WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #316, FEBRUARY 18, 1996 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Police Invade Venezuelan University Campus 2. Seven Injured in Honduran Labor Protests 3. Mexican Government Signs Limited Pact with Chiapas Rebels 4. Mexican Oil Protests Suspended 5. Haitian "Truth Commission" Report Finished 6. Guatemalan Indigenous Campesinos Confront Police 7. Argentina's Political Parties Fracture 8. Kidnappers Renew Communication in Costa Rica 9. Brazil Workers Sign Pact on Temp Jobs 10. Colombian President Is Formally Charged 11. Colombia: New Massacre in Uraba as Peace Efforts Flounder 12. Three Cuban Dissidents Freed 13. US Confiscates More Computers Donated to Cuba 14. In Other News: Guyana, Nicaragua & Ecuador... 15. Upcoming Events in the NYC Area and Beyond ISSN#: 1084-922X. 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POLICE INVADE VENEZUELAN UNIVERSITY CAMPUS Two students were wounded by bullets and six were arrested on Feb. 14 when agents of the metropolitan police and the political police (DISIP) invaded the campus of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) in Caracas. Rumors that a student had been killed could not be confirmed by either university or police sources. The clash began in the morning when a group of masked youth burned a vehicle; later in the day some 500 students and professors demonstrated against their actions, which have become a weekly ritual at the UCV. After midday, police agents entered the campus on motorcycles, shooting weapons and firing tear gas. Police are prohibited from entering the university campus under the rules of university autonomy. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 2/15/96 from AFP, 2/16/96 from EFE] Interior minister Ramon Escovar defended the police invasion of the UCV campus and insisted that the government cannot allow masked youth to act with impunity. "If the students act like criminals we will apply the Penal Code to them and consider them to be criminals," said Escovar. Caracas governor Asdrubal Aguiar argued that the police agents had merely reestablished the calm that university authorities were unable to preserve. Aguiar said that those arrested could be sentenced to terms of three to six years in prison. Student and professor associations criticized the police violation of university autonomy but recognized that there had been no internal capacity to control the masked agitators, who customarily reserve Thursdays as their day to confront police and cut off access to the university. [ED-LP 2/16/96 from EFE] On Feb. 7, two days before Pope John Paul II's arrival in Caracas [see Update #315], the Venezuelan government increased the country's minimum wage by an average 45% in an attempt to quell protests spreading across the country. In Venezuela the minimum income is made up of salary and a series of vouchers designed to compensate for inflation; the total worked out to an average $189 a month at the official exchange rate until December, when a devaluation brought the value down to $107. In January, food prices jumped 85%, the official inflation rate was 8.1% and urban transport fares rose 50%. The new minimum monthly salary will be $155 for urban private sector workers, $138 for public sector workers and $132 for rural workers, announced Labor Minister Nepomuceno Garrido. Unions had been lobbying for a minimum monthly income of at least $210, the price of one month's basic food necessities. Inflation over the past two years has totaled 177%. [Inter Press Service 2/7/96, 2/8/96] 2. SEVEN INJURED IN HONDURAN LABOR PROTESTS At least seven people were injured on Feb. 12 at demonstrations called throughout Honduras by the country's four main labor federations to support union demands for wage increases and inflation control measures. The demonstrations, which included the partial blockading of highways, were held on the same day that the unions' delegation was in negotiations with President Carlos Roberto Reina to discuss an increase in the minimum wage. Radio stations reported that violence broke out in the northern part of the country, where seven people were injured by guards at a maquiladora assembly plant after several people attempted to sack the plant. Felicito Avila of the rightwing General Workers Central insisted that the incidents were not promoted by the workers but by people not connected to the unions. Avila warned that if the unions do not reach an agreement with the government, they will start a general strike. The labor federations are demanding an increase in the minimum wage from $80 to $140 a month. Inflation in Honduras reached 25% in 1995, and unions say the salaries can't keep up with increases in the price of basic necessities. [Inter Press Service 2/12/96] 3. MEXICAN GOVERNMENT SIGNS LIMITED PACT WITH CHIAPAS REBELS On Feb. 16 representatives of the Mexican government and the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) signed their first substantive agreement since the Zapatista uprising started in January 1994. The limited agreement deals only with demands for indigenous rights raised by the rebel army, which is made up mostly of Mayan campesinos in the southeastern state of Chiapas. The federal government agreed to give formal legal recognition to indigenous cultural and linguistic rights, while the Chiapas state government would recognize municipal governments elected through traditional indigenous assemblies. The government negotiators refused to address Zapatista demands to restore some land-reform provisions of Article 27 of the Constitution; these were weakened during the 1988-1994 presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Government and rebel negotiators had tentatively signed the accords on Jan. 19 in the Chiapaneco town of San Andres Larrainzar (or Sakamch'en de los Pobres), agreeing to get responses from the government and the campesino communities within 20 days [see Update #312]. On Feb. 14 the EZLN released a communique saying that 96% of its base had voted to accept the agreement. The EZLN stressed that while "the accords benefit the national indigenous movement and the local advances are not minor," the rebels would continue struggling for the "fundamental demands that caused our just uprising: democracy, liberty and justice for all Mexicans." The peace talks, which began nearly a year ago, will now address other EZLN demands. [La Jornada (Mexico) 2/15/96 and 2/17/96, electronic edition] The agreement was signed just one week after the first anniversary of a government offensive that weakened but failed to destroy the rebel movement. On Feb. 10 about 500 campesinos from the Tojolabal ethnic group marched to Guadalupe Tepeyac, a village near the Guatemala border which they had abandoned to the Mexican army exactly one year before on the second day of the offensive. Masked and carrying EZLN signs and a Mexican flag, the former Tepeyac residents rallied in front of an army post, calling out to the soldiers: "We're fighting for the good of your children, we're Mexicans, not foreigners, why do you kill us and repress us?" This was the EZLN's first unarmed demonstration, signaling a turn to nonviolent political actions. [LJ 2/11/96] 4. MEXICAN OIL PROTESTS SUSPENDED As rebels signed a limited pact with the Mexican government in Chiapas on Feb. 16, campesinos from the Chontal group and members of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) were lifting their 18-day old blockade of some 60 oil wells in the neighboring state of Tabasco. In exchange the Mexican government promised to suspend efforts to remove the protesters by force. The government also resumed negotiations with the PRD national leadership on the demonstrators' ten demands. These include reparations for environmental damages caused by the national oil monopoly, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), in Tabasco, lower gasoline prices in the state, freedom for 106 arrested demonstrators, and guarantees that Pemex petrochemical plants will not be sold to foreign investors through the government's privatization program. Tabasco PRD leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador warned that if there weren't concrete answers to the demands by Mar. 17, the demonstrators would hold an assembly and vote to resume the blockades. [LJ 2/16/96 and 2/17/96] The government had tried repeatedly to end the blockades with huge military-style joint operations by the police and the army, but thousands of protesters returned to block the oil fields after each operation. The government also issued a warrant for the PRD's Lopez Obrador, who is running for the party's national presidency [see Updates #314 and 315]. On Feb. 10 Pemex charged that PRD members had shut off valves in the Caparroso 192-P well, near Simon Sarlat in Centla municipality, raising the danger of pressure buildup and "very grave accidents." [LJ 2/11/96] [The sabotage charge infuriated the protesters. One year before, on Feb. 16, 1995, two Pemex pipelines exploded in the village of Platano y Cacao, near Villahermosa, killing nine residents. Pemex has never paid damages to the survivors or explained the cause of the accident. [LJ 2/16/96, electronic edition] Pemex accidents killed 452 people in Mexico City in 1984 and at least 200-- possibly as many as 1,000--in Guadalajara, Jalisco state, in 1992; see Updates #117-119.] The government's attacks on the movement seemed to strengthen it. Despite initial doubts about the occupations, PRD members of Congress and some independent legislators rallied to Lopez Obrador's defense and offered to turn themselves in to the attorney general's office as "intellectual co-authors of the Tabasco civil resistance." Auldarico Hernandez Geronimo, a Chontal senator for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), participated in the blockades; even the conservative National Action Party expressed some sympathy for the campesinos' demands. [LJ 2/11/96] On Feb. 15 the "Moby Dick," a boat operated by the environmentalist group Greenpeace, sailed into the Sanchez de Magallanes port to show support for the Tabasco movement. [LJ 2/16/96] According to the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and the California-based Resource Center for Nonviolence, international oil producers are planning to meet in Villahermosa in March to discuss the privatization of Pemex, including the unprecedented involvement of foreign companies in oil drilling. The government was under pressure "to resolve the occupations before the curtain goes up on its international gathering," the groups say. [FOR Urgent Action 2/12/96] The occupations came as Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon was trying to put a good face on the neoliberal economic policies he has followed since taking office in December 1994. On Feb. 16 the Finance and Public Credit Secretariat gave the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures for 1995. Real GDP fell by 6.9% in the year, while the population grew by 1.9%. The fall was the worst since 1932, when GDP shrank by 14.9%. [LJ 2/17/96] The government is so nervous that on Feb. 13 "a chill went through this capital on the news that Fidel Velazquez [Sanchez], the 95- year old labor patriarch who has kept the lid on worker unrest for decades, was hospitalized with a respiratory infection," according to the New York Times. [NYT 2/17/96] Velazquez' doctor said the labor leader had acute bronchitis but was recovering. Other patients say "Don Fidel" was delighted when he saw reporters and photographers outside the hospital; they'd probably given him up for dead again, he said. [LJ 2/16/96] 5. HAITIAN "TRUTH COMMISSION" REPORT FINISHED On Feb. 5 Francoise Boucard, president of Haiti's National Commission for Truth and Justice (CNVJ), formally presented her commission's report to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, just two days before the end of his term. The report, which was not immediately made public, identified some 8,600 victims and nearly 20,000 human rights violations for the period from 1991 to 1994, when the country was under military rule. The 1,200 page-report took 10 months to prepare and used testimony from 5,450 witnesses, according to Inter Press Service, which obtained a copy. Activists and human rights groups were expected to react strongly to one of the CNVJ's recommendations: that the abuses be tried by an international tribunal under United Nations Security Council sponsorship rather than by Haitian courts. Haitian activists tend to be suspicious of international forums after revelations that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had members of the Haitian military and the rightwing death squads on its payroll. The CNVJ report contains only one reference to the CIA. [IPS 2/7/96; Haiti Progres (NY) 2/14-20/96] Early this month the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights received thousands of pages of declassified US government documents showing that the US embassy in Haiti considered members of the rightwing Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH) "gun-carrying crazies" at the same time that the US was officially treating the FRAPH as a legitimate political party. CCR attorney Michael Ratner described the documents as "only the tip of the iceberg...the least interesting material." "I think the United States isn't really supporting the democracy the Haitians voted for," Ratner said. "They still want in place some of the thugs and killers they supported... They still see FRAPH as a kind of counterweight to Aristide." [IPS 2/7/96] On Feb. 16 the new president, Rene Preval, nominated agronomist Rony Smarth to be prime minister. Smarth studied in Chile and headed a department of Chile's Agricultural Development Institute from 1967 to 1968 under Christian Democratic president Eduardo Frei, the father of Chile's current president. Smarth's brother William is a priest and liberation theology supporter with close ties to former president Aristide. Parliament is to vote on the nomination on Feb. 21. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/18/96 from AFP] 6. GUATEMALAN INDIGENOUS CAMPESINOS CONFRONT POLICE Early on Feb. 2 some 400 members of the Immediate Response Force of the Guatemalan police forcibly evicted indigenous residents from the El Tablero and Australia estates in San Marcos province, arresting 20 of them. The police also reportedly stole money, chickens and other animals and burned corn and beans and the campesinos' makeshift shelters. Some 260 families marched to the police station to demand the release of the 20 arrested. Within three days, access to the station had been blocked by more than 400 protesters supported by the National Indigenous and Campesino Coordination (CONIC) and the New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG). The protesters told the San Marcos police chief they would invade the station and free the prisoners themselves if the campesinos were not released. Police responded by trying to disperse them with tear gas. But on Feb. 6, a San Marcos judge ordered the conditional release of the arrested campesinos. The jailed campesinos had led a reocccupation of the estates after a prior eviction on Dec. 23. They have a 1927 land registry document which they say proves the estates were stolen from them. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #6, 2/8/96; La Jornada 2/4/96 from Cerigua, EFE] 7. ARGENTINA'S POLITICAL PARTIES FRACTURE Argentine senator and former presidential candidate Jose Octavio Bordon, who came in second in the presidential race last May, announced on Feb. 9 that he was abandoning his senate seat and quitting the center-left coalition FREPASO (Front for a Country in Solidarity). [Inter Press Service 2/10/96; Diario Las Americas (Miami) 2/17/96 from EFE] Bordon also quit the Open Politics for Social Integration (PAIS) political party, which he founded in 1994. [DLA 2/17/96 from EFE] Observers believe Bordon will now attempt to join forces with a growing opposition sector within the ruling Justicialist (Peronist) Party (PJ) to create a center- right coalition in opposition to President Carlos Saul Menem. [IPS 2/10/96] At an improvised press conference at the parliament building, Bordon said he would return to "working with the people." Frente Grande (Large Front) leader Carlos "Chacho" Alvarez, who lost the FREPASO leadership and presidential candidacy to Bordon last year, accused Bordon of being "obsessed" with winning the presidency in 1999 and said he was trying to "Menemize" the coalition. Bordon admitted that he might "have committed errors of procedure" and said he would "meditate on them." [DLA 2/17/96 from EFE; La Jornada 2/4/96 from Reuter, IPS, DPA] The FREPASO crisis began in January, when Bordon proposed that the coalition support the independent candidacy for Buenos Aires mayor of former interior minister Gustavo Beliz, who quit the PJ earlier this year after failing to win the party's mayoral nomination. (Beliz left his post in Menem's administration in 1993, claiming the government was a "nest of vipers.") Bordon's public proposal of the Beliz candidacy caused controversy within the coalition, since FREPASO had already elected a candidate: socialist Norberto La Porta, who was leading the polls for the June vote in the capital. [IPS 2/7/96, 2/10/96; LJ 2/4/96 from Reuter, IPS, DPA] Bordon felt the best strategy for FREPASO to attract voters away from Peronism was to support leaders like Beliz; Alvarez, whose leftist Frente Grande coalition has won all recent capital elections, disagreed. "The best candidate of Menemism in the capital district could never be the best candidate of FREPASO," said Alvarez. "We want a broad project, open, but watch out: not being sectarian doesn't mean going with just anyone." A group of deputies who had supported Bordon criticized as "hasty and inconsiderate" his decision to break with FREPASO, and announced their support for Alvarez. "It is a disappointment to return to being a small party," remarked FREPASO supporter Miguel Snajderman, "but this is more real, because in May, united with Bordon, we got five million votes, but what were we growing toward?" [IPS 2/10/96, 2/12/96] Beliz has formed a new party and is now seeking to attract other PJ leaders disenchanted with the government. [IPS 2/10/96] Backing Beliz in his run for Buenos Aires mayor are Mendoza governor Arturo Lafalla and Santa Cruz governor Nestor Kirchner. Lafalla, however, said he is not thinking of leaving the PJ, and promised instead to try to bring leaders like Beliz and Bordon back into the party. Former Tucuman governor and pop singer Ramon "Palito" Ortega is also said to be privately sympathetic to the Peronist dissident group; Ortega is seeking to succeed Menem in the presidency, but has reportedly not yet decided whether he will seek the PJ nomination or form his own group. [IPS 2/9/96, 2/12/96] The conflict within the PJ intensified with debate in Congress over passage of a bill granting Menem "super-powers" to carry out reforms in tax policy and administration. The lower house passed the bill [see Update #315] after a heated debate--described by some analysts as "catharsis"--among PJ deputies on the subject of Menem's economic policies. [IPS 2/9/96; LJ 2/11/96] The government has now stepped up pressure in an attempt to push the bill through the Senate. [DLA 2/17/96 from AFP] 8. KIDNAPPERS RENEW COMMUNICATION IN COSTA RICA Kidnappers who seized German tourist Nicola Fleuchaus and Swiss tour guide Regula Siegfried on Jan. 1 in Costa Rica [see Update #310] have renewed communications with the government after 20 days of silence, according to Costa Rican daily La Nacion. On Feb. 10, the kidnappers left a communique at the Lagarto Laguna Lodge--the same hotel where the kidnapping took place--in the northern town of Boca Tapada of San Carlos. No official sources have confirmed or denied the existence of the alleged communique, the third issued by the so-called Viviana Gallardo Commando. According to the newspaper report, the latest communique is partly written by hand by kidnap victim Siegfried, who is a naturalized Costa Rican. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/13/96 from AFP] Nicaraguan Teodoro Amador Perez was arrested on Jan. 25 in connection with the kidnapping; Amador, a former member of the Nicaraguan contra organization Revolutionary Democratic Alliance (ARDE), led by Eden Pastora during the 1980s, has lived in Costa Rica illegally since 1985. He was arrested three years ago for an assault but was freed after judicial authorities discovered technical errors in his trial. [ED-LP 1/30/96 from EFE] After questioning, however, Amador appears to have a strong alibi and may no longer be a suspect in the kidnapping case. [Center for International Policy's Central America Update Vol. II, #2, 1/16- 31/96] 9. BRAZIL WORKERS SIGN PACT ON TEMP JOBS On Feb. 13, the Sao Paulo Metalworkers Union--the largest union in Latin America, representing some 350,000 workers--signed an agreement with eight Sao Paulo industrial associations representing 2,000 businesses to generate temporary new jobs for unemployed metalworkers. The work contracts will last from three months to two years, with a flexible work week of between 24 and 44 hours; Metalworkers Union president Paulo Pereira da Silva predicts the agreement could generate 40,000 new jobs in one year in Sao Paulo. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso "viewed the accord with satisfaction" as an example to be followed by other sectors, according to his spokesperson Sergio Amaral, despite the fact that aspects of the agreement are in violation of labor laws. Jose Ajuricaba, president of the Superior Labor Court, the nation's highest court for labor conflicts, warned that portions of the agreement violate "rights which are part of the Constitution," and that it would not survive a legal challenge. Some of the offending stipulations include the reduction of business contributions into the social security fund, and the replacement of a system of unemployment compensation where funds are paid into a government-controlled account and are only accessible once the worker has been laid off, or in some cases for purchase of a home, with a system that pays directly into workers' savings accounts, allowing them unrestricted withdrawals every trimester. Sao Paulo Metalworkers Union president Paulo Pereira da Silva insisted that "all the rights of the workers are maintained" under the new "Collective Contract of Voluntary Labor," while business owners argued that the points of the agreement which violate the constitution could be left alone until the legislation is modified. Although the jobs created will lack legal registration status, the accord guarantees the payment--in proportion to time worked-- of vacation days, weekly rest periods and the 13th month bonus. The change in the unemployment compensation plan is considered an improvement for workers over the current system, and therefore is unlikely to suffer a legal challenge. [Inter Press Service 2/10/96, 2/13/96] 10. COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT IS FORMALLY CHARGED On Feb. 14, Colombian attorney general Alfonso Valdivieso presented a congressional "Accusations Committee" with four formal criminal charges against President Ernesto Samper Pizano, for illegal enrichment, fraud, falsifying documents and cover-up. The charges stem from accusations that Samper knowingly accepted contributions from drug traffickers for his 1994 presidential campaign. [New York Times 2/15/96; El Diario-La Prensa 2/15/96 from combined services] In an interview on Feb. 16, Samper hinted that he may resign from the presidency: "What I am seeking is to be able to leave in a dignified way," said Samper. "When? That depends on the conditions of governability" of the country, he added. [NYT 2/18/96] This is the first time in the history of the Colombian republic that a president has been formally accused before Congress. [ED-LP 2/15/96 from combined services] Vice president Humberto de la Calle, who would replace Samper if he resigned, remains in Madrid, where he has been serving as Colombia's ambassador to Spain since July of last year. In a communique, de la Calle called on Colombians to support and trust in their constitution, and said the country would be "strengthened" by the process of determining justice in the Samper case. [ED-LP 2/18/96 from EFE] The formal charges come amid several weeks of violent incidents linked to the campaign finance scandal. Felipe Lopez, a former regional prosecutor in Cali who had quit his post in 1994 after receiving death threats, was shot to death in front of his home on Jan. 28. Lopez had resigned when Valdivieso replaced Gustavo de Greiff as attorney general; an anonymous judicial source said it was suspected at the time that Lopez had links to drug trafficking. Valdivieso is one of the few Colombian authorities who still have the confidence of the US government. [ED-LP 1/29/96 from AP] On Feb. 2, a body found with 12 bullet wounds in a luxury apartment in Bogota the previous day was identified as that of Elizabeth Montoya de Sarria, killed together with a male companion. Montoya became famous in Colombia when a tape recording was made public in which she offered Samper a diamond ring for his wife and asked that he meet with alleged Brazilian investors who wanted to donate money to his electoral campaign. Montoya's husband, Jesus Sarria, is a former police sergeant and wealthy hotel and property owner who was arrested several months ago on charges of illicit enrichment and connections to drug mafia. Authorities say they do not know the motives for the double murder. [ED-LP 2/4/96 from combined services] German Cifuentes, a Colombian-born doctor who lived and worked in New York City, was shot to death in Bogota on Feb. 14 while on vacation. The victim was the son of Gen. Carlos Emilio Cifuentes, an army general who resigned on Jan. 25 because, he said, Samper "doesn't deserve my trust." Authorities have not ruled out that the murder may have been related to an argument over a traffic incident, or a revenge killing by the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN), whose top leader Gerardo Bermudez (nom de guerre Francisco Galan) was captured several years ago by Gen. Cifuentes. [NYT 2/17/96; ED-LP 2/18/96 from AP] [On Feb. 10, a court ratified a 30-year prison sentence--handed down last September--for Bermudez. The guerrilla leader was also fined and ordered to return $1 million to the relatives of a person who was kidnapped on his orders. [Inter Press Service 2/10/96] Bermudez served as the ELN's delegate in last year's unsuccessful peace efforts. [Diario Las Americas 9/9/95 from EFE] The Colombian government had agreed to let Bermudez and Felipe Torres represent the ELN in the talks while they were both in prison awaiting trial. [LADB Notisur 6/9/95 from Notimex, United Press International, Associated Press, Inter Press Service, Agence France-Presse, Reuter]] 11. COLOMBIA: NEW MASSACRE IN URABA AS PEACE EFFORTS FLOUNDER Alleged guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attacked a bus full of banana workers near Carepa in the violence-torn northern Colombian region of Uraba on Feb. 14, killing 11 people and wounding one. The agricultural workers were on their way to the Osaka banana plantation when they came to a roadblock set up by the alleged rebels; many of the workers jumped out the bus windows and fled when they saw the roadblock. Those who remained on the bus were killed, according to Mario Agudelo Vasquez, a local political leader. Agudelo said the victims were members of the Hope, Peace and Liberty (EPL) political group, formed after a 1991 peace accord led to the demobilization of part of the Popular Liberation Army (EPL) guerrilla organization. The FARC is said to be carrying out a campaign of extermination against members of the EPL political group. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/15/96 from AP] Three people were murdered on Jan. 13 in Turbo, another Uraba municipality, by alleged FARC members. [Peace Brigades International (PBI) Colombia Team Informe Quincenal #39-40, 12/18/95-1/14/96, from El Espectador 1/14/96] On Jan. 10, alleged FARC members carried out an attack in Apartado seemingly directed at the town's mayor, Gloria Isabel Cuartas, who has been instrumental in pushing for a negotiated solution to the region's violence. [PBI IQ #39-40, 12/18/95- 1/14/96, from El Tiempo 1/12/96] Interior Minister Horacio Serpa Uribe announced on Jan. 2 that the government was prepared to meet with spokespeople of the Cordoba and Uraba paramilitary "self-defense" group, which offered on Dec. 16 to demobilize itself if an agreement could be reached on the necessary guarantees and conditions. On Jan. 8 the paramilitary group proposed holding a trilateral dialogue with the government and guerrilla forces to seek an end to Uraba's violence. On Jan. 9 Serpa said he opposed the idea of trilateral talks, since he believes the guerrillas and paramilitary groups require different negotiation processes. [PBI IQ #39-40, 12/18/95-1/14/96, from El Espectador, El Tiempo] 12. THREE CUBAN DISSIDENTS FREED Cuban president Fidel Castro freed three imprisoned dissidents after meeting for two hours with US Rep. Bill Richardson (D-NM), who arrived in Havana on Feb. 9. Carmen Julia Arias Iglesias, Eduardo Ramon Prida and Luis Grave de Peralta left Havana with Richardson on Feb. 10 in a US air force plane headed for Miami. All three had been imprisoned since 1992, Grave and Prida for the crime of rebellion and Arias for divulging state security secrets. [El Diario-La Prensa 2/12/96 from AP; La Jornada 2/11/96 from AFP, ANSA, EFE; Inter Press Service 2/12/96] The US State Department expressed its satisfaction on Feb. 10 with the release of the three dissidents, but demanded that another 1,000 political prisoners being held in Cuba be freed. In a note released by the US Interests Section in Cuba, the State Department emphasized that Richardson's mediation had been on his own initiative and not at the request of the Clinton administration. Richardson first visited Cuba on Jan. 20, when he asked for the release of an unnamed "10 or 15 prisoners." Upon arriving in Miami with the three Cubans, Richardson insisted that Washington "has not made any concessions" in exchange for the release of the prisoners. Far right anti-Castro figure Jorge Mas Canosa of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) was skeptical: "We have to be attentive to avoid any secret accord that would be contrary to the interests of the Cuban people," he said. [La Jornada 2/11/96 from AFP, ANSA, EFE] 13. US CONFISCATES MORE COMPUTERS DONATED TO CUBA On Feb. 17, Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO)/Pastors for Peace made a second attempt to bring hundreds of computers across the US border for shipment to Cuba, where they are to form part of the INFOMED medical information network. In the first attempt on Jan. 31 [see Update #314], all computers were seized by US officials. This time, about 150 Cuba supporters from the US northeast traveled through the snow to the Highgate border in Vermont, where they were met by almost 100 Canadian supporters. Some boxes of medical aid and supplies got into Canada, but all the computers were seized; there were no arrests. In San Diego, 250 to 300 people who had gathered at the San Diego border crossing with computers and other medical aid were literally surrounded and prevented from moving by hundreds of police, highway patrol, customs and other agents. All the computers were confiscated by authorities, although 110 boxes of medicine & medical aid did get through into Mexico. [IFCO phone message 2/18/96] The US government had asked Mexico's cooperation in preventing the Cuba shipments from crossing the border into Tijuana. [Diario Las Americas 2/17/96 from EFE] IFCO/Pastors for Peace reports that the federal government now has confiscated 400 computers--half of what is needed for the INFOMED system. Supporters are urged to call or fax Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin (phone 202-622-5300; fax 202-622-0073), Attorney General Janet Reno (phone 202-514-2000; fax 202- 514-0467), and President Bill Clinton (24-hour answer line 202- 456-1414; fax 202-456-2461) demanding that all the computers be immediately released. For more information call IFCO in New York at 212-926-5757 or Pastors for Peace in Minneapolis at 612- 870-7121. 14. IN OTHER NEWS... On Jan. 31, Guyana's parliament approved a government motion to allow the Omai gold mine to reopen. An official investigation into a bad cyanide spill that occurred last August [see Update #292] found the mine's operators responsible for the accident but saw no justification in keeping the plant closed. The mine's sudden closure following the spill contributed to a 1.4% reduction in the gross domestic product (GDP) target for 1995, say state officials. The company is owned by Cambior Inc. of Montreal, Canada and Golden Star Resources of Denver, USA and directly employs more than 1,000 workers, most of them Guyanese. Environmentalists say the state is not able to properly monitor the mine's operations; Prime Minister Sam Hinds, who moved the motion for the restart, says a monitoring program will soon be formalized. [Inter Press Service 2/1/96]... Mariano Fiallos Oyanguren, president of Nicaragua's Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), resigned on Feb. 13. Fiallos had told the National Assembly on Jan. 26 that he was quitting unless certain reforms were made in the new electoral law; his demands were ignored, but he withdrew his resignation four days later. This time Fiallos insists his resignation is "irrevocable." [El Diario-La Prensa 1/29/96 from AP, 2/14/96 from EFE; Nicaragua Network (DC) Hotline 2/5/96]... Health workers in Ecuador are continuing their strike, having rejected the 35% wage increase the government offered to other public employees [see Update #315]. Hospitals are accepting emergency cases only; the workers are demanding a 92% raise, which President Sixto Duran-Ballen insists the government cannot pay. [ED-LP 2/15/96 from AP] 15. 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. 2/21 WED, 8 PM - "Mariategui & the Origins of Latin American Marxism, Session 2," w/Gerardo Renique (CCNY). Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10 fl. $6. 212-242-4201. 2/22 THU, 6:30 PM - Campaign 96 mtg, plan for 4/6 immigrants' rights demo. At Ctr for Constitutional Rights, 666 B'way. Immigrant Workers Assoc, 212-505-0001. 2/23 FRI, 6 PM & 2/24 SAT, 10 AM - 4 PM - "Introduction to Forum Theater," Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory. Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10 fl. $50. Pre-registration: 212-242-4201. 2/24 SAT, 7 PM - "Is There a New AFL-CIO?" w/Ray Markey (Local 1930 AFSCME) & Raahi Reddy (SEIU). At Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10th fl. $5. Social hr starts at 6 PM. NY Cmts of Correspondence monthly forum series. 212-229-2388. 2/25 SUN, 3 PM - CREED neoliberalism study gp. At Brecht Forum, 122 W 27th St, 10 fl. Call Paul Cooney, 718-230-4691. 2/26 MON - Fr Pablo Romo (Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Ctr, Chiapas, Mexico). At Sarah Lawrence Coll, Yonkers. Call Julianne Rana, 914-323-6718. ================================================================= 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/ =================================================================