WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #315, FEBRUARY 11, 1996 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Police Violence Doesn't Stop Mexican Oil Field Occupations 2. Globalization and Mexican President Face Assorted Crises 3. Haiti Gets New President, Relations with Cuba 4. UN Cop Killed in Haiti 5. Central America: "Crude Reality" Gets Time Out for Pope 6. New Guatemalan President Ousts Rights Violators from Army 7. Guatemalan President's Bodyguard Kills Confused Driver 8. Guatemala: Refugee Massacre Case Moved to Civil Court 9. Bolivian Vote Results Unclear 10. Intervention Expert is New US Anti-Drug Chief 11. Chile: Supreme Court Closes Human Rights Case 12. Other News: Bolivia, Argentina, Honduras, Dominican Rep, Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba 13. Upcoming Events in the NYC Area and Beyond ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. 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We also welcome your comments and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail to nicanet@blythe.org. 1. POLICE VIOLENCE DOESN'T STOP MEXICAN OIL FIELD OCCUPATIONS As of Feb. 9 indigenous and leftist protesters had occupied or blocked access to 71 oil installations in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco, despite several military-style operations against the demonstrators and the arrests of 76 people, including many local leaders of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). [La Jornada (Mexico) 2/10/96, electronic edition] The campaign against Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the national oil monopoly, has grown into what US journalist John Ross calls "massive non-violent civil disobedience" with "curious parallels to the movement headed by Martin Luther King three decades ago in Alabama." [John Ross, Mexico Barbaro 2/11-21/96] The occupations began on Jan. 29 when campesinos blocked access to the Sen oil field in Nacajuca municipality. The protesters, mostly members of the Chontal indigenous group, demanded reparations from Pemex for its damage to the region's environment; other demands included an end to plans to privatize the company's petrochemical plants. A combined operation of about 800 soldiers and police agents removed the protesters on Feb. 2, but campesinos returned the same day to block the access road [see Update #314]. The Sen oil field, located some 30 km from the state capital, Villahermosa, is considered the most productive in Tabasco. [LJ 2/8/96, electronic edition] On Feb. 5 the municipal assembly of Cardenas, a PRD-governed city 50 km west of the capital, began a nonviolent occupation of the important El Castano installation. Tabasco PRD leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who lost a controversial 1994 election to current governor Roberto Madrazo Pintado of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has led both the occupation movement and negotiations with Pemex to resolve the situation. [Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update Vol. 2, #58, 2/5/96] In the late morning of Feb. 7 some 1,000 soldiers and police carried out a second sweep of the area around the Sen field. As the police faced off with about 2,000 indigenous demonstrators, Lopez Obrador arrived and attempted to carry out a dialogue with the authorities. Police agents hit the PRD leader from behind, bringing curses in Chontal from the protesters. A member of the riot police then clubbed Lopez Obrador in the head. His shirt covered with blood, the PRD leader continued to call for non- violent tactics, while the Chontales told him: "We want weapons." Angered by the police violence, the campesinos returned in the afternoon and attempted to cross a bridge to the oil field. The 2,000 demonstrators, mostly women, tried to win over the army troops, who were providing support to the riot police. "We're on our own land," a fifty-year old woman told the soldiers, "it was Pemex that came and occupied our property... Look at yourselves, you're people who're screwed over too, just like us." But the riot police again beat the campesinos. This time the protesters responded by throwing sticks and stones, and several police agents were injured. The authorities then used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. Three helicopters backed up the operation; campesinos threw fireworks at them from the top of the village church. There were 20 injuries and at least seven arrests in the day's confrontations. In the evening, the Chontales returned yet again to block access to the Sen oil field; they also blocked the road to Ciudad Pemex, site of one of Tabasco's two petrochemical plants. [LJ 2/8/96] On Feb. 8 another mixed military-police operation moved against the PRD encampment at the El Castano site near Cardenas; 57 people were arrested, including three officials from the Cardenas municipal government. The protesters offered no resistance. The city--named after President Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940), who nationalized the oil industry--had declared the encampment the municipality seat. [LJ 2/9/96, electronic edition] On Feb. 9 the authorities retook the Escuintle 201 oil field, making four arrests. During the operation, a woman wearing the uniform of the federal attorney general's office (PGR) assaulted a member of the federal congress, Dep. Julieta Uribe (PRD). Here too the protesters, mostly Chontales, resumed their sit-in after the police and the military had left. The same day, the PGR asked the judiciary to issue an arrest warrant for Lopez Obrador, who continued to make public appearances without incident. Lopez Obrador, a leader of the PRD left, told reporters that he was guilty of "masterminding" the oil field sit-ins and that "[p]rison is an honor for people who are fighting for justice." [LJ 2/10/96, electronic edition] Pemex says that the occupations are costing the company $450,000 a day; it also says that it has paid $277 million pesos (almost $100 million) to the state government to compensate for environmental damage it has caused. Lopez Obrador claims that only 10% of this money went to help the Chontales and other victims of Pemex operations. Gov. Madrazo spent the rest on publicity campaigns and on contracts with friends, according to the PRD leader. [Mexico Update 2/5/96] Last June Lopez Obrador showed reporters 16 boxes of documents indicating that Madrazo spent more than $70 million in his 1994 gubernatorial campaign, 60 times the legal limit. The origin of the money is unexplained [see Update #281]. All of Pemex's export income, about $7 billion a year, is currently going to a US federal reserve account as collateral for the $20 billion credit line the US government extended to Mexico in February 1995 [see Update #262]. On Feb. 9 the conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN) reported that observers were coming from the US embassy "to analyze the petroleum conflict first hand." [LJ 2/10/96] On Feb. 8 federal police ended a sit-in Tabasco street cleaners had been holding since last August outside the governance secretariat building in Mexico City. The 18 protesters were demanding higher pay; one had been on hunger strike for 25 days. Police beat the street cleaners, confiscated their property and then drove them to Tabasco, depositing them by the side of the highway some 20 km outside Villahermosa. [LJ 2/9/96] 2. GLOBALIZATION AND MEXICAN PRESIDENT FACE ASSORTED CRISES The Tabasco flare-up started just after Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon left for Europe on Jan. 25 to visit various countries and to attend the annual World Economic Forum, which opened in Davos, Switzerland on Feb. 2. In a Jan. 30 talk in London, Zedillo told foreign affairs experts and potential investors that "our economy is showing signs of an effective adjustment" and that the "threat of insolvency" triggered by the December 1994 peso crisis "has vanished." [Inter Press Service 1/31/96] The Davos forum energetically promotes the sort of neoliberal economic programs Zedillo has followed in Mexico. Ironically, as the Davos event opened, the International Herald Tribune ran an article by forum organizers Klaus Schwab and Claude Smadja entitled: "Start Taking the Backlash Against Globalization Seriously." This backlash, they wrote, "can easily turn into revolt." [New York Times 2/7/96] Tabasco is just one of the crises and scandals facing Zedillo. The Mexican stock exchange has risen by a dramatic 11.7% (in US dollars) since the beginning of the year [NYT 2/8/96], but the economy has not stabilized. The internal market shrank by 20% in 1995. Despite a $10 billion bailout last year, the Mexican banking system "has not left the risk of collapse behind," warns Jose Garcia, who represents the Serfin financial group, the country's third largest. Analyst Sergio Sarmiento says more bluntly that the financial system is facing "the biggest collapse in its history." [IPS 1/31/96] On Feb. 9, the anniversary of Zedillo's failed 1995 military offensive against the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) rebels in the southeastern state of Chiapas, the US-based organization Human Rights Watch issued a 19-page report on the treatment of more than 20 alleged EZLN members government officials arrested on Feb. 8 and 9, 1995. The report concludes that Mexican officials are responsible for "torture, the extraction of confessions by force, and the disregard of due- process guarantees. Most of the alleged Zapatistas remain in jail, charged with crimes such as rebellion and sedition." ["Mexico: Torture and Other Abuses During the 1995 Crackdown on Alleged Zapatistas," Human Rights Watch/Americas] Scandals from the administration of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (9188-94) continue to undermine Zedillo and the ruling party. The March 1994 murder of PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta grabbed headlines again on Feb. 7 when Vicente and Rodolfo Mayoral crossed the border illegally into the US at San Ysidro, California, and requested political asylum. The Mayorals, father and son, were held from 1994 into early 1995 on suspicion of collaborating in the candidate's assassination; they were working with his security group when he was gunned down. The Mayorals fled when their lawyer warned them that they might be charged again. [LJ 2/8/96] On Feb. 2 the PRI voted to expel Salinas' brother Raul, now in jail on charges of masterminding another 1994 assassination, the killing of PRI general secretary Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu in September 1994. [Wall Street Journal 2/5/96] Raul Salinas is also associated with a number of corruption scandals. One involves 1,000 housing units he and his brother-in-law constructed during the late 1980s in Cancun and Chetumal, in Quintano Roo state on the Yucatan Peninsula. The housing has remained abandoned while 600 people presented fraud charges against the Salinas de Gortari family. In late January some 1,000 working-class families began occupying the housing units, which still lack water and electricity. The local PRI tenants organizations, which seem to be behind the takeovers, say the families will get utilities if they vote for PRI candidates. [LJ 8/2/96] 3. HAITI GETS NEW PRESIDENT, RELATIONS WITH CUBA Rene Preval was inaugurated president of Haiti on Feb. 7. Jean- Bertrand Aristide, president from 1990 to 1995, completed the transfer of power by handing Preval, a longtime friend, the presidential sash. The ceremony was attended mostly by lower- level diplomatic representatives, and the reaction from the public was subdued. [New York Times 2/8/96] According to the International Liaison Office for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which is a legally registered agent of the Haitian government, this is the first "transition between two elected presidents" since Haiti declared independence in 1804. [Haiti: Update 2/1/96] [Feb. 7 also marked the tenth anniversary of the overthrow of dictator Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier.] Cuban foreign minister Roberto Robaina arrived in Port-au-Prince for the ceremony on Feb. 6, and later that day he and Haitian foreign minister Fritz Longchamp signed an accord reestablishing diplomatic relations broken more than 35 years ago. Aristide attended the signing and called the decision to resume relations the most important of his presidency. Robaina pointed out that Cuba now has diplomatic relations with 156 countries. [CubaNews from Radio Havana Cuba 2/7/96] The New York Times says that Aristide had "spared Mr. Preval from taking a step that might undermine his relationship with Washington." Relations with Cuba were broken by dictator Francois ("Papa Doc") Duvalier under pressure from the United States. [NYT 2/8/96] 4. UN COP KILLED IN HAITI On the night of Jan. 29 a United Nations police agent from the West African nation of Benin, Gbetie Francois Denis, was killed by hostile gunfire as he and another agent from Benin were driving in Port-au-Prince. According to the UN, Denis was the first member of the occupation forces to be killed by hostile fire. Reuter reports that UN forces "have been stung by a series of casualties" in the last few weeks. The UN mission is scheduled to leave at the end of February, but the Preval government has asked for the mission to be extended for six months. [New York Times 1/31/96 from Reuter] The US has said that it will not be part of an extended mission, but on Jan. 25 the Long Island daily Newsday reported that US president Bill Clinton and Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien had made a secret pact for 1,500 Canadian soldiers and 100 Canadian police officers to substitute for the US troops. The US would provide logistical support and would supply reinforcements in emergencies. The rightwing daily Washington Times claimed that in exchange Chretien asked for 20,000 US troops to be sent to Canada if Quebec province voted to secede in a future referendum. While dismissing this story, the New York-based Haitian weekly Haiti Progres suggests that "with the difficulties that the federal Canadian government currently experiences with Quebec and the ultra-conservative Reform Party, the Canadian prime minister would want to assure himself of the political support of his big neighbor to the south." As for the US, "there is no way that Bill Clinton, in this election year, would expose his flank to the Republicans, given the uncertainties in the Haitian situation" by leaving a large US contingent in Haiti. [HP 1/31-2/6/96] 5. CENTRAL AMERICA: "CRUDE REALITY" GETS TIME OUT FOR POPE Pope John Paul II carried out his whirlwind tour of Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador as scheduled on Feb. 5-9, leaving from Guatemala on a flight to Venezuela for a Feb. 9-11 visit. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 2/11/96 from Notimex] Arriving in Nicaragua on Feb. 7 for a 10-hour visit, the Pope led an outdoor mass attended by some 150,000 people, a considerably smaller number than expected [organizers had predicted as many as a million--see Update #314], and smaller by at least several thousands than the turnout for the pope's controversial 1983 mass in Managua. [New York Times 2/8/96] In 1983 the Sandinista government used up nearly a year's fuel budget providing transportation which allowed many thousands of people from outside Managua to attend the Pope's mass. Tensions rose when people attending the mass began shouting angrily after the pope refused to say a prayer for those killed by the contras or a prayer for peace. [Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 2/5/96] This year, more than 4,000 police agents and 2,000 army troops were assigned to guard the 11 km route from the airport to the plaza where the mass was held; the airspace above Nicaragua was closed to traffic. [Inter Press Service 2/5/96] Police arrested at least 400 people they described as "anti-social" in a series of sweeps in Managua in the days leading up to the pope's arrival. (The Nicaragua Network reports that a feared roundup of Sandinista leaders did not seem to take place.) [La Jornada 2/4/96 from ANSA, AFP, DPA, EFE, AP; Nicanet Hotline 2/5/96] In El Salvador on Feb. 8, tens of thousands of people greeted the pope on his 9 km journey from the Ilopango airport to the site of his public mass in San Salvador. Among them were about 100 youth from the leftist Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) shouting "Romero, Romero," a reference to archbishop Oscar Romero, who was murdered by rightwing death squads on Mar. 24, 1980. [ED-LP 2/9/96 from AP] Later, while the pope prayed at Romero's tomb in the catacombs of the San Salvador cathedral, thousands of young people outside chanted for "canonization" of the former archbishop, a supporter of liberation theology and a hero to many of El Salvador's poor and oppressed. One youth gave the pope a book with 10,000 signatures supporting Romero's canonization. [Diario Las Americas (Miami) 2/10/96 from AFP] Just a week earlier San Salvador's new conservative archbishop, Fernando Saenz Lacalle, dismissed liberation theology advocate Rev. Luis Alonso Coto from his post as director of the San Jose de la Montana seminary, a move viewed by many as a purge. [LJ 2/4/96 from ANSA, AFP, DPA, EFE, AP; NYT 2/8/96] Upon his arrival in Caracas, Venezuela on Feb. 9, the pope was to visit the notoriously violent Catia prison and bless its 2,300 inmates. "The pope always makes some contact with the crude reality," explained Merida archbishop Baltazar Porras, organizer of the pope's Venezuelan visit. [Inter Press Service 1/26/96] One prisoner was killed and three were wounded in a Feb. 3 fight at Catia prison in Caracas, just six days before the pope's arrival. "I believe the papal visit has them agitated," said Catia prison director Nestor Lopez. Three prisoners have died at Catia so far this year; 34 died there during 1995. [LJ 2/4/96 from ANSA, AP, PL] 6. NEW GUATEMALAN PRESIDENT OUSTS RIGHTS VIOLATORS FROM ARMY On Jan. 19, new president Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen dismissed eight of the 16 generals in Guatemala's armed forces as part of an extensive purge of top military officers. One of those dismissed was Gen. Carlos Enrique Pineda Carranza, whose removal was sought by the US after US drug agents identified his brother-in-law as a drug trafficker. The purge also included many colonels, among them Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez and Col. Mario Roberto Garcia Catalan, accused of covering up the 1990 murder of US innkeeper Michael DeVine. Alpirez was also accused of complicity in the torture and murder of imprisoned rebel leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez at an army barracks in 1992, at a time when Alpirez was on the payroll of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). There is no indication that any of the discharged officers will face criminal prosecution, and most will continue to draw partial salaries before facing obligatory retirement in two years. On Jan. 26, the new government dismissed 118 police officers, including 85 precinct commanders, because they were linked to criminal activity. "To prevent them from using their power to protect themselves and other criminals, I prefer to fight them as civilians on the street," said Interior Minister Rodolfo Mendoza. [New York Times 2/7/96] 7. GUATEMALAN PRESIDENT'S BODYGUARD KILLS CONFUSED DRIVER President Arzu was on a morning horse ride with his wife and bodyguards along a road in Antigua on Feb. 4 when local milk delivery person Pedro Haroldo Sas Rompich crashed his truck into the presidential party and was shot and killed by an over-zealous bodyguard. Another guard was injured after being hit by the truck. According to Interior Minister Rodolfo Mendoza, Sas sped down the road at high speed, crashed first into a guard's horse and then hit two security vehicles. Sas backed up, ramming a third security vehicle that tried to block his path and then sped forward in the direction of Arzu, who had gotten off his horse to assist the injured guard. The government initially claimed Sas had attempted to kill Arzu. Family members say Sas was on his regular milk rounds when he was killed and would never have tried to kill the president. "We voted for Arzu," said Sas' sister. "And look how he has cheated us, allowing his security to kill our brother." Local residents speculate that Sas may have attempted to flee when he saw the guard's guns, since an armed gang carries out frequent robberies on the same stretch of road. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #6, 2/8/96; El Diario-La Prensa 2/5/96 from Notimex; Inter Press Service 2/6/96] The government at first defended the actions of Sgt. Jose Obdulio Arevalo Villanueva, the guard who shot Sas. But official sources announced on Feb. 7 that he had been arrested by court order and was being held in a Guatemala City police precinct. [ED-LP 2/8/96 from EFE] 8. GUATEMALA: REFUGEE MASSACRE CASE MOVED TO CIVIL COURT On Jan. 31, a court of appeals in Guatemala's Jalapa province ruled that 24 soldiers and one officer accused of killing 11 returned refugees in Xaman, Alta Verapaz province last Oct. 5 [see Updates #297, 298] must be tried in a civil court rather than a military court. Attorney General Ramses Cuestas said on Feb. 2 that the court's decision set a precedent for civil intervention in any such cases in future. Praise for the ruling came from both human rights groups and legal experts, including Helen Mack Chang, who is currently working to get the case of her sister Myrna's 1990 murder moved from a military to a civil court. The appeals court made its ruling after Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu Tum questioned the impartiality of a military judge in a criminal case involving the army. The decision was based on the constitutional right to be heard in an unbiased court, as well as the principle of legal equality, since, in the appeals court's view, soldiers being tried in a military court would enjoy undue privilege. Defense lawyer Leopold Armando Guerra Juarez and military spokesperson Col. Guillermo Caal Davila said they will appeal the decision as far as the Constitutional Court if necessary to prevent the move. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #6, 2/8/96; Inter Press Service 2/2/96] The Public Ministry has asked the first criminal court of Alta Verapaz to dismiss the Guatemalan army's charge that members of the Xaman community were guilty of homicide, attempted robbery, and serious injury. The charges were brought by Sub-Lt. Camilo Antonio Lancan Chanclan, the commander of the patrol responsible for the Xaman massacre. On Jan. 22, former defense minister Mario Rene Enriquez testified in the case. In his statement, he said he could only bring to the case the information he had access to, and he was not at the site when the massacre occurred. In mid-January, Casta Liliana Castaneda, of the Human Rights Prosecutor's Office for Verapaz and Quiche, suddenly resigned from her job. She was in charge of several sensitive cases, including the Xaman massacre and exhumations of clandestine cemeteries in Cahabon, Lanquin, Ochec, Panzos, Polochic, Chisec, and Playa Grande. The Guatemalan daily Siglo Veintiuno reported that she may have resigned under pressure. Public prosecutor Mario Alfonso Ramirez, who was involved in the same cases, also resigned. [Guatemala Human Rights Update #2/96, 1/26/96] 9. BOLIVIAN VOTE RESULTS UNCLEAR In municipal elections on Dec. 3 in Bolivia, thirteen parties fielded candidates for 2,697 local offices in 308 municipalities in the country's nine departments. Official results were supposed to be announced on Dec. 16 [we do not have this information]. Unofficial results gave the victory in two of the 11 major cities to the ruling Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR); two to the Homeland Conscience (CONDEPA) party; two to the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR); two to the pro-government Free Bolivia Movement (MBL); and one each to the Civic Solidarity Unity (UCS), the Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN) and the Revolutionary Independent Front (FRI). The ruling coalition is made up of the MNR; the MBL, headed by foreign minister Antonio Aranibar; the UCS; and the Tupac Katari Revolutionary Movement (MRTK) of vice president Victor Hugo Cardenas. These were the first elections affected by a recently enacted constitutional reform which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, increased the mayoral term of office from three to five years, and gave mayors the power to administer economic resources allocated through the Popular Participation Law, which is aimed at giving local governments more autonomy in decisions affecting their communities. Despite this, abstention was about 50%. Most analysts agreed that voters had little confidence in any of the parties or candidates. The Bolivian Workers Central (COB), the country's most powerful labor federation, had called for a protest vote against candidates from the governing MNR to express opposition to the government's economic policies. Bolivian electoral law requires a candidate to win an absolute majority of votes cast to win an election. If no municipal candidate wins more than 50%, the Municipal Council chooses between the two top candidates, but is not bound to name the candidate with the greatest number of votes. One of the most hotly contested races was for the mayor of La Paz, a race which is viewed as a barometer for the next presidential elections, scheduled for 1997. Incumbent Monica Medina de Palenque of CONDEPA was the top vote getter with about 38% of the votes, according to unofficial reports. In second place was the ADN's Ronald MacLean with 20.1%, while Gaby Candia of the MNR had 15% and Rodolfo Galvez of the MBL had 8%. The other parties indicated before the election that they would not support Medina in a Municipal Council vote. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 12/15/95 from Reuter, Inter Press Service, Agence France-Presse, Notimex, United Press International] The Municipal Council postponed its decision after Medina, along with the CONDEPA council members and some of the party's legislators, began a hunger strike in the mayor's offices. "The hunger strike in defense of the citizens' will will go until its ultimate consequences," Medina told the press. [Diario Las Americas 1/6/96 from AFP] "I am sure that the parties and candidates who believe in democracy will not ignore such a decided victory," Medina had said earlier. "To deny the victory to the winner threatens democracy and pushes people toward greater absenteeism in the future." Johnny Fernandez, son of the late brewery owner and UCS politician Max Fernandez Rojas, won the mayoral race in Santa Cruz with 45% of the vote. Analysts interpreted the results as a tribute to his father [LADB Notisur 12/15/95 from Reuter, IPS, AFP, Notimex, UPI]; Fernandez Rojas was killed on Nov. 26 along with six other people when his private twin-engine plane crashed outside Uyuni, about 190 miles south of La Paz. [New York Times 11/28/95 from AP] The older Fernandez was the fourth runner-up in the 1993 presidential elections; his party became part of the governing coalition after backing front-runner Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada in a congressional confirmation vote [see Update #179]. 10. INTERVENTION EXPERT IS NEW US ANTI-DRUG CHIEF In his Jan. 23 state of the union address, US president Bill Clinton announced that he was appointing Gen. Barry McCaffrey to head the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, a cabinet- level post. The new "drug czar" was in combat in Vietnam and the Gulf War; over the past two years he has headed the Southern Command in Panama, the US military headquarters for all of Latin America. [New York Times 1/28/96] The Mexico City daily La Jornada calls McCaffrey a "specialist in interventions" and says he was involved in the 1965 US intervention in the Dominican Republic and advised the Nicaraguan contras. The paper writes that "the US appears to be adopting preventive strategic methods in its 'backyard' against the danger of an increase in political and social instability," since "the fundamental pretext for interventions in the region (see the Noriega case in Panama)--now that the argument of national security against subversion has been eliminated--is the fight against drug trafficking." [LJ 1/28/96] The daily El Panama America reported that Panamanian president Ernesto Perez Balladares met in secret on Jan. 17 in Panama City with McCaffrey (then head of the US Southern Command), US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Deutch, US Ambassador William Hughes, US Undersecretary of Defense John Sheridan and Chief of the Public Security Council Gabriel Castro. The paper did not mention the purpose of the meeting, though discussions probably centered around drug trafficking. [Central America Update (produced by the Washington-based Center for International Policy) Vol. II, #2, 1/16-31/96] 11. CHILE: SUPREME COURT CLOSES HUMAN RIGHTS CASE On Jan. 30, Chile's Supreme Court unanimously ruled to close the investigation of the 1974 murder of Lumi Videla, a member of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). Videla was arrested on Sept. 21, 1974, by agents of the secret police (DINA); surviving prisoners who saw her in DINA headquarters say she was severely tortured there. She was killed on Nov. 3, 1974, and her body was thrown over the wall into the Italian Embassy in Santiago, where a group of political opponents to the coup had sought refuge. The Videla case was one of the Supreme Court's last pending human rights cases. The Supreme Court's decision overturns an unprecedented ruling last Sept. 23 by the Santiago Court of Appeals that Chile's 1978 amnesty law could not be applied because it would violate the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners. That decision held that after the 1973 military coup, a state of war existed in Chile and therefore the Geneva Conventions ratified by Chile had to be respected. The Supreme Court considered there was only a state of siege, and not warfare in Chile after the coup, and thus the Geneva Conventions were not applicable. Human rights groups argue that between 1973 and 1975 the military dictatorship declared a state of internal warfare, which allowed it to order summary executions, hold war tribunals and set up prisoner camps. The only person indicted for Videla's murder, ex-DINA agent Osvaldo Romo, has been held under arrest in Santiago since 1992; according to CHIP News he will now be freed. [CHIP News 1/31/96] Romo lived secretly in Brazil from 1975 until he was captured there on July 29, 1992; he was sent back to Chile on Nov. 16 of the same year [see Updates #143, 148]. In an interview last May with the US Spanish-language TV network Univision, Romo described his tortures of prisoners in graphic detail and without regrets, saying he would do it again, but this time would not leave anyone alive [see Update #278]. Former MIR leader Gladys Diaz has described Romo as "the worst" of a sadistic group of torturers who "really enjoyed what they did" [see Update #133]. 12. IN OTHER NEWS... Bolivian women coca growers ended their hunger strike in La Paz [see Updates #314] after 12 days on Feb. 3 when the government signed an agreement with the Bolivian Workers Central (COB) labor federation. The coca growers also agreed to end other protest actions. Under the terms of the agreement, the government will not carry out forced eradication of coca crops, will free coca growers who have been arrested and will guarantee respect for human rights in the Chapare region. [La Jornada 2/4/96 from AFP]... Argentina's chamber of deputies voted on Feb. 7 or 8 to grant sweeping powers to President Carlos Saul Menem to set economic and tax policy and reduce the size of the federal government. The measure was approved with votes from the ruling Justicialista (Peronista) Party (PJ) and a few other allied parties. The opposition Radical Civic Union (UCR) voted against the measure, calling it a "constitutional violation." The initiative was debated in December, but never came to a vote because of a lack of a quorum in the congress. Many deputies objected to the fact that congress would be giving up its power to approve or eliminate taxes, or to broaden or reduce the tax base. [Diario Las Americas 2/10/96 from EFE; Inter Press Service 2/6/96]... Honduran campesino leaders announced on Feb. 3 that former workers of Tela Railroad Company, the Honduran subsidiary of the US banana transnational Chiquita Brands, had accepted the government's proposal to relocate them and compensate their losses. The government agreed to build 120 houses, as well as health and sports centers, sewage and drinking water systems and pay $500 in compensation (presumably to each former worker) in exchange for their removal from 800 hectares of the company's land, which they have been illegally occupying [see Update #314]. [La Jornada 2/4/96 from AFP, Reuter]... In the Dominican Republic, campaign activist Salvador Balbuena of the opposition Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) died on Feb. 5 in Villa Altagracia; he had been shot in the back on Feb. 3 while speaking on a loudspeaker from a truck to announce the upcoming visit of PLD presidential candidate Leonel Fernandez. Local police said four members of the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) had been arrested as suspects in the shooting. General elections are scheduled for May 16. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/6/96 from EFE]... On Feb. 8, public employees in Ecuador reached an agreement with the government to settle a strike which had shut down the country's hospitals, prisons and civil registry offices [see Update #314]. The government agreed to increase salaries by an average of 35%, with the lowest paid workers getting up to 38% and the highest paid no more than 32%. [ED-LP 2/9/96 from AFP]... Some 750,000 public employees in Venezuela started a 48-hour strike on Feb. 7 to protest the government's attempts to alter their collective bargaining agreements and severance pay arrangements. [ED-LP 2/8/96 from AFP]... On Feb. 17, the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) and Pastors for Peace plan to try to bring medical aid, including computers, across the San Diego border into Mexico for shipment to Cuba in violation of the US embargo. On the same day, the group will attempt to bring another shipment of donations from Highgate, Vermont, across the border into Quebec; the donated materials will then be shipped by air from Montreal to Havana. A previous shipment of 325 computers that IFCO/PfP tried to bring into Mexico was seized at the San Diego border by US Customs Service on Jan. 31 [see Update #314]. On Feb. 7, the groups were issued a subpoena to appear before a grand jury for prior humanitarian aid shipments to Cuba in 1994 and 1995. [IFCO/Pastors for Peace Press Releases 2/8/96] Note: the "unclassified federal documents" referred to in Update #314 consisted of a US Department of Commerce document labeled "unclassified but sensitive," which indicated plans by a multi- agency task force to stop the IFCO/Pastors for Peace caravan and seize the computers. [IFCO/Pastors for Peace Press Release 1/29/96] 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. 2/15 THU, 5 - 6:30 PM - Solidarity w/Bangladesh garment workers, informational picket line at Ganis Bros, 1359 B'way (36th & 37th St). Workers Solidarity Alliance, 212-979-8353. 2/16 FRI, 7 PM - "Organizing with Video & Public Access Television," w/Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10 floor. $6. 212-242-4201. 2/20 TUE, 4 PM - Protest torture of accused Zapatistas. At Mexican consulate, 5th Ave & 41st St. 212-677-8572. 2/21 WED, 8 PM - "Mariategui & the Origins of Latin American Marxism, Session 2," w/Gerardo Renique (CCNY). Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10 floor. $6. 212-242-4201. ================================================================= 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/ =================================================================