Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #311, JANUARY 14, 1996 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. New Decree Threatens Indigenous Lands in Brazil 2. Coca Growers March in Bolivia 3. Mayan Activists Murdered in Guatemala 4. Narrow Win for Moderate Right in Guatemalan Elections 5. Mexico: Guerrero Arrests Don't Stop Human Rights Abuses 6. Mexican Rebels and Government Resume Peace Talks 7. UN Haiti Occupation Extended; Troops Charged with Rape 8. Nicaragua: New Candidates for FSLN Primary 9. Salvadoran Workers Continue Protests 10. New York Activist Gets Life Sentence in Peru 11. Colombian Drug Trafficker Escapes 12. In Other News: Brazil and Honduras 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. NEW DECREE THREATENS INDIGENOUS LANDS IN BRAZIL A presidential decree that opens the way for challenges to indigenous land rights in Brazil was officially published on Jan. 8. The new decree allows both regional governments and individuals who formerly possessed lands now located in indigenous territories to seek either the return of the lands or compensation. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 1/12/96 from EFE] Challengers now have 90 days to present their arguments to the government's National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI). [New York Times 1/10/96 from Reuter] While the number of indigenous people living in the reserve areas is not known, there are thought to be about 300,000 indigenous people in Brazil in 200 different ethnic groups. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 1/13/96 from AFP] The new decree significantly alters the provisions of 1991 Decree 22/91, which granted some protection to indigenous land reservations. The only indigenous areas whose boundaries are now immune from review are 247 areas which are officially registered, out of a total of 554 indigenous territories in Brazil. The Indianist Missionary Council (CIMI), the Brazilian Catholic Church's agency for indigenous affairs, called the new decree "an attack on the constitutional rights of Brazil's indigenous peoples and a violent act of disregard for protests by indigenous peoples, public figures, and individuals and organizations who support the indigenous communities." [CIMI Statement posted 1/9/96 by cimi@ax.apc.org, via NY Transfer News] Thousands of letters and petitions from all over Brazil and from abroad flooded the Brazilian government during 1995, demanding that Decree 22/91 not be changed and that the constitutional rights of indigenous people be respected. CIMI wrote in a Nov. 7 statement that according to reliable sources within the Justice Ministry, these petitions were "ignored and shelved." CIMI president D. Apparecido Jose Dias had requested a meeting with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to discuss the government's indigenous policy and specifically decree 22/91. "We never received a response to this request," wrote CIMI. [CIMI statement 11/7/96, via NY Transfer] In interviews on Jan. 8, CIMI emphasized that areas now subject to challenges include a number which are the focus of current political pressure, such as the Raposa/Serra do Sol area in Roraima. CIMI also warns that the staff of FUNAI, the government's indigenous agency, is inadequate to deal with the volume of work the new decree will cause. FUNAI's land division, which deals with all processes involving the review of areas, has only six anthropologists, and the agency's team of lawyers is also inadequate. [CIMI Statement 1/9/96, via NY Transfer News] CIMI secretary Roberto Liebgopt said the new decree will clear the way for companies seeking to expand their mining, logging, ranching and other activities into indigenous lands, particularly in the Amazon region. [NYT 1/10/96 from Reuter] On Jan. 11 CIMI vice president Francisco Loebens warned that the new law may also bring an increase in violence against indigenous people. At a press conference with representatives of indigenous rights organizations and opposition parties at the headquarters of the Brazilian National Bishops Conference in Brasilia, Loebens called the decree "a setback to all the advances and achievements in legislation on the indigenous question." [DLA 1/13/96 from AFP] 2. COCA GROWERS MARCH IN BOLIVIA Several hundred women coca growers (cocaleras) left the Bolivian coca growing region of Chapare during the week of Dec. 18 on a protest march from Cochabamba to the capital, La Paz, in order to tell the Bolivian government about how the forced coca eradication programs--and the human rights abuses that have accompanied them--are affecting their families. The marchers spent Christmas and New Year's hiding from the police in the forests, and as of Jan. 9 they were still 240 km from La Paz. The march was started by some 200 women, but by Jan. 9 another 100 cocaleras from Las Yungas had joined them, and there may be as many as 1,000 by the time they reach La Paz. The marchers are moving through the countryside, far from the main roads, to avoid police harrassment and attempts to break up the march. "They are advancing very carefully in small groups to avoid discovery," a rural leader told Inter Press Service. "The police are close on their tail, but we don't know if they are sure of the exact whereabouts of the women." [Inter Press Service 1/9/96] According to Amnesty International, 45 women and three children under five years old who were participating in the march were arrested in late December but have since been released. Most of those arrested have rejoined the march. [Amnesty International Urgent Action Bulletin 1/8/96] Many of the marchers are in poor health, with terrible sores on their feet from walking for so long. One leader, who asked not to be identified, said that they were all determined to get to La Paz. Women's groups in La Paz are planning to welcome the marchers, and even the Catholic Church has called on the government not to obstruct the march. Human rights, union and women's groups have all expressed their total support for the cocaleras, who they feel have a legitimate right to defend their crops and families. The government has described the march as a "sacrifice," and in order to prevent the women suffering further, they said they may order the march to be suspended and the participants sent home. Interior Minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain said the march might be dissolved for "humanitarian reasons," in order to "avoid unnecessary sacrifices that, from a human point of view, can be moving, but are also at odds with morals and society." The cocaleras' husbands have announced that they will go on hunger strike if the government tries to interrupt the demonstration, and the Bolivian Workers Central (COB) said it would be forced to take strong measures. "If there is repression, it will confirm once again that the government does not want dialogue or to find solutions to the national social conflicts," said COB general secretary Oscar Salas Moya. Evo Morales, leader of the Chapare coca growers, condemned as a false promise the government's offer to suspend the forced eradication plans if the workers suspend the march. The government must eradicate more than 5,000 hectares of coca crops in order to qualify for financial support from the US. [Inter Press Service 1/9/96] 3. MAYAN ACTIVISTS MURDERED IN GUATEMALA The corpses of New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG) activists Lucia Tiu Tum and Miguel Us Mejia were discovered near their home in the village of Chimchij, Santa Lucia, Totonicapan province early on Jan. 5. Unidentified assailants killed Tiu, who was eight months pregnant, with a single shot through the heart and stabbed Us 28 times. Robbery has been discounted as a motive since the victims' money and valuables were untouched. In addition to her work with the recently formed front, Tiu was a prominent local activist with the National Widows Coordination (CONAVIGUA), while Us belonged to the Runujel Junam Council of Ethnic Communities (CERJ). Both were active in the groups' campaigns to end forced military recruitment and disband local paramilitary Civil Self-Defense Patrols (PACs). CERJ representative Jose Set told Guatemalan news agency Cerigua he believes civilian agents of the army are responsible for the killings. But army spokesperson Col. Guillermo Caal Davila denied the accusations and dismissed the deaths as another common crime. Residents of Santa Lucia and two neighboring municipalities boycotted the presidential runoff elections to protest the murders. The murders come only a day after the FDNG reported that several of its recently elected legislators are receiving death threats. FDNG congressional representatives Nineth Montenegro and Carlos Barrios both say they have received telephone and mail threats in recent weeks. In other human rights news, two tourists murdered in Panajachel, Solola province on Jan. 7 have been identified as Lucinda Bousquet of Kentucky and Ann Ahern of Great Britain. The two arrived in Guatemala via Mexico only five days before their deaths. Both women died as a result of bullet wounds to the head. Police investigators say robbery was not a motive since both victims' money and valuables were left untouched. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #2, 1/11/96] 4. NARROW WIN FOR MODERATE RIGHT IN GUATEMALAN ELECTIONS According to final results announced by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) on Jan. 8, moderate rightist Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen of the National Advancement Party (PAN) won the presidential runoff in Guatemala on Jan. 7 with 671,354 votes (51.2% of the valid votes cast) compared to 639,404 (48.8%) for Alvaro Portillo of the far-right Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG)--the closest margin of victory ever recorded in a presidential election in Guatemala. Abstention was 63.12% nationally, and even higher in rural areas. Arzu won because of his 110,000 vote lead in Guatemala City, where he was mayor from 1986-1990 and where his party has won all three mayoral elections since 1986. Portillo won in 17 of the country's 22 departments, sweeping the elections in the western highland areas where the nation's Indian communities are concentrated. "This one is as tight as Kennedy and Nixon," wrote Mario Antonio Sandoval, a columnist for the conservative daily Prensa Libre, "plus barely a third of the people bothered to vote, so Arzu is entering office in a very weak and uncomfortable position." Arzu is being sworn into office on Jan. 14. "In Guatemala, a weak government always falls into the hands of powerful economic classes, authoritarian political groups, and the military," said Jorge Mario Garcia, Guatemala's human rights prosecutor. Portillo, the hand-picked candidate of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, announced that "I am not the president of the country, but I am the principal political leader of the nation. Under the general's baton, we are going to continue working throughout Guatemala." During the campaign, Portillo had promised that if he won the presidency Rios Montt would have been appointed as both defense minister and interior minister, and a new national security council would have been created and headed by the general. [Latin America Data Base 1/12/96 from Inter Press Service, AP, UPI, Reuter, ACAN-EFE, La Jornada (Mexico), New York Times, AFP] 5. MEXICO: GUERRERO ARRESTS DON'T STOP HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES On Jan. 10 four former officials of the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero were arrested and charged with homicide, assault and abuse of authority in connection with the massacre of 17 campesino activists at Aguas Blancas ford, near Acapulco, on June 28, 1995. Twenty agents of the state "motorized police" (riot police) were also charged, although only 17 were arrested on Jan. 10. The four officials charged are former deputy attorney general Rodolfo Sotomayor Espino, former public safety director Manuel Moreno Gonzalez, former state governance director Esteban Mendoza Ramos and former governance delegate Gustavo Martinez Galeana. The state government had claimed at first that the victims-- members of the leftist Southern Sierra Campesino Organization (OCSS) who were driving to a demonstration in the town of Atoyac de Alvarez--had assaulted the police at a routine roadblock. OCSS and the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) charged that the police ambushed the campesinos in an operation planned by top Guerrero officials, including Governor Ruben Figueroa Alcocer [see Update #283 and 284]. Another four state officials are under investigation, although they have not been arrested: former attorney general Antonio Alcocer Salazar, ex- judicial police director Gustavo Olea Godoy, former under secretary of highways Rosendo Armijo de los Santos and ex-special prosecutor Adrian Vega Cornejo. [La Jornada 1/11/96, electronic edition] Two US-based human rights groups, Human Rights Watch and Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, praised the arrests but demanded investigations of other officials. Former social communications director Carlos Carrillo Santillan has admitted that he and former governance secretary Ruben Robles Catalan raced to Aguas Blancas by helicopter right after the massacre; he denies that he and Robles Catalan are responsible for a clumsily doctored police videotape intended to show the unarmed campesinos as the aggressors. And one witness--Virgilia Galeana Garcia, a PRD and human rights activist from the nearby town of Coyuca de Benitez--places Brig. Gen. Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro at the scene shortly after the killings. Acosta Chaparro is thought to have led the repression of Guerrero's guerrilla movement during the 1970s. [LJ 1/7/96 and 1/12/96, electronic edition; Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights press release 1/11/96] [Acosta Chaparro is also said to be active in the southeastern state of Chiapas; see "Summary of Information Regarding US Involvement in Developing Contras in Chiapas," National Commission for Democracy in Mexico (NCDM) 12/20/95.] Human rights violations continue at high levels both in Guerrero and in Mexico as a whole. In December the Fray Francisco de Vitoria Human Rights Center reported a total of 358 human rights violations in the country between Jan. 27 and Aug. 11, 1995, including 107 summary executions by police forces or unidentified groups and individuals. Guerrero led with 38 killings (including the Aguas Blancas massacre), followed by Oaxaca with 14 and Chiapas with nine. [LJ 12/31/95] Guerrero activists continued to be targeted after August. Between Oct. 9 and Oct. 21 a total of six PRD members and two OCSS members were shot dead by unknown persons. Martha Morales Vazquez, former PRD candidate for mayor of Tecpan de Galeana, was shot outside her home hours after she derided Gov. Figueroa at a rally [see Updates #299 and 302]. She died of her wounds on Nov. 6. [Mexpaz #49, Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Center report, posted on New York Transfer 12/1/95] On Jan. 3--one week before the Aguas Blancas arrests--the Atoyac sheriff murdered Gildardo Dorantes Munoz, an OCSS and PRD member who was reportedly on the sheriff's "black list" of seven PRD members to be killed. [Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update Vol. 2, #54, 1/9/96 from LJ /8/96] In Chiapas on Nov. 15, more than 120 state police moved in on indigenous Tzeltal communities 50 km east of San Cristobal de las Casas, according to the Chiapas branch of the National Coordination of Coffee Growers Organizations (CNOC). The police detained and beat more than 100 campesinos from the villages of Nichteel and Tzumbal; Antonio Guzman Cruz, a 60-year old campesino, died as a result of the beatings. [CNOC Alert posted on New York Transfer 11/17/95] When two representatives of the Coordination of Non-Governmental Organizations for Peace (CONPAZ) attempted to investigate, authorities in the municipality of San Juan Cancuc held them for 28 hours. The investigators were released when they promised not to report the incident. [LJ 11/19/95] 6. MEXICAN REBELS AND GOVERNMENT RESUME PEACE TALKS The National Forum on Indigenous Rights, a gathering of 236 Mexican indigenous activists, 198 other Mexicans and 56 foreigners, met in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, from Jan. 3 to Jan. 9. The forum, convened by the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), agreed on a program including various forms of regional, municipal and community autonomy for Mexico's 56 officially recognized indigenous groups, land guarantees for indigenous people, a restoration of Article 27 of the Constitution (a land reform article gutted during the 1988-1994 administration of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari) and revision of the Constitution to recognize the diversity of the Mexican people. The forum was to present its conclusions to the EZLN and the federal Congress; the forum's work is to continue through April. [Mexico Update 1/9/96 from LJ 1/8/96] Talks between the EZLN and the government resumed on Jan. 10 near San Cristobal in the town of San Andres Larrainzar (or Sakamch'en de los Pobres). On Jan. 11 the government negotiators presented an autonomy proposal but rejected the forum's call to roll back the changes to Article 27. [Associated Press 1/11/96] EZLN spokesperson "Insurgent Sub-Commander Marcos" used the forum and the peace talks to do public relations for the rebels' effort to build a new political force, the Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN). After disarming for television cameras, Marcos was driven to San Cristobal from his headquarters in the Lacandona Forest on Jan. 7. That evening Marcos, who is not indigenous, was introduced to the forum as "an indigenous companero with different skin." Many sympathizers have been skeptical about the EZLN's new political direction. On Jan. 8 the left-leaning weekly Proceso ran a cover story entitled "Marcos' Sunset." [Reuter 1/8/96] Marcos stayed in San Cristobal through Jan. 9, when he defended the EZLN's strategy to a press conference that drew some 200 media people. Marcos denied that the Democratic National Convention (CND) and the National Liberation Movement (MLN)--two of the EZLN's earlier efforts to build a civilian movement--had failed, and promised that the MLN would make important announcements before the end of the month. "If in the Mexican state there exist forms of struggle that make legal, peaceful, civilian struggle possible," he said, "an organization that proposes armed struggle is absolutely absurd and ought to disappear." But he warned that the government was planning a military action "designed in the US" against the Zapatistas. Part of the plan, he said, was the Governance Secretariat's recent efforts to remove international peace activists from the conflict zone [see Update #309], a strategy he called "ethnic cleansing." [LJ 1/10/96, electronic edition] 7. UN HAITI OCCUPATION EXTENDED; TROOPS CHARGED WITH RAPE Haiti, the United Nations and the US have agreed that UN forces will stay in Haiti after the February deadline for withdrawal. US and UN sources said that the current 6,000-member UN Mission in Haiti (MINUHA) would be reduced to between 1,000 and 1,500 soldiers. The US, whose troops make up a third of the group, says it will withdraw completely, although it will consider supporting the UN force with military engineering units to assist in construction projects. [New York Times 1/11/96] A US State Department spokesperson, Glyn Davies, indicated on Dec. 27 that the 2,400 US troops would not withdraw at the end of February but "will start to regroup to leave." He also referred to "the 6,000 other troops operating under the UN flag," suggesting that the current number of MINUHA troops may actually be 8,400, not the official 6,000. [Haiti Progres (NY) 1/3-9/96 from AP, quotation retranslated from French] Meanwhile, MINUHA spokesperson Eric Falt said in early January that two Pakistani soldiers in the UN force had been charged with organizing a prostitution ring; he said they were the first UN soldiers arrested since March 1995. The Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP), a large peasant group based in the Central Plateau region, charges that the soldiers raped a peasant woman on Dec. 19 and then beat up a witness a week later. [Washington Post 1/7/96 from AP] Falt dismissed the witness, Baudler Elie, as a "story teller," and assured reporters that the two soldiers would be tried by a Pakistani military court since "recourse to prostitutes is contrary to military regulations and to Islamic law." [HP 1/10-16/96, quotation retranslated] On Jan. 11 MINUHA troops and the Haitian National Police intervened in northern Haiti to end the blocking of a highway by peasant groups demanding electricity for use in irrigating their fields. The authorities and electric company officials negotiated with the peasant groups in several towns, promising to consider their demands. In most areas the protesters ended their action but those in the town of Lestre held out. A youth was killed and three other people received bullet wounds when the authorities moved in. [Diario las Americas 1/13/96 from EFE] 8. NICARAGUA: NEW CANDIDATES FOR FSLN PRIMARY Two prominent members of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) will challenge party leader and former president Daniel Ortega for the leftist party's presidential nomination, the Sandinista newspaper Barricada reported on Jan. 6. Human rights activist Vilma Nunez de Escorcia and Managua lawyer Alvaro Ramirez, a former army colonel, will compete in a series of primaries in January and February against Ortega, who lost reelection for the presidency of Nicaragua in February 1990. Nunez, a lawyer and human rights activist since the 1950s, leads the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) and has been highly critical of violent police crackdowns against student and union protesters. Ramirez, a former deputy foreign minister who heads the Association of Democratic Lawyers, is known for defending the poor and currently represents workers suing a US- owned banana company, according to Barricada. Ramirez claims that his candidacy is being supported by demobilized members of the army, by the Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs, and by diverse sectors of the FSLN and even some former contras. The FSLN will be the first party in Nicaraguan history to choose its candidates by a primary open to all registered voters. A poll released two weeks ago shows Ortega with only 19.1% support among voters in general, but the two new candidates are considered long shots to beat him at the primaries, since earlier polls have shown that the former president is supported by as much as 84% of Sandinista grassroots activists. Elections are scheduled for Oct. 20. [Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 1/9/96; Reuter 1/6/96] On Jan. 12, the US announced it was donating $3.5 million to support programs for the general elections. [Telenoticias TV News (US) 1/12/96] 9. SALVADORAN WORKERS CONTINUE PROTESTS State workers in El Salvador are threatening to step up their protest actions into a general strike if the government doesn't reinstate 1,000 laid-off workers and review 551 other layoff cases. Some 150 activists from the Association of Public Works Ministry Workers (ATMOP) and other state sector unions are continuing their occupation of the San Salvador cathedral [see Update #310]; at least twelve workers are still on hunger strike, and at least two of the hunger strikers have been hospitalized. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/12/96 from AP, 1/9/96 from AFP; Flor de Izote Foundation Weekly Report-El Salvador Vol. 7, # 1, 12/18/95- 1/9/96; International Solidarity Center Update 1/12/96] Conservative San Salvador archbishop Fernando Saenz called the occupation of the cathedral "an extremely serious offense to God." [ED-LP 1/8/96 from AFP] Decree 471--ordering the supposedly voluntary layoffs and guaranteeing severance pay--was approved by the Legislative Assembly on Oct. 12 [see Updates #298, 300, 307, 309] and took effect on Jan. 1. The assembly has announced that it no longer has any authority to change the decree; any decisions must be made by President Armando Calderon Sol. The workers say they won't leave the cathedral until they get a written agreement from the president. [La Jornada 1/7/96 from EFE, DPA, Prensa Latina; CIS Update 1/12/96] Of the 15,000 workers affected by the decree, about 9,000 accepted voluntary retirement and do not oppose the measure; another 6,000 have been involuntarily laid off. The cases being protested are jobs the workers believe are necessary, and situations where the workers did not retire voluntarily and where union activists are being targeted for dismissal. CIS is asking for faxes to President Calderon (503-271-0950) to support the workers' demands and to urge that the government seek a peaceful solution and not use violence. [CIS Update 1/12/96] 10. NEW YORK ACTIVIST GETS LIFE SENTENCE IN PERU On Jan. 11, a secret Peruvian military court convicted US activist Lori Berenson of treason and sentenced her to life in prison. Berenson was arrested on Nov. 30 and accused of helping the leftist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) [see Updates #306, 307, 309, 310]. The military prosecutor had asked for a 30-year sentence. The trial was closed to the public; the military judge presided over the case hidden behind a partition to protect his or her identity; defense lawyers said they were not allowed to cross-examine witnesses or rebut key evidence. Berenson's Peruvian lawyer Grimaldo Achahui Loayza called the conviction "a travesty of justice." "There was not one piece of concrete evidence presented to show that Lori had committed treason," said Achahui. "It was all conjecture." [New York Times 1/12/96; Reuter 1/12/96] The alleged number-two leader of the MRTA, Miguel Rincon Rincon, was also sentenced to life in prison, as were alleged MRTA leaders Jaime Ramirez Pedraza and Nancy Gloria Gilvonio Conde. Panamanian national Pacifico Castrellon Santamaria was sentenced to 30 years (the prosecutor had asked for 25 years). Three other Peruvians were sentenced to 30 years and another 12 co-defendants got 25 years. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/12/96 from AP] [Contrary to what was implied in Update #310, alleged MRTA members Rosa Mita Calle and Nancy Gilvonio are separate individuals: Mita is a Bolivian reporter and photographer and Gilvonio is Peruvian. [ED- LP 1/12/96 from AP, Notimex]] [In related news, the Peruvian police announced on Jan. 10 that another 40 alleged MRTA members were arrested in the jungle region of La Rioja, in San Martin department. [ED-LP 1/11/96 from Notimex]] Peruvian police claim Berenson, known as "Comrade Lucia," rented a house in Lima as a front for rebels and gathered intelligence on Congress by posing as a reporter for US-based magazines Third World Viewpoint and Modern Times. [Reuter 1/8/96] On Jan. 8, three days before her conviction, agents of the anti- drug police DINCOTE presented Berenson, wearing street clothes and not handcuffed, to the press. When the other alleged MRTA members were presented two weeks earlier they were all wearing striped prison uniforms. "They are trying to make a difference between them," said Ramsey Clark, who is advising Berenson's family. [NYT 1/9/96] Berenson ignored questions shouted to her by reporters and shouted her own statement in Spanish: "I am to be condemned for my concern about the conditions of hunger and misery which exist in this country. Here nobody can deny that in Peru there is much injustice. There is institutionalized violence that has killed the people's best sons [and daughters] and has condemned children to die of hunger. If it is a crime to worry about the subhuman conditions in which the majority of this population lives, then I will accept my punishment. But this is not a love of violence. This is not to be a criminal terrorist because in the MRTA there are no criminal terrorists. It is a revolutionary movement." "I love this people. I love this people and although this love is going to make--cost--me years in prison, I will never stop loving, and never lose the hope and confidence that there will be a new day of justice in Peru." [Statement posted in English by Berenson family 1/11/96, via NY Transfer News] Achahui said the action of presenting his client to the public constituted an interference in the judicial process. "I believe that the charges assembled against my defendant were not duly sustained by the prosecutor, so in order to make an effect on public opinion they decided to take her out of the legal environment and present her to the whole country," said Achahui. [ED-LP 1/10/96 from AFP] This tactic seems to have been effective: according to the New York Times, many Peruvians said they at first sympathized with Berenson but changed their minds after they saw her shouting angrily at the press conference. [NYT 1/14/96] Berenson is expected to be moved soon to the Yanamayo maximum security prison in the Andean highlands near the town of Puno to begin serving her sentence. Yanamayo is a notoriously harsh prison for those convicted on terrorism-related charges. Prisoners convicted of treason are not allowed outside visitors for the first year of their sentence. After that, they are granted a 15-minute visit by relatives every month. [NYT 1/12/96; Reuter 1/12/96] The US government issued a statement deploring the lack of due process in Berenson's trial and asking the Peruvian government to consider allowing her appeal to be heard before a civilian court. [ED-LP 1/14/96 from AFP] Peruvians saw the US statement as further interference in Peruvian affairs. "It is not the State Department's place to emit any pronouncement, because in this case the Peruvian laws prevail over all," said former United Nations secretary general and former Peruvian presidential candidate Javier Perez de Cuellar in a radio interview. [ED-LP 1/14/96 from EFE] In a statement posted on a World Wide Web site set up about the case, Berenson's father said: "I ask all citizens of the United States if this is the kind of country we should be providing economic or military aid to? I ask all citizens of the United States if this is a country which we should be visiting as tourists?" [Statement by Mark Berenson 1/11/96 from WWW site http://web.bbnplanet.com/~salem/lori_berenson, via NY Transfer] 11. COLOMBIAN DRUG TRAFFICKER ESCAPES Jose Santacruz Londono, arrested on July 4 of last year and accused of being one of the top leaders of the Cali drug cartel in Colombia, slipped out of the La Picota prison in Bogota--the country's top security prison--on the afternoon of Jan. 11, after attending a three-hour hearing at the prison before a "faceless" judge, a representative from the attorney general's office and a court clerk. Authorities have set up more than 300 checkpoints in Bogota and have brought some 3,000 elite police and military agents from Cali to search for Santacruz; a $2 million reward has been offered for his capture. The authorities are still trying to determine whether Santacruz' escape was assisted by prison guards or by his lawyer, who was visiting the prison with officials from the prosecutor's office just before the escape. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/12/96 & 12/14/96 from combined services; Diario Las Americas 1/13/96 from EFE; WP 1/12/96 from AP, 1/13/96; New York Times 1/13/96] Col. Norberto Pelaez, director of the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC), resigned on Jan. 12; a government spokesperson said the resignation did not mean Pelaez was being blamed for the trafficker's escape. National Police director Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano said Pelaez is an excellent officer "but in these cases someone has to be responsible." [ED-LP 1/14/96 from combined services; NYT 1/13/96] The US government has been seeking the extradition of Santacruz to the US on the request of courts in New York and Florida which accuse him of drug trafficking. Santacruz has also been accused of masterminding the 1992 murder in New York City of Cuban-born journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue; US federal prosecutors in the case said they believed Santacruz was responsible, though he was not formally charged. The 1991 Colombian constitution strictly prohibits the handing over of Colombian nationals to the judicial powers of other countries. [ED-LP 1/12/96 from combined services] According to an article in the New York Times, the US has hinted that the escape of Santacruz may jeapordize Colombia's chances of getting US aid and trade preferences next year. In March, US president Bill Clinton must decide whether Colombia and 28 other countries considered to be key drug producing nations have done enough in the fight against drugs to earn their US aid. A statement from the US embassy in Bogota on Jan. 12 said "it is unavoidable" that the escape will "affect the certification process." [NYT 1/13/96] 12. IN OTHER NEWS... Inmates at a prison in Sao Paulo, Brazil, took three guards hostage during the week of Jan. 8 in an uprising to demand better conditions at the facility. Images shown on television included that of a prisoner shouting angrily while holding a guard by the neck and brandishing a large homemade knife. [Diario Las Americas 1/13/96 from AFP]... On Jan. 5 an appeals court in Honduras ruled 2 to 1 that 10 soldiers accused in the 1982 abduction and torture of six university students are immune from prosecution under a 1991 amnesty law. "The amnesty is general and includes both civilians and military personnel involved in the case," said Judge Israel Turcios Rodriguez. [New York Times 1/7/96 from AP; DLA 1/13/96 from EFE] Correction: Update #298 misstated the first name of former French president Francois Mitterrand, who died on Jan. 8 of this year. 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. 1/18 THU, 7 PM - CREED monthly mtg. Loc TBA. 212-645-5230. 1/19 FRI - Fundraiser for Shuswap indigenous people of Canada & Leonard Peltier. 6th Ave & 8th St, Park Slope. 718-934-5501. 1/20 SAT, 2 PM - "US/UN Sanctions Are Killing Iraqi Children," w/Ramsey Clark, Miguel D'Escoto (Nicaragua) & others. Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), 199 Chambers St. $10/$5. Int'l Action Ctr, 212-633-2889. 1/24 WED, 7:30 PM - "Reproductive Rights in the 1990s: Abortion Wars & Welfare 'Reform,'" mtg to commemorate 23rd anniv of Roe vs Wade. Dinner at 7 PM for $6. Radical Women, 32 Union Sq East, #907, 212-677-7002. ================================================================= 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/ =================================================================