WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                   ISSUE #322, MARCH 31, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. General Strike Shuts Down Paraguay
2. Labor Protests Gather Steam in Bolivia
3. Haitian President Pushes Privatization "Without Anesthetic"
4. 1994 Mexican Assassination a Mistake?
5. Mexico's May Day Cancelled as Labor Loses Some, Wins Some
6. El Salvador Anti-Crime Law Questioned
7. Chile: Farmers Protest Free Trade
8. Chile's Supreme Court Denies Mapuche Appeal
9. Indigenous Brazilians Protest for Land Rights
10. Ecuador: Transport Strike Ends, Campesino Strike Starts
11. Guatemala: US Torture Survivor Vigils in Washington
12. Other News: Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay & Noriega
 
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1. GENERAL STRIKE SHUTS DOWN PARAGUAY

On Mar. 29, a 24-hour national general strike called by four
union federations to demand better wages froze transport and
business in the Paraguayan capital, Asuncion. In the absence of
public transport, the military was called out to operate
replacement vehicles, which nonetheless remained empty as they
made their way to the city center. In areas considered at risk
for confrontation, especially the access roads to Asuncion, heavy
police security was set up; however, there were no serious
incidents. The banking system was shut down and financial
operations were interrupted because the workers of the
Compensation Board observed the strike. Schools were empty,
although the Education Ministry had asked that classes not be
suspended. [Inter Press Service 3/29/96; Diario Las Americas
(Miami) 3/30/96 from EFE] 
 
The government had tried to head off the strike by charging that
the unions were seeking to destabilize the government. Eugenio
Sanabria, president of the ruling Colorado Party, said on Mar.
26, "The unionists are preparing next Thursday's strike simply
seeking the resignation of [President Juan Carlos] Wasmosy and
that will not occur." [Note that several sources from before the
strike described it as planned for Thursday, Mar. 28.] [El
Diario-La Prensa (NY) 3/27/96 from AP] On Mar. 27, the unions
denied the charge: "The demands that are being made on this
occasion are clear and precise and don't include any request for
the resignation or overthrow of the head of state," spokespeople
of the National Workers Central (CNT) told Spanish news service
EFE. Justice and Labor Minister Juan Manuel Morales told the
press that some of the union leaders defending the strike are
linked to the creation of new political parties. [DLA 3/28/96
from EFE]
 
Unionist Alan Flores, one of the coordinators of the general
strike, said he was satisfied by the high level of participation
in the strike, which he estimated was about 95%. Union sources
dismissed claims by Minister Morales that the strike's impact was
only 20%; "he's trying to hide the sun with his hands," they
said. Flores said the strike was observed 100% in the areas of
education, transport, state enterprises, banking and health. The
unions declared the strike a success and demanded that the
government make urgent changes in its economic policy and in the
cabinet. [IPS 3/29/96; DLA 3/30/96 from EFE] 
 
Wasmosy met on Mar. 28 with his cabinet to discuss the sudden
resignation of Agriculture and Ranching Minister Arsenio
Vasconcellos. Sources close to the palace said that Cayo Franco,
the current subsecretary of the ministry, is almost certain to
replace Vasconcellos in the post. Franco has the support of
powerful army chief Gen. Lino Oviedo. [IPS 3/29/96] Two weeks
earlier, groups of campesinos who marched in Asuncion jeered at
Vasconcellos because he doesn't speak Guarani, one of Paraguay's
two official languages. [DLA 3/30/96 from AFP]
 
Given the success of the general strike, union leaders are now
planning a 48-hour strike for May 2-3. [IPS 3/29/96]
 
2. LABOR PROTESTS GATHER STEAM IN BOLIVIA

Hundreds of people were arrested in Bolivia during the week of
Mar. 25 as workers protested daily to demand better salaries and
an end to privatizations. [Latin America Data Base Notisur
3/29/96 from Reuter, Notimex, Deutsche Press Agentur, Agence
France-Presse]
 
On Mar. 25, Bolivian police used tear gas and firearms to block a
group of rural teachers from entering central La Paz. The clash
in the densely populated El Tejar zone on the outskirts of the
capital left a bystander dead: Rosendo Chino, a worker at a
market who was not participating in the march, was killed by a
shot in the chest from a police rifle. On the same day, oil
workers protesting the imminent privatization of the state oil
company YPFB (Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos)
joined the national general strike called by the Bolivian Workers
Central (COB), which had begun on Mar. 18. By Mar. 27, over a
thousand union leaders had joined a national hunger strike
started by 40 union leaders on Mar. 11 [see Updates #320, #321].
 
On Mar. 26, a group of Bolivian pensioners "crucified" themselves
at a protest in Cochabamba, and an oil worker used the same
tactic in Santa Cruz to draw attention to COB demands. [Workers
in Ecuador protesting the planned privatization of the state
electricity authority INECEL had used the mock "crucifications"
at their protests in January--see Update #312]. [Inter Press
Service 3/27/96]
 
On Mar. 27, at least 30,000 state workers took part in a street
protest in La Paz. [New York Times 3/28/96] On the same day more
than 250 strikers were imprisoned in Cochabamba after the police
broke up a picket line, made up mostly of pensioners. Many of
those arrested had been on a hunger strike for 11 days protesting
the privatization of their pension funds. [LADB Notisur 3/29/96
from Reuter, Notimex, DPA, AFP]
 
Thousands of workers took to the streets again on Mar. 28 as the
COB analyzed a new government proposal. [Diario Las Americas
3/30/96 from EFE] Unionists fear that police may use the cover of
night to break up the more than 80 pickets of hunger strikers.
[IPS 3/27/96] Rumors that the government is considering calling a
new state of siege--like the one that allowed the arrest of
hundreds of labor leaders a year ago [see Updates #273-276, 279]-
-continue to circulate. 
 
Throughout the month of February, the COB had held negotiations
with the government over a 200-point list of demands. By the end
of February, talks were stalled over the government's refusal to
raise the minimum wage more than its budgeted increase of between
8% and 12%. [LADB Notisur 3/29/96 from Reuter, Notimex, DPA, AFP]
COB demands include an increase in the minimum monthly salary
from $43 to $123; a halt to the planned privatization of YPFB;
rejection of changes in the social security and education
systems; an end to forced eradication of coca cultivations
without alternative development or fair compensation; respect for
labor and human rights; and a new land reform law. [DLA 3/30/96
from EFE; Asociacion Latinoamericana de Informacion (ALAI)
3/27/96]
 
The COB estimates the cost of the basic minimum basket of
necessities for one family of five members at the equivalent of
$446 a month; the average salary is equivalent to $100, meaning
that an average family of five members earns only enough in
monthly wages to survive for one week. [ALAI 3/27/96]
 
Interior Minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain called on the unions to
resume negotiations by putting aside their "belligerent
attitudes" and ending the strike, the hunger strike and the
street protests. The government insists that 95% of the labor
demands have been met and that all that is left is the salary
issue. "What they are asking is illogical because two weeks ago
the government did not want to dialogue and that is why the
strikes began," said COB leader German Carvallo. "But now they
want us to dialogue without the strikes. The consequences of the
social conflict will be the exclusive responsibility of the
government for not resolving the labor demands peacefully." [LADB
Notisur 3/29/96 from Reuter, Notimex, DPA, AFP]
 
As the street protests intensified, President Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada focused his attention on dialogue with a sector of the
political opposition, hoping to reach an accord on the YPFB
privatization. [IPS 3/27/96] The government wants to sell 50% of
YPFB stock to private investors before July. Opposition to the
privatization comes not only from the COB, but from several major
political parties, including Homeland Conscience (CONDEPA), whose
leader Carlos Palenque called on the public to take to the
streets to protest the YPFB sale; Nationalist Democratic Action
(ADN), headed by former dictator retired Gen. Hugo Banzer
(1971-1978); and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) of former
president Jaime Paz Zamora (1989-1993). The ADN and the MIR have
vowed to wage a major battle in the legislature to stop the YPFB
privatization. [LADB Notisur 3/29/96 from Reuter, Notimex, DPA,
AFP]
 
YPFB has a gross profitability of 60% of the value of its
production; the national treasury estimates the profitability at
49%, discounting 11% for payments made to the departments where
oil is produced: Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, Tarija y Cochabamba. The
government has organized a parallel union in an attempt to divide
the 5,000 YPFB workers, who are being pressured to switch their
allegiance to the transnational firms bidding on the
privatization. [ALAI 3/27/96] 
 
In early March anti-privatization lawyer Manuel Morales Davila
was arrested and charged with slandering the president; Morales
had accused Sanchez de Lozada of "high treason" and of
"auctioning off" the country's resources. [LADB Notisur 3/29/96
from Reuter, Notimex, DPA, AFP]
 
At the height of the controversy over the YPFB sale, the Bolivian
press reported that Alfonso Revollo, the minister in charge of
"capitalization" (as the Bolivian government calls its
privatization program), is a partner of Shell-Bolivia, one of the
firms that seeks to buy shares of YPFB. Revollo also reportedly
received a suspicious electoral campaign contribution from a
bankrupt banker. Anti-privatization sentiment in Bolivia was also
piqued by nationalist objections to the sale of the state-run
railroad to a Chilean firm. Bolivians hold a deep resentment
toward Chile since Bolivia lost its Pacific coast access to its
neighbor in an 1879 war. [ALAI 3/27/96] President Sanchez tried
to take time out from the nation's problems on Mar. 23 to
solemnly call for national unity as he attended an event
commemorating the 117th anniversary of the loss of Bolivia's
coastal access; the mood was spoiled, however, by catcalls from
the crowd and unusual clashes between police cadets and army
officers. [La Jornada (Mexico) 3/24/96 from AFP, AP, EFE, ANSA]
 
[The CB investment group, the Chilean firm that won the bid on
Bolivia's railroad, is also planning to bid for a stake in
Brazil's railroad privatization; analysts believe CB's objective
is to create an inter-ocean railway network allowing Brazilian
businesses to export their products through Chilean ports. [CHIP
News 1/3/96] Brazil is set to auction off a concession to run a
stretch of its federal rail system on June 14 for a minimum bid
of $323.4 million. [NYT 3/29/96]]
 
3. HAITIAN PRESIDENT PUSHES PRIVATIZATION "WITHOUT ANESTHETIC"

Haitian president Rene Preval has now begun pushing seriously for
the privatization of the country's nine state-owned enterprises,
starting with Electricite D'Haiti (EDH, the electric company),
Teleco (the phone company), the cement company and the Minoterie
(a flour milling enterprise). Former president Jean-Bertrand
Aristide had agreed to a structural adjustment program (SAP)
under pressure from international lending institutions like the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank when UN-led
occupation forces restored him to power in October 1994. But the
Aristide government held off from implementing the SAP after
anti-privatization protests broke out last summer and fall [see
Updates #293 and 295]. [Inter Press Service 3/27/96]
 
President Preval, who took office on Feb. 7, relaunched the
privatization campaign with a Mar. 15-17 tour of southern Haiti,
telling peasant groups in rice-growing regions that the state
enterprises were money-losers that needed to be sold. In Saint-
Louis du Sud on Mar. 16, Preval stood by while Finance Minister
Fred Joseph told a peasant delegation that the government
couldn't afford to pay for roads, schools or irrigation projects.
Preval then asked the peasants where he should get the money for
rural projects. "Privatize EDH, Teleco, the Minoterie," the crowd
yelled back. "I'm not carrying out [privatization] because of
supposed foreign pressure," Preval had said in an earlier
statement. "I'm doing it because I believe in it." [Haiti en
Marche (Miami) 3/20-26/96]
 
Preval followed the rural tour with official visits to the US
Mar. 19-22 and Canada on Mar. 23. In Washington Preval assured a
meeting of business leaders at the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation (OPIC) that "Haiti will go ahead without hesitation
with the privatization process." [Haiti Progres (NY) 3/27-4/2/96]
Preval adviser Leslie Voltaire was even blunter. During a Mar. 27
visit to Washington, Voltaire admitted that public employees of
privatized companies "will have to sacrifice the most." "We know
it's a very painful program," he said. "It's like surgery without
anesthetic." But, he added, "We don't have a choice; now
everybody is insisting."
 
Having agreed to the SAP, Haiti is looking for $100 million in
economic assistance that US president Bill Clinton has requested
from Congress for fiscal 1997. But congressional Republicans are
not quick to accede to a Democratic White House in an election
year. "Tell the president to get off that $100 million," Rep.
Sonny Callahan (R-AL) told Secretary of State Warren Christopher
on Mar. 27, as Voltaire was visiting Washington. "You're going to
have to reprogram your request." [IPS 3/27/96]
 
Public employee unions are furious with Preval, who during his
time as Aristide' prime minister in 1991 had bragged that his
administration turned the state enterprises into sources of
revenue. (The World Bank has reportedly released figures showing
that Teleco made a $42 million profit in 1994, despite poor
management under the military government in power from 1991 to
1994.) "I can't even say Delatour's name," Teleco union leader
Jean Mabou remarked, referring to central bank president and
leading SAP proponent Leslie Delatour. "We didn't fight for three
years to get rid of the coup d'etat [government] to have him in
our faces!"
 
On Mar. 22 the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations
released a condemnation of the privatization plan, attacking
Preval for his "bizarre and erroneous explanations to the
peasants" and his "act of irresponsibility and provocation" in
setting rural workers against the public employees. But
resistance to privatization remains strong even in the
countryside. In the small town of Leon, near Jeremie in the
southwest, hundreds of peasant women marked International Women's
Day on Mar. 8 by marching with signs reading "Down with the
exploitation of women," "Down with privatization without looking
back," and "Down with a society where big fish eat little fish."
[Haiti Info Vol. 4, #10, 3/23/96]
 
4. 1994 MEXICAN ASSASSINATION A MISTAKE?

The second anniversary of the Mar. 23, 1994 assassination of
Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta
passed without any significant new leads in the case, which has
never been solved to the satisfaction of most Mexicans. El
Imparcial, a daily in Colosio's home state of Sonora, marked the
occasion by running an interview with the candidate's father,
Luis Colosio Fernandez, who openly accused former cabinet chief
(and current World Bank consultant) Jose Maria Cordoba Montoya of
engineering the assassination. Cordoba was a close adviser to
former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994). Colosio,
Cordoba and Salinas belonged to the same "modernizing" faction of
the ruling Institutional Party (PRI), and Salinas had picked
Colosio to be his successor. [Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update #65,
3/27/96 from La Jornada 3/23-25/96, Reforma 3/23-25/96]
 
On Mar. 28 the federal attorney general's office (PGR) suddenly
announced that Cordoba would be asked to testify in the case.
Cordoba had volunteered previously to testify but the PGR had
never taken up his offer. [Reuter 3/28/96; LJ 3/29/96, electronic
edition] On the same day a congressional commission investigating
the case was finally allowed to interview the only suspect
convicted so far for the killing, Mario Aburto Martinez. Aburto
was sentenced to a 45-year term after confessing to the murder
(although he later retracted his confession). The prisoner told
the legislators that he was innocent but confirmed that he was
the suspect picked up at the scene of the crime, the Lomas
Taurinas neighborhood in Tijuana, Baja California. Press reports
have suggested that the suspects were switched.
 
Aburto gave little other evidence, but repeatedly brought up his 
physical resemblance to former Investigation and National
Security Center (CISEN) agent Jorge Antonio Sanchez Ortega. [LJ
3/29/96] [Tijuana police had arrested Aburto look-alike Sanchez
Ortega in Lomas Taurinas. His shirt was bloodied and he tested
positive for having fired a gun and for marijuana use. A federal
judge released him for lack of evidence. [Washington Post
5/1/94]]
 
On Mar. 29 Mexico City's conservative opposition daily Reforma
published a claim that Cordoba had indeed engineered the attack
on Colosio but that the intention had been only to wound the
candidate. The paper received a document written on Colosio
campaign notepaper and signed by "Armani Hubard Soberani,"
apparently a pseudonym. Reforma says all the facts that can be
checked are correctly stated, but that there is no corroboration
for the main charges.
 
The author claims that Cordoba planned the hit in order to warn
Colosio not to be too independent of then-president Salinas,
while at the same time winning the candidate sympathy and
distracting the country from the three-month old rebellion of the
Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) in the southern state
of Chiapas. In this version, Cordoba ordered security agents to
shoot Colosio in the arm or leg and then frame a psychotic "lone
gunman." But one agent had fortified himself for the task with
narcotics; heavily drugged, he shot the candidate in the head
from the right. Another agent, on Colosio's left, tried to shoot
the first agent when he saw him aiming at Colosio's head; this
agent fired too late and instead hit Colosio as he was falling.
[Reuter 3/30/96; El Diario-La Prensa 3/31/96 from AFP]
 
5. MEXICO'S MAY DAY CANCELLED AS LABOR LOSES SOME, WINS SOME

Mexico City's Independent Union of the Metropolitan Autonomous
University (SITUAM) ended a 43-day strike on Mar. 14 after
agreeing to accept the university's final offer of a 16% wage
increase, far lower than the rate of inflation and the union's
initial demand for a 100% raise. Founded 21 years ago, the 7,000-
member union has a reputation for radicalism; it is not linked to
the official labor movement, the Mexican Workers Confederation
(CTM), which supports the ruling PRI. SITUAM is one of the few
university unions that include both professors and staff.
Apparently the government was determined to beat back SITUAM as a
warning to the independent labor movement. For their part,
SITUAM's leaders, mostly from the generation of the 1960s student
movement, seem not to have prepared well for the job action, and
to have underestimated opposition from more conservative junior
faculty members. [Mexican Labor News and Analysis, Vol. 1, #5,
3/15/96]
 
After a 16-hour negotiating session, on the weekend of Mar. 23
the government of Villahermosa, the capital of the southeastern
state of Tabasco, agreed to accept arbitration in the case of 320
street cleaners it dismissed last June. The cleaners were fired
after protesting plans to contract out some cleaning jobs; they
also demanded higher pay for their regular duties and overtime
for work like cleaning officials' private homes. The dismissed
workers carried out dramatic protests in both Villahermosa and
Mexico City [see Update #315, which incorrectly referred only to
the workers' wage demands]. At the time of the agreement, two of
the workers were near death from a 60-day hunger strike. If the
Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal fails to resolve the
dispute in 90 days, the street cleaners will automatically get
their jobs back. [Mexico Update 3/27/96 from LJ 3/25/96, Reforma
3/25/96; Global Exchange Action Alert 3/26/96]
 
On Mar. 25 the government's news agency, Notimex, quoted CTM head
Fidel Velazquez Sanchez as saying that for the second year in a
row the official union movement would cancel its traditional May
1 march and rally in Mexico City's main plaza, the Zocalo. "Here
in Mexico City there will be nothing special," the 95-year old
Velazquez said, explaining that the CTM wanted to avoid "futile
confrontations" with the independent labor movement. [Reuter
3/25/96; Mexico Update 3/27/96] The government had reportedly
pressured the CTM to resume the May 1 event to keep the
independent unions from taking over the Zocalo again, as they did
in 1995. That demonstration provided a focus for popular
discontent over government austerity policies and the devastating
recession that started in December 1994. [LJ 3/24/96]
 
6. EL SALVADOR ANTI-CRIME LAW QUESTIONED

A week after businesses in the Salvadoran department of Usulutan
carried out a work stoppage to draw attention to the problems of
crime, El Salvador's legislative assembly passed an "emergency
law" against crime, a supposedly temporary measure which
eliminates many due process rights. The new law targets youth,
encouraging arrest on suspicion--based on appearance--and making
it illegal for young people to hang out in residential areas or
shopping malls. The law also reinstates nighttime arrests--banned 
as part of security reforms carried out under the Peace Accords--
and "extrajudicial statements" (also known as forced
confessions). On Mar. 21, just after the law was passed, five
youth were murdered, four in Santa Ana and one in San Salvador,
probably by the vigilante squads that have emerged in El Salvador
over the past two years and which carry out "social cleansing" of
perceived gang members. 
 
The Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) was the
only political party that opposed the measure in the Legislative
Assembly. According to FMLN coordinator Salvador Sanchez Ceren,
"The FMLN does not support this proposal; we believe it is a kind
of state of siege without the army, a situation that turns every
Salvadoran into a suspect." While many expect the new law to be
ruled unconstitutional, no one has yet filed suit against it.
[Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)
Action Alert 3/24/96]
 
7. CHILE: FARMERS PROTEST FREE TRADE

Hundreds of farmers blocked parts of the Pan American highway in
southern Chile on Mar. 28 to protest Chile's free trade agreement
with the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR), to be signed
June 25. With their trucks, tractors, pickups and cars, farmers
affiliated with the National Agriculture Society (SNA) cut off
the highway in at least 20 places over a 500 kilometer span,
causing huge traffic jams. Next to a bridge near Linares, 400 km
south of Santiago, farmers simulated a funeral procession using a
coffin full of fruit and vegetables to symbolize the death of
Chilean agriculture. Police did not intervene, and the farmers
agreed to end their blockade of the highway after nearly six
hours; government authorities promised not to apply the state
security law, which punishes strikes and illegal occupations of
thoroughfares or other public places.
 
The agreement with MERCOSUR includes the gradual elimination  of
tariffs for agricultural products within an 18-year period.
Farmers claim competition from countries like Argentina and
Brazil will wipe out domestic production. "We have been
deceived," said SNA president Ernesto Correa. "We have not been
properly informed of what the government negotiated. They waited
until the last minute to tell us about the terms of the
agreement." Farmers say the lifting of customs barriers for rice
and meat was not expected to occur for another 10 or 15 years,
but now they have learned that tariffs on these products will
begin to be relaxed as of July 1 of this year. 
 
The government played down the importance of the farmers'
protest, saying fewer people participated than the 4,000
predicted by SNA. Interior vice-minister Belisario Velasco said
the biggest group numbered no more than 300 people. Velasco
suggested that the demonstrations may have been politically
motivated, given the close ties of SNA members with the rightwing
opposition National Renovation (RN) and Independent Democratic
Union (UDI) parties. [CHIP News 3/29/96]
 
SNA leader Correa said that his group will carry out new
mobilizations after the Easter week holidays. [Inter Press
Service 3/29/96]
 
8. CHILE'S SUPREME COURT DENIES MAPUCHE APPEAL

On Mar. 19, the Second Chamber of Chile's Supreme Court ruled
inadmissable an appeal by 134 Mapuche Indians--including leader
Aucan Huilcaman--who had been convicted for belonging to an
illegal organization and "usurpation of lands." Ruling that the
Mapuche filed their appeal too late, the Supreme Court upheld the
original sentence of up to 541 days in prison and a fine of
approximately $152 for each of those convicted. [CHIP News
3/20/96; South and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC)
Urgent Action 3/29/96; Inter Press Service 3/27/96]
 
In 1992 Huilcaman, a "werken" (messenger) of the Mapuche
organization All Lands Council, which groups more than 300
indigenous communities, headed a number of simultaneous land
takeovers by Mapuche communities in southern Chile as a part of a
protest against the 500th anniversary celebrations of the
"discovery" of the Americas by Europe. Huilcaman is presently
employed by the United Nations (UN) as an international observer
in the peace talks between the government and mainly indigenous
rebels of Guatemala. [CHIP News 3/20/96]
 
Huilcaman announced on Mar. 27 that the Mapuche will take their
case to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. "This
presents us with a favorable opportunity to move from defendant
to plaintiff," said Huilcaman. "We're going to sue the Chilean
state." [IPS 3/27/96]
 
The Chilean government responded to the 1992 land occupations by
filing 11 judicial complaints against the Mapuche communities and
hiring a special judge to investigate their organization. The
houses of the traditional authorities of the Mapuche communities
were broken into, the leaders arrested and charged. The
government also prohibited any media coverage of the repressive
actions carried out by the police. The special assigned judge
tried and sentenced 134 members of the distinct communities; the
Court of Appeals of Temuco upheld the sentences in 1993. 
 
Faxes protesting the Supreme Court decision can be sent to
Interior Minister Carlos Figueroa (fax# 0056-2-6904000) and
Servando Jordan, president of the II Chamber of the Supreme Court
(fax# 0056-2-6972066). [SAIIC Urgent Action 3/29/96]
 
9. INDIGENOUS BRAZILIANS PROTEST FOR LAND RIGHTS

Between Mar. 24 and 28, indigenous leaders in Brazil held a
national mobilization in the capital, Brasilia, to protest Decree
1775/96, which allows challenges to indigenous lands not yet
officially registered [see Updates #311, 312, 314]. Some 300
indigenous leaders gathered in front of the presidential palace
in Brasilia on Mar. 27 for a national demonstration. Protests
were also held in such Brazilian cities as Sao Paulo, Fortaleza
and Recife; the demonstrations are being supported by entities
linked to the social movement. [Diario Las Americas 3/28/96 from
uncited wire service; Indianist Missionary Council (CIMI)
3/21/96]
 
Meanwhile, members of the Guarani Kaiowa community of Jarara in
Mato Grosso do Sul state returned on Mar. 22 to their traditional
lands after nine years of living in makeshift plastic shelters on
the outskirts of the city of Juti since their 1987 eviction. The
Jarara area was demarcated in 1993, but in the same year rancher
Miguel Subtil de Oliveira was granted use of the land by a local
judge. In an open letter signed by 16 of the community members
just before retaking their land on Mar. 22, the Guarani defended
their decision to take action: "We have already waited a long
time for justice. So we are now going to recover our land
ourselves. The judges only support the ranchers and they never
resolve our problems." The 70 community members and Guarani
leaders from other villages occupying the land are surrounded by
federal and military police, as well as by ranchers and their
private guards. "If we are evicted we will commit collective
suicide," the Guarani warn in their letter. [Amanaka'a Amazon
Network Guarani Urgent Action 3/26/96 & Open Letter from the
Guarani Community of Jarara, via Amanaka'a]
 
10. ECUADOR: TRANSPORT STRIKE ENDS, CAMPESINO STRIKE STARTS

Transport was back to normal in Quito, Ecuador, on Mar. 25 after
the armed forces threatened to arrest any bus owners or drivers
who refused to halt the strike they began on Mar. 15 [see Update
#321]. The armed forces said that most transport companies agreed
to return to work, and that the few that did not belonged to
leaders of the transport unions, who will be tried under military
law. The armed forces reported that Nelson Chavez, leader of the
Federal Union of Ecuadoran Transportists, was arrested in his
home for "ignoring military orders." A total of 14 drivers were
arrested under the state of emergency imposed during the strike.
[Inter Press Service 3/25/96] According to Associated Press, the
strike ended when the drivers agreed to accept payment of $2,667
as compensation for each bus more than 20 years old which is
retired from service under the rules of a new municipal transit
plan. [El Diario-La Prensa 3/26/96 from AP]
 
Campesino organizations from the coastal and mountain areas of
Ecuador began an open-ended strike on Mar. 26 to demand the
approval of a law that would capitalize the state-run National
Development Bank (BNF) and forgive the payment of interest on
loans granted by the bank. The law was vetoed by President Sixto
Duran-Ballen and returned to Congress for modifications. "The
interest we pay for the BNF loans are too high, more than 60%,"
said Manuel Montero, a leader of the Confederation of Indigenous
Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). "The government doesn't
understand the situation of the campesinos, who can't produce if
the little they earn goes to pay unfair interest." The campesinos
are considering closing down the principal highways joining the
mountains with the coast; police insist they will maintain order.
[IPS 3/26/96] 
 
11. GUATEMALA: US TORTURE SURVIVOR VIGILS IN WASHINGTON

Sister Dianna Ortiz, a US nun who was abducted and tortured in
Guatemala in 1989, will begin an ongoing silent vigil in front of
the White House on Mar. 31 to demand the declassification of all
US government information on human rights abuses in Guatemala,
including those relating to her own case. Ortiz says her
torturers responded to orders from a man who spoke English with a
perfect American accent, spoke heavily accented, broken Spanish,
and refused to answer when she asked him directly if he was an
American. The US District Attorney's Office began investigating
Ortiz's 1989 ordeal last year and admits having over a thousand
pages of documents on her case, but Ortiz has received no
information about who was involved in her torture and why she was
targeted, although she filed for it under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) 11 months ago. 
 
Supporters are urged to contact President Clinton (White House
Comment Line 202-456-1111; fax 202-456-2461) and National
Security Advisor Anthony Lake (202-456-9491; fax 202-456-2883)--
tell them to declassify all US government information on human
rights abuses in Guatemala from 1954 to the present, and to
release the full report of the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB)
investigation into US links to human rights violations in
Guatemala [see Updates #287, 288]. For more information, contact
the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA (202-529-6599; fax 202-
526-4611; e-mail ghrc@igc.apc.org). [GHRC/USA 3/27/96, 3/28/96]
 
12. IN OTHER NEWS...

At least 12 people were injured, at least 50 affected by tear gas
and several arrested on Mar. 28 in clashes between anti-riot
police and residents of Santa Ana, west of the Costa Rican
capital, San Jose. Santa Ana residents are protesting the
government's plan to install a dump in their community. Clashes
began in the morning, and resumed in the afternoon when police
tried to disperse more than 100 residents who had set up
barricades on the access roads into Santa Ana. Local television
showed police agents shooting at the mainly youthful
demonstrators during the later clash; Associated Press
photographer Kent Gilbert and local TV journalist Oscar Nunez of
Channel 19, as well as two police agents, were slightly injured
by sticks and rocks thrown by demonstrators. "They'll have to
plant the dump over many tombs, because we're not going to allow
the dump in Santa Ana," warned one community leader interviewed
by the press. [Diario Las Americas 3/30/96 from AFP]... Students
at the University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru, blocked access to
the university's classrooms and offices on Mar. 26 to protest an
increase in annual fees from $20 to $60. The students consider
the fee increase as the first step in the privatization of the
university, which has been public and free since it was founded
in the 16th century. [Diario Las Americas 3/28/96 from AFP]...
Transport workers went on strike just after midday on Mar. 28 in
the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo. The strike came just two days
after a previous transport strike in the capital; union leaders
say they are protesting the city's lack of compliance with a
collective bargaining agreement signed at the end of 1995. The
transport union is controlled by Communists; the Montevideo city
government is controlled by the leftist Frente Amplio coalition.
[ED-LP 3/29/96 from AP]... On Mar. 27 federal judge William
Hoeveler turned down former Panamanian military head Gen. Manuel
Antonio Noriega's appeal for a new trial. Noriega, who was
convicted of drug trafficking charges in a 1992 trial presided
over by Hoeveler, based his effort on evidence that a key
government witness had been given a $1.2 million bribe by
Colombia's Cali drug cartel [see Update #319]. Hoeveler called
the evidence "troubling" but rejected the appeal. [New York Times
3/28/96]