WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #307, DECEMBER 17, 1995 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Police Attack Students in Nicaragua 2. Did US Arm Haitian Right as Pressure for Invasion? 3. CIA Revelations Overshadow Haitian Elections 4. FBI Investigates "International Terrorism" in Peru 5. "Counterterrorism" Bill Resurrected in US Congress 6. Probe of Colombian President Ends 7. Mexican Ex-President Sued Over Phone Company Selloff 8. Mexican Rebels Avoid Fighting, Shoot for Art Award 9. Guatemalan Army Patrols Streets As Runoff Vote Nears 10. Chile: Left Current Retains Socialist Party Control 11. Chile: Bodies Appear After Court Denies Amnesty 12. In Other News: Argentina, Dominican Rep. & El Salvador 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. 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We also welcome your comments and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail to nicanet@blythe.org. 1. POLICE ATTACK STUDENTS IN NICARAGUA At least one person was killed and 43 were injured on Dec. 13 in Managua when anti-riot police attacked university students and professors who were protesting proposed cuts in the national budget for higher education. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/15/95 from EFE, 12/14/95 from AP; Reuter 12/13/95] The National Assembly was discussing the budget when the students--joined by demobilized army soldiers and a group of mothers of Sandinista heroes and martyrs--gathered outside the Assembly building for a demonstration. Leticia Alvarez, a mother of two Sandinista fighters who were killed during the 1979 insurrection, said she was protesting because the government had informed them that there was no money in the budget this year for the Christmas basket the mothers have been accustomed to receiving every year. [ED-LP 12/14/95 from AP] Police attacked the demonstrators with tear gas, sticks and gunfire, and the students fought back with rocks and homemade mortars. [Reuter 12/13/95, ED-LP 12/14/95 from AP] The clash lasted nearly an hour before police managed to disperse the crowd. [Reuter 12/13/95] Police also fired on representatives from the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) who were trying to negotiate with the National Assembly. Local radio stations were allegedly unable to report the news because their telephone lines were cut. Even after the demonstration was over, police continued to pursue students in the streets of Managua and arrested a number of them. The police refused CENIDH's request for information about those arrested. The police unit involved in the attack is known as the "red berets"; it is a special anti- riot unit that was formed by the Chamorro government after Sandinista police officers refused to use violence against demonstrators. [CENIDH 12/13/95] According to Associated Press, two students died; AP identified the victims as Roberto Calderon and Ernesto Porfirio Ramos. [ED- LP 12/14/95 from AP] Reuter mentioned only one death, that of Ramos, who was described as a professor, not a student. [Reuter 12/13/95] Spanish news service EFE described the person killed as a university worker. [ED-LP 12/15/95 from EFE] The university students had held a series of peaceful actions and demonstrations before the Dec. 13 incident, including a peaceful sit-in at the office of Finance Minister Emilio Pereira [Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 12/11/95] and occupations of several Education Ministry offices. [ED-LP 12/14/95 from AP] On Dec. 12, some 2,000 university students and professors took over Managua's Sandino international airport for four hours, forcing the suspension of domestic and international flights. That protest ended peacefully. [ED-LP 12/13/95 from AFP, 12/14/95 from AP; Reuter 12/13/95] According to Reuter, the student protests became confrontational when a militant bus drivers' cooperative with a history of violent clashes with police joined the students in a show of solidarity. [Reuter 12/13/95] The students are demanding that the government of President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro comply with a constitutional requirement to transfer 6% of the national budget to the national universities. The government says it opposes the 6% constitutional requirement because the budget allotment is based on ordinary income from taxes as well as extraordinary income from donations, although the latter is normally conditioned by the donors for specific projects. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 12/16/95 from AFP] The president of the National Assembly's commission of finance, budget and economy is Dora Maria Tellez, a former leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) who quit the party on Feb. 3 of this year and joined the Sandinista Renovation Movement headed by former vice president Sergio Ramirez [see Update #263]. Tellez admitted to the press on Dec. 14 that no one has been satisfied with her commission's ruling, which recognized the right of the universities to demand 6% of the budget while at the same time acknowledging that the government does not have enough funds to provide the 6%. The commission suggested that the Finance and Foreign Cooperation ministries join together with the Council of Universities to define a program that will raise sufficient additional funds for the universities. [ED-LP 12/15/95 from EFE] The budget discussions in the National Assembly, postponed because of the student protests, resumed on Dec. 15, the last day of the legislative session. Several deputies told journalists that if the budget was not approved on Dec. 15, the decision would have to be postponed until January. In addition to the students, other sectors such as health, education and the army and police are demanding more funds in the new budget. [DLA 12/16/95 from AFP] Messages demanding an end to police repression against students can be sent to President Chamorro (fax# 001-505-2-287-911); National Assembly President Luis Humberto Guzman (fax# +2-283-039); and National Police Commander Fernando Caldera (fax# +2-778-171). [CENIDH 12/13/95] 2. DID US ARM HAITIAN RIGHT AS PRESSURE FOR INVASION? On Dec. 14 the US weekly The Nation issued a press release and advance copies of an article by investigative journalist Allan Nairn seriously undercutting the generally accepted perception of the US military occupation of Haiti as a humanitarian mission intended to stop killings by rightwing paramilitary groups. Nairn, a winner of the Polk award for journalism, presents evidence that the US in fact helped arm the main paramilitary group, the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH), and then got Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to consent to US intervention as "the only way to stop the carnage and ensure his return," in Nairn's words. The article is based on interviews with US and Haitian officials, with FRAPH head Emmanuel ("Toto") Constant and with Lawrence Pezzullo, US president Bill Clinton's special adviser on Haiti in 1993 and early 1994. Nairn is the journalist who revealed, in October 1994, that Constant was an employee of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) when the FRAPH was created in the late summer of 1993 [see Update #245]. Nairn now reports that around July 1993 the Haitian military began receiving shipments of small arms--revolvers, semi- automatic pistols, submachine guns, fragmentation grenades--from Miami and from Brazil. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 weapons came from Florida, often in boxes marked "Police Material: Do Not Open"; a comparable number were shipped from Brazil. The shipments took place in the midst of an international embargo directed at Haiti; they did not let up after US Navy vessels began enforcing the embargo in October 1993. Port-au-Prince police chief Col. Michel Francois apparently distributed the weapons among the people that Constant organized into the FRAPH. By November FRAPH members were routinely torturing and executing Aristide supporters. Clinton adviser Pezzullo told Nairn that the White House then used the FRAPH's activities to put pressure on Aristide, who was in exile in Washington following a 1991 military coup. "We said the only people seen operating politically now are the FRAPHistas [sic] and that we had to get another force there with the private sector to fill that gap, otherwise these people [FRAPH] will be running around as the only game in town." Constant and Aristide advisers gave Nairn similar accounts of meetings Aristide had with US officials in February 1994. In Constant's version, the US said: "So if you don't give up to the agreement [we want], look what's going to happen to you, because Toto Constant is taking over the political scene." "People say the CIA was opposed to Clinton," Constant told Nairn, "but I don't think so. Clinton knew everything concerning me." In the summer of 1994 Aristide agreed to a US military occupation and to a structural adjustment program drafted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But the US continued to protect FRAPH members even after the occupation began in September 1994. There was a brief period in October when the US Army's Special Forces (Green Berets) "got tough" with the FRAPH, according to former Special Forces chief for Haiti, Gen. Dick Potter. This was in response to an incident when Haitians linked to the FRAPH shot and wounded a Green Beret sergeant. After "the crisis was over," according to Potter, "...of course we eased off." An unnamed Special Forces operations chief says: "People would ask, When are you going to take their weapons away? The answer was, They [the US command] won't let us. Well, they [the Haitian people] got sick of waiting for us, and now they're doing it on their own, and I don't blame them." [Nation press release and advance copy of untitled article 12/14/95] 3. CIA REVELATIONS OVERSHADOW HAITIAN ELECTIONS At a Dec. 15 political rally in the southern city of Jacmel, President Aristide for the first time gave his formal endorsement to Rene Preval, a personal friend who is the frontrunner in the Dec. 17 presidential elections. "I'm going to vote for the Table," Aristide said, referring to the logo of his Lavalas movement's political party, "for the Table's candidate, Rene Preval." [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 12/17/95 from AP] Even before the endorsement, it was assumed that Aristide's popularity would win the elections for Preval, who was prime minister in the 1991 Aristide government. A poll published by the conservative daily Le Nouvelliste showed Preval's support at 64% in the capital. [New York Times 12/17/95] The unexciting campaign has aroused less interest than continuing questions about the US role in Haiti. At a press conference after his endorsement of Preval, Aristide faced questions about the Nairn article. "As for the United States," he said, "I think they could do more to disarm the hired killers." [ED-LP 12/17/95 from AP] One day before the Nairn article was released, the New York weekly Village Voice carried a report by James Ridgeway and Jean Jean-Pierre suggesting that "like FRAPH," the Haitian police's Bureau of Information Coordination (BIC) "was also a tool of US intelligence." A July 1994 US Defense Department field report described the BIC as "the link between the FAD'H [Armed Forces of Haiti] high command and these groups"--meaning "the police, attaches [auxiliary police] and FRAPH." One BIC leader, Romeo Alloun, was captured by the US in 1994 and detained for three months. He now lives in Florida, and the US has resisted Haitian government efforts to extradite him. Earlier this month the US detained and then released a man the Haitian government charges with the Nov. 7 murder of Aristide's cousin Jean Hubert Feuille, a parliamentary deputy from the southern town of Port Salud [see Update #302]. Jacques Dumezil, an associate of former dictator Gen. Prosper Avril, was detained by US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials in Puerto Rico while on his way to New York. The INS notified Yvon Feuille, who is the Haitian consul in New York and the murdered deputy's brother. Feuille arranged to have Dumezil interviewed the next day. Instead, the US authorities put the suspect on a plane to Haiti, without notifying security at the Port-au-Prince airport. Dumezil left the airport undetected and remains at large. [Voice 12/19/95] Meanwhile, FRAPH head Constant has announced that he will no longer fight deportation to Haiti. Constant was detained in New York City by the INS last April for illegally entering the US, and has been held ever since in a Maryland detention center. In a statement, Constant said he intended to return to Haiti to "participate in the Haitian presidential elections"; he is suing the US State Department, Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Attorney General Janet Reno for $50 million for "wrongful incarceration." [Washington Post 12/12/95] 4. FBI INVESTIGATES "INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM" IN PERU On Dec. 14, the trial began in Peru for US national Lori Helene Berenson, formally charged with treason by a military court. The minimum sentence for the crime is 25 years in prison; the maximum is a life sentence. The judicial investigation is a summary process limited to 30 days; the trial is carried out by anonymous hooded ("faceless") judges. Peruvian anti-terrorist laws define as treason those cases of "terrorism" which produce the loss of human life; those accused of such "aggravated terrorism" must be tried in military courts, while simple "terrorism" charges may be brought in civilian courts. The treason charge is also applied to leaders of armed rebel movements, who are considered the intellectual authors of the crimes committed by their followers. [Diario Las Americas 12/16/95 from EFE; El Diario-La Prensa 12/17/95 from AFP; Reuter 12/15/95] Peruvian criminal law expert Mario Amoreti, cited by Mexican news agency Notimex on Dec. 12, had dismissed the possibility that Berenson would be charged with treason since the accusations against her did not fall into these categories. [ED-LP 12/13/95 from Notimex] "We are extremely disappointed that they do not seem to be reviewing the evidence in a fair manner," said Thomas Nooter, a US lawyer who is advising the Berenson family along with former US attorney general Ramsey Clark. Nooter added that Peru's anonymous military courts, which have been condemned by international human rights organizations, "are not a fair system." [Reuter 12/15/95] Berenson and her Panamanian companion, Pacifico Abdel Castrellon Santamaria, were arrested on Nov. 30 in connection with a supposed plot by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) to take over the Peruvian legislature and swap hostage legislators for imprisoned MRTA leaders [see Update #306]. Spanish news service EFE reported that Castrellon and Berenson have both confessed their participation in the plot, specifically in the elaboration of building plans by Castrellon--who is an architect-- with information provided by Berenson, who used her journalist credentials to enter the building. [ED-LP 12/14/95 from EFE] [Note: In Update #306 we spelled the Panamanian's name Castrejon; our sources are inconsistent, calling him Castrellon, Castrejon or Castrillon.] "We catergorically deny that Lori admitted to collaboration or that she is guilty of anything," the New York office of lawyer Ramsey Clark said on Dec. 12. "We maintain that Lori is innocent and her only crime is her commitment to human rights, peace and social justice. Lori has not admitted anything." The remarks came just hours after Berenson's Peruvian lawyer, Grimaldo Achahui Loayza, told Reuter that Berenson "acknowledges that to a certain extent there was a level of collaboration" with the MRTA. Ramsay Clark's office said Achahui's remarks had been misinterpeted. Achahui was reportedly chosen by Berenson's father to represent her after a request for a US attorney was turned down. Achahui unsuccessfully defended top MRTA leader Victor Polay Campos in 1993, as well as another MRTA leader, Lucero Cumpa. Polay and Cumpa are both currently serving life sentences for treason. Clark's assistant, Robert Schwartz, said that according to Tom Nooter, Achahui said he felt bad that his remarks were misinterpreted. [Reuter 12/12/95; ED-LP 12/11/95 from AFP] Achahui said that Berenson was "tricked, used and manipulated" by the MRTA. [ED-LP 12/13/95 from Notimex] According to French news agency Agence France Presse, Berenson has admitted that she and Castrellon rented the Lima home where MRTA members were discovered, but said that it was Castrellon who invited the rebels to stay there; she says she did not know they were members of an armed movement. [ED-LP 12/11/95 from AFP] Lori Berenson "would never have anything to do with guns and revolution," said her mother Rhoda Berenson in an interview. "She had a very strong desire to help people and there is certainly a possibility that she was duped." Berenson added that her daughter had not been ill-treated and was in good spirits, despite being held in solitary confinement and denied all writing or reading material except a Bible. Berenson's family and lawyers said a request for a meeting with Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori had been turned down. [Reuter 12/15/95] Jessica Safran, who says she has known Lori Berenson for over 20 years, posted a message on the Internet emphasizing that while the US press has focused on Berenson's alleged involvement with the MRTA, it should instead be focusing on Peru's atrocious human rights record. "We believe she has been framed," writes Safran. [Update on Lori Berenson 12/13/95] According to the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), "Assertions that Lori's press credentials were false have been disproven. Furthermore, allegations that a house, allegedly lived in by MRTA guerrillas, was leased in her name have also been proven false." [CISPES Action Alert 12/12/95] At least two agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) arrived in Peru on Dec. 11 to investigate the alleged activities of international terrorist organizations there, the Lima press reported on Dec. 13. The two FBI agents, supposedly experts in the area of international terrorism, met with officials at the head of the National Directorate Against Terrorism (DINCOTE) on Dec. 12. Lima daily El Comercio reported that Peruvian and US officials "exchanged important information that will make it possible to locate and capture arms traffickers and other international terrorists." [ED-LP 12/14/95 from EFE] 5. "COUNTERTERRORISM" BILL RESURRECTED IN US CONGRESS The Comprehensive Antiterrorism Act of 1995 (HR 1710) has been gaining new life in the US House of Representatives. Both the White House and the Republican leadership back the measure, which gives jail terms to US citizens who support even legal, peaceful activities by foreign organizations the president designates as "terrorist." Immigrants would be subjected to deportation without due process. The Senate version was passed 91-8 on June 8, but the House version was held up by conservative Republicans afraid some provisions could be used against the US militia movement [see Update #297]. Apparently the bill's sponsor, Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) has ironed out these difficulties and the bill is moving towards passage. [New York Times 11/17/95; Washington Post 12/9/95; Nation 12/25/95] The new pressure follows a Nov. 8 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit against the US government in an eight-year old deportation case. The US has been trying to deport seven Palestinians and one Kenyan (the "Los Angeles Eight") for distributing the magazine of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and for raising funds for various peaceful Palestinian activities. In a unanimous decision the appellate panel upheld the immigrants' right of association and right to due process. "The values underlying the First Amendment require the full applicability of First Amendment rights to the deportation setting," the panel wrote. US attorney general Janet Reno may appeal the case to the Supreme Court. [WP 11/13/95 and 12/9/95; NYT 11/17/95; Nation 12/25/95] 6. PROBE OF COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT ENDS On Dec. 14, after four months of investigation and 40 hours of debate, a parliamentary commission in Colombia voted 14 to 1 against opening a formal investigation into charges that President Ernesto Samper personally approved the acceptance of millions of dollars in contributions from the Cali drug cartel to help him win the elections last year [see Updates #288, 290, 292, 295, 296]. "This does not mean that he is guilty or innocent," said deputy Jorge Humberto Mantilla, vice president of the commission. "...(I)f definitive proof arises, the investigation will be reopened." [New York Times 12/15/95; El Diario-La Prensa 12/15/95 from AFP] A day earlier, Colombia's senate voted 56 to 33 to approve an article reducing the offense of illicit enrichment from a crime to a minor infraction. The bill must still be approved by the lower house of congress and signed by the president before it can become law. Justice Minister Nestor Humberto Martinez and Attorney General Alfonso Valdivieso both spoke out emphatically about the Senate's decision. A number of prominent individuals are currently imprisoned on charges of illicit enrichment linked to the Samper campaign funds; they would presumably be freed if the bill becomes law. [ED-LP 12/15/95 from AFP] 7. MEXICAN EX-PRESIDENT SUED OVER PHONE COMPANY SELLOFF On Dec. 10 Mexican opposition leader Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano carried out an earlier threat [see Update #305] to file a formal complaint charging former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) with treason in the 1990 privatization of Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex), the telephone monopoly. Cardenas, the 1988 and 1994 presidential candidate of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), says he also plans a civil suit demanding Telmex's return to the government. The complaint charges that the Salinas administration invested $5.5 billion in Telmex to prepare it for sale, then valued it at $7.3 billion and sold it to a consortium headed by Salinas crony Carlos Slim Helu. Cardenas claims the company was worth more than $30 billion. The Mexican constitution defines treason as acts "against the independence, sovereignty or integrity of the Mexican nation with the end of submitting it to a foreign person, group or government." Cardenas says that Salinas' privatization policies ceded Mexican sovereignty along "economic lines dictated by the International Monetary Fund" (IMF). [Associated Press 12/10/95] The week before, 81 federal deputies from Salinas' own long- ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) had signed a letter asking the party to expel Salinas and his brother Raul, currently facing charges of masterminding the September 1994 assassination of PRI general secretary Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu. On Dec. 13, the PRI's National Political Committee set up a special commission to study the issue. [La Jornada (Mexico) 12/10/95; Los Angeles Times 12/15/95] On Dec. 11, the day after Cardenas filed his complaint, the US NBC television network carried a report that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was investigating possible links between drug trafficking and $500 million Salinas was said to have deposited in about 90 banks in nine countries. The Mexican attorney general's office (PGR) asked the US for further information. [LJ, electronic edition, 12/12/95] On Dec. 12 US officials said that they had issued an informal "lookout" request to border and airport officials for information on Salinas' whereabouts, but denied that there was any investigation of the ex-president, a close ally both of former US president George Bush and of current president Bill Clinton. State Department spokesperson Nicholas Burns said Salinas "is a Mexican citizen, a frequent visitor to the United States, and he is a friend of many people in the United States." Canada, where Salinas is thought to have settled, has given orders for the ex-president to be questioned at border crossings after the Dec. 14 expiration of his six-month visitor's visa. [New York Times 12/13/95] 8. MEXICAN REBELS AVOID FIGHTING, SHOOT FOR ART AWARD In an interview with reporters on Dec. 15, "Insurgent Sub- Commander Marcos" of the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) characterized the current situation in Mexico as a "sharp fight" between "Salinistas" and "Zedillistas" [Salinas supporters and supporters of current president Ernesto Zedillo]. He said the EZLN, based in the southern state of Chiapas, had been "particularly cautious, extremely prudent in these circumstances, which could be favorable to a movement that wanted war." Instead, the rebels have continued pushing for dialogue "because we are inclined not to lend ourselves to this internal settling of accounts" within the PRI. He also noted that the conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN) has gotten the greatest electoral advantage from the popular revulsion against Salinas' economic policies, even though during the Salinas administration "the most Salinista party was the PAN, not the PRI." [LJ, electronic edition, 12/16/95] Writers, actors and several indigenous communities have nominated Marcos, author of many popular communiques and letters to the editor, for the Chiapas Prize in art, awarded each year by the state Public Education Secretariat. Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano has endorsed the nomination, "in homage to this masked writer, in envy of his eloquence and his ability to fly." [Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update Vol. 2, #51, 12/5/95] 9. GUATEMALAN ARMY PATROLS STREETS AS RUNOFF VOTE NEARS On Dec. 6 Guatemalan president Ramiro de Leon Carpio ordered at least 1,000 army troops into the streets for joint actions with police beginning Dec. 7 to curb the wave of violence and crime affecting the country [see Update #306]. The deployment is to last until Jan. 7, the day of the presidential runoff elections. According to an opinion survey published on Dec. 10, some 89% of respondents favor the troop deployment. Asked why they were in favor of the troops, 58% said better security/tranquility; 21% said too much violence, 9% said the National Police were useless or corrupt, 4% said the army instills fear and respect. Army spokespersons would not reveal how many of their 38,000 troops were in the streets, but other officials mentioned "not less than a thousand," and "several batallions." [Return of the Guatemalan Refugees Monitoring Update #152, 12/11/95; El Diario-La Prensa 12/11/95 from Notimex; Noticias de Guatemala Informacion Semanal 12/2-8/95 from Siglo Veinteuno, Prensa Libre] On Nov. 25, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) released final results from Guatemala's Nov. 12 general elections [see Update #303]. According to the final tally, the rightwing National Advancement Party will have an absolute majority with 43 of the 80 seats in the single-chamber legislature; the far-right Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG)--the party of former dicator Efrain Rios Montt--will have 21 seats; the leftist New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG) coalition will have six seats; the Guatemalan Christian Democrat (DCG) party will have four, the National Center Union (UCN) three, the center-left Democratic Union (UD) two, and the far-right National Liberation Movement (MLN) one seat. The new Congress takes office on Jan. 15. PAN candidates won 107 out of 300 municipalities, the FRG won in 46, the DCG in 38, and Civic Committees--set up as alternatives to traditional parties--won in 21. Voter turnout was 46%. In the presidential race, the PAN's Alvaro Arzu ended up with 565,393 votes, or 36.50% of the total; the FRG's Alfonso Portillo had 341,364 votes (22.04%); the National Alliance (AN) coalition's Fernando Andrade had 200,393 (12.94%); and the FDNG's Jorge Gonzalez had 119,305 votes, or 7.70%. Arzu and Portillo will face off in a second round on Jan. 7. [Central America Update (by the Center for International Policy) Vol. I, No. 2, 11/16-30/95; Noticias de Guatemala Informacion Semanal 11/25/95- 12/1/95] Guatemalan human rights advocate Frank LaRue told Voice of America that the strong PAN showing was the best outcome for the success of the peace process. "It's probably not what more popular sectors of Guatemala would like--the workers and peasants in the rural areas. But it is the type of a party that will have enough power and enough clout to be able to really govern. Any other party I think would have been in a much weaker position or much closer to the military." [Central America Update 11/16-30/95] 10. CHILE: LEFT CURRENT RETAINS SOCIALIST PARTY CONTROL On Dec. 10, Camilo Escalona was reelected in an internal vote as president of Chile's Socialist Party (PS), which is part of the country's ruling "Concertacion" coalition. Escalona, considered a traditional socialist and leader of the sector that calls itself "New Left," won 49.42% of the votes compared with 28.24% for his closest rival, Ricardo Nunez of the "Renovated" current, which seeks to model itself after European socialist parties. Also competing for the party presidency were Juan Pablo Letelier, son of murdered diplomat Orlando Letelier, running on a slate representing a middle ground between the Escalona and Nunez currents; and Francisco Rivas, representing the far left sector. Escalona will lead the party for a three-year term. Isabel Allende of the "Renovated" current, a daughter of former Chilean president Salvador Allende, won the vice presidency. [This is not Isabel Allende the famous novelist, who was Salvador Allende's niece.] [El Diario-La Prensa 12/12/95 from EFE; CHIP News 12/11/95] Partial results showed the new left faction winning most of the posts in the Socialist Party's central committee. [CHIP News 12/14/95] Analysts believe that Escalona was elected at least in part because of his strong opposition to human rights legislation being promoted by the government and the rightwing National Renovation party which would allow anonymity and immunity from prosecution for perpetrators of past human rights abuses [see Update #302]. [CHIP News 12/11/95] Protests are spreading against this legislation, which was approved by the Senate Constitution Commission on Dec. 5 and is currently being debated in Congress. Members of the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared-Detained (AFDD) travelled to the seat of parliament in Valparaiso to protest the bill, and held a two-day round-the-clock vigil in front of the presidential palace on Dec. 5 and 6. [CHIP News 12/12/95; Inter Press Service 12/6/95] On Dec. 10, just minutes before the midday mass, a group of 40 activists holding cardboard photos of their disappeared relatives occupied the Santiago cathedral. Police persuaded the protesters to leave the Cathedral peacefully a few minutes later. [CHIP News 12/12/95] 11. CHILE: BODIES APPEAR AFTER COURT DENIES AMNESTY On Dec. 5 Chile's Supreme Court confirmed prison sentences for two members of the Carabineros police and one civilian on charges of kidnapping for the June 1974 disappearance of Jose Llaulen and 15-year-old Eleuterio Cheuquepan. In previous disappearance cases, the Supreme Court has applied the 1978 amnesty law. In this case, it ratified the decision of the Appeals Court of Temuco, arguing that the crime of kidnapping cannot be covered by an amnesty while the victim's whereabouts remain unknown. Defense attorney Alfonso Insunza stressed the significance of the decision, saying it could set a legal precedent for other cases of "disappearances," legally defined as kidnappings. [Inter Press Service 12/6/95] On Dec. 15, acting on an anonymous phone tip, Chilean police dug up the bodies of two men in a cemetery in the northern city of Copiapo, a center of leftwing student and union activity in the early 1970s. The victims are believed to be leftist activists abducted after the 1973 military coup. Two days earlier, conscript soldiers digging a ditch at the Peldehue army base outside Santiago found the burned, partly-clothed remains of at least three people buried about three feet underground. Police forensic experts said the bodies were of young men buried about 20 years ago. Human rights groups said they are sure the victims were kidnapped political activists. Prominent lawyer Nelson Caucoto said: "Not just anybody perishes in an army base and is then buried in those conditions." [Reuter 12/15/95] 12. IN OTHER NEWS... Argentina's Congress is considering asking for the expulsion of US Ambassador James Cheek from the country after he supposedly threatened to impose trade sanctions in a row over patent legislation, Argentine deputy Humberto Roggero said on Dec. 12. Cheek visited Argentine deputy foreign minister Fernando Petrella on Dec. 11 to complain that a patent law approved by Congress on Dec. 7 did not meet his criteria. According to Petrella, Cheek "did not threaten to impose trade sanctions," though he "did indicate that there would be some kind of reaction." The law grants Argentine laboratories five years in which to update their production processes before paying royalties on pharmaceutical patents. The law's passage came after months of back-and-forth between President Carlos Saul Menem, who had insisted on changes to the version unanimously approved last March, and Congress, who insisted Menem was overstepping his bounds. [Inter Press Service 12/12/95; El Diario-La Prensa 12/13/95 from AFP]... In the Dominican Republic, seven people were injured when police battled angry rock-throwing residents with tear gas and gunfire in the drug-infested Santo Domingo neighborhood of Gualey on Dec. 13. Three of those injured were police officers. Gualey residents blame the National Department of Drug Control (DNCD) for the death of Julio Perez, whose drowned body was found in the Ozama River after a neighborhood drug sweep by the DNCD on Dec. 12. A tense calm reigned in Gualey on Dec. 14 as emergency brigades and security forces cleared away objects placed in the streets as barricades. [ED-LP 12/14/95, 12/15/95]... At least 10 government institutions were shut down on Dec. 11 as workers in El Salvador renewed labor actions to demand that the Legislative Assembly change a new law, known as decree 471, which provides for 15,000 state sector layoffs [see Updates #298, #300]. Union leader Jose Lopez warned that if the Assembly does not reform the law this week, the workers will step up their actions to include marches, demonstrations, blocking streets and taking over public buildings. The workers want the Assembly to make layoffs voluntary instead of obligatory. [ED-LP 12/12/95 from AP] They are also demanding transparency in the process of deciding which jobs are to be eliminated so as to avoid "political arbitrary actions" designed to dismantle state sector unions. The protests were intensifying because Dec. 15 was the deadline for workers to present their resignation; otherwise they will receive no severance pay. [ED-LP 12/13/95 from EFE] 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. 12/20 WED, 5:30 PM - Speak out against no-condoms policy in NYC schools. Public mtg, 110 Livingston St, Bkn. 212-564-AIDS. 12/21 THU, 7 PM - CREED monthly mtg. Review materials for 1996 anti-maquiladora campaign. At 122 27th St, 10th fl. 212-645-5230. 12/22 FRI, 6 PM - "Justice for Anthony Baez," community march & vigil. 6 Cameron Pl. (181 & 182 Sts nr Jerome Av.) 718-798-2466. ================================================================= 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/ =================================================================