WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #280, JUNE 11, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. "Counterterrorism" Bill Sails Through US Senate 2. Feds Target Immigrants, Spy on Unionists, Pay Bush Off 3. Mexican Rebels Call for "National Consultation" 4. Mexican Campesinos Shut Down Stock Market 5. Mexican Economic Plan: "Ernesto in Wonderland" 6. Brazil: Oil Strike Over, Privatization Speeds Up 7. Haiti: OAS Meets and Police Graduate 8. Opposition to Haitian Elections from Left and Right 9. Guatemala: New Documents Prove US State Department Lied 10. Chile: Court Reduces Sentences in Letelier Case 11. Cuba to Finish Building Nuclear Plant? 12. Salvadoran Former Leftists Swing Vote for Tax Hike 13. Other News: Argentina, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay 14. Upcoming Events in the New York City Area * ISSN#: 1068-5332. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. 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. NY Transfer distributes the electronic edition of the Weekly News Update. Feel free to reproduce these updates or reprint any information from them, but please credit "Weekly News Update on the Americas," and send us a copy. We welcome your comments and ideas: send them via e-mail to nicanet@blythe.org. 1. "COUNTERTERRORISM" BILL SAILS THROUGH US SENATE On June 7 the US Senate voted 91-8 to pass the Comprehensive Terrorism Prevention Act of 1995 (S. 735). The bill, sponsored by Senate Republicans, gives the government more than $1.6 billion for "counterterrorist" programs over five years, allows immigrants to be deported without due process if accused of terrorist activities, and criminalizes financial support by US groups for foreign organizations the president has designated as terrorist. Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and others are sponsoring a similar bill, the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995 (S. 390), in the House of Representatives. Hearings on the House version are to start on June 12. [New York Times 6/8/95; Washington Post 6/8/95; Wall Street Journal 6/8/95] The White House is hoping to have the package ready for President Bill Clinton's signature by July 4 [see Update #278]. To meet the deadline, the House will have to pass its bill quickly; the Senate and House will then confer to iron out differences between the two versions. Senate Republicans initially opposed the Clinton administration's efforts to involve the military in domestic terrorism cases and to allow "roving wiretaps" without a warrant. The Clinton administration and Senate liberals, in turn, tried to block a Republican "habeas corpus reform," which would allow only one federal appeal for prisoners sentenced to death. The two parties compromised by agreeing to all the provisions. (The compromise will require agents to get at least one warrant before making a wiretap; but the warrant will then cover all subsequent eavesdropping on other lines.) [NYT 6/8/95; WP 6/8/95] The eight votes against the bill came from Russell Feingold (D- WI), Mark Hatfield (R-OR), Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL), Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), Bob Packwood (R-OR), Claiborne Pell (D- RI), Paul Simon (D-IL) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN). Most of the opposition was due to the habeas corpus amendment. The bipartisan enthusiasm for the bill was expressed by veteran liberal Edward Kennedy (D-MA), who called it "an anti-terrorism bill that all of us want to pass as quickly and as responsibly as we can." [NYT 6/8/95] [S.390 sponsor Schumer can be reached at 202-225-6616, fax 202-225-4183, Brooklyn office 718-627-9700; other representatives can be reached through the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121.] 2. FEDS TARGET IMMIGRANTS, SPY ON UNIONISTS, PAY BUSH OFF On June 7, as the Senate was rushing to pass legislation against "terrorists," the congressional Commission on Immigration Reform released its recommendation to cut legal immigration to the US by one-third, from about 140,000 to 100,000. Clinton immediately endorsed the proposal from the commission, which is headed by liberal former representative Barbara Jordan (D-TX). [NYT 6/5/95, 6/8/95; WP 6/6/95, 6/8/95] Meanwhile, Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY) has introduced legislation that would deny welfare payments to most immigrants--including naturalized citizens. [WP 6/11/95] New revelations continue to raise concerns about whether "Constitutional rights are not being routinely stepped on" by the federal government, in the words of the Los Angeles Times. Under the Freedom of Information Act the paper has obtained a 1,432- page dossier which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assembled on United Farm Workers (UFW) leader Cesar Chavez between 1965 and 1972. According to the FBI, an unnamed informer had said that Chavez, who died in 1993, "possibly has a subversive background." [LAT 6/1/95; NYT 5/31/95] On June 9, a three-judge federal panel awarded former president George Bush $272,352 to cover his legal costs from a 1992-3 investigation of his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. The same panel granted $18,155 to another subject of the Contragate investigation, former US ambassador to El Salvador Edwin Corr. [WP 6/10/95] During testimony about the "counterterrorism" bills, Prof. David Cole of Georgetown University quoted Bush to show the possibility of "selective and politically biased" use of the laws. Bush once said that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." [Testimony to Senate Judiciary Committee 5/4/95] 3. MEXICAN REBELS CALL FOR "NATIONAL CONSULTATION" Talks between the Mexican federal government and the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) resumed on June 7 at the town of San Andres Larrainzar (which the rebels call San Andres Sakamch'en de los Pobres) in the southern state of Chiapas. Both sides quickly agreed to the main points of a proposal the government made in talks last month. The federal army is to withdraw from seven narrow belts, leaving local roads free and giving the rebels responsibility for public order in the areas [Update #277]. However, as of June 9 the talks remained stalled over the location of the areas, with the EZLN and the government both pushing for control of the town of Guadalupe Tepeyac. A proposal from the National Intermediation Commission (CONAI), headed by Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia of San Cristobal de las Casas, failed to resolve the issue. [Reuter 6/8/95 6/9/95; Associated Press 6/9/95] While discussing an easing of tensions in Chiapas, the EZLN is also using the talks to promote a much more ambitious project for a national dialogue between the government and a broad front of all democratic forces. On June 7 EZLN representatives played a tape of "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos" reading a communique that repeated the rebels' January call for a National Liberation Movement (MLN). The communique praised the "democratic forces" for responding to the last year's events "with speed, creativity and resolution," but stressed the need for unity and continuity. To help build the broad front, the EZLN proposed a "national consultation"--a national discussion and plebiscite within the democratic movement similar to the discussions held by the pro- EZLN indigenous communities. The consultation would address the EZLN's basic 13 demands, the issue of creating a broad front, whether the EZLN should become a "political force" and whether it should join with other groups in creating a new political organization. The communique asked for various groups to organize the consultation within different sectors and announce the results by Aug. 8, the first anniversary of the founding of the pro-EZLN Democratic National Convention (CND). The groups include national indigenous, labor and women's conventions, the National Civic Alliance (which monitors elections and organized a national plebiscite in February [see Update #266]) and the CND (which the EZLN asked to "suspend its internal fights" for the occasion). International solidarity groups are also invited to organize consultations in their own countries. [La Jornada (Mexico) 6/8/95, electronic edition] 4. MEXICAN CAMPESINOS SHUT DOWN STOCK MARKET On June 3 several hundred protesters arrived in Mexico City after a 41-day, 1,000-km "exodus" from Villahermosa, capital of the southern state of Tabasco. The Tabasquenos, mostly campesinos, were marching to protest alleged fraud in the Nov. 20, 1994 state elections, in which gubernatorial candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) lost the governorship to Roberto Madrazo Pintado of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). With little support from the PRD national leadership, the protesters financed the exodus largely by asking for contributions from shopkeepers and fellow campesinos along the way. "The generosity of our people is touching," Lopez Obrador told supporters in Mexico City, "especially the generosity of our poor people, of the most humble." [LJ 6/4/95] In the early morning of Monday, June 5, the Tabasquenos and their supporters marched from their encampment in the capital's main plaza, the Zocalo, to the Mexican stock exchange (BMV). Some 2,000-3,000 protesters blocked the building and stopped the market from opening for two hours. The protest ended peacefully and BMV traders seemed amused. "It looks like [the protesters] enjoyed themselves," one trader remarked as he finally got to work. [AP 6/5/95; Reuter 6/5/95; Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update Vol. 2, #33, 6/7/95] CORRECTIONS: In Update #279 item 4 we inadvertently gave 1995 as the year for the November 1994 Tabasco state elections and for the July 1994 automobile accident that hospitalized federal deputy Guillermo Gonzalez Guardado of Chihuahua. Item 4 correctly gave the EZLN's full name as Zapatista National Liberation Army; item 5 erroneously described it as Zapatista National Liberation Front. 5. MEXICAN ECONOMIC PLAN: "ERNESTO IN WONDERLAND" On May 31 Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon announced the National Development Plan (PND) for the remainder of his term, which ends in 2000. Zedillo predicted that the Mexican economy, now in a severe recession, will grow at an annual rate of about 5%, producing about one million new jobs a year. The government expects the economy to shrink by 2% this year, while private economists put the decline at 4%. Investors were unimpressed: the stock market index rose by 0.3% and the peso went up three centavos. [Wall Street Journal 6/1/95] A poll by the conservative independent Mexico City daily Reforma found that 96% of the capital's residents disagree with the claim that the six-month old economic crisis has now been overcome; of the remaining 4%, only one out of four attribute the success to this year's $20 billion US bailout plan. [Mexico Update 5/31/95] PRD president Munoz Ledo said that Zedillo must be "talking about some other country...This is Ernesto in Wonderland." [El Diario- La Prensa (NY) 6/2/95 from AFP] Mexico's last three presidents have all predicted growth rates of more than 5% over their six-year terms; the highest real growth rate was 3.4%, for Jose Lopez Portillo (1976-82). [Mexico Update 5/31/95] Due to population increases over the last decades, a rate of 5% rate is what is now required to just keep up with the new workers entering the job force between 1996 and 2000. [LJ 5/28/95] Meanwhile, Mexico is about to start what the New York Times calls a "garage sale" of state enterprises in 10 major industries. As part of a total $50 billion loan package from the US, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other lenders, Mexico is required to raise $12-14 billion from privatization. [NYT 6/2/95] On May 29 Banco Bilboa Vizcaya of Spain became the first foreign institution ever to take over a Mexican bank; it is increasing its share in Grupo Financiero Probursa to 70%. [WSJ 6/1/95] Time may be running out. Mexico needs to pay out $12.3 billion on foreign debts in June, July and August; some Mexican and US economists are asking whether the country can meet the payment schedule. [Mexico Update Vol. 2, #33, 6/7/95] 6. BRAZIL: OIL STRIKE OVER, PRIVATIZATION SPEEDS UP Brazil's longest-ever oil workers' strike ended on June 3 when the last holdouts--workers at the refinery in Cubatao, in Sao Paulo state--voted to return to work. Most of the 21 unions in the oil workers federation (FUT) had already voted to return to work after the government threatened widespread dismissals [see Update #279]. Union leader Antonio Carlos Spis said on June 6 that another strike was possible if the state oil monopoly, Petrobras, did not meet its wage demands and reinstate fired workers. Petrobras president Joel Renno said the wage issue would be discussed in meetings with the union, but he would make no commitment to reinstate the fired workers. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 6/9/95 from Inter Press Service, Agence France- Presse, Associated Press, Deutsche Press Agentur, Reuter, Notimex] Workers in the Cubatao refinery took the most radical position during the strike, maintaining an occupation in the plant to prevent its takeover by military troops. On June 2--the day before they voted to go back to work--Cubatao union leader Averaldo Menezes said the Cubatao workers would be happy to keep the strike going "until Christmas." [Inter Press Service 6/2/95; La Jornada 6/4/95 from AFP, AP, ANSA, EFE] Union sources cited by news agency ANSA said that it was in fact the government which was most interested in prolonging the strike, hoping the conflict would influence legislators in favor of privatizing the state oil monopoly. A study published on June 3 by the daily Estado de Sao Paulo showed 67% of legislators supporting the privatization of Petrobras; before the strike, legislative support was less than 60%. [LJ 6/4/95 from AFP, AP, ANSA, EFE] On June 7, after a bitter debate, the Chamber of Deputies gave the first approval to the constitutional changes allowing Petrobras to grant concessions for the exploration, exploitation, and refining of petroleum. The vote was 364 to 141, with three abstentions. As the bill was debated, unionists reportedly shattered glass doors and stormed the visitors' galleries in the Congress building. According to the New York Times, a protest rally in Rio that day drew only 80 of the 4,200 workers of the Petrobras national headquarters. A second vote will be held in two weeks, and then the measure will pass to the Senate. Constitutional changes require passage by a three-fifths majority in two consecutive votes in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. [Financial Times (UK) 6/9/95; New York Times 6/8/95; LADB Notisur 6/9/95 from Reuter, Notimex] On June 6, the deputies gave the second vote of approval to changes that open up the state-owned telecommunications monopoly, and sent the measure on to the Senate, where it is expected to pass. [LADB Notisur 6/9/95 from DPA, Reuter, Notimex; Wall Street Journal 6/7/95] The first round passed with 348 votes in favor [see Update #278]; the second with 359. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 6/10/95 from AFP] A poll taken in late May by the public opinion firm Vox Populi indicated that most Brazilians favor an end to state monopolies in the oil, telecommunications, and electric power industries. When asked about Petrobras, 47% of those questioned favored ending the monopoly, while 24% opposed the change, and 29% had no opinion. Support was similar for opening the telecommunications and electric energy sectors. The same poll showed President Fernando Henrique Cardoso with a 67% approval rating. [LADB Notisur 6/9/95 from IPS, AFP, AP, DPA, Reuter, Notimex] 7. HAITI: OAS MEETS AND POLICE GRADUATE The 25th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) opened in Haiti on June 5 with no significant problems, except a shortage of beds and hot water at Club Med, the site of the meeting. No foreign delegates experienced Haiti's continuing crime wave, but cars carrying Haitian foreign minister Claudette Werleigh and other Haitian officials were attacked by robbers as they drove from Club Med to Port-au-Prince on June 3. [New York Times 6/8/95] US embassy spokesperson Stanley Schrager explained the significance of the June 5-9 OAS meeting for the US, which has been the principal force in a UN military occupation that began in September 1994. "This assembly is important," he said. "It is an indication of the progress happening in the hemisphere in the political domain and especially the economic domain." [Haiti Info, Vol. 3, #17, 6/3/95] US secretary of state Warren Christopher paid a quick visit to the OAS meeting and took advantage of the occasion to attend the June 4 graduation of the first 370 graduates of Haiti's new police academy. Christopher announced that at Aristide's request the US and other countries "are undertaking a program to double the number of cadets graduating each month from the academy," until the new police force reaches 6,000 members. The Washington Post writes that "[a]s recently as June 1" the US was "planning to train a civilian police force of 3,300 members." [WP 5/6/5/95] In fact, it was common knowledge weeks earlier that the US wanted to have a police force twice that size, approximately the same as the dismantled Haitian army, which the US created in 1934 [see Update #277]. 8. OPPOSITION TO HAITIAN ELECTIONS FROM LEFT AND RIGHT The Haitian legislative and municipal elections scheduled for June 25 are even more important to US prestige than the OAS meeting. "Chaos and confusion in the first real test of popular democracy," writes the British Financial Times, "would undo [US president Bill] Clinton's work" in ordering the US military intervention. The newspaper notes that the voting could be "damaged by administrative problems and violence" from "disgruntled anti-government factions." [FT 6/7/95] Candidates supporting populist president Jean-Bertrand Aristide have been targeted by armed rightwing groups. On May 30, for example, Senate candidate Renaud Bernadin of the pro-Aristide Louvri Barye ("Open the Gates") Party (PLB) was attacked as he addressed a crowd in the northern city of Cap-Haitien. Bernadin was not wounded but others were. [Haiti Info 6/3/95] [On Apr. 28 a dozen people killed PLB candidate Emile Louis with machetes in the town of Dondon; see Update #276.] Some 500 delegates gathered in Carrefour May 25-28 for the third congress of the National Popular Assembly (APN), a coalition of left-leaning grassroots organizations formed in 1987. Dedicated to the memory of Charlemagne Peralte, who died fighting the US occupation of 1915-1934, the congress voted to boycott the elections. "Honest, democratic and safe elections cannot take place under North American occupation," the APN resolved. "Disarmament [of the rightists], justice, and an end to the occupation before elections." The congress also denounced the US- imposed "neoliberal" economic program, which Haitian-born US union official Ray Laforest said "devours [North] Americans just as it devours us here." [Haiti Progres (NY) 6/7-15/95] The same week several hundred Haitians joined North Americans, Mexicans and others at the International Conference Against the IMF [International Monetary Fund} and Neoliberalism in Port-au- Prince. [Haiti Info 6/3/95] 9. GUATEMALA: NEW DOCUMENTS PROVE US STATE DEPARTMENT LIED A document recently obtained by US lawyer Jennifer Harbury under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that the US State Department--specifically its embassy in Guatemala--has been lying about how much it knew about murders linked to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Guatemala. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) document obtained by Harbury reveals that the US Embassy in Guatemala was informed in September 1993 that rebel leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez--Harbury's husband--was "not killed during a firefight with army troops but was captured, interrogated and killed." The DIA document indicates that US ambassador to Guatemala Marilyn McAfee hid what she knew about the Bamaca case. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #21, 6/7/95; Reuter 6/3/95] The two-page document, much of which is blacked out, says Bamaca's body was then disposed of in an unidentified location. Harbury showed a copy of the document to reporters, and said she had received it by fax from her lawyer in Washington. Harbury said she will now take legal action against the State Department and the CIA for withholding information, causing emotional distress and violating her civil rights. She provided no details on what legal measures she was considering. [Reuter 6/3/95] The Guatemalan Public Ministry has announced that its investigation confirms claims by former G-2 intelligence agent Angel Nery Urizar Garcia that the army killed one of its own G-2 agents and buried him as Bamaca in 1992 to keep news of the rebel's capture a secret [see Update #278]. The new prosecutor in the case, Julio Arango Escobar, says an autopsy has revealed that the body exhumed August 17, 1993 in Retalhuleu--which the army claimed was Bamaca's--is really that of Cristobal Che Perez. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #21, 6/7/95] Arango gave a press conference in Guatemala City on June 7 after returning from Washington, where he had interviewed former rebel Santiago Cabrera Lopez. Cabrera gave Arango the names of nine Guatemalan military officers linked to the Bamaca case: colonels Julio Roberto Alpirez, Hector Rene Perez Solares and Rolando Edeberto Barahona; Lt. Col. Julio Alberto Soto Bilbao; majors Mario Alberto Sosa Orellana and Ulises Noe Anzueto Giron; Capt. Edwin Manuel Lemus Vasquez; and specialists Simeon Cum Chuta and Margarito Serceno Medrano. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/8/95 from AP] [These names differ slightly from those Cabrera gave last Nov. 3 in testimony before the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH)--see Update #250.] Arango's actions follow months of stalling by the Public Ministry, both in the Bamaca case and that of slain US innkeeper Michael DeVine. Arango says that even before he backed Urizar's allegations, someone had stolen documents from his car. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #21, 6/7/95] On June 8, Guatemalan attorney general Ramses Cuestas Gomez abruptly canceled an exhumation scheduled for that day at the Cabanas Military Detachment in San Marcos. Arango had arranged the exhumation based on information from the US State Department that Bamaca's remains might be found in a clandestine grave on Guatemalan army property [see Update #279]. Harbury's lawyer, Jose Pertierra, says he has received information that Cuestas has "temporarily" removed Arango from the case. [Press Release from the Law Offices of Jose Pertierra 6/8/95] Harbury said that despite the cancellation she will make the five hour trip from Guatemala City to Cabanas to await the exhumation order. She is concerned that the delay will give the army time to exhume and destroy Bamaca's remains, thus destroying evidence of torture. The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) believes that Harbury, Arango and Urizar are in danger. NISGUA is asking supporters to send messages to Cuestas (fax #011-502-2- 536-554) demanding that the safety of all three be guaranteed; that Arango be immediately allowed to continue his work on this case; and that the exhumation at the military base be allowed to proceed as planned. [NISGUA Rapid Response Alert 6/9/95] 10. CHILE: COURT REDUCES SENTENCES IN LETELIER CASE On June 6, the Fourth Chamber of Chile's Supreme Court ruled in favor of a "motion of clarification" filed on behalf of former secret police (DINA) chiefs retired general Manuel Contreras and Brig. Pedro Espinoza, sentenced to seven and six years in prison respectively for masterminding the 1976 car-bomb murder in Washington of exiled Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his US aide Ronni Moffitt. The court agreed to deduct from their sentences 12 months (or just over 15 months according to Associated Press) for the time Contreras and Espinoza spent in custody from 1978 to 1979 while the US sought their extradition for the murder. Originally, the court had ruled to deduct only the three months the two spent in custody when they were indicted in 1991 [see Update #278]. [CHIP News 6/7/95; El Diario-La Prensa 6/7/95 from AP] On June 8--as the Supreme Court was rejecting yet another petition by defense lawyers seeking to evade imprisonment for Contreras--Judge Banados dictated the cumplase order intended to lead to the formal notification and arrest of Contreras and Espinoza. [Diario Las Americas 6/10/95 from EFE; CHIP News 6/8/95, 6/9/95] Contreras may end up serving as little as 35 months in jail if he applies for and receives additional dispensations under Chilean law. After serving 29 months in jail, Contreras may be eligible to have weekend leaves, and after serving 35 months he will be eligible to apply for permission to spend only nights in jail. [CHIP News 6/7/95] Or he may instead be interned at the military hospital in Santiago. While national prison system officials insist that their penitentiaries are adequately equipped to receive an inmate who is ill, Gen. Manuel Vitis, director of the army medical unit, says that Contreras suffers from colon cancer and will eventually require hospitalization for special medical care. Twice in the past Contreras has been confined in the military hospital--not for medical treatment but for legal problems, first in 1978 when the US unsuccessfully sought his extradition and again in 1991 when he was indicted by Judge Adolfo Banados. [CHIP News 6/7/95, 6/8/95] Contreras is currently also being sued by the state-owned development corporation Corfo for an unpaid debt. Contreras incurred the $450,000 debt with Corfo between 1986 and 1989; part of his ranch was put up as collateral and may be confiscated. [ED-LP 6/7/95 from Notimex] 11. CUBA TO FINISH BUILDING NUCLEAR PLANT? Cuba may be planning to complete its Juragua nuclear power station in Cienfuegos province. Speaking on May 18 at the end of a regional seminar on nuclear energy in Havana, Cuban minister of basic industry Miguel Serradet said that once a feasibility study is finished in June, negotiations for the creation of a joint venture in charge of finishing and running the plant will begin. The venture will be between Russia and Cuba, possibly with the participation of British, Italian and German firms. [Inter Press Service 5/19/95; Radio Havana Cuba 5/18/95] The power station will use two Russian reactors and an automatic guidance system provided by developed countries. Russian spokespersons said $800 million will be needed to activate the first reactor, and $200 million more must be raised to buy the guidance system. According to Serradet, the Cuban government will purchase the electricity produced by the plant with convertible pesos. [IPS 5/19/95] Georgy Kaurov, chief spokesperson of Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy (MinAtom), said the plant will be generating nuclear- powered electricity--and profits--by 1997, and that Havana will pay for the plant in sugar and "other things." Spokespersons from several firms named by Kaurov as part of the international consortium working on Juragua have denied any involvement. One spokesperson, from Siemens AG of Germany, said the plant cannot be built until the embargo is lifted. [Wall Street Journal 6/6/95] Construction of the facility was suspended in 1992 for lack of funds. A report that year by the US General Accounting Office (GAO) reported evidence of shoddy building at Juragua, including bad welds. [WSJ 6/6/95] In Latin America, where nuclear energy provides 2.2% of electricity, only Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico have nuclear programs. [IPS 5/19/95] In the US, 125 Republican and Democratic congresspeople have sent a letter to US president Bill Clinton, asking him to pressure Russia against construction of the Juragua plant. [Diario Las Americas 6/10/95] 12. SALVADORAN FORMER LEFTISTS SWING VOTE FOR TAX HIKE On June 8, El Salvador's legislative assembly approved a controversial increase in the national value added tax (IVA) from 10% to 13%. The new tax will take effect on July 1. The government had originally demanded a 14% increase [see Update #279]. Out of a total 84 deputies, 47 voted in favor of the tax hike: the 39 deputies of the ruling rightwing ARENA party; five of the seven deputies representing the newly-formed Democratic Party (PD), made up of two former leftwing rebel organizations that split last December from the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN); and three independent deputies. All other political parties, as well as virtually all grassroots and business organizations, vehemently opposed the increase. FMLN deputy Gerson Martinez called the PD deputies "traitors, for approving a measure harmful to the interests of the people who elected them." [El Diario-La Prensa 6/9/95 from AFP, 6/11/95 from Notimex] The PD approved the IVA increase in exchange for government support of a "national pact" the PD initiated and largely wrote, which the government signed on May 31 [see Update #279]. According to Proceso, a publication of the Jesuit-run Central American University in San Salvador, the PD "is ready to do anything to win new political space and wield more influence in government power circles." [Proceso #663, 5/31/95] According to Rodolfo Cardenal, vice-rector of the UCA, the PD has changed into a party of the right; that with this pact it "is now a government party... [and] will only be useful for ARENA for its votes." PD leader Joaquin Villalobos--creator of the pact--justified his actions, arguing that his party is not "supporting the government" but rather proposing "a solution for the country and not just politics." [Fundacion Flor de Izote Weekly Report from El Salvador Vol. 6, #21, 5/29/95-6/5/95] Meanwhile, the assembly did not approve an 8% wage increase for public employees which was contained in the same packet of reforms as the IVA. President Armando Calderon Sol, who sent the packet to the legislature for approval a month ago, now says he doubts that the 8% wage increase will be possible, because the IVA was only increased to 13%, not 14%. The minimum wage for state workers in El Salvador is $137 per month; non-governmental organizations estimate that more than $400 is required to pay for basic necessities each month. [ED-LP 6/11/95 from Notimex] In addition, a government spokesperson confirmed on June 6 that electricity rates will soon be increased by an undetermined percentage; other government sources say the rates will go up by at least 16%. Government spokespersons also announced impending rate hikes for potable water and telephone services. These rates had already been increased--some by as much as 300%--at the beginning of 1995, as had fuel prices. [ED-LP 6/7/95 from AFP] 13. IN OTHER NEWS... Argentina's Chamber of Deputies has ratified legislation allowing an eight-year grace period before local companies must start paying patent rights on pharmaceuticals and other items. The legislature defied pressure from President Carlos Menem and from the US government, which says the bill runs counter to stipulations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Menem had vetoed several of the bill's items after pressure from the US and the European Union. Argentina's pharmaceuticals industry is worth $3 billion a year. [Financial Times 5/25/95]. The trial of former Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega and seven Panamanian soldiers for the illegal execution of nine officers began in Panama on June 5. The nine officers of the Panamanian Defense Forces had led an attempted rebellion against Noriega in October of 1989. [El Diario-La Prensa 6/6/95 from Notimex; Inter Press Service 6/1/95] Meanwhile, Panama's Office of Social Security decided on June 1 that Noriega has the right to a pension and $100,000 in back pay. Public opinion was divided over the decision: 52% of those interviewed in a June 1 telephone survey by Channel 13 said the back pay should be confiscated by the state "to recover what Noriega stole," while 48% said the pension is an acquired right. [IPS 6/1/95]. Colombian banker Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, accused of being a top leader of the Cali cocaine cartel, was arrested on June 9 in a raid in Cali. [New York Times 6/10/95] And on June 7, a US federal indictment against another alleged Cali cartel leader, Jose Santacruz Londono, was unsealed in Brooklyn, NY. The indictment for conspiracy allows US authorities to freeze more than $30 million Santacruz had deposited in European bank accounts. [NYT 6/8/95]. In Peru, at least 250,000 teachers and 1,200 National Elections Board (JNE) workers held a national 24-hour strike on June 8. The teachers are demanding better salaries; Jose Ramos, general secretary of the education workers union (SUETEP), reported that 90% of all teachers observed the strike. SUETEP is also protesting the proposed privatization of Peru's education system and the government's invasion and reorganization of the universities. Luis Marinm, general secretary of the JNE workers union, said the labor action was justified because the JNE employees have not received back pay owed to them since 1993 -- despite the fact that the Ministry of Economy and Finance has already transferred the corresponding funds to the JNE. [ED-LP 6/9/95 from AFP]. Three union federations in Paraguay announced on June 8 that they will begin a petition campaign to collect 100,000 signatures demanding a referendum on the privatization of state enterprises. According to a law regulating constitutional articles, 100,000 registered voters can demand a plebiscite. A leader of the opposition Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA) told Agence France Presse that the initiative is being promoted by leftist sectors within the union federations, and by state employees who were aligned in the recent past with the rightwing dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989). [Diario Las Americas 6/10/95 from AFP] 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. 6/14 WED, 12 Noon - Silent demo against escalating violence in Colombia. Colombian Consulate, 10 E 46th St. Colombia Multimedia Project 212-802-7209. 6/15 THU, 7 PM - CREED general meeting. At CISPES, 19 W 21st St, 5th fl. 212-645-5230. 6/15 THU, 7 PM - Send off 5th US-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan. Music, comedy, reports. Washington Sq Church, 135 W 4th St. IFCO, 212-926-5757. 6/17 SAT - Washington, DC demo against the US embargo of Cuba & supporting the 5th IFCO Friendshipment. Call 212-926-5757. 6/17 SAT, 1 PM - Radical Walking Tour of Harlem. Meet in front of 306 Lenox Ave at 125th St (NE corner). Take 2 or 3 train to 125th St. $6. 718-492-0069. 6/18 SUN, 12 Noon - "What NYC and Developing Countries Have in Common," panel on neoliberalism with Ruth Messinger and Lisa Haugaard. Goddard Riverside, 593 Columbus Ave (at 88th St). 6/19 MON, 6:30 PM - "School of Assassins" (US) and "La Flaca Alejandra" (Chile). Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Walter Reade Theater, 165 W 65th St. 212-875-5600. Also on THU 6/22, at 7 PM. * -- + 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 + >