WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #310, JANUARY 7, 1996 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Attacks in Washington Linked to Guatemala Case? 2. Cuban-Americans Charged With Plotting Cuba Invasion 3. AFL-CIO Builds "Dependent" Unions in Mexico, Haiti, C.A. 4. Mexican Rebels Form Political Front 5. Latest Mexican Assassin a Dud? 6. Stocks Soar in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil 7. Two European Women Kidnapped in Costa Rica 8. Colombian Rebels Carry Out Year-End Attacks 9. Two Argentine Senators Escape Prosecution 10. One Brazilian Witness Disappears, Others Exiled 11. Peru: Prosecutor Seeks 30 Years for US Citizen 12. Guatemalan Family Sues US Company for Glue Death 13. Other News: Haiti, El Salvador, Ecuador, Bolivia, Puerto Rico 14. 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. ATTACKS IN WASHINGTON LINKED TO GUATEMALA CASE? The automobile of attorney Jose Pertierra, who represents US lawyer Jennifer Harbury, was firebombed in Washington, DC shortly before 5 a.m. on Jan. 5. Pertierra's sedan was parked in the driveway of his home when it was destroyed by the explosion. He and his wife were alone in the house at the time, and no one was injured. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spokesperson Susan Lloyd said that no one had claimed responsibility for the attack. Pertierra has represented Harbury for three years in her efforts to clarify the 1992 disappearance of her husband, Guatemalan guerrilla commander Efrain Bamaca Velasquez. Bamaca was allegedly tortured and murdered by Guatemalan Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, a paid asset of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). On July 31, 1995, Harbury filed suit against the CIA in an effort to force the agency to release its files on Bamaca [see Update #288]. At around 1 a.m. on Jan. 6, five shots were fired at the Assisi Community in Washington, a home inhabited by nuns, victims of foreign human rights abuses and refugees, which is where Harbury stays while in Washington. "There is no indication that this incident and the firebombing are related, but we are looking into the possibility," said Lloyd, the FBI spokesperson. Ann Butwell, a Central America activist who lives in the home, said residents did not call police after hearing the gunfire "because shootings are pretty common in our neighborhood." They realized they might have been targeted, she explained, after a bullet was found in the wall four feet from her bed. [Washington Post 1/7/96] Harbury just recently returned to Guatemala to exhume a grave at a Guatemalan army base, believed to contain the remains of her husband. In a telephone interview from Guatemala, Harbury blamed the Guatemalan military for the attack on Pertierra's car: "They are sending us a message," she said. Pertierra also blamed the Guatemalan army, saying the attack was aimed at stopping Harbury's investigation. "The Guatemalan army does not want us to carry out this excavation because they know they tortured and killed her husband and buried him in the Las Cabanas military base," Pertierra told the US Spanish-language news channel Telenoticias. "They want to stop the excavation at all cost." [New York Times 1/6/96 from AP; Reuter 1/5/96; Message from Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA 1/5/96] Guatemalan army spokesperson Col. Jose Caal Davila denied any army involvement in the attack on Pertierra. "Maybe they orchestrated it themselves," he told reporters. [Reuter 1/5/96] [Runoff elections for president are being held in Guatemala on Jan. 7; the candidates are Alvaro Arzu of the rightwing National Advancement Party (PAN) and Alfonso Portillo of the rightwing Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG). The PAN is favored to win, but the FRG--linked to hardline sectors within the army--was gaining as the vote approached. [NYT 1/7/96] On Dec. 23, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) guerrillas announced a unilateral ceasefire between Dec. 24 and Jan. 8 for the electoral period. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #1, 1/4/96]] The Guatemalan Human Rights Commission/USA is asking for phone calls (202-745-4952) or faxes (202-745-1908) to the Guatemalan Embassy, urging the Guatemalan government to ensure the safety of Pertierra, Harbury and everyone else connected to the Bamaca case. [Message posted by GHRC/USA on 1/5/96] Pertierra, who is Cuban-American, may also have enemies among rightwing Cubans living in the US. On Oct. 10, Pertierra posted a statement on the Internet in which he highlighted the hypocrisy of US policies toward Cuba and Guatemala. "US policy makers continue to punish the violation of private property by prohibiting trade with Cuba and to reward the violation of human life by encouraging trade with Guatemala," wrote Pertierra. "I do not understand why." [Statement posted by jpertierra@igc.apc.org on 10/10/95] Pertierra did not mention any possible Cuban connections to the firebombing of his car. But he did compare the attack to the 1976 car-bombing in Washington that killed Chilean former foreign minister Orlando Letelier and his aide Ronni Moffitt. [El Diario- La Prensa (NY) 1/7/96 from AFP] That attack was planned by the Chilean military; among those convicted in connection with the bombing were at least two rightwing Cuban-Americans: Jose Dionisio Suarez Esquivel and Virgilio Paz Romero. [ED-LP 1/7/96 from AFP] 2. CUBAN-AMERICANS CHARGED WITH PLOTTING CUBA INVASION On Jan. 4, a federal judge denied bail to two of three Cuban- Americans accused of stockpiling an arsenal of weapons and masterminding a plan to invade Cuba and spark an armed rebellion against the government there. Rene Cruz, his son--also named Rene Cruz--and Rafael Garcia were arrested on Dec. 16 by FBI agents who raided the warehouse of Remarc International, a kitchen supplies business in Huntington Beach owned by the older Cruz. The three face charges of conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act; they could face up to eight years in prison if convicted. Hillman ordered the younger Cruz and Garcia held without bail. Judge Stephen Hillman said he believed the two men posed a danger to society because "they were willing to act as they see justifiable." The older Cruz was released on $100,000 bail while investigations continue. At the warehouse federal agents seized three MAC-90 "sniper" rifles, 18 AK-47 assault rifles, a number of hand grenades and 14,000 rounds of ammunition, plus bullet-proof vests, radio equipment, maps of Cuba, air navigation maps, night vision glasses, and plans in Spanish detailing an invasion of Cuba. Prosecutors allege the men are members of a group that stockpiled weapons in anticipation of such an invasion. They said US Customs agents also found a 50-foot shrimp boat owned by the older Cruz and his son which could hold 20-30 people. Defense attorneys have said the weapons were purchased legally. [Reuter 1/4/96; New York Times 12/26/95 from AP; Diario Las Americas (Miami) 1/6/96 from AFP] The three men bought the shrimp boat from Robert Wolcott, a fisherperson in Gulfport, Mississippi. "They were the nicest group of guys you could ask for," Wolcott said after learning of their arrest. "They weren't versed enough in boats to do anything," he added. [NYT 12/26/95 from AP] Members of the Veterans Association of the Bay of Pigs--the failed 1961 invasion of Cuba planned in the US--showed up at the courthouse to support the three accused. The Veterans Association said the older Cruz was an official in the Cuban Army under Castro, and was later jailed as a counter-revolutionary; he moved to the US in 1979. [DLA 1/6/96 from AFP] 3. AFL-CIO BUILDS "DEPENDENT" UNIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA, MEXICO AND HAITI The DC-based investigative journal CounterPunch has obtained three internal US government documents rating programs carried out recently in Central America by the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD). The reports were produced by the US government's Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides much of AIFLD's funding. AIFLD is an arm of the main US labor confederation, the AFL-CIO. AIFLD's 1988-91 program in Costa Rica numbered among its accomplishments "graduating farmers from a traditional subsistence economy" and providing "rural unions with alternative actions to squatter invasions and civil disobedience disturbance tactics," according to one of the reports from USAID, which gave this program $2 million. An ongoing $1.78 million program in El Salvador, started in 1990, is intended to get unions to "focus on 'bread and butter,'" according to USAID, which notes that "with the end of the [1979-1991] civil war, the leftist threat to democratic trade unionism has diminished," so that AIFLD should "downplay, though not abandon, the anti-leftist strategy of the past." USAID's report on Nicaragua complains that the ability of unions affiliated with the opposition Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) "to disrupt the civil and economic life of Nicaragua does not appear to have been diminished to any significant extent" after the FSLN's loss of the 1990 national elections. USAID advises AIFLD to ask the US embassy in Managua to "identify key public and private sector institutions where independent unions could play a critical role in displacing particularly disruptive non-democratic unions." The USAID report notes that the US has paid "the salaries of top officials" and "most of the operating costs" for several anti-Sandinista unions. "[T]he 'independent' labor movement in Nicaragua isn't independent at all," the report says. "It is almost completely dependent on the United States." [Counterpunch 12/15/95] AIFLD has recently stepped up its activities in Haiti and Mexico, according to CounterPunch. AIFLD claims to have united the labor movement in Haiti, which has been occupied by US troops since September 1994. A US unionist who visited Haiti recently says that this simply means: "You either cooperate with [AIFLD's] agenda or you get left out." AIFLD has been working with Caribbean/Latin American Action, a conservative US-Haitian business group that during the Bush administration included former president Ronald Reagan's under secretary of state for inter-American affairs, Elliott Abrams. The group successfully lobbied the US government to have Haiti's 50 maquiladora plants exempted from the US embargo against the 1991-1994 military regime. AIFLD's Haiti operation is headed by Jean Claude Coupet, who previously worked for AIFLD in El Salvador. In Mexico AIFLD has traditionally supported the Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM), which is affiliated with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). But in 1995 AIFLD began paying attention to the growing independent labor movement, especially in the maquiladora zones along the US border. Phoebe McKinney of the American Friends Service Committee's Maquiladora Project told CounterPunch that the "slow, sensitive and delicate" work of developing relations between US and Mexican labor organizers has been "disrupted by AIFLD coming in and throwing money around." The approach to independent unions is headed by Gordon Ellison, a retired agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who has been praised by the National Endowment for Democracy's Carl Gershman for making a "sterling contribution" to the downfall of Nicaragua's FSLN. [CounterPunch 10/15/95] 4. MEXICAN REBELS FORM POLITICAL FRONT On Jan. 1 the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) of southern Mexico celebrated the second anniversary of its dramatic 1994 uprising by announcing the formation of what it called "a new political force with its base in the EZLN." The rebel group, which operates in the southeastern state of Chiapas, said that the new organization, the Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN), would be a national political force but not a political party, and would not run candidates. The rebels' statement, the "Fourth Declaration of the Lacandona Forest," said that the FZLN "forms part of a broad opposition movement, the National Liberation Movement," and implied that the larger movement would include grassroots opposition groups like the El Barzon debtors movement and Mexico City's Route 100 Urban Passenger Auto Transport Workers Union (SUTAUR 100). The declaration said the Mexican opposition needs a program that is not dependent on "a hegemonic political force or the genius of an individual, but on a broad opposition movement that can bring together the nation's feelings." The EZLN also announced that it had made progress in its plan to call an "international meeting for humanity and against neoliberalism." [La Jornada (Mexico) 1/2/96, electronic edition] Political analyst Maria Luz Casal of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) suggests that the rebels plan for the FZLN to take over the "institutional role of the Democratic National Convention (CND)," a coalition of hundreds of grassroots organizations the EZLN sponsored in August 1994. The CND was largely paralyzed by squabbles between small leftist member groups; Casal says that through the FZLN the rebels "will try to minimize the role of the preexisting political organizations and strengthen the organizational function of the rebel leadership." [Inter Press Service 1/2/96] The decision not to run candidates keeps the FZLN out of direct competition with the center-left opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). In a letter dated Dec. 14 the EZLN asked former PRD presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano to publicize the EZLN's formal call for "an historic trial" of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994). The EZLN is charging Salinas with various economic and political crimes, including stealing the 1988 elections, in which Cardenas was the main opposition candidate. The letter praises Cardenas for his "honest career" and his "commitment to the peaceful struggle for democracy, freedom and justice in Mexico." The EZLN's call pointedly demands an investigation of the now unpopular former president's "accomplices," including Carlos Castillo Peraza, the president of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), and Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, the party's 1994 presidential candidate. After strongly supporting Salinas' neoliberal economic programs, the PAN was the chief beneficiary of popular opposition to those policies in several state elections last year. [LJ 12/31/95] On Jan. 3 about 300 indigenous leaders from throughout Mexico gathered in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, for a five-day forum on indigenous rights convened by the EZLN. The forum is to be followed on Jan. 10 by the next round of peace talks between the rebels and the federal government. [Reuter 1/3/96] Meanwhile, violent confrontations continue in Chiapas over land issues and last October's municipal elections. On Dec. 30 state police broke up a sitin in the Tzotzil municipality of Chenalho in the highlands of Chiapas; about 50 protesters were arrested and several were injured. In late December PRD supporters took over 12 of the state's 111 municipalities to stop the Jan. 1 inauguration of mayors from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Chenalho was the fifth town the police had retaken. [LJ 12/31/95] On Jan. 3 about 150 state police agents ended campesino occupation of the La Gloria ranch near the town of Tonala on the Pacific coast. Police arrested about 25 PRD members who had occupied the ranch to demand land. [Servicio Diario de Informacion de Derechos Humanos en Mexico 1/4/96] 5. LATEST MEXICAN ASSASSIN A DUD? On Jan. 3 the attorney general's office (PGR) produced a federal police agent, Martin Antonio Gutierrez Cantu, who says he is the agent accused last month of firing the shot that killed presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta in Tijuana, Baja California Norte, on Mar. 23, 1994. Two Mexico City newspapers, El Financiero and El Universal, reported last Dec. 19 that an agent named Antonio Martinez Estrada ("El Guamuchil") had assassinated the candidate and was then himself murdered a few hours later [see Update #308]. The PGR says it has documentary evidence that Gutierrez Cantu is the agent the newspapers showed in photographs, and that he has an airtight alibi: he was stationed in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on the day Colosio was shot. He resembles the convicted assassin, Mario Aburto Martinez, who says he was switched with the real assassin by police agents. [Reuter 1/3/96; NYT 1/4/96] [Another federal agent, Jorge Antonio Sanchez Ortega, who was arrested by Tijuana police at the murder site, is also said to have a striking resemblance to Aburto; see Update #227.] 6. STOCKS SOAR IN MEXICO, ARGENTINA AND BRAZIL The Mexican stock market (BMV) jumped a total of 10.31% (in US dollars) the first week of January, just one year after the onset of Mexico's current economic crisis brought near-record market plunges throughout Latin America in the so-called "tequila effect" [see Update #259]. This week other Latin American markets again followed Mexico's lead: Argentine stocks rose by 6.96% during the week and Brazilian stocks by 9.17%. [New York Times 1/6/96] Charles Myers, a partner in Caspian investments, attributed the increases to uneasiness about US stocks. "With people realizing there won't be another record year in US markets, they're sending their money abroad," he said. "There's a lot of renewed interest in Latin America." [NYT 1/4/96 from Bloomberg Business News] 7. TWO EUROPEAN WOMEN KIDNAPPED IN COSTA RICA On Jan. 1 in northern Costa Rica, a group calling itself the "Viviana Gallardo Commando" kidnapped 24-year old German tourist Nicola Fleuchaus and 50-year old Swiss tour guide Regula Susana Sigfried, who has been a resident in Costa Rica for 25 years. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/5/96 from EFE; Reuter 1/3/96] Information Minister Alejandro Soto said that the kidnap victims appeared to have been chosen by chance from a group of about 10 German tourists who were bound, gagged and made to lie on the floor at the Lagarto Laguna Lodge. The first German woman picked by the kidnappers had an attack of hysteria, so they took Fleuchaus instead. At that point, "Sigfried, who was leading the group, offered to go with the German [Fleuchaus] because she was the only person who could speak Spanish," explained Soto. The other tourists were unhurt, and nothing was stolen from the hotel. [Reuter 1/3/96; ED-LP 1/3/96 from Notimex] Soto described the kidnappers as "nine men and one woman, citizens of another country...supported by Costa Ricans." [ED-LP 1/4/96 from combined wire services] The "Viviana Gallardo Commando" is a previously unknown group which took the name of a leftist student activist killed by a prison guard in 1991 following her arrest on terrorism charges. [Reuter 1/3/96] The kidnappers are demanding a ransom of $1 million in used $100 bills, plus one million colones (the equivalent in Costa Rican currency to just over $5,000) in 5,000 colon bills. Political demands include an 18% pay raise for Costa Rican workers, a price freeze on basic goods and services, and the release of commando members who briefly kidnapped 19 Supreme Court judges in April 1993 [see Update #170]. Costa Rican officials believe that the group's name and its political demands might be a cover to disguise a common crime. [ED-LP 1/4/96 from combined services, 1/5/96 from EFE, 1/7/96 from AFP; Reuter 1/3/96] A number of armed thugs operate along the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua; many are former members of the US- backed contras who fought against Nicaragua's Sandinista government during the 1980s. [Reuter 1/3/96] Hundreds of Costa Rican police were still searching for the victims on Jan. 3, and Nicaraguan army patrols mobilized along the border starting Jan. 2 to track the kidnappers at the request of Costa Rica's police. [ED-LP 1/4/96 from AFP] On Jan. 4, the daily La Nacion and other media sources received a note from the kidnappers, warning that if police did not stop hunting them they would attack bridges and power lines, and would threaten the security of an unidentified US family living in Costa Rica. [ED-LP 1/5/96 from EFE, 1/7/96 from AFP; Diario Las Americas 1/6/96 from AFP; Reuter 1/4/96] The US embassy issued a communique urging US residents in Costa Rica to remain alert and take precautions. [ED-LP 1/7/96 from AFP] The kidnappers have requested the mediation of priest Eduardo Bolanos from nearby Pital de San Carlos. On the evening of Jan. 4, Bolanos got a telephone call from a man identifying himself as a member of the Viviana Gallardo Commando. After announcing his willingness to negotiate, the presumed kidnapper repeated the group's demands and told Bolanos to pass the message to the government. Heinrich Barbian, director of the German weekly Costa Rica Aktuel, said he had spoken with Fleuchaus' parents, and that they had offered to pay the ransom; German foreign relations minister Klaus Kinkel denied that the question of payment was being discussed. [ED-LP 1/7/96 from AFP] 8. COLOMBIAN REBELS CARRY OUT YEAR-END ATTACKS Leftist rebels raided a town on the outskirts of the Colombian capital early on Dec. 26, robbing two banks and wounding four police agents in the small town of Une, about 20 km southeast of Bogota. Police and army officials said three other police agents were reported missing and believed kidnapped by the guerrillas. An 18-month-old daughter of the town's police chief died in one of several buildings the rebels destroyed in their attack, officials said. The rebels, who fled as army reinforcements were sent to the area by helicopter, were believed to have escaped with hundreds of thousands of dollars from the town's two banks. [Reuter 12/26/95] According to army chief Gen. Harold Bedoya Pizarro, six rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and ten police agents were killed in another rebel attack on the town of Achi, later in the same week. The rebels blew up a police station and a high school in the attack. On Dec. 29, rebels attacked the town of Corinto, 230 km southeast of Bogota, where they unsuccessfully attempted to rob two banks. [El Diario- La Prensa 12/31/95 from AP] The Colombian government and the "Jaime Bateman Cayon" guerrilla movement have defined the limits of an initial area of distension (easing of tensions), with a view toward beginning peace talks at a date to be set in the near future. The agreement was reached by representatives of the two sectors at the close of a meeting in the southwestern department of Cauca. The zone of distension is to be located in a mountainous region in the municipality of Miranda, Cauca department. According to a government communique, the zone itself has been defined, as has the transfer of rebel commanders to the area so they can take part in the preparatory stage of the peace talks. [Diario Las Americas 12/30/95 from AFP] The bishop of Rotterdam, Rhon Vanlam, will chair an international delegation that will travel to the banana-growing region of Uraba in March, it was announced in Medellin. Leaders of the Netherlands-based international pacifist organization Pax Christi and the German group Miserior Foundation will take part in the international verification commission, which seeks to assist with a negotiated solution to ongoing violence in the region [see Update #300]. [Diario Las Americas 1/6/96 from EFE] 9. TWO ARGENTINE SENATORS ESCAPE PROSECUTION Two Argentine senator-elects who had been ordered arrested were sworn in as senators and granted immunity from prosecution, it was reported on Dec. 19. Horacio Massaccesi, former governor of Rio Negro province for the opposition Radical Civic Union (UCR), was accused of having confiscated $16 million from the federally controlled Central Bank in 1991, which he used to pay back salaries of provincial government employees. Massaccesi, who took third place in last May's elections as presidential candidate for the Radical Civic Union--the country's main opposition party--had been eluding an arrest warrant since his term as governor ended on Dec. 10. Ramon Saadi, former governor of Catamarca province for the ruling Justicialist (Peronist) Party (PJ), is accused of abuse of authority and misappropriation of public funds during his term as governor. The two had remained fugitives, hiding out in the Senate building, while they awaited a decision by the Senate's Constitutional Affairs Commission on whether or not they were protected from prosecution. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/11/95 from AP, 12/14/95 from AP, 12/20/95 from AP; Inter Press Service 12/14/95; La Jornada 12/10/95; LJ 12/17/95 from AP, AFP; Diario Las Americas 12/16/95 from AFP; Financial Times (UK) 12/13/95] On Dec. 14, the Federal Chamber of the city of General Roca revoked the arrest order against Massaccesi, ruling that he had immunity from prosecution, having been elected by the Rio Negro provincial legislature. [DLA 12/16/95 from AFP] Massaccessi was elected senator on Nov. 14, prior to the end of his term as governor. [IPS 12/14/95] Saadi, however, was "elected" in an irregular session of the Catamarca provincial legislature. The record of Saadi's election is a video in which four arms can be seen raised in a sign of approval. The courts insist that he is not eligible for parliamentary immunity, and that he must be arrested if captured. [IPS 12/14/95] But on Dec. 16, federal judge Luisa Rivera ruled that the Catamarca courts must refrain from any arrest order, because it would violate Saadi's senatorial privilege. [LJ 12/17/95 from AP, AFP] 10. ONE BRAZILIAN WITNESS DISAPPEARS, OTHERS EXILED Brazilian prisoner Nei Gonzalves has disappeared mysteriously from his cell in Rio de Janeiro, according to police sources. Gonzalves, imprisoned for his alleged participation in a double homicide, was the sole witness to a series of tortures that three members of the anti-kidnapping division (DAS) of Rio's civilian police carried out on a kidnapping suspect before killing him and hiding his body. [Diario Las Americas 1/6/96 from EFE] Caio Ferraz, who last month was awarded Brazil's first National Human Rights Award, has gone into exile with his family. Ferraz had received anonymous death threats against himself and his 18- month old daughter ever since he complained about a recent police rampage through his Rio shantytown neighborhood, Vigario Geral. In the past month or so, human rights attorney Cristina Leonardo has helped at least five former Rio residents arrange exile, including Ferraz, who arranged to go to Boston. Leonardo also helped Wagner Dos Santos--a survivor and sole witness to the 1993 massacre by police of seven street children in front of Rio's Candelaria church [see Update #183]--to leave for Switzerland this past November. Dos Santos was again shot and wounded by police in December 1994, but managed to survive [see Update #256]. Guarded by Rio police at a so-called witness protection center--even as he was waiting to testify against the Rio police--Dos Santos became desperate and slit his wrists. He survived and is now studying hotel management in Switzerland. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who authorized funds to get Dos Santos out of Rio, is now seeking a bill to create a formal witness protection program in Brazil. [Washington Post 1/2/96 from Knight-Ridder] 11. PERU: PROSECUTOR SEEKS 30 YEARS FOR US CITIZEN According to files obtained by her defense lawyer, an anonymous military prosecutor in Peru is asking 30 years of prison for US citizen Lori Berenson, arrested on Nov. 30 and accused of helping rebels of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) [see Updates #306, 307, 309]. The files received by attorney Grimaldo Achahui indicate that the prosecutor is asking 20 years for Panamanian national Pacifico Castrellon Santamaria, who allegedly rented a house with Berenson, and 30 years for Peruvian Rosa Mita [identified elsewhere as Rosa Gilvonio or Nancy Gilvonio], who allegedly accompanied Berenson on what the Peruvian government claims was an espionage mission in the congress building. According to Achahui, Castrellon asked the Peruvian people for forgiveness, which influenced the prosecutor to request a lighter sentence. The prosecutor is seeking a life sentence for MRTA second-in-command Miguel Rincon Rincon and another leader, Jaime Ramirez Pedroza, and 25 years each for 18 other MRTA members captured in an armed action on Dec. 1 [see Update #305]. The prosecutor is also recommending civil reparations of one billion soles (about $400 million) to be paid collectively by all of those accused. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/7/96 from AFP] Meanwhile, Bolivia and Peru are requesting the immediate extradition from Uruguay of two Peruvians accused of belonging to the MRTA and participating in armed actions in both Bolivia and Peru. Luis Alberto Samaniego and Silvia Sonia Gora Rivera entered Uruguay with false Bolivian documents; they were arrested on Dec. 16 by Uruguayan police acting on request of Bolivian and Peruvian authorities. Judge Eduardo Borges received files on the two accused on Jan. 3 and began to analyze their cases. Borges must decide not only whether to extradite the two, but to which of the two countries the detainees should be sent if extradited. [ED-LP 1/5/96 from AFP] 12. GUATEMALAN FAMILY SUES US COMPANY FOR GLUE DEATH On Jan. 3, lawyers for the Guatemalan family of Joel Linares--who died in 1993 at age 16 from the effects of sniffing glue--refiled a civil suit in a federal district court in St. Paul, Minnesota, accusing H.B. Fuller Company of responsibility under Minnesota's "wrongful death" statute. Fuller, based in St. Paul, dominates the Central American adhesives market; the lawsuit is the latest escalation of a five-year campaign by human rights advocates to try to get Fuller to adopt a non-intoxicating formula, add an irritant to discourage abuse, or withdraw its products from the countries where they are widely abused by children. The products are not sold in the US. If the case survives a challenge over jurisdiction, the lawyers representing Linares' family will decide whether to seek to expand the case into a class action suit on behalf of all Central American children who have become addicted to Fuller's products. [New York Times 1/4/96] 13. IN OTHER NEWS... On Jan. 5 Haitian president-elect Rene Preval formally asked for a six-month extension of the United Nations (UN) mandate that provides for the current military occupation of the country by 6,000 troops, including 2,800 from the US. The US government has notified the UN that it will be unable to contribute troops after February, when the original mandate expires. [New York Times 1/6/96] As recently as Dec. 26 the US government was pressuring Haiti to let US troops remain after February [see Update #309]... On Jan. 4, some 500 state workers in El Salvador began an occupation of the San Salvador cathedral and ten of them went on hunger strike to protest a law establishing some 2,200 public sector layoffs [see Updates #298, 300, 207, 209]. The cathedral is currently under construction in preparation for the Feb. 8 visit of Pope John Paul II. Salvador Acuna, leader of the Public Works Ministry Workers Association (ATMOP) told the press on Jan. 5 that "we are going to continue our activity," although he added that representatives of the workers were to meet with deputies of the legislative assembly to "explore a possible solution." In the meantime, anti-riot troops of the National Civilian Police (PNC) have the cathedral cordoned off. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/7/96 from EFE, 1/5/96 from AFP; Diario Las Americas 1/6/96 from AFP]... Teachers in Ecuador began an open-ended strike on Jan. 5 to demand wage increases and bonuses. Radio and television reports said participation in the strike, called by the National Educators Union (UNE), was uneven but that most of the country's 2.1 million students either stayed away from school or returned home when they found their teachers off work. UNE leader Carlos Medina told reporters the strike was "a complete success and a victory." Education Minister Roberto Passailague said teachers in only four or five of the country's 21 provinces heeded the strike call. "Only in [the capital] Quito has the strike been a success," he told a news conference. Medina held talks on the afternoon of Jan. 5 with Congress President Fabian Alarcon, named by the government as a mediator in the dispute. [Reuter 1/5/96]... Some 2,000 public health workers in Bolivia began an open-ended strike on Jan. 2 to protest a law of administrative decentralization which the union says will bring layoffs in the sector. The unionists also argue that decentralization could bring an end to free health services, although the government denies this. The labor ministry declared the strike illegal, and health authorities announced the adoption of preventive measures to maintain emergency services in state hospitals and clinics. [ED-LP 1/3/96 from AFP]... The Justice Department of Puerto Rico has issued a legal opinion on the case of Juan Mari Bras, a Puerto Rican lawyer who has formally renounced his US citizenship [see Updates #306, 308]. The legal opinion indicates that Mari Bras has become a foreigner in Puerto Rico, and that it is up to the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to determine whether it is necessary for him to have a visa granting him permanent resident alien status. According to the opinion, Mari Bras can continue working as a lawyer, but he is no longer eligible to vote in Puerto Rico, since the island's electoral laws establish US citizenship as a requirement for voting. The opinion was issued by Justice Secretary Pedro Pierluisi on the request of governor Pedro Rossello. Mari Bras argues that the 1900 Foraker Law, which established Puerto Rican citizenship, was not repealed by the 1917 Jones Law, which granted all Puerto Ricans US citizenship. [Diario Las Americas 1/6/96 from EFE] 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. Visit Vietnam w/Monthly Review, 4/27-5/9/96. Hanoi, Danang, Hue, Ho Chi Minh, Mytho. Mtgs, excursions, museums w/tour guide Carol Skelskey. $3,400 (NY)/$3,100 (LA). Call 212-691-2555, fax 212-727-3676. IFCO/Pastors for Peace Work Brigades to Cuba, 3/9-3/16 or 3/9-3/23; 4/27-5/5. Help build homes in working-class Havana barrio. $850 for 1 wk; $1,150 for 2 wks. Also, Peace research trips. 212-926-5757, fax 212-926-5842, email ifco@igc.apc.org 1/12 FRI - "Art for the Zapatista Mvt," closing party. ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington St. 212-254-3697. 1/12 FRI, 7 PM - "Is There a New AFL-CIO?" w/Roque Ristorucci (UFT), Ray Markey (Local 1930 AFSCME) & others. At Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10th fl. $5. Social hr starts at 6 PM. NY CoC monthly forum series. 212-229-2388. 1/13 SAT, 12 NOON - Protest Mitsubishi & The Wiz role in rainforest destruction. The Wiz, 97th St & B'way. Wetlands Rainforest Action Group, 212-966-5244. 1/15 MON, 12 NOON - Protest Pataki's budget cuts. Martin Luther King Day demo at Pataki's office, 2 WTC, Church & Liberty. NY Coalition for Public Works Jobs, 718-712-9451. 1/16 TUE, 7:30 PM - NY CoC Peace & Solidarity Task Force, special mtg on Bosnia w/David McReynolds (WRL) & Bernadette Goggin (Pax Christi). At 122 W 27th St, 10th fl. 212-229-2388. 1/18 THU, 7 PM - CREED monthly mtg. Loc TBA. 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/ ================================================================= Cerigua Second Round Electoral Bulletin #1 (January 8, 1996) Preliminary Results Indicate Virtual Tie in Preisdential Elections Guatemala City, January 7, 11:30 P.M. Preliminary results of today's presidential elections give National Advancement Party (PAN) candidate Alvaro Arzu a slight advantage over opponent Alfonso Portillo of the Republican front (FRG). ArzŁ has won 54.4 percent of the 65 percent of votes tallied, while results give Portillo 45.6. The PAN candidate's lead is expected to shrink, however, since current figures are based on 94 percent of the vote from the capital district where former Gua temala City mayor ArzŁ enjoys a two to one advantage over Portillo, but on only 55 percent of the provinces where voters favoured the FRG. Since the capital district represents only 25 percent of Guatmealan voters, ArzŁ's victory is far from assured. Cerigua projections based on the voting trend in the provinces predicts ArzŁ will take the presidency by a narrow margin of 51.5 percent to Portillo's 48.5. However, much depends on the results from the provinces of Alta Verapaz, Quich‚, Huehuetenango an d San Marcos where few results have come in and support for the two parties was more or less even in the first round. If Portillo captures a significant number of votes in these provinces, the FRG may yet win power. While both parties are of the right and represent the interests of various sectors of the army and economic elite, the surprising possibility of an FRG victory has sent a chill down the spine of the Guatemalan popular movement. The party is considered th e vehicle of FRG leader and former dictator General Efrain Rios Montt, responsible for the killings of thousands activists and campesinos in the early 1980s. While Rios Montt was disqualified from running as his party's presidential candidate, Portillo has promised that the General will be in charge of national security in an FRG government. Today's election unfolded in relative tranquility and were marked by a low level of voter turn-out. Preliminary results indicate only 39.5 percent of registered voters bothered to vote today. Citizens interviewed by Cerigua speculated that the reasons f or the poor voter turnout are that few people care who is president - for them local elections for mayor are more important - and that niether of the two parties offer a viable option for Guatemalans. The only significant disturbances reported during today's vote was in Patzun, Chimaltenango where three people were reported killed when irate residents siezed the municipal hall and police station. Unconfirmed reports from Patzun say protesters continue to occupy the town hall and are holding several police officers hostage. The reasons for the disturbances are still unclear.