WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #313, JANUARY 28, 1996 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Colombian President Holds On To Power, Barely 2. Nicaraguan Frontrunner Survives Assassination Attempt 3. Sandinista Parties Bicker As FSLN Women Present Candidates 4. More Nicaraguan Election News 5. FMLN Holds National Convention 6. El Salvador's Judges Get $1000 Raises 7. Suspect in Operation Condor Killing Arrested in Argentina 8. Rapes Continue in Southern Mexico 9. Haitian Government and FBI Fall Out 10. Honduran Court Rejects Amnesty Decision 11. CIA Expands Bolivia Drug Actions Amid Scandals 12. Health Workers Strike Against Privatization in Peru 13. Ecuador and Peru Squabble Over Arms Purchases 14. Deadline Nears for Central American Immigrants 15. US Drops Charges Against Cuba Invasion Plotters 16. Guatemalan Rebels Acting Up 17. In Other News... 18. 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. COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT HOLDS ON TO POWER, BARELY Thousands of Colombians took to the streets on Jan. 26 to demand the resignation of Colombian President Ernesto Samper for taking campaign contributions from drug traffickers. About four thousand students protested facing the Palace of Justice in Bogota; 1,500 women demonstrated elsewhere in the city. [New York Times 1/27/96] Although Samper has been accused of knowingly accepting money from drug traffickers since two days after his June 1994 election, new charges from his former campaign manager, defense minister, and personal friend Fernando Botero Zea (himself awaiting trial on charges of illegal enrichment), have turned public opinion sharply against the president. Botero made the charges in a televised interview on Jan. 21; he stated that Samper not only knew about the contributions from the Cali cartel (about $6 million), but was also "very seriously involved" in them. Botero portrayed himself as distant from the contributions, but admitted he knew of them: "When I realized what was going on, instead of doing something to stop it I simply looked the other way." But he claimed he was "neither the intellectual or the material author" of the contributions. The revelations come one month after a congressional commission had closed its investigation of Samper due to lack of evidence [see Update #307]. Polls at that time showed that although about 75% believed that Samper's campaign had taken money from drug traffickers and over 50% believed that Samper had lied when he said he didn't know of any such contributions, most Colombians thought that he should not resign, because he was only doing what many Columbians elected officials had done before him. [Latin America Database Notisur 1/26/96 from Notimex, Reuter, AFP, DPA, NYT; NYT 1/24/96] In fact, former president Alfonso Lopez Michelsen had taken $300,000 from Medellin cartel leader Pablo Escobar during the 1982 presidential race; Lopez and his campaign manager--Ernesto Samper--later claimed they didn't know Escobar was a drug trafficker. [Washington Post 1/28/96] But since the new revelations, polls consistently show a majority calling for the president's resignation: over 60% of Columbians believe Botero while only 20% believe Samper. Despite his plunging popularity, Samper took to the airwaves on Jan. 24 to deny all accusations and call for a popular referendum on his presidency and the vice-presidency of Humberto de la Calle Lombana. De la Calle quickly announced that he would not support any referendum that linked his fate to Samper's; de la Calle, who would become president if Samper stepped down or was removed, has not been implicated in the scandal. [NYT 1/27/96] The referendum was opposed by members of Samper's Liberal Party, the opposition Conservative Party (including Alfredo Lopez), journalists, business leaders, and protesting students, who chanted "Yes to resignation! No to referendum!" at demonstrations throughout the week. [WP 1/26/96] The government has seen a steady stream of resignations since Botero's revelations: on Jan. 23, Health Minister Augusto Galan Sarmiento, stepped down; the next day, Colombia's ambassador to Venezuela resigned. On Jan. 25, the Conservative Party announced that it was withdrawing from the administration, prompting the resignation of the ministers of foreign trade and transportation. Even Gen. Ricardo Cifuentes, commander of the Second Army Division in Bucaramanga, has quit in protest. [NYT 1/27/96] Even before the latest statements, Liberal Party senator Maria Izquierdo had resigned on Jan. 17 and promised to cooperate fully with the Justice Department's investigation of the scandal. Izquierdo is one of 15 legislators under investigation by the Supreme Court for allegedly accepting campaign contributions from drug cartels in the 1994 elections. Izquierdo admitted to the Court that she had received $30,000 on behalf of the Liberal Party from the Cali cartel, saying, "I am here to tell the truth, whatever the cost." The US government, which has often criticized the Colombian government for coddling drug traffickers and threatened to withhold US aid, has reacted calmly to the latest uproar, saying the scandal is an "internal Colombian matter." [LADB Notisur 1/26/96 from Notimex, Reuter, AFP, DPA, NYT] *2. NICARAGUAN FRONTRUNNER SURVIVES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT Former Managua mayor and presidential frontrunner Arnoldo Aleman of Nicaragua's Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) survived an attempt on his life on Jan. 25 when he was ambushed on a road between Wiwili and Quilali in the north of Nicaragua. A police officer was killed and three campaign workers--including Aleman's cousin, Antonio Aleman--were injured in the attack. [La Jornada (Mexico) electronic edition 1/26/96] According to early reports, the attackers wore uniforms with the Sandinista colors (red and black) [New York Times 1/26/96], but the government blamed the attack on recontras led by "El Lobo," and said there was no political motive. Aleman said he would not blame any of his enemies for the attack, adding, "I don't have any vengeance or revenge in me." Aleman has consistently led polls for the presidency of Nicaragua, which will be contested on Oct. 20, 1996; he is the candidate of the Liberal Alliance, which groups four different Liberal parties including the party of overthrown dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. [Reuter 1/25/96] *3. SANDINISTA PARTIES BICKER AS FSLN WOMEN PRESENT CANDIDATES On Jan. 18, the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) rejected a call for dialogue from the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). FSLN secretary general and former Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega Saavedra had sent a letter to former vice- president, author and MRS leader Sergio Ramirez in search of "understanding, agreements and political alliances with the Sandinista Renovation Movement." Ramirez responded in a public declaration that his party "does not want commitments with the past but rather with the future." [Reuter 1/18/96] Ramirez and Ortega are both seeking the presidency of Nicaragua in this year's elections. The public tiff came two days after the FSLN outmaneuvered the MRS in elections to the National Assembly executive committee: the MRS thought it had made an alliance with the Christian Democrat Union (UDC) to support Conservative Party member Eduardo Palatino for Assembly president in exchange for electing MRS members to other executive positions. Instead, the UDC and FSLN supported UDC deputy Cairo Manuel Lopez for president, and two FSLN deputies and no MRS deputies were elected to the seven-member executive committee. MRS vice president Reynaldo Tefel said the vote showed "there was a deal between the government and the FSLN to eliminate the MRS." Ortega said in response that "the FSLN has only made voting deals with those who were going to vote for an executive committee that will defend a patriotic agenda." [Notisur 1/26/96 from Reuter, IPS, Nicanet Hotline, ACAN] After Ramirez refused to sit down with the FSLN, MRS National Assembly deputy William Ramirez resigned in protest. Sergio Ramirez later said that out of the national MRS executive committee and local departmental leadership, only William Ramirez was in favor of dialogue with the FSLN. FSLN women held a meeting at the Olof Palme Convention Center in Managua at which they officially introduced their candidates for the FSLN primary elections, which will be held on Feb. 18. The meeting was chaired by National Directorate member Dorotea Wilson and was attended by more than one thousand women who are registered as candidates. The theme of the meeting was: "For equality in power, vote for a woman." The best known woman candidate is Vilma Nunez, president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH), who is running against Ortega for the party's presidential nomination. (Nunez is taking an unpaid leave of absence from CENIDH during her campaign.) She said her motivation for running for president was first, to assist in the strengthening of democracy within the party; and, second, to work to put more women into high positions of power in the government. [Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 1/22/96] *4. MORE NICARAGUAN ELECTION NEWS Mariano Fiallos, president of Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council, has said he is concerned about the upcoming elections because $23.8 million more is needed to finance them, and the Supreme Court has yet to rule on more than 30 pending cases challenging recent Constitutional amendments. Most of the challenges are seeking to overturn a ban on close relatives of the current president running for that office. Antonio Lacayo, former presidency minister and the son-in-law of president Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, is one of those seeking to overturn the prohibition so that he can run for president. [Nicanet Hotline 1/9/96] Supreme Court president Orlando Trejos told the press that the court will issue its ruling before the date for the registration of candidates, set for May 10. While a court ruling is still pending, Lacayo announced on Jan. 11 his decision to run for president on his National Project party's ticket. Lacayo's candidacy must be ratified in the internal elections of his party, which has not yet been established as a legal entity. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 1/13/96 from EFE] *5. FMLN HOLDS NATIONAL CONVENTION More than 1,000 activists of El Salvador's Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) gathered on Dec. 16-17 to elect new leadership and plan their agenda for the next year. In their third national convention, the former guerrilla movement reaffirmed its unity and reelected Salvador Sanchez Ceren as the party's General Coordinator. The theme of the convention was "Ready for 97!" and the party entered the convention stating its desire to "renovate" the leadership, giving way to a new generation. Yet Sanchez and many other leaders kept their posts, and elections followed the system of "quotas" among the party's sub-groups, despite the fact that these groups formally dissolved in 1995. Delegates approved documents on economic and political strategy, and resolutions were passed in solidarity with the struggles of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) in Guatemala and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in Mexico, opposing the US embargo of Cuba, and affirming the rights of Salvadorans living outside the country. [Central America Update 12/16-31/95; CISPES El Salvador Watch 2/96] *6. EL SALVADOR'S JUDGES GET $1000 RAISES Salary increases went into effect Jan. 1 for the 15 judges of El Salvador's Supreme Court, the only government officials to have their salaries increased substantially in 1996. The Supreme Court president will now make the equivalent of nearly $4,600 per month, up from $3,450, while salaries for the 14 magistrates went from $2,875 to $3,563 per month. The secretary-general of the union of judicial employees, Angela Duran, accused the magistrates of failing to institute appropriate raises for the rest of the judicial employees, who only received an increase of about $35 per month. FMLN deputy Norma Guevara pointed out that after 18 months in their jobs, the current judges have shown little independence, and that if their salaries are to be increased it must be reflected in their work. [Proceso 692, 1/10/95, published by Center for Information, Documentation and Research Support (CIDAI) of the Central American University (UCA) in El Salvador] *7. SUSPECT IN OPERATION CONDOR KILLING ARRESTED IN ARGENTINA On Jan. 19, Argentine police arrested Enrique Aracibia Clavel for the 1974 murder of former Chilean Army commander-in-chief Carlos Prats and his wife Sofia, who were killed by a car bomb in Buenos Aires. Prats headed the Chilean Army during the government of Salvador Allende, and was forced to resign weeks before the military coup, replaced by coup leader and current commander-in- chief Augusto Pinochet. After the coup, Prats and his wife sought exile in Buenos Aires. At the time of his death, Prats was working on his memoirs. Arancibia, believed to be the intellectual author of the bombing carried out by US citizen Michael Townley, is under interrogation in Buenos Aires by Judge Maria Servini. Servini also plans to meet with Prats' daughters, Angelica and Sofia, who traveled to Argentina after being notified of the arrest. Arancibia was a member of the Chilean paramilitary group Patria y Libertad during the Allende government, and was arrested in 1970 for participating in a commando raid that killed army commander- in-chief Rene Schneider during a frustrated kidnapping attempt. Arancibia was freed after the coup, and was hired by Pinochet's secret service, the DINA, to carry out missions in Argentina. The Prats killing was the first in a series of three assassinations in foreign countries planned by the DINA in what was known as Operation Condor. An unsuccessful attempt to kill former vice president Bernardo Leighton in Rome followed in 1975, and Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and his US aide Ronni Moffit were killed in Washington, DC, in 1976 [see Updates #198, #278-#283, #299]. US citizen and former DINA agent Michael Townley has admitted participating in all three attacks. [Chile Information Project (CHIP) News 1/23/96 from La Epoca, La Nacion] The arrest led to calls from Chilean politicians for Pinochet's resignation. Christian Democrat Sen. Jorge Lavandero said on Jan. 23, "I believe that, seen from Gen. Pinochet's position, this is an occasion to resign." Socialist leader (and Salvador Allende's daughter) Isabel Allende said, "Chile's army has never broken its silence over this case, nor has it ever seriously investigated the creditable evidence suggesting that its own members were involved in the crime." The military refused to investigate the case: Gen. Fernandez Torres Silva said, "This was an event that occurred outside of Chile some 22 years ago, and I don't think it is incumbent upon the army to begin an investigation." [CHIP News 1/25/96 from El Mercurio, La Nacion] *8. RAPES CONTINUE IN SOUTHERN MEXICO According to a letter published in the Mexico City daily La Jornada, on Dec. 16 eight members of the state judicial police tortured and raped a young Tojolabal woman, Julieta Flores Hernandez, in the municipality of Ocosingo, in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas. The police were looking for her father, who was accused of blocking roads and killing a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). After raping her, the judiciales charged Flores Hernandez with murder, theft and attacks on communication media. She was freed on Jan. 9 due to lack of evidence. [LJ 1/15/96, translated by National Commission for Democracy in Mexico] Mexican authorities have still not acted on the Oct. 26 rape of US activist Cecilia Rodriguez, the head of the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico (NCDM) and the official US representative of the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) [see Update #301]. The Mexican government refuses to take steps until Rodriguez files a complaint in Comitan, Chiapas, the municipality where the rape took place. [LJ 1/7/96] The mainstream US media have generally ignored the incident. In November the New York Times travel section reported that tourists were "venturing back" to Chiapas two years after the EZLN's January 1994 uprising. The article mentioned that the "day trip to the lovely--but bracingly cold--Montebello Lakes...skirts around the conflict zone," but not that Rodriguez was raped while on a such a day trip to the lakes. [NYT 11/26/95] *9. HAITIAN GOVERNMENT AND FBI FALL OUT In testimony to the US Congress on Jan. 4, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) deputy assistant director William Perry indicated that the Haitian government had blocked investigations into the March 1995 murder of rightwing Haitian lawyer Mireille Durocher Bertin. "The FBI experienced significant investigative difficulties because of its inability to interview government of Haiti officials and employees," Perry told a Congressional committee. At about the same time the FBI leaked allegations to the US media implicating senior Haitian police officers in the Durocher Bertin murder and the killings during 1995 of more than a dozen other prominent Haitians close to the 1991-94 military regime. FBI ballistic experts apparently detected links between many of these killings, including the Durocher Bertin murder and the murder of retired general Henri Max Mayard. Republican legislators seized on these leaks to denounce Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is backed by Democratic US president Bill Clinton. "The use of taxpayers' money to beef up a police force with this kind of thug is highly questionable," said Rep. Dan Burton (R- IN). Haitian foreign minister Fritz Longchamp quickly responded that "the FBI has no legal jurisdiction in Haiti," and that the Haitian government's "efforts at collaboration [with the FBI] have been rebuffed." Longchamp noted that the US agents refused to provide Haitian authorities with a written report on their work. The Haitians had asked the FBI to help investigate both the recent murders of rightists and the far more numerous killings of Aristide supporters under the military regime. "Unfortunately," Longchamp said, "the FBI has refused to assist in these [latter] investigations." United Nations observers who have investigated the killings of rightists privately attribute the crimes to turf wars within the Haitian elite, according to Inter Press Service's Dan Coughlin. Many in the Haitian government suspect a plan to destabilize the political situation. [IPS 1/9/96] In other news, on Jan. 19 a fire destroyed the home of Capt. Lawrence Rockwood, a US army officer courtmartialed for his activities as part of the US military occupation of Haiti in September 1994. Rockwood, a counter-intelligence officer assigned to monitoring human rights violations, was courtmartialed and dismissed from the army last year for making an unauthorized inspection of the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince [see Update #308]. Rockwood moved to a small Florida town, La Belle, early this month and was working on a book. The fire broke out while Rockwood and his housemate were out eating dinner. Florida agencies believe a firebomb may have been the cause; a neighbor reports seeing a pickup truck with its lights off speeding away from the area just before the blaze was seen. Rockwood's computer and papers were destroyed. [Haiti Progres (NY) 1/24-30/96] *10. HONDURAN COURT REJECTS AMNESTY DECISION On Jan. 18, the Honduran Supreme Court overturned--on technical grounds--an Appeals Court finding that would have extended an amnesty to nine military officers charged in connection with the kidnapping and torture of six university students in 1982 [see Update #311]. The court did not rule on the subject of amnesty, however; that question will now be decided by the Criminal Court trying the cases. In July 1995, the attorney general charged the nine officers with abducting and torturing the students. Several of the officers had served in the US-trained Battalion 3-16, widely believed to have been involved in systematic human rights abuses during the 1980s. Battalion 3-16's first commander, Gen. Discua, was recently appointed by Honduran president Carlos Roberto Reina as a delegate to the UN Security Council upon leaving his post as armed forces chief. Discua, who was scheduled to step down on Jan. 26, will enjoy prosecutorial immunity as a member of the diplomatic corps. [LADB Notisur 1/26/96 from AP, AFP, ACAN] *11. CIA EXPANDS BOLIVIA DRUG ACTIONS AMID SCANDALS US ambassador to Bolivia Curtis Kamman announced on Jan. 22 that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will broaden its activities in Bolivia. Kamman declined to specify the role that US agents would play in Bolivia, and denied that there are conflicts between the CIA and the Bolivian office of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). "There is a consensus," said Kamman, "that there must be cooperation to confront the drug mafias, which constitute a risk for national security." [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 1/23/96 from Notimex] The US has withdrawn the entry visa of former Bolivian president (1989-1993) Jaime Paz Zamora of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), claiming he is under suspicion of having received contributions from drug traffickers over a period of years. In a letter from the US embassy in La Paz sent during the week of Jan. 8, the US announced it was also withdrawing entry visas for two sisters of Paz Zamora and for Oscar Eid, a MIR leader currently imprisoned for covering up for drug trafficker Isaac Chavarria ("El Oso"), who died recently of natural causes while in prison. The Bolivian government's investigations have shown that Paz Zamora's relationship with Chavarria began in the mid-1980s and that Chavarria loaned private planes and other vehicles to Paz Zamora during his electoral campaigns in 1985 and 1987. The government is also investigating Paz Zamora's links with Fausto Rico, former commander of the Special Force of Struggle Against Drug Trafficking (FELCN). Rico was extradited to the US, where he pleaded guilty last year to bringing cocaine into the US and is now awaiting sentencing. According to the daily Ultima Hora, Paz Zamora provoked the wrath of the US government by refusing to sign an extradition treaty with the US that included drug trafficking offenses. The treaty was signed recently by current president Sanchez de Lozada. Although he is under investigation, Paz Zamora cannot be tried for his alleged links with drug traffickers. As a former president, he can only be tried in a "trial of responsibilities," which has not yet been formally proposed. Paz Zamora withdrew from politics for 10 months because of the drug scandal, but returned in January 1994 to reorganize his party. The MIR experienced a resurgence in the municipal elections held on Dec. 3 of last year, winning two of the nine departmental capitals. [La Jornada 1/14/96 from AFP, ANSA, EFE, Reuter] By late October, about 100 people--including anti-drug police, customs agents, and airport officials--had been arrested in Bolivia in connection with the Sept. 15 seizure in Lima, Peru of a Bolivian cargo plane loaded with more than four tons of cocaine, evidently en route to Mexico for possible distribution in the US. Among those arrested was Col. Oscar Aquim, police subcommander in the city of Santa Cruz. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 10/27/95 from AP, AFP, Inter Press Service, Reuter, Notimex] In the ensuing scandal, legislators from all political sectors were calling for an investigation of the role of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the incident. Former Bolivian drug dealer Miguel Angel Villavicencio, who is now under DEA protection in Miami, accused four-time Bolivian president Victor Paz Estenssoro of having received drug money in his last campaign in 1985. Villavicencio's statements brought charges from various political sectors in Bolivia that the DEA is protecting drug traffickers, and they accuse the DEA of having provoked Villavicencio's declarations to cause political turmoil in Bolivia. Deputy Juan del Granado, president of the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, said he would call some DEA agents to testify before the commission. "It is clear that the DEA was very involved in the departure of the plane...and it was very involved in the apparent lack of information given to the FELCN," said Del Granado. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 10/27/95 from AP, AFP, Inter Press Service, Reuter, Notimex] *12. HEALTH WORKERS STRIKE AGAINST PRIVATIZATION IN PERU More than 60,000 workers in Peru's health sector began an open- ended strike on Jan. 23 to protest privatization of public service, reduction of personnel and neoliberal economic policy in general. Jose Castro, secretary general of the Unified National Federation of Health Ministry Workers, warned that the workers will hold daily street marches and will occupy public buildings. The strike will affect activities at 455 hospitals and 4,630 assistance centers in all of Peru. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/23/96 from Notimex] On Jan. 25, some 4,000 members of the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP) marched through Lima to demand wage increases and an end to privatizations and mass layoffs. The demonstrators began their march at the headquarters of the CGPT; this was the union federation's first protest march against the government in years. Leaders of the CGTP and its member unions met for over an hour with Congress vice president Victor Joy Way to discuss wage problems. Joy Way told the press that Congress will study the problems, but that the workers must understand that the government cannot give them wage increases because there is no money. [Diario Las Americas 1/27/96 from AFP] *13. ECUADOR AND PERU SQUABBLE OVER ARMS PURCHASES Ecuador and Peru are accusing each other of escalating arms purchases, threatening peace talks to resolve the war that erupted over border demarcation in January 1995. "The arms sellers are in action, they tour Quito and Lima with their offers, discreet negotiations which they deliberately make public in order to ruin the peace talks and maintain the bellicose atmosphere that feeds their business," said former Peruvian deputy Manuel Benza. Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori called on the US to stop Ecuador from buying 12 Israeli-made Kfir fighter jets. The Kfirs have engines produced in the US, which gives the US the right to veto sales of the planes to third parties. According to Peruvian sources, each of these planes is worth around $30 million and the missiles they carry are worth $1 million each. Ecuador claims it is only buying four Kfirs, to replace four planes it lost in the January fighting. [Inter Press Service 12/22/95] In remarks published in the Guayaquil daily El Telegrafo on Dec. 22, US ambassador to Ecuador Peter Romero revealed that the US had already authorized the sales. "These planes are considered replacements for planes which crashed years ago," said Romero. [El Diario-La Prensa 12/24/95 from EFE] A month later, on Jan. 23, Romero announced that the US has conditioned arms sales to Peru and Ecuador, but declined to specify the conditions. "We have fixed certain conditions for the sale of arms to the two countries, after the conflict and after ending the embargo on war materiel," Romero told journalists. [ED-LP 1/24/96 from Notimex] Meanwhile, Ecuador accuses Peru of trying to invest in non- defensive arms, a classification which includes fighter-bombers and long-range missiles. The US daily Washington Times ran a story saying that Peru was involved in secret negotiations with North Korea to buy an unspecified number of "Scud" missiles, similar to those used by Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War. These precision missiles have a range of 940 km and cost around $2.5 million each. Peruvian military analysts said the Washington Times story was cooked up in Quito to create friction between Peru and the US. Fujimori described the story as "preposterous," and reiterated that his administration was placing great emphasis on the peace negotiations. [IPS 12/22/95] Ecuador's National Secretariat of State Communication (Senacom) said on Dec. 16 that unnamed sources had revealed that the Peruvian military was seeking arms contracts around the world, including a contract with the government of Ukraine to buy 120 T- 72 tanks. [ED-LP 12/18/95 from Notimex] *14. DEADLINE NEARS FOR CENTRAL AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS More than 200,000 Central American immigrants in the US who have requested revision of political asylum applications denied during the 1980s will now receive work permits and can stay in the US for up to five years more while they await a final ruling on their cases. According to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) spokesperson Daniel Kane, by Jan. 15 the INS had received 123,856 such requests from Salvadorans and 83,529 from Guatemalans. Applicants have until Jan. 31 to turn in their paperwork, and those who meet the deadline then have until Apr. 30 to apply for an extension of their work permits. The INS estimates it will take between four and five years to process all the cases. The Salvadoran government has been pressuring the US for special treatment of Salvadorans currently under the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) program, fearing that a massive return of exiles will cause economic problems for the country. The revision of the asylum petitions was ordered by a federal court as a result of a lawsuit brought by the American Baptist Church (ABC), which demonstrated that Salvadoran and Guatemalan asylum-seekers had been unfairly denied asylum during the 1980s because of the US government's political support of their governments' counter- insurgency wars. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/23/96 from AFP, 12/29/95 from EFE] *15. US DROPS CHARGES AGAINST CUBA INVASION PLOTTERS On Jan. 18, spokesperson Carol Levitsky of the Attorney's Office announced the Jan. 12 dismissal--at the request of US federal authorities--of a case against three men charged with plotting to invade Cuba and overthrow the government of President Fidel Castro Ruz [see Update #312]. Levitsky did not say why the US Attorney's Office had decided to drop the charges against Rene Cruz, his son also named Rene Cruz, and Rafael Garcia. Levitsky said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was continuing its probe into the three, who are Cuban immigrants living in the Los Angeles area, and they could be charged again if there was sufficient evidence against them. The three men had been charged with violating federal conspiracy laws and the Neutrality Act, which forbids military action against nations with which the United States is not at war. News of the alleged invasion plan made them heroes in the rightwing anti-Castro Cuban community and $500,000 was raised for their legal expenses. [Reuter 1/18/96] On Jan. 23 a US Customs boat stopped five other anti-Castro Cuban-Americans in a seven-meter fishing boat containing arms and explosives off the Florida Keys. Arms found on board included a semiautomatic pistol equipped with a silencer, several gun holsters and some components of explosive devices. Some of the boat's passengers were seen throwing objects--presumably weapons and explosives--into the water as the Customs boat approached. The five people on board were taken to a Coast Guard station for questioning, but were not arrested or accused. [El Diario-La Prensa 1/24/96 from AP] *16. GUATEMALAN REBELS ACTING UP Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) rebels have intensified their activities since the Jan. 14 inauguration of President Alvaro Arzu: on Jan. 14, guerrillas blocked off the Pan-American Highway for two hours and delivered a speech on the importance of ending Guatemala's 35-year civil war. The next day, according to the Guatemalan army, the rebels ambushed a convoy of trucks on the Highway, injuring one soldier. On Jan. 17, the URNG set off a leaflet bomb in Guatemala City on Jan. 17, containing leaflets which urged Arzu to fulfill his campaign promises to continue peace negotiations, respect human rights, and fight impunity. No one was injured in the explosion. [Reuter 1/17/96] *17. IN OTHER NEWS... A protest by state workers demanding payment of back wages in Jujuy Rioja province, Argentina, turned violent on Dec. 19 when a dozen demonstrators entered the home of former governor Ricardo de Aparici and practically destroyed it. Two people were arrested, both under the influence of alcohol. Jujuy state workers have not been paid since October; they are also protesting because some of their salaries have been paid in provincial bonds which are not accepted by local merchants. [ED- LP 12/20/95 from AP]... On Jan. 15, Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso vetoed legislation that would have legalized sterilization, then reversed himself two days later and said he would seek a congressional override of his own veto. According to the Health Ministry, 27% of Brazilian women of child-bearing age have been sterilized, although the procedure is illegal unless the woman's life is in danger. Often women are sterilized without being informed of other birth control options, and are often falsely told that tubal ligation is easily reversible. The bill Cardoso vetoed would have required doctors to inform women of a range of birth control options. [New York Times 1/21/96]... In December, street vendors in La Paz, Bolivia, held a protest against a decision by the South American Soccer Confederation to disallow the use of the La Paz stadium for soccer matches in the eliminatory round of the World Cup, due to its high altitude. [DLA 12/23/95 from AFP] The International Federation of Associated Soccer (FIFA) has delayed its final decision on whether or not to allow professional soccer matches to be held in cities that are located more than 3,000 meters above sea level. [ED-LP 1/21/96 from combined services] Correction: Update #312 cited a posting from post@igc.apc.org for information about the Nov. 22 US government's lifting of the ban on PCB imports. The posting is a summary of information that first appeared in the Washington-based investigative journal CounterPunch. [CounterPunch 1/1/96] *18. 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. 1/31 WED, 8 PM - "The UN at 50+: Crisis & Opportunity in the Era of Globalization," book party & discussion w/Phyllis Bennis & Jim Paul. Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10 floor. $6. 212-242-4201. 2/1 THU, 8 PM - "Defending Labor & Human Rights: The GAP Campaign Strategy," w/Barbara Briggs (National Labor Cmt) & Ellen Braune. Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10 floor. $6. 212-242-4201. 2/4 SUN, 1:30 PM - "Nicaragua & the US: Parallels & Opportunities," w/Jim Burchell (Peace Works). Fletcher Hall, Unitarian Church, Church St, Montclair, NJ. Montclair/Pearl Lagoon Sister City Project, 201-783-5896. 2/4 SUN, 7 PM - CREED Study Group: neoliberalism, economic alternatives. Planning mtg at Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10 fl. Call Paul Cooney, 718-230-4691. 2/6 TUE, 12 NOON - 5 PM - "20 Yrs of Injustice" action to demand freedom for Leonard Peltier. At FBI offices, 26 Federal Plaza. Leonard Peltier Defense Cmt, 718-934-5501. ================================================================= 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/ =================================================================