Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #312, JANUARY 21, 1996 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Guatemala: Students Murdered as New President Sworn In 2. Nicaraguan Leftists Rounded Up as Pope Visit Nears? 3. Mexico Drug Trafficker Arrested: Born in the USA? 4. Mexican Left Seeks Unity; US Builds Up Zedillo 5. Free Trade: Clean Air, PCBs, Maquilas 6. Haiti: Another Deputy Shot, Police and "Red Army" Battle 7. Miami Right Drops Pamphlets on Cuba, Journalists Arrested 8. Bolivian Cocaleras Arrive in La Paz 9. Prison Director Murdered in Colombia 10. Ecuador: Electric Workers Protest, Teachers Celebrate 11. Salvadoran Workers End Cathedral Occupation 12. Dominican Republic: Striking Doctors Replaced by Soldiers 13. In Other News: Panama, Argentina, Peru & Brazil 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. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. Subscriptions to the electronic edition are delivered directly to your email address by our distributor, NY Transfer News. To subscribe, send your email address with a check or money order for US $25 payable to Blythe Systems. Mail to NY Transfer News Collective, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. For more information about electronic subscriptions, contact NY Transfer at nyt@blythe.org. For a subscription to the print edition (via first class mail), please send check or money order for $25 payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network at 339 Lafayette St., New York, New York 10012. The email and print versions of the Weekly News Update are identical in content. Back issues and source materials are available on request. 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Send us a copy of any publication where we are cited or reprinted. 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. GUATEMALA: STUDENTS MURDERED AS NEW PRESIDENT SWORN IN University students Sergio Anibal Diaz Suchini and German Castellanos Valdez were shot to death on Jan. 16 in the southeastern Guatemalan city of Chiquimula. Diaz and Castellanos, who have been identified by the Mutual Support Group (GAM) as student leaders, were leaving a "Super 24" supermarket together with other students from the Regional University Center of the East (CUNORI) campus of the University of San Carlos (USAC) when heavily armed, unidentified assailants opened fire on them from a motorcycle without license plates. No other injuries were reported. USAC students have frequently been targeted for threats, abductions, torture and murder. Last August, two CUNORI associates were murdered: Esau Paiz on Aug. 6 and Ramon Perez on Aug. 8. The Jan. 16 shooting marked the first reported act of political violence under the administration of new president Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen. Arzu was sworn in on Jan. 14 for a four-year term. According to the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in Central America (CODEHUCA), the attack on the students is a test of the new government's willingness to confront repression and impunity. GAM also believes that paramilitary sectors are responsible for the murders and that they are testing the new president. GAM is asking that the attack be investigated by a commission of National Police, representatives of the three branches of government, and human rights experts, establishing a precedent of serious response to such violations. The Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA is asking for faxes to President Alvaro Arzu (fax# 502-2-95-26-4611) and Defense Minister Gen. Julio Balconi (fax: 011-502-2-537-472), demanding that the student murders be fully investigated and that those responsible be prosecuted. [GHRC/USA Urgent Action 1/18/96; Diario Las Americas (Miami) 1/20/96 from EFE] Arzu announced his cabinet on Jan. 13, surprising observers by appointing a well-known leftist academic, Eduardo Stein, as foreign minister. The new defense minister is Julio Balconi, who for five years has been a negotiator for the government in peace talks with the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) guerrilla organization; he is a fervent believer in a political solution to Guatemala's armed conflict and is seen as representing the reform wing of the armed forces. Former bank superintendent Jose Alejandro Avalos was named finance minister; former Chamber of Industries president Mauricio Wurmser is the new economy minister. Arzu has promised to reduce poverty, sign peace accords with the URNG, respect human rights, clean up and broaden the police forces, eliminate the Civilian Self-Defense Patrols (PACs) once the armed conflict is ended, and fight organized crime. [La Jornada (Mexico) 1/14/96 from Reuter, ANSA, AP, AFP, DPA, Prensa Latina] 2. NICARAGUAN LEFTISTS ROUNDED UP AS POPE VISIT NEARS? On Jan. 12, Nicaraguan police announced the arrest of 14 leaders and militants in the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in connection with a series of church bombings that taken place since May 1995; police said five other suspects are still at large. Among those arrested were Roger Figueroa, secretary of the Sandinista Workers Central (CST) in Leon; his brother, Roberto Carlos Figueroa, president of the Leon electoral committee of the FSLN; and Fernando Arguello Sevilla, local secretary of the Sandinista Youth and an FSLN candidate for the National Assembly. According to police sources, seven of the suspects subsequently confessed to taking part in some of the bombings. Three men were jailed and convicted of other church bombings last year in the city of Masaya, but were later freed by a judge, drawing vigorous protests from police. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 1/19/96 from Notimex, AP, Nicaragua Network Hotline, AFP, Reuter, ACAN- EFE; New York Times 1/21/96] While no one was hurt in any of the church bombings, the Mexican daily La Jornada reported on Jan. 14 that a high-powered bomb killed a youth in the Nicaraguan city of Leon--shortly before the arrests were announced--in a possibly related incident. FSLN leaders rejected the accusations linking Sandinista militants to the bombings, and called for a protest march to police headquarters in Leon. [LJ 1/14/96 from DPA, EFE] Government officials have suggested that the purpose of the bombings is to interrupt or discourage the pope's scheduled Feb. 7 visit to Nicaragua by and to interfere with the October elections. But the arrests shed no new light on a possible motive; according to police chief Fernando Caldera, the suspects have not explained why they carried out the bombings they confessed to. [LADB Notisur 1/19/96 from Notimex, AP, NN Hotline, AFP, Reuter, ACAN-EFE] Newspaper and radio reports have accused Carlos Fonseca Teran--a senior Sandinista leader and the son of FSLN founder Carlos Fonseca Amador--as the "intellectual author" of the Leon bombings, although police chief Fernando Caldera admitted that he had no evidence of this. [NYT 1/21/96] At the invitation of the Nicaraguan government, four US specialists from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the State Department office of security visited the sites of several bombed churches in December. A spokesperson for the US embassy said the evidence they had collected had been sent to a lab in Maryland, where it is being analyzed. "Unable to clear up the Oklahoma bombing, they are now coming here to try to resolve an internal problem that is the job of the National Police," said FSLN secretary general Daniel Ortega. Ortega later said that Nicaragua "needs to get people with experience in on this," and welcomed the foreign help. "We in the Sandinista Front are the ones most interested in resolving this situation," he said. "The longer this fog continues, the more damage it does to us. [NYT 1/21/96] According to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), the police had drawn up a list of 172 leaders of grassroots groups and FSLN labor unions who would be arrested before Feb. 7 on the grounds that they were potentially dangerous. CENIDH president Vilma Nunez said the list was evidence of a "dangerous political persecution" against the FSLN and activist groups. One of the targeted groups subsequently asked the Supreme Court to block any arrests of the people on the list. But before the case was heard, police chief Caldera, Governance Minister Sergio Narvaez and vice minister of governance Frank Cesar said they had new information indicating that "groups associated with violence" planned to strike before the pope's arrival. Cesar said authorities had "sufficient evidence" that planning was underway to carry out acts of violence a month before the pope's arrival as well as before the elections. The police "list of dangerous persons"--virtually confirmed by Narvaez at the press conference--prompted Sandinista leaders to step up criticism of the police and unnamed political enemies. Mario Malespin, head of the TELCOR workers unions, said that police harassment might culminate in the assassination of Sandinista union and political leaders. In turn, police officials accused Sandinistas of mounting a campaign to disparage the police. Ortega has denied that the FSLN has anything to do with the attacks on churches. Ortega wrote a letter to Pope John Paul II on Jan. 16 in which he expressed his wish that the papal visit would be successful and would contribute to stability in Nicaragua. Ortega personally delivered the letter to Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo and discussed the bombings with him during the meeting. At a press conference the previous day, Ortega promised that there would be no repetition of the protests from Sandinistas that marred the visit by the pope in 1983. "There is no longer a war nor a US blockade," Ortega pointed out. "Now, the problems are of a different dimension, and Nicaraguans identify themselves with the pope's views on the problems that affect the world," he said. Ortega said that any Sandinista implicated in the bombings would be expelled from the party. [LADB Notisur 1/19/96 from Notimex, AP, NN Hotline, AFP, Reuter, ACAN-EFE] Meanwhile, some 100 university students demanding a larger budget for higher education took over a building of the Telecommunications and Mail service (TELCOR) on Jan. 15 and blocked operator-assisted international calls. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 1/16/96 from AFP] 3. MEXICO DRUG TRAFFICKER ARRESTED: BORN IN THE USA? Mexican federal police arrested alleged drug trafficker Juan Garcia Abrego in the northern city of Monterrey on Jan. 14. The next day the Mexican government deported him to Houston, where he is being held without bail. Garcia Abrego, who was placed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) "Ten Most Wanted List" in March 1995, is said to have run the operations of the so-called Gulf Cartel, which allegedly ships Colombian cocaine into the US through Mexico. The Mexican government based the deportation on Article 33 of the Constitution; this provides for deporting foreigners without trial when their presence in Mexico is judged "inappropriate." Garcia Abrego has dual US-Mexican citizenship; different birth certificates show him born in La Paloma, Texas, and across the border in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/16/96 from AFP; Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update Vol. 2, #55, 1/16/96 from Reforma and La Jornada; New York Times 1/16/96, 1/17/96, 1/20/96; Washington Post 1/16/96, 1/17/96] US State Department spokesperson Nicholas Burns called the Garcia Abrego arrest a "triumph for the Mexican government and for Mexican-US cooperation in the fight against drugs." [ED-LP 1/17/96 from EFE, quote retranslated from Spanish] US attorney general Janet Reno phoned Mexican foreign relations secretary Jose Angel Gurria and attorney general Antonio Lozano Gracia to congratulate them. US officials said the arrest was (in the Washington Post's words) "a major coup for the Mexican president," Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon. [WP 1/17/96] But in Mexico, Eduardo Monner of the Intercontinental University suggested that the deportation might just be a gesture "to keep the White House quiet," or an informal "exchange" for former deputy attorney general Mario Ruiz Massieu. The US has been trying to extradite or deport Ruiz Massieu, charged with illicit enrichment and obstruction of justice in Mexico, ever since March 1995. [Inter Press Service 1/16/96] The Mexico City daily El Financiero reported on Jan. 16 that Garcia Abrego was no longer the Gulf Cartel's chief of operations; cartel head Francisco Guerra replaced him more than a year ago with Oscar Malherbe, whose cover name is Martin Becerra, according to former government investigator Eduardo ("El Buho") Valle. [IPS 1/16/96] Citing sources that wished to remain anonymous, the Mexico City daily La Jornada reported on Jan. 19 that the government and Garcia Abrego had made a deal: the government would provide security for Garcia Abrego's family and allow him to keep an important part of his holdings; in exchange the accused drug trafficker would keep quiet about top officials in the Zedillo administration and the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, president from 1988 to 1994. He would not discuss campaign contributions. The deal was reportedly worked out in October. Attorney generals Lozano and Reno supposedly discussed the possibility during a meeting at the US embassy in Mexico City on Sept. 16, when Reno was visiting Mexico to attend Independence Day ceremonies. [LJ 1/19/96, electronic edition] 4. MEXICAN LEFT SEEKS UNITY; US BUILDS UP ZEDILLO Garcia Abrego's arrest follows efforts by some US media and officials to build up President Zedillo--an "'accidental' chief" who "spurns [the] role of strongman," according to a front-page profile in the New York Times [NYT 12/30/95]--and distance him from former president Salinas. Times columnist Thomas Friedman writes that a "US official once described Mr. Zedillo to me as 'naive and nuts in the best sense of the terms.' Don Quixote with a PhD in economics from Yale. When I met him last March, he was in his office alone, listening to the '1812 Overture.' But don't underestimate the guy." [NYT 12/17/95] Mexicans are more skeptical about the current president. A cabinet reshuffling at the end of December put Salinas loyalist Arsenio Farrell Cubillas in charge of the Comptroller and Administrative Development Secretariat, the agency responsible for investigating government corruption. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano, former presidential candidate for the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), says the appointment "shows Carlos Salinas' hand in the new cabinet." Opposition leaders suggest Farrell will block probes of Salinas administration officials. Mexico Update Vol. 2, #53, 1/2/96 from LJ 12/30/95; LJ 12/31/95] On Jan. 11, 255 out of 298 federal deputies from Zedillo's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) signed a letter asking the party to abandon the neoliberal economic model followed by the last three administrations. Opposition analysts note that on Dec. 8 the same PRI legislators voted unanimously for Zedillo's sweeping neoliberal restructuring of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) [see Update #306]. [LJ 1/12/96, electronic edition; Reuter 1/12/96] Meanwhile, a number of groups plan to meet in Acapulco, in the southwestern state of Guerrero, Jan. 27-28 to form what La Jornada calls "the Mexican left's most ambitious project of the last 30 years." The goal is to create a broad front along the lines of the "National Liberation Movement" proposed almost a year ago by the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Participants will come from the EZLN, the PRD, the smaller Popular Socialist Party (PPS), the El Barzon debtors movement, the San Angel Group, which was formed in 1994 by prominent intellectuals, and the Popular Independent Movement (MPI), which is linked to Mexico City's Route 100 Urban Passenger Auto Transport Workers Union (SUTAUR 100). Even dissident members of the PRI may attend. The broad front would include both electoral groups and groups that reject electoral participation. One goal is to get the process of unification under way this year, well before the national legislative elections scheduled for 1997. [LJ 1/17/96, electronic edition] On Jan. 19 negotiators for the government and the EZLN reached a tentative accord on indigenous rights. The pact needs to be approved by both sides within 20 days. EZLN negotiator "Commander Tacho" warned that "[w]ords and promises will be worth nothing, even if they seem serious and firm, if the repression continues." [AP 1/19/96; Reuter 1/19/96] 5. FREE TRADE: CLEAN AIR, PCBS, MAQUILAS On Jan. 17 the World Trade Organization (WTO), the new administrative body of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), ruled against US environmental laws that keep other countries from importing gasoline that fails to meet US emission standards. This was the first ruling by the Geneva-based WTO, and the first ruling that used a rapid-resolution mechanism that went into effect on Jan. 1. At issue was an old complaint by Venezuela [see "NAFTA: The First Year," 12/9/94], joined by Brazil. Venezuela, which operates more than 6,000 outlets on the US East Coast under the CITGO name, charged that the Clean Air Act violated fair trade practices by making foreign countries meet average US emission standards while letting some domestic companies fall below those standards. The US government has 60 days to appeal, if it chooses to do so. [New York Times 1/18/96; Wall Street Journal 1/18/96] According to a New York Times editorial praising the decision, the WTO ruling does not force the US to change the Clean Air Act, but it does allow Venezuela and Brazil "to retaliate with, for example, higher tariffs against United States exports. Americans have little to fear. No country relishes a fight with the biggest trading power in the world." The US brings more free-trade complaints than any other country and "will win more than its share of cases in the years ahead." [NYT 1/21/96] Meanwhile, under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) the US is now allowing the importation of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) for the purpose of incineration. A 15-year ban was lifted Nov. 22 for imports from Canada and Jan. 1 for imports from Mexico. The Canadian PCBs will be shipped to SD Meyers' Tallmadge, Ohio "decontamination" plant; the company expects to make $100 million a year from this enterprise alone. Pressure to overturn the ban came from the Ohio Congressional delegation, led by Sen. John Glenn and Rep. Tom Sawyer, both Democrats. Washington advised Canadian environment minister Sheila Copps that her government's ban created an unfair barrier to free trade; the Canadian government has now lifted its ban. There are an estimated 20,000 tons of PCBs ready for shipment from Mexico. PCB environmental expert Dr. Paul Connett says that the lifting of the ban has "effectively destroyed" the Toxic Substances Control Act. [Message posted on 1/18/96 by post@igc.apc.org, via New York Transfer] On Jan. 2 the Washington-based consumer group Public Citizen issued a report blaming NAFTA for environmental damage along the US-Mexico border and for increases in low-wage maquiladora production; the group calls for NAFTA's immediate repeal. DNR, a trade paper for the men's apparel industry, gives the response by American Apparel Manufacturers Association president Larry Martin: "[W]hile it's a little early to say whether NAFTA has been a big success, we know that apparel imports from Mexico have grown greatly, and our attitude always has been that it's better to do this [apparel assembly] work in this hemisphere than in the Far East." [DNR 1/3/96 from FNS] 6. HAITI: ANOTHER DEPUTY SHOT, POLICE AND "RED ARMY" BATTLE On the evening of Jan. 8, a Haitian legislator, Henri Marsan, was shot twice in the face in Port-au-Prince as he was driving on the Harry Truman Boulevard. Marsan is the Chamber of Deputies member for Port-…-Piment and a member of the left-populist Lavalas movement of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He may lose his eyesight because of his injuries. The incident is reminiscent of a Nov. 7 shooting attack on two other Lavalas deputies: Jean Hubert Feuille, who was killed, and Gabriel Fortune, who was seriously wounded [see Update #302]. [Haiti Progres (NYT) 1/17- 23/96; Haiti Info Vol. 4, #5, 1/13/96] Jan. 16 brought a new shootout between National Police and the mysterious "Red Army" group in Port-au-Prince's huge Cite Soleil neighborhood. A resident was killed, according to Radio Metropole, and as many as four police agents were wounded. The heavily armed Red Army claims to push demands for jobs and improved living conditions, but many residents consider the members common criminals. [Reuter 1/16/96] A similar shootout occurred in Cite Soleil on Nov. 23 [see Update #305]. Prime Minister Claudette Werleigh says that one National Police agent has been arrested in relation to an incident that occurred in Estere, in the north-central Artibonite Valley, on Jan. 11 when the authorities tried to disperse peasants blocking National Route 1 [see Update #311]. Father Roussiere of the Catholic church's Justice and Peace Commission was at the scene as a negotiator. He says the protesters were ready to dismantle their barricades when police began shooting into the crowd. A ten-year old girl, Eva Pierre, was shot dead while sitting in her home. "We thought that with the return of Constitutional order we wouldn't see children shot and killed anymore," Roussiere told Associated Press. [HP 1/17-23/96, some from AP; Haiti Info 1/13/96] 7. MIAMI RIGHT DROPS PAMPHLETS ON CUBA, JOURNALISTS ARRESTED On Jan. 15 the Cuban government condemned the violation of its airspace by a group of Cuban-Americans who flew over the island in small planes to drop leaflets. An official statement published in the weekly trade union newspaper Trabajadores said the flights took place over the Havana area on Jan. 9 and 13. It did not give details of the leaflets or say how many had been dropped. The statement noted that the groups who dropped the leaflets had said in Florida that they were going to continue their campaign, and it warned that Cuba had the means to react more strongly to any future flights. [Reuter 1/15/96] Jose Basulto, head of the organization Brothers to the Rescue, admitted in Miami to having distributed half a million pamphlets over Havana urging residents to take "nonviolent direct action" against the government of President Fidel Castro. A spokesperson of the US Federal Aviation Administration told the Miami Herald that the matter will be investigated in depth and "the appropriate measures will be taken." [Inter Press Service 1/15/96] The international press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), based in Paris, issued a communique protesting the brief arrest on Jan. 14 of four independent Cuban journalists. According to the communique, Rafael Solano and Julio Martinez of the Habana Press agency and members of the Independent Press Bureau of Cuba (BPIC) were arrested by police agents for having reported to the foreign press the content of the leaflets thrown from the planes over Havana. The leaflets contained various articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/16/96 from AFP] Amnesty International (AI) has expressed concern that Raul Rivero Castaneda and Juan Antonio Sanchez, members of the independent press agency Cuba Press who were arrested on Jan. 14, could face imprisonment as prisoners of conscience. AI called the arrests "the latest in a recent spate of arrests and harassment of journalists and members of a newly-formed coalition called the Concilio Cubano, of which Cuba Press is a member." [AI Urgent Action Bulletin 1/16/96] On Jan. 18, the European Parliament voted 349 to 16, with 19 abstentions, to approve a resolution supporting a dialogue with Cuba while at the same time asking Cuban authorities to first free some 500 political prisoners. Cuba is the only Latin American nation which has not yet signed any type of treaty with the European Union. The parliament also voted to condemn the US embargo against Cuba, arguing that it hurts the Cuban people and slows down reforms instead of accelerating them. [ED-LP 1/19/96 from EFE] 8. BOLIVIAN COCALERAS ARRIVE IN LA PAZ Greeted by cheering crowds of supporters, hundreds of Bolivian coca-growing peasant women (cocaleras) arrived in La Paz during the week of Jan. 15 after walking 460 km from Cochabamba in a protest march that lasted more than a month [see Update #311]. Upon arriving in the capital, the protesters spent four hours explaining their demands at a meeting with Ximena de Sanchez de Lozada and Lidia Katari de Cardenas, the wives of the Bolivian president and vice president, respectively. The meeting, which had been requested by the cocaleras, was held in the conference room of the Japanese Hospital and was broadcast live by the state television channel. The two "first ladies" had agreed to the meeting on the condition that is be carried out "woman to woman," without the participation of unionists supporting the cocaleras or of government authorities. [Diario Las Americas 1/20/96 from AFP] On Jan. 16, President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada threatened to withdraw Bolivia as the site of the upcoming 2nd Hemispheric Summit (scheduled for Dec. 6,7 & 8), to be attended by 34 heads of state. "If we're going to have strikes, marches and all the things we're accustomed to doing, better not to do it [host the summit]," said Sanchez. The president said he would call together different social, political and economic sectors to ask them "if it's worth it" to hold the summit in Bolivia. "If there is no agreement, I, personally, am going to desist and we're going to tell the other countries they should look for [a place] where the people can agree to receive a visit from other countries." [El Diario-La Prensa 1/17/96 from EFE] Lucio Gonzalez, fourth-ranked leader of the Bolivian Workers Central (COB), the country's most important union federation, was arrested on Jan. 12 for alleged links with the Peruvian leftist guerrilla organization Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). [La Jornada 1/14/96 from AFP, ANSA, EFE, Reuter] 9. PRISON DIRECTOR MURDERED IN COLOMBIA Marta Elena Sanchez, a 40-year old lawyer and director of the maximum-security Palmira prison on the outskirts of Cali, Colombia, was killed on Jan. 13 when four unidentified assailants opened fire on her from a car. Leftist guerrillas and several lower-ranking members of the Cali drug cartel are jailed in the maximum-security wing of Palmira. [Reuter 1/13/96] Jose Santacruz Londono, a leader of the Cali drug cartel who fled another prison on Jan. 11 [see Update #311], had requested two months ago that the prisons department transfer him to Palmira. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/15/96 from AP] In a letter to Attorney General Alfonso Valdivieso, Santacruz offered to surrender to justice again under certain conditions, and condemned the intentions of the government, pressured by the US, to reintroduce the extradition of Colombians to other countries. [ED-LP 1/15/96 from AFP] Colombia's Council of State unexpectedly ratified Valdivieso in the attorney general's post for four more years by a vote of 12 to 10. Valdivieso's term was expected to end in December. Drug traffickers had reportedly offered large sums of money to some members of the council to vote against Valdivieso, who has become a popular public figure because of what is perceived as honesty and integrity in his tough stand against corruption and the drug cartels. [Washington Post 1/13/96] 10. ECUADOR: ELECTRIC WORKERS PROTEST, TEACHERS CELEBRATE The Ecuadoran government decreed a state of emergency after workers took over several hydroelectric installations to protest a law being discussed in Congress which would privatize electrical energy generation, it was reported on Jan. 18. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/19/96 from AP] An Associated Press photo published in New York daily El Diario-La Prensa showed a worker from the Ecuadoran National Electricity Institute (INECEL) posing at a protest as crucified on a cross, bearing signs that read "Social Christians, don't crucify the homeland," and "INECEL is not for sale." [ED-LP 1/21/96 from AP] Several days earlier, hundreds of Ecuadoran teachers gathered in the streets of Quito with raised torches to celebrate a $33 per month increase in their salaries, implemented by the National Congress. The measure was expected to be approved on Jan. 15 by President Sixto Duran-Ballen. [ED-LP 1/14/96 from AP] The teachers, who went on strike on Jan. 5 [see Update #310], had threatened on Jan. 8 to close major roads--with the help of workers from the rural social security institute--and shut down the country if the government did not yield to all their demands soon. [Reuter 1/8/96] Indigenous Ecuadorans will participate for the first time in their country's next general elections with candidates of their own, it was announced on Jan. 17. According to a unanimous resolution drawn up by the indigenous leaders, the winning candidates will be controlled by indigenous community leaders and will be subject to punishment if they commit any irregularities. "We have agreed to undertake an electoral "minga" (community work)," announced Luis Macas, president of the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). Hundreds of indigenous leaders met on Jan. 16 in Riobamba, capital of the heavily indigenous Andean province of Chimborazo, to reach the decision. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/18/96 from AFP] 11. SALVADORAN WORKERS END CATHEDRAL OCCUPATION On the night of Jan. 12, Salvadoran state workers of the Public Works Ministry Workers Association (ATMOP)--including 11 who were on hunger strike and had been hospitalized--ended a nine-day occupation of the Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador without having won any commitments from the government. The protesters' exit from the cathedral was coordinated by the United Nations Mission for El Salvador (MINUSAL) and the Prosecutor's Office for the Defense of Human Rights. Even so it was not without tensions: workers shouted at agents of the National Civilian Police (PNC) surrounding the site, urging them to leave to allow the peaceful exit of the protesters. After a two-hour delay from the time set for the exit, the PNC agents finally withdrew. ATMOP secretary general Salvador Acuna said the end of the occupation is "a sign of flexibility, but it does not imply that the struggle is over." Human Rights ombudsperson Victoria Marina de Aviles asserted that it was now up to the government to show signs of flexibility in negotiations with the workers; Acuna warned that if the government does not demonstrate this flexibility, the workers will carry out new protest actions. [La Jornada 1/14/96 from ANSA, Reuter, AP, AFP, IPS; Flor de Izote Foundation Weekly Report--El Salvador Vol. 7, #2, 1/8-15/96] As the February visit of Pope John Paul II to El Salvador neared, the union activists had found themselves pressured by different sectors to leave the cathedral. President Armando Calderon Sol demanded their departure from the church as a precondition to negotiations, and the Salvadoran Conference of Bishops issued a communique condemning the occupation. [Flor de Izote Report Vol. 7, #2, 1/8-15/96] 12. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: STRIKING DOCTORS REPLACED BY SOLDIERS In the Dominican Republic, President Joaquin Balaguer ordered military doctors to replace doctors at public hospitals, who went on strike in early November. The militarization of the hospitals began early on Jan. 15 as uniformed and plainclothes soldiers stood guard to control hospital entrances; it was announced the same day that the strikers' pay would be suspended. The Dominican Medical Association (AMD), which represents the doctors, said that the order to militarize the hospitals was issued "to hide the disaster of the public hospitals and the imminent closing of the Dominican Social Security Institute (IDSS)," which is bankrupt. Even the Catholic Church has criticized the militarization of the hospitals. On Jan. 19, Balaguer fired an undetermined number of the striking doctors; Health Minister Victor Garcia Santos justified the presidential decision as a response to the AMD's expulsion of himself and of governmental medical adviser Charles Dunlop from the guild. The doctors are fighting for wage increases promised by the government months ago; even specialized directors at the public hospitals make less than $400 a month. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/16/96, 1/17/96, 1/19/96; ED-LP 1/21/96 from AFP] 13. IN OTHER NEWS... On Jan. 16, Panama's Supreme Court confirmed a 20 year prison sentence for former de facto head of state Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, for the September 1985 murder of doctor Hugo Spadafora. Noriega's defense lawyers had requested a new trial, arguing that the 1993 trial on the Spadafora case had political motivations. But the high court found no merit to overturn the decision of the court in Chiriqui, where the earlier trial took place. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/17/96 from AP]... On Jan. 17 Argentine judge Adolfo Bagnasco announced that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are now investigating charges that International Business Machines (IBM), the giant US computer company, paid out $21 million in kickbacks to win a $249 million contract with the government-owned Banco Nacion bank. IBM spokesperson Fred McNeese says that IBM executives were simply guilty of "poor business judgment" in the allegedly irregular payments to a subcontractor with close ties to Argentine government officials. [Financial Times (UK) 1/18/96; Wall Street Journal 1/18/96]... Peruvian journalist Miguel Angel Alegre Salazar was cleared of terrorism charges on Dec. 13 and released after being held in prison for a month. On Dec. 20, the independent French organization Reporters Without Borders asked Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori to free five other journalists imprisoned on terrorism charges whom the organization believes are innocent. Among them is Jesus Castiglione Mendoza, director of Radio Amistad in Ancash department, sentenced on Nov. 21 to 20 years in prison for "collaboration with terrorists." [ED-LP 12/21/95 from AFP]... Four officials of Brazil's National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI) have been taken hostage in the eastern Amazon by a group of Tembe indigenous people, who are demanding the government clear their reservation of illegal loggers and farmers. The officials were taken to a village in the Alto Rio Gama reservation on the border between the northern states of Para and Maranhao. As of Jan. 17, FUNAI was trying to contact the Tembe people to negotiate the officials' release. Tensions in indigenous areas have increased since the government issued a decree allowing challenges to reservation boundaries [see Update #311]. [Financial Times 1/18/96] 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. 1/25 THU, 6:30 PM - "The Man by the Shore," screening of film by award-winning Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, reception w/Peck. $25. Haiti Support Network. Call 718-859-0855. 1/25 THU, 8 PM - "Revolutionary Art, Music & Culture," w/composer /saxophonist Fred Ho. Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10 floor. $6. 212-242-4201. 1/26 FRI, 7 PM - "Art for the Zapatista Mvt," closing party. $3. ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington St. 212-254-3697. 1/30 TUE, 7:15 PM - "Bosnia: Three Views from the Left," w/Sean Gervasi, Lawrence Lifschutz & David McReynolds (WRL). 255 Grove St, White Plains. $5. WESPAC, 914-682-0488. 1/31 WED, 6 AM - evening - "Noam Chomsky - Manufacturing Consent," profile of Chomsky w/historian Howard Zinn. WBAI, 99.5 FM. 212-279-0707. ================================================================= 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/ =================================================================