WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #297, OCTOBER 8, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Army Massacres Former Refugees in Guatemala 2. Guatemala Clears Colonel in Devine Murder, Graves Sought 3. Dominican Republic: Three Activists Killed by Bomb 4. Vice President Wins Primaries in Dominican Republic 5. Protests Rock Southern Argentine Provinces 6. Fraud Mars Peronist Victory in Argentine Provinces 7. Colombian Legislator: DEA Tapes Prove Conspiracy 8. Mexican Rebels Call for Dialogue "Without the Government" 9. Mexican Civil Society Continues to Rebel 10. Venezuela: Six Prisoners Killed, Abuses Charged 11. US Loosens Some Cuba Restrictions, Tightens Monitoring 12. Brazil President Pledges Land Reform 13. Brazilian Landowners Prepare to Fight Squatters 14. Ecuadoran Vice President Cleared of Corruption 15. "Counter-Terrorism" Bill on Hold 16. In Other News: Nicaragua, Uruguay, Chile, Haiti & More 17. Upcoming Events in the NYC Area and Beyond 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, which distributes our electronic edition; back issues are also available from 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 as 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. ARMY MASSACRES FORMER REFUGEES IN GUATEMALA According to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), at least 10 Guatemalan returnees were killed and 18 seriously wounded on Oct. 5 when the Guatemalan army used grenades and automatic weapons to attack the community of "Aurora, 8 de Octubre" (also known as Xaman), in the municipality of Chisec, department of Alta Verapaz. The Permanent Commissions on Refugees (CCPP) say they believe that 28 people were killed in the massacre and another 20 wounded. UN officials in Guatemala said those killed were part of a group of 441 refugees who returned from camps in southern Mexico and were resettled a year ago in their new village. One of the wounded returnees who was brought to the capital for treatment said the army had entered the village and interrupted a meeting, where residents were discussing upcoming celebrations of the first anniversary of the day their community was founded (and for which it was named). After a heated verbal exchange, the army patrol opened fire on the population. According to a statement from the National Coordinator of Guatemalan Widows (CONAVIGUA), "The soldiers asked those attending the meeting to assemble the entire community. There was a verbal exchange between the soldiers and the returnees, and the soldiers promptly fired indiscriminately against the returnees." President Ramiro de Leon Carpio addressed the nation late on Oct. 5, indicating that a high level government delegation including the Attorney General, the Human Rights Ombudsman, and the director of the National Peace Fund (FONAPAZ) would be going to the site Oct. 6 to begin a thorough investigation. De Leon promised there would be no impunity for those responsible. In remarks broadcast on Guatemalan television, Defense Minister Gen. Mario Enriquez Morales acknowledged that troops had fired on the Xaman residents, but claimed the 25 army patrol members were acting in self-defense after they were lured into the village in an ambush that left three soldiers wounded and six others missing. [NCOORD Urgent Action 10/5/95, 10/6/95; San Francisco Chronicle 10/7/95; New York Times 10/7/95; Diario Las Americas (Miami) 10/7/95 from AFP] According to the National Coordinating Office on Refugees and Displaced of Guatemala (NCOORD), there is no history of conflict or confrontations at the Xaman return site. In fact, it has been the least conflictive of almost all sites in the northwest. Refugees working with the CCPP in the capital reacted unanimously in taking this as a clear message that someone wants to stop the return process. People are urged to send immediate faxes denouncing the massacre and demanding a full investigation and prosecution of those responsible to President de Leon (fax #011-502-2-515667), Defense Minister Enriquez (fax #011-502-2-21906), and Ambassador to the US Edmond Mulet (fax #202-745-1908). Just four days earlier, on Oct. 1, an army helicopter gunship strafed the returned refugee community of El Quetzal, in Peten department, with bullets and rockets. CCPP representatives said an army helicopter fired five rockets and rounds of machine gun fire into the outskirts of El Quetzal, destroying part of the road linking the cooperative with the municipal capital of La Libertad. The CCPP described the attack as a "violent response" to the returnees' demands that the government improve road access to their new community. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #38 10/5/95] In other Guatemala news, soldiers ended their occupation of the Guatemalan Electric Company (EEGSA) on Sept. 28, a day after the Light and Force union signed an agreement with President Ramiro de Leon Carpio. The union agreed to end its 28-day rulebook slowdown [see Update #294, #295] in return for a revision of several contracts signed with private electricity generators and an investigation of several managers whom the union accuses of corruption. The union withdrew its demand for the resignation of EEGSA president Oscar Martinez Amaya, a close ally of President de Leon. The government promised to reinstate 87 workers fired during the conflict and to refrain from reprisals against the union. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #38 10/5/95] 2. GUATEMALA CLEARS COLONEL IN DEVINE MURDER, GRAVES SOUGHT On Aug. 28, a Guatemalan appeals court upheld a military court ruling that clears Col. Mario Garcia Catalan of any connection to the 1990 murder in Guatemala of US innkeeper Michael DeVine. Judges agreed that since an earlier trial had already convicted DeVine's killers, there were no grounds to proceed with charges against Garcia. An army captain and six soldiers were sentenced in May 1993 to 20 and 30 years respectively for the crime. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #33, 8/31/95] The Mutual Support Group (GAM) has asked the US Embassy, the State Department and the National Security Council to declassify all information about human rights violations in Guatemala, including information on Garcia Catalan. GAM said it would take the DeVine case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, "since with the acquittal of Garcia the Guatemalan justice system has shown itself incapable of ending impunity." GAM referred to the possibility that Capt. Hugo Contreras--who was convicted of involvement in the DeVine murder and allowed to escape from prison in 1993--may have been killed by the army and carefully buried to hide any trace. [Guatemala Human Rights Update PeaceNet Version 9/8/95] One of those serving a 30-year sentence for the DeVine murder is Francisco Solval Santay, who now says that an ancient sacrificial well at a site known as El Sompopero in the Peten jungle contains the bodies of some 20 victims of army executions. According to Solval, among those buried there are cousins Geovanni Perez Archila and Osmali Morales Archila, allegedly killed by the army for stealing a Galil automatic rifle and selling it to DeVine. Solval said that Garcia and other officers ordered him to dispose of the bodies. "I helped carry the bodies to the well and threw them in," said Solval. According to Solval, DeVine's possession of the stolen rifle led to his murder. Solval said another clandestine cemetery was located in a place known as La Caoba. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #33, 8/31/95; GHRU 9/8/95; Noticias de Guatemala Weekly Bulletin, 8/19-25/95] On Aug. 23 a judge of the Second Chamber of Penal execution ordered Solval to be taken to Peten province to identify the locations where he claims army victims were buried. On Aug. 25 it was reported that after two days of searching in mountainous areas of the Peten, none of the clandestine graves had been found. [Noticias de Guatemala Weekly Bulletin, 8/19-25/95] According to the Mutual Support Group (GAM), 6,000 victims of paramilitary groups are buried in several clandestine cemeteries in the department of San Marcos. Among them are students, professionals, and unionists, GAM leader Nineth Montenegro said, including her husband Fernando Garcia, who was abducted and "disappeared" 11 years ago. According to Montenegro, "There is a clandestine cemetery in San Pedro, San Marcos, where there are 2,000 bodies; in the Montanita base there are also 2,000 bodies; and in Tacana, near the military base, there are another 2,000." GAM is waiting for exhumation orders to be issued for the clandestine gravesites. After a year of legal proceedings, a court has finally authorized the exhumation of the clandestine cemetery in San Andres Chapil, San Pedro Sacatepequez. Witnesses say approximately 100 people were killed in the village during army massacres in 1980. [Guatemala Human Rights Update PeaceNet Version 9/8/95] [The Montanita military base is presumably the same as the Las Cabanas military base in the town of La Montanita. US lawyer Jennifer Harbury has been trying to obtain an exhumation order for the Las Cabanas base because she believes her husband, Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, was buried there after being tortured and murdered by the army--see Update #286]. 3. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: THREE ACTIVISTS KILLED BY BOMB The Collective of Popular Organizations (COP) announced on Oct. 6 that a 48-hour strike will begin as scheduled on Oct. 10 in the city of Nagua in northeastern Dominican Republic, despite the death of three of the organization's leaders. Julio Ramon Paredes, president of the COP's local committee in Nagua; Ezequiel Javier Garcia, president of the Association of Law Students of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD); and journalist Carlos Abreu Garcia, editor of the opposition daily La Muralla, were all killed in a powerful bomb explosion on Oct. 5. Farmworkers' leader Pedro Livio Jose was seriously injured in the incident. Police claim the victims were preparing a homemade bomb on the patio of the law student, Garcia, when it exploded; COP said its leaders died "at the hands of the police." COP spokesperson Ramon Almanzar charged on Oct. 6 that there is a "criminal plan" against his organization, and that the bodies of the victims were "riddled with bullets" fired by police agents. The COP, made up of farmworkers, students, and unionists, called on Nagua residents to support the strike in a protest against the poor condition of local roads, aquaducts, drinking water systems, and electrical service. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 10/8/95 from Notimex, 10/6/95; El Daily News (NY) 10/6/95 from Reuter; Diario Las Americas 10/7/95 from AFP] In the Somonico neighborhood of Santo Domingo, a youth was killed by police and several people were arrested on Oct. 5 as demonstrators burned tires and blocked traffic on the second consecutive day of protests demanding street repairs. Hooded demonstrators overturned a vehicle as protests over the death of the youth continued through the rest of the week. [EDN 10/6/95 from Reuter; ED-LP 10/6/95] The new protests follow last week's demonstrations in San Francisco de Macoris, also protesting the police murder of a youth [see Update #296]. On Sept. 10, the government responded to a wave of protests against layoffs in the sugar industry [see Update #293] by militarizing four state-owned sugar refineries. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 9/15/95 from Notimex, Reuter, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse] 4. VICE PRESIDENT WINS PRIMARIES IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Dominican Republic vice president Jacinto Peynado won primary elections held Oct. 1 to become the presidential candidate for his party, the ruling Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC). With 85% of the ballots counted Peynado had won 57.05% of the vote, nearly twice as much as his closest opponent, foreign minister Carlos Morales Troncoso. [El Daily News 10/3/95] President Joaquin Balaguer, who has led the PRSC since its formation, did not vote in the primaries. [El Diario-La Prensa 10/3/95] To end the crisis following the tainted May 1994 elections and allow Balaguer to take office despite widespread evidence of fraud, an agreement was worked out in August 1994 between Balaguer and opposition parties. According to the Pact for Democracy, Balaguer's term of office was shortened from four to two years, new elections were set for 1996, and Balaguer was not eligible to run again [see Update #237]. The 89-year-old Balaguer, who is blind and in ill health, is in his seventh term as president. His margin of victory in 1994, even by government figures, was less than 1%. According to a voter intention survey taken over the summer by the US firm Global Strategy Group, Jose Francisco Pena Gomez of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) is leading with 36%. The Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) is gaining in popularity and its presidential candidate, 43-year-old lawyer Leonel Fernandez, now has the support of 30% of Dominicans. (Longtime PLD leader Juan Bosch retired from politics shortly after getting less than 13% of the vote in the 1994 elections--see Update #230). In third and fourth places were the two contenders for the PRSC nomination, Peynado and Morales, with 15% and 11% respectively. Pena Gomez, who many observers contend won the 1994 elections, charges that the government has been helping PLD candidate Fernandez in order to weaken the PRD. With 15 seats in the 30- member Senate and 57 in the 120-seat Chamber of Deputies, the social democratic PRD is the single strongest party in congress. The PRSC has 14 senate seats and 50 seats in the lower house, while the PLD has one seat in the Senate and 13 in the Chamber of Deputies. But on Aug. 16, the PRSC and the PLD joined forces to assume control of both houses of the legislature. As a result of the alliance, the PRSC's Amable Aristy Castro was elected president of the Senate, while the Chamber of Deputies elected the PLD's Ramon Fadul as its president. The PRD complained that the cooperation between the other two parties forecast a "holy alliance" being constructed by the PRSC and the PLD for the May 1996 elections. [LADB Notisur 9/15/95 from Notimex, Reuter, AP, AFP] 5. PROTESTS ROCK SOUTHERN ARGENTINE PROVINCES Protests have continued in the southern Argentine province of Rio Negro against the provincial government headed by former presidential candidate Horacio Massaccesi of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) [see Update #295]. In the city of Villa Regina on Oct. 6, some 200 demonstrators burned the house of former provinicial economy minister Edgar Massaccesi, a cousin of the governor. Edgar Massaccesi is facing judicial proceedings for alleged administrative irregularities during his term. The protesters also threw rocks at the offices of the UCR, which has governed Rio Negro for more than a decade. [Diario Las Americas 10/7/95 from EFE] At least three people were injured and 30 were arrested on Oct. 5 during a march in the Rio Negro city of General Roca, called by the unions representing provincial workers. [DLA 10/7/95 from EFE] Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the demonstrators, who were demanding three months worth of back pay owed to them and protesting the government's plans to privatize the provincial bank and lower the salaries of state workers. Governor-elect Pablo Verani of the UCR announced on Oct. 5 that he had reached an accord with the federal government to receive funds to meet back pay demands, in exchange for the promise of advancing in the privatization of the bank and the provincial electrical energy authority. Verani confirmed that he intends to apply a salary cut, but promised it would not affect anyone who earns less than $520 a month. [El Daily News 10/6/95 from Reuter] And in the city of Neuquen, in the southern province of Neuquen, some 500 demonstrators attacked government offices and vehicles on Oct. 2. to demand back pay owed to them and protest the government's economic austerity policies. [EDN 10/4/95 from AP; El Diario-La Prensa 10/4/95 from AP] Provincial elections are scheduled this year for Neuquen. [ED-LP 9/25/95 from AP] 6. FRAUD MARS PERONIST VICTORY IN ARGENTINE PROVINCES The ruling Justicialist (Peronist) Party (PJ) has claimed victory in provincial elections held on Oct. 1 in three northern provinces of Argentina. In Salta, the PJ managed to retake the provincial government, defeating the center-right local ruling Salta Renovation Party. In Jujuy and Formosa, the PJ took more than 50% of the votes, although there were accusations of fraud. Maria Cristina Guzman, candidate of the Popular Jujuyan Movement, which got about 10% of the vote, demanded that the elections be annuled because the ballots for her party were not available at all the voting sites. In Formosa, a UCR legislator supervising the balloting complained that a vote was cast by a man who had been dead for 15 years. Salta, Jujuy and Formosa are among the provinces with the highest poverty rates in Argentina. [El Daily News 10/4/95 from Reuter, 10/3/95 from Reuter; La Jornada (Mexico) 10/1/95 from ANSA, DPA, AP] The latest elections occurred amid a multitude of charges about irregularities in the voter lists. Electoral authorities have admitted that there are more than 6,700 "twin" documents, registration papers with the same number but given to different people in different places. The National Electoral Chamber, made up of three judges, decided to investigate the duplications based on charges made by the UCR and the center-left coalition Front for a Country in Solidarity (FREPASO). In Formosa alone, opposition forces charge, there are 2,470 cases of duplicate identity documents in neighboring districts. The government has also agreed to an opposition demand to create an electoral tribunal with the participation of all of Argentina's political forces to control future elections. The official results have still not been released, meanwhile, for provincial elections held on Sept. 3 in Santa Fe [see Update #292, #293]. [LJ 10/1/95 from ANSA, DPA, AP; El Diario-La Prensa 10/1/95 from EFE] Provincial elections were also held on Sept. 24 in the southernmost Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, where a second round was considered likely between incumbent governor Jose Estabillo of the local Popular Fuegian Movement and one of his two principal rivals, Mario Daniele of the ruling PJ, and Juan Carlos Garcia of the UCR. A second round is under way Oct. 8 in Chaco province, where no candidate won the required majority in elections held Sept. 10. [ED-LP 9/25/95 from AP] FREPASO is leading voter intention polls in Buenos Aires for the Oct. 8 election of a third senator for the capital district, established by the reforms made to the Constitution last fall. According to a survey by the private firm Sofres-Ibope, FREPASO deputy Graciela Fernandez Mejide is 10 points ahead of her closest rival, the PJ's Erman Gonzalez, and 12 points ahead of the third place candidate, Enrique Vanossi of the UCR. Pollster Julio Aurelio, who surveys voter intentions for the ruling PJ, admitted there might be a "technical draw" between Fernandez and Gonzalez. [ED-LP 10/6/95 from Notimex] 7. COLOMBIAN LEGISLATOR: DEA TAPES PROVE CONSPIRACY A Colombian congressperson has revealed tapes and transcripts of conversations between US drug officials which he says proves that the US is behind a conspiracy to destabilize Colombia's government. Carlos Alonso Lucio, a former guerrilla fighter who now represents the leftist M-19 political party in the House of Representatives, made his presentation in the House on Oct. 4. The representative did not say how the recordings were obtained; under Colombian law, they are illegal if they were obtained without a prior judicial order. [El Colombiano (Medellin) 10/5/95 from Colprensa] US officials confirmed the conversation took place and said the tapes appeared to be accurate. [Washington Post 10/6/95] On Oct. 5, Justice Minister Nelson Humberto Martinez said his government was not responsible for the wiretaps. [New York Times 10/7/95] Martinez charged on Oct. 5 that the phones in his own office and in that of Defense Minister Juan Carlos Esguerra had been wiretapped by unknowns. [Diario Las Americas 10/7/95 from EFE] Among those whose taped conversations were played or read before the Congress were Tony Seneca, director of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Colombia; Fabio Vargas, a presumed associate of alleged Cali cartel treasurer Guillermo Pallomari; and two DEA agents in the US. According to Medellin daily El Colombiano, the transcripts read by Lucio revealed the DEA's supposed concern over reports in the Colombian press about how the DEA obtained the "surrender" and subsequent transfer of Pallomari to the US, where he is now in the federal witness program [see Update #296]. The tapes also suggest that US ambassador Myles Frechette was aware of the DEA's operations with Pallomari. [El Colombiano 10/5/95 from Colprensa] Washington Post coverage of the tapes on Oct. 6 mentioned only one "earthy" conversation between senior DEA official Robert J. Nieves and a Justice Department official whom the Post did not identify. According to the Post, the DEA officials allegedly made fun of Colombia and mocked its officials in the taped conversations. [WP 10/6/95] "The United States is interested in maintaining a climate of instability in Colombia so as not to allow the drug trafficking business to end," asserted Lucio in his presentation before Congress, "since the majority of the profits generated by that business are for the members of the [US] drug agency." In one taped conversation between US anti-drug officials in Colombia and the US, Lucio pointed out, both of the speakers said it was necessary "to keep up the momentum." Lucio said he believed this meant they want the crisis to continue. Lucio explained that US anti-drug agents are going for the money, "because for each confiscation they receive a quantity of extra money, and because others participate directly in illegal drug trafficking." Lucio proposed the legalization of drugs as a solution to the crisis, along with a restructuring of relations with the US and the creation of a movement for national dignity. He also called on authorities to protect the innocent family members of jailed Cali cartel leaders. [El Colombiano 10/5/95 from Colprensa] 8. MEXICAN REBELS CALL FOR DIALOGUE "WITHOUT THE GOVERNMENT" On Sept. 29 Mexico's rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) gave its formal response to the unofficial plebiscite (or "consultation") grassroots organizations held in August and September at the rebels' request. In his first public appearance since the federal government's Feb. 9 military offensive against the Zapatistas, EZLN leader "Sub-Commander Marcos" read a 22-page document at a meeting with the plebiscite's organizers in the village of La Realidad in the southeastern state of Chiapas. According to Marcos, the plebiscite's "great lesson...is that indeed we can organize ourselves to speak and to listen, that without the guidance or permission of anyone we can construct mechanisms for carrying out dialogue... The consultation was a warning to the powerful: We don't need you!" More 1.3 million people voted in the plebiscite, almost 1.1 million Mexican adults, some 200,000 Mexicans between 12 and 17, and about 80,000 international supporters. Marcos noted that much of the organizing had come from women, lesbians and gays, and prisoners- -people who had been marginalized in much the same way as the indigenous people who form the EZLN's base in Chiapas. The overwhelming majority of voters supported the EZLN's 16 basic demands and its call for a broad-based opposition front. In response Marcos proposed a great national dialogue of "civil society"--the country's many opposition grassroots organizations- -"without the government." This would start with "local, municipal, regional and state Civilian Dialogue Committees" which would work toward a national dialogue to discuss forming the "National Opposition Front." Marcos also called for EZLN supporters to create "Zapatista centers of resistance" with clinics, schools, theaters, movie houses and sports events that will get "nothing from the government." The EZLN itself would open up registration centers to build the "new independent political force" that a narrow majority of plebiscite participants had voted for. "On the international level" the Zapatistas are seeking "an intercontinental meeting of all the forces that are struggling for humanity, that is, against neoliberalism." Marcos harshly criticized both the government and the opposition parties, including the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), whose leaders he said were looking for an "impossible political 'center.'" But former PRD presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano called the EZLN proposals "positive" and in line with the PRD's calls for "multiple dialogues." Cardenas was in Chiapas to campaign for the party's candidates in local elections scheduled for Oct. 15. The PRD's strongest candidates are in the municipalities that tend to sympathize with the Zapatistas, such as the small city of Las Margaritas, where Cardenas drew a crowd of about 3,000, many of them indigenous people who had traveled from remote outlying villages for the rally. [La Jornada 10/1/95] 9. MEXICAN CIVIL SOCIETY CONTINUES TO REBEL As the Mexican rebels were calling for "centers of resistance," the Mexican capital was the scene of almost constant demonstrations during the last week of September. Street vendors continued to fight police who were trying to drive them out of the city's central district [see Update #291], while the El Barzon debtors' organization took over a city court to keep officials from repossessing its headquarters. Sept. 26 brought a bizarre battle between riot police and unemployed professionals armed with resumes and attache cases. The Small Business Chamber of Commerce had sold some 60,000 tickets, at 30 pesos each (about $5), for a three-day job fair near the Monument to the Revolution. An estimated 30,000 lawyers and accountants arrived on the first day to find about 40 businesses offering clerical jobs in places like Domino's Pizza. Job applicants stormed the building where the job fair was held and took the Chamber's vice president hostage, while a police helicopter flew overhead and riot police lobbed tear gas into the crowd. [Pacific News Service, posted 9/30/95; Reuter 9/26/95] Throughout the summer anger had been building among thousands of students who were rejected by public universities--due to official corruption, according to the students. Twelve members of the Movement of the Excluded began a hunger strike in August at Mexico City's 350,000-student National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). One leader, Adolfo Llubere, had to be hospitalized on Sept. 23 after 33 days of fasting. By then several hundred of UNAM's 6,000 "excluded" had taken over the university rector's offices. [LJ 9/24/95; Associated Press 9/26/95] On Sept. 30 the students surrendered the building in exchange for the university's promise to negotiate. [LJ 10/1/95] Two days later, thousands of students and independent unionists held a night-time march into the city's main plaza, the Zocalo, to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 2, 1968 massacre of hundreds of students and supporters in the Tlatelolco housing project. Hundreds of youths disrupted the peaceful commemoration, burning four city buses and using another to try to knock down the huge flagpole in front of the National Palace. There were 148 arrests; the main demonstration moved away to another plaza. [New York Times 10/4/95] A few miles outside the capital, the precolonial village of Tepoztlan in Morelos state continued to defy both federal and state authorities. At the beginning of September a coalition of indigenous villagers and local ecologists had driven out the village government to stop plans to build a golf course at the nearby El Tepozteco environmental reserve [see Update #293]. A poll by the independent Mexico City daily Reforma showed that 80% of the local population (a combination of artists and indigenous Nahua campesinos) opposes the golf course. On Sept. 24 the Tepozteco Unity Committee (CUT), which led the protests, sponsored elections for a new village government. Officials declared the vote null and void, but on Sept. 30 the villagers installed the winner, Lazaro Rodriguez Castaneda, as the mayor and tlatoani (Nahuatl for "speaker" or "ruler") of the "free, constitutional and popular municipality of Tepoztlan." [LJ 9/24/95 and 19/1/95] Earlier in the month the Zapatistas sent a solidarity message from Chiapas "to the people of tEpoZtLaN." [Independent (UK) 9/15/95] 10. VENEZUELA: SIX PRISONERS KILLED, ABUSES CHARGED Six inmates were killed and six others injured during a riot on Sept. 26 in an overcrowded high-security Venezuelan jail. According to prison director Garofalo Dangelo, inmates from cellblock 2 attacked those from cellblock 4 after breakfast in Tocoron jail outside the city of Maracay. "Some prisoners attacked other inmates with firearms and knives and the violence turned into a riot," Dangelo told Reuter. Six inmates died in the hospital from their wounds, he added. Calm returned after National Guard troops were called in. Dangelo said searches of the jail after the riot turned up homemade firearms and knives, as well as screwdrivers and other sharp objects. Tocoron jail is one of 32 maximum security prisons in Venezuela; it has a capacity of 750 but is currently holding 1,088 inmates. Hundreds die each year in Venezuela's notoriously overcrowded and dangerous jails, where weapons are common. [Reuter 9/26/95; El Daily News 9/27/95 from Reuter] Several days before the Tocoron riot, four prisoners died and 26 were injured at Catia prison in Caracas. A Reuter photo days later showed inmates at Catia hanging a banner from the window bars that read, "It wasn't a riot, it was a massacre." [EDN 9/25/95 from Reuter] Venezuela's Judicial Technical Police (PTJ) has arrested two of its officers in connection with the recent death in Caracas of a young worker, who was photographed in good health at the moment of his arrest, but who was dead from two bullet wounds when he entered the hospital shortly afterwards. The PTJ has promised an "impartial investigation." [La Jornada 9/3/95 from EFE, AFP, AP] 11. US LOOSENS SOME CUBA RESTRICTIONS, TIGHTENS MONITORING US president Bill Clinton signed an executive order on Oct. 3 that eases certain travel, aid and money transfer restrictions between the US and Cuba. Some of the changes merely relax--but do not eliminate--the tougher restrictions Clinton imposed in August 1994, when he restricted travel by academics and barred Cuban- Americans from visiting or sending money to relatives. Under the new policy, Cuban-Americans will be able to obtain a general license from the US for a yearly visit, instead of going through licensing procedures that require proof of humanitarian need for each visit. Cuban-Americans can also apply to send--through Western Union offices in Cuba and the US--up to $300 every three months to relatives who are suffering from disasters. Travel to Cuba will also be made easier for US scholars and religious figures. US relief organizations will now be able work with independent Cuban organizations to donate food, medicines and do relief work. The new measures also allow a student exchange program for undergraduates, and pave the way for the opening of US news bureaus in Cuba. In the past, the Cuban government has refused to allow US news organizations to open offices because the US would not reciprocate by letting Cuban news agencies in. Now, US officials say that once several US news organizations have been allowed to open in Cuba, the US will allow Cuba to open bureaus in the US. CNN, The Miami Herald and more than a dozen other US news organizations have asked permission from Cuba to set up bureaus. [New York Times 10/6/95; Washington Post 10/6/95] At the same time he announced the loosening of some restrictions, Clinton announced new regulatory steps intended to tightly monitor existing restrictions. These steps include the expansion of a Florida enforcement operation to monitor travelers to Cuba, and an increase in monitoring of travel licensing procedures. [WP 10/6/95] Cuba's foreign ministry reacted to the new measures with skepticism on Oct. 6. "The announcement lacks significance for us," foreign ministry spokesperson Miguel Alfonso told Mexican news agency Notimex. "The blockade continues the same and a proposal to strengthen it has been announced," a reference to the Helms-Burton legislation which passed Sept. 21 in the US House of Representatives [see Update #295] and is currently pending approval in the US Senate. [El Diario-La Prensa 10/8/95 from Notimex] Clinton's announcement came the same week that Pope John Paul II condemned the US embargo against Cuba during a visit to New York and New Jersey. The Pope denied that he has been invited by the Cuban government to visit Cuba this coming February, though he said he had been invited by the Cuban bishops. The Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops forcefully denied press rumors that the Vatican is holding secret negotiations with the Cuban government over a future papal visit to the island. [ED-LP 10/5/95 from AFP; El Daily News 10/5/95 from AP] 12. BRAZIL PRESIDENT PLEDGES LAND REFORM On Sept. 26, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso pledged to crack down on rural violence and to make agrarian reform a government priority. Cardoso appointed his long-time close advisor and former cabinet chief Francisco Graziano as the new director of the government's National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA). Graziano replaces Brazilio de Araujo Neto, a powerful landholder whose naming to the post a few months ago sparked heated protests by unions and rural movements who accused him of being an enemy of agrarian reform. "We are determined to end rural violence," said Cardoso. "Invasions of land and police violence are simply complicating the problem." [Financial Times (UK) 9/27/95; El Daily News 9/29/95 from AP; Inter Press Service 9/28/95] "Massacres like the one in Corumbiara, Rondonia state, are condemned by all Brazilians and deserve exemplary punishment," Cardoso added. [El Colombiano 9/27/95 from AFP] At least 13 people were killed and dozens disappeared when police attacked rural squatters at the Santa Elina farm in Corumbiara municipality on Aug. 9 [see Updates #289, #293]. According to the governmental human rights commission (CDDPH), Brazil's Justice Ministry will ask the prosecutor's office to accuse 180 officers of Rondonia's Militarized Police as co-authors of torture and murder in connection with the Corumbiara massacre. [Diario Las Americas 9/30/95 from AFP] "I'd like to take this opportunity to appeal for a kind of truce" among rural landowners, police, and squatters," Cardoso said in the ceremony marking Graziano's takeover. "A treaty does not mean that people should stop making demands, but it does mean that people should start to accept that the other person in the argument is not acting in bad faith." [LADB Notisur 10/6/95 from Notimex, La Jornada, Reuter, Inter Press Service, Agence France- Presse] In his weekly radio address, Cardoso pointed out that so far during his term 17,000 families have received land; he pledged to find land for 40,000 more before the end of the year, and 280,000 by the end of his term. [El Colombiano 9/27/95 from AFP; FT 9/27/95] Cardoso also promised that the state-owned Bank of Brazil would immediately release 130 million reales ($137 million) in subsidized agricultural credits at a 12% annual interest rate to those who have already received land through the agrarian reform program. Cardoso criticized the property invasions being carried out by landless peasants, but praised the leftist Workers Party (PT) and "institutions linked to the landless workers" for contributing "a document against violence in the countryside and in favor of the acceleration of agrarian reform." The document was presented to Vice President Marco Maciel while Cardoso was visiting Europe. According to the National Federation of Agricultural Workers (CONTAG), some 85,000 families are involved in land occupations, which have resulted in an average 500 conflicts a year since 1991. [El Colombiano 9/27/95 from AFP] Cardoso called on the PT and the Catholic Church to collaborate in solving the agrarian reform problem. [El Daily News 10/3/95 from Reuter] The Landless Peasants Movement (MST), a national organization founded 10 years ago to fight for land reform, considers the government plan inadequate; the MST wants land for 4.8 million families over the next four years. "Our calculations are clear: at the rate that the government proposes to give land, it would take 50 years to give a tiny plot of land to those 4.8 million families who need it," said the MST representative from Bahia state. The MST presented 42 suggestions to the government, among them demands to accelerate the process of expropriation and to immediately call in the past-due debts of the 1,276 major debtors of the Bank of Brazil. The MST claims that most of the debts are owed by large landowners who have large areas of idle land which they use to obtain rural credits that are never paid back. "If the government collected the debts of those swindling ranchers who owe a total of $2.2 billion to the country, it would be possible, at market prices, to recover approximately 2 million hectares which could be distributed to more than 200,000 families throughout Brazil," read the MST document. With a strong sector within the MST calling for rejection of Cardoso's appeal for a truce, MST leaders from 22 states met to assess the significance of Graziano's appointment and the president's plan. "A truce does not make any sense at this time, now that agrarian reform has finally become part of the national agenda," said Jaime Amorim, an MST leader and the representative from Pernambuco at the meeting. Amorin and others insisted that "the president needs to keep his electoral promises." [LADB Notisur 10/6/95 from Notimex, La Jornada, Reuter, IPS, AFP] Earlier in September, one government department, apparently with backing from sections of the military, tried to link one of the main landless movements to Peru's Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) movement--though there is no evidence of such ties. According to the Catholic church-based Pastoral Land Commission, the charges were meant to distract attention from the need for agrarian reform. [FT 9/27/95] 13. BRAZILIAN LANDOWNERS PREPARE TO FIGHT SQUATTERS On Sept. 27, the Justice Ministry ordered the investigation of charges that landholders are arming themselves with automatic weapons to defend their land in Pontal de Paranapanema, in the far west of Sao Paulo state. On Sept. 26, the national Globo television network broadcast a report showing a large stock of arms that landholders have collected to face threats of occupation of their property by the MST. The Landholders were responding to a call to resistance put out by the Commission for the Defense of Property, created last week by the National Confederation of Agriculture, which represents the country's large landholders. Jose Rainha, an MST leader in Paranapanema, has challenged landholders, the legal system and the government by announcing that he will continue to lead occupations of land. Rainha warned that if the landholders unleash a war, there will be "more survivors on our side" than on theirs. In the Paranapanema region, 2,100 families are currently camped out on occupied land, said Rainha. If a solution is not found soon, he said, the number of families will increase to 5,000 within the next 60 days. The disputed land in Paranapanema belongs to the Sao Paulo state government, but was occupied for decades by large landholders, who are demanding compensation costs for the infrastructure they built. Those judicial processes are blocking the legal settlement of the peasant farmers. [Inter Press Service 9/28/95] Brazilian police have requested preventive imprisonment for 22 MST members in Pontal de Paranapanema, including Rainha, according to Judge Catarina Estimo, the judge responsible for ordering such a measure. The arrest order was originally requested in late August after 2,000 families invaded three farms in the area; eight names were added on Oct. 4 after police identified them as having participated in the occupation. Police are charging the 22 MST members with organizing an armed group, disobedience, theft and arson. Judge Estimo, who has never ruled unfavorably against the landless peasants, said she has not set a fixed date for her decision. Rainha said he is prepared to go into hiding if he is ordered imprisoned. [DLA 10/7/95 from AFP] 14. ECUADORAN VICE PRESIDENT CLEARED OF CORRUPTION On Oct. 6, Ecuador's congress declared vice president Alberto Dahik innocent of corruption [see Update #291]. After a marathon overnight session, the opposition seeking to oust Dahik only managed to obtain 39 votes in favor of censuring and dismissing the vice president. Of the remaining 77 deputies, 20 voted against punishing Dahik, 14 abstained and 4 were absent. To remove the vice president, the legislature needed 52 votes. Dahik had been accused of bribing judges and legislators to approve laws that the government favored, as well as opening bank accounts with state funds in the names of his two private secretaries. [Diario Las Americas 10/7/95 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa 10/8/95 from AP] During his defense, Dahik argued that the charges against him are an attempt by ex-president Leon Febres Cordero and the Social Christian Party to seek revenge because he abandoned them to join the slate of current president Sixto Duran Ballen in the 1992 elections. Dahik accused Febres Cordero of having deliberately provoked the greatest fiscal deficit, inflation and shedding of hard currency in Ecuador's history, in order to leave an economy on the brink of ruin to his social democratic successor, Rodrigo Borja (1988-92). (Borja had frequently repeated such charges, but they carry more weight coming from Dahik, who served as presidential adviser, president of the Monetary Council and Finance Minister during the Febres Cordero administration.) Dahik also accused the ex-president of ordering the persecution and physical abuse of opponents during his term, the harrassment of independent press and pressure against other branches of government, and presented evidence suggesting that Febres was involved in embezzlement. Dahik's testimony was broadcast live without interruptions by the country's three main TV channels and nearly 100 radio stations. [Inter Press Service 10/3/95] 15. "COUNTER-TERRORISM" BILL ON HOLD US Rep. Henry Hyde (R-NY) told the New York Times on Sept. 29 that he does not feel he "can press forward at this time" with the "counterterrorism" legislation proposed by the Clinton administration last spring, with the backing of Congress's Republican leadership. The Senate version, the Comprehensive Terrorism Prevention Act of 1995 (S. 735), was passed 91-8 on June 7. This legislation would allow immigrants to be deported without due process if accused of terrorist activities, and would criminalize financial support by US groups for foreign organizations the president designates as terrorist [see Update #280]. Liberal groups and legislators like the American Civil Liberties Union and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) worked against the bill, along with conservatives from groups like the Cato Institute and the Gunowners of America, who were afraid the legislation was broad enough to be used against the US far right. Liberal Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY) called the bill's failure an issue that can be used against the Republicans. "This is an example of the Republicans' inability to deliver. It's another sign that some of them are pushing the agenda of the extremist groups and the militias." [New York Times 10/3/95] 16. IN OTHER NEWS... Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of US president Bill Clinton, is scheduled to arrive in Nicaragua on Oct. 12, where she will meet with President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro to discuss "topics related to women and to education" and announce changes in the US foreign aid that goes to social programs. Education and health targeted especially at women and children will now be emphasized, although no new funds are being made available for 1995. This will be [Rodham-Clinton's] first official visit to Central America; her trip will also include visits to Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. In Paraguay Clinton will take part in the first summit of wives of the hemisphere's heads of state, to be held Oct. 16- 20 in Asuncion. [Diario Las Americas 9/30/95]...On Oct. 6 the Uruguayan police reported the arrest of 18 Argentine "carapintadas," former military officers and civilians who participated in a coup attempt in Argentina on Dec. 3, 1990. The 18 arrested had requested political asylum in Uruguay on Oct. 2. [Diario Las Americas 10/7/95 from EFE]... In a turnout that surprised the organizers, some 15,000 people gathered on Oct. 1 at O'Higgins park in Santiago, Chile, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared (AFDD) and commemorate the victims of the dictatorship. No government representatives attended the event, although they had been invited by AFDD. Few members of the Congress and none at all from the Senate were present. [CHIP News 10/2/95; Inter Press Service 10/2/95] Haitian former army general Henri Max Mayard was shot to death by unidentified assailants in Port-au-Prince on Oct. 3. [New York Times 10/4/95] 17. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE NYC AREA AND BEYOND For more information, call NSN at 212-674-9499. Events listed are not necessarily endorsed by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network. 10/11 WED, 4 PM - Picket to protest death sentence on Sarah Balabagan, Filipino housemaid raped by employer. United Arab Emirates UN Mission, 747 3rd Ave (47th St). Gabriela Network, 212-592-3507, email oliva@pegasus.rutgers.edu 10/11 WED, 5:30 PM - Demo: Say NO to Medicare Cuts. Sen D'Amato's office, 7th Ave & 32nd St. NY Health Care for All and others, 212-741-8535. 10/11 WED, 6:30 PM - "Political Prisoners in Colombia: A Paradox of Peace," w/Jaime Prieto & others. Hunter College West Bldg, Rm 217, 68th St & Lexington Ave. 212-802-7209. 10/12 THU, 7 PM - "Indigenous People's Day." Nationwide fasting & other events to support Leonard Peltier & indigenous people in Big Mountain, AZ. Local event at Advent Luthern Ch, W 93rd St & B'way. People's Fast for Justice, 718-643-9603. 10/14 SAT, 9 PM - Fundraiser to send medicines to Cuba. At Congreso Dominicano, 614 W 179th St, 2nd fl. $5. 212-261-2336. 10/14 SAT, 9 PM - Book party for "Sounding Off! Music as Subversion/Resistance/Revolution" Live music. At Axiom Studio, 118 Greenpoint Ave, Bkn. FREE. 10/16 MON - CREED subway theater vs anti-immigrant. 212-645-5230. 10/16 MON, 12:30 PM - Colin Powell (Panama invasion, Gulf War) promotes his book, Barnes & Noble. 10/19 THU, 7 PM - CREED meeting, location TBA. 212-645-5230. -- + NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems + + Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us + + gopher://ursula.blythe.org/11/NY-Transfer-News + + e-mail: nyt@blythe.org info: accounts@blythe.org +