WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #330, MAY 26, 1996 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Bolivian Police Kill Two Student Protesters 2. Mexican Teachers Beaten in Front of Presidential Mansion 3. Mexican Rebels on "Maximum Alert" 4. Fast for Cuba Ends After US Releases Computers 5. Helms-Burton Act: No Disneyland for Queen Elizabeth? 6. Ecuador Gets Rightwing Runoff, Indigenous Gains 7. Troops and Tanks Surround Guatemalan Congress 8. Protests Greet Peru President in US 9. Peru: Fujimori Makes Economic Deals on US Visit 10. Police Attack Strikers in Peru 11. US Revokes Visa of Colombian Comptroller 12. Brazil President Announces Human Rights Plan 13. Haiti News Brief ISSN#: 1084-922X. The Weekly News Update on the Americas is published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) is $25. 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If you know someone who might be interested in subscribing, send their email (or regular mail) address to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org and request a free one-month trial subscription to the Weekly News Update on the Americas. Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News Update on the Americas," and include our address so that people will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication where we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITES: http://homebrew.geo.arizona.edu/wnuhome.html http://homebrew.geo.arizona.edu/nsnhome.html *1. BOLIVIAN POLICE KILL TWO STUDENT PROTESTERS The Bolivian city of Cobija, in the far northern Amazon region near the Brazilian border, was under military control on May 22 after serious clashes the night before between protesters and police. The teachers unions have been on strike in Cobija for two months, demanding the resignation of regional police commander Col. Eduardo Medrano for his role in police repression last March. The latest protests broke out on May 21 when Governance (Interior) Minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain arrived in Cobija to put an end to the protest movement by students and teachers. Sanchez Berzain, who gave his total support to Col. Medrano, was hit in the head with a rock during the protests and spent the night at the city's naval base. Police attacked hundreds of demonstrators, injuring many and killing two: 14-year old Wilber Ferreira died on May 21 after police shot him with a rubber bullet, leaving a hole in his stomach that measured five centimeters in diameter, according to the forensic report; high school student Antonio Vaca Diez died early on May 22, also from injuries incurred during the police attack. The human rights commission of the Chamber of Deputies immediately protested the police repression, while the powerful Bolivian Rural Teachers Federation threatened to hold a 24-hour strike on May 24 if the government failed to punish the regional police chief. [Diario Los Andes (Mendoza, Argentina) 5/23/96 from AFP; Diario Las Americas (Miami) 5/24/96 from EFE] *2. MEXICAN TEACHERS BEATEN IN FRONT OF PRESIDENTIAL MANSION A clash in Mexico City between riot police and thousands of dissident teachers on May 23 left 31 protesters injured, 11 of them seriously, according to the National Education Workers Coordinating Committee (CNTE), a rank-and-file group. The police also severely beat Julieta Medina, a reporter from the conservative opposition daily Reforma. Following a larger march of 15,000 teachers, a group of about 3,000, many from the southwestern states of Guerrero and Michoacan and the southern state of Oaxaca, attempted to approach the heavily guarded presidential mansion, Los Pinos, to present their demand for a 100% pay increase to President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, who was education secretary during the previous administration. [La Jornada (Mexico) 5/25/96, electronic edition; Diario Las Americas 5/25/96 from AFP; El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 5/26/96 from AP] Mexico's one million teachers belong to the pro-government National Education Workers Union (SNTE), the largest union in the country. The government traditionally announces raises for SNTE members on May 15, Teachers Day. After this year's massive May 1 demonstrations by independent unions, dissidents grouped in the CNTE and local SNTE branches carried out marches and civil disobedience [see Update #326] to push for a 100% wage increase, improved benefits and better pensions. [Mexican Labor News and Analysis, Vol. 1, #9, 5/16/96] On May 14 the government offered a package consisting of a 12% pay raise and a 10% increase in benefits; the SNTE accepted the offer, even though it leaves teachers' purchasing power at about half what it was in 1976. [Equipo Pueblo Mexico Update #73, 5/22/96 from LJ and Reforma 5/15-16/96] Many dissident teachers rejected the offer. Especially strong opposition seemed to come from indigenous bilingual education teachers in Guerrero. Some 600 teachers in the Guerrero State Education Workers Coordinating Committee (CETEG) started a sitin in front of the government building in the state capital, Chilpancingo, on May 15. On May 18 they moved the demonstration to Mexico City, leaving in 15 trucks the state government provided after the CETEG announced that its members would seize buses for the trip. In Atoyac de Alvarez municipality on May 18, the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the campesino Union of Southern Sierra Organizations (UOSS) held separate commemorations for the 29th anniversary of the repression of a parents' demonstration in the town, an act which led to the creation of the state's guerrilla movement in the 1970s. Atoyac's PRD mayor, Maria de la Luz Nunez Ramos, led the first official homage ever to slain guerrilla leader Lucio Cabanas Barrientos, who had been a teacher. [LJ 5/19/96] In Mexico City the Guerrero teachers, along with teachers from Oaxaca and Michoacan, joined a sitin the CNTE had been holding outside the Public Education Secretariat (SEP) since May 8. The protesters then began a series of demonstrations in the downtown area over the next few days. Oscar Espinosa Villarreal, Mexico City's regent (a mayor appointed by the national president), blamed the May 23 violence on "provocateurs." Some PRD legislators demanded Espinosa's resignation, charging that he was the real provocateur. Thousands of teachers demonstrated in several states on May 24 to protest the Los Pinos incident; the CNTE says it will pull out 56,000 teachers in a three-day protest strike starting May 27 in Mexico City and neighboring Mexico State. [LJ 5/25/96] *3. MEXICAN REBELS ON "MAXIMUM ALERT" On May 19 "Commander Noe" of Mexico's rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) announced that the group was on "maximum alert" due to new Mexican army encampments near EZLN positions in the Lacandona Forest in the southern state of Chiapas. A week earlier the EZLN had declared a "red alert" in response to the breakdown in peace negotiations, scheduled to resume on June 5. [Following our source, we reported in Update #328 that the talks were to resume on June 10.] [Inter Press Service 5/21/96] The negotiations began to unravel after May 2 when videomaker Javier Elorriaga Berdegue and indigenous activist Sebastian Entzin Gomez were sentenced as EZLN leaders and terrorists [see Update #328]. In a May 18 communique, EZLN leader "Sub-Commander Marcos" denied that the two were EZLN members but noted that the sentence marked all EZLN members as terrorists. Under these conditions it would be impossible to negotiate, Marcos said, charging that in fact the government was planning a new military offensive. [EZLN Communique 5/18/96, translated by National Commission for Democracy in Mexico, USA (NCDM)] On May 20 the Governance Ministry announced officially that the Zapatistas are not terrorists but people "who do not agree." "Army troops are not preparing any offensive against the armed group," Gen. Mario Renan Castillo told reporters. The military says it is simply carrying out operations against marijuana growers. The EZLN charged on May 20 that any marijuana crops found in Chiapas are planted by caciques (local bosses) in the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in areas outside Zapatista control. [Reuter 5/21/96] Meanwhile, some 2,000 people have fled the Bachajon ejido (agrarian cooperative) in Chilon municipality, Chiapas, following fighting at the beginning of the month between a PRI paramilitary group known as "Los Chinchulines" and PRD supporters [see Update #328]. About 100 refugees are living in a public meeting hall in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital. On May 24 some representatives of the refugees held sitins at government buildings to protest the arrest of 28 people the day before as they blocked the highway between Ocosingo and Chilon. "Once again we denounce the government's arbitrary acts," said Jaime Ramirez Maza of the north Chiapas Human Rights Center, asking why the government should arrest indigenous people in "a peaceful sitin" while not arresting the Chinchulines. Human rights groups charged on May 24 that a related paramilitary group, "Peace and Justice," had murdered two campesino PRD supporters early that morning in Usipa, Tila municipality, northeast of San Cristobal de las Casas. [LJ 5/25/96] *4. FAST FOR CUBA ENDS AFTER US RELEASES COMPUTERS On May 24, the "Fast for Life" officially ended after 94 days when US Customs released nearly 374 used medical computers which had been seized from Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO)/Pastors for Peace volunteers who were attempting to take them to Cuba. The computers were released to the official custody of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church (UMC). Clergy representing the UMC arrived at a San Diego Customs storage facility at 9pm Pacific time on May 24 to receive the boxed medical computers, which will be kept in storage in the US pending completion of the commitment shared by a coalition of national church partners to deliver them to Cuba without requesting a license. The coalition includes six national denominations and the National Council of Churches. The computers are intended to be donated to Cuban churches and health care facilities. "We are optimistic that this medical aid will soon be exported for humanitarian use in Cuba," said Dr. Thom White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the UMC General Board of Church and Society. As US Customs was handing over the computers, fasters Jim Clifford, Lisa Valanti, and Rev. Lucius Walker broke their 94-day fast during a special midnight service of thanksgiving at the United Methodist building in Washington. The fasters savored rice broth in the company of religious leaders, congressional aides and members of their support team. "The release of these computers was made possible by the active support of hundreds of thousands of people of conscience in all parts of the US and the world," said Rev. Walker. He expressed "special gratitude for the committed work of Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), whose tireless advocacy helped seal this victory." Rangel led a group of more than 70 members of Congress who pressed the Clinton Administration to release the computers. [IFCO/Pastors for Peace News Release 5/25/96] *5. HELMS-BURTON ACT: NO DISNEYLAND FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH? On May 7 during a visit to Mexico US secretary of state Warren Christopher tried to reassure Mexican businesspeople concerned about being sued or denied US visas because of two controversial provisions in the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act. The two-month old law, commonly known as the Helms-Burton Act, tightens the US embargo against Cuba and tries to extend it to Cuba's trading partners. One provision allows US nationals to bring federal suits against anyone who "traffics" in property confiscated from US citizens after Cuba's 1959 revolution; the other provision says the secretary of state "shall exclude" from the US anyone subject to such a claim. "I can tell you one thing, and that is that I think regulations will be prospective in character. People who invest in the future, after the date of the law, are those who will be caught in the effects of the law rather than those who did in the past," Christopher told the Mexicans. [Reuter 5/7/96] But on the same day State Department officials visiting Brussels contradicted their boss. "It is too early to say exactly how many people will be affected," one said off the record. "It could be in the hundreds. It could be in the thousands." [Reuter 5/7/96] The British Financial Times reported on May 11 that within a few weeks the US will release guidelines on who will be subject to Helms-Burton penalties. The US has identified 200 companies "trafficking" in confiscated properties through joint ventures with Cuba, including Mexico's giant Cemex cement company and Canada's Sheritt mining company. [FT 5/11-12/96] An unnamed State Department official in Washington told the Spanish news service EFE on May 24 that warning letters would go out within days, "maybe today." According to this official, the list of offenders also includes the British sugar company Tate and Lyle and the Mexican communications company Grupo Domos. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/25/96 from EFE] The ban would include any "corporate officer, principal or shareholder with a controlling interest" in any of these companies, and the "spouse, minor child or agent" of such a person. Earlier this month British trade and industry minister Ian Taylor complained that the law "could ban a five-year old child from visiting Disneyland if one of its parents was linked to a company potentially affected by the legislation." [FT 5/11- 12/96] Wayne Smith, former chief of the US Interests Section in Havana (1979-1982), writes: "This would mean Queen Elizabeth could not receive a visa to come to the United States. The royal family has interests in Barings Bank, and it in turn in the ING Bank, which has financed a number of ventures in Cuba that seem to include such properties." ["The US-Cuba Imbroglio: Anatomy of a Crisis," Center for International Policy 5/17/96] The European Union (EU) has demanded consultations with the US over Helms-Burton under the World Trade Organization (WTO). German foreign Klaus Kinkel warns: "The European Union would have to consider countermeasures that would in turn have a negative effect on American trade and investment interests in Europe." [FT 5/11-12/96] However, on May 7 the EU announced that it had broken off talks with Cuba on a possible economic accord. The EU said that Cuba had not shown enough flexibility to European proposals for political reforms and neoliberal economic adjustments. The suspension of talks does not affect EU humanitarian aid to Cuba or the bilateral agreements various EU members have with Cuba, and the talks could resume later. [FT 5/8/96] Meanwhile, Spain's new conservative government has suspended credits and all non- humanitarian aid for Cuba, according to an interview with Foreign Affairs Minister Abel Matutes published in the Madrid daily ABC on May 18. But Matutes insisted that his government still considers the Helms-Burton Act "unacceptable." [La Jornada 5/19/95 from AFP, DPA, Prensa Latina] *6. ECUADOR GETS RIGHTWING RUNOFF, INDIGENOUS GAINS In the May 19 general elections in Ecuador, two lawyers from Guayaquil led the race for the presidency and will compete in a runoff on July 7. Rightwing Jaime Nebot Saadi of the Social Christian Party (PSC) had 27% of the valid votes, followed by right populist Abdala Bucaram of the Ecuadoran Roldosista Party (PRE) with 25.5%; in third place was center-left independent candidate Freddy Ehlers--a television journalist from Quito, backed by a coalition of indigenous groups, labor unions, and the Socialist Party and Democratic Left party--with 21%. Nebot's running mate is Diego Cordovez, the former foreign relations minister under the social democratic government of Rodrigo Borja (1988-1992). With 90% of the votes counted, the PSC seemed to have won 27 seats in the 82-seat unicameral Congress, while the PRE had 19 seats. The Christian democratic Popular Democracy Party will have 12 seats. Seven legislative seats went to the center-left New Country-Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement (NP), and five to the Democratic Left (note: in one source these two results were switched). The Popular Democratic Movement will have four seats, having lost four of its current eight. The remaining seats are divided up between parties that each won one seat. The new deputies will begin their terms on Aug. 10. [Latin America Data Base Notisur 5/24/96 from New York Times, Reuter, Agence France- Presse; El Diario-La Prensa 5/21/96 from Notimex, 5/22/96 from special correspondent; Inter Press Service 5/22/96; Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion (ALAI) 5/22/96] [Note: several sources gave different figures on the legislative seats; the final results are not yet known.] According to Pachacutik spokesperson Jose Cabazcango, the coalition--which is dominated by the indigenous community but also includes grassroots and union sectors--won nine deputy seats, eight provincial and one national, as well as the mayoral posts in Cuenca, Cotacachi, Guaranda, and Archidona, plus many seats on provincial and municipal councils. When the final tally is in, the movement could end up with as many as sixty provincial and municipal victories. These were the first elections in Ecuador where the indigenous community fielded its own candidates (candidates not affiliated with traditional parties were previously barred from participating in elections). Some 40% of the Ecuadoran population belongs to one of 10 indigenous nationalities, according to the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). The strong showing of the coalition consolidated the position of the indigenous community as a political and regional force and surprised many analysts who gave it little chance of winning more than one seat. Unofficial results showed CONAIE leader Luis Macas taking 8% of the vote to win a national congressional seat. [LADB Notisur 5/24/96 from NYT, Reuter, AFP; Diario Las Americas 5/23/96 from AFP; IPS 5/22/96] At least three of the other new NP deputies are indigenous leaders: Jose Aviles was elected as deputy for Napo province; Leonidas Isa was elected for Cotopaxi; and Miguel Yuco was elected for Chimborazo. Macas has resigned from the presidency of CONAIE so that he can concentrate on his responsibilities as a national congressperson. CONAIE's new president is Rafael Pandam, of the Shuar community from the Amazon region. [South and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC) 5/22/96] "We are now the third political force nationally, which we accomplished in only two and a half months of campaigning with almost no resources," said Cabazcango. On May 22, CONAIE leaders charged that the political parties were trying to annul some provincial council results to avert a CONAIE victory. There were also charges of fraud in several districts involving the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). A congressional committee is now investigating allegations, especially in the province of Guayas, that TSE head Carlos Pardo deliberately disrupted the elections to benefit Bucaram and damage Nebot. On May 23, the TSE announced that make-up elections will be held on May 26 in several places where there were problems in the balloting. Both Nebot and Bucaram have lost previous presidential runoff elections--Nebot to current president Duran Ballen in 1992 and Bucaram to Rodrigo Borja in 1988. Both candidates are now hoping to attract some of the voters who supported Ehlers, though this may prove difficult. The indigenous movement said it would only give its support to a candidate who makes a commitment to call a constituent assembly and to support a pluriethnic national identity, something neither candidate has done. Polls taken before the election showed Bucaram with a 58% disapproval rating, termed as respondents who said they would never vote for him. Nebot's disapproval rating was 23%. [LADB Notisur 5/24/96 from NYT, Reuter, AFP] [Note: In Update #318 we cited Inter Press Service as saying that CONAIE had withdrawn its support from Ehlers because his running mate was Rossana Vinueza de Tama, a member of the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei. That appears to have been untrue. To make things even more confusing, the Washington Post reports that "Rosana Vinueza Estrada" is the running mate of Abdala Bucaram [WP 5/20/96]; none of our other sources make any mention of the vice presidential candidates of Bucaram or Ehlers.] *7. TROOPS AND TANKS SURROUND GUATEMALAN CONGRESS More than 1,000 Guatemalan military and police anti-riot troops-- supported by four army tanks--surrounded the National Congress on May 23 to prevent union activists from entering the building. The unionists, who are protesting a proposed labor law restricting the right of public employees to strike, instead formed pickets in the surrounding area. Deputy Antonio Movil of the leftist New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG) called the military action "an invasion by the army of one power of the state, with four tanks at its doors." [Diario Las Americas 5/25/96 from AFP; Cerigua newsfeed 5/24/96] A group of nearly 300 union leaders had peacefully occupied and then voluntarily abandoned the Congress building on May 21. On May 22, prevented by police agents from the Immediate Reaction Force (FRI) from entering the Congress building, state workers peacefully protested outside. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #20, 5/23/96; DLA 5/23/96 from EFE; Inter Press Service 5/23/96] Before the eight-hour occupation of Congress by the unionists on May 21, FDNG deputies had accompanied state workers in a march to the Constitutional Court to request an injunction against the bill. The FDNG claims that legislators of the ruling National Advancement Party (PAN) did not follow correct procedure in introducing the bill to Congress. David Jessup of the Public Service Workers International sent a letter to Labor Minister Arnoldo Ortiz warning that the anti- strike bill violates international accords and could endanger Guatemala's participation in the US Generalized System of Preferences. A 1985 International Labor Organization (ILO) convention--which Guatemala has signed--only allows for the prohibition of strikes by state workers who perform essential services "in the strictest sense of the word." According to the convention, this means services which, if interrupted, could endanger the lives, personal security or health of the entire population. [Cerigua Weekly Briefs #20, 5/23/96] *8. PROTESTS GREET PERU PRESIDENT IN US On May 20, about 100 people picketed outside Peru's mission to the United Nations (UN) to protest the presence in New York of Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori and to demand a civilian trial for US activist Lori Helene Berenson. Berenson, a New Yorker who was active in the Central America solidarity movement during the 1980s and early 1990s, was arrested on Nov. 30 in Peru and convicted and sentenced by a military court on Jan. 11 for her involvement with the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA); she is now serving a life sentence in the remote Andean prison of Yanamayo. Her parents, Rhoda and Mark Berenson, had called the demonstration as part of efforts to build public pressure for a fair trial of their daughter by Peru's civilian courts. "Now we are asking the maximum authority of that country to stop the military trials because the prisons are already full of people who have been sentenced in the same circumstances as Lori," said Rhoda Berenson. [El Diario-La Prensa 5/21/96, quote retranslated from Spanish] "Our fight is with these abominable, barbaric military tribunals," said Mark Berenson. [NY Daily News 5/21/96 from Reuter] Fujimori, who was on a four-day visit to New York and Washington, met with US president Bill Clinton in an unplanned 25-minute meeting on May 21 in the White House's Oval Office. Before the meeting, White House press spokesperson Michael McCurry told the press that Clinton planned to ask Fujimori to consider giving Berenson a new trial in a civilian court. As he left the meeting, Fujimori said Clinton "did not make me any request concerning the [Berenson] case, he wanted to know what the case was and what were the facts." White House adjunct spokesperson David Johnson explained that Clinton had brought up the Berenson case merely because he "was interested in insuring that she was afforded due process and was concerned about her having been tried in a military... court." Fujimori said he had told Clinton that the MRTA "is a terrorist group more bloody than Sendero Luminoso," and pointed out that "the law in Peru for emergency cases like this case, even though we have five judges [in the trial], is equivalent to the US grand jury for special cases." [ED-LP 5/23/96 from Notimex; Diario Las Americas 5/23/96 from AFP, 5/21/96 from EFE; NY Daily News 5/22/96] On May 18 in Washington, former US president Jimmy Carter asked that the Peruvian government consider granting a new trial for Berenson in a civilian court. Peru's Supreme Council of Military Justice (CSJM) rejected the petition from the Carter Center in Atlanta, which charged that Berenson was judged in a secret court where her lawyer was not allowed to question witnesses or challenge evidence. [ED-LP 5/21/96 from Notimex] Last February, 23 members of the US Congress signed a letter to Fujimori asking for a civilian trial for Berenson. [ED-LP 5/23/96] As of December 1995 there were 4,070 prisoners accused or sentenced for "subversion" in Peru, "one thousand of whom are innocent, unjustly accused of terrorism," according to Susana Villaran, executive secretary of the National Human Rights Coordination. [Inter Press Service 5/22/96] *9. PERU: FUJIMORI MAKES ECONOMIC DEALS ON US VISIT On May 20 in a Manhattan hotel, Fujimori announced that his administration had set the groundwork for the restructuring of Peru's foreign debt within the framework of the Brady Plan. This step opens the way for Peru to obtain credits from the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which will serve to pay off the new debt conditions within 20 years at a rate of $300 million a year. [ED-LP 5/21/96; DLA 5/22/96 from EFE] In Washington, Fujimori met with IMF general director Michel Camdessus to discuss the "letter of intention" which Peru plans to submit to the IMF within the next two weeks. [DLA 5/24/96 from AFP] On May 21 in Washington, Fujimori was a key speaker at the 29th International General Assembly of the Pacific Basin Economic Council, where he announced that Peru was attempting to become an "Andean tiger," referring to the economic model of Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the so-called Asian "tigers." [ED-LP 5/22/96 from EFE, 5/19/96 from Notimex; DLA 5/23/96 from AFP] The next day Fujimori signed a contract with the IDB for $5.9 million in financing, of which $2.9 million is earmarked for a network of business service centers--providing technical, management and trade support for small private businesses--and $3 million is for the modernization of Peru's fishing industry. Signing for the IDB was IDB president Enrique Iglesias. The funding for both projects comes from the Multilateral Investment Fund (FOMIN), an independent fund administered by the IDB, which grants financing to support the growth of the private sector in Latin America and the Caribbean. [ED-LP 5/23/96 from AFP] *10. POLICE ATTACK STRIKERS IN PERU Back in Peru, police attacked striking construction workers in central Lima during a 24-hour national strike on May 22 to demand wage increases. Union member Juan Wagner Acuna was wounded in the foot by gunfire, and 15 workers were arrested. Several dozen of the 300,000 members of the National Federation of Construction Workers (FNTCC) took part in the march, which began at the union's headquarters in the eastern capital district of La Victoria and was headed for the Labor Ministry building in the northwestern district of Jesus Maria when a large number of anti- riot police agents attacked with night sticks, tear gas and water cannons. Speaking from the US, where he was accompanying Fujimori on his trip, Labor Minister Jorge Gonzalez Izquierdo said the strike was illegal. The FNTCC argues that the repeal of 1993 law 053--which governs the collective bargaining and grievance process--is unconstitutional. [ED-LP 5/23/96 from Notimex; DLA 5/24/96 from AFP] Peruvian teachers held a national 48-hour strike on May 22 and 23 to demand salary increases. Jose Ramos, leader of the Only Union of Peruvian Education Workers (SUTEP) said 90% of the country's 250,000 public school teachers participated in the strike. [DLA 5/24/96 from AFP] And Lima's street cleaning workers have been on strike since May 20 to protest plans to privatize the municipal service. [DLA 5/23/96 from uncited wire service] *11. US REVOKES VISA OF COLOMBIAN COMPTROLLER The US departments of State and Justice have decided to revoke the US entry visas of Colombian national comptroller David Turbay and Judge Amado Gutierrez Velasquez. Turbay has been accused of links to the Samper drug money campaign scandal; Judge Gutierrez, a member of the Council of State, had voted a week earlier to eliminate a law imposing limits on campaign spending. The US based its decision to revoke the visas on charges by Chilean Guillermo Pallomari, former accountant of the Cali cartel, who was arrested in the US and became an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). [ED-LP 5/17/96 from Notimex] The State Department denied having cancelled the visas of 37 prominent Colombian politicians--though it said this might occur in the future--and said only Turbay's visa was cancelled. Turbay has charged that the US government "invited him to conspire" against Samper through former Colombian diplomat Carlos Perez Norzagaray, who Turbay says is an emissary of the US government. Turbay said he was invited to Perez' home, where the ex-diplomat told him, "in this country whoever doesn't conspire against the government will get conspiracies against them." Perez denied ever having met with Turbay. Turbay challenged the US government to show any evidence against him. [La Jornada 5/18/96 from ANSA, EFE, AP, AFP, DPA, Reuter] *12. BRAZIL PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES HUMAN RIGHTS PLAN On May 13, Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso announced a National Human Rights Plan made up of 168 initiatives and proposals which his government hopes will reduce impunity, violence, slave labor, racism and child abuse. Among the proposals are the transfer of human rights crimes out of provincial courts and into the jurisdiction of federal justice; the strengthening of the judicial system and creation of witness protection programs; and human rights training for police. Other proposals include defining and penalizing torture, until now not included in the penal code; restricting the sale and carrying of weapons; and creating civil service as an alternative to military service. The civil service proposal would require an amendment to the constitution. [Inter Press Service 5/14/96] The plan is highly dependent on Congress, since most of the provisions are proposed laws. Even before the plan was announced, its provisions were hitting roadblocks in the legislature: the Senate defeated a bill that would have transferred trials of military police accused of human rights crimes out of military courts and into civilian courts. [IPS 5/14/96] In a May 17 statement, Amnesty International (AI) welcomed Cardoso's human rights plan but pointed out that the Senate's defeat of that bill raised questions about "whether the government would make the implementation of the program a high priority" or whether the plan would end up as "just a wish-list." [AI 5/17/96] The daily newspaper O Globo warned on May 12 that landowner interests in Congress and a powerful police lobby are likely to raise strong opposition to the new provisions. [Reuter 5/12/96] Cardoso chose to announce the new program on the day commemorating the end of slavery in Brazil, in 1888. The plan does address issues of racism, although Cardoso did not include a demand by the Afro-Brazilian movement for compensation quotas as a way to reduce racist inequality in univeristies and other public institutions. Although they are 40% of the total population, Afro-Brazilians make up only 10% of the population in the universities; only 11 out of a total 513 legislative deputies are Afro-Brazilian. The plan also promises to strengthen the protection of indigenous people, including through the demarcation of their territories. The lesbian and gay movement, however, was left out of the plan. "We are more than 15 million gays and lesbians, and the government sets a bad example by discriminating against precisely the most oppressed sector of our society," said Luiz Mott, an anthropology professor at the Federal University of Bahia and a prominent leader of the lesbian and gay movement in Brazil. [IPS 5/14/96] During the ceremony at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia where he announced the new plan, Cardoso handed out the first compensation from the Brazilian government for families of the victims of political disappearances during the military dictatorship (1964-1985). Ermelinda Mazzaferro Bronca received 100,000 reais ($101,000) for her son Jose Uberto Bronca, a guerrilla leader in the Araguaia region in the south of Para state who was killed in 1974 by government agents. The 90-year old Mazzaferro said she would donate the money to groups that recently began working to find information about the disappearance victims. [IPS 5/14/96; Diario Las Americas 5/15/96 from EFE] The body of another guerrilla combatant from Araguaia, Maria Lucia Petit of the Communist Party of Brazil, was identified recently after being exhumed from a cemetery in Xambioa, in Tocantins state. Petit was killed by the army with a shot to the head in 1972. [DLA 5/18/96 from AFP] This past January, Brazil's Special Commission on Political Disappearances formally recognized the first eight leftist militants to die while being tortured in police custody during the military regime. Until then the government's official version of events indicated that the victims had died by suicide, in an auto accident or in a shootout while attempting to flee. But after the testimony of police agents and other prisoners, it was determined that they were murdered during or after torture sessions. [DLA 1/20/96 from EFE] Meanwhile, the courts have freed five people--four of them former police agents--who were charged in the 1993 massacre of street children in front of the Candelaria church, despite the fact that at least three of them were identified by the only survivor of the massacre [see Update #327]. [DLA 5/17/96 from EFE] *13. IN OTHER NEWS... On May 17 police agents broke up a demonstration by three grassroots organizations in Trou-du-Nord, a small town in northeastern Haiti. Police agents, with reinforcements from nearby towns, beat demonstrators and arrested several leaders of the three groups, the Haitian Workers Organization (OTA), the Trou Popular Assembly/Watch Them (APVT), and the Trou-du-Nord Cooperative Union (IKT). The protesters opposed a plan to privatize Haiti's nine state enterprises. In the evening the police without explanation broke up a soccer match between primary and secondary schoolteachers. [Haiti Progres (NY) 5/22- 28/96] END MISS our calendar of events? Check out the CREED NYC calendar at http://homebrew.geo.arizona.edu/creed.html (if you don't have web access, write to nicadlw@nyxfer.blythe.org for info). NOW AVAILABLE: The long-awaited Annual Update Index! Available for each year from 1991 through 1995. Ascii text versions free to subscribers via electronic mail. Send your request to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org NOW AVAILABLE: "Immigration in the USA One Year After Proposition 187," a Weekly News Update on the Americas special report, accompanied by a resource list and organizing leaflet. Ascii text version free to subscribers via email. Send your request to nicajg@nyxfer.blythe.org 1996 SOURCE LIST NOW AVAILABLE: A list of sources commonly-used in the Weekly News Update on the Americas, along with abbreviations and contact information. Free to subscribers. Send your request to nicanet@nyxfer.blythe.org