors had warned that they would carry out another strike if their demands were not met [see Update #271]. Medical professionals say they are over-worked and under-paid at public hospitals, with many colleagues departing for better salaried positions at private hospitals. On the night of Apr. 18, representatives of the union announced they were willing to speak directly with President Eduardo Frei about the doctors' concerns. Interior Minister Carlos Figueroa did not rule out invoking the Internal Security Act to seek court-ordered injunctions against the striking doctors. [CHIP News 4/19/95] Workers at an estimated 95% of bread bakeries in the Santiago Metropolitan Region held their own 24-hour strike on Apr. 18 to protest the Bread Producers Association's plans to eliminate worker benefits and ignore salary demands. The strike was called by the National Confederation of Bread Workers, representing 3,500 workers organized in 14 different unions. [CHIP News 4/19/95] 13. OKLAHOMA BOMBING ADVANCES ANTI-SOLIDARITY LAW According to US House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Larry Combest (R-TX), the Apr. 19 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma guarantees the swift passage of the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995. The bill, which was drafted by the Justice Department with help from the White House and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is ostensibly aimed at international terrorists operating in the US. One controversial provision would allow the government to use secret evidence and unnamed accusers to deport foreign residents allegedly involved in terrorism. [New York Times 4/21/95] Another provision targets solidarity groups. The bill's House sponsor, Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY) writes in the far-right New York Post that the "bill forbids raising or transmitting funds to any organization the president designates as terrorist that threatens the national security, foreign policy or economy of the US. In addition, the bill expedites federal law enforcement's ability to investigate those that give money to these groups." [NY Post 4/21/95] [House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) is also calling for the FBI to be given new powers to infiltrate "fringe groups." [NYT 4/23/95]] Discussion of the bill has centered on Islamic fundamentalists, and as of Apr. 21 rightwing racist groups were the main suspects in the Oklahoma bombing. However, solidarity activists should remember that in 1993 the Clinton White House and Congressional liberals tried repeatedly to link Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, on remarkably flimsy evidence [see Updates #162, 165, 181, 183, 195]. The drive to pass the "counterterrorist" bill coincides with an upswing in Latin American solidarity work, mostly around events in Mexico, and follows new revelations of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) involvement in terrorist acts in Haiti and Guatemala. 14. IN OTHER NEWS... On Apr. 18, some 10,000 mostly public-sector workers in Argentina's Cordoba province held a 24-hour strike to demand payment of their back wages from February. Workers demonstrated in the streets of Cordoba, the provincial capital and Argentina's second-largest city, to protest the delays in pay. [Reuter 4/18/95]. Chile renewed full diplomatic relations with Cuba on Apr. 7 after a 21 year hiatus. Former Chilean president Patricio Aylwin was reportedly on the verge of formalizing diplomatic relations in January of 1994 but was persuaded by the transition team of then president-elect Eduardo Frei to leave that decision to the incoming administration. [CHIP News 4/10/95]. Peru's Congress has approved a law that will eliminate, as of October, the use of hooded judges to try alleged terrorists. Numerous human rights organizations had criticized the system of anonymous judges, in effect for the past three years. Those accused of "treason to the homeland"--mostly members of guerrilla organizations--will continue to be judged in military courts, however. [El Diario-La Prensa 4/21/95 from EFE]. The Committee of Union Organizations (COS) in Puerto Rico has threatened to hold a general strike if Governor Pedro Rossello's proposed law on public employee unions is passed. The law is considered anti- worker. COS organized a well-attended protest on Apr. 7 in front of Puerto Rico's congress. In March of 1990, COS shut down the island's public offices in a national strike to protest government attempts to sell the telephone company. Rossello is promoting passage of the law, arguing that it would allow real negotiations between workers and their employers. [Diario Las Americas 4/7/95 from EFE]. On Apr. 17, indigenous Ecuadorans of the Huaorani nation captured an unknown number of technicians from the US oil company Maxus and began a peaceful occupation of Maxus facilities, in order to pressure the company to comply with a previously signed cooperation agreement. Sources from Maxus told Associated Press that the hostages were freed on Apr. 21 after a dialogue between Maxus technicians--supported by technicians of Petroecuador, the state oil company--and Huaorani leaders. Indigenous leader Hector Villamil told a local radio station that the Maxus oil fields are now being guarded by nearly 200 military troops. [ED-LP 4/23/95 from AP] 15. UPCOMING EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed are not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network. VOLUNTEERS & INTERNS NEEDED in the New York City area to help with the Weekly News Update. Big projects and small, long-term and short-term. Leave us a message at 212-674-9499. Human Rights & Displaced People in Colombia - June 30-July 11, Peace Brigades International sponsors a delegation to Colombia, focusing on the hemisphere's worst human rights crisis, communities displaced by political violence, and positive initiatives for change. $1350 covers airfare from Miami, food, lodging, translation and transport within Colombia. Contact Natalia Lopez, 186 Bonview St, San Francisco, CA 94110, (415) 282-6941. Work Brigade to Nicaragua - July 1-22, 1995. Hard work, simple food, rich rewards. NICCA, 2140 Shattuck Avenue, Box 2063, Berkeley, CA 94704. 510-832-4959. 4/27 THU, 6:30 PM - Speaking event w/US Capt. Rockwood, facing court-martial for exposing human rights abuses in Haiti's prisons. At the Newspaper Guild, 133 W. 44th St (6th & 7th Aves). For info call the Haiti Commission at 212-633-6646. 4/28 FRI, 7:30 PM - Forum: Tactics and Strategy for Building a Third Party. CUNY Law School, 65-23 Main St. Rm 135, Queens. 4/29 SAT - Telling the Truth About Cuba. Teach-in. 212-227-3422. 4/29 SAT, 7 PM - Charlene Mitchell: Report-back from the Apr. 6 Congress of the South African Communist Party. At 122 W. 27th St, 10th Flr. $5 donation requested. Call NY CoC at 212-229-2388. 4/29 SAT, 7 PM - Dykes Night Out, march against anti-lesbian violence. Meet at Sheridan Square. Sponsored by the Anti-Violence Project. Call 212-807-6761. 4/30 SUN, 5-8 PM - Upper West Side-Tipitapa Sister City Project & CNICA Spring Party, w/Nicaraguan food, live music & project updates. At the Eisners, 302 W. 86th St (at West End Ave), Apt 6B. For info call Ann Garvin at 212-769-9559. 5/1 MON - May Day actions: Meet at 12 NOON at NY Stock Exchange, Nassau & Wall Sts. Rally at 2 PM at City Hall. Protest at 4:30 PM at Mexican Consulate, 41st St & 5th Ave. Protest at 6 PM at IMF, 1 UN Plaza. Call 212-979-8353. 5/1-7 MON-SUN - "Amazon Week," with workshops on neoliberalism and the environment on 5/6. Amanaka'a, 212-674-4646. 5/2 TUE, 7 PM - Organizing meeting for the 5th Cuba Friendshipment Caravan & the June 17 March on Washington. At Casa de las Americas, 104 W. 14th St. Call IFCO: 212-926-5757. -- + 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 + >