WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #298, OCTOBER 15, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Dominican Republic: Protests Continue, Activist Charged 2. Haitian Sugar Workers Disappeared in Dominican Republic 3. Haitian Prime Minister Resigns 4. US Withholds Information on Haitian Death Squads 5. Guatemalan Defense Minister Resigns Over Massacre 6. What Really Happened in Guatemala Massacre? 7. Mexico: Chiapas Elections Proceed Despite Warnings 8. Mexican President's US Tour Plagued by Scandals 9. Chile's Police Chief Finally Resigns 10. Ecuadoran Vice President Resigns, Flees Country 11. Other News: Nicaragua, Peru, Cuba, El Salvador 12. 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. Email subscription inquiries should go to nyt@blythe.org. 1. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: PROTESTS CONTINUE, ACTIVIST CHARGED On Oct. 11, strikes and protests were held in the northeastern Dominican municipalities of Nagua, San Francisco de Macoris, Salcedo, Cotui, Tenares, Villa Rivas, Arenoso, Castillo Hostos, Las Matas and Las Guaranas. Business was completely shut down in nearly all of these towns. In San Francisco de Macoris, the explosion of homemade bombs was reported. In Nagua, Julian Vasquez Encarnacion was shot to death by police during the demonstrations, and one police agent was hit in the thigh by a bullet. Police are looking for community leader Dario Camilo in connection with the wounding of the police agent. The strike in Nagua was reportedly starting to lose force because of disagreements between the Collective of Popular Organizations (COP) and the group Nagua United in Demand of Solutions. The demonstrations were planned to demand public works, but were stepped up to incorporate a new demand: the freeing of COP leader Ramon Almanzar, who was arrested on Oct. 7 and held without being charged for several days in the capital. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 10/10/95 from EFE, 10/12/95, 10/13/95; El Daily News (NY) 10/13/95] On Oct. 11, Almanzar was transferred to Nagua and charged with masterminding a series of bomb attacks, a plan which was allegedly frustrated by the accidental explosion of a powerful homemade bomb that killed three COP leaders on Oct. 5 [see Update #297]. The bombs were supposed to be used on Oct. 10 and 11 in four northeastern provinces during a civic strike. Almanzar--an agronomist who was a leader of the Dominican Communist Party (PCD)--is being held in the Monte Plata prison; if convicted he faces up to a 20-year sentence under a tough anti-terrorist law. Almanzar accuses the police headquarters of having provoked the Oct. 5 detonation in order to discredit the grassroots movement. COP leader Fernando Pena, who had been arrested with Almanzar, was freed on Oct. 11 without being charged. [EDN 10/12/95; ED-LP 10/13/95] Police beat and arrested attorney Ramon Virgilio Mejia when he presented himself at the court office to defend Almanzar. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 10/14/95 from EFE] In the Dominican capital, one person was killed and about 20 wounded by gunfire in protests on Oct. 9 in the low-income neighborhoods of La Zurza and Capotillo. Street vendor Pastor Vasquez was shot to death while on his way to a market near the protests. The demonstrators were demanding the closing of some 50 factories which they say are polluting the air and endangering the lives of local residents. In La Zurza, at least 10 people-- mainly children--have died in the past year from the effects of the pollution. Demonstrations were also held on Oct. 9 in a number of other Santo Domingo neighborhoods, as well as in the interior of the country. Two homemade bombs reportedly exploded during protests in Tamayo, Haina and Cotui. [ED-LP 10/10/95 from EFE] Police used tear gas to repress rock-throwing demonstrators as protests continued throughout the week in La Zurza and Capotillo; in another Santo Domingo neighborhood, Los Coquitos, residents are protesting sewage buildup which has created small lakes, due to lack of a drainage system. Severe flooding has exacerbated the existing infrastructure problems. [ED-LP 10/12/95, 10/13/95] 2. HAITIAN SUGAR WORKERS DISAPPEARED IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Some 4,000 Haitian sugar cane cutters stopped work at the Montellano sugar processing facility as of Oct. 4, insisting they will stay on strike until they know what happened to 11 compatriots who disappeared on Sept. 28 in Valverde province. The 11 victims were among 38 Haitian cane cutters seized by private guards of the Montellano company and accused of burning cane fields. The guards drove them toward the Haiti border, supposedly to repatriate them. But before reaching the border post, the guards stopped the vehicle and started beating the Haitians and forcing them into a lake. Two of the victims were treated in a local hospital and released, and 11 are still missing. [El Nacional (Santo Domingo) 10/4/95] Radhames Castro, general secretary of the Dominican National Sugar Workers Federation (FENAZUCAR), demanded an immediate investigation by the government. General Workers Confederation (CGT) general secretary Rafael Abreu charged that Dominican soldiers were also involved in the attack on the Haitians. [Haiti Progres (NY) 10/11-17/95 from El Nacional 10/6/95] The Haitian Embassy in the Dominican Republic has sent a team to investigate. [Fax from the Haitian Embassy 10/7/95?] 3. HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS On Oct. 13 Haitian officials revealed that Prime Minister Smarck Michel had submitted his formal resignation, although the move has not been made official. Michel, a business leader associated by the public with the economic policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), quit just as the new National Assembly was to hold its first meeting on Oct. 15. Dominated by the left- populist Lavalas movement, the parliamentary group was likely to give Michel a vote of no-confidence. It is not clear who will replace Michel. (Oct. 15 will also be the anniversary of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's restoration to power by the US military last year. US vice president Al Gore and United Nations (UN) secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali are to attend the ceremonies marking the occasion.) The prime minister had clashed earlier in the week with other cabinet members over measures the IMF is demanding as a condition for a $100 million credit package that would come from the IMF and the World Bank. Michel apparently also felt that Aristide had not given him clear support in his efforts to privatize Haiti's small state sector. [New York Times 10/14/95] The privatization plan has brought strong popular opposition since August [see Updates #293 and 295]. The government argues that Haiti has nothing to lose in privatizing the money-losing state enterprises. But in an interview with Radio Haiti Inter late last month, Jean Harry Clerveau, union leader at Haiti Electricity (EDH), said that 50% of the company's power is being stolen through illegal hookups, 13% in poor neighborhoods and 37% by rich customers. Clerveau singled out Fritz Mevs, a millionaire who supported the 1991 coup against Aristide but now supports the Aristide government. Rich individuals and businesses owe EDH $19 million, according to the unionist. If this were collected, he said, the company would be able to turn a profit even while subsidizing electricity for poor neighborhoods. Clerveau charges that the very people who owe EDH the most are the ones "maneuvering to buy it." [Haiti Info Vol. 3, #25, 9/30/95] There had been speculation for some time that Michel would leave without waiting for Aristide's term to end next Feb. 7. His departure raises questions about whether Aristide will really step down on schedule, despite repeated assurance that he will. Many Haitians want the new pro-Aristide parliament to extend the president's time in office for three years, since he spent three of his term's five years in exile after the coup. Until recently the US was determined to have Aristide--once an anti-US firebrand--replaced in 1996. But now some leftist circles speculate that the US government feels Aristide is the only person who can sell the IMF's economic plans to the Haitian people. [Haiti Progres (NY) 10/11-17/95] On Oct. 15 the New York Times' Larry Rohter wrote: "If there was a way to do it, the United States and the other members of the United Nations coalition that engineered Mr. Aristide's return to office last Oct. 15 would probably prefer to see him remain in office..." "Why do something to deliberately destabilize the situation?" an unnamed diplomat asked Rohter. [NYT 10/15/95] 4. US WITHHOLDS INFORMATION ON HAITIAN DEATH SQUADS Interestingly enough, Haiti's December presidential elections are now on hold because of US Republicans. Ultraconservative Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), who heads the Foreign Relations Committee, and Senate majority leader Robert Dole (R-KS) are holding up the $1.3 million designated for the elections until the White House proves that the Aristide government is not behind the killings of several Haitian rightists, including lawyer Mireille Durocher Bertin, who was gunned down in broad daylight on Mar. 28. [Washington Post 10/8/95] Conservative US columnist Robert Novak is now blaming Aristide for the similar Oct. 3 assassination of former Haitian army general Henri Max Mayard [see Update #297]. [WP 10/12/95] Six people linked to the Durocher Bertin killing were released by a judge on Sept. 19, including the self-proclaimed leftist brothers Eddy and Patrick Moise [see Update #270]. They were reportedly freed either for reasons of health or for lack of evidence. The UN mission in Haiti had criticized the government for holding the suspects so long without evidence. [Haiti-Hebdo #86, 9/30/95] According to Novak, on Oct. Eddy Moise "told a press conference that the Republicans in Washington were responsible [for Durocher Bertin's murder] and that they had offered him money to say he did it. Mayard was killed the next day." [WP 10/12/95] While attention is focused on the Mayard and Durocher Bertin cases, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has been trying to get the US to divulge information about the rightwing Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), according to the Inter Press Service's Dan Coughlin. In the course of a suit on behalf of Alerte Belance, a Haitian woman mutilated by an alleged FRAPH death squad in 1993, CCR attorney Michael Ratner forced the US government to admit that it had 60,000 pages of documents which it seized from FRAPH headquarters in a well-publicized October 1994 raid. "They are all currently classified and they are in French," Assistant US Attorney Mark Nebeker wrote on Sept. 18 in response to a CCR subpoena. The Defense Department "is in the process of reviewing the classification status of the documents." Ratner told Coughlin that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has tens thousands of documents about crimes by Haiti's military leaders and rightwing paramilitary groups. [IPS 10/10/95] Last year US investigative reporter Allan Nairn published an expose linking the CIA to the creation of the FRAPH [see Update #245]. 5. GUATEMALAN DEFENSE MINISTER RESIGNS OVER MASSACRE On Oct. 9 Mario Enriquez resigned his post as Guatemala's defense minister after acknowledging his "institutional, not direct" responsibility for the Oct. 5 massacre that left 11 returned refugees dead and 31 others wounded in the community of Xaman, Alta Verapaz [see Update #297]. "As Defense Minister I accept responsibility" for the massacre, said Enriquez. "I am resigning with the hopes of putting an end to the discrediting of Guatemala on a national and international level." President Ramiro de Leon Carpio, visibly nervous, praised Enriquez for his service to the nation and emphasized that the general's resignation was not due to external pressure. De Leon also announced the firing of Col. Sami Noe Vasquez Benavente, commander of the Coban military base, who was responsible for the soldiers involved in the Xaman killings. The soldiers themselves were charged in military courts on Oct. 8. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #39, 10/12/95; Inter Press Service 10/10/95; El Daily News 10/10/95 from Reuter] Soon after the minister's announcement, rumors of a possible coup began to circulate in the capital. De Leon scheduled an emergency meeting with army chiefs of staff and commanders of the military zones for Oct. 11. [Cerigua Briefs 10/12/95] New defense minister Gen. Marco Antonio Gonzalez Taracena is the former army chief of staff; according to the Guatemala Human Rights Commission he has been involved in the government's ongoing peace negotiations with the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) guerrilla movement. According to Cerigua, Gonzalez is believed to be aligned with the "hardline" faction which espouses a line of "total war" and an end to tolerence of dissidents. Replacing Gonzalez as chief of staff is deputy chief Gen. Jose Pineda Carranza, who in turn is replaced by Gen. Julio Balconi Turcios. Both Pineda and Balconi currently represent the government in peace talks with the URNG. [Cerigua Briefs 10/12/95; Guatemala Human Rights Update #18, 10/10/95] Human rights organizations were unanimously skeptical about Enriquez' resignation and the firing of Col. Vasquez. Mutual Support Group (GAM) leader Nineth Montenegro said both moves are part of "a strategy designed to offset the bad image the army has earned both nationally and internationally." Hellen Mack, director of the Myrna Mack Foundation, called the defense minister's resignation "merely a political measure, which will not contribute to changing the old structures of impunity that prevail in the country." [IPS 10/10/95] "They're just trying to distract the attention of the eyes of the world," said Rosalina Tuyuc, leader of the National Coordination of Guatemalan Widows (CONAVIGUA). [EDN 10/10/95 from Reuter] 6. WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN GUATEMALA MASSACRE? Former defense minister Enriquez continues to insist that the returnees provoked the Oct. 5 massacre, and that they "intimidated" and pressured the military patrol to enter the village. According to agreements signed by the government and refugees who had fled the armed conflict in Guatemala, the armed forces are not allowed to enter resettlement areas. [IPS 10/10/95] According to the Xaman returnees' description of the events of Oct. 5, children in the school first spotted a military patrol near the outskirts of their community. When community representatives went to ask the soldiers what they were doing, the soldiers said they had come to talk to community leaders about participating in celebrations for the first anniversary of the community's return. Community representatives pointed out that the community leaders could not be found on the outskirts of the settlement. The patrol of 25 soldiers and a sub-lieutenant then went into the center of the settlement and asked that the returnees be called together. The community gathered to tell the soldiers that their presence would be inappropriate for the celebrations. When the soldiers made an effort to leave, community members surrounded them without making physical contact, and said they would have to wait until the United Nations Verification Mission (MINUGUA) arrived to verify their presence on returnee community land. Some of the women shouted at the soldiers, and the community discussed the possibility of disarming them. Then the patrol officer made a radio communication; soon afterwards, he ordered the soldiers to open fire. Some fired into the air or the ground, while others fired all in one direction. One or two grenades exploded. According to the returnees, the army patrol wounded three of its own members in the attack. The soldiers then fled the community, shooting as they left. According to witnesses, they finished off several of the wounded with the "coup de grace" shot to the head as they left. [Guatemala Human Rights Update 10/10/95] A preliminary report released today by the United Nations Observer Mission (MINUGUA) corraborates much of the refugees' version of the massacre. MINUGUA director Leonardo Franco described the execution of 8-year old Santiago Coc Pop--killed with a coup de grace shot to the head some 400 meters from the original site of the conflict--as a "cold blooded" murder. Franco said the army's attempts to justify the killings as self-defense constitute an official cover-up of "unjustifiable and disporportionate" acts. Despite suggestions by President De Leon and some grassroots organizations that further returns be postponed until returnees' security can be guaranteed, both the Permanent Commissions (CCPP) on refugees and the government's National Commission for Refugees, Returnees and Displaced People (CEAR) say the return process will proceed as planned. [Cerigua Briefs 10/12/95] Indigenous activist Rigoberta Menchu Tum said the massacre was premeditated, and demanded that those responsible be punished. The Unity of Labor Union and Popular Action (UASP) called the massacre part of a premeditated plan against organized social sectors. [La Jornada 10/8/95 from Prensa Latina, EFE, DPA, Reuter, Cerigua] [According to some press reports, Menchu called for the death penalty for the authors of the massacre. [LJ 10/8/95 from PL, EFE, DPA, Reuter, Cerigua] In a letter clarifying her statements, Menchu said she used the term "capital punishment" incorrectly; she did not mean the death penalty--which she confirms she has strongly and actively opposed for many years--but rather the maximum prison sentence under Guatemalan law, 30 years. [Message from the Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation posted on email 10/10/95 (address: rmtpaz@laneta.apc.org]] The Association of University Students, in coordination with several unions, held an action to protest the massacre in which they blocked the passage of vehicles at the entrance of the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City. [Guatemala News & Information Bureau Press Summary 10/9/95] 7. MEXICO: CHIAPAS ELECTIONS PROCEED DESPITE WARNINGS Mexico's southern state of Chiapas is set to hold legislative and municipal elections on Oct. 15, two days before a new phase of negotiations is to open between the federal government and the state's rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Eight political parties and 670 candidates are running for 111 municipal councils and the 24 seats in the state chamber of deputies; another 16 "proportional" deputy posts are reserved for runners-up in the voting. Chiapas has about 1.64 million registered voters. The state's strongest party remains the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, followed by the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). The center-right opposition National Action Party (PAN), the number two force in much of the country, is only the fifth strongest party in Chiapas. However, the PAN is expected to do well in the larger cities, such as Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital. Analysts feel that this may be the first time in 60 years that the opposition parties could gain a majority in the legislature. Some of the municipal races are formalities, since many indigenous communities have already chosen their new mayors in traditional assemblies, generally from the PRI or the PRD. Even in these cases, the parties are for the first time running opposition candidates. In the town of Nicolas Ruiz, however, the PRD mayoral candidate faces no challengers [see Update #294]. In Angel Albino Corzo the PRD candidate will be Juan Roblero Roblero, replacing his brother Antelmo, who was murdered on Sept. 17 [see Update #295]. PRI candidate Ausel Sanchez disappeared on Sept. 18; the PRD denies PRI charges that PRD supporters have kidnapped him. [La Jornada 10/8/95] At the beginning of the month Samuel Ruiz Garcia, bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas and official mediator in the EZLN- government talks, warned that electoral conflicts could lead to "a very bloody Oct. 15," threatening the Oct. 17 negotiations. The Zapatistas issued a similar warning on Oct. 3; they reported that "white guards" (rightwing paramilitary groups) were threatening campesinos who support the EZLN or the opposition parties. Unofficial sources estimate that 700 people died violently in Chiapas in agrarian, religious or political disputes between Jan. 1, 1994, when the EZLN rebellion started, and September 1995--almost five times as many as died in the fighting between the rebels and the Mexican military. [Inter Press Service 10/5/95] There are reports that in some towns both the PRI and the PRD are planning to take power by force if they lose. However, both parties have dismissed the warnings, each saying they expect to win in peaceful elections. [LJ 10/8/95] [On Oct. 6 one half million signatures were delivered to Norway's Noble Institute to support Bishop Ruiz' candidacy for the 1995 Peace Prize. More than 1.5 million signatures were collected worldwide; Ruiz supporters included German author Gunter Grass, France's Danielle Mitterrand (wife of former president Georges Mitterrand) and 1992 Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu Tum of Guatemala. [Reuter 10/6/95] But on Oct. 13 the prize was awarded to Joseph Rotblat, a former nuclear physicist and longtime campaigner against atomic weapons. [New York Times 10/14/95]] 8. MEXICAN PRESIDENT'S US TOUR PLAGUED BY SCANDALS On Oct. 6 Mexico announced that it would make an early repayment of $700 million of the $12.5 billion it borrowed from the US earlier this year as part of a $50 billion credit line US president Bill Clinton put together in February. The gesture means little in practical terms, since Mexico plans to roll over $1.3 billion in debt on Oct. 31; it was clearly meant to quiet the bailout plan's US critics as Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon was about to leave for an Oct. 10-12 visit to Washington and New York. [NYT 10/6/95] But public relations problems followed Zedillo throughout his trip. On Oct. 3 the conservative opposition Mexico City daily Reforma published a letter Zedillo sent to PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta on Mar. 19, 1994, four days before Colosio was assassinated. Zedillo, who was Colosio's campaign manager, implied that then-president Carlos Salinas de Gortari had withdrawn his support for Colosio. Zedillo also said he wanted to "destroy" the PRD as a political force. "Now we understand why none of the accords to advance dialogue between the government and the opposition have been complied with," said PRD spokesperson Ramon Sosamontes. [Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update 10/11/95 from Reforma 10/3-6/95; IPS 10/4/95; Heartbeat of Mexico 10/10/95] The letter reopened questions about the Colosio assassination, and inspired demands for the special prosecutor in the case to bring Zedillo in for questioning. On Oct. 9 Mexico City daily El Financiero reported that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) knew about the plan to kill Colosio weeks before the murder took place but was unable to interest the Mexican government in the information. [Mexico Update 10/11/95 from El Financiero 10/9/95] Another major topic in Zedillo's letter was former Mexico City regent (appointed mayor) Manuel Camacho Solis, Colosio's main rival for the PRI presidential nomination. There were reports that Camacho may be asked to testify in the Colosio case. [LJ 10/8/95] On Oct. 13 Camacho resigned from the PRI, making veiled threats to split off the PRI left wing to form a new party. [NYT 10/14/95 from Reuter; El Diario-La Prensa 10/15/95 from AFP] On Oct. 8 the Colombian newsweekly Cambio 16 charged that Zedillo's own 1994 presidential campaign received money from Colombia's Cali drug cartel, although Zedillo reportedly did not know about the payoffs. [Reuter 10/8/95] On Oct. 9, as Zedillo was about to leave for Washington, an earthquake registering 7.3 on the Richter scale killed at least 60 people in the west coastal states of Jalisco and Colima. [Mexico Update 10/11/95] The highest toll--20 or more--was in a tourist hotel that had been damaged by the much more severe September 1985 earthquake. A local PRI mayor allowed the hotel to reopen in 1989 without structural repairs. Official corruption is suspected. [NYT 10/11/95] Zedillo was hounded by protesters once he reached Washington. On Oct. 10 activists from the Native Forest Network and Earth First! hung huge banners from a crane 200 feet over the World Bank's new headquarters, under construction next to the bank's current offices two blocks from the White House. "US Out of Mexico" and "World Bank Equals Genocide," the banners read. The World Bank is one of Mexico's main creditors. Three demonstrators were arrested but were not charged. [Native Forest Network press release 10/13/95] Representatives of El Barzon, Mexico's militant debtors organization, preceded Zedillo to Washington, where they were to ask the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to give Mexico a "grace period" on its repayment of external debt. [LJ 10/8/95] El Barzon also announced that it had formed an international organization to fight for debtors' rights in countries like Great Britain, Japan, Venezuela and the US. El Barzon International's headquarters are in New Jersey. [Mexico Update 10/11/95 from Reforma 10/9/95] During his Oct. 12 visit to New York, Zedillo was pursued by process servers for former Mexican prosecutor Mario Ruiz Massieu. Zedillo's government has made two unsuccessful bids to have Ruiz Massieu extradited to Mexico to face charges of corruption and of obstructing the investigation of the September 1994 assassination of his brother, PRI general secretary Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu. The former prosecutor's lawyers wanted to subpoena Zedillo to testify in the case, but he managed to elude the process servers. [Reuter 10/12/95] 9. CHILE'S POLICE CHIEF FINALLY RESIGNS On Oct. 7, Gen. Rodolfo Stange, chief of Chile's militarized Carabineros police force, announced his "voluntary retirement" from the post, effective Oct. 16. A year ago, tensions erupted when Stange refused to step down after being charged with human rights violations [see Updates #219, #234, #243]. Like army chief Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte and Navy chief Jorge Martinez, Stange cannot be removed from office until March of 1998. Stange became Carabineros chief in 1985 after the previous chief, Gen. Cesar Mendoza, was forced to resign over charges that an intelligence department under his direct command had murdered and beheaded three communist leaders earlier that year. In investigations of the murders in March of 1994, a judge accused Stange of obstruction of justice for having tried to protect a group of police agents accused of the crime. The Supreme Court later cleared Stange of responsibility, but the government continued to pressure for his resignation. Stange served on the four-member junta that acted as a legislative power during Pinochet's dictatorship. [La Jornada 10/8/95; El Daily News 10/9/95 from AP] In a press conference on Oct. 7, Stange said he was stepping down to show his disapproval of a government reform bill that would allow the president to name and remove the top military commanders. Stange denied that his resignation was related to pressures from or negotiations with the government. The day before announcing his resignation, Stange presided over the Second World Police Congress, which concluded on Oct. 6 in Santiago. Stange hinted that he might run for Senate if asked. [CHIP News 10/9/95] On Oct. 10, President Eduardo Frei named Carabineros second-in-command Gen. Fernando Cordero Rusque to replace Stange. [EDN 10/11/95 from AP] 10. ECUADORAN VICE PRESIDENT RESIGNS, FLEES COUNTRY On Oct. 11, just days after the unicameral Ecuadoran Congress failed to come up with the two-thirds majority vote necessary to impeach Vice President Alberto Dahik [see Update #297], Supreme Court president Carlos Solorzano Constantine ordered Dahik's "preventive detention," citing "compelling evidence" to support criminal charges for the illegal use of large sums of money from "reserved" or discretionary accounts. Dahik immediately sent Congress president Fabian Alarcon a letter of resignation [Latin America Data Base Notisur 10/13/95 from IPS, AFP, AP, LJ, Hoy (Quito)], then promptly flew on his private jet to Costa Rica, where he requested--and was granted--political asylum. [El Diario-La Prensa 10/15/95 from EFE] Costa Rican deputy foreign minister Rodrigo Carrera said that according to a report from the Costa Rican ambassador in Ecuador, Luz Argentina, the arrest order against Dahik was issued one hour after he left the country. [ED-LP 10/13/95 from AFP] Congress is now responsible for naming a new vice president to serve out the rest of the term until President Sixto Duran-Ballen leaves office next August. Solorzano has also issued arrest warrants for Dahik's two secretaries, as well as former foreign minister Diego Paredes. All remain at large, apparently out of the country. Last week, Solorzano demanded access to bank records to verify the recipients of the more than $6 million in reserved funds controlled by Dahik, supposedly for matters relating to internal and external security. But on Oct. 10 President Duran-Ballen issued a decree naming himself "custodian" of the microfilm containing the bank records. Solorzano called the presidential decree a "barbaric interference" in his investigation. Duran-Ballen continues to express support for Dahik, the architect of Ecuador's free-market economic reforms and considered the real power in the administration. Duran-Ballen had requested Dahik's resignation on Sept. 29, but Dahik waited 10 days to comply. Interior Minister Abraham Romero resigned in protest after Duran-Ballen asked Dahik to step down; Industry, Commerce, and Integration Minister Jose Vicente Maldonado did the same soon after. [LADB Notisur 10/13/95 from IPS, AFP, AP, LJ, Hoy] On Oct. 12, Xavier Ledesma was sworn in as the new interior minister. [Diario Las Americas 10/14/95 from EFE] "We are going to request political and criminal trials against President Duran-Ballen and against [former president and current Guayaquil mayor Leon] Febres Cordero," said deputy and former presidential candidate Abdala Bucaram of the populist Ecuadoran Roldosista Party (PRE), which abstained in the vote on Dahik's impeachment. Dahik gained public prominence as an economic adviser during the administration of Febres Cordero, first as personal adviser to the president, then as president of the Monetary Council that oversees the Central Bank, and finally as finance minister. Dahik was censured and fired by Congress in 1986 for having abruptly raised interest rates and the rate of exchange. After his dismissal, Dahik served again as presidential adviser although he was banned from exercising public duties until 1988. Febres Cordero recently admitted that he paid Dahik with funds from his reserved accounts. [LADB Notisur 10/13/95 from IPS, AFP, AP, LJ, Hoy] Social democratic former president Rodrigo Borja has said that the only way out of Ecuador's current political crisis would be to convoke a Constitutuent Assembly to write a new constitution. This proposal is supported by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and some public sector unions. The government has meanwhile called a plebiscite for Nov. 26 on constitutional reforms, but most political parties and grassroots organizations consider the referendum inopportune, costly and ill-conceived. [Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion (ALAI) 10/13/95] 11. IN OTHER NEWS... In Nicaragua, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) announced a decision by the Sandinista Assembly to hold primary elections on Feb. 4 to choose the FSLN's candidates for all national and local offices. According to the Sandinista daily Barricada, the primaries will be open to all voters, not just those registered as party members. An FSLN spokesperson also announced that the second party congress will be held after the primaries. Registered party members will vote for delegates to the Congress in the primary election. [Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 10/2/95]... On Oct. 6 after nine hours of debate, Peru's Congress voted 75 to 15 to approve a law extending the system of "faceless" justice used in trials against alleged terrorists until Oct. 15, 1996. Use of the special courts--in which judges are enclosed in special chambers with their faces hidden behind hoods to protect their identity--was set to expire this year on Oct. 15. Since the system began in 1992, some 3,000 alleged guerrillas have been convicted and sentenced by anonymous judges. Church groups say that 700 innocent Peruvians who have been convicted by the tribunals are still in jail. [Reuter 10/6/95]... On Oct. 12, supporters of a bill in the US Senate which seeks to tighten the US embargo on Cuba fell five votes short of the three-fifths majority needed to stop a filibuster. A similar bill passed the House of Representatives on Sept. 21 [see Updates #295, #297]. Another vote will be held in the Senate on Oct. 17. [Diario Las Americas 10/14/95 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa 10/13/95 from Notimex] El Salvador's legislative assembly approved a law ordering obligatory retirement for public employees who are considered "unnecessary" as part of efforts to make the state apparatus more efficient, legislative sources reported on Oct. 13. The bill passed with 63 out of a possible 84 votes; deputies of the leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) and the Social Christian Renovation Party abstained. [ED-LP 10/15/95 from EFE] 12. 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. 10/18 WED-10/21 SAT - "Indigenous Community Television," w/Daniel Pinacue (Colombia) & videos. Various locations. 212-802-7209. 10/18 WED, 7:30 PM - "Organizing Against Racism, Sexism & Poverty in Brazil," w/Joana Angelica de Souza (Brazil). 32 Union Sq E, #907. Free. Dinner 7 PM ($6). Radical Women, 212-677-7002. 10/19 THU, 7 PM - CREED monthly mtg. Location TBA. 212-645-5230. 10/19 THU, 7 PM - Roundtable on NYC Latino Lesbian-Gay Organizing History, w/Daisy deJesus, Jimmy Lopez-Acosta & many more. Hunter College West Rm 217 (68 St & Lex) Ctr for PR Studies. 10/20 FRI, 7 PM - "50 Years Is Enough," w/David L. Wilson (CREED) & Pat Fry (Cmts of Correspondence), + video on World Bank, IMF. Brecht Forum, 122 W 27 St, 10th fl. $5. 212-229-2388. 10/21 SAT, 12 NOON - National Day of Actions to Lift Embargo Against Cuba. Ramsey Clark, Angela Davis, Rep Charles Rangel, Dennis Rivera (1199), Rep Nydia Velazquez, Rev Lucius Walker. 42nd St & 1st Ave. March at 1 PM, rally at Columbus Cir at 2:30 PM. Nat'l Network on Cuba, 212-227-3422. 10/22 SUN - Fidel Castro (Cuba) addresses UN General Assembly. Pro- and anti-Cuba demos expected at Cuban Mission, 315 Lexington Ave. For info, call Casa de las Americas, 212-675-2584. 10/24 TUE, 6 PM - Despedida/Reception for Linda & David Mastrodonato, w/Paul Knopf & Guanies. Judson Memorial Church, 241 Thompson St. $10. Guatemala Support Group, 212-946-2059. -- ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 For more info, e-mail accounts@blythe.org, or gopher://ursula.blythe.org/11/NY-Transfer-News/ =================================================================