WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #303, NOVEMBER 19, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Draft Resister Abducted in Paraguay 2. UN Occupation Turns Violent as Haitians "Uproot" Rightists 3. US Unhappy with Haitian Militancy 4. Left Has Strong Showing in Guatemalan Elections 5. Violence and Mysterious Blackout Plague Guatemalan Vote 6. Menchu Family Kidnapping a Hoax? 7. Abstention Wins Mexican Local Races 8. Peru President Defeated in Lima Vote 9. Peruvian Journalist Arrested 10. Another Student Killed in Ecuador 11. Bolivian Universities on Hunger Strike 12. Students Protest in Panama 13. Upcoming Events in the NYC Area and Beyond ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. 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DRAFT RESISTER ABDUCTED IN PARAGUAY On Nov. 4 in Paraguay, a military patrol abducted 18-year-old conscientious objector Cesar Barrios. Barrios, a member of the Paraguayan Movement for Conscientious Objection (MOC-Paraguay) was on his way from Encarnacion to Pirapey--about 110 km away in the same department of Itapua--to give a workshop there at the request of the family of Victor Hugo Maciel, a conscript who was killed at the 1st Cavalry Division on Oct. 2. Other families in Pirapey no longer wished to send their young men to do compulsory military service and were seeking information on conscientious objection, which is a constitutional right in Paraguay (there are currently about 600 objectors). At around 7 pm on Nov. 4, the bus was stopped about halfway between Encarnacion and Pirapey by a military patrol of five soldiers in camouflage uniforms armed with FAL rifles, and with no visible identification indicating name or rank. The soldiers demanded to see the identification documents of all the passengers; when they asked to see his military papers, Barrios told them he was a conscientious objector and showed them a document of the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies verifying his status. One of the soldiers read the document and ripped it up. The soldiers then dragged Barrios off the bus and into a Toyota van where he was blindfolded, handcuffed and driven three or four hours to a military barracks. At the barracks, Barrios was dumped in a small, dirty bathroom and made to inhale a sleep-inducing gas. Soldiers kicked him in the stomach and back. After that, five young soldiers came in, completely naked, and began to insult him; they said that all conscientious objectors were homosexuals or prostitutes, that they would teach him to be a good macho and that they would rape him. Meanwhile, they were touching their own genitals. They burned a t-shirt with a conscientious objection slogan that Barrios had in his backpack. They cut his hair with a knife, then ran the blade over his throat, ears, nose, etc. while interrogating him about the activities and leadership of MOC and demanding the phone numbers and addresses of MOC leaders. Barrios gave false answers to their questions. The interrogation lasted until the early morning; Barrios remained locked up in the bathroom until nighttime on Nov. 5, when he managed to escape with the help from someone in the barracks. Once out, he verified that he had been at the III Mounted Division in Ciudad del Este. Without money or identification (the military stole all his belongings, including his i.d. card), Barrios finally made his way to the capital, Asuncion, the next day. He is the seventh conscientious objector to have been kidnapped by the army in recent years. MOC Paraguay is asking international supporters to send faxes to Congress president Milciades Rafael Casabianca (fax 595-21- 443094) calling for a full investigation to find those responsible for the kidnapping and torture of Cesar Barrios and asking for the safety and security of MOC members and all conscientious objectors. Send copies to MOC c/o SERPAJ, phone/fax 595 21 446722; email hugo@serpaj.una.py. [Peace News email posting by Jean de Wandelaer 11/17/95; MOC Urgent Action 11/17/95] 2. UN OCCUPATION TURNS VIOLENT AS HAITIANS "UPROOT" RIGHTISTS The violence that broke out in the southwestern Haitian city of Les Cayes the morning of Nov. 8 [see Update #302] continued throughout the day, with hundreds of demonstrators burning or looting more than twenty homes of people connected to the 1991- 1994 military regime. One former police attache (member of a police-sponsored paramilitary group) was reportedly lynched. After the National Police agents unable to restore order, military forces from the United Nations Mission to Haiti (MINUHA) took over, keeping the city under tight control on Nov. 9 and 10. [Haiti en Marche (Miami) 11/15-21/95; Haiti Progres (NY) 11/15- 21/95; Inter Press Service 11/15/95] The violence in Les Cayes--typical of what Haitians call dechoukaj, or the "uprooting" of rightwing paramilitary groups-- started after the Nov. 7 murder of parliamentary deputy Jean Hubert Feuille in Port-au-Prince by armed assailants. Feuille represented Port Salut, a town near Les Cayes; a Les Cayes deputy, Gabriel Fortune, was wounded in the shooting. The government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Feuille's cousin, responded to the killing by ordering searches of the homes of several leaders in the Haitian military, disbanded earlier this year. Haitian police found 10 weapons, including an Uzi submachine gun, in a Nov. 8 raid on the home of retired Lt. Gen. Prosper Avril, who held power briefly in the late 1980s. [El Daily News (NY) 11/13/95 from Reuter] Avril and his wife, Marie-Ange, took refuge in the nearby Colombian consulate, while Avril's son-in-law, Paul Henri Cineas, reportedly fired on the police to cover the couple's escape. Cineas was arrested but was released later. Avril had no permit for the weapons. Police also searched Col. Christophe Dardompre's house on Nov. 8 and Acedius St.-Louis' home the next day; Dardompre was held but freed, while St.-Louis was never arrested. [HEM 11/15-21/95] A police agent who took part in the search of Avril's residence said that the police had found compromising documents relating to the August 1994 murder of Jean Marie Vincent, a priest close to Aristide [see Update #240]. [IPS 11/15/95] Funeral services were held for Feuille on Nov. 11 in Port-au- Prince's Basilica of Notre Dame. Speaking to the mourners, Aristide suddenly dropped the policy of reconciliation with the right wing which he has advocated ever since being restored to power by US forces in October 1994. The president called for "total disarmament" asked Haitians to "give your help to the police" and stop and search cars. "Some will try to discourage you, to stop you. Whoever it is who wants to stop you, arrest him if he's a Haitian. If he's not a Haitian, he'll be sent back to his family." "Reconciliation is over," the crowd chanted as Aristide spoke. [HEM 11/15-21/95] As many as 5,000 Haitians, mostly grassroots activists, were murdered by Haitian rightists during the three years of military rule. After the funeral, hundreds of demonstrators took to the street, erected barricades and set them on fire, while MINUHA helicopters flew overhead. [La Jornada (Mexico) 11/12/95 from AFP, Reuter and AP] The next day a former soldier was beaten and stabbed to death in a Port-au-Prince suburb after he refused to turn over his pistol to a crowd. [Reuter 11/13/95] The violence subsided in the capital on Nov. 13, but barricades and car searches spread to the northern cities of Gonaives and Cap-Haitien, which have a long record of radical activism. In Cap-Haitien at least one rightist was killed, according to Radio Metropole, and demonstrators sacked Voix d'Ave Maria, a Catholic radio station associated with a hierarchy that supported the military's 1991 coup against Aristide. In Gonaives crowds attacked several houses early in the morning of Nov. 13. In the evening protesters and the National Police moved in on the house of the rightist Ardy Richard, who held them at bay with an automatic weapon. The local Radio Metropole correspondent reported that "a MINHUA contingent arrived at the scene and asked the National Police to return to the police station because they [MINUHA] were going to take the situation in hand. Then the MINUHA soldiers opened fire with their automatic weapons [and] used tear gas." A Radio Tropicale reporter said that the soldiers "fired for six minutes at the people" to save Ardy Richard "who had turned himself into a veritable ninja, in a US military uniform, with an automatic weapon in his hand..." [HP 11/15- 21/95] Citing a reporter from Radio Independance, the French agency Agence France Presse said that some ten houses were destroyed in Gonaives on Nov. 13, and several people were killed, including a Vaudou priest named Kilsois Jean-Baptiste. The radio reporter told AFP that three people died when Nepalese soldiers in the MINUHA forces carried out a "strong intervention" to reestablish order (presumably in the Ardy Richard incident). However, UN spokesperson Eric Falt said that the Nepalese troops "fired into the air to reestablish order and didn't kill or wound anyone." [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 11/15/95 from AFP] The Nov. 11-15 outburst by the Haitian population left at least seven people dead nationwide. [IPS 11/15/95] Demonstrators in Gonaives and Cap-Haitien are now demanding the withdrawal of the MINUHA forces. [HP 11/15-21/95; New York Times 11/19/95 from Reuter] 3. US UNHAPPY WITH HAITIAN MILITANCY This month's violent protests followed a long period of growing discontent with the Aristide government's implementation of US- sponsored economic policies. In Cap-Haitien thousands of students from the Lycee Philippe Guerrier, the public high school, clashed with Haitian police and UN troops in demonstrations on Oct. 23 and Oct. 26 over lack of funding and the failure to pay 120 teachers for several months. In the first week of November students in the southern towns of Grand-Goave and Carrefour closed down the main highway to protest school conditions; the same highway was then blocked further north by 1,000 parents in Acul-du-Nord and by grassroots organizations in Archaie. [Haiti Info, Vol. 4, #1, 10/29/95 and Vol. 4, #2, 11/12/95] A special object of popular anger has been the plan to privatize nine state-owned enterprises [see Update #293]. The US magazine Multinational Monitor suggests that Haitians had good reason to question the plan. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's privatization arm, prepared studies on the selloff. The magazine says the IFC sent the studies out to potential investors but failed to give them to the Haitian media. Haitian non-governmental groups were unable to obtain copies when they visited Washington to get information on World Bank projects. [IPS 11/4/95] The Aristide government upset the US when it apparently decided to put the privatization plan on the back burner at least until after the Dec. 17 presidential elections [see Update #302]. But Aristide astonished US and UN dignitaries attending the Feuille funeral service by openly attacking them for failing to disarm the paramilitary groups. "The game of hypocrisy is over. Too much blood has been spilled," he said. In an obvious dig at the US and the occupation forces, the president said: "There is only one head of state in Haiti...I am the head of state, responsible for the security of all Haitians." "November 1995 should be a month of peace and success in Haiti so that November 1996 will be a month of success in the US," he warned, implying that problems with the US-led UN occupation could hurt US president Bill Clinton's reelection plans. "You need me," Aristide said, "just as I need you. Count on me and show me that I can count on you." [HEM 11/15-21/95] In another slap at the US, Aristide will be backing his friend Rene Preval in the presidential elections. An endorsement from the popular president is thought to guarantee election for any candidate. [HP 11/15-21/95] [Preval was Aristide's prime minister in 1991 when US-linked military leaders overthrew the government.] The funeral speech clearly infuriated US ruling circles. "[H]e went way too far," one unnamed diplomat told the New York Times. The Times itself devoted a front-page article in its widely circulated Sunday edition to the "outbreak of street violence" that "Aristide set off." The article failed to mention the violence that broke out in Les Cayes three days before Aristide's speech. It also said nothing about the arms cache found at Prosper Avril's house, or the charges that the UN's Nepalese troops fired into a crowd in Gonaives. [NYT 11/19/95] 4. LEFT HAS STRONG SHOWING IN GUATEMALAN ELECTIONS In Guatemala's general elections on Nov. 12, presidential candidate Alvaro Arzu of the rightwing National Advancement Party (PAN) came in first with about 37% of the valid ballots cast, followed by Alfonso Portillo Cabrera of the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) with about 22%. Arzu and Portillo will now face off in a runoff election on Jan. 7. Arzu's vice presidential running mate is Luis Flores Asturias; Portillo's is Anibal Mendez. Portillo is the hand-picked candidate of retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, the FRG founder and leader who ruled Guatemala from March 1982 to August 1983 as de facto head of state for a military government. Ironically, most of the FRG's support came from the same indigenous highland communities where thousands of civilians were massacred in an army counterinsurgency campaign under Rios Montt's rule. In third place with about 13% of the votes was Fernando Andrade of the National Alliance coalition, made up of the Guatemalan Christian Democrat (DCG) party, the National Center Union (UCN) and the Social Democrat Party (PSD). The candidate for the leftist New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG), Jorge Gonzalez del Valle, took fourth place with nearly 8% of the votes, far more than the 0.2% predicted by one voter preference survey in October [see Update #299]. Acisclo Valladares of the Progressive Liberator Party (PLG) was in fifth place with about 5%. Voter turnout was much lower than anticipated, only 46.5% of the registered electorate, down 3% from the 1990 elections. This statistical drop is probably due at least in part to an increase in voter registration [see Update #302]. None of the remaining 14 presidential candidates who participated in the elections won more than 4% of the votes. Those candidates represented a total of 18 different parties, at least 14 of which are now expected to dissolve. According to Guatemalan electoral laws, any party which does not get at least 4% of the vote or win a seat in Congress loses its legal party status. Among the more prominent parties that will disappear are the National Unity Front (FUN) of former defense minister General Hector Gramajo Morales and the People's Party of former Supreme Court president and current fugitive Juan Jose Rodil Peralta. Partial results in the congressional race show PAN with 35.4%, FRG with 19.8%, National Alliance with 12.7%, FDNG with 9%, and the center-left Democratic Union (UD) with 4.3%. While all the congress seats under Guatemala's complex allotment system have not yet been announced, it is believed that PAN will enjoy an absolute majority with about 42 of the 80 seats. The FRG is expected to have 20-22 deputies, followed by the FDNG with between five and eight. The National Alliance will also get about eight seats, but the coalition is dissolving after the elections and its deputies will revert to individual party control. The UD and the far-right National Liberation Movement (MLN) won one seat each. The new congress will take office on Jan. 15. For the first time ever in Guatemala, at least two well-known human rights activists will have seats in Congress: Nineth Montenegro Cottom de Garcia of the Mutual Support Group (GAM) was elected from the FDNG's national list of candidates, and Rosalina Tuyuc Velasquez of the National Coordinator of Guatemalan Widows (CONAVIGUA) won in the central district. Congress seats were reportedly also won in Quiche by Amilcar Mendez Urizar of the Council of Ethnic Communities Runujel Junam (CERJ), and in Quetzaltenango by Mayan leader Manuela Alvarado Lopez. Based on a preliminary ballot count it seems that the PAN will take at least 10 of the 20 seats in the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) that were contested in the elections, plus more than 100 mayoral posts. PAN incumbent Oscar Berger was reelected as mayor of Guatemala City, where Arzu also had his strongest support in the presidential race. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #44, 11/15/95; Latin America Data Base Notisur 11/17/95 from ACAN-EFE, Inter Press Service, DPA, AFP, Reuter, New York Times; FDNG candidate list 10/17/95] 5. VIOLENCE AND MYSTERIOUS BLACKOUT PLAGUE GUATEMALAN VOTE As the vote count began after the polls closed in Guatemala on Nov. 12, an electricity blackout suddenly affected 90% of the country for a period ranging from 90 minutes to three hours in some areas, forcing the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) to interrupt the ballot counting. The government says the blackout was caused by a tree that fell on one of the country's central electricity lines, but many are skeptical. "It's been months since an electricity blackout has affected Guatemala, and all of sudden the lights go out right on the day of the elections as the votes are being counted," said Portillo. "It wasn't the Holy Spirit who knocked out the lights." The FDNG says it has placed its party machine on a "state of alert" to protest the election results pending a satisfactory official explanation for the blackout. Some analysts speculate that the power was cut not to commit fraud, but to create the appearance of fraud. According to political analyst Mario Minera, far-right forces--unhappy with the political and social changes being negotiated between the government and the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) rebel organization--may have orchestrated the blackout to undermine the legitimacy of the next government. Election-related violence broke out in 15 municipalities during and immediately following the blackout. In seven of these, angry mobs burst into voting centers and burned ballot boxes. In the most serious incidents, a mob of PAN supporters beat several people and took local TSE representatives hostage in Guanazapa, Escuintla province; an MLN activist was shot and killed and his 12 year-old son wounded in Cuilapa, Santa Rosa province; TSE delegate Luis Hernandez was beaten by a ballot burning mob in San Agustin, El Progreso; PAN activists kidnapped and beat FDNG supporter Juan Pablo Lemus in San Andres Itzapa; local PAN leader Carlos Xo Bol was disappeared in Chisec, Alta Verapaz; and gunmen tried to kill UCN congressional representative Remberto Vasquez in his home in Jalpatagua, Jutiapa province, but killed his brother-in-law by mistake. In the capital, unidentified gunmen raked the United Nations Verification Mission (MINUGUA) office with machine-gun fire the night before the elections, and minutes after the election night blackout began a similar attack was made on the Nuevo Mundo radio station. Station representative Jose Felix Lopez said that Nuevo Mundo had previously received two phone calls accusing it of promoting the FDNG. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #44, 11/15/95; LADB Notisur 11/17/95 from ACAN-EFE, IPS, DPA, AFP, Reuter, NYT] 6. MENCHU FAMILY KIDNAPPING A HOAX? The reappearance of Rigoberta Menchu Tum's kidnapped grand nephew Juan Carlos [see Update #302] has raised more questions than it has answered. Immediately following Juan Carlos' Nov. 4 disappearance, his mother, Rigoberta Menchu's niece Cristina Menchu Zapeta, told police and reporters that armed men tore her 22-month old son from her arms outside Rigoberta Menchu's home. But on Nov. 15, police arrested both Menchu Zapeta and the child's father, Miguel Velasquez, for extorsion and false reporting of a crime. Menchu Zapeta and Velasquez admit they faked the kidnapping of their own son in the hopes of extorting money from Rigoberta Menchu. "My husband and I needed money to improve the situation in our home," Cristina told reporters. She said they asked an accomplice to call Rigoberta and demand money for her nephew's safe release. "We only wanted 200,000 quetzales ($34,000) but he got carried away and demanded $500,000," she explained. Police say the child had been in his maternal grandmother's home in Quiche since his disappearance. Rigoberta Menchu remains suspicious. In a press release last night, she called for further investigation into the case. "There are clear indications that Miguel Velasquez is trying to cover for other people who are responsible for the planning and execution of this criminal act," she said. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #44, 11/15/95] In other news, eight law students won a victory on Nov. 9 when they ended an eight day hunger strike [see Update #302] staged to protest inaction in the case of law student Mario Alioto Lopez Sanchez, killed by police in November 1994. Attorney General Ramses Cuestas announced on Nov. 9 that new charges of homicide and grievous bodily harm will be brought against former interior minister Danilo Parrinello Blanco, ex-National Police chief Mario Alfredo Figueroa, former vice-minister of the interior Col. Mario Alfredo Merida and members of the National Police's Immediate Reaction Force (FRI) patrol that took part in the attack in which Lopez Sanchez was killed. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #44, 11/15/95] 7. ABSTENTION WINS MEXICAN LOCAL RACES Mexicans voted in local elections in six states and in the Federal District (DF), which includes most of Mexico City, on Nov. 12. The most closely watched race was in the western state of Michoacan, the only state where the governorship was decided, along with all 30 seats in the state legislature (18 by direct vote and 12 proportional) and 113 municipal presidencies. [La Jornada 11/12/95] Early results gave the governor's office to Victor Manuel Tinoco Rubi of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), with about 38% of the vote. Cristobal Arias Solis of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) came in second with 32% of the vote, followed by Felipe Calderon Hinojosa of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) with 26%. [John Ross 11/17/95] The PRD was expected to win 52 to 54 of the municipalities (up from 43 in 1992), followed by the PRI with 41 to 42 and the PAN with 13 to 14. The conservative party won several of the larger municipalities, including the capital, Morelia. [LJ 11/15/95 electronic edition; El Diario-La Prensa 11/14/95 from AFP and 11/15/95 from AP] The PAN also won municipal presidencies in Oaxaca and Puebla, capitals of states with the same names, along with Sinaloa's capital, Culiacan, and Tampico and Matamoros in Tamaulipas. Early results showed the PRI sweeping the state legislature in Tlaxcala. [ED-LP 11/14/95 from AFP] Overall, the three parties remained in the same relative positions as they did in the 1994 elections. In the Nov. 12 elections the PRI led with a total of about 40%, followed by the PAN with 30% and the PRD with 21.5%. "This is [still] a three-party country," PRD president Porfirio Munoz Ledo told reporters. While retaining the number one spot, the PRI slipped significantly and "is no longer the party of the majority in Mexico," Munoz Ledo noted. [El Daily News 11/15/95 from Reuter] The PAN won four of this year's six gubernatorial races and the PRI won two. But the PRD, which has yet to elect a governor, was definitely set back by its loss in Michoacan, historically a leftist state. "Mexico's Ruling Party Wins Key Race; Victory Could Help Financial Markets" was the Wall Street Journal's headline. [WSJ 11/14/95] In the 1988 national elections, the year before the PRD was formed, a left coalition swept the state, winning three out of four votes for presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano and 12 of 13 federal Congressional races; in 1989 the new PRD carried 60 of the municipalities. When Arias lost in a 1992 bid for the governorship, many Michoacanos blamed electoral fraud. PRD militants blocked the governor's palace for months, and winning candidate Eduardo Villasenor Pena of the PRI was finally forced to take a leave of absence. He died in a car crash in November 1994 [see Updates #141 and 252]. [LJ 11/12/95] There have been few fraud charges in the current race, although US journalist John Ross notes that the PRI manipulated subsidy checks to campesinos to win votes, and PRD candidates in the towns of Turicato and Tiquicheo were murdered before the election. [John Ross 11/17/95] The loser may not be so much the PRD as Munoz Ledo's wing of the party, which promotes dialogue with the national government. Arias is very much associated with this current, which won out in the August party convention [see Update #292]. Many radicals in the PRD base disagree with the dialogue strategy. In a radio interview on Nov. 7, "Insurgent Subcommander Marcos" of the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) noted the disaffection in the PRD base and said that the rebels had no "disagreement with the electoral struggle, much less with the peaceful civil struggle, much less with the PRD as a party." The disagreement is "with a political line that right now permeates the PRD." He warned that the PAN conservatives were "gaining as an electoral option." [LJ 11/7/95, translation by National Commission for Democracy in Mexico] "The clear winner Nov. 12--as it has been throughout 1995--was absenteeism," writes John Ross. "On Nov. 12 no candidate received more votes than the number of voters that chose to stay home." This was shown most dramatically in the DF non-partisan elections for 365 seats in new "citizens' councils," local advisory boards whose functions are not clearly defined. Voter turnout in the well publicized election was between 15% and 19%, less than 900,000 of the 5.4 million registered voters. [John Ross 11/17/95] 284,370 DF residents voted in the EZLN referendum on Aug. 20, an unofficial vote with no publicity in most of the mainstream media. [Civic Alliance Final Report 9/6/95] Nov. 12 brought one clear victory for a Mexican. German Silva came in first in the New York City Marathon with a running time of 2 hours 11 minutes. Silva also won last year, despite making a wrong turn at the Central Park entrance. Then-Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari rewarded him by supplying his village with electricity. This year Silva made no wrong turns; he plans to ask current Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon for running water. [ED-LP 11/12/95; NYT 11/13/95] 8. PERU PRESIDENT DEFEATED IN LIMA VOTE Candidate Alberto Andrade of the independent "Somos Lima" (We are Lima) organization won the Nov. 12 elections for mayor of Lima with 53% of the vote, compared with 47% for Jaime Yoshiyama, the hand-picked candidate of President Alberto Fujimori. Andrade will begin his three-year term of office on Jan. 1. The Lima mayor post is viewed as the second most important elected office in the country. Voters also elected 194 provincial and 1,814 district mayors; "Somos Lima" won many of the 42 district mayor posts in Lima, as well as the mayoral post in the port city of Callao. Andrade had previously served two terms as mayor of the Miraflores district, an upper middle-class business and residential area of Lima. Andrade supported Fujimori in his re- election campaign, but has also criticized several administration policies. "We're going to work with the president," Andrade said after claiming victory. Fujimori's heavy-handed campaign in support of Yoshiyama seems to have backfired as voters complained that the government was spending too much on his campaign. There were also objections to voter surveys carried out mostly in poor neighborhoods by members of the National Intelligence Service (SIN). Survey takers not only asked about voter preference, but also asked for names, identification documents, and place of work. Fujimori denied that his candidate's loss was a personal defeat but rather a "positive example of democracy at work" in Peru. "What will they say overseas? 'How strange. The dictator Fujimori's candidate didn't get in,'" Fujimori said. "But this is a real democracy. The truth is I've never had much luck in municipal elections." On election night, after Yoshiyama's defeat became clear, Fujimori named him to the post of Presidency Minister, which administers about 25% of the budget allocated for development projects in the municipalities. Yoshiyama was sworn in on Nov. 14 and said he will work closely with Andrade to help Lima combat poverty and other problems. Lima contains 90% of the commercial, financial, and administrative offices in the country, and it generates 75% of the industrial production and 43% of the GDP. Along with the neighboring port city of Callao, it gets 80% of Peru's private investment. About 26% of Peru's population lives in Lima, and according to the 1993 census more than 3 million Lima residents live in marginal conditions. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 11/17/95 from Quehacer (Lima), Si (Lima), Resumen Semanal (Lima), DPA, Reuter, Notimex, IPS, NYT, AFP, La Republica (Lima)] 9. PERUVIAN JOURNALIST ARRESTED On Nov. 12, Peruvian news photographer Miguel Alegre Salazar was arrested by the National Directorate Against Terrorism (DINCOTE) as he was going to vote in Lima. The journalist was accused of "apology for terrorism" and was transferred to a holding cell at the Justice Department. Alegre had been charged with this crime along with another 43 journalists and workers of the now-defunct weekly Cambio, but an arrest order was issued only for Alegre. Various human rights groups and journalist associations have demanded that Alegre be freed. "It is proven that in his capacity as professional photographer he wrote no opinion or anything else, so it's absurd that they're accusing him of apology for terrorism," said a spokesperson of the Association for Human Rights. Alegre has no political affiliation; he has worked independently for Cambio, the Bolivian Times and for news agencies Associated Press and Reuter. [La Republica 11/17/95, posted via email by The New Flag (lquispe@nyxfer.blythe.org)] 10. ANOTHER STUDENT KILLED IN ECUADOR High school student Freddy Giovanni Arias Perez was shot to death on Nov. 16 during a demonstration of university and high school students at the Central University of Ecuador in Quito. Xavier Melo Medina (or Santiago Melo Bermudez, according to one source) said he shot Arias in self-defense when he and a friend, a member of the Ecuadoran Air Force (FAE) named Zarate, were pulled from their motorcycle and beaten by a group of student demonstrators. Zarate admitted to being a member of the FAE, and said that when the students attacked Melo and him, they seized his 9mm pistol; he ran to seek refuge at a police station 200 meters away. After Melo shot Arias, the students took Melo inside the university where they held him for the police. Melo denied being a member of the FAE, although one of the youths said Melo was carrying identification suggesting that he was in the FAE. Arias was the second Ecuadoran student killed in two weeks; a 16- year old was killed during student protests in Quito the previous week, her skull fractured by a police tear gas canister [see Update #302]. Other student protests took place on Nov. 16 in the cities of Guayaquil, Cuenca, Ambato and Riobamba. High school and university students, reportedly linked to the leftist Democratic Popular Movement (MPD), are protesting a referendum scheduled for Nov. 26 on 11 questions concerning a series of political and economic changes that would allow the government to consolidate its neoliberal program. Among the questions is one which would limit union activity in public services, including education. Another of the proposed reforms would open up Ecuador's pension fund administration to private participation. [El Diario-La Prensa 11/17/95 from Notimex (& AP?), 11/19/95 from combined services] 11. BOLIVIAN UNIVERSITIES ON HUNGER STRIKE Administrators, teachers and students from Bolivia's 10 state universities launched a nationwide hunger strike on Nov. 14 to protest threats to university autonomy and seek more spending on higher education. "The university hunger strike has begun and will win massive support in a few days," said Juan Cuevas, secretary of the executive committee of Bolivian University, who joined the strike. "The government's delay tactics leave us no choice." The strike, announced 13 days ago by a dozen student leaders, was joined by the deans of the universities of La Paz, Santa Cruz and Oruro along with their teaching staffs and students. The protesters said an education reform law passed earlier in the year infringes on the autonomy of university councils (student- teacher bodies) by creating a new "national education council" dominated by government officials. The council must approve all teacher appointments and can intervene in student performance evaluations. They also said the government had not assigned the universities their share of the budget. The protest added more problems for President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, already under pressure from a 48-hour railway strike and a threat of possible labor protests by small farmers and fired miners. Farm and food industry workers were also preparing protests against a presidential decree that suspended import tariffs on wheat, corn and sugar in an effort to combat inflation. [Reuter 11/14/95] 12. STUDENTS PROTEST IN PANAMA Riot police fired tear gas at student demonstrators in Panama on Nov. 13 and arrested one demonstrator; no injuries were reported. The students were protesting President Ernesto Perez Balladares' recent decision to double the salaries of his cabinet officials and to enter into talks at the end of November with the US to explore whether some US soldiers will remain in Panama after full control of the Panama Canal reverts to Panama in the year 2000. Using his executive powers, Perez gave his 12 cabinet ministers a 100% annual salary increase from $60,000 to $120,000. [Reuter 11/13/95] The protests continued on Nov. 15. Shouting "no to the ministers' salary increase" and "Gringos go home," students blocked traffic along the main road through the University of Panama campus in Panama City, stretched a banner reading "Gringos go home" across a barricade and threw rocks at motorists who tried to pass. "We're going to continue all month," one student said. A police official told Reuter no arrests were made and no injuries were reported. The students dispersed soon after university rector Gustavo Garcia de Paredes came out and asked them to leave. "They have the right to [protest], but we don't agree with the way they're doing it," said the rector. [Reuter 11/15/95] 13. 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. 11/22 WED, 7:30 PM - Videos "Cuba Is Not Alone" & "Miami-Havana," panel w/IFCO & Pastors for Peace. Puffin Room, 435 Broome St. $5. Call for reservations. Puffin Foundation, 212-343-2881. 11/24 FRI, 12 NOON - Rally against maquiladora exploitation. At GAP store, 34th & Bway. Nat'l Labor Cmt, 212-255-7240. 11/25 SAT, 2 PM - Leafleting against war toys. WRL, 212-228-0450. ================================================================= 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/ =================================================================