WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #299, OCTOBER 22, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Chilean General Finally Goes To Prison 2. "Gutted" Bill to Strengthen Cuba Sanctions Passes US Senate 3. Ibero-American Summit, Non-Aligned Nations Condemn US Cuba 4. "Fidelmania" Hits New York 5. Mexico: Elections and Talks in Chiapas 6. Mexico News: Guerrero Shootings, US Support for Mexico City 7. Haiti: "Too Soon" for Occupation to End, Tipper Gore in 8. Latin American Lesbian/Gay News 9. Honduran Military Officers On Trial 10. Weak Poll Showing by New Guatemalan Popular Front 11. Argentina: Ruling Party Loses Three Elections 12. Quebec Independence Referendum In Dead Heat 13. Nicaraguan Pitcher Wins Pennant 14. 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. Send e-mail subscription inquiries to nyt@blythe.org 1. CHILEAN GENERAL FINALLY GOES TO PRISON According to an Oct. 21 Associated Press dispatch, retired Chilean general Manuel Contreras Sepulveda has begun serving a seven-year jail sentence for his role in the 1976 car bomb assassination of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and US aide Ronni Moffitt. [New York Times 10/22/95 from AP] Last May 30, the Supreme Court had definitively upheld the sentence for Contreras, former head of the secret police (DINA) under Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. On Oct. 10, Chile's Supreme Court unanimously rejected his final appeal and ordered him to be transferred to the specially constructed Punta Peuco prison as soon as his doctors would allow it: Contreras had been held at the Talcahuano Naval Hospital for four months as he postponed his imprisonment through a series of legal appeals and claims of ill health [see Updates #278-283]. There are currently 25 guards at Punta Peuco and only one inmate: former DINA second-in-command Pedro Espinoza, who is serving a six-year sentence for the Letelier killing. [CHIP News 10/5/95, 10/6/95] Espinoza began a hunger strike on Oct. 3 after military sources confirmed that the government has approved assigning army guards to the prison when Contreras arrives. The army guards will be under the administration of the prison police (Gendarmeria) in what is being called "mixed custody." Espinoza protested that the new arrangement will restrict his freedom of expression and movement within the prison compound. Espinoza ended his hunger strike 48 hours later on Oct. 5, after he was visited by two army officers who told him the army was upset with his hunger strike and his opposition to mixed custody. Pinochet supports the mixed custody plan; Socialist deputy Juan Pablo Letelier, son of the slain diplomat, opposes it. [CHIP News 10/5/95, 10/6/95] 2. "GUTTED" BILL TO STRENGTHEN CUBA SANCTIONS PASSES US SENATE The Helms-Burton bill, which seeks to tighten sanctions against Cuba, passed the US Senate on Oct. 19 by a 74 to 24 vote. The bill requires that the US oppose Cuban membership in international financial institutions; forbids US import of sugar or molasses from countries that import those products from Cuba; reduces aid to Russia by $200 million, supposedly equal to the rent Russia pays Cuba for an electronic intelligence-gathering base; urges the US president to pursue an international embargo against Cuba; and restricts aid to former Soviet states if they do not loosen ties to Cuba. On Oct. 18, with a vote of 59 to 36, the US Senate failed to stop a filibuster against a more severe version, forcing Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), a co-sponsor of the bill, to drop a provision which would have allowed US citizens whose property in Cuba had been confiscated by the Cuban government to sue foreign companies that buy, lease or use those properties, even if the former owners were not US citizens at the time of the confiscation. [A similar bill was put into effect in relation to Nicaraguans who left their country during the revolution and later became US citizens. This provision was used later to hold up US aid to Nicaragua.] According to Sen. Robert Dole (R-KS), a strong supporter of the original bill, this provision was the heart of the legislation. A bill containing the property provision was passed by the House in September [see Update #295], and Helms says he hopes the provision will be reinstated when the House and Senate versions are reconciled. [New York Times 10/20/95; El Daily News (NY) 10/20/95 from AP; Financial Times (London) 10/20/95; Washington Post 10/19/95; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 10/18/95 from EFE, 10/19/95 from AP; 10/20/95 from AP] 3. IBERO-AMERICAN SUMMIT, NON-ALIGNED NATIONS CONDEMN US EMBARGO While the Helms-Burton bill was debated in the US Congress, participants in the Fifth Ibero-American Summit, which began on Oct. 16 at Bariloche, Argentina, spoke out against the embargo. Using such terms as "coercive measures" rather than "embargo," and without specifically mentioning the US or Cuba, the heads of state of Spain, Portugal and 21 Latin American countries declared that the embargo violates "the principles which guide regional co-existence and state sovereignty." [ED-LP 10/17/95 from AFP- EFE: EDN 10/16/95 from Reuter; La Jornada (Mexico) 10/15/95 from AFP, AP, Ansa, EFE, IPS, Reuter, PL] One of the most notable events of the summit was the change in Argentine president Carlos Menem's position. Menem, who has traditionally been a harsh critic of Castro, initiated the move to condemn the embargo, although he was quick to say this did not mean concessions to Castro. Other themes discussed among the participants were fighting drug trafficking, education, social and economic development, corruption and trade. [ED-LP 10/16/95 from AP-EFE; EDN 10/19/95] From Bariloche Manuel Marin, president of the European Union (EU), announced that the EU will send an official delegation to Cuba on Nov. 8 to begin a dialogue about economic relations. [EDN 10/18/95 from Reuter] Preceding the Ibero-American Summit, the 11th Summit of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries was inaugurated on Oct. 14, in Cartagena, Colombia, with representatives of 113 African, Asian, European, and Latin American countries. Colombia's foreign minister, Rodrigo Pardo, said: "The modernization of the movement and the struggle against poverty are the two main issues of this meeting." The agenda also included the fight against illiteracy and drug trafficking, the environmental crisis and the non- aligned countries' role in the UN. In a stronger statement than that issued by the Ibero-American Summit, the Non-Aligned Summit condemned the US embargo against Cuba, because, according to Pardo, although they have always been against the embargo, there is now even more concern because of the US government's attempt to extend the embargo to third countries. The Summit's declaration also includes a petition for US troops to leave the Guantanamo naval base. [EDN 10/18/95 from AP; 10/20/95 from AP; ED-LP 10/18/95 from Notimex; 10/19/95 from AP; WP 10/21/95 from Reuter; LJ from AFP, DPA, EFE, IPS, PL, Reuter] Despite being involved in a political scandal at home, Colombian president Ernesto Samper Pizano was made head of the Non-Aligned Movement, a position he will hold for three years. [END 10/20/95 from Reuter; ED-LP 10/20/95 from AFP] 4. "FIDELMANIA" HITS NEW YORK Jetting from one summit to another, Fidel Castro, along with other world leaders, landed in New York City on Oct. 21 to attend the United Nations' 50th anniversary and to give a speech before the UN General Assembly on Oct. 22. Both pro- and anti-Castro groups planned demonstrations in front of the UN and the Cuban Mission. Anti-Castro groups such as the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF--on the World Wide Web at http://www.icanect.net/~canfnet) and the Oct. 10 Committee demonstrated to protest "all the social, civil and human injustices" they allege exist in Cuba, while the Oct. 21 Cuban Coalition demonstrated to protest the US embargo, and to promote normalization between the US and Cuba and respect for Cuba's right to self-determination. More than half the 58 rallies planned involved Cuba. [ED-LP 10/17/95; 10/18/95; EDN 10/20/95] Despite New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's snub of Castro--the only other head of state beside Palestinian president Yasser Arafat not to be invited to a mayoral dinner--the Cuban president was sought after by businesspeople eager for a place in the potentially lucrative Cuban market, including David Rockefeller and Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman, in what the New York Times described as "Fidelmania." [ED-LP 10/19/95, some from Notimex; NYT 10/20/95, 10/22/95] Castro was also scheduled to speak at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, the neighborhood where he stayed during a 1960 visit to New York. [NYT 10/22/95] The visit to the Harlem church was sponsored by the Interfaith Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO). 5. MEXICO: ELECTIONS AND TALKS IN CHIAPAS Legislative and municipal elections in Mexico's southeastern state of Chiapas on Oct. 15 left the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in control of most towns and legislative seats, according to official preliminary results released on Oct. 16. With 84% of the municipal votes counted, the PRI was leading with 47.9% of the total vote, apparently winning in 81 of the 111 municipalities; the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) followed with 30.3% of the vote and 16 municipalities. The conservative National Action Party (PAN), the leading opposition party nationally, won 15.4% of the ballots and five municipalities; as expected, the party did best in the larger cities, taking the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, but losing Tapachula and San Cristobal de las Casas to the PRI. The ruling party was ahead in 20 of the 24 races for the state Chamber of Deputies; the PRD was second with two. Sixteen "proportional" seats will be awarded to runners-up, giving the chamber a total of 40 seats. The PRD says it will contest the results in 23 municipalities, while the PAN will contest three. [Associated Press 10/16/95; Reuter 10/16/95; Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update, Vol. 2, #52, 10/17/95 from Reforma and La Jornada 10/15/95 and 10/16/95] The balloting was mostly peaceful, despite warnings of election- day violence [see Update #298]. Charging fraud, PRD supporters burned ballot boxes in the town of Comaltitlan and detained election officials in Acapetahua. [AP 10/18/95] Accredited election observers from Mexico's Civic Alliance and informal observers from the US-based Global Exchange reported many irregularities. PRI representatives frequently violated the secrecy of the ballot, the party illegally bused in supporters, polling places opened late, and military and paramilitary groups intimidated voters. [Global Exchange Observation Report from La Concordia, 10/18/95] On Oct. 14 the PRI and the PRD agreed to postpone the vote in Ocosingo, where the PRD claimed that the polling places were inaccessible to many indigenous campesinos from outlying villages. [La Jornada (Mexico) 10/15/95] Contrary to earlier reports that the PRD faced no opposition in Nicolas Ruiz [see Update #294], the voting had to be postponed because no candidates had officially registered. Elections for the two municipalities are to be held on Nov. 5. [Inter Press Service 10/16/95] The Oct. 15 elections were the worst showing the PRI has had in Chiapas in the party's 66-year history. [AP 10/18/95] The PRI carried the state by 89.9% in the 1988 presidential elections, widely considered fraudulent, winning more than 95% in some municipalities [see Update #209]. Voter turnout was less than 50%; election officials blamed bad weather. [Global Exchange 10/18/95] Abstention was as high as 80% in some communities, and PRD officials said this lost their party at least 20 municipal races. PRD national president Porfirio Munoz Ledo charged that the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) told its supporters to boycott the voting; the PRD and EZLN bases overlap in much of the state. EZLN leader "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos" denied that the rebels had called for a boycott, although he conceded that some regional EZLN leaders may have asked followers not to vote. "Munoz Ledo needs to remember that the arms of the Zapatistas are not in the service of the PRD or of any party," Marcos told reporters, adding that the abstention shows the EZLN is the main political force in the eastern and central highland regions of the state. [AP 10/18/95] [A grassroots plebiscite in August mandated the Zapatistas to form a new independent political force, putting the rebels in direct competition with the PRD; see Update 292.] On Oct. 16 Marcos himself made a dramatic appearance--on horseback and leading a troop of 100 rebel soldiers--at the southeastern village of La Realidad, two days before negotiations were to resume in the central highland town of San Andres Larrainzar (or Sakamch'en) between the EZLN and the federal government. [New York Times 10/18/95] The latest round of talks consist of six "workshops" on substantive issues of indigenous rights. The EZLN invited a diverse group of 120 advisers, including activists from many of the country's 56 officially recognized indigenous groups, priests, journalists, Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu Tum and (for the "Guarantees of Justice for the Indigenous" workshop) Gen. Mario Renan Castillo, head of the Seventh Military Region. [LJ 10/15/95] But Marcos, who is not a delegate to the talks, told reporters on Oct. 16 that the rebels "are sure the government does not want a real solution" and is actually planning a new military offensive. [Reuter 10/18/95] During his Oct. 10-12 visit to Washington and New York, Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon was promised 12 US military helicopters, ostensibly to be used to fight drug trafficking. [IPS 10/13/95] US Defense Secretary William Perry is due to meet with Zedillo and other officials in Mexico City Oct. 23-24. The Mexican government says that they will discuss issues ranging from disaster relief to the war on drugs. [Reuter 10/18/95] 6. MEXICO: GUERRERO SHOOTINGS, US SUPPORT FOR CITY BUS DRIVERS On Oct. 14 PRD supporters in the western state of Guerrero-- site of three massacres this year [see Updates #282-285]--held a rally in Coyuca de Benitez, a town near the resort city of Acapulco, to protest efforts by the state government to link local PRD director David Molina Francisco to the July 5 murder of 12 members of a campesino family in Ajuchtitlan del Progreso. PRD officials said Gov. Ruben Figueroa Alcocer was attempting to divert attention from the state police's June 28 massacre of 17 campesinos at the Aguas Blancas ford. The PRD charges that 80 of its members have been killed nationwide since President Zedillo took office last December. This works out to a much higher rate than the one during the six years of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari's administration, when 270 PRD members died in political violence, according to the party. The Guerrero branch says that more than half the killings this year occurred in the state. In the state capital, Chilpancingo, directors of the city bar association charged at an Oct. 14 press conference that the state government was trying to cover up the role of state judicial police in the May 26 murder of Norberto Flores Banos, a prominent attorney and PRD member. One speaker at the Coyuca rally was the PRD's former candidate for mayor of Acapulco, Martha Morales Vazquez, who called the accusations against local leader Molina "absurd." Rapping her head with her knuckles, she said: "We'd have to ask [Gov.] Figueroa: knock, knock, is anyone there?" Two armed men shot Morales and another PRD member, Baldomero Gabino Laguna, later that night as Morales was returning to her home in Tecpan de Galeana. Morales' husband, local PRD president Reynaldo Soria Juarez, witnessed the attack; a medical doctor by profession, Soria rushed the victims to his own clinic. Morales and Gabino were said to be in serious condition, with wounds in their lungs. [LJ 10/15/95] In other news, on Sept. 20 the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Labor Council passed a resolution supporting the 11,000 laid-off bus divers in Mexico City's Route 100 Urban Passenger Auto Transport Workers Union (SUTAUR 100). Saying that "capital has no borders...nor should workers accept any," the resolution calls for the release of SUTAUR leaders jailed since April, an end to the privatization of the Route 100 bus line, and US trade union support for "the fight for democratic labor rights at home and abroad." The San Francisco council said it would submit the resolution to the AFL-CIO national convention, to be held in New York starting Oct. 22. [Posted on New York Transfer News Collective 10/4/95] 7. HAITI: "TOO SOON" FOR OCCUPATION TO END? There is still no sign in Haiti that either the Haitian or the US government is preparing for the December presidential elections that will be necessary if President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is to leave office on schedule next Feb. 7. The Haiti Info bulletin says that the elections will "almost certainly not be held in December. In the meantime, the elite is making noises that, since he is seen as a stabilizing force, it has no problems with Aristide staying in office, although that would give opponents, here and in Washington, an excuse to cry 'foul play.'" [Haiti Info, Vol. 3, #26, 10/15/95] Haitian senator Jean-Robert Sabalat claims that "it is materially impossible to organize presidential elections in less than three months." [Haiti Progres (New York) 10/18-24/95 from AP 10/13/95] At the same time, United Nations (UN) officials are making it clear that the US-led multinational occupation, which started in September 1995, may well continue past its February 1996 deadline. Visiting Haiti on the weekend of Oct. 14, UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali said that he "envisages an extension of three to six months for certain members of the [occupation] force, including those engaged in the training of the country's police force." "[W]e will maintain our presence on the ground" after February, he said on another occasion. [HP 10/18-24/95 from AP 10/14/95 and Reuter 10/15/95] "Haiti's needs are many," the Washington Post writes in an editorial. "But first and most urgently, Haiti's government--with the help of the United States--has to get its presidential elections back on track. Second, the United Nations ought to ask itself whether February is not a bit too soon to leave." [WP 10/19/95] The editorial was referring specifically to an incident that occurred during US vice president Al Gore's one-day visit to Haiti on Oct. 15, the first anniversary of Aristide's restoration to power. Gore's wife Tipper was scheduled to visit the Centers for Development and Health (CDS), a healthcare network in Port- au-Prince's impoverished Cite Soleil section. Haitian activists have repeatedly accused the CDS and its director, Dr. Reginald Boulos, of harboring members of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), a rightwing paramilitary group. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been a major CDS funder [see Update #213]. An hour before Tipper Gore's motorcade arrived, Cite Soleil residents were protesting against Boulos. When three demonstrators broke into the CDS, UN troops used tear gas on the crowd. [The 1925 Geneva Protocol bans the use of tear gas by foreign troops; see Update #260]. The crowd refused to disperse, and when Tipper Gore's motorcade arrived, one of two US military vehicles ("humvees") hit a demonstrator, injuring his leg. The crowd erupted with chants of "Yankee Go Home!" and "UN Go Home!" and began throwing rocks at the motorcade. Gore's vehicle got inside the compound safely, but the car carrying her secretary, Sally Aman, had all its windows smashed. Two soldiers, one from Bangladesh and one from the US, were lightly wounded. Al Gore's press secretary dismissed the apparently spontaneous attack as "a minor incident."[HP 10/18- 24/95; Haiti en Marche (Miami) 10/18-24/95] The British Financial Times reports that "Haiti's tattered economy continues to sink. Per capita income last year fell 30% to $220." [FT 10/19/95] 8. LATIN AMERICAN LESBIAN/GAY NEWS The Homosexual Liberation Movement (MLH) of Santiago, Chile is mobilizing to repeal Penal Code Article 365, which bans sexual activity between partners of the same sex. Chile is one of only three Latin American countries with a law against gay sex (as is Nicaragua); to protest, fax Jaime Esteves, president of the Chamber of Deputies: 011-56-32-697-0022... Transvestite, lesbian, and gay organizations protested police brutality in front of the central police department of Buenos Aires, Argentina on Aug. 17. They were joined by students and religious and human rights groups. The protest followed police raids of gay discos on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12 in which almost two hundred patrons were arrested and "outed" by TV media which had been tipped off by the police.... Lesbians in San Salvador, El Salvador have formed a group called Media Luna (Half Moon) to "demystify lesbians' dirty image," and state that "the family, the community, the school, the church and even the government try to hide, satanize and repress a reality that many Salvadoran men and women live in private."... According to Brazilian gay group Dignidade, forty- two gay men have been murdered in the city of Curitiba, near Sao Paulo, over the past ten years, and only two of those cases have been solved. A recent newspaper poll showed that 70% of Curitiba residents think homosexuals should be banned from the city. [Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force Update Oct.-Nov. 1995] 9. HONDURAN MILITARY OFFICERS ON TRIAL Ten active and retired Honduran military officers say they will refuse to testify on the illegal abduction of six university students in 1982. The officers claim that they are protected by three amnesty decrees issued between 1987 and 1991. Four of the 10 were called by a judge to testify on Oct. 13 but have refused. All 10 officers were charged on July 25 with the illegal arrest, torture and attempted murder of the students. The sentence for such crimes is 5-10 years in prison without bail. The trial began on Oct. 11. [El Daily News 10/12/95 from Reuter] Those accused include Col. Amilcar Zelaya, a former member of the ruling junta that overthrew Gen. Juan Alberto Melgar Castro in 1969; Col. Juan Lopez Grijalba, former chief of military intelligence; Col. Alexander Hernandez, the current police inspector general; Col. Juan Blas Salazar, former chief of the secret police, currently in prison for stealing five kilos of confiscated cocaine; Col. Julio Cesar Funez; Col. Juan Evangelista Lopez; Col. Roberto Arnaldo Erazo; Maj. Jorge Alberto Padilla; retired major Manuel de Jesus Trejo; and retired captain Billy Joya, former technical chief of the notorious US- and Argentine-trained army counter-intelligence unit Battalion 316. [El Diario-La Prensa 10/11/95 from AP] Zelaya attended the US School of the Americas (SOA) in Panama in 1970 and 1972. According to Americas Watch, Zelaya's country home was used as a detention and torture center for Battalion 316 in the early to mid-1980s. Lopez Grijalva attended SOA in 1963, 1969 and 1975, and was a guest speaker in 1991 and 1992 at SOA in Fort Benning, Georgia, where the school was relocated in September of 1984. Americas Watch says that Lopez Grijalva was a key member of Battalion 316, organizing death squad activity in the early 1980s. [La Lagartija/Info SOA list] Meanwhile, the nongovernmental Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH) is defending a former member of Battalion 316 facing deportation from Canada, according to reports in Tegucigalpa on Oct. 12. CODEH president Ramon Custodio said that in a hearing on Oct. 11 he told Canadian migration authorities that Florencio Caballero was not a torturer. According to Custodio, to defend Caballero CODEH used the written testimony of Ines Consuelo Murillo, a former leftist leader who was tortured during the 79 days she was held captive in the clandestine jails of Battalion 316. Canadian authorities are considering deporting Caballero because the Baltimore Sun reported that he was a confessed torturer. But Custodio said at the hearing that Caballero was wrongly accused by the newspaper. Custodio mentioned that Americas Watch representative Juan Mendez also testified at the hearing in Canada, to confirm that Caballero put his own life in danger when he fled Honduras to report on Battalion 316's criminal activities. On Sept. 20, Canadian immigration authorities decided to expel Fausto Reyes, another ex-member of Battalion 316 cited by the Sun. Reyes is now in Costa Rica, where he has permission to stay for 90 days until he can get political asylum in another country. Two other former Battalion 316 members cited by the Sun, Jose Barrera and Jose Valle, have hearings scheduled with Canadian immigration officials over the next few days. [ED-LP 10/13/95 from AFP] 10. WEAK POLL SHOWING BY NEW GUATEMALAN POPULAR FRONT According to a first national study by the Association of Social Studies and Investigations (ASIES), 70% of Guatemalans plan to vote in Nov. 12 national elections, and 56% said they hadn't decided on a presidential candidate. Of those expressing a preference, most supported Alvaro Arzu from the National Advancement Party (PAN), with 22.4%. [Peace Brigades International (PBI) Report 10/95] In an interview with the Nicaraguan magazine envio, Arzu said he opposes land reform, but also opposes neoliberal economic reforms, believes that privatization of state enterprise is not necessarily positive, wants to put a civilian in charge of the armed forces, and wants to remove the army from enforcing internal security. [envio 10/95] In second place is Alfonso Portillo Cabrera from the far- right Guatemalan Republic Front (FRG) with 10.2%. [PBI Report 10/95] Although the largest single party in Guatemala's congress, the FRG has been struggling recently. Portillo is the FRG's third choice for the position: Congress president Efrain Rios Montt, the original FRG candidate, was once again barred from seeking the presidency because he seized power in a 1982 coup (he was barred from 1990 presidential elections for the same reason [see Updates #38, #288]); the FRG then proposed Teresa Sosa de Rios, who was barred as well, because she is Rios Montt's wife [see Update 290]. A week after her candidacy was blocked, Arturo Soto, a top party leader, left the FRG due to a lack of internal democracy. [envio 10/95] Fernando Andrade is in third place with 3.9%; he is the candidate of the National Alliance, which is made up of the National Union of the Center (UCN), the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Guatemalan Christian Democracy (DCG). [PBI Report 10/95] Jorge Gonzalez del Valle, presidential candidate for the Democratic Front for a New Guatemala (FDNG), received only 0.2% according to the study. [FDNG Press Release 10/6/95; PBI Report 10/95] The FDNG is a new coalition of popular, grassroots and indigenous forces--all of which have abstained from elections since the 1950s. The FDNG's vice-presidential candidate is Juan Leon Alvarado, a leader in the Mayan political group Nukuj Akpop. [PBI Report 10/95] Due to continuing political violence such as the Oct. 5 massacre of returned refugees in Xaman [see Update #298], FDNG supporters may be reluctant to express their actual preference. All together there are 19 registered candidates for president of Guatemala, including former defense minister Gen. Hector Gramajo Morales [FDNG Press Release 10/17/95], who was ordered earlier this year to pay $47.5 million in damages by a US federal court for human rights crimes committed under his command [see Update #272]. 11. ARGENTINA: RULING PARTY LOSES THREE ELECTIONS On Oct. 8, Argentina's ruling Justicialist (Peronist) Party (PJ) was defeated in three local elections--just one week after winning three others on Oct. 1. In the capital district of Buenos Aires, human rights activist Graciela Fernandez Meijide of the center-left coalition Front for a Country in Solidarity (FREPASO) won elections for senator with 45.7% of the vote, a much wider margin than anticipated [see Update #297--note that Fernandez' second last name Meijide was misspelled]. FREPASO won in all the capital's neighborhoods. Jorge Vanossi of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) unexpectedly came in second with 24.2% of the vote, leaving PJ candidate Antonio Erman Gonzalez trailing with 22.6%. [El Diario-La Prensa 10/10/95 from EFE; El Daily News 10/10/95 from AP] Fernandez had a son who was "disappeared" during the 1976-83 dictatorship; she has been the president of the Permanent Human Rights Assembly, the same organization which expelled President Carlos Saul Menem a year ago after he justified the military repression. Fernandez and Jose Bordon--who came in second in the May 14 presidential elections--will now represent FREPASO in the 48-seat Senate. Menem denied on Oct. 9 that the Buenos Aires vote reflected discontent with his neoliberal policies. He said: "It was not a revolt against the economic model, because if it were, we would not have won [the general elections] on May 14," and asked the press to "minimize" Fernandez's victory. [Inter Press Service 10/9/95] Some PJ leaders blamed Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo for the defeat, not because of his economic policies but because of the accusations of corruption he launched recently against various PJ officials, including Gonzalez [ED-LP 10/10/95 from EFE], the previous Economy Minister. Speaking in Washington, Cavallo admitted that his charges may have influenced the Buenos Aires vote. [IPS 10/9/95] Even more unexpected were the results in the runoff for governor of Chaco province, where UCR candidate Angel Rozas took 50.8% of the vote to narrowly beat the PJ's Florencio Tenev, with 49.1%. Tenev had won the most votes in the first round held Sept. 10. The UCR has never before won in Chaco. In the southern province of Neuquen, candidate Felipe Sapag of the Popular Nequenian Movement won 54.7% in elections for governor held Oct. 8. This was the fifth time Sapag has been elected as Neuquen's governor in the past 33 years. PJ candidate Horacio Rachid, came in second with only 14.5% of the vote. [ED-LP 10/10/95 from EFE; EDN 10/10/95 from AP] 12. QUEBEC INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM IN DEAD HEAT On Oct. 30, voters in the Canadian province of Quebec will decide whether or not Quebec should become an independent country. The ruling Parti Quebecois (PQ) was elected overwhelmingly last year on a platform promising to schedule a referendum on independence. A coalition of pro-independence forces, the Bloc Quebecois (BQ), is the official parlimentary opposition nationally. Quebec, with 25% of Canada's population, is predominantly French-speaking; the rest of the country is mainly English-speaking. [Washington Post 10/7/95] Quebec also has the continent's highest rate of union membership, 44%. [Wall Street Journal 5/5/95] Pro-independence campaigning has portrayed the secession from Canada as promising the best of both worlds: Quebec would be able to assert its cultural independence, but would continue to use the Canadian dollar and Canadian passports, and would remain party to international treaties ratified by Canada such as NAFTA. [WP 10/7/95] In addition, supporters say, Quebec would be able to maintain its social safety net, which is under nationwide attack by Canada's right wing, especially the powerful new Reform Party. [WSJ 9/29/95] Those opposing separation--including Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who is Quebecois--argue that there is no guarantee that an independent Quebec would use the same currency or passport, and that Quebec's future in NAFTA would be uncertain. [WP 10/7/95] In recent weeks, support for independence has increased: an Oct. 8-12 Leger & Leger poll shows pro-independence Yes votes leading No votes 45% to 42.4%, up about two points from a poll a few days earlier; a Gallup poll shows No leading Yes votes by 39% to 43%. In the past two weeks, Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau (of the PQ), who favors a more dramatic separation from Canada, has been replaced at the helm of the independence drive by BQ leader Lucien Bouchard, a charismatic speaker who favors tighter links with Canada after independence. [Financial Times 10/17/95] The Canadian dollar fell sharply on Sept. 14 on news that support for independence was higher than expected. [FT 9/15/95] A 1980 Quebec referendum on independence was rejected by a 60-40 margin. Two years later, Canada installed a new constitution which was ratified by the other 9 provinces although it was rejected by Quebec. [WP 9/2/95] In a more recent slight for Quebecois, in August Microsoft refused to release the French- language version of Windows 95 in Quebec, although the English- language version was available. The company claimed that it feared massive importing of French copies of the software into Europe, where software is sold at substantially higher prices. The company did not explain why this logic applied only to French speakers. [FT 8/22/95] US mainstream media, particularly the New York Times, has strongly opposed independence: in addition to several anti- secession articles over the past year, the Times ran a recent op- ed by former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney accompanied by a drawing of a crying baby wearing Quebec's fleur-de-lis. [NYT 10/10/95] Meanwhile, the PQ is reportedly considering legalizing same-sex marriage in the province. (Under Canada's Constitution Act marriage regulations are determined by each province.) Apparently such legal reform would be popular in the province: 53% of Quebecois polled recently responded that gay couples should have the same rights as married couples (75% among people between 18 and 24). [Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force Update Oct.-Nov. 1995] 13. NICARAGUAN PITCHER WINS PENNANT Nicaraguan pitcher Dennis Martinez won the American League pennant for Cleveland on Oct. 17. The 40-year old Martinez became the oldest pitcher ever to win a league championship game. [New York Times 10/18/95] 14. 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. 10/25 WED, 6 PM - "20 Years Is Enough: Indonesia Out of East Timor." Protest Pres Suharto's speech. Grand Hyatt Hotel, 42nd St & Lexington Ave. East Timor Action Network/NY, 718-788-6071. 10/26 THU, 8 PM - "Beyond Black & White," book party w/Manning Marable. 122 W 27th St, 10th fl. $10. Brecht Forum, 212-242-4201. 10/27 FRI, 1 PM & 10/28 SAT, 9 AM - "The World at Risk: Environmental Justice & Sustainable Development." Keynote speaker (tentative): Costa Rican president Jose Maria Figueres Ferrer (at about 4:30 PM 10/27). FREE. Hunter College, Learning Alliance, & others. 212-226-7171. For CREED leafleting, call 212-674-9499. 10/28 SAT, 10:30 AM - Public Hearing on Economic Insecurity chaired by Reps Major Owens and Gerry Nadler. Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Sq South. FREE. Organized by NY DSA. Call 212-727-2207. 11/4 SAT - 1995 Work-A-Thon. Work in NYC on community projects, raise contributions for community projects in El Salvador. CISPES, Action for Community Empowerment (ACE) & Latino Workers Center. Participate or sponsor, 212-645-5230. -- ================================================================= 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/ =================================================================