WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #276, MAY 14, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. General Strike Gains Support in Brazil 2. Haiti: Constant Captured, Rockwood Convicted 3. Haitian Murder Rate Back at Pre-Occupation Level 4. Latest Mexican Assassination: Former Jalisco Prosecutor 5. More Mexican Murders: Ruiz Massieu, PRD Members 6. Mexican Rebels: We Could be Next 7. Bolivia: Union Pact Ignored, State of Seige Continues 8. Argentine Incumbent: "There Will Be No Runoff" 9. Guatemalan Investigator Fired Over DeVine Case 10. Guatemalan Government Hires US Public Relations Firm 11. Guatemalans Seek Extradition of US Embassy Official 12. Nicaraguan Producers on Strike 13. Cuba Plans 800,000 Layoffs 14. 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. GENERAL STRIKE GAINS SUPPORT IN BRAZIL A nationwide strike of 300,000 public service workers halted railways, telecommunications, oil refineries, federal universities and social security services across Brazil in actions building during the week of May 8. The strike began May 3 and includes most of Brazil's power, oil, social security and university workers, according to estimates by the powerful Workers Central (CUT). Employees of state telephone companies and university lecturers were expected to join the movement later in the week. Union officials threatened to broaden the strike movement if demands for wage increases are not met. "The decision of [striking] workers is to only return to work if demands are met," said Jose Maria de Almeida, a national secretary for the CUT. The workers are demanding payment of wage adjustments that were promised in negotiations with the government, he said. "We're counting on halting the government's neoliberal plan," said Valmir Penedo, a member of the CUT strike committee. "CUT believes privatization means selling off national sovereignty." President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is attempting to push through constitutional changes that would allow widespread privatization of state industry, including the oil, telecommunications, and energy sectors. The oil workers strike has halted production at nine of the 10 oil refineries of the state oil monopoly, Petrobras, despite the company's move to fire 25 CUT leaders. The other strikes are partial, ranging from a walkout of about 80% of railway workers to a work stoppage of 15% of telephone workers, Gazeta Mercantil newspaper reported. In the industrial center of Sao Paulo, the subway system was shut down on May 11 as the subway workers' strike moved into its third day. [Reuter 5/9/95, 5/11/95] Meanwhile, Brazil recorded a $467 million trade deficit in April, bringing the total shortfall this year to $2.79 billion. [Financial Times (UK) 5/12/95] 2. HAITI: CONSTANT CAPTURED, ROCKWOOD CONVICTED On May 10 agents of the US Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) arrested Haitian rightist leader Emmanuel ("Toto") Constant in front of his aunt's house in the Laurelton section of Queens, New York. The US waited to announce the arrest until May 12. Constant, who was a paid informer for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at least until spring 1994, was a founder and leader of the rightwing paramilitary group Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH). Ordered to appear in court in Haiti last December, he entered the US through Puerto Rico legally on a tourist visa. In February the US government admitted that the rightist was in the country and issued orders for his arrest. Constant is considered responsible for many of the estimated 5,000 murders committed during the 1991-4 military regime [see Updates #245 and 264]. Constant has apparently been living in New York City with relatives; he stayed with his aunt for about two weeks before his arrest. "He seemed to roam freely around the United States," the New York Times notes, "and gave an interview to Haiti Observateur, a weekly published in Brooklyn." [NYT 5/13/95] US secretary of state Warren Christopher had complained that Constant was using a Washington, DC address for his political activities, which could create "the impression in Haiti that the US is permitting Constant to use the US as a base of operations..." [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/14/95 from AP, quote retranslated from Spanish] Constant is being held without bail at an INS facility in Maryland. The US says it will push ahead either with deportation or extradition proceedings, although it is not clear how soon Constant may be returned to Haiti or what charges he will face. [NYT 5/13/95; Washington Post 5/13/95] The Constant arrest was announced just as the court martial of US Army captain Lawrence Rockwood was ending. Rockwood, who was defended by former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, had left his post in Port-au-Prince on Sept. 30, 1994, during the US military occupation of Haiti, to make an unauthorized inspection of the National Penitentiary. The captain says he had done this in order to carry out the mission as defined by US president Bill Clinton: "stopping brutal atrocities" [see Update #266]. A jury of five officers found him guilty on four out of five counts, including "conduct unbecoming an officer." Rockwood faces up to six years and three months in a military prison; sentencing deliberations were to start May 14. [New York Times 5/14/95 from AP] On May 9 the US Senate voted 98-0 to confirm Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch to head the CIA. Deutch was sworn in as director of central intelligence the next day. He is bringing Defense Department spokesperson Dennis Boxx with him. [NYT 5/10/95, 5/14/95; WP 5/10/95] Boxx was the Pentagon's main channel to the media during the early phase of the US intervention in Haiti. 3. HAITIAN MURDER RATE BACK AT PRE-OCCUPATION LEVEL According to Eric Falt, the spokesperson for the UN Mission in Haiti (MINUHA), 97 people were murdered in Haiti during March; 45 of the victims were suspected thieves lynched by the population. The toll for April is estimated at 90, with 25 resulting from lynchings. At least some of the murders have been explicitly political. On Apr. 28 over a dozen people armed with machetes killed Louvri Barye Party (PLB) candidate Emile Louis in the town of Dondon, according to his party. Many attacks have been carried out in broad daylight by well-organized gangs assumed to be former members of rightwing death squads like FRAPH. [Haiti en Marche (Miami) 4/26-5/2/95; Haiti Info Vol. 3, #15, 5/5/95; Haiti Progres (NY) 4/26-5/2/95] The crime wave has brought little response from the MINUHA occupation forces; the Gonaives office of the Catholic Church's human rights group, Justice and Peace, calls the UN troops "numerous and powerless." [Haiti Info 5/5/95] Even when criminals are captured, there is no guarantee they will stay off the street. Eleven suspects escaped the Petionville jail on Apr. 24, including College Francois, a former US embassy security guard charged with killing two other embassy employees during a holdup in November, and Norelus Mondelus, a former army officer nicknamed "Saddam Hussein." The chaotic situation helps explain why some Haitians are venting their frustration in lynchings, although the lynching victims are rarely the worst criminals. The New York-based leftist weekly Haiti Progres reports "devastating situations" like the case of a petty thief stoned to death for stealing some bread and soap. [HP 5/3-5/95] The reported murder rate for March and April--about 23 a week--is higher than the 13-19 a week average rate during the three years of military dictatorship [see Update #246]. Meanwhile, public school teachers struck for higher wages on May 8. There was a confrontation between private school students from St. Paul Preparatory School and public school students from Toussaint Louverture High School; the public school students were concerned by prospects of missing the baccalaureate exam. UN forces used tear gas on the students; five cars were destroyed and 23 people injured. [HP 5/10-16/95] 4. LATEST MEXICAN ASSASSINATION: FORMER JALISCO PROSECUTOR Leobardo Larios Guzman, former attorney general in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, was shot dead the morning of May 10 in Guadalajara, the state capital. Four assailants gunned Larios down as he was leaving his house to teach a law class at the University of Guadalajara. Larios was a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which lost Jalisco to the conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN) in Feb. 12 state elections [see Update #264]. The former prosecutor's murder--the latest in a series of unsolved assassinations of prominent Mexicans--shook the Mexican stock market, which closed the day down about 1%. Larios himself had been involved in the investigation of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo's murder at Guadalajara's Miguel Hidalgo airport on May 24, 1993; Mexican officials claim that Posadas was caught in the crossfire during a gun battle between two drug cartels. [La Jornada (Mexico) 5/11/95 (electronic edition); Los Angeles Times 5/11/95; New York Times 5/11/95; Washington Post 5/11/95] The federal attorney general's office announced that three suspects were arrested in Tijuana on charges connected to the Larios case early on May 11. Later that day, however, federal attorney general Antonio Lozano Gracia told a press conference that his office had made a mistake and that there was no evidence against the three men, who were released. [LJ 5/12/95; LAT 5/12/95] Despite the PAN's reputation as a law and order party--federal attorney general Lozano Gracia is a PAN member, the only federal cabinet member from an opposition party--the new PAN administration of Jalisco has done little to clean up legal problems left over from the previous PRI governments. Larios' replacement, Jorge Lopez Vergara, marked the third anniversary of an Apr. 22, 1992 gasoline explosion in Guadalajara by announcing that his office had found no basis for criminal prosecution in the accident, which killed about 200 people in a working-class neighborhood [see Updates #117, 118]. More than a thousand demonstrators commemorated the anniversary with a march demanding a thorough investigation of former PRI governor Guillermo Cosio Vidaurri, now ambassador to Guatemala, and reparations from the federal petroleum company, Pemex. [LJ 4/23/95] May 4 brought a major riot in Guadalajara's Puente Grande prison; six prisoners were killed and 64 wounded. A National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) investigator charges that many of the victims were shot in the back. The Federal Judicial Police (PJF) and the Jalisco security forces are blaming each other for the shootings. [LJ 5/7/95] Mario Saucedo Perez, general secretary of the center- left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and its defeated candidate for the Jalisco governorship, says that the Larios murder is linked to fights between drug cartels and probably to the Puente Grande riot. He compares the situation in Guadalajara, which is Mexico's second largest city, to "the open war that went on in Chicago in the 1930s, where the gangs, some mixed up with state institutions, were fighting over their privileges." [LJ 5/11/95] 5. MORE MEXICAN MURDERS: RUIZ MASSIEU, PRD MEMBERS On May 11 the US district court in New Jersey made public Mexico's 800-page request for the extradition of former Mexican assistant attorney general Mario Ruiz Massieu. The Mexican government is charging Ruiz Massieu with embezzlement and with covering up evidence about the assassination of his own brother, PRI general secretary Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, in September 1994. Last year Mario Ruiz Massieu was in charge of investigations into drug dealing; in October and November he also headed the inquiry into his brother's murder. According to the extradition request, the former prosecutor told investigators on Mar. 3 that in October he had notified then-president Carlos Salinas de Gortari of witnesses' statements linking Salinas' brother Raul to Jose Franscisco's murder. Raul Salinas is now being held in the Almoloya maximum security prison; in the extradition report, Mexico says that Raul Salinas paid a million pesos (then about $330,000) to have Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu murdered. Both Mexico and the US say that Mario Ruiz Massieu, who was making $70,000 a year, had stashed more than $9 million in a Houston bank: Mexico charges that he had made himself a millionaire by taking bribes from drug cartels. Ruiz Massieu's lawyers are fighting the extradition request, saying that their client fears he will be murdered if he is returned to Mexico. The extradition hearing is scheduled for June 13; on May 12 federal judge Ronald Hedges turned down a request for Ruiz Massieu to be set free on bail. [LJ 5/12/95 (electronic edition) from AFP and AP; El Diario-La Prensa 5/14/95 from AP] PRI leaders are not the only victims of violence from the ruling party. Federal senator Felix Salgado Macedonio (PRD) has asked for governance secretary Esteban Moctezuma to investigate the murder of a PRD leader in the town of Cuadrilla Nueva in the Cutzamala region of the southern state of Guerrero. Local PRD members say that PRI mayor Ranferi Suarez Berrum was behind the May 5 murder of the PRD's Celestino Hernandez Gutierrez. [LJ 5/7/95] According to the PRD, more than 250 of its members were murdered or died in suspicious circumstances between 1989, when the party was founded, and last summer [see Update #235]. 6. MEXICAN REBELS: WE COULD BE NEXT The rebels of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) are concerned about their own safety. In a May 5 communique "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos" writes: "Seeing that it was useless to try to buy us off, the government decided on assassination and is just waiting for a propitious time to carry it out... It has the resources to do it." "The government negotiates like a terrorist," Marcos says. "It has taken thousands of indigenous people hostage in [the southern state of] Chiapas, along with a handful of innocent civilians in the city." [In the same communique, the rebel leader denies rumors that his absence from recent peace talks was caused by internal EZLN struggles. Other leaders have been preparing to act as spokespeople, he writes, since it had been an "error" to focus so much attention on his own "impertinent nose, which was hidden, uselessly, behind a black wool ski mask." "The pronounced nose will go back to sneezing more and talking less," its owner says.] [LJ 5/11/95] Despite the misgivings, Zapatista negotiators returned to talks as scheduled on May 12 in the town officially known as San Andres Larrainzar in the southern state of Chiapas. The government said the new round had begun in an atmosphere of "understanding and respect." But the EZLN issued a communique, dated May 10, saying the government was "making fun" of the rebels with its proposal that they regroup to "three sites determined by the parties" to the talks and reduce their presence in other regions. The Zapatistas insist that the Mexican army must withdraw to its positions as of Feb. 8, before the government's Feb. 9 offensive. [LJ 5/13/95, electronic edition] 7. BOLIVIA: UNION PACT IGNORED, STATE OF SEIGE CONTINUES Interior Regulation secretary Hugo San Martin announced on May 10 that the Bolivian government will not lift the state of seige in effect since Apr. 18 [see Updates #273, #274, #275], though it has authorized provincial governments to relax the measure in their regions. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/11/95 from Notimex] On May 9, two teachers from the La Paz Urban Teachers Federation began a hunger strike outside the offices of the Human Rights Assembly; police promptly raided the offices and arrested the two for violating the state of seige. (Waldo Albarracin, president of the Human Rights Assembly, had made it clear when the hunger strike began that the Assembly had "not promoted or suggested" the action; he said it was carried out "against our will," but that he would not force them to leave.) Teachers Yolanda Vargas and Luis Copeticona staged the hunger strike to demand the release of union leaders Gonzalo Soruco, Vilma Plata and Jose Luis Alvarez. According to Vargas, the teachers "respected the decision of the last general assembly of the COB [Bolivian Workers Central] to lift the teachers' strike because the labor leaders swore that all the arrested unionists would be freed." Vargas is also protesting the government's refusal to rehire a number of teachers--including herself--who were fired for taking part in the 50-day strike. [ED-LP 5/10/95 & 5/11/95 from Notimex] Plata and Soruco were among 27 teachers arrested on Mar. 21 after the government used tear gas against a peaceful protest march [see Update #269]. The two are being held in jail with common criminals and are being threatened with sentences of between four and 15 years in prison for organizing and advocating strikes. [Bolivian Union Solidarity Committee (UK) 4/23/95] COB general secretary Oscar Salas Moya was released from jail on May 3--the same day the teacher's strike ended. Salas said the state of siege and the arrests of hundreds of union members showed the public and the international community that the Bolivian government "does not know how to live in a democracy, and prefers a dictatorship." But Salas also criticized the La Paz teachers, the most radical among the teachers' confederation, for "nostalgically trying to act as they did 50 years ago, without understanding that the national and world situation is different." Meanwhile, on May 4 the coca growers of the Chapare region of central Bolivia said they would only agree to eradicate 1,750 hectares of coca fields before June 30--as demanded by the US--if the Bolivian government immediately released their leader, Evo Morales, who was detained on April 18. The growers took the position after a statement by Governance Minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain that Morales would be turned over to the Technical Judicial Police (PTJ) on charges of endangering public security. A spokesperson for the coca growers said on May 6 that Sanchez had threatened the growers, warning them, "If you don't want peace in the Chapare, eradication of coca fields is going forward, with or without your cooperation." Morales was finally released on May 9. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 5/12/95 from AP, UPI, Reuter, IPS, AFP] 8. ARGENTINE INCUMBENT: "THERE WILL BE NO RUNOFF" Political campaigning came to a close on May 12 for the May 14 general elections in Argentina. President Carlos Saul Menem of the Justicialista (Peronista) Party is running for a second term, with former interior minister Carlos Ruckauf as his running mate. Menem's closest opponent is Jose Octavio Bordon of the center- left FREPASO coalition; the vice presidential candidate is Carlos "Chacho" Alvarez, a popular unionist who was unexpectedly edged out of the presidential candidacy by Bordon in open primaries on Feb. 26 [see Update #266]. In addition to choosing a president and vice president, Argentines will elect 130 of the 257 national deputies, 40 of the 72 senators, 22 of 23 governors, plus 68% of the provincial deputies and senators and a majority of mayors and city councils. Argentina has 22 million eligible voters out of a total population of 33 million. This is the first time Argentines will elect their president and vice president directly, rather than through an electoral college system, thanks to a package of constitutional reforms approved last year that also opened the way for presidential reelection, reduced the presidential term from six years to four and established a presidential runoff vote. [see Update #266]. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 5/12/95 from United Press International, Inter Press Service, Notimex, Reuter, Agence-France Presse; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/14/95 from AP] Most polls are predicting a first-round victory for incumbent president Carlos Saul Menem of the Justicialista (Peronista) Party, who over the past week has regained some of the advantage he had lost to his closest opponent, Jose Octavio Bordon of the center-left FREPASO coalition [see Update #275]. [ED-LP 5/12/95 from EFE] But with the exception of Menem himself, no one is discounting the possibility of a runoff. "I am totally convinced that there will be no runoff," said Menem in a television appearance on May 8. [Financial Times 5/10/95] Taking into account last-minute voting fluctuations and margins of error, political analyst Rosendo Fraga believes Menem has a floor of 43% voter support while Bordon has a ceiling of 35%. "For there to be a second round, Mr. Bordon has to reach his ceiling and Menem has to hit his floor," explained Fraga. Fraga suggested that Menem's campaign has been damaged by recent revelations about the murder of political prisoners during Argentina's dirty war, because the issue has distracted debate from Menem's perceived strength in handling the economy. [FT 5/10/95] On May 12, Menem promised "to open all the archives of the security and armed forces" so that those who want to see the lists of people disappeared during the dirty war "can go and investigate." [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 5/13/95 from AFP] Menem's electoral base is in Buenos Aires province, where nearly 40% of the country's eligible voters live. The reelection campaign of popular governor Eduardo Duhalde, who was Menem's vice president, is likely to help Menem in the presidential race if people vote a straight party ticket. But polls show Duhalde commanding about 60% of the vote--nearly 20 percentage points above Menem--and analysts believe that many Buenos Aires voters are planning to split their ballot, choosing Duhalde for governor and Bordon for president. [ED-LP 5/14/95 from AP; Financial Times (UK) 5/11/95] The same effect may occur in other provinces, like Cordoba, where the Radical Civic Union's (UCR) candidate for governor is polling about 10 percentage points higher than UCR presidential candidate Horacio Massaccesi. Massaccesi has received only tepid support from his own party and has lost many supporters to Bordon; he is running at about 15% in the polls. [FT 5/11/95] But FREPASO is a recently-formed coalition which in many provinces is not even running its own candidates. Because of this, analysts say the UCR is likely to remain the country's second most powerful political force overall. [DLA 5/13/95 from EFE] To elect candidates from different parties, Argentine voters must literally cut the ballot with a pair of scissors. In the 1983 presidential elections, only 9% of voters split their ballots. [FT 5/11/95] If Menem wins, he will be the second person to serve two consecutive presidential terms in Argentina. The first was the popular leader Gen. Juan Domingo Peron, who was elected in 1946 and 1951. In announcing his latest campaign promise, a pledge to create 330,000 new jobs a year through a public works program [see Update #275], Menem quoted Peron: "To govern is to create work." [FT 5/11/95] The day after Menem announced the jobs program, Duhalde commented that "there is no bigger liar than a politician during an election campaign." [LADB Notisur 5/12/95 from UPI, IPS, Notimex, Reuter, AFP] 9. GUATEMALAN INVESTIGATOR FIRED OVER DEVINE CASE On May 6, Attorney General Ramses Cuestas Gomez announced the dismissal of Leonel Machuca Quiroga, special investigator into the murders of US citizen Michael DeVine and guerrilla fighter Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, because of "indications of anomalies" in the investigation. Cuestas also canceled the trip Machuca had planned to make the next day to Washington, where he was to question US Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) and a key witness, former guerrilla fighter Santiago Cabrera Lopez. Cuestas said his decision would oblige the Public Ministry to begin an internal inquiry and warned that he would find out who was responsible for the anomalies in the investigation. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/8/95 from EFE; La Jornada 5/7/95 from DPA, Cerigua, AP] Guatemalan president Ramiro de Leon Carpio plans to meet on May 25 in Guatemala with a delegation of US senators and representatives--including Torricelli, who went public in March with evidence that DeVine and Bamaca were killed on orders from Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, a paid informer for the CIA. [ED-LP 5/12/95 from EFE] The Guatemalan daily La Republica reported on May 2 that Torricelli said he has asked the Justice Department to request the extradition of Col. Alpirez. [Noticias de Guatemala Weekly Bulletin 4/29/95-5/5/95] On May 10, the Governance Ministry offered a reward of the equivalent of $17,543 for information leading to the capture of fugitive Capt. Hugo Contreras. Contreras, the highest-ranking Guatemalan military officer ever convicted of a crime, escaped on May 13, 1993, hours after being sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of DeVine. [ED-LP 5/11/95 from EFE] Meanwhile, Guatemalan daily Siglo Veintiuno reported on May 5 that a tape proving Alpirez's innocence was in the hands of at least two US citizens and several unnamed Guatemalans. The report stated, "Established sources in Washington, DC revealed to Siglo Veintiuno the existence of a supposed tape that would exculpate Colonel Julio Roberto Alpirez of the 1990 death of US citizen Michael DeVine, but in turn would implicate other members of the army." Col. Alpirez and Defense Minister Gen. Mario Rene Enriquez both refused to comment on the report. [GHRC/USA Human Rights Update Peacenet Versions #16 & 17, 5/5/95] 10. GUATEMALAN GOVERNMENT HIRES US PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRM Guatemalan Defense Minister Mario Rene Enriquez has signed a six- month contract with a US public relations firm, agreeing to pay a monthly retainer of $70,000, plus expenses. The contract is renewable at $50,000 per month after the six-month period, which began in April. The firm, R. Thompson & Company, based in Washington, DC, promises to "open additional lines of communication in the United States" with the Guatemalan government's critics and its supporters so that the "government's story and the truth are fully explained." "This will likely include visits to Guatemala by US government officials and visits to Washington, DC, by senior Guatemalan government officials," the firm told Enriquez in an Apr. 8 letter. Robert J. Thompson, the president of the company, said he looked forward to working with Enriquez, President de Leon Carpio, and cabinet officials "to improve relations, understanding, trade, and economic benefits between the two countries." [GHRC/USA Human Rights Update Peacenet Versions #16 & 17, 5/5/95] 11. GUATEMALANS SEEK EXTRADITION OF US EMBASSY OFFICIAL The Mutual Support Group (GAM) for relatives of the disappeared has asked the Guatemalan Attorney General's Office to extradite a US citizen they believe is named John Michael Taylor, who was First Secretary of the US Embassy between January and May of 1984. Taylor reportedly talked with GAM staff members about the tortures being suffered by 14 people who had been abducted and disappeared during that time. According to GAM, Taylor also knew where the detainees were being held and who was responsible for their torture. Those responsible include several high-ranking military officers. [GHRC/USA Human Rights Update Peacenet Versions #16 & 17, 5/5/95] In other news, GAM reports that 17 relatives of campesinos killed in massacres during the 1980s in Rio Negro, Agua Fria, and Plan de Sanchez, in Baja Verapaz, will file suit against Guatemalan civil patrol members who committed the massacres. [GHRC/USA Human Rights Update Peacenet Versions #16 & 17, 5/5/95] 12. NICARAGUAN PRODUCERS ON STRIKE May 8, Nicaraguan agricultural producers and transport owners began a scaled strike to demand lower fuel prices and more bank credits. The strike was called by the pro-Sandinista "National Coordinating Group in Defense of Property, Credit and the Standard of Living." [El Diario-La Prensa 5/11/95 from EFE] Strike leaders are calling for peaceful demonstrations in opposition to government austerity measures that have resulted in rising costs for energy and water. They also oppose the tight credit policy at state-owned banks, saying it stifles production and increases unemployment, estimated at 60%. [Reuter 5/8/95] "I don't want there to be a strike," said President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro on May 10. "Let those little hotheads leave that and go look for how to work." As of May 10, all was calm in Managua; business went on as usual and the majority of bus and taxi companies were in service. According to the strikers, demonstrations were held on major highways in northern and central Nicaragua. The police reported on May 10 that the only violent incident relating to the strike occurred on the night of May 8, when picket lines blocked traffic at the highway intersection near Teustepe, in Boaco department. The producers arrested in that incident were released the following day, thanks to the efforts of the pro-Sandinista Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights. [ED-LP 5/11/95 from EFE] In an attempt to stop transport service in Managua, leaders of the radical pro-Sandinista "Parrales Vallejos" bus drivers union demanded that taxi and bus owners park their vehicles, according to a report from Spanish news service EFE. The majority of the transport owners ignored the call and continued their service; the Parrales Vallejos leaders were obliged to reschedule the Managua stoppage for the following week. Although government authorities announced on May 11 that the strike was a total failure, leaders of the protest insisted that the majority of producers in the northern and central parts of the country have stopped shipping their products to the markets. "You can be assured that the supplies in the markets have diminished by 50%," strike organizer Alejandro Gomez told EFE. Gomez said that the government "doesn't believe in the strike because it is developing in a peaceful way and without affecting the activity of third persons." [Diario Las Americas 5/13/95 from EFE] Daniel Ortega, general secretary of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), told foreign reporters on May 12 that the FSLN is preparing to support the national producers' strike. [ED-LP 5/14/95 from AFP] On May 8, Ortega urged Sandinistas and their sympathizers to direct protests against the government tax policies of President Chamorro and Managua Mayor Arnoldo Aleman. [Reuter 5/8/95] Ortega also warned that if Nicaragua's current constitutional crisis continues, the government of President Chamorro could collapse. The executive, legislative and judicial powers have been fighting over a series of constitutional reforms, which were passed by the National Assembly but ignored by Chamorro [see Updates #264-266, #274]. The Supreme Court ruled on May 8 that the Assembly's Feb. 24 publication of the constitutional reforms- -against the wishes of the executive branch and in violation of an appeals court order--was not valid. [ED-LP 5/14/95 from AFP] 13. CUBA PLANS 800,000 LAYOFFS Cuba has instituted a new policy of job cuts in an effort to make its industry more efficient. By the week of May 8, the jobs of 80,926 workers had already been phased out, according to Pedro Ross Leal, secretary general of the Cuban Workers' Central (CTC); 59,815 of these workers were shifted to new jobs. Official estimates say as many as 800,000 people--out of a total national workforce of 3.5 million--may eventually be laid off under the new policy. [New York Times 5/13/95] "There are no dismissals and there are no layoffs," insists Leal. [NYT 5/13/95] "What's understood is that the process of rationalization of employment is a necessity to achieve efficiency," explained Salvador Valdes, Cuba's labor and social security minister. "We have to restructure over-inflated workforces." Under new labor ministry regulations that went into effect last September, laid off workers who cannot be immediately placed in another job are entitled to one month's full pay and 60% of their previous salary thereafter. [Financial Times 5/9/95] Many wonder if the layoffs will spark popular discontent within Cuba, especially now that the US has begun to intercept at sea and repatriate all Cubans who try to leave the island [see Update #275]. The first group of 11 Cuban balseros intercepted since the new policy went into effect on May 2 was returned to Cuba by the US Coast Guard on May 9, and a second group of 11 balseros was returned on May 12. Both groups were met at a remote dock in Cabanas, 40 miles west of Havana, by officials from the US Interests Section. Cuban immigrants and Cuban-Americans angry at the new US policy have held numerous demonstrations and protest actions over the past week in Florida and Washington. [Washington Post 5/10/95; NYT 5/13/95] 14. 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. 5/17 WED, 7 PM - Forum with FSLN National Directorate member Victor Hugo Tinoco. $5. 324 Lafayette St, 7th Flr. Call 212-674- 9499. 5/18 THU, 5 PM - "The War in Chiapas," video. Reception for photo exhibit at 6:30. CCNY, Arnow Theater, 138th & Convent. CCNY Anthropology Student Assoc. 212-650-8809. 5/18 THU, 7 PM - CREED general meeting. At CISPES, 19 W 22 St, 5th fl. 212-645-5230. 5/18 THU, 7:30 - "Death of a Nation: the Timor Conspiracy." Film & discussion w/Constancio Pinto, Amy Goodman, Allan Nairn. Cinema Arts Center, 423 Park Ave, Huntington, LI. $7. 516-423-7610. 5/19 FRI - Centennial of the Death of Jose Marti, w/speaker from Cuban Mission to the UN. At Casa de las Americas, 104 W. 14th St. 5/20 SAT, 2 PM - Oppose the Death Penalty! March & Rally at Sing Sing prison. Washington Ave & Spring St, Ossining. 914-332-8861. 5/21 SUN, 3 PM - Public Reading of Live From Death Row by political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. $15. Cooper Union, 41 Cooper Square. Call 301-699-0042 or 212-279-0707. 5/24 WED, 7:30 PM - Legislative Acts: discussion with Augusto Boal, Brazilian Workers Party activist, founder of the Theater of the Oppressed and Rio de Janeiro city council member. $10. Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10th Fl. 212-242-4201. -- + 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 + >