WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #275, MAY 7, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Strikes End in Bolivia 2. Massive May 1 Protest in Mexico 3. Mexican Turmoil: "Hope for the Best" 4. "Counterterrorism" Threatens Canadian and US Activists 5. US Shifts Cuba Migration Policy Again 6. Haitian Children Still at Guantanamo 7. Military Court Clears Guatemalan Colonel of Murders 8. Argentina: Menem's Lead Narrows 9. Argentine Economy: Can Opposition "Do It Better"? 10. May Day in Latin America: Not Much to Celebrate 11. In Other News: Colombia, Chile, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, CIA 12. Corrections 13. Upcoming Events in the New York City Area ISSN#: 1068-5332. These updates are published weekly. A one-year subscription is $25 by first class mail. Please send check or money order payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network at 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012). Back issues and source materials are available on request. (Many of our source materials are accessed through NY Transfer; back issues are also available on NY Transfer's OnLine Library.) Subscriptions to the Electronic Edition of this Update are delivered directly to your e-mail box. To subscribe to the electronic edition, send your e-mail address with a check or money order for US $25 payable to Blythe Systems. Mail to: NY Transfer News Collective, 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. STRIKES END IN BOLIVIA Bolivian public school teachers returned to work on May 3 after the National Teachers Conference decided to end its 50-day strike. After analyzing a "document of understanding" worked out in the early hours of Apr. 29 between the government and the Bolivian Workers Central (COB), the teachers approved a resolution ending the strike late on the night of May 2. The resolution establishes payment for days not worked during the strike, the release of all arrested union members (including the radical leaders Vilma Plata, Luis Alvarez, Gonzalo Soruco and Raul Nina), and the suspension of the state of seige declared by the government on Apr. 18. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/4/95 from AFP] [Plata, Soruco and others were charged with "subversion" and had been excluded from the government's promise to release imprisoned unionists obtained by the COB in the Apr. 29 agreement. [ED-LP 5/1/95 from AFP]] The National Teachers Conference also ratified "the firm decision to continue the struggle against neoliberal policies" and demanded compensation for those teachers who were physically harmed as a consequence of "the brutal police repression carried out against our movement." The national leadership was to meet shortly afterwards with representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development and the National Education Secretariat to discuss other issues, such as the Law of Educational Reform. The document prohibits the departmental and regional unions that make up the National Conference from creating their own separate agreements. [ED-LP 5/4/95 from AFP] The teachers' decision to end the strike came as a surprise. Shortly after the COB signed its Apr. 29 "understanding" with the government--which promised among other things an end to the teachers' strike--teachers' union executive secretary Javier Valdivieso had accused the COB of "having betrayed the struggle of the workers." [La Jornada (Mexico) 4/30/95 from AP, AFP, Reuter, ANSA] As of May 1, teachers were still insisting they would continue their strike. On May 1 COB secretary Vladimir Terceros called on COB affiliates--particularly the teachers' unions--to comply with the Apr. 29 agreement, "because the COB decided to lift the 49-day teachers' strike by necessity and [as] strategy." Urban teachers leader Victor Prado warned that the teachers would not return to work while their days on strike were not being counted toward pay, and while their leaders remain jailed. [ED-LP 5/2/95 from Notimex] The COB was to return to the negotiations table with the government on May 2. The new talks will be based on a set of pre- agreements reached on Apr. 18, hours before the government arrested union leaders and declared a state of seige [see Updates #273, #274]. The Catholic Church played a strong role in bringing the two sides back together; at a "clandestine assembly" on Apr. 27, the COB assigned four leaders of its clandestine committee the task of sending a letter to the Church, making known the union federation's willingness to dialogue. [ED-LP 5/1/95 from AFP] 2. MASSIVE MAY 1 PROTEST IN MEXICO Tens of thousands of Mexicans filled Mexico City's main plaza, the Zocalo, on May 1 to protest government economic policies. The demonstration, sponsored by independent unions and leftist and grassroots groups, broke a tradition of pro-government May Day marches that dates back to 1913. This year the powerful Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM)--which is affiliated with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)--cancelled the official celebration, apparently fearing that it would turn into a demonstration against the government and the aging CTM leadership [see Update #270]. The CTM cancellation left an opening for independent labor organizations such as the Authentic Labor Front (FAT) and the electrical workers, teachers, university workers and Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) employees unions. The leftist Route 100 Urban Passenger Auto Transport Workers Union (SUTAUR 100)--whose 12,000 members were abruptly laid off on Apr. 8 [see Update # 272]--was at the center of the protest. Various grassroots organizations, the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the El Barzon ("The Yoke") debtors movement also participated in the action. Demands included the release of jailed SUTAUR 100 leaders, an end to privatizations and a rollback of the 50% increase in the value-added tax (VAT, a type of sales tax) introduced on Apr. 1. Demonstrators shouted support for the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and called for the resignation of President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon and Federal District (DF) director Oscar Espinosa Villarreal (in effect the mayor of Mexico City). Many demonstrators advocated firing squads for the president and the mayor. In the official demonstrations of prior years, marchers often carried signs reading: "Thank you, Mr. President." [Reuter 5/2/95; Associated Press 5/2/95; San Francisco Chronicle 5/2/95; La Jornada 4/30/95; Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update Vol. 2, #28, 5/3/95: Elliott Young from Mexico 5/1/95, posted on New York Transfer News] The protest was generally peaceful, although some demonstrators threw rocks at riot police and tried to set the door of the National Palace on fire. Elsewhere in the city youths destroyed three automated teller machines (ATMs). There were 19 arrests; demonstration organizers suggested that at least some of the violence came from agents provocateurs. [Elliott Young 5/1/95; Mexico Update 5/3/95] Most foreign reporters estimated the crowd at 100,000 or more. [Reuter 5/2/95; AP 5/2/95; San Francisco Chronicle 5/2/95] The New York Times gave 70,000, while one Associated Press article put the number at 150,000. Equipo Pueblo, a Mexican nongovernmental organization (NGO) says that the Zocalo "was not large enough for the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators." [NYT 5/2/95; AP 5/2/95; Mexico Update 5/3/95] But the significance of the demonstration was not so much in its size as in the fact that the independent unions managed for the first time to overcome their differences and organize a united mass action. [LJ 4/30/95; Anderson Valley Advertiser 4/26/95] 3. MEXICAN TURMOIL: "HOPE FOR THE BEST" The New York Times discounts the threat of massive labor unrest, noting that the number of strikes for the first four months of the year was the lowest since 1989. [NYT 5/2/95] But John Ross, writing in the California-based Anderson Valley Advertiser, points out that in Mexico strikes are legal only if approved by the government Arbitration and Conciliation panels, which are now allowing only 1.8% of the requests for strike authorizations. Mexico City unions made 731 strike requests in January, a 35% increase over the same month in 1994; the local panel approved 15. [AVA 4/26/95] The San Francisco Chronicle calls the May 1 "sea of protest" part of a trend "comparable in intensity to the street mobilizations of the 1968 student movement"--and with wider and more diverse support. [Chronicle 5/2/95] "You can no longer say that the scenario of social turmoil in Mexico is unlikely," Mexican economist Vladimiro Brailovsky told the Washington Post. One unnamed diplomat says he is advising his government: "Hope for the best, but expect the worst." [WP 5/1/95] The unrest is a response to President Zedillo's drastic measures to contain the economic crisis that began in December. Severe cutbacks and $16 billion taken from an international credit line have enabled Mexico to reduce its current-account deficit and cut its short-term debt from more than $30 billion to about $15 billion. [Wall Street Journal 4/24/95; Financial Times (UK) 4/24/95] The peso has stabilized; as of May 5 it was at 5.845 to the US dollar. [NYT 5/6/95] But the economic plan has been devastating for most Mexicans. Annual inflation is projected at 45-50%, while the peso's purchasing power has fallen 50% since December. More than a half million workers have lost their jobs since December, and real unemployment is around 20%. Interest rates are over 80%; loan defaults for the first three months of the year totaled almost $1 billion, a 45% increase. [WP 5/1/95] Academic and private-sector researchers calculate that the minimum wage now buys 2.2 times less than it did in 1935, during the presidency of Gen. Lazaro Cardenas; the bulk of the decline occurred over the last 12 years, the period of US-sponsored "neoliberal" economic policies. On Apr. 29 the DC-based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) released telling statistics on wages in US-owned maquiladoras. In 1994 Allied Signal president Lawrence Bossidy's salary was $12.3 million. In January the wages of Allied Signal's employees in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, fell from $1.30 to $0.80 an hour due to the crisis. The 3,810 Monterrey workers can now expect to make a total of $7.8 million this year, less than two-thirds what Bossidy made last year. [LJ 4/30/95, some from UPI] 4. "COUNTERTERRORISM" THREATENS CANADIAN AND US ACTIVISTS The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) has been questioning staff people in the Inter-Church Committee for Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA) and the Global Community Centre of Waterloo Region about their involvement in activities of the Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN), a Canadian group supporting the struggle for democracy in Mexico. CSIS agent Jim Turner told Global personnel that he wanted to discuss the interference of Mexican diplomats in the work of the MSN. Herb Gray, the Canadian minister in charge of the CSIS, offered the same explanation to the Toronto Star. [Memo from Global Community Centre of Waterloo Region 5/3/95, some from Toronto Star 4/22/95 and 4/25/95] In the US, meanwhile, Attorney General Janet Reno has been using the Apr. 19 bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building as a pretext for loosening up the 1976 restrictions on Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probes of US political organizations. But Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick has told the Senate that in fact Reno set up a Justice Department working group on the restrictions last November. [Washington Post 5/3/95] The Clinton Administration continues to push its Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995, which prohibits donations or fundraising for groups the president designates as terrorist [see Update #273]. On May 3 Gorelick told the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime that the administration had backed off from asking for what the Washington Post calls "absolute power" over the terrorist designation. "We will recommend the deletion of the assertions in that bill that the president's designations are unreviewable or conclusive," Gorelick said. A little-publicized feature of the bill would have prevented anyone from using the courts to challenge the president's decision to call a group terrorist. [WP 5/4/95] [The Post article is misleadingly headlined: "Power to Bar Fund-Raising for Designated Groups is Dropped."] According to a letter to the editor from Georgetown University professor David Cole, the bill would make supporting even lawful acts of a "terrorist group" a crime punishable by 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. [New York Times 5/2/95] The bill's sponsor in Congress is Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY). His DC office number is 202-225-6616, fax 202-225-4183; Brooklyn office: 718- 627-9700; Queens offices: 718-268-8200, 945-9200. 5. US SHIFTS CUBA MIGRATION POLICY AGAIN In a new US policy shift on Cuban immigration, the administration of US president Bill Clinton announced on May 2 that it will begin to forcibly repatriate Cubans picked up at sea. At the same time, the US will now allow most of the 21,000 Cubans being held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to enter the US. Officials said the reversal was forced by several factors: the $1 million a day cost of internment at Guantanamo (and the Pentagon's plans to spend another $100 million to make the site permanent); the threat that young men remaining in the camps might turn to violence as summer approaches (several dozen US troops have been hurt in two previous clashes at Guantanamo and one at now-closed camps in Panama); and fears of a massive boatlift as weather improves this spring (about 190 Cubans were intercepted at sea in April, compared with 35 in March). [Los Angeles Times 5/3/95; Wall Street Journal 5/3/95; Washington Post 5/3/95] The new arrangement was reached at two secret sessions between US undersecretary of state Peter Tarnoff and Cuban National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon, one in New York on Apr. 19 and the second in Toronto during the weekend of Apr. 29-30. [WSJ 5/3/95; WP 5/3/95] The talks marked the highest level of engagement between the US and Cuban governments since the Carter administration. [WP 5/3/95] In the plan to repatriate any Cubans who leave from now on, the US administration is relying on a June 1994 Supreme Court ruling that repatriating refugees picked up outside US territorial limits does not break the law or any treaty. [LAT 5/3/95] Cubans attempting to illegally reach the US base at Guantanamo will also be repatriated to Cuba under the accord. [New York Times 5/3/95] Attorney General Janet Reno has promised that "persons who claim a genuine need for protection which they believe cannot be satisfied by applying at the US Interests Section in Havana will be examined before return." [NYT 5/6/95] Reno said that any Cuban being returned who claims to be seeking refugee status will be met at the dock in Cuba by US officials and given the opportunity to make an application at the US Interests Section in Havana. [NYT 5/3/95] Under the new agreement, the Cuban government has promised that no one will suffer reprisals or lose benefits for applying to emigrate to the US. [LAT 5/3/95] US officials have already started releasing the infirm, elderly, children and their parents from the camp. About 6,000 who are there now have been cleared for emigration to the US and are leaving at a rate of about 500 a week. The Guantanamo emigres will be counted toward this year's total of 20,000 US immigrant visas, as set in talks between the Cuban and US governments last fall [see Update #241]. Marine Corps Gen. John Sheehan, commander of the US Atlantic Command, said that removal of the last Cubans at Guantanamo would take about 30 weeks. Officials said that a few of the remaining internees--including those with known prison records--probably would be returned to Cuba; Cuba has agreed to accept those ineligible for entry into the US, mainly convicts or mental patients. [LAT 5/3/95; WP 5/3/95] The new pact has angered those who favor a strong US stand against the Cuban government. In Washington, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-KS) joined other Republicans in denouncing the administration's new "secret deal" with Cuba, and called for swift congressional hearings. [LAT 5/3/95] "The very notion that the US, the world's beacon of freedom, has worked out such a deal in secret with one of the world's most notorious violators of human rights, is nothing short of bloodcurdling," said Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), chair of the House International Relations Western Hemisphere Subcommittee and co-sponsor of the latest legislative proposal to tighten the US embargo on Cuba [see Update #274]. [WSJ 5/4/95] Cuban-American Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) is leading attempts to legally block the Cuban repatriations. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/5/95 from EFE] Dennis Hays, State Department coordinator for Cuban affairs, and his deputy, Nancy Mason, asked to be reassigned because of the policy shift. They "felt this was not a policy they could support," said a spokesperson. Hays has advocated a hard line against Cuba and has opposed all cooperation. [LAT 5/3/95] One Florida congressional aide commented that "the $64,000 question" is whether the policy can stand up against pressure from powerful Cuban-American rightists. [LAT 5/3/95] The most prominent and powerful of these rightwing Cuban-Americans is Jorge Mas Canosa, chair of the Cuban American National Foundation, who complained at a May 2 news conference that the administration did not even consult with him about its new decision. [NYT 5/3/95] Some within Cuba fear the new policy may spur popular discontent. One dissident leader, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said the accord would prove to be a valuable recruiting tool. [NYT 5/7/95] 6. HAITIAN CHILDREN STILL AT GUANTANAMO The Miami-based Haitian Refugee Center has petitioned the Supreme Court to order the US to admit 258 Haitian children being held at the US naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba. The children are refugees who were intercepted by the US Coast Guard as they attempted to escape Haiti; most were intercepted during the summer of 1994. They are classified as "unaccompanied minors" either because they left Haiti alone or because their adult guardians died in the escape attempt or at the base. Most of the children have parents or other relatives living in the US who are "willing and able to care for them," according to attorney Cheryl Little of Florida Rural Legal Services. The petition says that Attorney General Janet Reno discriminated against the Haitian children by letting 321 unaccompanied Cuban children enter the US from Guantanamo while keeping the Haitians at the camp. [Washington Post 4/18/95] The Haitian children--who have often suffered severe psychological trauma in Haiti or while attempting to escape--have been subjected to "cruel and unusual punishment" at the camp, according to Little and other lawyers who visited Guantanamo in December and January. For offenses such as fighting with other children, teenagers have been put in solitary for days or handcuffed and made to kneel for hours in the hot sun. A number of teenage girls have charged that they have been raped by other detainees or by US military personnel. A 14-year old girl says she was interrogated all night when she denied having sexual relations with another detainee. The next morning a doctor subjected her to a painful, involuntary vaginal examination when she persisted in refusing to confess. The US Atlantic Command admits that "isolated cases of mistreatment" occurred but blames all of them on two US soldiers. The Atlantic Command explains that "[m]any of the Haitians frequently had been involved in acts of misconduct, including fighting with other adolescents, assaults on soldiers and repeated violations of camp rules." [Haiti Progres (NY) 3/8-14/95 and 4/26-5/2/95, from Miami Herald 2/28/95 and 3/3/95 and Atlantic Command press release 3/1/95] The New York City Council will be holding a hearing on this situation on May 10; see Calendar of Events. 7. MILITARY COURT CLEARS GUATEMALAN COLONEL OF MURDERS On May 2, a Guatemalan military court cleared Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez of any wrongdoing in connection with the torture and murder of US citizen Michael DeVine in 1990 and of Guatemalan guerrilla leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez in 1992. Civilian judicial authorities are meanwhile proceeding with a separate investigation into the DeVine case. One day after the military court released its verdict, Leonel Machuca Quiroga, special prosecutor in the case, was scheduled to meet with US Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) in Washington, seeking information on which Torricelli based his charges against Alpirez, who was a paid informant of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [see Updates #269-272]. The military high command suspended Alpirez and Col. Mario Roberto Garcia Catalan from duty, pending completion of Machuca's investigation [see Update #274]. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 5/5/95 from Associated Press, Reuter, Agence France-Presse, Notimex, Deutsche Press Agentur] The suspension of the two colonels--an event without precedent in Guatemalan history--became known in Guatemala on Apr. 26, but was reportedly known in Washington the day before. [Noticias de Guatemala 4/28/95] On Apr. 22 it was reported that Guatemalan Army soldier Francisco Solbal Sontay, who is serving a prison sentence for the DeVine murder, had told an international news agency that he acted under orders from Col. Alpirez. After CNN news aired an interview with Solbal, Attorney General Ramses Cuestas Gomez ordered increased security for Solbal and said a formal statement must be obtained from Solbal and five other soldiers who are serving 30 years for killing DeVine. Col. Alpirez and Col. Garcia both maintain that Solbal is lying. [Noticias de Guatemala 4/28/95; Cerigua Weekly Briefs #15, 4/25/95] Solbal says he first told authorities of the army officers' involvement in the murder two years ago, but no one listened to him. "There were other similar missions," Solbal added, "but I don't want to indicate what they were because I have to prevent them opening new proceedings against me." [Cerigua Weekly Briefs 4/25/95] In an Apr. 27 television address, Guatemalan president Ramiro de Leon Carpio said that had requested the assistance of Interpol to locate Capt. Hugo Contreras, who escaped from a military base hours after being sentenced for killing DeVine. [Reuter 4/28/95] De Leon also said, however, that his government would not reopen the Bamaca investigation because it had exhaustively investigated the case in 1992. De Leon said the case would be turned over to a UN commission only after a final peace accord is signed between the government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) guerrilla movement. [LADB Notisur 5/5/95 from AP, Reuter, AFP, Notimex, DPA] De Leon accused Bamaca's widow, US lawyer Jennifer Harbury, of being "directly connected" to the URNG. [San Francisco Chronicle 4/29/95] In an interview from Washington on Apr. 28, former URNG combatant Santiago Cabrera Lopez confirmed earlier statements that he was a prisoner in the same clandestine jail where Bamaca was submitted to torture [see Update #250, #269]. Cabrera said that Col. Alpirez personally supervised the torture of political prisoners. He also accused Presidential High Command member Rene Jimenez Rosales and military intelligence (G-2) members Lt-Col. Hector Perez Solares and Margarito Sarceno of involvement. [Noticias de Guatemala 4/28/95] 8. ARGENTINA: MENEM'S LEAD NARROWS With Argentina's May 14 general elections only a week away, incumbent president Carlos Saul Menem's advantage is steadily shrinking, and analysts now believe it is possible that he may be forced into a runoff against his closest opponent, Senator Jose Octavio Bordon of the recently formed center-left "Frente Pais Solidario" (FREPASO). To win in the first round, Menem must get at least 45% of the votes, or 40% if he has at least a 10 point lead over his closest opponent [see Update #272]. In a survey published on Apr. 28, polling firm Manuel Mora y Araujo and Associates showed Menem with 38% to Bordon's 26%; a poll commissioned by FREPASO and carried out by the Sofres-Ibope polling firm shows Menem with 38.7% and Bordon with 27.6%. [Inter Press Service 5/2/95] Two polls published on May 3 in the business daily El Cronista show Menem farther ahead: the Julio Aurelio firm's poll gave Menem 45.8% to Bordon's 29.2%; the Ricardo Rouvier firm shows Menem with 46% to Bordon's 29%. [Financial Times 5/4/95] FREPASO deputy Graciela Fernandez Meijide told Inter Press Service that Bordon's voting bloc has a greater possibility of expanding than Menem's, which "has already reached [its] upper limit..." Deputy Rodolfo Terragno of the Radical Civic Union (UCR)--whose presidential candidate Horacio Massaccesi is running at 13% to 17% in the polls--pointed out that the possibility of a second round "is within the margin of error in the polls." [IPS 5/2/95] The possibility of a second round certainly seems to be scaring the government. Despite a serious financial crisis, on May 1 it launched an ambitious economic program that aims to address Argentina's high unemployment rate by creating 300,000 jobs over the next five years. Since Menem took office in 1989, unemployment rose from 6% to 12.2% in spite of the stability and economic growth registered in that period. The plan includes investments of $50 billion in the public sector and $37 billion in the private sector. On May 2, UCR deputy Terragno commented that the new economic program "seems to have been drawn up by pollsters, rather than by economists," and said he wondered how the government plans to finance it. [IPS 5/2/95] 9. ARGENTINE ECONOMY: CAN OPPOSITION "DO IT BETTER"? Despite criticisms, Menem's opponents do not plan major changes to the economic system if they are elected. Neither Bordon nor Massaccesi have proposed a repeal of the currency board law implemented in 1991, by which the Argentine currency in circulation must be backed by an equal amount of foreign reserves. Neither do they propose devaluing the peso. Although reluctantly, both Bordon and Massaccesi accept the peso being held on par with the dollar as well as the opening of the economy, and both promise that they will continue the privatization process launched by Menem. "It is not that we think convertibility is the best system, but we believe it is the least bad for controlling inflation and public spending," said Roberto Lavagna, a FREPASO economist. Bordon, whose campaign slogan is "we can do it better," also promises to promote industrial development by supporting small and medium-sized companies in the interior of the country--where he has his largest bloc of voters. The FREPASO candidate has also campaigned on a more equitable distribution of the tax burden. According to Lavagna, while average citizens pay 18% to 20% of their income in taxes, the poorest pay 27%. Bordon also proposes measures like those adopted by Chile and Colombia to control the entry of "hot" capital, which his economic team considers responsible for the problems faced by Argentina in the wake of the Mexico's financial crisis. And Bordon proposes more austere spending--especially with respect to those funds reserved for the president--as well as a more efficient, transparent and fair distribution and administration of funds. [IPS 5/2/95] Meanwhile, Jose Estenssoro, chief executive and president of Argentine oil company YPF since 1990, was killed in a plane crash while traveling on business in Ecuador. Estenssoro engineered the $3 billion privatization of YPF in 1993; he brought in a team of managers and reduced the company's workforce from 52,000 employees to 5,600. Estenssoro had been planning to build on his success by bidding for upcoming oil-and-gas privatizations in Bolivia and Peru. This past March, YPF acquired the Maxus Energy Corporation of Dallas, TX--a debt-ridden independent oil-and-gas company with properties in the US, Indonesia and South America-- for $745 million. [Financial Times 5/5/95; New York Times 5/5/95] Also killed in the plane crash with Estenssoro was Chilean executive Juan Pedrals Gili, general manager of the Chilean state-owned oil company, Empresa Nacional de Petroleos de Chile (ENAP). [FT 5/5/95; NYT 5/5/95] 10. MAY DAY IN LATIN AMERICA: NOT MUCH TO CELEBRATE Once again Latin America's labor movement marked International Workers Day on May 1 in a generally somber mood. In Haiti, where May 1 is "the Day for Work and Agriculture," there were no large marches or rallies. About 100 workers from state-owned enterprises demonstrated against planned privatizations of their companies. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had expressed his support for raising the minimum wage to about $3 a day; however, many Haitians doubt that Aristide has the political power to push such a measure through his largely pro-business government. [Haiti Info Vol. 3, #15 5/5/95] About 3,000 workers attended the official May Day celebration in Chile. Manuel Bustos, Christian Democratic president of the dominant Central Union of Workers (CUT), had to dodge a barrage of beer cans, apples, eggs and tomatoes from leftist workers who accused him of selling out to President Eduardo Frei's Christian Democratic government. ``Sellout!'' and ``Christian Democrat worm!'' they shouted at Bustos, who for the second year in a row was forced to cut his speech short. Radical labor factions accuse the CUT leadership of being too soft in demanding a raise in the minimum wage--currently at $130 a month, a level that even some business leaders agree is pitifully low in a country with a booming economy. Social organizations from the southern area of Santiago held their first alternative May Day ceremonies this year, in the working-class community of La Victoria, which is known for a militant spirit. [Reuter 5/1/95; CHIP News 5/2/95] In Guatemala thousands of urban and rural workers held a peaceful march in the capital. The marchers chanted "No to privatization" to protest the economic policies of President Ramiro de Leon Carpio. Organizers said 30,000 had participated. In Nicaragua pro-Sandinista unions sponsored a march of several thousand mostly unemployed workers; the demonstrators, many dressed in black, demanded that President Violeta Chamorro implement a program to create jobs. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/2/95 from wire services] 11. IN OTHER NEWS... Dandeny Munoz Mosquera, a Colombian described as a top hired killer (sicario) for the Medellin drug cartel, was sentenced on May 5 to ten consecutive life terms in prison. Munoz, nicknamed "La Quica," was convicted on Dec. 20 of 13 counts of cocaine smuggling, racketeering and other charges relating to the 1989 bombing of an Avianca plane that killed 110 people, including two US citizens [see Update #256]. Munoz was the first person to be tried, convicted and sentenced in the US under a 1986 terrorism statute that makes it a federal crime to kill US citizens abroad [NYT 5/6/95]. Chile's "Pena de los Parra", famous as a gathering place for artists and musicians in the 1960s and early 1970s, was restored and inaugurated during the week of April 17 as the Violeta Parra Center for Popular Art. Funds to build the new center came from notorious arms dealer Carlos Cardoen, the Municipality of Santiago, the Chilean Match Company, and royalties from the Isacruz chain of cemeteries, which used Violeta Parra's famous song "Gracias a la Vida" in its commercials. The original pena was closed after the 1973 military coup and later used for other purposes until years of neglect left it in ruins [CHIP News 4/21/95]. Puerto Rico's Congress has rejected a proposed law that would give public employees collective bargaining powers. The proposal was presented three months ago by Governor Pedro Rossello. Rossello said he was let down by legislators from his own New Progressive Party (PNP). A spokesperson for the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) called the decision of the PNP deputies to kill the bill an open act of rebellion against the governor. Union leader Luis Pedraza Leduc said that regardless of the bill's failure, the government has negotiated with the workers collectively anyway. Pedraza added that despite everything, the unions will continue to organize. [ED-LP 5/2/95 from EFE]. Floating money became an issue in Venezuela when police went to the Caracas apartment of Judge Melida Aleksik Molina, suspected of having accepted a cash bribe in return for letting an accused man go free. Hearing the police approach, Aleksik began to throw bundles of money out of her twentieth floor window, while her neighbors below caught it. It is estimated that the judge managed to throw some $5,000 out the window. [FT 4/25/95]. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted 17-0 on May 4 to recommend the confirmation of US deputy defense secretary John Deutch to head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In a letter to the editor, former Senate Banking Committee chair Donald Riegle Jr. and James Tuite 3rd, who directed the committee's investigation into the 1991 Gulf War's health effects, write that "an abundant factual record...shows Mr. Deutch to be a leader of a continued Pentagon effort to cover up the facts concerning likely exposure of Gulf War veterans to chemical and possibly biological agents." [New York Times 5/5/95] 12. CORRECTIONS In last week's Update (#274), the final source in item #2 was incorrectly cited as Financial Times 2/5/95. It should have been Financial Times 4/25/95. In the same Update, item #8, Antonio Lacayo was referred to as Nicaragua's minister of government. He is minister of the presidency. 13. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed are not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network. 5/10 WED, 3-5 PM - NY City Council hearings on Haitian children in Guantanamo. Rally at City Hall park, 4 PM press conference. Haiti Anti-Intervention Committee (HAIC) and National Center for Haitian-American Legal Defense. 718-832-6748. 5/11 THU, 8 PM - Concert to benefit the 5th Cuba Friendshipment w/ Pat Humphries, Nini Camps & Javier Hernandez-Miyares. At Washington Square Methodist Church, 135 W. 4th St. $10. Childcare available. 212-989-5152. 5/12 FRI, 8:30 AM - March and Rally for Alternatives to Jail for Mothers. Meet at Worth & Centre Sts, march to 100 Centre St. JusticeWorks Community, 718-499-6704. 5/13 SAT, 9 AM-6 PM - Conference: The Right Wing Upsurge at Home and Abroad. Sponsored by the Campaign for Peace and Democracy. Free. 65 5th Ave at 14th St. 212-666-5924. 5/13 SAT, 10 AM-4 PM - Rummage sale to benefit the NY-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan. At the Lesbian & Gay Community Center, 208 W 13th St (7 & 8 Aves). Call IFCO, 212-926-5757. 5/14 SUN, 2:30 PM - Tribute to Jose Marti w/Silvio Torres Saillant of CUNY's Institute of Dominican Studies. At 2005 Amsterdam Ave (at 159th St), 3rd Flr. Call 212-568-7868. 5/15 MON, 6:30 PM - Dr. Manning Marable discusses the right-wing shift nationally and locally. $5 sugg donation. 15 Union Sq W, 6th Fl Board Room. Sponsored by North Star Fund: 212-460-5511. 5/16 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. 5/17 WED, 7 PM - Nicaragua One Hundred Years After The Birth of Sandino. Forum with FSLN National Directorate member Victor Hugo Tinoco. $5. 324 Lafayette St, 7th Flr. Call 212-674-9499. 5/18 THU, 7 PM - CREED meeting. Location TBA. 212-674-9499. 5/18 THU, 7 PM - Looking Back: Was Hiroshima Necessary? Forum w/David McReynolds of War Resisters League. At 339 Lafayette St, third floor (buzzer #11). Sponsored by WRL/NYC; 718-335-3602 or 212-228-0450. 5/18 THU, 7 PM - Class Warfare: building a movement to end "wealthfare" as we know it. Workshop w/Holly Sklar & others, organized by Share the Wealth Project and the Learning Alliance. $12/$15/$18 (but no one turned away). 324 Lafayette St. 7th Fl. 212-226-7171. -- + NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems + + Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us + + voice: 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 modem: + + 212-979-0471 e-mail: nyt@blythe.org 212-979-0464 + >