WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
                   ISSUE #325, APRIL 21, 1996
       NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
     339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499

1. US Congress Passes "Terrorism" Bill 
    Against "People of This Hemisphere"
2. Landless Peasants Massacred in Brazil
3. Eviction Turns Violent in Guatemala
4. Bolivian Unionists Arrested in Protests
5. Haitian Government Pushes Privatization "A la Bolivienne"
6. Two Haitian Rightists Arrested in Dominican Republic
7. Venezuela Starts IMF Austerity Plan
8. Mexico City Bus Drivers Seem Ready to Settle
9. Nicaragua: Fragile Pacts on Elections Chief, Education Budget
10. Indigenous Hondurans Occupy Capital, Threaten Hunger Strike
11. DEA Deep Throat Charges US Plot in Colombia

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*1. US CONGRESS PASSES "TERRORISM" BILL 
AGAINST "PEOPLE OF THIS HEMISPHERE"

On Apr. 19 the US Senate voted 91-8 to approve a new version of
the bipartisan Comprehensive Antiterrorism Act of 1995,
reconciling sharply different versions passed previously by the
Senate and the House of Representatives. The House approved the
compromise bill 293-133 on Apr. 18. US president Bill Clinton,
whose administration proposed the original legislation in
February 1995, plans to sign the bill early next week. [New York
Times 4/18/96, 4/19/96; Washington Post 4/19/96]
 
The compromise version restores several measures demanded by
Clinton but rejected earlier by the House. These would give the
president the authority--not subject to appeal--to designate
foreign groups and governments as terrorist and then ban US
citizens from contributing to or raising funds for any activities
of these groups or countries. Foreign US residents allegedly
linked to terrorism could be deported on the basis of secret
evidence, while members of the supposedly terrorist groups would
be denied entry to the US. The compromise version retains a
provision added by House Republicans to allow state prisoners
just one habeas corpus appeal to federal courts. This
dramatically limits the ability of prisoners facing execution to
appeal their convictions. The bill gives federal security
agencies almost $1 billion additional funding over the next four
years for "antiterrorist" activities. [WP 4/19/96]
 
On Apr. 18 Senate Democrats tried to restore other measures
proposed by Clinton to extend federal wiretapping authority and
to involve the military in investigations of some crimes. The
Republicans defeated the Democrats' efforts. "It's kind of the
world turned upside," remarked Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), a
conservative co-sponsor of the bill, noting that now the liberals
were the ones supporting wiretaps while some conservatives
opposed them. [NYT 4/18/96] [New York Times columnist Anthony
Lewis writes that recently Clinton issued an executive order
authorizing physical searches without a court order to get
suspected foreign intelligence information. Lewis calls this "an
extraordinary assertion of power, without legislation, to
override the Constitution's protection of individuals' privacy."
[NYT 4/15/96]]
 
Congress slipped a provision into the bill to allow the summary
deportation without judicial review of anyone who has ever
entered the US illegally. This would in effect give immigration
officers arbitrary power over hundreds of thousands of cases,
including many political asylum requests. [NYT 4/19/96] Dan
Kesselbrenner, director of the National Immigration Project of
the National Lawyers Guild, notes that many undocumented
immigrants from Europe enter legally with a tourist or student
visa but stay after the visa has expired. The people who enter
illegally are generally from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Kesselbrenner calls the law "discriminatory" and says: "It isn't
accidental that they're doing this to people who are generally of
color, against people from this hemisphere." [La Jornada (Mexico)
4/19/96, quotation retranslated from Spanish]
 
*2. LANDLESS PEASANTS MASSACRED IN BRAZIL

On Apr. 17, agents of Brazil's militarized police attacked a
group of 4,000 landless peasants who were waiting for
transportation to a demonstration, killing at least 19 people and
wounding at least 50. The massacre took place in the municipality
of Eldorado de Carajas, Para state, where some of the
demonstrators had been occupying land. 
 
The landless protesters had set up roadblocks on the highway that
connects Belem with the southern part of the state, and were
demanding that the state provide them with transportation which
would take them [our sources diverged on this point] either to
Maraba, where they were to meet with representatives of the
National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA),
or to Belem, the state capital, where a demonstration was
planned. When the Para government agreed to send 50 buses, the
demonstrators removed their roadblocks and began waiting at the
side of the highway. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 4/19/96 from AFP,
4/21/96 from AP; Inter Press Service 4/19/96; New York Times
4/21/96; United Press International 4/18/96] 
 
"A sergeant from [nearby] Paraopeba arrived at the camp an hour
before [the massacre] and said a bus was coming to take a
delegation to Maraba, to conclude negotiations on the Macaxeiras
ranch," explained Airton Paleiro, director of the National
Confederation of Agricultural Workers (CONTAG). [UPI 4/18/96]
Some 1,500 families have been occupying the Macaxeiras ranch, in
the nearby municipality of Curionopolis, while they negotiate
with state authorities on their resettlement; about 2,500 members
of these families were taking part in the demonstration on the
highway. [International Secretariat of OMCT/SOS-Torture Case BRA
190496, 4/19/96] "But when the buses arrived they were filled
with police who came out firing," said Paleiro, who described the
police action as an ambush. "One police detachment came from
Maraba, and another came from the other side, from Paraopeba," he
added. [UPI 4/18/96] 
 
"The police arrived firing tear gas bombs and shooting at
peasants," explained Gustavo Filho, coordinator of the Landless
Movement (MST). Filho said police hid the bodies of several
victims, including that of a 3-year-old child. [UPI 4/18/96]
According to Filho, many of the victims were killed in their
houses or in the surrounding jungle, without having resisted
police. [IPS 4/19/96] The chief of security in Para, Paulo Sette
Camara, said it was possible more bodies could be found, "because
many of the wounded fled into the jungle when the shooting
intensified." [UPI 4/18/96] On Apr. 19, President Fernando
Henrique Cardoso sent army troops into the area to search for
victims. [ED-LP 4/20/96 from Notimex]
 
Paleiro said that peasant leader Oziel Alves Pereira was shot
twice and killed inside a vehicle after the military police had
arrested and handcuffed him. [UPI 4/18/96] At local hospitals,
doctors confirmed that some of the victims appeared to have been
executed. [NYT 4/21/96] An investigative commission of federal
deputies also confirmed, after visiting the morgues, that some of
the victims were executed. [ED-LP 4/20/96 from Notimex]
 
Para security chief Sette Camara initially claimed the shooting
started when the police "met with gunfire from armed peasants,"
but this version was proven false by a videotape of the events,
filmed by the TV Liberal television team. Filho charged that the
police used threats of violence to seize the videotape. "A TV
Liberal journalist and her team filmed it all. You can see the
military police arrive, shooting. She shouts at them not to
shoot, because there were a lot of women and children around, but
they arrested her and took the videotape," Filho said. [UPI
4/18/96] Footage of the massacre was shown on national television
in Brazil on Apr. 18, provoking widespread public outcry. The
film showed that the police were shooting machine guns into the
air as they arrived, and that when the demonstrators approached--
some of them throwing stones--the police fired directly into the
crowd. [NYT 4/21/96]
 
President Cardoso condemned the police action and described the
marchers' demands as "a just cause." [UPI 4/18/96] On Apr. 19,
Cardoso pledged to speed up passage of two bills that had been
stalled in Congress: one that would allow military police to be
tried in civilian courts in cases involving civilians; and one
that would accelerate the legal procedures for government
appropriation and redistribution of unproductive land. [NYT
4/21/96; Voice of America 4/19/96] 
 
But CONTAG secretary Francisco Sales called Cardoso "the main one
responsible [for the massacre], for slowing down agrarian
reform." [UPI 4/18/96] According to INCRA, nearly 800 families in
Para state have already received land under an accord that calls
for 1,800 families to be settled by the end of May. INCRA denies
claims by the MST that it is behind schedule on the distribution.
[VOA 4/18/96] Brazil has one of the most uneven land
distributions in the world, with 45% of the land belonging to 1%
of the population. [NYT 4/21/96]
 
Para governor Almir Gabriel said he felt "desolated by the
exaggerated reaction of the military police." [UPI 4/18/96]
Gabriel said he ordered clearing of the roadblocks by peaceful
means, but did not authorize the massacre. [VOA 4/18/96] [In any
case, the protesters had already cleared the roadblocks when the
massacre happened.] Gabriel has dismissed the colonel in charge
of the operation, and has ordered both a military and a civil
investigation. "We will pursue this case vigorously, and at the
end of the investigation, punish those responsible and make an
example of them," said Gabriel. [VOA 4/19/96] The massacre was
committed by the fourth battalion of military police in Para
state, under the command of Col. Mario Colares Pantoja. [OMCT/SOS
4/19/96; ED-LP 4/19/96 from AFP] 
 
Gabriel also ordered state health officials to give priority
treatment to the people wounded in the incident, and said the
state will pay pensions to the relatives of those killed. [VOA
4/18/96] Gabriel and Cardoso both belong to the Social Democratic
Party of Brazil (PSDB). [IPS 4/19/96] MST leaders say Gabriel
bears part of the blame for the massacre because he authorized
the police to use force against the demonstrators. The MST, which
is pressing for faster agrarian reform, says police around the
country have killed 700 of its members in the past decade. [VOA
4/19/96] On Aug. 9 of last year, at least 11 people were killed
in a similar massacre carried out by militarized police against
squatters in Rondonia state [see Updates #289, 290, 293]. 
 
On Apr. 19, hundreds of campesinos held demonstrations in Belem,
capital of Para state; in the federal district; and in the states
of Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo and Rio Grande do Sul, to
protest the government's agrarian policy and to demand punishment
of those responsible for the Para massacre. [ED-LP 4/21/96 from
AP] In Belem, the crowd clashed with the militarized police when
they tried to invade a police barracks, but no one was seriously
hurt. [ED-LP 4/20/96 from Notimex]
 
A week earlier, on Apr. 10, the MST led a "March for Agrarian
Reform and Against Unemployment," a nationwide mobilization of
nearly 10,000 people to hold demonstrations in 18 state capitals.
In Sao Paulo, some 800 of the landless demonstrators took over
the INCRA offices, and in Curitiba and Belo Horizonte, hundreds
camped out in front of the agency's offices. MST leader Gilmar
Mauro, who led the march of 3,000 people in Sao Paulo, explained
that the purpose was "to bring the debate on the agrarian
question to the cities." Mauro estimates that last year at least
100,000 families left the countryside to live in the outlying
slums of the cities; he explained that this migration puts
additional pressure on already-overcrowded cities. [IPS 4/12/96,
4/18/96] A day after the massacre, on Apr. 18, the MST mobilized
more than 10,000 people for an occupation of the Giacometi farm
in Rio Bonito de Iguazu, in southern Brazil. [IPS 4/18/96] 
 
The MST won one of its demands when on Apr. 19, Cardoso accepted
the resignation of Jose Eduardo de Andrade Vieira from his post
as Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform. Andrade, a
prominent banker and landowner, insisted that he had already made
the decision to resign when the massacre occurred. [ED-LP 4/20/96
from Notimex; Diario Las Americas (Miami) 4/20/96 from EFE] The
MST has also been demanding that INCRA be removed from the
control of the Agriculture Ministry. [IPS 4/12/96]
 
*3. EVICTION TURNS VIOLENT IN GUATEMALA

On Apr. 17, some 150 anti-riot agents from the Immediate Reaction
Forces (FRI) of Guatemala's National Police arrived at the El
Tablero plantation in San Pedro Sacatepequez, San Marcos
province, to carry out an eviction of campesinos who had been
living there. Without warning, the police opened fire on and
threw canisters of tear gas at the El Tablero residents, who
defended themselves with stones and machetes.
 
Four campesinos--Roberto Velasquez, Arturo Gonzales, Ezequiel
Orozco, and Maynor Aguilar--were wounded in the attack, one of
them seriously. A police agent was also reportedly wounded.
According to witnesses, neither the United Nations Observer
Mission for Guatemala (MINUGUA) nor the Office of the Human
Rights Prosecutor were present during the attack, although they
arrived later.
 
The Guatemalan government claimed at a press conference that the
police arrived at the plantation unarmed and were ambushed by the
peasants. [Network in Solidarity with the Guatemalan People
(NISGUA) Rapid Response Alert 4/19/96; Diario Las Americas
4/19/96] According to "official sources" cited in an Agence
France Presse story, FRI chief Alberto Soto Hernandez died in the
ambush and three other police agents were injured. Soto Hernandez
reportedly died in the Guatemalan Social Security Institute
(IGSS) hospital, in the city of San Marcos, from five head wounds
caused by sharp objects. The other three agents were treated at
the same hospital: Gerardo Alvarado for a bullet wound in the
arm; and Manuel Marroquin and Rolando Merida for wounds made by
blunt objects. [Diario Las Americas 4/19/96 from AFP]
 
On Feb. 5, FRI agents had attempted to evict El Tablero and
another plantation, burning the campesinos' homes and stealing or
killing their farm animals [see Update #316]. The El Tablero
residents have documents which they say prove the disputed land
was stolen from them. Messages protesting the police attack can
be faxed to President Alvaro Arzu (011-502-2-29968) and Human
Rights Prosecutor Jorge Mario Garcia Laguardia (011-502-2-81734).
[NISGUA Rapid Response Alert 4/19/96]
 
*4. BOLIVIAN UNIONISTS ARRESTED IN PROTESTS

Labor protests resurged in Bolivia during the week of Apr. 8
after the Bolivian Workers Central (COB) rejected an agreement
reached between oil workers and the government, and refused to
accept a salary offer of 9-13% presented by the administration of
President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. In response, the government
ended its talks with the union, and reaffirmed its intentions to
"capitalize" (privatize) the state-owned oil and gas company YPFB
(Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos). The COB said it
was unfamiliar with the draft agreement that its affiliate union,
the Oil Workers Federation, signed with the government on Apr. 6,
in which it was agreed that the government would continue forward
with the "capitalization" of most YPFB functions, while
maintaining the oil refineries as state-owned. The COB insists
that this arrangement would be "like being the owner of the cow
but not of the milk." To the government's argument of how YPFB
can get the capital it needs, the COB answers that it can be
capitalized with its own profits and from the sale of those state
entities already privatized: telecommunications, train service,
electricity, and the state airline, Lloyd Aereo Boliviano (LAB).
 
The COB has been leading ongoing popular protests against the
government's "capitalization" plan and in favor of an increase in
wages. With the government negotiations cut short, the COB
decided to radicalize its protests by continuing a general strike
that had begun on Mar. 18; expanding a wave of hunger strikes
that started Mar. 11; and carrying out new mobilizations in the
cities. According to the COB, as of Apr. 9 more than 1,000
workers were on hunger strike throughout the country. The
Bolivian Campesino Confederation announced that as of Apr. 10 it
would begin to block roads and highways in support of the
movement. [Inter Press Service 4/10/96]
 
At least 19 trade unionists and other activists were arrested on
Apr. 14 and 15 in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, as labor and
grassroots groups prepared demonstrations to coincide with a Apr.
15-16 meeting there between ministers of the European Union and
of Latin American countries belonging to the Rio Group. Those
arrested include Alejo Veliz, secretary general of the Campesino
Workers Union Federation of Cochabamba (FSUTCC); FSUTCC press
officer Luis Garcia; and Andres Chavez and Nelson Rodriguez, both
leaders of the Chillimarca trade union in Cochabamba.
 
Veliz was arrested on Apr. 14 by agents wearing civilian clothes,
believed to be members of the intelligence services. Garcia,
Chavez and Rodriguez were arrested on the morning of Apr. 15. The
arrests were carried out without warrants. Relatives, lawyers and
human rights groups have been unable to find out where or on what
charges the men are being held. Veliz was previously arrested on
Feb. 2, transferred to La Paz, and only released after the
government reached an agreement with the trade union. 
 
The other 15 people were arrested without warrants during a small
demonstration in Cochabamba on Apr. 15, part of the COB's
mobilization for better wages and against privatization. The
detainees are being held by the Judicial Technical Police in
Cochabamba and have not been charged. [Amnesty International
Urgent Action Bulletin 4/16/96] A number of demonstrators were
arrested and four police agents reportedly injured in more
protests in Cochabamba the next day. Teachers planned to stage a
hunger strike on Apr. 17 in the center of La Paz to support the
COB demands. [DLA 4/18/96 from AFP]
 
The Bolivian press has reported that 72 of 78 men detained
following demonstrations in La Paz on Apr. 12 have been released.
As of Apr. 16, six men were still being held by the Judicial
Technical Police in La Paz; Amnesty International said it has
received no information regarding their names or the conditions
in which they are being held. [AI Urgent Action Bulletin 4/16/96]
 
Analysts consider that only concern over its image as host of the
Rio Group meeting has prevented the Bolivian government from
declaring a state of siege to crack down on labor protests, as it
did last year. [IPS 4/10/96] Numerous trade unionists have been
arrested over the past year; some were only briefly detained,
others were charged with sedition, and sometimes the charges were
dropped after a short time. [AI Urgent Action Bulletin 4/16/96]
 
*5. HAITIAN GOVERNMENT PUSHES PRIVATIZATION "A LA BOLIVIENNE"

On Apr. 12 Haitian president Rene Preval announced that his
government would follow the "Bolivian model" for a controversial
plan for selling off nine state enterprises. During a joint press
conference with Bolivian official Jose Valdez, the Haitian
president said: "In all the studies that we did, the model we
discussed was the Bolivian model, which is called
`capitalization,' privatization through capitalization. It's
almost the same model as the one followed in countries like
Cuba." Valdez, who was visiting the Haitian capital, is in charge
of Bolivia's privatization project. [Haiti Progres (NY) 4/17-
23/96]
 
Since taking office in February, the Preval government has been
caught between pressure from the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the World Bank to sell off the nine companies, and
equally determined pressure against privatization from Haitian
unions and parts of the ruling left-populist Lavalas movement.
The new plan, while intended as a compromise, was met with
skepticism by many Haitian and foreign development experts. In
the Bolivian model, put into effect in that country last year,
the government retains 50% of the privatized enterprise. The
purchaser controls the company and does not pay the government
directly; instead, the purchaser is required to invest
("capitalize") the purchase price back into the company. The
government's share of the stocks is to go into a pension fund
available to all citizens.
 
In Bolivia this plan has been met with a series of strikes and
other protests, and the government imposed a state of siege from
April through October 1995. Inter Press Service notes that many
Bolivians oppose even the pension provision, which has still not
been implemented. "Bolivians will get the pension fund at 65
years--when the average life expectancy in the country is 61!"
one observer noted. It is not clear how the Bolivian plan would
be implemented in Haiti. According to October 1994 edition of the
World Bank publication Viewpoint, the Bolivian approach works
best when the government can afford to give up the direct
proceeds of the sale. In Haiti, privatization has been promoted
as a way to raise desperately needed cash. [IPS 4/19/96]
 
Preval's longterm economic goal is apparently to drop the state
enterprises while trying to revive Haiti's agricultural sector.
Agriculture, especially food production by peasants, was
devastated by neoliberal programs under former dictator Jean-
Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier in the early 1980s and by coups and
a trade embargo after Duvalier's overthrow in 1986. Last year
Preval's predecessor, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, established the
National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INARA) to buy land and
distribute it to landless peasants. But INARA has received no
funding and has a staff of two for the agrarian reform program.
The Preval government wants to buy and distribute 10,000 hectares
in the north-central Artibonite Valley, which produces 80% of
Haiti's rice. INARA head Bernard Etheart estimates that this will
cost $30 million; officials admit that the international lending
institutions are unlikely to put up funds for such a project.
[IPS 4/16/96, 4/17/96]
 
Meanwhile, the governments in Port-au-Prince and a suburb,
Petionville, have been trying to force street vendors (ti
machann) off the streets. The capital's mayor, former leftist
singer Joseph Emmanuel ("Manno") Charlemagne, has not yet
delivered on a promise to build a "national market" street
vendors could use, but has rushed ahead with plans to clear the
congested streets by removing the ti machann. In Petionville,
Assistant Mayor Dany Victor Emmanuel or his security guards shot
and wounded three vendors during an argument on Mar. 18. A group
called Catholic Workers Action (ACO) estimates that 700,000
people in the capital live off "informal sector" activities like
street vending, and that three-quarters of the vendors are women.
[Haiti Info Vol. 4, #11, 4/5/96]
 
*6. TWO HAITIAN RIGHTISTS ARRESTED IN DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

On Apr. 15 Dominican officials announced that they had arrested
two exiled Haitian military officers living in Santo Domingo:
former Port-au-Prince police chief Col. Joseph Michel Francois
and former Port-au-Prince mayor Franck Romain. Francois was a
leader of the 1991 coup that overthrew President Aristide; Romain
is thought to be behind a 1988 massacre at the St. Jean-Bosco
Church, where Aristide served as parish priest. The Dominican
government has indicated that it will deport the two, not to
Haiti but to a Central American country. [Haiti en Marche (Miami)
4/17-23/96; New York Times 4/17/96 from Reuter] [Honduras granted
political asylum to Francois and Romain on Apr. 19. [Diario Las
Americas 4/20/96 from EFE]] On Apr. 17 Haitian police arrested
Francois' brother, former diplomat Evans Francois, charging him
with "destabilizing public order." [NYT 4/20/96 from AP]
 
The authorities have not explained why the arrests occurred at
this time. However, Haitian ambassador to the Dominican Republic
Guy Alexandre told the Dominican paper El Nacional that security
agencies had uncovered a plot to carry out a coup against
President Preval and that three Haitians had been arrested in
Miami in connection with the plot. He denied knowing about a link
between the plot and the Francois and Romain arrests. "I only
know about the subject [of Francois and Romain] from the
Dominican press," he said. [DLA 4/20/96 from EFE]
 
*7. VENEZUELA STARTS IMF AUSTERITY PLAN

On Apr. 15 Venezuelan president Rafael Caldera formally
inaugurated "Agenda Venezuela," a radical structural adjustment
program demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The
plan includes a 60% currency devaluation, an increase in gas
prices of more than 400%, a 20% increase in interest rates, new
taxes and the elimination of price and exchange controls. These
measures were required by the IMF, which was to sign an agreement
on Apr. 18 to lend Venezuela as much as $6 billion (or even $7.5
billion, according to the Mexican news agency Notimex).
 
The austerity program is a sharp turnaround for the 80-year old
Caldera, who had promised in 1994 not to follow the sort of IMF
policies which former president Carlos Andres Perez implemented
in 1989, resulting in the so-called caracazo--riots in Caracas
that left hundreds dead. Caldera made sure he had the support of
the ruling coalition, including the former guerrillas of Movement
to Socialism (MAS); the main opposition party, Democratic Action
(AD), also backs the plan. But labor unions warned that the
danger of new caracazos remained. Venezuelans went on a massive
shopping spree the weekend before the price increases were made
official: one supermarket chain's sales were up 70% between Apr.
12 and April 13; and gasoline supplies ran out. [La Jornada
4/14/96 from EFE, AP, ANSA, Reuter; El Diario-La Prensa 4/16/96
from Notimex]
 
*8. MEXICO CITY BUS DRIVERS SEEM READY TO SETTLE

On Apr. 15 Mexico City's Route 100 Urban Passenger Auto Transport
Workers Union (SUTAUR 100) suspended a sit-in in front of the
Federal District Representatives Assembly (ARDF), the local
legislative body. At the same time two SUTAUR supporters ended a
hunger strike they had started in March to enforce the leftist
union's demands. Jorge Garcia Ramirez fasted for 42 days. Ventura
Galvan Torres, director of the Revolutionary Union for Fair
Housing (URVID) fasted for 40 days, at various times having her
mouth and eyes sewn shut. The protests ended in response to an
ARDF special commission's draft settlement to the unionists'
year-long struggle with the city. [La Jornada 4/16/96, electronic
edition]
 
The city government suddenly liquidated Route 100, the city's
largest bus line, in April 1995, laying off all 11,000 bus
drivers and jailing 11 of SUTAUR's leaders and legal advisers in
a plan to break the union and privatize the company. In the year
since, most of the workers have refused to take their severance
pay, which would mean accepting the layoffs as legitimate under
Mexican labor law [see Update #320]. The proposed settlement
would provide for the union to get control of three of the
several bus lines which will replace Route 100, for the drivers
to receive additional severance pay, and for the jailed leaders'
cases to be reviewed (which would be tantamount to an amnesty).
 
The Mexico-based English-language biweekly Mexican Labor News and
Analysis says that both sides were under pressure to come to
terms. After holding out for a year, SUTAUR members were starting
to give in to economic pressure. Several thousand accepted their
severance pay in the last few weeks, and for the first time the
leadership, based in the Independent Proletarian Movement (MPI)
group, faced an opposition group, the "Renovation 2000" caucus.
For their part, the Mexican federal government and the ruling
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) probably felt they
couldn't afford an explosive, highly visible struggle in the
capital itself at the same time they were confronting the
Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) rebels in the
southeastern state of Chiapas and various other conflicts
throughout southern Mexico. The Federal District (DF) Governance
Secretariat reports that the capital had 292 demonstrations with
a total of 56,127 participants during the first two months of
1996, an average of 4.8 demonstrations a day. Many of the
demonstrations were by SUTAUR members or supporters. [MLNA Vol.
1, #7, 4/15/95]
 
Meanwhile, a number of PRI-linked unions are now planning to
march with independent unions like SUTAUR in the capital on May
1. For the second year in a row the Labor Congress (CT), which is
dominated by the pro-government Mexican Workers Confederation
(CTM), has cancelled its own May 1 march in Mexico City, leaving
the event open to the independent unions [see Update #322]. But
nine of the official unions, including the powerful teachers,
electricians and telephone workers unions, announced that they
would join the independent unions' May 1 demonstration. On Apr.
11 the CT threatened to expel the rogue unions--which account for
about 12% of the total CT membership--but later relented.
[Reuters 4/11/96; MLNA 4/15/96]
 
*9. NICARAGUA: FRAGILE PACTS ON ELECTIONS CHIEF, EDUCATION BUDGET

On Apr. 12 the Nicaraguan National Assembly voted in lawyer Rosa
Marina Zelaya as new president of the Supreme Electoral Council
(CSE), the branch of government responsible for administering
elections. Zelaya replaces Mariano Fiallos, who resigned over
disagreements on a new electoral law [see Update #316]. Out of 92
deputies, 63 voted for Zelaya; 29 did not vote. The vote was the
product of an agreement between the Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN), the Sandinista Renovation Movement
(MRS), and the Christian Democratic Union (UDC). Zelaya is an MRS
member who served as CSE secretary general during the 1980s.
Fiallos is an FSLN member.
 
As part of the same political pact, the Assembly also elected UDC
member Agustin Jarquin Anaya as Comptroller General of the
Republic. Outgoing comptroller Arturo Harding's term expired last
Nov. 2, but he remained in the post awaiting his replacement.
Jarquin is former executive director of the Nicaraguan Institute
of Municipal Development and a member of the Managua city
government. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 4/19/96 from IPS,
Inforpress Centroamericana, AFP, ACAN-EFE; Nicaragua Network
Hotline 4/15/96; Diario Las Americas 4/16/96 from EFE] Claudia
Frixione was elected deputy comptroller general. [DLA 4/16/96
from EFE]
 
The Assembly also reached a compromise on the election of deputy
Fernando Silva as fifth magistrate of the CSE. Silva is part of
the Sandinista "reflexion" group in the Assembly, which a few
weeks ago merged into the Democratic Action Party (PAD) led by
former contra leader Eden Pastora. 
 
Also pushed through as part of the legislative deal-making was a
bill guaranteeing that 6% of the national budget go to higher
education, as written in the constitution. However, Finance
Minister Emilio Pereira announced that President Violeta Barrios
de Chamorro will veto the law. [LADB Notisur 4/19/96 from IPS,
Inforpress Centroamericana, AFP, ACAN-EFE; DLA 4/16/96 from EFE]
 
Hundreds of Nicaraguan university students held a march late in
the week of Apr. 15 to protest Chamorro's plans to veto the law.
Students began the protest at the Central American University
(UCA) and ended it in front of the National Palace, where they
shouted anti-government slogans, played protest music, shot
homemade mortars into the air and laid flowers at the site where
university student Jeronimo Urbina was fatally shot by police at
a demonstration last Dec. 13 [see Updates #307, 308]. [DLA
4/20/96 from AFP]
 
*10. INDIGENOUS HONDURANS OCCUPY CAPITAL, THREATEN HUNGER STRIKE

On Apr. 17, some 400 indigenous Lenca and Chorti people from
western Honduras arrived in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, to
protest the government's failure to fulfill earlier promises. "In
five peaceful pilgrimages that we have done, there have been many
promises [but] few actions, and now we are tired," said Salvador
Zuniga, Lenca leader of the Committee of Grassroots and
Indigenous Organizations of the West (COPIN). "We came here not
to ask a favor from the government, but rather to demand that it
comply with the pact of honor it signed with us. If that is not
possible, we will begin our first hunger strike here," warned
Zuniga. The indigenous demonstrators have set up camp in front of
the presidential palace, where President Carlos Roberto Reina is
currently holding talks with union leaders in an effort to quell
threats of a strike over salaries. 
 
The Lenca and Chorti people are demanding land and better
conditions of health, education, infrastructure and nutrition. In
the case of the Chortis, an ethnic group descended from the
Mayas, their biggest problem is land ownership; landowners are
evicting them with the argument of promoting tourism and
investment. 
 
Lucio Izaguirre, private secretary of the Presidency, said on
Apr. 18 that the indigenous march is "unfair, because the
government is complying with its promises." Izaguirre urged the
demonstrators to return to their homes to await results. But the
demonstrators warn that they will face a famine similar to the
one that hit them four years ago if the government does not give
them food and seeds to sow. Zuniga said that the harsh weather
conditions at the end of 1995 caused the nearly total loss of the
indigenous harvests of corn, beans and potatoes. In addition,
they are facing terrible health conditions, with such diseases as
cholera, yellow fever and chagas disease. [Inter Press Service
4/19/96; Diario Las Americas 4/19/96 from EFE, AFP]
 
As talks continue between the Honduran government and union
leaders over salary increases for some 25,000 public employees
and 40,000 teachers, the government has accused health workers of
effectively boycotting a national vaccination campaign by
refusing to suspend a strike over wages. [DLA 4/19/96 from EFE]
 
*11. DEA DEEP THROAT CHARGES US PLOT IN COLOMBIA

An agent of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) claims
that US agencies are using covert actions in a plot to force
Colombian president Ernest Samper Pizano out of office, the
Spanish magazine Cambio 16 reports. The DEA's "deep throat,"
codenamed "Juan," charges that the US Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) arranged the escape from prison of Cali drug cartel leader
Jose Santacruz Londono in January in order to discredit the
Samper government; "Juan" says that the DEA then arranged
Santacruz's March shooting death. The DEA agent also charges that
his agency knew as early as 1988 that close allies of former
Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) were
linked to the Cali cartel and were allowing the passage of drugs
through Mexico to the US. He says organized crime in Colombia
contributed heavily to the 1994 election campaign of current
Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon. [El Diario-La
Prensa 4/21/96]