WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #278, MAY 28, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Brazil Sends Troops to Break Oil Strike 2. Peru to "Reorganize" Universities 3. Haitian Elections: Missing Registrations, GOP at Work 4. Dominican Republic: Government Silent on Murdered Journalists 5. Ecuadorans Fight Privatization of Social Security 6. Nicaraguan Transport Strike Ends 7. IMF Declares Mexican Crisis "Manageable Problem" 8. Mexico Prepares for "Social Explosion" 9. Mexico Scandals: Sex, Drugs, Wiretaps 10. Third Colombian Sentenced for Killing Journalist in US 11. Guatemalan Army Killed Soldier to Fake Rebel's Death 12. Chile: Ruling Imminent on Letelier Case 13. US Liberal Pushes National ID Card 14. In Other News: Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia 15. Upcoming Events in the New York City Area & Beyond ISSN#: 1068-5332. These updates are published weekly. A one-year subscription is $25 by first class mail. Please send check or money order payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network at 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012). Back issues and source materials are available on request. (Many of our source materials are accessed through NY Transfer; back issues are also available on NY Transfer's OnLine Library.) Subscriptions to the Electronic Edition of this Update are delivered directly to your e-mail box. To subscribe to the electronic edition, send your e-mail address with a check or money order for US $25 payable to Blythe Systems. Mail to: NY Transfer News Collective, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. Feel free to reproduce these updates or reprint any information from them, but please credit us, and send us a copy. We welcome your comments and ideas: send them via e-mail to nicanet@blythe.org. * 1. BRAZIL SENDS TROOPS TO BREAK OIL STRIKE Early on May 24, as the 48,000 workers of Brazil's state oil company Petrobras entered their 21st day on strike, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso sent 1,000 army troops to take over four of the 11 plants affected by the strike. Petrobras reported that oil refining has resumed at two of the army-occupied refineries, and a skeleton staff is maintaining production at several others. According to Petrobras, oil production has been running about 36% of normal levels and natural gas output is at about 60%. [Financial Times (UK) 5/23/95, 5/25/95; Reuter 5/24/95] "The troops were called in only to ensure that the return of workers to their jobs takes place without incident," Mines and Energy Minister Raimundo Brito said in a television broadcast. The strike, the third by oilworkers in nine months, has caused widespread fuel shortages. Long lines have formed outside centers distributing bottles of gas for cooking and heating, and several gas-consuming companies have shut down. "If they want to use dictatorial methods to resolve a labor dispute, fine, but society will be their judge," said David Soares, director of the Oilworkers Federation (FUP). But Ernesto Moreira, an analyst with MCM, a consulting firm in Sao Paulo, said Cardoso's decision to send in the troops could boost his drive for economic reforms. "The hardening is positive. The government has public opinion in its favor. To retreat would be negative," he said. Amaury Souza, research associate at the Institute of Economic, Social and Political Studies, recalled how several striking steelworkers protesting privatization were killed by the army in 1988. "The army should be cautious about the aftermath of the army occupation of the refineries," he said. "The workers will try to antagonize the military to [cause] acts of martyrdom." [Reuter 5/24/95] Cardoso's drastic move was planned carefully and in secret over 15 days; 1,200 troops were trained for the military operation, and 200 technicians who entered the refineries with them were given an intensive course in a Sao Paulo hotel. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/26/95 from AFP] Workers were due to receive their May wages on May 26, but Cardoso ordered the strikers' pay to be docked for each day of absence. [Diario Las Americas 5/27/95 from EFE; Financial Times 5/23/95] Workers Party (PT) leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who ran against Cardoso in last year's presidential elections, said Cardoso should fulfill the commitment made by previous president Itamar Franco, who had signed an agreement with the oil workers promising a 26% raise. Lula added that the government's intransigence had led it to waste "much more than $20 million to buy fuel outside [the country], when it could settle its debt with the workers for $14 million." [La Jornada (Mexico) 5/21/95 from AFP, ANSA, AP, DPA, EFE, UPI] Meanwhile, on May 24 the lower house of Brazil's Congress voted 348 to 140, with five abstentions, in favor of a constitutional amendment that would break the state telecommunications monopoly and allow its privatization. The vote was the closest so far for Cardoso's proposed constitutional reforms, which need approval by two thirds--at least 308 votes--in the lower house. The house is due to consider similar proposals to privatize the oil sector shortly. [Reuter 5/24/95; FT 5/26/95] On a visit to northeastern Brazil during the weekend of May 20, Cardoso was booed, insulted and pelted with rocks by demonstrators in three different states, mainly union members and students protesting his economic reforms. In the most serious incident, one of Cardoso's press aides was slightly injured and windows on a government bus were broken by rock-throwing protesters in the city of Campina Grande, in Paraiba state, on May 19. [Reuter 5/21/95; La Jornada 5/21/95 from AFP, ANSA, AP, DPA, EFE, UPI] Lula denounced the violence. "I don't think throwing stones is a democratic action," said the PT leader. [Reuter 5/21/95] 2. PERU TO "REORGANIZE" UNIVERSITIES More than 300 students shouted slogans, burned tires and threw rocks at police in the streets of Lima, Peru, on the evening of May 25 to protest a university reorganization law passed by congress in the early hours of the day. The first universities to be affected by the new law will be San Marcos--the oldest university in the American continent --and Enrique Guzman y Valle, also known as La Cantuta. [Diario Las Americas 5/27/95 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa 5/28/95 from AFP] The "reorganization" includes the dismissal of administrative personnel through a program of economic incentives; the replacement of the entire teaching staff; and the reduction of academic departments to those considered "functional" (of the 16 departments in San Marcos only three would remain). Legislative sources revealed that congress had been ready to pass the reorganization law for weeks, but that it decided to take advantage of the public sentiment created by a May 24 car-bomb attack in Lima. [ED-LP 5/28/95 from AFP] Members of the Maoist Sendero Luminoso guerrillas are suspected of carrying out the bombing, which damaged a luxury casino-hotel in the wealthy Miraflores district of the capital and killed four people. [Reuter 5/24/95] 3. HAITIAN ELECTIONS: MISSING REGISTRATIONS, GOP AT WORK On May 24 Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) finally released its list of candidates for the June 25 legislative and local elections. The list includes 133 contenders for 18 of the Senate's 27 seats and 665 for the Chamber of Deputies' 83 seats; 23 political parties are running candidates. A UN official had warned on May 23 that the voting--already postponed repeatedly since December--would be put off once more if the candidate list was not released immediately. The ballots are being printed in California by a company which says it needs a month to complete the job. Runoffs will be held on July 23. [Haiti Progres (NY) 5/24-30/95; Reuter 5/25/95; El Diario-La Prensa 5/28/95 from AP] [The US forced CEP to contract with the California firm for the ballots; see Update #272.] The CEP excluded several hundred candidates on technical grounds. Serge Beaulieu was the only major candidate kept off the list because of a connection to the 1959-1986 Duvalier family dictatorship. Article 291 of the 1987 Constitution bars Duvalierists from holding office until 1997. Many Haitians feel that at least some candidates--Rita Frederique Montcoeur, Josue Lafrance and Margareth Martin--should have been excluded as Duvalierists. [HP 5/24-30/95] Some rightists are threatening to disrupt the voting. One disqualified candidate, Alexis Clerius, announced on May 19 that he would sabotage the electoral process in his district if the CEP didn't reverse its decision to exclude him. Clerius, who wanted to run for mayor of Delmas, a town outside Port-au-Prince, said that the other candidates would have to campaign from helicopters. "I'm a technician of violence and certain dictators like Gen. Cedras and Gen. Avril know all about it." [Raoul Cedras and Prosper Avril both held power at various times after the fall of the Duvaliers.] [HP 5/24-30/95 from AHP] The CEP charges that some 800,000 voter registration cards (out of 3.2 million) have been stolen by people planning to disrupt the vote. Former legislator Benoit Laguerre was arrested on May 23 for possession of arms and about 100 registration cards; he was a supporter of the 1991 military coup that overthrew current president Jean- Bertrand Aristide. [ED-LP 5/28/95 from AP; Village Voice (NY) 5/30/95] The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is putting $12 million into the June election, with more funding planned for the December presidential race. Some of the funds are channeled through two groups run by US political parties, the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute (IRI). In its proposal to USAID, the IRI wrote that it will "conduct local leadership training exclusively for non-Lavalas centrist political party representatives from all 83 electoral districts." Lavalas is the movement supporting President Aristide. House Internal Relations Committee chair Benjamin Gilman (R-NY) reminded the IRI that the "proposal you are considering...runs counter" to USAID policy of not discriminating against any political group. USAID is supplying $495,470 for the IRI proposal despite the violation of USAID policy. [Counterpunch (DC) 5/15/95; Village Voice 5/30/95] 4. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: GOVERNMENT SILENT ON MURDERED JOURNALISTS About a hundred students from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) in the Dominican Republic held a demonstration on May 26 to demand that the government explain the disappearance exactly one year earlier of journalist and professor Narciso Gonzalez. Gonzalez, a harsh critic of President Joaquin Balaguer, disappeared 10 days after Balaguer won reelection in a vote widely believed to be fraudulent [see Updates #228, #230, #232]. The students burned tires and blocked the streets surrounding the university with rocks, logs and garbage; there were clashes with police but no reports of injuries. The student demonstrations coincided with protests against transport fare hikes in at least a dozen working-class neighborhoods of Santo Domingo. [El Diario- La Prensa 5/28/95 from EFE] While the government has maintained silence on the Gonzalez case, a member of the "Truth Commission" created to investigate the case told Spanish news service EFE that the commission has proof that this is a case of a "political disappearance." The commission member, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the commission also has serious evidence on the identity of those presumed responsible for the kidnapping and murder. "There are officials in the middle [of this]," said the source, and some are not the ones we thought [responsible] in the beginning." For this reason, the source explained, the commission will not make any public accusation "until a future change of government [occurs]... for fear of [political] reprisals" and because it lacks confidence that the charges will be taken up by the present courts. The "Truth Commission" is made up of UASD rector Roberto Santana; Dominican Human Rights Commission president Virgilio Almanzar; Gonzalez's wife Altagracia Ramirez; and others, including a priest and friends of Gonzalez. [ED-LP 5/26/95 from correspondent and EFE] Meanwhile, President Balaguer has been called to testify in the case of another murdered journalist, Orlando Martinez. Martinez, director of the magazine Ahora and a critic of Balaguer, was murdered on Mar. 17, 1975. In an autobiographical book, Balaguer- -who was president at the time of the murder--had indicated that he knew who killed Martinez, and that he had left someone in charge of revealing the names of those responsible after his own death. The Martinez case was reopened in the courts on Mar. 17 of this year by the murdered journalist's mother, Adriana Howley de Martinez. [ED-LP 5/23/95 from EFE, 5/24/95] 5. ECUADORANS FIGHT PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY On May 15 in Ecuador, a number of labor, indigenous, and campesino organizations announced they were mounting a counteroffensive to block the planned privatization of social security and the other state enterprises. Fausto Duran, secretary general of the Unitary Workers Front (FUT) announced that a work stoppage would be held on May 25 and 26. On May 24, the government called out the police to "protect state property and maintain public order." Privatization of social security is opposed not only by the FUT, but also by a million rural indigenous people who belong to the campesino social security program (SSC). SSC members say privatizing social security would jeopardize their access to health care. Indigenous leader Jorge Loor said three indigenous Ecuadorans were shot and wounded on May 23 in a village near the Colombian border during a demonstration protesting the threat to their social security benefits. On May 24, a group of indigenous people peacefully occupied the Santo Domingo Catholic Church in downtown Quito to protest the planned privatization. Government Minister Abraham Romero reminded workers that the government could use powers granted under the state of emergency-- which took effect when war broke out with Peru--to respond to the strike. "All those who promote disturbances and try to create chaos will be sanctioned," Romero said. The government extended the state of emergency on May 6, citing continued tensions between Ecuador and Peru. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 5/26/95 from Reuter, Notimex, Agence France-Presse] 6. NICARAGUAN TRANSPORT STRIKE ENDS On May 24, thousands of Nicaraguans marched eight kilometers to the presidential palace to protest the government's economic policies. Some of the protesters fired homemade mortars at the building. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/25/95 from AP] The Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry building was attacked with gunfire and stones on the night of May 21 during a funeral march for Enrique Montenegro, a demonstrator who was killed by police in a confusing incident on May 17. Another protester and a police officer were also killed in the May 17 incident, which occurred as some 200 people gathered near the headquarters of the Parrales Vallejos transportation cooperative to protest government austerity measures [see Update #277]. [Reuter 5/21/95; Central American Human Rights Commission (CODEHUCA) Urgent Action 5/24/95] All three of the men killed were militants in the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). According to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), the police say the strikers attacked first with firebombs and gunfire, and that police were only trying to defend themselves; the cooperative members say the police started shooting first after attacking demonstrators with tear gas. [CODEHUCA Urgent Action 5/24/95 (from CENIDH)] A three-member commission has been named to investigate the incident. Two of the three members are from the Governance Ministry, which oversees the National Police. [Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 5/22/95] Transportation in Managua returned to normal on May 25 as the 220 buses operated by the Parrales Vallejos cooperative began circulating again. The government had threatened to revoke the licenses of cooperative members if they did not end their strike; cooperative leader Carlos Palma said that the drivers were no longer on strike in any case, but had merely been in mourning for the two unionists killed in the May 17 incident. [ED-LP 5/26/95 from AP; Diario Las Americas 5/27/95 from EFE] Meanwhile, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has warned that it will cut its aid to Nicaragua if the crisis between the three powers of state over revisions to the constitution continues [see Update #264-266, #274, #276]. USAID director in Nicaragua George Carner said that so far in 1995 USAID has disbursed $20 million through various programs. [La Jornada 5/14/95 from DPA, EFE, AFP, ANSA, Reuter] 7. IMF DECLARES MEXICAN CRISIS "MANAGEABLE PROBLEM" On May 19 the Mexican government drew down another $2 billion from the $20 billion credit line the US extended in February; Mexico has now used $10 billion of the US bailout fund. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/21/95 from AP] Michel Camdessus, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told the Council of the Americas in Washington, DC on May 22 that "Mexico is headed toward recovery" if it adheres to its current drastic austerity plan. "I am confident the crisis has turned into a manageable problem." [New York Times 5/23/95 from Reuter] Mexico's central bank reports that in the first half of May the inflation rate dropped to a 67% annual rate, down from a 220% annual rate in the first two weeks of April. Interest rates on cetes (28-day government securities) have fallen to 48% (from 58.26% the week before), and foreign reserves have risen by $200 million. [Wall Street Journal 5/25/95] "The numbers look good," US analyst Riordan Roett told the Washington Post, but "[m]y sense is that investors remain very skittish." [WP 5/22/95] [Roett was an analyst for Chase Manhattan Corp. until the biweekly Counterpunch revealed that he had called for the Mexican government to "eliminate" the Zapatista rebels of southern Mexico; see Update #264.] For most Mexicans the numbers look less good. The official unemployment rate was 5.7% for March, although some private sector economists calculate that actual unemployment and underemployment add up to 28%. [Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update, Vol. 2, #31, 5/24/95] On May 24 Labor Secretary Santiago Onate told the Chamber of Deputies that real unemployment is in fact 17%, with 5.7 million unemployed out of a work force of 35 million. [ED-LP 5/26/95 from AP] The agricultural sector--which includes about one-third of the population--is probably the hardest hit. The area planted with basic grains had already fallen from 12.43 million hectares in 1991 to 9.41 million in 1993. Since 1993 agricultural production has dropped 50% in the southern state of Chiapas; the crisis and the armed conflict in the state have cost 200,000 farm workers their jobs. [NAFTA & Inter-American Trade Monitor, Vol 2, #17, 5/26/95] The situation is hardly better in the northern states, where a two-year old drought, the worst in 50 years, has forced farmers to reduce the area cultivated by more than 300,000 hectares. The US refuses to lend water from its own supplies. [Inter Press Service 5/19/95] The number of cholera cases this year in Mexico was 1,737 as of the middle of May, triple the number for the same period in 1994. 507 new cases and eight deaths were reported in one week in May; Chiapas alone accounted for 152 cases and three deaths. The epidemic is expected to get worse during the rainy season, from May through August. Dr. Marcos Arana of the CONPAZ social service organization in Chiapas notes that cholera is "a disease of poverty." [Associated Press 5/23/95] Another result of the economic crisis is a dramatic jump in the number of children living in the streets of Mexico City. In 1992 the UN put the number at 11,000. Now the figure is 30,000 to 40,000, according to Jose Manuel Capellin, director of the Home Alliance shelter. "Before the economic crisis, we used to come across two or three new street kids every week," Capellin says. "Now we see two or three new ones every day." [WP 5/22/95] On May 5 Finance Secretary Guillermo Ortiz Martinez told Business Week that the worst round of layoffs "might come in the months of July and August." [La Jornada (Mexico) 5/7/95] Meanwhile, the US has formally notified the Mexican government that the National Guard may build a metal wall at the frontier between Chihuahua and the Anapra-Sunland Park area of New Mexico, in order ""to eliminate border violence." [LJ 5/21/95] 8. MEXICO PREPARES FOR "SOCIAL EXPLOSION" "The rescue plan is working," writes New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. "It is putting the Mexican people through a brutal recession, like wiring someone's jaw shut to lose weight. With 500,000 newly unemployed, the potential for a social explosion remains very high." [NYT 5/24/95] The Democratic National Convention (CND), a group of grassroots organizations called together by the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) last summer, is planning an "extraordinary" assembly for the first week of June; in addition to showing support for the rebels, the meeting is expected to issue a new call for a National Liberation Movement (MLN), a broader coalition proposed by the EZLN in January. [LJ 5/21/95] On May 14 several hundred leftists met in Veracruz to form what they called the "Democratic National Alliance." The main force behind the meeting seemed to be Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, ex- gubernatorial candidate of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in last November's Tabasco state elections. One participant referred to the meeting as "the rebellion of the colonels," middle-level PRD leaders like Lopez Obrador who are trying to push their party to the left. But the meeting also drew representatives from independent groups like the CND, university workers unions and the laid-off drivers of Mexico City's Route 100 bus line. [LJ 5/15/95, electronic edition] Meanwhile, the Clinton administration is planning to supply the Mexican attorney general's office with about 20 surplus UH-1H Huey transport helicopters, and discussions are under way for the US to sell or lend several dozen UH-60 Blackhawks, much more sophisticated transport helicopters. Mexico and the US say these are for drug-interdiction operations by the Mexican army, whose budget for destroying drug crops has risen from $27 million to $38 million in one year, despite the economic crisis. "In the past, there was always a reluctance to allow the military to play a stronger role," an unnamed US official explained. "But with the Zedillo administration, that mindset has dissolved." [Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon assumed the presidency in December.] [NYT 5/23/95] On May 12 federal deputy Luis Garfias, a retired general who heads the Chamber of Deputies' National Defense Commission, warned that if the police prove unable to fight the rising crime wave, the government might have to use the army for police functions. Garfias, a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said this would not be to "militarize" the situation but to "watch out for" the cities. [LJ 5/14/95] 9. MEXICO SCANDALS: SEX, DRUGS, WIRETAPS Factions within the PRI seem to be using the security apparatus against each other. On May 22 customs officials arrested Tijuana race track owner Jorge Hank Rhon as he arrived in Mexico City's international airport from Japan with 12 suitcases of carved ivory and rare animal pelts; his customs declaration had been for $1,000. Hank Rhon is the son of former agriculture secretary Carlos Hank Gonzalez, a major power in the PRI and one of the richest people in the country. [ED-LP 5/24/95 from AP; NYT 5/24/95] The independent Mexico City daily Reforma recently published the tape of a phone conversation that former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari and his presidency secretary, Jose Cordoba Montoya, held on June 27, 1992. The tape was made by the Investigations and National Security Center (CISEN), which Cordoba himself headed at the time. The president and his adviser were discussing Marcela Bodenstedt, a former model and judicial police agent connected to drug cartels and romantically linked with members of the Salinas administration. PRD deputy Carlos Navarrete suggests that the release of the tape is a warning to Salinas, who is currently living in the US, not to make trouble for the Zedillo administration. Illegal wiretapping by the government is not uncommon, but tapes of presidential conversations have never been leaked before. [IPS 5/22/95] 10. THIRD COLOMBIAN SENTENCED FOR KILLING JOURNALIST IN US On May 26, a Brooklyn federal district court sentenced Colombian national Elkin Farley Salazar to 18 years in prison for the Mar. 11, 1992 murder in Queens of Cuban-born journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue [see Update #111]. Salazar was charged with hiring another Colombian national--Wilson Alejandro Mejia Velez, who was 17 years old at the time--to shoot De Dios. Mejia was sentenced on Mar. 16, 1994, to life in prison without parole [see Update #216]. Judge Edward R. Korman said he gave Salazar a more lenient sentence because he had cooperated with prosecutors. At the same time, Salazar was sentenced to 18 years for hiring another hitman in an unrelated case in California. The sentences are to be served concurrently. [New York Times 5/27/95] Salazar is now in the federal witness protection program. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/28/95] Jose James Benitez, Salazar's partner in arranging the De Dios murder, was sentenced on Feb. 23 of this year to 18 years in prison [see Update #266]. Benitez had also cooperated with the prosecution. [New York Times 5/27/95] 11. GUATEMALAN ARMY KILLED SOLDIER TO FAKE REBEL'S DEATH On May 22, Guatemalan military intelligence (G-2) member Angel Nery Urizar Garcia testified before the Public Ministry that the army had captured guerrilla leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez alive in March 1992. According to Urizar, the army then shot one of its own soldiers and buried the body in guerrilla uniform, pretending it was Bamaca's. The murdered soldier was Urizar's friend Cristobal Che Perez, a former guerrilla who served in the G-2 for two years after deserting the rebels at age 17. Urizar says that the order to kill Che came from Maj. Mario Ernesto Sosa Orellana. Che wasn't even at the site where Bamaca was captured, but was at a bar with his lover; Sosa ordered him brought to the combat site. Because of his testimony, Urizar now fears for his life; he has asked for protection from President Ramiro de Leon Carpio and the United Nations Observer Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA). The army claimed Bamaca died in combat; the first person to publicly refute this claim was Bamaca's wife, US lawyer Jennifer Harbury, whose constant pressures forced out revelations about US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) involvement in Guatemalan human rights violations [see Updates #269, #270], including Bamaca's torture and murder in a clandestine military prison. [El Diario- La Prensa 5/23/95 from Notimex; Financial Times 5/25/95 from AP; Inter Press Service 5/22/95] Meanwhile, journalist Frank Smyth has reported in the New Republic that according to former US Drug Enforcment Administration (DEA) agent Celerino Castillo III, US innkeeper Michael DeVine was murdered because he knew Guatemalan Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez--a paid informer for the CIA--was involved in drug trafficking in the Peten region. Castillo says CIA agent Randy Capister--the CIA's covert liaison with the G-2--found out about DeVine's discovery and told Col. Francisco Ortega Menaldo, then head of the G-2. In a letter to the CIA Inspector General dated May 4, US Rep. Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) wrote that if DeVine were murdered to protect a drug operation, the crime would be considered politically motivated and those responsible could be subject to prosecution in the US under US anti-terrorism laws. [New Republic 6/5/95] 12. CHILE: LETELIER CASE RULING IMMINENT The Council of Generals of Chile's army held a closed-door meeting for the second day in a row on May 23 to plan their response to the final court decision on the sentencing appeal of retired general Manuel Contreras and Brigadier Pedro Espinoza, convicted of the December 1976 car-bomb assassination in Washington of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his US aide, Ronni Karpen Moffitt. Army commander-in-chief and former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet presided over the second meeting. The British Guardian newspaper suggests that the Council of Generals probably had advance knowledge of the court's decision. [Guardian (UK) 5/27/95; CHIP News 5/24/95] Military officials expressed optimism about the ruling, which is expected imminently. [CHIP News 5/24/95; Diario Las Americas 5/27/95 from AFP] Contreras, former director of the military secret police (DINA), and DINA second-in-command Espinoza were sentenced on Nov. 12, 1993, to seven and six years in prison, respectively [see Update #198]. If their sentences are lowered to less than five years, they will be eligible for probation in lieu of imprisonment [see Update #258]. According to Inter Press Service, even if the original sentences are confirmed, the court could still accept arguments of the two officers' "irreproachable prior conduct" and release them on probation. [IPS 5/19/95] Human rights supporters held daily rallies outside the courthouse during the past week to demand jail for Contreras and Espinoza. [Reuter 5/24/95] Defense Minister Edmundo Perez said the army will abide by the court's decision because "there is no one more devoted to legality than our armed institutions." [ED-LP 5/28/95 from AP] Meanwhile, in an interview with US Spanish-language TV network Univision from the prison hospital where he is being held, former DINA agent Osvaldo Romo described in graphic detail and without misgivings how he tortured people during Chile's military regime. He said he would do it again, but better: he would not leave anyone alive. [CHIP News 5/23/95; El Diario-La Prensa 5/22/95 from AFP] The army reportedly considers Romo's well-publicized comments a new pressure in the Letelier case, since Romo worked under Contreras' command. [ED-LP 5/28/95 from AP] 13. US LIBERAL PUSHES NATIONAL ID CARD US senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has proposed using a computerized national identification card to keep undocumented foreigners from getting jobs with fake papers. Backed by conservative senator Alan Simpson, former San Francisco mayor Feinstein wants to require US employers to clear all job applicants through a federal computer. She writes that the national ID card might have "a magnetic strip on which the bearer's unique voice, retina pattern or fingerprint is digitally encoded." So far, the main opposition to the plan has come from conservatives like House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX). Analyst Paul Gigot writes in the Wall Street Journal that "if you think the [far-right] Michigan militia is paranoid now, just wait until it's asked for retina scans." [WSJ 5/26/95] Feinstein's DC office phone is 202-224-3841, fax 202-228-3954. Meanwhile, the Clinton administration is pushing hard for its $1.5 billion "anti-terrorism" plan. On May 26 the Senate voted 52-28 to block a Democratic proposal to authorize "roving wiretaps" against alleged terrorists. Police would be allowed to tap phones for 48 hours without a court order on the grounds that the suspect might be moving around to evade detection. US president Bill Clinton complained the next day that "[w]e shouldn't force law enforcement to lose valuable time by making them get a court to agree that a terrorist is trying to knowingly evade us." Congress had promised to pass Clinton's plan by the Memorial Day weekend; it is now pushing for July 4. [New York Times 5/28/95; Washington Post 5/28/95] 14. IN OTHER NEWS... US oil company Texaco has signed an agreement with the Ecuadoran government to clean up environmental damage in the Amazon region. Texaco will treat polluted water, reforest the area, and clean up production sites contaminated by oil spills and toxic chemicals. It has also agreed to provide indigenous communities in the affected areas with schools, medical centers and air transport, all to be administered by UNESCO. Texaco calls these promised benefits "social compensations," rather than reparations. Texaco, which produced oil in Ecuador for more than 20 years, is being sued in New York by Ecuadoran and Peruvian indigenous groups seeking more than $1 billion in damages [see Update #257]. [Financial Times 5/11/95]. Some 243,000 Colombian teachers ended a two-week strike on May 24 after reaching a salary agreement with the government. In each of the next three years, the teachers will receive raises that are eight percentage points higher than the minimum established for public sector workers. This year the teachers will get a 26% raise. [ED-LP 5/25/95 from AP]. On May 17, the Court of Appeals in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, upheld the 1993 conviction of former army colonel Angel Castillo for the July 1993 rape and murder of 19-year old student Riccy Mabel Martinez. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 5/26/95 from AFP] On July 9, 1993, Castillo was sentenced to 16 and a half years for rape and homicide and Llovares was sentenced to 10 and a half years for homicide [see Update #191]. This was the first conviction of a military officer by a civilian court since the 1950s. On March 25, 1993, the Honduran National Assembly passed legislation giving civilian courts primary jurisdiction over military personnel accused of civil crimes [see Update #167]. [LADB Notisur 5/26/95 from Latinamerica Press]. On May 4 in Geneva, Colombian immunologist Manuel Elkin Patarroyo donated his vaccine against malaria to the World Health Organization (WHO). The vaccine has a success rate of 77% in children and 66% in adult. As part of Patarroyo's agreement with the WHO, the vaccine must be made available at low cost and its name must contain the word Colombia; the vaccine will be produced at a laboratory in Colombia during an initial period of years and sold to the WHO at cost. [Diario Las Americas 5/6/95 from AFP; ED-LP 5/4/95 from EFE] 15. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA & BEYOND For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed are not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network. NOW AVAILABLE! The hottest fashion since the pasamontanas: CREED buttons--anticapitalism made stylish. Just $1. 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. 6/3 SAT, 10 AM - Palestine Walk. Starts at Union Sq. Palestine Aid Society. 212-385-4233. 6/3 SAT, 9 PM - Dance/Fundraiser for 5th US-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan, with DJ Power Serge. At Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10th fl. $10. 212-926-5757. 6/4 SUN, 3-5:30 PM - Anti-Death Penalty Day. Rally at City Hall Park. 212-382-0557. -- + 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 + >